Mexico has been reeling after the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 college students in September.

Thousands of demonstrators, made up of teachers, students and sympathizers, have flooded the streets of Mexico City, blocking major highways and setting fires that damaged the door to the national palace in Mexico City as well as the regional political party offices and the state congress building in Guerrero, where the students attended Ayotzinapa teachers college.

The unrest has been erupting since late September but has become an undeniable force since Nov. 10, when Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam held a news conference to detail the federal government's investigation into the students' disappearance, an account of events which relied much upon the testimony of men that allegedly participated in the slayings.

Within hours of the media event, a spontaneous vigil formed at the Angel of Independence, an iconic monument in downtown Mexico City. The vigil later became a march to Murillo Karam's headquarters. Nationwide there have been dozens of major demonstrations since the students went missing. Most of the protests have been peaceful, but a significant few have turned violent.

The street protests, which are by and large organized by students and teachers’ unions, exemplify an ongoing level of political frustration but the degree of public venting that has shown itself, as the New York Times has pointed out, is something new. Usually subdued sectors, such as the members of the Roman Catholic bishops conference and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, are speaking up, calling for clarity and dialogue.

“We think it is necessary to move from protests to proposals,” the bishops conference said in a statement.

Mexico, according to LA Times writer Ruben Martinez, is in shock, suffering a national trauma on the level of 9/11 or Sandy Hook and is organized in protest in a way that has not been seen perhaps since the revolution of 1910.