Mexico Hit by Student Massacre:
Mexico Security Officials Likely Conspired in Massacre -State Gov't
At Least 17 Anti-Corruption Protesters 'Rounded up, Murdered and Dumped in a Mass Grave' -Another 26 are Missing
'They Thought They Would Just be Arrested. But Something Else Awaited Them': Survivor of Mexico Student Massacre Tells of his Narrow Escape from Police Death Squad
- Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered after mass shooting in Iguala
- They are believed to be some of the 43 student protesters who disappeared after being forced from a bus by police
- People gave themselves up because they thought they would be arrested, according to one survivor
By Kieran Corcoran, Reuters, 8 October 2014
A survivor of the apparent massacre of dozens of students in Mexico has told of his narrow escape from the gang of corrupt police officers and drug cartel hit men who ambushed them.
State prosecutors believe more than 40 students who went missing last month after a violent clash with officers on the outskirts of Iguala were rounded up, killed and thrown in mass graves.
One of those who escaped said the students were travelling in buses which they had seized for a protest when they were blocked by a police car.
On high alert: A Mexican soldier patrols in Iguala, Guerrero state, where dozens of students went missing after allegedly being ambushed by corrupt police officer and hit men, rounded up and dumped in mass graves
Macabre: A clandestine grave is seen in Iguala. State officials are trying to determine whether 28 bodies found in pits are of the students who were attacked by local police
The 19-year-old, who wants to be known as Eusebio for fear of reprisals, said the officers then opened fire as the students got off the buses, killing at least one and injuring several others.
'The shooting carried on for a long time, he told Global Post
'More police arrived and were firing at us. I lay down in the back of the bus.'
Then, after ambulances and journalists appeared at the scene, he said more officers arrived with gunmen in plain clothes, later identified by prosecutors as members of a ruthless gang of assassins who work for the Beltran Leyvan Cartel.
As more shots rang out, some officers began bundling the students into the back of patrol cars, at first giving the impression they were rescuing them.
But Eusebio said: 'They were hitting the students as they took them. People were also scared about being shot so they gave themselves up.
'They thought they would just be arrested. But something else awaited them.'
Hunt: A forensic investigator works at the site of the mass graves, near Iguala in Mexico
Sensing things were seriously amiss, Eusebio ran to safety - and later found out that his intuitions had saved his life.
When the students reassembled back in at his University in Tixtla, there were 43 missing and it is now believed they were executed after the ambush.
Guerrero's attorney general, Inaky Blanco, said on Sunday that 28 bodies have been found at burial sites so far, and it is 'probable' that some of the missing students are among the remains found.
Mexican President Enrique Peņa Nieto vowed on Monday to hunt down those responsible for the apparent massacre that authorities say involved local security officials.
He said the motive of the killings was unclear.
Other local officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that at least 34 bodies have been discovered.
Remote spot: Officers stand watch near the site of the mass grave on the outskirts of Iguala in Mexico
In his first comments on the incident, Peņa Nieto said the federal government would identify those behind the massacre and make sure they face justice.
'We need to find the truth and make sure the law is applied to those responsible for these outrageous, painful and unacceptable acts,' he said in a four-minute-long televised statement.
He did not take questions.
Blanco said on Sunday that two gang hitmen have admitted killing 17 of the missing students with the help of security officials.
The likelihood of official involvement creates a major headache for Peņa Nieto, who has sought to shift attention away from Mexico's gangland violence and onto a batch of economic reforms he has driven through Congress.
Angel Aguirre, the governor of Guerrero state, said he was certain the students were killed by gangs in cahoots with the police.
Forensic workers arrive at the morgue: Relatives of the missing have given DNA samples for identification
He added that he expected at least some of the bodies in the mass grave would be those of the students, but said tests still needed to be completed to make sure.
'It could well be them, I don't rule it out, it's a very real possibility,'
Aguirre, who has been criticized for not doing enough to clean up the state and keep a lid on the rampant violence, said in a radio interview.
Some 22 local police have been arrested in connection with the violent incidents in Guerrero.
The fugitive mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, is also being investigated for possible involvement in the crimes, as is the head of security for Iguala.
Blanco said the leader of a local gang known as the Guerreros Unidos conspired with security officials to carry out the killings.
Peņa Nieto took office two years ago pledging to end a wave of violence that has killed around 100,000 people since the start of 2007.
Though homicides have fallen on his watch, other crimes have increased, including extortion and kidnapping.
Guerrero, which is also home to the resort of Acapulco, has been one of the most lawless states in Mexico for years.