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Lomas del Poleo Court Action Postponed–Again

Update on Lomas del Poleo, Thursday, February 26, 2009

This is a very brief update on the most recent hearing in Chihuahua.  There will be a more detailed one, hopefully, by tomorrow.  We just wanted to give some information to all the people who have been so faithfully and generously supporting the residents of Lomas del Poleo in their struggle for their land.

The residents of Lomas and their witnesses and their lawyers were all present in the Agrarian Tribunal Number 5, in Chihuahua on Tuesday, February 24th.  Ma del Refugio, the mother of Pedro Zaragoza, had a representative present, but not a lawyer, and so the case was deferred, once again, till March 10.  The original magistrate for the case, Imelda Basurto, was still on sick leave and the new Secretary of the court said all the cases must wait for the time being. Some of the people/lawyers protested and he said the court is not on any particular persons’ side and is applying the law. (None of us, of course, believes the Secretary is telling the truth).

Apparently the strategy of the Zaragozas is twofold:  First, keep failing to show up or have a legal representative present so that the technical beginning of the case never occurs.  In other words, once both parties have presented their titles, other documents, within a short time the case is resolved. Another part of the same tactic is to repeatedly look for some defect, lack in the legal case of the residents and then nullifying or archiving their case, so the whole process has to begin anew. This is what they did when they managed to have the cases of the previous lawyer, Carlos Avitia “caducados” or sealed/archived, so their only option is to restart their petition with new documentation, new witnesses, etc. an unlikely prospect for poor people.  Second, thru all these and other strategies such as the low-intensity warfare against the residents in their homes, on their property, in their movements in the Colonia of Lomas del Poleo, to intimidate, frustrate and eventully cow the residents so they either give up or accept a pittance for their houses and their land.  The continuance of the cases in Chihuahua, they believe, will force the residents to use up whatever financial resources they have as well, forcing them to finally just give up.

We hope to have some more detailed legal explanation of what happened on Tuesday.  Cristina is writing something and said she will have it ready to send out tomorrow, Friday.

Thanks, again, for your solidarity and support for the people in Lomas del Poleo and for human rights in general.

Peace,

Fr. Bill Morton, SSC

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