Photo via Youtube/Animal Politico
After a weekend in which protests gave way to violence in Mexico City, residents in Mexico remain outraged over 43 students that have been missing since September and likely were massacred by a drug cartel.Protesters in the coastal resort town of Acapulco on Monday were marching against the government's handling of the case of the 43 missing normalista students, which officials in the town of Iguala are believed to have been involved in. The Acapulco march turned violent when police stepped in to block the protesters' path to the city's airport.At least 16 police officers were injured in the clash and an unknown number of protesters were hurt. Photos of the battle show demonstrators wearing masks and carrying makeshift weapons and bloodied and beaten police officers being dragged by protesters.
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Hoy 700 normalistas y simatizantes han paralizado el aeropuerto internacional de Acapulco— Política Corto Plazo (@PcpSol)November 11, 2014
A video of Monday's events shows the riot police creating a human barrier across an Acapulco highway in front of the protesters. It's momentarily calm, but then a few people start rushing the shielded officers, kicking them and swinging sticks before more people start throwing stones.The protesters eventually outflank the officers, before isolating a few and chasing after them. At one point, one of the officers falls to the ground and is immediately surrounded by protesters, who beat and kick the officer.The recent protests were sparked last week when investigators found charred remains in Mexico's southwest, widely believed to belong to at least some of the students who were abducted in the town of Iguala on September 26.The remains found in trash bags last week corroborates the series of events given by three suspects who are in custody over the killings, according to Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam. The suspects told authorities that they loaded the students in the back of two cargo trucks before killing them, burning and chopping up the bodies, and stuffing the remains in trash bags.The situation began when the then-Mayor Jose Luis Abarca of Iguala allegedly told police to intercept the students, who were on the way to protest an event being held by the now former mayor's wife. Once the police corralled the students, they handed them to the Guerreros Unidos gang, according to reports of the events.Following the abduction, Abarca and his wife fled Iguala and were on the run until they were discovered last week in Mexico City.Follow Payton Guion on Twitter: @PaytonGuion