Shadow
08-11-2012, 09:55 PM
Mexico City (CNN) -- Telephones are ringing off the hook at this office in Mexico's capital, where a group of well-known activists are planning the final details of a protest on the other side of the Mexico-U.S. border.
In a month-long Caravan of Peace across the United States, organizers say they will denounce what they believe are the devastating consequences of the fight against drug trafficking.
San Diego, California, will be the first stop on Sunday for poet Javier Sicilia and 70 other members of Mexico's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity on their trek through more than 20 cities in the United States.
Along the way, 40 people whose family members are among the tens of thousands of dead and disappeared in Mexico's drug war will speak out about their experiences and work to create a new network with more than 70 U.S. nonprofit organizations.
"We want citizens to confront the blindness of politicians and their interests as much in the United States as in Mexico," says Sicilia, who became one of Mexico's most prominent activists after his son's slaying in March 2011.
The caravan will stop in sites north of the border that the poet considers key -- including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago and New York -- before arriving in Washington on September 10.
"It will not be easy to cross the cultural divide to discuss subjects like drug legalization, the illegal production and sale of weapons, trafficking of migrants and money laundering," Sicilia says.
And the protest's timing is another challenge, Sicilia says, noting that his group could struggle to gain attention during a fierce election campaign between incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama and his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Still, he says he is confident that host organizations in the United States will help them create "a narrative that can sensitize the U.S. population about these problems."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/10/us/us-mexico-peace-caravan/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2
In a month-long Caravan of Peace across the United States, organizers say they will denounce what they believe are the devastating consequences of the fight against drug trafficking.
San Diego, California, will be the first stop on Sunday for poet Javier Sicilia and 70 other members of Mexico's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity on their trek through more than 20 cities in the United States.
Along the way, 40 people whose family members are among the tens of thousands of dead and disappeared in Mexico's drug war will speak out about their experiences and work to create a new network with more than 70 U.S. nonprofit organizations.
"We want citizens to confront the blindness of politicians and their interests as much in the United States as in Mexico," says Sicilia, who became one of Mexico's most prominent activists after his son's slaying in March 2011.
The caravan will stop in sites north of the border that the poet considers key -- including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago and New York -- before arriving in Washington on September 10.
"It will not be easy to cross the cultural divide to discuss subjects like drug legalization, the illegal production and sale of weapons, trafficking of migrants and money laundering," Sicilia says.
And the protest's timing is another challenge, Sicilia says, noting that his group could struggle to gain attention during a fierce election campaign between incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama and his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Still, he says he is confident that host organizations in the United States will help them create "a narrative that can sensitize the U.S. population about these problems."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/10/us/us-mexico-peace-caravan/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2