Investigation of Student Protesters in Mexican town of Iguala
COOPER: The mystery of what happened to dozens of missing college students in Mexico has led to protests and outrage after Mexican authorities said they believed these 43 missing students were kidnapped, killed and dumped in the river. Protesters are angry at how the government has handled the case as well as disturbing allegations about the role that the police and a local mayor and his wife may have played in the students' disappearance. Rosa Flores has more.</s>ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Iguala City, they're dubbed the imperial couple, for their exercise of power and influence in cartel territory. The mayor, a business man who took office in 2012, his wife, wasn't the mayor, but authorities say she held the seat of elicit power at Iguala city hall. Juan Angulo (ph) has been covering the cartels in this part of Mexico for more than 20 years. (on camera): How is the mayor and his wife connected to the cartels?</s>UNIDENTIFIFED MALE: She was very connected because her brothers were at the very top of the cartel. With a lot of power. (speaking Spanish)</s>FLORES (voice over): The power couple's throne came tumbling down when they became suspects in the disappearance of 43 students from a teacher's college who arrived in Iguala on September 26th. Iconers (ph) are informants who very nonchalantly observe their surroundings, and tip off their bosses about what's going on. The mayor reportedly had cartel members on his payroll who after being arrested told authorities that the mayor paid them tens of thousands of dollars to be at his disposal. On September 26, police iconers (ph) and police officers reported to local authorities the students' arrival in four buses according to officials. There are rival raised eyebrows. The mayor's wife was scheduled to deliver a speech outdoors. The concern, this would be the backdrop. The aftermath of last year's destructive protest held in part by the students from the teachers college. The word spread quickly. And internal radio message ordering police to stop or confront the students. The official word, it was coming from A-5, the mayor's assigned radio code. The mayor's posse, part of the more than 70 arrested suspects, including police officers and cartel members told investigators they assumed the students would sabotage the event the mayor's wife was hosting. Officials say the students were ambushed in the evening by police. Shots were fired, and six people were killed. Three of them students. Whether the mayor ordered the shooting remains unclear and what happened next has only added to the mystery. The remaining 43 students were turned over by the cops to a cartel and never seen since. (on camera): I'm asking him about the alleged killing of these students. It is very gruesome. Is this normal for the cartels? Or is this an escalated violence?</s>UNIDENTIFIFED MALE: Escalated. Escalated. There's only - that's an extreme</s>FLORES (voice over): Here's where a possible misunderstanding took a sinister turn. What started as an idea, by the mayor, to possibly protect his wife's event, officials say, turned into a false battle between two rival gangs. Authorities say the leader of the cartel confessed, that on that ill-fated day, one of his cronies told them that the confrontation here was in Iguala was with another cartel. The leader thought he was defending his territory from an enemy, but instead, it was students in the crosshairs. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (speaking Spanish)</s>FLORES (on camera): They defend their territory to death. (voice over): The mayor and his wife were on the run for more than a month. They were later found hiding out at this abandoned house. No one but the mayor knows if he wanted the cartel involved, or wanted the students disappeared. He and his wife aren't talking. They remain in federal custody without being charged. Waiting to learn their fate.</s>COOPER: Rosa joins me now live. So, the parents of the missing students, they're still holding on to hope. You got information tonight about a new search effort, I understand.</s>FLORES: Yes. You know, I talked to the spokesperson for the parents and he tells me that they just signed an agreement with the attorney general. So hear this, allow expert searchers from other countries to come into Mexico looking for those students. He says that it is very simple. He says until they find DNA evidence to prove otherwise, Anderson, they're going to continue looking for those students.</s>COOPER: But didn't they find some evidence in bags or in trash bags, at the bottom of a river?</s>FLORES: You know, they did, and authorities have come forward and said, look, we have confessions from police officers, from cartel members, saying that they initially -- that they allegedly killed these students. But the parents are really holding on to hope, and until that DNA evidence is sent off and the results come back, right now they really don't have conclusive results.</s>COOPER: All right, Rosa Flores, I appreciate the reporting. Thank you very much. Coming up, I stopped burning my candle due to popular demand, but the staff here is ungrateful people that I work with, they're still fanning the flames. The RidicuList is next.