The wife of a Mexican politician suspected of helping to plot the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers in September last year is to be tried on charges of engaging in organized crime, the Mexican federal courts authority said on Monday.
The event rocked Mexico’s government, which says that the students were abducted by corrupt police officers in the southwestern city of Iguala on the night of Sept. 26 last year, then probably incinerated by members of local drug gang Guerreros Unidos.
The remains of only one of the 43 students have been identified, and the government blames former Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, for masterminding their disappearance, along with the gang.
Photo: EPA
Later on Monday, security forces in Iguala clashed with students from the same teacher training college and other protesters who officials said were trying to break into a local military base, a police spokesman said. Four people were injured, media reports said.
The courts authority said it believed that Pineda had been working with Guerreros Unidos since at least 2005, and accused her of engaging in crimes against health — which includes drug trafficking — and managing illicit funds.
Her lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.
The statement made no specific reference to Iguala.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is facing his deepest crisis over the government’s handling of the investigation.
A Mexican federal judge found evidence that Pineda acted as a financial intermediary for Guerreros Unidos and helped protect the gang, the courts authority said.
Between 2009 and last year, the court said, she took deposits probably originating with the drug gang worth about 13.7 million pesos (US$934,000) in four bank accounts.
Pineda and Abarca fled Iguala a few days after the abduction of the students, and were captured in November by police.
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