U.S.-Mexico border issues are topics of lectures on campus today

Victor Clark Alfaro, founder and director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana and lecturer in the Latin American Studies program at San Diego State University, will present two lectures on the Western Washington University campus today. Both lectures will realte to issues of the U.S.-Mexico border.

From noon to 1:20 p.m. today in the Fairhaven College Auditorium, Alfaro will present "Violence on the Border: The Case of Tijuana" as part of the World Issues Forum lecture series. From 3 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. in Communications Facility Room 110, Alfaro will present "Crossing Borders: Coyotes & Migrants" as part of the Paths to Global Justice lecture series.

The past two decades have witnessed dramatic growth in violence along the Mexico-U.S. Border as a result of several factors: political changes, changes brought about through globalization, shifts in the drug market, new drugs, corruption, and impunity of government and political leaders. In his noon lecture, Alfaro will discuss how this violence undermines not only human rights but the very quality of life of those living on the border.

There are many means by which the labor force that sustains key sectors of the U.S. economy gets to the destinations where they are needed. In his 3 p.m. lecture, Alfaro will discuss how coyotes – human smugglers – play a fundamental, and not well understood, role in these dynamics.