Movement for Peace with Justice: Turning his grief into tool for change, Mexican poet takes anti-violence cause to San Francisco Area

While Javier plans an anti-drug war march to Ciudad Juarez next week, the Mexican government of Felipe Calderon worries that, "political forces inside of Mexico that are trying to take advantage of this movement for political purposes." Actually, the most worrisome "political force" is the Calderon government itself, as it tries to de-legitimate and co--opt the Sicilia movement. Mexican presidents have been experts at such co-option for decades.

Turning his grief into tool for change, Mexican poet takes anti-violence cause to Bay Area - San Jose Mercury News: "A Mexican poet who channeled his grief over a slain son into a mass peace movement took his cause to the United States on Wednesday, calling on American officials to halt the illicit flow of U.S.-bought guns south of the border and rethink their support of the Mexican government's war on drug cartels.

Javier Sicilia lost his son when drug gangs allegedly killed the 24-year-old and six others near the city of Cuernavaca. Sicilia turned the personal tragedy into a national call for action that inspired hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to march last month for peace. 'It's going to take generations, this process of remaking the country through nonviolence,' Sicilia said in a Wednesday visit to San Francisco, a short respite from a burgeoning protest movement that has rallied behind the 55-year-old writer.

Sicilia is leading another peace march June 10 through the violence-racked border city of Ciudad Juárez that has attracted close attention from President Felipe Calderon, who plans to meet with Sicilia when it is over. Some observers have compared the mass movement in Mexico to those happening in the Arab world. ...

Mexico's chief diplomatic representative in the Bay Area called Sicilia a "well-intentioned" figure but argued that it is organized crime, not the Mexican government, that is the main enemy of the nation's society and its people. "Any kind of dialogue in order to build consensus against organized crime and all its effects is important," said Consul General Carlos Felix, who credited Sicilia for bringing important issues into the public discourse. Felix, however, cautioned that a constructive peace movement easily could devolve into traditional electoral politics in which the chief aim is to oppose the Calderon government. "There are other political forces inside of Mexico that are trying to take advantage of this movement for political purposes," Felix said."