Classmates of Mexico’s 43 missing students condemn new police repression

Mexicans continue to demand justice and the safe return of the 43 students who disappeared in September 2014.

When Mexican authorities violently intercepted a convoy of buses carrying students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college in Guerrero state last week it inevitably evoked memories of that infamous night last year when 43 of their classmates disappeared at the hands of local police officers.

Six people were killed when the police began firing on the students’ buses and other vehicles outside the town of Iguala on September 26, 2014, while the missing 43 are believed to have been massacred shortly afterwards. The surviving students have clashed frequently with the authorities since then as they demand the safe return of their classmates, but the confrontation on November 11 was arguably the worst since that fateful night.

It unfolded in almost identical fashion, with the students commandeering means of transport to ensure they could attend a demonstration, only for police to chase, intercept and then repress them.

Mexic0’s government has been heavily criticized over its handling of the investigation into the missing students.

This time there were no deaths but eight students were hospitalized and at least 12 more were injured after police beat them and fired tear gas into their vehicles. Another 13 were arrested for allegedly stealing gasoline from a pipeline in Guerrero, although they were released just hours later…

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