Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, is escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan, Mexico, in this file photo. — AP MEXICO CITY — Parents of 43 college students missing since last year angrily rejected the Mexican attorney general's declaration that investigators are certain the youths were killed and incinerated after being seized by police in the southern state of Guerrero. In an emotional news conference onTuesday night, the parents accused the government of seeking to wrap up the investigation even as they still have many unanswered questions — and hold out hope of finding their children alive. “We don't believe anything of what they say,” said Carmen Cruz, mother of 19-year-old Jorge Cruz, one of the disappeared students. “We are not going to allow this case to be closed.” Lawyer Vidulfo Rosales, who is representing the families of the students from a rural teachers college, presented a 10-point argument explaining why they believe the investigation must continue, including a lack of conclusive forensic results. DNA tests were only able to positively identify the remains of one of the students, and an Austrian laboratory assisting in the case has said it appears impossible to identify the others. Rosales noted that a number of key suspects remain at large. If detained, their testimony could shed new light on the official version, which asserts that on the night of Sept. 26, police handed over the students to drug gang members who killed them, burned the bodies at a garbage dump, bagged the remains and tossed them into a river. Rosales also said the families will bring a formal complaint on Feb. 3 before the Committee on Enforced Disappearances at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. — AP
