Links to TV and other news coverage of San Diego-Tijuana binational events.

FOR PHOTOS SEE BELOW

Binational "We Are One-Somos Uno" events on December 3 in San Diego-Tijuana issued a call for a "Zone of Nonviolence" at the border and an end to walls in a statement "Overcoming the Walls that Block Humanity’s Path to the Future." (English and Spanish).

The early afternoon Thursday outdoor event was held within sight of the infamous border wall that more than 5,000 people, one per day, have died trying to cross. The events were part of the World March for Peace & Nonviolence, going around the earth uniting people across the borders of 100 countries. The international team of marchers going around the world was welcomed, with speakers Tony Robinson from the World March team and Tomás Hirsch, former presidential candidate from Chile and spokesperson for New Humanism in Latin America.

Robinson noted that this new wave of nonviolence is "beginning as a quiet whisper but is growing louder each day as more people add their voices along the path around the world." Tomás Hirsch said that the World March is entering Latin America with the crossing into Mexico, and gave a warm welcome to the marchers.  

The Nobel Peace Laureates “Charter for a World Without Violence” was presented by the World March to Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee, who received it on behalf of the people of San Diego. The Charter was recently presented to the World March for Peace and Nonviolence at the 10th Annual Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Berlin, on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Ramirez noted that this is meaningful for San Diego and Tijuana by reminding us that apparently immovable walls dividing people can come down.    

Other speakers included immigration activist Enrique Morones of Border Angels, and peace activist Carol Jahnkow of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, along with high school and UCSD students. Morones noted that the number of people killed in the entire history of the Berlin wall is just a tiny fraction of those who lose their lives attempting to cross the wall between the US and Mexico, but who remain largely invisible and forgotten. Los Angeles World March organizer Mayra Gomez who is Amayra from Bolivia greeted the World March on behalf of local indigenous peoples. Carol Jahnkow pointed out that San Diego is the largest military installation in the world, which entails another kind of wall that must be overcome to reach a peaceful and just society.  

Los Angeles World March organizers Philip Freeman and Nancy Nolan led a caravan bringing the intrepid World Marchers to San Diego, who in addition to Robinson and Tomás Hirsch included Kai Eberhardt from Germany, Mickey Hirsch from Chile, Tommaso Carbone from Italy, and Oralia Pechuco from Mexico.

As part of the binational World March events, the participants in the San Diego gathering marched to the border and crossed into Tijuana in a symbolic act of uniting as human beings across the wall. The reception in Tijuana was enthusiastic, warm, and colorful with more than 700 people, Aztec Dance ceremony, greetings by city officials, musicians, dancers, singers, food and more.

The participants found a great desire in Tijuana and San Diego to continue cross-border initiatives. The tone of the events was filled with joy and hope and a long-time activist said she was "inspired" by the event which lifted everyone's spirits. In keeping with the grassroots and participant-organized nature of the World March, much of the event came together in the last days with great teamwork on the part of many. 

“Overcoming the Walls that Block Humanity’s Path to the Future”

The statement was presented, highlighting key walls that form obstacles to a nonviolent world. In addition to the wall that the nuclear threat represents, in San Diego there is another kind of wall that marks the most striking inequality anywhere, dividing the world’s richest economy from a poorer economy to south.

Across this wall people flee hunger and poverty, risking violence and even death on a journey north. On the wealthy side of the border the rising fear of unemployment among working people is easily channeled in the age-old practice of discrimination and scapegoating immigrants, distracting people from the real roots of the economic inequality that affects everyone.

In the Nobel Peace Laureates “Charter for a World Without Violence” the eleventh principle states that governments, institutions and individuals must support efforts to address the inequalities in the distribution of economic resources in order to reach a nonviolent society.

In the wealthiest nation on earth there is also such a profound loss of meaning in life that the insatiable appetite for drugs to escape this suffering drives a thriving illegal drug trade bringing horrendous violence to this border and threatening to undermine civil society in Mexico as it corrodes life in the US.

“We need to take down the walls outside of us, but to do this we need to overcome another kind of wall, the wall inside our hearts,” said San Diego World March Coordinator Paul Toob y. “It is clear that the path to nonviolence runs through the human heart.”

The proposed “zone of nonviolence” is thus dedicated to building understanding and profound communication between people on both sides of the border, as well as an area supporting creative demonstration projects of how economic inequality can be reduced and sustainable practices can be implemented.

TV and other news coverage of the San Diego-Tijuana World March binational events