Juarenses will receive the Caravan for Peace this Thursday

This coming Thursday, the people of Ciudad Juárez will greet and receive the Caravana for Peace with Justice and Dignity.

The Caravana, headed by poet Javier Sicilia and more than a dozen civic organizations, will arrive to Juárez on June 9 after a journey of more than 1,800 traveling miles and several meetings in some of the cities most affected by drug-trafficking violence. Massive events in the city are planned for Friday.

Sicilia became a public figure after the brutal murder of his son, Juan Francisco, along with other six young men on March 28 in the city of Cuernavaca.  Sicilia, who is also a journalist from the prestigious magazine Proceso, has become a strong voice demanding justice for all the victims of drug-trafficking violence and an end to the government’s drug war.

In its traveling route, which has included Mexico City, Morelia and San Luis Potosí, Saltillo and Monterrey, the Caravana has attracted hundreds of people who have suffered the kidnapping, the disappearance or the assassination of one or several of their family members. It is expected that more people will join it as the caravan moves through to Torreón,  Chihuahua and finally to Ciudad Juárez.

It is significant that the civic organizations integrated into the Caravana chose Juárez as the place to sign a national civic agreement to pressure the Mexican government to change its strategy to fight organized crime.

With more than 7,000 killings in the last three years, Juarez is an emblematic place for drug-related violence. In Sicilia’s own words, Juárez symbolizes all the pain and the suffering that the country is going through as the result of a war that is not its own.

Sicilia and the civic organizations are calling for a more integral strategy that would include policies to crackdown on the finances of organized crime, money laundering, corruption and impunity, as well as actions to restore the social fabric and political reforms to advance democracy.

Although is highly unlikely that the government would make changes to its militarized drug war strategy –especially when election time is around the corner– the civic organizations’ pressure could generate some significant developments in the short term.

Yesterday, for example, members of the Caravana had a meeting with the attorney general for the state of Nuevo León. As a result of the meeting, the local government made the commitment to reopen the investigation of dozens of people who have disappeared without leaving any trace. The attorney general even appointed an official to follow up all the cases and to investigate theit legal status.

With little steps like this, civic organizations can force the local and federal government to fight impunity and to give answers to thousands of people who are still demanding justice for their relatives. Hopefully they will have similar answers from the authorities of Chihuahua.

 

 

Comments

[brownfield]

Oh yeah, let's hold hands and sing! That will make the Mexican Government accountable. Murder via revolution is the only answer. Kill those in government who have done nothing while your children have been raped and murdered. Kill those greedy globalists who run the NAFTA sweat shops that lead to a dead end of poverty and despair. Kill the police who stand around and do nothing at best, and at their worst are involved in the criminal organizations and crimes they commit. Rise up and fight or lay down and die. Holding hands and getting promises of reform from the very people who have screwed you isnt going to change a thing. Children live in garbage dumps and Carlos Slim is one of the richest men in the world...Kill him...take his assests and sell them off...bulid family shelters for those who suffer the indignity of eating garbage. The time for prayer and singing are over...take action now!

[Miriam Cueva]

@brownfield: I got the feeling that your ideal world looks pretty empty.