Mexican poet Javier Sicilia destroyed a gun during the Caravan for Peace this summer, 2012.

Millions of anguished conversations about the murder of so many small children at a Connecticut elementary school have produced new resolve to do something. As the holiday season starts, there is a palpable wave of revulsion against the gun industry, the gun fanatics, and the powerful lobbyists who have intimidated our political representatives into allowing all manner of guns – even military style weapons – to be widely and easily available.

Now, with a sense of sea change in public attitude, politicians are waking up. Several unlikely Democrats have spoken in favor of the initiative by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D. CA) to reintroduce the now expired ban on assault weapons she successfully championed in the mid 1990s. Meanwhile, for the first time, the Obama Administration is tentatively articulating leadership on gun regulation. If President Obama commits to strong and sensible gun regulation, we should have his back.

This new commitment to at least talk about gun restriction is heartening. Nevertheless, those, such as myself, who have watched previous waves of horror sweep in, and then recede in the wake of other gun-murder outrages, know we need a broad and resilient coalition against gun violence. We have to be able to win battles now as well as in future confrontations with gun industry interests.

A coalition that can effectively parry the U.S. gun lobby needs to work at a local, state, national, and international level. Locally, we need to involve the representatives of communities and neighborhoods most affected by the more than 30,000 annual gun homicides in the United States in the evolving conversation about how to make our communities safe. At the state level we need to work with legislators like California Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) who is working (with our partners at the Brady Campaign and other Senators like Kevin de Leon, (D-Los Angeles) to make California a laboratory for sensible and exemplary gun policies.

At the national level we need vision and leadership from an Administration that has not previously engaged the difficult politics of gun control. For more than a year, we have worked with allies from Mexico, Washington and important networks like Presente.org to petition Obama to use executive power to ban the import of assault to the U.S. This request to President Obama was a central element of the Mexican Caravan for Peace that crossed the country last summer, led by victims of the wave of violence 60,000 and counting – fueled by drug profits and guns smuggled from the U.S.

Candlelight vigil at East Los Angeles Church for Caravan for Peace

Restoring the ban on assault weapons, as Senator Dianne Feinstein seeks to do, would be a vital first step that would go much further than any available executive action to limit access to military style assault weapons. But passage, even such a common sense bill, is by no means guaranteed. Those who profit from the gun trade and their lobbyist enablers like the NRA have a strong grip on the leash of legislators, especially the Republican who control the House of Representatives.

For sensible gun control measures to succeed, the local political math must change. That is why sea change moments – when Washington’s policy silos disappear momentarily and the grief of a few moves the hearts of millions – are so important.

Such a moment came in Mexico when the Mexican President Calderón suggested that 14 teenage victims of an October 2010 massacre at a birthday party in the border town of Ciudad Juarez were linked to organized crime. In fact, the teens were all football players mistakenly targeted by cartel hit men. Later, when the boy’s mothers confronted the President about this during a televised meeting the video of the encounter went viral and caused an opinion watershed and eventually a powerful movement led by victims of Mexico’s drug war. This is the same movement that crossed the border to dramatically make the case for steps to regulate assault weapons in 29 US cities last summer.

As the New Year dawns and members of Congress will likely face decisions about how to weigh in on restoring the assault weapons ban and other possible gun control legislation. We must keep alive the urgency of these initiatives even as attention to the families and victims of Newtown recedes.

Constituent pressure on specific members of Congress will be key to any legislative success. Additionally, the voices of people from both sides of the border with loved ones lost to this long plague of gun violence bring a powerful and morally urgent voice to this conversation. There is no question that banning assault weapons would benefit the security and safety of Mexican border communities. Ending the large scale smuggling of assault weapons used by criminals throughout Mexico is human and national security priority.

As the year closes people gather. I hope we can all look each other in the eyes and muster the courage to ask what kind of world we want to live in and how we can love and work together to get there.

TAKE ACTION!

Please join the call on President Obama to stop the flow of assault weapons into our communities.

Most of the 60,000 people killed in Mexico as a result of the “Drug War” were killed with guns sold in the U.S. Tell President Obama that you don’t want greedy gun merchants selling assault weapons, built for war, into our communities where they are then used to massacre tens of thousands of innocent people on both sides of the border.

Mexico’s outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, left, gives a Mexican flag to Enrique Peña Nieto during the official transfer of command ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City. // AP Photo

The Mexican Peace Caravan that crossed the United States last summer was bracketed between elections. It began in Tijuana, just six weeks after Mexico’s July presidential election, and concluded in Washington just six weeks before Obama’s re-election. Now, as 2013 is dawning, Mexicans can begin to see the outlines and true colors of their return to PRI rule.

On Dec. 1, in the final act of his blood-drenched presidency, Felipe Calderón passed his tri-color sash to incoming PRI strong-man, and now President, Enrique Peña Nieto. The handover was backlit by protest and chilled by concerns about what it means to hand Mexico’s executive branch back to a party that, until 2000, had absolutely controlled — and corrupted — the nation during 71 years of unbroken one-party rule.

Of course, millions of Mexicans voted for Peña Nieto last July. Some undoubtedly yearn for the peace and security they associate with the earlier era of PRI domination. To suppose that restoring the PRI’s power might facilitate clandestine contact with major drug trafficking organizations is not unreasonable. In decades past, such ties have reportedly allowed PRI operators to communicate with, take bribes from, and exert significant influence on major drug trafficking organizations. The current vision is of a restored pax mafiosa that could reset or even free the country entirely from the disastrously aggressive drug war policies of outgoing President Calderón.

Few say so publically, but whispers that Peña Nieto should somehow reach out to the drug bosses are widespread. Peña Nieto decried this notion in a New York Times op-ed the day after the election, but speculation continues about the possibility of a pact that could effectively legalize the wealth of the big traffickers in exchange for peace and their eventual conversion to legal enterprise. Such an amnesty brought the Kennedys and countless other American families back into the fold after U.S. alcohol prohibition was lifted in 1933. More recently, large drug syndicates in South East Asia’s golden triangle have paid steep one-time taxes to repatriate capital into the legal economy as part of a broader deal aimed at ending their participation in the drug trade.

Yet, in fact, even if Peña Nieto did want to return Mexico to an imagined earlier era of tolerance or otherwise evolve drug and security policies, it won’t be easy. This is especially true due to continuing U.S. rejection of real discussion about international drug policy reform. Yet ongoing prohibition guarantees continued drug mega-profits that are a siren song for the most ruthless criminal elements. This grim reality, in combination with strong U.S. pressures to stay the drug war course, severely limits the options and flexibility of Mexico’s new president.

Peña Nieto also faces a suspicious civil society and energized opposition. More than 60% of the electorate rejected the PRI and voted for opposition candidates. A significant social movement arose to oppose his election under the broad banner of Yo Soy 132. This group continues to organize on both sides of the border and was an essential part of gathering grass roots support for the Peace Caravan in several key cities.

Millions of Mexicans fear the PRI will resort to its authoritarian playbook while it pushes the same brutal mix of neo-liberal policies the party forced into place at great cost to Mexico’s economic sovereignty and well being during the crisis ridden 1980’s and 90’s.

But the realities of deepening poverty, inequality, and humanitarian crisis don’t stop Mexico’s plutocrats and their enablers from smearing lipstick on the pig of an economy that has left a majority of Mexicans in poverty. I recommend this article “Mexico’s New President Is Off to a Troubling Start” that UNAM professor John Ackerman just published in The Atlantic Magazine. In it, Ackerman repudiates highbrow happy talk about Peña Nieto and the Mexican economy currently emanating from Washington establishment sources such as the Woodrow Wilson Institute, the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Many agree that Mexico urgently needs to undertake thorough and difficult internal reforms. To be effective, such reforms must challenge impunity all the way to the upper echelons of the military and Federal Police as well as top political and corporate circles. Washington officials and the Obama administration have shown little stomach for pushing such actions on Calderón. Similarly, Obama gave no visible signs of pushing Peña Nieto on such reforms during their first encounter in late November. Pressure for change must come from somewhere else. That is why we must continue to build the movement against the drug war into an unstoppable force.

The violence unleashed in Mexico during Calderon’s six long years has resulted in 60,000 murders but resolved nothing. In fact, drug trafficking organizations have thrived, diversified, and some think that they have deepened their penetration and corruption of Mexico’s institutions during this period. Any genuine change starts with an end to the drug war.

photo: Caravan for Peace

Last summer, victims and activists from Mexico rolled with people from across the United States for a 5,700 mile-journey through 29 cities. They had the support of Global Exchange and more than 200 other U.S. organizations who shared the ambitious goal of revealing how Mexico’s murder epidemic is rooted in more than forty years of deadly and fruitless drug war fostered, funded, and implemented by the United States.

The caravan relentlessly made the case for concerted action north of the border to regulate drugs more sensibly in order to remove the hyper-profits of illicit drug trafficking. Such a move could dramatically reduce the large scale brutality in Mexico, slow southbound gun smuggling, reverse mass incarceration trends in the U.S., challenge corruption on both sides of the border, and address the distortion of our national security priorities.

Mexican peace movement organizers are calling for a meeting in early 2013 to evaluate, strategize, and strengthen ongoing work between the organizations and peoples movements that built the Caravan on both sides of the border. They know the momentum around drug policy is on the side of reformers.

Recent elections in Washington state and Colorado are potential harbingers of a mature, new approach to drug policy that embraces regulation and public health metrics instead of the “just say no” militarization we have lived with for decades. Domestic and international opinion is moving faster than the politicians. And on a range of related questions — like the absurd legality of assault weapons for civilians or ill-advised U.S. support of Mexico’s military security apparatus — our job is to keep the debate moving and force them to catch up.

A Bright Candle in the Darkness

In mid-August 2012 the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity – led by the mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers of Mexicans murdered and disappeared during the drug war – began its sojourn across the United States. Starting from the Pacific shoreline where the wall dividing the U.S. from Mexico meets the sea, the 120-person Caravan traversed 5,700 miles holding events in 26 cities and generating extensive coverage in most of the major U.S. media markets.

On the U.S. side hundreds of people affiliated with more than 220 Caravan partner organizations – many of whom had never before worked together – joined forces to organize, support, host, feed, house, transport and finance the Caravan. A broad array of religious, police, Latino, labor, African-American, human rights, survivor, parent, artistic, peace, university, and other organizations from the U.S., Canada and Mexico endorsed the message of the Caravan. They worked with NGOs who broke policy ‘silos’ to draw the connections between U.S. drug, immigration, gun, prison, public health, Latin America, criminal justice and the twisted priorities of the drug war that continue to frustrate reform efforts.

Peace Caravan participants sharing their stories

Mexico’s peace movement arose to address a national emergency of criminal violence, institutional corruption and a moribund judicial system all combined to create a maelstrom of death and impunity. The survivors of violence, at the heart of the Caravan, have all borne searing tragedy and personal desolation. Nevertheless they stand up, speak truth and courageously work toward a future of peace, with justice and dignity for their country. By giving names and faces to just a few of the more than 65,000 dead; they’ve broken paralyzing fear and silence – mobilizing a broad movement for peace by bringing hundreds of thousands of Mexicans into the streets while engaging the government at the highest levels.

Javier Sicilia

One of these courageous survivors is the Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, who stepped forward to give voice to the movement. In March 2011, Sicilia’s son Juan Francisco and six companions – who had nothing to do with the drug trade – were asphyxiated by cartel thugs. In response, Sicilia announced he would give up writing poetry to voice his pain and to give space to the voices of tens of thousands of other victims of Mexico’s brutal war.

In the summer of 2011 the new Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) organized two major Caravans from Mexico City, one to the north and another to the southern border of Mexico. They sought to connect with, console, assist and organize victims of the war.

Both Caravans were followed by televised dialogues between President Calderón and the survivors. But it quickly became clear that Calderón was impervious to advice and that that even if he were open to a new direction he would be unable to change course as long as the “Made in USA” drug war ideology held sway in Washington. That’s why Sicilia and his movement called for a third Caravan through the United States to focus on changing the errant U.S. policies on the drug war, arms trafficking, money laundering, military aid and immigration that feed Mexico’s nightmare.

All along the road the Caravan members spoke boldly and used creative non-violent actions to dramatize the issues while seeking common ground on which to build the difficult, bi-national road to peace. In San Diego, CA Mexican mothers who had lost sons or daughters embraced American mothers who had similarly lost children to violence, drugs, or prison. The mothers called out their common humanity in the first of many candle-lit vigils.

Caravan for Peace participants in front of Sheriff Arpaio’s war on drugs tank. Phoenix, AZ 2012

In Phoenix, AZ the Caravan picketed the local jail and later sat down with notorious Sherriff Joe Arpaio to question his humiliation of undocumented Mexicans. In El Paso, TX the mayor met with Caravan leaders and then successfully urged the city council to pass a resolution supporting the Caravan and its goals. This action is a clear sign that the city that shares the border with Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city hardest hit by the drug war, understands military escalation is futile and leads to more deaths and insecurity.

Javier Sicilia holding a gun chopped in half

In Houston, TX a team from the Caravan filmed a purchase of a .357 Magnum pistol with cash and no ID at a gun show. At the same show, Caravan supporters purchased an AK- 47 that survivors later symbolically destroyed: cutting it into pieces which were encased in cement and later delivered as messages to officials in Washington.

Melchor with James Evans, Democractic Rep (MS), in front of Caravan for Peace bus parked by the State Capitol Building in Jackson, Mississippi.

In the south-east, where the Caravan was primarily hosted by African-American organizations, the drug war’s role in the mass incarceration and criminalization of whole communities came to the fore. It is not just that the U.S. has 5% of world’s population yet 25% of the world’s incarcerated or even that the number of drug offenders has increased twelvefold since 1980. It’s worse: African-Americans who comprised just 13.6% of the U.S. population in the 2010 census represented 39.4% of the U.S. prison population in 2009. Michelle Alexander, the brilliant author of The New Jim Crow, who has analyzed these issues at great depth, thanked the Caravan for prying open the debate and furthering her better understanding of the way Mexicans are suffering from the same forces that have damaged the life prospects of so many in African-American communities.

Along the Caravan’s entire path, the “caravaneros” – citizen ambassadors of Mexico’s peace movement – built new friendships and alliances, and left indelible marks in countless thousands of hearts. The collective moral force and creativity of the Caravan generated vast coverage in both Mexican and U.S. media; more than 750 unique electronic and print stories with a combined reader and viewership of more than 500 million.

Hence, even before we reached Washington D.C. and fanned out across the capitol for dozens of meetings with Congress, State Department officials, think tanks, university audiences, and in television studios, thinking about drug war strategy was inexorably pushing its way onto the U.S.- Mexico bilateral agenda at a critically important moment of political transition in both countries.

President Obama’s September 20 replies to Univision’s questions about changing drug war strategy reflect both progress and the distance the movement behind the Caravan still must travel. Obama conceded that U.S. demand for drugs drives violence and corruption in Mexico and the need for public health strategies to treat addiction and reduce demand. Unfortunately, the President went on to praise Calderón’s disastrous military campaign, calling it “courageous” and then making clear that he intends no immediate break with reigning prohibition and drug war orthodoxies.

Candlelight vigil at East Los Angeles Church for Caravan for Peace

But let’s keep in mind something else the President said earlier in the same interview. Change in Washington comes from the outside, not from inside. It is our job to keep the Caravan’s candles burning and organize that change.

TAKE ACTION!

Travel the Caravan in pictures: All along the Caravan route, photos were being snapped. You can check them all out on Flickr or on our Facebook page where we have some arranged by region; Southern CA, Southwest, Texas, and Southeast and Chicago. 

USCaravana: this gorgeous personal journal recorded day by day memories, and includes videos of reflections and events in English.

Caravan for Peace: this site was updated daily, with photos, transcriptions of Javier Sicilia’s talks and videos from each stop on the Caravan.

RompeVientos tv (click on the ‘caravana por la paz en Estados Unido’s banner): this internet tv channel produced 7 video programs in Spanish.

Also, be sure to check out beautiful photos from the Caravan on the Caravan for Peace Flickr feed.

Take Action! Have you signed the petition to tell President Obama that you don’t want greedy gun merchants selling assault weapons, built for war, into our communities where they are then used to massacre tens of thousands of innocent people on both sides of the border? Watch this video: U.S. Guns: The Awful, Shocking Truth!

Sign the petition.

In every city we visited, the Caravan for Peace achieved powerful results and raised awareness that will fundamentally alter the course of the failed drug war.

Starting in Southern California, through the South West, into Texas, across the Deep South, north to Chicago, and along the East Coast, each community greeted the caravaneros with heartfelt and moving events, complete with music, food and commitments to support the Caravana’s on going agenda. Our journey would not have been possible without solid grassroots support — thank you!

photo: Caravan for Peace

Thousands of people have expressed their support for ending military aid to Mexico, changing the dialogue on prohibition, promoting immigration policies that respect the dignities of all people, and ceasing the flow of illegal weapons across the border.

Continue to join the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity for the next ten days as we take action for 10 Days for Peace & Human Rights from September 12-21.

Join the call on President Obama to stop the flow of assault weapons into our communities. Help us get to the critical 100,000 petition signature mark and support the victims of the drug war.

10 Days for Peace & Human Rights Sept 12 – 21

• We mourn the lives lost and dedicate ourselves the changes we need to see.
• Organize Your Communities and Prepare for the International Day of Peace on the 21st.
• Organize Conferences, Screenings and Artistic events that help further awareness of Human Rights.
• Generate working groups to peacefully and effectively speak out against violence and injustice you see in the world.
• Be creative!

Plan your action: 

1. Find a central place or a symbolic place where people can gather.
2. Dress in white and carry flowers, candles and statements calling for the end to the violence.
3. Make a call to your local press person and designate a press spokes person.
4. Sing, chant, march! Keep speeches to a minimum.
5. Send your best pictures and descriptions to Info@caravanforpeace.org so it can be posted on the Caravan for Peace website.
6. Collect names in order to continue your local work – passing a city resolution, setting up speaking events for victims fundraising for the Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity.
7. Don’t forget to send us a description of your event it can be posted on the Caravan for Peace website.
8. Help reach the goal of 100,000 signatures in our petition to stop illegal gun smuggling by September 12th. You can do so by texting “peace” to 225568 or visiting the petition online at Presente.org.

Once again, thank you for your continued support every step of the way on this journey for peace with justice and dignity.

photo: Caravan for Peace

The following is a post by Global Exchange/Caravan intern Chelsea Brown, who is traveling with the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Global Exchange Executive Director Carleen Pickard who is currently in DC joining the last days of the Caravan, describes Chelsea as the “calmest force behind the Caravan for Peace scenes.”
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The Caravan has arrived in Washington, D.C. after a month on the road. From one coast to the next, we have listened to one another’s stories—learning how violence and fear has touched every part of Mexico—and to the stories of brave souls we met along the way. We have come to speak these truths to the power that resides within the nation’s gleaming capitol buildings.

Most of these truths are self-evident: drug prohibition does not work and it never will. AK-47s are not being used to hunt deer, it is wrong to put non-violent people in cages, and  real democracy is not sown with bullets. Yet U.S. policymakers, year after year, decide to ignore these truths and instead perpetuate – and in some cases escalate – policies that are detrimental to both individual and national security. Why?

Much has to do with the overwhelming influence of corporate money in politics. This year, corporate interests have invested billions of dollars in lobbying and pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into election campaigns to gain influence in DC. Though legal, corporate-dominated elections interfere with the basic democratic process of elected officials representing the needs and interests of their constituencies. There are powerful interests that are turning profits at the expense of human lives on both sides of the border, especially where arms control and drug policy is concerned.

photo: caravan for peace

In Baltimore, the Caravan heard from a local mother and activist, Kimberly, who lost her son to bullets fired by a 14-year-old. Tragically, this is not a rare occurrence in a neighborhood where, Kimberly averred, it is easier to buy a rifle than a tomato. Similarly, drug cartels in Mexico have easy access to firearms smuggled from the U.S. Loose regulations enable the purchase of large quantities of weapons, without conducting background checks and even without showing identification.

This cavalier irresponsibility prevails in large part due to lobbying by the National Rifle Association, which spent $7.2 million supporting Republican candidates during the 2010 election cycle, and which routinely spends huge sums of money opposing all forms of firearm regulations (Open Secrets).

At a Caravan event in New York City, our hosts at the CUNY Graduate Center screened the award-winning documentary The House I Live In, which explores the human impact of the war on drugs in the U.S. One of the many tragic vignettes featured a young black mother with a wide-eyed baby in her arms. The father of her child was convicted of a drug charge and at best would be facing a 5-year sentence as a product of mandatory minimum sentencing. He would join tens of thousands of others. In 2010 alone, over 1.6 million people were arrested for drug charges, 88% of which were for possession of marijuana (FBI Uniform Crime Report 2010).

Again, we can look to the influence of corporate lobbying to explain why policymakers uphold such an ineffective and wasteful strategy for reducing drug use. The drug war has been a boon for private prisons, which require 90% of their beds to be filled in order to turn a profit. One of these private enterprises, Corrections Corporation of America, spent $14.8 million on lobbying between 2003 and 2010, and has dedicated millions to pass anti-immigrant legislation in states like Arizona.

Yesterday, members of the Caravan spent a day on Capitol Hill speaking with the political representatives of the American people about the personal tragedies that have resulted from these irresponsible, inhumane policies. While we can never undo the tragedies and pain suffered from the drug war, it is never too late to end these harmful policies and let the healing begin. We hope that this people-to-people lobbying effort will remind and inspire legislators to push back against powerful interests that value profit over human life.

photo: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

After 25 cities, 5760 miles, and 30 days the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity is in Washington, DC for the final days of action, press conferences, and lobbying to bring a human face to the costs of the War on Drugs to our nation’s capitol. 

Global Exchange’s Organizing Director, Kirsten Moller just returned from her leg of the trip and recounts her experiences of going from Texas through the Deep South, and into Chicago.

In Austin, TX Global Exchange’s Executive Director, Carleen Pickard passed the baton on to me to begin my leg of the journey with the Caravan for Peace.

From Austin we headed to Houston, TX where we performed a final act of buying, destroying and burying (in blocks of cement) an assault weapon to commemorate the huge numbers of people killed by weapons crossing the border from Texas into Mexico.

Going from Texas and heading into the Deep South was a profound experience for the members of the Caravan for Peace. Leaving a state, which was once Mexico, and shares deep cultural and historical ties for the state of Mississippi was like crossing an international border. The South, drenched in the history of the civil rights movement and suffering from a different kind of poverty, was a real eye opener for many of us.

Though the effects of the drug war in local communities are apparent in the South, as the victims of Mexico traveled through the towns, there was a definite collective and visceral realization that the struggle is the same.

Hurricane Isaac kept us from visiting New Orleans where a fabulous host committee had been prepared to meet the group. They survived the storm and are committed to continue their community organizing and work against the police corruption fueled by the War on Drugs.

photo: Caravan for Peace

After that detour, we were fortunate to have the Central United Methodist Church in Jackson, MS agree to host the group for two days instead of one and because of the visit, have expressed a strong interest in getting involved in the work of the local host committee, the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA).

In the ornately decorated Rotunda of the Capitol building and the former Supreme Court chambers, the Caravan members exchanged testimonials with politicians, the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Children’s Defense Fund, and local activists.

Mississippi has the second highest per capita prison population in the country. “We’re losing a whole generation to the prison system,” said Father Jerry Tobin. The war on drugs is really a war on whole communities who are losing their civil rights in order to support for-profit prisons like the Correction Corporation of America, a prison system now used to hold undocumented immigrants as well.

Heading to Montgomery we stopped to walk across the historic Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, made famous by the Civil Rights movement as the site where, in 1965, peaceful demonstrators were attacked as they tried to march to the capitol. Here Dr. Poe of NAACP and Javier Sicilia made the connections between the current struggle to end the drug war and the lessons we have to learn from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

In Montgomery, AL there was a press conference featuring the NAACP and the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ) calling for a focus on effective preventative and rehabilitative policies that have been proven to decrease drug abuse and associated violent crime instead of the current drug war policies. The ACIJ spoke about the new anti-immigrant law, HB56, calling for immigrants to ‘self-deport’ from Alabama, ignoring the fact that many can no longer safely return to their homelands due to the violent conditions created by the War on Drugs.

Elizabeth Brezovich, of ACIJ:
“We welcome the Caravan for Peace and the opportunity it provides the people of Alabama to learn about the interdependence of our countries and the effects of American domestic and foreign policies.”

Dr. Sharon Richards (NAACP) then invited us to a mega party in a mega church with a Job Corps choir and a drug program graduation ceremony and mountains of soul food!

photo: Caravan for Peace

From Montgomery we traveled on to Atlanta, GA where the Latino population is large and the Martin Luther King. Jr. Center creates a peaceful, yet powerful place to root the tradition of non-violent organizing. Reverend Durley of the Ebenezer Church extolled on the links to the past and urged us to Organize! Organize! Organize! as we laid flowers on the tomb and marched to the capitol building.

In the morning a men’s breakfast club hosted at the local Presbyterian Church brought out a dialogue about the failures of the Drug War and how it is used as a pretext to rob whole communities of their democratic rights. A prominent local prosecutor admitted that people caught in the War on Drugs, even for the smallest offenses can legally be discriminated against for the rest of their lives – in employment, housing and in some states in voting.

Then in Fort Benning, Georgia, we were invited by the School of Americas Watch to participate in a Die-In at the gates of Fort Benning  to highlight the role of U.S. military support and the thousands murdered during the past six years in Mexico. Family members of the victims and their allies, left photographs of their loved ones, signs and crosses on the main entrance’s sign.

photo: Caravan for Peace

After our time in the South, we made our way north to Chicago, IL with a stopover in Louisville, KY where churches, again, came to the rescue with delicious food and spacious lodging. Many of the victims on the bus commented on how generous the churches in the U.S . were, how much hospitality we experienced and how shocked they were at the levels of poverty and income disparity there are in the US. The myth of the streets paved with gold continues to be one of the biggest US exports.

In Chicago, the host committee arranged a three mile hike from the Latino community into the largely African American neighborhood bringing a message of unity and an analysis of what prohibition meant to Chicago historically and why that understanding of history is still relevant.

From Chicago, we drove through the rain to Toledo and Cleveland, OH where private prisons are a growing industry with groups organizing against them.

Much appreciation to the exhausted caravaneros, Sicilia and others from Mexico and the United States who have lost loved ones to the drug war and have led the Caravan for Peace on this journey highlighting the connections across borders and communities, strengthening and appreciating the local organizing and encouraging us to continue the struggle.

The next Caravan update installment will focus on the last leg of the journey.

60,000 dead. 10,000 kidnapped. 160,000 internally displaced.

These are the numbers and statistics that the War on Drugs has produced since 2006.

Here’s another one: Only 2% of all crimes committed in Mexico are investigated and solved.

Behind these numbers are actual people. Mothers. Fathers. Brothers. Sisters. Neighbors. Friends. All united by tragedy afflicted by the drug war. But, out of these tragedies the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity seeks to bring “consolation, justice, and the path toward peace.”

The story of the Peace Caravan started with the loss of a loved one. In March of 2011, Javier Sicilia’s 24 year old son was killed by drug traffickers in Mexico. Sicilia describes him as “an athlete and professional who never tried drugs” that became an innocent victim in this “imbecilic war.” And it was with this loss that Javier Sicilia started the organization Movimiento por la Paz (Movement for Peace) to give a name and face to those that died and also giving a voice to the families of the victims.

Now traveling in two buses on the Caravan for Peace are 40 family members with their individual stories about their loved ones and one common goal to show the real costs of the drug war. Here are some of their stories:

Aracely Rodrí­guez – Mother of Luis Ángel León Rodrí­guez. In November of 2009, her son, a federal police officer was kidnapped and killed when he and his fellow officers refused to cooperate with a drug cartel in the state of Michoacán. She was told that they cut up their bodies with a chain saw and tossed their body parts in corrosive chemicals so the bodies would never be found. She is on the Caravan to “speak about the nightmare we are suffering in Mexico.” Read the profile on her in the Los Angeles Times. 

Maria Ignacia Gonzalez Vela – Mother of Andrés Ascención González, disappeared on March 27, 2011 in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. She was on the phone with him when she suddenly heard him tell someone to drive faster. It was later found out that drug dealers had took her son.

Maria Guadalupe Guzman Romo and Maria Guadalupe Muñoz – Mother and sister of Miguel Orlando Muñoz, victim of forced disappearance in Ciudad Juárez on May 8, 1993. He was in the military, and reports show that he had stood up against his superior military personnel who had links to drug-trafficking operations in the area.

Dora Elvia Aguirre and Rosa Pérez Triana – Mothers of Guadalupe Coral Pérez Triana and Judith Ceja Aguirre, disappeared on July 24, 2011 along with Juanita Alemán, Almirsa Janet de León, Cinthia Lozano y Alma Mónica Álvarez García, when they where going from Reynosa, Tamaulipas to Monterrey, Nuevo León. Both mothers are part of the NGO Citizens in Support for Human Rights AC (CADHAC), which has documented hundreds of disappearances in the state of Nuevo León.

Guadalupe Aguilar – Mother of José Luis Arana Aguilar, disappeared in Tonalá, Jalisco, on January 17, 2011. It is suspected that the police in Tonalá were involved with this disappearance.

Benito Paredes – Benito comes as a representative for the Peoples of Morelos Council where there are more than 85 indigenous communities are experiencing problems with aggression, kidnappings, and murders.

Santos de la Cruz Carrillo – He is here representing the Wixárika people. The Mexican government is trying to give away 6,000 acres of their sacred land to a mining company. The mining operations would pollute and dry out their holy springs.

Sacario Hernández – He was wrongfully accused of murder, put in jail for five years and 51 days, and after a 35 day hunger strike, he was released and later exonerated. In his words, “I come to accompany the Caravan to demand justice for the victims who have suffered and to demand freedom for Profesor Alberto Patishtan Gómez as a political and conscience prisoner, who is a tzotzil indígena from Chiapas…. “In Mexico, guns are not only used for killing us each other, but for criminalizing Human Rights Defenders and mainly to the indigenous and outcast people from Mexico and Chiapas where they got us dying in jails.”

Gabino Israel Anzurez – Gabino is on the Caravan as representative of the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa da le Tierray al Agua (Peoples Front in Defense of the Land and Water). A thermoelectric plants is being built in his town without the communities permission, which would affect their surrounding environment, water reserves, and ultimately their lives.

Leticia Mora Nieto – Leticia is the mother of 22 year old Georgina Ivonne Ramírez Mora, who disappeared on May 30th 2011 on her way to the supermarket to pick up supplies for dinner. She never returned. Leticia is on the Caravan to represent other mothers whose daughters have disappeared.

08-SantaFE-VA from TUTTLE FILMS on Vimeo.

Arturo Malvido Conway – Arturo is on the Caravan to tell the story of his brother who was killed outside his home in Mexico City on August 11, 1997.

Teresa Vera Alvarado – Teresa comes representing her sister Minerva, a generous woman who often gave food, water, and clothes to passing migrants near the railway where she lived. She went out one day to a beauty parlor near her home, only to never come back.

Lourdes Campos Romo – Mother of Guillermo Gustavo Navarro Campos, murdered on June 16th, 2010. He was an organizer and an activist. Despite the violence that built up in his community he made sure to remind his neighbors to stay united to fight against insecurity in order to achieve change. He fought to create a family welfare program in the community to improve the standard of living for those living in the neighborhood. On June 16th 2012, he was shot five times through his window.

María Salvadora Coronado – María comes to represent her husband, Mauricio Aguilar, a kind and friendly person that loved soccer and always put others before himself. He disappeared from their home in Cordoba, Veracruz on May 27, 2011.

Olga Reyes – Her family are well-known human rights activists from Chihuahua that were able to organize and prevent the installation of a landfill in their community. For this, and for protesting against the growing militarization of their state. six members of her family have been killed and several others are living in exile to avoid the threats by cartels and public servants of the Mexican government.

Melchor Flores – Father of Juan Melchor Flores Hernández, better knwon as “El vaquero galáctico.” His son performed as a human statue on streets and various city squares throughout the country. He was repeatedly detained by police for not having the correct permit to perform. The last time he was detained was in Monterrey, Nuevo León on January 19, 2009. He has not been seen since.

José Carlos Castro – His family disappeared on January 6th 2011. A group of armed men broke into his home and took his wife, Josefina Campillo Carreto the former Mayor of Atocpan, Veracruz. They also took his daughters Joahana Montserrat Castro Campillo an Architecture intern at the University of Veracruz, and 19 year old, Karla Verónica Castro Campillo, a student of Graphic Design, at Getzal University.

Margarita López – She is the mother of 19 year old Yahaira Guadalupe who was taken from her home in Oaxaca by a group of armed men on April 13th, 2011. After faces multiple threats, some from authorities, during her search for answers on the disappearance of her daughter, she found out she was tortured, raped, and then decapitated. “I cannot breathe without thinking about my girl. Help me. Help me to let people know what’s happening.” Read the profile on her in the Los Angeles Times. 

María Herrera – She is the mother of four sons that have disappeared. Two of them from Atoyac de Álvarez, Guerrero, and two in Poza Rica, Veracruz. Raul and Jesus went missing in August 2008 and Luis and Gustavo in September 2010, all disappearing without a trace. She is on the Caravan with her 5th son, Juan Carlos Trujillo Herrera. When addressing a crowd in Alamo, TX she explained why she is on the Caravan, “At this time we are not fighting for our own but for each and every one of the children of the people who are here. Their hope is to stop the violence. We do not want more people to go through the pain that we have been going through.” Read the profile on her in the Los Angeles Times. 

The peace movement in Mexico has given these families of the victims the courage to step forward and honor their loved ones and demand justice. Despite the reality of fellow peace activists getting killed, the movement continues on.

No matter where we stand on any of the issues that this Caravan is bringing to light, we can all relate to the love we feel for our family and friends and will hopefully take time to reflect on the violence that brought all of this together.

As Javier Sicilia wrote, “Don’t wait until that pain reaches your intimate lives to hear the cry of those of us who cannot keep from uttering it: do not wait until the senseless death that this war has unleashed reaches your lives like it has reached ours, to know that such death exists and that it must be stopped. This is the moment for us to come together and change this policy of war and rescue peace, life and democracy.”

And as the poet does whenever he speaks about the victims, let us join in honoring those lost with a moment of silence.

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In El Paso, TX the names of those killed in Mexico’s Drug War were projected on the side of the Annunciation House building, in this act of protest against harmful U.S. policies which fuel these deaths.

Global Exchange Caravan for Peace interns Chelsea (left) and Louise (right) at a rest stop along the Caravan route

The following is a post by GX/Caravan intern Chelsea Brown, who is traveling with the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Global Exchange Executive Director Carleen Pickard who traveled last week on the Caravan, describes Chelsea as the “calmest force behind the Caravan for Peace scenes.”

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As the Caravan for Peace rolls along its ambitious route of 25 American cities in 30 days, we have been participating in marches, rallies, protests, and vigils to raise public awareness about the immense number of lives lost to the drug war in Mexico and in the U.S. We seek to not only be seen, but to be heard: to raise our voices in unison so civil society and policy makers from coast to coast will know our demands.

Caravan chanter in Laredo TX. Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Here is a bi-lingual breakdown of our most common shouts so you can jump right in if the Caravan comes to a town near you, followed by a video of chants in action:

Some gritos (yells) the Caravan participants use originated with the initial mass mobilizations in Mexico of the Movimiento por la Paz (Movement for Peace), where bereaved families and civil society activists began to demand government accountability for the atrocities resulting from drug war policies.

Caravan for Peace chanters

Today members of the Movimiento continue to voice their outrage about the Mexican government’s failure to provide assistance in the search for the disappeared, chanting: “Vivos los llevaron! ! Vivos los queremos!” (Alive, they took them. Alive, we want them!) This grito corresponds with the posters that the family members of the victims hold with them, showing the faces of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, and sisters that were kidnapped or forcibly disappeared, with no trace of their whereabouts.

Javier Sicilia and fellow Caravaneros chanting

Another popular chant is “Que queremos? Justicia! Cuando? Ahora!” (“What do we want? Justice! When? Now!”)  This refers to facts like only 2% of the crimes in Mexico are investigated and solved. This statistic is even more shocking given what Javier Sicilia frequently describes during speeches as the 72,000 murders connected to the drug war that have occurred during President Calderon’s term in office.

While the Caravan was in the Southwest, we were either close to or actually touching the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Many Caravan allied organizations in this region focus on immigration reform and holding the government accountable for the human rights abuses perpetrated against migrants. So some common gritos have been borrowed from those commonly used in the immigration reform movement, including “ningun ser human es illegal!” (no human is illegal!)  and the classic “el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!”  (the people, united, will never be defeated).

Chanters on both sides of the Rio Grande chanting back and forth.

Another gritos session took place across a river, the Rio Grande, to be specific. At sunset on August 22^nd, after a 10 hour journey from El Paso, the Caravan went directly to the bridge that spans the river dividing Laredo, TX from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Mexican civil society groups gathered on the Mexico side, while across the narrow river we bellowed gritos of solidarity and of hope, including “Obama, eschucha, estamos en la lucha!” (Obama, listen, we are in the fight!)

Caravan participants at the Vigil for Peace in Brownsville, TX

A few nights later, we stood at the metal fence in Brownsville, Texas, the tip of the state where the border dips into the Gulf of Mexico. Into the darkness on the other side, members of the Caravan and local families yelled the names of loved ones lost to drug war-related violence: an endless roll call of pre-maturely dead. The entire crowd would respond with a shiver-inducing cry in unison “PRESENTE!” (PRESENT!)

The Caravan is traveling across the U.S. demanding peace with justice and dignity and an end to the senseless drug wars rending families and communities across the continent. We are present, we are united, and we will not be defeated.

Join us as we continue our gritos along the Caravan route. Below are ways you can take action in support of the Caravan for Peace, but first, here’s that video of chants in action that I promised you:

TAKE ACTION!

Follow the Caravan on…

• Twitter: @CaravanaUSA
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Caravan4Peace
• Hashtag: #Caravan4Peace #CaravanaUSA
• Caravan for Peace website:  caravanforpeace.org
• Global Exchange People-to-People blog: Caravan Road Reports or Subscribe via RSS to receive new posts automatically

CARAVAN PHOTOS

Check out Caravan photos from the road…

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/globalexchange
Facebook: Southern California photos. South-West photos. Texas photos.

LEND YOUR SUPPORT: Donations are still needed, now more than ever, to help fund this important trip. Will you give?

Children in Austin sing to Caravan to remind us why this is important

Global Exchange Executive Director Carleen Pickard, who spent the last week with the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity,has handed the baton over to Global Exchange Director of Organizing Kirsten Moller who caught up with the Caravan in Austin, Texas. Kirsten shares some of her first experiences:

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Aztec dancers welcome caravan to Austin church

After months of working behind the scenes in San Francisco- talking to host committees all across the country, painting banners, and booking hotel rooms for our bus drivers, I am finally on the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity.

We waited in the hot (though they call this mild) sun in front of the Capitol building in Austin for the two buses and the infamous RV to arrive. Aztec Dancers and the famous Austin ‘live music sound’ welcomed the bus when it arrived and the well-oiled team of Austin volunteers moved into place. Pop up tents for shades, ice chest full cold water, tables, name tags, security — not a detail was missed.

Ana Correa, Organizer in Austin

Ana Yanez-Correa of the Criminal Justice Coalition introduced the caravan and made the link between the deaths, disappearance and despair in Mexico and the increasing criminalization of Communities of Color in the US. As an immigrant herself and as a member of the NAACP she provides a unique bridge linking issues across the border.

She is proud of the decision of the national NAACP to endorse the caravan at its 102nd Annual National Convention in July. The NAACP  called for a repeal of the War on Drugs strategy noting that policies have failed to decrease illegal drug addiction or violence in our communities. The NAACP declared that under the current drug policies, statistics demonstrate that laws are more harshly enforced in African American communities and other communities of color.

Demonstrator on the capital steps in Austin

African Americans are 13 times more likely to go to jail for the same drug-related offenses than their Caucasian counterparts. And like the caravan they agree that smart and safe criminal justice initiatives are more effective in addressing drug abuse and its associated effects. These new initiatives include: sentencing reform to eliminate disparities in drug laws, repealing mandatory minimum sentences, promoting diversion programs, improving parole and probation revocation rates, supporting re-entry initiatives, and supporting youth violence reduction programs.

Ana can not only bring together the criminal justice coalitions and the immigrant rights coalitions, she mentioned to me that she is able to engage in a dialogue with Tea party activists as well. Being able to talk to each other over great divides is especially important in a state like Texas where a conservative base continues to grow.

Rappers at St. James Episcopal Church in Austin

An American mother whose son recently disappeared in Mexico is comforted by a Mexican mother on the Caravan in Austin.

After a stop to the Capitol building, we drove up to the St. James Episcopal Church for a mass and community dinner with more music, dancing, sharing of stories, tears and hugs and a beautiful  ceremony passing candles for the more than 60,000 people killed and the 10,000 people who have disappeared because of drug violence in Mexico in the last few years. “No Deberia morir” we chanted as the sun went down.

Included during the Caravan visit to Austin was a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the casino fire massacre that took place in Mexico one year ago, leaving 52 victims in its wake. The casino fire was presumably set by drug traffickers.

Miguel

Finally there were awards for all the volunteers, and I was once again reminded of why the caravan is so meaningful – so many people giving their time, their energies and creativity to end the violence now. The caravan is planting seeds as it passes through but the movement is being built by the solid organizing in communities across the country. Remembering to appreciate and thank each other for the work we do makes us stronger.

As fellow Caravanisto Miguel told me — “this is the not the end, this is just the beginning.’

Onward to Houston!

TAKE ACTION!

Follow the Caravan on…

• Twitter: @CaravanaUSA
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Caravan4Peace
• Hashtag: #Caravan4Peace #CaravanaUSA
• Caravan for Peace website:  caravanforpeace.org
• Global Exchange People-to-People blog: Caravan Road Reports or Subscribe via RSS to receive new posts automatically

CARAVAN PHOTOS

Check out Caravan photos from the road…

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/globalexchange
Facebook: Southern California photos. South-West photos. Texas photos.

Lend Your Support: Donations are still being accepted to help fund this important trip. Will you give?