Thousands of Mexicans demonstrated on Saturday in Mexico City against the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum, in a demonstration initially called for by Generation Z, but which ended up being encouraged by opposition parties, attracting more government critics than young people.
Cries of “Fora Morena” – the ruling party – and “You corrupt state, I mourn your cause” and “Drug boss” were heard among the demonstrators of different origins and social classes, who did not display party symbols, but were united by dissatisfaction with Sheinbaum’s government, which came to power just over a year ago.
Claudia Cruz, a 30-year-old lawyer, said she was walking for a better country. Fidel Sandoval, a 78-year-old retired teacher, said he was protesting the lack of justice. Arisbeth Garcia, a 43-year-old internist, was protesting in a white coat against the shortcomings of the public health system and “because we are also exposed to the insecurity that exists in the country, where someone can kill you and nothing happens.”
Some young people were reluctant to speak to the press and were unable to explain the reason for the protest.
The march was mostly peaceful, although some masked youths eventually tore down barricades set up by authorities to protect parts of the Zocalo – the country’s main square – and there were clashes with police, with fireworks, stones and tear gas thrown.
During the protest, which was repeated on a smaller scale in other cities across the country, there were Mexican flags and white flags demanding justice for Michoacán’s popular mayor, Carlos Manzo, who was killed this month and whose crime remains unsolved. Many people wore straw hats, symbolizing their opposition political movement, and some demonstrators were riding horses.
Some accounts affiliated with Generation Z activists ended up distancing themselves from the event, while opposition figures such as former Mexican President Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party and billionaire businessman Ricardo Salinas Plego, 70, supported them.
Sheinbaum’s government denounced the demonstration as an event manipulated and organized by the international right using robots.
Along the march, there were also some black flags with the smiling skull in a straw hat and crossbones from the Japanese manga “One Piece,” the logo of Generation Z. However, these twenty-somethings, digital natives leading a global wave of generational discontent, united by their weariness of political class and inequality, were not the majority.
The Generation Z protests led to the resignation of the Nepalese government, and these protests were repeated in Asian and African countries with different motives. In Latin America, the October demonstrations in Peru, which demanded the resignation of interim President José Giri, used the same symbol, although subsequent marches, like Friday’s, had different organizers.
The Mexican president, who took office on October 1, 2014, maintains high approval ratings, and although she is a strong defender of the legacy of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, she has changed her much-criticized security strategy to fight organized crime more aggressively, partly due to pressure from the United States.
However, the country’s structural problems, such as insecurity, corruption and impunity, persist, and recent violence, such as that in Michoacan, has fueled discontent and resentment.
Among the recent protests that witnessed significant participation, those that erupted last year stand out, which attempted to prevent reform of the judiciary for fear of politicizing the administration of justice, and those carried out by feminist groups or human rights movements demanding justice for more than 130,000 disappeared people in the country.
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