Parents and colleagues of 43 students missing for nearly six months in Guerrero, Mexico, are bringing their call for justice to the United States. The students’ families question the Mexican government’s claims local police under orders from the corrupt mayor of Iguala turned the students over to drug gang members, who killed and incinerated them. Only one student’s remains have been identified, and Mexican media reports have tied federal authorities to the attack. Three caravans will travel across the United States, converging on New York next month. Speaking at a news conference at the Mexican Consulate in New York, Felipe de la Cruz Sandoval, a professor at the Ayotzinapa teachers college, whose son survived the police attack, said the parents have a message for President Obama.

Felipe de la Cruz Sandoval: “We are here to tell [the U.S. government] that in Mexico we have been living for many years in an anti-democracy, in a criminal state, and as parents, we will not allow more impunity, and that if President Obama has human thoughts and feels the pain of the Mexican people, he should be reviewing the political relations and the agreements with Mexico, and that he should consider if a life is more important than a political and economic agreement on weapons with Mexico, because these weapons are being used to kill students in Mexico.”