Guest Column
Calderon accepts Mexico’s responsibility for protecting immigrants from Central America
Calderon accepts Mexico’s responsibility for protecting immigrants from Central America
Mexico City – December 14, 2006 – (AP) - President Felipe Calderón on Wednesday said his government will protect the basic rights of its citizens and those accorded to immigrants from Central and South America who pass through the country trying to reach the United States.
Calderón made his remarks at the ceremony to award the 2006 National Human Rights Prize to three people who help immigrants, an event coming two days after activists in California demanded that he halt abuses against undocumented Central and South Americans who travel through Mexico.
"I take responsibility that the actions of my government will be governed by unrestricted respect for human rights," the president said.
Calderón presented the prize to Mexican-American attorney Isabel García and the Rev. Robin Hoover, who aid immigrants in Arizona, and to the Rev. Florenzo Rigoni, a Roman Catholic priest from Italy who provides help to undocumented migrants on Mexico´s border with Guatemala.
Accompanying Calderón at the ceremony was Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña, national ombudsman José Luis Soberanes and several other prominent figures.
Upon presenting the prize to the three pro-immigrant activists, Calderón said he was recognizing the work of "some Good Samaratins who are helping people they don´t know."
"I express my solidarity with and I join those who oppose attempts to make seeking work opportunities a crime, and we do not accept any attempt to treat honest working people like criminals," said the president, who recently criticized the U.S. announcement that it would build a double fence along much of the two countries´ common border.
He added that "in the same way that we demand respect for the human rights of Mexicans (in the United States), we have the ethical and legal responsibility to respect such guarantees and the dignity of those who come from Central and South America and cross our territory."
"It´s necessary for us to look to the south. The emigrants from Central and South America who travel through Mexico also suffer abuses, extortion and are the victims of crime, often with the complicity of the authorities," Calderón admitted.
The president´s remarks apparently come in response to a group of human rights defense organizations in California who announced they were sending a letter to Calderón demanding a halt to the abuses against Central American immigrants who set foot in Mexican territory.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)