Translated by Jane Brundage for Mexican Voices
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| Julian LeBaron, Social Activist |
Tragedy changed Julián LeBarón. First his brother and brother-in-law
were kidnapped and killed, then his friends and neighbors. He is an
activist, a social fighter who does not believe either in the government
of Enrique Peña Nieto, or in a system that he considers "criminal"
because it does not meet its citizen's needs for freedom, security and
prosperity.
LeBarón just arrived in Mexico City from his hometown of Galeana in
northwestern Chihuahua. He has spent two months demanding the release of
Dr. José Manuel Mireles, whom he regards as a "very decent" man:
"He sacrificed his life to defend his neighbor, something that my brother did and paid for with his life. Arresting him is a direct attack on the most sacred right in the world: the right to defend oneself. Any authority that denies us that right is a criminal authority."
Social Activist
A man of the countryside, a builder of houses and social movements,
LeBarón symbolizes the struggle for a change of consciousness in a
country where, faced with all kinds of abuse from power, the majority of
citizens seem mired in the throes of conformity.
LeBarón first joined the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity begun by Javier Sicilia, then began making his own path in solidarity with the noblest causes seeking justice and redress for migrants, disappeared, political prisoners, victims of war:
"Not one person has been sentenced for my brother's murder. I've met thousands of victims, but I haven't seen justice done in a single case."
With no fear of being wrong, LeBarón repeats:
"Our system is criminal."
LeBaron is tall, sturdy, he wears a cowboy hat; his gaze is firm and direct, like his speech. The interview with La Jornada begins with a question on his part, a question that ultimately throws everybody:
"As a citizen, would you give money voluntarily to government officials in exchange for what you get?"And he quickly replies:
"Until today, I have not found any Mexican who says he would do so voluntarily. This means that originally government was conceived as a way of organizing ourselves in order to do things for the benefit of society. But it isn't that now. Today, the government is a violent, destructive and corrupt tool."La Jornada: Why has the government become like that?
"Because it does the opposite of what it should do. Government institutions say that they know how to spend the fruit of your labor better than you do. And everyone, because some ignorant and crazy ones made a mark on a piece of paper, put those bits of paper in a box and say they counted those marks, and they have a majority. This means that the government has the right to hire police and armed people and to forbid you to defend yourself. It is a way of imposing their will and taking away the fruits of your labor, even though we may not agree."La Jornada: It is assumed that this is called the State ...
"I don't know what that means. What is the State? The government and the State are things that do not exist. In reality, they don't work. They are people just like you and me, and we have accepted that the principles of those who govern are differ from ours."
"The government is damaging the entire society. And everything that harms a human being is criminal. Our system is criminal."La Jornada: It is presumed that we live in a democracy ...
"Our elections are secret, and we have allowed this system to perpetuate itself. The President won the election with 18 million votes in a country of 120 million Mexicans. And we don't know who voted, because voting is secret."La Jornada: Why doesn't the system work?
"If you go and tell a government official, 'I voted for you, but you lied. You haven't done anything you promised'. The official replies that the vote is secret, and he has no way of knowing whether or not you voted for him.
"The only thing that is certain is that he has the power for three or six years, and you are in the position of having to obey. If you resist, he kills you or throws you in jail. You decide what you want to do. This is the system that has swallowed us."La Jornada: Then in Mexico there is no real democracy?
"No. We have accepted a language that distorts reality. The majority decides, but just because it is a majority doesn't give it the right to steal or hurt citizens. Democracy is a great tool for reaching agreements on issues. It is very necessary to have a government in order to organize ourselves, but when the liberty, property and life of an individual are not protected, then we live in a dictatorship."La Jornada: And what can you do?
"We have to work compassionately as a peaceful society to get respect for the fruit of our labor and for everyone's life. Any authority that prevents the individual from defending himself (which is what self-defense groups were doing in Michoacán), that authority commits a crime. It is treason. If the government does not allow us to defend ourselves, that is a completely criminal government."La Jornada: Are you still threatened with death?
"Not that I know of."La Jornada: Are you still struggling for human rights?
"There are people who say they have rights to health, electricity, housing, public security ... then we also have the right to use the police and army to force them to provide us with security. I do not believe in violence of any kind."La Jornada: And the violence continues ...
"It's a recognized fact that violence in Mexico continues to get worse for everyone. We have reached the point where the citizen knows that the delegated authority is not going to defend him. And the authority does not accept being told what to do. The government has become a dictatorship. We live in a near-absolute dictatorship. A dictatorship over life and property."La Jornada: That much?
"The people who defend themselves are in jail because they dared to do so when they found no defense in the authority. And we have allowed self-defense members to be treated as if they were criminals."La Jornada: Do you believe in the right to defend oneself?
"Society's authority is delegated--all of it. All legitimate authority begins with self-defense, by people who are first willing to do something for ourselves and then for others."La Jornada: Has anything changed with Peña Nieto?
'The basic problem that we have in the country is not the violence: it is fear. If violence doesn't have the power to inspire fear, then it only provokes disgust. We citizens cannot overcome fear by putting more soldiers in the street. That's something that only makes it worse. It is something that has to be done from inside society to organize and resist institutional abuses of power.A Bleak Future
La Jornada: Is there any future with the reforms in this administration?
"I do not see any future in the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, but I am convinced that in the long term, Mexico will be the first country to shake off the drivel of fear.
"The violence is so oppressive that the people are losing their fear. Now it's the only thing that causes adrenaline to rise. That's what happened in Michoacán. The only tools that our system has to establish order are violence and laws."
La Jornada: Have you any hope for change with Enrique Peña Nieto?
"I have no hope that solutions might come from this government. I do not agree with this system. We have more than 150,000 victims. All the evidence is right in front of our faces. We would be fools if we allow the government to continue perpetuating [the violence]."
La Jornada: Why do they kill social activists in Mexico?
"Because they represent a threat to people who do not want to work. It's as simple as that. And they are going to continue killing social activists until consciousness is sufficiently raised for citizens to unite around not allowing that to happen."
La Jornada: Why are social activists considered dangerous?
"Because they are the bearers of a new idea, a different way of doing things."
La Jornada: How are you able to survive as a social activist in Mexico?
'The only way is there are many of us."
Good luck crossing the borderland to get out of that hell.
ReplyDeleteI bet you his own people turned him in for a couple hundred pesos
DeleteDrug Lord Rafa Quintero -RELEASED
ReplyDeleteZeta Orginal Member Z2 - RELEASED
Crime fighting Doctor Mireles?
yea lets jail him and torture him while were at it.
you disgust me mexico.
Mexico has gone through many years of corruption to the point that politicians believe it is their god given right to accept and extort bribes and look down at the people. Mexico is made up of mostly uneducated people and poverty. It is Mexico's corrupt politicians that are bringing out the frustration and criminal side of honest people who have no one to turn to but themselves. Present day Mexican citizens are not the stupid persons of the past. You can only push a person so far before he explodes in a rage of violence. The Mexican government will eventually pay the price. I truly believe some sort of revolt lays around the corner.
ReplyDeleteDon Neto- released!
ReplyDeleteWe need more extensive biographies of the most outstanding supporters of Dr Mireles, is this julian lebaron a menonite or lds church member from chihuahua and family of mitt romney? Not that they get along, just wondering, and grateful for his support of Dr Mireles.
ReplyDeleteOther supporters like la señora de wallace are not welcome, she is the most crooked crica in all of mexico, after la chuky of course, but la chucy stole, la wallace kidnapps, tortures, extorts, uses the police, and chiefs like SSP genaro garcia luna and luis cardenas palomino, and is now working for el PRI...
For me it was a punch in the stomach seeing her among Dr Mireles meeting attendees, she is worse than el americano and el pitufo...
I feel his anger and desperateness in his answers..Mexican Officials are pieces of shit..plain and simple. Cartels, they do what they do. they are criminal organiations. But the elected officials are worse than the cartels cause they have taken an oath to protect the public, enforce laws, provide provide some sense of security, and have some type of morals of doing what's right for society. No they are traitors as they have failed to act on the oath they swore to uphold. That's why Mexico is failing, not cause of the cartels but because of the corruption that comes down from the top begining with the President down to the lowest form of life the municipal police...
ReplyDeleteBuena suerte Julian! Mexico needs alot more people like you and miIreles
ReplyDeleteOnly 4 comments for Dr. Mireles and the movement to free him. WTF!!!!
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing we can do!
DeleteThen liberty in Mexico truly lost.
Delete*in
Deleteexcellent article. where can readers get ongoing news about Mireles? BB does a good job, but much more I am sure is out there.
ReplyDelete"Only 4 comments for Dr. Mireles and the movement to free him. WTF!!!!"
ReplyDeleteThat's because all the idiots are on the Neto Fonseca posting cheering for his release and bitching that the US might request his extradition. WTF!!!!!! exactly!
Sad but true.
DeleteHey guys you going let this guy call you idiots!
Deletechivis, anything new on that group in chihuahua that formed to kill narcos...they had as a name some significant date in mexico's history...it was a bunch of citizens who got together anonymously to hit back at a crime
ReplyDeletedd-good to see you posting.
ReplyDeletefor breaking Mireles and AD news follow Talia Vasquez on twitter. she is Mireles lead attorney.
Mireles will be released. chivis says within 6-7 mos. I hope so. this here is a good man, made more powerful and known by his arrest. something not spoken about, his arrest was also to prevent a governorship by him.
a notable fact, all of his more than one dozen legal team and leading legal scholars are working pro bono, Mireles has not asked for any donations and wants people to stay away from funds, he has none. his wife started one. the witch. then she is heard on recorded conversation of her saying he has nothing and is poor but she wants 100% of each peso he has.
well maybe hardly any comments but has 50 likes
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to keep track of likes per post, per comment per poster, but where it matters, i'm sure more than 58 people like Dr Mireles, and i hope some day we will see a much different panorama.
ReplyDeleteI still don't see the justice in keeping someone in prison without charges in mexico, they don't even know who sent Dr Mireles to prison or under what charges that can be proved, but others with a lot of baggage never get molested or interrogated, much less prosecuted...
Some comments don't make it on here, even if you support him. But mention other things.
ReplyDelete6:01 yes, he can call us idiots, i can't say his name, but i had him under control until he manipulated the administrators into forbidding us to say his name, much like the devil, the unmentionable or the unmentionables...
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy of moderation is it allows moderators to manipulate moderates and moderateness into opening the doors wide open to the enemies of a better society, reminds you of neville chamberlain, whose moderateness led to WWII, and to stalin having to save the world with US money and lives.
People like that cause mental traumas to maderates, but when people like that get traumatized by the scary people like me they resort to snitching for help, and go back to their ugly practices like calling us idiots.
He should be advised to review the release of juan ramon matta ballesteros by the US government, and demand a full and total investigation of the murder of kiki camarena, wherever the chips may fall, that turns fools into lollygagging idiots...
Sounds like an accident.
ReplyDeleteMy god,this man talks common sense.We put pieces of paper in a box and call it democracy.Once an elected government gets its majority,all bets are off and they can get away with so much.And,i am not just talking about Mexico.Europe,US,etc,in the European parliament there are unelected faceless bureaucrats who make decisions for huge numbers of people,no one voted for them,no-one?
ReplyDeleteJulián LeBarón.is a doer,not a whingeing know it all,i hope he stays safe and his protest sees people get off their asses to protest for Mireles.
ReplyDeleteWhether you support Mireles or not,it is wrong what they did to him,put a hood on a Dr and locked him up for what?For being fed up with governmental ineptitude and corruption,for daring to say"if you wont protect us,we will protect ourselves"The good Dr had too much success and scared the corrupt lackeys of government like COUNT "DRACULA" CASTILLO....