Imperialist imposed borders lead to more deaths By a friend of MIM, edited by SLALA Mexico's U.$. border is not the only death trap for poor people traveling northward from Central America in search of work. The Suchiate River which forms the southern-most part of the 600 mile border with Guatemala is the site of a growing number of immigrant deaths. These deaths are a direct result of the system of imperialism which keeps a minority of the worlds population wealthy, protected by closed borders, and the majority impoverished and working to provide wealth for the rich. In this case it is the relationship between the U.$. imperialists and Mexico which creates many jobs in the north of Mexico, conveniently allowing the capitalists to pay the workers much less than they would just across the artificial border in the U.$. But because imperialism survives off the impoverishment of Third World countries, these low paying jobs are still better than the other options available to many people in Central America. As a result, many people from Central America migrate to the north of Mexico seeking work. Crossing the Suchiate River is the first of many deadly hurdles faced by migrants trying to traverse the country to get access to jobs in or near the U.$.(1) The river crossing itself is fairly safe, but once immigrants land on the Mexican side they face a 1500 mile trek north across the country. People from all over the globe including countries such as Ecuador, Somalia and China attempt the trip. Each year hundreds of them are robbed and raped by police or assaulted by machete wielding bandits. The number of deaths resulting from the trek across Mexico more than quadrupled in the past year. Mexico's National Migration Institute reported 29 deaths along the southern border in 1999 and 136 in 2000. The consulates of the countries with most emigrants, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, claim that over 260 of their citizens died last year along Mexico's southern border. Many of the deaths are apparently "accidental": smugglers generally have no regard for the lives of their "cargo." At the first sign of trouble they flee, abandoning the people who paid them expecting a safe passage. For example, some immigrants died when they were abandoned in a locked railway cars in high temperatures. President Vicente Fox admits that each year tens of thousands of migrants from Central America are abused in Mexico, many of them by Mexican officials. It is well known that Mexican authorities regularly beat undocumented immigrants, robbing them of their cash and possessions, abandoning their victims just over the border in Guatemala. Fox's solution is to weed out the few bad apples in the Mexican police force and to repatriate undocumented immigrants. At the same time, capitulating to u.$. interests, Fox's administration initiated Plan Sur, a militarization effort that increases the number of immigration agents to "protect" immigrants from attacks and control the movement of drugs in southern Mexico. Regardless of the rhetoric, Mexico's Minister of the Interior, Santiago Creel, admits that like Amerikan INS Operation Gatekeeper in the north, Plan Sur will militarize the border.(3) Just like Operation Gatekeeper, the objective result of Plan Sur will be more immigrant deaths and higher prices paid to smugglers. National borders, especially the well guarded ones of North America, are a product of imperialism. Imperialists and labor-aristocrats in the imperialist countries have an interest in locking-down their illegitimate borders to keep Third World wages depressed and ensuring high monopoly profits. The super-profits protected by imperialist borders subsidize the life-style and privilege of imperialist country workers. The conflict over immigration between Third World countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala is a product of the disparities and antagonisms created and intensified by imperialism. Like in other Third World countries, capitalist enterprises in Mexico ruthlessly exploit workers, and because of its proximity to the u.$., amerikan and other imperialists have seized upon Mexico's northern border as a relatively safe place to carry out imperialist sweat-shop production with steady supply of exploitable labor from Mexico, Central and South America. Third World bourgeois like Vicente Fox have to appease foreign imperialists responsible for propping them up by providing continued "investment" into Mexico. Vicente Fox also has to take some steps to appease the suffering people of Mexico and the liberal petty bourgeoisie that criticize his administration for ignoring the dangers to the lives of Mexican immigrants in the u.$. As a result Fox has offered increasing military control of exploitable labor from Central and South America by militarizing Mexico's southern border in exchange for legislation in the u.$. granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants living in the u.$. As we explained in an article in the August 15 issue of MIM Notes: "Immigration is not just a human-rights issue. It exposes the subservience of the Mexican economy and government to foreign imperialism. The speculation of Amerikan economists that Mexico will be the next 'Tiger' economy because of its Free-Trade agreements, its close proximity to Amerikan markets, and technocratic elite from the best imperialists universities betrays the fact that imperialists are up to their old tricks and are likely to demand 'rapid economic development' through imperialist 'investment' in exchange for immigration reform.(2) "The united $tates has already used immigration reform to dig its claws deeper into Mexico. In return for "amnesty" for undocumented Mexicans in the united $tates, Fox has implemented the $11 Million Plan Sur that employs the navy, federal, immigration and rural police to seal off Mexico's southern border. This comes on recommendation from the u.$. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which recently toured Mexico to see how immigrants from other parts of Latin America went through that country to get to Amerika.(3)" Fox's response to the increasing deaths along Mexico's border is a cover-up for imperialist interests. These interests promote the cruel treatment of workers and immigrants by government employees and profiteers. Because nobody should have to risk their life to look for work MIM's solution to the problem of violence faced by undocumented immigrants in southern Mexico is to open up all illegitimate imperialist- imposed borders to international labor and do whatever is necessary to protect the lives of immigrants. To find out what MIM is doing to oppose border violence in North America browse to http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal/OpenBorder.h tm. Notes: 1. New York Times 5 Aug 2001. MIM Notes 233, 1 May 2001. 2. 'Open NAFTA Borders? Why Not? Immigration is what made this country great', The Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2001. 3. National Statistics, Geography and Data Processing Institute (INEGI), Qtd. in 'Mexico's Plan Sur Illustrates Subservient Migration Policy', Arturo Solís, Border Updater, July 13, 2001.