thedrifter
03-14-06, 06:38 PM
War Protesters March Through County
24-Mile March Began In Tijuana
UPDATED: 3:58 pm PST March 14, 2006
ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Residents joined about a dozen antiwar protesters as they walked through Escondido on a 241-mile march for peace.
The march, which started Sunday in Tijuana and passed through Escondido on Monday, included Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose Marine son, Jesus, died in Iraq.
The marchers stopped at a recruiting station where they met with Marine Corps recruiters and urged them to tell potential recruits the truth about military service. The recruiters said they do tell potential recruits the truth about service and offered condolences to Suarez del Solar. Army recruiters refused to meet with the march's organizers.
Organizers plan to march all the way to San Franciso and reach the city by March 26 or March 27.
Joining de Solar on the march will be Pablo Paredes, a Navy sailor who refused to deploy because of his opposition to the war. Paredes cited a recent poll showing that 72 percent of American troops in Iraq think the that the United States should leave Iraq by next year.
"So we're trying to support our troops in the way they want to be supported, and that is to come back home," Paredes told NBC 7/39 last week.
Ellie
thedrifter
03-15-06, 06:18 AM
Grieving father has message for Marines at Pendleton
By: LOUISE ESOLA - Staff Writer
OCEANSIDE ---- An Escondido man whose son was among the first casualties in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and who is now marching 241 miles to promote peace took his message to Camp Pendleton's front gate late Tuesday afternoon.
"I am not against the troops," Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son Jesus del Solar was killed soon after the war began almost three years ago, said to Marine sentries who halted the marchers at the gates. "The Marine Corps is my family. I lost my son, but I feel I won a lot of sons in the Marine Corps."
Suarez del Solar, who struggles to speak English, told press members moments earlier that he sent a letter to the base hoping to meet with his son's former unit commander to voice his support of the troops and his opposition to the war and politicians who have put troops in harm's way. He said he had hoped to meet with someone on the base Tuesday.
Camp Pendleton spokesman 2nd Lt. Lawton King said the base was aware that the march would stop at the gates, but did not know demonstrators would try to enter the base.
King took Suarez del Solar's information and said he would help the grieving father contact his son's former commander. The Marine spokesman also shook Suarez del Solar's hand and said, "My thoughts and prayers are with your son. ... It's unfortunate that Marines have to die."
"Marines work for peace as well, (and) that's why we wear this uniform," King said, as tears welled in the eyes of Suarez del Solar. "Your son will not be forgotten. Marines never forget their own."
More than a dozen demonstrators, marching through downtown Oceanside earlier in the day, spent roughly 45 minutes at the gates bearing photographs of troops and waving U.S. flags and signs that read "Impeach Bush." One woman carried a poster-sized photograph of flag-draped caskets on board an aircraft ---- one of the controversial photographs that were released by the Pentagon last year.
The reactions from passers-by were mixed. Some honked their horns and flashed peace signs. Others made disparaging remarks and told demonstrators to go away.
Victor Paredes, a former Navy sailor who refused to board a ship heading to Iraq in 2004, said the visit to Camp Pendleton was an important one, meant to show those heading on and off base that the march is for peace. Acting as a translator for Suarez del Solar, he said Suarez del Solar's wish to speak with his son's commander was meant to send a message that protesters are not anti-troops.
"These are the Marines who fought and bled with his son," Paredes said. "(Marines) were guests at his house, they sat at his table."
Solar is leading a protest that started on Sunday in Tijuana, passed through San Diego before making stops in Escondido on Monday to visit Jesus' grave and several recruiting offices. Army recruiters closed their doors on Suarez del Solar; Marine recruiters invited him in.
King, standing at the gates of Camp Pendleton on Tuesday, said that base regulations do not clear the way for protests and that people entering the base need a valid reason to enter. He said he sympathized with Suarez del Solar and had to struggle to keep his composure when talking to the weeping father.
"I don't have any children ... (but) I can't imagine losing a loved one the way he did," he said. "He's not holding the Marine Corps as a scapegoat. I think that's important to bear in mind."
The march will head north to Santa Ana today. The journey will end in San Francisco on March 27, the three-year anniversary of Lance. Cpl. Jesus del Solar's death. The group is traveling in two vans and a Winnebago packed with sleeping bags and suitcases.
Contact staff writer Louise Esola at (760) 901-4151 or lesola@nctimes.com.
Ellie