Dear Dionne and Denise

We hope that in this pandemic situation, you and your families are in good health and in good mood.

When we knew about the terrible murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, and the protest movements against homicidal and racist violence by the American police, we remember a lot about you, about your “BLACK LIVES MATTER”, of your fight for your sons, for justice and the rights of the African American community, when you visited us at the Nahua community of San Juan Volador in the south of Veracruz, Mexico, at the meeting that we organized as women of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), in late July of last year.

We want you to know that our hearts are with you in this great fight against racism, patriarcal and class power, and all forms of imperialism of who believe to be the owners of this world, that violate civil rights, women’s rights and peoples’ rights.

In Mexico, we also recently suffered the onslaught of police violence; On May 4 of this year, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, under the pretext of not wearing mouth covers on the street, the young Giovanni López was illegally detained, tortured, and killed by Jalisco state police; and on June 5, 16-year-old Melanie was kicked in the face by police elements in a protest demonstration against the murder of Giovanni in Mexico City. In addition to the long history of abuse of force and human rights violations by the Mexican police and army, having torture, femicide, and enforced disappearances as their usual practices.

In addition to the above, the Mexican government is taking advantage of these times of pandemic to impose, in a totally undemocratic way, the militarization of the country and its megaprojects of death such as the Mayan Train and the Interoceanic Corridor, with those seek to dispossession of our indigenous territories and destroy us as peoples.

We recognize ourselves as peoples of all the colors of the Earth, the Earth does not belong to us, we and we belong to Mother Earth.

From our territories we join you, and we will continue in the fight of the movement “Black Lives Matter”, together with all the struggles against this patriarchal, capitalist and racist system.

We will always have you in our hearts!

We send a strong collective hug to you both, your families and all your sisters and brothers.

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

Never again a Mexico without us!

No to the Maya Train! No to the Interoceanic Corridor! #El Istmo es Nuestro

WOMEN’S GROUP OF THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNMENT COUNCIL
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

Sorry, this entry is only available in Mexican Spanish. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Entrevistamos en Minneapolis a:
Oyafunke Aina Hernandez Abreu jóven mujer de 13 años, mestiza indígena (del pueblo Qawalangin
de la gente Unangan (Aleut) de Unalaska, Alaska) y afrodescendiente y a su padre Raudemar Ofunshi defensor de Derechos Humanos.

Entrevistamos en Seatlle a:
Ixtli White Hawk de Mutual Aid (colectiva de Ayuda Mutua) que apoya a la comunidad indocumentada, indígena,
afrodesendiente y otras comunidades vulnerables y de Unkitawa (ayudando a la comunidad indígena centrando ceremonia, arte y cultura).

Sorry, this entry is only available in Mexican Spanish. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Hace poco mas de un año, el 7 de junio del 2019, EEUU y México firmaron un acuerdo migratorio el cual estipulaba que, a cambio de que la administración de Donald Trump no impusiera aranceles a la importación de productos mexicanos, el gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador tendría que contener el flujo de migrantes que se dirigen hacia EEUU.

Como principales medidas, México acordó desplegar su Guardia Nacional en las fronteras sur y norte, detener y deportar a más migrantes, así como permitir la expansión de los Protocolos de Protección al Migrante (MPP), más conocidos como “Quédate en México”, que obligan a miles de personas solicitantes de asilo en EEUU a esperar sus audiencias en ciudades fronterizas mexicanas.

EN CONTEXTO, México cede ante presión de EEUU: Represión, criminalización y militarización en la frontera sur

A un año del acuerdo y en medio de la pandemia causada por el COVID-19, esa política ha generado un verdadero “desastre humanitario”, según la Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA, por sus siglas en inglés).

Detenciones, en aumento

Los meses que siguieron al acuerdo dieron lugar a un aumentó drástico de las detenciones por parte del gobierno mexicano. En mayo del 2019, 23, 000 personas fueron detenidas, un número de arrestos que no había sido alcanzado desde el año 2006.

Esa persecución obligó a las y los migrantes a usar rutas diferentes, atravesando territorios remotos y haciéndoles más vulnerables al crimen y el abuso.

Por otro lado, el despliegue de la Guardia Nacional para la aplicación del acuerdo migratorio provocó un aumento en las denuncias de uso excesivo de la fuerza contra personas migrantes y solicitantes de asilo.

El aumento en las detenciones también fue acompañado por múltiples denuncias que estipulan que las autoridades han estado deteniendo personas migrantes sin el debido proceso, un problema que se ha intensificado durante la pandemia del COVID-19.

Según el diario mexicano Proceso, desde el inicio de la crisis sanitaria, varios amparos han sido promovidos en Tabasco, Ciudad de México, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Tijuana, Veracruz y Nuevo León, solicitando a las instancias de gobierno garantizar “el acceso a la salud, una estancia regular, una vivienda digna, así como la suspensión de las detenciones y la libertad de las personas detenidas en estaciones migratorias”. Además, el pasado 18 de abril, el Juzgado Primero de Distrito en Materia Administrativo ordenó al Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) que cumpla con 11 medidas, entre ellas la puesta en libertad y la dotación de una estancia regular a las personas en detención migratoria.

Sin embargo, “en lugar de cumplir con la orden judicial, el INM deportó y abandonó en la frontera, de manera masiva, a más de 3 mil personas recluidas en sus centros de detención”.

LEER TAMBIÉN, Cruzar México es cada vez más atroz: El botín de la migración

Programa “quédate en México”

Anunciada en diciembre de 2018 e implementada un mes después, la política de Protocolos de Protección de Migrantes (MPP, por sus siglas en inglés), más conocida como “Quédate en México”, establece que todos los solicitantes de asilo que llegan a la frontera sur de Estados Unidos tienen que esperar la resolución de sus casos por dicho país mientras esperan en territorio mexicano.

Según la Casa Blanca, en Washington, durante los 13 primeros meses de su implementación, la medida justificó que 60,000 migrantes fueran devueltos a México. Esa realidad ha estado poniendo a decenas de miles de personas en peligro, ya que el año 2019 fue el año más violento registrado en el México.

De hecho, según la organización Human Rights First, hasta mayo de 2020, se han reportado públicamente al menos 1,114 casos de asesinato, abuso sexual, tortura, secuestro y otros asaltos violentos contra personas solicitantes de asilo obligadas a esperar en México mientras se preparan sus audiencias migratorias en EEUU.

Varias de las ciudades fronterizas que reciben solicitantes de asilo se encuentran entre las más violentas del mundo. Según una estimación realizada por grupos de derechos humanos en enero de 2020, las autoridades estadounidenses han regresado unas 27,500 personas solicitantes de asilo a la región de Tijuana-Mexicali, y otras 18,000 a Ciudad Juaréz. Según una clasificación anual realizada por la organización mexicana Seguridad, justicia y paz, Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal A.C., Tijuana y Ciudad Juárez fueron respectivamente la primera y la segunda ciudad más violenta del mundo el año pasado.

En el marco de la pandemia de  COVID-19, Tijuana también es una de las ciudades más afectadas, y su tasa de mortalidad es la más alta de todo el país, con un 30% de defunciones.

Migrantes deportados a México, en lugar de sus países de origen

Como si fuera poco, la pandemia de COVID-19 ha intensificado las políticas anti-inmigrantes y anti-asilo del gobierno de Trump y, como lo señaló la WOLA, “una vez más, el gobierno de México no ha protestado”.

En marzo pasado, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de los EEUU (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés), firmó un acuerdo con Canadá y México con el pretexto de la lucha contra la propagación del virus. El acuerdo especifica que “la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP, por sus siglas en inglés) ya no detendrá a inmigrantes ilegales en nuestras instalaciones de detención, sino que los extranjeros serán inmediatamente devueltos al país desde el que ingresaron, ya sea Canadá o México”.

Según el diario Los Angeles Times, “en menos de un mes, más de 11,000 migrantes han sido enviados de vuelta a través de la frontera mexicana bajo las nuevas pautas. Incluyen solicitantes de asilo y cientos de menores no acompañados”.

Esa medida fue implementada el 21 de marzo, y a la fecha su plazo ha sido extendido hasta el 22 de junio 2020.

“Este enfoque va en contra de las recomendaciones de los expertos de salud pública, quienes han señalado las formas en que es posible (y más sensato, desde una perspectiva de salud pública) aplicar políticas que defiendan el derecho a migrar y solicitar asilo en medio de la pandemia”, denunció la WOLA.

Hacinamiento en estaciones migratorias, casas del migrante y campamentos

El gran aumento de las detenciones de migrantes en México, el programa “Quédate en casa” y las medidas tomadas para supuestamente controlar la propagación del COVID-19 han dejado a la mayoría de los albergues y estaciones migratorias operando por encima de su capacidad.

En agosto del 2019, las estaciones migratorias y estancias provisionales del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) ya albergaban en promedio a un 61% más de su capacidad. En algunos casos, el excedente alcanzaba el 300%.

“La mayoría carece de instalaciones sanitarias adecuadas, atención médica y acceso a alimentos. A pesar de las preocupaciones generalizadas sobre el hacinamiento, las malas condiciones de salud y las denuncias de maltrato, el gobierno mexicano sigue restringiendo el monitoreo independiente de las condiciones de las estaciones migratorias”, señaló la WOLA con respeto a las estaciones migratorias del INM.

Por otro lado, las miles de personas que han estado esperando la resolución de sus solicitudes de asilo para EEUU en ciudades fronterizas mexicanas no han tenido que hospedarse en campamentos superpoblados, con condiciones sanitarias pésimas.

“Los gobiernos de México y los Estados Unidos crearon las condiciones para un posible desastre de salud pública en el contexto de la pandemia COVID-19”, denunció la WOLA.

Varios brotes del virus ya han sido reportados en distintas Casas del Migrante y albergues en ciudades fronterizas mexicanas, como en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua o Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

TAMBIÉN TE PUEDE INTERESAR, Centroamérica: el corredor invisibilizado de la migración

Sistemas de asilo, al borde del colapso

Finalmente, el cumplimiento de México con las demandas del gobierno de Trump para restringir el flujo migratorio está poniendo el sistema de asilo de México al borde del colapso.

Según la la Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (COMAR), en 2019 México recibió 70,302 solicitudes de asilo, más del doble del número recibido en 2018, y entre enero y mayo de 2020 recibió otras 19,211 solicitudes.

En el marco de la pandemia, y en contraste con EEUU, la COMAR sigue recibiendo solicitudes de asilo, aunque haya dejado de procesar casos. La acumulación de casos no resueltos aumentó el tiempo que las personas solicitantes de asilo tienen que esperar. Como lo señala la WOLA, muchos están  “en condiciones precarias en ciudades sureñas de México que están mal equipadas para apoyar a las personas solicitantes de asilo o para garantizar que tengan un acceso adecuado a los servicios de salud pública.”

Por otro lado, las y los migrantes que han solicitado el asilo en EEUU y esperan en la frontera norte de México también se encuentran en gran precariedad e incertidumbre. “En lugar de un proceso de migración y asilo ordenado y bien regulado, muchas personas migrantes y sus abogados enfrentan una falta de claridad sobre cuándo deben presentarse para sus audiencias migratorias en los Estados Unidos”, precisa la WOLA.

By Amy Goodman y Denis Moynihan | Democracy Now!

On Monday — Memorial Day — George Floyd was begging for his life as Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the pavement with his knee on his neck. “Please. Please. I can’t breathe, officer. I cannot breathe,” Floyd gasped while handcuffed. Onlookers demanded Chauvin relent, but he continued to drive his knee into Floyd’s neck. A devastating, ten-minute video recorded this slow-motion murder, breath by ebbing breath. Finally, Floyd’s limp body is roughly rolled onto a stretcher, loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Outrage spread as the video went viral. George’s brother Philonise Floyd told CNN, “Everybody loved my brother…They didn’t have to do that to him.” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, said in a statement, “His life was important. It had value…We will seek justice and we will find it.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey added, “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.” Frey has called for Chauvin to be arrested, and Floyd’s family wants all four officers charged with murder.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Sorry, this entry is only available in Mexican Spanish. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

CJJC stands in solidarity with the Black-led rebellion in Minneapolis, MN in response to the murder of George Floyd by the police. We vehemently oppose state force used to repress them.Even as a global pandemic ravages the world’s population, leaving over 100,000 people dead in the U.S. alone, with that high number believed to be an undercount, Black communities have been disproportionately hit by the virus. As we fight for our lives, our people are still being murdered by police and vigilantes. The purposeful lack of medical services and infrastructure and systemic racism in Black communities underscores how we are being subjected to the conditions of genocide.” The entire internationally-recognized definition of genocide reflects the conditions of Black people in the United States. We have the human right to use any tactics we see fit to respond to these conditions. For a people who were stolen and brought into this country en masse as property, the destruction of capital as a consequence for the ongoing murder of Black life has been a historically legitimate tactic, from urban rebellions to larger-scale wars of liberation such as in the Haitian Revolution;  the 2nd Seminole War,  the Civil War and more. Capital can be replaced, our Black lives can not.  We want our people to be safe and take necessary precautions to avoid infecting themselves and others, and at the same time we support the self-determined right to choose what tactics and risks people are willing to take on in the pursuit of justice and liberation. We, as a people, have every right to express our rage and revolt. As a young person stated at a growing memorial for Floyd, “There needs to be a change, and I know change doesn’t come so quickly overnight. I understand that, but there needs to be a change … The fear is really real. It’s really there and it hurts.” Our people have been forced to endure economic repression, state violence, and austerity for centuries and this has rendered us highly vulnerable to this pandemic with Black people being 2.4 times more likely than white people to die from COVID-19.  Meanwhile, being murdered by the police is a leading cause of death for Black people. The COVID-19 global pandemic is sweeping the world and yet, incarceration and murder of our people is still a priority of the state. Structural racism continues to create conditions for mass incarceration of the Black population. The criminal justice system is the most clear example of this. African American adults are five times more likely to be imprisoned than white North Americans. As we organize and push for the release of our loved ones, one only has to look to Alameda County, at Santa Rita Jail, where more than 50 deaths have occurred under the helm of Sheriff Greg Ahern. But organizing works. And we celebrate the impending closure of County Jail 4 at 850 Bryant Street in San Francisco.  Abolishing policing and prisons is a step toward investing in a future we deserve.  We are a people fighting for liberation and self-determination — a fight that has always been about our survival and ability to control our destiny. We mourn the death of George Floyd, a man who was murdered in the city he moved to for a better life. We mourn and honor the thousands and thousands of other Black people shot and killed in this country by police as well as white racists without a badge. Most recently we remember Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade.  When Eric Garner’s mom Gwen Carr, heard of the murder of Floyd, she asked: “Why does this keep on happening over and over again?” The crisis we are in has opened a window for us to push through the changes we want to see. We cannot return to the old world but must push forward together to create a bold vision for a new world where Black people thrive. Feet on the ground, fist to the sky, eyes on the prize! Sanyika Bryant, Lead Organizer

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan | Democracy Now!

All eyes are on the U.S. Senate this week for the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. But another important trial is happening at the same time, far from the eyes of the public, at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Behind the razor-wire fencing of “Camp Justice,” five of the remaining 41 Guantanamo prisoners sit through more pretrial hearings, almost 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks they are charged with perpetrating.

One witness this week is Dr. James E. Mitchell, a retired Air Force psychologist who, with his partner, psychologist John “Bruce” Jessen, developed and then implemented the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program. Mitchell and Jessen actively participated in torture sessions at CIA black sites. Both have long maintained that they were only contractors, taking orders from the CIA. Despite having no prior experience with interrogation, they were paid handsomely, receiving at least $81 million in taxpayer dollars from the U.S. government for their work on the torture program. Torture is a war crime, and those who torture should be prosecuted. But Mitchell is not the one on trial this week. Indeed, he defiantly said in court this week, “I’d get up today and do it again.” Mitchell was sitting in the courtroom, not far from his torture victims.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Escucha/descarga en inglés:
(Descarga aquí)  

Sorry, this entry is only available in Mexican Spanish. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Noticias de abajo ML: Noticiero informativo de los medios libres.

ROMPIENDO FRONTERAS

PALESTINA: Manifiesto contra la criminalización de la solidaridad con el pueblo palestina conninesporpalestina
YEMEN: Más tormentas en el golfo Pérsico #Internacional elturbion
AMERICA LATINA: MEGAMINERIA TOXICA: Grupo México y sus subsidiarias son una de las empresas mineras más agresivas, violentas, contaminadoras y cínicas del mundo. En solidaridad con Perú y en contra del Grupo México Otros mundos
(Continuar leyendo…)

Echoing the call of the Zapatista women to Organize in our times, our ways, in our spaces, we are calling all women who fight, who resist, who are working for a world where dignity is the norm and justice is served.

We, members of different collectives and organizations from the U.S-Mexican border and who make the seven Zapatista principles ours, too, have come together to convene and find each other in our distinctive latitudes, to listen to each other’s problems, causes, experiences in the struggle, resistance, wisdoms and pains.

The urgent need to organize comes precisely from the context in which our Zapatistas brothers and sisters are in, where they constantly suffer under the direct military brunt and divisive tactics that seem to never end government to government.
In that same context, it is no surprise the rise of persecutions, repressions, feminicides, and enforced disappearances. Not only do our sisters suffer under the paramilitaries that repress them, but also, the discrimination, exploitation, the racist and fascist attacks; which are all too familiar to those who fight on both side of the border and its wall.

For these reasons, the first binational encounter of women who fight will revolve around the following 4 themes:
A. Art
B. Body-Territory
C. Migration
D. Organizing and Resistance

We are calling all the women and girls, who are working class, office workers, students, artist, feminists, agricultural workers, indigenous, collectives and militants, to keep the light the Zapatistas gifted us burning, so that through this first binational encounter, we can continue creating networks and liaisons in our fight. We need to respond to the national emergencies–the patriarchal, necrocapitalist, and fascist system—in an effectively organized front, even more so when the Right hides behind the so-called Left.

We recognize the pluralities of bodies from within their own epistemic and territorial development and expression. Their presence is of imminent importance.

If you want to participate, either to collaborate or to share a workshop, please email us at encuentrobinacionaldemujeres@gmail.com

To multiply the light into many lights that will illuminate the darkness!
To regenerate the community and our social fabric!
To organize from the bottom-up and to the left, where our hearts lay!
Never a world without us, ever again!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2334976150116302&id=100008118195459&sfnsn=mo

Teléfonos.
686 180 44 18 Silvia Reséndiz Flores
686 348 34 52 Diana Gabriela Aranguré Quevedo

On April 26 and 27, the Encounter 25 Years of Zapatismo, Across Time & Space took place at California State University Los Angeles. The encounter brought together activists, scholars, militants, and members of organizations and collectives in the US who have been struggling for autonomy, justice and dignity in the country, many of them inspired by the Zapatista uprising. Also present were councilmembers of the Indigenous Governing Council and, via the internet, the intellectuals Raúl Zibechi and Gustavo Esteva and other Mexican activists and journalists, who analyzed the current situation experienced in that country and the organization of resistance and rebellion.

Since the Zapatista uprising on January 1, 1994, and especially after the Chican@-Zapatista Encounter in August 1997, zapatismo has inspired a large number of collectives and organizations in the US, especially of Chicanos, migrants, and people of color in general, who have adopted Zapatista forms of struggle to resist state violence, racism and repression against people of color, the prison industrial complex, gentrification and the systematic displacement of those from below, labor exploitation, deportations, raids, and much more. Thus, during these 25 years there have emerged artistic groups (see for example our documentary on the Chicano-Zapatista musical movement, Rhythms of Zapata), autonomous experiences of food sovereignty, community spaces, independent media collectives, groups of scholars proposing other epistemologies, self-defense organizations, exchanges and youth delegations to Chiapas, women’s groups, etc.

This encounter was therefore an opportunity to exchange experiences and connect struggles, while reflecting on the changes in Zapatismo in these 25 years, the civilizational crisis we face, and the situation for the peoples under the current Mexican administration.

Of fundamental importance was the participation of the councilmembers Betina Cruz Velázquez and Fortino Domínguez Rueda, of the National Indigenous Congress / Indigenous Governing Council (CNI-CIG). From his perspective as a member of the Zoque people, Fortino led us on a voyage through the history of the CNI up to the creation of the CIG and its relevance for indigenous peoples in Mexico and the world, in the context of the destruction caused by the current phase of capitalism. Betina Cruz in turn undertook a decisive and carefully documented analysis of this destruction, now led by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his so-called “fourth transformation.”

This was complemented by the analyses by Raúl Zibechi and Gustavo Esteva, who discussed the relevance of zapatismo for Latin American social movements (or societies in movement, as Zibechi proposes) and, again, the threat that the current Mexican government represents for indigenous peoples and for the construction of Zapatista autonomy. Also via the internet, from Mexico, the activists María Laura Orozco and Evangelina Ceja and the journalist Arturo de Dios analyzed the use of forced disappearance as a tool of the state, based on specific cases. And a member of the Radio Zapatista collective explained what the Zapatistas understand by the “storm” and the civilizational crisis underway.

From the standpoint of education, the influence of the Zapatista uprising on universities in the US was discussed, as well as the contributions of Zapatista education toward a decolonial and deschooling thought in that country. The topics of borders, identities, nations, and states oriented several roundtables, as well as patriarchy, feminism, and queer subversion. Former members of the now extinct organization Estación Libre shared the experience of their efforts to connect the struggles of people of color in the US and the ideas and practices of zapatismo. Food justice was present in the discussion of various autonomous experiences in food sovereignty in California, such as the South Central Farm, Zapotepec, and the Oxnard Heirloom Seed Library.

The Encounter also included a film festival, an art exhibit, a poetry recital, an evening of CompArte at the Floricanto Center, and a festive fandango at the Chicano organizational and cultural space Eastside Café.