Narco News has a statement from Javier Sicilia and the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity.
They’ve been working to stop the drug war (in particular, the use of military against citizens) in Mexico and have tried to work with Calderón and Congress, but are furious since it appears the government has paid lip service to their concerns, while drafting additional legislation to allow even more war powers within the country.
After the agreements we made with the Mexican Congress on July 28 in Chapultepec Castle, we have come, as agreed, to the home of the legislators who claim to represent us in order to renew the word that they gave. Unfortunately, on August 3rd, Wednesday morning, we were surprised to learn that the deputies approved a draft version of the National Security Law that had previously been sent to the Senate, against our demand to stop the law, against our warning to them that they not tell us one thing in public and do the opposite behind the closed doors of a bureaucracy and amid the dark goings-on of power, against the weight of the Word. […]
When the deputies approved the Senate’s draft of the law on August 2, Tuesday evening, what they really did was continue the process of unconstitutional legalization of the current administration’s war strategy, and to therefore, continue the war. And when they asked for forgiveness, under the sacred Word, they didn’t know what they were saying; it was only out of a unconscious disdain for not just our 50,000 dead, our more than 10,000 disappeared and our more than 120,000 displaced, but it was also out of a disdain for the love that Octavio Paz refers to. It is a disdain for flesh and bone human beings who are living in the nation today, and who tomorrow, under the auspices of the law, will swell the graves of the dead and the criminals’ reserve army. […]
Why did the deputies, only a few hours after they began the work of having a dialogue with our movement, while National Autonomous University of Mexico specialists and human rights defenders were preparing a project that would actually work in favor of peace and public security, hurry in approving a law legalizing a war that is imposed by the United States and is a source of so many tears and so much pain?
We reiterate that we’ve not only had it up to here with the war, but also with the deception and the simulation that make it possible and accompany it.[…]
We are going to mobilize and call on you, brothers and sisters of our nation, to mobilize with us on Sunday, August 14 and beyond so we can together raise the national flag, the “white flag†against the war, to again insist on what State powers and the criminals do not understand: that we do not want one more death, not one more person disappeared, not one more person tortured, that we want a Mexico where each place is suitable, where each hour is favorable, for us to look each other in the eye and love one another.
Mobilization next Sunday.
It’s so important for the people to step up and not let their government continue its thirst for war. And we have to do more to stop the United States’ desire to impose war on everyone else.
We urge the executive and legislative branches to return to the dialogue by showing an authentic willingness to listen to the citizens so that together we can bring peace. We remind them of the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.â€
i Viva Javier Sicilia ! Este declaracion es muy fuerte y necessario. i Quedamos fuertes !
The United States is determined to escalate the Mexico drug war with strategies that make Mexico look like the next Afghanistan:
http://www.truth-out.org/us-expands-its-presence-mexico-ramping-drug-war/1312733798
I hear you and sympathize. I think many
politicians, especially in the United
States, have an interest in the drug war
continuing, no one wants to be labeled
weak. Yes, peace is the way, and words
are ideas which should be coupled with
action. I think it’s going to be up to
the people to end this and other wars,
and not just with protest. The People
have to break the cycle of special
interest, and inaction that comes with
political weakness. We need direct
democracy at the federal level in the
United States and in other countries.
Adding this to the equation will shift
the balance of power toward action in
a way that coincides with peoples basic
desire for freedom and peace. Peace is
the way, wrong policy is wrong policy
and the policy of war, “the war on drugs”
– People! is wrong. The way of peace is
in changing the way of war, only the
people can change the way of war, and
only the people with more say in their
government can do this. There are so
many well meaning and not so well meaning
interests in the drug war, individual
politicians don’t stand a chance in
standing up to it alone. There’s not
even the required dialogue. Look what
happened when Arnold Schwarzenegger tried
to come out against Marijuana prohibition,
how many in the press swarmed over him.
If there’s true direct democracy with
people asserting their own ideas and
will, the target of special interest
will be lessened
People can change things, and I think
they will!
Direct democracy is, as Ben Franklin said “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”, and Tom Jefferson said ““A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.â€
They were both correct, the main problem with America is we have allowed our Republic to become altered more toward democracy. We have two choices for the future:
1) Go back to the Constitutional Republic our Founders created, and make certain each congressional representative represents the same number of people as the original congress (which means a LOT larger congress), that the Senators again represent their State’s interests and are elected by the State legislature, and that congressional sessions are limited to one month each year (preferably in January).
2) Go stateless.
Anything else ends up being just more of the same bullshit we have now.
Another problem, special interest has infected the republic to the point
where it’s not really a republic! You can talk all you want about returning
to the conditions of 200+ yrs ago, does that mean we return to women
not having the right to vote, or slavery? Our forefathers enabled change
in the constitution to accommodate changing conditions and needs. As far
as “mob ruleâ€, if the representatives of the republic are representing special
interest more and more, don’t think that’s preferable to “51%+ rule by the
people, I think the constitution is of course the guiding principle of our
government, so many interpretations of what it intends, sort of like philosophy.
I’m not saying we should drop our constitution and representative government,
what I’m saying is the tools and technology we have today enable a more
informed opinion about the great issues, and consequently a more informed
vote by the individual citizen. Are you against the drug war? What do you
think the reason for it is? Because of democracy? I think it’s a huge amount
of special interest, religious, ideological, huge budgets, prisons, billions and
billions of $ every year, lots of folks want to keep that going. It’s a war
against the People, with some direct democracy at the federal level we
might just be able to tip the balance toward ending it. The drug war is
maintained by a logic contrary to liberty and common sense, so why
not let the people strike it down. Direct or popular initiative, framed right,
could be a great asset to the republic!