By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
Protesters numbering in the hundreds of thousands demonstrated in the streets here Wednesday night to show support for the families of missing students who disappeared late last month.
Students, teachers and citizens, candlelight in the hand, spoke in one voice to the government of Enrique Pena Nieto to express their displeasure with the pace and progress of the investigation into the 43 students who went missing Sept. 26 after clashing with police during a student protest in the southern Mexican town of Iguala.
Chants of “We want them alive,” or “Go away Pena,” and ‘’You are not alone!” could be heard by angry protesters throughout the demonstration.
“We are here to say to the president and others authorities that we will not give up fighting. Impunity in this country must stop. We want the students back and alive,” said Jose Perez, a student from a rural teaching college from the state of Guerrero.
Students and teachers from all over Mexico helped to organize the march which was the largest demonstration since the students went missing.
About 70 institutions of secondary and higher education initiated a two-day strike that began Wednesday to demand the return of the male students from a teaching college in Ayotzinapa and to raise awareness of government accountability and its lack of respect for human rights.
“I am a student, it could have been us,” said Javier Hernandez, a student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “We will look carefully at President Pena Nieto's reaction. But it is sure that we will take other measures than this march, maybe more radical, if the government continues to ignore us,” he warned. “I am a student, it could have been me,” he added.
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