Interesting details about the 27th Battalion in Iguala, which the parents of the ayotzinapa students attempted to break into yesterday: Colonel Juan Antonio Aranda Torres, commander of the 27th Battalion in Iguala, claimed that he and his troops knew nothing of the Ayotzinapa attacks, although they took place within 100 meters of the army barracks. At the time, he was attending a fiesta organized by María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, the wife of Mayor Abarca, now also accused of ordering the attack and being connected to drug gangs. Though Aranda Torres was trained as an intelligence and counter-intelligence officer, he claims to have seen nothing, heard nothing, and has said nothing. This was not an isolated event. Unfortunately, torture, killings, and assassinations have become commonplace in Mexico with different levels of police or armed forces involvement, as well as drug gangs. The 27th Battalion participated in the dirty war of the 1970s and 1980s. Additionally, Human Rights Watch, in a 2011 report, “Ni Seguridad, ni derechos” (Neither Security Nor Rights), wrote that there is strong evidence that the 27th Battalion participated in the disappearance of six young people in Iguala in March 2010. These state crimes against humanity, sadly, are the rule, not the exception, in Mexico.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:00:29 +0000
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