Families Of Disappeared Mexican Students Visit U.S.
Families of the 43 Mexican students who went missing last September are touring the United States and sharing their stories. Their goal is to take their case before the United Nations and Amnesty International.
Jorge Alvarez Nava was a 19-year-old aspiring teacher who loved to play guitar. Last September, he was among 43 students who disappeared in the Mexican state of Guerrero. His mother, Blanca Luz Nava, is part of a caravan of families sharing their stories with a U.S. audience.
"We won't achieve anything by sitting silently at home," she said. "We are here to ask for U.S. support in pressuring the Mexican government to resolve this case."
Mexican authorities have said the students were abducted by local police on their way to a protest in Mexico City. They were later killed by a drug gang that incinerated their bodies and threw them in a river. Families of the 43 students remain skeptical of the government's investigation. The students' deaths are said to be the result of an alliance between political leaders and organized crime.
Alan Dicker is a student at New Mexico State University and part of a committee which welcomed the families on campus this week.
"The use of outright violence in Mexico is… meant to intimidate people," Dicker said. "This is the reality for anyone who is a dissident in Mexico. This is the reality for the poor in rural areas."
The caravan of families will travel to more than 30 U.S. cities in the coming weeks. Their goal is present their cases before the United Nations and Amnesty International.
