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on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Monday, April 25, 2016

Details of the Night of Torture suffered by the 43 missing Normalistas (Students)

Lucio R Borderland Beat
"That morning, the authorities also found the body of another student, Julio César Mondragón, who had been at the news conference. He had fled when the shooting began and became separated from the group. His facial skin and muscles had been torn away from his head, his skull was fractured in several places and his internal organs were ruptured. His condition, the investigators wrote," “shows the level of atrocities committed that night.” Note: Below is another contribution of what happened the night of horror in Iguala, when the devil came to town.  As for the “reason” that prompted the massacre, that will most likely always be unclear. But the plausible story offered by those on the ground in Guerrero is that the buses were transporting a huge amount of drugs on the buses that evening.

It is highly suspected that federal forces were involved. The changing official story of the government, and their recent action of kicking foreign scientists investigating the case out of the country, did little to alleviate suspicions.

The IMCI (Group of Independent Experts) were ejected from Mexico, but not before (or more likely because of) their conclusions of; evidence being manipulated and confessions and “information” being attained by methods of torture. The group was denied access to the military who was on patrol the night of the Iguala massacre. There are grave contradictions between the PGR version, and that of 11 of the military soldiers at the scene.

A few of the questions the group wanted to propose:
Why was the military monitoring the students even before their arrival in Iguala?
What was the transmitted information directly before and during the attack?
Who gave the orders?  When?
What instructions were given?
An abandon motorcycle was found at the scene of the second attack.  It was a private vehicle being used by an intelligence officer on duty.  Why was a private vehicle being used?

Why was a doctor in charge of the nearest clinic called to the 27th battalion to conference with military authorities at the time of the attack?  What was discussed? A physician came forward the week after the attack and said they were ordered to stand down and not treat the students, yet he and others defied the order. There is no doubt the military was at the site of the killings and kidnappings, many think it was not the Cocula dump that was the site of the incineration of  3 bodies, but one of the army crematories close by in Cuernavaca that was the site of the incineration.  LR

From New York Times  by Kirk Semple


Municipal police officers encircled the bus, detonated tear gas, punctured the tires and forced the college students who were onboard to get off.


“We’re going to kill all of you,” the officers warned, according to the bus driver. A policeman approached the driver and pointed a pistol at his head. “You, too,” the officer said.




With a military intelligence official looking on, witnesses said, the students were put into police vehicles and taken away. They have not been seen since.

The plan for the outing that evening was to secure several buses to carry students to a march in Mexico City several days later to commemorate a student massacre that had occurred in 1968.

Riding in two buses they had commandeered on earlier occasions, they stationed themselves on a main road on the outskirts of Iguala, planning to intercept a few buses.

“All of us were happy, having a blast, relaxed, happy with the drivers, playing,” a student later testified, according to the panel’s first report. It relied on testimony from survivors, government security officials and other witnesses as well as reports from an interagency government command center.

But the region’s security forces were already onto the students’ plans. The federal police stepped up patrols near the buses, and the command center linking local, state and federal police forces, as well as the military, kept tabs on the students.
At 8:15 p.m., the students made their first strike, boarding a bus that had stopped in front of a restaurant. The driver knew the drill; bus companies generally instruct drivers that in the event of a student hijacking, they should remain with the buses to ensure their safe return.

The bus driver said he needed to make a pit stop at Iguala’s central bus station. At the station, the bus driver surprised the students and locked them in the bus.

Around 9:15 p.m., the students in the two other buses arrived at the station and freed their classmates. The group commandeered three more buses, leaving one that had no driver. The five buses then left for Ayotzinapa, three heading toward Iguala’s northern beltway, two toward the southern beltway.

Then the shooting began.

A soccer team bus was also attacked killing the driver and a 15 year old player
Several police cars pursuing the three northbound buses started firing warning shots into the air. But the threat of violence did not deter the students.

A group of them left the buses and started throwing rocks at a police car that had blocked their path until the car drove away. At another point, a student sneaked up behind a police officer and tried to disarm him. As other police officers came to their colleague’s aid, the student ran away and a police bullet ricocheted and struck him, lightly wounding him.

As the convoy resumed its northward course through the city, police bullets hit the buses. The students threw themselves flat on the floor but ordered the drivers to keep going.

Near the beltway, however, the police had blocked the road with a vehicle. Several students got off the buses and tried to lift the cruiser out of the roadway, but officers posted on the highway opened fire on the group, forcing the students to seek cover behind the buses. Investigators later counted 30 bullet holes inside one of the buses.

As bullets flew and windows shattered, one of the students, Aldo Gutiérrez, was shot in the head. The first call to an emergency dispatch number was received at 9:48 p.m. Students who tried to rush to Mr. Gutierrez’s aid were shot at by police officers.

Another student was shot in the hand; the bullet sheared off several fingers. He sought shelter behind a truck, where two police officers ran over to him, and kicked and punched him. A third student was struck in the arm by a bullet. Ambulance crews managed to retrieve the three wounded students and take them to a hospital, along with a fourth student who suffered an asthma attack.

“They all felt confusion, terror and helplessness,” wrote the panel, five lawyers and human rights experts from around Latin America.

At one point, the police made a group of students who were hiding in the third bus disembark and lie on the ground. At about 10:50 p.m., they were put into six or seven patrol cars and taken away. They are among the 43 students who have disappeared.

Meanwhile, the two buses that took the southerly route had also run into trouble. At about 9:40 p.m., just as the three-bus convoy was intercepted near the northern beltway, the police cut off one of the two southbound buses.

The students on board made frantic phone calls to friends and relatives. “The police are attacking us,” one student told his family, according to relatives’ testimony. “My friend has been shot.”

The passengers were pulled from the bus and taken away: the rest of the 43 missing students.

Elsewhere in the city, the police had stopped the other southbound bus. The students onboard, who had received word by telephone of the other attacks, got off the bus and fled into nearby woods.
President Pena Nieto's worse nightmare: Parents of the students refuse to allow the story to die
In a measure of the pandemonium that overcame Iguala that night, another bus and several other vehicles came under attack even though they had nothing to do with the students.

Los Avispones, a soccer team of high schoolers from the city of Chilpancingo, had played a match that night against a local team in Iguala. By 11:15 p.m., the players were aboard their bus and heading home. Their route out of Iguala took them through a state police roadblock where they were rerouted because of the confrontation between the students and the police, witnesses said.

About seven miles outside of Iguala, gunmen opened fire on the bus, killing a soccer player and the driver, and wounding seven other passengers. The attackers also fired at other passing cars, killing a 40-year-old woman who was riding in a taxi.

Witnesses said the gunmen included police officers, and ballistic tests found that some of the weapons used in the attack belonged to the Iguala municipal police department.

“The most probable hypothesis is that the bus had been confused for one of those carrying the student teachers,” the investigators wrote.

Some soccer players, including one who had been wounded in the eye and was bleeding profusely, managed to drive to a nearby army battalion but were offered no help. “They indicated that they couldn’t do anything because it wasn’t in their jurisdiction,” a witness testified.

Elsewhere, on routes leading from Iguala to Ayotzinapa, at least two roadblocks were set up by unidentified gunmen, and one by police officers from the city of Huitzuco. Two civilians were wounded by gunfire at one of the roadblocks.

The expert panel concluded that “the joint action shows a coordinated modus operandi to stop the flight of the buses.”

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the northern beltway, students who had survived the police fusillade against the three-bus convoy began to emerge from their hiding places and regroup at the scene around 11 p.m. The police had left by then, and the students sought to record the evidence of the attack while trying to communicate with their classmates in the other buses.

Journalists, as well as some teachers, began to show up, and by midnight an impromptu news conference was taking shape in the middle of the road.


At about 12:30 a.m., a white sport utility vehicle and a black car drove by, their occupants taking photos of the gathering. Some were wearing bulletproof vests and hoods. Some witnesses said they also saw a police car in the area.



Fifteen minutes later, the vehicles returned and three men jumped out and opened fire at close range on the news conference. Two young men were killed, and other people, including students and teachers, were wounded.



The survivors fled, seeking sanctuary nearby. A teacher and several students ran to a clinic to find help for the wounded. There was no doctor present, but despite their appeals to emergency dispatchers and to military personnel who appeared at the clinic, an ambulance did not arrive for more than an hour.



As late as 3 a.m., the bodies of the two young men still lay in the street, uncovered, in the pouring rain. By dawn, the situation had calmed down, and the surviving students who had been hiding across the city received word by telephone that it was safe to come out. Over the course of the morning, they gathered at the local offices of the attorney general, where they met with the authorities.




61 comments:

  1. Glad it's finally making the U.S. News.On Saturday April 23,2016 the San Diego Tribune had an article on the front page also.

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    1. THIS HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

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    2. .....we are talking EVERY major news outlet did a story on this like months ago.....come on now...did you just wake up? You are insulting people, here....

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    3. Abit late there, this happened in 2014.

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    4. I think 7:52 is referring to the findings of the foreign investigators and the smear campaign and lawsuit against some of them as they wrap up and get kicked out of Mexico.It also made 1 of the big national newspapers in Canada too so I'm assuming the findings are international.

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  2. Mexican military is a joke.They would not even rank as a real army!
    They do alright against unarmed civilians and with teenagers with AKs on meth, but if they had to fight real soldiers they would be obliterated.
    Run for the hills Pedro!

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    1. Here we go belitering Mexico! What the Fuck do you care if the Mexican army is this or that? Stupid racist!

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    2. the mexican army always sucked, just look at santa ana, they hail that dood as a legend, but he lost almost all his battles, he just didnt suck as much as the rest.

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    3. 10:33-It has nothing to do with racism.It's about PROFESSIONALISM and RULE OF LAW!The Mexican civilians are wonderful people.I travelled a year down there solo and couldn't believe how hospitable the people were.

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  3. This sounds like something happening with ISIS. Mexico lost it's moral compass along time ago and does not look like it will ever change. Not the good people here that are at the mercy of the government and criminal groups. There are people here that are amazing, kind and generous. I worry about everyone I know here.

    People will get on here and say they need a revolution. It is not like the civil war in the USA where people were on a more level playing field. The same types of weapons available. People in the USA own effective guns to defend/proyect themselves.

    The common people here are not trained well enough to fight a well trained military, and police force at all levels that are armed to the teeth. The people here would need help from another country with arms and training to defeat this horrible government that is full of corruption. From the minute you wake up here in the morning you face a gauntlet of police of all levels throughout your day. Like a plague of grasshoppers wanting to take away what the people harvest from their hard work. I cannot foresee anything changing in the future unless the USA or other countries actually open their eyes and condemn the injustice that happens everyday here from the minute you wake up, and sometimes even when you are sleeping. I wake up several times a night to inspect noises and I am always alert when I am driving anywhere here. Things you do not worry about in the USA, Canada and other countries with advanced governments and laws. Like many people say, when they cross into the USA they sleep and move about comfortably. They feel an air of freedom and safety that does not exist in Mexico. It is relaxing to drive around in El Paso without seeing hoards of police.

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    1. @8:24 a.m yep and this is all the more reason ppl in the u.s must NEVER EVER give up their 2nd amendment right as this could happen here if we did!

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    2. You think the american people are on the same level as the u.s. army that is at best an ignorant comment. Get out of here with that.

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    3. I went to Mexico last year for the first time since the 1980s when I lived in San Diego not far from the border. I was amazed at the military presence everywhere. I agree it had a strange uncomfortable vibe unlike anything I've experienced elsewhere. At the time I had not read anything about the recent status of the country. I only started reading after I returned home.
      I had no problems at all and found the people to be extremely kind and generous. What a nightmare to have to live with an unsafe aura all the time.

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  4. This is terrible. Sad that the families have yet to receive the proper treatment from their own government.

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  5. ...the interference of a large drug shipment on those three buses that were intercepted by the students would make perfect sense as to why any cartel or corrupt mayor and his wife would want to murder all 43. Something big had to come from the top of the management chain to cause such a large collusion between the military, federal agents and local police and politicians of several local towns. All just to stop these buses. WTF?

    How much do you think it costed for the cartels and government to make all of this insanity happen. People got paid big time to "Handle" this and "make this go away". These corrupt officials and police don't make all of this happen for free. The cartels rely on them just for these reasons. Their power is what the cartels want and vice versa. Why in the hell does the military need a crematorium anyway?

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    1. Good questions you ask 9:11!How come that never came out from the Mex gov about the drug laden buses.Obviously they were in on it!Who did come out with that anyway[what source]about the drug buses?Yes they probably got paid,military,cops,cartel,etc. to make it go away but problem is is it hasn't gone away so now what?

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    2. "El Tlacoyo" EPN and his "gang" are kicking out the investigators, why?
      --Mass murders, crimes de lesa humanidad, genocide investigations, do not depend on the good will of the main suspects, why are the investigators obeying orders of epn to get out of "his country"?
      --Mexican government has signed agreements, that it must obey and comply with, and even if they did not had them, they still owe it to the world to comply with the worldly compromises and obligations, all the way to the hangman's rope, let's see epn and his boys hanging like SADDAM HUSSEIN...

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    3. If the investigators stay THEY will get the hangman's rope not the guilty Mexican 1's!

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  6. Nosotros semos los duenos de Mexico, porque estamos aqui por mas de 3000 anos.

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    1. 9:46 tás en mexico vendiendo semillas por 3 000 años y qué?
      Los dueños de mexico matan a los mexicanos, tienen impunidad, se robaro que quieren, hacen todo el dinero que quieren, se lo llevan a otros paises a esconder, tu qué tienes? Piojos en la cabeza?

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    2. Ni a semillero llega, esta echando un colado el aprendiz de macuarro.
      No ofense:)

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  7. 2 questions we need to ask ... Why were they sent to Iguala and by who ? ..

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    1. No one "sent" them. They were on their way to Mexico City to take part in the protests on the anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre in 1968 (Oct. 2).

      They had taken some passenger buses outside Chilpancingo to the south. When one of the drivers of the buses said he needed to stop at the bus station in Iguala, the students said that was fine. The article above describes what happened next.

      They were on their way out of Iguala, heading to Mexico City, when all Hell broke loose. They apparently had taken a bus in Iguala that had a hidden stash of drugs, probably heroin heading to the US.

      The students were not "sent" to Iguala. They had no plans to go to Iguala. They had no plans to disrupt the Mayor's speech in Iguala. They were not members of Los Rojos, nor had they been inflitrated by them.

      All of these theories have been proven false, but continue to service to provide cover for the narco/PRI state behind this horrific massacre.

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    2. No the question is, why were they throwing rocks n trying to confront police? Police did what they had to do in defending themselves from the rocks n swarm of students

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    3. @4:55 p.m. No student threw a rock until Mexican law enforcement officials unjustly and illegally fired on the unarmed students and the buses.

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    4. @4:55 porque no te callas? Said king juan carlos de borbon to Hugo Chavez...
      --I am no king but i'd like to know why anybody should not throw rocks to the "swarm of police and military" shooting at you, corralling you like horses into a corral to fack you up like never before in your life, as happened...
      --And now the mexican government is desperately trying to cover up their nasty arses, after all the whole world has seen their nasty arseholes full of shit, you can wipe your nose now, your excrementicious expedition did not work...@4:55...

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  8. I think the Mex gov only let in the foreign investigators to save face under international scrutiny which doesn't normally happen in Mexico.Little did they know that these investigators actually know HOW to do their jobs and also have the will.Mexico has no clue about how to conduct an investigation PROPERLY only easy way through torture.Little did they know this would open up a huge can of worms at the end of the foreign investigation and their normal tactics they are used to getting away with didn't go over too well.Next time a similar incident like this occurs[I have no doubt it will] they will refuse any other foreign investigators in as they have too much to hide and it's too difficult for them to hide a coverup.

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    1. Canadiana, I was thinking the same thing. It's like the Mexican government was left dumbfounded and confused that the outside experts actually did the job they were brought in to do!

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  9. The entire police force should be fired. They need to clean slate the entire Mexican government.

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    1. 11:31 fired ON, by a fire squad, as soon as they confess and denounce their "superior commanders" that unleashed them on the students, start with salvador cienpedos and the military zone commanders, they know who else was in the area...

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  10. GIEI final report was released yesterday. Here are the points I find most interesting:

    1. The Group brought back strongly the "Fifth Bus" motive for the attack. They stated this line of investigation was not followed at all by the Mexican government and GIEI was blocked in their attempts to get more info about this Fifth Bus (presumably carrying a load of drugs). This leads to the second point,

    2. The GIEI stressed Federal Police and the Mexican Army were on the scene at the time of the attacks, with clear evidence that the Federal Police participated. Mexican Federal Police stopped at least one of the buses. This ties into number 1, above, since we know that in Guerrero the Federal Police and the Army work with narcos. This is the only theory that makes any sense. The GIEI reported that police at all levels of govt. had a 80 kilometer perimeter set up to prevent any buses from getting out of the area.

    3. The GIEI yesterday STRONGLY implied that the evidence supposedly taken from Rio San Juan, near Cocula, and sent to Innsbruck for analysis, was planted by the PGR the day before. There are videos from Mexican media taken on Oct. 18, 2014, showing the PGR took one of the (tortured) suspects to the Rio and from there you see bags that, according to the PGR, were taken from the river on Oct 19th - the following day.

    4. The GIEI has evidence that all key suspects, who supposedly participated in the buring at the Cocula dump, were tortured to get their statements. The attempts by the PGR to cover this up were described in detail by the experts, with tactics used by the PGR that would be comical if the matter was not so grave.

    5. The GIEI repeated their findings, supported by the Argentine experts, that the fire at the Cocula dump simply did not take place. They issued a devastating critique of the laughable, non-scientific report released at that hasty news conference on the afternoon of Friday 4/1.

    6. The GIEI ripped the Mexican government for their obstruction of the independent investigations. This, combined with the falsification of reports about toruture used, and the likely planting of evidence in the Rio, all amount to obstruction of justice taking place at the highest levels of the Mexican federal government, for which many officials would be in prison if Mexico had anything resembling a criminal justice system and a responsive democracy.

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  11. Why does this story get so much international coverage? What about the 193 people massacred in San Fernando? Did we forget about the casino fire in Monterrey started by the Z Company that killed 52? How about the 49 decapitated corpses dumped on the highway there? Juarez A.K.A. "Murder City," has seen far worse crimes than the ones highlighted in this article. I feel for these students but why are people so fixated on this particular story when so much suffering and bloodshed occurs in Mexico on a daily basis?

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    1. simple...because they were students...

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    2. And the hundreds of women raped and murdered in Juarez, and all the dissapeared that we never knew about, and all the south and central america people that try to cross thru Mexico but never make it, and the 300 massacre by the Zetas etc etc

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  12. Why does this story get so much coverage? What about the 193 people Los Zetas killed in the San Fernando Massacre? Did we forget about the Casino fire in Monterrey that killed 52?

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    1. Yeah but we have the motives for those[even though we may not agree]and the loved 1's were found.These parents of the 43 have no motive the government offers up nor no body alive or dead in sight so there is no closure for them.They have to guess what happened.

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    2. San fernando, immigrants, some say it was the government, or the zetas for the government, the murders of South American immigrants ordered by the US government to make them stop immigrating to the US...
      --ayotzinapa, is only about 43 disappeared students, their parents hope to see them again as soon as the mexican government releases them, alive, as they took them...
      --Nobody is accusing the mexican government of being a bunch of murdering genocidal assassins that disappear people, yet...

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  13. And why did they high jack buses an toll road booths. Pretty stupid on their part

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    1. hijacking buses by students is a pretty common thing in parts of Mexico....

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    2. Dude, get a grip and read the article. The fact you even mention toll booths shows that you're a candidate for PRI/Facists Hall Of Fame.

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  14. "We note that on April 24, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released their final report on the September 2014 disappearance of 43 students in Iguala, Mexico.

    We commend the Commission and the experts for their work, which was requested by the Mexican Government, and for the assistance it has provided Mexico and the victims’ families in working to resolve this tragic case.

    We trust the Mexican authorities will carefully consider the report’s recommendations, evaluate suggested actions to address the issue of forced disappearances, provide support to the victims’ families, and continue their efforts to bring the perpetrators of this terrible crime to justice."

    "But as realists, we realize this will not happen." OK, I added that part:

    http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/04/256559.htm

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  15. The Military captured the Mayor n his Wife, why is this still a mystery? If you haven't made the Mayor or Wife talk by now, this case will be like the Hoff n JFK case.

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    1. 4:57 the imperial couple of iguala are friends of the regime, nobody is interrogating them, the government only wants to build the shit cake around them for some pendejos to believe

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    2. Wasn't the wife of the Mayor released?

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  16. So students normally hijack buses like it's the norm way to get around?

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    1. 5:47 It Is The Norm for 57 years, since MEXICO 68...

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  17. Next time students need a ride, they need to pay for the service like everyone else; They need to stop taking away vehicles that do not belong to them.

    I am not saying to forgive those responsible for the killings.

    it's simply a reminder of what Mexican authorities can get away with

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    1. What great insight, Mirrrey Frat Boy, Jr.

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    2. 5:50 Wuuuh, that's 'genarco garcia', luna?

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  18. So they basically high jacked buses and started throwing rocks at police men....and there were possible drug loads on the buses they high jacked? It's starting to make a little sense now

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  19. No offense, but is there some reason my summary of Sunday's final GIEI report has not been posted yet? I posted it almost 12 hours ago, and many comments are asking questions addressed in my post. If you're planning a detailed article on the report, fine. But no need to block my comment until then. You don't need to post this.

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    1. @TDR. I was moderating then and i don't remember the comment. If I deleted it it was an error on my part. I would not have intentionally deleted it. Could you post it again? I will assure you it will be published. Sorry, DD

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    2. TDR
      No I won't post it, you insulted my intelligence dudee

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    3. 11:34-We all would like to see it.Just because you are punishing DD [he did apologize]you are punishing all of us other innocents.Don't be like the cartels.

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    4. > "No offence...."

      Proceeds to take great offence at the apologetic reply.

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  20. So, bunch of idiots throw rocks at corrupt police and get killed. Not surprised.

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    1. 2:18 you would throw your nalgas at the soldiers, no doubt...

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  21. This is ALL terriost attacks coming from there own people and the US needs to act apon it and clean up all this evil! MEXICO NEEDS A BREAK ALREADY!

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  22. Um, alot of uninformed comments here. People don't know about 1968 . I think this story is super important as , of course , are all the others that deserve more attention. The involvement of International invesigators is HUGE and perhaps there will be and should be more . The violence is directly related to hideous corruption at all levels not to mention the drugs. Also , If I remember correctly the rumor of a shipment of heroin on one of the buses came out very quickly after the hideous incident.

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  23. Arriba mexico abajo el gobierno
    Arriba el pueblo abajo los burgueses

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  24. @5:26
    They actually stole the busses forcing the driver to take them. Not worth shooting, torturing or disappearing them but if the 'loaded' buses were reported missing it does trigger cartel security & local/ federal police to stop a multi bus convoy from just doing whatever it wishes.

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