by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de AztlanLos Angeles, California (June 5, 2000) - The situation at the border region between Mexico and the United States is getting worse by the day and the peace and good relations that have been enjoyed between the two countries for decades may crumble at any moment. Never since the Mexican-American War have tensions been so high between the two northern hemispheric nations. An emergency now exists that if not addressed properly, could in addition, gravely affect the large Mexican-American population living north of the border.
The principal issue fueling the tensions is the US Government sanctioned "terrorism" of Mexican migrant workers by the U.S. Border Patrol and armed vigilante ranchers in Arizona and Texas. There have now been a large number of disturbing incidents including shootings and murders of harmless Mexican migrants seeking work in the United States. In addition, scores of Mexican migrants have now died of thirst in the Arizona desert, have drowned in the fast flowing currents of the Rio Grande in Texas or have frozen to death in the mountain regions of California. US. immigration policy has in recent years "shifted" from "apprehension and return" to one of "deterrence" which means implementing strategies that put the migrants in situations that will cost them their lives. It is believed that as part of this deterrence policy, the US as well as state governments are now giving "license" to murderous Arizona vigilante ranchers to "hunt" for undocumented Mexican migrants on their land which in some cases is "leased" by the state to the vigilante ranchers.
One notorious vigilante rancher is Roger Barnett who has bragged to the national media that he has made thousands of arrests of Mexican migrants on his ranch. It is now known that 80% of what he says is his ranch is actually "leased" land from the state of Arizona. Mr. Randy Serraglio of the Southwest Alliance to Resist Militarization (SWARM) conducted research and prepared a study concerning the true ownership of Roger Barnett's ranch. Mr. Serraglio's map and the study is now published in La Voz de Aztlan and can be accessed by clicking the following link: Ownership of Barnett's Ranch
Recently the vigilante ranchers sent out a racist "flyer" throughout the United States inviting white supremacist groups to come to their ranches to help them "hunt" for Mexican migrants. Many answered their call including California resident Glenn Spencer of "American Patrol" and other KKK type groups. The group of anti-Mexican immigrant elements met in Sierra Vista, Arizona on May 13, 2000. The day before, two vigilante ranchers on horseback had ambushed 5 Mexican migrants in the Arizona desert about 8 miles from Sasabe, Sonora.
La Voz de Aztlan traveled to the small border town of Sasabe on June 3, 2000 on a fact finding mission of the incident. In this case, Commander Pena of the State of Sonora Police Department stated to La Voz de Aztlan that a young Mexican migrant worker named Miguel Palafox was hit by a high power "explosive" bullet that entered the upper part of his back and exited near his ear. La Voz de Aztlan in addition personally interviewed the owner of Rancho San Francisquito Hector Nido. Mr. Nido drove Miguel Palafox to La Clinca de Salud in Sasabe after he showed up at his ranch with pretty much his entire left side of his face barely clinging to the check bone. He arrived at his ranch at approximately 9:45 A.M. on May 12, 2000. Mr. Nido stated that he was able to speak to Miguel Palafox during the trip to Sasabe and that he could observe that most of the blood was by now in dry lumps and that it gave off a very offensive odor as that of decayed flesh.
In addition, La Voz de Aztlan interviewed Dr. Adel Aride Lopez who treated Miguel Palafox and stabilized his medical condition in Sasabe prior to Miguel being taken to the hospital in Caborca, Sonora by State Police Commander Pena. Dr. Lopez stated that the bullet wound was serious and that there were indications that the bullet was "una bala expansiva" which are bullets designed to explode upon exiting a human body. He described Miguel Palafox's wound in medical terms and collaborated both Commander Pena's and Hector Nido's statements. He stated that the bullet blew off enough flash that the thorax, cheek bone and jugular vein were clearly visible.
The statements from the three reliable sources paint a very disturbing picture. Police Commander Pena, Hector Nido and Dr. Adel Aride Lopez spoke to Miguel Palafox concerning the incident. Putting these statements together, a reliable picture of the incident emerges. Miguel Palafox stated to the three sources that he and 4 companions where approximately 8 miles inside US territory when around 5:45 A.M on May 12, 2000 two "rancheros" on horseback started firing at the group from about 700 meters away. Miguel says that the "rancheros" were on horseback and were wearing Arizona style ranchers hats. He says that he was not able to determine whether they were wearing "uniforms." Miguel says that he distinctly heard three shots and that it must have been the third one that hit him. Miguel Palafox states that he lost consciousness soon after the impact but that he remembers at least one other companion getting hit and falling to the ground. When he regained consciousness, he states that he did not see any bodies or the vigilantes and that he started the 8 mile track to the border and eventually reached Rancho San Francisquito near Sasabe, Sonora.
This border incident is of the gravest kind and should be brought up to the highest world organizations concerned with human rights. None of the direct sources that La Voz de Aztlan interviewed were ever contacted by the US media and it makes us wonder how they developed the questionable information they are disseminating to the US public. Recently the Arizona press has "muddled" information on the case by publishing another similar incident that supposedly occurred in the same region seven days later. They stated that the killing of yet another Mexican migrant was committed by Mexican "bandidos." Their extensive coverage of this second incident and ignoring the first has now confused much of the public and has led many to dismiss the atrocity against Miguel Palafox as the work of border bandits.
Meanwhile the death toll of Mexican migrants rises and is expected to get worse as political tensions increase and the weather gets hotter and dryer in the Arizona desert. A few days ago an 18 year old mother suffered a tragic death in the Arizona desert. While making the track into the US to find the father of the months old baby girl she was carrying, she became ill and her companions decided to go for help to the nearest place. They left her and her baby under a sparsely leafed tree with the little water she had left. When her companions arrived with help, the young mother was already dead and the child was barely alive. The mother had given all the water to her child and she died of thirst.
The atrocities and human right abuses of Mexican migrants have now concerned many people of conscience. They have prompted La Coalicion de Derechos Humanos to take immediate action to stop the abuses. On June 2 and June 3, 2000, Derechos Humanos hosted a "Vigil" and a strategy meeting in Tucson, Arizona that brought in delegations from California, New Mexico and Texas as well as individual participants from throughout the nation. The state delegations consisted of leaders of labor, civil rights, student and religious organizations. One major result of the strategy meeting was a commitment to hold a "Border Summit" this year in the border region. This planned conference will increase the major connections that were already made in Tucson with leaders of indigenous groups and leaders of a wide ranging set of organizations from throughout the US and Mexico. The "Border Summit" will further advance the national mobilization underway to seek justice for the Mexican migrant worker.
A major component of the "Summit" will be to bring in our best thinkers on world economic issues in order to completely define and find solutions to why Mexican migrants are compelled to risk their lives to come to work to the United States. We need to make connections of the causes of migration to world economic policies including the polices of the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. We need to ask questions such as what do austerity measures in Mexico, undertaken in order to be able to pay the national debt to foreign entities, have to do with the forced migration of labor to the US. Another important question that will be answered at the "Border Summit" will be, "Are the chickens finally coming home to roost?" Are the consequences of imperialist policies of the past towards Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America finally manifesting themselves in the form that we are now experiencing at the borders of the United States?
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