Movement for Peace with Justice: Calderon tells Javier Sicilia that Mexico drug war strategy will continue despite appeals

We really did not expect anything different to come from this public meeting.

Mexico drug war strategy will continue despite appeals from activists, Calderon says - latimes.com: "Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday met face-to-face with activist-poet Javier Sicilia in a long and often colorful public meeting aimed at reaching a consensus on how to curb the country's rising drug-war death toll.

Sicilia demanded Calderon apologize for carnage that has left an estimated 40,000 dead, and demanded a change in the government's anti-crime strategy. But Calderon, flanked by Cabinet officials, repeated once more that it would be wrong to alter the basic thrust — a military-led campaign against the country's powerful cartels."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Can Mexico's Peace Movement Change Calderon's Strategy?

Can Mexico's Peace Movement Change Calderon's Strategy?: "The president, and some members of his cabinet, will meet with 35 representatives of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Many of them have lost relatives to drug violence, including poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in March by a gang. Since then the high-profile writer has led the campaign for peace, including a march across the country to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city.

The meeting was originally slated to take place on Thursday, June 23 at the National Museum of Anthropology, a location that the group had selected as symbolic of the “national re-foundation” that the country needs. However, at the last minute officials changed the location to the Chapultepec Castle, according to El Universal. Presumably the switch was made for security reasons, in an effort to limit the chances of the meeting being disturbed by protests.

Mexico’s Interior Ministry confirmed the meeting, saying that the government has been seeking input from civil society “since the beginning of the implementation of the National Security Strategy.” This has been refuted by Sicilia and others, however, who have complained that their calls for a national dialogue have fallen on"

Movement for Peace with Justice: Citizen’s Pact for Peace with Justice and Dignity

Here is the Americas Program's translation of the "Citizen's Pact for Peace and Justice" signed in Ciudad Juárez by participants at the end of the recent Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity.

Citizen’s Pact for Peace with Justice and Dignity – CIP Americas: "For more than four years now, our country has suffered a war on drugs that officially does not exist. It is really a war against the people that has cost 40,000 Mexican lives, mostly youths, and another 10,000, also mostly youths, who inhabit the terrifying limbo that authorities have coldly labeled “disappeared.”"

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico peace tour: How the drug war changed once-calm Cuernavaca

Mexico peace tour: How the drug war changed once-calm Cuernavaca - CSMonitor.com: "Cuernavaca quickly became the center of a nationwide movement, led by Mr. Sicilia, demanding the end of Mr. Calderón's anti-drug policies. “We have had it up to here” became the movement's slogan, together with “No More Bloodshed.” In early May, a march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City culminated in a massive event in Mexico City's Zócalo, or main square.

People across the country started naming their victims, many of whom had gone unnamed all along, often archived by the police as victims of internal settling of scores between rival cartels.

After the success of May's march, Sicilia called for another trek, this time thousands of miles long, all the way from Cuernavaca to Ciudad Juarez at the border with the US, stopping in cities along the way that, like Cuernavaca, that have suddenly become flashpoints in the government's attempt to get rid of organized crime."

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."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico drug war protest caravan to mobilize nation's opposition, seal peace pact

Mexico drug war protest caravan to mobilize nation's opposition, seal peace pact: "Mexico drug war protest organizer, the preeminent poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, is launching yet another national event to call for reform. The National Citizen's Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, organized by Sicilia and a host of community based organizations, is scheduled to depart Mexico City and Sicilia's hometown of Cuernavaca on June 4, to cross the nation, and to convene a citizen convention in Juarez on June 10. ...

Following up on the international attention and national response, Sicilia's new project will "cross the path of horror" as it traverses the nation. The caravan trip will conclude on June 10 in Ciudad Juarez, the city on the U.S. border that has been most devastated by the Mexico drug war. There, participants will hold meetings and issue a statement formally initiating a national movement, a citizen pact for peace with justice and dignity. A tripline website details a preliminary route and itinerary for the caravan leading up to the Juarez meeting.

Organizers in Mexico are encouraging people from the United States to participate either by joining the Mexican caravan or by organizing a caravan leg from the US side. Such a caravan could conceivably conclude in El Paso, Texas."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico poet an emblem of nation's drug war carnage

The Los Angeles Times interviews Javier Sicilia

Mexico poet: Mexico poet an emblem of nation's drug war carnage - latimes.com: "To poet Javier Sicilia, his son's March slaying is a sign of Mexico's failure to safeguard its people amid what he considers an ill-conceived war on drug gangs. It has also launched him on a crusade."

Movement for Peace with Justice - Video of protest against drug violence in Mexico City

Here is a video of the protest in the Zocalo in Mexico City

BBC News - 20,000 protest against drug violence in Mexico City

Laura's Blog: Mexico's March Against the Drug War Demands Far-Reaching Political Reforms

Thousands of Mexicans changed the face of national and international politics May 8 in the world’s first mass protest against the drug war.

Following a four-day march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City, an estimated 90,000 protesters poured into the central plaza (see Americas Program coverage of the entire march below). The march was led by relatives of victims and convoked by the poet, Javier Sicilia, whose son was brutally assassinated in March.

Protesters in the march demanded far-reaching changes in Mexico’s security policy and an end to the “war on drugs”. In speeches and documents they also called for political reforms to go the root of the alarming deterioration in public safety and well-being since President Felipe Calderón deployed the army in an offensive against organized crime in December of 2006.

The historic demonstration presented a  “citizen’s pact” to replace the “absurd war that has cost 40,000 lives and left millions of Mexicans in fear and uncertainty”, in the words of Sicilia.

The pact demands that the victims of the recent violence be named and that their memory serve as a catalyst for restoring lasting peace with justice in Mexico. Two women directly affected by the violence and impunity that characterizes the current crisis read the pact aloud to the crowd. Olga Reyes Salazar of Ciudad Juarez lost six family members--including her sister Josefina Reyes, a prominent anti-militarization activist, her brothers Ruben and Elias, sister Magdalena, sister-in-law Luisa Ornelas and a nephew--to assassinations in the past year and a half. Not a single suspect has been apprehended in the cases. Patricia Duarte’s child was killed in a fire in the ABC daycare center. The case, unsolved after two years, has become a symbol of impunity in the country.

The six-point pact demands: 1) Resolution of the assassinations and disappearances and the naming of victims; 2) An end to the war strategy and adoption of a “citizen security” strategy; 3) Effective measures against corruption and impunity; 4) A focused attack on the economic roots and criminal revenue streams, including money laundering; 5) Immediate attention to the plight of youth and effective actions to rebuild a broken society, including reorienting the budget to education, health, culture and employment; 6) Participatory democracy.

The pact “seeks to promote a new way of living together and establish the basis of legality. The proposals are the beginning of the path, not the end.”

Sicilia, who has become the figurehead for the new movement against the drug war, called the pact “a fundamental commitment to peace with justice and dignity that allows the nation to be restored.” The mobilization, he noted, seeks to replace a government policy that “assumes that there are only two ways to confront this threat [of organized crime]: illegally administering it as was common in the past and still common in many places today, or declaring war with the army in the streets, which is happening today.

“It ignores that drugs are an historical phenomenon that… should be treated as a problem of urban sociology and public health and not as a criminal matter to be confronted with violence.”

The demonstration in downtown Mexico City capped a march of hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands from Cuernavaca to the Zócalo, or central plaza. Signs along the way signs expressed gratitude to Sicilia for catalyzing widespread discontent—“Gracias, Sicilia, for shaking my spirit out of lethargy, Today the people cry in unison-No More Blood!” - and opposition to the president and his policies. Indigenous communities joined students and workers, middle class professionals and artists in the protest.

Call for Change in U.S. Actions

Mexico’s new civil pact concludes with a call to Mexicans living in the U.S. and other U.S. citizens to support the movement by demanding that the U.S. government stop the flow of arms to Mexico and crack down on money laundering.

In his speech to the crowd, Sicilia also attacked U.S. policies and actions as part of the problem.

“Their multi-million dollar market for drug consumption, their banks and businesses that launder money in complicity with ours, their arms industry—more lethal than drugs, for being so evident and expansionist—whose weapons come into our country, not only strengthen criminal groups, but also provide them with an immense capacity for carnage. The United States has designed a security policy whose logic responds fundamentally to its global interests and Mexico has been trapped within it.”

In an open letter to Javier Sicilia, a group of prominent Mexican intellectuals and organizations states, “There is more and more evidence that policies and actions relative to U.S. national security have been disguised as public safety issues, under the euphemism of the joint security of both countries.

“The instruments and commitments that form part of this linkage between the two governments are the Merida Initiative, the North American Security and Prosperity Agreement, and the reorganization of the Federal Police along the lines of the U.S. Patriot Act, implemented in Mexico by the Minister of Public Security, Genaro García Luna… In effect, Mexico is not –as has been posited--a ‘failed state’ but a state that has been infiltrated to such a degree that it is losing its independence and true sovereignty.”

Signs along the march referred to the U.S. role: One showed a map of the United States and Mexico-“They provide the arms, Mexico the dead”; another read simply: “This isn’t a war; it’s a business”.

Demands for Change

In the downtown Zócalo, Sicilia called for the resignation of Security Secretary García Luna as a sign that the Calderón administration has heard the demands of the populace. He urged a profound clean-up within the political system and all political parties of those who, “disguised in legality, are in collusion with criminals and have the State’s hands tied and co-opted by using its own instruments to erode citizens’ hopes for change.

“Without an honorable cleansing of their ranks and a total commitment to political ethics, citizens will be forced to ask ourselves in the next elections which cartel to vote for.”

As thousands demanded an end to the violence in front of the National Palace, the government responded in a communiqué from the Ministry of the Interior.

“Without the permanent effort of the Mexican Army, the Navy and the Federal Police in localities with a high incidence of crime, the populations there would be subject to the will of the criminals and it would be impossible to begin to rebuild a damaged society.”

The communiqué responded indirectly to the demands of youth and other sectors represented in the march for the immediate withdrawal of the armed forces from communities across Mexico. This demand is strongest in places like Ciudad Juarez, high crime areas where much of the population has come to view the presence of the army as a factor of conflict rather than its solution.

The drug-related homicide rate went from an average of 2,000 a year before the Calderón drug war to 15,000 murders last year.

Yesterday’s massive demonstration set the terms of debate in Mexico. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Mexico City and other cities throughout the country to demand an end to the drug war model imposed by the Calderon administration with the support and encouragement of the U.S. government. They have established the outlines of a far-reaching civil pact and specific proposals to attack organized crime at the roots by addressing the failure of the political and judicial systems and the inequality, poverty and lack of full democracy that weaken society.

The response from the government has been a reaffirmation of the military strategy. There are no signs of flexibility with regard to the demands of the demonstrators and signs point to a retrenchment, as more troops are dispatched to a growing number of hot spots in the country.

The March for Peace with Justice and Dignity marks a sea change in Mexican politics. A significant part of the population has demanded an end to the drug war, identifying the security strategy itself as a major part of the problem, not part of the solution. The citizens’ pact goes beyond the fight against organized crime and puts on the table political reforms including the elimination of immunity from prosecution for government officials, real autonomy for the judicial branch, participation in referendums and plebiscites, and a focus on social programs and expansion of educational opportunities.

This clash of paradigms on security implies much more than a difference of opinion on how to fight organized crime. A little over a year before the next presidential elections and in the midst of the worst crisis in Mexico since war, citizens are taking the lead in establishing the framework for rebuilding their society on their terms.

As the pact makes clear, the first step is to demand actions from political leadership across the spectrum that indicate a willingness to clean up corruption and respond to social needs that have been building up and have come to a head in the peace movement. It defines a starting point for consructing ground-up solutions, moving beyond mere protest or opposition.

The victims remain at the moral center of the movement, while urging society to rise above the status of victimhood—as they have in leading the movement.

Javier Sicilia summed up the convictions of the marchers:

“We are here to say that we will not convert this pain in our souls into hate or more violence, but into a tool that helps to restore the love, the peace, the justice, the dignity of the ailing democracy that we are losing… To show the lords of death that we are standing up and we will not stop defending the lives of all our sons and daughters in this country, that we still believe it’s possible to rescue and rebuild our people’s society, our neighborhoods and our cities.”

Laura Carlsen

Migrants Attacked en Route to Peace March: “We are Completely Alone on the Side of the Tracks”

A migrants' caravan of 60 persons en route to join the March for Peace with Justice and Dignity was attacked by three armed assailants who tried unsuccessfully to kidnap a woman in the group. The attack took place at 1:30 this afternoon, near the border of the municipalities of Orizaba and Rio Blanco in the state of Veracruz.

Rubén Figueroa, a representative of the Mesoamerican Migrants' Movement traveling with the caravan, told the Americas Program that local police arrived at the scene but left after about ten minutes.

"They said they didn't know who they were up against, because it seems like these people are very strong. That's why nobody is here."

“We are completely alone on the side of the tracks,” Figueroa said in an interview at 4:15, several hours after the kidnapping attempt. The men who carried out the attack reportedly threatened to return. The Federal Police and representatives of the National Commission on Human Rights were expected to arrive but had not.

In a follow-up phone interview at 6:00, the migrant group continued to wait on the tracks in growing desperation.

"We don't know what to do," Figueroa said, visibly shaken. "We're between a rock and a hard place and night is falling and there isn't a single government official here." Figueroa said the group was considering going into the Orizaba park or a church or anywhere they could feel slightly more secure given that they had been completely abandoned by public security forces.

"It makes me furious, it makes me want to cry."

“This is part of the disintegration we're seeing in our country," said Eduardo Almeida of the human rights organization Nodo. “There is a whole industry to kidnapping migrants to recruit them for crime, to extort money from family members in the United States, or to sexually exploit women, as one can assume was the case with these women, to sexually exploit them in human trafficking networks." he explained that "the stretch between Orizaba, that part of Veracruz, and Puebla is very dangerous. There have already been numerous kidnappings of migrants.”

It is not known if the attack was related to the march, as migrant kidnappings are an increasingly common phenomenon. However, because it was well-known that the migrant caravan was on its way to join the national march, Almeida didn’t rule it out as a motive.

“It’s a march that was announced very publicly,” Almeida said. “[The attack] could be a sign of hostility toward the idea of relating migrant issues to the theme of Mexican violence prominent in the march called by Javier Sicilia.”

Almeida noted the context of the attack on the migrants. "It's important to point out the loss of security; this is a zone that noone can travel safely through--not just migrants. It shows the level of institutional deterioration, because crime is there and it has been growing also because of institutional and governmental incpacity to stop it in the right places, beyond a general strategy of militarization."

Caravana de migrantes atacada, se esfuma la policia: "Estamos completamente solos"

En comunicación con el Programa de las Américas, Rubén Figueroa, miembro de la caravana de migrantes que está viajando por tren para unirse a la Marcha por la Paz con Justicia, informa que la caravana fue atacado a las 13:30 del día de hoy. Un grupo de hombres armados intentaron a secuestrar a unas mujeres de la caravana, en los límites de los municipios de Orizaba y Rio Blanco--una zona conocida por los frecuentes secuestros de migrantes.

Figueroa afirmó que el grupo se ha quedado sin protección en el lugar de los hechos. "Estamos completamente solos en las orillas de las vias." UPDATE: A las 17:45 todavía no habían llegado elementos de seguridad.

"La policia municipal estuvo 10 minutos, 15 minutos y se fueron. Dijeron que no sabían con quién se estaban enfrentando ellos, porque al parecer era gente muy fuerte. Y por eso no hay nadie.

"Estamos completamente solos aqui. No quisiéramos seguir abordando el tren y prefiríamos esperarnos aqui."

Los y las miembros de la caravana habían bajado del tren cuando sufrieron el ataque.

Eduardo Almeida de Nodo de Derechos Humanos explica el contexto. "Es parte de esta descomposión que se ha dado en nuesto país. Hay todo una industria de secuestrar a migrantes para reclutarlos al crimen, para secuestrarlos para pedir dinero de sus parientes en EEUU, o para utilizar a las muchachas--que parece ser el caso en esto, uno podría suponer que es el caso--para explotarlas sexualmente en estas redes de trata de personas."

Sin embargo, Almedia no descarta que el ataque podría estar relacionado con la marcha. "Es una marcha que se anunció muy públicamente," afirma. "Puede ser una señal de hostilidad a la intención de sumar el tema del migrante a todo este tema de la violencia en México que se está representando en la caravana que convoca Javier Sicilia.

"Es importante hacer notar la pérdida de seguridad, esta es una zona en que nadie puede transitar con seguridad, no solo migrantes. Muestra el nivel de deterioro institucional, porque el crimen está allí y ha ido creciendo también por esta incapacidad institucional, gubernamental de poner los frenos en los lugares adecuados, mas allá de una estrategia de militarización," concluye Almeida.

Por lo pronto, lo más importante es obtener protección para el grupo de 60 migrantes y sus acompañantes que siguen esperando en condiciones de gran vulnerabilidad y riesgo. Los miembros de la caravana dicen que ni los representantes de la Comisión Nacionalidad de Derechos Humanos ni elementos de la Policia Federal han llegado al lugar a ayudarles.

¡Ya Basta de Sangre!: An Indigenous Village Plagued by Assassinations Welcomes Peace March

After climbing the mountain that lies between the tropical lowlands of Cuernavaca and the Valley of Mexico at over 7,000 feet, hundreds of marchers filed through the narrow streets of the indigenous village of Coajomulco.

"In Morelos, defending the forests and wildlife can cost you your life," reads the sign held by the daughters of a local leader who was murdered a year ago after standing up to illegal loggers. The town's efforts to protect its natural resources have led to the murder of two members of the community--Ruben Flores and Miguel Angel Perez--in recent years.

Townspeople greet the march with applause along the way. They have prepared dinner for the hundreds who will sleep overnight there.

Children of Coajomulco greet the peace marchers.

Most of yesterday, the first day of the march, we walked and talked to participants about why they were there. We’ve got a great collection of interviews that include exclusives with Bishop Raul Vera, Mexico’s voice of the progressive church; Ciudad Juarez youth organizer Julian Contreras; Pablo Romo, human rights defender; Luis Rodriguez, father of a young woman shot in the Salvarcar massacre; cultural and media workers; and many more, including Javier Sicilia, the poet whose personal loss catalyzed this march and new phase of the national movement.

Many marchers interviewed talked about a national movement. The mobilization is not just a visceral reaction to pain and the gruesome violence that has gripped Mexico under the drug war. This group of hot and tired marchers represents the core of this new movement. How to characterize it?

As I look around I see all kinds of people, resting before taking to the highway again. Young, old, middle class, poor. They're talking in small groups and munching on the tortillas that always appear in abundance for peoples’ marches--a sign that in Mexico Profundo solidarity still has meaning (and corn rules).

So far, a few banners mark more organized contingents, like family members from Hermosillo whose children were burned to death due to the callousness of privatized, for-profit services and corrupt governments; SME electrical workers whose union was liquidated after a military takeover of installations; new peace and justice groups that have sprung up in different parts of the country; activists against femicides and forced disappearances; anti-militarization organizations. But most people are marching as ordinary citizens.

The No + Sangre movement launched by cartoonists was designed to be an image to unite general discontent and hasn't had a clear leadership structure. The same is true so far of this latest phase, spurred by the grieving indignation of Sicilia. Since it’s not a top-down movement, a wide range of demands appear, from a call for the resignation of the Morelos state governor (where Juan Francisco Sicilia and his friends were murdered) to the immediate withdrawal of the army from the drug war.

There is a strong commitment to maintain the independent, grassroots nature of the movement and democratize its forms of organization as it moves toward more definition and strategic decisions.

The video and audio interviews and slideshow is available on the web page www.cipamericas.org. All photos by Murphy Woodhouse, CIP Americas Program. Check them out--the images add a another to dimension to what I can describe briefly in words here.

Movement for Peace with Justice: Protesters Demand End to Drug War, Calderón Digs In

Mexico's march for peace started off its first day with some 800 protesters taking to the highway on a four-day trek from Cuernavaca to Mexico City.

Cuernavaca, a large city south of the capital, has a reputation as a get-away spot with a springlike climate and blossoming bougainvilleas. Since President Felipe Calderon launched the war on drugs, and especially since the government killing of  leader of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, it has become a hotspot for violence, with cartel-imposed curfews and military checkpoints. The assassination of the son of poet Javier Sicilia and several of his friends there on March 28 was the catalyst for the nation-wide demonstration.

In an interview en route, Sicilia said, "The justice that I demand for my son is the justice I demand for the all the 40,000 dead and all that will follow. We have to put a name to these dead, know their histories, know where they are from, how many were innocent, how many were criminals, why they became criminals, what happened to the communities they came from...

"These people aren't just 'collateral damage' or abtractions, they have families and names, the families are broken, they will never be the same. Mexico can't go on killing itself like this."

Men and women who remember the names of the victims all too well marched alongside Sicilia. One of them is Luis Rodriguez from Ciudad Juarez. Rodriguez's daughter was shot in the massacre of Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez on January 31, 2010--another historic moment in Mexico's drug war when bereaved residents stood up and accused the president of responsibility in the violence. 

"We're here to accompany the pain and the grief of Morelos, and to protest," Rodriguez said. "Ciudad Juarez is the laboratory of the government strategy, so our mission is to go to places that haven't been through this and warn them that they have to stand up and organize. Because the government is going to the other cities and if there isn't organization, it's possible that the experience of Ciudad Juarez will be repeated."

When asked how his daughter was, Rodriguez replied, "Physically she's better now, but mentally she'll never be the same."

The Bishop of Coahuila, Raul Vera, expressed the positive aspects of a march born of grief. When asked why he joined the march, he replies, "Finally, there's a movement in Mexico that is beginning to build the society we want. We can't lose this opportuity to help out. The church can't be absent in this moment."

Vera is another strong critic of the Calderon administration's drug war strategy. "The strategy is wrong,  and it's leaving out the most important part--eliminating political corruption and finanical corruption, the foreign interests and businessmen that give them the money. If the government doesn't  put more emphasis on this part, going around using the military to shoot hitmen just means that tomorrow [the cartels] have the moeny to hire others," Bishop Vera explained. "There's no end to it with the way they are doing it now--it's just going to get worse."

Julian Contreras, an organizer from Villas de Salvarcar and member of the Plural Front of Ciudad Juarez, said, "We are in solidarity with the demand for peace with justice and dignity and we are adding our demand for the immediate demilitarization of our city and the country."

As he waited for a lunch provided by local residents, Contreras explained his motives for traveling from the northern border to participate. "By being together we lose the fear of living in fear. We're going on to Mexico City where they're are more people waiting for us. Hopefully this is just the beginning of stopping this absurd and deceitful war. Under the pretext of the war on drug-trafficking, they're exterminating the lower levels of society."

After a moment he adds, "We can't let the logic of war prevail. It's unacceptable that it's cheaper to kill the poor than to end poverty."

As marchers made their way to Mexico City to protest the administration's drug war, President Felipe Calderon directed some very pointed comments to the growing movement. In a speech commemorating the May 5th Battle of Puebla in 1862, the beleaguered president sought to defend his security policies, and in particular the use of the army in the domestic drug war.

On the defensive, he assailed his critics, "who with good or bad intentions want to see our troops withdraw, our institutions let down their guard and give these criminal groups full rein. Today I tell you this is not going to happen. Because we have the reason, the law and the force, we will win."

Secretary of Security Genaro Garcia Luna echoed Calderon's irritation with the demonstration. "It is unthinkable that civil society says that the strategy or vision or focus of attack is wrong."

The government faces off with a growing movement of mostly young people who call for an end to the war on drugs. The "We've had it" theme of the march repeats the "Enough already" cry of the indigenous Zapatista rebellion of 1994. In fact, the indigenous movement has called on supporters to join the marches.

Banners called for peace with justice and dignity and criticized the role of the U.S. in supporting Calderon's drug war; a map of North America where the U.S. bleeds into Mexico in the shape of pointed guns reads "They provide the weapons, Mexico provides the dead".

Tomorrow's march begins in the indigenous town of Coajomulco and proceeds to the outskirts of Mexico City. The blog may not be real time, because of the lack of connections on the road, but we will be be there to bring news on Day Two of Mexico's historic no more drug war protests.

MexicoBlog Editorial: Supporting This Week's ¡Ya Basta! March in Mexico

Mexican citizens are increasingly rising up to protest the "war on drugs" that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives and is undermining both Mexican society and its nascent democracy. They are saying, ¡Ya Basta de Sangre! Enough Bloodshed Already! U.S. citizens ought to show their support.

Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet whose son was murdered in March, has joined with leaders of other civic society organizations in calling for a silent march that will begin May 5 and finish May 8 at the zócalo, the main plaza, in Mexico City. Marchers from Sicilia's city of Cuernavaca will be joined by contingents from Ciudad Juárez, the state of Mexico, Mexico City, Guerrero, Puebla and Tlaxcala. At the moment there are 38 mobilizations set to take place in different cities throughout the country.


This past week, from April 28-29, a group calling themselves Youth in the National Emergency met in Cuernavaca, and issued a Declaration calling for a stop to "the national disaster" of Mexico's militarized drug war and announcing a plan of action, including follow-up steps to the march. These steps center on forming a national organization, Peace with Justice and Dignity, with the following goals:

1. Immediate Demilitarization of the drug war, with the withdrawal of the Mexican army from the countryside.
2. End the Violence and Impunity through building community action and opposition to any reform that violates human rights, such as the reform of the National Security Law (This is a proposed law that would give the Mexican president sole power to declare groups - including those advocating political changes - to be national security risks against which the army could be used. Congress adjourned this week without taking action on the law, but may reconvene in special session to re-consider it.) 
3. Decriminalization of drug consumption by revoking laws that define it as a criminal. Drug legalization hinges on prevention, education and information and a debate about consumption of all drugs.
4. Creating Lives of Dignity by addressing poverty and unemployment and opposing labor laws that restrict the right to organize and violate the right to dignified and fairly paid work.
5. Providing Art and Culture for All by using art as a tool of struggle, protest and consciousness raising  to integrate unorganized people into active social participation, defense of their autonomy and self-rule. Opposing mass media's control of culture. 
6. Creating an Education Plan  that serves as a tool for human liberation and emancipation and that serves to develop the abilities and creativity of everyone.Guaranteeing access to public education at all levels, including the college level. What is needed is an education model that empowers, raises consciousness and transforms reality through reflection and action, thus reviving the principle of a free and secular education for all.

To further their goal of creating the organization, Peace with Justice and Dignity, and plan demonstrations and, community organizing efforts, the group called for a series of meetings: in Mexico City on May 9, in Ciudad Juarez and again in Mexico City on September 1. 

The so-called "Mexican Drug War" that is destroying Mexican society is rooted in U.S. drug consumption and prohibition laws that create the illegal drug market. Thus, this mobilization by Mexican youth calls for the support of U.S. citizens. We can do so by petitioning Congress to move towards the legalization of currently illegal drugs.  ¡Ya Basta de Sangre! Enough Bloodshed Already!

Ya Basta de Sangre: Mexico Arrests 2 More Suspects in Murder of Poet’s Son

Latin American Herald Tribune - Mexico Arrests 2 More Suspects in Murder of Poet’s Son: "Two men accused of the March murders of the son of a prominent poet and six other men in the central state of Morelos have been arrested by the Federal Police, the Mexican Public Safety Secretariat said Monday.

Jesus Cardenas Perez and Cesar Arturo Galindo Perez were arrested Sunday in the city of Jiutepec in connection with the slaying of 24-year-old Juan Francisco Sicilia."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Javier Sicilia: The Resurrection of the Country is the Goal of Nonviolent Insurrection

Javier Sicilia: The Resurrection of the Country is the Goal of Nonviolent Insurrection: "In the midst of a political climate that is shaping the approval of a federal security law and with it the normalization of a state of exception, social fighters gathered to propose the construction of a social pact to reorganize Mexico and reiterate that society is fed-up with the climate of violence that is pervading the country.

Javier Sicilia—joined (by leaders of other civic society organizations) —made a call for others to join a silent march that will begin May 5 in Cuernavaca and finish May 8 at the zócalo in Mexico City. This demonstration will join contingents from Ciudad Juárez, the state of Mexico, Mexico City, Guerrero, Puebla and Tlaxcala. At the moment there are 38 mobilizations set to take place in different cities throughout the country.

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico poet Javier Sicilia leads anger at drug violence

Mexico poet Javier Sicilia leads anger at drug violence: ""Ihave to show my face for my son's dignity, for all the sons who have died in this battle and those who will die in the future," Javier Sicilia says. ...

"What this war has done is allow the corruption of institutions which had been taking place for years to emerge, but leaving those institutions completely defenceless to face organised crime." ...

For Mr Sicilia, the conflict has reached a level that requires a more comprehensive approach to the issue - one which includes the commitment of all Mexicans.

"We need a national pact because this is an emergency, and we have to rebuild the tissue of this nation - if we do not, we are going to enter hell.""

Movement for Peace with Justice: Javier Sicilia Posts First Names on Drug War’s “Vietnam Wall”

The Field: Javier Sicilia Posts First Names on Drug War’s “Vietnam Wall”: "Together with human rights leader and Catholic priest Miguel Concha, the three family members of drug war martyrs held a press conference for about three dozen local, national and international reporters and cameramen, at which Sicilia said he and his Morelos neighbors would be hanging plaques on the Governor’s Palace with the names of 95 state residents killed in prohibition-related violence since January 1 of this year. They also read each name aloud; 95 human lives in 100 days, all those human lives in just one of Mexico’s less populous states. Family members of various were there, standing tall and silent, relieved, surprised, proud that something the regime promised them would never be allowed them happened today: a dignified memory of their fallen.

Many – your reporter, included – thought that Javier's declaration simply meant they would hang banners on the walls of the state government seat, but the plot would soon thicken as he and others took up a power tool and began to drill metal plates, the first with the name of Juan Francisco Sicilia Ortega (1987-2011) into the grey stone visage of State power, under the glare of TV network lights (including those of NNTV)." NarcoNews

Movement for Peace with Justice: Why They Are Marching Against Drug War Violence

Narco News: Why They Are Marching Against Drug War Violence: "“I’m here because I’m sick of so much blood,” said Silvina Silva, who came to the march after hearing about it on the radio and television. “It’s impossible to go on like this.”"

Movement for Peace with Justice: Javier Sicilia’s Letter to Politicians & Criminals

Here is Javier Sicilia's complete letter calling for an end to the drug war.

Javier Sicilia’s Letter to Politicians & Criminals (English) | chillychilango: "from these ... mutilated lives, from this suffering, from the indignation that these deaths have provoked, it is simply that we have had it up to here.
We have had it up to here with you, politicians "