Hundreds of people gathered in New York City on Thursday to welcome a month-long, cross-country peace caravan led by Mexican activists calling for an end of the U.S.-backed drug war. The caravan is organized by Mexican poet-turned-activist Javier Sicilia, whose 24-year-old son, Juan Francisco, was murdered by drug traffickers last year. At a vigil beginning at the Riverside Church, Daniel Robelo of the Drug Policy Alliance said the drug war is causing suffering on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Daniel Robelo: “I think the vigil is drawing attention to the fact that it’s not just our brothers and sisters in Mexico who are suffering so much because of this failed war on drugs, but also communities right here in New York, communities in the United States, especially the black and Latino communities, who, while drug use levels are similar across all racial and ethnic lines, are vastly — blacks and Latinos are vastly overrepresented in the criminal justice system, far more likely to be arrested, to be incarcerated, to be deported, just for possessing or using drugs.”