Mexico Week In Review: 09.03-09.09

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 09.03-09.09
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Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS).  CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas.  CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To view newsletter archives, visit:
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
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CHIAPAS: COMMUNITIES EXPELLED FROM MONTES AZULES

On August 18, authorities violently expelled three indigenous
communities from Montes Azules - San Miguel, San Pedro and El Buen
Samaritano.  Six community leaders are under arrest in El Amate
prison, while at least 33 are being held in private homes by
paramilitary groups in the nearby town of La Trinitaria.  Most of the
inhabitants of the three communities fled when helicopters arrived,
and are presumably living in the jungle without food, shelter or
medical care.  In a report published this week by the environmental
organization Maderas del Pueblo, two of the communities were
identified as Zapatista support bases - San Miguel and San Pedro.
The third community was recently expelled from the organization
ARIC-Independiente for illegal tree cutting, while the other two
communities were, by all accounts, strong stewards of the
environment.  Meanwhile, communities in the same area closely aligned
with the state government, including Frontera Corozal and Nueva
Palestina, are notorious for rainforest destruction to increase
cattle grazing lands.  The selective enforcement of environmental
regulations by state and federal authorities is part of a political
process using environmentalist arguments in an effort to dismantle
Zapatista communities.  At the same time indigenous communities are
expelled from the region, transnational corporations maintain a
strong presence in search of rare biological resources.  The US-based
Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy and the World
Wildlife Fund, all of which enjoy millions of dollars of annual
support from major transnational corporations, are leading the
publicity battle to dismantle Zapatista communities.  Monsanto,
General Motors, Exxon, Pfizer, Shell, Coca-Cola and Nestle are among
the strongest supporters of these international NGOs.  At least five
more communities are under imminent threat of expulsion, including
Salvador Allende, Nuevo Villaflores, Nuevo Limar, Corozal, and Ojo de
Agua Pimienta.

Source: Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News Summary: 08/27-09/02
====

CHIAPAS: ARMY SEARCHES FOR EPR GUERILLAS

On Aug. 29, the Tzotzil Maya community of Ejido 28 de Junio in the
municipality of Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, was occupied by troops
of the Mexican federal army, who arrived in two trucks and four armed
personnel carriers. Establishing checkpoints at the entrances to the
community, the troops then spread out through the streets and
surrounding fields, questioning residents about the supposed presence
of Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) guerillas. Helicopters conducted
over flights, searching for a supposed EPR training camp.

The soldiers especially asked residents about the activities and
whereabouts José Manuel "Chema" Hernández Martínez, founder of the
local peasant land-rights group OCEZ-Casa del Pueblo (Emiliano Zapata
Campesino Organization-House of the People). Chema later told a
reporter: "In 1978 we initiated the struggle for the recuperation of
5,000 hectares that was in the hands of the landlords. We want them
to recognize our rights as comuneros, but they continue to persecute
us, they harass us to get us to abandon the struggle, and I was
accused of belonging to the PROCUP [Clandestine Revolutionary Workers
Party-Union of the People]. Now they accuse me and my compañero
Ricardo Magdaleno of being directors of the EPR. We say to them, yes,
we struggle, but always by peaceful means, blocking roads, occupying
predios [collective lands], installing plantones [protest vigils],
never by armed means."

After the army incursion, hundreds of followers of the "Socialist
Front for National Liberation" held marches and plantones in the
state capital Tuxtla, as well as in the towns of Tapachula, San
Cristóbal, Palenque and Comitan. A communique read at the actions
stated that President Felipe Calderon "has opted to instate
militarization and fascism in response to the popular repudiation
against him." It accused the president of trying to establish a
"military dictatorship."

Source: http://ww4report.com/node/4376
====

IMMIGRATION NEWS I: ICE DEPORTS SANCTUARY ACTIVIST

On the afternoon of Aug. 19, ICE agents arrested activist Elvira
Arellano on a city street in downtown Los Angeles and deported her to
Tijuana, Mexico within hours. Arellano became an activist shortly
after she was arrested in 2002 during a federal sweep at O'Hare
International Airport, where she cleaned airplanes. She gained
national fame when she took sanctuary in a Chicago church on Aug. 15,
2006, in an effort to avoid being deported away from her US-born son
Saul, now eight years old. Her activism has since spurred churches
around the US to initiate what they are calling a "new sanctuary
movement" to defend immigrants and end deportations, especially those
that separate immigrant parents from their US-born children.

"She has been deported. She is free and in Tijuana," said Rev. Walter
Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago,
which had provided sanctuary to Arellano. "She is in good spirits.
She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of
families from the other side of the border." "I have a fighting
spirit, and I'm going to continue to fight," Arellano said on Aug. 24
outside the apartment in Tijuana where she is living with a friend.
Arellano told reporters in Mexico that Saul is in Chicago in the care
of his godmother and will attend a Sept. 12 rally for immigration
reform in Washington.

In a news conference on Aug. 15, the one-year anniversary of her
sanctuary, Arellano had announced she would leave the Adalberto
church and travel to Washington for an 8-hour prayer and fast vigil
on Sept. 12. She kept secret her plans to go first to other cities to
build momentum for the vigil. Arellano left Chicago on Aug. 16 and
arrived in Los Angeles on Aug. 18 for the first stop in that
campaign, which coincided with a local immigration march. On Aug. 19
she urged audiences of several hundred parishioners inside four
separate churches to lobby House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
and other congressional members from California to take up
immigration reform immediately after returning from summer recess.
"It's important that we are unified so that we can bring out the
message that we're all struggling together," Arellano said at the
Angelica Lutheran Church in Los Angeles' Pico-Union neighborhood.
"The hate you are seeing build around the country has no boundaries."

ICE officers arrested Arellano as she and her supporters were leaving
Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in downtown Los Angeles. The agents
stopped the vehicle Arellano, Saul and their supporters were
traveling in, handcuffed the driver and ordered Arellano to get out,
said Chicago activist Emma Lozano, who was with Arellano. Before
surrendering, Arellano asked for time alone to console her crying
son, telling him: "Calm down. Don't have any fear. They can't hurt
me," Lozano said. The entire incident lasted about two minutes, she
said. The driver was released. On Aug. 25, immigrant rights activists
marched through downtown Los Angeles in support of Arellano. "It's an
effort by all immigrant rights groups to come together and
re-energize the whole movement, in solidarity with Elvira," said
college student Marylou Cabral. Some marchers carried large photos of
Arellano and her Saul, while others raised placards reading "We are
all Elvira!" Organizers said over 2,000 demonstrated, while police
put the crowd at closer to 600. Vigils and marches in solidarity with
Arellano were also held in Chicago and Houston.

Source: Immigration News Briefs: 08/26
====

IMMIGRATION NEWS II: DETAINEES PROTEST AS DEATHS MOUNT

On Aug. 9, 98 detainees at the federal immigration detention center
in San Pedro, California refused to return to Pod 5 in an act of
peaceful protest for health and dignity in their living conditions.
Over 100 police, immigration and Coast Guard officials responded with
threats and aggression against the protesters, according to activists
from the Los Angeles-based group Homies Unidos, which organized
support for the detainees. Homies Unidos activists said Coast Guard
snipers armed with M-16s were on the roof of the detention center and
in boats surrounding the facility during the protest, and one
detainee was beaten by guards. Detainees' demands included adequate
and nutritional meals; proper clothing; adequate medical treatment;
respect and dignity; an end to persistent overcrowding; provision of
necessary hygiene supplies; timely processing of their immigration
cases; and recreation equipment to ensure mental and physical health.

The protest came not long after the July 20 death of transsexual
detainee Victoria Arellano (whose legal name was Victor Arellano) at
the San Pedro facility. Arellano, who had AIDS, was detained in May
for entering the US illegally for a second time. During detention in
San Pedro, attorneys said, she did not receive treatment for her
medical conditions. As she vomited blood, fellow inmates cared for
her in vain. She was eventually taken to a San Pedro hospital and
died while shackled to a bed, an attorney for the family said.
Arellano's was the first in a recent string of detainee deaths. Rosa
Isela Contreras-Dominguez, a legal US resident from Mexico who was
seven weeks pregnant, died about a week after entering ICE custody in
El Paso, Texas on Aug. 1. She had been detained by ICE for
deportation after serving an 18-month prison sentence for bringing
marijuana into the US. Contreras was taken to an emergency room
immediately after notifying medical staff that she suffered from
blood clotting. Later, after complaining of pain in her leg, she was
taken to a hospital, where she died.

Brazilian immigrant Edmar Alves Araujo died after being taken into
federal custody on Aug. 7 in Rhode Island. His sister, Irene, said
she tried to hand over his seizure medication to the police who
detained him for a traffic violation in Woonsocket, but they refused
to take it. ICE spokesperson Marc Raimondi said ICE officials called
emergency medical technicians when Araujo showed signs of distress
shortly after they detained him.

A mysterious illness killed two detainees and hospitalized two others
at a detention center in Del Rio, Texas. The first detainee became
ill in mid- to late July, according to Dr. Sandra Guerra-Cantu,
regional medical director of the Texas Department of State Health
Services, who is investigating. The privately operated 850-bed
medium-security facility holds federal detainees for ICE and the US
Marshals Service as well as local prisoners. One of the prisoners who
died and both of those hospitalized were ICE detainees from Mexico or
Honduras. No autopsy has yet been performed on either of the men who
died.

On Aug. 11, some 300 immigrants at the Northwest Detention Center in
Tacoma, Washington became ill from suspected food poisoning. About
180 detainees were treated for diarrhea, nausea and vomiting at the
detention center's clinic.

Before the latest deaths, immigration officials acknowledged that at
least 62 people had died in ICE custody since 2004. The Office of the
Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security is
investigating two detainee deaths, in New Mexico and Minnesota. In a
report issued last December, the inspector general noted that four of
the five immigration detention facilities it studied had "instances
of non-compliance" regarding health care, "including timely initial
and responsive medical care." On June 13, the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of
immigrant detainees at San Diego Correctional Facility, charging that
inadequate medical and mental health care have caused unnecessary
suffering and, in several cases, avoidable death. The suit names ICE
and the Division of Immigrant Health Services among the defendants.
"We've been saying for a long time now that we have serious concerns
about the medical care provided to individuals in detention," said
Tom Jawetz, a staff lawyer for the ACLU's National Prison Project.
"It's been a closed system for far too long. People are going to
continue to die unless changes are made," Jawetz said. On June 27,
the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain
information about the nature of the 62 deaths of immigrant detainees
which ICE admits have taken place since 2004.

Source: Immigration News Briefs: 08/26
====

BORDER NEWS: ACTIVISTS, MAYORS PROTEST U.S.-MEXICO BORDER WALL

The mayors of the Texan city of El Paso and the Mexican city of
Juarez led a protest by dozens of people against a planned border
wall to stem illegal immigration into America. The protesters held
hands across the Paso del Norte Bridge, which spans the Rio Grande
and connects the downtown cores of the two cities. Resentment against
the wall runs deep in the border areas of Texas. Landowners are
concerned it may cut across their property, conservationists see it
destroying crucial riverside habitat, and some activists see it
inflaming ethnic tensions.

El Paso Mayor John Cook and Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia Lardizabal
embraced at the top of the bridge. "Today is a historic day in the
expression of friendship between two mayors, two cities and two
countries. It is necessary for Washington and Mexico City to
understand that our border doesn't separate us, it joins us," Cook
said. Murguia said the Mexican government had failed its own people
who he said were forced to go north seeking jobs because of the
poverty they faced at home.

John Neck, a resident of border town of Brownsville in the far
southeastern corner of Texas, made the long trek to El Paso in the
west of the state for the event. "Mexico is the most important
country to the United States. They're not going anywhere ... if we
build a wall it will set back relations with Mexico 100 years, and
you can't blame them, they know what a wall means," said Neck, who
described himself as a fifth-generation Texan.

Supporters of the wall, which is planned to run for hundreds of miles
along the border, argue it is needed to help block the swelling tide
of illegal immigration as well as widespread drug and gun smuggling.
Officials have said that construction of the Texas portion of the
wall could begin as early as this fall. But local opposition is
rising in border areas which often have large Latino populations.

Source: Reuters: 08/25
====

WORLD BANK REPORTS ON MEXICO, NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has failed to meet
predictions that it would bring Mexico closer to the economic level
of its partners, Canada and the US, according to a June study from
the World Bank (WB). The study, "Mexico 2006-2012," reports that
Mexico's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was 36% of that of
Canada in 1994, when NAFTA took effect, and 28% of that of the US. In
the 13 years since, it has fallen slightly, to 32% of Canada's rate
and 25% of the US rate. The situation is especially bad in
agriculture, where Mexico's last tariff protections will be
eliminated next year. "Mexico faces new competitors in the US," the
WB said, "and has achieved a small penetration of new markets." The
main advances have been in horticulture, in processed foods and
drinks, and agriculture requiring irrigation; these sectors are a
relatively small part of Mexican agriculture.

Growth in industry, which accounts for about a fourth of Mexico's
GDP, has virtually stopped in the last 12 months, according to the
National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information Systems
(INEGI). The annual growth rate was 7.1% in June 2006; by June 2007
it had fallen to 0.1%. Mexico's economy is now closely linked to the
US economy, and on Aug. 17 the Banco de Mexico warned about possible
effects from the mortgage crisis in the US, which may result in a
downturn in the US.

At the beginning of August the US-based publications Fortune and The
Wall Street Journal Americas reported that Mexican business leader
Carlos Slim Helu was now the richest person in the world. According
to Fortune, his assets had reached $59 billion, more than those of
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and more than 5% of Mexico's GDP. Slim
told reporters: "I don't know if I'm the richest, or the 20th
richest, or the 2,000th. It doesn't matter to me."

Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater
New York: 08/26

UNIONISTS PROTEST CALDERON
====

On Aug. 30 thousands of workers marched in Mexico City from the Angel
of Independence to the central plaza, the Zocalo, to protest what
they called the "anti-union and anti-worker" policies of President
Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, of the center- right National Action Party
(PAN). The organizers, the National Workers Union (UNT) and the
Mexican Union Front (FSM), timed the march to precede Calderon's
first state of the union report, to be delivered on Sept. 2. Police
estimated the crowd at 20,000; organizers put attendance at 50,000.
Despite several successful demonstrations, the UNT and FSM have
repeatedly failed in their efforts to call a national strike against
the government's plans for more privatization and other neoliberal
economic policies.

Also on Aug. 30, about 10,000 office workers and visitors were
evacuated from the 56-story Torre Mayor on Paseo de Reforma in Mexico
City--Latin America's tallest building--after a homemade explosive
device was found in a stolen car in the parking area. The Federal
District (DF) searched the building after the building received an
anonymous call about the explosive. According to the preliminary
police report, the bomb's damage would have been confined to the
inside of the car if it had exploded. There were no immediate reports
that any group had taken responsibility for the bomb.

On Aug. 31 hundreds of teachers in the rank-and-file National
Education Workers Coordinating Committee (CNTE) protested Calderon's
educational programs and the role of Elba Esther Gordillo, who heads
their union, the National Education Workers Union (SNTE), and is
close to the government. Some 300 teachers rallied outside the
Secretariat of Basic Education offices in Mexico City, which is
headed by Gordillo's son-in-law, Fernando Gonzalez Sanchez. "Out,
out, out," they chanted, charging that Gonzalez Sanchez's "only
commitment is the one he has to his mother-in-law."

Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater
New York: 09/02

CALDERON DELIVERS STATE OF THE UNION

In a choreographed display of official politics, President Felipe
Calderon delivered a written version of his state of the union to
Congress after PRD members made a brief statement, the exited the
building.  The PRD statement mysteriously disappeared from local
television channels in a case of "technical difficulties," while
Calderon disappeared quickly from the Congressional chamber after
carrying out his constitutional duties.  Both sides claimed victory,
while the rest of Mexico continued to suffer declining living
standards, increased unemployment, and an historically unprecedented
flow of immigrants to the North.

Source: Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News Summary: 08/27-09/02

====
The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 09.03-09.09
--