Commissioners Get First-hand Look at Lomas del Poleo
March 24, 2008
County Commissioner Dolores Saldaña-Caviness (right) speaks through the barb wire fence to residents of Lomas Del Poleo on Monday as they await permission from Pedro Zaragoza’s Attorney Mario Chacon and the compound’s supervisor Catarino del Rio. Photo by Jon Williams
Editor’s note: The author made a return trip to Lomas del Poleo on March 24, along with a Mexican television crew, graduate students, an El Paso priest and other individuals. He filed the following update:
County Commissioners Dolores Saldana-Caviness and Oscar Vasquez Butler visited Lomas del Poleo on March 24 and were able to see firsthand how entry into the colonia is blocked by the Zaragosa guards. They spoke with residents about the history of the land dispute and saw documents thatshow people have lived on this land since the early 1970s. The lawyer for the Zaragosas, Mario Chacon Rojo, also met with the commissioners and allowed them and residents to pass through the fence and observe
conditions inside the disputed area. At the end of the visit, local residents thanked the commissioners for having come to meet with them and learn more about their struggle against dispossession.
By Neil Harvey
In the past three months, the injustices suffered by residents in Lomas del Poleo, a neighborhood on the northwestern side of Ciudad Juárez, have been roundly criticized by a wide variety of community groups, churches, academics, human rights delegations and elected officials. Media coverage has expanded and stories have appeared in the El Paso Times, the Las Cruces Sun-News, KRWG-FM and the Albuquerque Journal, each documenting the dispute over land ownership between long-term residents of Lomas del Poleo and the wealthy Zaragosa business group (see www.pasodelsur.com for these articles, videos and radio reports).
Violent actions perpetrated by Zaragosas’ hired guards have long been denounced by Lomas del Poleo residents and support groups in Ciudad Juárez, but the recent attention from citizens in El Paso and southern New Mexico has also prompted some government officials to consider how existing bi-national development plans may negatively affect human rights in border communities.
An important step in this regard was the presentation made by residents from Lomas de Poleo and some of their supporters to the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 26. The speakers told the commissioners how the Zaragosa guards had used force to try and evict people from the disputed property, leading in some cases to deaths and destruction of homes. They noted how their electricity and water supply had been cut off by the Juárez city government, which has supported the Zaragosas’ land claims despite the fact that the question of land ownership has yet to be resolved by a federal court. In addition, they argued that the motivation behind these attacks is tied to bi-national development plans which include a proposed border crossing at Sunland Park and Anapra, as well as efforts by the Verde Realty Group to gain support from the county and the state of New Mexico for building industrial parks and a new residential area at Santa Teresa.
Each of the projects is mirrored by similar infrastructure development on the western side of Ciudad Juárez (including the San Jerónimo project, which is adjacent to Santa Teresa), thereby raising the strategic importance of controlling land use along the border, including Lomas del Poleo. The Verde Group not only owns 21,000 acres at Santa Teresa, but also 5,000 acres at Sunland Park, and its own web site publicity notes the bi-national nature of its investments (for example, see http://www.verdecrs.com/market.php and click on Juárez). Another connection is Verde’s support for the border crossing at Sunland Park and Anapra, a crossing that will link to a six-lane highway cutting through Lomas del Poleo.
Yet another correlation is the following: Eloy Vallina, the owner of the land at San Jerónimo, was on the board of the Verde Group until 2007 and was also listed as a member, along with Pedro Zaragosa, of the New Mexico-Chihuahua Economic Development Commission, which was founded by the governors of each state in 2003. It is hard to imagine how these connections do not imply a mutual interest in bi-national development, yet that was the message sent by the Verde Group in a letter to the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners just prior to the Feb. 26 presentations by residents from Lomas del Poleo.
Following these presentations, several of the commissioners agreed to send letters to Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico congressional delegation, expressing their concern, and some commissioners expressed their desire to visit Lomas del Poleo to learn first-hand about the intimidation and threats faced by residents on a daily basis.
At a subsequent meeting in early March, the County Commission adopted a resolution on this issue, which concludes with the following request: “that New Mexico Governor Richardson, Senators Bingaman and Domenici, Bishop Ramirez and the Council of Bishops, local, state, federal officials from the El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico areas and the human rights groups, working with governmental leaders on both sides of the border, meet immediately to implement a peaceful and just resolution to the situation in Lomas del Poleo, including: 1. An expeditious resolution of the land dispute that is pending in the Mexican judicial system; 2. Re-installation of electric power and a functioning potable water system for the community to ensure that as due process procedures for resolution of the dispute proceed, basic human necessities are available for residents; and, 3. An examination by the U.S. Delegation from New Mexico as to what international aid resources may be available to assist in providing basic services to these residents as this situation is being resolved.”
The commission’s resolution was also passed along by Sen. Jeff Bingaman to the Mexican Ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan, and Mexico’s Attorney General, Eduardo Medina-Mora, who said they would investigate the matter and respond to the Senator.
Although such requests are necessary for ensuring greater accountability, prior history suggests that it is not a successful approach since government officials are hardly neutral players. The dispute in Lomas del Poleo was created by the way in which development plans have simply ignored the rights and aspirations of local residents from the very beginning. A fairer and longer-lasting resolution of the conflict in Lomas del Poleo will also depend on how we, on both sides of the border, conceive of and implement the form of development that we desire. There is no legitimate reason why development has to undermine democratic values, social justice and a sustainable environment.
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Listen to songs from a new CD by Steve Klinger:
Somehow I am not surprised. Land developers in both nations have skirted the law and human decency for centuries. Putting land developers and the two nations together simply creates four times the opportunity for evil.
Land along both sides of the Rio Grande has not been a fair and consistent package since the establishment of the porciones over the objections of the natives nearly six centuries ago. I do retain some hope, but very little, that the issue will be resolved properly without forcing the residents to take up arms against the Zaragosa group.