Tijuana, Mexico – On April 2, a group of activists from the Legalization For All network crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to witness the effects of U.S. border militarization. The group met with Robert Vivar, binational coordinator at VÍA Internacional, and Aída Amador, coordinator of VÍA Migrante. They visited the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Office, the border wall at Friendship Park on the Tijuana side, and the Casa de Luz LGBTQ+ immigrant collective house.

Crossing from the U.S. into Tijuana was quick and easy with no lines – the group did not even need to present their passports, which showed just how easy it is for many U.S. citizens to be able to cross into Mexico without question.

Once in Tijuana, the group stopped at the Unified U.S. Deported Veteran Resource Center, where they heard from Robert Vivar about the work they do. After serving in the U.S. military, immigrant veterans can lose their documentation due to criminal convictions and are then deported, left with PTSD from their service and separated from their homes and families in the U.S. The office was created to welcome these veterans, offering services such as help with housing, legal relief and reintegration into society after being deported.

Vivar himself was a veteran who was deported twice and was finally granted reentry into the U.S. after an almost 20-year battle. He finally won his case before the California Supreme Court. Vivar was a green card holder who had moved to the U.S. at age six. He told the group that after he was deported to Tijuana, he would come to Friendship Park and “it was too painful” to look out across the border to the San Diego side, as California was his home. After his own experience as a deported veteran, he began to advocate for other U.S. veterans who had been deported, understanding firsthand how cruel it is for the U.S. to send immigrants to fight and possibly die to serve the U.S. only to later get deported.

The group then drove to Friendship Park, a binational park located close to the San Ysidro Port of entry border crossing. The park became a meeting place for separated families to meet and even be able to reach through the wall and touch each other across the U.S.-Mexico border. The part of the park on the U.S. side was closed under Trump and remains closed under Biden, so there is no longer a way for families to meet there despite strong organizing efforts to reopen the park in San Diego.

As the delegation members made their way to Friendship Park in a van, Vivar gave the group a lesson about the current situation at the Tijuana border as the border wall came into view. Vivar explained to the group that asylum seekers are given much misinformation about how to apply for asylum, and that they are told they can just go to the border and apply. In reality, an appointment is needed, and appointments are difficult to get. Because of this misinformation, many immigrants jump the first wall and think they can give themselves up to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Instead, the Border Patrol leaves them between the two border walls that run parallel to one another, for hours or even days. Some of the people stuck between the two walls have been infants. This torture-on-display tactic is used to discourage immigrants from crossing. Vivar talked about how VÍA Migrante and others bring food and water to those who are stuck between the walls, since any pleas for help to Border Patrol go ignored. Along the drive, the group was able to see some of the individuals and families stuck between the two walls and was struck by this inhumane practice that happens often in the area.

At Friendship Park, the group heard more from Vivar about the wall and the history of the park, which is situated right on a beach. During the tour, Vivar asked the group if they knew why much of the wall was built to be 30 feet tall, which happened under Trump but is expanding today, as there are still plans for the shorter areas of the wall to be built up to this height under Biden. Vivar explained that 30 feet is a calculated critical height at which if a person falls from, they would be unlikely to make it to the ground alive or without permanently disabling injuries. On top of this, along the base of the wall lies large amounts of razor wire, in exactly the spot where someone climbing the wall would land. The situation is deadly.

There was quite a strong contrast at the park. The wall, which is a physical manifestation of oppression lined with sharp razor wire, was painted in bright colors and displayed beautiful and inspiring messages and images. Families and children could be seen enjoying the sunny day, playing at the beach, as the wall stretched out into the ocean. A Border Patrol vehicle zoomed by in between the two parallel walls. Some members of the group saw a person attempt to scale the wall and cross but climb back down as Border Patrol approached.

The wall’s extension into the ocean itself does not deter people from trying to swim across, but many drown or have to turn back. Vivar told the delegation members that after a large group once tried to cross through the water and some made it across, razor wire was added to the section of the wall in the water as well, creating an even deadlier situation for those trying to cross this way.

The next stop for the delegates was visiting Casa de Luz, an LGBTQ+ collective that houses immigrants and their families in a communal living space with a focus on food security. The group then went to Caza de Luz itself and met with Aída Amador from VÍA Internacional and Caza de Luz Founder Irving Mondragón for a tour. Mondragòn had started a kitchen program at the border, cooking healthy meals and providing basic needs to asylum-seekers at El Chaparral camp, a camp at the border. He then founded Caza de Luz, which they call a “collective,” as the word “shelter” has a negative stigma. The house was far from negative – it was full of color and light, kids played on the outdoor patio and the inside space was full of brightly colored furniture, cheerful artwork, books and trinkets. Caza de Luz is unique in that they welcome and embrace the LGBTQ+ community, which is not always the case in many shelters, and they also do not have a time limit on how long individuals and families are able to stay with them.

The group got to see beauty in the work that Caza de Luz does at the border, but was left as well with the heaviness of what they witnessed at the oppressive and grossly inhumane border wall. It is clear that the U.S. would rather see individuals and families who are fleeing desperate situations die at the hands of this oppression than cross the border in hope of a better life. The fortification and expansion of border militarization certainly did not end under Trump, but continues today and must be stopped.

#TijuanaMexico #Tijuana #LegalizationForAllNetworkL4A #USMexicoBorder

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Por qué está aquí en la Cumbre de los Trabajadores de las Américas?

Jacobo Torres de León: Estamos aquí como respuesta general a la exclusión de Venezuela, Cuba, y Nicaragua de la Cumbre de las Américas por parte de la administración estadounidense. No tienen el derecho de excluir a ningún país. Nosotros cuestionamos esto y la manera cómo tratan a los países de las Américas. Nos tratan de dividir. Toda América Latina necesita ser incluida. Estamos aquí con el movimiento de trabajadores y sindicatos de Canadá, Estados Unidos, Venezuela, y otros países de América Latina, [como] Cuba y Nicaragua. Somos la alternativa, y somos inclusivos. Estamos aquí para discutir sobre nuestros movimientos y gente como respuesta. No solo estamos discutiendo la exclusión, sino también la solidaridad con Venezuela, Cuba, y Nicaragua, quienes son víctimas del imperialismo y los bloqueos. Esta unidad es nuestro poder, la unidad de la gente. Nosotros reaccionamos ante la crisis y las maneras en que la nación capitalista más grande, Estados Unidos, ha impactado negativamente al mundo.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Qué mensaje tiene para los Estados Unidos?

Torres de León: Nunca comparamos a la gente de Estados Unidos con su gobierno. La gente es generosa con nosotros. Queremos unirnos con la gente de Estados Unidos, y queremos crear un mundo que sea libre. Queremos crear un mundo que sea libre del capitalismo e imperialismo. Queremos un mundo que sea socialista. Trabajamos con la gente de Estados Unidos, y nos unimos a su lucha. Podemos rescatar a la humanidad del capitalismo.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Cuál es el objetivo de esta conferencia?

Torres de León: Nuestro primer objetivo es conocer a los líderes de los movimientos. Segundo, queremos tener una respuesta en contra de la posición que Biden tiene en los Estados Unidos, y establecerla en contra de la agresión, en contra del bloqueo, en contra de las guerras económicas – y también para tener unidad e integración de toda nuestra gente. Podemos construir estos movimientos con más gente, e incluso movilizar a la gente y a todos nuestros países. Expresamos nuestra solidaridad con Venezuela, Nicaragua, y Cuba para resistir la agresión de los Estados Unidos y el bloqueo.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Por qué cree que otros países como Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba, etc. se han retirado de la Cumbre de las Américas?

Torres de León: Creo que alrededor de 25 países no van a mandar a su presidente o representante a la conferencia en Estados Unidos. Es una respuesta ante la opresión de los Estados Unidos y la construcción de movimientos durante estos tiempos. Durante los últimos 10 años, los países de las Américas se han estado organizando con diligencia en contra de los Estados Unidos. Estados Unidos se encuentra más aislado de América Latina. [Estados Unidos] entiende que los países de América Latina están de acuerdo que ahora es el momento para organizarse en contra de la opresión. Esta es la respuesta para que los países dejen de apoyar a los Estados Unidos y a Biden y para que tengan una alternativa en América Latina.

#TijuanaMéxico #Tijuana #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #LaCentralBolivarianaSocialistaDeTrabajadoresCBST #CumbreDeLosTrabajadoresDeLasAméricas

Fight Back News Service is circulating the Final Declaration of the Workers’ Summit of the Americas which took place in opposition to the Biden administration’s failed summit in Los Angeles.

Final Declaration of the Workers’ Summit of the Americas

Tijuana, June 10-12, 2022

We, representatives of Trade Union, Peasant, Political and Social organizations, gathered in Tijuana – Mexico, June 10-12, 2022, on the occasion of the realization of the Summit of the Americas of the Working Men and Women Workers, in immediate response to the exclusion of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua imposed by the Government of the United States.

There is a systemic and structural crisis of capitalism in its imperialist phase. It is in itself a civilizational crisis. The capitalist economic model and its political arm neoliberalism, as well as its modern cultural foundation, have put the planet’s life in crisis. If not eliminated, imperialism’s necropolitics leads us to the planetary collective suicide, which is more lacerating in the sectors less favored by the current world system. Our position is a bet for life, and the empire offers us death: it is either life or death!

We are witnessing a process of recolonization over the people. This is expressed in the excessive growth of racism, poverty, unemployment, job insecurity, environmental deterioration of territories, criminalization of migration, and gender and cultural violence. For this reason, we call upon the programmatic unity of the American continent’s workers, peasants, and progressive and popular forces to reflect, debate, and take concrete action to combat the labor and social violence applied to our peoples by the U.S. and Canadian governments.

We consider that the working class of the 21st century will only be able to play an independent and central role if – in addition to fighting for the most heartfelt demands of the labor movement – it assumes the struggle against patriarchy together with the feminist movement, the struggle of the native peoples against climate change and the defense of the biosphere together with the youth and the broad spectrum of professionals and scientists.

We must build articulations and alliances in which we structure our common forces for a unique and global struggle. Globalize the struggles. Build new organic forms of the working class from the political-cultural to the socio-productive to overcome capitalism and build socialism.

A robust internationalism is needed to pay adequate and immediate attention to the dangers of extinction: extinction by nuclear war, climate catastrophe, and social collapse. In this regard, we agree:

To promote active solidarity with the peoples and sovereign nations (Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) and the other peoples of the world “sanctioned” and attacked by economic blockades and unilateral coercive measures imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

To hold an annual meeting in Tijuana, Mexico, with the workers and social movements of the Americas to express solidarity with the peoples of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua and their revolutions to repudiate unilateral coercive measures against sovereign governments.

To constitute a Committee for the organization of the Meetings to be held annually in the North and South of Mexico, integrated by: Unión del Barrio of the USA, Movimiento Social Por la Tierra de México (MST), Sindicato Mexicano Electricista (SME), Alianza por la Justicia Global of the USA, Central Bolivariana Socialista de Trabajadores de Venezuela, Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo de Nicaragua (ATC), Movimiento Magisterial Popular de Veracruz Mexico, Fire This Time of Canada, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) of the USA, International Action Center (IAC) of the USA, Task Force on the Americas of the USA and the Plataforma de la Clase Obrera Antimperialista (PCOA).

Demand the immediate release of Alex Saab. He is a Venezuelan diplomat kidnapped by the U.S. and illegally detained in its territory since October 16, 2021. Saab’s arrest is an action that attacks diplomatic immunity, a right guaranteed by international law to any diplomatic official in the exercise of his duties.

Reaffirm the resolutions agreed upon at the Meeting of the Peoples of the Americas, held June 7-8, 2022, in Chiapas, Mexico.

To ratify our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian and Saharawi peoples.

Demand that the U.S. Congress immediately cut off military aid funds to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Haiti.

Promote a campaign to hold an international day of action in solidarity with Cuba to be held when the U.N. General Assembly meets to condemn the blockade against the Caribbean island.

Expand the “Bridges of Love” program to other countries and international coordinate days on the last Sunday of each month in the form of caravans or other activities.

Demand the immediate release of comrades Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Iman Jamil Abdullah al-Amin and Julian Assange.

Demand the immediate release of the social fighter Simón Trinidad from Colombia, who is deprived of liberty in prison in the USA.

To promote the regional integration of the anti-imperialist working class of Our America and the participation in the strengthening of ALBA TCP, CELAC, and UNASUR. In this sense, the Bolivarian Socialist Workers Central of Venezuela will call a meeting for the 3rd quarter of 2022.

To promote a campaign against the U.S., NATO, and Colombia’s policies of interference and expansionism and to ratify the declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace promoted by CELAC.

We reaffirm the Mexican Electricians Union workers’ demands for their reinstatement in the Federal Electricity Commission.

We stand in solidarity with the Puerto Rican people and their dignified struggle for independence and sovereignty.

ONLY THE WORKERS’ STRUGGLE WILL SAVE HUMANITY, NATURE, AND THE PLANET!!!!

Co-sponsors include:

Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ)

Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación de Baja California (CNTE – BC)

International Action Center

Plataforma de la Clase Obrera Antiimperialista (PCOA)

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Union del Barrio

Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC)

Centro Community Service Organization (CSO)

CODEPINK

Central Bolivariana Socialista de Trabajadores (CBST) Venezuela

Boston School Bus Drivers Union – Local 8751

Fire This Time

University of Tijuana

Movimiento Magisterial Popular Veracruzano

Federación Bolivariana de Trabajadores del Transporte – Sectores Afines y Conexos (FBTTT)

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)

1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East

FUNDALATIN

The Task Force on the Americas

#TijuanaMexico #Tijuana #WorkersSummitOfTheAmericas

Fight Back!: Why are you here at the Workers Summit of the Americas?

Jacobo Torres de Leon: We are here as a general response to the exclusion of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua from the USA’s Summit of the Americas, on the part of the U.S. administration. They don’t have the right to exclude any country. We question this and how they treat the countries of the Americas. They try to divide us. All of Latin America needs to be included. We are here with the movement of workers and unions, in Canada, USA, Venezuela, other countries in Latin America, Cuba and Nicaragua. We are the alternative, and we are inclusive. We are here to discuss our movements and our people as the answer. We are not only discussing the exclusion, but also about the solidarity with Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, who are victims of imperialism and the blockades. This unity is our power, unity of the people. We respond to the crisis and how the biggest capitalist nation, the USA, has negatively impacted the world.

Fight Back!: What message do you have for the USA?

Torres de Leon: We never compare the people of the USA and the government. The people are generous with us. We want to unite with the people of the USA and we want to make a world that is free. We want to make a world that is free from capitalism and imperialism. We want a world that is socialist. We work with the people of the USA and join them in the struggle. We can save the humanity from capitalism.

Fight Back!: What is the goal of this conference?

Torres de Leon: Our first goal is to meet the leaders of movements. Second, we want to have a response to the position that Biden has in the USA, and establish against the aggression, against the blockade, against the economic wars – and also to have unity and integration of all of our people. These movements we can build with more people and mobilize the people and all of our countries. We have solidarity with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to resist the aggression of the USA and the blockade.

Fight Back!: Why do you think other countries, like Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba, etc. pulled out of the USA summit of the Americas?

Torres de Leon: I think around 25 countries are not sending their president or representatives to the U.S. conference. This is a response to the oppression of the USA and the movement building during this time. Over the past ten years, the countries of the Americas have been organizing diligently against the USA. USA is more isolated from Latin America. They see that the countries in Latin America are in agreement that this is the moment to organize against the oppression. This is the answer for countries to remove their support of the USA and Biden and to have an alternative in Latin America.

#TijuanaMexico #Tijuana #Venezuela #WorkersSummitOfTheAmericas

Josh Higginbotham: I am here to stand in solidarity with the nations that were excluded from the summit of the Americas, that are specifically targeted by USA sanctions, bureaucratic terrorism. We are the BLM presence from Oklahoma.

Fight Back!: Why should BLM stand in solidarity with these countries?

Higginbotham: It is very easily recognizable that U.S. foreign policy is very often a global version of domestic policy. For instance, the uprisings in 2020, the Black people and allies, said they want the abolition of prisons. The state gave billions of dollars to the institution. The same form of oppression is happening in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Billions of dollars are being given to USAID and the NED which are the ones that have supported coups. The so-called humanitarians maintain the same policies at home and abroad.

Fight Back!: What should people in the USA know or do?

Higginbotham: People in the USA should take a cue from earlier solidarity movements, even within the history of the USA. For instance, some of the biggest improvements that were ever made in the USA happened when the labor movement was Black, brown and white in the 1920s and 30s – unlike the labor movement now, which is changing – and the other solidarity movements can take cues from that earlier time, people were much more internationalists then. Now, that communication has been facilitated in various ways we can literally talk to anyone on earth immediately and for free. We yet are kinda stuck in this mindset that all politics are local. This is the very thing that can destroy solidarity. It is important that workers in any industry in the USA don’t just look to their own interests, but they care just as much to people in other countries, doing similar or more dangerous job, but make 20th of the salary.

Fight Back!: Why should BLM support Venezuela and Cuba?

Higginbotham: First of all, even though you would not get the impression from USA media, that there are as many African descendent lives in Cuba and Venezuela, particularly per capita. Those lives are affected by the same forms of oppression that affect Black people in the USA.

Fight Back!: What do you think is the goal of this conference?

Higginbotham: I think the goal is to come to a better understanding of the circumstances that shape the forms of oppression people everywhere suffer and to build and grow solidarity that will be necessary to create something new in its place.

#TijuanaMexico #Tijuana #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #BlackLivesMatter

Fight Back! interviewed William Camacaro, one of the coordinators of the important Workers’ Summit of the Americas which takes place on June 10-12 in Tijuana, Mexico. Fight Back!: How was this Workers’ Summit of Las Americas started?

William Camacaro: I was in Venezuela last year with comrades and we said, “We have a possibility to organize a conference in Mexico.” We used to organize an event in Tijuana in solidarity with Cuba against the blockade. That has not happened for six or seven years. Now is more important than ever because Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are under U.S. sanctions. So, we need to make connections with people from the movements and the unions in the USA.

In January, when President Biden announced the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, we knew we had to have a “Workers Summit of the Americas” in Tijuana. Now it is even more important because Biden will not invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the U.S. conference. We can get people from our movements across the Americas to talk with each other including Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Fight Back!: What is the purpose of this summit?

Camacaro: In beginning, the Workers Summit was to express our opposition to the U.S. sanctions and to denounce U.S. interventions. Then we added lots of issues like immigration and NATO. NATO is trying to have more of a presence in the continent like in the Caribbean. Some already belong to NATO. Colombia is a partner of NATO and the U.S. is very interested to get Mexico and Brazil into NATO. We don’t want NATO in this continent. We can see what is happening in Europe with war and repression.

The most important thing about the Workers Summit is to see if we can raise the consciousness about the sanctions and U.S. interventions in the region. I just came from Venezuela, and you can meet people that don’t see the relation between the U.S. sanctions and the situation they are living because the propaganda by the media is so huge.

Two weeks ago, European countries agreed to start buying oil from Venezuela. The U.S. said they will “allow” them to buy from Venezuela. At the same time, the Biden administration is still recognizing Guaido as president. The U.S. is still trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government, but Guaido has no support. The right-wing people don’t even like him. He cannot have a rally with more than 500 people in Caracas, our capitol.

If you do research, every few months, there is some kind of sabotage or attack on the oil refineries in Venezuela. Ten days ago, they were trying to destroy the biggest refinery. They frequently send drones to attack the refineries. Venezuelan security caught a former U.S. Marine close to the refineries with explosives. There are extreme right elements like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida that is very upset because Biden is supposedly establishing “relations with Venezuela.” Rubio says that U.S. sanctions have to get stronger.

Fight Back!: What message do you want to send to people in the USA?

Camacaro: The most important thing is for people in the USA to fight U.S. intervention in the region and see and learn that every time the U.S. intervenes, those countries get worse. The U.S. is spending money from the taxpayers to destroy other countries. After the U.S. destroys the economy and overthrows the government of a country, like in Honduras, they impose a government that was connected to the narcotraffickers. Then, hundreds of thousands of people try to move to the USA. The Honduran government, the U.S. overthrew in a coup, was trying to help the poor. Hillary Clinton said that people from Honduras were not allowed to come to the U.S., but she supported the coup.

The U.S. government needs to invest in the economy at home and have healthy partners. Strong economies for its neighbors, and no more U.S. interventions or sanctions. I think the people of the USA need to see that U.S. intervention is always negative and always done in the name of democracy and freedom. In reality, it is always in the name of U.S. corporations getting richer.

I want to make a stop at the border during our Workers Summit in Tijuana. There are 3000 Ukrainians around here that got brought here to cross over to the USA. It only takes like five days, and then the U.S. allows them to cross the border. Meanwhile, they block people from Mexico and other Latin American countries from entering into the USA.

#TijuanaMexico #Tijuana #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #WilliamCamarco #WorkersSummitOfTheAmericas