Hills Around Iguala Keep Giving Up Mass Graves

The search continues for 43 college students missing since a clash with police in Mexico on Sept. 26. After investigators determined that none of the 28 bodies recovered from recently-discovered mass graves belonged to the missing students, the search was ordered to be stepped up. Yesterday, horse-mounted Mexican police patrols and officers with trained dogs started an expanded search in the hills around Iguala, the AP reports. There's still a chance a second set of "clandestine" graves could hold the bodies, and more mass graves keep being discovered: The Independent reports a 10th was found on Tuesday, and a federal official says another was found yesterday.

As grave after grave is uncovered, they raise "the question of how many people have been secretly killed by the area's drug gangs, apart from those kidnapped," observes the AP. One local activist says "there is a lot of fear, terror among the public," particularly because local authorities are commonly thought to work with the drug gangs. "Many people don't even file [missing person] reports, hoping their loved ones will be released," she continues. Another activist who is participating in protests that students say will continue until the 43 missing are found alive notes, "If the city government had links to the drug traffickers, more bodies might appear." (More Mexico stories.)