A march Sunday to honor a student who died in a carjacking on his 17th birthday will highlight the fact that 94 percent of crimes in Mexico go unreported, the victim’s father says.
“If we want to change things, we have to do something ourselves. The majority of (Mexicans) are good people but we have to organize,” Blas Ali Saras told a radio station this week.
Blas Ali Saras, who shares the same name as his father and was a distinguished student at the private Thomas Jefferson high school, was shot in the abdomen in the Colonia Miguel de la Madrid neighborhood of Guadalajara, near Ciudad Bugambilias, shortly after he celebrated his birthday with his mother and sister at a pizzeria on Lopez Mateos Sur. The three were intercepted in his mother’s SUV while en route to his godfather’s house where they planned to share a cake.
Ali Saras lived with his family for six years in Japan and spoke five languages, a remarkable feat for someone so young.
The slain teen’s parents say they are planning to create a foundation to assist with improving Mexico’s security situation and urge governments on all levels to work closer with citizens to achieve this end.
The march on Sunday, October 30 starts at 10 a.m. at the Niños Heroes Glorieta and will make its way to the Plaza de la Liberation in the city center. All attendees are welcome and are asked to wear white clothing.