MEXICO CITY — Protesters broke down the door of Mexico's presidential palace with a truck on Wednesday, demanding answers for 43 college students who went missing a decade ago.
"You took them alive, we want them back alive!" the protesters chanted when they got to the government building, with their faces partially covered.
They took a white pickup belonging to the state electricity company and rammed it repeatedly into the presidential building's door, according to news images and videos shared by local journalists on social media.
Así la irrupción de los encapuchados presuntos normalistas desde Palacio Nacional pic.twitter.com/eWBceUmm64
— Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) March 6, 2024
Several demonstrators managed to enter the building but military police stopped them before they could reach the hall where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was holding a news conference.
The disappearance of students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college in the southern Mexican city of Iguala shocked the country in 2014. It led to a state coverup and abuses during the investigation that followed, according to Mexican government officials and United Nations reports.
President López Obrador had promised an honest investigation into the case, but he recently said it would not be complete when he leaves office this year.
Responding to Wednesday's protest, the president said, "They would like us to respond violently. We're not going to do it. We're not repressors."
He said officials would meet with the protesters.
Alex Leff contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.
