A french magazine created controversy in Mexico by claiming to have uncovered the mass kidnapping of teenagers in a separate case that predates the September mass killing of 43 students that has thrown Mexico into chaos.
France 24 recently published a video and story interviewing a woman from Cocula who claimed to be the mother of a teen girl that was kidnapped by gunmen in July. Cocula is the same town where according to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) cartel gunmen executed and incinerated the remains of the 43 students kidnapped and killed in late September.
The woman gave a harrowing tale about a group of masked gunmen took more than 30 teenagers from the local school in police vehicles and threatened everyone in the town to stay quiet or else.
Last week, the PGR issued a statement citing the story and stating that after conducting an investigation into the case and interviewing school officials, local townspeople and other individuals they were not able to find any evidence to back up the claims made by France 24.
After the PGR issued the information to multiple media outlets, France issued a correction and removed the interview from the website. This latest scandal came out almost simultaneously as the case of an alleged rape on campus where Rolling Stone magazine also went on the testimony of a single unnamed source to base their story. Rolling Stone also issued out a correction stating that the facts in the story were erroneous.
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