coco fusco on Mon, 19 Jul 2004 03:43:06 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> TOWARD A GLOBAL VIEW OF CIVIL RIGHTS, CONT'D


JUST IN CASE ETHNOGRAPHIC EXPLANATORY MARGINALIA IS
REQUIRED:
THE MACLOVIO ROJAS COMMUNITY RESIDES IN TIJUANA AND
REPRESENTS A VERY INTERESTED ATTEMPT AT SEMI-AUTONOMY
BY A GROUP OF WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES. MANY OF THE
RESIDENTS WORK IN MAQUILADORAS THE PRODUCE THE
ELECTRONICS REGULARLY USED BY THE NETTIMERS AND
OTHERS. 
TIJUANA PRODUCES MORE TELEVISION MONITORS THAN ANY
OTHER CITY IN THE WORLD.

COCO FUSCO

> MACLOVIO ROJAS COMMUNITY IN STRUGGLE
> 
>   
> 
> Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, July 15, 2004
> 
>  
> 
> To the progressive and democratic organizations and
> individuals receiving this letter:
> 
>  
> 
> The community of Maclovio Rojas asks for national
> and international solidarity with their effort to
> end their repression and defend their autonomy.
> 
>  
> 
> Since the middle of 2002, Maclovio Rojas has
> suffered an open repression.  Hortensia Hernandez
> and more than 30 other community organizers have
> been persecuted by the police, accused of absurd or
> invented crimes - simply pretexts to arrest them. 
> Organizers Nicolasa Ramos and Juan Regalado have
> been held in jail since December 4, 2002 and May 10,
> 2003 respectively.  Besides the police, the
> government of Baja California has sent its
> provocateurs, supposed guerrillas who make threats
> to the organizers of Maclovio Rojas and interfere
> with and hinder community projects.
> 
>  
> 
> The community of Maclovio Rojas is being repressed,
> and its crime is being a community of poor Mexican
> workers.  The residents of Maclovio Rojas are more
> than 2000 families, many of whom are maquiladora
> workers.  Their salaries have never been sufficient,
> not to buy a house or a condominium, not even to pay
> the rent for the most basic place to live.  So the
> community has used federal land to build its houses.
> But the government of Baja California claims they
> can't spare it - groups with ties to power have
> business plans for the land on which these working
> families' houses now sit.
> 
>  
> 
> The community of Maclovio Rojas is being repressed,
> and its crime is organizing and defending itself. 
> For more than 16 years the government has refused to
> provide basic services such as water, sewage,
> electricity or schools.  So the community has had to
> supply itself with water and electricity from the
> public pipes and cables, build its own schools, and
> it has almost finished constructing its own
> cemetery.  But the government of Baja California
> can't allow it - if the authorities say the society
> will not have homes or education, then the society
> should bow its head and obey.
> 
>  
> 
> The community of Maclovio Rojas is being repressed,
> and its crime is trying to achieve autonomy.  There
> have been many years of struggle and mobilization
> and the community knows the faces of the government,
> its prisons and police, its ongoing corruption.  So
> the community has declared autonomy and doesn't want
> the institutions of bad government which corrupt
> society.  The government of Baja California can't
> have that - society doesn't have permission to
> challenge its power nor to snatch away its
> privileges.
> 
>  
> 
> The community of Maclovio Rojas struggles against
> the privatization of water.  Nicolasa and her
> husband are imprisoned and the government accuses
> them of stealing water worth 4 million pesos - the
> government accuses them of stealing the water which
> the whole community used from the public pipes
> before negotiations began with the government to
> grant water service.  The absurdity of the charge is
> evidenced by the local government police using the
> same system of "robbing" water for which Nicolasa is
> in prison.
> 
>  
> 
> The community of Maclovio Rojas asks for your
> solidarity in the following ways:
> 
>  
> 
> 1.  Send a letter to Eugenio Elorduy, governor of
> Baja California, in support of the community of
> Maclovio Rojas. The legal process against Nicolasa
> and her husband is now moving forward and this is
> the moment to pressure the judge to declare them
> innocent and, therefore, to set them free and drop
> the charges against Hortensia Hernandez and the
> other organizers. 
> 
>  
> 
> 2.  Participate in the protest in Tijuana in support
> of Nicolasa on Sunday, July 25, 11am in front of the
> prison where Nicolasa is detained.
> 
>  
> 
> 3.  Participate in the protest in San Diego in front
> of the Mexican Consulate on Friday 23 July at noon.
> Give them a letter in support of the community of
> Maclovio Rojas.
> 
>  
> 
> 4.  Form a group and take your letters of support to
> the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles or San
> Francisco or Washington DC between the 20th and 28th
> of July.  See example letters below:
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
>  
> 
> Solidarity Organization of the Community of Maclovio
> Rojas:  CITTAC, FZLN, Border Art Workshop, San Diego
> Maquiladora Network, Bi-National Feminist Collective
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Example letter for the governor of Baja California
> 
>  
> 
> Lic Eugenio Elorduy Walter
> 
> Gobernador del Estado de Baja California
> 
> Correo electrónico: gobernador@baja.gob.mx
> 
>                             
> e.gobernador@baja.gob.mx
> 
> Fax: (686) 558-11-79
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> We have received information that Nicolasa Hernandez
> and Juan Regalado, residents of the town Maclovio
> Rojas Marquez (Carretera Tijuana - Tecate km 29½,
> Baja California) have been held in jail since
> December 4, 2002 and May 10, 2003 respectively.  La
> Asociación Civil Unión de Posesionarios de Maclovio
> Rojas has explained that Nicolasa and Juan are
> community organizers and they were accused of
> stealing water from the public pipes which pass near
> the town.  They have also informed us that arrest
> warrants are out for other members of the Unión de
> Posesionarios, including Hortensia Hernandez, for
> the same charge and for other false and invented
> charges.
> 
>  
> 
> As for the issue of the water, the Unión de
> Posesionarios have presented a document explaining
> the following:
> 
>  
> 
> "Setting Nicolasa Ramos and her husband free is a
> moral duty of the federal justice system, as they
> are already some of the the victims of the crimes of
> the civil servants who would not supply potable
> water to the more than 20,000 inhabitants adjacent
> to the Tijuana-Tecate aqueduct, putting their health
> in danger by forcing them to use contaminated water
> because they cannot afford to pay the 25 pesos per
> unit of piped water, a huge business controlled by
> the authorities who supply the potable water
> (CESPT)."
> 
>  
> 
> Given this information, we ask of you:
> 
>  
> 
> 1.  Your intervention in obtaining the immediate
> release of Nicolasa Ramos and Juan Regalado and the
> cancellation of arrest warrents for Hortensia
> Hernandez and the more than 30 other members of the
> Unión de Posesionarios de Maclovio Rojas Márquez. 
> 
>  
> 
> 2.  A reply to this letter with information about
> the situation of Nicolasa Ramos, Juan Regalado,
> Hortensia Hernandez and the more than 30 other
> members of the Unión de Posesionarios de Maclovio
> Rojas Márquez who have oustanding warrants.  
> 
>  
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
>  
> 
> (Name)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Example letter for the Mexican Embassy
> 
>  
> 
> Carlos de Icaza González
> 
> Mexican Ambassador to the United States
> 
>  
> 
> Luis Cabrera
> 
> Mexican Consul General in San Diego, CA 
> 
>  
> 
> Rubén Beltrán Guerrero
> 
> Mexican Consul General in Los Angeles, CA
> 
>  
> 
> Alfonso de Maria y Campos Castello 
> 
> Mexican Consuls General in San Francisco, CA
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> We ask that you present our concerns to the
> government of Baja California in relation to the
> events happening to the town of Maclovio Rojas
> Marquez (Carretera Tijuana - Tecate km 29½, Baja
> California).  We have received information that
> Nicolasa Hernandez and Juan Regalado, residents of
> the town Maclovio Rojas Marquez (Carretera Tijuana -
> Tecate km 29½, Baja California) have been held in
> jail since December 4, 2002, and May 10, 2003
> respectively.  La Asociación Civil Unión de
> Posesionarios de Maclovio Rojas has explained that
> Nicolasa and Juan are community organizers and they
> were accused of stealing water from the public pipes
> which pass near the town.  They have also informed
> us that arrest warrants are out for other members of
> the Unión de Posesionarios, including Hortensia
> Hernandez, for the same charge and for other false
> and invented charges.
> 
>  
> 
> As for the issue of the water, the Unión de
> Posesionarios have presented a document explaining
> the following:
> 
>  
> 
> "Setting Nicolasa Ramos and her husband free is a
> moral duty of the federal justice system, as they
> are already some of the the victims of the crimes of
> the civil servants who would not supply potable
> water to the more than 20,000 inhabitants adjacent
> to the Tijuana-Tecate aqueduct, putting their health
> in danger by forcing them to use contaminated water
> because they cannot afford to pay the 25 pesos per
> unit of piped water, a huge business controlled by
> the authorities who supply the potable water
> (CESPT)."
> 
>  
> 
> Given this information, we ask of you:
> 
>  
> 
> 1.  That you present our concerns to the government
> of Baja California and demand the immediate release
> of Nicolasa Ramos and Juan Regalado and the
> cancellation of arrest warrents for Hortensia
> Hernandez and the more than 30 other members of the
> Unión de Posesionarios de Maclovio Rojas Márquez. 
> 
>  
> 
> 2.  A reply to this letter with information about
> the situation of Nicolasa Ramos, Juan Regalado,
> Hortensia Hernandez and the more than 30 other
> members of the Unión de Posesionarios de Maclovio
> Rojas Márquez who have oustanding warrants.  
> 
>  
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
>  
> 
> (Name)
> 
>  


		
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