In an interview with the Americas Program, Marco Antonio Castillo, director of the Guatemala-based Grupo Ceiba, notes that increased violence in Guatemala caused by the presence of drug-trafficking cartels is causing alarm and will lead presidential candidates this year to call for a crackdown. In a country that experienced the military abuses of the eighties, this will be dangerous.
In this exclusive interview with Americas Program Director Laura Carlsen, poet and anti-drug war leader Javier Sicilia discusses the role of the United States in Mexico’s drug war and the potential for citizen protest to challenge it.
The murder rate in Durango skyrocketed after President Felipe Calderón declared war on organized crime in late 2006. The number of executions soared 1,401 percent from 67 in 2005 to 939 in 2010. With 910 murders so far in 2011, Durango is set to surpass 2010’s murders by the end of June. When the Citizens Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity arrived in Durango on Monday night to protest the drug war, thousands of locals turned out to greet it.
A poignantly silent march of the masses, an eloquent speech, a plaza brimming with Zapatistas, and organizations and collectives from The Other Campaign in Chiapas, united in their rejection of Felipe Calderón’s drug war. This, and more, marked the reemergence of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) after more than 5 years without protesting outside of its territory.
“In the face of a national emergency, today more than ever, drastic measures are needed to end this war end its escalating violence, and reweave the social and communal fabric. This perilous and profoundly violent moment is the result of economic structures that create inequality and exclusion. Slow death reigns here, death brought by poverty’s torment, unemployment, a lack of opportunities for the full development of our lives and the destruction of the environment.”
Video, photos and interviews from the four-day March for Peace with Justice and Dignity featuring the voices of Javier Sicilia, Julian LeBaron, Raul Vera and others.
Una marcha multitudinaria y estremecedoramente silenciosa, un discurso articulador, una plaza colmada de zapatistas y de organizaciones y colectivos de La Otra Campaña en Chiapas en rechazo a la guerra de Felipe Calderón, todo esto y más fue la reaparición del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), después de más de cinco años sin movilizarse fuera de su territorio. Es la primera vez que se mueven en silencio y quizás también la primera que se suman a una convocatoria nacional propuesta por una persona (el poeta y escritor Javier Sicilia) que alimenta un movimiento en todo el país contra la política bélica presidencial.
Nosotros, los abajo firmantes, escribimos para expresar nuestro apoyo para los días nacionales de protesta a la guerra contra las drogas en México. La guerra contra las drogas no sólo ha fracasado en prevenir el abuso de drogas o la distribución de drogas a Estados Unidos. También ha generado niveles de violencia, crimen, corrupción y violaciones de los derechos humanos que exceden por mucho lo que los estadounidenses padecieron durante los años de la prohibición del alcohol.
Mexico’s House of Deputies has brought the country to the cusp of a police state. The reform to the National Security Law now before the lower house would grant sweeping military powers to the executive and limit congressional oversight of domestic military activity. It would grant President Felipe Calderón the ability to effectively declare states of exception without congressional approval and unilaterally use the military against any group he deems to be a “threat to internal security.”
La semana pasada, miles de mexicanos salieron a las calles para denostar la violencia relacionada con el narcotráfico, y la incapacidad o la falta de voluntad del gobierno mexicano para evitarla. Los activistas de Estados Unidos y la comunidad internacional que quieran solidarizarse con el pueblo de México deben reconocer que la medida más eficaz que podemos tomar es llevar la guerra contra las drogas a su fin.
