In Mexico City, shouts of “Peña Nieto Get Out” were heard throughout the march, as well as calls to stop the criminalization of social protests.

Three people were arrested while trying to help a young student who was being clubbed by the police, despite the presence of members of the National Human Rights Commission.

The march started at the capital’s main square, the Zocalo, to the Angel of Independence.

Leading the protests were family members of the 43 Ayotzinapa students, forcibly disappeared by local police over two months ago. Family members expressed their total lack of confidence in the government and asked the crowd to keep letting them know that they are not alone in their quest to find their children among the living.

They were joined by contingents of university students, teacher organizations, and labor unions marched from the capital’s main square, They were joined by activists arrested in protests during Peña Nieto’s presidency over the last two years.

The perceived lack of action by the government to find the students, or bring those officials involved to justice, has fuelled these protests. Held every Dec. 1 since Peña Nieto’s inauguration two years ago, these actions started as a way for the public to express its unhappiness at the return of Peña Nieto’s PRI political party, which many considered a dictatorship during a previous 70-year period of control.

As has been done in recent marches, the protesters carried banners saying, “It was the State” and, “We want them back alive,” as well as large photos of the 43 missing students. The names of the students were shouted out one by one.

Activists also demanded an end to government repression, the release of all political prisoners, and the exoneration of members of social movements whose cases have not yet been decided.

There were banners demanding justice for Juan Francisco Kuy Kendall, who died in the hospital eleven months after being shot in the head by the police with a supposedly non-lethal projectile during an anti-Peña Nieto protest two years ago.

They also demanded justice for Teodulfo Torres, aka “El Tio,” who was by Kuy’s side when he was shot, and who has not been seen since the day he was scheduled to testify in court about the attack on his friend.

At the end of the march, a few stones were thrown and windows were broken in banks and commercial establishments leading into the commercial sector known as Zona Rosa, where a contingent of several hundred riot police was waiting.

60 protests 

Some 60 other anti-government protests rocked Mexico and saw solidarity from the rest of the world.

In the border cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, activists cooperated to block the international bridge. Solidarity marches and activities were also held in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Montreal, Cordoba, London and Brussels, among others.

Within Mexico, protests mainly consisted of large marches. Some regions saw more militant tactics used than others.

In Chilpancingo, in the southern state of Guerrero – where the 43 missing students were attacked – dissident teachers of the State Coordinating Committee of Educational Workers (CETEG), Ayotzinapa students, and some family members set fire to over a dozen state vehicles and burst into the state Attorney General’s office.

In a rally outside the building, family members of the students accused government officials of not doing enough to find their disappeared children. The CETEG also shut down several shopping centers in Acapulco.

In Oaxaca, three marches were held and members of the Only Front of Struggle (Ful-APPO) took over the International Airport, spray painted the walls, and held up flights for four hours. Meanwhile, members of Section 22 of the National Coordinating Committee of Educational Workers (CNTE) blocked access to the Antonio Dovali refinery in Salina Cruz. Others closed major shopping centers.

A march was held in Xalapa, in the southeastern state of Veracruz, where some protesters threw rocks against the state police building, broke windows, and painted slogans on the National Electoral Institute.

“We’re not infiltrators. We’re just mad as hell,” they shouted.

At the Guadalajara International Book Fair, writers Paco Ignacio Taibo and Juan Villoro led a march to the center of the city to demand the return of the Ayotzinapa 43.

Thousands marched in Hermosillo, Durango, Monterrey, San Cristobal de las Casas, Morelia, Colima, Tampico, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Campeche, Merida, Cancun, Villahermosa, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Yucatan, Toluca, Culiacan, Leon, Zamora, Tenosique and San Luis Potosi. A number of the marches were accompanied by highway blockades and takeovers of toll booths and government buildings.