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| Volume 3, Issue 17 -- August 18, 2006 |
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From the JPIC Office This week we share with you a poem about the crisis in the Middle East written by Columban Father Denny O’Mara, who is the pastor of St. Philomena’s parish in Chicago. Fr. Denny has a lifetime of fighting for justice and peace in the communities where he finds himself on mission.
Message from the Border As I write, the U.S. Weather Service has posted yet another flash-flood alert for southern New Mexico and far-west Texas. By implication, this includes us in Juárez and Rancho Anapra. The damage from the July 31-August 5 rains has still not been repaired, nor have the streets cleared of mud and debris. The current estimate is that 5,000 families in Juárez have lost their homes. In the Columban parish of Corpus Cristi, which includes all of Rancho Anapra and Lomas de Poleo, there are still areas under water, homes filled with mud and families living temporarily in schools and churches. These rains were the worst to hit Juárez since 1952. The streets on the Lomas de Poleo mesa were filled with water. For three days I was unable to travel these roads as the puddles were sometimes two city-blocks long and two to three feet deep. Thanks be to God we had just finished several roofs up there and none of the residents suffered serious damage. On August 10, Jaime Lara, an actuario, which is kind of like a constable, arrived in Juárez from the Agrarian Tribunal in Chihuahua. He was carrying subpoenas from the Agrarian court demanding that the Pedro Fuentes Zaragoza family representatives appear in the same court in Chihuahua this August 28. Lara, along with about 10 of us, went to the main gate on the mesa. The vigilantes refused the subpoenas, saying they didn't work for Zaragoza but for Juan José Hernandez Santacruz, who rents the land from the Zaragozas. In fact, many of us believe there is no such person as Hernandez Santacruz and his name never surfaced until after Luis Guerrero was murdered at this time last year. The guards called Katarino del Rio Camacho, who we know to be in charge of public relations for Grupo Zaragoza, and he, too, claimed to know nothing about the Zaragozas and that he was only a representative for Mr. Hernandez Santacruz. He also would not accept the subpoena. On August 11, Carlos Avitia joined with Jaime Lara to go to Grupo Zaragoza’s main offices in downtown Juárez. They somehow slipped by the armed guards without being noticed and got in to the main secretary's office. She said they needed to go upstairs and talk to a Mr. Miguel Angel Fuentes, who is a relative of Zaragoza. He, too, claimed they could not sign for the subpoena. Avitia warned him that obstructing the delivery of this subpoena was a federal crime. Fuentes sprang up from his desk in his posh office hollering “Are you threatening me?” to which Avitia replied, “I am just telling you the law.” They left the Zaragoza building and went to the home of Mario Chacon Rojo, the main lawyer for the Zaragoza family. He came outside with another lawyer and there was some debate. Finally, he agreed to accept the subpoena. In fact, there were 200 separate documents representing all the families and individuals who are suing the Zaragozas regarding the land in Lomas. Chacon Rojo had to receive and sign each one individually. Two men from Lomas, Manuel and Aurelio, also signed the documents as witnesses for the Agrarian Tribunal and the people of Lomas. For the first time, the Zaragozas have been officially notified of the pending court date in Chihuahua. It remains to be seen whether they will appear. If they do not, they have lost any right to any of the land in dispute, according to the Tribunal’s point of view. But the family is so rich and well-connected that it may just continue on with brute force and impunity. On the other hand, if they do show up in court, they can bring whatever documentation, titles and arguments they have in favor of being given possession of the land. In any event, it was a very positive experience for the people of Lomas to see the Zaragozas forced for the first time to comply with at least some details of the law. The week of August 28-31 in Chihuahua will reveal if this compliance will extend to entering the court as equals with the neighbors in Lomas. On August 12, after the regular Saturday community meeting, we celebrated the birthday of Nanci, the daughter of Petra and Pedro, in a crowded chapel of Jesus de Nazaret in Lomas de Poleo. A wonderful outdoor reception followed at the house with well over 100 people sitting at tables, eating, talking and later dancing well into the morning hours. This was icing on the cake after the legal notification of the Zaragozas by the constable, the day before. The 17th is the first anniversary of the horrible attack that left Luis Guerrero mortally wounded. Luis died August 19, 2005, after succumbing to internal injuries resulting from the horrible beating he received at the hands of the Zaragoza family guards. On August 19, we will celebrate a first anniversary Mass up on the mesa to commemorate Luis’s death and to offer support to his widow, Luci, and their children. We continue to believe that Luis’s death was not in vain—that in spite of the almost limitless resources and profound impunity of the Zaragozas, that the God who hears the cries of the poor will deliver the land into the hands of those who have humbly and patiently waited for years to taste the bread of justice. We are grateful for all who continue to support us and pray for us. Please be assured that all of you, likewise, are remembered in our prayers and, specifically, every Sunday at 9 a.m. at the Eucharist celebrated in our little chapel of Jesus de Nazaret on the mesa. Genetic Engineering
Escaped golf-course grass frees gene genie in the U.S. A nondescript grass discovered in the Oregon countryside is hardly an alien invasion. Yet the plant—a genetically modified form of a grass commonly grown on golf courses—is worrying the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) enough that it is running its first full environmental impact assessment of a GM plant. It is the first time a GM plant has escaped into the wild in the United States, and it has managed it before securing USDA approval. The plant, creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera), carries a bacterial gene that makes it immune to the potent herbicide glyphosate, better known as Roundup. The manufacturer, The Scotts Company, Marysville, Ohio, is hoping the grass will provide a turf that makes it easier for golf course owners to manage their fairways and greens by letting them kill competing weedy grasses with glyphosate. “It could prove extremely popular with the thousands of golf course managers in the U.S., making it easy for it to spread.” Jay Reichman and colleagues at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s labs in Corvallis, Oregon, identified nine escapees out of 20,400 plants of various grass varieties sampled within a 4.8-kilometre radius of the site where the bentgrass is being cultivated, the most distant 3.8 kilometres away. The team showed that the GM grass has spread both by pollinating non-GM plants to form hybrids, and by seed movement. Bentgrass is a perennial, so once out there it regrows year after year, whereas most GM crops—mainly soybeans, maize and canola (oilseed rape)—are annuals, unable to reproduce, harvested each year and replaced with an entirely new crop the next. Another worry is that unlike the other GM crops, bentgrass has many relatives in the US with which it can cross-breed or hybridize, potentially passing on the glyphosate-resistance gene to other species—with unpredictable results. “It’s a cautionary tale of what could happen with other GM plants that could be of greater concern,” says Reichman. “I suspect that more examples of this will show up.” His report will appear in the October issue of Molecular Ecology. If bentgrass is approved by the USDA, it could prove a hit with the thousands of golf course managers throughout the United States, making it easy for the crop to spread far and wide. If it reaches environmentally sensitive wildernesses or establishes itself by waterways, removing it could require weedkillers far more harmful than the relatively benign glyphosate. “It’s definitely a new set of variables we’ve not had to deal with in previous GM crops,” says Eric Baack of Indiana University in Bloomington, who comments on Reichman's findings in Current Biology (vol 16, p R1). Still, it isn’t clear whether the gene would have much impact in the wild. “You wouldn’t expect the weedkiller-resistance gene to be a particular advantage in the wild,” says Baack. Also, the USDA doesn’t class conventional bentgrass as a “noxious” weed. There is, however, the possibility of litigation if the GM grass contaminates other elite grass strains under cultivation. Some 70 percent of U.S. commercial grass seed is grown in Oregon, so there is the potential for accidental adulteration. The USDA is not taking any chances. “This is a perennial and has wild and weedy relatives, and it’s something we think we need to know the environmental impact of before it’s deregulated,” says a spokeswoman for the USDA's Biotechnology Regulatory Services in Riverdale, Maryland. “There’s no current set date for when [the environmental impact assessment] will be finished,” she says.
Whether the U.S. public takes any notice of the furor is another question entirely. “I don’t think people will worry about lawns and golf courses if they’ve not shown any worries already about GM food,” says Baack. Migration The Border Working Group continues its summer policy briefs series. This week’s focus is the difficult reality children face at the U.S.-Mexico border. Since the implementation of North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, children living along the U.S.-Mexico border have suffered exceptionally high rates of respiratory illnesses. According to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America (CEC), the pollution generated by thousands of idling trucks waiting at busy border crossings is a direct cause of these illnesses. It is mostly poor children who pay with their health for the increase in goods crossing the border. Latino children living in border counties suffer from poverty and ill health (37 percent) at more than twice the national poverty rate (17 percent). In addition to higher rates of poverty and illness, children living at the border or crossing the border with or without their parents are especially vulnerable to abuse. Laws and regulations clearly spell out how children should be treated when apprehended, but despite these laws mistreatment of children is becoming commonplace. According to a report from the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), border patrol agents forced an 8-year-old girl from Ecuador to sleep on the floor of a detention cell for two weeks, took her blanket away, and denied her medicine for an illness. Her condition did not change until she was transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, where she should have been sent within 24 hours of detention. Increased numbers of children apprehended in Texas and Arizona have made allegations of abuse, including sexual abuse by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The USCRI calls for a mandatory training requirement for all border patrol (CBP) and customs (ICE) officials on existing laws and regulations concerning the treatment and transfer of children in their custody. Despite clear guidelines children are not receiving adequate care and attention. USCRI suggests if Homeland Security will not mandate such training, Congress must. Another scary trend is unaccompanied minors crossing the border with the help of smugglers. These children are dependent on a smuggler for getting them across the border and to their parents. While the number of apprehended juveniles remains somewhat steady, the number of unaccompanied minors is climbing. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) apprehended more than 100,000 children at the border. According to Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, “one unintended consequence of border-enforcement buildup is the disruption of migratory patterns. Immigrants are settling permanently in the U.S. because of the sharp increase in the physical risks and financial cost of coming and going across the border. But many who left their children at home are now sending for them.” Most U.S. trade policies benefit relatively few wealthy corporations and individuals. U.S. border enforcement and immigration policies make it dangerous for workers and their families to survive and reunite. Children should not be forced to pay for these failed policies with their health or their physical well-being. Economic Justice There has been much speculation about when the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement will be voted on by Congress. Our July newsletter included an action alert asking people to send letters to their members of Congress encouraging them to vote no if and when the agreement came to a vote. Peru ratified the agreement in June on the eve of the transition of power from outgoing president Alejandro Toledo to incoming president Alan Garcia. Many analysts expected relatively little resistance in the United States. Members of Congress who support the agreement were hoping to have a vote before the August recess. However, that vote never happened, and speculation is swirling again as to when the legislation will come before Congress. While some say the agreement could be voted on in September shortly after Congress reconvenes, others say that it is unlikely to take place before the mid-term elections in November. The uncertainty is encouraging as it indicates that there is a growing resistance to such agreements both in Congress and the general public. Keep the pressure on! Contact your members of Congress, if you haven’t already, and ask them to vote no on the Peru FTA when it comes before them. We also encourage you to find out where your candidates stand on economic justice issues as the campaign season goes into full swing this fall. Please see our Action Alert section below for a sample letter and talking points that can be used to contact your senators or representatives about the Peru FTA. Action Alerts
Urgent Action:
“The free market cannot be judged apart from the ends that it seeks to accomplish and from the values that it transmits on a societal level. Indeed, the market cannot find in itself the principles for its legitimization; it belongs to the consciences of individuals and to public responsibility to establish a just relationship between means and ends. A year ago, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was pushed through the House of Representatives with a razor-slim one-vote margin. Faith-based, labor, environmental and health groups united to say that this model for trade is broken. Now, this summer, the Administration wants to push through a new trade agreement, this time with Peru. Unfortunately it is based on the same harmful model. On July 13, legislation to implement the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement was introduced to Congress. On July 20, an initial test vote took place in the House Ways and Means Committee. It is possible that a final vote could take place on the House floor anytime this fall. Representatives are under intense pressure to vote yes, regardless of the actual contents of the agreement. It is crucial in this key moment to make our voices heard as people of faith. Columban missionaries have had a presence in Peru for more than 50 years and know first hand how such a trade agreement will harm poor Peruvian communities. In response, Columban leadership in the United States and Peru has sent a letter to Congress to tell them that the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement does not meet even minimal standards of fairness in trade, and, as such, that we cannot support it. Join your voice to ours to tell Congress NO! Following are some suggested talking points and a sample letter for your use. Please call or write your representatives, and urge them to vote no on the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement! For more information about the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, visit www.citizen.org/trade/afta Not sure who represents you? Need an address or phone number? See capwiz.com/networklobby/dbq/officials If you should decide to call your members of Congress, we offer the following talking points:
If you would like to fax a letter to your members of Congress, we offer the following sample letter.
«Date» Dear «Title» «Last», I am writing to express my steadfast opposition to the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA). As a person of faith, I believe that trade agreements should first take into account the most vulnerable members of society and not put them further at risk. Currently more than half the population of Peru lives in poverty. The Peru FTA does nothing to remedy this situation and will instead aggravate it by threatening farmers’ livelihoods, restricting access to essential medicines and not providing for fair working conditions or equitable distribution of wealth. A number of provisions are of particular concern to me: • Access to medicines: Stringent patent and data exclusivity clauses in the agreement will deprive many Peruvians from access to life-saving drugs for treatable illnesses by preventing the entrance of cheaper generic alternatives in the market. A study released by the Health Ministry of Peru predicts drastic increases in costs for essential medicines, depriving 700,000 to 900,000 Peruvians each year of the medicines that they need. • GMOs and patenting of traditional knowledge: The introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a threat to indigenous communities and small-scale farmers who depend on traditional knowledge and organic farming techniques. At the same time, the agreement opens the way for large pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations to patent traditional knowledge and plants, robbing communities of their cultural and ecological heritage without concern for livelihoods or the delicate balance of the ecosystem. • Agriculture: Poor farming communities in Peru cannot compete with subsidized agricultural products from the United States. As traditional crops are undermined, threatening food security and farmers’ livelihoods, many farmers will be faced with tough choices of leaving their land to migrate to urban centers or even joining the migrant flows north. • Labor: The USTR denied the Peruvian government’s call to include core ILO standards in the text of the agreement. In light of the recent revelations on human trafficking in Jordan, it is clear that an “enforce your own laws” standard such as what has been incorporated into the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement is inadequate. While I understand that trade is an important, integral part of our relationships with other countries, I also believe that it should be structured to conform to standards of fairness and justice. I hope that you will consider the above-mentioned factors when you are deciding how to vote on the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Furthermore, in the event of its passage, I ask that a fixed review date and an “opt-out” clause be established providing a safety net to the Peruvian population, and bolstering the democratically elected government of Peru’s ability to respond to its citizens’ needs, thereby reinforcing regional stability. From a moral and ethical standpoint, I find the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement unacceptable in its current form. I urge you to please vote no on the Peru FTA when it comes before you. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, «Your name» Contact Us
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