DAILY LOBO new mexico
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June 13-19, 2011
Wildfires advance into NM by Luke Holmen holmen@unm.edu
Ash and smoke from wildfires in the east continues to cloud the horizon and turn Albuquerque’s normally blue sky a dull gray. Arizona wildfires spread to western New Mexico June 11, as more than 700 square miles of brush and forest continued to burn largely uncontained in eastern Arizona. Fire officials believe an unattended campfire may have sparked the Wallow fire, the largest burning in the area. The fire has consumed thousands of acres and is expected to cost more than $10 million in fire damage and containment fees. The New Mexico Department of Health issued a warning to residents on Saturday to avoid the outdoors, using swamp coolers and exercising during periods when smoke is visible. “The people we’re most concerned about are obviously those with chronic health conditions, but when air quality gets this bad it can actually have negative effects on everybody,” said Chris Minnick, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Health. “Just because you can’t see the fire doesn’t mean there isn’t an effect from the smoke blowing into the state.” The Air Quality Index in Albuquerque reflected pollution
was nearly 10 times its normal level during evening hours several days last week, according to the National Weather Service. Gov. Susana Martinez announced June 7 that the Department of Homeland Security has ordered the State Emergency Operations Center to activate to a level three operations status due to the effects of the ongoing wildfires.
“We are working hard to ensure the safety of all New Mexicans as the wildfire approaches our western border.” ~Susanna Martinez, Governor Fire crews from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Farmington, Bernalillo County, Mora County and San Juan County have been deployed to Arizona to assist with firefighting efforts. Wildland Fire Strike Teams from Montana and Idaho are also assisting, according to Martinez. Over 4,000 firefighters are currently battling the Wallow fire, which spread due to dry conditions and strong winds. As of Saturday the fire was only 5 percent contained. Nearly 10,000 people have been evacuated
from mountain cities in Arizona. “We are working hard to ensure the safety of all New Mexicans as the wildfire approaches our western border,” Martinez said. “It is important for our residents to heed the warnings of local and state officials as we handle the issue of persistent smoke in the air and prepare for the possibility of the fire moving into New Mexico.” Albuquerque resident Maria Glenn said the fire was a serious health concern. “I have asthma, high blood pressure and had a heart attack last year, and I’m 68. I have to be very careful when I use my air conditioner and have hardly been outside this last week.” Glenn said the fire has affected many of the elderly in her retirement community. She said she is on steroids and has emergency adrenaline on hand, and she has to wear a mask when she goes out. Student Dylan Wilson said the pollution has made it difficult to complete an astronomy project he was working on. “I’m not sure if it is affecting research at the department, but I know visibility has been very low lately,” he said. “I was working with a short range telescope at my house and couldn’t even figure out where I was looking. I had to try several nights in a row before I could actually see the set of stars I was trying to look at.”
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Zach Gould / Daily Lobo Smoke from wildfires in Arizona encroaches on New Mexico skyline and obscures the sun seen from the Very Large Array. The smoke blocked the intensity of the sun’s rays, allowing a viewer to directly gaze at it. Wildfires have burned around 700 miles and have continued for nearly two weeks.
‘Juárez and El Paso is one community’ by Andrew Beale abeale@unm.edu
Nearly 60 people marched Friday from El Paso, across the bridge, and into one of the most dangerous cities in the world to join a several-hundred-strong protest against violence in Ciudad Juárez. Over 3,000 people were killed in Juárez last year, which means it has one of the highest murder rates of any city across the globe, according to CNN. The killings and drug violence in Mexico sparked the protest, said David McKenney, a member of a University of El Paso (UTEP) student group, Miners Without Borders, who helped organize the march into Juárez. “Everyone’s appalled by the violence in Mexico, and finally some of the students at UTEP said ‘we’re sick of this, we gotta do something,’ and started to organize,” he said. “And we did at UTEP and then we met a lot of other community organizers and connected with them.” McKenney said he travels to Juárez several times a month to take part in protests and deliver supplies to people affected by the violence. He said he wasn’t nervous about marching into the city
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because he expected a lot of people to show up for the march. “The more people there are, the safer it will be, is how I feel,” he said. About 600 Mexican citizens attended the protest, some traveling from as far away as Mexico City. They marched to the Benito Juárez Monument, where protest leaders signed a peace accord which read, in part, “We promote solidarity and the just claim to rights for a better life for all.” Mexican citizen Pepe Ortiz traveled from Guanajuato, a city in central Mexico, dressed as Mexican revolutionary hero Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla to attend the protest. He said the costume was meant to inspire people to struggle for their rights. “I want the children to see in my costume the image of the person that broke the chains of slavery and wanted to bring peace and prosperity to Mexico,” he said in Spanish. The protestors were marching to demand an end to violence and a higher standard of living in Mexico, Ortiz said. “(They’re marching for) prosperity and a better life,” he said. “To take out, as best they can, this cancer — take out the army, be-
Elizabeth Cleary / Daily Lobo Families of slain victims from the violence in Juarez laid out this memorial quilt outside Benito Juarez Monument on Friday. Hundreds of Mexicans traveled from as far away as Mexico City to Juarez in protest of the increasing violence across the border. cause the army should be in barracks, not in the city… There’s a lot of work. Mexico is large and strong but, unfortunately, the people that are at the top, well, they don’t understand the people.” Juárez resident David Flores said the march from El Paso worked as a powerful symbol of cross-border solidarity. “We need to show that Juárez and El Paso is one community. At the border, it’s almost like living
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in both cities at the same time,” he said. Flores said he doesn’t expect either the Mexican or the American government to change their policies as a result of the march. “They’ve been ignoring this peace movement. We want nonviolent solutions to this problem. It’s been created by the war on drugs,” he said. “This is the point that it’s got to change.”
McKenney said he’s been to several marches in Juárez and always felt safe despite the high incidence of violence in the city. “A student at the University in Juárez had been shot by a Federal police officer,” he said. “But I went to a march a couple weeks later, and it was safe. Some of the organizers in Juárez, the students over there, they’ve really got it togeth-
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