In a dramatic display of frustration and anger, a group of demonstrators, rallying against the unresolved disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in 2014, forcefully knocked down a door leading to the country’s presidential palace. Local television stations captured footage of the chaotic scene on Wednesday morning.
Videos circulated showed the protesters utilizing a white pickup truck from Mexico’s state electrical company to ram through the door, while President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador conducted his daily morning press conference inside the palace. Responding to the breach, law enforcement deployed tear gas to disperse the group, and additional barriers were swiftly erected within the palace to prevent further intrusion.
As the situation unfolded, a Reuters witness reported a sense of relative calm by midmorning, with the palace door secured and no protesters found inside the building. However, over a hundred demonstrators remained stationed outside the palace. Local media sources indicated that authorities had detained some individuals involved in the door-smashing incident.
Addressing the breach during the press conference, President Lopez Obrador expressed a stance of non-repression towards the protesters and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to investigating the case of the missing students, an enduring emblem of Mexico’s entrenched violence.
“The door will be fixed, and there will be no problem,” assured the president, signaling an intention to engage with the demonstrators through government channels. However, he leveled accusations against rights groups, alleging manipulation of the protesters to undermine his administration’s efforts to uncover the truth about the students’ disappearance, without providing substantiating evidence.
Furthermore, Lopez Obrador criticized the lawyers representing the missing students’ families, claiming they hindered communication with him, although no proof was offered to support the claim. Emphasizing ongoing search efforts for the students, he pledged to engage with the parents in due course.
In response to the events, the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Prodh), which advocates for the families of the missing students, expressed dismay over the lack of dialogue with the president and his government in recent months. Rejecting allegations of manipulation, Prodh urged for the restoration of respectful dialogue to address the lingering grievances surrounding the case.
