Twenty-six policer officers were injured in Mexico City on Monday in clashes with protesters who threw firecrackers. The protesters were taking part in a demonstration demanding justice for 43 students who disappeared in 2014 from the town of Ayotzinapa in southern Guerrero state.
They were angry at the release from pre-trial detention last week of eight soldiers suspected of involvement in the students’ disappearance.
The disappearance of the 43 and the botched investigation into it has long incensed not just their families but also human rights activists in Mexico and abroad.
City officials said that 26 officers had sustained injuries from the firecrackers, including to their arms, legs and buttocks and had been taken to hospital for treatment.
The protesters dispersed after the altercation.
It is not the first time demonstrators have gathered at the Zócalo – the central square in the capital – to draw attention to the lack of progress in bringing those behind the students’ disappearance to justice.
In March, a group broke down one of the doors of the presidential palace with a lorry, reportedly venting their anger at not having been received by the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Credit: bbc.com
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