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Members of the CETEG (State Coordinator of Teachers of Guerrero teacher’s union) face riot police during protests over the missing 43 trainee teachers in Chilpancingo on November 11, 2014.
(Photo: Reuters/Daniel Becerril)

Protesters furious at the alleged massacre of 43 Mexican student-teachers, and the government corruption the incident represents, marched in the southern state of Guerrero and set fire to the ruling party’s regional headquarters on Tuesday.

The demonstration in Guerrero’s capital city of Chilpancingo followed another sizable rally in front of Acapulco’s international airport on Monday evening, that one led by parents of the students who gang suspects-in league with corrupt police and government officials-confessed to murdering last week. The students, who had been missing since September 26, were allegedly executed and incinerated by members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang; their remains have been sent to Austria for possible DNA identification.      

According to
Deutsche Welle, “About 200 riot police wearing helmets and bearing shields chased more than 1,000 protesters as black smoke billowed from the two-story headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo. Tuesday’s protests and the police response have left at least three people injured so far, including two journalists.”

The alleged killing of the students has ignited massive protests across the country. Some have accused the government of mishandling the case and trying to shut down further investigation. Many are critical of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s decision to travel to China for the APEC summit amidst such turmoil. And the entire episode has exposed one of the country’s terrible realities: since 2006, 70,000 Mexicans have been killed and some 27,000 “disappeared” as a result of the ongoing narco war.