Caravan For Peace Continues with Voices of the Victims Tour

Caravan for Peace continues North America tour to continue dialogue about drug war

Councilmember Price presents Sicilia with a proclamation honoring his courageous activism to end the drug war. (Photo credit: Medical Marijuana 411)

Mexican poet and peace leader Javier Sicilia arrived in Los Angeles to speak firsthand about the pain and devastation caused by the failed drug war.

Sicilia’s three-day visit is part of the bi-national “Voices of the Victims” Tour, traveling to a dozen cities in the U.S. and Canada to continue last year’s call for an end to the drug war that has left over 80,000 people murdered, 25,000 disappeared and 250,000 displaced in Mexico in just seven years.

On Friday morning, Sicilia was joined by Councilmember Curren De Mille Price, Jr. (9th District) for a press conference at City Hall, where Councilmember Price presented Sicilia with a proclamation honoring his courageous activism to end the drug war.

Sicilia made a brief visit to “Buds and Roses Collective”, a sophisticated and socially responsible LA-based medical marijuana dispensary, to learn how legally regulating marijuana can ensure that consumers are no longer funding organized crime through their consumption.

That evening, the poet delivered a keynote address to kick-off the 2013 National Leadership Assembly of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC), Nov. 8-10, where he will discuss building a bi-national movement to demand humane immigration and drug policies to protect the safety, health and dignity of people throughout the Americas.

On Saturday, Sicilia attended a community breakfast meeting at the invitation of several dozen Latino leaders and migrants’ rights defenders.

Following breakfast, attendees gathered at the Plaza Mexico for a symbolic public action to commemorate the lives lost because of unjust migration and drug policies in Mexico.