Missing Mexico students could mar Enrique Peña Nieto's presidency

Forty-three student teachers are still missing in Mexico. The disappearance has shocked many. A city's mayor, his wife and much of the police force have been jailed - all part of a larger problem that Mexican authorities seem incapable of controlling. Today, we hear about the power and cruelty of the cartels, and whether the President of Mexico has lost the war on drugs.

School chairs with photographs of some of the 43 missing students of the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College Raul Isidro Burgos (Reuters/Henry Romero)

Angry protesters choked the streets of Mexico City this week -- exasperated by the lack of government action on 43 missing student teachers. The students disappeared after the bus they were on was stopped by police in the city of Iguala almost six weeks ago -- apparently at the request of the town's mayor and his wife.

In the confrontation with police, some students were shot dead, and it's believed the surviving 43 were handed to a local cartel called the Guerreros Unidos.

On Tuesday, the mayor and his wife were arrested in Mexico City after a month on the lam.

To tell us more, we were joined by Franc Contreras. He's a freelance reporter in Mexico City.

When he first took power two years ago, President Enrique Pena Nieto was a new hope. He graced the cover of Time Magazine under the title "Saving Mexico." He and his wife won fans across Europe as they toured the continent this summer. And he was awarded the 2014 World Statesman award in New York City in September.

But the student crisis is casting a dark shadow over his presidency.

Tony Payan is the director of the Mexico Institute at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

We did put in calls to the Mexican Embassy and Consulate here in Canada, our calls were not returned.

This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien and Marc Apollonio.