Protests in Mexico reflect public disdain for political parties

Students from the University of Guadalajara demand the safe return of their counterparts from Ayotzinapa.

Another wave of mass demonstrations shook Mexico on Thursday as tens of thousands of protesters marched across the country to demand the safe return of the 43 missing students and the resignation of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Already damaged by the disappearance of the students who were abducted and most likely murdered in late September, Peña Nieto’s image has been further soiled by the scandal over the luxury mansion his wife bought from a controversial government contractor in one of the capital’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

Shortly after returning from a week-long trade mission in Asia, the president appeared to be feeling the heat on Tuesday, when, instead of recognizing the protesters’ legitimate concerns, he slammed them for conspiring to “destabilize” his government.

In a bid to diffuse the crisis that night, First Lady Angélica Rivera posted a YouTube video in which she vowed to sell the controversial property, despite insisting that she had bought it legitimately using her own considerable career earnings as a soap star.

But the gambit quickly backfired and Rivera’s intervention was roundly mocked on social media after she claimed to have earned approximately 10 million dollars in 2010 and disdainfully – in full-ontelenovela mode – denounced all criticism as attempts to “defame” her husband…

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