Atlanta, Georgia—the Center of African American Resistance.Looking at the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., We Evaluate our Journey.
August 30, 2012. We have left Montgomery Alabama surprised and encouraged by all that we´ve seen and all that the African American community has shared of their joy and faith in the gospel. The day we passed through, we were excited to dialogue and learn more about civil and passive resistance, based on the actions produced by the African American minority in the civil rights movement of the 1950´s and 60´s. For us in the Caravan, we have a strong feeling that though we are a minority, we will not quit denouncing the atrocities of our current government. It is perhaps this feeling that brings us closer to the African American community and causes us to examine their reality
We began our journey through Atlanta with a short tour which took us by what had been the house of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Baptist church in which he served for many years before his death. I could see his modest wooden home as well as impressive protestant and catholic churches standing face to face.
There were Baptist churches, Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches and one or two Catholic churches…This made me remember some of the foundational history of this North American nation, and the reasons that have brought us here. Unlike Mexico, whose founding was based the Catholic religion; the United States was a constant destination for immigrants seeking religious freedom during much of its early history. The first thirteen colonies were characterized by the existence of diverse religions, and this religious element played a fundamental role in the radical discourse that was expressed by political parties in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. This spirit was affirmed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries with local movements or revivals. Preachers that announced the imminent end of the world, called on the white population to have a “genuine conversation” with God.
Georgia was one of the states that counted a large African American population after the abolition of slavery. Wise protestant churches played a fundamental role in what was called social evangelism: abandoning racial differences to give slaves an educational, cultural and artistic space in order to integrate them into North American society. From this, one can understand why African Americans say that churches are spaces of resistance and generate culture and identity. Little by little, we would discover this first hand.
We were invited for breakfast at the Catholic Church of Lourdes by a Catholic minister, a Congregationalist and a Pentecostal leader. This was the first time during the Caravan that a person from the Pentecostal church had joined us. For quite some time in many Latin-American countries, the belief existed that Pentecostal churches were apolitical and fundamental. Today, however, there are frequently Pentecostals who identify themselves as ecumenical. As was the case, the Pentecostal leader, a member of The Assemblies of God, invited us to say a prayer before eating. Following this, we were directed to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. Pastors and members of African American communities pointed out the way. In front of our eyes rose a fountain that had neither beginning nor end. This symbolizes that MLK´s legacy—the struggle for peace—is endless. In the center, lies the marble tomb of MLK and his wife…
…“We are in a time of blessing. In 1959, I was with Dr. King, and this MPJD is similar to how we lived that year. The system didn´t want us to vote, but we were with God, with justice. Once again, we will not be defeated. Together, we can overcome. We will reform the system of drugs. Sicilia is anointed, so all of you, stay strong.” These were the words expressed by the Baptist preacher that supported us, along with the leader from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. These words carried with them a profound spirituality; it gave us encouragement to know that this was the beginning of a revolutionary process to bring peace and justice. The African Americans invited us to get to know their legacy and force: to rise, leaving all fear behind; to organize, leave the streets, and take up our cause without setting a date for triumph. We of the Caravan needed the conviction that God had chosen this MPJD as a profit. Repeatedly we heard this from African American preachers.
We marched from the MLK memorial to the city´s capitol building. While marching with our Spanish and English slogans, I saw many African Americans living and sleeping in streets, parks and abandoned houses. Ho could this be? We were marching to legalize drugs, to demand an immigration reform centered in individuals and their rights. We were marching to denounce the economy of the war and its imprisonment of many. And a visible reality caused us to question ourselves: people living on the streets. This made me think of the bustling Reforma—an important street in Mexico City. Reforma is adorned with statues and memorials dedicated to great Latin American liberators so that tourists and citizens might remember Mexican liberty, but at the same time, Reforma is also the home of young adults and children that are homeless. Are they not also victims that we should remember and support? Aren´t they, who have been homeless since before Calderón´s war on drugs, the most common victims of drug addiction?...We haven´t brought their voice into the Caravan…
At the feet of the Capitol, after listening to the testimonies of families of victims, the pastors returned to reiterate their help and to strengthen the bond between their cause and the cause of the Caravan: “The war on drugs has to stop. Many young people are being imprisoned because of it. Already, we have had it with so many funerals. We want more education for our young ones and less deaths. Give us money for an education. Every time a Mexican, a Latino or an African American falls, we all fall”. Finally we were told: “No one will be free until we are all free. The curse must change. We declare that we will reform the business of drugs. Fear has consumed good people, but now is the time to be brave. God is on our side.
Our experience was that the system treated us like second-class citizens because we couldn´t vote. We took a risk and left the streets marching, we were arrested and some of us died. But we won! Justice again will prevail and will heal the sick morality because this Caravan is anointed. It is a moral cause that will unite the nations of the world.” How could we respond to such words, such confidence and such responsibility put into our hands? More of these blessings were to come.
Later we were received by the St. Thomas the Apostal Catholic Church. This Latino church was charismatic and full of life. Here Javier Sicilia read one of prophesies in the book of Amos that left us moved. Father Jim Correa expressed that “how we live now is a consequence of the past. We must not be a generation that looses its memory. Christianity is not a faith that depends of fate, rather it permits us to act to bring change...but we cannot give what we do not have and for this, Christ is at the center of each personal encounter with other people. Now is the time to denounce ourselves who have, like society, allowed for the institutionalization of sin. Without fail, we are called to the conversion, and much of the time, is painful”. To listen to such preaching, some of us recognized that what was in our hearts was not there by accident.
Now, as the evangelist said, let he who has ears to hear, listen. This is a time that was prepared before the Caravan suggested this pacifist plan and much before pain touched the lives of so many. After listening to the words and seeing the responses of so many people with great moral and spiritual strength, it was clear to me that this was a great work that Iglesias por la Paz had to accomplish. Just as leaders in the United States are being touched by our situation, now it is necessary and urgent that something happens in the consciences of the leaders in Mexico.
The Episcopal Church
Welcomes the Caravan for Peace
August 25, 2012.
Austin Texas—The Caravan for Peace was welcomed by the Reverend Benjamin Long
of St. James Episcopal Church—an Inclusive Multicultural Community. Reverend
Long delivered a message which emphasized the importance of the Caravan in
being today’s prophetic voice and berated the injustices that exist in our
current system. After a short blessing, he encouraged the Caravan to continue
its journey. Some of those present took time to pray for their children who had
gone missing.
St. James Episcopal
Church has been characterized for its long tradition of pacifism and
progressivism since racial segregation in the 1940’s. This was the first church
in Texas to open its doors to the African American community. Its activism
recognizes multiculturalism and calls for radical assistance—especially to
those excluded from society for their religious, political and sexual
preferences. For the last year, the St. James community has recognized the
importance of Latino and Mexican immigrants. The church has worked to promote
the many talents of this population and has provided an education to immigrants
of all ages such that they can obtain work. As such, a Spanish-speaking service
has been established at the church and is officiated by one of the female
ministers. The St. James Episcopal Church recognizes that despite its
differences, a community can be built that demonstrates the values of God’s
Kingdom.
Reverend Long joined
with local artists, poets, painters and Aztec dancers of the Colectivo Lazos en
Espiral who sought to create a space of
coexistence. Leaving the crowd with a deep feeling of amazement, the reverend
left riding a classic BMW motorcycle and wearing a black leather jacket and
boots.
_______________________________________________
August 25, 2012. Austin
Texas—Members of of Movement # 132 waited in front of the capitol building for
the arrival of the Caravan for Peace which would bring with it an afternoon of
testimonies. The gathering was arranged by social organizations and individual
actors interested in showing their support with voices made present from
Mexico. At one point, a group of neomexicans ceremonially purified the journey,
invoking the Mexican gods—their manifestations being a rite that calls forth
the cries of resistance from across the border. Having a space that calls for
cooperation, in which those responsible for violence in our country can be
identified, is one of the main goals of the Caravan.
Without a doubt, to
each city it visits, the Caravan calls for an official solution on the part of
the authorities of MPJD; it is also clear that with these public acts, the
Caravan intends to bring a sense of understanding about its goals to North
Americans as well as to the media. Perhaps where the essence of this project
lies is in the convergence of various actors and organizations of chicanos and
latinos. These groups are already consolidating this bilateral relation that we
set among our desired goals. Each situation is leading us to take into
consideration the importance of working together without competition. Many supporters
have stated that this is a great opportunity for our communities to be freed
from the myths that for much time have permeated in the minds of Protestants.
As we look at the
treatment of immigrants, the many lives claimed by arms trafficking, and the
role that the United States and Mexico has played in the business of war, our
organizations are experiencing increased sense mobilization and that ultimately
stresses our role in public politics. It is because of these offenses that MPJD
has emphasized the importance of the Law of Victims. In the same way,
Presente.org is hoping to bring thousands of signatures to President Obama in
order to slow arms trafficking; for their part, many of the organizations that
work with immigrants urge Immigration Reform rather than increased deportation
and border patrol. Many other issues are coming together and will continue until
the arrival in Washington D.C.
Laredo, Texas.
Bravo River from here, thinking about the other side
August
22nd, 2012. The scholars of cultural history say that frontiers are social,
political, and economical constructions, invented and reinvented in accordance
with each historical moment. The frontiers are imagined and expressed territorially;
they are materialized with walls watched over by uniformed personnel who strike
fear for bearing arms. They intend to stop human passage, and even exercise
violence, if necessary. Mankind never knew so many walled borders as in the
20th century, and its sophisticated cruelty during this century. Perhaps after the
Berlin Wall, the walls that divide Palestine from Israel and the one that
separates Mexico from the States, are the ones that claim more lives due to the
fact that somebody pulls the trigger... Like that, the frontiers are excuses
for eliminating the other and justify politically the border deaths.
We arrived Laredo,
Texas for having an institutional event in solidarity with the migrants that
were on the other side of the States. Today there was a commemoration: justly,
a year ago, it there was the massacre of San Fernando, in Tamaulipas, when more
than 70 Central-American and South-American migrants were brutally killed, by
the organized crime. We were in front of Rio Grande; the charge sheets of both
sides were the voice that gave us strength to stand before a place historically
known as territory of one: polleros (persons who gets illegal immigrants across
the border), violations, drowned, were some of the words that I remembered from
the stories that my uncles told me when I was a child, when they crossed the
Rio Grande. Enrique Morones, social activist of Angels of the Frontier, told us
that if Ciudad Juárez is the epicenter of pain, Tamaulipas is the epicenter of
the horror. We kept silence in memory of the dead migrants and for the
unidentified.
It was striking the fact
when Sicilia, while giving a message to the brothers of the other side of Rio
Grande, a border patrol in a personal water craft went through at full speed. I
thought about how many people had died bellow its propellers. That day, 24
people died trying to cross... hours ago the Caravan's members have asked for
forgiveness for everything occurred in Tamaulipas.
To end the night,
after the institutional event, we had an evening in the Park of Laredo where
the wall is. Sicilia gave a message that made me think about the sense of
uniting the pains and tragedies in a sole project. The Peace agenda is written
by those who have emerged from pain. The ones who have stopped being passive,
and recognize that forgiveness must be asked for those who also have pain.
Forgiveness is a will of grace where the
love abounded all the more. But forgiveness must pass an amendment... the
governments must ask for forgiveness for that." I believe that this
message is a call to the spiritualities in the process of Peace construction,
for participating in this agenda, and above all to give a word concerning
forgiveness like a gift that does not accept the forgetting, or vengeance, or concealment
of reality. The role of the spiritualities and religions that today are present
in this exercise of civic and public collective memory, set out by MPJD, must
silence the non-oblivion of the memory to sustain the will of forgetfulness of
the unforgettable, and accompany the process of releasing the anger, rage,
thirst for revenge and suffering... and tie them in case there were. This is a
challenge for Churches for Peace.
After sharing
testimonies of both sides of the border and being blessed by the priest of that
place, we walked with candles in the darkness. We touched the wall. We heard
some names and the intentions that moved us for this Caravan, recognizing that
they should not die. We called the roll of the tragedies that this government
from President Calderón has not wanted to recognize. We said: no longer silence
Report: Arizona, USA
First Stop Phoenix
At the Civic Space
Park, in front of the YMCA from Phoenix, we were welcomed by friends, social
activist and
people of that place who were carrying banners with emblems in repudiation of
the Drug War and were asking the legalization of all the drugs. I could see, in
comparison with our stay in California, that there were more Afro-Americans. After a brief cultural summary, the Latin and
Afro-American activists began to speak and welcomed the Caravan for the Peace.
They brought out the importance of the topics that this Mexican initiative
upholds, which are the realities that affect especially the young people and
Latin American poor migrants. In such an environment, the relatives of the
victims began giving their testimonies; afterwards, Javier Sicilia gave a
speech, stressing the need of working together, from both sides of the
frontier, in order to stop criminalizing the young people and migrants who
experience the consequences of a war without any sense.
Here, Blanca, one of our most active companions of the MPJD
and Churches for Peace, had a very interesting encounter with a young man who is
in rehabilitation. He felt attracted by the topic of drugs. Blanca said that
the anonymous young man, while hearing the testimonies of how the illegal sale
and drug trade are causing so much death, disappearances and violence in
Mexico, he becomes more aware of the “damage he has been causing during so
long. He was an active seller and consumer, but now he takes seriously his
rehabilitation. The message of Churches for the Peace: “Till justice and peace
kiss,” moved him in such a way that he
stated: “this banner that you just give me, I will put it above my bed for not
losing the sense of my change.” He left
and his presence remained anonymous.
When the public act was
over, we went to the Shadow Rock Congregational Church of Christ, a beautiful
church built at the top of the hill. Our main hostess was Rev. Lois Beberniss.
The representatives of the Churches for Peace Caravan asked her to give a
message of encouragement next day to the Mexican relatives of the victims. We
began with a sufí celebration, carried out by our companion, Montserrat
Algarabel, from Nur Ashki al Yerráhi, suffi community. After that, Rev. Lois said that
the Shadow was a sanctuary for peace and grace, since the pastoral, educative
and care service that the members of said congregation do it is in defense of
the dignity and rights of people; especially for the migrants that in Phoenix
experience so much exclusion and violence due to the fact that they have no identity
papers.
He recognized the
work of the Caravan and ended with a prayer thanking God for the life of the
Caravan and his trip through the States. Then, we left for Tucson.
Second stop: Tucson.
August 16th, 2012. Our first stop was in Maricopa County. There it is a juvenile jail with
a great percentage of Mexican, Latin American and Afro-American inmates who
experience hard conditions and race segregation by the local police and the
most controversial sheriff, Joe Arpaio, known by his attitude in favor of war
against drugs and anti-migrants actions. ¿Who could imagine to find at the
entrance of the jail a war tank with propaganda emblems to Arpaio? It was very
impressive to be so close to an instrument and try to imagine its action
performing. Standing with the banners in front of the tank and on the road we
exposed ourselves to gain the friendliness and repudiation of the drivers;
we had both. During those moments I felt totally moved because some policemen
came out to watch that we do not go through the sidewalk to the watched-over territory,
since that could imply an arrest. I am not sure if that was a sample of extreme
marked patriotism by the waiting of being provoked to act, or just the line of
duty. Two different groups were face to face: the ones who believe in the
defense and dignity of life, dreaming about the total eradication of any kind
of war, including the arms of all kinds and those who wearing an uniform with
arms, regard the violence as sacred, thinking that just exercising violence
after violence, the peace will be achieved… Sicilia could have an interview
with the sheriff; this conversation has been released through the media that
cover this Caravan.
After having lunch,
we had a public act in front of the state and federal courts of Tucson. Before
getting the park, we had a short liturgical moment. This time, on behalf of Churches for Peace, I was asked together with
Blanca to say a prayer forming all of us a circle. For me it was important to
admit the pain that summons, but also the hope that keeps on in the fight. I considered
how, even Jesus, could not find in his land a comprehension as a suffering servant;
I read the prophecy of Isaiah:
“Has anyone believed us
or seen the mighty power
of the Lord in action?
Like a young plant or a root
that sprouts in dry ground,
the servant grew up
obeying the Lord.
He wasn’t some handsome king.
Nothing about the way he looked
made him attractive to us.
He was hated and rejected;
his life was filled with sorrow
and terrible suffering.
No one wanted to look at him.
We despised him..."
or seen the mighty power
of the Lord in action?
Like a young plant or a root
that sprouts in dry ground,
the servant grew up
obeying the Lord.
He wasn’t some handsome king.
Nothing about the way he looked
made him attractive to us.
He was hated and rejected;
his life was filled with sorrow
and terrible suffering.
No one wanted to look at him.
We despised him..."
Because of this, I could
remember the words of Jon Sobrino looking at Jesus as the Liberator, of how we,
the people from Latin-America have been that suffering servant, but also how
the glory of the Lord is born in our lives when we decide to raise our face
with dignity and in this way He takes us to the nations to give testimony of
it.
We were there to be
that living testimony of the dignified
suffering servant. This moment was closed with the prayer of our companion from
Acteal Chiapas, thanking God for having brought us here.
“In these places
every day thousand of Afro-American and Latin-American Young people are unjustly
sentenced to five or ten years for being drugs small consumers”; those were the
words of the social activist, Isabel García, from Coalition for Human Rights.
“These are forms of discrimination and institutional racism without face; of
poor people and migrants. That is why we have to denounce the arms, the drugs,
the military support that the States give to Mexico, and that the banks that
launder money are not sanctioned. She added: “they should be penalized with the
force of the law". She also stated
that the business in the private and public jails is a perfect business for the
investors, since 17 million dollars are given to maintain it. She proposed that
this money should be used for the education and work for the young people.
To her question
¿where are the voices of both sides of the frontier?, the Mexicans began to
speak. Once again, as in the previous days, before starting the activity, we
began with a spiritual act, in charge of a family of concheros, who purified us with incense, followed by a blessing
from the priest of that place.
The strong liturgical
acts from the women attracted my attention. As we arrived in Phoenix, there
were two women who blessed us with their songs and prayers; now it was a young
woman the one who approached each one of us praying in nahuatl to the God of Life,
purifying our being and banners with incense… That made me think that God also
had a woman-face, woman-hands and woman-heart; and we came to affirm that in a
foreign land. There is no doubt, here I have seen a sample of what is named
within the reformed tradition the practice of universal priesthood.
The journey of the
day ended with a dialog of better understanding. The ones of the Caravan
finished sharing the experiences of the Presbyterian Church Quaker House and
First Christian Church. We were received with true enthusiasm; another oasis in
the middle of the dessert. Here, the main topics were different testimonies making
reference to unleashed violence because of the Drug War and abuses committed by
the border patrols against the migrants.
Here I have to thank
the support that Luzdy Stucky from Menonita Central Committee gave for the
logistic and accommodations for the Caravan in Tucson. Her life, engagement and
brotherhood made us feel, the
representatives of Churches for Peace, Blanca, Juan y Jael, that we still have
to learn much of other proceedings that are also walking towards peace and that
the ecumenism in the street, as I notice in this Caravan, is an expression that
this construction is placing deep foundations…now we have to be alert to make
it possible.
_____________________________________________________________
Los Angeles
1.
From San
Diego to Los Angeles, California.
Conversation
with John Lindsay-Poland from "Fellowship of Reconciliation", with the topic of the arms and its impact in
both sides of the border.
August 12th, 2012. It
was an active morning. Around 8:00 o'clock we left the hostel of the church in
the Chicano neighborhood of San Diego where we spent the night. I took the bus of
the journalists and members of friend-organizations of Movement for Peace with
Justice and Dignity (MPJD). John Lindsay-Poland from "Fellowship of
Reconciliation" sat close to me. We began talking and soon it became an
interview. While making reference to the beginning of the Caravan, I dared to
express my point of view of the participation of Javier Sicilia and other
fellows from the MPJD during the press conferences that took place in Mexico.
"I think that either in Mexico City or Tijuana, the subjects that have
prevailed in the Caravan and that the journalists have tackled are War on Drugs
in both sides of the border and the use of the arms. I told him that there are
matters that have not been discussed such as migration (or indirectly), bilateral
cooperation, and money laundering. I assume that it will be dealt with
depending on each city and interlocutors that we meet on the road."
Smiling, John says that very soon we will get closer to the most burning zone
related to the arms.
"Only between
San Diego y Houston they are around 8,000 armories. Houston is the epicenter of
the production and mass sale of long and small caliber.
The final destination
of these is located in different parts of the world, but the main part of the
armament remains at the Mexican Border, especially in Cd. Juárez." Asking
him for this phenomenon, Lindsay-Poland details the procedure. "Mainly, In
all the southern of California and Texas, a great deal of false sales is
carried out. The unique requirement to acquire them legally is not to have criminal
record in the States. This naturally encourages the massive purchase of arms
and do not allow the sellers to have a control of the buyers and the reasons
for their purchase. A lot of Americans have taken advantage of the Second
Constitutional Amendment and have extended its sense. According to this, the founding
fathers stated that a permission for personal arms was granted for self-protection.
Throughout time, this
idea has been developed and has allowed the growth of the industry and arms culture in the American society. Now, as part of the “Rápido
y Furioso” (Fast and Furious) Plan, a lot of armament is being carried through
the border and it is not convenient for the fiscals to "track" who
are the false buyers, since the penalties and fines to arms criminals are insignificant.
It is not their priority since this matter provokes an impact beyond their
national frontiers.
I asked him what the
American churches are doing concerning this problem. "Only in the cities
of Baltimore and Georgia there are several local churches that have declared
for themselves. Through the network "Hearing God's Call", this
project tries to make conscience and move churches to take a position
against the arms manufacturers. To this
effort one has to add the Behavior's Code related to arms that nearly 600
Mayors from the southwestern part of the States have started up to discourage
the arms trade. However, in front of the "Rápido y Furioso" Plan, the
Alcohol, Tobacco and Arms Agency (ATF) that has been monitoring closer this
phenomenon, has not succeeded in the consensus of forces and tools to fight the
arms trade.
Contrary to the ATF,
"Fellowship of Reconciliation", proposes the control of the arms
before their sale; generate educational tools aimed to the young people and
American citizenship trying to make conscience of the impact that the illegal
use of arms provoke; create permanent escort support for the affected groups
that have experienced violence with arms, mainly as international observers;
give impulse to the conscientious objection, and denounce the American hiding politics that has to do
with the resources invested in arms and military intelligence in countries such
as Colombia, Honduras and Mexico.
Keeping in mind this
context, I will be on the alert of how these topics will be developed along our
trip in Tucson, San Antonio and Houston.
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
FROM TIJUANA
TO SAN DIEGO
FIRST
STOP: Tijuana, Baja California.
August 11th, 2012.
The trip of the third Caravan for the Peace with Justice and Dignity began in
Tijuana. We, the ones who were participating, gathered in la Casa del Migrante
(Migrant's House) from the Escalabriamos Brethren to have a press conference. The
speakers were Fernando Ocegueda, our northern host of "United for the ones
disappeared", the intellectual, Sergio Aguayo and Javier Sicilia on behalf
of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD). Each one pointed out
the importance of the Caravan as a project that has achieved "to go beyond
the narratives of personal tragedies, to weave a common battle", and
therefore it is looking for the dialog with the victims and members of
organizations of American civil society. It was recognized that the topics to
be handled during the trip (War on Drugs, arms trade, migration, money laundering
and bilateral cooperation), affect both countries. Because of that, this third
Caravan, in his trip through all southern cities and northeast of the States
during 30 days, will keep on strengthening the task of denunciation and collective
memory for the justice after two years of the beginning of the MPJD. The
Caravans that have characterized the Movement, whose leader is Javier Sicilia,
were thought and built as ways of peace to sensitize the citizenship of all what
those fights against the drugs has triggered under the administration of
Mexican President, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.
The ones who intend
the dialogs of victims with other victims within the context of violence
provoked in the last years, has nothing to do with the claim of the condition
of suffering and mourning fellows, but
when sharing their testimonies, they have started a way of not hiding the pain; they have transformed
their loss in actions of fight, of speaking, of hearing and solidarity in
politic action. They have seen no matter where they go, that the people died,
the disappeared ones, and the criminalized ones in this very moment, they are
not a collateral damage, but persons with identities, with a name, with family,
with sons and with dreams that were seized.
After the press
conference, Javier Sicilian and the ones of the Caravan, we heard the victims
and relatives for approximately two hours and a half. The shared testimonies
came from different places of Baja California: Tijuana, Tecate, Mexicali; from
other states such as Monterrey and Tamaulipas. Several fellows from social
organizations expressed the helplessness they feel due to the apathy, lack of
will and indifference of the authorities and local governments to make clear
the facts that for years remain unpunished. Fernando Ocegueda from "United
for the disappeared ones" said that just for today in Tijuana there are
2000 cases of forced disappearances; few of the disappeared citizens during the
last two years have been found in communal graves by their relatives thanks to DNA
tests. On her own, Nancy Contreras, from "Without Frontiers" stated that
the wills of the governments have not reached the actions, since the migrants
keep on being considered as criminals. To face the xenophobia, discriminations
and exclusion it is necessary to sow the peace, the dignity of the persons and
keep on searching the justice. The fellows from "Angels Without
Frontiers" said similarly.
The testimonies of
the mothers were the most emotive ones. Adriana Moreno from FUUNDEM began her testimony
saying: "My son is now 29 years old". A deep silence arose and
several mothers began crying, since they surely felt touched by the depth of
this sense of belonging: "My son". Her searching has taken her three
years; for others more than fifteen years looking for their disappeared ones or
dead without having any track... the waiting and the walking have not got their
end...
When the chat of the
victims was over, Javier Sicilia said that all the actions taken by the
relatives and victims are not in vain, since soon a favorable answer from
General Law of Victims is expected, as well as discern in sight a Commission
for the Truth, a prompt remunerate justice and of course the words of hope
"You are not alone." The session was closed. Next day San Diego was
waiting for us.
Interesting
fact. Something that most appealed our attention was to see the walls that
divide Mexico from the States. The one to San Diego is a electrified mesh and
the one to the border is out of metallic sheets, tatooed with white wooden
crosses symbolizing the migrants who died trying to cross the line.
One of the young man
of the Human Rights National Commission (CNDH) from Tijuana who took us in
small groups to the customs control of San Diego, explained that the metallic mesh
was used in the last Persian Gulf War, and while showing its effectiveness to
"locate" the enemy, it was moved from that place to protect the border line with Mexico.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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