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Mexico City – A peaceful rally over the presumed massacre of 43 Mexican students ended with violence in the capital on Monday, as the president’s popularity sank to new lows on his second anniversary.

Thousands marched along Mexico City’s main boulevard, chanting for President Enrique Pena Nieto to resign and waving blackened flags of the country in anger over the case of the missing students.

They echoed “you are not alone” to parents of the missing who joined the rally at the Angel of Independence Monument.

“Pena Nieto must resign”, Clemente Rodriguez, father of missing student Cristian, told the crowd after two leading newspapers showed the embattled president’s approval rating dropping to around 40 percent.

As night fell, a small group of masked protesters armed with bats threw firebombs at banks and broke the windows of several shops along the touristic Reforma Boulevard.

Hundreds of riot police protecting the Senate used fire extinguishers to repel the protesters and detained at least four, an AFP journalist said. Pena Nieto, who took office on December 1, 2012, has faced a wave of protests that have ended in sporadic acts of violence since the students vanished two months ago.

Thousands more protested in the southern state of Guerrero, where a drug gang has confessed to killing the teachers’ college students after local police handed them over in September.

A group of protesters ransacked the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office in the regional capital, Chilpancingo, and set five vehicles on fire, including two police cruisers. – AFP