On July 26^th the Caravan Paso a Paso Hacia la paz “Step by Step toward Peace..departed from the Guatamala-Mexico Border and traveled northwards to the Mexican state of Veracruz and then up to Mexico City. The Caravans objective was to bring attention to and to document the horrific realities of migrants who are migrating from Guatemala and Mexico to the U.S. In our next segment we talk to Alejandro Reyes of Radio Zapatista who was able to take part in this caravan. In the first part of this extensive interview Alejandro explains the objective of the caravan and tells the stories of many individuals and families he met on the caravan. In that latter part of this interview we explore the economic and political contexts that the caravan is bringing attention to.

To understand this context Alejandro explains how U.S. back neoliberal polices, specifically NAFTA, The Merida Initiative, and Plan Puebla Panama (Project Mesoamerica) have displaced and forced many people to migrate from Mexico and Latin America. In part to the forced migration that these initiatives have created we talk about how these initiatives have produced a security culture that has militarized the borders and various states of Mexico. This focus on militarization and security has ironically produced a dire situation of violence, human trafficking and death for migrants though organized crime involving various cartels and many sectors of police, army and government officials. In hopes to challenge the perception of migrants deserving and or choosing the horrific reality they are forced into, we look at how such “security culture” policies (sb1070, secure communities, and the patriot act) of the U.S have influenced and propagated an invisibility to the situation of migrants in Mexico and the U.S.