Families of missing 43 force closure of Acapulco airport as president scrutinized over graft claims
ACAPULCO — Families and friends of the 43 students who went missing in the Mexican state of Guerrero more than a month ago took over the airport of the Pacific resort city of Acapulco yesterday and kept it closed for several hours, evidence that the public crisis over the youngsters’ disappearance is far from over.
Officials have spent the last few weeks scrambling to respond to public horror over the disappearance of 43 teachers college students at the hands of a city police force on September 26 and even Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has been forced to intervene, meeting with the victims’ families and promising a thorough investigation.
On Friday, Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam said members of a drug gang based in Guerrero — the state where Acapulco is located — had confessed to killing the students and burning their bodies, leaving only charred fragments of bones and teeth.
But supporters of the missing students, refusing to believe they are dead, continued protests yesterday, building on demonstrations that have blocked major highways and set government buildings ablaze in recent weeks.
Yesterday, relatives and supporters battled federal police in Acapulco, then blocked roads leading to the Pacific resort’s airport, forcing tourists to trudge for a kilometre to the terminal. Many then had to make the same hike back after finding the airport closed.
“We are carrying out a symbolic closure of the airport,” said protest leader Felipe de la Cruz, who said outgoing flights would be blocked for a couple of hours, to press demands that the government find the students.
‘Honeymoon’ ends
The crisis over the disappearance of the 43 students has put an end to Peña Nieto’s “honeymoon period” and the president is now facing challenges on multiple fronts.
The administration scrambled yesterday to respond to growing questions about a multi-million-dollar mansion his wife bought from a government contractor, even as it tried to calm continuing protests over the disappearance — and probable murder — of the youngsters.
The president has tried to shift Mexico’s focus away from a bloody fight against organized crime to a series of political and economic reforms his administration successfully pushed through Congress.
But as he attended a summit in China yesterday, Peña Nieto’s aides were trying the quell doubts about his wife’s 2012 purchase of a multi-million dollar mansion from a company that had won extensive contracts from the State of Mexico while Enrique Peña Nieto was governor.
Presidential spokesman Eduardo Sánchez denied there was anything improper about the deal in which the company granted first lady Angélica Rivera a loan to buy the mansion, saying she had money from her former career as an actress.
A story published Sunday by Aristegui Noticias, website of journalist Carmen Aristegui, noted that the company that made the loan, Grupo Higa, also owns a company that was part of the Chinese-led consortium awarded a US$3.7 billion high-speed rail project this year.
The consortium was the only bidder. All other competitors bowed out, saying they had been given only two months to put together an offer on the extremely complex project.
But three days before the Aristegui story was published, the government abruptly cancelled the contract and announced it would take new bids in the interest of transparency.
Rivera’s US$7 million home on a 1,415-square-metre property in Mexico City’s most exclusive neighbourhood was built by Ingeniería Inmobiliaria del Centro (IIC), a company belonging to Grupo Higa, and it remains in the company’s name, apparently while the loan is being paid off.
Conflict of interests
According to the Aristegui article, Grupo Higa and its affiliates won more than US$8 billion pesos (US$600 million) in construction projects in the State of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, while Peña Nieto was governor
It said an air-charter service owned by Grupo Higa ferried Peña Nieto during his 2012 presidential campaign, while another Grupo Higa company printed campaign materials.
Sánchez, the presidential spokesman, said the property borders Rivera’s existing home. “She needed to expand her house, she bought out her neighbour, regardless of who that neighbour was,” Sánchez said. “Why is she to blame for being the wife of the president, being successful, having savings and, forgive the expression, spending it in any way she wants?”
The explanation met with scepticism.
“It opens up a lot of questions … If she needed a loan to buy a house, why didn’t she go to a bank?” said Mexico City-based security analyst Alejandro Hope. Even if the government version is true, “When they realized it was a big government contractor, didn’t that set off an alarm bell … that a transaction like that might represent a conflict of interest?”
He said that if something similar happened in the United States, “there would be calls for impeachment by now.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald