Missing Students in Mexico: First Student Identified; Attorney General Says Probe to Continue
Attorney General Jesus Murillo confirmed the identity of one of the 43 missing Mexican students that were abducted by police in late September.
Alexander Mora has been identified by experts from a bone fragment found in a bag of ash that was recovered in a river where drug cartel members claimed to have discarded the remains of the missing students.
Mora is the first of the 43 missing students whose remains have been identified.
After the announcment, Jesus Murillo was quoted in a Reuters article as saying: "We will continue with the probe until all the guilty have been arrested."
Federal authorities say that they received information about the remains from the confessions of drug traffickers that insinuated that the 43 students were rounded up on orders of Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and then delivered to the drug gang to be murdered.
Ezequiel Mora, the indentified student’s father, was quoted, distraught and stammering, in a CNN piece, talking about how he learned of his son’s fate. "They gave me the news that my son is now ... he is now dead," adding that everyone "comes and gives me their support ... but now no one is going to return him to me."
During the search for the students in the state of Guerrero, dozens of bodies were discovered in mass graves.
Since the Sept. 26 tragedy, there have been constant protests which lead to the arrests of several high-ranking officials, including Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife.
Last week, following Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's call for sweeping reform for the nation’s police forces, Mexico City’s chief of police Jesus Rodriguez Almeida stepped down from his position.
Amid the protests and government shake-ups, a general feeling of fury matched with disbelief surrounds the nation.
Alexander Mora's own cousin is quoted by CNN as not believing the official story about what happened to Mora.
"I don't believe he's dead," she said. Questioning where the rest of his body was, she added: “I feel like they're just deceiving us."
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com