----- Original Message -----From: Jonna BaldresSent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:40 AMSubject: SPAM-HIGH: [Info-Bureau] Fwd: [For Immediate Release] International Jurors Commit Support Until Victory for Ex-Braceros
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Katie Joaquin <kjoaquin@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Update to Press Release: The caravan of migrants, braceros, mothers of the disappeared in Honduras, youth, workers and families of the 72 massacred in Mexico that make up the People's Caravan against the GFMD has arrived in Puerto Vallarto and will mobilize to the site of the Global Forum on Migration and Development to present the demands of the 3rd International Assembly of Migrants & Refugees. For live interview via phone, please call (044) 559-104-7318Photos available on request--For Immediate ReleaseNovember 10, 2010
Contact: Katie Joaquin, IAMR3 Media/Publicity Committee
(044) 559-104-7318
International jurors commit support until victory for ex-Braceros
[GUADALAJARA] �Ni un pas atras! Ni un pas atras!� [Not one step back!] An auditorium of over 1,000 people from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America chanted as ex-braceros and their widows stood to their feet at the International Tribunal of Conscience for the case of the braceros.
The Peoples� Caravan Against the Global Forum on Migration Development (GFMD) of international participants in the 3rd International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR3) and the madres de los desaparecidos [mothers of the disappeared] joined with the ex-braceros early Tuesday morning for a vibrant march from the Plaza de Armas de Guadalajara to the site of the Tribunal to demand justice for migrants around the world.
After hearing the cases of the ex-braceros, Edre Olalia, Philippine attorney with the International Association of People�s Lawyers and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, stated the unanimous conclusion of the Tribunal: �The U.S. and Mexican governments are guilty of crimes against humanity and violations of international law with respect to the cases of the ex-braceros. The U.S. and Mexican governments are liable for all the hardships, suffering & pain of ex-braceros and relatives who are until now seeking justice.�
60 years from the period of 1942 � 1964 that the Mexican braceros labored in U.S. fields, they have yet to receive the millions of dollars in wages owed to them. The �Bracero� agreement signed in 1942 by Mexican President Camacho and U.S. President Roosevelt was a temporary worker program that exported Mexican laborers to the U.S. and bound them to their abusive employer the U.S. Farm Security Administration under whom they were fumigated, made to live in cramped quarters, and served inadequate food rations. Throughout their period of grueling labor, the braceros lost 10% of their wages for a supposed �savings fund� of which none have been able to avail of.
Antonio Cheverria, former bracero from the Alianza de Ex-braceros del Norte 1942-1964 [Alliance of Ex-braceros from the North], shared his testimony, �Los salarios eran miserables. En las barracas dormiamos como animales con mucho calor y mucho frio, muchos braceros murieron de hambre.� [The salary was miserable. In our sleeping quarters, we slept like animals in extreme heat or cold and many braceros died from hunger.] A member of Cordinadora de Organizaciones de Ex-Braceros [COE], son of a bracero and attorney for the case of the ex-braceros shared photos of braceros, being fumigated with deadly pesticides, working in the fields and their confined sleeping quarters. As he spoke of working conditions, other braceros in attendance shouted out to add their own memories of the abuse.
The tribunal of 15 jurors represented Mexico, the state of Chiapas, Honduras, the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Netherlands, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The tribunal proposed to make the issue of ex-braceros a primary focus of the 4th International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees in 2011. They also committed to bring the case of the ex-braceros before bodies of the UN, provide support to Mexican lawyers in pursuing the case, and mobilize internationally in front of U.S. and Mexican consulates whenever the case of the ex-braceros is being heard.
Ross from the Caravan of Mothers of the Disappeared of Honduras said:
�We see that all these forms of exploitation continue now today. The Mexican government continues to make agreements to export the labor force. It�s not only your struggle to demand rights for migrants, but it�s a struggle belonging to all of us.�
Activities throughout the assembly leading up to the caravan to the tribunal highlighted the role of governments in forcing migration through temporary worker programs such as the U.S.-Mexico Bracero program and policies such as the Labor Export Policy in the Philippines.
The Peoples� Caravan against the GFMD will continue onward to Puerto Vallarta early November 10 for an action at the site of the GFMD. The participants of the 3rd International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR3), together with the ex-braceros, Madres de los desaparecidos, and indigenous peoples of Michoacan will arrive in time for the opening of the GFMD to present the demands of the International Tribunal of Conscience and the IAMR3 in a strong showing of international solidarity that fuels the fire of a growing movement for migrant and refugee rights around the world.
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Jonna Baldres
jbaldres@philippineforum.org
Philippine Forum - New York
40-21 69th St Woodside NY 11377
(718) 5658862
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