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Dear {{ user.first_name|default:”Friend” }},
Today, 43 cities across the U.S. are holding demonstrations calling for an end to military aid to Mexico in protest of the human rights violations that security forces there are perpetuating against their own people. We are kicking off the day of action in Washington, D.C. with a petition delivery to Senator Bob Menendez asking for a hearing.
Here are the details of our event in D.C.:
What: Petition delivery at Senator Bob Menendez’s office.
When: Today, Wednesday, December 3, 4:00 p.m. EST.
Where: Will meet at the entrance to the Hart Senate Building on Constitution Ave. NE, between 1st and 2nd NE and then go up to Senator Menendez’s office.
Who: Presente.org, School of the Americas Watch, allies, and YOU.
Below is the full email we sent Presente members previously — read on for more information.
Thanks, and ¡Adelante!
Mariana
We’ve got Senator Bob Menendez’s attention.
Last week, we scored an important win in the fight for justice for the Ayotzinapa 43 when Senator Menendez and 13 other U.S. Senators sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, calling on him to support the Mexican government with forensic aid in its search efforts.
The Senators’ letter represents the first time that high-ranking U.S. officials have broken the silence on the death of the students. But this is only the first step: we want to make sure that a review of military aid to Mexico happens.
Nearly 5,000 Presente members signed our petition calling on Senator Menendez — a national Latino leader and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to launch a hearing on U.S. security aid to Mexico. We now know that Senator Menendez and 13 other Senators are really listening. That’s why today we’re joining our allies and thousands of other U.S. Latinos across the country for a national day of action.
A hearing will help expose the drug war and shine a light on the U.S. government’s role in funding Mexican police and military that are colluding with narco-gangs to kill its own citizens. The same drug war that has racially targeted, incarcerated, and sometimes killed members of our community has turned Mexico into a cemetery.
During the search for the 43 students, government officials have found multiple mass graves, reminding Mexicans, and the world, of the more than one hundred thousand people killed in Mexico since 2006. It gets worse — this hyper-violence in Mexico’s police and military is being funded by the U.S.; to the tune of more than 3 billion dollars since 2006. We can’t sit idly by while our neighbors and family in Mexico are killed and disappeared by their own government.1
Thanks, and ¡Adelante!
Mariana, Luis, Arturo, and the rest of the Presente team
P.S. Can you donate $5 to support our work? We rely on contributions from people like you to see campaigns like this through.
Sources:
1. It’s about much more than missing students: Mexico’s massive protest movement, explained Vox, November 12, 2014