Mexico: 43 Missing Students

(Mexico City, Mexico)

A day that's supposed to celebrate the anniversary of a revolution is instead turning into one of mass protests against political corruption and outrage over violence that probably left 43 missing students dead.

"There's a feeling of being fed up that's been building for some time," said law student Esteban Santillán, 24, who marched in Mexico City last month. The case of the missing students "is the best example of the rot that there is in the country's political class."

Students, parents and supporters of the missing plan protests in Mexico City and across the country Thursday, when Mexico normally marks the anniversary of the Revolution of 1910, which resulted from discontent over a lack of democracy and farmers' desire for land and liberty.

Protest organizers promise to block access to the international airport. Revolution Day parades have been canceled in parts of Guerrero and Michoacán states for security reasons. Government buildings have been burned in Guerrero state, and stores and delivery trucks have been looted since the students went missing.

"It's the most severe crisis that the country has experienced in the last 20 years, and it touches every area," said Bernardo Barranco, an academic and political analyst. "It's a sort of catharsis in which everything is rotten: government, parties, the economy, etc.

"Everything is rotten," eh?