Mexico: Mayor linked to deadly attack on students

In this May 8, 2014 photo, the mayor of the city of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, right, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa meet with state government officials in Chilpancingo, Mexico.

The mayor of a town in southern Mexico ordered a police attack that resulted in six deaths and the disappearance of 43 students who remain missing weeks later, the country’s top prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Iguala police received an order that they said came from Mayor Jose Luis Abarca to prevent the students from disrupting an event at which his wife was presenting a report, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told reporters.

Mr. Murillo Karam said Mr. Abarca’s wife has been linked to drug gangs and is now considered a fugitive, along with her husband and the Iguala police chief.

Initial DNA tests have not linked the cadavers to the missing students.

Demonstrators protesting the disappearances set fire to Iguala’s city hall on Wednesday. The extent of damage wasn’t immediately clear, but televised images showed smoke billowing from the building.