Church Blog Image

Earlier in this month organizers of the Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice joined with leaders from Catholic, Protestant, and other faiths at a meeting of the Ecumenical Council of Guatemala.  The leaders of this organization, many who played a crucial role in Guatemala’s peace process, gave their active support to the Caravan and its goal of opening dialogue and facilitating the flow of accurate information as a basis for new drug policy approaches focused on human rights, public health, justice, and creating conditions for peace in communities throughout Central America.

Reverend Vitalino Similox, who chairs the Ecumenical Council, underlined the vital importance of cross border efforts in the the defense of human rights. He said that the drug war provided an easy pretext for militarized intervention by the US and that international dialogue and communication among the Central American organizations promoting peace and youth opportunity was key to building a concensus for more compassionate and effective approaches to complex phenomena such as drug consumption and trafficking. 

The organizers from the Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice (Alex Sierra, Marco Castillo, and Global Exchange’s, Ted Lewis) were greatly encouraged by the expressions of support and concrete suggestions about how to involve Guatemala’s Ecumenical movement in supporting the caravan along its route through Guatemala from 5-8 April next year.

The Caravan for Peace, Life, and Justice starts on March 28th, 2016 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and will travel through El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States en route to New York City for the opening of the UN General Assembly Specials Session on drugs on April 19th.