Rioters stormed the barricades outside the presidential palace in Mexico City as an anti-cartel protest descended into chaos. 

Mobs of frustrated, mostly Gen Z Mexican protestors traded blows with cops and screamed slogans about how corruption and cartel killings have spiraled out of control in their country.

Thousands of people filled the streets of the nation’s capital and marched to the palace, which is the official residence of President Claudia Sheinbaum, the progressive politician who took office last October.

The demonstration, largely organized by young activists and supported by older supporters of opposition movements, was the culmination of citizens’ frustration with the government’s inability to stop violence and provide economic opportunity.

Protestors, many of whom were calling for Sheinbaum’s resignation, were seen trying to breach police barricades around the palace. 

Authorities responded by shooting tear gas out into the crowd, causing people to run in all different directions.

Clashes between citizens and police lasted for hours, but eventually order was returned to the area around the palace.

Pablo Vazquez, Mexico City’s chief of police, said 20 people were arrested and are set to be charged with battery, assault and robbery, Bloomberg reported.

Vazquez added that 60 of his officers were injured, 40 of whom had to be sent to the hospital for treatment. 

Outrage over the November 1 assassination of Carlos Manzo, the mayor of a crime-ridden town in western Mexico, was on the mind of most people who joined the protest.

Many could be seen wearing straw hats that symbolize his political movement, which is vigorously focused on having a zero-tolerance policy for organized crime.

‘The state is dying,’ said Rosa Maria Avila, a 65-year-old real estate agent who traveled from the town of Patzcuaro in Michoacan state.

‘He was killed because he was a man who was sending officers into the mountains to fight delinquents. He had the guts to confront them,’ she said of Manzo.

Saturday was the biggest protest against Sheinbaum to date. She has responded to demonstrations throughout the week by accusing right-wing groups of being behind the escalating shows of discontent.

The protest against Sheinbaum and her Morena party, which Manzo splintered off from in 2024, resembled other Gen Z-led movements like the ones in Nepal and Madagascar, countries where the governments were toppled.

Sheinbaum still enjoys a high approval rating, but there is a sizable portion of the electorate that is beginning to feel like she’s more of the same.

Giovanna Agundez, a 32-year-old woman who was at the protest, told Bloomberg that ‘this is exactly what happened with previous governments’.

‘Don’t they always claim to be different? Doesn’t Sheinbaum keep saying that all women, not only her, achieved power? Right now, I feel powerless,’ she added.

Sheinbaum was not at the National Palace at the time of the protests. Instead, she was nearly 600 miles away in Campeche, a state in southeast Mexico.

‘Thank you for your love, beautiful people of Palizada, Campeche. When there’s a government at the people’s service, there is nothing that can stop our nation,’ she wrote on X alongside pictures of her hugging supporters.

Sheinbaum has since condemned the violence in the capital.