Gunmen kill 12 people in Mexico bar attack, another at a hospital The gunmen in the ambush on a crowded night club bar were not armed with pistols but with knives in hand, police say.
The gunmen in the ambush on a crowded night club bar were not armed with pistols but with knives in hand, police say.
A woman and child were among the 11 killed in a Wednesday night attack in the town of Iguala.
The attack comes after 12 people were killed in an attack Tuesday at a Catholic bishop’s residence in Mexico City, a day after a judge ruled the government had given insufficient evidence to warrant charges against the students who attacked the student body there.
Tuesday’s judge’s ruling said the government had “failed to prove” that the students instigated the attack.
An activist with the group Marea Contra la Violencia, who declined to give her name, said it was unclear whether the 12 who died Wednesday were victims or attackers.
“We don’t know what caused their deaths,” she said. “We do not know if they fought back, or if it was a matter of getting lost amid the crowd, or someone shot them through some sort of distraction.”
Four students charged in the incident at the university have denied the charges against them. The trial is expected to begin Monday.
The Catholic Church and its allies have demanded that the government dismiss the charges against the students.
The government says it was trying to arrest five students and that the students shot at police. At one point, officials said they had surrounded the five students but that they were free to escape.
Some families, particularly those in the town of Iguala, where the students lived, have protested the government’s handling of the case, which they say is not being treated fairly.
The government says the students were acting on instructions from drug cartels and that they are being held as cartel protectors. The head of Mexico’s national anti-narcotics office said Tuesday that the students, who numbered over 200, had confessed to trying to steal the student body’s school supplies, but that they never ordered anyone to carry out the assault.
The government has said it is considering a possible appeal case before an appeals court. The country’s Supreme Court has given the government until mid-February to hand over the students.
In the meantime, President Peña has said he will seek the removal of the country’s top security forces chief from office if