Support was shown in other countries, with thousands marching in Bolivia and some 200 in El Salvador.
Mexico and Real Madrid football star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez tweeted a picture of himself wearing a black hoodie and the hashtag #WeAreAllAyotzinapa, referring to the young men’s Ayotzinapa teacher training college.
“This is a nationwide problem. Nothing like this happened before and Pena Nieto doesn’t care, he’s useless,” said Luis Angel Garcia, a 19 year old Ayotzinapa student.
– ‘Mexico is hurting’ –
With the annual parade called off, Pena Nieto led a ceremony with top officials at the Campo Marte military field, where he denounced violent protests.
“Mexico is hurting, but the only path to soothe this pain is through peace and justice,” he said, hours after making his personal assets public to quell conflict of interest allegations over his wife’s mansion.
Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos said violence “only leads to national failure, social backwardness, ungovernability, instability.”
The crisis erupted after the mayor of the city of Iguala ordered police to confront students on September 26, sparking a night of violence that left six people dead and 43 missing, authorities say.
Members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang told investigators they killed the students and burned the bodies after police had handed them over.
Officials stopped short of declaring the students dead, pending an Austrian university’s DNA tests on charred bones. Federal authorities continue to search for them in Guerrero.
Highlighting their deep distrust of the authorities, families of the missing say they will only trust DNA test results from independent foreign forensic experts.
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