WEBVTT

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- Since taking office in 2006,
President Felipe Calderon

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declared war on the drug cartels.

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- It's a true pleasure to
work with President Calderon.

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- This attempt to restore the
rule of law by armed force

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has seen an upsurge in violence.

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- Four police commanders suspended
because of alleged links to drug cartels.

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- More than 90% of the guns
seized at the shootings in Mexico

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have been traced right here to
the United States of America.

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- The overwhelming number of people who
die in this so-called "War on Drugs"

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are civilians.

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- ...one of Mexico's best
known poets, Javier Sicilia.

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His 24-year-old son, Juan
Francisco, was murdered

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by drug traffickers in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

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- In the Mexican media -- every
newspaper, every television program,

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the nightly news -- led with Javier's
son's murder for days and days and days.

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El Poeta Javier Sicilia...

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just the term "El Poeta."

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Here we say doctor, PhD.

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Poet is a capital P, it's like a degree,
and people listen to poets in Latin America.

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It wasn't "60,000 people died
in the violence" -- you know,

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those abstract numbers?

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There was a name: "Juan Francisco
Sicilia, the son of Poet Javier Sicilia."

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- He was a very, very sweet kid.

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He had great humor.

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It's one of the closest relations
I've known of a father and a kid.

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Juanello used to tell Javier as a joke
that he was going to change Mexico,

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that he was going to change this country.

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I saw Javier suffer so much,
so profoundly, it hurt me.

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It really hurt me.

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- If you look for a little under
the earth, what you can find easily

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is bodies of innocent people.

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Most of them have been
killed by cartels or a gang.

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Police, militaries, government, who knows?

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- The official line was
the Calderon administration

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saying 99% of the people
that are dying deserve it.

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They're criminals.

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Javier's son's death totally
up-ends that narrative.

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"Mi hijo era inocente."
"My son was innocent."

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When he said that, thousands
of people across the country

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were coming out and saying,
"My child was innocent, too!"

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They couldn't do that
beforehand because if they had,

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they were terrified of the
potential consequences.

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- The people who lost loved ones,
they received threats from the cartels

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or maybe from the police.

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So the victims are in a
very difficult position

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because they don't know if they
speak and they ask for justice,

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maybe the next one will be them.

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- We are living in a Narco state, because
most of the government is involved.

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It's the same guys.

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That's what makes it so scary.

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- Hundreds of young women were murdered here
in Juarez and their killers never brought

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to justice...

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- 72 migrants then blindfolded and bound...

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- Rival drug cartels use murder and
terror in their battle for control...

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- Many are convinced that the authorities
are complicit with these cartels...

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- This is one victim whose
innocence surely no one can dispute.

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Jaciel Ramirez lived and went to
school across the border, in Texas.

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He'd come to Juarez for
the day to see his father.

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Jaciel Ramirez was 7 years old.

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- President Calderon said last week
that Mexico's drug cartel problem

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is exacerbated by being located next
to "the biggest consumer of drugs

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and the largest supplier
of weapons in the world."

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That would be the United States of America.

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The drugs are coming north, and
we're sending money and guns south --

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$10 billion.

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This allows traffickers to expand their
operations further into our country,

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pay off police and politicians, and buy more
guns and weapons from the United States.

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According to ATF, more than
90% percent of the guns

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seized after raids or shootings in Mexico
have been traced right here, to the United

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States of America.

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Mexico and America are in this together,
and there's enough blame to go around.

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- Javier said there's no
sense in writing poetry

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in a world like this, which
was for me very terrible.

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I don't completely understand it.

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I respect it, of course, but I
don't completely understand it.

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- Two fathers.

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Two Catholics -- deeply Catholic men.

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Javier describes the moment where he
asked him to join Javier and the movement,

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and Calderon says, "No, I can't do that.

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They hate me.

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The people hate me."

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A self-awareness that he's gone
down this terrible, dark road.

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So there is this Shakespearean
tragic narrative,

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and Javier trying to reach what's
left of humanity in the president.

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And there's glimmers of it
-- glimmers of awareness --

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of a possibility of them getting to the
point of being able to take that moment out

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into the world.

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But it wasn't to be.

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- I'm marching here today because I
want the world to see Joaquin's face.

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He was a gorgeous young man.

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He was just what this country needs.

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- What the movement did was to make
the problem visible to the nation.

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That is done through the victims telling
their story, because you can feel the pain.

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- When we started, we were 250 people.

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By the time we reached
Mexico City, we were 1,000.

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And then 30,000 people.

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50,000.

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It was amazing.

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- We could see and feel the fact that hope
can be found in the most forlorn places.

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It was very sad.

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We cried a lot, but we also knew that
we were building something beautiful.

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- Javier said, "This movement is about the
hope that we have of ending the madness.

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If enough of us do it,
he can't kill all of us.

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Let's do it.

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We can do this."

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- The pouring of people into the streets was
such that Calderon was forced to face them.

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It was an issue of people
not being able to live.

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It was an issue of people
not being able to truly know

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what happened to their family members.

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- He knew who were the guys who killed
his kid, and they kept telling him,

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"Leave it alone.

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We're going to kill you if
you don't leave this alone."

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And he said, "I'm not
going to leave this alone.

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I'd rather die pursuing
justice than live cowardly."

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- Do you believe that the efforts of
President Calderon are winning the day?

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Are we losing ground?

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How would you characterize the war?

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- Thank you for the question, sir.

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In my view, the commitment and
resolve of the Mexican government

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is unprecedented under this administration.

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They're making great strides
to improve the situation.

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It is a very difficult situation,
and it won't be resolved overnight.

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Decades of problems related to corruption
and the power and impunity of these cartels

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cannot be resolved overnight, but I believe
this government is making progress and that

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the violence we see is
actually a signpost of success.

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- The victims in the movement,
most of them are poor.

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Many of them are threatened.

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And they keep on.

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They're very, very courageous.

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They are not afraid to die.

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And when you treat people who are not afraid
to die, you enter a different dimension.

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We got back into the buses and, a few
miles down the road stopped the caravan.

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It was a little kid that
they had killed his father.

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Something broke inside of me, and I said,
"We are living a nightmare in this country.

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What has happened in this country?"

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So I went around to the back of
one of the buses to cry by myself,

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and I found Javier crying there.

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So we just hugged, crying and saying,
"What is happening in Mexico?"

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Horror.

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The horror.

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- As Javier becomes more
and more deeply involved,

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he realizes Mexico can't
solve this on its own.

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This is an economic relationship
between the United States and Mexico.

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The bottom line?

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Cartel business is transnational capitalism.

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It wasn't Calderon that
started the drug war.

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The drug war goes back to President Nixon.

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Javier realizes he's got to
come to the United States

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and has to have an "estamos
hasta la madre" moment here.

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He has to be able to cut through
the inertia, those decades

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and decades of official discourse around the
drug war, and be able to shake things up.

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- We turn now to a peace caravan led by
Mexican activists which has kicked off

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a month-long cross-country journey to
call for an end of the US-backed drug war.

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The caravan will crisscross some
20 states to "call for the change

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in the binational policies that
have inflamed a six-year drug war,

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corrupted Mexico's vulnerable democracy,
claimed lives, and devastated human rights

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on both sides of the border."

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- I was in Los Angeles, and one
of the organizers for the caravan.

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There were very high expectations,
and the idea was, this is 2012.

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The political campaigns around the
presidential election are heating up.

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This is the perfect moment to do
this and push this onto the agenda,

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because nobody's talking about the drug war.

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Nobody's talking about 60,000, 70,000 dead.

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At the same time, there are also
signs that those expectations were not

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going to be met.

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Probably the most discouraging moment?

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Press conference.

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No English-language media.

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There was a hundred
Spanish-language reporters.

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A hundred.

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Nothing on the evening news.

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Nothing on the radio.

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It was a blackout, practically speaking,
in terms of English-language media.

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- And joining us now from
Phoenix, the sheriff Joe Arpaio.

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Your critics say you've been
racially profiling individuals,

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and they say that's illegal.

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- I'm an equal-opportunity cop.

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I lock everybody up.

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That's just the open border
people and certain politicians

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that do not want me enforcing
the illegal immigration laws.

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- Javier wants to make an attempt
to go in and talk with Joe Arpaio.

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Do you know whether that works or not?

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He wants to just go knock on the door.

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- Now?

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- Yes.

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- Great! (LAUGHTER)

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- Would someone like to ask me questions?

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- Beautiful, beautiful.

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- The guns going to Mexico?

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They're going to Mexico?

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Is that what you're saying?

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Then I would ask Mexico to control the drugs
from coming into the United States, then.

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Because it kills people.

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- I know he must have
come here thinking that he

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was going to be able to punch through
traditional political discourse,

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shake things up, and have the moral
authority of the victims with him.

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I don't think Javier knew the
political context in the United States.

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- The fact that I don't
know where he's at...

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- The caravans were profound
experiences for thousands

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of people whose lives were touched by them.

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Wherever Javier arrives,
women, men are holding up

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enlarged photographs of their disappeared.

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On this side of the border, there's all
these families -- Mexican families --

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that are connected to loved ones that have
been directly affected by the violence

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in Mexico.

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- Eight years ago on September 27, 2004, my
beloved son was murdered at the age of 16.

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I just met four mothers who
recently lost their sons...

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- You're not alone!

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You are not alone!

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- It was 47 years ago.

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We were walking from Selma to
Montgomery for the right to vote.

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And we mobilized and organized
people all across America.

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And more than 250,000 people came.

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And that's where Dr. King, as you well
know, gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

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And out of the 10 people that spoke
that day, I'm the only one still around.

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- Thank you for being
the example that you are.

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- We all have to do our part, and leave
it better for the generation yet to come.

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- We hope we can do that together.

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- Thank you.

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Today I have the pleasure of introducing
Dolores Huerta -- the cofounder,

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along with Cesar Chavez,
of the United Farm Workers.

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- Muchas gracias.

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Muchas gracias.

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This is not the end.

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This is the beginning.

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Your message has reached millions of people.

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I think and I hope and I pray that we
will be victorious, we will find peace.

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So gracias.

00:51:47.876 --> 00:51:49.834
Muchas gracias, muchas gracias.

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Thank you very much.