Movement for Peace with Justice: Government Frustrates Dialogue with Peace Movement

IPS ipsnews.net: "The failure of the dialogue on which the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity had staked its hopes was perhaps predictable, after the federal government twice postponed the meeting and changed the format to include participants who agree with its policy of a militarised war on drugs. "I don't hold out much hope," Javier Sicilia (the Movement's leader) said, a few days earlier.

But on Friday Oct. 14, the president dismissed out of hand two of the movement's key demands: a reversal of the militarised security policy, and the creation of a truth commission to investigate the countless reports of abuses by the state security forces.

"What we saw was a clear attempt by the government to dilute the movement," Magdiel Sánchez, in charge of logistics for the peace caravans that have quartered the country from north to south, told IPS. "Calderón talked about other issues, rather than dialogue, petitions or working groups. His manner of speaking, and that of his cabinet ministers, was like delivering a formal government report, and it was clear they wanted to denigrate the movement's importance and treat it as just another interest group," the activist said." read more