We may feel helpless in the face of such relentless, widespread violence. Yet if nothing else, we can take up the mission of these fallen journalists: we can believe, as they must have, that bringing the truth to light cannot help but speed a change. We can inform ourselves and our communities about  the reality of Mexico today–the reality that these journalists gave their lives to broadcast.

Saint Patrick Cathedral Multipurpose Center
1111 N. Stanton St.
El Paso, TX

Free and open to the public - seating is limited. Tune into the live webcast.

Keynote speakers include:

Javier Sicilia, Mexican journalist, poet, and activist; initiator of El Por La Paz con, Justicia y Dignidad.
Topic: Hope in the Midst Violence.

Jennifer Harbury, Esq., international human rights activist.
Topic: Violence upon the Immigrant: From Central America, through Mexico and into the United States

Michael Seifert, theologian and grassroots organizer.
Topic: Theological Overview of the Immigrant’s Right to be Human in the Context of Violence

Mary Harding, torture survivor head of the Truth Speakers Program of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International.
Topic: Naming the Unspeakable

Panelists include:

Marisela Reyes Salazar
a social activist from the Juarez Valley. She has publicly called for justice for women murdered in Chihuahua and repeatedly protested the impunity with which Mexican officials function among many other human rights-related activities.

Dr. Leticia Chavarria
one of the founding members of the Comité Médico Ciudadano de Cd. Juarez, which is “a group of citizens for citizens” concerned about the insecurity and violence in Cd. Juarez.
Sister Betty Campbell, RSM, co-founder of Tabor House, has dedicated her life to speaking the truth of the violence that mars the communities in which she lives and has grown to know and love in numerous Latin American countries.

Silvia Mendez
the Administrator and Coordinator of Popular Communities at the Paso del Norte Human rights Center in Cd. Juarez.

Cipriana Jurado
a Mexican human rights worker who has been granted asylum in the U.S. after having to leave her home in Mexico due to apparent violence and lawlessness.

Raul Gomez-Franco
a 33-year veteran of journalism, works with El Diario, who together with El Diario Director Osvaldo Rodriguez Borunda won Mexico’s National Journalism Price in 2010 for his editorial “What do they want from us?” a text directed at Mexican authorities following two assassinations of El Diario journalists in two days.

Anonymous couple
parents from Cd. Juarez. He was a student and employee in engineering; she was a nurse. They are survivors of extortion and kidnapping at the hands of police agents.

10,000 of our sisters and brothers in Ciudad Juarez have been killed since 2008

This Sunday, join us at the 2012 Voice of the Voiceless Vigil and Projection of Names hosted by Annunciation House as we gather to give name, face, and voice to the 10,000 killed in Cd. Juarez, their families, and those affected by all forms of violence. We will stand in solidarity to bear witness to the violence toward the immigrant and to the threat to the right to be human. They will not be forgotten.

Sunday, April 22, 7:45PM: Press conference, vigil, and projection of 10,000 names of those killed in Cd. Juarez onto the Annunciation House building.

Every evening, Sunday, April 22 through Friday, April 27 8:00PM TO 12:00AM: Vigil followed by the projection of names and images onto the Annunciation House building

Continuously, Sunday, April 22 through Friday, April 27
Day and Night: Memorial Altar
We invite you to bring flowers, momentos, and/or other symbols to place upon the altar in memory of the 10,000 who have been killed in Ciudad Juarez and the more than 50,000 who have died throughout Mexico

Other upcoming events of the 2012 Voice of the Voiceless include:

SOLIDARITY DINNER
Saturday, April 28th, 6pm to 9pm
Amistad Hall of Sta. Lucia Parish, 518 Gallagher St.; Dinner Tickets: $50
2012 Voice of the Voiceless Award Recipient is Javier Sicilia, Mexican Journalist, Novelist, Poet, and Activist

IMMIGRATION FORUM
Friday, April 27th, 6 PM TO 9PM, and Saturday, April 28th, 8am to 1pm:
St. Patrick Cathedral Multipurpose Center, 1111 N. Stanton St. No cost to attend; seating is limited.

Annunciation House is a homeless shelter in downtown El Paso dedicated to accompanying the migrant, homeless, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region.

For information about any event or to purchase dinner tickets, call 915-533-4675, stop by 815 Myrtle Ave., or visit www.annunciationhouse.org

‘El mundo ya no es digno de la palabra…’

Se puede leer el poema completo aqui.

To read Javier Sicilia’s last poem in English, look here.

Queridos amigos de la Casa Anunciación, queremos invitarles a los siguientes eventos:

2012 VOZ DE LOS SIN VOZ ~ CENA DE SOLIDARIDAD 
sabado, 28 abril
6:00 -9:00 pm, Parroquia de Santa Lucia

VIGILIA CONTRA LA VIOLENCIA
domingo, 22 abril, 7:45 pm
Casa Anunciación, 1003 E. San Antonio Ave.

FORO SOBRE INMIGRACION
viernes, 27 abril, 6 – 9pm Y sabado, 28 abril,  8am-1pm
Centro Multiuso de la Catedral de San Patricio, 1111 N. Stanton St

Se puede comprar boletos para la Cena por correo o por visitar a la oficina:
Casa Teresa, 815 Myrtle Ave., 79901, 915.533.4675

Tambien se puede comprar boletos en el website Brown Paper Tickets aquí.

Para mas información, favor de mirar estas hojas:

1. Informacion Sobre Foro
2. Foro-Hoja para pegar
3. Tres Eventos-Informacion Para Pegar

Este año, tenemos el placer de anunciar que el destinario del Premio Voz de los Sin Voz es:

JAVIER SICILIA: poeta, periodista, y activista mexicano

JAVIER SICILIA: Mexican journalist, poet, and activist

El 28 de marzo, 2011, el hijo de Sicilia, Juan Francisco, un estudiante en la universidad, fue asesinato con unos otros estudiantes. Reaccionando a la matanza de su hijo y los miles otros que han sido matado en la “Guerra contra drogas”, Sicilia fundó un movimiento que se llama El Pacto Por La Paz. Se ha realizado en caravanes nacionales que han dado una voz a los víctimas y a sus familias. En seleccionar El Protestador como su Persona del Año 2011, la revista Time  menciono a Javier Sicilia como uno de los activistas internacionales luchando por cambios grandes en sus paises de orígen. Por su testigo valiente y su compromesa a los muchos miles afectados por la violencia en Mexico, Javier Sicilia va a recibir nuestro Premio Voz de Los Sin Voz 2012.

Dear friends of Annunciation House, please join us for these upcoming events:

2012 VOICE OF THE VOICELESS SOLIDARITY DINNER 
Saturday, April 28
6:00 -9:00 pm, Santa Lucia Parish Hall

VIGIL TO BEAR WITNESS
Sunday, April 22, 7:45pm
Annunciation House, 1003 E. San Antonio Ave.

IMMIGRATION FORUM
Friday, April 27th, 6 – 9pm AND Saturday, April 28th, 8am-1pm
St. Patrick’s Cathedral Multipurpose Center, 1111 N. Stanton St

Tickets for the Solidarity Dinner can be purchased via mail or in person at:
Casa Teresa, 815 Myrtle Ave., 79901, 915.533.4675

Tickets may also be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets by clicking here.

More information can be found on these downloadable fliers:

1. Forum Insert Flyer
2. Forum Flyer Suitable for Posting
3. Dinner, Forum and Vigil

We are honored to announce that the 2012 Voice of the Voiceless Award recipient will be:

JAVIER SICILIA: Mexican journalist, poet, and activist

JAVIER SICILIA: Mexican journalist, poet, and activist

On March 28, 2011, Sicilia’s son, Juan Francisco, a university student, was massacred with several other students. In response to the killing of his son as well as the tens of thousands of others that have been killed in Mexico’s war on drugs, Sicilia launched a movement of peace known as El Pacto Por La Paz that expressed itself through national cara- vans that gave a public platform to victims and their families. In selecting The Protestor as its 2011 Person of the Year, Time profiled Javier Sicilia as among those international activists calling for radical change in their home countries. For his courageous witness and uncompromising commitment to be a voice for the tens of thousands affected by the violence in Mexico, Javier Sicilia will be presented with our 2012 Voice of the Voiceless Award.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Human rights groups No More Deaths, the ACLU of New Mexico – Regional Center for Border Rights, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, the Women’s Refugee Commission, Rights Working Group and the National Immigration Forum have been granted a hearing by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) about human rights violations against migrants detained and repatriated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Three of these groups will present testimony tomorrow before the IACHR. Established by the United States and all countries in the Western hemisphere in 1959, the IACHR is authorized to examine allegations of human rights violations by any member country. The hearing will take place at 9:00 a.m. in the offices of the IACHR at 1889 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. on Tuesday March 27th. The U.S. government will send representatives to respond to the allegations.

The hearing follows six years of interviews and documentation work by No More Deaths, a humanitarian and advocacy organization based on the Arizona-Mexico border. This work has included nearly 15,000 interviews with recent deportees who had experienced abusive conditions while in custody. No More Deaths’ most recent report, A Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in Short-Term U.S. Border Patrol Custody, published in September 2011, included the following findings, consistent with those of other civil society organizations working in the region:

• 11,384 reports of inadequate access to food;
• Children were more likely to be denied water than adults;
• 374 cases of individuals being repatriated without needed emergency medical care or medication;
• Coercion into signing legal documents;
• Practices that put vulnerable migrants in harm’s way: dividing families and repatriating vulnerable populations, including children or pregnant women, in the middle of the night;
• Unsanitary and inhumane processing center conditions;
• Reports of verbal, physical and psychological abuse.

In addition to these cases of abuse and mistreatment, the report documents serious structural shortcomings in U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal oversight mechanisms, resulting in a widespread culture of impunity in which abusive behavior goes unpunished and uncorrected. Petitioners have identified violations of repatriation agreements between the U.S. and Mexico that put vulnerable migrants at risk.

“Not only is the U.S. government failing to adequately screen for asylum seekers and trafficked children, it is failing to meaningfully engage with civil society to work on addressing these violations of U.S. and international law,” said Jennifer Podkul, program officer, Women’s Refugee Commission.

The U.S. Border Patrol has refused to release complete versions of existing detention policies or to allow civil society organizations access to the facilities to monitor conditions. Efforts to use existing oversight mechanisms have been similarly unproductive, in part due to the fact that all are internal to DHS.

“Current complaint processes are difficult to navigate and lack transparency, providing little to no information regarding allegations of abuse,” said Danielle Alvarado of No More Deaths and co-author of A Culture of Cruelty. “This reflects DHS’ limited ability to meaningfully address systemic, abusive Border Patrol practices.”

Some of the dangerous and abusive U.S. Border Patrol practices documented by these groups violate existing repatriation agreements between the governments of the United States and Mexico; other practices fail to comply with asylum and trafficking screening requirements set forth in domestic and international law, including the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization of 2008, the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

Stated Alvarado, “The Border Patrol blatantly disregards its own policies regarding the treatment of those in their custody, and existing oversight mechanisms have proven unable to prevent abuse. It is clear that the Department of Homeland Security cannot be trusted to police itself. We need independent oversight with the participation of civil society human rights observers if we want to actually stop, and not just cover up, the truly outrageous violations we hear about on a daily basis from people who have been deported to Mexico.”

While we must be grateful for any decrease in the violence, this ‘truce’ only serves to underscore the sheer arrogance and brutality of the cartel, an offshoot of the powerful group called La Familia. Should these murderers be applauded for the high regard that they pretend to have for the leader of the Catholic Church?

When will they show an ounce of respect for the Church’s ultimate Leader, who said “Blessed are the peacemakers”? Whatever happened to “Thou shall not kill?”

It is our hope that Pope Benedict will speak out courageously and prophetically against the violence that grips Mexico, and the men that perpetrate that violence. We pray for the true conversion of these killers: not a brief pause in the violence, done for effect, but lasting peace.

This past week, in the wake of the shooting of another Diario photographer, NPR’s Brooke Gladstone spoke with Gerardo Rodriguez about his unprecedented letter and about the difficult situation of reporters in Mexico today. “We are in the middle, under fire,” says Gerardo. Yet the fact that this story is being told, in the U.S. andaround the globe, is testament to the work that Mexico’s courageous journalists continue to do. “Even though right now I’m hopeless,” says Gerardo, “I think that things are changing.”

Listen to the whole interview here.

If they are killing each other, they still deserve justice. They were not born criminals. The government and society are not giving these youths what they need to become men, not criminals.

Javier Sicilia is the 2012 recipient of Annunciation House’s Voice of the Voiceless Award.