Por: WITNESS Becky, Enviado: Mar 30 09

Regions: Mexico

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

Tags: Chihuahua, ciudad juarez, feminicide, feminicidio, President Calderón

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

* 03/19: Preparing for Mexico

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

* 03/27: Behind the scenes: last minute preparations

* 04/01: Results of the Presidential meeting

We arrived at the press conference on Friday March 27th, to find the room filled with over 200 members of the press ready and waiting for us. There were photo ops and then a panel consisting of: Peter Gabriel, actor Diego Luna, Tamaryn Nelson (WITNESS), Patricia Cervantes (Justicia para Nuestras Hijas), María Sirvent Bravo-Ahuja (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos) and singer Saúl Hernández of Jaguares. All of the panelists spoke eloquently, making it clear that we were there to raise awareness and express our desire to end the violence against women in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua.

The press asked some great questions and Peter made it clear that the success of this campaign depended on the people listening - the general public - and he asked the press to help us with that, by covering the ISSUE. They did just that.

At the press conference, Peter also presented Saúl with a signed guitar recognizing him for his tireless work with Amnesty International. Saúl and Jagaures have created the fasted growing youth network of Amnesty supporters in Mexico and the US. He also has taken the issue of the women in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua to heart and has worked for years on this issues (among others).  Saúl got choked up in the moment and had beautiful things to say about why he does the work he does. His bandmates were also in the house and jumped on stage for some spontaneous photos with Peter.

Here are a couple of links to articles in English and Spanish (there are many many more) and a short video of the press conference from the Los Angeles Times blog La Plaza.

Next up- my recap of our meeting with President Calderón.