New forensic evidence is confirming the Mexican government’s theory that 43 students from a Leftist teachers’ school in Guerrero state were murdered by a drug gang and burned to ashes.  DNA tests on a bone fragment match it to 19-year old Alexander Mora, one of the missing 43.  The case has provoked widespread outrage in a country where drug gang atrocities have become commonplace.

“This scientific proof confirms that the remains found at the scene coincide with the evidence of the investigation,” said Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam.  “We will continue with the probe until all the guilty have been arrested.”

Mexico called in forensic specialists in Argentina and Austria to examine remains found in mass graves and a trash dump in southwestern Mexico.  It’s believed the students were en route to a protest in Iguala town in the country’s south.  They were last seen being bundled into the backs of police vans.  Prosecutors say the mayor ordered police to hand the students over to his partners in the local drug gang.  Two members confessed to the killings, as well as burning the bodies and dumping them in a river.

Murillo says more than 80 people have been arrested, including Iguala’s mayor and his wife, the town’s police chief and several officers, and a multitude of gangsters.  It has turned into a major crisis for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who is seen as less concerned about the security of Mexico’s citizens than he is about privatizing state-run oil interests or other sweetheart deals with the bankers.  Massive protests across the nation have often gone off the rails.  The capital city’s police chief resigned after a demonstration there turned violent.

Despite what appears to be rock solid confirmation of the worst fears, the parents of some of the other students say they are holding out hope that the missing will be found alive.