Javier Sicilia, the renowned Mexican poet and journalist, is not staying quiet. He is one of many recent victims of President Felipe Calderón’s ‘War on Drugs’, as his son was found murdered last March. In stark contrast to the recent plague of violence infecting the nation, Sicilia has now become a modern-day paladin for peace in Mexico, leading the National Movement for Peace and Justice, a social force of relatives of victims fighting to be heard. They have developed the Pact for Peace and Justice, a proposal that emphasizes civil unity over violence. This concept was embodied in the March for Peace and Justice, which triggered the Caravan for Peace that crisscrossed the country. On June 23rd 2011 they accomplished one of their goals: an unprecedented public discussion with President Calderón and his security cabinet, during which they harshly criticized the War on Drugs and showed their grievances.
Giving a Name and a Face to 40,000 Dead
On the morning of March 28, 2011, Juan Francisco Sicilia Ortega, the 24-year-old son of poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, was found dead inside a car with six other suffocated and gagged bodies on the Cuernavaca-Acapulco highway. Juan Francisco had been with his friends at a bar in Cuernavaca. Reportedly, two of them entered into an altercation with a few men, not knowing that they were members of the Cartel del Pacífico Sur. Later that night, some gang members apparently kidnapped them, as well as two other acquaintances, while they were on their way home. Juan Francisco and his friends were all university students in their early twenties.
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This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Natalia Cote-Muñoz.
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