WITNESS FOR PEACE MEXICO

WITNESS FOR PEACE MEXICO

WFP NEWS, NOTICIAS AND SALUDOS

February 2006

WFP NEWS, NOTICIAS AND SALUDOS INFORMATION

This bi-monthly update is a way for us to share with you a news summary and analysis of happenings in Mexico related to trade and U.S. policy (a voice that is difficult to hear al otro lado, on the other side). It is also a space to share news from the communities and organizations we work with in Mexico, places that many of you have visited on delegations. Finally, but most importantly, we hope our Returned Delegate Action Update will serve all of you in sharing your accomplishments in building the movement back home.

You have been placed on this list because of your interest in/participation with the work of WFP Mexico. If you wish to be taken off the bi-monthly WFP News, Noticias and Saludos listserve, write us at mexico@witnessforpeace.org.
This is an informal analysis; when other sources have been used they are credited.

1. BI-MONTHLY NEWS SUMMARIES

The Sensenbrenner Immigration Reform Bill and the Berlin Wall
The Presidential Elections and NAFTA Plus
….and the Other Campaign Begins…
Mexico Partner Organizations in the News

2. ACTION UPDATE/ CAMPAIGN REPORTS

Updates from January Delegations to Mexico
Participate in an Upcoming Delegation to Mexico

3. SALUDOS FROM THE MEXICO TEAM

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1. BI-MONTHLY NEWS SUMMARIES

The Sesenbrenner Immigration Reform Bill and the Berlin Wall

In mid-December the House of Representatives passed the Sesenbrenner Immigration Reform Bill. Named the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Control Act, it includes the construction of a double wall for more than one third of the 2,000 mile border between the US and Mexico, and the widespread criminalization of undocumented migrants within US borders, implying even the involvement of local police in immigration enforcement. This bill awaits a debate and vote in the Senate, perhaps even as early as March 2006. The National Immigration Forum is concerned that “even if the House bill doesn’t become law,” it could still have “serious consequences”, especially by “polarizing and dumbing down the debate over a serious policy issue.”

More walls and further criminalization of migrants are consistent with the changes during the last 15 years in immigration enforcement. In the early 1990s the Border Patrol changed to a “deterrence strategy” implementing operations in Texas, California, and Arizona effectively sealing off the traditional migration routes through urban areas with 16 foot walls, increased technology and manpower. A “deterrence strategy” was in contradiction with the other principal US policy put in place at the same exact time, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which promised prosperity for all, and less migration from Mexico. It is estimated that three times more migrants from Mexico are coming to the US since the implementation of NAFTA, and the urban deterrence strategy has only succeeded in channeling the principal migration routes through dangerous and desolate regions along the border. If history is a teacher, we can only expect more of the same.

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), perhaps exposing the contradiction among policy makers around immigration issues, has expressed concerns about the bill that has been described by the National Immigration Forum as the “harshest piece of enforcement-only, anti-immigration legislation in 70 years.” AmCham CEO Thomas Donahue said, “It does absolutely nothing to address our workforce needs or deal with undocumented workers in a fair and reasonable manner.”

In Oaxaca hundreds of small farmers are leaving their homes on a daily basis to migrate, many with plans to go to the US. The agricultural situation in the countryside is by all accounts in crisis, exacerbated by the 1994 implementation of NAFTA, and Oaxaca, following the trend of most other southern states in Mexico has jumped into the top 5 immigrant sender states in the country, according to remittance statistics for 2005. On this premise a coalition of 40 organizations in January disguised in masks of both current and former presidents and policy makers in both countries, staged a protest in front of the US consular agency in Oaxaca city, denouncing US immigration policy. They were joining a cry throughout both Mexico and Latin America, from both officials and NGOs, denouncing the Sesenbrenner Immigration Reform Bill, some even comparing it to the construction of a new Berlin wall.

US ambassador to Mexico, Anthony Garza, defending the proposed bill, took offense to the ‘Berlin Wall’ comparisons saying they are not only “deceiving and intellectually dishonest, but also personally offensive.” Garza said that “the Berlin Wall was constructed by an authoritarian government to keep their people confined. Our democratically elected government is proposing methods to protect our own citizens and apply immigration law.” Garza suggested that maybe if the Mexican government made “a more firm effort to create well paying jobs,” this would “help dissuade many from making the dangerous and illegal crossing to the United States.” The US ambassador, representing US policy, has said “it is only through free trade and democracy that economies can flourish, opportunities can be increased, and strides can be taken towards moving people from poverty to hope.” However, many Mexican civil society and non-profit organizations cite the impacts of NAFTA and neo-liberal policies as a cause of increased migration to the United States. This is the part left out of just about any legislative or media debate about migration, a fair and honest look at the true impacts of the free trade model on Mexico.

To contact your senators and oppose the Sesenbrenner bill, check out American Immigration Lawyer Association Legislation and Advocacy page: http://capwiz.com/aila2/issues/alert/?alertid=8339716&type=CO

For informative articles about the migration debate, see the IRC Americas Program series, Reframing the Immigration Debate, The Actors and the Issues, at http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2959

The Presidential Elections and NAFTA Plus

Ex U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Jeffrey Davidow, asked the PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo Pintado the big question late last November when the three main Mexican presidential candidates met before the annual convention of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Mexico. “Is it either in your or Mexico’s interest, this situation of continuing like North Korea, the only country, along with Mexico, that prohibits that private capital enter for the exploitation, production, and refinement of oil?” Madrazo did spins around the question, never quite saying yes, and never quite saying no, and didn’t receive any applause from the hundreds of U.S. business people present at the gathering, representing close to 85 % of the foreign direct investment in Mexico. Andres Manuel López Obrador, current front runner in the opinion polls and candidate for the PRD – the center left Revolutionary Democratic Party, did not receive any applause either, after answering no to the same question. The only one who did receive a long ovation was PAN (National Action Party) candidate Felipe Calderón who said that he would open the sectors to private investment.

The American Chamber of Commerce’s hard-nosed and resource specific questions point to one possible conclusion – U.S. policy makers and business elites are looking at that last frontier of free trade with Mexico, oil and electricity. Mexico, a country that has already made over 130 constitutional adjustments to accommodate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the International Monetary Fund-led economic structural adjustment since 1982, has already partially privatized state-owned PEMEX (Petroleum of Mexico). Corporate hard-hitters such as Halliburton and Bechtel, among others, have now for years been awarded large contracts by PEMEX, one of the most recent being a 175 million dollar contract awarded to Halliburton de México to drill 17 turnkey wells in resource-rich, people-poor southern Mexico. AmCham’s questions imply that contracts are no longer enough, they want the whole enchilada. In fact, critical Mexican natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, and water are being defined as a strategic “national security interest,” not necessarily for Mexico, but for the U.S. One of the pillars of NAFTA-Plus, a new regional integration plan being negotiated by elites in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., based on the overwhelming “successes” of NAFTA, is energy security. A critical step towards NAFTA-Plus was made last March when leaders from the three countries met during a summit in Crawford, Texas, and agreed to the North American Alliance on Security and Prosperity. With these negotiations well underway the principal question is - is Mexico’s future more in the hands of whatever candidate reaches power after the elections of July 2006, or has the blueprint of Mexico’s future already been set in place with NAFTA-Plus, and continued neo-liberal reforms? (http://americas.irc-online.org/am/386 - for more information on NAFTA-Plus)

Before any of the three candidates spoke before the assembly, Thomas Donahue, CEO of AmCham, said that regardless of the election results that Mexico should continue the policies, economic and otherwise, of current president Vicente Fox Quesada. Former Coca Cola executive Fox has not only moved full steam ahead with NAFTA, but he was the first to bring the proposal of NAFTA Plus to the three countries, which calls for both a common economic space and a regional security perimeter covering the three North American countries from the southern border of Mexico to the northern border of Canada. Concessions have already been made by the Fox administration to this new model – including the militarization of the southern Mexican border in 2001 (Plan Sur) and over 300 bilateral agreements made between U.S. and Mexican Security forces that “fight organized crime bilaterally, by creating intelligence branches that operate along the common border,” as reported by economist Miguel Pickard writing for CIEPAC, Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción Comunitaria. In March of 2005 Fox agreed to a pilot program in which US custom officials would be allowed in the Mexico City and Cancun airports to run checks on anyone with a destination to the US. And just this past November, Mexico’s customs agency was partially privatized to Swiss company Societe General de Surveillance, which has many suggesting that Mexico’s sovereignty is at risk, and under NAFTA Plus – self determination.

The Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, created by such influential groups as the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and the Mexican Council on International Issues in Mexico (COMEXI), want to see the blue print of NAFTA-Plus in effect by 2010, which would be the fourth year of whoever wins the Mexican presidency. It seems unquestionable that all candidates have their hands tied to the neo-liberal economic model, entrenching Mexico now for over 25 years. To what degree their hands are tied to NAFTA-Plus, which is coming as a series of regulations with little to no legislative oversight, and not as one document in a trade package, is harder to detect.

Some are saying that the election of Lopez Obrador could offer Mexico the ability to make strong alliances with other Latin American countries that are now putting up a unified resistance to the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and talking about trade policy alternatives that would benefit the people, especially the poor in these countries. But critics maintain that Mexico’s future has already been negotiated between elite groups, transnational corporations, and high ranking government officials, rendering the 2006 presidential elections almost meaningless. However, they say, never underestimate the power of Mexico’s civil society.

….And the Other Campaign Begins…

It’s in this election context of 2006 that La Otra Campaña got started in January. La Otra Campaña is a Zapatista initiative of which hundreds of social, political, non-governmental and indigenous organizations have signed on, with the objectives of unifying all of the struggles in the whole country in a strong anti-neo-liberal and openly anti-capitalist movement from the bottom. A caravan plans to visit every state in Mexico headed by Delegado Zero, formerly subcomandante Marcos, who has left his gun at home and changed his name to reflect the non-violent direction of the campaign. The basis of this campaign is that no real change can come from the political party system, only from a massive movement from below including non-governmental organizations and civil society, indigineous and campesino communities, organizations and communities of the urban poor, artists, and the gay and lesbian community, and other marginalized groups. The objective is that it is those from below, unified, who will begin to reconstruct the country, and write a new constitution that would be more just for all Mexicans.

The various dynamics should make the election campaigns of 2006 interesting and provocative. Though the U.S. embassy is not openly backing or clearly financing any particular candidate as has been done in other countries like Nicaragua, it is clear that U.S. policy and pressure is still in the middle of it all. As US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte put it in the Annual Threat Assessment for 2006: “By the year’s end, ten countries (in Latin America) will have held presidential elections and none is more important to US interests than the contest in Mexico in July.”

In the spirit of political independence, Witness for Peace does not endorse any presidential candidate.

Mexico Team Partner Organizations in the News

Several of the Mexico Team’s partner organizations in Mexico have made headlines recently, and we’d like to take this space to update you all about their accomplishments in the struggle for justice. Many of you have had the opportunity to meet with the following organizations during a Witness for Peace delegation to Mexico.

CAPISE, the Centro de Análisis Político e Investigación Sociales y Económicas (Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigation), focuses on the “research, analysis, promotion and defense of the collective rights of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas.” CAPISE has recently published reports on the military and paramilitary presence in Chiapas, including threats of land invasions and displacement. CAPISE writes, “The similarity of the cases (of military or paramilitary presence in the communities) illustrates a systematic and aggressive strategy against Zapatista bases of support and against the authorities of the autonomous communities. Threats on various Zapatista communities by paramilitary groups were made directly before or after the beginning of the Other Campaign, and CAPISE reports that “These actions can be identified as systematic, defined under a strategy of counterinsurgency, and they are linked with the scene of the elections of 2006 and the involvement of the federal government.” CAPISE has played an integral role in uncovering the true nature of the military in Chiapas, defining it as in an active state of war, while the official stance is that there is peace.

For more on CAPISE, visit their website at http://www.laneta.apc.org/capise/espa/inicio.html (in Spanish)
and http://www.laneta.apc.org/capise/ingles/start.html (in English)

The Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador, or CAT, as they are more commonly known, (Workers Assistance Center), has also been in the news lately. The Puebla-based organization has issued public letters of support of Martín Barrios, president of the Commission for Labor and Human Rights of the Tehuacán Valley (in Puebla state). Barrios was arrested on December 29, 2005, and accused of blackmail by maquiladora owner Lucio Gil Zárate. Barrios has been active in labor rights issues in Puebla, including assisting with demands made by 163 workers unjustly fired from Gil Zárate’s maquiladora, demanding severance pay. Gil Zárate’s maquiladora, Calidad de Confexiones, is a subcontractor with the maquiladora AZT, which manufactures clothing for brands such as Calvin Klein, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, and Express. Human rights and worker activists such as the CAT think that unjust arrests are meant to weaken the labor movement in Puebla, and send a message that the maquiladora (foreign owned assembly factories, many U.S. owned) industry cannot be attacked. 90% of products produced in the maquiladora industry are set to be exported to the U.S. Barrios was released on January 12^th, after spending more than 15 days in prison. Barrios’ release by the Puebla authorities has been attributed to international pressure demanding his release and stating his innocence.

Mexico City-based Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights), or Centro Prodh, has also spoken out in support of Martín Barrios, and is assisting in his case. The Centro Prodh also released their annual report, entitled “State Policies in Relation to Human Rights: One More Year of Good Intentions.” Articles in the news included commentary by the Centro Prodh that despite President Fox’s government of “change,” no real changes have been made in the realm of human rights in Mexico. In another report by the Centro Prodh, entitled “The Right to Defend Human Rights in 2005,” the organization states that both direct and indirect attacks on human rights defenders and activists continued throughout the “government of change,” including 62 documented cases in 2005. Reported attacks on human rights defenders range from searching offices and robbing information to homicide. The state of Oaxaca came in first place in attacks against human rights defenders, with 14 documented cases, followed by Chiapas with 13 cases, Mexico City with 9 cases, and Guerrero with 7 cases. Centro Prodh goes on to state that human rights activists continue to be targets, and receive threats, intimidation, and are the victims of defamation campaigns.

For more information on the Centro Prodh, and to read the reports, check out their website at:
http://www.centroprodh.org.mx/index.htm (website in Spanish and English)

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2. ACTION UPDATE/ CAMPAIGN REPORTS

Updates from January Delegations to Mexico

Delegation from the Upper Midwest Region (Jan. 6-15, 2006)

Students from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and as far as Ukraine, as well as two Native American activists, and three professors participated in the largest delegation in recent Mexico Team memory with 23 people. The delegation began in Mexico City and went to Oaxaca City, with two nights in Teotitlán del Valle with the women of the Vida Nueva weaving cooperative. The delegation focused on the impacts of globalization on women and the indigenous of Mexico, as well as migration. Two very exciting outcomes of the delegation are organizing around migrant issues in Minnesota, including a rally in Minneapolis, as well as digging deeper into the Fair Trade coffee movement to help make it more fair. Thanks folks! Keep up the good work!

Reflection from the UMW Region delegation (Susana Pelayo-Woodward, UM-Duluth Professor):

To the Women of Teotitlán

We were born in the same country. We suffer poverty but in different forms.
I grew up feeling ashamed of who I was, without a sense of history,
always wanting to be someone I was not!!
You grew up proud and strong, with a rich history, in a beautiful village with a rich history.
As Mexicans we were told to fear and not to trust each other.
I admire your determination and resilience.
Thank you for opening your doors and teaching me so much about our own history.

Equal Exchange Delegation (Jan 23-Feb 2, 2006)

Two leaders from the worker-owned cooperative Equal Exchange along with 10 others from Chicago, Ohio, and Massachusetts came to explore Chiapas for a week and a half. The group had meetings in San Cristóbal and in the northern zone of Chiapas to explore Fair Trade coffee, globalization, and living alternatives and struggles. The group went to a remote village 3 hours north and east of Simojovel (for those of you who are up on your Chiapas geography!) called el Ciprés along with the coffee cooperative CIRSA. Thank you all for your time and commitment. Peace!

Reflection from the delegation (Mateo Bernal, Mexico Team):

When the group of 14 delegates arrived in the Tseltal-speaking community of Ciprés, we were not prepared for what we were to see, hear, or feel. After 3 hours on dirt roads through beautiful rugged mountains and across deep rivers, and almost an hour of uphill walking through the mud with our packs, we arrived at the church just after sundown, where we found the entire village waiting for us. Marimbas played, and the introductions began, carrying on for hours. Soon after, a bull was sacrificed. The music and dancing lasted all night long, long after the delegates went to sleephiked to a coffee plot, where we saw how coffee plants are cared for and how the beans are picked. In the evening we danced more, and said our farewells to the community. We learned that just 25 years ago, in 1981, the people of Ciprés were slaves to a large plantation owner, until they rose up and took the land for the community. Their stories of remembering slavery and the struggles they underwent were powerful beyond words. They spoke in Tseltal, which was translated into Spanish, then into English, or sometimes even from Tseltal-Tzotzil-Spanish-English. So we all got to hear the beautiful Mayan languages for several days. Soft sounds and muted hums of acknowledgement, along with great laughter filled the air. Every once in a while, you could catch a word spoken in Spanish in the middle of a Tseltal sentence. It was understood that the word spoken in Spanish was one that did not exist in Tseltal. Was this because it didn’t exist in their culture? Is it because it was a modern word, created after the Spanish arrived? It is hard to imagine what a word would be that would not exist in your language, in your reality. One word that I heard over and over throughout the days, used to refer to us, the group from the United States, was consumidores, consumers. I asked about the word. It doesn’t exist in Tseltal, Tzotzil, or any other Mayan language that anyone knew of. This was a very profound discovery for me. To realize that nowhere in their history or culture existed a word for someone who did not produce, but only consumed, was almost too much. A word had to be invented, a concept explained, that there were those in the world that did not produce, only consumed. And the village was excited to know us, to finally see what these consumidores actually looked like. They were happy to know that their coffee, picked with sweat, love, and blood, arrived safe. That the beans didn’t get lost or damaged along the way. They were happy to know that their work had an end-point, that it made us happy, far away in our homes, many worlds away.

Participate in an Upcoming Mexico Delegation:

March 4-11, 2006
Stonehill College, Delegation to Chiapas
Judy Henry, Stonehill College
Ken Crowley, ken@witnessforpeace.org

March 11-19, 2006
Upper Midwest Spring Break, Globalization and Labor Issues in Mexico
Patrick Leet, 612-360-1965, wfpumw@witnessforpeace.org
Amy Morris, amytmorris@faxtmail.fm

May 22-June 5, 2006
Roots of Migration, Southern Mexico to Altar to Tucson, Walk the Migrant Trail
Ken Crowley, ken@witnessforpeace.org
Mike Slaton, cheslaton@hotmail.com

3. SALUDOS FROM THE MEXICO TEAM

 Hello from the Mexico Team! We apologize for taking a bit longer than usual to send out the Noticias y Saludos update. We have had a busy holiday season and a busy January, full with delegations, not to mention some technical difficulties! The Mexico Team is looking forward to our spring delegation schedule, and we hope to see you soon on a delegation to Mexico. We are very excited about focusing on the root causes of migration, and hope that our work can help shape the migration debate in the US so that the public is talking about root causes, and not just “band-aid” solutions or increased militarization along the already dangerous US Mexico border. We’re also very excited about a delegation planned for late May and early June, which includes visiting southern Mexico and the northern border region, as well as participating in a walk in solidarity with migrants who have crossed the desert border. Check out the website from last year’s walk, with pictures, at www.derechoshumanosaz.net/migranttrail2005.htm, or www.nomoredeaths.org/MemorialKickoffPictures2005.html New information will be up soon. Witness for Peace is endorsing the walk, so don’t be shy, organize in your community to take a group to participate in the walk (or part of it) from May 29 – June 4^th!

The Mexico Team would like to wish everyone a happy 2006 (a little late, we know!) and hope that you all had a good holiday season. Enjoy the spring, hopefully warmer weather is on the way to our friends in the northern part of the US! Look for the next Noticias y Saludos in April.

Muchos saludos de Oaxaca!

Mateo, Hope, Lauren, Todd, and Reina (the new furball)
WfP Mexico Team