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A 20 city US tour by a group of Mexican activists began earlier this week, passing through Los Angeles before heading to other cities. The Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity was initiated by well known Mexican novelist and poet Javier Sicilia who lost his 24 year old son to organized violence. It’s tour throughout US cities is intended to draw attention to the devastating effects of Mexico’s drug violence as well as the culpability of the Mexican and US governments in the violence. Javier Sicilia has become a symbol of this new and growing movement in Mexico that has galvanized thousands of ordinary people.

Drug-related violence on the US-Mexico border and especially in cities like Juarez has reached a tipping point. There have been over 60,000 deaths, 10,000 disappearances, and 160,000 internally displaced refugees over the past six years. Sicilia and other activists have already led two caravans within Mexico resulting in meetings with the Mexican president and legislature to discuss alternatives to current drug war policies.

The US caravan will head across the southern United States to a number of cities in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, and then head to Illinois, Ohio, New York, and finally Washington DC.

Uprising correspondent Leonardo Alannis filed this report exclusively for Uprising. Special thanks to Mark Maxwell and Sara Shakir.

More information can be found online at http://www.globalexchange.org/mexico/caravan/