Building
a Multi-Cultural, Multi-Constituency, Human Rights movement in the
U.S., to insure Political, Racial, Gender, Economic, Social, Cultural
and Environmental Justice
Southwest
Regional US Human Rights Network Conference
Oct
19-20, 2012 Oklahoma
Dorthy
Pearly...remembrance
background
The
starting premise of this position paper and presentation starts from
the so called Doctrine of Discovery, used by Columbus and other
imperialisms, to invade, occupy and militarily by force submit the
people into 'subjects' or 'objects' owned by the 'Absolute Monarchy'
and the Colonizers. My assumption here is that US social movements
have to go back to the original question of Indigenous identity and
sovereignty. We must reclaim our own sovereignty. So the lens I use
on Human Rights goes back to the question of sovereignty of the body,
family, community or people, and that every action and law placed
here by the occupiers and invaders is a dilution of negation of our
full sovereignty. So to be free, liberated, and and to put a stop to
all and every kind of Human Rights violation we must reclaim our
Indigenous sovereignty. We must undo colonialism and the
colonialist, racism, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression to
start thinking and acting liberated, emancipated and sovereign.
- The Illegal Border (US-MX)
It
is often not said, that the US-Mexico border is one of the most
contested borders because it is an 'illegal' border. It was
established illegally through violence, military invasion, war and
destruction. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was forced on Mexico at
gunpoint by the US expansionism (Manifest destiny & Monroe
Doctrine). The almost 3,000 mile border is an imposed border that
divided families and people artificially. The slogan of 'we did not
cross the border, but the border crossed us' comes to mind here.
Pertinent to this discussion is the fact that many of the US
government's border policies are molded and guided by this fact: it
is an illegal border therefore we have to hold it and defend it, by
what ever means necessary. The border divides at least 7 Indigenous
Peoples land making it impossible for even the holding of ceremonies
that have been done for thousands of years. The Tohono 'Odem lands
have been completed ruined by the Border Patrol and has created a
state of siege for the people that live there. The same region where
historically the Yaqui were removed and enslaved by force as part of
the Indian removal policies starting with the Spanish, the Mexico
government for a short period and continued and intensified under US
policies and actions.
- The Southwest region
The
Southwest (& West) region is Indigenous peoples' lands. As
Indigenous to this region we lived under Spanish Colonial rule for
300 years (1521-1821), Mexican government rule 15 years (1821-1836),
and then 176 years (1836-2012) under US imperialist rule. This is
the reality of this region. Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona,
Colorado, and California including Nevada, parts of Oregon and
Montana. This means that the land grab has to be addressed as a
human rights violation for without land and water we go from
producers to consumers.
- Border killings fields (US-MX) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
The
US-Mexico borders have become the 'killing fields' where thousands
have died crossing the border, killed by law enforcement and border
patrol, and assassinated by right wing fascist groups and by unknown
killer of nearly a thousand young women maquiladora workers in CD
Juarez, Chihuahua and many other points on the border. So after 1994
signing of the NAFTA, we have thousands of dead innocent people, and
we have thousands of millionaires and a few billionaires in the US,
Mexico and Canada.
NAFTA
is the worst Human Rights violator; first in violation of
environmental justice, worker justice, Women's reproductive rights,
and the right to organizae as workers and as communities. The
exploitation of poor workers by multi-national and trans-national
rich corporations is another Human Rights violation. Where products
have more freedom to migrant than do people, the same people who were
uprooted from their lands, community, culture, language and family to
end up in the belly of the metropolis.
- Militarization of the Border and violence (US-MX)
In
1924, about the same time 'Natives' received US citizenship, the US
government established the Border Patrol, an armed military-federal
police, to patrol the borders of the US. Since that time, the
southern border with Mexico has undergone a 'militarization'. The
Army, the Green Berets, the National Guard, and other military
organizations, including intelligence units attached to Border Patrol
and Customs which are now fused together under Homeland Security as
ICE.
Mass
deportations & illegal detentions (privatized industry) has been
military operations including mass raids, and deportations of
millions and millions,
- CD Juarez: Ground Zero of killing fields
One
of the most condemning proof of the failure of the Border
Industrialization Program (BIP), the so called twin-plants started
the maquiladora (assembly) industry in CD Juarez in 1965. The trade
zone allowed tax free imports to US after being assembled in Mexico
at cheap wages of 4 dollars a day. The BIP was negotiated into a
broader trade and finance agreement know as the NAFTA (North American
Free Trade Agreement) 1994. As part of the globalization plan [new
world order] and policies by the US government and corporate and
finance giants from Wall Street, NAFTA expanded the trade zone to
Canada, Mexico and US. Today we have hundreds of billionaires and
millions of poor and working people displaced by the NAFTA and the
free trade that is nothing but free.
- Arizona: Ground Zero of Racism & Xenophobia
Janet
Napolitano, ex governor of Arizona, Republican, Right ideology is
head of Department of Homeland Security and she was put there by them
powers coming from Arizona now the ground-zero for deportations,
racial profiling, law enforcement run amok, and racist right wing
organizations and movements of white supremacy. The Goldwater plan
started in the 1980' and became the nucleus of Republican right
revolution uplifted by Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove.
- Human Rights and Border Justice
While
numerous Human Rights and Border Justice organizations are active and
have been for some time doing cross-border organizing, from
California to the tip of Texas, but they are not united in a single
Border-Human Rights Network, alliance of Coalition, thereby
fragmenting the efforts to document Human Rights violations and
establishing a Archive Center on Human Rights to document violations
systemically. The US-Mexico border is a bi-national region and
showed be seen and treated as such establishing a bi national zone or
open borders.
- Environmental racism & Human Rights
Starting
with the maquiladora industry environmental contamination of ground,
water and air, the border wall impact on the environment and the
ecological impact on wildlife. Families have become divided by a
metal wall 16 feet tall between their homes and ranches in some
cases. The huge stadium lights that go along the border wall of
death. The whole of the impact of environmental racism extends to US
companies setting up waste incinerators on the Mexico side,
disregarding laws there and escaping US environmental regulations.
The ASARCO lead smelter in El Paso. The waste dumps in Matamoros
across Brownsville on the estuary. Additionally workers are
subjected to environmental toxic chemicals and solvents resulting in
the Mallory children, the contamination of the Rio Grande River, and
children born without brains.
- New paradigm for Systemic Social Change: Multi-paradigmatic
The
Southwest region offers many possibilities for change and this
conference demonstrates the fact. To build a human rights social
movement regionally, we must approach it as we are building new
knowledge of the present situation of the region but determine new
strategies and tactics; really a multi-paradigmatic approach.
Multi
cultural
Multi
national
Multi-racial
Multi-ethnic
Multi-lingual
Multi-generational
Multi-gender
and trans gender
Multi-families
(several families in one single parents etc)
Multi-regional
Multi-educational
Multi-economic
Multi-health
and food sovereignty
Multi-sovereign
Multi-abilities
(inclusive)
A
movement that thrives on diversity to form a new community,
communities, and make a new world possible where everyone fits.
Establish
a SW region network for human, border, environmental justice
Establish
an Archive on Human Rights Violations (Bi national border region)
Organize
a University Sin Fronteras/USHRN a series of course (diverse campuses
on the concept of University with out walls) on Human Rights and
Liberation/sovereignty/emancipation/freedom movement & leadership
building(growing) bridging the veteran leadership with young
leaderships coming up in the social movements.
Border
Patrol Abuse Since 2010
Killed
by Customs and Border Protection
1.
Jorge Solis-Palma
Age:
28
Nationality: Mexican
Cause of Death:Fatal shooting
Incident
Date: 1-4-2010
Incident Location: Douglas, Az.
Border
Patrol agents spotted three men traveling north near the border
fence. The men separated. Several agents pursued Jorge Alfredo
Solis-Palma. He allegedly got into a physical altercation with an
agent and then escaped. As he ran, the agent pursued and fatally shot
Solis-Palma.
2.
Victor Santillan de la Cruz
Age:
36
Nationality: Mexican
Cause of Death: Fatal Shooting
Incident
Date: 3-31-2010
Incident Location: Texas
A
Border Patrol agent shot Santillan de la Cruz after he was
apprehended on U.S. side of the Rio Grande allegedly transporting
drugs.
3.
Anastasio Hernandez Rojas
Age: 42 Nationality: Mexican, San Diego resident since age 18 Cause of Death: Tortured to death by CBP Incident Date: 5-28-2012 Incident Location: San Diego, Ca.
Age: 42 Nationality: Mexican, San Diego resident since age 18 Cause of Death: Tortured to death by CBP Incident Date: 5-28-2012 Incident Location: San Diego, Ca.
Border
agents apprehended and intended to deport Anastasio Hernandez Rojas,
a long time San Diego resident who did not have legal status. While
in custody over a dozen agents beat and Tased him to death. His
family is now suing the government, there is a pending DOJ
investigation, a Grand Jury hearing in process, and U.S. lawmakers
have called for an agency wide investigation on the use of force.
4.
Sergio Adrian H. Huereca
Age: 15 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 6-7-2010 Incident Location: Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Age: 15 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 6-7-2010 Incident Location: Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
A
Border Patrol agent shot Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca on the
Mexican side of the Rio Grande canal between El Paso and Juarez.
Hernandez peeked out from behind a concrete pillar on the Mexican
side of the border. The agent claimed the boys were throwing rocks
and he fired at Hernandez allegedly in self defense.
Family
of Mexican teen killed by border agent sues U.S.
Border Shooting
Strains Tensions With Mexico
5.
Juan Mendez
Age:
18
Nationality: Unknown
Cause of Death: Fatal shooting
Incident
Date: 10-5-2010
Incident Location: Eagle Pass, Texas
A
Border Patrol agent stopped a truck that Juan Mendez was driving and
began to question him. A 15-year-old boy fled the truck, and Mendez
allegedly struggled with the agent. He was shot twice and declared
dead at the scene. Authorities allegedly found 325 pounds of
marijuana in the truck.
6.
Ramses Barron Torres
Age: 17 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 1-5-2011 Incident Location: Nogales, Mexico
Age: 17 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 1-5-2011 Incident Location: Nogales, Mexico
Barron
Torres was allegedly climbing the border fence from Mexico when an
agent shot him. He was pronounced dead upon his arrival at a Mexican
hospital.
2011
7.
Roberto Pérez Pérez
Age: 63 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Lack of medical care after being beaten. Incident Date: 1-13-2011 Incident Location: San Diego, CA
Age: 63 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Lack of medical care after being beaten. Incident Date: 1-13-2011 Incident Location: San Diego, CA
Pérez
Pérez attempted to cross without inspection through the San Ysidro
Port of Entry when he was tackled, beaten and Tasered repeatedly by
CBP officials. He was taken into custody and died months later
while still in custody due to lack of adequate medical attention. He
was charged with allegedly assaulting a federal agent.
8.
Alex Martinez
Age:
30
Nationality: U.S.
Cause of Death: Fatal shooting
Incident
Date: 2-27-2011
Incident Location: Washington State
Martinez
family members called 911 requesting medical assistance. Border
Patrol responded to the call and shot Martinez upon seeing him come
out of his home with what they believed was a weapon and turned out
to be a flashlight.
9.
Carlos Lamadrid
Age: 19 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 3-21-2011 Incident Location: Douglas, Az
Age: 19 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 3-21-2011 Incident Location: Douglas, Az
Lamadrid,
a U.S. citizen, was shot in the back by Border Patrol agents while he
was climbing the border fence into Mexico. Agents claimed he was
throwing rocks and they fired in self defense. He died five hours
after the shooting in a hospital. The family has filed a lawsuit.
10.
Jose Alfredo Yañez Reyes
Age: 40 Nationaility: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 6-21-2011 Incident Location: Tijuana, Mexico
Age: 40 Nationaility: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 6-21-2011 Incident Location: Tijuana, Mexico
Yañez
Reyes was in a tree overlooking the border fence in Mexico when he
was shot in the eye by Border Patrol agents on the U.S. side who
claimed he was throwing rocks. He died at the scene.
Agent’s
shot kills rock thrower at border fence
Border shooting reignites
use of force debate
Incident that ended with agent fatally shooting
man restarts debate about patrol’s response to ‘rocking’
Police
Investigate Officer-Involved
Shooting at the Border
11.
Gerardo Rico Lozano
Age:
20
Nationality: Mexican
Cause of Death: Fatal shooting
Incident
Date: 11-3-2011
Incident Location: Texas
Rico
Lozano was shot and killed after agents pulled over his vehicle on a
rural stretch of road. Other occupants and the driver fled, but
Lozano allegedly got behind the wheel and drove the vehicle toward
the agent. The agent claimed they shot and killed Rico Lozano in self
defense.
12.
Byron Sosa Orellana
Age: 28 Nationality: Guatemalan Cause of Death: Fatal Shooting, Incident Date: 12-6-2011 Incident Location: Arizona
Age: 28 Nationality: Guatemalan Cause of Death: Fatal Shooting, Incident Date: 12-6-2011 Incident Location: Arizona
Migrants
were attempting to cross the border into Arizona when Border Patrol
agents encountered them. Sosa Orellana allegedly became combative and
an agent shot him in the chest. He died at the scene.
2012
13.
Alexander Martin
Age:
34
Nationality: U.S.
Cause of death: Death in vehicle
explosion
Incident Date: 3-15-2012
Incident Location: San Diego
County
Martin
was driving a rental car from Texas to San Diego. He was allegedly
driving the wrong way on Interstate 8. Border Patrol agents pursued
him and he did not pull over. Agents set up a trap that flattened his
car tires. When Martin did not get out of the car, an agent deployed
a Taser. The car exploded into flames, killing him.
14.
Charles Robinson
Age: 75 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 6-23-2012 Incident Location: Maine
Age: 75 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 6-23-2012 Incident Location: Maine
Three
Border Patrol agents responded to a domestic dispute after receiving
a call for help from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department.
Customs and Border Protection said a person in the house opened fire
on the agents, who shot back. State police later entered the home and
found Charles Robinson dead. The Maine Attorney General is
investigating.
15.
Juan Pablo Santillán
Age:
30
Nationality: Mexican
Cause of Death: Fatal shooting
Incident
Date: 7-7-2012
Incident Location: TX
Santillán
was shot and killed for allegedly throwing rocks at a border agent
while standing on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
16.
Guillermo Arevalo Pedraza
Age:
37
Nationality: Mexican
Cause of Death: Fatal shooting
Incident
Date: 9-3-2012
Incident Location: Nuevo Laredo, México
While
patrolling the Rio Grande on a river boat, Border Patrol agents
opened fire on a group of men, women and children who were at a
family gathering on the Mexican banks of the river. Arevalo Pedraza
was struck in the chest and died.
17.
Valeria Munique Tachiquin
Age: 32 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 9-28-2012 Incident Location: Chula Vista, CA
Age: 32 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 9-28-2012 Incident Location: Chula Vista, CA
A
plain-clothed Border Patrol agent shot and killed Tachiquin in a
residential suburb of San Diego. The agent alleged she had
struck him and was carrying him on top of her car prompting him to
fire in self defense.
Witnesses
tell conflicting stories.
The
border agent involved had a very troubling record when he worked as a
sheriff’s deputy. The Imperial Valley Sheriff’s Department
ultimately issued the agent a notice of termination for
“unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, violation of or refusal to
obey reasonable regulations, insubordination, violation of rules,
incompetence and failure to follow proper procedures for arrest,
search and seizure and treatment of persons in custody.”
18.
Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie
Age: 30 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 10-2-2012 Incident Location: Naco, AZ
Age: 30 Nationality: U.S. Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 10-2-2012 Incident Location: Naco, AZ
Ivie
was killed by another Border Patrol agent while they were on patrol
on horseback. The circumstances are still being investigated.
19.
Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez
Age: 16 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 10-13-2012 Incident Location: Nogales, México
Age: 16 Nationality: Mexican Cause of Death: Fatal shooting Incident Date: 10-13-2012 Incident Location: Nogales, México
Border
Patrol agents who were standing on the U.S. side shot at a group of
youth near downtown Nogales, Mexico, after allegedly telling them to
stop throwing rocks. Elena Rodriguez was struck with several bullets
and died at the scene. He had been standing in front of a
doctor’s office.
Non-Lethal
Cases of Border Brutality
1.
Jesus Enrique Castro Romo
Age: 30 Nationality: Mexican Incident: Survived shooting Incident Date: 11-16-2010 Incident Location: Santa Cruz County, AZ
Age: 30 Nationality: Mexican Incident: Survived shooting Incident Date: 11-16-2010 Incident Location: Santa Cruz County, AZ
Castro
Romo was shot in the stomach by a Border Patrol agent who alleged he
threw rocks. He survived the shooting.
2.
Jose Gutierrez Guzman
Age: 41 Nationality: Mexican Incident: Tased and beaten into a comatose state Incident Date: 3- 30- 2011 Incident Location: San Luis Port of Entry, AZ
Age: 41 Nationality: Mexican Incident: Tased and beaten into a comatose state Incident Date: 3- 30- 2011 Incident Location: San Luis Port of Entry, AZ
While
attempting to enter without inspection Gutierrez Guzman was Tased and
beaten.
For
further reading, videos and information please visit the
Investigative Newsource site: Deadly Patrols.
Human
Rights News
Group
Calls for Border Security Oversight
An
El Paso-based immigrant advocacy and human rights organization has
renewed a demand for Washington to establish an independent oversight
and review commission tasked with examining transparency,
institutional violence and “the overall border enforcement strategy
and its impact on border communities and families.”
The
Border Network for Human Rights made the call following last week’s
shooting death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez allegedly
by a Border Patrol agent at the international line separating
Nogales, Arizona, from its sister city of Nogales, Sonora.
The
young man was shot six times from the U.S. side of the border while
he was in Mexico, according to a lawyer representing the victim’s
family. Quoted in the local press, the Border Patrol said shots were
fired from U.S. territory when its agents were accosted by rock
throwers after observing smugglers toss drugs over a border fence.
“Verbal
commands from agents to cease were ignored,” the Border Patrol
said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Victor Brabble
added that video footage of the incident was turned over to the FBI.
The
Mexican Embassy in the U..S. swiftly condemned the October 10
shooting, adding that preliminary information “once again raises
serious doubts about the U.S. of lethal force by Border Patrol
agents..”
Elena
Rodriguez was buried Sunday, October 14, after 200 people paid their
last respects at a Nogales mass. His relatives have retained a U.S.
attorney and are considering legal action.
“We
are waiting for the investigation to conclude on both sides of the
border,” family lawyer Luis Parra said this week. “The family
wants justice, transparency and an answer to the doubts they have
about the young man’s death.”
Parra
described Elena Rodriguez as “a very good young man” with no
criminal record who had plans of finishing school and joining
the Mexican military. The teen might have been on the way to meet his
brother when he was shot and killed, Parra said.
The
Nogales shooting was the third reported killing of a Mexican national
by the Border Patrol since the summer. On July 7, Border Patrol
bullets were blamed for the death of 29-year-old Juan Pablo Perez
Santillan on the Brownsville-Matamoros border of Texas and
Tamaulipas. Guillermo Arevalo Pedraza, 36, was killed in a Border
Patrol shooting September 3 at the border of Laredo/Nuevo Laredo,
again in the Texas and Tamaulipas corridor.
The
Border Network questioned rock throwing as a standard justification
for lethal shootings, expressing concern that a U.S. judge’s
adverse ruling in a lawsuit filed by relatives of 15-year-old Sergio
Adrian Hernandez Guereca, who was shot to death on the Ciudad Juarez
side of the border by a Border Patrol agent in 2010 after allegedly
throwing rocks, could result in a miscarriage of justice in this
month’s Nogales incident.
In
a statement, Border Network Executive Director Fernando Garcia placed
the shootings in the larger context of a “failed” U.S. border
strategy. “We have been insisting that the consequences of massive
border enforcement and militarization, specifically in the lack of
accountability and oversight, have led us to a disastrous human
rights and civil rights situation at the U.S.-Mexico border,”
Garcia contended.
According
to Garcia’s group, previous demands that President Obama use his
executive power to set up an independent body to monitor, investigate
and oversee the activities of the Department of Homeland Security and
other border-related security agencies have gone unanswered.
Additional
sources: Laopinion.com/EFE,
October 16, 2012. Nuevo Dia/El Universal, October 16, 2012.
Nogalesinternational.com,
October 15, 2012. Article by Jonathan Clark. Meganoticias.mx,
October 15, 2012. Proceso/Apro, October 11, 2012.
Frontera.info/Notimex,
October 11, 2012. La Jornada, September 7, 2012. Article by Martin
Sanchez, Carlos Figueroa and Notimex.
Frontera
NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center
for Latin American and Border Studies
New
Mexico State University
Las
Cruces, New Mexico
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