A very special pirate flag waved in Mexico City this Sunday, landing in the Zócalo, just meters from the National Palace, which was fortified for the occasion with three-meter-high metal fences and concrete blocks. The smiling skull with the straw hat, which the Japanese anime series One Piece has ingrained in the collective memory of young people, has also been seen in at least 30 Mexican cities as a form of protest against government policies, from rampant insecurity to the lack of opportunities and precarious employment, despite the fact that 60% of the population has a high school education.

An unexpected enemy: Generation Z, which has made President Claudia Sheinbaum very nervous, already overwhelmed by the anti-drug movement led by Mayor Grecia Quiroz, widow of the murdered Carlos Manzo; by the teachers' protests (always close to her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador); and by the United States' actions in its crusade against the cartels. Born between 1997 and 2012, the 30 million young people of Generation Z have taken over from the millennials, the first generation to be fully connected to the internet, from where the call for today's protests originated.

The pirate crew of Captain Monkey D. Luffy has multiplied in its defiance of the World Government since the youth protests in Nepal found an echo in Serbia, Morocco, the Philippines, and Peru. This was also evident in Mexico, as seen in the marches organized through social media that so angered Sheinbaum, who ordered the Presidential Palace to be fortified. Days before the youth planted a huge flag at its base, other anonymous graffiti artists had painted the word"narco-state" on the barrier erected by the authorities. At the end of the march in the capital, riots broke out in the Zócalo when the police, from behind the large defensive wall, sprayed tear gas at the most fervent groups, who had even climbed to the top to try to shake it.

The pirate flag, a favorite of Gen Z, also flew atop the Monument to the Fatherland in Mérida, the capital of Yucatán, to the delight of onlookers. It was also displayed alongside hundreds of people gathered in Chiapas, Jalisco, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, among other states.

"It was the opposition that really fueled this march. It's a digital strategy paid for from abroad and linked to right-wing groups, with bots, fake accounts, and coordinated campaigns," the president denounced, thus giving a final push to the mobilization. Figures such as former president Vicente Fox, businessman Claudio X. González, and Ricardo Salinas Pliego, founder and president of Grupo Salinas, have supported the marches.

Sheinbaum knows that Manzo's murder and her clumsy and arrogant initial reaction opened a Pandora's box for a government that retains majority support, but did not expect this twist caused by the drug traffickers.

"Carlos [Manzo] didn't die, the State killed him," was heard again in the streets, in the throats of the youngest, to make it clear that the bullets that ended the life of the mayor of Uruapan, in the state of Michoacán, have given much encouragement to the Hat Movement in its fight against violence and drug trafficking.

Even Raquel Ceja, the grandmother of the murdered man, joined the citizens' march that moved from the Angel of Independence to the historic center of the capital, with the presence of young people but also people of all ages.

Ultimately, the youth movement became a call to action for the rest of society, which joined the protests, which were not massive but were nonetheless significant. Whether more or less present in the demonstrations, Generation Z youth are now at the epicenter of the violence that is consuming Mexico: homicide was the leading cause of death among them in 2024.