The former mayor of the southern Mexican city of Iguala has been charged with the murder of six people who died in a chain of confusing events that began when municipal police attacked a convoy of student teachers.
The attacks on the students on September 26th took place during a night of terror that included the arrest, subsequent disappearance and probable massacre of 43 students after police handed them over to a local drug gang.
José Luis Abarca allegedly ordered the police to attack the students because he feared they were going to disrupt an event designed to promote a bid by his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, to replace him as mayor in 2015.
Surviving students, from the radical teacher-training college in Ayotzinap, said they were in Iguala to commandeer buses to use in future protests.
They say the attacks began when police blocked their convoy as they were leaving town at about 9pm.
The students claim some of the passengers got off the bus to confront the officers, who began firing indiscriminately in their direction for about 30 minutes before making dozens of arrests.
Shot in face
One student was shot in the face in the first attack; several more were seriously injured. Two were shot dead at about midnight in a second attack by gunmen; a third student, found dead a few blocks away, had the skin peeled from his face and his eyes gouged out.
A teenage footballer and the driver of the bus he was travelling in were killed in a separate attack, apparently because they had been mistaken for the students. A woman in a taxi was reportedly killed in the crossfire.
Mr Abarca and Ms Pineda went underground four days after the events, at the same time as evidence was emerging of the couple’s close links to the Guerreros Unidos gang.
Municipal police and drug gang members reportedly set up checkpoints at the entrance to the city, from which several people allegedly disappeared.
Mr Abarca and his wife were arrested in Mexico City on November 4th.
The former mayor was subsequently sent to a maximum security jail where he faces charges of organised crime, kidnapping and murder.
Ms Pineda, who was not immediately charged, has been remanded in custody for 40 days while investigations continue.