Grieving Parents in Mexico Call for End to Prohibition on Drugs, Legalization Arturo Conde - NBC Latino
go to original April 26, 2016

"El Poeta" describes how acclaimed Mexican poet Javier Sicilia became a symbol and spokesperson for the families of many innocent victims of Mexico's Drug Wars. (VOCESMedia)

Nineteen months after 43 Ayotzinapa college students were abducted on September 26, 2014, two Mexican fathers - poet and activist Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered by a drug gang in 2011, and Antonio Tizapa, whose son was among the 43 — say that violence in Mexico will not stop until the drug war is ended.

"I think drug legalization could help put an end to organized crime," said Sicilia in an interview with NBC Latino. "Prohibition destabilizes society and targets people who are the most vulnerable — but we need a comprehensive solution that also addresses gun violence."

Legalization proponents like Sicilia say that prohibition creates illegal drug and gun markets, which have escalated violence between the Mexican government and drug gangs competing to control different territories. And as a result, Sicilia explained that thousands of innocent Mexicans are being killed in a brutal war.

Several days ago the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported there was strong evidence that Mexican police tortured some of the key suspects arrested in the disappearance of the 43 students. The students, including Tizapa's son, have not been heard from since they were taken by local police in the city of Iguala, in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

Sicilia's 24-year-old son — a college student on an athletic scholarship who had never used drugs — was kidnapped, tortured and murdered along with others who also had no ties to organized crime, all killed by members of a drug cartel group seeking money. In the last five years, Sicilia has rallied thousands of protesters in anti-violence marches across Mexico to end the drug war.

Read the rest at NBC Latino

Related: Editorial: Massacre Cover-Up Explains Why Mexico's Such a Mess (STLtoday.com)

Related: Focus on Drug War Victims, Not El Chapo, Says Mexican Poet and Activist (NBC Latino)

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