Families of missing Mexican students launch hunger strike

Families of 43 students of a teacher training institute in Mexico, missing since September 26, 2014, have launched a hunger strike in Mexico City, the media reported on Thursday.

Saturday will mark a year since the disappearance of the students, who according to the public prosecutor's office, were detained by corrupt policemen of Iguala municipality in Guerrero state and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel, Efe news reported.

The cartel allegedly murdered the students and burned their bodies at a garbage dump in Cocula municipality.

On Wednesday evening, some 50 family members began the strike in the city's Zocalo square, which will conclude on Friday.

"Every hour represents the constant search for each one of the students," Vidulfo Rosales, the lawyer for the affected families, said.

The families were accompanied by members of civil organisations and friends of the missing students, who shouted "They are not alone" during the protest.

The parents are scheduled to meet President Enrique Pena Nieto, where they will hand over petitions "dealing with the matter of justice and the report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)," Rosales said.

"We will ask for compliance with the recommendations of the report - that new lines of investigation are opened, other agencies are allowed to conduct the investigation."

Independent experts appointed by the IACHR, after six months of investigations have concluded there was no evidence to prove the students were burned at the garbage dump.