Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto addressed state officials during an assembly on Thursday and said he will enforce reforms within the country's police department, Reuters reported.
The assembly was organized in response with the public's growing frustration with the government regarding the abduction of the 43 students in the city of Iguala.
People protesting on the streets have been calling on Pena Nieto to speed up the investigation on the matter. They believe the students were taken by law enforcers and handed over to drug gangs operating in the country.
"After Iguala, Mexico has to change," Pena Nieto told the state officials. "Our country has been shaken by cruelty and barbarism."
During the assembly, Pena Nieto unveiled a plan aimed at preventing gangs from influencing local organizations and government agencies. Particularly, the president wants to authorize the congress to suspend institutions that are known to be collaborating with gangs, according to the Guardian.
In addition, the responsibility of policing the different parts of the country will be turned over to state authorities instead of municipal departments.
"The tragedy in Iguala involved the combination of unacceptable conditions of institutional weakness," the president said. "Only through the rule of law can we overcome, together, the challenges posed by insecurity, corruption and impunity."
So far, a total of 79 individuals have been arrested in connection to the abduction of the students in September of this year. These include Jose Luis Abarca, the former mayor of Iguala and his wife, the Daily Mail reported.
Abarca is the alleged mastermind behind the abduction and the one who ordered police officers to hand over the students to the Guerreros Unidos gang.
Those who were arrested with the former mayor said the students were killed and burned using gasoline.
Hours before Pena Nieto addressed the assembly, 11 bodies, some decapitated, were found near the area where the students were abducted, CNN has learned. Investigators are still analyzing if the latest discovery is related to the missing students.
