Another 31 Mexican students reportedly abducted in Guerrero in July

The nightmarish saga of Mexico’s 43 missing students took another dramatic twist this week with the revelation that another 31 students may have been kidnapped in the southern state of Guerrero in July.

French media outlet France24 reported that the high school students from the town of Cocula were abducted in broad daylight by masked men in navy blue uniforms and driven away in police cars on July 7.

The local families, who said they have not seen their children since, were reportedly threatened with death if they spoke out or reported the incident.

Cocula lies only a short distance from Iguala, where 43 trainee teachers were abducted in late September. Prosecutors believe the teaching students were then driven to Cocula, where they were murdered and their bodies incinerated.

Dozens of police officers from the Iguala and Cocula forces have been arrested in connection with the latter incident.

There are no government records of disappearances in Cocula in July, but it is not unusual for such crimes to go unreported in Mexico due to fear of reprisals and suspicion that local authorities are working with the perpetrators…

Click here to read this story in full, including the latest on the arrest of student demonstrators and the scandal over President Enrique Peña Nieto’s properties in Mexico City.