HomeNewsAnalysisIguala Massacre: Mexico's PR Message Goes Up in Flames
ANALYSIS

Iguala Massacre: Mexico's PR Message Goes Up in Flames

AYOTZINAPA / 10 NOV 2014 BY STEVEN DUDLEY AND DAVID GAGNE EN

The stunning, dramatic blow-by-blow account of what most likely happened to the 43 missing students in Guerrero is an indication of just how desperately Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto and his team are trying to perform damage control on a terrifying story -- one that has not only unsettled his government, but has pushed them to admit that things are not as their public relations machine would have you believe.

In the hour-long November 7 press conference (see video below), Attorney General Jose Murillo Karam announced that the recent capture of alleged members of the Guerreros Unidos led to confessions that the students were taken by police while en route to the town of Iguala. The police handed the students over to the Guerreros Unidos, who then killed them and burned their remains.

Specifically, video testimonies from three recently captured “masterminds” of the attacks revealed that the students were carted like cattle to a landfill in Cocula. According to one suspect, approximately 15 students asphyxiated on the way to the dump site. The remaining students were interrogated by members of the Guerreros Unidos before being shot and killed. The bodies were then thrown into the landfill, arranged in a circle, covered in sticks, gasoline, and diesel, and burned. The fire reportedly lasted for 14 hours, from midnight on September 27, until mid-afternoon.

According to the testimonies, a leader of the criminal group known as “El Terco” ordered the burned human remains to be collected and placed into eight black plastic bags. Members of the Guerreros Unidos then took the bags to the San Juan River in Cocula, where they dumped the contents into the water, while two bags were thrown directly into the river.

Following the confessions, search teams found black bags, one of which was still closed. Mexican and Argentine forensic teams reportedly confirmed the bag contained human remains. However, due to the degree to which the bodies were burned, forensic experts have not yet determined when the remains will be able to be identified.

InSight Crime Analysis

Murillo began with a rare pledge of transparency in the investigation.

“Let's talk about developments [in the case] step-by-step,” Murillo remarked before giving the full account -- complete with accompanying photos, videos, and maps -- of what allegedly happened to the missing students.

For this government, which has prided itself on talking about everything but crime, this is an incredible, and telling, about-face.

Peña Nieto entered office promising that this is "Mexico's moment," and has done everything in his power -- including hiring a high-end lobbying firm in Washington DC -- to turn the narrative away from crime. This initially worked, particularly in the US, where Peña Nieto has been celebrated by a New York Times columnist, Time magazine, and many others.

But inside Mexico, Iguala is not the beginning of the problem, it is the final straw for a country that remains saturated in organized crime despite numerous high-profile arrests. A June poll (pdf) ranked "public security" as the country's number one problem, ahead of a slumping economy. The president's poll numbers have also tanked this year.

The Iguala crisis really began at a local level. According to Murillo, it was the mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife who ordered police to stop four trucks carrying the students traveling from the rural town Ayotzinapa to Iguala. Abarca and his wife have since been captured, as indicated below in InSight Crime's timeline of the Iguala crisis. Things then moved to the state level, when Guerrero's governor resigned. Now it has reached the national level, with regular protests and -- thanks to a Murillo gaffe at the end of the press conference in which he quipped, "I'm tired" ("Ya me canse") -- now a hashtag.

It is disingenuous to say that Peña Nieto has done nothing to combat crime. He has made different security agencies work more in concert, leading to the capture of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Beltran Leyva Organization, Juarez Cartel and the Zetas. But the next phase of combatting organized crime -- as Colombia is currently experiencing -- is more chaotic and more difficult to control.

The blatant way in which Iguala's mayor-police-criminal alliance functioned was a result of this chaos, but also the result of a belief that such  actions rarely result in real consequences in Mexico. None of Peña Nieto's policies -- as laudable as they may be -- have changed this dynamic. Until his government makes criminal groups realize that they can't capture, execute, and burn students with impunity, there is no PR or lobbying firm in the world that will be able to bury this story.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CONTRABAND / 18 MAY 2022

Cattle from Mexico and the Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua help feed the domestic beef markets of…

ELITES AND CRIME / 30 SEP 2021

Evidence and accusations are piling up against Mexico's former top security official Genaro García Luna, as US prosecutors proffer new…

CHAPITOS / 9 JAN 2023

Mexico has arrested one of El Chapo's sons, Ovidio, at a bitter cost. But will it make a difference to…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

All Eyes on Ecuador

2 JUN 2023

Our coverage of organized crime in Ecuador continues to be a valuable resource for international and local news outlets. Internationally, Reuters cited our 2022 Homicide Round-Up,…

WORK WITH US

Open Position: Social Media and Engagement Strategist

27 MAY 2023

InSight Crime is looking for a Social Media and Engagement Strategist who will be focused on maintaining and improving InSight Crime’s reputation and interaction with its audiences through publishing activities…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.