El sur crucificado/The Crucifixion in the South

por Elvira Arellano, El Diario-La Prensa, NY
4 de enero, 2011

Cuando Pilato lavó sus manos de la sangre de Jesucristo, le echó la culpa por su tortura y crucifixión al propio pueblo de Jesús. Pero había sido el Imperio Romano que había corrompido a los israelitas, quienes en sus tiempos constituían un orden social basado en la ética, y convirtieron en un acto de tracción al imperio que conllevaba la pena de muerte decir que Cesar no era un dios. En otras palabras los romanos criminalizaron a Jesucristo y luego culpó de o que vino en cadena al mismo pueblo judío.

Antes de que lo crucificaron, Jesucristo en cierta ocasión les había dicho a sus discípulos que "todo que esta oculta será revelada". Así es la misión de un sacerdote totalmente entregado a su trabajo con los migrantes en México, el Padre Solalinde. Es una misión a la cual miles de nosotros vamos a juntarnos en los días que vienen.

Lo que se oculta es los asesinatos, los plagios, las violaciones y el abuso en general que se inflige a miles de migrantes que viajan desde Centroamérica, por todo lo largo de México para entrar en los Estados Unidos para buscar empleo o unirse con sus familias.[...]

lea el artículo:
http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/opinion/2011/1/5/el-sur-crucificado-231991-1.html#commentsBlock


By Elvira Arellano, via Sanctuary Movement
January 4, 2011

When Pontius Pilate “washed his hands” of the blood of Jesus, he put the blame for his torture and crucifixion on Jesus’ own people. Yet it was the Roman Empire that corrupted the Israelites once ethical social order and made the claim that Caesar was not God an act of treason, punishable by death. In other words, the Romans “criminalized Jesus” and then passed on the blame for his torture and crucifixion to his own people.

Before he was crucified, Jesus once told his disciples that “everything which is covered up will be revealed.” That is the mission of a dedicated priest in Mexico, padre Solalinde – a mission that thousands of us will join in the next few days.

What is being covered up is the murders, kidnappings, rapes and abuse of thousands of migrants as they make their way up from Central America through Mexico, on their way to find work or rejoin their families in the United States.

Padre Solalinde, who operates a mission for the migrants as they ride on top of the dangerous trains to the north, has gained much attention denouncing the failure of the Mexican government, police and army to protect the migrants from armed gangs. His efforts have also gained him almost daily death threats.

The attacks on the migrants, the most vulnerable in every society, is a sign of the sickness of violence and greed that has gripped Mexico. It is also the consequence of the dehumanization and increasing criminalizatin of migrant labor in the wealthy countries in North America and Europe.

There are now hundreds of millions of people that are forced to leave their homes and their countries to find work in the rich countries. They provide a valuable part of the labor force in those countries – yet they are not formally recognized as part of their economies. As a result, they are denied basic human rights – including the right to keep their families together and raise their children.

In the United States we see the consequences every day of 5.1 million children, 80% of whom are U.S. citizens, facing the separation of their families. In Mexico, we are seeing fathers and mothers from Central America facing a deathly terror as they try to get back to their children and their spouses – or continue the journey to the north to find work to support their families back home.

The massacre of 72 migrants by the Zeta cartel a few months ago focused attention on the dangers faced by the Central American migrants – and the lack of protection they receive from the Mexican government. The 72 were only a few of the tens of thousands that have suffered at the hands of both corrupt government police and gangsters. Meanwhile the politicians in Washington D.C. and the U.S. employers who, for decades, offered jobs to the undocumented by the millions “wash their hands” like Pontius Pilate.

The Romans also boasted of being a nation of laws – for their citizens. Saying that U.S. is a “nation of laws” does not free that nation from taking responsibility for its failure to observe these laws. The Reagan administration recognized that the nation itself had failed to comply with immigration law and sponsored the first amnesty after implementing a moratorium on deportations. Following that partial remediation, the nation and its businesses actually offered employment to 12 million more undocumented workers, accepted their irretrievable contributions to social security, gave many of them tax numbers and collected their taxes, while banks and unscrupulous mortgage companies sold them mortgages.

While it is true that millions of workers crossed the border without authorization and worked without authorization, it is also true that almost every component of the US. nation’s economic system knowingly utilized their labor and every citizen of the nation received the benefits of their labor and their financial contributions to the government. Meanwhile, neither Democratic nor Republican administrations moved to enforce the increasingly stringent laws against employers.

The current enforcement only policy – leading to 1100 deportations every day – criminalizes the most vulnerable of those who violated the laws of the United States. At the same time, those U.S. citizens who benefitted from the frequently cruel exploitation of the undocumented have pocketed their profits and have gotten off scott free.

Padre Solalinde now simply bears witness to this “Roman Hypocrisy”, which has placed thousands of people in the hands of violent, murderous men who prey on poor people that look like them and speak the same language. Meanwhile Pontius Pilate washes his hands.