Alerta: A War Without Uniforms

On January the 4th of 2008, I received a phone call informing me that the Guardias Blancas were demolishing the homes of Lomas De Poleo's residents and that they had also attacked Guadalupe Pineda and Antonio Gonzalez. The Guardias Blancas who are a para-military group hired by an affluent family of Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua the Zaragozas, with the intention to evict residents from Lomas De Poleo have been terrorizing the community since 2004 to abandon their homes. On the night of January the 4th, the hired thugs of the Zaragozas attacked people that resist relocation by not only destroying and stealing their possessions but torturing individuals and threatening them with imprisonment for defending their community.


On November 19 of 2007 a binational forum was held at UTEP where testimonies of human rights violations were heard from the residents and panelists from Lomas De Poleo on WHAT SIDE OF THE FENCE ARE YOU ON? One of the panelist was Petra Medrano who gave a traumatic account of the community living under siege by an illegal war declared by the Zaragozas. Since 2004, the Zaragozas fenced the community and with the Guardias Blancas controls who goes in and when and they also attempt to prohibit any activistism. This paramilitary group has been responsible for cutting off utilities; closing down grocery stores and attempting to close down schools and a church within the community. They have also demolished homes that when the resident return from work, they found their homes gone. Since 2004, these hired thugs have killed residents: was bludgeoned to death and two children were burned inside their home as the fire is suspected as arson. For the families that resist relocation, the Zaragozas have continually harrassed and terrorized them with the support of the municipal government as the city government refuses to bring justice to the residents of Lomas De Poleo.

Before the binational forum was made at UTEP, the residents from Lomas De Poleo would have denounced the human right violations at the high school Alta Vista in Cd. Juarez to an audience of activists from both sides of the border; however on October, 20, 2007, the Guardia Blancas ilegally prohibited the passage of the residents. They did not let the people leave the gated community but the hired thugs could not stop the forum. Through the barbed wire, activists met with the residents and witnessed the human abuse.

The public denunciations made at the binantional forum at UTEP did not stop the Zaragozas' from stopping their assaults against the residents from Lomas De Poleo. A second forum was scheduled inside Las Granjas de Lomas De Poleo but on December 1, 2007, activist and concerned people were prohibited from entering the gated fence as the Guardias Blancas with pitbulls, chains, and relocated people with mispelled, nonsensical banners and baseball bats blocked the entry. One of the signs read "asosiasiones demasiado tarde- - Dividieron a la gente (asociations too late, you divided the community)." Not only was the sign misspelled but it had a design conveying barb wire and the woman who held that sign stood next to the guarded fence.

Inspite of the display of violence by the hired thugs and the relocated people, the forum was held outside the fence as activists and poets read their works. Eventually the forum was moved away from the extremely hostile melee to a safer ground at the Centro De Mujeres Tonantzin. The cultural event of poetry, art, and testimonies occurred undisturbed while up the hill, the guards paid the relocated people with a free bag of groceries.



When I heard that the Granjas De Lomas De Poleo has been made into a concentration camp by powerful capitalist families with the intention to evict families who refuse to relocate, I found it impossible to believe. What is even shocking is that the government has refused to protect the families from the daily terror suffered at the hands of the Guardias Blancas. Although the families may not have the protection of the government, they have the support of each other and with the help of activists from both sides of the border and beyond, the community from Lomas De Poleo are speaking against the human abuses.



The following video is an interview of Petra Medrano and it was produced by Paso Del Sur:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHvE7VxXCA0

The Guardias Blancas along with relocated people were harrassing demonstrators from the second forum and they prohibited the entry into Lomas De Poleo

The woman standing next to the thug with a pitbull taunted a resident and activist with racial slurs