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.
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MAP posted-by: Matt