Gypsy Jan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4275
Registered: 1-27-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Depends on which way the wind is blowing
|
|
Rancho in Baja California Sur Enslaves Laborers
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.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
|
|
|
durrelllrobert
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7393
Registered: 11-22-2007
Location: Punta Banda BC
Member Is Offline
Mood: thriving in Baja
|
|
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.
Bob Durrell
|
|
|
tripledigitken
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4848
Registered: 9-27-2006
Member Is Offline
|
|
| 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
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sling time!
|
|
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.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
|
|
DianaT
Select Nomad
Posts: 10020
Registered: 12-17-2004
Member Is Offline
|
|
| 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
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64857
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
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
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy!
|
|
I recall similar stories about one or two of the tomato farms around San Quintin some years back...very sad.
|
|
|
KurtG
Super Nomad
Posts: 1205
Registered: 1-27-2004
Location: California Central Coast
Member Is Offline
Mood: Press On Regardless!!
|
|
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
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64857
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| 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
Super Nomad
Posts: 1205
Registered: 1-27-2004
Location: California Central Coast
Member Is Offline
Mood: Press On Regardless!!
|
|
| 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
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sling time!
|
|
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.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
|
|
motoged
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6481
Registered: 7-31-2006
Location: Kamloops, BC
Member Is Offline
Mood: Gettin' Better
|
|
| 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  |
Don't believe everything you think....
|
|
|
Paula
Super Nomad
Posts: 2219
Registered: 1-5-2006
Location: Loreto
Member Is Offline
|
|
| 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
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64857
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| 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
Select Nomad
Posts: 13048
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
|
|
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.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
