Friends,
 This week, south Texas will host the cross-country Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity in Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley, led by poet Javier Sicilia and the Mexican peace movement. FOR is supporting the caravan, and we hope you'll join us at these events!
Wednesday, Aug. 23, 9:00 AM
Press conference followed by prayer service
St. Peter Plaza, Matamoros Street & Main Ave, Laredo
Get directions to this event, view on Facebook or read details
Wednesday, Aug. 23, 3:30 PM
Press conference, testimonies and traditional music
Arise, 1417 South Tower Rd, Alamo
Get directions to this event or read details
To be followed by a community dinner and vigil at a location to be announced at the Wednesday afternoon event.
The caravan began in Tijuana, and will traverse more than 5,600 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, through the Southeast, to Chicago and New York, and culminating in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 12. Download flyers about the caravan's visit to Laredo and the caravan's visit to the Rio Grande Valley.
 Javier Sicilia will be accompanied by more than 60 other Mexicans, victims of violence, representatives of indigenous communities, human rights leaders, artists, youth groups, churches for peace, and allied organizations. Many U.S. activists will also travel with the caravan, as will journalists from Mexico and the United States.
The caravan addresses the United States' role in the violence that’s afflicted so many Mexican families, including global drug prohibition and consumption, gun trafficking, militarized foreign policy, the denial of immigrants' rights, and money laundering. At the heart of the caravan will be testimonies of victims of violence by criminal and state forces, who are bearing the human cost of these policies and calling for change.
 The movement organized two national caravans in Mexico last year, from Cuernavaca to Juárez at the border, and another to Chiapas in the south, with FOR activists in both. Some 60 organizations from the U.S. and Mexico are supporting this year's caravan, including Global Exchange, NAACP, Drug Policy Alliance, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Presente, School of the Americas Watch, Border Angels, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and FOR.
FOR Research and Advocacy Director John Lindsay-Poland, who helped organize the caravan's U.S. tour, is accompanying the caravan for its first two weeks of travel, as far as New Orleans. Feel free to contact him at johnlp@forusa.org about his visit to your community.
Want to learn more about the Peace Caravan? Follow along on the caravan's Tumblr page, or check out these short, powerful videos by Javier Sicilia and others. You can also view the entire caravan route across the United States.
The caravan is still raising funds to pay for this ambitious project to help change U.S.-Mexico relations from the bottom up, and end the drug war and gun violence. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Peace Caravan -- thank you! |
