Juarez Caravanistas Breakdown In Tucson : AZ IMC

October 18th was the kickoff event at the University of Washington in a 12 city tour to bring attention to the hideous torture/mutilation/rape/murders of over 400 women in Ciudad Juarez since NAFTA went into effect just before 1994. The police and narco traffickers are suspected in many of these killings that largely are unsolved. Several innocent people, including a dreadlocked American expatriate woman who has been called a"witch doctor" by police, have been tortured into confessing. Jailed, they all recanted later to no avail.

The horrific details of what is done to these women was illustrated in the story of Ramona Morales, the Mother of Sylvia Elen Rivera Morales, who was disappeared in July of 1995 and found brutally murdered 2 months later in the mountains near Juarez by a man caring for his animals. Her eyes had been carved out, the skin scraped off her face and she had been raped. Over and over Ramona repeated this disturbing story along the west coast leg of the 5 parallel caravans that eventually converged in El Paso. She became very depressed before speaking and afterwards. It was immensely difficult for her to communicate the horror, as well as the ill treatment she received from police. To top it off, her husband died of pure sadness 3 months after her daughter.

As a single frontline mother, i committed to driving my VW Vanagan on the caravan along with my 12 year old homeschooled daughter. Taina brought joy and happiness to Ramona in a way i did not quite expect. Her smiley, loving spirit was a major plus on a very arduous and stressful journey. She also helped table and collect donations. Her maturity was striking and really added to our efforts.

In Arcata we were joined by our friend, also from the mountains of northeastern Washington, Luma, who drove her truck. Once we left San Francisco 2 others hopped abord bringing our total numbers to 7.

Jessica Marques, coordinater of the west coast leg and translater, did a fantastic job of communicating Ramona's story in English as well as giving background on the situation that has spread to Chihuahua City as well. She also encouraged people to take the postcards we had to write to Congress and the Senate as well as to President Fox letting them know how outrageously unacceptable the situation is. We gave away thousands of postcards, literature and sold hundreds of tee shirts as we headed south.

Once we hit Tucson, we wrapped up the speaking engagements and prepared to join the walk to the border to bring attention to the 231 deaths along the Arizona/Mexico border this year. My van died on the way. Looks like a blown head gasket. Jessica rented a car so she and Ramona along with the other 2 riders could make it to El Paso.

My daughter Taina, Luma and i are now staying at Borderlinks, the faith based organization that addresses human rights issues along the border. They have been very good to us. We need to find someone who can work on a '89 VW Vanagan, which seems to be very difficult in Tucson. I am hoping we can repair my van and participate somehow in still going to Juarez to meet with families and further involvement of US human rights activists in doing all we can to put a halt to these killings.

Please let us know if there is anyone out there who can help us. We are raising money so we can pay for the work, parts, etc.

In peaceful struggle, swaneagle
frontlinemom@yahoo.com