Anchor Intro:

Today is symbolic to social struggles in the region and in particular to indigenous peoples. October 12th symbolizes the resistance of indigenous peoples as it marks the beginning of the Spanish conquest. It is also the annual date chosen for the continent-wide "Cry of the Excluded" ("Grito de los Excluidos") amongst other popular demonstrations. We go now to Marc Becker in Guatemala City for an update from the Americas Social Forum:"

Joel Suarez from the Martin Luther King Center in Cuba.

Jorge Coronado, Hemispheric Commission from the Americas Social Forum

Benita Simon, Maya from Huehuetenango

buen vivir

Humberto Cholango

Blanca Chancoso

Jerome Scott, League of Revolutionaries for a New America

is the forum going in the right direction?

Scholar-Activist Walda Katz Fishman from Sociologists Without Borders

Michael Leon Guerrero, Grassroots Global Justice

Maria Poblet, Saint Peter's Housing Committee & GGJ

Stephanie Guilloud, Program Director, Project South

SF hymn

Rose Brewer, Afro-Eco from Minneapolis

Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

The date is symbolic to social struggles in the region and in particular to indigenous peoples. October 12th symbolizes the resistance of indigenous peoples as it marks the beginning of the Spanish conquest. It is also the annual date chosen for the continent-wide "Cry of the Excluded" ("Grito de los Excluidos") amongst other popular demonstrations.

After much opposition and a long battle in court, scrapers and bulldozers have finally began filling a deep canyon to make way for a 57 million dollar project to build a second layer for the border fence that will end at the Pacific Ocean and effectively close Border Field State Park; one of the last remaining contact points where hundreds of people meet across the fence in the US/Mexico border.

U.S. authorities insist the 16 million dollar a mile fencing is needed, despite an increase in patrols and constant objections from human rights groups and environmentalists.

From Tijuana, Mariana Martinez brings this report.

SCRIPT

Ambient Sound (music, ice cream bell, voices) 4 seg

1. 15 seg

7 year old Manuel eyes the ice cream cart, as his father gives him instructions on how to buy the treat and reach out to get it across from the rusty metal fence. The family is at Border Field State Park, located at the Southwestern corner of the United States, within the Tijuana River Estuary, where live Norteño bands play on the Tijuana side, before the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

SOUND (nomas agachate y agarralos…ok, I'll do that…..) 6 seg

2.12 seg.

Manuel's father, Victor Sandoval, is here to give money to his daughters, -who live in Tijuana-. He is a US citizen and so are his kids, but he says the border waits are too crazy to cross into Mexico.

SANDOVAL 9 seg

La manera de mandarles dinero más rápido es por aquí, hay Western Union y otras pero me cobran y yo vivo aquí luego luego.

Translation: The easiest way to give them money is coming here, there's Western Union and others but they charge, and I live right here.

3.

Border Field State park has long been a meeting point for immigrant families. But the park could soon be closed because plans to build a second fence are being accelerated. Families on both sides of the border are concerned that this new fence will make it impossible for them to meet their relatives at the park and divide their families even more.

Norma Blanco lives in Tijuana, and comes to enjoy the summer afternoon and have a picnic by the fence with 20 other relatives, many of her siblings and their kids, in the US side while their elderly mother is on the Tijuana side. Together they sit divided by the metal wall, while they joke around and share fast food and tortas, by using a small opening in the fence.

BLANCO 19 seg.

0001 a 0020 mi mama ya esta grande y ojala nos dure muchos años pero…es como su gusto de verla, de que no se quede "tenia años de no verla y solo vine a dejarla pues, en la tumba"

Translation: Mi mom is getting old, and we hope she will stay with us for many years but…Its my families joy to see her, for them not to say "I had not seen her for years and I only came to see her grave".

4. 30 seg

The Border Fence Project has been in the drawing boards for the last 12 years, and has faced strong opposition from human rights activists, environmentalists and even the California Cost Commission, who oppose the project on the grounds of the severe damage it causes to the Estuary ecosystem, home of over 370 migratory species of birds.

Federal Authorities have released estimates of about $16 million dollars a mile for this last stretch of fence. Far more expensive than any other of the walls being build along the nation's near 2 thousand mile border with Mexico, that cost an estimated 2 to 3 million dollars per mile.

The Construction helps the Bush administration keep the congressionally-mandated deadline to build 670 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border by year's end.

5. 15 seg.

Cristian Ramirez, National Coordinator for the American Friends Committee laments the project has not been available for review from the community and considers that people are already being discouraged from visiting the park, by being asked to show their US passports to enter, and recently started charging a five dollar per vehicle fee.

RAMIREZ 18 seg

Cada ano se celebra la posada sin fronteras en diciembre, y pues como van las cosas parece ser que la de este ano, si es que podemos hacer la posada sin fronteras va a ser una posada sin fronteras ya no tras un muro sino por lo menos tras dos muros.

Translation: Every year we celebrate the Posada without Border in December, but if things going the way they are, it seams this year, IF we do have a Posada without borders wit will be not only across one metal fence, but across two at least.

6. 10 seg

Ramirez ads he and other activists have been asking for the Department of Homeland Security to make the plans public, to make sure this California State Park remains open.

From Tijuana, this is Mariana Martinez for Free Speech Radio News.