Hugs Not Walls event canceled
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) has canceled its annual Hugs Not Walls event for this year.
The cancellation comes "in light of ongoing developments and challenges impacting border communities," the organization posted on Facebook today.
ABC-7 has covered the event in past years. It offers Borderland residents the opportunity to share a three-minute hug with their families on the other side of the border.
ABC-7 spoke with BNHR's Executive Director Fernando Garcia who said the decision to cancel the 12th edition of the Hugs Not Walls event came from a national level.
Here in the El Paso region, BNHR had the permits and conversations needed to conduct the event.
A permit was issued by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), and then it was revoked by the same agency, according to Garcia. But the decision wasn't made here, he added.
Conversations were also conducted with Border Patrol El Paso Sector, the Texas National Guard and with their Mexican counterparts in Juárez as well.
"Most of the people who participate in this event, the vast majority, 90% of the people they are from Juarez and El Paso, so this event has become a signature event of the region, right? I mean, the symbol that we're part of one community," Executive Director Garcia said.
This year's event was scheduled for this Saturday, May 10 when Mother's Day is celebrated in Mexico.
Now, instead of hosting the original Hugs Not Walls event, they will be hosting another binational event initiative called "Madres de la Frontera" and Love Without Borders, which is set to gather the families who had already signed up for the other one before it got canceled.
"I think there was a lot of frustration, we had to tell families that the events as we know it was not going to happen anymore," Garcia said.
"Why was this not allowed? Again, I'm saying that this decision didn't come from El Paso region, it came from Washington D.C.," Garcia added. "So what was so threatening about an event that brings about humanity and love in showcasing the destruction of whole Latino families?"
People in El Paso came to the Border Network asking why the event had to be canceled, just a few days before its scheduled date.
"There was a father who came to me today and said, well you know, I was ready to see my daughter, my pregnant daughter who is in Juárez, and I wanted to at least hug her and understand that I am going to be a grandad," Garcia with his encounter with this El Paso resident.
Besides gathering families this Saturday, BNHR is set to talk about the border militarization and its impacts in the El Paso region.
"They are going to show up with roses, balloons and Mariachis, because we are going to celebrate that we are a community, but also we are going to somehow protest the fact that this administration crashed the humanity of events such as Hugs Not Walls on the border," Garcia added.
