A PBI Mexico volunteer with Alba Cruz, lawyer for Codigo-DH, during the caravan's activities in Oaxaca

Oaxaca-. On 12 September 2011, Oaxacan civil society organisations welcomed the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity's Caravan to the South, led by poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, to Oaxaca de Juárez. Following the formal opening of the activities with an indigenous ceremony in Monte Albán, participants in the Caravan, Oaxacan human rights defenders, victims and members of the public met in the city centre where thematic tables were organised, in which victims of human rights violations' testimonies were heard and collected.

The Centro de Defensa Integral de los Derechos Humanos "Gobixha" - Codigo-DH ("Gobixha" Centre for the Integral Defence of Human Rights), a member of the newly-formed Citizen's Space for Truth and Justice and organisation accompanied by PBI since the beginning of 2011, co-organised the table for victims of repression and other forms of violence. At this table, the testimonies heard included that of Marcelino Coache Verano, trade-union leader and victim of torture in 2009 whose legal defence is provided by Alba Cruz of Codigo-DH. Mr Coache spoke to PBI about what the arrival of the Caravan meant to him: "For us, this gives us a ray of hope. I think people are tired, and hopefully this energy which the Caravan brings from all the States will come to represent a reference in order to achieve a full reform of the [Mexican] State".

PBI was also present at the table concerning violence against women, where PBI spoke to Theres Höchli, a member of Consorcio para el Dialogo Parlamentario y la Equidad (Consortium for Parliamentry Dialogue and Equity), who explained the motives for their presence at the event: "We want to visibilise the daily violence which women suffer in their homes, as well as institutional violence. We hope the Caravan carries and makes this message public. So far this year, there have been 50 cases of feminicide in Oaxaca, which is more than the [yearly] average for the last ten years. Despite the government of change, violence continues."

PBI volunteers also briefly attended the table concerning indigenous peoples and communities in resistance, where they spoke to Omar Esparza, member of the Movimiento Agrario Indígena Zapatista (MAIZ) (Zapatista Agrarian Indigenous Movement) and husband of the late human rights defender Bety Cariño, killed by paramilitaries in 2010 along with Finnish activist Jyri Jaakkola: "For me, the importance of [the Caravan] is its capacity for the mobilisation of people who are not normally involved in social movements or organisations. Members of civil society have been attacked, and in this space they have a catalyst for their demands in terms of justice and impunity".

A civil movement for peace

On 28 March 2011, one of the crimes committed in Mexico under the mantle of the "war against narcotrafficking", the murder of Juan Francisco Sicilia, triggered the creation of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, led by his father Javier, which was subsequently joined by thousands.

The Caravan to the South is one of the actions carried out by this Movement. More than 600 people left Mexico City on 9 september and visited the cities of Iguala, Chilpancingo and Acapulco in Guerrero, a State in which PBI has been present for 11 years. There, they collected testimonies of victims and shared experiences with civil society organisations such as the Centro de Derechos Humanos de La Montaña "Tlachinollan" ("Tlachinollan" Human Rights Centre of La Montaña) the Red Guerrerense de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos (Guerreran Network of Civil Human Rights Organisations), and the Comité de Familiares de los Detenidos-desaparecidos "Hasta Encontrarlos" ("Hasta Encontrarlos" Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared). On 11 September the Caravan passed through Huajuapan, Oaxaca, arriving in the capital of the State that evening. Two days later, the Caravan would visit the "Hermanos en el Camino" (Brothers on the Path) migrants' shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, directed by Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, a human rights defender accompanied by PBI since 2010. The Caravan will later move southwards, to Chiapas.

More information

PBI's accompaniment to Código-DH and Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra in Oaxaca.

PBI's accompaniment to Tlachinollan in the State of Guerrero.