By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
A team of Argentinian forensic experts said Thursday that DNA tests have determined the corpses found in mass graves in early October are not those of 43 students who went missing in southwestern Mexico.
The news is yet another setback in the search for the students since they disappeared Sept. 26 in the town of Igualafter clashing with police at a political rally.
Several mass graves have been discovered near Iguala, about 120 miles southwest of Mexico City, in the search for the students in Guerrero state.
Violent protests have erupted daily in Guerrero since Mexico’s attorney general said Friday that three suspects confessed to murdering more than 40 students and burning their bodies in Cocula, near Iguala. Human remains have been found in Cocula and were sent Thursday to a world-class forensic lab in Innsbruck, Austria, where they will be analysed.
Authorities have recovered six garbage bags of ashes and human remains in the area.
Members of the radical CETEG teachers union on Thursday torched the education department's audit office in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, and burned five cars in the parking lot of the local Congress. The CETEG is demanding that the students be returned alive.
A group of teachers on Wednesday attacked and set fire to the Guerrero state office of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. The resulting clash with police caused injuries to 31 people including 25 teachers, three police officers and three journalists.
Following the attorney general's announcement, relatives of the missing students have said that they will trust only the conclusions of the Argentinian forensics experts.
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