MEXICO CITY ― Federal police early Tuesday detained the former mayor of the southern Mexican city of Iguala and his wife, who are accused of ordering the Sept. 26 attacks on teachers’ college students that left six dead and 43 still missing.
Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were arrested in Iztapalapa, a working-class neighborhood in eastern Mexico City, where they were hiding out in a house, according to a Federal Police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
They were arrested in an early morning raid carried out without a shot and then taken to the Attorney General’s Office, where they were giving statements. At least 56 other people have been arrested so far in the case, and the Iguala police chief is still a fugitive.
The couple’s detention could shed light on the disappearances, which have prompted outraged demonstrations across the country to demand the students be found.
“This was the missing piece,” Felipe de la Cruz, a parent of one of the missing, told Milenio television. “This arrest will help us find our kids. It was the government who took our kids.”
According to authorities, Abarca spent the evening of Sept. 26 dining out. He originally told the media that he ordered police to leave the students alone, that they were just passing through.
