Solidarity across the border
In Mexico, Thousands Support Immigrants to U.S.
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Tuesday, May 2, 2006
MEXICO CITY, May 1 -- Maya Indian rebels, student activists and middle-class families joined protest marches and boycotted U.S. stores in Mexico on Monday to back illegal immigrants demanding legal rights in the United States.
Thousands gathered outside the U.S. Embassy and marched through Mexico City in support of the millions of Mexican migrants who have staged huge marches in U.S. cities in recent weeks and held a one-day strike and business boycott.
"We remind the gringos that they are a country of immigrants. The work that gringos don't like to do is being done by Mexicans," said marcher Felipe Gomez, 50.
Many Mexicans showed solidarity with their U.S.-based compatriots by refusing to patronize McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks and Wal-Mart. Protesters briefly sealed off a Wal-Mart store in the capital, and fast-food restaurants around the city center were virtually empty.
Even Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista rebels who rarely emerges from his jungle hideout, joined the march through Mexico City. The Zapatista rebels took up arms for Indian rights in the southern state of Chiapas 12 years ago.
He was protected by a ring of Zapatista militants, some wielding machetes.
They marched alongside union workers celebrating Labor Day, radicals waving banners showing Russian revolutionary heroes Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, middle-class families and some protesters dressed in clown costumes and banging drums.
More than half the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. Many work in low-paid jobs in restaurants, hotels, offices and construction sites and send more than $20 billion to their families every year. The cash transfers are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign currency after oil exports.
