Residents of Lomas del Poleo during a human rights forum across barbed wire, October 2007
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TIMELINE: Lomas del Poleo
(Timeline sources: Excerpts from El Diario de Juárez, El Norte and others)
—About 150 families peacefully settle in Lomas del Poleo.
April 25—Mexican
president Luis Echeverría officially declares that the plot of
land known as La Carbonifera—which includes Lomas del
Poleo—is property of the nation.
— A federally-registered elementary school and a kindergarden are built in Lomas del Poleo.
—The bodies of eight murdered women are discovered in Lomas del Poleo.
October—The
Grupo Zaragoza, knowing that there are major development plans for the
area, tries to evict the residents of Lomas del Poleo. The court does
not recognize their claims to the land.
—Pedro
Zaragoza joins Plan Estrategico de Ciudad Juárez, a group that
decides that major development should be focused on a part of
Juárez that includes San Jeronimo, Anapra and Lomas del Poleo.
September 3—A local court grants injunction to cut off electricity from Lomas del Poleo.
September 19—Lomas del Poleo residents block attempt by Zaragozas to tear down electricity.
September 20—Lomas del Poleo residents create neighborhood defense committees.
February 3—Three bodies of murdered women discovered around Lomas del Poleo area.
April 2—Judge gives second injunction to cancel electric service to Lomas del Poleo.
May 15—Federal commission and police cut off electricity to 100 families.
May 17—Police stop colonos from taking food or water into homes.
May 28—Zaragoza paramilitary guards and armed gang members show up at Lomas del Poleo.
May 29—Juárez mayor says he is powerless to remove Zaragoza guards.
May 30—An armed confrontation between residents and paramilitary thugs is feared.
June 2—Mayor
Delgado accuses the Zaragozas of trying to create an illegal siege in
Lomas del Poleo to pressure residents to leave.
June 10—Colonos march to Juárez city hall to demand the removal of Zaragoza guards.
June 14—Zaragoza guards are arrested and taken to police headquarters. Fence is torn down.
July 23—Residents wage legal fight to reinstall electricity.
August 1—Procuraduría orders city to refund money residents paid for electricity. Zaragoza lawyer mocks the order.
March 18—Residents stage protest at Subprocuraduría de Justicia to denounce Zaragoza crimes.
March 22—Residents throw rocks at Zaragoza thugs. Father Bill Morton intervenes to calm down situation.
March 23—Residents press charges against Pedro Zaragoza at State Attorney General offices.
March 24—Zaragoza thugs rebuild barbed wire fence.
March 30—Lomas
del Poleo families stage another protest against criminal actions
committed by the Zaragoza guards at State Attorney General’s
office.
June 14—Father Bill Morton sends public message to the Zaragozas: “Stop the injustice.”
July—Residents request the aid of the Juárez Bishop in their struggle for justice.
September 14—Lomas de Poleo chapel Jesus de Nazaret is destroyed by Zaragoza guards.
September 18—Lomas del Poleo church is rebuilt.
October 1—200 people attend mass in new church.
October 25—Lomas de Poleo Asociación Civil leader Faustino Olivares is beaten with a baseball bat.
October 26—State Attorney General refuses to investigate beating of Lomas del Poleo leader Faustino Olivares.
August 18—Armed
confrontation takes place between 25 Zaragoza thugs and 4 residents
including Luis Alberto Guerrero who was trying to stop an illegal
demolition.
August 19—Zaragoza lawyer Manuel Balderas is accused of having ordered the violent attack on Luis Alberto Guerrero.
August 19—Juarez Mayor Hector Murguía says the City cannot intervene to stop the violence and murder in Lomas del Poleo.
August 20—Luis Alberto Guerrero dies of internal injuries after Zaragoza guard beating.
August 21—Zaragozas purchase a paid newspaper ad to deny responsibility for Lomas del Poleo murder.
August 23—Residents
protest murder of Luis Guerrero in front of state attorney
general’s office. No charges are ever brought against any of the
Zaragoza guards.
August 27—Human
rights activists General Gallaro denounces murders, use of illegal
weapons and paramilitary groups in Lomas del Poleo.
September 15—Paso del Norte Human Rights Committee calls for action on behalf of colonos.
September 29—Two children die in a mysterious fire. The fire department claims it was accidental, but colonos suspect Zaragoza arson.
October 7—Binational activist group United Without Borders stages a demonstration for Lomas del Poleo.
October 19—Lomas de Poleo residents knock down part of the barbed wire fence.
October 20—Police say tearing down fence is not an illegal act.
November 11—Juárez NGOS publicly denounce human rights abuses in paid ad.
November 12—PAN senator Jeffrey Jones asks for the Lomas del Poleo and Carbonifera land dispute to be solved in 90 days.
November 13—Mayor Murguía wants title to Lomas del Poleo lands handed over to city so that he can solve the land dispute.
November 14—Catarino del Rio, Zaragoza overseer and former Panista official, claims land legally belongs to the Zaragoza family.
January 14—Fifty
civil organizations march in support of human rights for Lomas del
Poleo. Including activists from Germany and Holland.
January 16—Civil groups from Mexico set up camp in Lomas del Poleo.
January 16—Zaragoza terror campaign has reduces population of Lomas del Poleo from 320 at its peak to 120.
February 6—Residents meet with Chihuahua governor José Reyes Baeza to denounce fence.
February 24—Zaragoza lawyer subpoenas journalists to court and judge issues order to appear.
February 17—Civic groups denounce court order as an act of intimidation.
April 2—Several Lomas de Poleo families are relocated.
April 30—Mayor Hector Murguía claims the land dispute at Lomas del Poleo is now resolved.
May 1—Municipal
Housing Authority helps build relocation camp with Grupo Zaragoza money
for residents willing to accept relocation.
May 13—Mayor Murguía denies charge of carrying out forced eviction of colonos.
September 11—Father Bill Morton is pressured by Mexican immigration authorities to leave the country.
July 26—Federal lawyer for colonos Lopez Avitia confronts Zaragoza guards during illegal demolition of a resident’s fence.
November 6—Subcomandante
Marcos finds out about Lomas del Poleo during his trip to Ciudad
Juárez. Zapatista delegation holds meeting inside Lomas del
Poleo.
October 19—Armed paramilitary group stop human rights forum in Lomas del Poleo. The forum is held across the barbed wire.
October 23—Juárez mayor Reyes Ferriz says he will not stop the Zaragoza siege.
October 30—NGO human rights observation patrols harassed at Lomas del Poleo.
November 20—UTEP forum connects the struggle the Segundo Barrio and Lomas del Poleo.
December 1—Gang members hired by the Grupo Zaragoza block access road to the Second Forum at Lomas del Poleo.
December 11—Protest
at the Department of Public Education against the closing of elementary
and kindergarten in Lomas del Poleo.
December 20—A
cross-border alliance of activists from El Paso, Juárez and Las
Cruces meet to fight binational displacement and land dispossession.
January 5—Zaragoza guards demolish home and break into and rob several others, Lomas leader Guadalupe Pineda is injured.
January 15—Activists
stage a two-city simultaneous protest before the U.S. and Mexican
consulates against binational displacement in Lomas del Poleo and the
Segundo Barrio.
January 28—Guards destroy home and beat Lomas del Poleo resident Esther Gomez injuring her arm.
February 20—Zaragoza guards prevent Chihuahua State Human Rights official to carry out inspection.
February 26—Doña Ana County Commissioners express outrage at binational development abuses.
March 7—North American Human Rights Delegation release report on human rights abuses in Lomas del Poleo.
March 11—Doña Ana County commission passes resolution.
March 12—Senator
Bingaman Meets With Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States to
Discuss Border Violence and Lomas del Poleo.
March 16—Zaragoza lawyer Mario Chacón Rojo tells the
Albuquerque Journal that there was no one in Lomas del Poleo before
November 2000.
March 24—Two Doña Ana County Commissioners and a Segundo Barrio priest visit Lomas del Poleo.
—About 150 families peacefully settle in Lomas del Poleo.
About 150 families peacefully settle in 435 hectares of a zone known as
Granjas Lomas del Poleo along the U.S.-Mexico international line
adjacent to Sunland Park, New Mexico. The leader of the settlers, Luis
Urbina requests permission to the state authorities and he is told that
these lands are located within a 25,000 hectare area defined as federal
property. According to the Mexican constitution, a homesteader may
stake a claim to 20,000 square meters per family with the understanding
that the federal agrarian authorities will regularize their
settlements. They begin legal proceedings with Terrenos Nacionales, an
office of the Agrarian Reform Department, to regularize their land. The
large majority of the settlers in Lomas del Poleo tend sheep, pigs and
cattle.
April
25—Mexican president Luis Echeverría declares that the
plot of land known as La Carbonifera—which includes Lomas del
Poleo—is property of the nation.
The Executive Branch of México under president Luis
Echeverría declares through the Department of Agrarian Reform
that the plot of land known as La Carbonifera in the ex-Canón de
Bravo, in northwestern Ciudad Juárez—which includes Lomas
del Poleo—is property of the nation. Any private landowners
claiming to have titles to these lands are invited to challenge the
federal decree published in the Official Federal Bulletin.
—A federally-registered elementary school and a kindergarden are constructed for the children of Lomas del Poleo.
The Alfredo Nava Sahagún elementary school and the Santa
Teresa kindergarden are constructed with the labor of the Lomas del
Poleos residents. They are officially registered by the Department of
Public Education with the federal code—08DPR2214-D. The federal
code for the kindergarden is 08DJN1198F. The schools are still there
today. This same year the San Marcos parish (today known as the corpus
Christi parish) is constructed on the mesa of Lomas del Poleo.
—The bodies of eight murdered women are discovered in Lomas del Poleo.
For a discussion of the femicides within the context of territorial disputes in Ciudad Juárez, see Rita Laura Segato's essay [in Spanish] titled "Territory, Sovereignty and Crimes of a Parallel State in Ciudad Juárez."
"What is the
language of femicide? I'm willing to bet that the author of this
crime is a subject that values accumulation and territorial control
above all else, even his own personal happiness. It's a subject with
his own entourage of vassals who wishes to make it absolutely clear
that Ciudad Juárez has its owners, and these owners kill women
to demonstrate who they are. This sovereign power cannot manifest
itself if it's not capable of sowing terror...
The femicides in
Ciudad Juarez are not common crimes. They are corporate crimes, that
is, crimes committed by a second state, a parallel government." —Rita Laura Segato
October—The
Grupo Zaragoza, knowing that there are major development plans for the
area, tries to evict the residents of Lomas del Poleo.
Pedro and Jorge Zaragoza Fuentes, owners of Grupo Zaragoza, a
corporation that includes dairy farms, gas stations and a real estate
development projects, begin legal proceedings to evict the homesteaders
in Lomas del Poleo, a plot of land they claim they inherited from their
father Pedro Zaragoza Vizcarra. The Grupo Zaragoza knows about the
major binational development plans for the area where Lomas del Poleo
is located. In the 90s the media reports that a clandestine
narcotraffic landing site was discovrered by federal agents just west
of Lomas del Poleo.
The Zaragoza Fuentes are related by blood to Amado Carrillo Fuentes
“El Rey de los Cielos”, the head of the Juárez
cartel. During the 90s, Pedro Zaragoza was investigated by both the
Mexican federal government and the DEA for narcotraffic and money
laundering. But thanks to the intervention on their behalf of high
ranking politicians including then governor of Chihuahua Francisco
Barrios on the Mexican side and New Mexico senator Pete Domenici on the
American side, the investigations go nowhere.
The legal representatives of the colonos question the validity of
Zaragoza title. They argue the land was fraudulently sold to the the
father of Pedro and Jorge Zaragoza in 1963 by Lauro Perea. Perea sold
land to them that in effect he did not own because the land did not
exist. Perea purchased the land from a previous businessman who had
acquired 35,000 acres yet sold off 46,000 acres.
—Pedro
Zaragoza joins Plan Estrategico de Ciudad Juárez, a group
that decides that major development should be focused on the
northwestern part of Juárez which includes San Jeronimo, Anapra
and Lomas del Poleo.
In 2002, both Pedro and Miguel Zaragoza Fuentes join the Plan
Estrategico de Ciudad Juárez, a group of businessmen,
developers, city officials and others who decide that the development
should be focused on the northwestern part of Juárez which
includes San Jeronimo, Anapra and Lomas del Poleo.
The Zaragoza brothers who own the Grupo Zaragoza, a corporation that
includes dairy farms, gas stations and a real estate development
projects, begin legal proceedings to evict the homesteaders in Lomas
del Poleo, a plot of land they claim they inherited from their father
Pedro Zaragoza Vizcarra. The legal representatives of the colonos
question the validity of their title. The land was sold to them in 1963
by a person who fraudulently sold them lands he did not have a legal
right to sell them because he did not own that land.
September 3—Court grants injunction to cut off electricity from Lomas del Poleo.
About 100 people of the Comite Granjas Lomas de Poleo protested the
verdict by Juzgado Sexto de Distrito the granted an injunction to cut
off the electricity from the neighborhood. The sixth district court
granted an injunction to Pedro Zaragoza to remove electric service to
Lomas de Poleo, but not for the settlers to be evicted from their
homes. The request for an injunction had first been brought before the
court in the name of the mother of Pedro and Jorge Zaragoza Fuentes in
January 2002.
September 19—Residents block attempt to tear down electricity.
Armed with sticks and stones, dozens of Lomas de Poleo residents,
blocked the entrance of the Federal Electric Commission (CFE) that,
following a judicial injunction, tried to tear down the electricity
that the same government entity installed there last year. To protect
the electric service that they pay for currently, the neighbors formed
a human barrier at the entrance of Lomas de Poleo, set several tires on
fires to block a dozen vehicles of the CFE. The colonos paid
2,800 pesos to the city government to obtain the permit for
electricity. The CFE came in the morning. At 11:30 am they abandoned
Lomas de Poleo. During the blockade they blocked the entrance of a
Lecheria Lucerna truck and a Corona beer truck. The colonia Lomas de
Poleo is inhabited by about 300 families that up to now were paying
their electric bills. CFE says it will only go back to remove the
electric poles if accompanied by police.
September 20—Residents create neighborhood defense committees.
Lomas de Poleo resodents said that the government would strip them of
their electricity that they acquired with great sacrifice only
“over their dead bodies.” “They want to invade us and
evict us forcefully, but we will defend ourselves,” said Jose
Refugio Ortiz Cardenas, secreataria of the Comite Pro Creacion de
Granjas Lomas de Poleo. “We don’t want the same thing to
happen here that happened in San Andres Atenco.” The Lomas de
Poleo leaders have organized themselves setting up permanent lookouts
at every entrance point of the colonia. Some of the neighbors
positioned themselves at a church at the lower part of the colony.
These “guards” had instructions to set fire to the tires
and ring the church bells to warn the rest of the neighbors that the
CFE vehicles were back. The residents of Lomas de Poleo ask themselves
why suddenly their lands have stirred up the avariciousness of
“the powerful,” since they know the colonos have been there
for thirty years. They all agreed that the former director of the State
Department of Agrarian Reform, Jaime Mariscal, failed to resolve the
land ownership problem despite all their attempts to do so.
“First they told us that these lands were property of the Reforma
Agraria, now they suddenly belong to Mr. Zaragoza,” said Ortiz.
—In 2003 the Verde Group, owned by Bill Sanders, establishes his headquarters in El Paso, Texas.
It is the center for major binational redevelopment projects along the
U.S.-Mexico border. This is the year, Eloy Vallina Lagüera, owners
of 50,000 acres in San Jeronimo, directly across the Verde-owned Santa
Teresa project, joins the Verde Group’s board of directors. This
is also the year that both Eloy Vallina and Pedro Zaragoza Fuentes sit
on the New Mexico-Chihuahua Commission, a binational economic development commission headed by New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.
February 3—Three bodies of murdered women discovered around Lomas del Poleo area.
The Procuraduria de Justice de Estado, according to a Juárez
newspaper, has hidden the discovery of three bodies in or near Lomas de
Poleo, a plot of land that is protected by armed individuals.
Chihuahua state Attorney General Chito Solis said ]that investigators
were not obligated to disclose details of a pending
investigation. In 1996, the bodies of 8 muredered women were
found in Lomas del Poleo. Nearly 340 girls and women have been killed
in Juarez since 1993. Experts estimate that 90 or more are serial
murder victims. Despite pronouncements by Chihuahua state officials
that the cases were solved in 2001, young Juarez women have continued
to be killed. A United Nations’ Humans Rights Organizetion
observer described the Chihuahuan authorities record in investigating
the murders as one of “inefficiency, incompetence, indifference,
insensitivity and negligence.”
February 5—Press reveals clandestine landing strip near Lomas del Poleo is used by Juárez cartel.
The area where three bodies of murdered women were found on January 6th
is “a nest of drug smugglers” residents of Lomas de Poleo
and Anapra told the local media. The residents said they live in fear
because of the obvious protection that the police give these groups
that often come to Lomas de Poleo in luxurious vehicles. Colonos say
that their neighborhood is frequently visited by car caravans that head
to a zone about four kilometers west of where the three bodies were
found in January. They remember in 1998 when they reported a
clandestine landing site for airplanes in Lomas de Poleo their lives
were threatened and unknown individuals constantly followed them
around. According to the Procuraduria de Justicia del Estado documents
dated March 5, 1998, it was determined that the landing site was used
by drug smugglers of the Juarez Cartel and the military ordered its
destruction. “On that occasion, it was only threats we received,
but we were still frightened. We are humble people and we don’t
have anything to defend ourselves with nor who to defend us.
That’s why we don’t want to give you our names because then
they’ll see we killed the women like they’ve done with
other people,” said one of the Anapra colonos.
April 2—Judge cancels electric service to Lomas del Poleo.
Judge cancels electric service to Lomas de Poleo. Injunction is won by the Zaragoza family.
May 15—Federal commission and police cut of electricity to 100 families.
An operation by the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission to cut power
Tuesday to 100 families in Lomas de Poleo, turned into a scuffle,
Juarez municipal police said. Commission workers, accompanied by 70
police officers, took down electric poles and wires. The CFE took down
78 electric poles, 14 transformers and 4.5 kilometers of high tension
wire. More than 132 users had paid for electric service.
May 17—Police stop colonos from taking food or water into homes.
Yesterday a tense calm ruled over Lomas de Poleo. Colonos say the
police stop them from taking water and even food to their homes.
May 28—Zaragoza paramilitary guards and armed thugs show up.
Paramilitary troops arrive: private guards set up camp while the police
merely watch. Armed with pipes, clubs and firearms, a large
paramilitary group composed of about fifty youth recruited from various
city neighborhoods and about thirty private guards, occupied part of
Lomas de Poleo yesterday. The youth arrived at 8 in the morning
in special vehicles. They said they have been offered 30 dollars a day
to “protect” the disputed land. Not one of the guards
chose to identify themselves. “I can’t tell you the name of
the firm...I’m armed, but that’s why I’m
keeping my distances,” said Jose Luis Robles, one of the
directors of the “operation,” who carried a gun inside his
black vest.
The Lomas de Poleo settlers, under the direction of Luis Urbina Duran
and Faustino Olivares, congregated at the association headquarters to
organize the colonia’s defense. In the meantime, less than fifty
meters away, dozens of youth wandered about brandishing pipes made out
of hard plastic. Some of them had been brought in vans from
surrounding working class neighborhoods. “We’re here to go
at each other with pipes, let’s see if the people defend
themselves,” spurted out an adolescent while other received
instructions from one of the men. Another group decided to kill time
playing a bit of soccer. Without revealing their names, many admitted
that they have been offered two thousand pesos [$200 U.S. dollars] to
kick out the settlers. Several people with dark glasses observed from a
distance. “There isn’t going to be any act of violence, our
presence is here to guarantee that,” said police agent
Martin Alonso Chavarria, director of the Direccion General de Seguridad
Publica. Later a white Dodge Ram Pickup Truck showed up with several
youth and with several sets of pick axes, pliers, shovels, that were
immediately passed around [to the guards.]“We’re waiting
for our orders to carry out the eviction,” said Hugo Baez, the
driver of the truck.
A paramilitary group composed of about 150 persons, among them
security guards and gang members, armed with anti-riot gear, set up
camp at the entrance of Lomas de Poleo. The camp was set up next to a
JMAS water tank, right across the resident’s meeting place.
Socorro Membrila, a spokesperson for the colonos said the 150
individuals who set up camp have been promised a plot of land once the
conflict is over. The youth said they are being paid 300 pesos daily to
“hacer bola”-”join the rabble”- and to defend
themselves in case they are attacked. They said they accepted the job
because they are unemployed and the amount offered them is attractive
since it is only a matter of putting pressure [on the colonos.]
Some of the guards carry the logo of the Corona beer company on their
uniforms, whereas other wear gray uniforms. Their camp has an
enormous circus-like tent, an electric generator, portable johns, and a
considerable amount of food provisions.
May 29—Juárez mayor says he is powerless to remove Zaragoza guards.
Tense Calm in Lomas de Poleo. The city cannot remove the guards. Mayor
Jesus Alfredo Delgado said his administration cannot remove the
individuals allegedly sent by the Zaragoza family to Lomas de Poleo
because they are within a plot of land that belongs to them. When
informed that the guards carry guns without the police doing anything
about it the mayor responded. “I didn’t know that.
I’m glad you told me. I’ll get the chief of police to look
into that matter. We don’t know these individuals have a
license to carry arms or not. If they are, then we can’t do
anything about it.”
May 30—An armed confrontation between residents and paramilitary thugs is feared.
Both the paramilitary guards and the residents
of Lomas de Poleo have begun to accumulate all kinds of weapons,
despite the police presence in the area. While the guards hide their
fire weapons in a bus that serves as their headquarters, the other side
is armed with rocks and home-made molotov cocktails. Various members of
the shock troops admitted that their leaders told them that they could
attack the settlers, including women or children, since they were
assured that no charges would be brought against them in the court
system. The shock troops were transported by individuals who made up
part of two Zaragoza family businesses. Since last Tuesday,
several of the vigilante leaders were seen carrying guns. Martin Alonso
Chavarria, director of the General Department of Public Safety, said he
would check those with guns: “Surely they have the necessary
permits, we’re going to check,” said the police chief.
Yesterday the group of private vigilantes guarded more than 100 liters
of gasoline and diesel in several metal and plastic containers. They
were covered with carton to protect them from the sun. The
residents believed that the fuel will be used for more than just to run
the generator used for several refrigerators at the camp. “They
say that they’re going to burn down a few unoccupied
houses,” said a resident.
June 2—Juarez Mayor accuses the Zaragozas of trying to create a siege in Lomas del Poleo.
The El Paso Times reporter Louie Gillot writes an article titled
“Juarenses, developer square off over land. “The land
dispute in Northwest Juarez neighborhood has escalated to what Juarez
Mayor Jesus Alfredo Delgado Muñoz called a
“siege.” ...For the time being the residents benefit
from an amparo, a judgement that protects them from eviction while the
matter is pending in the courts. “We hope that the owners
of the land send their people away and cease what they are trying to
do, which I think is to instigate a siege,” Delgado said.
The Rev. Bill Morton described a tense situation in which some families
slept in their cars for fear that bulldozers would tear down their
houses at night. Despite a court order to return electrical power
to Lomas de Poleo, residents still live without refrigerators or
fans. The neighborhood sits on a wide, open space in an area that
will see tremendous development in the next 10 years, when the Santa
Teresa port of entry is enlarged.
June 10—Colonos march to Juárez city hall to demand the removal of Zaragoza guards.
Lomas de Poleos neighbors marched to City Hall to demand the removal of
armed guards. City council representative Rosa Maria Lardizábal
came out to greet them. She admitted that there were individuals armed
with “cuernos de chivo”—AK47s. “We are going to
make sure that the police chief commits to making the neighborhood
safe,” she said.
June 14—Zaragoza guards are arrested and taken to police headquarters. Fence is torn down.
Shock Troops are Removed. The police removed security guards hired by
the Zaragoza family and tore down the small huts they had constructed
in Lomas de Poleo. He said 16 of these invaders were arrested and taken
to police headquarters. Lomas de Poleo colonos said the paramilitary
thugs terrorized the neighborhood by physically attacking the
residents, burning down two homes and a pigsty and more than 50 pigs.
July 23—Residents wage legal fight to reinstall electricity.
Lomas Residents Negotiate Reinstallation of
electricity. The Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor has ordered the
Federal Electric Commission to reinstall electric services in Lomas de
Poleo or return the investment made by the colonos to the City to
install the electric power to the area. The colonos paid more than 35
percent out of the total costs to install electricity, plus a year of
electricity. “It is unheard of and inhuman to
strip the electric services to a neighborhood where there are children,
elderly and sick, without having first ordered an eviction,” said
resident lawyer Carlos Camacho.
August
1—Procuraduria orders city to refund money residents paid for
electricity. Zaragoza lawyer Mario Chacon Rojo mocks the order.
The Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor has ordered the city to return
the money that it charged colonos for the installation of electric
services. Mario Humberto Chacon Rojo was present in court representing
the Zaragoza family. He was criticized for his mocking attitude during
the court proceedings. “Sure, I’ll put back 500 electric
poles,” said the Zaragoza lawyer sarcastically “or as many
as you all want.”
March 18—Residents protest Zaragoza guard crimes .
Lomas de Poleo colonos stage a demonstration at the offices of Oscar
Valadez Reyes, the director of the Subprocuraduria de Justica del
Estado. The demonstrators carried small bags of eggs they brought for
him. They accused the police of not intervening in any of the
atrocities committed by the Zaragoza guards. “Two months have
passed [since the guard set up camp] and you have done nothing. We come
to tell you that we are up to here with this situation and we will
defend our homes at whatever cost, and if blood is spilled you will be
the only one responsible,” said one of the colonos. “They
come to offer us 2 or 3 thousand pesos for our homes. If these homes
belong to them, as they say, why do they want to buy them from
us?” asked one of the residents. The statements of the colonos
irritated the subprocurador who responded aggressively several times.
He even told one of the demonstrators that he had no right to speak
because he didn’t even live in that place.
March 22—Residents throw rocks at Zaragoza thugs. Father Bill Morton calms situation.
Rock-Throwing Skirmish at Lomas de Poleo. Cement posts and a cyclonic
fence were set up to block the entrance. The colonos, upset
because buses could not enter the neighborhood, nor water trucks, nor
the other trucks that bring in provisions for the small neighborhood
stores, began to tear down the posts but a group of people began to
throw rocks at them. The police stood by and watched. The men of the
colonia, armed with bats, chains and sticks were ready to confront the
group that was attacking them until a priest showed up and calmed
things down, they said. Many women cried in frustration and impotence
because those who controlled the gates carry firearms and threaten them
continually. Others were worried that now the trucks that bring water
to their homes will not be able to get in. There are about 200 homes in
the area that is now surrounded by a fence.
Residents denounce threats. Say private security individuals have
physically assaulted them and threatened to burn down their homes.
During the rock throwing confrontation three persons were injured, some
had to be hospitalized. Paula Flores, president of the Neighborhood
Committee, said: “In this city we can all see that the
authorities are at the service of the powerful.” Some of the
residents said that they have been threatened by the security guards
who tell them that they will burn down their homes. Residents are
concerned that the 300 children who go to Santa Teresa kindergarten
will be unable to go. During a neighborhood meeting women complained
that the maquiladora buses leave them outside the fence late in the
evening and it is up to them and their luck to get home after a days
work. The police campers have merely parked and remained as spectators,
the residents say. The shock troops, however, have been doing
everything possible to divide the residents. Reporters went into the
guard compound and saw armed men with anti-riot gear. Some of the were
dressed in navy blue uniforms and others in civilian clothes. They grin
mockingly for the camera and stand before it in triumphant poses.
March 23—Residents press charges against Pedro Zaragoza at state attorney general offices.
A group of Lomas de Polo residents pressed charges against Pedro
Zaragoza a the Subprocuraduria General de Justicia del Estato crimes of
unlawful expropriation and abuse of authority. They say armed Zaragoza
employees have threatened to kill them if they don’t leave their
homes. Colonos reject relocation. Housing Authority director, Hiram
Contreras Herrera, says that colonos are being offered land plots at
affordable prices, plus they will receive construction materials free
of charge. Contreras said that the colonos should accept the offer made
to them by Zaragoza last year for their own good. If the colonos lose
the court decision, “They’ll lose everything,” he
said. Lomas de Poleo residents says the private guards have beat
them and pulled out guns on them. Paula Flores and Florencio
Hernandez pressed charges at the State General attorney’s office.
Hernandez said that one of the Zaragoza guards pushed a handgun against
his chest last week. The police was called but they said the
guards had permits to carry weapons.
The lawyer for Pedro Zaragoza and his mother, Maria del Refugio Fuentes
Garcia, Mario Chacon Rojo, says they own Lomas de Poleo
according to land title no. 3162 of September 23, 1963 signed before
public notary number 9. Pedro Zaragoza Vizcarra bought 2 thousand acres
from Lauro Ortega Perea and Guadalupe Cordero.
March 24—Zaragoza thugs rebuild barbed wire fence.
Conflict at Lomas de Poleo Starts Up Again. Zaragoza employees set up camp and surround land with fence.
Manuel Balderas said they are basing their actions on an amparo they
received five months ago. “This injunction allows us to be here.
We’ve asked the chief of police to cease carrying out repressive
measures in preventing us to do what we are doing, that is setting up
installments in a property that is the private property of Mr.
Zaragoza,” he said. The streets were blocked. Only the Lecheria
Lucerna trucks were allowed to pass. The residents were afraid their
children could not attend school, since their school is now within the
fenced area.
March 30—Lomas
del Poleo families stage another protest against Zaragoza guards
criminal actions at state attorney general’s office.
Lomas de Poleo families staged a heated protest in front of the
state attorney general’s office yesterday denouncing their
passivity toward the alleged criminal actions by Zaragoza employees and
private guards. When the subprocurador came out to meet them he was
greeted with shouts from the protesters. They called on him to provide
a written agreement that he will stop the aggressions against the
colonos by private guards until the land dispute is resolved in court.
Straying from his usual diplomatic demeanor, the subprocurador told the
colonos he would give them such document only if “they cut off
his balls.” The phrase was recorded in the tape recorders and
microphones of the various media that was at the event.
The obscene statement, coming from a high ranking civil servant,
angered those present, many of them who had brought children to the
demonstration. The colonos say such language is common among the
Zaragoza guards who block their way into their neighborhood and
threaten people with guns. They said its also the kind of language used
by Zaragoza lawyer Mario Chacon Rojo, who gives the orders to raze down
people’s homes.
The colonos carried signs saying, “We want justice, we are victims of a crime.”
June 14—Father Bill Morton sends public message to the Zaragozas: “Stop the injustice.”
Father Guillermo Morton, sent a message to the Zaragozas calling on
them to “live according to their Catholic, Christian faith and
cease committing injustice against the people who live in the
area.” He said the Zaragoza family who are trying to evict
the inhabitants from their lands, should unite with the families of
Lomas de Poleo “as a demonstration of their values.”
Instead “Zaragoza has put up a barbed wire fence like the kind
they had in Germany,” he said.
The colonos have set up a tent to celebrate the first anniversary of
the removal of the Zaragoza shock troops. Meanwhile, from their
guard camp, members of the paramilitary group observe each one of the
colonos through binoculars. They carry weapons and sport black t-shirts
with designs of beasts bearing their fangs.
July—Residents request the aid of the Bishop Ascencio.
The inhabitants of Lomas de Poleo called upon Bishop Renato Ascencio
Leon to intervene in the conflict. He said he would go to the colonia
to give them a message of hope.
Paula Flores said they asked the Bishop to ask the authorities to
removes the shock troops. Flores said: “We asked him to help us
get the word out at mass about what is happening in Lomas de Poleo, but
he said he couldn’t because we are in the midst of an electoral
campaign. However, he said he could come to his us a message of hope
because people here are discouraged and feel hopeless.”
September 17--Lomas de Poleo chapel is destroyed. Colonos blame the shock troops.
The small chapel Jesus of Nazareth was destroyed on Wednesday night.
The wooden structure as razed, the roof was split in two.
According to the neighbors, they say two trucks loaded with thugs pass
by the church around 8 pm at traveling at a high velocity. Minutes
later they heard shots fired—to intimidate them, the colonos
say. Father Morton said the church had been growing and they were
building an addition to it. The man in charge of the construction said
several men on horseback came to tell him he couldn’t build
anything there and they stole his ladder. Later that evening he
witnessed two trucks carrying about 15 hoodlums each that got off and
started destroying the church. In two or three minutes they tore
everything down.
“They want to discourage us, but this Saturday we will raise our
church again and Sunday we’ll have mass,” Father Morton
said. Faustino Olivares, one of the leaders of the colonos, said the
paramilitary group is made up of about 250 thugs and 50 or 60 armed
security guards. “They have clubs, shields, helmets, tear gas
projectiles, huge gas tanks. Why are the authorities allowing this
other government to operate. Are they afraid or something? What’s
going on here?” he asked.
Residents say the guards taunt and try to provoke them, they bother the
children and youth, especially the adolescent girls on their way to
school.
Faustino Olivares said the the ones who are truly responsible for the
acts of the shock troops are those that “drug them up.”
September 18- Lomas del Poleo church is rebuilt.
Juarez Bishop Renato Ascencio Leon lamented
the destruction of the Jesus Nazareth chapel. “In pagan eyes and
the eyes of those without faith this is a small and insignificant
place. But even an insignificant chapel is like a great Cathedral in
the presence of Christ. Those who have destroyed a chapel where the
eucharist is celebrated have committed an unnameable sacrilege,”
said the Bishop.
When asked if he would speak to the Zaragozas the Bishop said, “I
wouldn’t know what kind of dialogue to engage in with
them.” He said it is up to the authorities to investigate the
matter and resolve the problem. “I am responsible for all matters
dealing with the diocese in Ciudad Juarez and I will support them in
whatever way we can,” he said.
October 1—200 attend mass in new church.
Mass is held by 200 in the new church in Lomas de Poleo constructed out of adobe and hay.
October 25—Lomas de Poleo leader is beaten with a baseball bat.
Faustino Olivares was ambushed and beaten in
the head with baseball bats. He said a man stopped him at a gas
distribution plant near Lomas de Poleo asking if he was still giving
out land plots, then he and an accomplice attacked him with a baseball
back wounding him in the forehead and beating him throughout his body
for about three or four minutes.
October 26— State Attorney General refuses to investigate beating of Lomas del Poleo leader.
Lomas de Colono said they were verbally abused
by the subprocurador de Justica del Estado, Rafael Maldonado Porras
when they accompanied their leader Faustino Olivares to press charges
against his attackers. Olivares arrived to the state attorney’s
office in a wheel chair, helped by his wife, who asked that those
assailants be arrested and punished. Paula Flores, one of the Lomas de
Poleo residents who is the mother of one of the victims of femicide
[Sagrario Gonzalez Flores] said the state police chief told them they
had to speak directly to David Camacho [one of the Zaragoza employees]
before they could take action. Flores said Maldonado wanted to
“send her directly into the jaws of the wolf” without
guaranteeing any kind of protection for her. Her life has been
threatened several times, she said. Flores said she is not afraid for
her own life, but for that of her daughters who have already been
traumatized by the murder of their sister and the fact that they live
under the constant threats of David Camacho and the Zaragoza people.
August 18—Armed confrontation between Zaragoza thugs and residents during an illegal demolition.
Six persons were injured with gun wounds and blows after an armed
confrontation...Jeus Uribe Gonzalez, 35 years old, was shot in the left
leg; Luis Alberto Guerrero, 49 years old, was beaten with pipes
throughout his body and suffered cranial-encaphalic trauma, Luis
Ernesto Guerrero, 38 years old and Jose Alberto Hernandez Escobedo, 18,
both suffered from injuries resulting from blows to the body.
He said the alleged director of the guard Manuel Bernal, 40 years old,
was shot in the stomach and one of his subordinates, whose identity is
not known, received a blow to the head. They were taken in a private
care for medical attention. Their whereabouts are unknown.
The conflict between the Zaragoza family and the colonos goes back to
2002 after the State Government revealed its plans for an international
crossing in Santa Teresa and for industrial park construction in the
area when the Zaragoza family began fighting for possession of the
land, that belongs, by constitutional seniority rights, to the colonos,
many who have lived there for more than 30 years, said one of the
resident leaders.
He said since then the Zaragozas have ordered the homes of the settlers
knocked down, and little by little they are being uprooted from their
land.
August 19—Zaragoza lawyer Manuel Balderas is accused of having ordered attack on Luis Alberto Guerrero.
The Preliminary Investigations Deparment has reported that guards and a
lawyer that works for the Zaragoza family appear to be responsible for
the wounds suffered by three colonos of Lomas de Poleo during a
confrontation that took place Wednesday. The Department head, Victorio
Tenorio Enriquez, said the investigations carried out by state agents,
say that a lawyer named Balderas gave the order to attack the
inhabitants of the zone. He said Carlos Arredondo Anguiano was
shot in the leg, Ramiro Luna Mendivil was wounded in the jaw and Luis
Alberto Guerrero Rodriguez was beaten throughout his body. It is said
that Manuel Balderas, 40 years old, the leaders of the security guards
in the area, was shot in the abdomen, but authorities have not been
able to locate him in any city hospital. According to witnesses the
attack occurred at 5:40 pm on Manzana and Toronja street while a group
was demolishing a house. A white Nissan passed by the house with Luis
Alberto and his brother Luis Ernesto Guerrero Rodriguez.
Relatives of Jesus Uribe Gonzalez and Luis Alberto Guerrero who were
injured during a confrontation in Lomas de Poleo say they are going
through one of the worst periods of their life. Lucia Esquivel, wife of
Guerrero, said she was called from the waiting room at the Hospital
General because a social worker said her husband needed more X-rays to
find out where the intense pain in his internal organs was coming from.
“This is a tragedy no one expected.” She said her husband
works as a city bus driver and has never gotten in fights with anyone.
She said when he saw the “cholos” knocking down the houses
he yelled at them to stop—que nos dejaran en paz.
Luis Guerrero’s sister said that after that they were pulled out
of their cars at gun point. “My husband says that after having
been beaten a bullet grazed by his head and that’s when he lost
consciousness,” Esquivel said.
The Preliminary Investigations Deparment has reported that guards and a
lawyer that works for the Zaragoza family appear to be responsible for
the wounds suffered by three colonos of Lomas de Poleo during a
confrontation that took place Wednesday. The Department head, Victorio
Tenorio Enriquez, said the investigations carried out by state agents
seem to indicate that a lawyer named Balders gave the order to attack
the inhabitants of the zone. He said Carlos Arredondo Anguiano was shot
in the leg, Ramiro Luna Mendivil was wounded in the jaw and Luis
Alberto Guerrero Rodriguez was beaten throughout his body. It is said
that Manuel Balderas, 40 years old, the leaders of the security guards
in the area, was shot in the abdomen, but authorities have not been
able to locate him in any city hospital. According to witnesses the
attack occurred at 5:40 pm on Manzana and Toronja street while a group
was demolishing a house. A white Nissan passed by the house with Luis
Alberto and his brother Luis Ernesto Guerrero Rodriguez.
August 19—Juarez Mayor Hector Murguía says the City cannot intervene.
After armed confrontations between the Lomas de Poleo residents and
security guards hired by a local empresario, the City says it is
impossible to intervene and resolve the land dispute given that it is
in the process of litigation. “We’ve met with many of the
leaders and asked for calm, but we are not judges. The judges are the
ones that decide the legal condition of those plots. Violence is never
a solution, it only creates greater harm to all of those
involved,” said Mayor Hector Murguia. When asked about
demolitions of homes he said “These are actions taken by private
owners.”
“The City Housing Authority has tried to find an agreement but we
have nothing to do with that because it is undergoing litigation,
it’s a legal process between those who are allegedly squatting
illegally there and the alleged owners of the land,” he said.
August 20 —Luis Alberto Guerrero dies after beating by Zaragoza guards.
The lawyer for the guards is the suspect. No one has been arrested yet.
One of the persons injured during the confrontation in Lomas de Poleo
has died as a result of blows received to the head, The Department of
Preliminary Investigations reported. The charge is now homicidio
doloso, first degree murder, although no one has been arrested yet.
Apparently the guards hired by the Zaragoza were drunk when the
incident took place.
“We’re going to talk to the attorney general’s office
to see if they’ll do something,” said Oscar Levario Ochoa,
he lawyer for the residents. “Unless they’d rather wait
until everyone gets killed before they take action.”
August 21—Zaragozas deny responsibility for Lomas del Poleo murder in paid ad.
Open Letter:
In regards to the events that occurred recently in “Lomas de
Poleo” where unfortunately a few people were injured and one
other lost his life, we want to make the following clarifications:
1. We have been the owners of this land called Anapra, that the illegal squatters call Lomas de Poleo, since 1963.
2. We have leased those lands to a private individual for a an agricultural-cattle breeding enterprise.
3. We have nothing to do with the events that occurred in the past few
days, in the plots of land mentioned above; nor have we participated in
those acts through our employees or managers.
4. We are waiting for the solution to those acts in regards to third parties as well as are own.
5. We have done business in this city for many years. We regret, as we
have stated before, the incidents that have taken place and we trust in
the due diligence o the authorities to shed light on these incidents
and to take the appropriate measures against those responsible.
Sincerely,
Pedro Zaragoza Fuentes and Jorge Zaragoza Fuentes
August 23—Residents protest in front of state attorney general’s office.
A group of colonos demonstrated in front of the state general
attorney’s office. The protestors were accompanied by Father Bill
Morton whose chapel was destroyed by the Zaragoza guards on September
15, 2004. Many of them sang religious songs during the protest.
They carried signs reading “How many crimes must take place
before you act?”
August 27—Human Rights Activist General Gallardo denounces murders, drug smuggling and paramilitary groups.
Brigadier General Jose Francisco Gallardo says in an editorial
published by Juarez newspaper that both the murders of women and the
abuses suffered by Lomas de Poleo residents are human rights violations
that “neither the state nor local authorities do anything to
resolve.”
“Yesterday we went to visit [Lomas de Poleo] and saw a group of
paramilitary guards armed with high-powered rifles. And the military
authorities, what have they done?” “There’s been a
murder and the local authorities haven’t done anything...nothing
at all,” he said. “I wish to send a message to the
Secretary of National Defense that in the part of Chihuahua that
borders with New Mexico there is an armed paramilitary group of about
100 people bearing weapons that are for the exclusive use of the armed
forces. This group should be dealt with under the full force of
the law,” General Gallardo said.
He later writes an editorial denouncing human rights abuses in
Lomas del Poleo titled, “Paramilitary groups in Lomas de
Poleo” by General Jose Francisco Gallardo Rodriguez (Mexican
general imprisoned for denouncing human rights violations by the
Mexican armed forces.)
There is negligence by the authorities who not only deny the collateral
effects of femicides but also create a state of impunity by protecting
those responsible for those crimes—politically and economically
powerful groups that are allied to the local and state authorities.
Among the long list of injustices is the existence of paramilitary
groups formed to protect the economic interests of local
families. More than 30 years ago, the inhabitants of Lomas de
Poleo—humble and simple working people—have settled in an
area of northwest Juarez that borders with New Mexico. It’s an
area that is now targeted as part of Anapra and San Jeronimo urban
development projects coordinated by Roberto Chairez Almanza.
For the Zaragoza family’s economic interests—interests that
have often been linked to illegal enterprises—the inhabitants of
Lomas de Poleo are merely in the way of their financial plans. Once
they became part of this urban development project, the Zaragozas
decided to forcefully evict the inhabitants and expropriate their
lands, with the same methods that the caciques used to displace
indigenous communities from their territories. The Zaragozas have
formed paramilitary groups, in this case by employing street thugs,
lumpen without a conscience who are willing to commit any act of
brutality, surrounding their community with barbed wire, guard towers,
and of course, in collusion with the authorities.
Luis Alberto Guerrero was murdered. With bulldozers and heavy machinery
they destroyed the people’s church, regularly raze many homes and
carry away the resident’s possessions to a dump. The guards carry
out humiliating inspections to make sure that no materials as brought
into the colonia in order to impede the residents from repairing their
homes. The assistant prosecutor Flor Mireya Casa, whose job it is to
investigate homicides, doesn’t act. Mayor Hector Murguia
Lardizabal argues that he need not intervene because the lands are in
the process of litigation—the Expropriation Decree case No. 16
filed in 2/6/03. Governor Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas and the State
Congress ignore the case. What strikes one the most is that the
military authorities, who are usually extremely vigilant about applying
the law in regard to illegal weaponry and who place military roadblock
throughout the country in search of these weapons, have not become
aware of the use of prohibited machine guns by the paramilitary groups
functioning as guards. This despite the involvement of federal police,
many who also belong to the military. How do you explain this impunity
under the watch of Generals Alfonso Garcia Vega and Miguel Angel
Covarrubias Aguilar of the 5th Zone y Guarnicion militar de la Plaza.
What are the authorities waiting for? That more murders or abductions
take place or for an international outcry force them to take action
under the slogan of “A Safe Mexico” once it’s too
late? Are they waiting for civil society to create an organization
demanding that the disappearance of paramilitary guards in Juarez?
September 15-Human Rights group calls for action.
Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte, calls for action to help
solve the situation in Lomas de Poleo where Pedro Zaragoza has shut
down the “surround the inhabitants of Lomas de Poleo with with
barbed wire as if they were in a concentration camp.”
The destruction of homes, harassment, intimidation and pressure for the
residents to abandon their homes is a violation of article 11 of the
Carta Magna that insures that no one can be stripped of life, liberty
or property without a trial.
September 29—Two children die in a suspicious fire.
Mother was taken another child to school; Father was working in a
Maquiladora. Two minors died yesterday morning trapped inside a fire
inside a wood and carton home in Lomas de Poleo. The children were
identified as Magdaleno and Maria del Carmen Villagomez Casango.
They were four and three years old respectively. Their mother, Maria
del Carmen Casanga Cordero, 38 years-old, said she left them in the
home while she took her other children to the kindergarten. The
accident occurred about 9 am when the children were sleeping. The body
of the girl was found among the ashes of what once was her bed, while
the cadaver of the little boy was found in the remains of what served
as a hallway, said the Fire Department Chief.
The colonia does not have running water, a situation that made it
impossible for the neighbors to help fight the fire with either hoses
or buckets, said Abigail Casango, the mother’s
cousin.“There’s no water here. The police arrived late. The
firefighters took forever. When we got here the house was already in
flames. We tried to do something, but we couldn’t,” she
explained.
Members of the Office of the Assistant General Attorney at the scene
said they will wait upon the Fire Department report before they
determine the cause of the incident so that the death of the two minors
“does not become politicized.” After family members became
aware of the tragedy they were overwrought with grief. In tears and
desperation, Casa Cordero screamed, “Why my children!? Why
me!?” (El Diario de Juárez
*****
The home was located in Piña and Platano Streets in Lomas de Poleo.
According to preliminary investigations, the fire was caused by an
electrical short circuit, said Victor Tenorio, chief of the Department
of Preliminary Investigations.
Carmen Casango, the children’s mother, said she left her home a
little before 9 am to drop of her daughter Charlotte, five years old,
at school about 700 meters away.
On the way back she met up with Abigail Casango, her cousin, who first
noticed that something in the direction of her home was burning.
“We saw a large flame and she said it must be the garbage, and I
said no, it’s a house..and the teacher came and we all went and
no, we realized that it was the house..you could hear everything
crackling inside, and she tired to run into [the burning home], we had
to drag her, pull her back so that she couldn’t,” Abigail
said.
When the mother realized she had lost her children she suffered a
nervous breakdown and was taken to the home of one of her
relatives. Her husband Magdaleno Villagomez met her there after
he was given permission to leave the maquiladora Cooper, where he
works, to be with his family.
The married couple, who are originally from Veracruz, have been here for five years.
“We were all playing yesterday, and they were pretending to do
bad things to me, just playing...This morning I was yelling at them,
before this happened, I was having a hard time to get them to behave
early in the morning,” said the woman as she cried.
The woman kept asking why she had to live through the misfortune of having her children die at such a young age.
“Why me, why me? My children were little, why couldn’t I
have died with them?” she told her husband who although trying to
console her would break down himself in pain hearing her scream about
how she wanted her children alive.
“I want my children alive, not dead. What do I want them for? I want my children with me,” she said.
Disconsolate the woman remembered when she left for a short, but fatal,
moment. “I had already fed them breakfast, I even told my son
“I’m leaving now papacito,” without knowing this was
going to happen. I should have taken them with me. They would be alive
right now,” she cried.
Still dress in her kindergarden apron, little Charlott hugged her
parents when she saw them crying: “The children burned,”
she said.
The home of the Veracruz couple was totally consumed by the fire. The
bodies of the little ones were found about two meters from each other,
among the remains of the wood and carton that the home was built with.
Magdaleno, still wearing his blue uniform, tried to be strong, but his
eyes welled up with tears every time he saw his wife’s distraught
condition. He said he regretted not having a photograph of his children
alive. Now he wouldn’t be able to see them even in this way.
“Que desgracia. I don’t even have a picture of my children. Everything burned, everything is there,” he said.
A pastor of an evangelical church in the Area, Victor Villalobos,
offered Magdaleno some rooms where he can live in “for as long as
he wants to.”
The official investigation states that the fire had been caused by an
electric short circuit, but neither the children’s parents nor
the neighbors were at all convinced given the climate of intimidation
they’ve lived under all these years. “We don’t know
how it happened, if it was an accident or intentional,” says
Carmen Casango with a Veracruz accent. “They told us it was done
by a youth who had been sent by the Zaragoza camp; he had orders to
burn down a different house but made a mistake. He never thought there
were two children inside,” she says as her eyes well up with
tears. (El Norte)
September 30—City says fire was caused by bad electric connection but residents say home had no electricity.
The director of the City Department of Civil Protection Efren Matamoros
declared that the Lomas de Poleo in which two children died was caused
by a bad electric connection.
Fire Department Chief Guadalupe Sandoval denied rumors that the fire
had been caused intentionally. He indicated that unfortunately the
problem of improvised electrical installations in the peripheral zones
of the city creates a permanent risk of these kinds of tragedies taking
place
.
Residents say the Casango home had no running electricity. Witnesses
say they saw two cholos walking near the home before the fire carrying
a plastic gallon. Several empty homes have been burned down in the past
by the Zaragoza thugs. (El Diario de Juárez)
But Columban Magazine reports: “The official investigation states
that the fire had been caused by an electric short circuit, but neither
the children’s parents nor the neighbors were at all convinced
given the climate of intimidation they’ve lived under all these
years. “We don’t know how it happened, if it was an
accident or intentional,” says Carmen Casango with a Veracruz
accent. “They told us it was done by a youth who had been sent by
the Zaragoza camp; he had orders to burn down a different house but
made a mistake. He never thought there were two children inside,”
she says as her eyes well up with tears. See Revista Columbana "Victimas de Impunidad y de Codicia."
October 5—Lomas de Poleo Guards are Arrested.
Fourteen individuals that were acting as private security guards in
Lomas de Poleo without the necessary documents were arrested by the
state police, the Secretaria de Seguridad Publica Estatal. The
CIPOL’s spokesman, Carlos Gonzlez, said the arrests were carried
out to avoid conflicts between the guards and the residents. These
actions are taken against the guards and the security firms that allow
them to work without the necessary accreditation. At first the
guards said they worked for a company named “Dragon,” then
they withdrew their statements. These pseudo-guards were in charge of
two gates built in the area, Gonzalez said.
October 7—Binational activists from the border stages a demonstration for Lomas del Poleo.
The Red Unidos Sin Fronteras (United Without Borders), a binational
movement of activists from throughout the border will hold a
demonstration against the Minutemen. They will also raise the issue of
Lomas de Poleo.
October 19—Lomas de Poleo residents knock down barbed wire fence
Dozens of people at Lomas de Poleo yesterday helped the residents knock
down barbed wire fences constructed by individuals who say they own the
land. They used wire cutters to fence and several of them form groups
to push over the white cement fence posts. They knocked down the
fences that block the entrances in Girasol, Platano, Chabacano and
Cacahuate street. The residents said this has stopped police from
coming into the area to patrol the colonia. Among the groups that were
present during this action were Clinica Cristo Rey de Rancho Anapra,
Centro del Niño Americano, Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte,
Tonancin, Organizacion Popular Independiente, and Hormigas del Centro
de la Mujer. There were no physical confrontations between people
since none of the individuals who set up the fence were present.
Despite this, the municipal and state police were present.
October 20—Police say tearing down of fence by residents is not an illegal act.
After Lomas de Poleo colonos knocked down the posts and fences that
prohibited them from entering freely into their homes there has been no
acts of violence committed, however police continue at the colonia to
“insure the physical integrity of the residents” they say.
The spokesman of the state police, Marco Antonio Moreno, said that the
purpose of the residents, to know down the fences so that they could
freely enter their homes and so that public transportation could go in,
is not an illegal act. “What they did was open the roads so that
everything could return to normal. As long as they do this within the
law it is not illegal,” he said.
November 11—NGOS publicly denounce human rights abuses in paid ad
As part of civil society we are gravely concerned about the violence
and continual violation of human rights that has been committed against
the inhabitants of Lomas de Poleo by a very powerful Juarez family.
The residents of this colonia have been living there, in a peaceful and
orderly manner, for more than 20 years. They have an elementary school
that was built in November 1991, a Kindergarden since 1994; their
streets are numbered and name; the colonia is recognized as part of the
official urban area that is registered with the city; the majority of
the colonos are registered voters of Juarez and in 2001 they signed a
contract with the Federal Electric Commission to set up electricity in
the colonia.
Lomas de Poleo is an important piece of the San Jeronimo development,
that apparently will only benefit a few wealthy families. It is also in
an area where a road will pass through to Santa Teresa and New Mexico
as part of the controversial Camino Real highway.
Pedro and Jorge Zaragoz Fuentes want to rid this piece of land of its
inhabitants by any means necessary to carry out their development plans.
Here are some facts that speak for themselves that most citizens of Juarez ignore:
*May 2003, left 300 families in darkness after electricity was cut off.
*Hired 200 gang members to intimidate the families by day and night...
*In 2004 the Zaragoza brothers brought in a new group of hoodlums.
The neighbors of Lomas de Poleo have suffered constant harassment:
* They are threatened by Zaragoza representatives to accept $15,000 pesos to leave their homes behind.
* Zaragoza lawyer Manuel Balderas ordered his “guards” to
savagely beat Luis Alberto Guerrero while he was trying to stop them
from tearing down a house. Guerrero died a few days after the beating.
* They’ve burned down several homes. The guards were spotted
suspiciously around one of them a few days before it burned down and
two children lost their lives.
Although the Zaragozas are violating the human rights of the residents
with impunity, city authorities have taken no action such as:
Take away the shock troops that continually threaten the physical integrity of the residents.
Arrest the intellectual author of the murder of Luis Guerrero.
Tear down the barbed wire that blocks the access to the colonia.
These brothers that control the economic direction of the city, nobody
has been able to put a stop to them. They determine whether this city
will abide by laws or not.
We’ve spoken to both Mayor Murguía and Governor Baeza
about these concerns. We are witness to the violation of human rights
committed against the residents of Lomas de Poleo.
Signed,
Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso el Norte, Las Hormigas, Missioneros
Columbanos en Anapra, Fundacion Ma. Sagrario, Lince Humanitario, OPI,
Comunidades Eclesiales de Base, Casa Anunciacion de El Paso, Casa
Amiga, Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, Centro de Derechos Humanos del
Migrante, Pacto por la Cultura, Foro Juarez and 30 organizations.
November 12—PAN senator asks for the Lomas del Poleo dispute to be solved in 90 days.
The historical land dispute in the Carbonifera zone, that includes
dozens of colonias such as Anapra, Felipe Angeles and Lomas de Poleo,
will be resolved within 90 days, said the Panista senator Jeffrey
Jones. He said that within this time period the Secretaria de la
Reforma Agraria will publish a decree resolving the land issues within
a 60 thousand hectare area in which are included the 20,000 hectares
owned by Eloy Vallina.
Jones was not able to provide information about the specific boundaries
of the disputed lands nor a list of owners of those lands.
However, information provided by past studies, demonstrates that the
total area of La Carbonifera is 32,000 acres and the problem goes back
to the 19th century, specifically in 1890 when a federal land title was
sold to [ex-Chihuahuan governor] Lauro Carillo who in turned sold
his land without specifying its borders. More sales followed that were
also unclear as far as the specific boundaries of the land sold. Then
in 1975 there was another general decree that declared the lands, also
without clearly defined boundaries, as “property of the
nation.”
Jones said the solution to the land ownership problem will be made by
the judiciary based on property titles and not according to social or
political pressure.
Jones was asked about the relationship of this with development
projects such as Plan San Jerónimo and the Camino Real that was
suspended temporarily because of the land dispute issues.
The senator insisted that he is above all special interest pressures.
“I can’t as a senator be thinking if this is going to favor
the state governor or the mayor or Vallina or Pedro Zaragozo or the
residents of that colonia. My responsibility is to uphold the
constitution. It is the constitution that determines the law. Otherwise
I would figure which group to go with and all their vested
interests...but I’m not interested in that. I have to watch out
for the greater good of Juárez.”
November 13—Mayor Murguía wants title to Lomas del Poleo lands handed over to city.
Mayor Hector Murguía says one of the solutions for the
resolution of lands “invaded by Lomas de Poleo squatters”
is that the lands be turned over to the City so that this entity can
give out landownership titles.
Murguía pointed out that he is paying special attention to the
area of Lomas de Poleo where a conflict exists between the empresaios
Zaragoza Fuentes and colonos who have settled there.
“Lomas de Poleo is a punto rojo, a hot spot, an area where
both the local and the state government have met with the individuals
on both sides currently involved in litigation. I’ve personally
spoken with the owner and he’s willing to find a solution,”
he said. The resolution of these conflicts will also allow the Camino
Real to proceed. “The first part of the Camino Real will pass
through this area, this is why we are very interested in resolving
these kinds of litigations and coming up with sensible agreements with
people involved in these kinds of confrontations so that they can in
good faith give in to a development that is good for all of
Juárez” he explained.
November 14—Catarino del Rio claims land belongs to the Zaragoza family
Catarino del Rio, who claims to be the legal overseer of Jose
Hernandez, (who is allegedly leasing the land for cattle raising, said
the “legitimate owners of Lomas de Poleo” are the Zaragoza
family. Faustino Olivarses, however, said that in 1998, the Third
District Civil Court, in the case 1442/92, decided to decree the land
federal land ruling that the Zaragoza could not identify its
boundaries. Since 2001, the Zaragozas have decided to recuperate the
land. They want to relocate us now, not in 1998 when the ruling went
against them. Now, after they’ve killed Luis Guerrero, it is too
late, the colonos said. The Zaragozas have never shown their face.
Instead they sent us Manuel Balderas who would threaten us while
negotiating. He would tell us, “Tell me, how much do you want for
your pile of trash?” You’re gonna be kicked out of here no
matter what, you might as well sell,” said one neighbor.
January 14- International march in support of human rights for Lomas del Poleo.
50 Civil organizations march in support of human rights for Lomas de
Poleo residents. Including activists from Germany and Holland.
January 16—Civil groups from Mexico set up camp in Lomas del Poleo.
Civil groups from southern Mexico camped in Lomas de Poleo to support
the inhabitants of the colonia. The groups include International Front
against Femicide, Alternative Technology, Mujer Arte, Women Against
Neoliberalism, Lunas de Cibeles, Lezbianas zapatistas, National
Organization for Popular Power.
“We know that the Lomas de Poleo settlers are workers who leave
their lives behind in the maquiladores. They’ve contributed to
growth of the country by their work to expand large amounts of profit
for the Gross National Product,” one activist said.
January 16—Zaragoza terror campaign has reduces population of Lomas del Poleo from 320 to 120.
Faustino Olivares said in 2003 there were 320 families registered as
living in Lomas de Poleo. Today there are about 120 families left. The
families have left as a result of the Zaragozas “tearing down
homes, beating, threatening and terrorizing the inhabitants of the
zone.”
February 6—Residents meet with Chihuahua governor
Lomas de Poleo residents met with Governor
Jose Reyes Baeza to denounce the closure of the streets and the
Zaragoza family’s paramilitary groups.
February 24—Zaragoza lawyer subpoenas journalists to court .
Reporters Javier Sucedo, Nohemi Barrza and Jacinto Segura have been
summoned to court. Manuel del Castillo, president of the Association of
Ciudad Juarez Journalists went to show solidarity with the reporters.
“This concerns us because our profession as journalists is
considered a high-risk one. Although were are not in a war zone, the
presence of organized crime and the high level of corruption that we
live in puts us in front of a windowpane, makes us vulnerable. Our
physical integrity is at risk.”Reporter Nohemi Barraza said she
believes her rights as a reporter have been violated: “Anyway the
testimony I will give won’t be useful because I can’t
reveal my sources. This is my job and I wasn’t there by chance
but because I was working.” Jacinto Segura believes this
situation is illegal, for private interests want to us the press for
their own benefit. “We found out that this has to do with a
matter we covered in Lomas de Poleo in October, when the residents
knocked down a fence in front of state police officers. We covered the
story, but one side of the dispute now wants to take advantage of us to
score points in a private legal case.Alma Gloria Murillo Varela, who is
the legal representative for Jose Hernandez Santacruz (the person who
is allegedly leasing the land currently from the Zaragozas) made
assurances that “this is not an effort to infringe upon freedom
of expression. The work of journalist is very important for society.
This isn’t anything personal, nor is it against the newspaper,
nor to ask them to name their sources. We summoned them simply because
they were present while the problem occurred. There was much
damage done. We are the owners of that land but there are many
squatters who want to take over than land when it is private
property.” The attorney said the lawsuit is against the Cipol
because they allegedly violated an injunction given on October 2005.
“We do not have anything against the reporters. No vamos a
atentar contra su actividad. There will be no efforts to squelch their
activities.”
February 24—Journalist see Zaragoza lawyer summon as act of intimidation.
About 20 journalist from different media showed up to court to
demonstrate their concern for the court summons of three journalist.
Judge Jaime Ruiz Rubio is in charge of the proceedings. Nohemi Barraza
of Norte was summed yesterday to testify about Lomas de Poleo that the
Zaragoza family claims as their property and the site of an irregular
settlement. According to the President of the Association of
Journalists, Manuel del Castillo, these acts are a form of intimidation
so that the journalists will reveal their sources of information.
Journalism is a high risk profession, he said, and once you reveal
those sources you run the risk of suffering physical aggression or
even death. It has happened before, he said. “The reason
we’re here to talk to the judge is so that he can help our
profession be less dangerous than it has to be.”
February 25—Mayor says journalist sometimes “exceed the limits of their profession.”
Javier Aucedo Alcala of El Diario has been summoned for March 28 to
appear before the court. He will be fined 1000 pesos because he failed
to show up to his first court hearing. The publishers of El Diario
consider that this act is “an act of intimidation against the
journalistic profession and is a violation of constitutional guarantees
of freedom of expression and information.” The lawyers of Jose
Hernandez Santacruz summoned the three journalists who witness colonos
of Lomas de Poleo taking down fences in front of the Cipol.
Alcala stated he does not consider himself a witness in this.
International agreements that have been signed by the government of
Mexico state that a journalist cannot be used as a witness when the
information he has was gathered as part of work. Mayor Murgia abstained
from giving his opinion regarding the court summon of the reporters
apart from saying that sometimes journalists exceed the limits of their
profession but when they act correctly their freedom of expression
should be by all means protected.
February 17—Civic groups denounce court order as a violation of freedom of the press.
Organizacion Popular Independiente, Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del
Norte, Movimiento Pacto por la Cultura, believe that the orders to
appear in court for Nohemi Barraza of Norte, Javier Saucedo of El
Diario and Jacinto Seguor of El Mexicano are “an act of
intimidation that violates freedom of expression and the press. It is
an act of persecution by the judicial power.” The local diocesis
also spoke out against the summon.
April 2—Several Lomas de Poleo families are relocated.
About 45 families that lived in the land under dispute of Lomas de
Poleo signed an agreement to be relocated. More than 100 are not
willing to be relocated, although sooner or later they’ll
probably give in because “there’s no other choice”
said Paulo Flores, leader of the colonos.
Flores said she is in disagreement with the decision because the
majority of the colonos don’t think the city government will
fulfill its promises of 600 square meters.
“We’ve resisted for years, demonstrated out in the streets,
our rights have been violated, the police have treated me like an
animal, they’ve arrested us, thrown us in jail... besides this,
all the terror we’ve been subjected to by the authorities, all of
them, and the 200 hoodlums they brought to terrorize us,” Flores
said about a paramilitary group that has been brought to the colonia.
“All of a sudden the City wants to put on a show of great
generosity?” Flores observed.
April 30—Mayor Hector Murguía claims the land dispute at Lomas del Poleo is now resolved.
"Mayor: The Conflict Over Lomas de Poleo Comes to an End"
The land dispute between Lomas de Poleo squatters and the owner has
finally come to an end, says Mayor Hector Murguia
Lardizábal. He indicated that the land conflict that has
been the subject of many legal actions for years has finally been
resolved. “We’re a little behind in defining the exact
terms of the agreement, but there’s been an understanding and the
problem has been resolved,” he said. He said the colonos have
agreed to be relocated in land donated by the owner. “We were the
intermediaries and we’ve created a zone for housing and have
committed themselves to build certain services such as a school
and church,” said the mayor.
“They should be happy. Although you can’t always make
everyone happy, I would say the majority is,” Murguía
said. “We as the city only want to bring both sides together. It
is not our job to stir up conflicts in this city. What we want is to
resolve them. If we had allowed this problem to continue that would
have been irresponsible on our part,” he said. He said the
residents will receive construction packets. See video "Exposing a Juárez Mayor."
May 1—Housing Authority helps build relocation camp for residents willing to accept relocation.
The Juárez Housing Authority has donated materials to help build
16 homes for families who were involved in a land dispute with the
Grupo Industrial Zaragoza. The City says 18 families have been provided
with vivienda digna, dignified housing. Mayor Hector Murguía
handed out the keys to the homes to the individuals receiving this
beneficence, as well as the legal title to those homes.
May 13—Mayor Murguía denies charge of carrying out forced eviction of colonos.
Mayor Murguia has responded to the full page ad about the conflict
between empresarios and Lomas de Poleo residents.
“Couldn’t be farther from the truth.” The OCS, Civil
Assosiation, that supports the Lomas de Poleo residents stated
“Impunity and corruption continue in a flagrant manner in Lomas
de Poleo.” It accused Carlos Morales, director of Human
Development, as the person who has taken the lead in harassing the
residents to force them to relocate. The few families who have accepted
relocation have done it out of fear. The desplegado stated that the
administration is carrying out a misinformation campaign, trying to
convince the public that the Zaragoza’s are generous in donating
land for relocation, but this is a “LIE” given that the
land is not theirs to begin with but ownership is still being disputed
in the courts. The “dirty business” going on in Lomas d
Poleo and Ejido Lopez Mateos is based on “the many vested
economic interests” since Zaragoza, Jose Luis Boone Menchaca and
Eloy Vallina Laguera “want those lands to be empty of inhabitants
by whatever means necessary in order to carry out their development
plans.”
Cecilia Espinosa, member of Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte
said, “We want to clarify that it is a lie that the conflict in
Lomas de Poleo is over, that the majority has accepted relocation. No
the majority of the families are still there.” She added that
many whose homes have been demolished chose to not live there but that
they are still fighting for their homes that many have lived in for 30
years. The majority is still fighting. There are 133 families who have
chosen the legal path who have requested that the Procuraduria Agraria
enforce the its resolution of April 25, 1975 when it declared 25
thousand hectares federal property, among those lands was Lomas de
Poleo.”
“The media has reported that the City has fixed everything, but
although the Zaragozas are still trying to strip people’s homes,
they want to make it seem like there isn’t anybody there, “
Espinosa said. Those that have accepted relocation include a group of
people led by PRI-affiliated leaders. She said since the Plan San
Jeronimo was made public “that is when the problems began, when
they suddenly wanted the land and cut off the resident’s
electricity.”
September 11—Father Bill Morton is pressured by Mexican immigration authorites to leave the country.
The American priest Guillermo Morton, known for his advocacy work on
behalf of the colonos of Lomas de Poleo and their land, was deported
the National Immigration Institue (INM). “When one work for
justice, many times that doesn’t please governments, nor the
rich, and that has consequences,” he said on the American side of
the border fence where he was celebrating a mass for immigrants.
Father Memo, as he was known by the colonos, said Mexican authorities deported him on September 11.
The priest, who is 54 years old and originally from Philadelphia, said
he worked as part of the Juarez diocesis for 8 years, the last three
years in Lomas de Poleo, in the Jesus of Nazareth chapel. Juarez Bishop
Renato Ascencio Leon said all he knows is that Father Morton was
deported. “I don’t have any other information,” he
added. “He is a non-Mexican priest who needs to abide by the
immigration laws of the country,” said the Bishop who is a member
of the Vatican’s council for La Pastoral de los Emigrantes e
Itinerantes. Morton lacked an FM3 permit. Morton said that this
is usually waived for priests working on the border. “No one had
ever asked me for it before,” he said.
July 26—Lawyer for colonos Lopez Avitia confronts Zaragoza guards during demolition.
The colonos are on the verge of receiving a verdict from the Department
of Agrarian Reform except the court date has been postponed for August.
Today July 26, about 6 pm, while we were in a meeting with Lopez Avita
and Las Hormigas Don Manuel, an older man, came requestiing our help
because gang members paid by Zaragoza were building a fence around his
home. We suspended the meeting and went and Zaragozas people came at us
with steel bars, rocks, shovels ready to attack. We called the Cipol
and the PGR but only the municipal police showed up. At 9 pm
Zaragoza’s lawyer showed up and after a heated argument with
Lopez Avitia gave his gang members orders to back down and assured us
that they would not continue to build the fence.
November 6—Subcomandante Marcos finds out about Lomas del Poleo during his trip to Ciudad Juárez.
“Friends,
forgive me for saying this, but I hear you talking of Lomas del Poleo
and nobody has had the courtesy to tell us what is going on in Lomas de
Poleo. I heard Tobi mention it, sort of, while we were at the Lerdo
bridge. And we heard about some other problem in Anapra, and we
didn’t even know what that was. And if The Other Campaign in
Juarez doesn’t let us know what is happening in Lomas del Poleo
and Anapra, then who will?”—Subcomandante Marcos
As part of his 28,000 mile tour throughout Mexico, Zapatista leader
Subcomandante Marcos arrived at the northern-most part of his
trajectory at the El Paso-Juárez international bridge on
November 6, 2006. I Marcos spoke to representatives of both the Lomas
de Poleo community and Paso Del Sur as well as other binational
activists. “We cannot continue resisting separately, each person
from their own place. We must unite ourselves,” Subcomandante
Marcos said. “In each of the different eight corners of Mexico,
we saw people from below, criminalized for fishing, for taking care of
the land, for struggling to maintain their territory. The great machine
of the north is making everything into merchandise, into property, into
banks, malls—and all of the profits go to the the large
corporations. We have returned to where we were in the 1900s in Mexico,
with the destruction of our land, our culture, the destruction of our
women, the lack of appreciation of our elders, and the merchandising of
the youth.” “The hour has come to unite our
strugggles,” announced Marcos. “It is time to wake up. It
is difficult to distinguísh between day and night when
everything appears to be a pre-dawn, but now is the time to recuperate
our shadows. We have to awaken.”A day after his talk a small
delegation of Zapatistas had a meeting inside Lomas del Poleo with
colonos.
October 19—Armed paramilitary group stop human rights forum in Lomas del Poleo. The forum is held across the barbed wire.
THIS EVENING, on October 19, 2007, the streets of the Lomas del Poleo
neighborhood in Ciudad Juárez are presently surrounded by 150
armed men—paramilitary groups who have been paid by Pedro and
Jorge Zaragoza to block a peaceful forum convened by the colonos of
Lomas de Poleo and by various social organizations and human rights
groups from Juárez, El Paso, Las Cruces and Mexico City. This
forum, scheduled for Saturday, October 20, has been convened in order
to denounce the extremely serious conditions of siege and intimidation
that the inhabitants of Lomas de Poleo face on a daily basis at the
hands of Pedro and Jorge Zaragoza—powerful developers who want to
forcefully and violently displace residents who have been living in
these lands for more than 30 years.
In the midst of the escalating violence against the Lomas del Poleo
neighbors, one resident has been murdered, and two children have been
burned to death inside a home purposely set on fire as part of the
demolitions of more than 40 homes by the Zaragoza guards.The Lomas del
Poleo inhabitants have been cut off from the rest of the city and are
currently within a state of siege at the hands of the powerful
developers mentioned above.
The Residents of Lomas del Poleo, Paso Del Norte Human Rights
Group,Union de Trabajadores Agricolas Fronterizos (El Paso), Paso Del
Sur Group (El Paso), Tonantzin Women’s Group, La Otra
Campaña, The Committee of Mothers of the Disappeared, Pastoral
Obrera, The Pact for Culture Movement, Ressiste and 11 other
organizations
October 23—Juárez mayor Reyes Ferriz says he will not stop the Zaragoza siege.
AFTER RESIDENTS OF Lomas del Poleo and called for an end to the state
of siege and daily intimidation they live under at the hands of private
guards, [Juárez] mayor José Reyes Ferriz said yesterday
that he will not intervene until the State Human Rights Commission and
the courts reach a verdict in the matter.
The colonos denounced civil rights violations and other allegedly
criminal actions that they have suffered during a forum for
“Resistance and Land Rights in Lomas del Poleo” this
weekend that had to be carried out between barbed wire because private
security guards under the direction of Catarino del Rio, a former PAN
[National Action Party] city official, blocked their entrance.
The participants at the forum—many of them members of human
rights and social organizations from both sides of the
border—proposed to denounce human rights abuses before
international organizations, especially the precarious conditions
experienced by children; to bring in food to the families that have
been cut off by the barbed wire fence set up by the Zaragoza guards;
and to hold other forums in the future with international participation
to bring attention to the conditions suffered by the colonos. They also
resolved to ask both mayor Reyes Ferriz and Chihuahuan governor
José Reyes Baeza to intervene on behalf of the residents. The
mayor, however, has already decided not to take such action. “We
will wait for the State Commission on Human Rights to resolve the
issue,” said mayor Reyes Ferriz. “We live in a nation that
abides by its laws and this matter must be resolved by our courts. We
cannot carry out justice by bringing in international organizations to
intervene in questions that can easily be revolved through the judicial
process,” he said.
The organizations that participated in the forum will continue to bring
to light the human rights violations suffered by the residents of Lomas
del Poleo at an international level, said Willivaldo Delgadillo, a
member of Pacto Para La Cultura [Pact for Culture.]“We will form
a permanent commission to investigate anything that can be constituted
as a human rights violation,” said Delgadillo. The case of Lomas
del Poleo will be brought up before the United Nation’s
“Dialogo Nacional en Mexico” commission. He said they will
focus attention on the conditions of school children in the community
who have been blocked off from their school and "the precarious
psychological conditions they live under as a result of being enclosed
within barbed wire.”
October 30—NGO human rights observation patrols harassed at Lomas del Poleo.
MEMBERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS organizations and journalists who have been
monitoring human rights abuses in Lomas del Poleo in the last week have
been threatened or attacked by private guards. A car carrying a group
of human rights observers was pelted with stones and one journalist was
surrounded by several vehicles loaded with former gang members hired by
the Zaragoza Fuentes family.
Residents say an unidentified journalist driving a car with Texas
license plates that stopped outside the barbed-wire fence at
Lomas del Poleo recently was immediately surrounded by armed guards.
When several residents from the neighborhood approached the scene, the
guards drove away.
One human rights observer, a member of Las Hormigas community center in
Juárez, said that while she and two other former nuns who belong
to the social service organization were taking photographs of the
guards to document conditions several guards yelled at them:
“Vayansen a la chingada!” (Get the fuck out of here!) One
of the men who was in the guard tower ran down and placed a plastic
goat mask over his head to mock the observers. The NGO groups
monitoring human rights conditions in Lomas del Poleo are asking
members of the press or other organizations not to attempt to go into
the community without an invitation from the residents. This is for
their own safety and the safety of the residents.
November 20—UTEP forum connects the struggle the Segundo Barrio and Lomas del Poleo.
“It’s
the same plan on both sides of the border. It’s the same land
speculators who sit on each others boards and who are carrying out
large-scale displacement and land grabs. If the powerful are organized
at a binational level, then those of us at the bottom also need to join
together. We need to form binational coalitions against el
despojo—against the theft of our homes and our barrios—that
is being carried out in the name of regional development.”
—Cristina Coronado, Juárez activist from La Otra
Campaña
TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE attended a UT El Paso forum Monday evening where
they witnessed a unique, and perhaps historic, conversation between
residents of two neighborhoods located across the international fence
from each other that are fighting against very similar threats to their
communities. Panelists Petra Medrano, who has lived in Lomas del Poleo
in Juárez for 15 years and Lupe Ochoa, who has lived in El
Paso’s Segundo Barrio for about an equal amount of time, shared
common stories of struggle against developers from both sides of the
border who want to move their communities out the way to make room for
binational redevelopment projects.
Petra Medrano described the feelings of anger and fear that she and her
neighbors have experienced at the hands of armed guards hired by
powerful Juárez developers who have systemically terrorized them
for the last four years to force them to accept relocation. “We
lived in peace Lomas del Poleo for 12 years until recently when the
Grupo Zaragoza showed up... Now we are under much pressure. One of our
neighbors, Luis Alberto Guerrero, was beaten to death by the guards
while the guards were razing a home...We feel so powerless...I know I'm
a target now, but I must speak out. Maybe only a miracle will save us."
“Why now?” Ms. Mendoza asked. “Why have they decided
to kick us out of there now after we were there for so long?”
[video of testimony]
The sentiments of Lupe Ochoa echoed those of Medrano. “We used to
live happily in our barrio, even with all of its defects, but now this
[Paso del Norte Group] plan has us all living in a state of
fear,” she said. “The residents of the barrio have been
selling their homes because they're afraid that they will be forced out
by this plan. "I think the biggest connection between Segundo
Barrio and Lomas del Poleo is the love for our neighborhood and for our
people,” Ms. Ochoa said. “And the love we feel for our
homes that we built with great sacrifice, either on this or that side
of the border. And I say this love is what will unite us. Segundo
Barrio es igual a Lomas de Poleo...The people that are doing this to
our neighborhoods either on that side or this side are not invincible.
If the tallest trees have been toppled, why shouldn't we be able to
topple these powerful groups even with all their money. Even though
they say power is all about money. But they don't have the heart that
we the poor have,” Ms. Ochoa said. [Ms. Ochoa video.]
"It's the same people who are responsible for what is happening to us
at Lomas del Poleo— Héctor Murguía [former
Juárez mayor who is a member of the Paso Del Norte Group] and
Eloy Vallina [board member Verde Realty Group] who now want to take
over the Segundo Barrio," said Medrano. "It's the same group of
businessmen who are threatening us. They're the same ones that want to
take away our lands." During the screening of short documentaries about
both communities at the forum—including “Poleo
Speaking” and “Voices of Dissent: The Segundo Barrio is Not
For Sale!”—the the residents of both neighborhoods used
almost identical phrases to describe their feelings in the face of
displacement and the seizure of their land. Several of them said they
felt “powerless” or “impotent” but that they
were willing to fight for their homes “come what may.”
The videos also linked the struggles in other ways. The "Grupo
Zaragoza," Eloy Vallina's "Grupo Chihuahua" and Bill Sander's "Grupo
Verde" in Juárez have all targeted the northwestern zone in
Ciudad Juárez for binational redevelopment projects that, those
interviewed in the videos argue, have excluded the people that
are currently living in that zone. Father Bill Morton, one of the
panelist at the forum who was pressured to leave Mexico in 2006 because
of his work on behalf of the colonos, made the connection between these
developments and the state of siege of the Lomas del Poleo residents in
the documentary Poleo Speaking. "It's a project between Anapra, Sunland
Park, New Mexico, San Jeronimo, Santa Teresa, El Paso and Juárez
that involves billions and billions of dollars. It's all part of the
whole enchilada," Morton said.
December 1— Gang members hired by the Grupo Zaragoza block access road to the Second Forum at Lomas del Poleo.
On Saturday (December 1, 2007) binational NGOs planned to hold the
second “cultural-political” forum to denounce the state of
siege of Lomas del Poleo on a small farm on the desert mesa just
outside the barbed-wire fence. The Zaragoza group blocked them again as
they had six weeks ago, but this time about a quarter of a mile away
from the colonia. The colonos had set up a tent with a stage and a
microphone for the participating speakers, poets and musicians from
Juárez and El Paso planning to arrive that morning, but a group
of thugs hired by the Zaragoza family carrying sticks, bats and other
concealed weapons planted themselves on the only access road to Lomas
del Poleo and stopped several automobiles and a bus full of forum
participants from going through. The Zaragoza guards led by a point man
holding a mena | |
