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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6210435.stm
Last Updated: Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 04:16 GMT
Castro's ailment 'is not cancer'
Castro has not been seen in public since surgery in July
A leading Spanish surgeon who flew to Havana last week to examine Cuban leader Fidel Castro says he does not have cancer or need further surgery. On returning to Spain, Jose Luis Garcia Sobredo said Mr Castro was recovering well and was in good spirits. Dr Garcia went to Havana in response to a humanitarian request from the Cuban government, a Spanish official said.
The president, who is 80, is recuperating from surgery he underwent in July to stop intestinal bleeding.
Dr Garcia is an expert on intestinal ailments, particularly cancer. Of Mr Castro, he said: "His physical activity is excellent, his intellectual activity intact, I'd say fantastic, he's recovering from his previous operation.
"He asks every day to return to work, but doctors advise him not to, to take it easy."
Mr Castro has placed his younger brother, Raul, in charge of the government.
State secret
Although Mr Castro's health is a state secret, Cuban officials have said that he is not suffering from cancer or any terminal illness, and that he is recuperating.
Since Mr Castro temporarily stood down from power almost five months ago, there has been no shortage of speculation as to what he might be suffering from. Unnamed US officials have told US media that it is cancer, possibly in its terminal stages. But earlier this month, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez strenuously denied that his long-time friend and ally was suffering from the disease.
Cuban government officials, including the country's foreign minister, gave the same message to a visiting group from the US Congress last week.
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Related Article=
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5243500.stm
Last Updated: Monday, 7 August 2006
Fidel: The world icon
Cuba's President Fidel Castro - the world's longest-serving political leader - turns 80 on 13 August. This week, we will be assessing his political life and his impact on the Caribbean island.
Here, world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds looks at the story of his life.
The ailing Castro remains a symbol of revolution in his 80th year
He is instantly recognisable both from his appearance - the beard and the military fatigues - and from his first name alone: Fidel. The name is expressed with affection by some, with hostility by others but it calls up history for everyone.
The story of his life is very much the story of our times: revolutionary movements, the Cold War, East v West, North v South, communism v capitalism - except that most of the world has passed him by.
Fidel Castro, who celebrates his 80th birthday this week, has remained the same, a symbol of revolution, a communist who has survived the fall of communism.
He continues to inspire his followers with slogans and five-hour speeches. He rails against the United States, its economic and trade embargo and against the evils of free markets - and he maintains his rule with an iron grip that sends opponents to prison for years.
Intolerance
He is praised for standing up for the oppressed of Latin America, for opposing the Yankee imperialist, for making Cuba into a more equal society than many, for developing Cuba's health service and sending doctors abroad to help others.
Cuba's assistance to the island of Grenada led to a full-scale US invasion
And it wasn't only doctors he has sent abroad. He despatched troops to Angola and Ethiopia in support of fellow revolutionaries. His hand was seen in many a revolutionary movement in his own continent. But he is also condemned for intolerance, for keeping his people poor and for refusing to see the benefits of economic liberalisation that even the communists of China have embraced. He has stopped his people from leaving the island, leading them to risk their lives in rickety boats to try to get out.
At one stage in the early years of the Reagan administration he was accused of trying to take over Central America for the Soviet Union by revolution. Washington at that time saw a path that led from the guerrillas of El Salvador through Nicaragua to Cuba and right up to the door of the Kremlin.
Brink of nuclear war
Cuban assistance to the small and then revolutionary island of Grenada in the Caribbean prompted a full-scale US invasion.
President Castro has remained in almost permanent confrontation with the United States - and it with him. Such thaws as there have been, like under President Jimmy Carter, have always frozen up again.
The US came to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union
The American embargo on Cuba has been used by both sides - as a policy by the US to isolate Cuba and as an excuse by Fidel Castro for the island's poverty. He has cut a giant figure on the world stage during the 47 years he has controlled Cuba - at one point bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. It was the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 that propelled him into worldwide prominence.
Before that he had been just a glamorous revolutionary leader. He had overthrown the dictator Batista in a classic guerrilla war and had fought off an American-led invasion by Cuban exiles on the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
But when Nikita Khrushchev decided, with Fidel Castro's agreement, to station nuclear missiles in Cuba itself, the island leader turned from being a thorn in the side of the Americans into being a mortal threat. It was only the skilled diplomacy of Jack Kennedy (and of Khrushchev in the end) that saved the day, and Fidel's own island from destruction.
Strengthened
The then US defence Secretary Robert McNamara met President Castro in 1992. He said the Cuban leader told him there were 162 nuclear missiles in Cuba at the time of the crisis. He asked Castro if he had recommended they be used. The answer was:
"Yes, I did."
"And what would have happened to Cuba?" Mr McNamara asked him.
"It would have been destroyed."
Fidel Castro was not part of the diplomacy that ended the missile crisis. But he came out of the crisis remarkably strengthened. Kennedy promised that the US would not invade Cuba, a promise that has held.
The CIA made efforts to get rid of him with bizarre plots involving the Mafia and poison. They came to nothing. However, to this day, President Castro's people take immense precautions to protect him from potential harm from food and drink, as diplomats who invite him to their receptions in Havana know very well.
He has survived harm from his enemies. And whatever happens to Cuba after him, the name of Fidel will survive in history.
Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/2006/diciembre/mar26/01revenerg-i.html
Havana. December 26, 2006
Energy Revolution in Cuba
• Eolian Park on the Isle of Youth about to generate
BY DIEGO RODRIGUEZ MOLINA—Granma daily staff writer—
NUEVA GERONA.—The works involved in the final stage of mounting the Eolian Park installed on the Isle of Youth to generate electricity via a more economical alternative as part of the Energy Revolution were commended by Yadira García Vera, minister of basic industry, during a tour of the area, some 40 kilometers from this city.
The likewise member of the Political Bureau, accompanied by Elizabeth Cámara, member of the Central Committee and first secretary of the Party here, met with workers in the sector who are raising the 55-meter towers that will carry the six French technology aero-generators that can be dismantled at the approach of hurricanes, an aspect that gives this field an advantage over others introduced into the country.
Located in the eastern part of the second island in the Cuban archipelago, given that the air velocity there is highly suitable for generation, the complex will add 1,650 kilowatts to the local electrical energy system without contaminating the atmosphere, and based on renewable raw material, like the wind.
García Vera acknowledged the territory’s efforts to incorporate new renewable energy sources in line with its potential, including that of generating from the forestall biomass, and highlighted the favorable results in terms of savings, by decreasing electricity consumption by 0.3%, despite the fact that the 40% of the island’s population have been cooking with electricity for some months. This translated into 1,300 tons of unused oil.
Translated by Granma International
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/26/MNGHGN5TMK1.DTL
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Tuesday, December 26, 2006
West Sacra: Anti-gang injunction polarizes a town
West Sacramento's experience may hold lesson for S.F., which has adopted similar strategy
- Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
(12-26) 04:00 PST West Sacramento, Yolo County -- A police officer stopped Robert Sanchez one night in April as he walked near his home in this blue-collar city, though Sanchez wasn't suspected of committing a crime.
Sanchez, 18, admitted he was a member of the Norteño gang, the officer said. He also wore a gang tattoo and was with another Norteño, his sister's fiance.
"You are being served with a permanent gang injunction," the officer told him.
With that, Sanchez lost the right to move freely in his neighborhood. He's now prohibited indefinitely from hanging out with more than 125 other alleged Norteños, some of them relatives, in a wide swath of the city. He must also obey other restrictions, including a 10 p.m. curfew.
The court injunction against the Norteño "Broderick Boys," named for the neighborhood where many of them live, has stirred controversy since a judge issued it nearly two years ago, dividing residents who feel safer because of it from those who see it as racial profiling.
West Sacramento's experience may be a lesson for San Francisco, where City Attorney Dennis Herrera secured the city's first anti-gang injunction last month and is preparing to ask for more.
Herrera's action against the Oakdale Mob is narrower than the West Sacramento injunction, applying to a housing project in Bayview-Hunters Point instead of a 3-square-mile "safe zone" in West Sacramento. But it raises many of the same legal and cultural issues.
The toughest question is whether the injunctions work well enough to justify their rigidity.
"It's absolutely worked," said Jeff Reisig, the Yolo County prosecutor who sought the injunction before his successful run this year to become district attorney. "The fact that San Francisco has decided to pursue a gang injunction is telling. This works, and it's legal."
Taking a break from his custodial job at a West Sacramento elementary school, Danny Velez, 56, said the injunction hurt his son, even though the 15-year-old has nothing to do with the Norteños.
"Ever since this injunction, it's been pure hell to raise a son. They've been profiled and segregated," Velez said of young Latinos. "He's constantly harassed about whether he's in a gang, by teachers and by police."
Sanchez, who is on probation for a robbery conviction, concedes he is a member of the Norteños("Northerners"), one of two prison-based gangs that have warred since the 1960s. Rival Sureños ("Southerners") are often newer arrivals to the country. Norteños claim the color red; Sureños wear blue.
Sanchez is looking for work and says he grudgingly complies with the injunction. But at some point, he said, he'll inevitably violate one of the rules.
"I'm going to get in trouble like I was banging," he said, "when I'm not banging anymore."
West Sacramento's safe zone covers roughly one-seventh of the city, including the heavily Mexican American and Russian American neighborhoods of Broderick and Bryte, across the Sacramento River from the state capital. Latinos make up 30 percent of the city's 45,000 people.
Once an industrial backwater isolated by the river, West Sacramento started growing after residents voted to incorporate in 1987 and the city improved roads and water supplies. When the Oakland A's minor-league affiliate built a ballpark seven years ago, it chose West Sacramento.
Some residents, like Ray Martinez, are excited about the growth. "Cleaning up the neighborhood is good," said Martinez, 48, a floor designer who lives in Broderick. "If it wasn't for the real estate market, I don't think the police would be doing this."
Others think gentrification is harming longtime residents and refer to a wall that separates Broderick from a housing development called the Rivers as the "Great Wall of Divide."
"What we've learned is you follow the money," said Rebecca Sandoval, a Sacramento activist who has organized injunction opponents. "Wherever the developers go, up comes an injunction."
Reisig, the county prosecutor, said development had nothing to do with the suit he filed in December 2004. It called the Broderick Boys the city's "most powerful criminal street gang," with 350 members acting in packs to deal drugs, rob and assault.
In a move that still angers opponents, prosecutors gave notice of the suit to just one alleged member, and he lived in Rancho Cordova, 15 miles away. Reisig wrote in a court filing that the alleged Norteño, Billy Wolfington, would spread the word to compatriots.
Wolfington didn't show up in court to contest the injunction, however, and neither did any other alleged members of the gang. With no opposition in attendance, Superior Court Judge Thomas Warriner granted a permanent injunction on Feb. 3, 2005.
Police have since served about 130 alleged Norteños, said Lt. David Farmer. The group, which includes some women and non-Latino whites, also was placed in a gang database accessible to police around the state.
In San Francisco, attorneys say they will file evidence in court against alleged Oakdale Mob members before serving them. But in West Sacramento, police officers carry papers so they can serve people on the spot who fit criteria such as admitting Norteño membership or having visible gang tattoos.
The result has been a polarizing debate. Reisig wrote in a filing that "nobody who lives in the safety zone is immune from a random and violent assault by the Broderick Boys," an assertion rejected as too strong by many city leaders and residents.
"It's not as though you couldn't walk down the streets of Broderick without being gunned down," said Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, who supports the injunction.
West Sacramento recorded two homicides last year; San Francisco had 96, or about three times as many per capita.
The primary victims of Norteños, many residents said, were teenagers who were recruited or attacked for being Sureños -- even if they weren't. West Sacramento has some Sureños, but they are not subject to the injunction.
"Three or four years ago, it was pretty bad. If you walked to the store, they'd ask you what gang you're representing, and you had to be very careful," said Antonio Ramirez, 21, a construction worker who lives in Broderick. "Usually it's not only one (gang member who approaches), but around six or seven."
Ramirez emigrated from Mexico in 2000 and said he was soon threatened because he had Sureño friends. As a result, he said, he dropped out of West Sacramento's River City High School as a junior. He said he believes the injunction has made a positive difference.
But some injunction opponents say there is no such thing as the Broderick Boys, and that the injunction singles out people who aren't connected by a chain of command.
Martha Garcia, a former state worker who heads the anti-injunction Americans for Freedom, said those who have been served are either "wannabes," or Norteños who participate in the gang only in prison, or people who did nothing worse than grow up together in a hardscrabble neighborhood.
Lt. Farmer acknowledged that not everyone who has been served with the injunction is a Broderick Boy. Some on the list, like Sanchez, grew up elsewhere.
"It really had to do with Norteños," Farmer said. "It's like throwing a net out in the ocean, and you're trying to catch salmon. You're going to catch other fish."
Prosecutors and police reject the argument that a person can be a Norteño but not be involved in crime, saying the gang itself is an organized criminal enterprise.
Mayor Cabaldon called the argument that no gang exists "an unfortunate tactic" that "distracted from the question of how we can make this as surgical as possible to avoid problems."
Garcia's nephew, Richard "Trino" Savala, said his aunt's assertions contradict his own experience. A former boxer who became a gang and addiction counselor after serving time in prison, he said he was one of the original Broderick Boys in the 1970s, when he sold drugs and was shot twice.
The Broderick Boys, he said, started with young men drawn to Cesar Chavez's farm labor movement but became more powerful, aggressive and violent.
"Over the years, homeboys kept coming out of prison and promoting this stuff to their little boys and cousins and nephews," said Savala, who left the gang in 2000. "The goal was to put fear in the neighborhood and allow them to profit from selling drugs."
Savala said some people, including his brother, have been unfairly served with the injunction, but he still had harsh words for opponents of the action.
"They're in so much denial," he said. "You have parents who want to point the finger at the police and the schools. They need to open their eyes."
The legal questions in the case have been as intense as the cultural debate. One involves an "opt-out" application offered by police. Those served with the court order can sign a form saying they "renounce any actual or alleged membership" with the Broderick Boys or Norteños. With police approval, they can escape the injunction's restrictions.
Just three people served with the injunction have opted out, Farmer said. Injunction opponents say the reason is simple: The form is an implicit confession.
Robert Sanchez said he wouldn't sign the form because he would be considered a snitch.
"That's paperwork on you," he said. "You're going to get f -- up by your own homies."
The American Civil Liberties Union has tried to fight the injunction, representing four men who said they weren't given fair notice of the initial hearing. A judge, though, said the ACLU couldn't represent the gang's interests if its clients claimed they weren't members. An appeal is pending.
"You don't want to go to court and concede one of the main points they have to prove," ACLU attorney Jory Steele said.
Whether the injunction has made the community safer is difficult to determine. Yolo County Public Defender Barry Melton said the strategy has worked "to some degree. But if I imposed a curfew in the Tenderloin, crime would go down there, too. It's been used more than anything else for monitoring, to stop folks and control them."
Farmer said crime is down in Broderick but said he could not give statistics. Reisig said violent crime prosecutions of Broderick Norteños dropped 80 percent in the year after the injunction.
Reisig said he has prosecuted more than 75 violations of the injunction; one person served 90 days. Melton said two fathers were detained for attending the same youth baseball game, an account Farmer called inaccurate.
Police and opponents disagree on whether officers are honoring the injunction's exceptions for school and church, or traveling to legitimate business and entertainment activities at night.
Standing outside his apartment with family members on a recent afternoon, Sanchez said the injunction was not reforming Norteños. He suggested, though, that it might have some benefit for West Sacramento.
"Hell no, people are just getting smarter," he said. "They're taking it to Sacramento."
His 17-year-old brother, Angel -- who sipped from a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor -- and his sister's fiance, Jesse Contreras Jr., 20, each said they had been served with papers.
"How can I provide for my family?" asked Contreras, a warehouseman whose fiancee is seven months pregnant. "What if we run out of diapers at 11 at night and I have to go to the store?"
Each said it was hard for young men to avoid Norteño membership when, in Contreras' words, "it's all around you. It's never OK to bang, but you grow up in it."
By continuing to identify themselves as Norteños, they said, they were not admitting to being involved in crime.
"You're still where you're from," said Contreras, who wore a striped red polo shirt common among Norteños, "but you're not acting stupid anymore."
E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com
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©2006 San Francisco Chronicle
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Critical Comment: All of us who respect just laws and sane order should take heed and beware of the creeping fascism and racism scattering across these lands in the name of fighting crime and combating terrorism.
These kinds of legal attacks through gang injunctions are a barely disguised form of racial profiling. I spent a good part of my youth in West Sacramento and was there Christmas Eve with familia. Brown-skinned citizens are not treated the same as White people and this surface profiling makes a bad situation worse.
The on-going conflicts between Nortenos and Surenos must be resolved among us as a people, not aggravated by evil ones in power in order to further divide and keep us attacking each other instead of uniting against our common enemies: Amerikan Fascism and their uniformed and undercover fanatical flunkeys!
When will this racial profiling end? Will all people who have tattoos become suspect as possible gang members? How many of you have tattoos?
Fascism becomes stronger and more menacing each night. It does calculated tests, manufactures legal precedents and flexes its' muscles. It attacks in devious ways and measures any responses in order to see how far it can go in its' attacks against peoples. Remember the old Roman Formula of divide-and-conquer!.
Unidos Venceremos!
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Email= sacranative@yahoo.com
Sacramento, Califas, Aztlan
Bloglink=
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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061226/OPINION01/612260310/1008
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Latinos excel at Wayne State
Chicano-Boricua Studies program serves 350,000-strong population
Jorge L. Chinea
Daniel Mears / The Detroit News
Wayne State's campus in Detroit is home to a program that has provided many leaders for the Latino community
A disproportionate number of Latinos, whose combined population now hovers around 45 million, suffer real social, economic, and political handicaps. For many, dead-end, low-paying jobs in agriculture, construction, and the service industry are the norm. Over the years poverty, segregation, red-lining and restrictive covenants have pushed them into the least desirable urban spaces burdened with severe infrastructural problems, such as inadequate social services, dilapidated housing, and underfunded schools. Sadly, too many of us believe that Latinos shun education and thrive on a "culture of poverty."
Latinos have strong roots
For others, Latinos get what they deserve. In the popular mind, they are little more than unwelcome aliens and cheap workers. Contrary to public perceptions, however, the vast majority of Latinos are U.S. citizens. Some, like Chicanos, have ancestral roots dating back to the 16th-century exploration of North America.
But social scientists and informed observers of the Latino experience in the United States are beginning to sort out facts from fiction. They recognize that personal factors aside, major structural barriers block Latino educational attainment. For instance, they point out that legal racial school segregation may have ended, but de facto segregation continues as black and Latino pupils remain clustered in financially strapped inner-city schools. For Latinos, the educational pipeline from Head Start to college has become one major obstacle course.
Despite the 1975 landmark Supreme Court Lau v. Nichols ruling that made it unconstitutional to teach children in a language that they cannot understand, state after state has adopted official English-only legislation. Multiculturalism has deviated into a "feast and holidays" approach that trivializes cultural diversity. As a result, Latinos become bored in the classroom, disengage, act out, or drop out of school to work in order to help their families. School counselors with misgivings about Latino intellectual capacity, steer many into menial jobs, vocational training institutions, or the armed services. Financial difficulties and rising college costs keep others from getting a quality postsecondary education. According to a recent report by the National Council of La Raza, "the unsettling fact (is) that the Latino education landscape is characterized by missed opportunities in early childhood, unsound educational treatments in elementary and secondary schools and barriers to college."
WSU plays key role
Fortunately, for over three decades Wayne State University's Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies (CBS) has taken the lead in reducing the Latino educational gap. One of the oldest programs of its kind in the Midwest, CBS was the brainchild of two local community agencies, Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development (LASED) and New Detroit, which teamed up with progressive WSU representatives to bring it into being. CBS has also broken new ground by harmonizing human relations. The educational experiences of Latina/o, African-American, white, Arab, Asian and Native American students enrolled in the program or attending its innovative self-empowerment classes, leadership development workshops, cultural awareness activities, academic presentations, mentoring, and career development programs have been significantly enriched.
Over 1,500 Latinos and non-Latinos have attended or graduated from Wayne State University through CBS during its decades of dedicated service. Center alumni have been instrumental in building the infrastructure that has made southwest Detroit one of the fastest-growing economic and forward-looking areas in this part of the state.
At 350,000 and growing, Michigan has the second largest Latino population in the Midwest, many of them with deep roots in the state. As the 2004 Cherry Commission concluded, Michigan's economic future would be largely determined by how well the state's residents get educated beyond high school in the decades ahead. Needless to say, Michigan cannot afford to let that many people fall through the cracks of the educational pipeline as it strives to remain competitive in a global marketplace. To achieve that goal, it would be best served by widening the door of educational opportunity to all of its residents.
As in the past, CBS will do its part.
A 2000 resident scholar at the John W. Kluge Center, U.S. Library of Congress, Jorge L. Chinea is associate professor of history and director of the Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. The Tuesday blog will return.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16319109.htm
Posted on Tue, Dec. 26, 2006
SAN JOSE'S INDEPENDENT-MINDED MAYOR-ELECT PREPARES TO TAKE OFFICE
By John Woolfolk / Mercury News
San Jose's mayor-elect still checks the headline of the newspaper he saved proclaiming his victory last month: ``CHUCK REED SAILS TO EASY WIN.''
``So I can make sure it wasn't just a dream,'' Reed explained recently as he walked to lunch with the San Jose Downtown Association's executive director.
Reed was the front-runner in the Nov. 7 runoff, but being elected mayor of America's 10th largest city still is quite an adjustment for the two-term councilman who represented San Jose's northern district.
Demands on Reed's time have grown tenfold now that he'll be representing an entire city of more than 900,000 instead of a slice of it. He knows he'll have to rely on his staff more, work to build consensus on the council and acclimate to some of the less convenient trappings of power, like a security detail. It's all taking some getting used to for the straight-talking Kansas native accustomed to handling just about everything himself.
New cell phone policy
Reed surrendered his personal cell phone, whose number he used to give out freely, to incoming chief of staff Pete Furman, who now coordinates access to the mayor-elect. Voicemail now answers calls to Reed's home phone, still listed in the white pages. And his new personal cell phone number is closely kept. It clearly pains him.
``My preference is to just pick up the phone and answer questions, but I'm told I can't do it that way, that it's too disruptive to the things I'm trying to do,'' Reed said recently in the 18th floor office he soon will vacate for the mayoral quarters down the hall. He officially takes over as mayor Jan. 1.
Reed is a guy who writes his phone messages on 3-by-5-inch index cards and tries to make time to return them all by the end of the day. ``I'm now getting calls from people all over the city -- and there are lots of them,'' he said. He's hoping to set up a regular time when he'll be accessible to people.
But Reed clearly doesn't see much free time in his future. Now that he'll be mayor, he's shutting down his law practice and selling the family ski boat to make room for his law files in the garage. Since his two kids are grown and living out of state, there's not much use for the boat.
Reed also acknowledges he won't have time any more to read through the whole stack of reports and memorandums on Saturday mornings in preparation for the Tuesday council meetings.
``I pretty much read everything as a council member, but I can't do that as mayor,'' Reed said. ``I'll need to use my staff much more than I did before.''
`Reed Reforms'
Reed has set an ambitious agenda for the council's first meetings in 2007, where he will move to implement the 34 ``Reed Reforms'' that were the cornerstone of his campaign. He'll honor reforms 2 and 3, a revised oath of office, by promising ``no lying, no cheating, no stealing'' and vowing to ``put service above self'' when he is sworn in.
The reforms stem from Reed's criticism of outgoing Mayor Ron Gonzales, whom he considered a secretive back-room dealer. Gonzales goes on trial next year on felony corruption charges involving an alleged secret deal to add $11.25 million to a trash hauling contract.
Though Reed can claim a voter mandate with his 19-point victory margin, to move his agenda he must win over a council with five members -- Forrest Williams, Nora Campos, Madison Nguyen, Judy Chirco and Nancy Pyle -- who backed his opponent, outgoing Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez.
That'll be particularly challenging early in the year when two council seats -- Reed's and former Councilman Ken Yeager's -- remain open. Six votes are needed to approve council action, and the election for the open seats isn't until March 6.
Reed has included incoming council members Pete Constant and Sam Liccardo on his transition team. Looking to solidify a supportive voting bloc on the new council, he has endorsed businesswoman Hon T. Lien in the seven-way race to replace him.
As for wooing the current council members, Reed said: ``It's going to be fine. I've worked with these guys for a long time, and we've got a lot of common interests.''
But, he added, ``I have to train myself to think differently as mayor,'' taking the initiative to build support around his agenda.
Willing to listen
To that end, Reed -- whom critics painted as a scold rather than a consensus builder -- has tried since the election to demonstrate more leadership. When the council last month debated procedures for voting an elected colleague out of office for misconduct, Reed won over a skeptical Williams by listening to his suggestions and including them in the final proposal.
``I've got my indications from him of his willingness to work together, to listen and to discuss,'' Williams said.
Reed says he doesn't intend to assert mayoral power in the manner of his predecessor. He'll welcome the council's help in picking a new city manager next year rather than forwarding his choice for their approval. And he wants an assertive and independent city manager rather than a deferential caretaker.
Reed still seems uncomfortable with some aspects of mayoral power. Accustomed to getting around town in a two-door Ford Explorer with an American flag bumper sticker, he was cool to the idea of using a city car with a police escort. But Police Chief Rob Davis convinced him it's prudent.
Officers have escorted San Jose mayors locally for official business since San Francisco Mayor George Moscone's 1978 assassination. But Gonzales drew some heat for taking police escorts on out-of-town political trips. Reed said he and Davis will discuss his security needs case by case.
``I'm not planning on having them accompany me to the grocery store,'' Reed said. ``I'm hoping they'll allow me to do some things on my own.''
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Contact John Woolfolk at jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com or (408) 975-9346.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_4902189
Article Launched: 12/26/2006 11:27:13 AM MST
Groups sue over anti-immigration law (11:25 a.m.)
By ANABELLE GARAY / Associated Press
DALLAS - Two civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a suburb's new law that outlaws renting to illegal immigrants, alleging the ordinance violates federal law and forces landlords to act as immigration officers.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed the suit on behalf of Farmers Branch residents and landlords.
The law, along with a measures that made English the official language of the city, was passed in November and is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 12.
The lawsuit claims the ordinance is so poorly drafted that it excludes even legal immigrants from renting in the city just north of Dallas.
"Immigration enforcement must be left to the federal government, not each local municipality," said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the ACLU of Texas. "Otherwise Texas will end up with a patchwork system that is impractical and unenforceable."
Farmers Branch spokesman Tom Bryson said the city will not comment on pending litigation. City leaders had expected legal challenges like the one filed Tuesday, which is the third brought against the city since the ordinance passed.
"I don't know if there is any real expectation of what would be coming down the pipe and what wouldn't," Bryson said.
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20061226-1534-searescue.html
3:34 p.m. December 26, 2006
Coast Guard rescues Mexican anglers who capsized
SAN DIEGO – The U.S. Coast Guard came to the rescue Tuesday of two Mexican fishermen who had been adrift in the ocean near the Coronado Islands on their capsized boat for five days, authorities reported.
A helicopter crew out of the maritime agency's San Diego station spotted the overturned skiff about 11:15 a.m. while patrolling off the coast of Baja California, USCG public information officer Anastasia Devlin said.
“As the helicopter neared, the men stood up and began waving fish at the crew to indicate distress,” she said. “The helicopter crew stayed on scene with the fishermen until a second Coast Guard helicopter arrived with a rescue swimmer on board to hoist the men.”
The chopper crews transported the anglers to San Diego and transferred them to Border Patrol custody.
The fishermen said their 18-foot boat, the Pelillo, capsized Thursday.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_4904454
Article Launched: 12/26/2006 07:11:22 PM MST
Las Cruces man is shot, killed by police (7:23 p.m.)
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
A man armed with a knife was shot and killed by Las Cruces police officers this evening during a confrontation in the front yard of a Las Cruces home, a police official said.
Michael Molina, 38, was shot as he allegedly approached while ignoring commands by three officers responding to a call at 4 p.m. of a "disorderly subject" at a home in the 5900 block of Starview, police Lt. Randy Lara said.
Molina was pronounced dead at Mountain View hospital in Las Cruces, Lara said. The number of times Molina was shot was not released.
Molina, who from time to time resides at the address, was there with other relatives when the shooting occurred, Lara said.
As police were rushing to the scene of the shooting, a Las Cruces police patrol car crashed and rolled over near Main Street. The officers in the car received bumps and bruises but no serious injuries, Lara said.
The fatal shooting was under investigation tonight by a multi-agency group including Las Cruces police, New Mexico State Police, the Doña Ana County district attorney and the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/26/arts/LA_A-E_CEL_Costa_Rica_Angelina_Jolie.php
Published: December 25, 2006
Jolie, Pitt spends Christmas with refugees in Costa Rica
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: Angelina Jolie and her boyfriend Brad Pitt spent Christmas Day with Colombian refugees in Costa Rica, as part of the actress' work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Jolie and Pitt arrived Monday and visited a group of refugee children and families and to meet Costa Rican officials, the refugee agency, known as the UNHCR, said in a statement. There are about 11,500 refugees in this Central American country, most of whom fled Colombia because of the conflict there between leftist guerrillas, soldiers and paramilitary forces.
"We had a marvelous Christmas Day with the Costa Rican people and the families of the Colombian refugees that we met," the Oscar-winning actress said in a statement released by the UNHCR.
Jolie and Pitt gave presents to young refugees in the capital, San Jose, and they later with representatives of the Costa Rican government.
Jolie earlier in the day described the conflict in Colombia as "the greatest humanitarian tragedy in the Western Hemisphere" that receives little international attention.
"My Christmas message to Colombian refugees and to the millions of displaced people in Colombia is that the world has not totally forgotten them."
An estimated three million Colombians have been forced from their homes by more than two decades of armed conflict, and most are internally displaced, essentially refugees in their own country.
Another 500,000 have fled to other countries of the region. Together, the press statement said, they make up the largest single population of concern to UNHCR anywhere in the world.
Jolie will visit several small businesses set up by refugees in San Jose with help from micro-loans from the U.N. agency. She also called for greater acceptance of refugees, who are often stigmatized.
UNHCR said this was Jolie's second trip to the region since she became a goodwill ambassador for the refugee agency in 2001, noting that she went to Ecuador in 2002 and later wrote a personal journal of her meetings with Colombian refugees in that country.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6199641.stm
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Published: 2006/12/24 01:30:18 GMT
Latin America looks to 2007
By Nick Caistor
Latin America analyst
Latin America enters 2007 with renewed political leadership and generally booming economic prospects.
New governments, especially in the Andean countries, are looking for different options to neo-liberalism and the free market approach that has dominated economic and political thinking in the region for years. But the largest countries have voted for stability in a year of a dozen presidential elections.
In Brazil, President Lula comfortably won a second term in office, despite major political scandals in his Workers' Party.
In Colombia and Venezuela, two very contrasting leaders, Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chavez, were also rewarded with second terms in office, while it seems likely that in Argentina, President Nestor Kirchner will also be given another four years in power in 2007.
Such presidential continuity is new to the region - many of the countries have only recently changed their constitutions to allow the president to stand a second time.
New chance
The challenge for the incumbents is to make good on promises that have often eluded them in their first period in office.
In Brazil, Lula will need to make real inroads in the fight against poverty. He came to power in 2002 promising to make hunger a thing of the past in his country, but so far has been unable to make much progress.
Similarly, Mr Uribe in Colombia argued that his "democratic security" could end the vicious civil conflict that has claimed thousands of lives over many years.
So far the conservative president's attempts to disarm the right-wing paramilitaries and cajole the left-wing guerrilla groups into peace talks have met with limited success.
He now has another four years to see if he can achieve something that has been beyond the grasp of his predecessors.
In Venezuela, President Chavez has vowed to use his new six-year term to deepen his "Bolivarian Revolution", his socialist movement named after Simon Bolivar, the 19th Century independence hero.
Observers say this means that he must make greater attempts to make structural changes to the Venezuelan economy rather than using buoyant oil revenues for programmes - described by critics as paternalistic - to help those most in need.
Reform plans
While Mr Chavez is busy dispensing largesse at home, some see him trying to spread anti-US sentiment throughout Latin America.
But the three recently-elected left-wing leaders most likely to back him in that face very different challenges of their own.
In Nicaragua, the once-revolutionary Daniel Ortega will, like Brazil's Lula, be trying to reduce poverty and bring some semblance of justice and equity to an impoverished country where the situation has been made even worse by corrupt politicians.
In Ecuador meanwhile, Rafael Correa faces the task of ruling without any political party directly behind him, as he attempts to resolve the split between Congress and the presidency which has made the country almost ungovernable in recent years.
Political reform is also high on the agenda in Bolivia, where Evo Morales has fulfilled his election promise to bring the oil and gas industry back under national control.
President Morales now has to build on that, and make sure he uses his past as a union leader to take a majority of Bolivians with him, avoiding the risk of this Andean country splintering, especially when a constituent assembly begins its deliberations in the coming months.
Monolithic symbols
But if Latin American countries are likely to be too busy setting their own affairs to rights to form a coherent challenge to the United States and the perceived neo-liberal model it promotes in the region, Washington does have two major concerns.
In Mexico, the July 2006 elections saw more political continuity, with conservative Felipe Calderon, the candidate from President Vicente Fox's PAN (National Action Party) elected for the next six years.
But the margin of his victory over left-winger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was so slender that the defeated candidate has been mounting a noisy and occasionally massive campaign against the result.
This could combine with other destabilising factors, from local disputes in Oaxaca to drug violence in the state of Michoacan, to give Washington a headache.
But the greatest uncertainty in 2007 for the United States, Latin America, and the rest of the world, lies in the future of Cuba.
The year 2006 saw the death of two monolithic symbols of past authoritarian rule in the region. Paraguay's former President Alfredo Stroessner died in exile in August.
In Chile, former military ruler Augusto Pinochet died at the age of 91.
Although he had not held power for 16 years, his presence still cast a shadow over political life there, which should now return fully to its democratic ways.
After Fidel
But in Cuba, President Fidel Castro is still there.
After 47 years as undisputed leader of the Cuban revolution, ill-health has meant him handing over power to his younger brother Raul since July.
There has been little sign of political change or unrest during this period, but when Mr Castro dies, it will be the end of an era for Cuba, the whole of Latin America, and for the United States.
Washington has already been trying to make provision for what it calls "a transition to democracy".
Its worst fear is that the end of the Castro regime could create violence that would provoke a mass exodus from Cuba and the heavy involvement of Cuban Americans in any political upheaval that followed.
Perhaps the new-found political stability and maturity of Latin America could lead it to play a decisive role in ensuring that whatever comes after Fidel Castro is the genuine expression of the Cuban people's political aspirations.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6199641.stm
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http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/524520.html
Published: Dec 23, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Dec 23, 2006 03:10 AM
Calderon greets returning Mexicans, vows more jobs
Dane Schiller, San Antonio Express-News
MEXICO CITY - As an estimated 1.2 million Mexicans living in the U.S. head south for Christmas, President Felipe Calderon said he would fight for dignified jobs that pay enough for people to support families without emigrating.
Calderon, speaking on the Arizona-Mexico border Wednesday, said that he welcomed home the paisanos, as Mexicans living abroad are known, but that his nation is weakened when people leave to find better lives.
"Our generation's ethical and political obligation is to create conditions in which people can stay in their communities," said the 44-year-old Calderon, who took office Dec. 1.
"The only solution to the basic problem of emigration is to multiply job opportunities in this country and open doors to investment in Mexico," said Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party.
Calderon went to the border city of Nogales, in Sonora state, to welcome home emigrants who pack the highways as they make their annual holiday pilgrimages to visit friends and family.
Often coming from the poorest parts of Mexico, they greatly bolster the Mexican economy by sending home a combined $2 billion a month.
Calderon also said that his government would work to ensure they are treated fairly during their return journeys and that corruption by police, border guards and other officials would not be tolerated.
"We have to eradicate the idea that Mexico is a country of corruption," Calderon said. "This doesn't correspond with the genuine spirit of Mexico, and this does not correspond with the future our children deserve."
While praising the efforts of emigrants, Calderon did not go as far as his predecessor, Vicente Fox, who often called them heroes.
The chief foreign-policy goal of the Fox administration was to see a guest-worker program that would let more Mexicans work legally in the United States.
Congress didn't enact such a program.
Toribio Rodriguez, 44, who lives in Houston but is a native of the port city of Tampico, said by phone he doubts the average Mexican will ever make a decent salary without leaving the country.
"Things could change for big businessmen, but the poor will always earn the minimum," he said.
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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0612/S00392.htm
Thursday, 21 December 2006
Recent Wave of Haitian Kidnappings Sparks Alarm from UN Peacekeeping Mission
New York, Dec 20 2006 6:00PM
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti today expressed alarm at the sudden spate of kidnappings, especially of children, across the impoverished Caribbean country, and vowed to maintain its operations against the gangs responsible for the crimes.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Edmond Mulet, condemned the wave of kidnappings and called on the public to cooperate with the national police and MINUSTAH to help bring those who committed the crimes to justice.
Some two dozen people have been arrested in the past week, including the chief of one armed gang, and at least six kidnapping victims freed following a series of joint operations involving MINUSTAH and the national police. A number of weapons have also been seized.
Kidnappings are a perennial problem in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, especially in the run-up to Christmas, when gang members regard ransom money as a key source of income.
The numbers have been particularly high this December – 29 schoolchildren were reported kidnapped across the capital, Port-au-Prince, during a three-day period last week. Many other kidnappings go unreported.
MINUSTAH acting spokesperson Sophie Boutaud-de-la-Combe told the UN News Centre that the Mission has two special intervention or anti-kidnapping units working with the national police to conduct arrests, searches and security operations.
During one operation last week in the Martissant neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, 13 suspects were apprehended and one victim liberated. Other operations are being conducted in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien.
“We will not stop our operations,” Ms. Boutaud-de-la-Combe said when asked if activities would cease if there is a lull in kidnappings after the Christmas-New Year period. “This was just an increase in operations… but we are not going to stop. We will keep going.”
Haitians are also being encouraged to contact either the MINUSTAH or the national police telephone hotline with any information they might have on kidnappings, armed gangs and related matters. The Mission’s hotline has already received more than 1,900 calls so far this year.
As of 30 November, MINUSTAH – which was created in June 2004 – has 8,360 uniformed personnel (comprising troops and police), 1,017 international and local civilian staff and 186 UN Volunteers. Its current mandate runs out on 15 February next year.
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* http://www.southamericadaily.com/
* http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
* http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/front/v-english/
* http://vivirlatino.com/
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