Mexican president meets with kin of 43 missing students

File photo of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. (AFP/Ronaldo Schemidt)

MEXICO CITY: President Enrique Pena Nieto met for the first time Wednesday (Oct 29) with families of 43 students who went missing over a month ago in violence involving police and drug gang hitmen.

In a country weary of years of mostly drug gang-linked violent crime, the case of the missing in Guerrero state has shocked Mexico, made headlines worldwide and brought thousands to the streets demonstrating for justice.

The parents of the all-male students at a teachers' college in Guerrero want state and federal authorities to continue searching in the Iguala area. They met Pena Nieto at the Los Pinos presidential residence and were expected to appear before media later.

The families had met earlier with Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong and Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam. Pena Nieto, under pressure from international organizations including the United Nations, has promised to investigate the case and make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Scores of bodies have been found in unmarked graves in the search for the missing students, laying bare the extent of the rampant killings in the region, which law enforcement officials blame on ongoing drug violence.

The missing students vanished on Sep 26 in the town of Iguala, after their buses were attacked by police. Prosecutors suspect the young men were delivered by police to the gang, but do not know what happened to the students after that.

The mayor of Iguala, some 130km southwest of Mexico City, and his wife, who are suspected of ordering the students' abduction, are currently on the run. Around 40 municipal officers also have been arrested in connection to the disappearances. Searchers also have been combing a garbage dump in the town of Cocula.