Thread: EL PASO: "A SIMULTANEOUS DEMONSTRATION"

We'll probably be hearing more about this tomorrow




January 12, 2008
A CALL TO ACTION!

A SIMULTANEOUS DEMONSTRATION ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE


“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.â€

Here's more info on the demonstration.

El Paso has a Mexican Consulate and is promoting a protest (which I thought was against Mexico's Gov't regulations)

It looks like there's going to be more frustration and tension on this area of the border, too.

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Juarenses protest neighborhood's treatment
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/15/2008 12:00:00 AM MST


Four years after Juarenses and a Mexican industrialist squared off over a patch of land called Lomas de Poleo, little has changed, residents and supporters said Monday at a protest in front of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.

The neighborhood on a mesa in west Juárez is still topped by a guard tower, surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by hired men and left without electricity. Residents and media reports blamed Juarez industrialist Pedro Zaragoza for harassing the residents, with whom he has a legal battle over the land.

Petra Medrano, who has been living in Lomas de Poleo for 15 years, said she lives in fear of the volatile young men who are acting as guards, denying entry to the neighborhood to anyone they please.

"We are afraid to leave Lomas de Poleo because nobody would be looking after our house. Recently, they have been robbing us," she said. "When we leave, they let in some young men who take everything from our houses."

Willivaldo Delgadillo, a Juárez community activist, said Lomas de Poleo residents are living like in a "Palestinian camp in Israel" and are traumatized.

About 35 people protested in El Paso, while a similar protest took place at the U.S. Consulate in Juárez. In El Paso, protesters gave a letter to Mexican consular officials who said they would pass it on to the federal agency in charge of land deals.

One El Pasoan at the protest, Guadalupe Ochoa, saw some similarities between the plight of the residents of Lomas de Poleo and her fight against the Downtown development plan.

"In the Segundo Barrio, it's the same. They are trying to take our houses," she said.

Another protester, Dr. Yolanda Leyva, professor of history at the University of Texas at El Paso and a founder of the Paso Del Sur group, said El Pasoans can help the residents of Lomas de Poleo by publicizing the situation.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_7972447