In Mexico, demonstrators break down the door of the presidential palace

Photo: Valentina Alpide Agence France-Presse Protesters used a van to break down the door before some of them, with their faces masked, briefly entered the presidential palace in Mexico City on Wednesday.

Sofia Miselem – Agence France-Presse in Mexico

3:25 p.m.

• Americas

Several dozen people, who were demonstrating on Wednesday against the kidnapping and disappearance in 2014 of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School, broke down one of the doors of the presidential palace in Mexico City, according to images from the Milenio channel.

In these images, we see the demonstrators using a van to break down the door before some of them, with their faces masked, briefly enter the palace.

They “reached the entrance, nothing more. They did not enter,” presidential spokesperson Jesus Ramirez assured AFP.

The demonstrators were pushed back with tear gas by soldiers responsible for palace security, a cameraman present at the scene told AFP.

“A group of around fifteen young people tried to enter, but they did not manage to pass” the security gates because “a line of soldiers was already in place,” Miguel Hernandez, 52, told AFP years old, shoeshine boy installed opposite the entrance to the palace.

The fleeting assault came as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was discussing the case of the missing people of Ayotzinapa during his daily press conference.

“It is very clearly a provocative plan,” commented the president, as the electoral campaign began in Mexico on Friday to designate his successor on June 2. “It’s a movement against us. »

“They would like us to respond violently. We are not going to do it, because we are not oppressors,” he continued. “We’ll fix the door and there’s no problem. »

The candidate of the ruling party, Claudia Sheinbaum, is the big favorite in the presidential election, driven by the popularity of the outgoing president, who cannot run again after a single mandate of six years according to the Constitution.

Tens of thousands of missing people

Protesters had already tried to attack the gates of the National Palace, seat of the presidency since 2018. This is the first time in years that they have achieved their goal.

The relatives of the 43 disappeared, accompanied by their lawyers, activists and students demonstrate regularly in the center of Mexico City, especially as the anniversary of the tragedy approaches.

A camp in their memory is set up on the main artery in the center of the capital, opposite the National Palace.

The president said he was ready to receive the relatives of the missing students, but ultimately sent an undersecretary from the Ministry of the Interior to speak with them.

The Ayotzinapa students disappeared on the night of September 27, 2014 after traveling to Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero, where they were preparing to board several bus to go to the capital, Mexico City, and participate in a demonstration.

According to the official version of the former government (2012-2018), they were kidnapped by the local police, in collusion with criminals, and were delivered to the Guerreros Unidos cartel who allegedly murdered them .

The families rejected the investigation by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), which notably affirmed that the young people had been confused with members of another cartel.

Photo: Rodrigo Oropeza Agence France-Presse Relatives of the 43 Ayotzinapa students protested on January 26 against the release of members of the army linked to their disappearance in Mexico City.

A group of investigators, formed after an agreement between the government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, claims that the army allowed the attack and murder of the students, covered it up and did not provide transparent information on the facts.

Since coming to power, President Lopez Obrador created a truth commission (Covaj), which carried out a new investigation.

Covaj estimated in October that the army was aware of the kidnapping and disappearance of the young people, calling it a “state crime”.

But relatives of the victims accuse his government of not having transmitted all the information it has on this affair which has traumatized the country and even beyond, as the symbol of the tens of thousands of missing people that includes Mexico.

For several days, students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School have been protesting in the state of Guerrero and in Mexico.