On Washington – The Peace Movement [Op-ed in Spanish]

Reforma, Sergio Aguayo, 9/19/2012

The caravan of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) ended their U.S. tour in Washington, DC.

Maria Herrera has four children missing, Araceli Rodriguez continues her search for her son who was a federal police and most likely abducted by “La Familia Michoacana” cartel and Javier Sicilia goes through life dragging the pain and suffering that was caused by the murder of his son. I accompanied them to a meeting with Maria Otero, the State Department undersecretary, who listened with great attention and sympathetic accounts of pain and anger at the inaction of those who govern Mexico.

To read click on link, Aguayo_Sobrewashington.

Mexico Institute Event: The Peace Movement in Mexico: Efforts to bring justice to the victims of violence in the country

Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute

In the midst of the drug-related violence that has resulted in over 50,000 deaths since 2006, Mexican civil society has begun to mobilize as an energized peace movement and thousands have marched across Mexico to demand an end to the violence, a change in security policy and justice for the victims. This August, the movement took its march to the United States. On August 12, 2012 the Peace Caravan left San Diego. We are pleased to be hosting members of the movement on September 11 at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.

The event will occur on September 11, 2012  from 8:30am —  10:00am.

To RSVP click Here

Two Words [Opinion in Spanish]

El Universal, Mauricio Merino, 8/22/12

Javier Sicilia’s march through the United States will arrive in Washington soon, and Merino hopes that it will be covered by, not only American NGO’s but also by the American media.  Although he says that many in the U.S. associate Mexico with drugs, violence, and illegal immigration, and forget about the nations close economic and other ties, he thinks that Sicilia’s march through the U.S. is a positive event, because then people may associate Mexico with “Dignity and Justice” instead, and that people in the U.S. will then think of the victims in the war on drugs, and not only the criminals.

Read More…

Mexico’s Caravan for Peace and Dignity Begins US Tour

Fox News Latino, 8/13/12

Calling for an end to the drug war, a  coalition of peace activists arrived in the United States on Sunday to start a  month-long trip across more than 20 U.S. cities.

More than 200 people gathered at a park on the U.S.-Mexico border in San  Diego, California, as part of a movement known as the “Caravan for Peace with  Justice and Dignity” that includes nearly 100 organizations.

The effort is led by Mexican peace activist Javier Sicilia, whose son was  killed by drug gang members last year. Sicilia and others want to draw attention  to what they say are misguided anti-drug policies in both the U.S. and Mexico.  They estimate that tens of thousands of lives in Mexico have been lost because  of the war on drugs.

Read more…

Sicilia vs. presidential candidates [In Spanish]

Animal Político, 5/29/2012

Last Monday, the civil society group Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad led by Javier Sicilia, had the opportunity to meet with the four presidential candidates at the Castillo de Chapultepec. The group presented four general demands and expressed their opinion on each of the candidates and their political parties.

The demands are: foster the declaration of a Ley General de Víctimas (that was approved by the Legislative Power last April); change the current belligerent security strategy; bring down the economic base of organized crime; and support civil society participation in the exercise of democracy through consultation, referendum, citizen candidacies and democratization of the media.

Animal Político summarizes the main critiques issued by this group of victims led by Javier Sicilia as well as the proposals offered by each of the presidential candidates. The unedited version of their answers are available here.

Access full version of this article here.

Drug war victims’ families blast Mexican candidates

Reuters, 5/28/2012

Mexico’s presidential candidates on Monday faced the families of people murdered, mutilated, and kidnapped in drug violence in a meeting that was marked by strong condemnations of corrupt police and politicians.

In a stark reminder of the rampant crime facing Mexico’s next president, distraught family members burst into tears and shouted at the four candidates sitting at the table opposite them in Mexico City’s elegant Chapultepec Castle.

“In your worst nightmares, you couldn’t imagine what it is like to lose your child,” said Margarita Lopez, whose daughter disappeared in the southern state of Oaxaca. “We are thousands of mothers with disappeared children.”

More than 5,000 people have gone missing and around 55,000 have been killed in Mexico’s drug war since President Felipe Calderon took power and launched a military offensive against cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Read more…

Sicilia Prepares March in the U.S. (In Spanish)

Sicilia

Reforma, 1/16/2012

El Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad prepara una serie de actividades para este año entre las que destaca una nueva caravana con destino a Estados Unidos.

Integrantes del Movimiento confirmaron a REFORMA que aún no hay fecha definida para realizar la caravana, pero aseguran que la intención de esta movilización será exigir al Gobierno estadounidense el cese al tráfico de armas de fuego hacia México y el fin de la Iniciativa Mérida, tal como se planteó durante la caravana realizada en junio pasado, cuando se llegó a Ciudad Juárez y se cruzó al Paso, Texas.

En un pronunciamiento público hicieron un llamado a la sociedad civil a unirse y acompañar a la caravana que llegaría a Washington, la capital de ese País.

Read more…

Why I Protest: Javier Sicilia of Mexico

TIME, 12/14/11

When Javier Sicilia’s 24-year-old son, health administration student Juan Francisco, was brutally killed by drug traffickers in March, it was headline-grabbing news because Sicilia, 55, is one of Mexico’s best known authors and poets. But the tragedy made Sicilia realize how all too anonymous most of the 50,000 victims of Mexico’s bloody drug war have been. Believing that President Felipe Calderón’s five-year-long military campaign against Mexico’s narco-cartels has simply exacerbated the violence, he created the Movement for Peace With Justice and Dignity — which is informally and popularly called �Hasta la Madre! or Fed Up! — to push for a stop to the mafia bloodshed and for new anti-crime strategies and reforms. The ranks of its rallies and marches quickly grew from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands, culminating in a June caravan through a dozen cities, where families held up pictures of slain relatives. By giving names, faces and voices to Mexico’s drug-war dead, Sicilia helped prod Calderón to a conference at Mexico City’s Chapúltepec Castle over the summer to discuss the kind of modern judicial institutions and social investment that Mexico’s political class has too long ignored — but which may be the only way to end Mexico’s narco-nightmare.

Read more…

Third member of Mexican Peace Movement is murdered (In Spanish)

CNN Mexico, 12/7/11

Un tercer activista del Movimiento por la Paz fue asesinado en menos de dos meses, confirmaron integrantes del grupo.

José Trinidad de la Cruz Crisóstomo, también conocido como Trino, fue encontrado muerto este miércoles en el estado de Michoacán, un día después de haber sido secuestrado por hombres armados, informó la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE). Trino, de 73 años, fue privado de la libertad el martes, durante la agresión que sufrió en Xayakalan una caravana del movimiento que viajaba a la comunidad de Santa María Ostula. El cadáver se localizó en las inmediaciones de Xayakalan.

La procuraduría indicó que el cuerpo “tiene huellas de tortura”, dijo a CNNMéxico Rocato Bablot, vocero del movimiento. Otros reportes sobre los hechos señalan que el cadáver tiene al menos cuatro impactos de bala.

Read More…

Sicilia: “A country at war is in no condition to vote” (In Spanish)

CNN Mexico, 12/2/11

Un “país en guerra”, con 50,000 muertos, 10,000 desaparecidos y 120,000 o más desplazados no está en condiciones de tener una elección democrática en el 2012, dijo el poeta mexicano Javier Sicilia, en entrevista con la periodista Carmen Aristegui, en CNN.

“Es una ficción (…) No conozco en la historia del mundo que alguien vaya a unas elecciones en un país en guerra. Yo en lo personal voy a ir con mi voto en blanco”, dijo Sicilia, quien lidera el Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad.

El Movimiento de Sicilia afirma que la violencia en el país por los enfrentamientos entre cárteles y la Estrategia Nacional de Seguridad ha dejado más de 50,000 muertos, sin embargo, según las últimas cifras del gobierno federal (de enero) el número ronda los 36,000.

Read More…