Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Flooding in El Sal

The disasters of the last week bring into sharp focus the plight of the poor in El Salvador. It has been said that in such storms, "the rich get wet and the poor drown."

I'm worried about the people I know down there. The majority of the people I know are really poor. HELP Intl. partners down in El Salvador are asking for help and say that they have 500 families who have lost their houses or the roofs on their houses.

And as rainy season starts up it's only going to get worse for these people.

If you can help please do. MONEY, CLOTHES, AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES ARE NEEDED.

Please help.

Voces Inocentes



This is a great movie about the war in El Salvador and how it affected the children.

It's a really well done movie and I heard that it's finally going to get release in the US. I got this movie while I was in Mexico.

If you get a chance to see this movie go and see it.

It follows the story of a boy who is torn between getting recruited into the army or the going and fighting the Guerillas.

Check it out.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

More pics from Nogales



Young protesters


Me in the crowd shooting the protest


These are crosses that are posted on the the wall that is on the Mexico side. It has the names of people who have died on the trip to the US.

The wall




Translation:

Borders: scars in the earth

Minutemen and beer



You gotta love a mix of beer and guys with guns. They did tell us in training that no beer before or during a shift.

Jordan with his plastic gun




Jordan gaurding the border with his plastic pistol. He was making fun of all the minutemen that we were with. They all had guns. Jordan isn't a supporter of guns.

I think you can tell that by the way by the fact that he's in his boxers.

Broder watch


Here I am at Three points keepin' an eye out for border crossers.

Border Disorder

Well,

I spent the weekend in 3 Points, Az and Nogales Mexico with my good friend Jordan. I have decided to film a new documentary about what's going on at the Border. Living in Arizona we haven't stopped hearing about the civilian group "defending" the border from the "invasion".

It was "wow" an experience to say the least. We arrived Friday Afternoon, got signed in, got our background check, got a brief training and were officially made minutemen.

We were then whisked away in some pick-ups to a location in the desert.
The desert was beautiful as the sun went down. There were about 8 trucks with 2 men a piece.

We all had radios with ear pieces. It was quite an operation, we even used codes on the radio. Many of the volunteers are ex-military.

It was a little interesting to say the least. I really don't know how to explain the experience.

The 2 guys that I was with were both Former military. One was shot down in Vietnam. They were both nice. They schooled me on how much the goverment spends on Illegals and how Illegals actually sneak in. They told me a lot of things I actually didn't know. They said that Illegals will tie strings on bushes along the trail to guide others that are following them. They also will glue carpet on the bottom of their soles in order to cover their tracks.

They also told me about the drug runners who bring drugs into the states through the desert. They say that when they are in the area the usually leave because of safety. The night we were out we didn't hear any gun shots but, the next morning they said there were some reported near us.

The way the Minutemen defend the borders is by waiting in the desert where there are suspected crossings. After the sun set we had to get quiet. We sat in complete silence for hours. The only thing that would break the silence was the occacional announcment over the radio.

After about 5 hours there was a break in the silence, one of the posts had lit up a group of 16 and they had scattered. An hour later they lit up a group of 6 one woman and 5 men. They had been in the desert for 3 days. They were carrying all backpacks that weighed close to 60 pounds. They had been carrying canned food. That weighs a lot.

I asked if they had water and they did. I asked how they had gone 3 days with one jug of water. They told me that the water had run out. They had been filling their jugs up at watering holes where livestock comes to drink. Many people that cross the border get worms and bacteria from the water, that causes diarreah and they die in the desert from Dehydration. This year they have found more bodies in the desert than ever before.

The border patrol has caught close to 500,000 illegals crossing. They estimate that for every 1 that they catch 3 come in undetected. The minuteman estimate that it's 20 for everyone that's caught.
Very interesting weekend. Very Interesting.

The next morning we woke up and went to the border we were taking pictures of the wall and a guy came up and asked us if we were from a television station. We told him we weren't but were filming a documentary and he told us to follow him. We followed him around the corner and he took us to a group of people with signs, banners, etc. They were marching in protest of the treatment of people crossing the borders. They marched to the border where they met up with a group from the US who crossed over through the US checkpoint. There was a couple of hundred of them. They marched through the streets of Nogales shouting and yelling and then they had a concert and speeches.

It was the two extremes of the issue.

I got some great footage. I'll post some pics

stay tuned.