Mexico City Gears Up for Mass Protest as Students Demand Release of 11 'Political Prisoners' IBTimes - IBTimes
go to original November 25, 2014

A new wave of protests has erupted in Mexico over the police attack on and detention of demonstrators at the November 20 "mega-march" in solidarity with the 43 missing Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College students. Many feel the police operations are designed to limit and criminalize social protests. Clayton Conn reports from Mexico City. (teleSUR English)

MEXICO CITY - Students and activists plan to take to the streets again Tuesday, marching down the main thoroughfare of Mexico's capital to the doors of the presidential palace, in a protest that could heighten the civil unrest that has been building since the disappearance of 43 students nearly two months ago.

"We're fed up. This country has suffered so many problems, so many incidents," Ulises, a 24-year-old university student, who didn't give his last name, said at an organizing meeting Monday.

Protesters are demanding the release of 11 people who were detained last week during a mass demonstration and charged with terrorism and mutiny.

The arrests are compounding the frustration that many Mexicans feel over what they say is a corrupt political system and repressive police force. The disapperance of the 43 students, believed to have been murdered by a criminal gang in cahoots with police because they opposed a local politician, precipitated the unrest.

The protesters are accusing the federal government of arbitrarily arresting eight men and three women last Thursday. The 11 are being held in maximum-security facilities, and they also face charges of homicidal intent and organized crime. Terrorism charges were later dropped. National human rights groups say the charges are severely overblown and claim that prosecutors have denied the arrested proper legal defense.

Read the rest at IBTimes

Photo: Reuters/Carlos Jasso

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!