Pubdate: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 Source: Brownsville Herald, The (TX) Copyright: 2012 The Brownsville Herald Contact: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/sections/contact/ Website: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1402 Author: Patricia Lopez Cited: Caravan for Peace: http://www.caravanforpeace.org/caravan/ CARAVAN HIGHLIGHTS VICTIMS OF DRUG VIOLENCE During a stop in the Rio Grande Valley, Javier Sicilia, who heads the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, blamed both Mexico and the United States for not waging a better fight against drugs and organized crime. The Mexican poet appeared with the caravan in Brownsville Thursday evening, hours after a stop in Alamo in the Upper Valley. The caravan began its trip Aug. 11 in Tijuana, Mexico, and plans to arrive Sept. 12 in Washington. The Caravan for Peace was initiated by Sicilia after his son, Juan Francisco, and six other men were killed last year by suspected members of organized crime in the state of Mexico. Traveling with the caravan are Mexican parents who have lost children to the drug war and the violence - parents who want to tell their stories and find a solution. Sicilia told a crowd in the Valley that the U.S. and Mexican governments have not taken sufficient responsibility for the problem. "The United States government and our government, which is very corrupt and incompetent, have not done their job well," he said. Mexico quotes questionable statistics about the drug war, he said. "We talk about numbers between 60,000 and 70,000 victims, and about those who have disappeared - they don't even have an actual number," said the poet. In his talk to a crowd in Alamo, he continued casting blame on both sides of the border. "The United States has 23 million drug addicts and has not lowered its statistics," he said. In Mexico, people die supplying the drugs, fighting in the drug war itself, and over the weapons involved, he said. All in all, he said, the problem is a binational one. "Mexico is responsible because of its corruption, for having declared this war, and by not addressing a bilateral agenda on drugs," he said. "But the United States also has responsibility because the war was dictated from over here and it is done with American weapons." Sicilia also claimed that all the money from drug trafficking passes through banks which launder the money and make it available to obtain more weapons. "In 1971 President Richard Nixon declared a war against drugs, and someone said it would last six years. But in the following administrations it has been continued by either Democrats or Republicans," he said. "We have the case of Colombia. Now it is Mexico and Central America and the problem is also with weapons coming from the United States," he continued. Future of Mexico As to the future of Mexico, Sicilia said with the upcoming change in government, citizens must pressure for a peace agenda. "This past election was not clean," he said, noting he had once proclaimed them "ignominious." "Enrique Pena Nieto cannot govern for 19 million people. He has to govern for all the rest. He has to form a national coalition on the basis of peace and justice," Sicilia said. He said Pena Nieto had to establish a bilateral agenda for working with the United States and that it should include the following items: - - weapons control, - - drug legalization - - a direct war, "real, and concentrating on money laundering." The poet was asked what will happen if there is no change in Mexican politics. "Barbarism," he said. "The only ones who benefit from this war are the corrupt, those who love violence. Barbarism is an act against humanity." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt