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Guerrero, a State Without a Governor, Sees More Protests on Anniversary of Missing 43

The state congress was in session on Monday to appoint a governor, while parents and fellow classmates of the missing 43 students demonstrated to mark seven months since the disappearances.
Imagen por Alejandrino Gonzalez/AP

The state of Guerrero in Mexico was still without a governor on Monday, adding to an atmosphere of instability ahead of statewide elections to determine officeholders in one of Mexico's poorest and most violent states.

Guerrero's state congress was in session to determine a new governor after the six-month leave of absence of the shamed former governor, Angel Aguirre, expired last week. The interim term of Rogelio Ortega, who replaced Aguirre temporarily, also expired.

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Lawmaker Bernardo Ortega Jiménez, president of Guerrero's state congress, told VICE News that interim governor Ortega's position would "most likely be ratified" over the course of today.

He spoke prior to Aguirre's announcement on Friday that the former governor would not seek to return to the office — an option that was still a possibility due to a loophole in rules that dictate how politicians may leave their posts in Mexico.

As of Friday, Rogelio Ortega's re-appointment as governor is considered a near inevitability. "The decision has already been made," Ortega Jimenéz told reporters.

Related: In Photos: The Ayotzinapa Normal School, Before and After the Disappearance of 43 Students.

Meanwhile on Sunday, students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School commemorated the seven-month anniversary of the alleged mass incineration of 43 of their classmates by setting three vehicles on fire in front of the state congress building in Chilpancingo, Guerrero's capital.

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No one was injured or detained. But the attack against the government building was the third conducted by the normalistas — as the teachers college students are known — since the mass disappearance of the 43 students last September 26.

"It has been more than 200 days since we have heard anything from them," said Aristeo González, the father of Jorge Luis and Dorian, two brothers who remain among the missing.

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"I would rather die soon if they aren't returned," González told VICE News.

He said he hopes his participation in the protest serves to "tell everyone that my sons are not here, and have not returned, and I miss them."

Parents of the missing erected an 'anti-monument' on Paseo de la Reforma on Sunday. (Photo by Melissa del Pozo/VICE News)

On Sunday, a group of parents of the missing 43 and supporters held a brief protest in Mexico City, where they raised an unofficial "anti-monument" in honor of their children on a central divider of Paseo de la Reforma, the capital's emblematic boulevard.

The giant metal figures read "+43," a motto that has been used on social media to refer to the notion that there are more than 43 people missing in the country.

Related: 'It Was the Feds': How Mexico's Federal Police Slaughtered At Least 16 Civilians in Michoacan.

Follow Andrea Noel on Twitter @MetabolizedJunk and Melissa del Pozo @Melissadps.