A report from the end of the Caravan for Peace across the US which reached Washington DC on Sept 12th. This is a shorten version of the Spanish blog prepared by David Brooks.
There is not enough grief or anger in the world to respond to the disappearance or death of a son or daughter. The testimonies of members of the Caravan for Peace have given names and faces to the statistics of the “war on drugs” initiated in Mexico six years ago.
The Caravan for Peace ended its journey of some 10,000 kilometers and activities in 27 cities across the United States on September 12 in Washington DC. The caravan was a step towards creating a binational movement to speak out against the “war on drugs.”
Caravan leader, Javier Sicilia, called it an unprecedented process as it is the first time that citizens of the United States and Mexico have joined together to do citizen diplomacy against Mexican and US government policies dominated by economic interests that thrive on death, misery, and illegal and legal violence.
Sicilia reiterated that it is an effort to civilize the pain, where Mexicans and Americans walk together in a peace process.
In Washington DC, the stories of the victims were told at various events in churches, union halls, and in academic forums, including in the offices of about 27 lawmakers, and in a meeting with the secretary of State for Human Rights, Maria Otero. A meeting was also held with the Mexican Ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhan.
In the evening a procession marched from a church in Washington to Martin Luther King Park, where the completion of the caravan was celebrated with music and promises to continue weaving the binational alliances against this war.
Olga Salazar, Ciudad Juarez, told the story of her six family members who have been killed. She cannot forgive the government nor the murderers, because justice has not been done. They are a family of human rights defenders, but one after another have died or fled (she now lives in the City of Mexico).
“If we do not do this, [journey with the caravan and tell our story] – then the only thing left to do is just sit and mourn …” says Salazar. “They are not just ‘collateral damage’; they are my brothers and sisters, their deaths are the result of the policy of war that is targeted against the Mexican people,” she says, and she holds the government of President Felipe Calderón responsible.
Unfortunately, the Peace Caravan did not generate as much media coverage, citizen participation, or new social allies in the US as organizers had hoped. But Javier Sicilia and other caravan leaders see it as a first step, planting the seed for a new Mexico-US binational movement for peace and justice.
See http://iglesiasporlapaz.blogspot.mx/2012/09/exigen-mexico-y-estados-unidos-caminar.html#more for the full version in Spanish, and http://www.caravanforpeace.org/caravan/ for complete English coverage.