BajaNomad

Rancho in Baja California Sur Enslaves Laborers

Gypsy Jan - 7-4-2012 at 09:09 AM

From The San Diego Reader

[Translated from an article in "La Jornada de Oriente" by Fulano.]

"Laborers from Veracruz, Mexico reported that they were victims of a human trafficking network that kept them in captivity on a ranch named "El Piloto," in Baja California Sur, where there still remains about 1,000 peasants from Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas and San Luis Potosi. The laborers are forced to use company stores and are prohibited from leaving the plantation, under threat of death.

They said they had appealed to the authorities of Veracruz and Baja California Sur on May 23, 2012, but so far no investigations have been started, nor have any operations commenced to rescue the laborers who are still there, including minors.

Yesterday, they appealed to the Puebla State Congress to intervene in their behalf. "What we want is for them to close the Rancho because people continue losing their lives."

Gerardo Hernandez Castillejos, who escaped from "El Piloto" along with his wife, his father and a seven year old, testified that he was deceived in Huejutla de Reyes, Hidalgo, by the manager of the Rancho, Manuel Hernandez, who promised a salary of 200 pesos a day ($14), a six-hour workday, social security, child care, groceries and a sturdy house with a stove, gas and a bathroom.

"We were only paid 80 pesos ($5.60), but never given the money because at the company store a kilo of beans costs 40 pesos ($1.28 per pound) and it was 50 pesos for a kilo of corn flour ($1.60 per pound), so we had nothng and those that left they killed," said the farmworker who is originally from Martinez de la Torre, Veracruz.

Accompanied by his wife and son, Gerardo Hernandez said that in the six months he spent at "El Piloto" he assumed that at least three workers who disappeared overnight were dead.

In addition, he said that the laborers' children are forced to work in the packing plant, cutting the stems from strawberries with knives, although many of the children were between five and 10 years of age.

According to a report from the Assistant Attorney for Labor Defense of Baja California Sur, Manuel Gustavo Castillo Piñuelas, Rancho "El Piloto" is located in the municipality of Mulege and is owned by Maria Trinidad."

Mesta Gonzalez and Agrícola Baja Best, S. de R.L. de C.V.

durrelllrobert - 7-4-2012 at 09:22 AM

That sounds real terrible but since it was "Translated from an article in "La Jornada de Oriente" by Fulano" I'd like to see another translation.

tripledigitken - 7-4-2012 at 09:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Gypsy Jan
From The San Diego Reader

Rancho "El Piloto" is located in the municipality of Mulege and is owned by Maria Trinidad."




Anyone in the Mulege area know anything of this?

capt. mike - 7-4-2012 at 12:17 PM

doubt they could support 1000 peons on any rancho close to anyplace in baja sur especially by mulege which has only 3000 villagers anyway.
has to be a real plantation size operation with thousands of hectars to work and from which to get food and water for the workers.

DianaT - 7-4-2012 at 03:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by capt. mike
doubt they could support 1000 peons on any rancho close to anyplace in baja sur especially by mulege which has only 3000 villagers anyway.
has to be a real plantation size operation with thousands of hectars to work and from which to get food and water for the workers.


I believe this is one of the ranches in the Vizcaino area which is a part of the Mulege District. The ranches in this area are very large. Not sure, however and I know nothing about their operations.

I did meet the owner of one of the very large ranches in the Vizcaino area and they were studying the plaza in San Ignacio and built a replica on their ranch. She also owned a large ranch in the San Quintin area and on the mainland --- small, she said in comparison to the holdings of Los Pinos. All is relative.

[Edited on 7-4-2012 by DianaT]

David K - 7-4-2012 at 03:43 PM

Perhaps a different place, but 'El Piloto' is also the Mexican name for what started as the American developed 'Wilson Ranch' back 50 years ago... in the region that is now part of the Vizcaino farmlands. It was the first or 'pilot' ranch using the vast ice age trapped ground water.

Mexitron - 7-4-2012 at 04:28 PM

I recall similar stories about one or two of the tomato farms around San Quintin some years back...very sad.

KurtG - 7-4-2012 at 06:29 PM

The current edition of the Baja Almanac shows a location called "El Piloto" about 5 miles west of Vizcaino on the south side of the highway.

David K - 7-4-2012 at 06:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by KurtG
The current edition of the Baja Almanac shows a location called "El Piloto" about 5 miles west of Vizcaino on the south side of the highway.


See my post above.

KurtG - 7-5-2012 at 09:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Quote:
Originally posted by KurtG
The current edition of the Baja Almanac shows a location called "El Piloto" about 5 miles west of Vizcaino on the south side of the highway.


See my post above.

Yes, I had seen it. Just pointing out the map location.

capt. mike - 7-5-2012 at 01:01 PM

when i last watched the bus loads of workers taken to the Los Pinos fields and green houses at SQ in 2003 what i saw were many indigent native indian women and children along with mexicans men and boys dropped off to work the day.

Have no idea whereb the placed them at night but one guy told me they were mainly from the mainland and come yearly for various plant harvests.

the owners of Los Pinos are multi gazzillionairs, and very smart capitalists.

they gave the sams a VIP tour of the cannery one summer. unbelievable set up. The line work seemed very mundane.

motoged - 7-5-2012 at 01:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by capt. mike
....Have no idea where the placed them at night but one guy told me they were mainly from the mainland and come yearly for various plant harvests.... /quote]


In the cardboard shelters along the fields is what I have seen....but I did not explore the working conditions....and am not sure the workers were only seasonal, as many have no funds to return to their home states.

Smart capitalists are different than humane capitalists; good capitalists are both :light:

Paula - 7-5-2012 at 07:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by capt. mike
when i last watched the bus loads of workers taken to the Los Pinos fields and green houses at SQ in 2003 what i saw were many(indigent) indigent native indian women and children along with mexicans men and boys dropped off to work the day.

......



Did you mean to say indigent or indigenous? Two very different things...

David K - 7-5-2012 at 07:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by KurtG
Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Quote:
Originally posted by KurtG
The current edition of the Baja Almanac shows a location called "El Piloto" about 5 miles west of Vizcaino on the south side of the highway.


See my post above.

Yes, I had seen it. Just pointing out the map location.


In 1962 (Wilson):



Now with new roads and towns added:



2003 Baja Almanac:



Wilson (El Piloto) is on the road south of Diaz Ordaz.

shari - 7-5-2012 at 07:55 PM

interesting...next time we pick up hitch hikers from Piloto, I'm gonna ask them if this is the case. There are some excellent agricultural companies in the Vizcaino area that has daycare, good school, decent living quarters, programs etc. and some very very poor ones too. It is a problem in Vizcaino...all the transients getting liquored up on Saturdays, fights, spousal abuse,murders etc...pretty scary place sometimes and you definitely have to drive defensively on the road to Piloto.