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Protesters clash with police at Mexican military bases

Students were protesting the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers last September

Kiran Moodley
Tuesday 13 January 2015 13:23 GMT
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A masked man remains during a protest demanding justice and clarification of the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, on January 12, 2015, at the naval base in Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico.
A masked man remains during a protest demanding justice and clarification of the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, on January 12, 2015, at the naval base in Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico. (Pedro PARDO | AFP | Getty Images)

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Violent clashes have taken place outside military barracks in Mexico as demonstrators protested the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers last year.

The Mexican government claims a corrupt police force abducted the students in the southwestern city of Iguala last September and that the bodies were then probably incinerated by members of a local drug gang.

The remains of only one of the 43 trainee teachers has been identified.

On Monday, security forces in Iguala clashed with students from the same college as the missing 43, as protesters tried to break into the local military base. Four people were reported to have been injured. Clashes also took place in the coastal city of Acapulco.

The students threw rocks and bottles at the police, who fired tear gas in retaliation.

Walter Emanuel Anorve, Acapulco's State Coordinator of the Teachers of Guerrero, said, "There are indications that the military took part in the disappearance of our 43 colleagues, so we came to demand that they open the doors to the barracks. We will not back down."

The Mexican government is blaming the former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, for the mass disappearance and apparent masscre.

The federal courts authority said on Monday that the former mayor's wife would be tried for engaging in organised crime. They said that Pineda may have been working with Guerreros Unidos, a local drug gang, since 2005.

Her lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

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