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In Juarez City, farmers will form a human wall in highway crossings along the border
Author
- La Jornada re-post
Date Created
- 29 Dec 2007
Date Edited
- 29 Dec 2007 09:30:30 AM
Rating
- Current rating: 3
License
This work is in the public domain.
The protests will begin the first minute of the year for the opening of the grain market
This is a rough English translation of:
Enciso L., Angélica. “En Cuidad Juárez campesinos formarán una muralla humana en cruces fronterizos.” La Jornada. December 27, 2007. www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/12/27/index.php
I’m sure I have made some mistakes, so if others catch anything that needs to be corrected, feel free to post corrections below. Thank you.
Eve White
“Catastophe? This has been happening since NAFTA began.”
Angélica Enciso L.
In the first minute of 2008, farmers and consumers will make a human wall on the international bridges of Juarez City-El Paso, Texas, the route of grain imports, to reject the complete opening of the corn and bean market in the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has left agriculture in a state of crises and food dependence, where 40 percent of the food comes from the United States, stated Miguel Colunga, from the Chihuahua Farmers’ Democratic Front.
Because of this crisis the price of the tortilla has gone up 700 percent, the price of beef and chicken 70 percent, stated Max Correa, director of the Cardenista Campesina Center (CCC), who called on the federal governement to create a new social pact to “permit the governability of the country” before the next complete opening of the agricultural sector.
In the context of the National Campaign in Defense of Food Sovereignty and the Revival of the Mexican Fields “Without Corn There is No Country,” 300 farm, environmental, and human rights organizations who participate will create the human wall on January first, on the five border bridges of Juarez City where grain shipments pass from the United States, Colunga explained.
In a telephone interview he described that this protest is part of a campaign that began July 25th with the goal of stopping the complete opening of the corn, bean, powdered milk, and sugar cane market, and to call to Congress and the federal government to begin a process of renegotiation of the agricultural portion of NAFTA.
The objective, he explained, is to maintain the wall until January 2, but “it’s possible that public forces will intervene, because the border is very protected.” He indicated that in addition to the Mexican organizations, he hoped to see the participation of Canadian and United States groups.
In the past 14 years, he explained, the rural sector has deteriorated, which has contributed to migration; around 6 million Mexicans have left their farmland, “poverty is concentrated in the communities, where only elderly people, children, and women live; land is not being cultivated because very little is being rented, it’s very expensive to rent and produce but very cheap to sell.” In the case of bean production, he said, in 1997 250,000 tons were produced, but now Mexico only produces 50,000 tons.
Add to this the inflation of prices of up to 30 percent in basic necessity products in 2008, stemming from the high price of gasoline, diesel, and electricity, Max Correa stated.
He said that a catastrophe in the rural sector is not expected as a result of the lifting of the tariffs, that this has already been happening since NAFTA was forced through. He said that the agricultural sector has lost around 5 million employees, and every day one farmer dies trying to cross the northern border.
Enciso L., Angélica. “En Cuidad Juárez campesinos formarán una muralla humana en cruces fronterizos.” La Jornada. December 27, 2007. www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/12/27/index.php
I’m sure I have made some mistakes, so if others catch anything that needs to be corrected, feel free to post corrections below. Thank you.
Eve White
“Catastophe? This has been happening since NAFTA began.”
Angélica Enciso L.
In the first minute of 2008, farmers and consumers will make a human wall on the international bridges of Juarez City-El Paso, Texas, the route of grain imports, to reject the complete opening of the corn and bean market in the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has left agriculture in a state of crises and food dependence, where 40 percent of the food comes from the United States, stated Miguel Colunga, from the Chihuahua Farmers’ Democratic Front.
Because of this crisis the price of the tortilla has gone up 700 percent, the price of beef and chicken 70 percent, stated Max Correa, director of the Cardenista Campesina Center (CCC), who called on the federal governement to create a new social pact to “permit the governability of the country” before the next complete opening of the agricultural sector.
In the context of the National Campaign in Defense of Food Sovereignty and the Revival of the Mexican Fields “Without Corn There is No Country,” 300 farm, environmental, and human rights organizations who participate will create the human wall on January first, on the five border bridges of Juarez City where grain shipments pass from the United States, Colunga explained.
In a telephone interview he described that this protest is part of a campaign that began July 25th with the goal of stopping the complete opening of the corn, bean, powdered milk, and sugar cane market, and to call to Congress and the federal government to begin a process of renegotiation of the agricultural portion of NAFTA.
The objective, he explained, is to maintain the wall until January 2, but “it’s possible that public forces will intervene, because the border is very protected.” He indicated that in addition to the Mexican organizations, he hoped to see the participation of Canadian and United States groups.
In the past 14 years, he explained, the rural sector has deteriorated, which has contributed to migration; around 6 million Mexicans have left their farmland, “poverty is concentrated in the communities, where only elderly people, children, and women live; land is not being cultivated because very little is being rented, it’s very expensive to rent and produce but very cheap to sell.” In the case of bean production, he said, in 1997 250,000 tons were produced, but now Mexico only produces 50,000 tons.
Add to this the inflation of prices of up to 30 percent in basic necessity products in 2008, stemming from the high price of gasoline, diesel, and electricity, Max Correa stated.
He said that a catastrophe in the rural sector is not expected as a result of the lifting of the tariffs, that this has already been happening since NAFTA was forced through. He said that the agricultural sector has lost around 5 million employees, and every day one farmer dies trying to cross the northern border.
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Comments
Re: In Juarez City, farmers will form a human wall in highway crossings along the border
03 Jan 2008
"Capitalist Imperialism and facist governments" that's it! How we take them down? When we are part of the problem, we depend on it, we work for it, we pay for it, we make it happen! we created it! Every time we fall in their consumism traps, (unnecesary commodities) as I call them: Get the latest phone, tv, car, cloths everything is stupidly fashionable they mess with our dumb minds, Pay our contribution to imperialism with taxes etc.. Get rich forget the poor who cares about the poor? I went to school to be more! right? well education doesn't make us more, it make us better at some specialty but not more. It's nothing but a personal desition to go or not to go to school, students are being trained to serve imperialism nothing more! we all deserve the same whether farmer or ceo. "The era of the we all are killing our selves and the enviroment" many of us not even realising it,and the ones that do are to inmersed in their traps to do anything (so they wanna think), well.. something is got to give; this wars, this abusive behavior, this greed, this commodities, this lust, this careless actitud towards humans and enviroment that many of us are taking is gonna cost us all one way or another, we are gonna have to do something about it. so I wanna ask all which side you're in, what are we doing to help, feeling guilty is not enough, in my research I found that: the family is the nucleos of all society that's where it all starts we transform the family, educate, inform, unite (oviously some families around the world are messed up "the leading ones")
Then we move to community what's going on there? is the community responding to unjustices or are we just taking it all come on! we have the Zapatistas example in their struggle, all we have todo is follow their model I'm not saying become a Zapatista I'm saying wherever we are, we have to become self sufficient, separate from the system, how you beat an enemy? you ignore it or you engage in a losing battle I prefer to ignore and go for the long term fight watch! we can't beat our oppressor over night, we have to prepare our selves and the world, how do we beat the system systematicly, how we cripple it well sustainability is one way, civil dessobedience is another, watching what our City Council is doing is another, not paying taxes is another, not consuming is another because they depend greatly of us consuming what they produce (we change our consuming ways consume from local growers etc..) I think the last two are the most important, because like I said earlier we can create the problem we can fix the problem. But, start with the Family.
My closest family is in Mexico City and from what I heard they're not doing very well one of my sisters and my mom run a mini restaurant right from our house, the sales have dropped, they don't have as much merchandise as two years ago inflation it's going up what's going on? well.. K Mart, Sams, Mac Donnals and others have arrived in mexico displacing local business, you get the picture?
Here in the US 2007 was the worst year for me that fricking war and this stupid racism I don't have money to pay my rent this New year month, what a way to start no? Rent is so expensive everything is, wages are going down (funny! cost of living up, wages down) inflation, inflation.. clearly our representatives are not doing what their suppossed to, their too busy making money for them selves at community's expense and competing with other cities for control of the county, and eventually the State, and then the freaking Country and so on! that's the mentallity of this some people running our lives, it's so messed up isn't it.
Well..
Don't take it personal
Enjoy Life
Demand Respect and
Never Stop Loving
Teo Reyes
出会い
25 Mar 2008