Thread: Border wall slammed at LatAm meet

Border wall slammed at LatAm meet

El Universal

Domingo 05 de noviembre de 2006

The U.S. border fence proposal emerged as a prime target of criticism at a conference of Latin American leaders.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — President Vicente Fox was joined by Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage in blasting U.S. moves to build a new fence along the border with Mexico in the harshest of a series of criticisms aimed at Washington during the 16th annual Iberoamerican Summit on Saturday.

“It is an ill-advised and clumsy decision, very short-sighted and shows a complete lack of understanding about the issues involved,” Fox said during his intervention at a session entitled “Migration and Development.”

During his presentation — his second of the day — Fox explained his government’s position on migration and thanked the Iberoamerican foreign ministers for declaring wall-building “incompatible with the spirit of friendship and cooperation between states.”

“A wall isn’t a solution,” Fox told the leaders. He added that the fencing, ahead of Nov. 7 midterm elections in the United States, is “clearly an electoral action that has nothing to do with the analysis and solution of the issue. It was a unilateral decision when our insistence has been that it is an issue of shared responsibility.”

Some 11 million Mexicans are estimated to be in the United States, half of them illegally.

Many Latin American leaders have been grumbling over U.S. President George W. Bush’s recent authorization of 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) of new border fencing, but the criticism by Fidel Castro’s communist government was the most forceful.

“The wall on the Mexican border and the hunting of immigrants is proof, if any at all is needed, of the disdain of the mighty for those who are not,” said Lage, who led the island’s delegation at the summit that included Spain, Portugal, Andorra and 19 Latin American countries. Lage said barriers are being erected to keep unwanted migrants out of the developed world, but added that “there are no forced repatriations” of doctors, technical experts and teachers who are lured away for higher wages unattainable in their homelands.

“On the contrary, there are plans and programs to draw them in,” said Lage, adding that the flood of illegal migration will always continue from poor to rich countries as long as “neoliberal” free market policies are in force.

Lage also said the European Union and the United States had the “most restrictive” migratory policies in the world. The speechmaking against the U.S. fence came a day after ministers issued a declaration sharply criticizing the plan, saying such barriers encourage “discrimination and xenophobia” and don’t deter undocumented workers.

Bolivian leftist President Evo Morales added: “Before, when the immigration was from north to south there were no walls, no deportations. But when it’s from south to north, there are walls and there are deportations.”

The two-day summit ends Sunday with leaders endorsing a united strategy to reduce migration flows while protecting the human rights of migrants and fight labor-market exploitation.

Recognizing that poverty drives millions of Latin Americans to emigrate, leaders from the region called for an end to exploitation abroad and for improved opportunities at home. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also called here for anti- poverty campaigns.

Eight of the 19 Latin American leaders stayed away, the largest number since annual summits began in 1991.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/21621.html

“It is an ill-advised and clumsy decision, very short-sighted and shows a complete lack of understanding about the issues involved,” Fox said during his intervention at a session entitled “Migration and Development.”

You'd think Vinny would be more concerned about the open rebellion going on right under his mustache down in Oaxaca.

This is rich, lol........CUBA jumps on the bandwagon
That certainly gives me pause to think, eh?

OK.......thinking that we must be on the right track.

.

We got the fence but now we are going to have to fight to keep it.

"It was a unilateral decision when our insistence has been that it is an issue of shared responsibility.”

According to Fox, shared responsibility means they share all their uneducated, unskilled poor and criminal thugs, gang bangers, rapists and child molesters and we get the responsibility to feed, house, medically treat, educate, prosecute and incarcerate them.

Some deal for them, what do they get? All their lowlife leeches and criminals out of their country and $25 billion sent back in remittances.

And what do we get? Oh yeah, we get overcrowded and failed schools, packed jails and prisons, bankrupted and closed hospitals, lower wages, higher taxes, welfare, social security and medicaid fraud, higher murder, rape and property crime.
Aren't we so lucky to have such friendly neighbors down south who are willing to share so much with us?