On 13 and 14 January there was held the first Meeting of National Members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) in Mexico City. There present were victims, citizens in solidarity, human-rights defenders, representatives of the movement from 14 states of the Republic (Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and la Comarca Lagunera, Mexico City, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico state, Michoacán, Morelos, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, and Veracruz), from the United State (Global Exchange), as well as international representatives from the Global Peace Network.
In this sense, they denounced that “violence has reached all parts of the country; beyond the constant murders of persons associated with the war between organized crime and the security apparatuses of the State there is also seen the alarming increase in cases of torture and forced disappearance, harassment and murder of human-rights defenders, social activists, and journalists, as well as the criminalization of youth and poverty.”
They noted also that “As a movement we do not seek political power, nor do we promote the political career of anyone; we represent an injured citizenry that has had imposed upon it the death and the disappearance of its relatives and loved ones, one that has chosen to work together and unite its pain to that of others. We are a fraternity of parents who have lost their children, of brothers who have had brothers taken from them, of widows, of orphans, and also Mexicans who have not been directly affected by tragedy. We have all chosen to place ourselves in the shoes of the other, and for this reason we have decided to accompany the victims in their struggle for peace and justice.”
Finally, they invited the citizenry to participate in different initiatives that are programmed for the year 2012, including the following:
1) The campaign “Put yourself in the Shoes of the Other,” in which more than 100 artists and cultural professionals will carry out a serie of television and radio spots in which actors will act out a scene as though it were their own, in such a way that putting ourselves IN THE SHOES OF THE OTHER we can call on civil society to express its solidarity and generate a collective voice to participate in the construction of peace.
2) Calls for candidates to the presidency of the Republic and all other offices to dialogue directly with the country regarding the peace strategy, the National Security Law, the Law of Victims, and all other actions in favor of peaceful coexistence and the justice that should be carried out at the municipal, state, and national levels.
3) A caravan to the United States, the political heart of the global war on drugs that harms Mexico and the world.
4) A campaign of accompaniment and solidarity with all the victims who struggle for justice.
5) The construction of a memorial to the victims in the Chapultepec Forest, as well as actions throughout the country in favor of memory and truth.
6) A National Meeting for Peace and Justice on 21 and 22 April in Cuernavaca, Morelos.
For more information (in Spanish):
Emplaza Sicilia a aspirantes presidenciales a diálogo por la paz (Proceso, 16 January 2012)
El MPJD llama a la ciudadanía a apoyar sus actividades en 2012; asimismo manifiesta que no aspira al poder político (Boletín de prensa, 16 January 2012)
Actores apoyan a Javier Sicilia en su nueva campaña (El Universal, 17 January 2012)
En los Zapatos del Otro (El grito más fuerte y el MPJD, 18 January 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Mexico: New murder of person linked to the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (13 December 2011)
Mexico: Member of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity is murdered (18 December 2011)
Mexico: Second meeting of the MPJD with the Executive (18 October 2011)
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