Author: mopress

The following email from Jay Johnson-Castro was received shortly before midnight Feb. 11, 2007. We have posted a photo album of the grave site that is described below–gm

Hola folks…

On the first day of Marcha Migrante II’s Border Caravan with the Enrique Morones entourage…we set out to demonstrate the amount of death that is a result of an immigration policy that is designed to do exactly what it is doing. It is not a “failed” policy. It is a successful policy. It is a policy to retain the Latin American and poor people from around the world in their poverty so that their poverty can be exploited. It is a policy to foment hysteria, prejudice and fear. If a desperate person tries to leave their poverty they will either be treated as criminals or dye trying to become Americans. If they are caught, they become a vehicle for private corporations to make obscene profits off of them…while they are treated like cockroaches.
Just two days ago…on Feb. 9th…three immigrants near Tucson , AZ were killed by gunman…and others kidnapped. One of those killed was a 15-y-o girl. In the Southwest (CA, AZ and NM) the Minutemen roam as vigilantes with impunity. Just yesterday the Minutemen announced that they would hunt down “illegals” in stores, apartments and wherever they could…right here on the Texas border in McAllen . While city, county and state police would not enter the jurisdiction of the Federal Government…the Minutemen seem to have a secret blessing.

With all of that being said…our Border Caravan’s first stop the day we started was in a rural town in southern California just 12 miles east of El Centro . Holtville, CA is in Imperial County . What we visited was merely being referred to as a cemetery of unidentified immigrants who supposedly died crossing the desert in the quest of their American dream.

All the time that I was there…I felt uncomfortable with the visual evidence. I grew up in Alaska where my father and I took 40 acres of woods and by working the earth for several years, we turned them into productive oat fields. We used every kind of equipment that one would use…from bulldozers to tractors, plows, disks and root rakes. While I was trying to understand the existence of this cemetery…I looked at the characteristics of the soil. You can read the soil. And what I read in this cemetery is far more morbid than what we’re dealing with at Hutto…or even the border wall.

Before discussing the soil characteristics…let me share a few features of the cemetery itself. First of all…the Holtville cemetery is a rather nice rural cemetery. Nicely mowed lawns, neatly maintained grave sites surrounded by old trees with stately character. There were flowers on many of the tombs or near the headstones. Not knowing what I was about to discover, I had a picture taken with Javier Aparisi, a BBC Mundo journalist who I’d come to know over the past four months because of my other activities. That picture is the first in the series that I’m sending you. I didn’t realize at the time that it would be the only one that showed the “Holtville” Cemetery…the community’s “public” cemetery. What lay behind the public cemetery is the subject of this e-mail.

The other cemetery….the one we were about to discover is hidden from the public view. It’s really a secret cemetery with no identification naming it. Here’s a few basic details that we learned. According to local folks, there are no public burials. The victims are buried around 2am or 3am…by women “slaves”. There is no evidence of a dignified burial with some kind of ceremony.

No one knows how many are really buried there. No one seems to know if they are…or how many are…men, women or children. Although one knowledgeable Latina says that there is a cemetery in San Diego with nothing but unidentified children in it.

No one knows if the buried persons are in caskets or body bags…or. No one knows whether autopsies were performed. No one knows exactly where the actual graves are. No one knows who pays for the burial…or how much.

I suspect that it’s similar to Hutto…in that the Federal government has cut a deal with the county to place their victims in a relatively unknown rural city. As we investigate this…we’ll let you know.

You have a series of pictures of this secret cemetery. In this cemetery you will see Mass graves…fresh ones…on American soil…!!! Graves of desperate immigrants who died…one way or the other…on their quest for the American dream.

I’d like to discuss the earth’s evidence with you. You’ll see that heavy equipment was there just before our arrival…perhaps within a day or two. There are two parts to this cemetery…which is divided by what would be a road. On the west side are swaths as if the entire cemetery was tilled and hundreds of bricks were laid systematically on top of the little furrows or rows. You can see the tractor tire tracks running over what are presumed to be corresponding graves.

Some bricks simply say “John Doe” and give a row number. Other bricks have names. Hey! I thought they were “unidentified”. Local concerned citizens had place white crosses with different thought on them…like “No olvidado”…”Not forgotten”. The Marcha Migrante entourage placed little cheap crosses made out of lattice like strips of wood. The soil in that part of the cemetery was freshly tilled and fluffy…and ours seemed to be the first foot prints. I couldn’t figure out how anyone would know exactly where a body was buried if heavy equipment had bladed the entire field.

As I was trying to relate to our purpose for being there…other than to recognize that fellow humans died a horrible death trying to become Americans…I keep being distracted by the other part of the cemetery. I found myself taking pictures from different angles. The entourage held a service while I was looking at earth work on the other side of the road…the east side. It looked like it was in excess of 150 feet long.

At the south end of this long…whatever it was…a long grave…it became evident that the grave was really just one grave. The entire length was done at the same time. It had about 4 dozen bricks laid on the western edge of it. The Border Caravan group had placed crosses at each brick. But this thing…this long grave…was fresh. This had just been done within a day or two. Why was it so fresh? Why were our foot prints the first ones? How do we really know how many were buried there? What could this be…other than a mass grave? See for yourselves.

In the background to the east of this mass grave you can see in one of the pictures that there are many acres with soil that is also recently worked … disked … perhaps at the same time. What is that extended field for? Is it part of this plot?

If you use your power of reason and find yourself asking questions … basic questions … about what your mind sees in these pictures … I hope you’ll help me crack this case wide open. I want to know about everyone that is supposed buried in this trench. How many men, women, children? Who pays to do this, who gets paid … and how much? Who did the autopsies … and how did these people die? Were there investigations at the site of the discovery of their bodies?

You might want to use you photo program and zoom in on these pictures. Let you mind go beyond the superficial. And … why were so many buried at the same time … like the day before we were there. Again … as you can readily see … ours were the first foot prints on this soil!

I will be going back to Holtville after we finish the Marcha Migrante II on the 17th … and the Border Wall-K against the wall in San Diego on the 18t

h. If anyone in the media, any photo-journalist of documentarian would like to join us … please let me know.

I beg that you share this information as we exposed the travesty of the border wall and the plight of the children in Hutto, the Ibrahims and the Suleimans. One way or the other this evidence must and will be shared with to the American public about these mass graves. Just as we have been successful at getting to the truth about Hutto and the Palestinian families out to the media … we will do it again … and again … and again! Until … we break the back of this tyranny.

In solidarity…

Jay

P.S. This work that we are doing is not being funded by an organization … and we do not have a 501. Maybe some day it will be the logical thing to do. Meanwhile, we are accomplishing this and covering our basic expenses our of personal expenses and…gratefully now … with the help that some of you have been kind enough to share. The meals and lodging are a blessing. If you know of an organization that funds this kind of effort … we’d appreciate knowing. With that help … we’ve been able to push forward and accomplish things to the benefit of many … and for that help … I deeply thank you. jjj

P.S.S. http://www.texascivilrightsreview.org is already covering the Mass Graves story. jjj

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The Border Ambassador

Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…

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Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Del Rio , Texas , USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

Email from Jay Johnson Castro, Feb. 12, 2007

Good mornin’ y’all…

Hey Texans. Take a peak at the attached pictures. This is what Bush, Chertoff plan for the Rio Grande . Well … they did plan something like this … until we started doing some Wall-Kin’ and speakin’ against the proposed wall that would divide our Rio Grande community of sister cities. Unfortunately … they are proceeding in California . So we’ll be Wall-Kin’ again this weekend … in California .

Border Wall-K I was from Laredo to Brownsville , Texas …October 10-25. 205 miles.

Border Wall-K II was from Ciudad Acuña to Piedras Negras, Coahuila , Mexico … November 7-10. 60 miles.

Border Wall-K III. This coming Sunday, February 18th will be in San Diego, CA . Dan Watman and his Border Meet UP Group have invited me to join them to go wall-king against the border wall again. Dan’s group is from both sides of the border … Tijuana and San Diego. They have been meeting at the wall for years … where the wall ends into the Pacific Ocean … reading poetry, dancing to salsa, sharing gourmet tid-bits … and even embracing one another through the wall. They won’t be able to do that much longer.

To those of you in California, Arizona and New Mexico…who are offended by the idea of a Berlin wall, who are outraged by the deaths of poor and desperate people seeking the American dream that our immigration policy precipitates, outraged by the prison camps … for profit … that are lining our southern border, who are fully cognizant that the 4000 of Canadian border has no check points, less than a 1000 border patrol … while Bush and Chertoff plan on adding another 15,000 to the already existing 15,000 in order to fully militarize our border community, you are welcome to join us on this Border Wall-K III.

By looking at the attached picture, we see San Diego in the distance … or on the other side of the wall that is being constructed in front of the existing border wall. Anyone half cognizant realizes that this is not only a moral tragedy, and an economic stupidity … it is an ecological and environmental disaster. So … Dan Watman shared the following link with me that should be encouraging to border residents. This is just the beginning.



But we’re not just going to complain about it folks. We’re going to do something about it. In Texas … where we have 65% of the US-Mexico border … we’ve torn the border wall down before it ever got built. We did it before the November 7th elections. The people who have us in Iraq … want to build Berlin like walls on American soil … walls between us and a neighboring country. So much for “free trade”.

We tore the Texas portion of the wall down with people power. “We the People”. The elected officials and law enforcement along the Rio Grande border added their voices to those of the grass roots. This is not about “homeland security”. This is about apartheid … in America . What Chertoff cannot divide us from … in our hearts and our minds … are our friends, neighbors, family and associates on the Mexico side.

We are the confluence of all the Americas …from Alaska to Argentina . We are the blend of the Americas . We who live on the Texas Mexico border love the mix. We love both sides. We’re not afraid of Mexicans, Latinos … Hispanics. The majority of us already are. And many of those who aren’t are married to or are friends and associates with Latinos. Down here on the border … we ARE the US Latin America.

We are the part of the United States where “Winter Texans” and “Snow Birds” flock by the tens of thousands … to enjoy our winters, because the warmth of our weather and of warmth of our culture. These Winter border residents love to visit, shop and dine in Mexico . Soon … we will have them on board with us to defend our US Latin America.

We hope California , Arizona and New Mexico border residents too will stand up, Wall-K the border against a fence that already exists, that is being extended … and tear it down. Let’s not wait a half a century like those in Germany did … to “tear that wall down”. It was not the government that tore it down … it was the will and the power of the common people who tore the wall down.

We will be sending you an update in a couple of days as to the exact time of Border Wall-L III … and the starting place … and contact info. Stay tuned …

Jay

P.S. I’ll be on the road in an hour … heading to the Vigil VI in Taylor , Texas … against the Hutto prison camp. Then off to CA to learn more about the mass graves in Holtville , CA … then off to San Diego . jjj

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Border Ambassador

Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Del Rio, Texas, USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

Buddy Spell swears it won’t hurt Annie’s campaign if we say we’re for her, so we’re happy to let the world know that Annie made a great bar ditch lawyer during Camp Casey I and she’ll make a fine councilwoman, too. No people’s work too gritty for Annie, we guaran-dam-tee. — gm

CAMP CASEY LAWYER AND CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER SEEKS ELECTED OFFICE IN LOUISIANA

COVINGTON, LA. Civil rights attorney, antiwar activist, and social justice advocate Annie Spell has qualified as the lone Democratic candidate in a field of five seeking two at-large seats on the Covington City Council. “The nation has indicated that it is ready for a new direction”, she said, referencing last November’s elections. “I think my neighbors are as well.”


Running in a traditionally politically conservative area, Spell, who wears the “liberal tag” as a “badge of honor”, claims no ulterior motives for joing the race where she is the only female candidate.It’s a long way from the bar ditches of Crawford, Texas, where she and her law partner husband represented Cindy Sheehan and other protesters in August of 2005, to the tree lined streets of this small community just across the lake and north of New Orleans. And, yet, she claims to be entirely focused.

“The short answer to why I am running for Covington’s City Council is simple,” she told friends and family at her Covington home Friday evening. “I love Covington. It is my home. I have planted roots here and have made a personal investment in the City’s future. It is where we are raising our daughter and I want Covington to be the best possible home town for her that it possibly can be. It is also where I intend to live out the best years of my life and I want to contribute what I can to ensuring that Covington remains a safe, progressive, prosperous, culturally significant, and vibrant community for us all.”

“A post-Katrina world calls for a new, progressive voice on the City Council; a voice which offers new ideas to address challenges, both old and new, which confront us all as we move forward into the “new normal”. I will contribute that fresh outlook which is now required and which will open community debate and thoughtful discussion on the issues we must tackle in the days, months, and years ahead.”

“I have the qualifications, credentials, educational background, and passion to competently represent the good people of Covington. I have successfully participated in private business, public service, political activism, and community organizing. I bring a wealth of real life, relevant experience to the Covington City Council which clearly and concretely sets me apart from the other candidates in the race. As a mom, I am committed to the quality of life of our community and the example we set for the next generations. My record firmly establishes that I am willing to fight for all of the people who cherish Covington and call her home.”

Born to Etta and Don Arata in 1965, Spell graduated from St. Scholastica Academy before going on to achieve a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University. Soon thereafter, she earned a juris doctorate from Loyola University of the South School of Law in 1990. She quickly sat for and immediately passed the state bar exam before launching what would prove to be a successful private law practice.

Following several years as a partner in the law firm of Arata & Arata, she, in 1997, established the law offices of Spell & Spell with her husband, local felony defense lawyer, Buddy Spell, where she holds the title of managing partner. Providing legal services to families and children, Spell quickly became highly regarded as a skilled, fearless, and effective advocate in the courtroom. Generous with her talents, she litigated claims on behalf of parents raising children with disabilities and was recognized by the Nellie Byers Training Institute for her pro bono contributions on behalf of physically and mentally disabled children. She has also successfully defeated State attempts to secure death penalty sentences with her husband in every capital case her law firm has ever handled. Respected by courtroom friends and foes alike, Spell brings valuable and substantial legal expertise to the Covington City Council.

Long before becoming a mother herself, Annie served for several years as the president of Camp Fire Boys and Girls (Towazi Council). Later, when her own daughter, Sarah Jane, came of age, she served as a Girl Scout leader with a troop based out of Christ Episcopal School. An animal lover, she is also a past president of the Washington Parish Humane Society.

She was instrumental in the formation of both the Louisiana Activist Network and the Covington Peace Project where she continues to advocate for sane and thoughtful approaches to issues of war and terrorism. Her activism in this regard is well documented by her important involvement in antiwar actions across America. She was a principal organizer of the Jazz Funeral for Democracy in New Orleans and was a “house lawyer” for Camp Casey in Crawford, TX during the summer of 2005. This commitment to peace and justice has led her to participate in and lend her organization skills to actions in Harlem, Atlanta, Austin, Montgomery, Biloxi, and here at home.

She is well known locally as the immediate past president of the Greater Covington NAACP, only the second white female to hold such a post in NAACP history and the first to finish out her term of office. Under her leadership, the local branch was able to reconstitute itself and become an example of activism throughout the national organization. In that role, she actively resisted discrimination in all of its forms.

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / ElectronicIntifada / DissidentVoice

Tasting the food that Suzi Hazahza cooked for him on that first Thursday in November, Reza Barkhordari couldn’t have been more joyful. He went to Suzi’s house every night after work, to sit with her whole family. And each night, the wedding drew a day closer.

“We met at a local Middle Eastern coffee shop in Richardson, Texas called the Al-Afrah,” recalls Reza over the telephone. “That’s where I saw her for the first time, and it was instant connection. It was so strong that Suzi’s mother noticed and helped in connecting the two of us. Shortly after that Suzi and I both realized it was something that was meant to be, and we would be spending our whole lives together. That was on August 6, 2005.”
“I proposed to her on August 6, 2006, our first anniversary. My mother encouraged me to do it, and she sent a diamond ring to Suzi. We were to be married over the Christmas holidays.”

In preparation for the wedding, Reza invited the Hazahza family to move closer to his home in Plano, where it would be easier to keep everyone in daily contact. On the first Monday in November, they were to close on a home in Frisco. What American dream could have seemed more complete?

The first Friday of November, however, found Reza driving to the Dallas offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in search of the love of his life. Suzi and her entire family had been rounded up at gunpoint.

There was father Radi, a 60-year-old refugee from Palestine–a proud provider who had seen better days as a banker in Jordan–now working as a state-certified car inspector. And mother Juma, the one who had steered her daughter toward love, and who shared Suzi’s delicate preferences for freshly-cooked food.

There was sister Mirvat, a 24-year-old newlywed who still lived at home because the religious rites for her marriage had not been completed. She had graduated with honors from North Lake Community College and was running the office of a local insurance agent.

There was brother Hisham, a 23-year-old sales whiz and prized manager for a cell phone company who was moving rapidly from management into ownership, on the verge of opening his own store. And there were younger brothers Ahmad and Mohammad, ages 17 and 11.

Like two other Palestinian families in Dallas, all of them had been rousted from bed at gunpoint and marched out the door in their bedclothes. They were locked away, Reza was told. He could not see Suzi on Friday.

On Saturday, Reza drove again to Dallas ICE, hoping to see Suzi and her family. But no, that was impossible. Then on Sunday ICE gave Reza a little hope. Suzi had been moved to the Rolling Plains Detention Center in Haskell, Texas along with her two oldest brothers, her sister, and her father. Visiting hours lasted until 4:00 pm. If Reza could get there before 4:00, said ICE, then he could see Suzi.

Reza headed West in his car, calling a friend on his cell phone to get directions as he drove into afternoon sun. It was already past noon, and he had a four-hour drive in front of him. If he went just a little bit faster, he could make it in time, and he did, pulling into the immigration jail at 3:45 pm. But it would take ten minutes to get Suzi, explained the guards. And despite Reza’s begging, they told him the visit would not be worth the trouble. Dejected, Reza drove back home.

For the next five weekends Reza planned his visits to Haskell carefully. He drove from Dallas on Friday night and visited with the Hazahza men on Saturday. Then on Sunday he met his beloved Suzi.

One week he recalls Suzi came to the meeting with a fever and cough. She explained that she tried to get medical help but without luck. So Reza made some phone calls and complained. When Suzi’s younger brother reported blood in his urine, Reza called about that, too.

After making complaints to ICE, Reza completed his fifth week of visits. He had no way of knowing that after the fifth visit, things for Suzi would suddenly get worse. She called from Haskell begging her fiancé never to come see her again.

After the fifth visit from Reza, Suzi Hazahza had been subjected to a full body-cavity search.

To this day, Suzi Hazahza refuses all visitors. She will not see the love of her life, Reza. She will not see her mother Juma, recently released from the T. Don Hutto jail in Taylor, Texas. Nor will she see her baby brother Mohammad who was released with Juma. She will not risk another visitor because she is determined to never again let the guards at Haskell prison search her like that again.

New York attorneys Joshua Bardavid and Ted Cox will return to Texas next week to file federal habeas corpus motions in behalf of Suzi Hazahza and her family. The motions they filed for the Ibrahim family in early February worked very well, proving that ICE had no good reason for taking them to jail. Not only were all the Ibrahims freed from Hutto and Haskell both, but Juma and Mohammad Hazahza were also freed from Hutto, two days before a press tour there.

In the coming weeks, as a protest movement grows around the issue of children in prison, let us not forget that 20-year-old Suzi has been wrongfully imprisoned, too. To quit the terror of Suzi Hazahza, she and the rest of her family deserve to be immediately freed.

What is it like for Reza to think about Suzi these days? He takes a call from her every night. Last night he put her on the line with Juma and Mohammad in order to continue this interview.

“You have to understand, this is not your standard strip search,” explains Reza. “What they do makes her extremely uncomfortable.” And how did that chilling phone call from Suzi make him feel, when the love of his life begged him to visit no more? “I felt like I was on fire,” he says. “There’s so much pain. Just to be honest with you, I am literally sick to my stomach.”

And with each night’s phone call from Haskell to Dallas, the marriage of Reza and Suzi, the meant-to-be lovers, slips further away….