Mexican army base attacked in protest over missing students

Mexico City, Feb 20 (IANS/EFE) Some 200 students attacked the Mexican army headquarters in the state of Guerrero to protest over the disappearance of 43 of their classmates in September 2014.

The attack took place on the 35th Infantry Battalion in Chilpancingo.

There were no casualties.

"We are missing 43," the students from the Ayotzinapa teachers' college wrote on the base's main gate.

The students, some wielding sticks and machetes, kept up the assault for only a few minutes before boarding four buses for the trip back to the college in Tixtla, Guerrero.

Families of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students are seeking an investigation of the army's role in the violent events of Sept 26 in Iguala, Guerrero.

Police had attacked Ayotzinapa students as they travelled through the town on buses.

Six people - including three students - were killed and 43 other students abducted.

Federal authorities say the incident was the work of corrupt municipal cops acting on the orders of a mayor who had connections with the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.

The cops handed over the students to the cartel gunmen, who killed them and burnt their bodies at a dump, according to an official account.

The students' families reject that version of events and are demanding to know why soldiers of the Iguala-based 27th Infantry Battalion, who witnessed the police attack did not intervene.

--IANS/EFE

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