Argentine experts question Mexico's missing student probe

[Judi Lynn]

Argentine experts question Mexico's missing student probe
By MARIA VERZA, Associated Press | February 6, 2015 | Updated: February 7, 2015 8:31pm



MEXICO CITY (AP) — Argentine forensics experts on Saturday questioned Mexico's investigation into the disappearance of 43 students, saying the evidence doesn't support the government's conclusion the youths were killed and burned to ashes.

The team, hired on behalf of the victims' parents as an independent party, issued what it said was a list of discrepancies in the case. The Argentines had access to forensic evidence and crime scenes along with federal prosecutors and Mexico's own forensic investigators.

Its statement said Mexico's government presented biased analyses of the scientific evidence to support its conclusion that the bodies of the college students were burned to ashes in Cocula in southern Guerrero stateand their remains thrown into a river to hide the evidence. So far only one of the students has been identified from charred remains found at the river.

The team "would like to reiterate that it doesn't exclude the possibility that some of the students met the fate described by the attorney general," the experts said in the statement issued after they met with parents. "But in our opinion there is no scientific evidence to support that in the Cocula garbage dump."

The Attorney General's Office didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the statement from the Argentine team, a nonprofit forensics science organization that investigates human right violations around the world. It was established in 1984 to investigate cases of at least 9,000 missing under Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Mexico-border-Televisa-station-suffers-grenade-6068018.php

[forest444]

1. What's the real difference between Argentina's Dirty War 38 years ago, and Mexico's today?

U.S. media mostly pretends Mexico's isn't happening, which of course helps ensure it will go on.

[Judi Lynn]

2. So true. Corporate media whitewashed the Dirty War here and in Argentina,

and Clarin has been blasting its filth every day since the Dirty War, attacking leftists continually, while it was completely mute over the atrocities and pure evil of the Dirty War.

Carolina Herrera de Noble is still the owner, of course, as she was here in old photos with monster military dictator, Jorge Rafael Videla:

[center]v





Videla on his way to one of Argentina's finest prisons.



Carolina Herrera and her two Dirty War adoptees.[/center]

[forest444]

3. She's a class act allright

In Argentina, she's sarcastically called La Noble Ernestina - implying that the only thing "noble" about her, is her late husband's last name.

That, of course, would be Roberto Noble, keynote speaker at the infamous Luna Park Stadium Nazi rally in 1938. Noble was a smart man though, and with the advent of populism in Argentina in 1945 (by way of Perón) he realized the time was right for a moderate, reader-friendly daily (as opposed to the reactionary landowner mouthpieces that dominated Argentine newsprint at the time). Thus was born Clarín.

Clarín (the Clarion, in Spanish) quickly overtook its stodgy, snobby rivals La Nación and La Prensa, and by 1965 it became the largest news daily in the Spanish-speaking world. Noble's formula was simple: a tabloid approach (lots of photos and bold headlines, treat rumors like real news); and focus on politics, making sure to treat an incoming administration like a "breath of fresh air" for the first year or two, then gradually - sometimes not-so gradually - turn against it. Like in all good drama.

But Argentina's yellow press genius had a weakness: women. And that's where noble Ernestina comes in. They met in the early '50s; she was a Flamenco (some say, burlesque) dancer. Settling down was the last thing on his mind; but after an acrimonious divorce and (for obvious reasons) a string of failed relationships, Noble fell ill in the mid-'60s. He certainly needed someone, and there she was.

That's where the story takes a sinister turn. While the man was in his death bed in 1967, Ernestina and a team of lawyers brought in by wholesaler and Clarín shareholder Rogelio Frigerio had Noble's previous marriage annulled (which nullified most claims by his first wife and daughter). She married the (heavily-sedated) Noble later that year, and when he died in 1969 she became the CEO and top shareholder in what was then the largest newspaper in Latin America. Not bad for a working girl!

In fairness though, she's not the reason Clarín and its cable news outlet (TN) have become the Fox News of Argentina; she's 89, and reportedly left the run of the Clarín Group to her longtime troika of Magnetto, Aranda, and Pagliaro. The problem is that Clarín had its sights set on monopolizing not only Argentine media, but also telecom and internet service (Argentina has the widest penetration, proportionately, of each of these services in the region). These plans were effectively dashed by President Cristina Kirchner with the 2009 Audiovisual Media Law, which limited the share in each market a single company can hold (the Clarín Group was approaching 50%).

The law has been hailed by the UN, the IFJ, Reporters Without Borders, the Carter Center, and others, as a model for the region - and, it's been suggested, the U.S. as well, with its media effectively controlled by 6 giant conglomerates as it is. But of course, for Clarín, this meant war, and vendettas die hard in Latin America.

Still, they're smart men, and the acrimony has cost Clarín dearly in both readership and cable ratings (Mrs. Noble's own personal fortune fell bellow $1 billion for the first time in at least 20 years). Nor does Cristina Kirchner - or her successor, even if he is from the same party - want the bad blood to go on indefinitely. It's bad for the country, and for Clarín.

[Judi Lynn]

4. "The law has been hailed by the UN, the IFJ, Reporters Without Borders,the Carter Center,and others"

You can be absolutely sure that if you hadn't posted that we'd never have known! Astonishing! They buried that one at the bottom of the corporate "news" ocean.

Clarín had seemed purely evil from the first, when I read it had completely white-washed the bloody, torture-loving, people-disappearing, vicious, eternally bloody military dictatorship.

What an auspicious beginning in the newspaper business. Good grief. Couldn't be any stranger. What a shame it worked for her.

I appreciate your background info. on Clarín. It helps to have the perspective, by all means.

[forest444]

5. Ah, truth is stranger than fiction isn't it!

As for Clarín itself, believe it or not they were the more "moderate" of the major news outfits until the fracas over the Media Law in 2009, and a favorite of the urban middle class for decades. It was a lot like what CNN is to Faux News.

But much like the GOP here in the U.S. went from center-right to fascism without the funny moustache, so too did the once middle-of-the-road Clarín - down to the overt racism and trench warfare style attacks of anyone to the left of them (especially Mrs. Kirchner).