Thousands protested against crime, corruption and impunity in Mexico City on Saturday in a demonstration led by Generation Z activists.
While largely peaceful, the demonstration concluded with young participants clashing with police, who were attacked with stones, fireworks, sticks, and chains.
The capital’s security secretary, Pablo Vázquez, confirmed 120 injuries, including 100 police officers, and 20 arrests.
This mirrors a global trend of Generation Z organising protests against inequality, democratic backsliding, and corruption this year.
The largest “Gen Z” protests took place in Nepal in September following a ban on social media, and led to the resignation of that nation’s prime minister.
In Mexico, many young people say they are frustrated with systemic problems like corruption and impunity for violent crimes.
“We need more security,” said Andres Massa, a 29-year-old business consultant who carried the pirate skull flag that has become a global symbol of Gen Z protests.
Older participants also joined the demonstration.
Arizbeth Garcia, a 43-year-old physician who joined the protests, said she was marching for more funding for the public health system, and for better security because doctors “are also exposed to the insecurity gripping the country, where you can be murdered and nothing happens.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum still has high approval ratings despite a recent spate of high profile murders that includes the assassination of a popular mayor in the western state of Michoacan.
In the days leading up to Saturday’s protest, Sheinbaum accused right-wing parties of trying to infiltrate the Gen Z movement, and of using bots on social media to try to increase attendance.
This week some “Gen Z” social media influencers said they no longer backed Saturday’s protests. While elderly figures like former President Vicente Fox, and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego published messages in support of the protests.
Saturday’s march was attended by people from several age groups, with supporters of the recently killed Michoacan Mayor Carlos Manzo, attending the protest wearing the straw hats that symbolize his political movement.
“The state is dying,” said Rosa Maria Avila, a 65-year-old real estate agent who traveled from the town of Patzcuaro in Michoacan state.
“He was killed because he was a man who was sending officers into the mountains to fight delinquents. He had the guts to confront them,” she said of Manzo.
