Working on the Front Lines against Ebola; Mexico Gang Confesses to Killing Students
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These volunteers are preparing for a daunting task. Soon they'll travel from the United States to West Africa to work on the front lines in the fight against Ebola.</s>DR. PATRICIA GRIFFIN, DIRECTOR, CDC TRAINING CAMP: We have a mock Ebola treatment unit. We're training clinicians, who are going to deploy to West Africa to treat patients there, how to protect themselves.</s>CUOMO: They learn skills like putting on and removing protective equipment, drawing blood and disposing of hazardous waste.</s>DR. PHUOC LE, VOLUNTEER: Every detail could mean a matter of life or death to you or the people that work around you.</s>CUOMO: Dr. Phuoc Le is planning to take the skills he learns on this training course in Alabama and help medical teams in Liberia improve their protocols and hopefully limit infection.</s>LE: All of the infections of health care workers and the deaths of health care workers, most of them were probably preventable if they had sufficient staffing, the equipment that we have here, space, supplies.</s>GRIFFIN: We're teaching them how the virus is transmitted so that they know how to protect themselves so that they feel safe taking care of patients.</s>CUOMO: The training helps, but the volunteers still face a formidable foe.</s>LE: Whoever tells you that they're not anxious about going to Liberia and working in an Ebola unit is delusional. It's just a sense of solidarity and wanting to, you know, be there for our non-profit partners who don't have a choice but to stay and work and contribute.</s>SAVIDGE: If you want to learn more about how you can help in the fight against ebola visit CNN.com/impact.</s>PAUL: Well, families in Mexico calling for justice as you can imagine, after 43 college students disappeared back in September. Well, now the Mexican government is saying they have all been murdered. And three suspected gang members have confessed to killing them and burning their bodies. However, the families aren't buying that story. CNN's senior Latin American affairs editor, Rafael Romo has more.</s>RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): Badly burned human remains, teeth and bone fragments, a gruesome discovery in a river located in southern Mexico. The Mexican attorney general says authorities are dealing with a massive homicide. The victims, he said, could be 43 students who disappeared in late September in the city of Iguala. The students from a rural teachers college in the town Ayotzinapa are in their late teens or early 20s. On order of the city's mayor the top official said Friday, police abducted the students and turned them over to a gang; the gang which allegedly has deep ties to the mayor, reportedly killed the students and burned their bodies before throwing the remains in a river. Identifying the bodies Murillo said, will be a huge challenge. Murillo said the remains are so badly burned that obtaining reliable DNA samples to identify the victims will be extremely difficult. As a result, he said, officials have not been able to determine for certain that those are the students' remains. (on camera): The Mexican attorney general said so far 74 suspects have been arrested and police are looking for at least ten more. This investigation he said, it's still wide open and no effort will be spared to punish those responsible. (voice over): Among those arrested are the Iguala mayor and his wife. Authorities suspect he ordered the students stopped because they would disrupt an event led by his wife. The Mexican president promised with justice. "The findings presented outrage and offend all of Mexican society. With firm determination the government will continue the efforts for a full accounting of the incident. The capture of those who ordered it isn't enough. We will arrest everyone who participated in these abominable crimes." But the parents of the missing told CNN en Espanol they don't trust the government's investigation. "To publish that kind of news without any scientific proof is highly irresponsible," the parents said by phone. The Mexican government said DNA samples will be sent to a university in Austria in an effort to identify the remains.</s>PAUL: Rafael joining us now live from Mexico City. Good to see you, Rafael. We heard there from Mexico's president and he has claimed so often the last year that Mexico has become safer on his watch. I'm wondering how people are reacting to this.</s>ROMO: Christi, we have to look at the larger problem here and that is the fact that this case happened because two towns in the state of Guerrero were infiltrated by criminal organizations. And let me explain that to you. They were so much in power that they were essentially in control of the police departments and that's the reason why these students were stopped by police officers and handed over to a criminal gang. Critics of the government here say that is not an isolated case. There's infiltration of criminal organizations at the local and state level in different parts of Mexico. And that's a big, big challenge for Mexico right now -- Christi.</s>PAUL: All right. Rafael Romo, we so appreciate the report. Thank you.</s>SAVIDGE: Now that he's been caught and his alleged 22-year-old victim was found alive some are wondering why a suspect with a long rap sheet was free to walk the streets in the first place.