Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations

SANTIAGO DE JUXTLAHUACA, OAXACA, MEXICO – 31 MAY 08 -
by David Bacon

SANTIAGO DE JUXTLAHUACA, Oaxaca, Mexico — The assembly of the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations (FIOB in its Spanish initials) met in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, one of the poorest areas in Mexico, on May 31. A large percentage of the indigenous population of Oaxaca and other states has left to work in northern Mexico and in the United States.

The FIOB is a political organization of indigenous communities and migrants, with chapters in Mexico and the United States. It advocates for the rights of migrants, and for the right not to migrate — for economic development which would enable people to stay home. Photos © David Bacon

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To all FIOB members
To the national and international press
To organizations in solidarity
To the general public

The delegates of the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations, who come from Baja California, the state of Mexico, Mexico City, and Oaxaca as well as from California, gathered in the city of Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, the heart of Oaxaca’s Mixtec region to deliberated for three days (May 30th-31st and June 1st, 2009) and agreed to the following resolutions:

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June 10th, 2008 – by David Bacon: Fresno, California – Erasto Vasquez was surprised to see a forklift appear one morning outside his trailer near the corner of East and Springfield, two small rural roads deep in the grapevines, ten miles southwest of Fresno. He and his neighbors pleaded with the driver, but to no avail. The machine uprooted the fence Vasquez had built around his home and left it smashed in the dirt. Then. the forklift’s metal tines lifted the side of one trailer high into the air. It groaned and tipped over, with a family’s possessions still inside. “We were scared,” Vasquez remembers. “I felt it shouldn’t be happening, that it showed a complete lack of respect. But who was there to speak for us?”

Eight farmworker families lived in this tiny “colonia,” or settlement, on the ranch of Marjorie Bowen. Their rented trailers weren’t in great shape. Cracks around the windows let in rain and constant dust, which carried with it all the fertilizer and chemicals used to kill insects on the nearby vines. Some trailers had holes in the floors. None had heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer.

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Después de tres días de intenso debate, los militantes del Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB), decidieron nombrar en su VI asamblea binacional a su coordinador general binacional quedando Gaspar Rivera Salgado como Coordinador General Binacional en sustitución de Rufino Domínguez Santos de origen mixteco y que radica en los Estados Unidos.

Se pronuncian por construir un frente común que luche por las demandas de los indígenas migrantes y no migrantes

JUAN PABLO MONTES JIMÉNEZ/CORRESPONSAL
Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca
SANTIAGO JUXTLAHUACA

En entrevista, Gaspar Rivera Salgado, nuevo coordinador General Binacional dio a conocer que en esta asamblea binacional se acordaron cambios en la estructura de la Coordinación Binacional creándose las figuras de: Coordinador General, Vice-Coordinador General, Coordinadora de la Mujer, incorporándose también a los Coordinadores Estatales.

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CRLA attorneys assist migrant farmworkers from Mexico’s indigenous communities.

By David Bacon

Erasto Vasquez was surprised to see a forklift appear one morning outside his trailer near a rural crossroads in the grapevines southwest of Fresno. He and his neighbors pleaded with the driver, but to no avail: The forklift proceeded to uproot the fence Vasquez had built around his home and then lifted the side of a neighbor’s trailer high into the air with its metal tines. The trailer groaned and tipped over, spilling the family’s possessions.

“We were scared,” Vasquez remembers. “I felt it shouldn’t be happening, that it showed a complete lack of respect. But who was there to speak for us?”

(more…)