Thousands demonstrate in Mexico in remembrance of missing students

Mexico City, Jan 27 (IANS/EFE) Shouting "Ayotzinapa lives," thousands of people demonstrated in this capital to mark the four-month anniversary of the disappearance of 43 teaching students in the southern state of Guerrero and to demand that they be found alive.

Four contingents of people including relatives, teachers, students and citizens Monday marched from four different points around the city toward the Zocalo, the huge central plaza, where a gigantic rally was to be held for the students who disappeared on Sept. 26 after being taken into custody by local police and then, apparently, turned over to a criminal group.

"They took a piece of the body" of the Ayotzinapa teachers college, where the young people were studying. "Today, we're here to demand that the students turn up alive," Fernando Hernandez, a relative of one of the missing students, said.

Monday is the four-month anniversary of the day that local police opened fire on dozens of students in the town of Iguala on the order of then-Mayor Jose Luis Abarca. Six students died, including three from the teaching school, and 43 others were taken into custody and disappeared.