We recently reported that 43 Mexican college students were kidnapped by police under orders of a mayor in southern Mexico were probably killed by a drug gang.

As the bodies of those victims begin to be identified, thousands of angry Mexicans are marching to protest real police brutality and corruption.

Mexico identified the first remains of 43 missing college students in a case that has spurred nationwide protests demanding that the government strengthen the rule of law.

DNA tests from bone fragments collected where a drug gang allegedly dumped them identified 21-year-old Alexander Mora, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said at a press conference yesterday. Authorities are seeking at least 16 more police officers and 11 others believed to be involved in the crime that happened in the southwestern city of Iguala, he said.

“Only one person has been identified,” Felipe de la Cruz, a representative of the students’ parents said in a telephone interview from Oaxaca. “There are still 42 out there and we’re going to search for them. Alive, of course.”

Thousands of protesters marched Dec. 6 alongside the parents of the missing students, who demanded that the rest of their children be found and those responsible convicted. News reports that Mora’s remains had been identified emerged before the rally.

President Enrique Pena Nieto has faced a political backlash over the disappearances as well as his handling of public works projects, after his wife agreed in 2012 to buy a home from a contractor who later was awarded part of a $4.3 billion rail contract. The government canceled the contract.

Pena Nieto’s approval rating has plunged to the lowest level for any Mexican president since the mid-1990s, according to an opinion poll released last week by Reforma Newspaper. Thirty-nine percent of those polled approved of Pena Nieto’s performance, down 11 percentage points from August.