Activists Intensify Fight Against Border Wall!

El Paso-Ciudad Juarez News

US work crews might be busy constructing a new wall along the border with Mexico, but opponents are not giving up their fight to halt the Bush administration’s project. At a press conference held in El Paso late last week, activists from the US and Mexico unveiled plans for a long march against the wall set to kick-off in Fort Hancock, Texas, on Wednesday, August 27.
Thirteen organizations and individuals from the US and Mexico are organizing the march, including the Border Agricultural Workers Center, Democratic Campesino Front of Chihuahua, Southwest Workers Union, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, Border Ambassadors, and others.In a statement delivered by local human rights activist Blanca Torres, protest sponsors charged the barrier will divide a region and people that share a common history, language and culture as well as a similar socio-economic predicament. Construction of the wall, Torres charged, will only aggravate divisions arising from economic distress, environmental degradation, violence and intolerance.

“As natives and residents of the border, we cannot allow this division to continue without acting to end it,” Torres affirmed. “We have a moral responsibility to oppose the construction of the wall.” Supported by the US Congress, the Bush administration contends the wall is necessary to protect the US against terrorists, drug traffickers and immigrant smugglers. Opponents insist the wall will disrupt interdependent border communities, disturb wildlife habitats and corridors, defile sacred Native American sites, and damage relationships with a neighboring country with which the US is at peace.

“Many people are worried about this wall in Mexico,” said Veronica Leya, Ciudad Juarez representative for the Mexico Solidarity Network. “Decisions that are taken here impact the Mexican side.” After an August 27 evening event in Fort Hancock, anti-wall activists plan to embark on a four-day march through a series of small communities south of El Paso that are near the route of the planned wall. Javier Perez, a staff member of El Paso’s Border Agricultural Workers Center, said the march will make stops and hold community meetings in Tornillo, Fabens and other towns to dialogue with local residents about the wall.
As scheduled, the march will conclude Sunday, August 31, with a binational event convened for the border line between Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Anapra, Mexico. Organizers intend to hold a simultaneous action to symbolically connect people across a divided border.Even though border wall construction is underway, Perez said opponents still bank on halting additional construction.

Dozens of organizations and individuals from the US, Mexico and Central America have endorsed next week’s march. Prominent names and groups lending their support include Chicano history scholar Dr. Rudy Acuna, El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez, immigrant rights activist Maria Jimenez, the Colonias Development Council and the International Indian Treaty Council, among many others.

Kent Paterson

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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