Press Release
A human rights approach is urgently needed in light of the upcoming electoral processes in both countries.
On May 5th, protests took place in cities across Mexico and the United States to demand an end to violence.
Demonstrations and public actions took place in Mexico City, Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Querétaro, California, New York, and Florida, where at least a thousand people gathered to call for an end to violence in the Mexico-United States region ahead of the 2024 elections in both countries.
The protesters, composed of groups searching for missing persons, community leaders, relatives of the missing, as well as Afro-descendant, migrant, and Indigenous groups, all part of the People’s Movement for Peace and Justice, denounced the proliferation of weapons, racism, and militarized policies. They demanded an end to hate speeches from figures like Donald Trump and called for regional policies prioritizing a culture of peace and human rights over militarization.
In Mexico City, a contingent of nearly 300 people, led by the Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa; Maria Herrera, a mother of four missing children; Kathleen Murray, an Afro-Colombian representative of the Black Co-Redes for Peace and Justice; and migrants living in the city, marched from the Monument to the Revolution to the United States Embassy in Mexico.
Marco Castillo, Co-Director of Global Exchange, asked, “How much violence is necessary? How many more missing? How many more weapons? How many more arrests and deportations of people are enough to be horrified? The history of Mexico and the United States cannot be told without the presence of violence. And the last 20 years cannot be we will not forget the armed violence of criminals and governments that is ending the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year.”
Subsequently, Cristina Bautista, representing the Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa, and Doña María Herrera, a mother of the disappeared, emphasized the urgency of stopping the violence and called for justice in finding the hundreds of thousands of missing people. They urged binational society to raise their voices, stating, “Because tomorrow they could be your sons or daughters.”
In Chilpancingo, Guerrero, a hundred people took to the streets despite the threats and intimidation to affirm, “From Washington DC to Tapachula, we are losing the future; Parties, candidates, governments, and society have failed to protect life. Empty communities, displaced by violence; families broken by disappearance; millions of terrified migrants.”
In Tetlanohcan, Tlaxcala, approximately 150 people gathered, where Indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders stated that public policies over the last two decades have failed to stop the culture of violence and militarization, emphasizing the need for unity, empathy, and solidarity. “The public policies of the last two decades have not stopped the horror. The culture of violence, weapons, and money have won the battle against the spirit of unity, empathy, and solidarity in too many communities, towns, and cities,” said Grisel Bello, part of the Indigenous and Native-American Platform of the MPPJ.
In Cuajinicuilapa, leaders of Black Co-Networks for Peace and Justice, in front of nearly a hundred people, denounced policies of death and militarization in both Mexico and the United States. “Our movement emerged to stop the torrent of violence against our bodies and to denounce the policies of death and militarization, as well as the governments that exercise it and the sectors of society in Mexico and the United States that promote hatred and weapons.”
In Union Square, New York, despite the rain, 50 migrants from the Transnational People’s Network called for a common front of citizens, autonomies, actions, struggles, and movements to demand that political and economic power be exercised for peace and justice. Fani Luna, from the Transnational People’s Network, said, “In the face of historical marginalization and new forms and modalities of war, we victims have always stood up is us, the ones who are here today calling on the society of Mexico and the United States to form a common front of citizens, autonomies, and build from our struggles and build new movements; to demand that whoever intends to exercise political and economic power, do so for peace and justice. ”Today, a new movement is born, where societies from both nations demand peace must begin.”
Other actions were held in San Francisco and Los Angeles, in California, where indigenous migrants and workers organized workshops and meetings around the impacts of violence in migration and worker’s rights
All actions concluded that neither Mexico nor the United States can resolve the crisis of violence without working bi-nationally and hand in hand with organizations and families of the victims of violence, of the disappeared, of horrific immigration policies. They criticized xenophobic speeches, proposals for mass prisons, and the continuation of militarizing policies, which hinder the possibility of lasting peace.
The People’s Movement for Peace and Justice members called on society and governments “to dialogue and promote a new paradigm that puts people and their rights at the center of regional life. A free Trade Agreement cannot exist without a Human Rights Treaty in the region.”