- Family members of some of the more than 60,000 killed in drug war will also confront Carter’s Country, an arms dealer linked to gun sales to drug traffickers
CHICAGO, IL – On Monday Aug. 27, 2012 the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC) and their allies aboard the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity will dismantle an assault weapon and turn it into a peace symbol in Houston, TX in a public action calling attention to the human devastation caused by this kind of weapon sought by drug cartels and easily purchased from gun dealers and private citizens. Caravan members will transform that weapon into a peace symbol by burying in cement in the heart of historic Mexican neighborhood in Houston. They will also demand that President Obama enforce the existing ban on the importation of military-style assault weapons and other measures to stop the illegal sale of weapons, which have been linked to the deaths of thousands of Mexicans killed in the drug war.
Later, relatives of some of the more than 60,000 killed in the drug war in Mexico will join Mexican exiles to confront Carter’s Country, Houston’s arms dealer linked to gun sales to drug traffickers. They will bear pictures and share testimonies of the effects of those military assault weapons on families living on both sides of the Mexico-United States. border.
WHAT: Dismantling of assault weapon in Houston, TX followed by a demonstration at Carter’s Country in Pasadena, TX
WHO: NALACC, along with other 100 U.S. civil society organizations, is joining forces with Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), co-led by Mexican poet and activist Javier Sicilia, on the Caravan as a sign of solidarity with the Mexican people as well as a way to share its “Somos/We Are” initiative, which mirrors the same goal: to humanize the debate of policies that directly affect the immigrant communities in the United States.
WHEN: Monday Aug. 27, 2012 at 11 PM Central Time
WHERE:
- Dismantling of assault weapon (event at 11 AM), 333 South Jensen Dr., Houston, TX 77003
- Caravan will then drive to Carter’s Country, 2120 S. Shaver St., Pasadena, TX 77502, following the press conference
WHY: The war on drugs has left more than 60,000 dead in Mexico in the last five years, and resulted in over 500,000 Americans behind bars for drug offenses. Blacks and Latinos are vastly overrepresented among those arrested and incarcerated for drug offenses in the United States. The Caravan opens the possibility to initiate a transnational debate among the stakeholders searching for a new model of “human security”, whose main criterion should be the well-being of the people, including the decriminalization of migration.
Houston is one of the more of 20 stops of this broad binational coalition traveling 6,000 miles across the United States raising awareness of the human costs of the drug war and the social havoc wreaked by violence in Mexico and the United States. The Caravan will culminate on Sept. 12, 2012 in International Day of Action in Washington, D.C.
About NALACC
The National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC) is a network of community-based, Latino and Caribbean immigrant-led organizations, that seeks to raise the quality of life for immigrant communities in the United States, as well as communities in migrant-sending countries in Latin America. Facebook:facebook.com/
