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Millions of people in the United States from Texas to Maine looked to the sky to witness a rare total solar eclipse. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh attended a viewing event hosted by NASA and Purdue University at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and has more.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's National Police agency says that it has recovered a hijacked cargo ship laden with rice following a gunbattle with gangs that lasted more than five hours. Two police officers were injured and an undetermined number of gang members were killed in the shootout that occurred Saturday off the coast of the capital, Port-au-Prince, authorities said in a statement. It was a rare victory for an underfunded police department that has struggled to quell gang violence following a spate of attacks that began Feb. 29. Police said in the statement Sunday that those responsible for the hijacking were members of two gangs, named the 5 Seconds and the Taliban gang. They said gunmen seized the transport ship Magalie on Thursday as it departed the port of Varreux. Radio Télé Métronome reported that the gangs kidnapped everyone aboard the ship and stole some 10,000 sacks of rice out of the 60,000 sacks it was carrying. The ship was headed to the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitien. Also on Sunday, online news site Radio graphie reported that the Taliban gang used a front loader to demolish a police station in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Canaan where at least four police officers were killed in a recent attack. The station was no longer operational. Gang violence continued on Monday, with police using megaphones to order the evacuation of the Champ de Mars area near the National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince as heavy gunfire erupted nearby. The most recent gunbattle between police and gangs comes more than a month after gunmen began targeting key government infrastructure. They have burned down multiple police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed and stormed Haiti's two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The ongoing violence forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce he would resign once a transitional presidential council is formed. Henry was in Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when the attacks began and remains locked out of Haiti.

bogota, colombia — Colombia's capital will start rationing water this week to alleviate droughts wrought by the El Nino weather pattern, which has exacerbated the Andean country's dry season and caused reservoir levels to fall, Bogota Mayor Carlos Galan said Monday.  The restrictions will also apply to 11 municipalities close to the capital, affecting at least 9 million people.  The El Nino phenomenon arrived in Colombia at the end of 2023, causing high temperatures and droughts that led to forest fires throughout the Andean country and pushed reservoirs to their lowest levels in decades.  The three reservoirs that make up the Chingaza water system, which supplies Bogota with 70% of its water needs, are at just 16.9% capacity, Galan said, their lowest level in 40 years.  "Let's not waste a drop of water in Bogota at this time," Galan said in a news conference, adding, "That will help us so that these restrictions can be lifted more quickly or reduced."  Bogota joins Mexico's capital, Mexico City, and its surrounding areas — home to 21 million — which has faced water shortages for years because of low rainfall that has been attributed to climate change, as well as a growing population and antiquated infrastructure.  Under the rationing plan, Bogota will be divided into zones where cuts to water services will last 24 hours in nine areas throughout the city, Galan said, adding the first suspensions will begin Thursday.  The rationing plan — shared by the nine regions in Bogota — will restart every 10 days and authorities will reevaluate the measure every two weeks, Galan added. 

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council began reviewing the Palestinians’ renewed bid for full United Nations membership on Monday, despite long-standing U.S. policy that would likely lead to a veto in the council. “Our position is a position that is known; it hasn’t changed,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters following a meeting of the Security Council committee that is considering the Palestinian application.  For decades, Washington has said Palestinian statehood — and, thus, full U.N. membership — is a final status issue that should be negotiated between the Israelis and Palestinians as part of a two-state solution.  Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. is engaging “actively and cooperatively” with the admissions committee, adding that Washington wants to find a path to a two-state solution that would provide peace for the Israelis and a state for the Palestinians. U.N. membership goes through the Security Council, where Washington holds a veto. It is up to the 15-nation council to recommend admission to the General Assembly, which would then vote on it. A two-thirds majority vote is necessary in the General Assembly for admission of a new state. In September 2011, the Palestinian Authority submitted its initial application for full membership, but the application never made it to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. After that bid stalled, the Palestinians sought and received an upgrade in status the following year at the General Assembly to “non-member state.” They still cannot vote, but it allowed them to become a party to treaties that are deposited with the U.N. secretary-general and join U.N. bodies like the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court. In a letter to the U.N. last week, the Palestinian Authority requested that the 2011 application be given renewed consideration this month. “We sincerely hope, after 12 years since we changed our status to an observer state, that the Security Council will elevate itself to implementing the global consensus on the two-state solution by admitting the state of Palestine for full membership,” Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters. The council’s committee on the admission of new members took up the issue Monday afternoon behind closed doors. The committee is tasked with deciding whether the territory known as Palestine meets the criteria for statehood, including possession of a defined territory and a recognized government. Under the U.N. Charter, a new member must also be “peace-loving.” “The Palestinian Authority is the exact opposite of a peace-loving entity,” Israel’s U.N. envoy, Gilad Erdan, told reporters. He said an agreement on a Palestinian state could only be reached at the negotiating table, not forced unilaterally on Israel at the United Nations. Following the committee meeting, council president Ambassador Vanessa Frazier of Malta told reporters that the initial discussions were “very frank,” and a second meeting is tentatively planned for Thursday. Khaled Elgindy, senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute and director of the Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs, told VOA that the Palestinian move is unlikely to be successful. “I think the outcome is already known — the U.S. will veto it — if it even comes to a vote,” he said. “They will do whatever they can to even prevent a vote from happening in the Security Council. But a U.S. veto is virtually assured.” There is also U.S. legislation from the 1990s that would require Washington to stop funding the United Nations if they “grant full membership as a state to a group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.” Loss of U.S. funding would be catastrophic for the world body. “At the end of the day, it’s a big nothing burger, because it changes nothing. It will go nowhere, and it just points to the kind of growing irrelevance and bankruptcy of the leadership of [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas,” Elgindy said. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are under growing U.S. pressure to reform. Last month, Abbas appointed his long-time economic adviser, Mohammed Mustafa, to be the next prime minister. He will need to put together a government that will be able to reunite Palestinian factions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and help rebuild and govern Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas ends.

phoenix — As ranchera music filled the Phoenix recording studio at Radio Campesina, a station personality spoke in Spanish into the microphone.  “Friends of Campesina, in these elections, truth and unity are more important than ever,” said morning show host Tony Arias. “Don’t let yourself be trapped by disinformation.” The audio was recorded as a promo for Radio Campesina’s new campaign aiming to empower Latino voters ahead of the 2024 elections. That effort includes discussing election-related misinformation narratives and fact-checking conspiracy theories on air. “We are at the front lines of fighting misinformation in our communities,” said Maria Barquin, program director of Chavez Radio Group, the nonprofit that runs Radio Campesina, a network of Spanish-language stations in Arizona, California and Nevada.  “There’s a lot at stake in 2024 for our communities. And so, we need to amp up these efforts now more than ever.” Latinos have grown at the second-fastest rate, behind Asian Americans, of any major racial or ethnic group in the U.S. since the last presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, and are projected to account for 14.7%, or 36.2 million, of all eligible voters in November, a new high. They are a growing share of the electorate in several presidential and congressional battleground states, including Arizona, California and Nevada, and are being heavily courted by Republicans and Democrats. Democratic President Joe Biden has credited Latino voters as a key reason he defeated Republican Donald Trump in 2020 and is urging them to help him do it again in November. Given the high stakes of a presidential election year, experts expect a surge of misinformation, especially through audio and video, targeting Spanish-speaking voters. In addition to radio, much of the news and information Latinos consume is audio-based through podcasts or social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube. Content moderation efforts in Spanish are limited on these platforms, which are seeing a rising number of right-wing influencers peddling election falsehoods and QAnon conspiracy theories. The types of misinformation overlap with falsehoods found in other conservative media and many corners of the internet — conspiracy theories about mail voting, dead people casting ballots, rigged voting machines and threats at polling sites. Other narratives are more closely tailored to Latino communities, including false information about immigration, inflation and abortion rights, often exploiting the traumas and fears of specific communities. For example, Spanish speakers who have come from countries with recent histories of authoritarianism, socialism, high inflation and election fraud may be more vulnerable to misinformation about those topics. Misinformation on the airwaves also is particularly difficult to track and combat compared with more traditional, text-based misinformation, said Daiquiri Ryan Mercado, strategic legal adviser and policy counsel for the National Hispanic Media Coalition, which runs the Spanish Language Disinformation Coalition. While misinformation researchers can more easily code programs to categorize and track text-based misinformation, audio often requires manual listening. Radio stations that air only in certain areas at certain times also can be difficult to track.  “When we have such limited representation, Spanish speakers feel like they can connect to these people, and they become trusted messengers,” Mercado said. “But some people may take advantage of that trust.” Mercado and others said that's why trusted messengers, such as Radio Campesina, are so important. The station was founded by Mexican American labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez and has built a loyal listening base over decades. At any given moment, as many as 750,000 people are listening to the Chavez Radio Network on the air and online, Barquin said. “They will come and listen to us because of the music, but our main focus is to empower and educate through information,” she said. “The music is just a tactic to bring them in.” Radio Campesina’s on-air talent and musical guests often discuss misinformation on air, answering listeners’ questions about voting, teaching them about spotting misinformation and doing tutorials on election processes, such as how to submit mail-in ballots. The station also has hosted rodeos and music events to register new voters and talk about misinformation. They allow listeners to call or text questions on WhatsApp, a social media platform especially popular with immigrant communities but where much of the misinformation they see festers. In March, the station partnered with Mi Familia Vota, a Latino advocacy group, for an on-air show and voter phone bank event to answer voter questions. “We know that there are many people who are unmotivated because sometimes we come from countries where, when it comes to elections, we don’t trust the vote,” said Carolina Rodriguez-Greer, Arizona director of Mi Familia Vota, before she shared information on the show about how voters can track their ballots. The organization began working with Spanish media outlets to dispel misinformation after seeing candidates such as former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake spread election lies in 2022, Rodriguez-Greer said. Lake is now running for the U.S. Senate with Trump's endorsement. “One way to combat this misinformation is to fill the airways with good information,” said Angelica Razo, national deputy director of campaigns and programs for Mi Familia Vota. A variety of other community and media groups also are prioritizing the seemingly never-ending fight against misinformation. Maritza Felix often fact-checked misinformation for her mother, whom she calls the “Queen of WhatsApp.” This led to Felix doing the same for family and friends in a WhatsApp group that grew into the Spanish news nonprofit Conecta Arizona. It now runs a radio show and newsletter that debunks false claims about election processes, health, immigration and border politics. Conecta Arizona also combats misinformation about the upcoming Mexican presidential election that Felix said has been seeping over the border. The Spanish-language fact-checking group Factchequeado is building partnerships with dozens of media outlets across the country to provide training and free Spanish fact-checking content. “Disinformation is at the same time a global phenomenon and a hyperlocal phenomenon," said Factchequeado co-founder Laura Zommer. “So, we have to address it with local and national groups uniting together.”

Political violence in Sudan is forcing thousands of refugees, many of them children, to neighboring South Sudan for safety. There, they face a different threat — a collapsing health care system. Sheila Ponnie reports from Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

washington — British researchers say Chinese nationalist trolls have been posing as American supporters of former President Donald Trump on X to try to exploit domestic divisions ahead of the U.S. election. A report released April 1 by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London think tank, says it found four previous Mandarin-tweeting accounts that went silent before re-emerging as American Trump supporter personas tweeting in English. It linked them to China’s so-called Spamouflage network, which it described as a “long-running and widespread but largely ineffective” campaign to promote pro-Chinese Communist Party narratives. But Elise Thomas, a senior researcher at the institute and author of the report, said pretending to be Trump supporters is a fresh and more effective tactic. “They are posing convincingly as Americans, specifically Trump supporters,” she told VOA. “They are getting engagement from what look like real American users. That's significantly different from what we've seen with Spamouflage in the past.” She pointed out that a traditional Spamouflage tweet might have many likes and retweets, but upon further examination, it’s all from other Spamouflage accounts. Now, they are interacting with predominantly genuine American users. “What they are doing that is quite different from other Spamouflage accounts is that they are building up authentic audiences using this thing called patriot follow trains, which is basically where people agree to mutually follow one another in order to each build their own follower accounts,” Thomas explained. Using real viral videos and photos, these accounts seek to amplify divisive issues such as LGBTQ rights, immigration, race, gun control and crime rates. Some of the accounts mock Biden’s age; others falsely claim that Biden is a pedophile. All seem to be promoting Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again (MAGA),” leading the report to dub this new tactic “MAGAflage.” One of the X accounts, Ben MAGA 2024, was opened in 2010, but previous posts have been deleted. Since April 18, 2023, the account began to tweet in English with a main theme: Biden is a pedophile and cannot be trusted. The account tries to build a persona as an American living in Los Angeles. It posted a picture in January with the caption “Good morning! Patriots, I’m 43 years old, and passionately and loyally supporting President Trump!” In fact, the picture belongs to a travel blog by a Danish man with no indication that he’s a Trump supporter.   This account also retweeted a video from Russian state media Russia Today on February 18, claiming that Biden and the Central Intelligence Agency had sent a neo-Nazi leader to fight in Ukraine. That post was retweeted by Alex Jones, an American far-right conspiracy theorist and radio show host with 2.2 million followers on X. The post had been viewed nearly 360,000 times as of March 4. Thomas said by wrapping a topic in a U.S. partisan political frame, they got “a reasonable amount of engagement” from real American users. This mimics Russia’s playbook during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when U.S. officials say Moscow used information warfare to damage the Clinton campaign, boost Trump’s chances and sow distrust in American democracy, which the Kremlin denies. The report said some Spamouflage accounts could also be posing as left-wing Biden supporters, though they did not find any. Twitter has since suspended all the accounts mentioned in the institute’s report. While just a handful of accounts were identified, the report says there are almost certainly many more, which Thomas worries could have an unseen effect on the U.S. election. “These [MAGAflage] accounts were very difficult to find. It took quite a lot of time, and I’ve only been able to find a relatively small number of them,” she said. “But because what we know from Spamouflage’s history is that everything it does, it does at massive scale. It would be really out of character for them to be only doing this, if it's effective, at a small scale. So, that’s my concern, that it may be happening at a significantly larger scale.” VOA reached out to the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment but did not receive a response as of publication time. The Spamouflage network was discovered in 2019 by social media analytics firm Graphika and was first used to target Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters. Researchers said the network is tied to “individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement,” and has been active across thousands of accounts and more than 50 platforms and forums, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X.   On March 11, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued its annual assessment on the major threats to U.S. interests around the world and warned that China's government may "attempt to influence the U.S. elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions." Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement sent to VOA that China is “committed to the principle of noninterference” and that claims about Beijing influencing U.S. presidential elections are “completely fabricated.” Meta in August shut down close to 9,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts, groups and pages associated with the Spamouflage network.

GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO — Mortar fire in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed three Tanzanian soldiers who were part of a southern Africa force deployed to help government troops battling M23 rebels, officials said.  The regional force sent soldiers to North Kivu province in December to help Kinshasa regain ground from the M23 militia in the lawless east.  The force includes soldiers from regional military heavyweight South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.  "This unfortunate incident happened after a hostile mortar round had fallen near the camp [where] they were staying," the 10-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said in a statement.  It gave no further details.  A source at the North Kivu governorate said the mortar attack struck last Thursday and a ceremony to honor the dead was held at SADC headquarters in the provincial capital, Goma, on Monday.  A soldier from South Africa has also died in a hospital while being treated for health problems, the SADC statement said.  After several years of dormancy, the mostly Tutsi M23 (March 23 Movement) group took up arms again in late 2021 and has seized swaths of North Kivu province.  Decades of violence  The region has been beset by violence in the decades since regional wars in the 1990s.  The DRC, the U.N. and Western countries accuse Rwanda of supporting the rebels in a bid to control the region's vast mineral resources, an allegation Kigali denies.  The force suffered its first losses in mid-February when two South African soldiers were killed by mortars at Mubambiro camp, near the town of Sake, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Goma.  A Congolese security source, asking not to be named, said the Tanzanian casualties happened at the same camp.  The force was to take over from an East African peacekeeping force, whose mandate was ended by Kinshasa, which accused it of colluding with the rebels instead of fighting them.  The U.N. mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, is also being wound down.  The 15,000 U.N. troops deployed in the vast central African country started to leave in February at the request of the Kinshasa government, which considers them ineffective.  The withdrawal is due to be completed by the end of the year.  According to an internal U.N. document seen by AFP, M23 rebels have made new gains in the east after Indian U.N. troops abandoned positions near Goma.  MONUSCO said in a note to staff that "the current security situation is becoming increasingly volatile as M23 has reached the northern outskirts of Sake."  The population of Goma has doubled to 2 million as refugees have fled the advance of the rebel group.  Residents said that M23 and Congolese forces exchanged artillery fire throughout the weekend around Sake and the western outskirts of Goma. 

U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump says laws against abortion should continue to be made by each state. That position goes against some of his supporters who want a nationwide abortion ban. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Maputo, Mozambique   — At least 97 people died when an overloaded boat capsized and sank off the coast of Mozambique late Sunday, state-run Radio Mozambique reported, citing local officials.  Radio Mozambique on Monday quoted Silveiro Nauaito, administrator of Mozambique’s northern province of Nampula, as saying those aboard the boat, largely women and children, were traveling from the northern Lunga district to a small island off the coast known as Mozambique Island. He said the 130 passengers were allegedly fleeing because of disinformation about a cholera outbreak and were headed to the island in search of health care. Nauaito said rescue teams had found 12 survivors and were searching for more, but poor weather at sea was making the operation more difficult. He said 91 bodies were found on Sunday and six others early on Monday. About 40 bodies have been taken to either the island or the mainland, and burials of the victims have begun, he said. Since January, Mozambique has been battling to contain a deadly cholera outbreak in its northern regions, a health crisis that has also affected neighboring countries such as Malawi and Zambia. The secretary of state in Nampula province, Jaime Neto, told VOA in a telephone interview that the boat could have been hit by a giant wave but it was also overcrowded and not suitable for carrying passengers. He also attributed the overcrowding of the boat to misinformation about the cholera outbreak. The vessel "was not prepared to take passengers. It ended up sinking and creating this situation that the province regrets." Boat travel is a major means of transport in Mozambique, which has a dilapidated road network. Accidents are common on the country’s rivers, lakes and Indian Ocean coast, with most due to poor maintenance of the vessels or overcrowding.

new orleans — Clarence “Frogman” Henry, who was one of New Orleans’ best known old-time R&B singers and scored a hit at age 19 with “Ain't Got No Home," has died. He was 87. Henry died Sunday night, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation said on social media. It didn't give the cause of death. Henry, who had been scheduled to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival later this month, imitated the voice of a frog in “Ain't Got No Home.” It was a hit in 1956 and later brought Henry renewed fame when it was featured on the “Forrest Gump” and “Mickey Blue Eyes” soundtracks. He credited disc jockey Poppa Stoppa, whose real name was Clarence Hayman, as coming up with the nickname the “Frogman,” which mimicked Fats Domino's moniker the “Fatman.” By 1958, Henry’s popularity waned, and he took to playing nightclubs on Bourbon Street. “I thought the sun would shine. I thought my record would always stay out there and stay on the top, but in 1958, the rain came and bring me back to New Orleans,” Henry told The Associated Press in 2003. But in 1960, a new song, “I Don’t Know Why But I Do” by Cajun songwriter Bobby Charles and arranged by Allen Toussaint, brought Henry renewed success. With the Bill Black Combo and the Jive Five, he opened for the Beatles for 18 dates in 1964 during their first U.S. trip and toured extensively, from Scotland to New Zealand. In Louisiana, Henry remained popular. He also was one of the few Black New Orleans musicians to cross over into Cajun musical circles. Henry, who was born in New Orleans on March 19, 1937, started playing the piano at 8, taking up lessons his sister had disliked. He worked for his father until he was 15, often for no money. He played the trombone and piano in his high school band and later joined The Toppers, traveling around southern Louisiana before making it big. “When I was going to school, I wanted to be Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and I would wear a wig with two plaits and call myself Professor Longhair,” Henry told the AP. “I like the Fats Domino rhythm, but I play my own chords and my own style.” Henry's national fame faded but he remained popular in Louisiana. He was a Bourbon Street fixture until 1981, when he retired from the grueling club circuit. But he never gave up music and continued to be an annual crowd pleaser at the Jazz & Heritage Festival. Funeral arrangements are pending at the Murray Henderson Funeral Home.

abuja, nigeria — Nigeria's former central bank governor on Monday pleaded not guilty to fresh charges brought against him by the country's anti-corruption body, The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, last week filed 26 charges accusing Godwin Emefiele of corrupt practices and misuse of authority while in office. Emefiele appeared before the Lagos State High Court on Monday with a co-defendant, Henry Omoile. In its suit filed April 3, the EFCC said Emefiele violated Nigeria’s corrupt practices act by receiving bribes and gifts and acquiring property through fraud. The EFCC also accused Emefiele of arbitrarily allocating $2 billion dollars in foreign exchange without bids or due process and conferring undue advantage to his associates. Emefiele and Omoile both pleaded not guilty to the charges. But the court remanded Emefiele into custody until Thursday, when a verdict on his bail application is expected. Emefiele's legal counsel was not immediately available to comment on the new charges. But public affairs analyst Chris Kwaja said, "On the strength of the allegations, if he's found wanting them, he'll face justice as required by the laws of the land. For every individual that has been given the mandate to occupy public office, that mandate is a product of trust. This case represents that. The only thing for me is that in pursuit of accountability, the Nigerian state must be conscious of the right of every individual." Former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Emefiele as CBN governor in 2014, and he served until last year. He was arrested in June, days after President Bola Tinubu took office. Last year, the former Central Bank governor faced charges in another court in  Abuja, for illegally awarding contracts and violating Nigeria’s procurement laws — charges that he denied. Eze Onyekpere, founder of the Center for Social Justice, wondered whether the government was looking for a scapegoat. "I'm getting a bit worried, because we've seen this happen before in previous administrations," Onyekpere said. "Let it not appear to be looking for a fall guy,  somebody that could easily be shaken off ... and trying to provide excuses for their inability to manage the economy very well. It's beginning to look a little bit not based on empirical legal evidence." Emefiele withdrew from a possible presidential bid in 2022. Last July, Tinubu hired a special investigator to scrutinize the operations of the Central Bank under Emefiele. On Friday, the investigator said his work was complete, but his report has not been released.

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico — Protesters in southern Mexico set the state government building afire Monday and torched at least a dozen cars in the parking lot.  The protests occurred in the violence-wracked city of Chilpancingo, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.  The protesters are demanding answers in the case of 43 students at a rural teachers’ college who disappeared in 2014. Another student from that college was killed in a confrontation with police in March.  The Guerrero state government said in a statement that it “regrets and condemns the violent acts.” The government noted the state interior secretary had resigned following the March confrontation with students. The police officers involved are under investigation in the death.  Images of the protests showed at least a dozen vehicles engulfed in fire and flames shooting out of the windows of the state office building, which is near the main highway leading from Mexico City to Acapulco. The building, which houses the governor's office, was ransacked.  Students at the radical Ayotzinapa teachers’ college, located on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, are known for their violent protests, which often involve hijacking buses and delivery trucks.  In March, protesters allied with the college commandeered a pickup truck and used it to ram down the wooden doors of Mexico City’s National Palace.  They battered down the doors and entered the colonial-era palace, where the president lives and holds his daily news briefings, before they were driven off by security agents. The palace is a historic structure dating back to the 1700s and was built on the site of the Aztec emperors’ palace.  The demonstration, like many others over the years, was called to protest the abduction and murder of 43 students a decade ago. The mass disappearance remains one of Mexico’s most infamous human rights cases.  In 2014, a group of students were attacked by municipal police in the southern city of Iguala, Guerrero, who handed them over to a local drug gang that apparently killed them and burned their bodies. Since the September 26 attack, only three of their remains have been identified.  After an initial cover up, last year a government truth commission concluded that local, state and federal authorities colluded with the gang to murder the students in what it called a “state crime.”  The under-funded radical rural teachers’ colleges in Mexico have a decades-long tradition of violent protests. In fact, when they were abducted, the students themselves had been hijacking passenger buses which they were going to use to travel to another protest.