Mexico: Charred Eye Socket Belongs to Missing Student

More than two months after 43 student protesters disappeared in Mexico, a bone fragment found in a dump has provided what authorities say is the first solid evidence of their fate. Mexico's attorney general says forensic experts have determined that the charred piece of eye socket belongs to missing student Alexander Mora Venancio, McClatchy reports. The attorney general says the students were arrested by local police in the city of Iguala and turned over to a gang, which massacred them, burned the bodies in a dump, and threw the remains in a river. Another 16 bone fragments found in the dump are still being tested by Austrian experts.

Around 80 people—including Iguala's mayor and his wife—have been arrested in connection with the case. Parents of the student teachers spoke at a demonstration in Mexico City on Saturday after Venancio's relatives announced the identification, the BBC reports. 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," the father of another missing student said. "We will keep fighting until we find the other 42." Amid nationwide anger at the atrocity, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised sweeping reforms, including the disbanding of local police forces. (More missing student stories.)