We are thrilled to be hosting Olga Reyes in Portland on Saturday, February 4th, 5pm at 1131 SE Oak St. PCASC is co-sponsoring this event with Voz, AFSC, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Oregon Peace Institute.

Free – donations welcome

Bio:
Olga Reyes Salazar comes from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in Mexico. Her sister, Josefina Reyes, was a prominent activist for human rights and demilitarization in Juarez until she was murdered January 3, 2010, after one of her sons had been jailed and another murdered. In February 2011, Olga’s sister, brother, and sister-in-law were abducted, and subsequently found killed. Olga’s mother Sara issued a remarkable appeal to the kidnappers of her children in February, just before the family house was burned down.

Since the killing of her two siblings and sister-in-law in February, Olgahas participated in the two “caravans of consolation” led by poet Javier Sicilia, that traveled from central Mexico to the U.S. border in June and to Chiapas and the Guatemala border in September.

Olga brings a powerful testimony of the human costs of the drug war, militarism and gun trafficking, and of the growing movement to forge a different path in Mexico and the United States.

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

In the midst of Mexico’s senseless “Drug War” and the erroneous belief that drug-trafficking is the root of the country’s evils, Mexicans were given a powerful reminder last week of the deeper crisis affecting their fellow citizens. A video posted on social media sites concerning a severe drought in the state of Chihuahua saw the extreme poverty and malnutrition afflicting the region’s indigenous population highlighted in the media for a brief few days.
Chihuahua, a vast, dry and mountainous state bordering Texas and New Mexico, is home to several indigenous groups, the largest of which, the Rarámuri (or Tarahumara), inhabit the region surrounding one of Mexico’s most spectacular natural wonders, the Barranca del Cobre, or Copper Canyon. The Rarámuri – whose name means “those who run fast”, for their famed bare-footed running ability – number some 60,000 in the eponymous Sierra Tarahumara where they took refuge after the Spanish conquest.

On January 15, a video was posted on Twitter of a local official claiming that as many as 50 Rarámuri had committed suicide because of famine. The Mexican media immediately jumped on the story, portraying the isolated Tarahumara region as “our Somalia”. While the mass suicide is now believed to be an exaggeration (no evidence exists that it took place), state authorities have since confirmed that 28 Rarámuri died from malnutrition last year, with a further 47 victims in 2010.

The hambruna, or famine, afflicting the Rarámuri has been attributed to a brutal winter and the worst drought in the region for 71 years.  But the media coverage brought attention to the wider conditions of extreme poverty in which some 12 million Mexicans live. Last year, the Hospital Teresita in the Tarahumara town of Creel (a popular stop on the famous Copper Canyon Railway) treated 250 children for malnutrition, including 25 severe cases.

The state of Chihuahua is also a key battlefield in Mexico’s “drug wars”. The notorious El Chapo Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel rules the roost in much of the state, although its rivalry with the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization (or Juárez Cartel) has unleashed the heaviest of the country’s gang violence.

Gulf of Inequality

Despite the fact that some 60% of Mexicans are classed as mestizo (a mix of European and indigenous blood), racism and sheer ignorance of the country’s indigenous population is no less common than in former white-settler colonies like the US and Canada.

As the crisis in Chihuahua was co-opted by mainstream media outlets, most described the affected population as Tarahumara – after the Sierra Tarahumara where the majority of them live. But the name actually has racist connotations for the group itself, which prefers to be known as Rarámuri. Spanish invaders had struggled with the pronunciation of the original name.

Over the years, the Rarámuri have repeatedly suffered drought, famine and other environmental crises without the blitz of media attention seen in recent days. According to a UN report on indigenous peoples in Latin America, the six most deprived municipalities in Mexico are all to be found in the mountains of Chihuahua. The region has an infant mortality rate of 12.5 per thousand live births; 8.3 of whom die of malnutrition.

The federal government initially denied the reports that a “famine” was taking place. But as political rivals rushed to demand aid relief and the Mexican Red Cross confirmed it had expanded its expeditions to the region this winter, the Felipe Calderón administration announced the provision of 14,000 emergency food packets and a collection point for donations in Mexico City’s Zócalo square.

Governor César Duarte, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is currently favorite to take the Mexican presidency in July, quickly moved to take political advantage of the crisis. Duarte appeared at aid distribution sites to tell Rarámuri queuing for food and blankets that they are a “proud and strong” people and, after all, “the owners of this land”; the latter a gross statement of ignorance.

Chihuahua is a state rich in natural resources – from gold and silver to forests and rivers – but the massive investment by US and Canada-based corporations through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has done nothing to benefit the communities that have dwelled in the region for centuries.  At the same time, subsidized US agricultural imports have devastated the livelihood of local farmers, who have been increasingly driven to produce illicit crops like marijuana and opium poppies.

The Calderón administration, which has very close ties to the US, remains fully committed to the neoliberal model, and its weak social welfare programs – such as the much-touted Oportunidades scheme – don’t address the fundamental economic injustices at the heart of the NAFTA agreement. The right-wing National Action Party (PAN) has gambled its legacy on the militarization of the war on drugs while largely ignoring the systemic inequality at the root of the illegal trade.

According to recent figures by the National Council of the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), some 52 million Mexicans (or 46.2% of the population) live in poverty, of which some 12 million are in extreme poverty; an increase of nearly 2%, or three million people, from recent years. What’s more, these figures are widely questioned because of the government’s very low measure of what constitutes poverty.

Armed Capitalism and the Drug Trade

State authorities and the Catholic Church in Chihuahua have largely blamed the food crisis and ongoing displacement of the Rarámuri on the country’s drug-trafficking gangs.  Héctor Fernando Martínez, the parish priest of Creel, told national daily La Jornada: “Narco, not lack of food, is the biggest problem in the mountains [of Chihuahua]… They arrive and displace people from their lands, take their houses, and through fear leave them to either grow [marijuana or poppies] or get out of their villages.”

While it’s true that criminal groups have tormented the Rarámuri and other local communities for years, many of the state’s rural inhabitants have had little choice but to produce drug crops in the face of subsidized imports. Furthermore, while farmers receive a higher price for growing marijuana or poppies than their now-redundant traditional crops, the rewards are miniscule in comparison to the profits made by organized crime lords, and the threat of violent reprisals is an ever-present reality.

The government of Chihuahua has been repeatedly accused of supporting the locally-based Juárez Cartel in its turf war with the Sinaloa organization. In October, Governor Duarte unbelievably claimed that all kidnapping cases in the state had been solved and vastly exaggerated the number of arrests and prosecutions made by state authorities.

While most of the violence in Mexico today is blamed on warring drug gangs, well-documented human rights violations by state forces and private security companies are widely ignored. The reality is that the lines between drug gangs, police, the military, paramilitary groups and corporate security firms have been profoundly blurred in parts of the country like Chihuahua, where official impunity allows abuses to go unpunished.

Upside Down World contributor Dawn Paley recently reported on the controversy surrounding Canadian corporation Minefinders, which opened a gold and silver mine near the mountain town of Madera four years ago, displacing more than 60 families in the process. Protesters involved in a blockade of the site were threatened by armed men in civilian clothes, while one of the organizers, Dante Valdez Jiménez – an elementary school teacher – was later attacked and beaten in front of his students by anonymous assailants. None of which ever makes headlines in the mainstream media.

Meanwhile, the struggle for rural workers’ rights continues. A march organized by the National Peasant Confederation (CNC) is currently underway from Chihuahua to Mexico City, protesting the lack of support by the federal government for twenty areas of Mexico affected by drought and demanding long-lasting solutions to the neglected effects of climate change.

The National Committee of Rural & Fishing Unions (CONORP), one of the organizations participating in the march, has warned of an “Arab Spring”-like effect should the government not act – referring to the food shortages that sparked uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In this big election year, watch for the peasant struggle to become a political football as poverty briefly overtakes the “Drug War” as the crisis du jour.

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

(IPS) – Thousands of people in the northwest Argentine province of La Rioja are mobilising to stop an open-cast gold mining project in the Nevados de Famatina, a snowy peak that is the semi-arid area’s sole source of drinking water.

La Rioja “is a dry province and we have just enough clean water to live on, but not to share with miners,” one of the protesters, Héctor Artuso, a resident from the small town of Villa Pituil, in the Famatina area, told IPS.

Residents of Famatina and neighbouring Chilecito have set up a partial roadblock at Alto Carrizal, a stop located 4,000 metres above sea level on a gravel road leading up to the highest point of this mountain chain, Cerro General Belgrano (better known as Nevados de Famatina), which stands at 6,250 metres.

Still visible in Famatima as historical reminders of nineteenth- century mining activities is the abandoned mining site “La Mejicana”, which includes a tramway system built by a British company in 1905 to transport gold and other metal extracted for export.

Back then mining was done in underground pits. Today, modern mining methods require large explosions, huge volumes of water, and the use of cyanide to extract the mineral, which is why local residents are protesting.

The activists maintain the Alto Carrizal roadblock day and night, but are selective in whose passage they block. Local residents and tourists are allowed through, while provincial authorities are stopped, along with anyone representing the Canadian company authorised by the Argentine government to mine the area.

Protesters are backed by a number of national and international environmental NGOs, including Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Greenpeace, and Los Verdes, which in recent days voiced their concern about the activists’ safety, reporting threats and harassment. Political parties from the opposition and celebrities are also stepping forward to support the anti-mining campaign.

The conflict was sparked in October 2011, when local residents learned that the La Rioja state-owned mining and energy company Energía y Minerales Sociedad del Estado (EMSE) had signed an agreement with the Quebec-based Osisko Mining Corporation, to mine Nevados de Famatina.

The agreement was never made public, and the government failed to hold the public hearings and perform the environmental impact studies stipulated under the 2002 General Environmental Act. Even Famatina authorities were left out of the agreement.

Mayor Ismael Bordagaray, in fact, supports the demonstrations against the mining project. “I’m doing it basically because I have to stand by my community and this is what the majority of the community wants,” he told IPS.

But the mayor said he was also concerned as a citizen. “I have the same fears and misgivings about the risks of pollution, indiscriminate use of water, and lack of controls that come with this kind of project,” he said.

Bordagaray also said he had read the agreement, which he found very vague, and does not know why it has not been made available to the public. It was Osisko that gave him a copy, and not the provincial government, which is headed by Bordagaray’ own political group, the Frente para la Victoria, the majority faction of the centre-left Justicialist Party of President Cristina Fernández.

La Rioja Governor Jorge Beder Herrera’s position on mining has shifted since coming into office. During his 2011 campaign he had spoken against it, but after the election he announced the agreement signed with the mining corporation.

Now, despite overwhelming opposition, EMSE Director Héctor Durán Sabas declared that they will be going ahead with the project “because it’s a state decision and a matter of public policy”.

In Argentina, provinces have jurisdiction over their natural resources, and the national government’s regulatory role is limited to setting basic guidelines on which each province then bases its own specific legislation.

Héctor Artuso explained why the local population opposes the project. “We’re not environmental or anti-mining activists. We’re just regular people who reject this foreign-led model of natural resource extraction, which uses cyanide and large volumes of water.”

“Our community is fully aware (of what the project entails) because we’ve been through this before,” he said, recalling how in 2006 the local population succeeded in stopping a similar project by another Canadian mining company, Barrick Gold Corporation, and later a Chinese venture.

Many people who are participating in the current demonstrations were also involved in the anti-mining rallies, marches and roadblocks that began in 2006, and the reasons are the same: the fear their water will be polluted.

However, there are also groups that have been won over by the mining companies and claim they support the project. “The worst problem is the social contamination these projects generate, because they create deep rifts in these small communities,” Artuso said.

According to Artuso, while a great deal needs to be improved in terms of production in this part of La Rioja, the region has excellent vineyards and produces world-class wines for export, as well as “the country’s finest nuts”, and olives, peaches, apricots, plums, figs, and quinces.

“We also have enormous untapped potential for mountain tourism, which is an activity that is sustainable in the long-term, unlike mining, which will be here 10 or 20 years, contaminating, and then it will be gone,” he said.

In addition to blocking the road and garnering support across the country – with marches and rallies held in eight other provinces and Buenos Aires – on Jan. 16, the protesters organised a large caravan from the city of Famatina to the site of the roadblock.

Some 6,400 people live in Famatina and Monday’s demonstration attracted more than 4,000 people from the district and from Chilecito, which is also sourced by water from the glaciers and the mountain’s eternal snows.

Carina Díaz Moreno, a teacher from Famatina who has two pending lawsuits against her for opposing the large mining projects in her province, spoke to IPS on the phone, as she came off the night shift at the Alto Carrizal roadblock.

“We take turns, and we’re going to hold our ground until the government and the company drop this project,” she said.

Díaz is one of the people singled out as a leading activist by the company, according to a list found by chance in a folder left behind by company officers and government officials after hastily leaving a meeting in a public building.

When a local resident started spreading the word that a meeting was underway, Father Omar Quintero, a Catholic priest who supports the protest, rang the church bells in the Famatina parish, attracting some 200 people who gathered spontaneously to voice their disapproval.

“We started chanting slogans like ‘Hands off Famatina’ and they had to wrap up the meeting quickly. In their rush to leave they forgot a folder, which is where we found the list,” Díaz said.

The list contains the names and personal information of several activists, and next to each name is a phrase describing what the company claims they are after: “economic compensation”, “fame” or “a government position”.

Another activist, Jenny Luján, told IPS that “negotiating with them means settling for more or less contamination, more or less benefits for the community, and we’re not interested in that.”

“We know there’s gold in Famatina, and rare earth and other minerals, but we’ve made our decision. We’re not lifting the roadblock; they’ll have to clear us out of Alto Carrizal by force,” Luján said.

RIGHT 2 DREAM TOO RALLY AT CITY HALL

Waive the fines on Right 2 Dream Too!

When: Wednesday February 1, 8:30am

Where: Portland City Hall, SW 4^th and Madison

 Why:  Hundreds of people sleep on the streets of Portland every night, there are often no beds available at shelters, and it can take months or even years to get into transitional or permanent affordable housing. Right 2 Dream Too provides refuge and a safe space to rest or sleep undisturbed for dozens of people who are experiencing homelessness in downtown Portland at no cost to the city.

   The City of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services (BDS) says R2DToo must comply with state Recreational Camping Ordinances or pay monthly fines. The initial fine is $641.30, and doubles every two months after that.

    Join us at the rally Wednesday February 1.   Tell the City of Portland to waive the fines imposed on Right to Dream Too and support our work providing refuge and a safe space to rest or sleep undisturbed for Portland’s unhoused community who cannot access affordable housing or shelter.

Right 2 Dream Too and Right 2 Survive

r2spdx@gmail.com

(503) 839-9992

Right 2 Survive is a group of houseless and formerly houseless individuals dedicated to teaching about and defending the human, civil, and constitutional rights of people experiencing homelessness.

 Right 2 Dream Too provides refuge and a safe space to rest or sleep undisturbed for Portland’s unhoused community who cannot access affordable housing or shelter. R2DToo was established on World Homeless Action Day, October 10, 2011.

*** MEDIA ADVISORY *** FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012

CONTACT: Craig Hennecke, 503-475-1019, craig@pcasc.net

“Get off the Stage Coach” – Activists demand Wells Fargo end profiting from private prisons and immigrant detention

PORTLAND – Joining coordinated actions in 16 cities, activists will protest Wells Fargo’s heavy investment in private prisons and business practices that prey on homeowners and immigrants.

Protestors are demanding Wells Fargo divest their holdings in the private prison industry and abandon its role in the nation’s rapidly expanding for-profit immigrant detention system.

The nationwide day of action coincides with the GAIM USA conference, the largest annual gathering of hedge fund managers taking place this week in Boca Raton, Florida.

Tuesday’s actions also come on the heels of an Occupy Wall Street protest that shut down Wells Fargo’s corporate headquarters in San Francisco last Thursday.

WHAT/VISUALS: Immigrant rights and foreclosure activists joining forces. Banners, signs and singing in front of the bank branch during lunch hour.

Members of ENLACE, PCASC, and We Are Oregon will participate.

Members of PCASC and We Are Oregon were arrested on November 17^th at Wells Fargo and the Steel Bridge, respectively.

ENLACE coordinates efforts of low-wage workers and immigrants in the US and Mexico in struggles for social and economic justice.

PCASC (Portland Central America Solidarity Committee) educates and mobilizes the community, workers, and students in the fight for human rights and social justice in the Americas.

We Are Oregon brings people together to fight for a fair economy, supporting community organizing around unemployment, foreclosure, and economic issues facing working class people.

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Wells Fargo invests in private prison companies GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). These companies fund the writing & passing… of racist and oppressive laws which criminalize communities of color in order to fill their prisons for maximized profit.

On January 24th we return to Wells Fargo to demand the divestment of stock in private prisons. It’s a national day of action against Wells Fargo.

D 17 Immigrant Rights March, Portland, Oregon from Peter Parks on Vimeo.