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| Volume 4, Issue 7 -- August 2007 |
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Land Rights “Serenity Patch” was the name my parents gave our house in Matthews, N.C., where we lived when I was a little girl. When we lived there 30 years ago, it was a rural community outside of Charlotte. Some of my happiest memories as a child are of my father and me going behind the house to our little plot of land, planting and harvesting our humble garden of tomatoes, corn, carrots, green peppers, and other vegetable staples. To get to the garden, my father created a labyrinth through the woods of little paths that bore names such as “Amy’s Alley” and “Scott’s Street.” My father even put little signs with arrows pointing “this way to garden” and “this way to home,” just in case we were to get lost. I loved walking with my father along the paths as he pushed the wheelbarrow full of hoes, rakes, and shovels to tend the garden. Sometimes, if space allowed, I would ride in the wheelbarrow with the tools. I remember stopping along the way to make all kinds of “discoveries,” such as a perfect spider web or a budding flower. Rare finds, such as stakes from an old railroad line or a discarded turtle’s shell, were special treasures. And a sound I will never forget is my mother ringing a cowbell, calling us home at the end of the day for dinner and a bath. Simple pleasures they were. Gardening, exploring nature, and playing ball were daily activities without threat of intrusion by anyone or anything. In my innocence, I believed that every child had their own “Serenity Patch.” Today, I sadly know that most children and their families do not live in such idyllic settings. There are many threats to today’s families’ right to live peacefully in their homes and on their land. Worse still, some families have no home or land to call their own. From climate change-induced rise in sea levels to multinational corporations appropriating land for increased profits, small family farmers, indigenous communities, women and children are left vulnerable to displacement by outside forces. This August marks the second anniversary of the death of Luis Alberto Guerrero of Lomas de Poleo, the small community fighting for their land on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where Columbans have lived and ministered for close to 10 years. Luis Alberto died from injuries sustained by hired henchmen paid by a powerful Mexican businessman, Pedro Zaragoza Fuentes, who has been trying through violence to take over a strategic section of land just across the border from Sunland Park, New Mexico. Zaragoza has tried to obtain the land for more than five years in the name of economic development. Columban Father Bill Morton, who has accompanied the Lomas de Poleo community and struggled for their rights over the years, shares an update in this month’s newsletter. We remember in a special way Luis Alberto’s family, the Lomas de Poleo community, and all people who live under the threat of having their land unjustly and violently taken from them.
Peace & Reconciliation: Update from Lomas de Poleo By Columban Father Bill Morton There is still no peace in Lomas de Poleo and even less reconciliation. The source of the fear, tension and uncertainty among the few families still clinging to their land in this once lively community is the power, greed and influence of the Zaragoza family. Grupo Zaragoza, one of the many companies owned by Mexican billionaire Pedro Zaragoza Fuentes, continues to maintain a garrison of hired “guards” within the now-sealed community known as Lomas de Poleo, just west of Ciudad Juárez along the U.S.-Mexico border. Surrounded by cement posts and barbed wire, with three different manned watchtowers and one gated entrance also manned by paid Zaragoza guards now resembles a World War II concentration camp. The brave band of families who continue its vigil, awaiting the decision of the federal land court in Chihuahua, lives in uncertainty, never knowing what the Zaragozas or their surrogates, the Juárez municipal government, might think of next in their efforts to dislodge the original settlers from this land. Nor will there be peace or reconciliation for Lucia “Luci” Esquivel and her three children, Luis Jr., Honey and Pablo, when they commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of her husband and their father, Luis Alberto Guerrero. Luis died on August 19, 2005, 36 hours after being beaten with pipes, punched and kicked by Zaragoza’s guards. Luis and his brother, Felipe, and two friends came upon more than 30 of Zaragoza’s henchmen who were knocking down a house. There was an exchange of words after which Manuel Balderas, the supervisor of the vigilantes, ordered his men to “kill those dogs!” Balderas has never been charged in Luis Guerrero’s death.
Without her husband’s support, Luci now works two jobs to make ends meet. I recently spoke with her, and she said she has received a bill from the cemetery where Luis is buried. Juárez city officials said they would pay the cemetery expenses but never did. Carlos Avitia, a Mexican lawyer and employee of the Agrarian Attorney General’s Office, continues to pursue the people’s case for their land in the Agrarian Tribunal in the state capital of Chihuahua. In spite of continually attacks on Avitia’s character and professionalism by Zaragoza’s lawyers, Avitia’s superiors have continued to support him in his campaign to regularize the land situation at the border. Avitia is convinced that the Zaragozas’ titles were long ago nullified by the Mexican constitutional land reforms in 1917 and that this land is properly under the jurisdiction of the federal government. He is working tirelessly to have the constitutional rights of his clients respected. Even here, the long arm of the Zaragozas can be felt. They have repeatedly ignored subpoenas to present their titles to the Agrarian Tribunal without suffering any consequences. Their influence allows the case to drag on as the people succumb to fear and discouragement, ever less confident the court will rule in their favor. A reliable source relates that when a high-ranking city official was asked about the court case in Chihuahua, he said “we are absolutely certain the judge is going to rule in our (read: Zaragoza’s) favor.” Wealthy individuals. High-powered business people. Corrupt government officials. For the poor, finding a place at the table in the struggle for land is an almost insurmountable challenge to Church and society. When I reflect on what has happened in Lomas de Poleo over the years, I recognize that the gravest act of violence perpetrated by the Zaragozas and their allies was the deliberate, premeditated, strategic corruption and division of the community. This three-year running program of low-intensity conflict has included direct acts of violence, death, knocking down houses and fences, stripping out the electrical infrastructure, physical and legal threats, continued rumors that the people would be evicted any day, paying off individuals and families, restraining government entities such as the police, courts, etc. from defending the people, infiltrating and corrupting civic groups like the Civic Association in Lomas de Poleo, silencing the media and influencing the Catholic church by threatening to remove financial support, and the unrelenting use of city officials and their offices to harass and intimidate residents with lies and promises to accept relocation without just compensation. It really is a miracle that this courageous band of residents endures at all. The situation in Lomas de Poleo, unfortunately, is far from unique. Some 800 miles away in Tijuana, Mexico, a very similar situation occurred. Beth Bird, a documentary filmmaker, tells the story of what happened when a small community, called Maclovio Rojas, of poor and landless people took on the powers of globalization. As courageous and well-organized as the people were, they were no match for the tag team of wealthy businesses and corrupt government officials. One leader of the community has been imprisoned, and two others are on the run in fear for their lives. Clips of the well-told, 87-minute drama with subtitles can be viewed at www.everyonetheirgrainofsand.com. Another video worth watching is Poleo Hablando (“Poleo Speaking”) by Leon De la Rosa of Juárez. He uses interviews to piece together the story of the people’s struggle in Lomas de Poleo. The video in Spanish with English subtitles can be found at www.archive.org/details/Poleo_Speaking. As bleak as the picture looks, I am grateful to my Columban colleagues, Fr. Kevin Mullins and Fr. John Buckley, who continue to celebrate the Eucharist with the people of Lomas in our little chapel of Jesus de Nazaret, which was knocked down by the same Zaragoza vigilantes in 2004 and rebuilt three days later. Fr. Buckley will celebrate the second anniversary Mass for Luis Guerrero, with his widow and children present, on Sunday, August 19. Luci and so many of the people still believe in God’s steadfast and faithful love. While recognizing the sins of greed and impunity that have led to the violence that has harmed their lives, they refuse to believe that evil will win. I continue to learn from the poor and powerless what it means to keep faith through suffering, fear, injustice and humiliation. I am deeply grateful for two acts of solidarity with the people of Lomas and me that were made since I was forced to leave Mexico in August 2006. The first was from a diocesan workshop in El Paso, Texas, on September 28, 2006, where 36 priests, Sisters and deacons signed a statement condemning Zaragoza’s lawyers and Mexican immigration for my forced departure and praised the struggle of the people in Lomas de Poleo to remain on their land. The second was on May 2, 2007, when Maryknoll priest Paul Masson invited me to lunch where he presented me with a statement from the Latin American Regional Assembly of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, in Lima, Peru. Regional Superior Fr. Eugene Toland and 35 other Maryknoll missionaries signed the letter, which noted the poverty, misunderstanding, corruption and subjugation to which so many in Latin America are subjected. It warned that those who walk with the poor may suffer some of the same consequences, adding: “We would like to express our solidarity with you, in a very personal way, accepting the fact that we do not know what we can do to respond to the suffering of the people of Lomas de Poleo and the unjust accusations that you received.” I and the people of Lomas de Poleo were encouraged to reflect on St. Paul’s “earthen vessels” passage, which makes it clear that our human weakness only allows the true source of overwhelming power, God’s own self, to shine through more clearly. The statement concluded: “We feel that your situation is not an isolated incident and is a sign of our present reality throughout Latin America.” There has been no more overt violence like the murder of Luis Guerrero or the burning of the house of Carmen and Magdelino where two of their children died. Still, the ongoing program of low-intensity conflict punctuated by the barbed wire and surveillance towers is existentially violent. In a community where previous violence has occurred without arrests or convictions, who could help but wonder if the same might not happen again. While this now tiny community, right at the U.S.-Mexico border, continues to be held hostage by one wealthy man and his surrogates, I ask this God who shines through earthen vessels to shine brighter than ever. I ask for your continued prayers and support for the people in Lomas de Poleo. I ask for more wisdom and courage for all of us to find the Christian, human response in a world where wealth, power, corruption and unprecedented greed make peace and reconciliation so difficult for so many. Economic Justice: Brazil’s MST: An inspiring movement By Christopher Kaamiño Christopher Kaamiño is a Columban seminarian from the Philippines currently serving a six-week summer internship at the Columban Justice and Peace Office in Washington, D.C. Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement is said to have the largest membership of any social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million landless members organized in 23 of Brazil’s 27 states. The movement, known as Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) in the Portuguese language, was organized in the late 1970s from the people’s struggle for land that had been unjustly distributed within a system that favors profit more than people. The promised progress of that period often benefited only a rich few. With agriculture modernized, many people moved to Brazil’s cities as their livelihoods were replaced by machines. Through solidarity and sustained action, MST acquired land titles from the government. These lands were then fairly distributed among its members, who organized themselves into self-sustaining communities. Members then set up cooperative farms that provide organically grown food for the community. Small farmers are now able to control their seeds and food without depending upon big agribusiness companies for fertilizers and seeds, thereby encouraging food sovereignty. Aside from these benefits, MST members help each other build houses, schools and clinics within their communities. MST communities also support each other in providing technical and educational assistance. They promote healthy, sustainable environment and gender equality in their communities. All these qualities are consistent with the group’s commitment for love and care for the Earth and all that is in it, including human beings. The group had been successful in its ability to organize and educate as well as by upholding and promoting sound principles rooted in the land. Land and food in MST communities are being secured for people within a socio-economic model that is sustainable—a good alternative to today’s economic model that often exhausts the Earth and its people for short-term profits. A movement such as MST inspires and makes me hopeful for a better tomorrow in a world threatened by human greed and climate change. The spirit behind the movement is life-giving and should be promoted and nourished. For more information about MST and its activities, visit its website at www.mstbrazil.org A like-minded social movement in the Philippines is known as Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG), or the Farmers-Scientists Partnership for Development. It is a farmer-led network of people’s organizations and scientists working toward the sustainable use and management of biodiversity through farmers’ control of genetic and biological resources, agricultural production and associated knowledge. Columban missionaries have been active supporters and collaborators of MASIPAG over the years. Visit its website at www.masipag.org. Migration: Immigrant Farmers Setting Down Roots The often appalling living and working situations of immigrant farm workers in the United States is well-documented (see the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for more information at www.ciw-online.org). Many immigrants work in dangerous, grueling conditions for paltry wages. Truly tragic is that many have left behind their own small family farms in their home countries where they were no longer able to make a living, often due to the skewed terms of trade agreements like the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Now, to support their families, these workers must work on another person’s land in another country, perhaps even harvesting the same crops that displaced them from their own homes. Most migrant farm workers in the United States, often descendents of generations of agrarians, are ultimately landless or displaced farmers. Yet, a more hopeful story is beginning to emerge. Immigrant and refugee farmers, particularly Hispanic immigrants, are the fastest growing demographic group of new U.S. small farmers. According to the last agricultural census, covering 1997-2002, the number of Hispanic farmers increased by 50 percent to more than 50,000, with many more farmers not counted because of fear of trouble with immigration authorities. This is particularly striking as the number of small family farms overall is diminishing. While the largest numbers of these new farmers are originally from Mexico and Central America, others are Hmong (an indigenous community from China and Southeast Asia), Haitian, Ghanaian and Jamaican. Nou Yang, a Hmong refugee from Laos, was quoted in The Boston Globe: “All of my people are farmers. It reminds you of home. We like to see our vegetables growing. It’s food for our families, and we sell some at the farmers’ market.” Nevertheless, it is not an easy transition for many new immigrant farmers. They face many hurdles, not the least of which are discrimination and language barriers, preventing them from accessing or even knowing about the existence of support services, such as access to credit, crop insurance, distribution networks, research and training. New English-only legislation in some states, such as Arizona, will certainly worsen this situation and further marginalize immigrant farmers. Also, farmers must adapt to new climates, crops and farming practices. They must translate knowledge and skills from their home countries to a completely new context. With limited capital or credit history, it is difficult to access land, equipment or low-interest loans to cover startup costs. Inaccurate census data and racial profiling, assuming immigrants are farm workers rather than farm owners, has led to a lack of adequate funding and outreach to support this growing segment of the rural population. At the same time, immigrant farmers are making a strong positive contribution to their local communities. They have revitalized struggling farmers’ markets by providing traditional and culturally appropriate foods grown in their home countries. In this way, they are also supporting good health and nutrition for the broader immigrant community. For more information about immigrant farmers, please visit the National Immigrant Farming Initiative at www.immigrantfarming.org. Care for Creation: False Climate Solutions Lead to Displacement False solutions promoted to combat climate change are instead leading to widespread forced displacement of peoples and ecosystems around the world. In search of solutions that maintain current levels of consumption rather than reducing and conserving, much attention has surrounded the potential of biofuels, large-scale hydroelectric dams and carbon offset programs. On the ground, however, a very different scenario is playing out. Large-scale hydro-electric dams have been promoted as a cleaner energy alternative to fossil fuels in many places, yet often seriously harm nearby communities and the viability of surrounding ecosystems. The Salween River that flows down the mountains from Tibet along the Thai-Burmese border is the longest free-flowing waterway in Southeast Asia. However, the Burmese government, one of the most repressive military dictatorships in the world, is pursuing a new project to build five dams along the Salween to create cheap energy that will be exported to Thailand to fund its brutal rule. The project has been paralleled by a new military offensive against the Burmese population in the eastern part of the country, as the government has sought to systematically eliminate villages in the area. According to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, at least 200 villages have been destroyed within the last year. Villagers were told nothing about the proposed dams, yet human rights groups estimate that hundreds of square kilometers of forest and farmland will be flooded, displacing tens of thousands of people. Communities are being attacked and forced from their land, with no prospect of compensation, or resettlement. As one villager stated to Christian Aid UK, “We do not know what will happen to us or where we will go. If these dams are built, we do not have a future.” For more information on the situation in Burma, please visit www.uscampaignforburma.org and www.christianaid.org.uk. Dams are an issue in Chile’s Patagonia region as well. The so-called Aysén Project consists of two proposed mega-dams that will flood about 58 square miles of wilderness, while 1,250 miles worth of transmission lines will cut straight through protected forests. Patagonia’s unique and fragile ecosystem is home to the only temperate rainforest in the Southern Hemisphere that supports rare and endangered species, such as huemules, an endangered Andean deer. According to one Chilean ecologist quoted in the North American Congress on Latin America’s (NACLA) “Report on the Americas,” “Right now they say the [alternatives] are prohibitively expensive. But what’s happening is that the cost-benefit equations currently being used don’t take into account environmental impact, and environmental, social and cultural costs.” For more information, read The Santiago Times article “The Looting of Patagonia has Begun, Say Chile Dam Opponents” at www.worldpress.org/Americas/2877.cfm. Anti-dam campaigners contend that there are many alternatives to building new mega-dams that cause widespread disruption to ecosystems and communities. They point to the potential of solar and wind power. Activists also show the potential of small-scale dams or so-called micro-hydropower, which is decentralized, located within a given community’s control, and less disruptive to ecosystems. Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is conservation. Smart conservation measures and policies to support alternatives can help limit the growth of energy demands and curtail the necessity of new large-scale dams. To find out more about alternatives to dams, visit the International Rivers Network website at www.irn.org/basics/ard. This is the first section of a multipart essay critically looking at energy and climate change “solutions” behind the hype. While these cautionary tales are certainly no cause for inaction as to climate change, they do suggest that our way forward, as we attempt to restore harmony and protect creation from further onslaught, must be well-researched and carefully planned. Cost-benefit analyses should be holistic and inclusive, fully weighing long-term effects for marginalized communities as well as the natural world, rather than a rush to easy solutions that often do more harm than good. Take Action: Support local agriculture in August!
By Theresa Polk The highlight of my week is my Sunday morning visit to the small farmers’ market in the Washington D.C. suburb where I live. Summer’s bounty has arrived, and the stands are full and colorful with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Right now the peaches are wonderfully ripe and juicy, the blueberries sweet and the summer squash plentiful. Take time out of your normal routine to visit your local farmers’ markets to support small and locally-owned family farms. Columban News: Columban Father Tomás King visits the JPIC Office It is always a pleasure to welcome Columban missionaries to the JPIC Office in Washington, D.C. In July, we were pleased to be joined by Fr. Tomás King of Ireland who has been in Pakistan for 14 years. Fr. Tomás shared with us and fellow missionary partners about life and mission in Pakistan. Given the usual U.S. political media coverage of Pakistan in light of the Iraq war, it was refreshing to hear a voice that was both human-centered and hopeful. We were reminded again how dangerous it is paint any one country or culture in broad strokes and stereotypes. Fr. Tomás’ insights into the religious, cultural, historical, social, and political complexities of Pakistan helped to shed light on an often misunderstood region. We are encouraged by the Columban commitment to Muslim-Christian dialogue as a path for peace, especially in this era of religious intolerance. Resources & Events:
Commemoration of Nuclear Attacks on Japan
Jubilee USA’s National Cancel Debt Fast On any given day during the 40-day Cancel Debt Fast, debt cancellation advocates across the United States and around the world will engage in this powerful act of solidarity with those who are bound by the chains of unjust and oppressive debts. Please visit the Jubilee USA website (www.canceldebtfast.org) to receive talking points, helpful advice and assistance about talking to your member of Congress about the JUBILEE Act.
International Forum on Globalization Teach-In: Confronting the Triple Crisis On September 14-16, they will hold a teach-in at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., on “Confronting the Triple Crisis: Climate Change, Peak Oil, and Global Resource Depletion.” For more information, please visit www.ifg.org.
In Other News:
Care for Creation
Economic Justice
Migration
Peace
“Torture, Terror and Innocence: Why the prison at Guantanamo must be closed” Contact Us
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