Mexico Reopens Investigation Into Disappearance of 43 Students

FILE - People stand under the portraits of 43 college students who went missing in 2014 in an apparent massacre, by Chinese concept artist and government critic Ai Weiwei at the Contemporary Art University Museum in Mexico City, Mexico, April 13, 2019.

Mexico says it has reopened its investigation into the case of the disappearance 43 male student teachers.

The students vanished five years ago, September 26, 2014.

Thousands of people on Mexico City's main square Thursday observed the anniversary of the disappearance.

The original investigation was marred by allegations of incompetence, corruption and misconduct. It stained the administration of former president Enrique Pena Nieto whose administration said the students were murdered by drug traffickers who burned the students’ bodies and dumped their remains in a river. The traffickers were reported to believe the students were members of a rival gang.

The disappearance led to massive street protests across Mexico against Pena Nieto, accusing him of failing to address the country's chronic crime and insecurity problems.

Mexico's current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised during his campaign to reopen the case.