Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Peace train: A group of human-rights activists traveled through Mexico’s most violent territories last week to protest the drug war. Led by poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was killed by drug cartel members in March, the group stopped in cities throughout Mexico, holding rallies and inviting families of those murdered to speak. Sicilia blames the cartels, the Mexican army, and the U.S. for the violence. At the end of the tour, Sicilia crossed the border into El Paso, Texas, where he urged Americans to restrict gun sales and stop funding corrupt Mexican security forces. “If U.S. citizens don’t pressure their government,” he said, “they will become accomplices of a crime against humanity.” More than 34,000 Mexicans have died in drug violence in the past four years.
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