The U.S. Government arrested three relatives of the activist and water advocate, Leon Fierro, on Sunday. The relatives are her mother Silvia Resendiz, also an activist, and her two children, a child under 13 and a child under 9 years of age.
Silvia and León are part of the Mexicali Resiste movement, which oppose the construction of a brewery in Mexicali by the American company Constellation Brands.
The arrest was given at 14:00 hours yesterday, by border agents on the Mexicali-Calexico dividing line, after Silvia will present the visas to the agent and the agent explains that the two minors have an alert to the US embassy.
Read: The Fight for Water That Has Confronted Citizens, Government and a Brewery in Baja California
So far in 2019, Silvia Resendiz had crossed the border on a six-six occasions and none of them were arrested. The family was looking to get to Calexico, California to do some shopping.
It was until 6 p.m. that the agents allowed the family to communicate with Leon about the arrest, and the reason for the call granted was to notify them that someone should pick up the car left behind by the newly detained.
León Fierro told Animal Politician that it was the only communication he had with his mother and that he briefly told him that they had apparently been arrested for the same reason as him.
In November 2018 León Fierro was arrested for six hours and stripped of his visa while attempting to cross the border from Tijuana-San Isidro, to attend a forum to San Diego. The U.S. embassy justified the action by saying it was part of a radical group that opposed the brewery’s construction.
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In May this year, Leon was arrested for 20 days by Mexican authorities after being falsely accused of assaulting police officers in the government of The State of Baja California. Activists were trying to stop the construction of an aqueduct that sought to deliver the vital liquid to the export brewery.
So far, relatives have been in detention for more than 24 hours. León has had contact with the Mexican embassy in Calexico and the CNDH but the only thing they told him that his son had alert to the US and that notifying him was all they could do.
Leon mentions that “we do not explain ourselves why detention, there is no evidence that he committed any crime… when I spoke to my mother my youngest son is crying because i hadn’t eaten and it was already six o’am.”
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In a statement Mexicali Resiste, he explains that the activists have been subjected to repression, harassment and a campaign to criminalize social protest by the state government of Baja California.
Members of the movement are aware that at least 30 water advocates in Mexicali were bulletinized to the U.S. embassy by the Government of Baja California and Constellation Brands.
For the move it is worrying that they are bulletinized at the embassy because that “means that if a Mexican citizen protests against the installation of a U.S. company in Mexico, the U.S. government can deny them entry to their country and detain them illegally.”
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