Hundreds of protesters clashed with police outside Mexico’s congress Saturday ahead of Enrique Pena Nieto’s presidential inauguration, tossing Molotov cocktails while officers responded with tear gas.
At least five police officers and a protester were injured in the melee sparked by around 500 protesters, many in masks, throwing objects and Molotov cocktails outside the congress, which was surrounded by metal barricades.
One officer was hit in the face by a stone, while two others were struck by a Molotov cocktail. They were taken away in ambulances.
Two more officers were carried out by their colleagues, apparently affected by the tear gas. A protesters appeared to have a head injury.
“We weren’t expecting something so violent,” an officer told AFP.
Pena Nieto’s presidency will mark the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico with an authoritarian hand for 71 years until it lost the 2000 presidential election.
The second-place finisher in this year’s election, leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has refused to conceded defeat, charging that the PRI bought millions of votes. The electoral court threw out his claims.
The group that clashed with police was among thousands of protesters who took to the streets to protest Pena Nieto’s inauguration, chanting “Mexico without PRI!”
Inside the congress, some lawmakers held up protest signs against Pena Nieto, a telegenic 46-year-old lawyer and former Mexico state governor, before the swearing in ceremony.
One sign read: “Pena Nieto president of the teleprompter.”
Pena Nieto insists that the PRI has embraced democracy and will not return to its dark past.
The new president inherits a brutal drug war that has left more than 60,000 people dead in the last six years.
Violence betweeen the country’s powerful drug cartels surged after outgoing president Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against the gangs when he took office in 2006.
Clashes in Mexico before president's inauguration
