Mexico marchers protest Peña Nieto presidency

Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto marked his second anniversary in office with his lowest approval ratings, as thousands marched on Monday to denounce the government's handling of the case of 43 missing students.

Some protesters chanted for Peña Nieto to resign while they waved blackened Mexican flags. They chanted, "you are not alone" to parents of the missing students who joined the protest.

Peña Nieto’s has been under growing pressure from protesters since the group of trainee teachers were abducted by corrupt police and handed over to a local drug gang on Sept. 26.

The protests were largely peaceful, but some turned violent at Monday night.

 In Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern state of Guerrero, demonstrators attacked the state prosecutor's office, torching several vehicles outside and breaking windows and office equipment.

An official of Mexico's Pemex oil company said protesters led by a teachers' union also blockaded roads leading to a state-owned oil refinery in the southern state of Oaxaca, preventing traffic from entering or exiting.

The official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said the demonstrators had not entered the refinery in the township of Santa Maria El Tule, and the facility did not shut down.

Thousands more marched along a main avenue in Mexico City, led by a small group of parents of the 43 missing students.

The students were detained in the city of Iguala, Guerrero, by local police in September. Prosecutors say they were handed over to members of a drug gang who reportedly killed them and incinerated their remains

"We no longer recognize Enrique Peña Nieto as president of Mexico because he has not met our central demand, which is to present our sons alive," Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesman for the families of the missing, told the AFP news agency.

Families refuse to believe the 43 young men are dead and federal prosecutors have stopped short of declaring them dead, saying they await DNA tests on charred remains sent to an Austrian university.

The case has put a spotlight on Mexico's struggle to end corruption amid a drug war that has left 100,000 people dead or missing since 2006.

A poll published Monday by the El Universal newspaper showed that 41 percent of Mexicans approve of Peña Nieto’s performance compared to 46 percent in August while the daily Reforma newspaper found that 39 percent were satisfied, down from 50 percent in August.

It was the worst approval rating for a president since Ernesto Zedillo during the economic crises of 1994-1995, underscoring the magnitude of the crisis Peña Nieto is facing.

Last week, Peña Nieto announced reforms to stop collusion between police and criminals in a bid to quell protests.

Reforma said it interviewed 1,020 Mexicans from Nov. 20-23, with a margin of error or 3.1 percent, while El Universal polled 1,000 people from Nov. 8-12, with a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Al Jazeera and wire services