In the months after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took office almost two years ago, he impressed even the skeptics with his dynamism, tackling the seemingly immovable forces that had been blocking his country’s progress.
For a time it seemed as if the new administration was about to usher in Mexico’s long-awaited revolution, one that vowed to replace poverty and hopelessness with a sense of equality and a measure of social justice, even if he was crafting that transformation through legislation rather than Molotov cocktails.
Now, however, that impression has been shattered. Outraged Mexicans have been throwing real Molotov cocktails and wielding metal pipes, targeting symbols of the government. In the aftermath of a horrific tragedy—the disappearance and apparent murder of 43 students in the state of Guerrero—it is now evident that there was a gaping hole in Pena Nieto’s blueprint for change.