‘Missing students’ spark violent protest in Mexico

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Demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and clashed with riot police outside Mexico City’s National Palace on Thursday to protest against President Enrique Pena Nieto’s handling of the apparent massacre of 43 trainee schoolteachers.

The students disappeared on 26 September after they were arrested by municipal police in the southern city of Iguala and then, according to an investigation, handed over to a local drug trafficking gang.

‘Missing students’

Friends and of relatives of the missing students have spent the past week travelling the country in an effort to gain support. Preparations for the march dominated social media in Mexico, with Twitter users posting slogans such as “there will not be a mass grave big enough to shut us all up.”

The marches had been peaceful until they reached the palace, when they set fire to an effigy of the president. A smaller group of protesters then swarmed the entrance of the palace before police charged as they cleared the square.

Around 300 masked demonstrators had earlier clashed with police near Mexico City’s airport, throwing Molotov cocktails and fireworks. No one was hurt in those clashes, police said.

The marches took place on the 114th anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican revolution which overthrew dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910. The protesters included relatives of the students. Many carried banners with slogans attacking the government, such as “the state did it.”

Earlier this month, the government abruptly canceled a $3.75bn high-speed rail contract awarded to a consortium led by China Railway Construction Corp Ltd, partnered with a group of Mexican firms including one known as Grupo Higa.

It then emerged that a subsidiary of Grupo Higa owned a luxury house that Pena Nieto’s wife, Angelica Rivera, was in the process of acquiring, raising questions about the tender and prompting her to announce on Tuesday that she would give up the house.

Neither she nor her husband has explained why a member of the winning bidders from the rail consortium was also the owner of the family’s house.

However, the disappearances of the students have been the toughest challenge yet to face Mr Pena Nieto, who took office two years ago vowing to restore order in Mexico, where about 100,000 people have died in violence linked to organised crime since 2007.