INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH THE FAMILIES OF THE DISAPPEARED IN JUAREZ, MEXICO

A truly productive collaboration between a group of disenfranchised Mexicans who are in a long term struggle with their government over its failure to address the murder and disappearances of 800 young women since 1993, and an international on-line community of feminist artists, activists and scholars has emerged. This international dialogue has helped to galvanize efforts by artists and activists throughout Mexico as well.

Last summer, Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (Bring Our Daughters Home), an organization composed of families of the murdered and disappeared women in Juarez, contacted a number of American feminist organizations to ask for help. They were frustrated by the lack of response from the local, state and federal government in Mexico to their appeals for a thorough investigation of the violence and were also being harassed by secret police for their activism. They decided that it was time to “go international” wanted help to approach human rights organizations, including the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States. They also decided that the best way to protect themselves was to let local authorities know that their efforts were supported by solidarity groups outside Juarez.

Since July, several different groups based in the US and Mexico City have shared information, resources, equipment, monies and skills via internet to support the families of the disappeared. Those groups include Undercurrents, Electronic Disturbance Theater, Adriene Jenik’s Desktop Cyber-Theater, Women in Black, Mexico Solidarity Network, Grupo de Tecnologia Alternativa in Mexico City, and LasViejasEscandalosas (based in LA). On August 14, a small group accompanied two representatives from Nuestras Hijas on a performance protest march to the entrance of the OAS while Electronic Disturbance Theater led a Floodnet action against the OAS and the government of the state of Chihuahua (where Juarez is) that involved over 11,000 participants. In addition, Nuestras Hijas and I posted a petition on line to raise awareness about the situation which has amassed over 4000 signatures from people around the world. The international attention and the virtual action sparked the interest of numerous Mexican journalists who covered the event as news and as art. When the marchers arrived at the OAS, Santiago Canton, director of the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights said to me, “Oh, you’re Coco Fusco. I’ve received a lot of emails from you today!” and let the mothers into the building.

In October, the Organization of American States held a hearing on the issue of the disappearances in Juarez, which was attended by Mexican officials, members of Nuestras Hijas and OAS attorneys leading an investigation into the matter. The OAS reprimanded the Mexican government for mismanagement and negligence and called for more international involvement.

Nuestras Hijas insists that is it necessary to keep on exerting external pressure on the Mexican government and this fall called for a “swarm” of activity during the week of the Day of the Dead. Several Undercurrents members came together on line to debate possible interventions and as a collaborative decided to fund and design a graphic and text that commemorates the discovery of eight women’s bodies last year in a cotton field outside Juarez. Of those eight bodies, five remain unidentified. Our “art-multiple” calls on the Mexican authorities to identify the women, and notify their families and to bring an end to the violence, while expressing our solidarity with all the families of the victims. We raised money among ourselves to pay for advertisement space in a local Juarez paper and the ad ran yesterday. In addition, a Mexico City member of Undercurrents who writes for another daily paper based in the capital arranged for the artwork to be published there as well. Several other art events and actions are taking place in Mexico City, Juarez, and Los Angeles this week, and the president of Nuestras Hijas was invited to the US in November by Mexico Solidarity Network to give lectures around the US.

Obviously the use of the internet in this instance is not very complex, nor has any kind of direct hacking been necessary to carry out these projects. However, what is key is the way that the internet has generated a community of interest from different places in the world, and that the internet is being used by a grassroots organization in Mexico to circumvent repression and censorship by the Mexican government. An international virtual community thus becomes a political force field.