A concert next month protesting US President Donald Trump’s plan to build a border wall will be on the Mexican side only after US authorities nixed plans for a cross-border event, organizers said Monday.
The free June 3 event featuring the Dresden Symphony Orchestra “will now take place exclusively on the Mexican side of the border,” the group said in a statement.
“‘Tear Down This Wall!’ is possible and necessary at different sites around the world. The list of walls to address is unfortunately very long,” orchestra director Markus Rindt told AFP.
He said US authorities denied permission to hold the crowdfunded event on their side of the border, citing security concerns.
It will now take place only in Tijuana, a city on the Mexican side of the border about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of San Diego, California.
“Now there’s even more reason for this event to go forward,” rights group Amnesty International, which supported the concert, said in a statement in Spanish.
“American musicians and artists are invited to participate in this June 3 event on their own initiative along the border with Mexico.”
Rindt was a young man in 1987 when Ronald Reagan urged the then-Soviet Union to “Tear down this wall” in Berlin — the quote that inspired his project.
Trump made a border wall with Mexico one of his leading campaign themes, claiming criminals and drug traffickers were flooding over the southern US border. He also insisted that Mexico would pay for the new wall.
Mexico has so far steadfastly refused, and Trump has yet to secure any of the billions of dollars in congressional funding needed to start his flagship project.
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