Category: Uncategorized

We expected better from the Christian Science Monitor. A July 27 overview of troops at the border asks: “The question now is, will this latest US crackdown be enough?”

Yet the question of “will the crackdown be enough” ignores the evidence raised in the same article: that the crackdown may be wrongheaded.
Speaking to sources from the human rights community, the CSM article reports that “The one thing that can be said of the long US effort to curtail illegal immigration, they say, is that it has made crossing the border more dangerous.”

“As illegal immigrants have channeled into rural areas, one result has been rising numbers of deaths in the desert. Arizona saw a record 473 deaths last year – and human rights groups say that statistic is probably a fraction of the actual number, because many deaths go unreported.”

So instead of posing the question in terms of “crackdown enough?” the evidence in the article suggests other frameworks, such as: “is the latest US crackdown wise?” Is it just? Is it the best use of taxpayer money when addressing the issues of economics, immigration, and human rights?

In addition we would pose the question: is the latest US crackdown legal? As far as we can tell from our documentary explorations, the legal technicalities of Operation Jump Start are a shell game of undocumented military actions.

As readers of this Review well know, missions for Operation Jump Start in Texas are supposed to be pre-approved by the Governor, but the Governor says there are no documentary records to that effect. The Governor says the mission is going according to plan and that he is commander of Texas forces, yet the commander of Texas forces doesn’t have a copy of the plan.

CSM is a production of words, and those words suggest an orientation of mind. In the face of evidence contained in the CSM article, the leading question is poorly posed. Embedded journalism has come home to roost.

Dear Friends:

The enclosed letter was recently received from
Ramsey Muniz. Please distribute.–Irma L. Muniz

In Exile

Before sharing the essence of the above subject
matter, it is of importance that I share with nuestra
raza that we, who are confined in the dungeons of the
oppressor, have recently concluded fasting and spiritual Mexicano prayers for our sisters and brothers from our Holy Land of Mexico who continue to journey into Aztlan, regardless of how many national troops or guards reside at the borders of America. To us, they are the true 21st Century spiritual warriors because of their courage and valor in seeking a better life for their families. We constantly fast and pray for them because we realize that others here in Aztlan have not arrived at the true realization that those who risk their lives in this drastic human journey are our own blood, race, and nation.
We as Mexicanos must not ever permit that our sisters
and brothers from the Holy Land of Mexico be treated in an inhumane manner. History reveals that we must be vocal and share with the entire world that at one time we took the same journey from Aztlan to our Promised Land (Tenochtitlan). At the heights of civilization in Tenochtitlan, the first Moctezuma selected four spiritual Mexicano disciples to return to Aztlan and share with that part of the world that the journey had truly become a success and that one day we would once more return to the land of our creation (Aztlan). So in reality, it doesn’t matter how high the walls and/or fences are built or how many troops are stationed at the border. Our people, our sisters and brothers will continue to come to Aztlan simply because the power of our ancient spirituality of the land calls upon our hearts. Our Mexika cultura and spirituality have all the force and power of a profound, kept secret. We know that our time has come.

Our present struggle of humanity is not against
each other or against our sisters and brothers from
Mexico, even though at times we find it hard to
understand the motives and realities in other hearts.
In this mode of darkness, I continue to read where
Hispanic and Latino political leaders will soon become
the shining stars of the two-party system for our raza.
I know deep in my heart that this reality will never
become a destiny. Yes, it saddens me, yet I do not ever find hatred, jealousy, or envy for them. The truth and political direction and destinies for our people were
revealed long before the words Hispanic and/or Latino
came into existence. Besides, how can an oppressed
Mexicano in the 21st Century be jealous or envious of
another oppressed Mexicano? We must never forget that history reveals that we as a people were created from the beginning within the spirits of liberation. It’s
nature and guess what. Nature is also on our side. It
is not about my liberation from these dungeons. It’s
all about the liberation of nuestra raza!

“Stealing the bread from others means placing one’s
own sustenance in certain danger. Snatching the happiness of others means chaining oneself. Destroying other people’s happiness in order to fabricate our own from its remains is nonsense. Because to attempt to raise one’s own happiness over the misery and grief of others is comparable to wanting to fortify a building by destroying its foundation. Nevertheless, most of the people deceived by the appearances of their false interests walk through the world like that, in search of their welfare under the banner of this absurd principle: to harm in order to benefit.”

–To Die on Your Feet: The Life, Times, and Writings of Praxedis G. Guerrero. By Ward Albro

Mi raza, mi gente Mexicana owes me nothing. I’m yesterday, today, the Mexicano spiritual brother of tomorrow. No fame. No fortune. Pure Mexicano/spiritual cultural liberation.”

R. Muniz (Tezcatlipoca)
6/20/06

In conclusion, I must share that we continue the
political struggle of having me transferred back to Texas. Those who are deeply involved in this struggle for justice have found that in reality and truth the only reason for having my body and soul in exile for the last 12 ½ years is because I’m a Mexicano political prisoner. Instead of having me transferred from a federal medical facility to Texas to be closer to my family and people, I was chained and shackled, and delivered to one of the highest security penitentiaries in the United States of America.

I continue to pray for the souls of those who with
malice and ill intentions refused to ever submit a small
piece of bread for my hunger or a drop of water to wet
my lips while I was shackled in the dungeons of America.

The love that I have for my people is the same love that brings forth forgiveness, understanding, patience, and truth for those who continue to seek harm in order to benefit themselves in the eyes of nuestra gente. I’m not a stranger to these mountains in Colorado that surround the penitentiary that confines me. I can feel the ancient spirituality of our ancestors as they bring forth strength, courage, dignity, respect, truth, and love into my Mexicano
corazon. Aztlan shall rise once more!

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca
“Justice delayed is justice denied.”
http://www.freeramsey.com

During the 1960s, the CIA station chief for Mexico, Winston Scott, cultivated sources of intelligence who justified their own hardline rise to power by reporting untrue stories of foreign, communist agitation, culminating in the military massacre of student demonstrators at Tlatelolco in 1968.

At the time of the massacre, the CIA leader forwarded untrue reports to Washington that the shootings had been instigated by Trotskyites, although the truth would come out much later that the killings had been deliberately planned as a military operation.

Biographer and columnist Jefferson Morley has posted documents online in support of his account at the NSA Archive of George Washington University.

The information offers a telling model for the way that so-called CIA intelligence and FBI investigations can work in alliance with hardline ambitions against genuine grassroots movements.

Substitute ‘terrorists’ for ‘communists’ in today’s so-called intelligence lingo, and you have a formula for history repeating itself.

Meanwhile, those who live North of the Rio Grande may consider this story before preaching to Mexicans to ‘fix their own problems’ before they come looking for work.

I’m reminded of what Marta Benavides said when she came to Austin. We don’t need you fix our problems in El Salvador, said the famed colleague of Archbishop Romero. We just ask that you take control of your own government. Excerpt from the NSA Archives:

The massacre at Tlatelolco, says historian Sergio Aguayo, parted “the waters of Mexican history. It accented the turbulence of those years, served to concentrate power in the intelligence services dominated by a small group of men, hard and uncontrolled.”

With Win Scott’s assistance, those men had entrenched themselves in power over the course of a decade, acting with impunity against an opposition that was, in Aguayo’s words, “weak but each time more bellicose and desperate to rebel against the apathy of an indifferent, if not complicitous, international community.” See LITEMPO: The CIA’s Eyes on Tlatelolco. CIA Spy Operations in Mexico. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 204. Posted – October 18, 2006.

Thanks to the AP for these quotes from a hearing in Mission, TX:

State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said the committee must ensure that state funds newly dedicated to help border sheriffs are well-used.

Mr. Hinojosa asked Gov. Rick Perry in May to create rules on how the sheriffs can spend the $367,500 awarded to each of 16 border counties under Mr. Perry’s “Operation Linebacker.”

His letter to Mr. Perry expressed concern that El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego was using grant money to run roadblocks and raids aimed at ferreting out illegal immigrants. Sheriff Samaniego has denied that, saying his department’s checkpoints were part of a traffic safety program.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said the panel also is concerned about National Guard deployment to assist the Border Patrol, which President Bush called for but is being directed by border state governors.

“We want to make sure they serve their purpose without impeding rights,” she said.

Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa testified that the deployment was perceived as a militarization. That could be upsetting to Mexican businessmen and shoppers who have made the Rio Grande Valley one of the top-performing retail areas in the U.S.

When Ms. Van de Putte asked how the Valley could maintain that status, Mr. Hinojosa said, “We certainly don’t do it by sending in the National Guard.” Note: the AP reports that Operation Linebacker is being “directed by border state governors”. But we challenge the AP to document that fact. Our own public information requests have yet to prove that the Governor has any role in Operation Jump Start other than issuing press releases saying that the operation is going “according to plan”. Would the AP do us the favor of asking the Governor for a copy of the plan? We’ve asked, and the Governor’s Office says it doesn’t have one.

SENATE
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

COMMITTEE: Transportation & Homeland Security

TIME & DATE: 10:00AM, Tuesday, August 8, 2006

PLACE: Irving, Texas

CHAIR: Senator John Carona

___________________________________________________________________________
The Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security will meet on August 8, 2006, at 10 a.m. in the Irving Lecture Hall, Westin DFW Airport,
located at 4545 West John Carpenter Freeway in Irving, Texas, to consider the draft interim report and legislative recommendations of the Committee. To listen to audio from the July 26 hearing of the Texas Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security in Mission, TX, go to the Texas Senate website.