Protesters angry at the suspected massacre of 43 students tried to break into Mexico City’s National Palace late on Saturday, while others torched several trucks in the south of the nation.
Thousands of people marched in the capital in the latest demonstration over a case that has repulsed the nation and triggered the biggest crisis of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration.
The violent protests came a day after authorities said suspected gang hitmen confessed to killing the 43 students and incinerating their bodies in Guerrero State.
Photo: EPA
A small group of protesters used metal barricades as battering rams in a failed attempt to break open the door of the palace, which is known for its majestic Diego Rivera mural.
They tossed Molotov cocktails at the door — which sparked a brief fire — and spray-painted: “We want them back alive,” on the 16th-century building.
Security forces later took back control of the door. Pena Nieto uses the palace for ceremonies, but lives in the Los Pinos residence in another part of the capital.
One correspondent saw two protesters being detained and two injured people.
During an evening march, protesters loudly counted from one to 43 while holding candles. Some chanted: “Pena Nieto out,” and “The people don’t want you.”
“We are tired of the government. We live with fear, injustice, death and pain,” Frida Vega, 18, said.
Hours earlier in Guerrero’s capital, Chilpancingo, more than 300 students threw rocks and firebombs at the regional government headquarters.
They also burned about 10 vehicles, including trucks and a Mexican federal police vehicle. Demonstrators chanted: “They took them alive; we want them back alive,” outside the building, which was partially torched last month in a protest over the case.
Despite the unrest, Pena Nieto planned to leave yesterday to attend major summits in China and Australia, though he shortened the trip due to the crisis.
Police said to be linked to regional narcotics gangs reportedly attacked busloads of students in the Guerrero city of Iguala on Sept. 26, in a night of violence that left six people dead and the 43 missing.
Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said on Friday that three Guerreros Unidos gang members confessed to receiving the students from the police before killing them.
The confessions appeared to bring a tragic end to the mystery.
However, relatives of the missing, and fellow students at their teacher-training college near Chilpancingo, refuse to believe the authorities until they get DNA results from independent Argentine forensic experts.
“It appears that the federal government, with great irresponsibility, is interested in closing this matter because it is all based on testimony. There is nothing definitive,” said Meliton Ortega, uncle of a missing student.
Prosecutors say the city’s mayor, worried that the students would interrupt a campaign speech by his wife, a child welfare official in Iguala who was running to succeed him as mayor, ordered the police to confront them. The officers shot at several buses, leaving three students and three bystanders dead, they added.
Authorities have arrested 74 people, including the ousted mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, 36 police officers and several Guerreros Unidos operatives.
If the confessions are true, the mass murder would rank among the worst massacres in a drug war that has killed more than 80,000 people and left an estimated 22,000 others missing since 2006.
Last month, two alleged hitmen confessed to killing 17 of the students and dumping them in a mass grave near Iguala, but officials later said none of the students were among the bodies of the almost 30 found.
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