Justice for the 43: Tensions High in Mexico City Before Mass March

A memorial to the missing students outside the Mexican embassy in Bogota, Colombia. (Photo: Agencia Prensa Rural/flickr/cc)

Justice for the 43: Tensions High in Mexico City Before Mass March

Tens of thousands expected to participate in demonstrations across Mexico and around the world

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a march in Mexico City on Thursday evening, protesting the alleged massacre of 43 missing Mexican students and the government corruption they say breeds such violence.

Earlier Thursday, protesters on their way to Mexico City's international airport threw firecrackers at police forces and set a car of Mexico's Attorney General's Office on fire, according to El Universal.

Authorities claim the missing student-teachers, many of whose parents plan to take part in the Mexico City march, were abducted by police at the behest of a local mayor and his wife, and then handed off to a drug gang, at which point they were executed and their remains incinerated. Some families of the missing are unconvinced by the government's explanation and still hope the young people will be found alive.

The demonstration in Mexico City will commence at 6 pm EST. Protests are also under way in other parts of Mexico and abroad. Organizers have also called for a nationwide strike.

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