Latin Leaders Must Denounce America's 'Wall of Shame'

Like Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy before them, the presidents of the Latin American countries must stand up in unison to denounce the proposed 'Wall of Shame' along the U.S.-Mexican border, that, according to this op-ed article from Guatemala's Prensa Libre 'is intended to limit the movements of people even more than the Soviets intended to do when they isolated West Berlin from the rest of Western Europe.'

By Luis Fernando Andrade F.

Translated by Richard Hauenstein

January 3, 2006

Original Article (Spanish)    

The United States president, the Republican Ronald Reagan, who during his two terms in office (1981-1985 and 1985-1989) promoted liberty and democracy with firmness and eloquence, in 1987 denounced with particular vigor, in the name of the United States, the brutal division of the European continent known as the Berlin Wall. [SEE VIDEO BELOW]

Reagan, from that very wall of shame, at that time challenged the secretary general of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Mikhail Gorbachev: if Gorbachev really desired peace and prosperity for the Soviet Union and for Eastern Europe, he must then "tear down this wall" - the Berlin Wall.

The current president of the United States, George W. Bush, also a member of the Republican Party, said in 2004, in reference to Reagan in the eulogy at his funeral, "He believed that America is not only a place in the world, but that it is the hope of the world."

Since the destruction of the Berlin Wall, effectively millions of immigrants, most of them Latin Americans, and including our Guatemalan countrymen, have sought in the United States a hope of liberty and prosperity.

Nonetheless, in this country, which during the Cold War boasted of being the leader against totalitarian oppression, and in which the economic integration and cooperation among peoples and democratic governments has been promoted, today discusses proposals for a law to be called the Border Protection, Antiterrorist, and Control of Illegal Immigration Act, which, if approved by the U.S. Senate, will involve among other things the construction of a wall across the Mexican border. This is intended to limit the movements of people even more than the Soviets intended to do when they isolated West Berlin from the rest of Western Europe.

We must also remember that former Democratic President John F. Kennedy, in a moment of mounting world tension, pronounced in June 1963 before the Berlin Wall, "… this (wall) is an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who want to stay together."

Under the current circumstances, the governments of the region give the impression that they have neither planned for nor foreseen a political response and/or strong and coordinated national and international strategies for denouncing this proposed anti-immigrant law, and contributing in some measure to disapproval of an initiative like the one currently presented.

Nonetheless, it is my opinion that there are still conditions under which we may exercise some moral and political pressure in order to influence the internal debate pending in the U.S. Senate chamber in the opening months of 2006.

The presidents of Mexico, the Central American countries, and of other Latin American countries, just as Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy did in their time, can denounce, together in this case, before the American people and from that same Mexican border, the construction of that which will come to be a Wall of Shame.

As well, we must also challenge President George W. Bush to change this proposed law. In this context, we must highlight the self-same values that Reagan and Kennedy raised on high as they stood before the Berlin Wall.

There are Republican and Democratic senators who are fully aware of the barbarity involved in approval of this law, and above all are aware that the United States should continue to be, as President Reagan said, the hope of the world.

VIDEO FROM THE COLD WAR: THE ERECTION OF THE BERLIN WALL, 1962

U.S. National Archives: Government propaganda film about the erection of the Berlin Wall, 1962, 00:09:18

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