MEXICO CITY — Mexicans got a rare glimpse into rough-and- tumble student organizations at many of Mexico’s universities Thursday, after three bodies were found buried at one group’s headquarters in the western city of Guadalajara.
The Jalisco state prosecutors office said it is investigating whether the bodies belong to any of five people who were reported missing after they complained last week that the student group was demanding protection money for allowing them to sell snacks outside a campus.
The organizations date at least to the 1950s but have become less ideological over the years and are now often linked to, or protected by, political bosses known in Mexico as “caciques,” or chieftains. The groups sometimes act as enforcers to strong- arm a politician’s rivals, or freelance in extortion or petty robbery. The Associated Press
