First remains of missing Mexican students identified

MEXICO CITY — More than two months after they disappeared, concrete evidence is beginning to emerge on the fate of 43 college students whose case has caused a political crisis in Mexico.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam confirmed Sunday that one of the students has been identified among charred remains found several weeks ago near a garbage dump. He said the student is Alexander Mora, based on material extracted from a bone fragment and analyzed by forensics experts in Innsbruck, Austria.

Relatives and fellow students in Ayotzinapa said experts Friday had told them of the DNA match with Mora, a teenage farmer whose classmates called him The Rock for his determination.

“He was a classmate who was very strong, very persevering in whatever he had as a goal,” said Omar Garcia. “It’s a big loss.”

The identification confirmed what Murillo Karam told parents in November: that the students rounded up in a conflict with police had been killed and incinerated by a drug gang. Horror, hope — and the lack of positively identified remains — led parents to discount the story, saying they would keep searching and expected to find their children alive.

Some 17 samples of remains were sent to Austria and the first confirmation came on Thursday, Murrillo Karam said.

He said 80 people have been arrested so far, including 44 police officers from Iguala and neighbouring Cocula, where the remains were found.

Parents of the missing marched with thousands of people Saturday evening in a previously planned protest in Mexico City, descending from buses with sullen faces, most declining to speak to reporters.

“The parents will not rest until we have justice,” said Felipe de la Cruz, father of one of the missing students.

“If they think one confirmation will leave us simply to mourn, they’re wrong.”

The students went missing Sept. 26 after confrontations with police in Iguala. Murillo Karam has said they were attacked by police on orders of Iguala’s then mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, who has since been detained.