Cartel hit man arrested in connection with disappearance of 43 students from Mexico  

A purported drug cartel hit man has been arrested by Mexican police. They claim he is connected to the disappearance of the 43 college students in southern Mexico.

The man in question is Felipe Rodriguez alias “The Brush” or “The Stubborn One,” a member of the Guerreros Unidos gang who is believed to be the “material author” of the killings, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. No further details were given.

The 43 Mexican students who disappeared in southern Mexico in September were abducted by police on order of a local mayor in the Guerrero state city of Iguala, and are believed to have been turned over to a gang that killed them and burned their bodies before throwing some remains in a river.

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The victims were men mostly in their 20s studying to become teachers at a college in rural Ayotzinapa. On September 26, they traveled on buses and vans to nearby Iguala for a protest about lack of funding for their school. They haven’t been seen or heard from since.

This case has prompted a national and international outcry and has tarnished the reputation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who came under heavy criticism.

So far only one of the students has been positively identified by DNA testing on human remains, and family members and others have expressed doubts about the official account of the disappearances. The parents have been highly critical of President Enrique Peña Nieto for his administration’s handling of the investigation.

SEE ALSO: Jose Luis Abarca is charged with kidnapping of 43 missing students

They continue to press for information on what happened to the other 42 and have asked investigators not to close the case.

Authorities suspect the former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, is responsible for having ordered the kidnappings. Abarca has been in custody since November along with his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, who has been charged with organized crime and money laundering.

More than 90 suspects have been arrested in the disappearances, most of them municipal police officers.

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