Mexico Protests Widen Over Missing Students

As teacher-training students and their families continue to demand the return of 43 classmates who were fired upon and then carried away in police vehicles in Mexico last month, more sectors of the society are joining in the protests.

Many protesters believe that the students are still alive, that the police know where they are, and that they must be returned.

On the heels of mass marches in Mexico and the world last October 8, a thousand citizens marched in the town of Apango, Guerrero, Sunday morning, while students and teachers took over radio stations to voice their demands. They also took control of a toll booth on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway as they sought to highlight the need for citizen cooperation in their search for the disappeared students.

At noon on Sunday, businessmen, salesmen, farmers and citizens marched in support of the students in the state city of Chilpancingo.

Former National Chamber of Commerce President Pio Quinto Damian Huato demanded the return of the students and the removal of Angel Aguirre Rivero as Guerrero governor, as well as punishment for the material and intellectual authors of the murders of six people committed three week ago in Iguala and the disappearance of the students.

Not only is Aguirre responsible for these acts of repression, say protesters, but also for the El Charco Massacre of 1998, when he was interim governor, and the police murders of Ayotzinapa students Gabriel Echeverrìa and Jorge Alexis Herrera, in the state-federal “Guerrero Seguro” operation” in December 2011.

That day three years ago, students had blocked the toll highway after Aguirre failed three times to show up for a meeting to resolve relatively simple demands. His response was to order the police to “clear the highway.” Two federal policemen were held for the murders but have since been released.

In Sunday’s demonstration, the governor was accused of welcoming organized crime to the state with open arms.

Despite rumors that the bodies of the missing students may have been dumped in mass graves on the edge of town by organized crime groups, neither state nor federal investigations have yielded proof that the bodies are there.

Students and family members are awaiting an independent investigation by Argentine forensic experts as they continue to demand the return of the 43 disappeared students and justice for those who have been killed, including the six confirmed dead.