Demonstrations have been held across Mexico as President
Enrique Pena Nieto marked two years in office with his lowest approval rating
yet.
Thousands marched on Monday through Mexico City, denouncing
the president’s handling of the case of 43 missing students, now presumed dead.
Protesters chanted for Nieto to resign while they waved
blackened flags of the country.They echoed “you are not alone” to parents of
the missing students who joined the protest.
The protests were largely peaceful, but turned violent at
some places at night.
Al Jazeera’s Monica Villamizar, reporting from the capital,
said fires were lit, windows smashed and banks vandalised. She said there was a
small confrontation between protesters and police and a large presence of
anti-riot police.
Thousands also protested in the southern state of Guerrero,
where a drug gang confessed to killing 43 college students after local police
handed them over in September.
A group of protesters ransacked the Guerrero state
prosecutor’s office in the regional capital, Chilpancingo, and set five
vehicles on fire, including two police cruisers.
Other protesters led by a teachers’ union have also
blockaded a state-owned oil refinery in southern Mexico.
“We no longer recognise Enrique Pena Nieto as president of
Mexico because he has not met our central demand, which is to present our sons
alive,” Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesman for the families of the missing, told
the AFP news agency.
Families refuse to believe the 43 young men are dead and
demand they are found alive. Federal prosecutors have stopped short of
declaring them dead, saying they await DNA tests on charred remains sent to an
Austrian university.
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