Classmates protesting the disappearance of 43 students from a rural Mexican teacher training college attacked a government building during a demonstration on Monday.
The group joined relatives of the missing students at a protest in Mexico City ahead of the 10th anniversary of their disappearance in a country where more than 115,000 people have been registered as missing.
Students were seen masking their identities by covering their faces and throwing Molotov cocktails and other objects at the Interior Ministry building.
The university students who disappeared were attending the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Iguala, a town in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, and were attacked by security forces linked to Guerrero Unidos, a local drug gang, on September 26, 2014.
A protester throws a homemade explosive device at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior in Mexico City on Monday after a demonstration for the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, who disappeared on September 26, 2014.
Relatives hold signs of the 43 students from a teacher training college who were killed by a gang of drug traffickers in Iguala, a city in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, September 26, 2014. Parents and classmates have demanded justice from the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The students were traveling on five buses to Mexico City to attend the anniversary of the nearly 300 people who were massacred in a student protest in 1968.
President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government said at the time that the students were mistaken for members of a rival gang and that the Guerreros Unidos had kidnapped and killed them. They said the gang burned their bodies at the stake and dumped them in a river.
However, an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the successor Attorney General’s Office and a Truth Commission created in 2019 found that the garbage dump fire was a lie based on false statements that were produced under torture and manipulated evidence.
Investigators would later learn that a massive operation was launched that night involving members of Guerreros Unidos, as well as local, state and federal police.
They discovered that the army was aware of everything that was happening because it had a base in Iguala, soldiers in the streets and spies among the students.
Protesters and relatives of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College held a protest on Monday on the eve of the 10th anniversary of their disappearance in Mexico City, Mexico, before it turned violent.
A student paints graffiti at the entrance of the Ministry of the Interior during a demonstration demanding justice for the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College who disappeared on September 26, 2014.
Investigators said members of the military were involved with the gang in smuggling heroin from the mountains of Guerrero on buses into the United States. Prosecutors said the decision to conceal the truth was made at the highest levels of government.
Authorities have more than 100 people in custody and dozens have been charged. However, no one has been convicted of any crime.
At the end of the previous six-year term, Mexican courts determined that the investigation was riddled with errors and manipulation. There were dozens of cases of torture.
Those abuses and mistakes led to many of those involved being released. Some have been arrested again under the current government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has in the past promised to help families obtain justice.
The highest-ranking defendant is former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, accused of torture, forced disappearance and obstruction of justice.
At least 100 people linked to the disappearance of the 43 students are in custody. The highest-ranking defendant is former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, accused of torture, forced disappearance and obstruction of justice.
Students march through the streets of Mexico City near the Ministry of the Interior calling on the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to respond for the disappearance of 43 normalistas
There are also 16 military personnel, most of whom are awaiting trial under house arrest, angering the students’ families.
But as evidence continued to mount pointing to military involvement in the attack and cover-up, the tone of the López Obrador government changed.
The president had ordered the military to open its files to investigators, but that did not happen.
Instead, López Obrador transferred more power and responsibility to the military than any other president in recent history.
The prosecutor leading the investigation, Omar García Trejo, was suddenly demoted after requesting arrest warrants for two dozen soldiers. He was replaced by someone unfamiliar with the case.
There was also mounting political pressure to show results, said Santiago Aguirre, one of the families’ lawyers. The government presented some evidence that did not appear to come from reliable sources, and government searches proved sloppy.
His lawyers say key arrests have yet to be made, including that of the man who led the investigation during Peña Nieto’s government, Tomás Zerón.
Zerón is seen in the videos interrogating and threatening prisoners. He sought refuge in Israel, which has not agreed to extradite him despite Mexico’s request.
They also say they want to see military intelligence records from that night, which they have not yet had access to.
They have asked for more cooperation from the US government, which has prosecuted members of Guerreros Unidos in drug trafficking cases that also revealed their ties to the military.