----- Original Message ----- From: Luis A Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 10:12 PM Subject: [Cuba SI] BORDER DEATHS & VIOLENCE BEG FOR SUMMIT FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF JULY 28, 2000 COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez BORDER DEATHS & VIOLENCE BEG FOR SUMMIT Hundreds of doves were released earlier this month in the San Diego area to commemorate those who have died as a result of attempting to evade the militarized U.S./Mexico border. A mile of hundreds of crosses have also been placed on a border fence as a reminder. They scream in silence for a high-level solution to end this avoidable crisis, so much so that even the United Nations has begun to investigate. Reminders of death and vigilante violence all along the 2,000-mile militarized border are everywhere. Margarito Rodriguez of El Paso, Texas, recently composed and sang a corrido, or ballad, to a national student audience there in memory of a shepherd boy with the name of Ezequiel, the prophet who saw the burning wheel. Except this one was killed along the border by Marines, who went free. Since 1990, thousands of migrants have died trying to avoid operations designed not to stop the flow of migrants, but to channel them into perilous mountains, deserts and rivers. Ironically, it was the recent brutal and cowardly beatings of five workers (Anastacio Fierros, Juan Miguel, Alfredo Sanchez, Anastacio Irogoyen & Andres Diaz), ages 64 to 69, in Carmel Valley near San Diego by white teen-age vigilantes that have shocked people on both sides of the border, more so than the deaths that everyone takes for granted. The deaths have included another brutal killing in the San Diego area, the televised dramatic drownings of two migrants -- as law-enforcement agents on both sides of the U.S./Texas border watched -- and dozens of deaths in the Arizona desert in recent weeks. Roberto Martinez, a longtime activist from San Diego, said that crimes against migrants by militias, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists are nothing new to the area. He's been documenting their violence for more than 20 years. Commenting on the recent arrest of several teen-agers (ages 14 to 17) in the beatings of the elderly workers, he said it makes him wonder where they learned their hate: "They used such adult terms as 'beaners' and 'wetback s.'" Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation's Border Project, who coordinated the reward that was instrumental in catching the suspects, said that they attacked the elderly thinking they were friendless. "But they were wrong." She holds the anti-immigrant movement responsible for both the vigilante violence and inhumane governmental policies and noted that the elderly workers were not undocumented aliens. She believes agribusiness should be held accountable for not providing retirement insurance or adequate housing for their workers. Human rights activist Isabel Garcia of Tucson, Ariz., said that it's time for politicians to take their heads out of the sand. "The fact is that we rely, and have always relied, on cheap labor." Our immigration policies, she said, are predicated on fulfilling the needs of big business, while criminalizing workers and ensuring that they are deprived of their rights and dignity. The solution cannot be a guest worker or "bracero" program. "Either we need workers or we don't," she said. If we do, they shouldn't come in as cheap temporary labor. What's needed is a renegotiation of NAFTA, the agreement that specifically ignored the issue of migrant workers and that supporters promised would put an end to illegal immigration. In its place should be one that fully takes into account migrant rights, demilitarization of the border and an amnesty for undocumented immigrant workers and their families. The August meeting between Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox, and President Clinton, provides a window of opportunity to deal with this problem. Fox envisions eventual wage parity between the two nations, thus reducing the need to migrate. In effect, solving this crisis requires abandoning the "America First" or "America Only" mentality. It requires bringing Mexicans and Central Americans into the community of human beings. The fact is, it's more profitable for U.S. businesses and their stockholders to convert Mexico and the rest of the Americas into maquila nations and more profitable for U.S. businesses to have a very large undocumented labor force. The price, however, is crushing poverty that forces millions to migrate north. The price is dehumanization of that undocumented labor force. The price, also, of not addressing this issue at the highest levels is to tolerate thousands of more crosses and doves along the new Berlin walls we have created, more mourning, more Ezequiels and more abuse of the elders of our communities. COPYRIGHT 2000 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE There are several protests around the country this weekend regarding current immigration policies, the militarization of the border, and Operation Gatekeeper. * The National Alliance for Human Rights invites all to a demonstration and vigil this Sat. July 29 from 1-4 P.M. at Border Field State Park, in San Ysidro. For more info, call: (909) 787-4577 X 1826 or (619) 233-4114 * On Friday, July 28, 6-11pm, there will be a similar action at: The Center for Action & Contemplation in Albq NM 550 Atrisco SW. For more info, call 505-243-5911 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ------------------- Gonzales is the author of the forthcoming "The Mud People: Anonymous Heroes of Mexico" and co-author of "Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored" (ISBN: 0-918520-22-3 -- Ethnic Studies Library Publications Unit, UC Berkeley. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth- ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 -- Bilingual Review Press) and The X in La Raza and Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7905, 505-242-7282 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Their "Column of the Americas" is archived under "Opinion" at www.uexpress.com Also, the Aztlanahuac project's new e-address is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and the Aztlanahuac website (www.Aztlanahuac.org) is currently under construction... *** A temporary informational web page for Aztlanahuac can be found at: hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/index.html P lease see this page and the section "How Can I Help Aztlanahuac?" Thanks... --------------------------------------------------------------------<e|- Get LOW Rates. Click here for details. http://click.egroups.com/1/6866/0/_/30563/_/964818835/ --------------------------------------------------------------------|e>- Cuba SI - Imperialism NO! 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