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Online at: http://politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7069/1/341
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Binational Indigenous Front meets in Oaxaca
By David Bacon
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Archives - Dates and Topics
2008 – online
May – June 2008
Jun. 23 – Jun. 30
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6-23-08, 10:13 am
SANTIAGO DE JUXTLAHUACA, OAXACA, MEXICO - 31MAY08 - The assembly of the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, one of the poorest areas in Mexico. A large percentage of the indigenous population of Oaxaca and other states has left to work in northern Mexico and in the United States.
The FIOB is a political organization of indigenous communities and migrants, with chapters in Mexico and the U.S. It advocates for the rights of migrants, and for the right not to migrate -- for economic development which would enable people to stay home.
Delegates discuss FIOB's bylaws and political positions, vote to adopt them, and then elect new binational leadership in a democratic and open process. Julio Sandoval, a delegate from Baja California, recounts his experience as a political prisoner in the penitentiary of Ensenaada, where he was held for three years after leading a fight for housing for indigenous migrants. At the end of the assembly, Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, newly elected as FIOB's binational coordinator, addresses the delegates, and a group of Triqui women rise to their feet with a clenched-fist salute.
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All photos copyright David Bacon.
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--For more articles and images on immigration, see http://dbacon.igc.org/Imgrants/imgrants.htm. Coming in September, 2008, from Beacon Press: Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants; See also the photodocumentary Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006); The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
