U.S. economic, immigration policies caused this death
By Stephen Bartlett, Brian Rich and Attica Scott
Lexington-Herald Leader, KY
December 14, 2008
After almost four months since the death of Salvadoran immigrant house cleaner Ana Romero in custody in the Franklin County jail, we feel the need to be clear about who we hold to be responsible for this tragic death.
Ana, like many of her fellow undocumented immigrants migrating from south of the U.S. border, did not come here with any criminal intent. Her motivation was to provide for her family, including her aging mother and her two grown children, through hard and honest work.
Although the specific persons who may or may not have been guilty of violating Ana's due process, or mistreating her in jail, or neglecting the needs of Spanish-speaking prisoners have yet to be identified -- and no matter what the official cause of death is deemed to be -- it was fundamentally the system that killed Ana Romero.
U.S. economic policy and intervention in El Salvador has severely impoverished the great majority of people in that country. The penetration of U.S. transnational corporations has wiped out rural economies based on agriculture and small businesses of many kinds.
http://www.kentucky.com/589/story/626430.html
