Protests for Ayotzinapa Cancel Mexico’s Official Revolution Parade

The traditional official celebrations and military parade organized to commemorate Mexico’s 1910 revolution will be moved from the Zocalo square to a military installation in the Polanco neighborhood of the Mexican Capital this Thursday, announced Mexico’s Interior Minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong on Wednesday evening.

"November 20 is a date that we Mexicans celebrate the beginning of our revolution. This time, it was decided that the celebration will not be accompanied by the traditional festivities and parade," said the minister.

"The Interior Ministry reports that the commemoration of November 20 will consist of a decorations ceremony and promotions of active military personnel from the Defense Ministry and Navy, which will be held in the Base Marte," he added.

The change in plans comes as civil and social organizations have called for a national strike and mega-march in solidarity with Ayotzinapa on November 20 that will culminate in a major rally in the iconic main plaza of Mexico City Zocalo.

The march will be divided into three contingents, led by families and classmates of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa who were attacked by municipal police of Iguala, Guerrero on the night of September 26th.

As demonstrations and protests have increased since the students disappeared, the federal government decided to cancel the celebration in its original location. Authorities from the Mexican Capital called for the dismantling of stands and bleachers that were erected over the past two days.

However the Defense Secretary, Salvador Cienfuegos, was quoted as saying that “they [federal authorities] suspended it, but I did not.”

Mexico’s revolution was a social upheaval that lasted roughly 10 years, overthrowing the country’s previous longtime dictator, Porfirio Diaz, later to be replaced by a string of rulers until the formation of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI).

The PRI ruled the country for 71 years until 2000 and would return with the current administration of president Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012.