The Latin America Solidarity Centre (LASC) has learned that Bety Carino, a young indigenous human rights worker who visited Ireland only recently, was murdered by paramilitaries in southern Mexico on 27 April.
She was part of a peace caravan trying to reach the rural community of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca, which has been besieged by landlords’ paramilitary groups since December last due to the local campaign for land reform.
The town’s water, electricity and medical services have been cut off and schools shut.
Reports say the caravan was ambushed and attacked with automatic weapons as they approached the blockaded community. Carino, a mother of two small children, and Finnish peace worker Jyri Antera Jaakkola both died in the shooting. Another colleague was wounded, and three others are still missing.
The paramilitaries reportedly prevented an ambulance reaching the wrecked vehicles, so that the number of dead and wounded could not be confirmed till the following day.
Carino sent us her final e-mail that day before she was shot. She expressed the fears of her group over the paramilitaries’ warning that they would “take no responsibility for anything that might happen” to the human rights caravan.
Bety Carino was a guest speaker during Latin American Week in April 2009, visiting Cork, Galway and Dublin, where she spoke of the difficulties and dangers facing indigenous communities in Oaxaca when defending their natural resources and land from powerful local politicians and multinationals.
Her body was laid to rest in Mexico, where the land campaign that Ireland’s rural communities fought a century ago is still not yet won.
Azucena Bermúdez
Co-ordinator, Latin America Solidarity Centre
Two simple tests to prove Govt’s dedication to children
If there is any doubt about how serious the present Government is about protecting children, then may I suggest two very simple tests.
First, see how long it takes for them to name a date for the long awaited Referendum on Children’s Rights.
The Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, chaired by Mary O’Rourke, managed to achieve all-party consensus on the potential wording for a referendum and passed that over to the Government in February.
We are told that the Government and the Attorney General are considering this wording, but no timescale for this consideration has been set and certainly no date named.
Secondly, see whether the date is set for a referendum on its own, or whether it will be lost in the shuffle as part of a selection box for voters.
Surely the events and disclosures of the past year have shown us all too clearly the importance of this issue, and surely our politicians would not put political considerations ahead of this huge national issue. Two simple tests will prove if this is true.
Ashley Balbirnie
Chief executive, ISPCC
Creating more jobs is the only way out of this crisis
Anyone tuned into the Irish media in recent times is surely sickened by the begrudgery. ‘Ministers and public servants should not have pensions’, ‘public servants should not have overtime’ – the list goes on.
The focus only seems to be to drag everyone down to a low level of pay and conditions. But none of this is going to lead to a better society.
The focus should be on creating more secure jobs – with overtime, where required – for Irish workers and immigrants alike.
This is the only way that any kind of social equality can be achieved. There is no other way. The alternative is more social injustice, and a depressed and despairing population.
Patrick Confrey
Rathfarnham, Dublin 14
