MEXICO-VIOLENCE/RALLY Tensions high in Mexico on anniversary of feared student massacre

Record ID: 214865

  • Title: MEXICO-VIOLENCE/RALLY Tensions high in Mexico on anniversary of feared student massacre
  • Date: 27th January 2015
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (JANUARY 26, 2015) (REUTERS) MEXICAN FLAG VARIOUS OF THOUSANDS GATHERED FOR PROTEST IN MEXICO CITY'S ZOCALO SQUARE PROTESTERS HOLDING MACHETES AND BANGING THE BLADES TOGETHER DURING RALLY FELIPE DE LA CRUZ, THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE FAMILIES OF THE 43 MISSING AND LIKELY KILLED STUDENTS, ON STAGE WITH FAMILY MEMBERS AND ADDRESSING CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (Spani
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAUJJ5FSFFERGJVVCSBIXRM06J
  • Story Text: Thousands marched on downtown Mexico City on Monday (January 26) to call for the return of dozens of students who went missing four months ago in a feared massacre involving authorities and a local drug gang.
    The 43 students went missing on September 26 in Iguala, a city in the poor southwestern state of Guerrero. The government says the students were abducted by corrupt police working for a local drug cartel, which it said incinerated their bodies at a nearby garbage dump.
    In the capital's historic Zocalo centre, parents of the missing rallied protesters by saying the memory of the students has not left the public four months on.
    "If they think we're going to sit down and cry we want to tell them that our soul hurts because we can't hug the (missing) youth. He (Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto) cannot see it but every second of pain and suffering they will pay a high price because the people of Mexico will charge them second by second, day by day, because we will not allow not one more crime to be committed by the state," said spokesperson for the parents of the missing students, Felipe de la Cruz.
    According to Austria's Innsbruck Medical University's forensics institute told the Mexican government the remains found in mass graves in Guerrero were so badly burned it was impossible to take a usable DNA sample to identify the missing.
    So far, experts have identified the remains of just one of the group.
    Meliton Ortega, father of one of the missing, told the rally that he believes the students are still alive.
    "We say to hand back our sons over alive because to us they're not dead. For us they were taken alive on the 26th and alive we want them. They want to exchange our lives for them to return our students? We're willing to give our lives so that they come back. We will not going to lose our motivation. We're alive and we're going to continue to move forward," he said.
    The brazen attack on the students has sent shockwaves through Mexico, where more than 100,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2007, highlighting the mix of impunity, corruption and drug gangs that has blighted Latin America's No.2 economy.
    It also sparked President Enrique Pena Nieto's worst crisis, forcing him to admit he hadn't paid enough attention to security as he focused on driving through economic reforms.
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