Lomas de Poleo

One aspect of border work that I have not explored with you much so far is violence on the Mexico side and how it relates to US border policies. I received some information from the Columban Fathers (a Catholic religious order) about a violent land dispute in Cuidad Juarez (across from El Paso, TX) that one of their priests was involved in and that was related to US policies in the area.

Last weekend I drove there with another CPTer and learned more about the story. The US has decided to put a new legal international border crossing at Sunland Park, NM, a suburb of El Paso. Sunland Park is rather depressed but is already the site of a casino and racetrack. They think a border crossing will bring economic development. This seems odd to me---in Douglas the economic development consists of retail outlets like Wal-Mart that cater to Mexicans with special shopping visas--hardly large scale economic development.

On the Mexico side they also expect economic development. Right now what is there is a colonia called Anapra, and next to it a settlement called Lomas de Poleo. The people there live in shacks and work in the maquilla factories earning somewhere around $45 per week. Those that have jobs, that is.

A short bit of context for those of you who aren't familiar with this: the maquilla factories make cheap manufactured goods that are sold in places like Wal-Mart. They have them all along the US-Mexico border--on the Mexican side-- and also in places like Haiti, China, etc. International corporations run them and they get closed and moved every time the company finds a place with cheaper labor. In Mexico, people were forced to leave their farms as a result of NAFTA and other US trade policies which dramatically decreased the price of agricultural products and made farming unsustainable on a small scale. The people who left their farms either work in the maquilladoras or smuggle themselves across the border into the US looking for work. Colonias filled with desperately poor people have sprung up around the maquilla factories on the border.

I hope you are still with me! Enter the Zaragoza family. The Zaragozas are a rich Mexican family who seem to own everything (including Corona, which has me highly depressed). Apparently because of the possibility of development of some kind, the Zaragozas have decided they want the land called Lomas de Poleo. It sits atop a mesa surrounded by mountains with a great view of the US.

According to the Mexican constitution, if you settle on unoccupied land for 5 years or more and no-one claims it, it becomes yours. Many people have been there 30 years or more; others for 10 or 15 years. In short, they all own their land. But Zaragoza has decided to claim it, and has surrounded the community with gates, fences and barbed wire, and placed his own guards around the town, controlling who comes and goes. He has so far bulldozed dozens of homes.

About half the village has already fled. About a month ago one person was beaten to death trying to defend the home of a friend. He left a wife and three children. With the support of the Columbans, the village has filed a legal complaint and has established a permanent protest at the office of the Attorney General in Juarez, where jurisdiction lies. They have hung banners from the building calling Zaragoza a criminal and there is a coffin on the front steps calling attention to the man who died. So far they have been there five weeks.

They don't know when the case will be resolved or who long they will have to stay. They do know that so far everything has gone in the favor of Zaragoza.We don't know what we will do yet in response to this situation. We would like to support the protest in some way and also to support the priest who is accompanying the village through this ordeal. For me this trip provided a glimpse of the many different peoples and places who are being harmed by our border policies.