Annotations for Places: United States--arizona--nogales

In Arizona, the scene of a number of alleged incidents of human rights abuse against Mexican nationals, a US border patrolman has been charged with the rape of an undocumented woman. Manuel Arcadia reports from Tucson.

According to a news release issued by the Nogales, Arizona Police Department, 31-year-old border patrolman, Larry Dean Selders arrested two Mexican women who had entered the country illegally. He then dropped one off, kidnapped the other and raped her in a remote location. Selders was arrested after the woman reported the incident to the Mexican consulate. This incident follows a sequence of human rights violations against Mexican undocumented workers in Arizona, like the notorious Michael Elmer case that ended up in the shooting death of 22-year-old Mexican National Dario Miranda Valenzuela and the exoneration of charges. Cases like this have prompted Arizona Congressman Ed Pastor to introduce legislation calling for the commission to investigate charges of human rights violations by US officials along the border for Latino USA. This is Manuel Arcadia reporting in Tucson, Arizona.

For weeks now, residents of several Southern Arizona communities have been debating a proposal by the Border Patrol to build a series of steel walls along their border with Mexico. The final decision rests with each of the local communities. Nogales, Douglas, and Naco. Reporter Manuel La Cadia was in the community of Naco, Arizona recently where a town forum about the issue took place.

The Border Patrol has already built a barrier project along the border in St. Luis Rio, Colorado. In Nogales, the proposal to build the fence there was first rejected, but now the board of supervisors is reconsidering. While in Douglas, Arizona, the proposal was flatly rejected. For Latino USA, this is Manuel La Cardia in Tucson, Arizona.

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. Another border community is reporting an alarming increase in a number of possibly environmentally-related diseases. From the twin cities of Nogales on the Arizona/Mexico border, David Barbour reports.

It was nearly two years ago that residents first realized there was a serious health problem in the border area of Nogales. Clusters of rare cancers began showing up, and one working class neighborhood could count 16 cases of cancer within a two block area. But it wasn't until a review of 600 death certificates indicating that nearly 50% were cancer-related, that community activists got the attention of state and federal health officials.

Dr. Larry Clark is with the University of Arizona's Cancer Center, and has uncovered a disturbing increase in cases of systemic lupus.

We've identified 18 definite or probable cases, and 30 possible cases. Nogales may have the world's highest rates of systemic lupus.

On December 2, Arizona Governor Fife Symington led an entourage of state and federal health and environmental officials to Nogales, Arizona to announce the creation of a border health task force to study the problem. Though more money has been promised to study the diseases, the causes are still anybody's guess. The residents of Nogales are still waiting for answers. For Latino USA, I'm David Barbour in Tucson.