Mexican student’s remains ‘identified’

Tests have identified the charred remains of one of the 43 Mexican student teachers who went missing in Guerrero state 10 weeks ago, an official said. A family member of Alexander Mora confirmed that the remains were his after speaking to a team of forensic experts.

This apparently confirms a massacre of the student teachers that the Mexican government has blamed on drug gangs. The students were allegedly seized by local police in Iguala in September where they had travelled to protest against what they described as discriminatory employment practices for teachers that favour urban students over rural ones. The police opened fire on the students as they were in buses travelling back to their college, killing three of them. The students tried to flee but they were chased by police officers and sent to a police station. Some of the police officers, who are now arrested, have admitted to investigators that they handed the students over to a criminal drug dealing gang called Guerreros. According to prosecutors, the gang then murdered the students, incinerated their bodies at a rubbish dump near Cocula and scattered the ashes over a river.

Mexico’s Attorney General Jesus Murillo said that his office could not confirm the positive match and has scheduled a press conference for Sunday.

This incident has sparked protests across Mexico against widespread violence and corruption and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s popularity rating has sunk to its lowest point since he assumed office in 2012.

Thousands of protestors marched in the capital of Mexico City on Saturday evening. 

“If the government thinks that, because one of our boys’ DNA was identified, we will sit and cry, we want to tell them that they’re wrong,” Felipe de la Cruz, father of one of the missing students told protestors. “We will keep fighting until we find the other 42.”

Pena Nieto has sent a reform package to Congress for approval that includes the replacement of all 1,800 municipal police forces with state-level units.

Over 70 people have been arrested in connection with this incident, including Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife Maria de los Angeles. The two have been accused of ordering the police to confront the students, therefore preventing them from disrupting his wife’s public speech.