Police Launch Tear Gas, Barricade Street to Stop Ayotzinapa Protesters in Mexico City

Police threw tear gas bombs at friends and family of the 43 missing students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College as they attempted to protest in front of a Secretariat of the Interior building in Mexico City, Mexico, on April 25.

Federal police forces set up a barricade across Bucareli Street to stop the protesters from reaching the government building.

On September 26, 2014, a bus hijacking for a protest led to the disappearance and death of the teaching students. The Mexican government’s investigation concluded the “Ayotzinapa 43” were killed and incinerated in a fire, but this account is sharply criticized by international forensics experts.

Reports from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have challenged the government’s investigation of the disappearances and alleged that the students were abducted by local authorities and tortured to give confessions.

Authorities have arrested 128 people, reported the New York Times, 70 of whom were linked to the police or drug cartels. Credit: Facebook/Argelia Guerrero Rentería via Storyful