It was a gathering of familiar faces: men and women dressed in white and Panama hats, promoters of the Pink Wave movement who accompanied Xóchitl Gálvez’s defeat in the 2024 elections, and former officials seeking to create a new party. The “Generation Z mobilization” on Saturday, November 15, where Generation Z youth only trickled in, devolved into violence in Mexico City. It brought together thousands of people critical of Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration and pitted adults opposed to Morena against young people demanding equal scrutiny of politicians from all parties.
The differences were clear even before the march began. In front of the Angel of Independence monument on Paseo de la Reforma, a group of elderly men and women shouted at three young people who were putting on black bandanas to cover part of their faces: “Out! Out! No masked people!”
The first groups of protesters included people who had come from Michoacán, where the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, was murdered earlier this month—a crime that opposition politicians have used not only to demand justice but also to call for protests in various cities.
The opposition bloc has used networks of paid trolls and bots, videos created with artificial intelligence, and right-wing content creators to spread a message of widespread anger. Former PAN president Vicente Fox was among those who called for the march.
