More than 1,000 activists from Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) met in San Francisco from last Thursday, March 17 until this last Sunday, March 20 to commemorate 50 years of work that the organization has done on behalf of human rights.
One of the most outrageous violations of these rights is taking place precisely in Mexico, where in the last year 12,000 people have been killed on the street as a consequence of drug and mafia related violence. It is because of this that Latino activist leaders held a conference last Friday, March 18. They informed United States citizens of the critical situation in Mexico and asked the people who are responsible for the matter to make it right.
“If we remain silent, the government can do whatever it wants, and even though we have stood up they still do whatever they want. Our victory is not an easy one,” said Magdaleno Rose-Avila, who was one of the speakers. Rose-Avila was born in the United States as a son of Latino immigrant parents. He began to work when he was around 11 years old as a field worker in Colorado. It was the hard life of working in the fields that propelled him to dedicate his life early on to defend worker’s rights. That is how he became Director of AIUSA and of the César Chávez Foundation. During his participation in the event, he denounced that the American government, “who talks so much about liberty,” is turning down political asylum to many political activists applying from Mexico.
Kidnapped for Having Denounced a Pedophilia Network
The voice and facial expressions of Mexican journalist and women’s rights defender Lydia Cacho were affected by her emotions as she started her speech saying that in the last few months she had lost three activist friends in Mexico. They had worked together for years to fight against violations of women’s and girl’s rights in Mexico and had achieved a lot. Nevertheless, this time her friends paid with their lives for their efforts to defend the lives of their counterparts.
This seems to have not discouraged Cacho, for her eyes shine with strength and her words are filled with determination and hope – a hope that is probably weaker than what it was when she went to the refuge Central Integral de Atención a las Mujeres (CIAM) in Cancun in April of 2000 to give specialized care to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Her book, Los demonios del Edén, denounced the pedophilia mafia that worked in collusion with Mexican political powers; it was published in December of 2005. In it, she implicated businessman Kamel Nacif Borge and others. Cacho was kidnapped in Cancun by police officers and illegally brought to the state of Puebla in compliance with the orders of the governor at that time, Mario Plutarco Marín. Due to the public scandal it caused, she was set free. Months later, she discovered that Nacif Borge was the one who had asked the governor of Puebla to put Cacho in their custody. Presently, the Mexican government continues to threaten her life.
“Things have radically changed in the last eight months in Mexico; it is a dramatic situation. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the crossfire of the War Against Drugs. The United States needs to wake up and begin to look at Mexico,” said Cacho.
Cacho explained that her country has a fragmented penal justice system in which the military and police are the ones that decide who goes to jail and who doesn’t, who is good and who is bad. “People think that it is just to kill murderers who haven’t had a trial,” she criticized. Meanwhile, the government doesn’t respect society and people who report the situation suffer from substantial abuse. “They are building a large society but it is one that is hurting and tired,” she said. She demanded that U.S. President Barak Obama straighten out his policy with Mexico because “he is carrying a double standard,” as well as take responsibility of the 30,000 murders that “are not the sole responsibility of the Mexican government.”
Saúl Hernández, a Mexican singer and composer, also attended the conference. Hernandez, who was a vocalist to musical groups Caifanes and Jaguares, wanted to take advantage of the forum to ask the United States government to not see Mexico as “a back porch, or a scapegoat. Mexico is a country that has a lot of problems but that also has a lot of successes,” he said. Hernández denounced the current rift in his country between the government and society. “The political leaders don’t know who we are nor what we dream about. They should get rid of this rift,” he said.
Education as an Alternative
The fourth speaker was Luis Pérez, who added the hopeful note in his AIUSA presentation that an abundant life is possible for Mexicans who emigrate to the U.S. The young DREAM Act activist is the first undocumented immigrant graduate at the UCLA Law Shool. When he was eight years old his mom sold their toys so that she could come with him and his three other sisters to California. “Crossing the border without papers is something that someone doesn’t forget,” he said.
Pérez encouraged students in the same situation to not stand idly by because “their parents didn’t bring them to do the same thing that they do but rather so that they could work for their rights.” For that reason, he recommended that they get involved in groups that have been started in universities to help young people who don’t have their papers get access to a college education.
—Translation Ann Michels