This past weekend I worked perimeter security for a vigil held to honor those killed by ICE, all of them, everyone, and specifically Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. We didn’t call what I was doing “security”, but to an extent that’s what it was. Some of the speakers were people at risk, perhaps because of a lack of documentation, or, even with documentation, at risk because the Trump administration has targeted documented people for deportation for the act of using their First Amendment rights to speak out against the terrors being waged on their communities. The detention of Mahmoud Khalil is perhaps the most prominent example of sort of harassment. The “security” I performed was to have my back to the speakers. It was to constantly scan the streets around us for any vehicles that could be ICE or other law enforcement coming to disrupt us. It was to watch passersby to determine if they were part of any of they various white supremacist groups that have targeted this sort of activity, sometimes with intimidation, others with violence. I’m happy to say that all was quiet during my three hours on “duty”. The vigil lasted twenty-four hours and passed without incident. I’ll come back to the vigil as part of closing out this posting. First I want to explore some of the memories it caused, the events in other countries that are too similar to what we are seeing today with ICE, Steven Miller, and the hatred from a good part of the Trump administration.
In the late 1980’s I watched a movie called La historia oficial (in English The Official Story). It ties the history of a family to los desaparecidos, those disappeared by the Argentine military government during it’s Dirty War where it kidnapped and murdered as many as 30,000 people who were political opponents. In some cases those disappeared were pregnant women, women that were held captive until they gave birth, their children taken from them and then being adopted by families connected to the military government. My memory is that most of the disappeared were never found, many of the tortured and mutilated bodies were dumped into a river. Many of the stories of the disappeared are known because mothers showed up, looking for their children, and shared their stories. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo) organized and demanded to know what happened to their children.
The vigil led me to thinking about what happened in Chile. In 1973 the Chilean military violently overthrew the government, killing its elected leader, Salvador Allende. At minimum, the CIA was aware the coup was being planned. While there isn’t conclusive evidence to provide proof, there is a belief that the CIA engineered the event. Over 2776 people were killed or went missing. Many of those who were murdered had their bodies tied to a section of railroad track and then were dumped into the ocean.
In Guatemala the disappeared were dumped into the crater of a volcano.
In El Salvador the dirty war was often done in public, the prime example being the murder of Auxilary Bishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, killed during mass on the altar of his church. Sometimes it wasn’t as public, such as the rape and murder of four Catholic missionaries from the United States.
What all of these histories have in common is that all of the involved governments had the backing of the United States. It was, frankly, easy to explain, easy and horrifying. If a government was firmly against communism? We backed it, ignoring the evils it perpetuated.
The prior Trump policy of “family separation” reminds me the children stolen in Argentina. Those killed by ICE are too familiar, lives taken, lives unwanted by the government in power.
The killings in these other countries were at a far higher level than we are seeing with ICE. But does that matter if it’s your family that’s impacted? Watch this analysis from ABC News on the killing of Alex Pretti. There were immediate lies from Trump and his sycophants calling him a terrorist. HE WAS MURDERED BY HIS GOVERNMENT, OUR GOVERNMENT. And to date no one has been held accountable. No one is being held accountable for the murder of René Good. Will anyone be held accountable for the deaths of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero? Is ICE an agency with a license to kill?
Watch this video. I was there, but didn’t really see this when it happened. I heard it peripherally, but my focus was on keeping people safe.
Then ask yourself: how many is too many? This is being done by OUR government in OUR names.
The murders are not on the scale of what the Nazis did in Germany. Yet remember, there it started small and grew. What might have been different if people has spoken up, said no?
A lot of us are saying no. There aren’t enough of us, not yet. Others are silent, disagreeing, yet not acting. When will it be too late? How many is too many?
Resist
The Ugliness is the Hope, but only if we embrace the rage and act.
Resist. Persist. Oppose. Propose. Be the opposition with a proposition.