Ex-mayor’s wife ordered held for organized crime in Mexico missing case

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – The wife of the ex-mayor of Iguala, the Mexican city where 43 college students went missing in September, has been ordered jailed indefinitely for organized crime, prosecutors said Monday, January 5.

Maria de los Angeles Pineda had been held under provisional arrest until now, in the case which has rocked Mexico. The 43 are feared dead.

On Monday, a judge issued a warrant for her pretrial detention “for her likely role in committing organized crime… and operations with funds of illicit origin,” said Tomas Zeron, who leads the criminal investigation unit of the prosecutor’s office. 

The students went missing September 26, in an apparent massacre by a police-backed gang that sparked nationwide protests and caused a crisis for President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Confessions made during the investigation have indicated that the ex-mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, ordered police to crack down on the students to stop them from protesting at a public event his wife was to lead.

Authorities say the aspiring teachers vanished after gang-linked police attacked their buses in the city of Iguala, allegedly under orders from the mayor and his wife in a night of terror that left six other people dead.

The police then delivered the young men to members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, who told investigators they took them in two trucks to a landfill, killed them, burned their bodies and dumped them in a river.

For now, only one of the students has been positively identified from charred remains, which leaves little hope of finding the 42 others.

On Christmas Eve, the students’ parents held a protest under heavy rain in front of the Los Pinos presidential palace. – Rappler.com