February 18, 2014—After more than 15 years of organized struggle, enduring countless attempts by the Mexican government to conceal the fraud that took place and silence the legitimate demands for payment owed to them, the Ex-Braceros found justice, as Judge Rodrigo Mauricio Zeron de Quevedo granted federal protection for three thousand of their widows and children.
We aren’t asking for charity, we’re calling for justice!
The 4.6 million Mexican workers who participated in the Temporary Worker Program, also known as the Bracero program, under the terms of a labor agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments, are a living testament to one of the largest frauds ever committed in the history of these two nations. As a result, millions of peasant and indigenous Mexicans suffered from countless labor and human rights violations.
These Ex-Braceros, now elderly, were robbed and stripped of their claim to a Savings Fund that was established by the U.S. government with the 10% deduction taken from their salary, which was transferred through Wells Fargo Bank to banks belonging to the Mexican government. The money was never given to the ex workers.
The U.S. government has kept to the sidelines on the issue of fraud, claiming that the money for the workers was sent to the Mexican government.
The government (PRI party) effectively laundered the money, which was never handed over to the legitimate recipients. After 34 years, in 1998 the Ex-Braceros, their widows, and children of the deceased Ex-Braceros, initiated an organized social movement to lay claim to the Savings Fund that was rightfully theirs.
After a 15-year struggle, the Mexican government continues to find ways to evade, cheat and defraud the legitimate claim made by this vulnerable population. The government has manufactured a new law to try to distract the population and so avoid having to pay the historic debt. The law (created in 2003), known as Fideicomiso 2106 and created under the government of Vicente Fox, is by nature unjust, exclusive and fraudulent. Under this law the Ex-Braceros are given a Social Support in the amount of 38,000 pesos (equivalent to $2, 800 dollars). Upon receiving this miserably small amount, they are forced to sign a receipt containing a clause that annuls, now and forever, their right to the Savings Fund.
On the other hand, the Mexican government has ignored the claims filed by Ex-Braceros who currently live in the United States, though they should have the same right to receive social support, by way of the Mexican consulates.
In response to these new and brutal injustices, we in the group struggle organizations that make up the Binational Coordinate of Ex-Braceros (COBIEB) have decided to organize ourselves once more. In September 2013 members of these two organizations carried out a “Historic March for a Historic Debt.” The Alliance for Ex-Braceros of the North hereby invite all Ex-Braceros who live in the United States, and the family members of those who are deceased, to join in the movement and fight to reclaim their Savings Fund and Social Support. We can also give information to other groups that have been formed so that they can join us in our fight.
The struggle of the ex-braceros is our struggle. WE AREN’T ASKING FOR CHARITY, BUT JUSTICE!
For more information:
exbraceros4264@hotmail.com
