"Activist wins national human rights prize [from Mexico]"

The subtitle is so funny I hope all my bloggees are sitting down:

President Fox honored Olga Sanchez Martinez on Monday for helping Central Americans who cross illegally into Mexico on their way towards the United States.

El Universal
Lunes 10 de enero de 2005

Mexico, which often complains about the treatment by U.S. authorities of its undocumented citizens who cross the border northbound, eloquently acknowledged Monday that its officials are often cruel, arbitrary and abusive with Central Americans entering from the south.

The admission came as Olga Sanchez Martinez, an activist on behalf of the Central Americans who cross Mexico en route to the United States, was honored by President Vicente Fox with the 2004 National Prize for Human Rights...

"Now, unfortunately, being an immigrant can equate to having to bear not only the burdens of social misfortune and inequality, but also the indifference of others and the enormous risk of being treated as a criminal," [Luis Soberanes, head of the governmental National Commission on Human Rights] said...

The official lamented that Central Americans transiting Mexico are subject to "discrimination, race hatred, mutilating injuries from falling off moving trains, robbery by bands of assailants, fraud by those who sell them transport that's never safe..."

Of course, if she were helping those same heroes stay in Mexico and take The Jobs Mexicans Won't Do, she probably would have gotten something far worse than a medal and a certificate. As long as they're transiting through to the U.S. - spending money along the way - it's OK.

See also the two earlier Irony on the Border posts here and here.

technorati tag, ignore: