“Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity” To Arrive in San Diego on August 12, after crossing the border from Mexico to call for an end to a Drug War that has killed 70,000 in Mexico.
Javier Sicilia and other Victims from Mexico and United States Making 6,000-mile journey through 20 cities, culminating an International Day of Action in Washington D.C.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and Medical Marijuana 411 will be joining the Caravan and will be documenting each event, starting at the San Diego border to remember the lives lost in the failed Drug War on both sides of the border.
By Caravan For Peace | August 9, 2012
Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who founded the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity after tragically losing his son because of the drug war, is leading the Caravan For Peace with the hopes of bringing an end to the War on Drugs.
On Sunday, August 12, the “Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity” will begin its voyage across the United States as it works to create a bi-national movement against the failed drug war that has left more than 70,000 dead in Mexico in the last five years.
Led by Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, families of victims from Mexico will tell the story of the human toll of the war on drugs, while building powerful ties with local communities in the United States that are also deeply impacted by the failed drug war—the longest and deadliest war in U.S. history.
The goal of the Caravan for Peace is to engage in citizen diplomacy to put an end to the war on drugs and start a healing process from the national emergency that has devastated Mexico.
The Caravan will trek over 6,000 miles through more than 25 cities and communities in ten states—including Los Angeles, Santa Fe, El Paso, Houston, Montgomery, New Orleans, Chicago and New York—before arriving in Washington, D.C., on September 10. At each stop, the Caravan will be welcomed by local communities, who have planned rallies, marches, candlelight vigils, forums, performance art and more.
The Caravan will officially conclude on September 12 by calling for an International Day of Action for Peace in Mexico. You can learn more about when the Caravan will be near you at www.caravanforpeace.org.
LEAP and Medical Marijuana 411, along with dozens of other organization across the contentent are supporting the Caravan, including groups like Drug Policy Alliance and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, as well as the School of the Americas Watch and Veterans For Peace, to name a few.
LAPD Deputy Chief Stephen Downing (ret.) is now a LEAP speaker, and often discusses how he saw the Bloods and Crips grow from a handful of kids to the gangs we know them as today because of drug prohibition laws like Organized Crime did during alcohol prohibition.
“I am joining the Caravan and supporting Javier for one, important and simple reason: because it is unquestionably the right thing to do at exactly the right time in the history of our Nation and the world,” said the retired Deputy Chief.
Javier Sicilia emerged as a leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) after his son Juan Francisco was killed in senseless prohibition-related violence last year. Since then, the MPJD has undertaken similar caravans across Mexico to collect stories of the destruction caused by the war against drugs and organized crime. Through these caravans, victims have expressed in their own voices the drug war’s disastrous consequences.
“Our purpose is to honor our victims, to make their names and faces visible,” Sicilia said. “We will travel across the United States to raise awareness of the unbearable pain and loss caused by the drug war – and of the enormous shared responsibility for protecting families and communities in both our countries.”
Since 2006, Mexico has experienced unprecedented pain: more than 70,000 people have been killed and more than 10,000 have disappeared in violence resulting largely from the failure of drug prohibition. The drug war has produced painful consequences in the United States as well, especially the mass incarceration of non-violent people – overwhelming people of color.
Bringing together victims of the drug war from both countries, the Caravan aims to expose the root causes of violence in Mexico, to raise awareness about the effects of the drug war on communities in the U.S., and to inspire U.S. civil society to demand new policies that will foster peace, justice and human dignity on both sides of the border.
More specifically, the Caravan calls for:
- The exploration of alternatives to drug prohibition, including diverse forms of drug regulation and decriminalization;
- a halt to the illegal smuggling of weapons across the border to Mexico, which can be achieved without infringing on U.S. constitutional rights;
- concrete steps to combat money laundering, including holding financial institutions accountable;
- the immediate suspension of U.S. assistance to Mexico’s armed forces, and a reorientation of U.S. aid to Mexico in a manner that prioritizes human security; and
- an end to the militarization of the border and the criminalization of immigrants, and the adoption of policies that protect the dignity of every human being.
Nearly 100 U.S. organizations* are a part of the Caravan initiative, including Medical Marijuana 411, the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), National Latino Congress, Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Latin America Working Group (LAWG), Border Angels / Angeles de la Frontera, CIP-Americas Program, Presente.org, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Veterans for Peace, Witness for Peace, L.A. Community Legal Center, Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, School of the Americas Watch, and Global Exchange.
Also participating are: Alianza Cívica, Sin Fronteras, INEDIM, Fuerzas Unidas por los Desaparecidos en México, Asociación Popular de Familiares de Migrantes (APOFAM), FUNDEM; Red por los Derechos de la Infancia, CuPIDH, Espolea, Reverdecer, Iniciativa Ciudadana para la Promoción de la cultura de Diálogo, Pastoral de Movilidad Humana, Alarbo, Servicios para la Paz, Serapaz; and Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social (Cencos), and many more.
* Supporting organizations do not necessarily endorse all of the Caravan’s policy positions.
For more information: https://www.caravanforpeace.org; or
About the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity: www.movimientoporlapaz.mx
Facebook: facebook.com/caravan4Peace
Twitter: @CaravanaUSA (twitter.com/caravanaUSA)
Mail: caravanapresspass@movimientoporlapaz.mx
MitchT
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