From March 12-27, throughout neighborhoods across Tijuana, San Diego, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, and San Francisco—covering over 241 miles—the Caminata por la paz (March for Peace) is protesting the war and bloodshed in Iraq and the escalating attacks on immigrants.

March from Tijuana to SF Mission District

Latino Voices Against the Iraq War
Revolution #040, March 26, 2006, posted at revcom.us

From March 12-27, throughout neighborhoods across Tijuana, San Diego, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, and San Francisco—covering over 241 miles—the Caminata por la paz (March for Peace) is protesting the war and bloodshed in Iraq and the escalating attacks on immigrants. Some of their stops include the border region between Tijuana and San Diego, Camp Pendleton, several high schools in East L.A., the March 18 anti-war demonstration in L.A., farmworker communities in Fresno and Watsonville, and the Mission District in San Francisco.

The initiators for this march are Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son Jesus was the first Latino to die in the current U.S. war in Iraq after stepping on an illegal U.S. cluster bomb; Pablo Paredes, naval officer who refused to board an Iraq-bound naval ship; Camilo Mejia, a National Guard war resister who was jailed for nine months for his opposition to the war; and Aidan Delgado, who is a conscientious objector of the Iraq war who served at Abu Ghraib. March 27 is the third anniversary of Fernando’s son's death. The march was also initiated to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Gandhi’s anti-British Salt March in India.

At the opening press conference in Tijuana, Pablo Paredes said, “We live in a country where 2/3 of the population is against the war, and we want to give people the opportunity to express their opposition. We want to do this not just through polls or on the internet, but we want this to be seen on the streets and have the people’s voices to be heard. This is the call that we are making today and will make these next few days.