Three members of the Mexican gang Guerreros Unidos have told police that they murdered the missing 43 Mexican student teachers who have been missing since September 26.

At a press conference held today, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam played taped confessions from the gang members who had been arrested by police, with the suspects even describing in detail the methods used to kill and dispose of the bodies. Some were shot, some suffocated and then the bodies burnt, with the remains then dumped in the San Juan river. Bone fragments and teeth have been pulled from the river, but it'll take some time before the body parts can be formally identified.

The 43 students from a teacher training college in Iguala, Guerrero, clashed with police in September when demonstrating against a hiring system that allegedly favours hiring teachers from inner city areas rather than rural ones. Six were killed when officers opened fire, with eyewitnesses describing seeing students bundled into police cars. The 43 protesters have not been seen since and if the confessions are genuine, they have lost their lives at the hands of a violent gang and a corrupt mayor.

The mayor of Iguala Jose Luis Abarca and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda are said to have strong ties to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. On September 26, Abarca is believed to have instructed the police to prevent the protesters disrupting an event that his wife was hosting. After the violent clashes, the police turned the 43 student teachers over to the Guerreros Unidos gang. The country's attorney general said that the mayor and his wife were the "probable masterminds" of the mass kidnapping, describing Pineda as the "main operator of criminal activities" in Iguala. After the 43 students went missing, Abarca and Pineda went on the run, but the fugitives were arrested in Mexico City this week.

At today's press conference, the attorney general said: "I know the enormous pain the information we've obtained causes the family members, a pain we all share. The statements and information that we have gotten unfortunately point to the murder of a large number of people in the municipality of Cocula."

However, relatives of the students are skeptical about the validity of the announcements, either clinging onto to hope, or weary of an inability to trust the authorities in a country besieged by corruption. Protests have hit the streets across Mexico, as enraged demonstrators campaign for change, justice and truth.

Many Mexicans believe that the state and the police are in fact the real culprits and anti-authority marches are expected to continue over the next few days, with the chant "It was the state" at the centre of the protests.