The entire police force of Iguala, Mexico was disarmed by Mexican federal authorities in the wake of allegations accusing officers of colluding with gang members in a violent clash that left 43 students missing.
Federal forces have taken over security duties while the Iguala police officers undergo evaluations at a nearby military base, according to National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido García. Investigators will also be verifying that police guns were not used in any crimes. Paramilitary police are now guarding Iguala's entrances, he said.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto promised on Monday to find those responsible for the missing students, referring to the acts as "outrageous, painful and unacceptable."
"We need to find the truth and make sure the law is applied to those responsible for these outrageous, painful and unacceptable acts," Nieto said during a televised speech.
The attorney general of the state of Guerrero, Iñaky Blanco Cabrera, said Sunday that two gang hitmen admitted to receiving help from Mexican security officials in the slaughter of 17 of the missing 43. Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero backed those claims by saying he believes police were complicit in the killings.
Cabrera claimed the leader of the local Guerreros Unidos gang conspired with security officials to carry out the murders.
The takeover came after this weekend's finding of mass graves containing 28 unidentified bodies. DNA tests are currently underway, but authorities said results could take up to two weeks.
The motives behind the attacks is not yet known, but "many relatives said they were convinced their children were taken to punish the school, a special type of rural institution for poor students and bastion of revolutionary political activity," reported The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Witnesses said several students, who are from a teacher training college known as a hotbed of radical protests, were whisked away in police vehicles after gang-linked officers shot at buses the youngsters had commandeered to return home," the Herald said.
