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Nearly 100 people, mostly from Mexico, boarded buses in August in Tijuana and 30 days later landed in Washington, D.C., stopping in nearly two dozen U.S. cities along the way for peaceful marches, gatherings and vigils in Black and Latino communities.
The “Caravan For Peace: Marching for Peace with Justice & Dignity with the Victims of Violence” was spearheaded by Mexican poet and writer Javier Sicilia. His son Juan Francisco was murdered along with six of his friends in 2011, adding to over 60,000 killed and 10,000 missing in drug-related violence over the past six years, said caravan spokespersons.
During the 6,000-mile cross-country bus trek, the caravan stopped in Chicago, Sept. 2-4 for a series of events including community dialogues and a peace march. Mr. Sicilia, Ms. Carmona and others recounted how their lives have been changed by the war on drugs.
“At the time he was killed, he was studying architecture in the best public university in my country,” said Ms. Carmona, speaking of her son Joaquin, who was brutally murdered inside his apartment in Mexico 25 months ago. His killers have not been found, she said. “Ninety-seven percent of the crimes in Mexico, there is no investigation. Actually there is no will to investigate and I even think that we don’t even have the resources to investigate. Resources are put into the war on drugs not in investigating,” she told The Final Call. Asked why so many seemingly innocent people are being killed and kidnapped in Mexico, Ms. Carmona shook her head from side to side. “I don’t know. I’m just Joaquin’s mother,” she said.
“The caravan is coming to bring families of the victims of the violence, many of them have been killed, to bring a message to stop approaching this problem by thinking that you can suppress it,” said Reverend Walter “Slim” Coleman, a longtime immigrants’ rights and community activist in Chicago.
Pastor Marshall Hatch, of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, opened the doors of his place of worship to the caravan and supporters after the march Sept. 3, telling The Final Call it is important to educate the community about “global NARCO systems” behind the misery in many communities.
“The same system that is of course causing the violence and mayhem on South of the border, (are) the same forces that profit and cause the kind of exploitation and mayhem on this side of the border,” said Rev. Hatch.
“This is an economic enterprise when we talk about drugs and guns. An economic enterprise involves production, distribution and consumption,” said Jose E. Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago. Mr. Lopez said when he heard about the caravan’s stop in Chicago, he came to lend his support.
The root of the problem is U.S. consumption of illegal drugs and the abundance of guns that are manufactured in America, he said.
“Eighty percent of the guns in Latin America are produced in the United States that are used in this war. In the case of Mexico, 50,000 people have died in eight years. That’s more than in major wars that people have died,” said Mr. Lopez.
The war on drugs in Mexico is just an extension of the one in the U.S., said Oscar Chacon of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, who also helped organize the Chicago leg of the caravan.
“The difference now is that in Mexico they’re not incarcerating too many people. They’re killing people,” said Mr. Chacon.
The most important thing that has yet to happen, continued Mr. Chacon, is recognizing and admitting many of the drug policies put in place as far back as the early 1970s have failed. “There is more drugs in the U.S. today than there were back in 1971. And so clearly if we have seen over and over again to do what we’ve been doing doesn’t produce any results and we continue to do it, that’s a serious sign of insanity,” he added.
According to drugpolicy.org since the declaration of “war on drugs” 40-years-ago, the U.S. has spent at least $1 trillion and costing taxpayers $51 billion in 2009.
Mass incarceration in the U.S., which disproportionately affects Blacks and Latinos, is another result of failed policies argue opponents of current strategies.
According to some reports, 25 percent of inmates in U.S. prisons are incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses. Some put the figure even higher.
“While African Americans comprise only 13 percent of the U.S. population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug law violations and 59 percent of those convicted of drug law violations,” notes drugpolicy.org.
Though the caravan was made up of citizens from Mexico, a multi-denominational, multi-ethnic contingent marched with the group.
Rev. Hatch was asked if hosting the event at his church was a way to promote more Black and Latino Unity. “That is the point. We try to have some semblance of Black and Brown unity by having the event here. We were asked to host it and of course we agreed to do it because it was that kind of teaching tool,” he explained.
Mr. Sicilia called the Chicago gathering a profound symbol of unity and peace among the two communities. “It is also a symbol that shows our shared pain in the war on drugs,” he told the audience at the church.
Ishmael R. Muhammad, student national assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, was among local leaders who addressed the caravan and stressed Blacks and Latinos share a common enemy wishing to see the destruction of both communities. To the delight of the crowd, many who did not speak English, Mr. Muhammad, who was raised in Mexico, spoke Spanish and shared the fact that Nation of Islam patriarch and his father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, settled a part of his family in Mexico.
“One would ask why would a Black leader go to Mexico and settle a part of his family there. Because Elijah Muhammad saw the future of the two people. As you walk down the street from Little Village seeing your people, coming into the Black community, you see that both communities suffer,” said Student Minister Muhammad.
It is important to put a human face on the victims, so that they are not forgotten which made the caravan and its mission important, said supporters.
“In this country in particular we can say ‘well that’s happening in Mexico’ and we don’t know what it is until you actually meet the mothers and the sisters and the people who have lost husbands and children and so forth, and see their tears and you know that this is a human reality that we have to respond to,” said Rev. Coleman.