Death Walks on Tohono O'odham Nation

By Brenda Norrell

In southern Arizona, humanitarians putting out water for migrants are being charged with a crime, in the latest attempt by the US government to halt humanitarian aid to migrants dying in the Sonoran Desert. Thirteen humanitarians from No More Deaths, Samaritans and Humane Borders were arraigned in federal court in Tucson in September on charges of littering. Their crime was placing water on migrant trails where people are dying.
Today, broadcast on Censored News Blog Radio, Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, describes his water stations on the Tohono O'odham Nation and how the Tohono O'odham Nation has fought his efforts. While his water containers have been slashed and confiscated, Wilson continues to put out water for migrants. Wilson also describes searching for the bodies of migrants, including that of a young pregnant woman, where temperatures range from 105 to 117 in summer months. He also describes how young migrant children are imprisoned in a holding cell, known as the "dog cage," on Tohono O'odham Nation land.
Wilson continues to be under attack by the Tohono O'odham Nation. "Tribal authorities have authorized the removal of my water stations from Baboquivari and Schuck Toac Districts."
Wilson said the Tohono O'odham Nation is seeking to maximize a profit on the backs of destitute migrants, many who are Indigenous Peoples from Southern Mexico and Guatemala.
"The Nation is anxious to take blood money from the Department of Homeland Security. Shamefully, we who were once oppressed are now the willing oppressors."
As volunteers are being charged, Wilson said he is now vulnerable to arrest, along with another Tohono O'odham, David Garcia, who assists him.
"The reality is that as tribal members of the Tohono O'odham Nation, David Garcia and I are now vulnerable to arrest and conviction for doing the same thing on Tohono O'odham tribal lands. The legal precedent has now been irreversibly set for federal prosecution of humanitarian volunteers, like us, for knowing placing gallons of water for migrants in distress on any federal properties, inclusive of Native American reservations.
"The truth is, despite our mythical notions of 'sovereignty,' reservations are first, foremost and manifestly, Federal Properties managed by the Department of Interior and its agent, the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Wilson said.
Listen to Wilson on "Death Walks on the Tohono O'odham Nation." This talk was at the Indigenous Border Summit of Americas 2007. Currently conditions are intense for humanitarians putting out water, as migrants continue to die.

Censored Blog Talk Radio
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

Currently, the theater production in Los Angeles, "Visitor's Guide to Arivaca," includes a portrayal of the real life efforts of Wilson. The theater production was produced by Borderlands in Tucson. (Currently at Company of Angels at the Alexandria Hotel, 501 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 4.)
Photos at: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.

Photos at summit: Water containers placed on Tohono O'odham Nation slashed. Photo 2: Mike Wilson points out where migrants are dying on the Tohono O'odham Nation. (Click photo to enlarge.) Photos by Brenda Norrell

Recorded at the Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas by http://www.earthcycles.net/ Guitar music by Ruben Romaro. Border Patrol yell recorded in Lordsburg, N.M.

Carlos Marentes: Chronicle of beginning of fall of military coup

By Carlos Marentes

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

September 21, 2009 – Tonight, the heroic Honduran resistance, represented by thousands of workers, peasants, women, teachers, indigenous and afro-decendent people, students, human rights activists, and people in general, is outside the Embassy of Brazil. Inside the embassy, president Manuel Zelaya, who returned surreptitiously to Honduras in the morning, after a 15-hours trek, has declared earlier: “From now on, nobody will take us out of from here, for this reason our position is homeland, reinstatement or death...”
Zelaya, surrounded by his wife, Ziomara Castro, members of his government, leaders of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup, like Rafael Alegría, leader of La Vía Campesina in Honduras, and other, said to a large group of reporters: “I am committed to the Honduran people and I will not rest for a day or a minute until we bring down the dictatorship... The first time, on June 28, they took me off guard, sleeping, but not anymore...”
Outside the embassy, people began to arrive from all the corners of the country to join the massive presence of residents of Tegucigalpa and members of the National Front of Resistance, who have gathered to welcome Zelaya and to demand his reinstatement as the legitimate president. The jubilant crowd was yelling ¡Si se pudo! ¡Si se pudo! ¡Ahora la constituyente! (We made it! We made it! Now, on to the constitutional assembly!)
Immediately, the coup regime sent thousands of military troops and national police officers to intimidate the resistance and attempt to stop the masses marching to the Embassy. During the whole day, many persons were attacked violently, but the military and police forces were unable to stop the massive wave of people. The forces sent to repress the resistance included the terrible military team “Las Cobras” which is famous for its aggressive and violent methods. Several military helicopters started to fly over the protestors and the embassy. Unable to stop the massive gathering, the military and police forces then decided to sorround the multitude in a ostensible gesture of provocation.
However, many Honduras where unable to arrive because their buses were stopped by the army and the national police. According to human rights activists, at least 2,000 persons from the municipalities of Danlí, El Paraíso, Jamastrán and other border towns, were stopped by the military. The military set blockades with military trucks to stop the circulation of caravans moving into Tegucigalpa. Four buses and many vehicles were detained in a place called Colonia Villa Nueva, outside the city capital. Also, the military officers retained members of the press from China, Reuter and Associated Press.
The usurper Roberto Micheletti, appeared in television to give several messages during the day. One of the messages was to declare a state of siege from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. and warned that the curfew may be extended. He stated that his regime will not tolerate agitation either from inside or outside. He informed that they had deliver a letter to the Brazilian Ambassador demanding to hand over Zelaya “so he can be tried before a court to respond criminal charges.” He also reminded the international community not to intervene in the interior affairs of Honduras. When asked about the declaration made by Secretary Hillary Clinton that since Zelaya had returned to Honduras it was the moment to reinstate him in the presidency, Micheletti responded: “We respect the opinion of the gringos, but we don't care what they said...”
During the day, several sources had continuously announced that the General Secretary of OAS and other diplomatic ministers will be arriving next day to help find a solution, so coup mongers decided to close the four international airports for two days. Then, they also shut down communications in several sectors of Tegucigalpa and turned off the electricity in the area where the embassy is located. Some members of the resistance expressed concerns that the intentional block-out may be used to attempt a break in into the embassy or to repress the large concentration of people which decided to remain and spent the night there despite the curfew.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C, the Organization of American States (OAS) hold an emergency reunion to discuss the situation of Honduras. During the meeting, a resolution was proposed to the ambassadors by initiative of United States and with the support of Canada. The resolution basically was a directive to have the “parties involved in this problem” to immediately sign the proposed San José Accord prepared by president Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and move into elections. Several ambassadors, including the ones from Venezuela and Nicaragua, rejected the resolution because president Zelaya had not been consulted. But the majority decided to approve it anyway saying that “it was not a perfect resolution, but that it was better to have a bad accord than to have a good fight.” Once the chairman of the meeting declared that the resolution had been approved and that the ambassadors were standing up to leave, the Nicaraguan Ambassador, colonel Denis Moncada, suddenly raised his hand and asked for permission to approach the mic. He said that he had just received a call from president Daniel Ortega to ask him to inform the OAS ambassadors, that Zelaya had called Ortega to say that “he did not support the San José Accord” and to ask OAS to demand that the “dictatorship and the coup mongers to lift the state of siege because it was dangerous to the lives of the Honduran people.”
Everything that occurred today in Honduras is a clear signal that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the military coup. It may take more days and more sacrifices and more suffering, but there is no way to stop now the struggle of the Honduran people under the inspirational leadership of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup. The usurpers may attempt to bring a blood-bath to hold into power. But that will not happen if we are alert and fulfill our moral responsibility of offer our concrete solidarity to the sons and daughters of Morazán.

Carlos Marentes is the founder of the Border Agricultural Workers Project, an effort to organize the agricultural workers of Southern New Mexico and West Texas to change the current agricultural system that only creates exploitation and misery. It is based in El Paso, Texas.