Democracy Now: Stop the Drug War: Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia Condemns U.S. Role in Widening Drug Violence

One of Mexico's best-known poets, Javier Sicilia, laid down his pen last year after his 24-year-old son was murdered by drug traffickers in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In his son's memory, Sicilia created the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity to urge an end to the drug violence -- violence that has left an estimated 60,000 dead, 10,000 disappeared, and more than 160,000 Mexicans displaced from their homes over the past six years. Sicilia is now in the United States to launch a month-long peace caravan to "bring to the American people's conscience their shared responsibility for the thousands of dead, missing and displaced in the drug war."

We end the week with part two of our interview with renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia. Last year Sicilia's 24-year-old son, Juan Francisco, was murdered by drug traffickers in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In his son's memory, Sicilia created the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity to urge an end to the drug war. Sicilia is now in the United States to launch a month-long peace caravan this August after leading a similar caravan across Mexico last year. "We are outraged because the war has done nothing for us -- it has not solved the problem," Sicilia says. "We need to create awareness and consciousness so American people know that behind every drug consumer and behind every use of guns, we pay with dead people."