'Occupy' Movement Breaks Borders http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-movement-breaks-borders.html

An unprecedented wave of protest against the international financial elite and prevailing economic policies swept the globe on October 15. And New Mexico, Mexico and the greater US-borderlands were no exceptions. Protests were chalked up in San Diego, Tijuana, Las Cruces, Ciudad Juarez and Mexico City, among many other places. In El Paso, an encampment was announced beginning Monday, October 17, in the city’s downtown San Jacinto Plaza.

In neighboring Ciudad Juarez, protesters from several groups began their action in the downtown plaza but culminated at the US Consulate, where they blasted US economic domination. The world economy, said activist Julian Contreras, was “leaving many people abandoned while privileging the banks and big businessman and not generating employment or letting the young people study…” Demonstrators also criticized proposals to legally allow soldiers the ability to search homes without a warrant issued by a judge. The Ciudad Juarez event was held at a time when the city is in the middle of a gala, two-week event organized by the government and private sector to improve the city’s image and attract more investment.

In Mexico City, different protests involving hundreds of young people likewise linked issues of violence related the so-called drug war to economic inequities. “We should unite all the young people, use the social networks to make a new revolution, and construct a new democracy in which there is no violence and inequalities,” said one student at a new protest encampment set up at the Revolution Monument.Other Mexican protests were reportedly held or planned in Guadalajara, Morelia, San Cristobal de las Casas, Oaxaca City, Cancun, and more than a dozen other cities.