Riots in Mexico City at demonstration for students who disappeared in 2014 | Abroad

A truth commission concluded last month that the students were held for days and then handed over to the commander of a local army base, who had them murdered. Last week, a former general of the Mexican army was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the missing person.

The protesters on Friday threw rocks and homemade explosives at the police and employees of the military base. Forty officers were injured, authorities said. Protesters also clashed with police on Thursday.

The Mexican students, trainee teachers, disappeared from the city of Iguala in Guerrero state on September 26, 2014. They wanted to commemorate a student protest that had been crushed in Mexico City in 1968. Because they had no money for the trip, they hijacked two buses in the city of Iguala. They were believed to have been detained by corrupt cops who turned them over to a criminal organization and the military.

A truth commission last month came with damning conclusions about how the Mexican government dealt with the disappearance eight years ago. The commission spoke of a ‘state crime’. What exactly happened to the students remains unclear to this day. The former general arrested last week is said to have had six of the students murdered at the time. Human remains of only three students were recovered.

In addition to the arrest of the former general and the former top man of the Public Prosecution Service, last month the Public Prosecution Service also issued arrest warrants against dozens of police officers, soldiers, officials and members of a drug cartel for their involvement.

The state of Guerrero is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the Central American country because of rival drug cartels, where tens of thousands of people are killed by violence every year. The investigation into the disappearance of the students has been criticized internationally for the many mistakes that were made and the lack of progress.