Pubdate: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM) Copyright: 2012 Albuquerque Journal Contact: http://www.abqjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10 Cited: Caravan for Peace: http://www.caravanforpeace.org/caravan/ CARAVAN SEEKS END TO DRUG WAR The Caravan for Peace with Dignity and Justice rolled through Santa Fe on Monday, calling for a stop to the War on Drugs. Led by Mexican poet and peace advocate Javier Sicilia, the caravan ends in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12, the day after the 11th anniversary of the Sept 11 tragedy. "Because these are policies of war maintained by the United States since 9/11," Sicilia said just before taking the gazebo stage on Santa Fe's Plaza to deliver a speech urging reform. "These policies have created a spiral of violence and citizens are the victims. We're looking for a world that will allow them to live in peace." Organizers say more than 60,000 people in Mexico have been killed, and an additional 10,000 remain missing, as a result of a drug war declared by the U.S. and Mexican governments. Dozens of protests have been held in Mexico in the last year to raise awareness for what they say are failed policies and to rally people to instigate reform. The policies have resulted, he said, in militarization at the border, an increase in weapons manufacturing and the creation of black markets for weapons and drugs. "The War on Drugs seems only to have exacerbated the problem," he said, adding that the policies have fueled drug cartels in Mexico, diversified crime and led to political corruption. Sicilia's own son was a victim of that war. In March 2011 Juan Francisco Sicilia Ortega was among six people murdered by drug gang members in Temixco, Mexico. Sicilia has since organized protests throughout his country - some drawing tens of thousands of people - calling for an end to the drug war and the removal of Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Sicilia has now brought the message to the U.S. The caravan began in Tijuana on Aug. 11, then crossed the border. Demonstrations have been held in San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Cruces and Albuquerque. It will stop in eight cities in Texas this week, to complete the tour of border states, then venture to Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Baltimore en route to the nation's capital. According to a press release, about 80 people who were victims of violence caused by the Drug War make up the caravan. They hope to pick up more as they spread their message. Victims of the war There are thousands of stories of loss similar to Sicilia's, perhaps none as wrenching as Maria Herrera Magdaleno's. In 2008, two of her sons were taken away by force, she said. Two years later, two other sons, as well as a nephew and her granddaughter's husband, disappeared in the same way. She insists they were not involved in drugs and believes they are still alive. But she's heard rumors that those who are abducted are taken away, forced to work for the drug cartels and trained to be killers. "My sons are not like that," she said. "They have a moral compass. They can't harm anyone." Herrera Magdaleno carries her sons' pictures with her. "Their faces give me the strength to keep up the fight," she said. People have lost hope and live in darkness, she said. They can't go look for their missing loved ones because they are afraid. She considers those people her kin now. She and other victims are family now, she said, because they all share the same pain. Guillermina Juarez lives in Santa Fe, but the Drug War has affected her. Her brother, Juan Gabriel Juarez, suffered from epilepsy and was on prescription drugs, but she said he was not involved in illegal drugs. He disappeared in June 2010. "He was walking down the street and soldiers, the army, picked him up and took him away," she said. Juarez knows her brother's fate. His dismembered body was found with six others in Ciudad Juarez a year later. She attended Monday's rally to support people like Herrera Magdaleno and thousands of others who are victims of the Drug War. Asked what she'd like to see accomplished by the movement, Juarez said, "On this side of the border, I want to see support. On the other side of the border, let justice be served." A pathway to peace Sicilia opened his address to the hundreds who gathered around the Plaza's gazebo with a moment of silence to remember those who have died, many of whose pictures were laid out on the ground in front of the gazebo. He then delivered his message of peace. "It's not an issue of national security," he said of the Drug War, "it's an issue of public health and freedom." People are dying in this war, he said, and it's doing nothing to lower the addiction rate. "It's inventing criminals and putting them in prison. Addicts are not criminals," he said, drawing a round of applause. Drug addicts will continue to consume drugs, finding them through the black market, he said. Meanwhile, people die and others are corrupted by a life of violence. "War only means death," he said. "We have to stop it, but we can't stop it until citizens help stop it. Citizens need to come out onto the streets and set (the government) on a better path." The Caravan for Peace is coordinated by Global Exchange, an international human rights group dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice, according to its website, www.globalexchange.org . Other groups on board include Border Angels, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Veterans of Peace, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Drug Policy Alliance. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt