Mexico Grieves After Remains of 1 of 43 Missing Students are Identified

The interim governor of Guerrero, Rogelio Ortega, has announced three days of mourning as the remains of one of the 43 students who have disappeared in the Mexican state have been identified.

"Starting from today and for the next three days the flags throughout the state will be at half-mast in memory and honor of Alexander Mora Venancio," Ortega wrote on his Facebook page Sunday.

The interim governor also expressed his condolences to the family of the victim, stressing that the Mexican government will not stop until it finds the other 42 students, statesman.com reports.

On Sunday, Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam confirmed that a burnt bone fragment discovered in a dump in Guerrero contained Mora's DNA. Mora is the first of the 43 missing students whose remains have been identified.

On September 26, a group of policemen, accompanied by armed gang members from local drug cartels, abducted students protesting against discriminatory hiring and funding practices in the city of Iguala in the Guerrero state. Six people died in the initial conflict and 43 students went missing.

Protests, which have seen demonstrators attacking government buildings and blocking traffic, have been ongoing in Mexico since the students disappeared. Nevertheless, the country's president Enrique Pena Nieto has denounced the protests as being in the interests of those who wish to destabilize the situation in the country. He has also claimed that the demonstrations were mostly aimed at preventing the national project on boosting economic growth launched by his government.