Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in a speech from the National Palace on Thursday revealed his new security plan for the country in response to protests against the disappearance, and presumed murder, of 43 students two months ago.

In his speech, he announced a series of measures to check organized crime in municipal governments.

"All this tragedy, combined with unacceptable conditions of institutional weakness, we cannot ignore. A criminal group controls the territory of many municipalities. Municipal authorities were part of the criminal organization. Municipal police were, in reality, criminals," President Nieto said.

His speech, lasting 40 minutes, acknowledged widespread poverty, inequality, violence and corruption in marked contrast to his usual upbeat image of Mexico, which has caused him to be known as the "TV president."

His 10-point plan includes a sweeping overhaul of local police forces, constitutional amendments and the creation of special economic zones in the poorest parts of the country.

Specifically, his plan called for making constitutional changes giving state control over police, in effect scrapping nearly 2,000 police agencies and reducing them to 32 single agencies per state. The government will also send federal police to the worst affected areas -- Tierra Caliente regio, Guerrero, Michoacan and Jalisco and Tamaulipas. Nieto also proposed to set up a nationwide emergency telephone system, like the U.S. 911, as currently there are many different local emergency numbers.

The president has been heavily criticized by many Mexicans of his government's poor handling of the kidnapping of the 43 students on September 26 in Iguala, in the state of Guerrero. The federal government blamed local police, who it says were working in collaboration with politicians and drug runners involved in the disappearances, which exposed the extent of the corruption throughout the country.

"The people who have gone out into the streets in Mexico, and other parts of the world, everyone agrees on a fundamental point that Mexico could not continue like this, and they're right. After Iguala, Mexico should change," Nieto said.

Nieto also announced the creation of three special economic zones that will include Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan and Oaxaca, some of the poorest states in the country through a legal initiative which will be sent to Congress in February. The objective is to encourage investment and creation of lucrative jobs with modern infrastructure, security conditions, and additional facilities for foreign trade, as well as tax rebates, he explained.

Many of these proposals have been made in past administrations and Thursday's speech lacked the details of how they would succeed this time. The major political parties said they would examine the security policies, but already noted deficiencies in the plan.

"In fighting corruption, what has been announced is notoriously insufficient. There should be a more convincing response. Other measures in this regard are needed," said Democratic Revolution Party President Carlos Navarrete, according to Indo Asia News Service.

Absent from his speech was anything the federal government was going to hide out what happened to the missing 43 students.  

On the same day the president spoke, 11 more bodies turned in Guerrero, burned and headless. Reports have surfaced in recent days of at least 50 other people kidnapped and missing from the state in the last year alone, reported the L.A. Times.