Students at a teacher training school in Morelia, Michoacán, hijacked several vehicles yesterday in a protest against the state government.

Masked students enrolled at the Vasco de Quiroga Normal School in Tiripetío nabbed five trucks and three buses on the Pátzcuaro-Morelia highway, ordering the drivers out and commandeering the vehicles.

The newspaper El Universal reported that aerial footage it obtained showed the eight vehicles were being kept on the school grounds, where students looted the trucks’ cargo.

A student who asked to remain anonymous initially denied that any vehicles were being kept on the school’s premises but then explained that the hijacking was in protest against the government for not releasing funds for the school’s maintenance and for scholarships for 540 students.

The student said that some of the hijacked vehicles were released when negotiations with the state government started.

Students in Guerrero probably hold the record for the largest number of hijacked vehicles. An estimated 500 were stolen during protests over the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Iguala, Guerrero.

Teachers have also engaged in the practice. In 2016, teachers built up an impressive storage lot of 75 stolen vehicles in Nahuatzen, Michoacán. They were among 200 that authorities believed were stolen in protests in the state against the 2012 education reforms.

Source: El Universal (sp)