Grappling with outrage over violence and impunity after the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Tuesday accused unspecified groups of seeking to destabilize his government.
Protest marches over the crime, which the government has blamed on corrupt police in league with a drug gang and city officials, have overshadowed Pena Nieto’s efforts to boost years of sub-par economic growth via a raft of economic reforms, according to Reuters.
The trainee teachers were abducted in late September by corrupt police working with a drug gang, and their remains were apparently incinerated.
Protests have yielded sporadic violence, with demonstrators setting fire to the doors of Pena Nieto’s ceremonial palace in central Mexico City, as well as torching or trashing regional government buildings and political party offices.
“Structural reforms and big changes have ... without doubt affected interests of those who have much and of others who oppose our nation-building project,” Pena Nieto said.
“We have seen violent movements which hide behind the grief (over the missing students) to stage protests, the aim of which at times is unclear,” he added. “They seem to obey interests to generate instability, to foment social unrest.”
