Former Iguala Mayor Charged in Case of Missing Mexican Students

The former mayor of the Mexican city where the 43 Ayotzinapa teachers training college students were disappeared in September has been charged with kidnapping, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) announced Tuesday evening.

Jose Luis Abarca, the former Mayor of Iguala, Guerrero, from the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) was imprisoned in a high security prison in the State of Mexico last Nov. 5 on charges of organized crime, kidnapping and homicide, after being arrested in Mexico City.

The decision follows the Mexican federal court order Monday to charge Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, Abarca's wife, for laundering money linked to a drug cartel.

In a message to the media, Tomas Zeron de Lucio, director of Mexico’s Criminal Investigation Agency, announced that Abarca was indicted for the Sept. 26 disappearance of the young students of Guerrero.

Former Mayor Abarca and his wife fled Iguala on Sept. 30 after residents demanded his resignation. They were fugitives for the next month until they were eventually apprehended and arrested.

The couple allegedly has family ties to the Guerreros Unidos criminal cartel. The federal government alleges that the group was also involved in the disappearance of the students.