Mexico Week In Review:04.01-04.06

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 04.01-04.06
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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: HUNGER STRIKE BY CHIAPAS POLITICAL PRISONERS

Chiapas news during the month of March was dominated by a Hunger 
strike and fast by Chiapas political prisoners.  It began on February 
12 with relatively little fanfare and no national publicity when 
Zacario Hernandez Hernandez initiated a hunger strike. The Voice of 
El Amate (an organization of political prisoners confined in the El 
Amate prison) joined in the hunger strike at the end of February. 
 From there, the hunger strike and partial fast spread to 3 Chiapas 
prisons and one in Tabasco where 2 Zapatista political prisoners from 
Chiapas are incarcerated.  A total of 46 political prisoners and 
members of 5 organizations participated in the protest. (Those who 
participated in the partial fast were, for the most part, not in good 
enough health to participate in the hunger strike itself.) Members of 
the Other Campaign in Chiapas, relatives of the prisoners and members 
of the social organizations to which the prisoners belonged set up an 
encampment on the front steps of the government palace in Tuxtla 
Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, in support of the hunger strike. 
Zacario Hernandez Hernandez was released from prison on March 17, 
after 35 days without food. On March 30 and 31, the government 
released 28 of those participating in the protest. Upon their 
release, many of the hunger strikers joined the encampment at the 
state capital in support of the 17 who remained in prison, continuing 
the hunger strike and fast.  All of the prisoners from Busilja 
community were among those released.

Chiapas government also released more than 100 prisoners who had 
nothing to do with the protest on March 30 and 31, saying they were 
all political prisoners. Social and human rights organizations have 
demanded a list of all those released as they suspect that many were 
members of paramilitary organizations like Paz y Justicia or the 
Opddic.

Source: Chiapas Support Committee's News Summary: 04/06
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JUAREZ UPDATE: PROMINENT WOMEN'S ACTIVIST, FARM LEADER ARRESTED

Cipriana Jurado, a prominent Ciudad Juarez women's rights activist, 
is now free after posting a $700 bond. The director of the Worker 
Research and Solidarity Center, Jurado was arrested by Mexican 
federal police outside her home on Wednesday, April 2.  The veteran 
activist was charged with blocking a public roadway during an October 
2005 protest sponsored by the binational Southwest Network for 
Environmental and Economic Justice and other organizations at one of 
the international bridges that link Ciudad Juarez with El Paso, 
Texas. Also arrested on the same charges as Jurado was Carlos Chavez 
Quevedo, who was reportedly picked up by federal police in the city 
of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua.

Chavez is a co-founder of the National Agrodynamic farm organization, 
whose leader Armando Villareal Martha was assassinated in Nuevo Casas 
Grandes last month. According to Chihuahua state legislator Victor 
Quintana, at least 40 other arrest warrants stemming from the October 
2005 protest are pending. No additional word of Chavez's detention 
status was available as Frontera NorteSur went to press.

A former maquiladora worker and a member of the PRD political party, 
Jurado has been active in a variety of labor, environmental and human 
rights causes in Ciudad Juarez and the Mexico-US border region. A 
long-time supporter of relatives of femicide victims, Jurado was 
reportedly arrested after returning from forensic offices where she 
had gone on business related to investigations of the women's 
murders. Interviewed by the local press after her release, Jurado 
contended that she resisted officers who did not show her an arrest 
warrant.  The policemen were driving a vehicle without license plates 
and with tainted windows (similar to the vehicles employed by drug 
cartel hit men) and possessed dubious identifications, she said.  As 
a result of the standoff, the police officers shoved her into their 
vehicle, Jurado charged.

Jurado's detention came in the middle of a major operation by Mexican 
federal police and soldiers ostensibly aimed at organized crime in 
Ciudad Juarez. On Friday, April 4, US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza 
visited Ciudad Juarez to express the Bush Administration's support 
for Mexico City's border military offensive. It wasn't immediately 
clear why the Mexican federal government suddenly acted on legal 
issues almost three years old at a time when Mexican troops and 
federal police were supposedly focused on dislodging the power of 
well-rooted drug cartels. "(Government officials) are taking 
advantage of this situation to resolve one thing with another," said 
former Chihuahua Women's Institute head Vicky Caraveo. "We don't know 
the purposes of the (arrests). We know we are in a difficult 
situation and we know they are carrying out operations against 
delinquency, but (Jurado) is not a delinquent. She's an authentic 
social activist. If this happens to her, it is a warning to us what 
will follow."

Jurado's arrest quickly drew responses from US and Mexican supporters 
who sent e-mails and organized a demonstration in front of federal 
court offices in Ciudad Juarez.  Individuals and groups who rallied 
to Jurado's defense included Casa Amiga's Esther Chavez Cano and 
Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa. After leaving jail, Jurado charged 
that her detention was a case of government repression. "We are going 
to continue struggling for the causes we have struggled for all these 
years," she said, "because we have a commitment to the community and 
to our children. We don't want them to live with the repression and 
the problems with which we are living."

Sources: Frontera NorteSur (FNS): 04/05; Lapolaka.com: 04/04-05; La 
Jornada: 04/04-05; Norte: 04/05; El Diario de Juarez: 04/05
====

REMITTANCES DOWN 2.8 PCT

Mexicans living abroad are sending less money to relatives back home. 
The Bank of Mexico says remittances totaled $3.4 billion in the first 
two months of 2008, down 2.8 percent from $3.5 billion in the same 
period last year. The bank said on its Web site that it expects 
little or no growth in remittances this year after they rose 1 
percent to a record $23.98 billion in 2007. Remittances are the 
country's second-largest source of foreign currency inflows after oil 
exports.

Source: Associated Press: 03/31
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SEEKING ALTERNATIVES TO REMITTANCES

In the Mexican state of Michoacan, remittances from migrant workers 
in the US have played a key role in the economy of recent years. Now, 
officials are concerned that the slackening of the migrant dollar 
boom could have negative repercussions on the local economy. To stave 
off negative effects from less remittances, state officials plan to 
invest upwards of $50 million in alternative economic development 
programs. In comments to the press after a meeting with businessmen, 
Michoacan State Economic Development Secretary Eloy Vargas Arreola 
said the administration of Governor Leonel Godoy, who is a member of 
the center-left PRD party, will tap into funds from both public and 
private sources as a means of creating alternative economic 
possibilities for migrant-dependent communities.

Arreola affirmed that members of Michoacan's private sector are 
willing to invest in migrant-expelling regions of the state. A 
portion of the investment could be plowed into the operation of 
industrial parks, he added. In his meeting with members of the 
Business Coordinating Council, Arreola underlined the importance of 
private investment in Michoacan's economy. The state official said 
the Godoy administration views small business as the motor of local 
development, followed by outside investment and the creation of new 
jobs. Like other migrant-expelling regions of Mexico, Michoacan is 
vulnerable to the economic difficulties-especially in the 
construction sector which employed many Mexican migrants- and 
immigration restrictions currently prevailing in the US.

In a report this week, the official Bank of Mexico noted that 
remittances from workers abroad, mostly in the US, fell by 2.76 
percent during the first two months of 2008 compared with the same 
period of 2007. Sent in 9.8 million operations, this year's 
remittance averaged $343.21, or 0.02 percent less than the average 
remittance sent in January and February of 2007. Tracked by the Bank 
of Mexico, remittances for the first two months of 2008 totaled $3.39 
billion. The latest figure reflected a noticeable slow-down from 
2007, a year when remittances reached an annual sum of nearly $24 
billion.

Taking into account the weak dollar, the remittance downturn is even 
worse than the official numbers suggest. In comparison to a few years 
ago, the dollar fetches less pesos, even as prices continue to 
escalate for all manner of goods in Mexico.

Sources: Frontera NorteSur: 04/01; El Universal/EFE: 03/31; La 
Jornada (Michoacan edition): 03/29
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US AGRIBUSINESS "MIGRATES" TO MEXICO

Confronted with the possibility of losing a labor force because of 
immigration law crackdowns, some US growers are simply moving their 
operations to places where workers abound. While the presence of US 
agribusiness in Mexico is nothing new, Mexican authorities and farm 
industry representatives say immigration controversies north of the 
border are encouraging a fresh infusion of US investment in export 
crops. "In Baja California, 17 US enterprises associated with Mexican 
producers are dedicated to the cultivation of horticultural products 
and vegetables" said Israel Camacho, undersecretary for Baja 
California's state agricultural promotion department. "The Mexicans 
supply the land and water, and the foreigners supply money, seed and 
other implements. (Foreigners) are coming to Mexico because of cheap 
labor, and more are going to come." Baja California farm workers, 
many of whom hail from the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca in southern 
Mexico, earn on average $12 per day, officials said.

According to figures released by Mexico's Economy Ministry, annual 
foreign investment in the country's agricultural sector shot up from 
less than $20 million in 2005 to $62.3 million in 2007. Ninety-five 
percent of the new money came from the US. Sonora, Baja California, 
Jalisco, Guanajuato, Queretaro, and Sinaloa were the states which 
received the bulk of the investment. Firms doing business in Mexico 
included Bill Packer, Capurro Co., Sahara, Veg Packer, and Driscoll, 
among others. Trendy Chinese vegetables represent a hot segment of 
the new export business; farms specializing in Asian-origin produce 
are at work in the states of Sinaloa and Nayarit. No information was 
immediately available on the amount of Mexican land that is being 
converted for export crops, but Sinaloa tomato farmer Eduardo de la 
Vega, said the arrival of more US capital was increasing land values.

In the US, meanwhile, the Bush Administration is responding to 
growers' concerns that tougher immigration law enforcement measures 
will deprive them of workers. Late last week, the US Citizenship and 
Immigration Services division of the Department of Homeland Security 
announced it was extending a public comment period on proposals to 
facilitate the increased use of the existing H-2A guest worker 
program. According to a press statement, formal notice of an expanded 
public comment period lasting until April 14 was expected to be 
published in the March 31 edition of the Federal Register.

Sources: Frontera NorteSur: 03/31; Tribuna de la Bahia/Agencia 
Reforma: 03/31; US Citizenship and Immigration Services: 03/28

====
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: 04.01-04.06
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