Parents and relatives of the 43 students missing in the Mexican state of Guerrero have marked seven months since their loved ones disappeared. Some of the parents and relatives converged on New York City after traveling across the United States in caravans. On Sunday, they marched to the United Nations, asking the U.N. to pressure Mexico to reopen the investigation into the students’ disappearance and calling for the U.S. to stop backing Mexico’s drug war under Plan Mérida. The Mexican government has said the students were attacked by municipal police acting under the corrupt mayor of Iguala, then turned over to drug gang members who killed and incinerated them. But Mexican news reports point to a role by federal authorities. María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, mother of one of the missing students, spoke at Sunday’s march.
María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello: “We are here today marching, April 26, in support of the Ayotzinapa Normal School. I’m a mother who has a disappeared son. His name is José Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa. My name is María de Jesús Tlatempa. And we’re here asking the support of all the American people, asking for them to stand in solidarity with us, as parents, because it’s the only way to demand our government help us find our children, and to pressure our government, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and all of our leaders, because they are all involved in the forced disappearance of our children.”
