Fernando Suarez del Solar, Pablo Paredes, Camilo Mejia, and Aidan Delgado are leading a 241 mile march for peace that started in Tijuana, Mexico. The march will going through Marine Corps Depot Camp Pendleton to the Cesar Chavez burial site in La Paz, CA, culminating in The Mission district of San Francisco with a memorial ceremony and blood drive. The March will began on 12 March 2006 and will arrive at La Paz, CA on 22 March 2006 and culminate in San Francisco from 26 March 2006 to 27 March 2006.

From their site: Latinos represent nearly 15% of the US population and 11% of the US military, with many serving in combat or hazardous duty occupations. In addition, an estimated 20% of the fallen service members in the early months of the invasion were Latino. With the continued growth of the Latino population and its vital importance to the future of this country, it is time the Latino community become an active and vocal part of the 60%+ of US citizens that oppose this War. It is also time to show the Latino community that they have a voice and a right to fight for peace and stability. Fernando Suarez Del Solar is committed to self-sacrifice. At 50 years of age he cares more about ending this war than even his own health. We make this call not only to the Latino population but to all those who agree with our message “No more bloodshed in Iraq”.

Find out more at the Latino March for Peace site.

About the participants:

Fernando Suarez Del Solar is the father of one of the first Latinos to die in Iraq. He was lied to about his son’s death, found the truth in Iraq with the help of a well know recent victim of the war, (co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight) Bob Woodruff. His son Jesus stepped on an illegal US cluster bomb.

Pablo Paredes is a Navy war resister who refused boarding an Iraq bound ship on Dec. 6th 2004. He was court martialed, sentenced and now speaks out for Peace.

Camilo Mejia served one tour in Iraq and then became a National Guard war resister. He was jailed for nine months for his opposition to the war and is now a prominent anti-war speaker and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

Aidan Delgado is a Conscientious Objector of the Iraq war. He served at Abu Gharib and now tours the country with slide shows of the prison abuses.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 7:48 pm by Jen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.