Culture and Media

I was standing in the queue at passport control when Rafael de la Rubia took me to one side and said quietly: “We’re hoping to introduce someone to you, the governor of this department, Antonio Navarro, the former leader of the M-19 group who was indirectly involved in the operation that took your father and several other ambassadors hostage…”

There are times when Latin American magical realism falls short in describing what has occurred, as happened on the Rumichaca bridge on the border between Colombia and Ecuador, when Juanes and Rafael de la Rubia were preparing to hand over the World March for Peace and Non-Violence flag to the Ecuadorian singer Juan Fernando Velasco.

From the early hours of the morning, Colombia’s national television channels were announcing the arrival of the World March to the South American continent, while the city of Bogota was waking up to the this event. Towards midday members of the international team were welcomed at the airport with dance, music and a lot of human warmth.

In Bogotá, a huge crowd, all dressed in white, took part in a 3-hour march to show their support for the World March for Peace and Non-Violence. The people of Bogotá marched to show their desire and longing to live together in peace, without the threat of violence that directly affects their families and gives such a distorted image of this warm, friendly country.

Anti-nuclear campaigners from Trident Ploughshares group, London & Oxford Catholic Worker, Campaign Against Arms Trade, World March for Peace and Nonviolence and Kingston Peace Council dressed in white “weapons inspector” overalls and festive hats serenaded employees of nuclear weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin outside the US arms giant’s central London office.

In this note, we reproduce the homage given by members of the international team of the World March for Peace and Non-violence to President Rodrigo Carazo, who died as a result of a heart condition days before being able to welcome the team in his country, Costa Rica. The career of Rodrigo Carazo places him among Latin American Humanist leaders.

And this is powerfully resonant in Latin America. In other words, people feel the tremendous violence of the impossibility to live in minimal living conditions that equate to a decent life. And the worst of the situation is the injustice of the distribution of resources that cause suffering to a huge majority of people and is accepted as “the norm”.

Rafael de la Rubia, international spokesman for the World March for peace and non-violence, wanted to celebrate the International Day for Human Rights. He is doing so from El Salvador, where he is currently with the World March Base Team. In a press release, he proposes that the right to peace be considered a human right.

Upon arriving in Mexico City from the United States of America, the international team was greeted with a colorful ceremony in which the following words of David Samano were said. After touring several Mexican states, the team continued their tireless travels towards Guatemala, where they are currently on route to Punta de Vacas.

The results of Swiss federal Referendums are, for the humanists of Switzerland, a black Sunday. It is not only a victory for the Swiss Peoples Party that promoted the prohibition of minarets, also fear
and ignorance have won. This is no positive credit, neither for
democracy nor for the Swiss population. Humanists are outraged and surprised.