Mayans dead, in prison 'cage' on Tohono O'odham land

Mayan had grim task of finding bodies

Guatemalan women found dead and Mayans in the prison 'cage' on Tohono O'odham tribal land

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

TUCSON -- Speaking on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Sebastian Quinac, Cakchiquel Mayan from Guatemala, described the painful effort of searching for dead Guatemalan women on Tohono O'odham tribal land, and then seeing Mayans imprisoned in a "cage" on tribal land.

Quinac said he was asked by the Guatemalan government to search for the bodies of two Mayan women who recently died on Tohono O’odham tribal land near the border.

Quinac searched with the permission of the Tohono O’odham Nation, working with O’odham David Garcia. After recovering the Mayan women’s bodies, Quinac was horrified to see Mayan migrants caged like animals in the Homeland Security detention center on Tohono O’odham tribal land near the border at San Miguel, Arizona.

Quinac said 13 young women were in the cage. There were also three children and about 20 men. They were Mayans from Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guatemala.

During the press conference, Quinac pleaded with the Tohono O’odham Nation to stop allowing the Border Patrol to treat migrants in cruel and inhumane ways in the outdoor detention center, which is enclosed by a wire fence.

“As Indigenous Peoples, we value the culture and the land we walk on. And to find bodies, then to find people caged like animals in a zoo, it is an outrage. It is an outrage that an Indian Nation that is supposed to have respect, would allow this to happen.”

“Where is the outrage? Where is the autonomy to say, ‘Border Patrol, you can not do this on our land.”

During the press conference at the Santa Rosa Learning Center on August 9, Jose Matus, director of Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, said Indigenous Peoples have the right to cross the borders in their ancestral territories without harassment from the Border Patrol or facing death in the desert.

Michelle Cook, Navajo; Julian Hernandez, Yaqui ceremonial leader from Barrio Libre; Shannon Rivers, Akimel O'odham; Kat Rodriguez of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice and Tupac Enrique Acosta of Tonatierra spoke out on Indigenous rights.

(The full story will be in next week's Navajo Times.)
More Indigenous statements and photos on Censored homepage:
http://www.bsnorrrell.blogspot.com/


Photo: Sebastian Quinac, Mayan Cakchiquel from Guatemala, marched for migrants rights on May 1. Behind him Border Guardians hurl racial slurs and obscenities in Tucson. Photo Brenda Norrell