Mexico City authorities braced for potential violence ahead of Friday’s “mega-march” commemorating the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Guerrero.
The march’s planned route follows 4.2 kilometers from the Angel of Independence Monument on Paseo de la Reforma Avenue to the National Palace, which was sealed off with metal fences. Roughly 3,000 protesters are expected to attend, the publication Milenio reported. As of 5 p.m. local time, no attendance estimates were available.
In addition to demanding justice for the 43, this week’s demonstrations aim to highlight other forced disappearances and human rights violations that continue to occur in the country.
Other rallies took place on Friday morning, prompting city authorities to close off downtown streets, shutter federal ministries and protect historic structures in hopes of discouraging violence.
President Claudia Sheinbaum met with parents of the missing students on Sept. 4, but the families left the meeting disappointed, insisting that far from progress in the case, there was regression.
Sheinbaum created a new investigative unit to review the still unresolved case in March, but has little to show for it.
“We’re working on it,” she said Friday morning. “There’s a new special prosecutor … and we’re committed to doing everything possible to uncover the truth and provide justice.”
Even as Sheinbaum reiterated her promise to provide “truth and justice” to family members of the “disappeared,” she condemned Thursday’s violence at a notorious military installation in Mexico City.
Ayotizinapa protesters had gathered at the Campo Militar No. 1 in western Mexico City as part of the mobilizations organized ahead of Friday’s mega-march.
“We do not condone violence,” she said. “We are not going to be provoked into repressive action, but we do not agree with actions like we saw yesterday.”
The military base was a clandestine prison during the “Dirty War” of the 1970s and students detained there after the 1968 protests were tortured at the camp.
On Wednesday, another demonstration was held outside the Foreign Relations Ministry (SRE) building.
Students from the teachers’ college carried posters featuring the faces of their missing schoolmates while shouting slogans demanding justice. They also demanded that the SRE take action to repatriate suspects who fled abroad.
One such suspect, Tomás Zerón, has taken refuge in Israel. The country has refused to extradite him despite pleas from Sheinbaum to return him to Mexico. Zerón, the director of the Criminal Investigation Agency from 2013-2016, faces accusations of abduction, torture and tampering with evidence related to the Ayotzinapa case.
Thursday’s protest at the military installation turned violent when students crashed a cargo truck against the main gate in an effort to gain entry. When that failed, they set the truck ablaze and tossed fireworks at the wall.
Earlier, parents of the 43 “disappeared” young men led a rally outside the military camp, calling on the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to follow lines of investigation implicating military personnel.
The families of the disappeared continue to believe the military was involved in the Ayotzinapa case — either by omission or commission — and are frustrated over the arrest and release of suspects, including military personnel, that have beleaguered the investigation.
The protesters also reiterated their demand that the Army hand over hundreds of pages of so-called classified documents that allegedly contain information about the tragic incident in Iguala, Guerrero.
Sheinbaum has the authority to order the military to release the documents, but she has said that the Army already turned over all relevant information. However, members of an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights team that investigated the incident insist otherwise.
With reports from El Sol de México, Milenio, N+, Sin Embargo and Infobae
