Report by Jacqueline Cabasso, North American Coordinator, Mayors for Peace
On September 26, Mexico City commemorated the United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear weapons with a Peace Festival promoting its “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace” voluntary disarmament program in the Plaza de la República at the foot of the Monument to the Revolution.
Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator and Executive Advisor Jacqueline Cabasso was warmly welcomed by Mexico City’s Secretary of Government, Rosa Icela Rodríguez as an official representative of Mayors for Peace and was honored to be the first speaker.
Addressing a crowd of some 500 people – half of them school children, Cabasso declared: “We are happy to see that the urgent need for nuclear disarmament, in which Mexico and Mexico City have played such a prominent role internationally, is being acknowledged and linked with critical domestic small arms issues. Mayors for Peace has explicitly endorsed this connection by promoting ‘safe and resilient cities,’ along with nuclear disarmament, as essential measures to achieve lasting world peace.” Noting that Mexico City has become a federal district encompassing 16 distinct cities, she thanked Mexico City for its strong support of Mayors for Peace and invited each of the mayors of those 16 cities to join Mayors for Peace in their own right.
Ms. Rodríguez declared that as a member of Mayors for Peace, Mexico City rejects all violence that affects the security and integrity of people and their economy. Stating that “one destroyed weapon is probably one less homicide,” she presented an update on the city’s “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace” program, reporting that since January, over 4,000 guns had been collected and destroyed.
The President of the Council for Security and Justice of Mexico City announced that a peace sculpture will be built using metal from the destroyed guns and invited members of the public to submit their ideas for the sculpture. Other speakers included the Secretary of Citizen Security, Mexico City’s Attorney General, and the mayors of three of the sixteen new cities, who pledged to join Mayors for Peace. Also present were officers from the Mexican Army and Navy, which are assisting with the voluntary disarmament program.
Following the program, the local authorities, with Ms. Cabasso, toured booths hosted by various City Departments offering information and educational activities for the children, and a display of destroyed guns.
In the afternoon, Ms. Cabasso was welcomed to the Mexico City Congress by its President, and by Deputy Janette Guerrero Maya, Chair of the International Affairs Committee, who delivered a statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Recalling Mexico’s long and proud history of global leadership in nuclear disarmament, she noted that in 2009 Mexico City joined Mayors for Peace, adding that it was the first city in Latin America and the Caribbean to become a Vice President.
Ms. Guerrero concluded: “It is important for Mexicans to assume our homeland’s world leadership and to recognize today and every day the need to totally eliminate nuclear weapons to guarantee peace and the permanence of humanity.”
>Link to text of Jacqueline Cabasso’s remarks
>Link to Janette Guererro Maya’s statement
Jacqueline Cabasso addresses the September 26 Peace Festival in Mexico City(Photo by Jessica Ibarra)
Janette Guerrero (left) meets with Jacqueline Cabasso at the Mexico City Congress (Photo by Paola Gallardo)