By: WITNESS Becky, Posted: Mar 27 09

Regions: Mexico, United States

Issues: Rape and sexual abuse, Torture, Violence against women

Tags: Chihuahua, ciudad juarez, dual injustice, feminicide, petition, President Calderón

BACKGROUND: Read the series of posts about our trip to Mexico City to meet with President Calderón and urge him to end feminicide in Mexico:

* 03/19: Preparing for Mexico

* 03/24: What we'll be asking President Calderón

* 03/30: Press Conference

* 04/01: Results of the Presidential meeting

It's been an absolute whirlwind of activity in preparation for our meeting with President Calderón later today.

This morning we met with our partner organization - La Comisión Mexicana - and Patricia Cervantes who has flown in from Chihuahua.  She is looking forward to the opportunity to speak about Neyra's case and continue her fight for justice.  (Read my post on the background to Neyra's story).

Then on to lunch with the amazing Saúl Hernández and Marusa Reyes from Jaguares, along with Erin Callahan - Art for Amnesty's representative here in Mexico and seasoned human rights advocate.  It was an honor to hear about the work Saul has been doing raising awareness about human rights and creating a huge youth network of Amnesty supporters in Mexico and the US unlike any other. 

Saul's generosity of spirit could not have been more evident.  When we tried to thank him for the work he is doing, he responded that he should be thanking those of us who work on the issues all of the time - quoting Bertold Brecht:

"There are those who struggle for a day and they are good.  There are those who struggle for a year and they are better.  There are those who struggle many years, and they are better still.  But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones."

In between meetings and meals we were waiting for final confirmation on who would actually be allowed into the meeting with the President, if we would be be allowed a photographer, and so on.

From lunch, we raced to the location of our press conference, tested the audio and video, walked through the venue, sorted out remaining details (podium or no podium?) and sped back to our hotel to finalize our statements for the meeting with President Calderón.

We are pretty exhausted, but it's amazing and inspiring to be part of the team that has come together to make this meeting a reality.  A HUGE shout out to Mario, Maria and Alejandro of la Comisión Mexicana and Elena, Roxanne and Meghan at Ambulante for all the work they've put into making these couple of days a huge success already!

So, next stop Los Pinos - the Presidential residence and offices.  We are bringing thousands of voices with us when we go to meet President Calderón  - the voices of all you who have supported this campaign to end feminicide in Mexico, and to protect, promote and uphold the rights of women everywhere.  Thank you for your support.

Stay tuned for more news.....