On Friday, June 23 a group of Central American migrants crossing Mexico by freight train en route to the United States were kidnapped at gunpoint in Medias Aguas, Veracruz. This is just the latest example of how U.S.-Mexico “security” policy has placed migrants at greater risk than ever.
Activistas mexicanos por los derechos humanos han emitido una solicitud de emergencia para aplicar estándares humanitarios internacionales en la provisión de auxilio a más de 150 refugiados -incluidos al menos 77 niños- que ha acampado en las montañas del sur de México por más de un mes. “No se puede negar que México está atravesando una situación de violencia en la cual los grupos armados de civiles (crimen organizado) siembran terror y muerte, provocando la huída de familias enteras para no ser asesinadas”, manifiesta una declaración de tres grupos de derechos humanos.
El proyecto estadounidense y de las grandes multinacionales hace pie en Centroamérica para afirmar un patio trasero con dos objetivos: control geopolítico y militar y fuente de enormes ganancias en base a mega proyectos mineros. Militarismo, narcotráfico y violencia completan un cuadro donde siempre pierden los mismos.
Translation of the Citizen’s Pact read and signed in Ciudad Juarez on June 10, 2011: “We are a Mexico that has stood up against the manifold violence that has ripped it apart, torn its fabric of solidarity, devastated the instinctual generosity of its people. We are a Mexico that marches, tired of being fed fear and distrust, when what springs naturally from our people are embraces and celebration. We are a Mexico tired of impunity, crime, and insecurity because day after day we love justice, solidarity and peace.”
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.
