By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Mexico City on Wednesday to express their indignation at the slow pace of the investigation into missing students from a rural teaching college.
“It is ridiculous that citizens cannot express themselves in the streets,” said Eliott Garcia, a student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who attended the march. “It is ridiculous that Mexicans have to fear the authorities. This is the moment for citizens to act. If we don’t do anything right now, we will never do.”
Secondary and higher education institutions from all over Mexico initiated a three-day nationwide strike Wednesday in support of classmates and relatives of the 43 male students from the college of Ayotzinapa who dissapeared in Iguala on Sept. 26 after clashing with police.
Mexican authorities on Tuesday arrested and interviewed the former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, in Mexico City. Abarca and his wife, who were on the run just days after the students disappeared, are suspected of being orchestrating the disappearances of the students.
The classmates and parents of the missing students went to Mexico City to meet with Mexico’s attorney general and to attend the march.
“We are satisfied that they caught Jose Luis Abarca, but our question remains the same: ‘Where are our missing classmate?'" asked Omar Garcia, a student from the college of Ayotzinapa who was in Iguala the night of the disappearance.
“This government has no credibility. President Enrique Pena Nieto caught the ex-mayor of Iguala because he is going to initiate a foreign tour on Saturday” added Omar Garcia. “The disappearance is a state crime. We have been fighting for one month because we have the conviction that we can change the intuitions and have our friends back alive. We won’t give up.”
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