Protesters Set Fire to Two Patrol Cars in Southern Mexico

The vehicles were burned on a highway in the municipality of Tixtla, about 20km from the state capital of Chilpancingo, AFP reported.

Local media reported that the vehicles belonged to the National Guard, and that protesters had detained the occupants for a time.

The protests began after a student from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college was shot to death and another wounded in a confrontation with police in Guerrero on March 7.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had earlier said the two students were travelling in a stolen car when police ordered them to stop, and that the men in the car had opened fire first.

According to the Guerrero public security secretariat, a firearm was found in the vehicle.

Some, however, have rejected the official version of events, and students from Ayotzinapa began a demonstration in Chilpancingo after the incident, allegedly setting fire to at least one vehicle.

The shooting is under investigation by the Attorney-General and state prosecutor’s offices.

It took place against a backdrop of flaring tensions over the case of 43 students from the same college who went missing nearly a decade ago.

The day before the shooting, protesters smashed open a door to Mexico’s presidential palace, demanding to meet President Obrador to discuss the case.

In 2014, the 43 students were travelling to a demonstration in Mexico City when investigators believe they were kidnapped by a drug cartel in collusion with corrupt police.

The exact circumstances of their disappearance are still unknown, but a truth commission set up by the government branded the case a “state crime”, saying the military shared responsibility, either directly or through negligence.