Frontera NorteSur
March 2003

March 31, 2003
Ex-Mayor of Palermo Visits BC to Help Against Organized Crime

When organized-crime fighter Leoluca Orlando became mayor of Palermo, Sicily in 1985 there were 250 mafia-related murders in that city of approximately 700,000 people. Fifteen years later the city reported eight murders, none of which were related to organized crime. 

In Mexicali on Saturday, March 29, 2003 to talk about what Baja California can do to create a "culture of law," Orlando found himself in a state that has seen nearly 100 narco-related murders since the beginning of the year, according to the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica. However, Orlando said that Baja California's efforts to end organized-crime related murders show that the state is on the right path. 

In 1997, Orlando was in Tijuana for the first time, and had the impression that it was a city with characteristics similar to those of Palermo in the 1980s: that it was a city full of embarrassment and full of fear. Now, six years later, the former mayor of Palermo sees a city that is about more than just  insecurity and narcotrafficking. 

Orlando's strategy for Palermo, which he also suggests for BC, has three parts. Announce that change will take place, let people know that everyone has to change, and change some cultural characteristics and attitudes. 

As in many large Mexican cities, people often do not look at organized-crime related murders as "real" murders. Orlando says that this attitude has to change and that everyone has to begin denouncing narcotraffickers and killers. Once a substantial number of people begin blowing the whistle on crime, then it will be easier and much safer for others to do so. 

The full participation of the police is also necessary, according to Orlando. While police must be given the tools they need to arrest suspects, they also need to be monitored and integrated into the community because if they are left alone they will be corrupted, he said. 

Finally, cultural models have to be changed. Orlando states, ". . . you cannot have just legal punishment, there has to be also social, moral and cultural sentences . . .," against narcotraffickers. 

Orlando also believes that while wealth is important, it is not a value. To him, wealth founded on violence is not worth the price paid in fear and the resultant loss of freedom. 

Asked about former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has been hired by Mexico City to help fight crime there, and about Giuliani's zero-tolerance style, Orlando said that zero-tolerance is just a tactic and can not alone win the war on crime. Laws, sentences and law-enforcement officers should be more humane, according to Orlando. Abuses of power by New York City police when Giulani was mayor show that zero tolerance can lead to another sort of violence: police violence. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), March 31, 2003. Interview by Moisés Márquez. 

March 21, 2003
Mexicali: 19 Libraries, 95,000 Books

The mayor of Mexicali, Jaime Díaz Ochoa, opened the city's 19th library on Thursday, March 20, 2003. Located in the Orizaba neighborhood, the library is part of the Nana Chela Cultural Center. The library was built after area residents requested the facility from the mayor's office. Both the city's cultural and social development offices aided in the project. 

Aglae Margalli, head of Mexicali's library department, says that each of the city's libraries receives an average of 100 visitors per day. The libraries each have between 1,500 and 5,000 books with a total of approximately 95,000 books for a city of nearly 800,000 people. 

By comparison, El Paso, Texas, has a main library, nine branches and a bookmobile for its population of approximately 700,000. According to Glenda Roberts, catalog librarian at the El Paso Public Library, the El Paso library system has over 623,000 volumes and nearly 230,000 paperback books. In all, when volumes, paperbacks, government documents, videos, recordings, children's books and other sources are considered, the El Paso library system has over one million items. 

In Mexicali, Margalli says that the books in highest demand are works of literature, history, technology and science. However, in rural parts of the community, she says that there is a lot of demand for books related to agriculture. 

While Mexicali libraries accept donations, most of their books are sent to them through federal and state programs, said Margarita Mercado Medina, the city's cultural director. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), March 21, 2003. Article by José. M. Yépiz.

March 12, 2003
New Mexicali Neighborhood Receives Some Utilities, Questions of Land Ownership Persist

Mexicali's Tavizon Silva neighborhood was created six years ago when squatters invaded land that belonged to the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. However, until just a few months ago, the colonia had no city services. First came communal water sources installed by the Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Mexicali (State Commission for Public Services in Mexicali, Cespm). Then, on Christmas Eve--a most fitting occasion--Tavizon Silva was added to the electrical grid and light became cheaper and more abundant. 

According to the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica, the arrival of utilities to the neighborhood represents a real triumph for its residents. Far from the cool California Pacific coast, Mexicali is very hot in the summer but this year, for the first time, residents will be able to plug in air conditioners and fans. 

Juan Maltos Barbosa, who lives on Río Fuerte street in Tavizon Silva, said that he remembers last summer when people slept on their front patios or on top of their homes. The nearest Cespm water source is far from his home so Maltos bought some pipes and now the water comes to him. He even uses some of it to irrigate a few young trees that theycity government gave him.

Maltos says that he bought his land in 2001 from a man for 5,000 pesos (approximately US$500). 

Maltos' neighbor, María Ortiz Medrano, said that she is still dealing with Baja California's land-ownership regularization office to see how much she will have to pay for her property. Currently, the office is still measuring and setting the boundaries for streets in Tavizon Silva, she stated.  

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), March 12, 2003. Article by Rodrigo Pedrin. 

February 28, 2003
Cocopa People's Fishing Rights Case to Go to Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Despite months of talks between the Cocopa people, their representatives, human rights lawyers and federal and state environmental officials, the Cocopa are still banned from fishing their traditional waters in the Colorado River delta. 

"Eight thousand years, an entire culture, their traditions and their rights as indigenous people have not been sufficient for federal authorities to resolve this problem that the Cocopa suffer," said Lorena Rosas, the coordinator of migrant and indigenous affairs for the Baja California Office of Human Rights. 

In response to the lack of progress, the Baja California Office of Human Rights (Procuraduría de Derechos Humanos) has said that it will take the case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which is part of the Organization of American States (OAS). 

Rosas states that since Mexico's environmental protection agency, the Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente (Profepa), has not followed her organization's recommendation to allow indigenous fishing in the Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve, or a similar recommendation from the National Commission on Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos), the case will now go to the OAS. 

"The objective of presenting this case at the international level is so that the community of American states intervenes in the solution to this problem because federal authorities have not had the will to do so," Rosas told the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica. 

The Cocopa case will be taken to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Washington D.C. by Fabián Sánchez Matus, a lawyer with the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción in Mexicali, said Rosas. 

To see a previous FNS article on this subject go to http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/dec01/Mexicalinews.html and scroll down to December 11, 2001.

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), February 28, 2003. Article by Gerardo Franco.