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| Courtesy Frontera |
We have been without a computer, phone & TV for almost seven days - our server went down prior to the big winds; when the Santa Ana hit we lost all power. Basically what I had here was an emergency radio. Finally late this afternoon the server was back up with a few problems and electricity was restored two days ago.
Meanwhile, Mike was bit by a dog here at SADM, he needed ten stitches to his hand which he received from the Red Cross in Rosarito - so just a reminder when the Red Cross kids are asking for donations, give generously - their treatment was completely professional, he goes back in in a few more days to have the stitches removed. Fortunately we found out the dog did have his rabies vaccine. Paris was furious ! We have also been putting together care packages for the migrantes which need to be delivered to the hostels.
Finally after four months I was able to see an orthopedic specialist for my knee and he gave me a cortisone shot, will return in another four months for another shot. But I look around at all the projects I was supposed to have completed before the Holidays and of course, nothing was accomplished because I could barely walk. The Doctor is a complete gas, he's a bit older than us, grew up in Newport Beach (the Wedge !) and lived on the same block as Dick Dale. So, it was people like him and his brother who really set the tone for the surfing counterculture, stoked here...
Next, when I went to San Diego I left the downstairs slider open just a bit for Daca Bob & Susan to come in out of the winds which was a mistake. The wind was so strong it blew the front door open, so that along with the slider slightly open meant coming home to dirt and dust completely covering everything. Thank God for the cortisone shot, I was able to get most of the mess cleaned up yesterday, still more to do.
But tonight it is especially uneasy around here, three men shot and killed inside our favorite restaurant - Topanco on Popotla Blvd. in Rosarito. I just said to Mike over last weekend that we really needed to go there again if I can find a babysitter for Paris - best salads, everything, what a great place. Hopefully, Carmen Gutierrez will have more details tomorrow for us. Not to mention Ensenada and points south are hotbeds of violence - I will return with those reports. Tijuana is on a continuing violent streak with at this point this month reporting 76+ executions giving a YTD total of 2,162+.
And now, no one is really sure if there will be another confrontation tonight between the citizens of Playas de Tijuana and members of the Caravana Migrante. Although the residents of Playas claim not to be anti-immigrant or racist and only trying to protect their families, surely the confrontation(s) was xenophobic in nature, a mob mentality based on under education and fear hysteria - much like the followers of Trump. In the end, it was a dark night and a black star for Playas de Tijuana.
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Update/edit 11/16 @ 5:55pm: I'm adding these two videos from Grupo Healey; the first may turn your stomach (it did mine) and the second should cast a bit of hope:
1. Se Enfrenta Caravana Migrante Con Tijuanenses Que Exigian Sacarlos de Playas de Tijuana
2. Tijuanenses Brinden Ayuda a Caravana Migrante
end edit.
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Caravana Migrantes en Tijuana:
- All Local & National Details here: - And Note to Date, No Coverage Of These Local Events On Aristegui Noticias.
Frontera
Caravana Migrante
- Summary:
- Last Sunday, the LGBT group of 80-85 migrantes arrived in Tijuana and for a short time were at the Malecon in Playas de Tijuana, much to the dismay of local residents. They have found shelter in private homes.
- 11/13:
- Second group consisting of 350-400 migrantes arrives in Tijuana landing at Padre chavas from there they were sent to local hostels, some went to Playas de Tijuana.
- 11/14:
- A third group of 343 people in eight trucks arrive in Tijuana.
- Emma de la Cabada Cortes attempts to organize an anti-immigrante demonstration at the Municipal Palacio, no one showed up.
- In Playas, a slight confrontation between two migrantes who have scaled the barrier and the US Military. Meanwhile, US Military is reinforcing the barrier at Playas right in front of the migrantes, and hundreds of US Military are highly visible flexing their weird muscles on the US side, lots of tanks and guns.
- Dozens of migrantes spend the first night at Playas, not wanting to be separated from their families.
- Aaron Pallares leads the first demonstration against the Caravana Migrante confronting migrantes with jeers and insults, telling them point blank they do not want them there in Playas.
11/15:
- Early am 13 busloads of 544 people followed by three more trucks carrying 120 people arrive in Tijuana, first stop is Padre Chavas. the problem is where to put everyone, we have heard there are only 900 vacant spots for people.
- 92 migrantes reported attempting to organize at the Malecon in Playas to address the verbal confrontgations used against them by the residents of Playas de Tijuana. At this point, the anti-immigrante group on the ground stands at 200 (two hundred!) angry people, hurling insults and Frontera reports, acrually beating up the migrantes. Police form a barrier separating the two groups. Unfreakin belivable.
- In separate events, one man (Guatemalan), two women and a minor and another woman with three children cross the line at Playas and turn themselves in to Border Patrol, while their compadres beg them not to do it, but they do.
- 300 migrantes intend to return to Playas de Tijuana to spend another night because they do not want to be separated from their families - which happens when they are placed in hostels. Another report states that some of these migrantes have been bused back into the city, we'll just have to watch the reports that come in.
- Five migrantes are arrested; two of them for causing a disturbance at Playas and three on drugs charges.
- Parque de la Amistad (Freindship Park) on the US side will be closed over the weekend.
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These two reports from Zeta:
Residentes de Playas de Tijuana Agreden e Insultan a Migrantes Centro Americanos
por, Lourdes Luza Romero - 11/14/18
Pasted:
"Residents of Playas de Tijuana organized tonight to demonstrate against the members of the Migrant Caravan, but ended up insulting and verbally assaulting around 100 Central American migrants, who planned to sleep in camps installed under the lighthouse located on the Malecón de la city.
At first, the neighbors of the area, who since the arrival of the first group of the Caravan belonging to the LGBT community that arrived at a home of the Playas de Tijuana delegation expressed their dissatisfaction with the presence of the migrants, met to discuss their concerns.
Mainly, they declared to the media they were worried about their security and wanting to be informed about the number of migrants that would arrive and if they had any criminal antecedents.
However, the residents of the area decided to march with Mexican flags to where the migrants were. Immediately, a group of men and women began insulting the migrants and demanding that they leave the country.
Elements of the Municipal Police and the Federal Police that were present at the site intervened so that the demonstrators did not physically attack the migrants, since some of them were already lying on the floor in sleeping bags.
However, the Central Americans assured that they were not criminals, asked for respect and thanked the help that other Mexicans have given them on their way to Tijuana.
"These are leaving all Mexicans in trouble," said one of the migrants, while the protesters continued with their rejection phrases.
Until 10:00 at night, only half of the migrants had agreed to get on the trucks, for which it required six laps of trucks.
"May God soften their conscience and let them know that we are emigrants, we are not criminals. All of us who have come in this caravan have suffered 38 days to come here, in no state have they told us a dog, they have all given us everything. If I'm wearing shoes it's because they gave it to me, if I'm warm, it's because they know it was ice cream, "said Jairo Soto, one of the Honduran migrants.
For their part, the residents of Playas opted to sing the national anthem and shout slogans of "Mexico!", As well as applaud each time a truck with migrants left for the shelters."
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Agresiones a Migrantes en Plays de tijuana Terminan con Pedradas y Agresiones a Prensa
Por, Lourdes Laza Romero - 11/15/18
Pasted:
"During the transfer of the Central American migrants to the temporary shelter that was enabled in the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, the municipal and state governments, a group of citizens who identified themselves as "residents" of the Playas de Tijuana subdivision physically and verbally assaulted the migrants and the representatives of the different media of the city.
The first attempt at violence was carried out by the migrants themselves, who around six in the afternoon had differences with the Central Americans who climb the border fence, given that the rest of the group does not see this action as positive for their movement.
It was at this moment when a group of citizens arrived who demanded that the authorities relocate the migrants, because they feared for their safety and those of their families. Initially it was reported that there were around 100 citizens who arrived at the Lighthouse and complicated the work of transferring the migrants to the temporary shelter.
Small groups of Central Americans agreed to retire and go to the shelter offered by the authorities, while the citizens kept shouting and intimidating the few municipal and federal elements for being "traitors to the country" in trying to safeguard the integrity of the migrants.
At nightfall, there were few migrants who continued with the intention of staying out in the open, but the citizens, some of whom consumed alcoholic beverages while demonstrating, continued with their hostile actions.
Several acts of violence were stifled by the authorities, until a female protester confronted a young man who had come to the site to donate food for the migrants, the federal authority this time only withdrew the victim, who was left with a wound underneath. his right eye.
The migrants were uneasy and responded verbally to the attacks, while the pro-migrant activists and the police asked them to stand aside and remain silent.
It was after midnight that citizens in an advanced state of drunkenness began to attack with pushes and punches to the press after the refusal of cameramen and photographers to stop recording them and turn off their equipment.
While the police elements remained in a corner observing the development of the conflict, the women demonstrators began throwing stones at the migrants and the reporters, who moved away to avoid further aggresions.
In the place still migrated women and children, who were the first to run where they could to be safe from the rain of stones, while the municipal and federal were more concerned about moving their units from the line of fire.
Almost at 2:00 in the morning, while the arrival of a fourth group of Central Americans was coming to the city, the group of aggressor citizens was dispersed and the few migrants sought a shelter in fear of new attacks, only municipal police they were on guard in the place.
The municipal authority did not make any arrest of the aggressors and in the last event, they were not seriously injured either."
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Update/edit 11/16 @ 6:18 pm: Adding this editorial from today's Zeta:
Racismo Mexicano
Por, Rosario Mosso Castro
Pasted:
"In 2013, when the Federal Law to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination (LFPED) was enacted in Mexico - there is even a Council - the reform that allowed it was made to the Constitution in 2001. However, the hate campaigns carried out in social networks and the aggressive demonstration that took place between the night of 14 and the morning of November 15 between some people who presented themselves as residents of the Playas de Tijuana delegation and members of the caravan of Honduran migrants -with reporters in between-, evidence that good intentions on paper are far from reality.
Faced with the social exhaustion of corruption and incompetence of governments, the lack of information, the absence of actions and prevention by the authorities in the face of the migratory phenomenon - despite the fact that they began to meet one month in advance - could justify that there are doubts and fears, and if the citizens want to manifest them through mass and public marches, they are also in their right.
What transgresses the limits, at least the legal ones, is physical and verbal violence.
It is more serious when this happens in a state like Baja California, in a city like Tijuana, where the vast majority are migrants, where a high percentage of residents cross daily to work or study in the United States. Tijuana residents of third, fourth or fifth generation, and live in this area because their predecessors decided to travel north to seek a better life.
Finally, the enactment of laws and the constitution of a council make it clear that racism and Mexican classism is not a new issue. Only in August, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) published the results of the National Survey on Discrimination (Enadis), and for the third time, they were not very flattering.
"The survey provides information to know the prevalence of discrimination and its manifestations in Mexico. Skin tone, manner of speaking, weight, height, form of dress or personal grooming, social class, religious beliefs, sex, age and sexual orientation ".
It turned out that 23.3 percent of the population of 18 years or older, considers that in the past five years they were unjustifiably denied some right; 20.2% said they had been discriminated against due to some personal characteristic or condition. The main reasons were dress or personal grooming, weight or height, religious beliefs and age.
Also, 40.3% of the indigenous population and 58.3% of people with disabilities were discriminated against because of their condition. And 39.1% of the respondents said that they would not rent a department to a person because they were foreigners, 38.6% would not rent to a young person, and 36.4% would not give the service to a transsexual client. 44.7% agreed that "the more religions allowed in the country, the more social conflicts will occur". And 24.5% consider that "people with disabilities are of little help at work".
The survey determined that the main situation or action of discrimination is to throw or receive insults, and with that type of actions the aforementioned manifestation announced as peaceful began to be distorted, which ended with people being beaten.
Precisely that Mexican racism and classism, which we have even measured, is what makes it very clear who is not fulfilling their role, but decided to break the thread for the thinnest. They are complaining about what the authority is doing and not doing about the migrants; of what the government is spending and not investing in the Mexicans, but instead of questioning the officials, this week they decided to launch their frustration against the members of the caravan of Central Americans in front of a handful of police officers who simply let the violence happen. I will climb
Citizens are in their legitimate right to demand actions and responses, but first the Law is clear in stating that it must be without violence, otherwise it becomes a crime; and second, the complaints should be made to the authorities that are not responding, or clarifying their concerns.
Without delving into the legal, social and humanitarian implications that this caravan represents, the reality is that if they want security or cleanliness in the area, if they want the money of Mexicans not be spent on foreigners - as if the dollars sent by nationals since the United States was not one of the main sources of income in Mexico, then its energy should be directed to the people of the government responsible for making these decisions. Because none of the Central Americans has the capacity, nor the authority, to decide about it."
end edit.
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Update/edit 11/18 @ 1:42 pm: Still having connection problems here,for some damn reason I lost all of my bookmarks jeez Christo. Check the Frontera link for recent events - The Mayor of Tijuana bad mouthed the migrantes and there has been a lot of reaction to that, Police are reinforcing the barrier wall on this side (Mexico) so all the authorities are doing exactly what Trump the prick wants, it is horrible.. Exhausted I made some chile verde late last night so I wouldn't have to cook today. Also today taking more supplies.
end edit.
I'll be back. Here's one for my orthopedic Doctor: