Sobredosis de TV: The Movement is Mightier than the Sword

Sobredosis de TV is our occasional feature where we highlight television programs. It is also the name of a song from famed Argentine rock band Soda Stereo.

The fourth season of the PBS documentary series “Voces” commences tonight with a film on the 1955 movie “Giant.” “Children of Giant” will examine how the film that starred Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean affected the Texan town of Marfa, where it was shot, and was one of the first major Hollywood movies to delve into the racial divide between whites and Mexican-Americans in the Southwest U.S.

Future episodes will look at the experiences of five Latina actresses who are behind the dubbing of the Spanish-language version of “Desperate Housewives” as well as the crusading work of Mexican peace activist Javier Sicilia.

The writer and post began his anti-violence campaign shortly after his son, Juan Francisco, was murdered by narcotraffickers in 2011. Sicilia gave up poetry and founded the Movement for Peace and Dignity campaign to denounce drug-related violence in Mexico.

“What my son did was give a name and a face to the 40,000 dead,” Sicilia said in a May 2011 interview. “My pain gave a face to the pain of other families. I think a country is like a house, and the destruction of someone is the destruction of our families.”

Sicilia has not shied from strongly criticizing the Mexican government and the country’s political class for supporting what he believes has done little to effectively combat violence, and expressed his solidarity with the families of the forty-three missing Ayotzinapa students. Last month he called for voters to abstain from upcoming local elections as an “act of civil disobedience against the treason, deception and crimes” by politicians.

Below the page break is the long trailer from “El Poeta,” which follows Sicilia and his caravans that have crisscrossed Mexico and travelled to the U.S.  This film premieres on PBS on May 1st (check your local listings for exact times of these and all of the future episodes of “Voces”.)

Daily Headlines: June 3, 2013

* Chile: A judge issued an order for police to make a portrait of and look for the possible killer of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda who died days after a 1973 military coup.

* Venezuela: Timothy Tracy, a U.S. filmmaker detained last April and accused of spying against the Venezuelan government, was allegedly transferred to the El Rodeo prison.

* Brazil: The iconic Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro was reopened yesterday with a 2-2 tie between Brazil and England.

* Mexico: Mexican author turner peace activist Javier Sicilia praised a recent Organization of American States report on drugs as a tool that could “lead to the formulation and implementation of new drug policies”.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP (The body of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was exhumed last April in order to examine if he was murdered via poison in September 1973).
 
Online Sources- Huffington Post; Fox News Latino; The Latin Americanist; BBC Sport; The Guardian

Mexico: Activists Urge Obama to Speak Out on Human Rights Abuses

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Mexican colleague, Enrique Peña Nieto, are expected to discuss topics including immigration, security and bilateral trade when they meet later today.  Human rights activists hope that both leaders will also focus on human rights abuses that have increasingly taking place in Mexico. 

 “We urge Obama and Peña Nieto to use all their available executive powers to stem the tide of smuggled weapons and to support legislative and electoral efforts to overcome political inertia and roll back the power of the light arms industry and their political front groups like the National Rifle Assn.,” wrote Javier Sicilia in an opinion piece published in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Sicilia, a poet turned peace activist after his son was brutally murdered in March 2011, added that both leaders “need to work together in prioritizing public health and regulation over a strategy that makes suspected drug offenders into military objectives”.  Yet he also called on “an engaged citizenry” from both sides of the border to pressure political leaders into “making good decisions.”

Sicilia and other human rights activists delivered a petition to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City this week calling for an end to the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico. 

For Daniel Zapico, head of Amnesty International in Mexico, Obama and Peña Nieto should reexamine the security cooperation pact known as the Mérida Initiative.

“The U.S. government has closed its eyes to the allegations of human rights abuses they have identified (in Mexico) including supposed torture, forced disappearances and the misapplication of military jurisdiction to ensure impunity,” said Zapico.

According to a letter sent to Obama by José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch, the number of reported cases of alleged human rights increased fivefold under the presidency of Peña Nieto predecessor, Felipe Calderón.  Vivanco also claimed that under Calderon’s six-year term over 70,000 people died in drug-related violence while some 26,100 people “disappeared.”

Human rights violations in Mexico are also closely linked to the country’s immigration debate, which was pointed out in a communiqué published by a coalition of human rights groups:

Daily Headlines: September 3, 2012

* Mexico: While members of Mexico’s Caravan for Peace anti-violence campaign continued their trek across the U.S., Mexican President Felipe Calderon claimed that crime has been “confronted decisively” under his administration.

* Venezuela: Nicia Maldonado, Venezuela’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples, claimed that government investigators found no evidence of an alleged massacre committed against the Yanomami community.

* Guatemala: Swiss police arrested Erwin Sperisen, former chief of Guatemala’s national police, who is accused of being involved in the extra-judicial killing of six prisoners in 2006.

* Peru: The government lifted a state of emergency in three provinces that was imposed in July when five people died in violent protests.

Video Source – YouTube via Univision News (Author turned activist Javier Sicilia leads the Caravan for Peace tour that started nearly a month ago)

Online Sources- Chicago Tribune, The Telegraph, Bernama, CNN, ABC News

Daily Headlines: August 3, 2012

* Bolivia: The Bolivian government has downplayed remarks allegedly made by the Foreign Minister calling for a ban to Coca-Cola.

* Venezuela: Gen. Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, echoed recent comments made by President Barack Obama denying that Venezuela is a national security threat to the U.S.

* Colombia: A senior member of the FARC rebels believed to have been killed in 2010 reappeared in a video and claimed “we must end the war.”

* Mexico: Some activists such as poet Javier Sicilia are none too pleased that a federally funded memorial to victims of Mexican violence will be placed next to a military base.

Video Source – YouTube via user BuenosDiasPeruPTV

Online Sources- ninemsn, InSight Crime, Fox News Latino, ABC News, Washington Post

Today’s Video: Fighting back

Mexico’s drug-related violence has once again grabbed headlines after authorities uncovered at least 116 bodies in a series of mass graves. Seventeen suspects possibly linked to the Zetas drug gang were arrested for the graves in Tamaulipas, the same Mexican state where the corpses of 72 Latin American migrants where found last August.

Though the situation in Mexico appears dire, several individuals have given hope that civil society will not idly sit by and do nothing in the face of violence. One of these people is poet and journalist Javier Sicilia whose son, Juan Francisco, was found dead last month along with six other victims in Morelos state. His death led to protests nationwide last week where an estimated tens of thousands of Mexicans repudiated the country’s violence.

Sicilia himself has become the face of protest against violence and has been outspoken in seeking justice for the death of his son. In a letter penned in Proceso magazine, Sicilia blasted the government for their “badly proposed, badly made, badly led war” against drug gangs as well as the criminals whom he compared to “miserable Nazi sonderkommandos who kill children, boys, girls, women men and elders without any human sense.” Even though Sicilia’s pressure influenced the removal of Morelos’ public safety secretary, he continues to criticize governor Marco Adame for "playing dumb" when it came to security.

In the below video from BBC Mundo, Sicilia did not shy away from critiquing President Felipe Calderon for his “stupid war” against drug gangs that has led to over 35,000 deaths since he came into power four years ago. He explained that his campaign comes from his “moral conviction” to represent the thousands of sons who have died and who will be killed as a result of Mexican violence. Sicilia’s view is one that is shared by a Mexican society demanding greater accountability from officials and repudiation against criminal organizations.
Video Source – BBC Mundo
Online Sources- LAHT, Guanabee, The Latin Americanist, CNN, The Guardian