The Iguala mayor’s sister, Roselia Abarca, told AFP that her brother was innocent and was eating tacos after his wife gave a speech when he heard about the police attack.
She said the day after the students disappeared, her brother told his family: “I leave my house and my children in your care. This will be fixed. Trust me.”
His family gathers every night to “pray for the students to appear and for him to be cleared,” she said.
Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre said he had fired his administration’s health secretary, Lazaro Mazon, because he faces an investigation into his ties to Mayor Jose Luis Abarca.
Aguirre has himself rejected calls to resign. The case has embarrassed his leftist Democratic Revolution Party, of which the fugitive mayor is a member.
Tens of thousands of people marched for the students across Mexico last week while violent protests erupted this week in Guerrero, where demonstrators torched the state government headquarters.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, meanwhile, held another meeting with his security cabinet, saying he wanted to “accelerate” the investigation to find the students.
His government stepped up the search, deploying 1,200 federal police to look for the students in several towns,
Horse-mounted officers combed rough terrain, divers searched underwater and an aircraft overflew the area, the national security commission said.
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