Demand jail time for heat death of 17-year old Maria Isabel

[ckaihatsu]

http://action.ufw.org/page/speakout/pleadeal


Don't set a precedent that farm workers' lives are unimportant.


Dear Mr. Willet,

California’s 650,000 farm workers face a daily risk of death and illness from toiling in stifling summer heat. They are at the mercy of agricultural employers and farm labor contractors who many times fail to live up to their constitutional and statutory duties to protect the safety of farm workers. Farm workers are literally dying because of the state’s broken system, which is designed in a way that ensures inadequate enforcement of the law. The laws in the books are not the laws in the fields.

You have the opportunity to set a precedent that will make agricultural employers think twice of not following the laws of California and putting at risk the life of a human being. The case of Maria Isabel Vazquez Jimenez is hard to accept, because it didn't need to happen. There is no difference between a driver killing someone while breaking our traffic laws and a labor contractor breaking the law and killing this beautiful young woman.

Maria's family and the public ask that you do everything in your power to ensure that these farm labor contractors are sentenced to the fullest extent of the law. Fines and community service hours aren't enough. Anything less than jail time is a desecration of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez' death.



- California’s 650,000 farm workers face a daily risk of death and illness from toiling in stifling summer heat.

- They are at the mercy of agricultural employers and farm labor contractors who many times fail to live up to their constitutional and statutory duties to protect the safety of farm workers.

- Farm workers are literally dying because of the state’s broken system, which is designed in a way that ensures inadequate enforcement of the law.

- The laws in the books are not the laws in the fields.

- You have the opportunity to set a precedent that will make agricultural employers think twice of not following the laws of California and putting at risk the life of a human being.

- The case of Maria Isabel Vazquez Jimenez is hard to accept, because it didn’t need to happen.

- There is no difference between a driver killing someone while breaking our traffic laws and a labor contractor breaking the law and killing this beautiful young woman.

- Maria’s family and the public ask that you do everything in your power to ensure that these farm labor contractors are sentenced to the fullest extent of the law.

- Fines and community service hours aren’t enough.

- Anything less than jail time is a desecration of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez’ death.

[scourge007]

I never heard a word about this on the news at all. The asshole who did this should serve jail time. I doubt it though because they'll just say she's an illegal immigrant who shouldn't have been here in the first place.:rolleyes:

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=553


Justice for Santiago Cruz - end impunity now!


On April 9, 2007, 29-year-old FLOC organizer Santiago Rafael Cruz was bound with rope and beaten to death in FLOC’s Monterrey office. Cruz had only recently arrived in Mexico after 4 years as a FLOC organizer in the US.

The IUF-affiliated Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in 2005 set up an office in Monterrey, Mexico – the first of its kind - to assist these workers in obtaining the necessary visas and educating them about their rights.

Farmworkers travelling from Mexico to work in the United States are prey to unscrupulous labour contractors: in the course of their journey to work in the fields, migrant workers are often extorted and abused.

Following Cruz’s murder the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ of the intergovernmental Organization of American States, called on the government of Mexico to implement protective measures for the physical safety of FLOC members and staff and to vigorously investigate the case.

Nearly 4 years later, the killers – and those who organized the assassination – are still at large.
FLOC and the IUF have launched an Appeal for Justice, calling for action on the Cruz case to stem the rising tide of impunity for acts of violence against trade unionists in Mexico and the Latin American region.

You can support the Appeal by using the form below to send a message of support for the campaign. Your support for the petition is part of a wider campaign to press for decisive action on the Cruz case.



To the Honorable C. Felipe Calderon Hinojosa
President of The United States of Mexico

Dear President Calderon

On April 9, 2007, Santiago Rafael Cruz was bound with rope and beaten to death in the offices of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO), in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, where he worked as an organizer. There can be little doubt that this assassination was a blatant act of intimidation meant to stop the union from aiding farm laborers. The lack of progress in the investigation of this brutal crime is cause for grave concern.

In response to this assassination, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted protective measures to other members of FLOC, asking the Mexican State to ensure their safety and to vigorously investigate this murder.

I believe that Santiago Cruz’s murder represents the rising tide of violence and persecution of labor leaders in Latin America. It is essential that the Mexican authorities act decisively to bring the murderers, and the masterminds behind it, to justice. Such action would reaffirm Mexico’s commitment to justice in this case, and would also prevent new attacks against people seeking to exercise their internationally recognized right to improve their lives through labor organizing and collective bargaining. Failure to act sends the intolerable message that criminals may carry out unspeakable acts in Mexico with impunity, and invites the condemnation of the world.

Yours sincerely

[Ocean Seal]

I never heard a word about this on the news at all. The asshole who did this should serve jail time. I doubt it though because they'll just say she's an illegal immigrant who shouldn't have been here in the first place.:rolleyes:
I hate the fact that in America, if you're an illegal immigrant people think that you're the scum of the Earth and don't deserve rights. What kind of fucking thinking is that, because they were born on the south side of an arbitrary line the don't have the same rights as those born on the north side? And its not even like asking much, these people don't even think that they have the right to live. :cursing:

[A Revolutionary Tool]

You know what I think we really need? Remember a few years ago there were HUGE protests on May Day, which basically was illegal immigrants(and legal immigrants) and those supporting their rights stating that they deserve respect and dignity. That day was huge, I had cousins in Nevada walk out of their high school, people in my little city walked out of their high school. All over it was crazy and the demonstrations were huge. With stuff like this happening and the general anti-immigrant vibe going across the country I think we really need to make another strong show of strength, because stuff like this is just bull shit.

We should really try organizing something like that again this year.