(Bloomberg) -- Masked protesters set a door on fire at Mexico's central bank headquarters as a group splintered off from a larger march to break windows at businesses in the city's main financial district on Thursday, according to images broadcast on Milenio TV.
The group damaged several businesses in downtown Mexico City, some even assaulting the National Palace through two large wooden doors that face the enormous Zocalo public square.
There was scarce police presence near the sites of vandalism, giving protesters free rein to spray-paint messages including one on a newspaper stand saying, “Down With Work.” The National Guard shuttered the palace's main door, according to images on Milenio TV. Marchers commemorated the fifth-year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 university students in Guerrero state, led by relatives of the disappeared whose cases have not been solved.
Violent protests and destruction of property are not rare in Mexico. Last month, dozens of women damaged a bus rapid transit station in Mexico City while writing graffiti messages on some of the city's most iconic monuments, including the Angel of Independence statue, as they demanded more security in a country where murders of women are rising.
Mexico is on pace to break last year's record for homicides, while also surpassing its numbers for murders of women.
To contact the reporter on this story: Cyntia Barrera Diaz in Mexico City at cbarrerad@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Carlos Manuel Rodriguez at carlosmr@bloomberg.net, Jose Orozco
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