A group of protesters set fire to the wooden door of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's ceremonial …
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Sunday condemned violent
protests over the apparent massacre of 43 students after demonstrators
set fire to the door of his ceremonial palace in Mexico City on Saturday
night.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans have taken to the streets to protest the
government's handling of the case of the missing students, and last
night protesters in central Mexico City set fire to the door of the
National Palace.
"It's unacceptable that someone should try to use this tragedy to
justify violence," Pena Nieto told reporters at the airport in
Anchorage, Alaska where he was en route to China. "You can't demand
justice while acting with violence."
The students
were abducted by corrupt police in southwestern Mexico in September.
Though the government said on Friday it looked as though the students
had been killed, then incinerated by gangsters working with the police,
it stopped short of confirming their deaths for lack of definitive
evidence.Pena Nieto's trip to China has infuriated protesters and relatives of the students, who believe he cares more about Mexico's business interests than trying to deal with the gang violence that has ravaged much of the country for years.
The trip to China has faced problems since before it began.
On Thursday
night, Mexico abruptly canceled a $3.75 billion contract to build a
high-speed train line that it had awarded to a Chinese-led consortium
after opposition lawmakers accused the government of rigging the
process.
The
group led by the China Railway Construction Corp were the sole bidders
for the project and lawmakers said the government had acted to help the
consortium and its Mexican partners, some of which have close ties to
the president and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
The government denied the accusations.
Grupo Higa was one of the Mexican partners in the rail
consortium and on Sunday a local news site noted that a subsidiary of
the company, Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, had built a $7 million
seven-bedroom house for Pena Nieto and his family just before he became
president.
The
house, which features marble floors and underground parking, has never
been disclosed in financial records that Pena Nieto has made public and
it is in fact still owned by the Grupo Higa subsidiary, the report from
Aristegui Noticias said.
However, the president's office said in a statement on Sunday
that the house was acquired in 2012 from Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del
Centro by Pena Nieto's wife, actress Angelica Rivera, and that she spoke
openly about the property last year.
Separately, China on Sunday said it believed China Railway
Construction Corp had followed Mexico's bidding rules and requirements
and it hopes Chinese companies will continue to participate in Mexican
infrastructure projects.
Another protest took place on Sunday, which included people
who had walked more than 100 miles to Mexico City from Iguala, Guerrero,
where the missing students were abducted. The protest congregated
peacefully in the central Zocalo square.