Chile Protests Construction Of U.S.-Mexico Border Fence

January 4, 2008 6:35 p.m. EST

Santiago, Chile (AHN) - Chile has joined the growing number of nations against the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Chilean Senate passed a resolution formally protesting the continued building of a wall on the border, saying it is an insult to Latin American countries.

The resolution asks Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to order Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley to inform the U.S. government of its stand and to ask for a halt to the construction. It also sets a national policy to side with Mexico and other Central American countries if they will bring the issue to the United Nations.

Chilean Senators Jaime Naranjo and Pedro Munoz authored the resolution on December. They said the wall is a racist policy that goes against various international human rights treaties. The Senate's Foreign Relations Committee warned against pushing through with the resolution since it may be interpreted as intervening into the U.S.' internal affairs. But the Senate nevertheless approved the resolution, with few legislators voting against it.

Munoz told Santiago Times in today's world of globalization, walls are no longer acceptable, citing the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany as evidence.

Construction of the wall started in 1994, part of the Operation Guardian border control program. in 2007, the U.S. authorized the expansion of the wall. When U.S. President George Bush signed in 2006 the bill that authorized the building of a 638.5-mile (1,100 kilometer) fence, Mexico condemned the American president. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the new wall would only cause more Mexican deaths on the border.

Carlos Jimenez, Second Secretary of the Mexican Embassy in Chile, declined to comment on the Chilean resolution. But he said, "Mexico categorically rejects the construction of the wall on our common border." Jimenez pointed out, "There are other ways to deal with this issue without the necessity of building a wall."