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In Mexico, a grim truth just below the surface In Mexico, a grim truth just below the surface
(about 7 hours later)
MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials made a stunning announcement yesterday: The 28 bodies recovered from a series of mass graves outside the town of Iguala are not those of 43 student protesters who went missing there three weeks ago.  
This news has given the students' families and classmates a strand of hope. They have demanded that authorities find the students or free them if they're still alive. The anger boiled over Monday, when protesters stormed government offices in the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo and set them ablaze. MEXICO CITY — Really, it should not have come as a surprise that the 28 bodies found in mass graves outside the town of Iguala do not correspond to those of any of the 43 student protestors who went missing there three weeks ago.
But to the rest of Mexico, the news that the 28 mutilated, charred corpses correspond to another group of victims is a new stop on a carousel of horrors. It has deepened the sense that there are clandestine grave sites all over the country into which an unknown number of Mexicans have disappeared. The forested hills above Iguala were a well-known human dumping ground, according to the families who live nearby. They often saw pickup trucks with tinted windows driving late at night up through the cornfields into the brush, followed by snaps of gunfire.
But they didn't dare say anything.
This week's announcement by Mexican prosecutors that the 28 corpses appear to belong to a different set of victims was heartening perhaps only to the families and classmates of the missing students, who attend a nearby teacher's college. For them, it was a new strand of hope that the 43 may still be alive.
But for the rest of Mexico, it was yet another stop on a carousel of horrors, deepening the sense that there are clandestine graves all over the country, into which an untold number of Mexicans have vanished.
Scratch the surface a bit and the ghastly secrets emerge.Scratch the surface a bit and the ghastly secrets emerge.
Rights groups point to the list kept by the Mexican government with the names of more than 22,000 people who have been reported missing in the past eight years. No one knows how many have been lost to cartel funeral pits like the ones found outside Iguala. Rights groups point to the list kept by the Mexican government with the names of more than 22,000 people who have gone missing in the past eight years. No one knows how many have been lost to cartel funeral pits like the ones found outside Iguala.
"We don't have the complete test results," Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam said Tuesday, looking weary, adding that the discoveries "have confirmed the dangerous nature of the criminal organization that operated in this area." "We don't have the complete test results" from Iguala, Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam told reporters, adding wearily that the discoveries "have confirmed the dangerous nature of the criminal organization that operated in this area."
The mass graves there are not the first and definitely not the largest uncovered in recent years. But they have shattered President Enrique Peña Nieto's public relations push to shift international attention away from Mexico's security failures. The mass graves there are not the first and certainly not the largest uncovered in recent years. But they have shattered President Enrique Peña Nieto's public relations push to shift international attention away from Mexico's security failures.
Once more Mexicans, and many observers elsewhere, are asking how the country can possibly tout its modernization efforts if it continues to be a place where gangsters casually kill and bury their victims, often with government complicity, while the rest of the society is too intimidated to stop them. Once more many here are asking how the country can possibly tout its modernization efforts if it continues to be a place where gangsters casually kill and bury their victims, often with government complicity, while the rest of the society is too intimidated to stop them.
"From Mexico's Moment to Mexico Murder," wrote columnist Carlos Loret de Mola in El Universal. "That summarizes the change in international perceptions of our country in the short time between the approval of the reforms" backed by the president "and the explosion of criminal violence in Iguala.""From Mexico's Moment to Mexico Murder," wrote columnist Carlos Loret de Mola in El Universal. "That summarizes the change in international perceptions of our country in the short time between the approval of the reforms" backed by the president "and the explosion of criminal violence in Iguala."
Locals in Iguala have told reporters that they saw criminals going back and forth to the grave sites for months but didn't dare say anything. Farmers living on the outskirts of Iguala told reporters they have long seen strange vehicles driving up into the hills where the graves were found. They say it's hardly the first time bodies have turned up, describing the whole area as a giant cemetery.
The 28 bodies found were in five graves, prosecutors say. But since there are at least eight more burial sites in the area, it's possible that the students ended up in those. Authorities haven't said how many dead were recovered from the other graves or who they think the victims were. "Sometimes we heard gunshots, but other times we didn't anything because we had music playing or the dogs were barking or we slept through the noise," one woman told Milenio. "I just shut my door and that was it."
But the wait for answers is draining the patience of the Mexican public, and especially the students, who are planning protests Wednesday in Mexico City and elsewhere. The 28 bodies found so far were pulled from five graves, prosecutors say. But since there are at least eight more burial sites in the area, it's possible that the students ended up in those. Authorities haven't said how many dead were recovered from the other graves or who they think the victims were.
One of the criminal suspects who may have known about the fate of the 43 students, Benjamin "El Benjamon" Mondragon, died Tuesday, allegedly shooting himself after a standoff with police in the nearby state of Morelos. The wait for answers is draining the patience of the Mexican public, and especially the students, who are demanding that authorities find their classmates or free them if they're still alive. On Monday a group of protesters stormed government offices in the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo and set them ablaze.
Mondragon was a leader of the Guerreros Unidos, the gang blamed for the mass graves outside Iguala and the disappearance of the students after clashes with local police on the night of Sept 26. One of the criminal suspects who may have known about the fate of the 43 students, Benjamin "El Benjamon" Mondragon, died Tuesday, allegedly shooting himself after a standoff with police in the nearby state of Morelos.
Mondragon was a leader of the Guerreros Unidos, the gang blamed for the graves outside Iguala and the disappearance of the students after clashes with local police on the night of Sept 26.
The territory where the Guerreros Unidos operate is along the strategic smuggling corridor between Mexico's Pacific Coast ports and the capital.The territory where the Guerreros Unidos operate is along the strategic smuggling corridor between Mexico's Pacific Coast ports and the capital.
It was in this area that one of the first mass grave sites of Mexico's drug war was discovered in 2010, near Taxco, just down the road from Iguala. There, forensic teams found more than 60 bodies at the bottom of an abandoned mine ventilation shaft. It was in this area that one of the first mass grave sites of Mexico's drug war was discovered in 2010, near Taxco, just down the road from Iguala. There, forensic teams found dozens of bodies at the bottom of an abandoned mine ventilation shaft.
Many of the victims were found bound and gagged, and were thought to have been throw alive down the 500-foot shaft. Many of the victims were found bound and gagged, and were thought to have been thrown alive down the 500-foot shaft. Recovery teams rappelled down and returned with the remains of more than 50 corpses.
That nightmare was soon eclipsed by others: burial pits found in 2011 on remote ranches near the town of San Fernando, an hour south of the U.S. border, stuffed with nearly 200 victims. Many had been innocent travelers pulled off passenger buses and beaten to death by a psychotic cell of the Zetas drug cartel. Researcher Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.
That year, prosecutors began to unearth grave sites around the city of Durango, and by the time they were done, they'd found more than 300 corpses.
In February, forensic teams in the border state of Coahuila said they uncovered perhaps the biggest secret graveyard yet, with the body parts of as many as 500 victims dumped over a span of several years.