MEXICO CITY - Mexican police have captured a fugitive former mayor and his wife who the government has blamed for ordering the disappearance of 43 student teachers feared massacred in September, officials said on Tuesday. The students were abducted by police allied with a local drug gang in the southwestern city of Iguala after clashes there on the night of Sept. 26, sparking a huge manhunt and embarrassing President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Jose Ramon Salinas, spokesman for federal police, said on his Twitter account that Jose Luis Abarca, who was at the time mayor of Iguala, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda were captured in Mexico City. The government is still searching for the students, whose disappearance has shocked the country and undermined Pena Nieto's claims that Mexico has become safer under his watch.

Former Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife Maria de Los Angeles Pineda are seen during an event in July. JESUS GUERRERO / AFP - Getty Images

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— Reuters