Caravan for Peace in the US

Deciding to organize a caravan or march is not a simple matter. Organizing one in a country whose leaders feel no connection to the turmoil that their actions are causing in the country is certainly not an easy or simple decision.

After the formation of the Caravan for Peace was announced by the organization headed by Javier Sicilia, the criticisms were not long in coming. There were those who thought they saw an opportunity to settle old scores from the last election, especially those who are unable to understand the enormous complexity and the immense number of variables that come into play in such a delicate and sensitive matter — as that of the victims and casualties of a violent conflict where the rules are not those of a conventional war and are not made by any conventional political group.

Therefore, one of the achievements of this march will be to allow us to join forces around a cause that unites us with other Mexicans, against addiction, guns, war, and above all the unjust conditions in which thousands of families must live, with an untold number of deaths, in the midst of a society that is fractured and wounded, and with little hope for rebuilding their future.

The Caravan for Peace left Tijuana on Aug. 12, and will travel more than 9,400 kilometers across the United States, visiting over 20 cities and communities. On Aug. 12 it was in San Diego, Calif., and it will end in Washington D.C. on Sept. 10.

Having at its core the victims of the war on both sides of the border, the caravan seeks to interact with U.S. civil society through dialogue and peaceful action to generate proposals for reducing the flow of illegal arms to Mexico, supporting humane and healthy alternatives to the prohibition of drugs, and demanding defense strategies that are effective and non-violent. Bi-national respect for justice and human dignity is at the heart of this initiative, a central concern of which is the search for a humane immigration policy.

The main goals of the Caravan for Peace are to give visibility to the victims of violence in Mexico and the United States and to expose the suffering of Mexican and Central American immigrants. What the Movement for Peace wants is for Americans to become aware of the racism, abuses of authority and violence suffered by migrants who travel to the U.S. in search of work, as well as helping to stop arms trafficking. “Behind your arms are our dead,” said Sicilia in the U.S., adding that nine out of every 10 arms used by organized crime originate in the U.S. What the caravan wants, according to the poet, is to regulate the sale of assault rifles and combat money-laundering. According to the Movement for Peace, the war on drugs should focus on intelligence, not violence.

After crossing the San Ysidro checkpoint, the busiest in the world, Sicilia said: “Citizens are capable of changing their countries’ policies.” In an unusual gesture, the Border Patrol allowed the hundreds of people accompanying Sicilia to approach the metal fence in Parque de la Amistad (Friendship Park).

Democratic Rep. Bob Filner, who represents the border region of California, and is a long-time friend of the Mexicans in the region, said the U.S. must assume some responsibility for the violent deaths in Mexico. “That’s not a Mexican problem; it’s our problem. Whose weapons killed 60,000 people? Who buys the drugs that prop up the cartels?” asked Filner.*

In Los Angeles, Sicilia said: “If you, the people of the United States, do not take responsibility for your government’s mistakes — as we take responsibility for ours — and demand that they change the war on drugs, that they tightly control the arms that are illegally crossing into Mexico, that they crack down on money laundering, and institute not only an inclusive and humane immigration policy, but also a policy of rebuilding the social fabric in Mexico as well as Central America and in the areas of the U.S. afflicted by poverty — the night will absolutely come, just as it did in those countries which were taken over by crime, dictatorship and militarization. Only together can we save democracy, which is under threat from this war.”

In the same speech he concluded by paraphrasing some verses of Bertolt Brecht — which they say were actually written by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller — which appeal to the conscience and the heart: “One day they humiliated the Colombians and I said nothing for I was not Colombian. Later they destroyed the Mexicans and I said nothing, for I was not Mexican. One day they came for the African Americans and I said nothing for I was not African American. Later they attacked the immigrants and I said nothing for I was not an immigrant. And when they came for me one day there was no one left to protest,” nor to stop the war and the killing, nor to save democracy.

Yesterday the members of the Caravan for Peace held a demonstration on the international bridge in Laredo, Texas, where on both sides of the Rio Grande groups of Mexican held up identical banners: “Governments, hear us, we are in the fight!” Voices on the Mexican side shouted, “They were taken alive!” and the members of the caravan answered from the American side: “We want them back alive!” and “Obama, Calderon, hear us, we are in the fight!”

I send my warmest regards to the members of the Caravan for Peace.

*This quotation, though accurately translated, could not be verified in English.