Mexico president vows police reform

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised to bring corrupt local authorities under the “rule of law” amid allegations of police involvement in the presumed massacre of 43 students.

In a speech to an assembly of Mexico’s political leaders on Thursday, the president announced a 10-point plan, which authorizes the Congress to dissolve the country’s corruption-plagued municipal forces and gives state agencies control over local police.

The plan involves re-evaluating powers in the penal code and enforcing a special crime-battling law. It intends to stop collusion among local governments, police and gangs.

“Mexico cannot continue like this,” the president said at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, adding, “After Iguala, Mexico has to change.”

On November 16, a former police chief in the southern Mexican town of Cocula was arrested for reportedly being involved in the disappearance of the 43 students.

On September 26, 43 students went missing in the southern city of Iguala in Guerrero State following an attack by police forces suspected of having links to drug gangs. The incident took place during a protest rally over teachers’ rights.

Violent protests have erupted in the country ever since Mexican officials announced that members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel had confessed to killing the young men and burning their remains after receiving them from corrupt police forces.