Posted on 10/18/2007 5:56:34 PM PDT by SandRat
BISBEE — Elizabeth Kucinich received a warm welcome when she visited Bisbee and Naco, Sonora, to discuss border policies, the war in Iraq and other issues related to the presidential campaign of her husband, Dennis, on Wednesday.
In Naco, Sonora, she met with Mayor Jose Lorenzo Villegas at El Maguey restaurant. She told him and nearly 50 other people in attendance that the leaders of the United States need to acknowledge Mexico as a partner in international relations.
“We need to cancel NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and we need to withdraw from the WTO (World Trade Organization),” she said. “Then, we can rewrite the trade agreements between America and Mexico so there are workers’ rights and human rights and environmental policy principles.”
The room erupted into a round of applause when she said her husband “recognizes there should not be a wall on the border,” and then added, “We remember what President Reagan said to Mikhail Gorbachev when he said take down that wall. We will do the same.”
Kucinich made similar comments earlier in the day during a speech to more than 100 people at City Park in Bisbee. She said NAFTA, which came into effect in 1994, is one of the causes of the immigration problem in the United States.
“The people are economic refugees in their own countries and are really trying to find a new life. They come to America with documentation or without and that is because they cannot feed their families back at home,” she said.
The visit was her first to Naco, Sonora. She visited Nogales, Sonora, in May and listened to hundreds of stories of illegal immigrants who were deported from the United States to Mexico.
Nearly all of the women she met there had been either raped in Mexico while trying to cross the border or had been abused on the U.S. side, she said during an interview.
“I find it very distressing that we are not seeing this as a humanitarian issue. It really is,” she said.
She said America needs to take a proper approach to the issue of immigration “by understanding not that we have to stem the flow of immigrants but we have to stem the cause of them leaving their country, which is economic poverty.”
“America is really going against itself when it goes against the immigrant community. America is a country of immigrants. We have to really recognize who we are and who we are in relation to the rest of the world,” she added.
Villegas told Kucinich that her husband is welcome to visit Naco, Sonora.
He said they should not be concerned about safety and he assured her that ample security would be available.
He said he hopes Dennis Kucinich will meet with the president of Mexico to work with him on the border issues.
Ronald R. Oertle, mayor of Bisbee, said he supports Kucinich because “he stands firm on his principles.”
“He does not put his finger up in the air and find out which way the political wind is blowing,” he said.
At City Park in Bisbee, members of the audience had displayed signs welcoming Kucinich and calling for an end to the war in Iraq. There were two 8-foot-tall signs reading “Impeach” and “Peace.”
Kucinich explained to them that her husband’s campaign slogan is “Strength Through Peace.”
“We understand that a strong America is an America that stands for peace. Not an America that easily runs itself into war and weakens its military by overextending itself in illegal occupations around the world,” she said.
“It is time for America to take a new direction.”
Herald/Review reporter Jonathon Shacat can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathon.shacat@bisbeereview.net.
When I meet that car, I hope my car has missiles on it.
CMSGOP, you rock.
Completely sick in the head, but probably good in....
the garden.
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