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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_oaxaca_unrest_3
Tue Dec 5, 2006 @2:05 AM ET
Leader of Oaxaca protests arrested
By Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer
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MEXICO CITY - Mexican police arrested the symbolic leader of a six-month-long protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start talks with the government.
Flavio Sosa, whose heavyset, bearded presence became an emblem of the leftist People's Assembly of Oaxaca, was arrested late Monday in Mexico City on charges of kidnapping, robbery, and causing damages and injuries, federal prosecutors said in a press statement. The allegations were apparently related to the barricades, vandalism and irregular detentions carried out by some protesters.
"Sosa ... is known for his use of violence, damaging private property and public byways, and also burning vehicles and buildings in Oaxaca City," prosecutors said.
Sosa was taken to a maximum security prison just west of Mexico City for arraignment. The facility that holds some of the nation's most dangerous prisoners.
While Sosa is a member of a larger leadership council, he appeared to be largely in control of the protest movement, and police called him "the main leader."
Sosa has downplayed his role, saying last month, "We are all equal. But my big beard and big stomach have made me become the favorite leader of the press and the police."
On Monday before his arrest, Sosa told reporters he had come to Mexico City in an attempt to re-establish negotiations with the government and escape what he described as persecution in Oaxaca. A spokesman for the people's assembly, Florentino Lopez, told the government news agency Notimex that talks would continue with the government despite Sosa's arrest, but it was unclear who would represent the protesters.
Just a few hours before he was detained, Sosa held a news conference in which he said he left Oaxaca to avoid the "fierce persecution of the police and Ulises Ruiz' hit men," referring to Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose resignation the protesters had demanded.
Local media reported that two other leaders of the movement, known as APPO, had also been arrested, but there was no immediate confirmation of that.
Leaders who accompanied Sosa at the news conference said that a total of 220 protesters have been detained during the conflict in Oaxaca, though police cite a figure of around 170. Protesters also claimed some of those detained had been beaten, and that another 70 supporters of the movement are missing.
Sosa's brother, Horacio, was with him and was arrested at the same time in Mexico City, on unspecified charges.
While Oaxaca City — once a magnet for tourists — is slowly regaining some semblance of normality after burned-out vehicles and improvised barricades were removed from the streets, anger continues to smolder there.
Sosa said on Monday that the situation in Oaxaca could evolve into an armed conflict, something he said he hoped can be avoided. "They (authorities) could leave the people with no options. Since they are spreading hate, this could unleash itself at any moment."
The protesters, ousted from the city's center by a police raid in late October, have vowed to keep pressing their demand for Ruiz's resignation and are calling for a "mega-march" on Saturday.
The conflict began in late May as a strike by teachers seeking higher pay, but quickly exploded into a broader movement including Indian groups, students, farmers and myriad left-leaning activists, all organized under APPO.
The conflict kept residents away from the city's historic center and forced nearly all the shops and restaurants to close their doors.
Located about 520 kilometers (325 miles) southeast of Mexico City, Oaxaca is one of the country's premier tourist destinations with its colonial architecture and Indian crafts. But tourism plummeted amid the violence, which prompted the U.S. and several other foreign governments to warn their citizens against traveling to the city.
Among those killed in the protests was freelance video journalist Bradley Roland Will, 36, of New York, who was filming a clash between protesters and a group of armed men.
The violence seemed to come to a head last week when protesters set colonial-era buildings on fire, prompting police to begin arresting demonstrators. Many detainees have been transferred to a federal prison hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Nayarit state, and many APPO leaders went into hiding after authorities issued warrants for their arrest.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_journalist_slain_1
Tue Dec 5, 2006 @1:09 AM ET
2 arrested in Mexican journalist's death
By Miguel Hernandez, Associated Press Writer
VERACRUZ, Mexico - A journalist killed last week apparently was not the main target of the attack, authorities said Monday.
A preliminary investigation indicated that two suspects arrested Friday were not after 32-year-old reporter Adolfo Sanchez Guzman, but the second victim, said Jaime Pizano of the district attorney's office.
The bodies of Sanchez Guzman and Cesar Martinez Lopez were discovered Thursday near Ciudad Mendoza, 75 miles west of the port city of Veracruz. Sanchez Guzman's abandoned car had been found two days earlier.
Sanchez Guzman worked for the Veracruz affiliate of the Televisa television network and reported for a radio station and an Internet news site.
Initially there was some speculation that his killing might have been related to his work. Since 2004, at least 13 journalists have met violent deaths in Mexico, presumably as revenge for unfavorable reports on criminals, drug traffickers and corrupt government officials.
Police on Friday arrested Juan Carlos Palestino, 30, and Julian Rosas Palestino, 34, after witnesses said the two brothers had been looking for Martinez, Pizano said. The brothers had accused Martinez of stealing their truck, Pizano said.
Investigators believe Sanchez Guzman had been giving Martinez a ride to a car repair shop.
Sanchez Guzman was shot twice in the back of the head at close range, and Martinez was shot once in the head, police said. Both had been tortured before they died, Pizano said.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_4770518
Article Launched:12/04/2006 12:28:55 PM MST
El Paso, Cruces make most secure cities list
Times wire report
El Paso and Las Cruces both made the list of most secure cities to live in.
El Paso has been named the 11th most secure city to live in with a population of more than 500,000 according to a ranking that was recently released.
Las Cruces was named the most secure city to live in with a population of 150,000-500,000.
According to the Third Annual Most Secure U.S. Places to Live rankings from Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, the most secure location to live in the United States is St. George, UT.
The rankings, compiled by database experts at www.bestplaces.net, took into consideration crime statistics, extreme weather, risk of natural disasters, environmental hazards, terrorism threats and job loss numbers in 379 U.S. municipalities. The study divided the communities into three groups: large metropolitan areas, mid-size cities and small towns.
The Provo-Orem, UT, area was ranked first in the 2004 Farmers Insurance study, while the Richland-Kennewick-Pasco area in southeast Washington was tops in 2005.
The Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, area topped all large metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or greater. Nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the area is shielded from severe weather and has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Farmers study. The Most Secure Mid-Size city with a population between 150,000 and 500,000 is Las Cruces, New Mexico. Las Cruces scored well in the extreme weather and unemployment categories.
Here are the lists of the top 20, in order, of Farmers Insurance Group's Most Secure Places to Live in the United States:
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Most Secure Places to Live - Large Metro Areas (500,000 or more residents)
1. Boise City-Nampa, Idaho
2. Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, Maine
3. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.
4. Honolulu, Hawaii
5. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, Calif.
6. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazelton, Pa.
7. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.
8. Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Md.
9. Syracuse, N.Y.
10. Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif.
11. El Paso, Texas
12. Albany-Troy-Schenectady, N.Y.
13. Rochester, N.Y.
14. Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.
15. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks- Ventura, Calif.
16. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, N.Y.
17. Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y.
18. Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.
19. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.
20. New Haven-Milford, Conn.
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Most Secure Places to Live - Mid-Size Cities (150,000 - 500,000 residents)
1. Las Cruces, N.M.
2. Rockingham County-Strafford County, N.H.v 3. Huntington, W.Va.-Ashland, Ky.
4. Bellingham, Wash.
5. Burlington-South Burlington, Vt.
6. Lynchburg, Va.
7. Medford, Ore.
8. Prescott, Ariz.
9. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif.
10. Binghamton, N.Y.
11. Provo-Orem, Utah
12. St. Cloud, Minn.
13. Fargo, N.D.
14. Hagerstown, Md.-Martinsburg, W.Va.
15. Olympia, Wash.
16. Charlottesville, Va.
17. Chico, Calif.
18. Richland-Kennewick-Pasco, Wash.
19. Manchester-Nashua, N.H.v 20. Duluth, Minn.
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Most Secure Places to Live - Small Towns (Fewer than 150,000 residents)
1. St. George, Utah
2. Bend, Ore.
3. Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, Va.
4. Coeur d Alene, Idaho
5. Ithaca, N.Y.
6. Morgantown, W. Va.
7. Logan, Utah
8. Winchester, Va.
9. Harrisonburg, Va.
10. Idaho Falls, Idaho
11. Madera, Calif.
12. Glens Falls, N.Y.
13. Wenatchee, Wash.
14. Bangor, Maine
15. Lewiston-Auburn, Maine
16. State College, Pa.
17. Billings, Mont.
18. Cumberland, Md.
19. Lewiston, Idaho
20. Pocatello, Idaho
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Mon Dec 4, 2006 9:44 pm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aztlannet_News/message/26946
Posted by "Carlos Pelayo"
http://tribalclimate.org/index.htm
Tribal Lands Climate Conference
http://tribalclimat e.org/index. htm#sponsors
Hosted by the Cocopah Indian Tribe
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December 5-6, 2006
Cocopah Indian Nation Casino
15318 South Avenue B
Somerton, AZ
Discounted block of rooms at the Shilo Inn in Yuma, AZ
(800-222-2244) until November 1st
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To learn about our climate neutral commitment
and to offset CO2 for your participation in the conference,
click on the "footprint"!
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Synopsis ...
The Cocopah Indian Nation and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) have partnered to host a Tribal Lands Climate Conference—the first event of its kind—on the Cocopah Reservation in Somerton, Arizona, December 5-6. Indigenous people are among the first to experience and document the devastating impacts of climate change by comparing their historical experiences and knowledge to the natural cycles and resource availability they observe today. NWF is reaching out to the continent's first inhabitants to collect their stories and first-hand, on-the-ground accounts about the natural resources that have sustained changes due to carbon emissions and climate change related events. The conference will gather representatives from over 50 tribes from throughout the Southwest, Northwest, Midwest, and Alaska, and political leaders, climate scientists, and NGOs to exchange ideas on proactively addressing climate change. Climate change is a matter of environmental justice. As such, the Tribal Climate Conference aims to engage and empower tribal advocates on climate change and connect them with key decision-makers. With thousands of years of traditional knowledge and connections to the environment, Native Americans are important eyewitnesses to our changing planet. Native people can play a significant role in shaping how Americans address and generate active responses to combat climate change.
Sponsors...
Arizona Wildlife Federation
http://www.azwildlife.org/
AWF is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating, inspiring, and assisting individuals and organizations to value, conserve, enhance, manage, and protect wildlife and wildlife habitat.
Black Mesa Water Coalition
http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org/
Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC) is dedicated to protecting the health and sustainability of Mother Earth - her land, water, plants, and all living beings. BMWC has been working towards addressing issues of water depletion, natural resource exploitation, and health promotion particularly within the Four Corners region. BMWC strives to empower young people while building sustainable communities.
Cocopah Indian Tribe
http://www.cocopah.com/
For over 3,000 years, the Cocopah (Kwapa) – the River People – have lived on the Lower Colorado River and Delta. As river people, the Cocopah traveled the waterways on log rafts, poling them down the mouth of the Colorado River to collect wild wheat and gather shellfish in estuarine waters. They fished for Colorado salmon and farmed in the flood plains of the wild river’s spring floods.
A generous and nonmaterialistic people, the Cocopah have maintained their traditional beliefs through a changing landscape and political environment. Ever resilient, during the Gold Rush Cocopah men became the captains of steamboats that traversed the mile-wide river. With the coming of railroads and the damming of the river for agriculture and the growth of cities, the Cocopah eventually expanded their reservation to comprise over 6,500 acres much of which is leased agricultural land to non-Indian farmers.
Indigenous Environmental Network
http://www.ienearth.org/climate_campaign.html
"A network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions."
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc.
http://www.itcaonline.com/
The purpose of the ITCA is to provide the member tribes with the means for action on matters that affect them collectively and individually, to promote tribal sovereignty and to strengthen tribal governments.
Intertribal Council on Utility Policy
http://www.intertribalcoup.org/
Intertribal COUP was formed in 1994 to provide a forum for utility issues discussion from regulatory and economic perspectives. The Intertribal COUP Council has representatives from nine Tribes located in a three-state area in the Northern Plains: South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. The Tribes include the Cheyenne River; Flandreau Santee; Lower Brule; Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara; Omaha; Rosebud; Sisseton; Spirit Lake; and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribes. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Telephone Authority is also a member.
Intertribal COUP provides policy analysis and recommendations, as well as workshops on telecommunications, climate change research, Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) hydropower allocations, energy efficiency, energy planning, and renewable energy, with a heavy emphasis on wind energy development.
National Tribal Environmental Council
http://www.ntec.org
The National Tribal Environmental Council (NTEC) was formed in 1991 with just seven tribes and input from several intertribal organizations, including the Council of Energy Resource Tribes and the Native American Rights Fund, as a membership organization dedicated to working with and assisting tribes in the protection and preservation of tribal environments. NTEC membership is open to any federally-recognized tribe throughout the United States, and currently has 184 member tribes. Although NTEC is a membership organization, its services are provided to all federally-recognized tribes.
Tribes have been witness to continuous and accelerated degradation of the land and resources surrounding their homelands. Our challenge is to integrate timeless traditional teachings and values into modern day practices. While strength exists in the great diversity of tribal cultures and governments, a united approach that respects tribal differences and works towards cleaner tribal environments is also critical. Thus, NTEC's mission is to enhance each tribe's ability to protect, preserve and promote the wise management of air, land and water for the benefit of current and future generations.
National Wildlife Federation - Boulder Colorado Office
http://www.nwf.org
The mission of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.
The goal of NWF’s Tribal Lands Conservation Program is to ensure the well-being of wildlife and habitat on and near tribal lands by working in partnership with tribal and non-tribal governments and tribal organizations, environmental staff, and members, while respecting tribal culture and sovereignty. The program promotes environmental and economic justice for Native Americans and seeks empowerment for tribes at the local, state, and national levels. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the program works nationwide with tribes on species and habitat conservation, constituency and capacity building, and education.
NWF is working with tribes across the nation to bring tribal voices to the climate change debate. Tribes can have an essential role in directly influencing the American public and key decision-makers because tribes have the longest, continual experience with climate, wildlife, the land and natural resources in North America. NWF is building the partnerships necessary to increase awareness among Native people of climate change and generate active responses to confront climate change.
Native American Fish & Wildlife Society
http://nafws.org/cms/index.php
The Native American Fish & Wildlife Society is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and management of the natural and environmental resources of Indian Country.
Native Energy
www.nativeenergy.com
American Indian majority-owned, NativeEnergy is a national marketer of renewable energy credits or “green tags,” offering individuals and organizations a means to compensate for their global warming pollution, or to effectively power their homes and businesses with renewable energy. NativeEnergy’s patent-pending business process brings upfront payment to renewable projects for their estimated future green tag output, enabling its customers to help finance the construction of new wind farms and other renewable energy projects, such as tribal wind projects and methane digesters on family dairy farms, which directly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to meet the nation’s electricity needs.
Native Movement
http://www.nativemovement.org/
Mission Statement: Young leaders motivating the world's peoples toward balanced relations with each other and Mother Earth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Designed and maintained by
National Wildlife Federation
Northern Rockies Office, Missoula, MT
For corrections or suggestions, please contact Sue Scaggs
http://www.powwows.com/radio/
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http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/2006/diciembre/lun4/gano.html
Havana. December 4, 2006
Chávez won!
He dedicates victory to Fidel and the Cuban people
By Ronald Suarez Rivas – Granma daily special correspondent –
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CARACAS, December 3.— The vote count confirmed what the surveys, analysts and gigantic popular rallies had foretold: Hugo Chávez will continue to be president of Venezuela for the next six years.
According to the first bulletin of the National Electoral Council (CNE), when more than two-thirds of ballots had been counted (78.31%), the Bolivarian leader had a wide and irreversible lead over the other 13 candidates.
At 10:05 p.m., Tibisay Lucena, CNE president, announced the information that showed Chávez with 61.35% of ballots cast (5,936,141 votes).
Manuel Rosales, former governor of Zulia state and the main opposition figure, won, for his part, 38.39% (3,715,292 votes).
It is expected that by Tuesday (Dec. 5) the final figures will be available from the more than 33,000 polling stations, but these will not change the outcome by much.
Hundreds of international observers ratified the transparency of the elections and agreed that they were characterized by calm, coexistence and peace, the three elements necessary for any process of this type.
Spokespeople and leaders of several opposition political parties acknowledged the validity of the election outcome and promised to adhere to the CNE’s decisions.
This is the fourth time since 1998 that the Venezuelan people have ratified Chávez’s mandate through their votes, and the 11th electoral process in the country during that same period, doubtless the most democratic in their history.
Venezuela is celebrating. After the CNE report was announced, the president’s supporters took to the streets to celebrate. Shouts of “Viva Chávez!” and fireworks broke the silence of the night.
The charismatic leader went out onto the balcony of the presidential palace to greet tens of thousands of people who gathered in the pouring rain to show their support. He urged those who voted against him to join in building a new country, and to their leaders to demonstrate responsible behavior.
“The great victory of the revolution, of peace and hope, has been consummated,” he affirmed.
“This December 3 is a starting point. A new era has begun that will have as its fundamental strategic line the deepening of the Bolivarian Revolution, on the Venezuelan road to socialism.
“Today we have given a lesson of dignity to U.S. imperialism.”President Chávez declared war to the death against corruption, and said a new Bolivarian morality must be created. He dedicated his victory to the martyrs of the homeland and to Bolívar, who – as Neruda’s poem says – awakens every 100 years, when the people awaken. And also to Fidel and to Cuba.
“I repeat what I said a few days ago; we dedicate this victory to the Cuban people and to President Fidel Castro. Brother, comrade, compañero. From here, a hug for Fidel and for the sovereign and fraternal people of Cuba.”
Translated by Granma International
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2040125.ece
4 December 2006 20:36 Published: 05 December 2006
Chavez hails landslide election victory as defeat for 'devil' Bush
By Andrew Buncombe
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Emboldened by a landslide election victory, the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez is poised to forge ahead with his "Bolivarian revolution" - but analysts warned that the US may continue to try to undermine him.
Mr Chavez secured about 61 per cent of Sunday's vote and immediately told supporters that his third term would see an "expansion of the revolution" that has seen the establishment of social programmes for the poor using the country's oil wealth.
"Long live the revolution. Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible and we are building it," Mr Chavez said from the balcony of the presidential palace on Sunday evening. Repeating an attack on the US President, George Bush, he said: "It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world. Down with imperialism."
While Mr Chavez has said his third term would be his most radical yet, analysts said Washington could yet step up efforts to undermine him - something it has previously done by directing millions of dollars to opposition groups in Venezuela. In 2002, the Bush administration tacitly supported a coup against Mr Chavez.
"If Chavez is prudent he will lower the rhetoric and get on with administrating his extremely successful domestic programmes. He has had this success because he is the first leader to put money behind these programmes," said Larry Birns of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "[A big question] is whether the Bush administration is prepared to allow Venezuela to continue with its leftist rhetoric ... If Washington sees this as a declaration of war, that is going to be a very ominous decision for the Bush administration to take."
Mr Birns said documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that contrary to Washington's claims that it had channelled only $30,000 (£16,000) to groups opposed to Mr Chavez, millions of dollars had been provided by bodies such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). "Venezuela could easily become a target for Washington skulduggery," he added.
The writer and activist Tariq Ali, author of a recent study of Mr Chavez's presidency, Pirates of the Caribbean, predicted Sunday's result would have considerable impact outside Venezuela.
"The Bolivarian triumph in Caracas will strengthen all the movements in South America that want to break with the Washington consensus. It will strengthen regional cohesion against the US and might make [Felipe] Calderon's Presidency in Mexico a short-lived affair," he said. "As far as Washington is concerned, the Venezuelans will deal with each issue on its merit. The US has been consistently involved in attempts to destabilise and topple Chavez. If they respect Venezuelan independence, Caracas will respond accordingly."
Mr Chavez's opponent, Manuel Rosales, who secured about 39 per cent of the vote, quickly conceded defeat but said he would continue his efforts to counter "Castro Communism". "We recognise that today they defeated us. We will continue in this struggle," he told supporters, according to the Reuters news agency. It is unclear whether Mr Chavez will seek to again change the Venezuelan constitution to allow him to pursue a fourth term. Even if he does not seek such a course, some observers predicted his third term could be difficult.
"I think he will attempt to forge ahead, but I do not think it will be plain sailing all the way," said Michael Shifter of the Inter American Dialogue, a Washington think-tank. "So far, he has been quite shrewd at shielding himself from [the criticisms about] crime and corruption, but I think there is a limit to that."
Mr Chavez's supporters are drawn overwhelmingly from the country's poor, who have seen genuine improvements as a result of his various "missions". At the same time his opponents are largely from the middle classes, resulting in a polarised country. One newspaper routinely critical of Mr Chavez, El Nacional, said in its editorial yesterday that Venezuela was not "two countries, but rather one country that should get back together".
Emboldened by a landslide election victory, the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez is poised to forge ahead with his "Bolivarian revolution" - but analysts warned that the US may continue to try to undermine him.
Mr Chavez secured about 61 per cent of Sunday's vote and immediately told supporters that his third term would see an "expansion of the revolution" that has seen the establishment of social programmes for the poor using the country's oil wealth.
"Long live the revolution. Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible and we are building it," Mr Chavez said from the balcony of the presidential palace on Sunday evening. Repeating an attack on the US President, George Bush, he said: "It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world. Down with imperialism."
While Mr Chavez has said his third term would be his most radical yet, analysts said Washington could yet step up efforts to undermine him - something it has previously done by directing millions of dollars to opposition groups in Venezuela. In 2002, the Bush administration tacitly supported a coup against Mr Chavez.
"If Chavez is prudent he will lower the rhetoric and get on with administrating his extremely successful domestic programmes. He has had this success because he is the first leader to put money behind these programmes," said Larry Birns of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "[A big question] is whether the Bush administration is prepared to allow Venezuela to continue with its leftist rhetoric ... If Washington sees this as a declaration of war, that is going to be a very ominous decision for the Bush administration to take."
Mr Birns said documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that contrary to Washington's claims that it had channelled only $30,000 (£16,000) to groups opposed to Mr Chavez, millions of dollars had been provided by bodies such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). "Venezuela could easily become a target for Washington skulduggery," he added.
The writer and activist Tariq Ali, author of a recent study of Mr Chavez's presidency, Pirates of the Caribbean, predicted Sunday's result would have considerable impact outside Venezuela.
"The Bolivarian triumph in Caracas will strengthen all the movements in South America that want to break with the Washington consensus. It will strengthen regional cohesion against the US and might make [Felipe] Calderon's Presidency in Mexico a short-lived affair," he said. "As far as Washington is concerned, the Venezuelans will deal with each issue on its merit. The US has been consistently involved in attempts to destabilise and topple Chavez. If they respect Venezuelan independence, Caracas will respond accordingly."
Mr Chavez's opponent, Manuel Rosales, who secured about 39 per cent of the vote, quickly conceded defeat but said he would continue his efforts to counter "Castro Communism". "We recognise that today they defeated us. We will continue in this struggle," he told supporters, according to the Reuters news agency. It is unclear whether Mr Chavez will seek to again change the Venezuelan constitution to allow him to pursue a fourth term. Even if he does not seek such a course, some observers predicted his third term could be difficult.
"I think he will attempt to forge ahead, but I do not think it will be plain sailing all the way," said Michael Shifter of the Inter American Dialogue, a Washington think-tank. "So far, he has been quite shrewd at shielding himself from [the criticisms about] crime and corruption, but I think there is a limit to that."
Mr Chavez's supporters are drawn overwhelmingly from the country's poor, who have seen genuine improvements as a result of his various "missions". At the same time his opponents are largely from the middle classes, resulting in a polarised country. One newspaper routinely critical of Mr Chavez, El Nacional, said in its editorial yesterday that Venezuela was not "two countries, but rather one country that should get back together".
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http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/12/04/1418221
Monday, December 4th, 2006
Chavez Re-Elected For Third Presidential Term in Landslide Victory
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In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez won re-election by a wide margin on Sunday, securing a third six-year term in office. With most of the ballots counted, Chavez had won over 60% of the vote, more than 20 points over rival Manuel Rosales. We go to Caracas to get a report. [includes rush transcript]
Minutes after the results were announced, Chavez appeared on the balcony of his presidential palace in Caracas singing the national anthem. He told cheering supporters his "Bolivarian revolution" had triumphed and vowed to boost social programs that have won him support among Venezuela"s poor.
Chavez also mocked President Bush calling his re-election "another defeat for the empire of Mr. Danger" and he sent out a "brotherly" salute to Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Challenger Manuel Rosales later conceded defeat but vowed to remain in opposition. Sunday's election saw a high turnout and the poll was monitored by hundreds of international observers.
Greg Wilpert journalist and sociologist living in Venezuela. He the author of the new book, "Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government." He is also the editor of the website Venezuelanalysis.com. He joins us on the line from Caracas.
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AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Caracas to speak with Greg Wilpert, a journalist and sociologist living in Venezuela. He is the author of the new book, Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government. He’s also the editor of the website www.venezuelanalysis.com. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Greg.
GREG WILPERT: Hi. Thanks for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Well, describe the election and the response to it.
GREG WILPERT: Well, it was pretty -- almost an anticlimax, in the sense that the polls had predicted that Chavez would win the election. But still, the big question was exactly how the opposition would react, and that was the real big surprise, because a lot of people here predicted that the opposition would reject the result, and it turns out Manuel Rosales, the opposition candidate, gave a fairly conciliatory concession speech late last night after Chavez’s speech. And I think that was the real big surprise, and it also shows that Venezuela is really heading more on a road towards a more normal society, where politics is fought in electoral campaigns instead of on the street.
AMY GOODMAN: What about the polls? Some showed a vast advantage for Chavez, that he was going to win, but there were other polls, particularly a US polling firm, that talked about a dead heat to the end.
GREG WILPERT: Yes, that was quite odd. There was the US polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland, which had worked for Clinton in the past and actually has a track record of doing suspicious polls around the world, predicted a dead heat. And actually, luckily, nobody really gave that poll much credence, because it was so far off from what the other polls were saying. And not only that, Penn, Schoen & Berland actually, a couple years ago for the recall referendum, had predicted that Chavez would lose the recall referendum, which he didn’t. He won in the end with 60 percent of the vote, so they had no credibility here in Venezuela, and it seems like an attempt, a cheap attempt, to cast doubt on the electoral results on Sunday.
AMY GOODMAN: Greg Wilpert, can you talk about Chavez's policies at home, taking the multi-billion-dollar programs for the poor, funding them with oil money?
GREG WILPERT: Yes. He has introduced many -- some new social programs in Venezuela, such as subsidizing food for people in the poor communities, creating community health clinics, introducing many, many different educational programs for high school completion and for university scholarships, is launching something like over 50 new universities. I mean, it’s just a tremendous spending spree, so to speak, you could say, from the oil money that has been coming in now, ever since the price of oil has been so high. But actually, people generally say that that’s the reason Chavez is so popular, and I think that’s an important reason. But the other reason actually, I think, has to do with the introduction of what they're calling participatory democracy in Venezuela, efforts to get people in the communities to participate and giving them a voice in local government and in helping fix their own communities.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Greg Wilpert in Caracas. President Chavez says that he is going to convene a commission, once he had won again, to propose constitutional reforms, among them to remove term limits. This would be the last time he could run again, in 2012, the next election.
GREG WILPERT: Yes. This is actually something that I think a lot of people are rather skeptical about. That is, there’s no real consensus, and Chavez himself in the past actually said he would not do such a thing and only has recently said that he’s thinking about removing these term limits. I’m not sure exactly how that will fare, as people in Venezuela -- I think there's a large segment of people who support him who are aware of Latin America's rather bad history with personalistic rulers, and that would not help in terms of lowering the dependency of Chavez's project on a Chavez the person. So I’m not sure if this will really pass. I’m kind of secretly hoping, actually, that people around him will convince him not to do this. He’s adjusted it several times. I’m not completely sure it will actually go through.
AMY GOODMAN: And overall, US policy towards Hugo Chavez, from the attempted coup in 2002 -- where the US is putting its resources and what this means for the United States government, for the Bush administration now?
GREG WILPERT: Sorry, the line was breaking up. I’m not sure -- I think you were asking about how the Bush administration has been supporting the opposition here in Venezuela?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, just wondering from 2002 and the US involvement with the coup then, what evidence there was for it then, to what’s happened now, to the election by a wide margin of President Chavez.
GREG WILPERT: Well, every year the Bush administration has been spending more money, in terms of supporting opposition groups here in Venezuela. I think this year the number has reached over $10 million, at least in terms of the overt funding that we know of through Freedom of Information Act requests. Actually, the actual number is probably even much higher than that.
However, it seems to have had little impact in terms of really supporting the opposition. And the reason is, the opposition here has been so ineffective, because they’ve followed always the direction of the most radical elements. And I think now with the concession, which is really the first time they’ve conceded an election since Chavez's first win back eight years ago in 1998, with their concession they, so to speak, are on the path of participating in the game, and therefore are, I think, bringing back people who were alienated by their radical politics.
AMY GOODMAN: How much concern is there that there would be another coup? A navy captain arrested last week, a high-ranking military official saying the arrested man was about to deliver to opponents of Chavez a list of officers disposed to help topple the government.
GREG WILPERT: Sorry, I only understood about half of what you were asking, but I think you were asking about the military. The military -- there’s a lot of concern, actually, about whether there might be some opposition groups planning disturbances and claiming fraud. Actually there were posters found that already had said that there was a fraud and that there would be a demonstrated organized for Tuesday, but those were captured before they could be released. And so, I’m not sure exactly where -- I mean, I don’t think that much will come out of it. There was also a lot of talk about perhaps calling on the military to resist Chavez and so on. None of those things have any chance of surviving, especially now that the mainstream opposition has given the concession. It is very doubtful that anybody here will try something funny or illegal.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Greg Wilpert, as the election of Chavez took place in Venezuela, the 80th birthday celebration of Fidel Castro in Cuba took place without Fidel Castro showing up. He is very sick. What about their relationship? What did Chavez say about Castro this weekend?
GREG WILPERT: Well, Chavez dedicated his electoral victory to Castro and to Cuba, actually. He said that this was dedicated to Cuba. And so, certainly, of course, the ties to Castro and to Cuba are very, very close, and the opposition here has always tried to exploit that, saying that this proves that Chavez is interested in turning Venezuela into a Castro communist society, and so on. But every time that is mentioned -- for example, several interviews that Chavez did before the election -- he has always denied this very strongly. He said all we have is a strong friendship, but we have absolutely no intention of copying the Cuban model, but we are interested in finding our own path toward a democratic socialism. And that’s what Chavez has repeatedly said. And I think people believe him. I mean, that’s why he got reelected.
AMY GOODMAN: Greg Wilpert, I want to thank you for being with us. Tomorrow on Democracy Now!, we’ll look at the weekend's events in Havana. Greg Wilpert is the author of Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061204/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/latin_america_s_left_turn_1
Mon Dec 4, 2006 @4:28 PM ET
Latin America takes leftward swing
By Frank Bajak, Associated Press Writer
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CARACAS, Venezuela - Latin America's leftward swing, cemented by Hugo Chavez's landslide re-election in Venezuela, Rafael Correa's triumph in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega's return in Nicaragua, doesn't necessarily reflect a yearning for Cuban-style communism.
Instead, it's all about delivering life's basics — food, shelter, health care — to people excluded from the benefits of the free market that Washington has championed in the region for more than two decades.
"They say there's Castro-style communism here, but the government hasn't taken anything away from anyone," Sigilfredo Tineo, 61, said Sunday, when like-minded voters gave Venezuela's president another six years in office.
"On the contrary, it's delivering houses, credits, vehicles to people. There's more liberty and equality than ever," said Tineo, an electricity company worker who received a $1,800 low-interest government loan to help buy a car.
It's easy to find Venezuelans like Tineo who have benefited from Chavez's efforts to more equitably distribute the nation's oil wealth. While Chavez opponents complain they can't get government jobs or contracts, millions of Venezuelans now enjoy subsidized food, free health care and education, and low-interest loans to get businesses kickstarted.
Malnourished, landless Indians clamoring for a greater share of their nations' oil and natural gas riches helped propel Correa to power in Ecuador on Nov. 26 and a year ago elected Bolivia's champion of the excluded, Evo Morales, as president.
One in four Latin Americans live on less than $2 a day. That helps explain the new heft of the region's political left — not just in Argentina, Chile or Brazil, where social democrats hold the presidency, but also in Peru, Mexico and Colombia, where the left lost presidential races but proved itself a formidable force.
Latin America has the world's most unequal distribution of wealth outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Its richest 10 percent earns 48 percent of total income, while the poorest earns just 1.6 percent, according to the World Bank.
In the 1980s and 90s, most Latin American leaders heartily embraced a U.S.-advocated push for privatization of state industries and a lifting of trade barriers.
But per capita gross domestic product in Latin America and the Caribbean declined by 0.7 percent during the 1980s and grew by just 1.5 percent annually in the 1990s, the World Bank says. There was no significant decrease in poverty levels.
Now the legions of the poor have registered their displeasure, electing the likes of Chavez and Morales.
Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto calls the two "anti-market," "anti-capitalist" charismatic leaders who are filling a power vacuum and benefiting from the huge unpopularity of President Bush's administration with their anti-American rhetoric.
"The mistake, from my point of view, is trying to figure out Chavez. What you've got to figure out is why the market economic model has not worked to include the majority from Mexico down to Tierra del Fuego," he said.
Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz praised Chavez and Morales for renegotiating oil and gas contracts with multinationals so the wealth could be more equitably shared, something Correa now promises to do in his oil-rich nation, where three in four people are poor.
"Whether they're going to be able to get sustained growth can only be determined by the future," Stiglitz said. "But the previous regimes were such failures that it's hard for them to do much worse."
The great challenge for any leader is spurring job growth. Venezuela's official unemployment rate is nearly 9 percent — just two percentage points lower than in 1998, when Chavez was first elected, despite a booming economy.
"There is no great industrial growth, nor great growth in investment," in large part because the private sector fears onerous regulation and nationalization, said Venezuelan economist Luis Vicente Leon.
Chavez told adoring crowds Sunday night that "socialism is love" and promised to take it further. How he'll do that isn't clear.
Although his government has seized significant tracts of ranch land that it determined to be inadequately exploited — something Morales has also decided to do — Chavez frequently tells his countrymen he has complete respect for private property.
Leon, a critic of Chavez, acknowledges that when the government has seized such private holdings as fallow farmland or failed factories, it has paid market price or better.
"So," Leon wonders, "what kind of leftist revolution is this?"
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Associated Press writer Natalie Obiko Pearson in Caracas contributed to this report.
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http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=66739771.93289902.1402076.8907222.6816965.710&aID2=107843
Posted date: 12/4/2006
New Predator on the Prowl Along The U.S.-Mexican Border in Arizona
The new Predator spy plane was unveiled recently in Arizona by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
By Amy Yarnall
U.S. agents are again using an unmanned spy plane developed by San Diego’s General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. to watch for illegal activity along the 2,000 miles of U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona.
“Pilots” on the ground use a device similar to a joystick to fly the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, from a control station in Sierra Vista, Ariz.
The aircraft, the Predator B, is the second to be purchased by the Customs and Border Protection Agency after the first one crashed in April just 20 miles north of Nogales, Ariz., due to pilot error. This second Predator B will cost $7.7 million, compared to $10 million for the first.
Since its first use, the Predator B has assisted in apprehending terrorists, drug smugglers and illegal immigrants, filling in as the officers’ eyes and ears. The original craft accounted for more than 3,500 arrests and seizure of over 10,000 pounds of marijuana.
“The Predator B is what Predator A should have been. It’s endurance, radar systems, sensory and video surveillance technology are what makes it a very capable platform all around,” said Michele Merluzeau, analyst and director for airborne systems at Frost and Sullivan in Washington, D.C.
The second aircraft was manufactured in San Diego in 2001 and will continue to assist in arrests and drug busts.
“This unmanned aircraft system provides us with the situational awareness we need to more effectively deny illegal entry to our nation’s borders,” said Ralph Basham, commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. “Our frontline agents deserve proven, effective technology that equips them to secure our borders and to prevent terrorism.”
A market study released in March by Frost and Sullivan showed the UAV market fluctuating at $2 billion to $3 billion per year and a growth rate of 5.5 percent for the next five years.
General Atomics has delivered 15 Predator B’s and has over a dozen requests for additional aircraft, according to a spokesperson.
“The homeland security and border security issue is significant but definitely not in terms of the volume of aircraft being developed,” Merluzeau said. “The use of UAVs for border security is a complimentary technology but it is not a solution.”
General Atomics said Customs and Border officials plan to order two more aircraft to be used on the northern border of Canada and in the Caribbean.
The protection agency purchased its first aircraft and control station for $10 million. The aircraft alone cost $6.5 million.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/ecuador_election_1
Monday, December 04, 2006
Correa named Ecuador president-elect
By Jeanneth Valdivieso, Associated Press Writer
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QUITO, Ecuador - Leftist economist Rafael Correa, who calls himself a friend of Venezuela's anti-U.S. leader Hugo Chavez, officially was declared president-elect on Monday by Ecuador's top electoral court.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced that with all the ballots from the Nov. 26 runoff counted, Correa received more than 3.5 million votes, or 57 percent, compared with 2.7 million and 43 percent for banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa.
The vote count had reached 99 percent last Wednesday and victory already was conceded to Correa, who received congratulatory calls from dignitaries such as President Bush.
During the campaign, Correa attacked Ecuador's Congress as a "sewer" of corruption and ran no candidates for the legislature. He now faces a Congress totally in the hands of his opponents but says that's not important.
Correa, 43, who earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois, intends to convene a special assembly to rewrite the constitution to undercut the power of traditional parties.
Correa also says he will cut ties to international lending institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and has threatened a moratorium on foreign debt payments unless foreign bondholders agree to lower Ecuador's debt service by half.
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http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2164
Sunday, Dec 03, 2006 / Update 1 - 10:30pm
Chavez Reelected President of Venezuela: 61.4% of Vote
By: Venezuelanalysis.com
chavez speaks to supporters in front of Miraflores Presidential Palace, follwowing the announcement that he had won reelection with 61.4% of the vote.
Credit: VTV
Caracas, December 3, 2006-- According to the first preliminary results from Venezuela's National Electoral Council, President Hugo Chavez won the presidency with 61.4% of the vote to his challenger's 38.4%. This is with 78.3% of the votes counted.
So far, Chavez got 5.9 million votes and Manuel Rosales, the candidate of the opposition, who got 3.7 million votes. This means that Chavez got slightly more votes than during the 2004 recall referendum and about 23 percentage points more than Rosales.
CNE President Tibisay Lucena also announced that as soon as 80% of the votes had been tallied, the CNe would make an announcement of who officially won the presidency.
In middle and upper class neighborhoods people started booing and banging pots in protest to the announcement, while in the capital's poor neighborhoods people began launching fireworks in celebration.
A mere 20 minutes after the CNE announcement, Chavez appeared on the balcony of the Miraflores Presidential Palace, singing the national anthem to a crowd of supporters who had gathered below in the midst of a heavy downpour.
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http://www.nickbuxton.info/bolivia/2006/12/land_drama.html
December 03, 2006 Posted at 04:49 PM
Bolivia= Land drama
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Cartulo Seas Soari smelt of beer and swayed as he spoke to me. "It was the first time I was in the Presidential Palace and it was amazing. We filled the whole building, it belonged to us." He had spent the night dancing and drinking in the university sports hall in La Paz. He had good reasons to celebrate.
For on Tuesday night, the Bolivian Government completely unexpectedly passed an amended land reform bill that aims to redistribute up to a fifth of the country, land that it designates as "unproductive" land in the hand of a small minority of rich landholders. It passed the law, the same day as 10,000 indigenous and campesino farmers descended on La Paz in four different marches that have crossed the country.
The last time I met Cartulo was in his hometown of Trinidad in Beni, where his organisation CIDOB (the confederation of indigenous peoples of Bolivia) was involved in an innovative project of using internet to help equip indigenous peoples in their struggle for land rights. He had marched five times, including most famously the 1990s land march, which put land redistribution on the political map. And now he was back in La Paz after marching for 28 days. "I feel good." "My feet don't even hurt," he smiled.
On the day of the vote, I had headed out to Guaqui, a rural province on the altiplano near the Peruvian border to do some interviews for a book chapter I am currently writing on debt and Bolivia. I arrived as all the villagers were cycling down with aluminium canisters of milk strapped on the back of their to be delivered to a milk plant. In the background the Cordillera mountain range looked like clouds merging with the horizon. I talked to a tranquil Valeriano Avaros as he stood in his swaying oats field, who with his four hectares fed his family of ten. For him land was not an abstract thing, but part of his life, his very being. The villages had sent all their community leaders to the march.
Yet Valeriano is relatively lucky as many rural Bolivians don't have any land. According to the Catholic church, 70% of Bolivian's population have access to 4% of the land, whilst 50,000 families control 90%. Whilst there was important land redistribution in 1952, over time land had become concentrated in a few hands (latifundios) whilst in many poor communities it had been divided over and over again until the plots were too small (minifundios) to sustain families.
Meanwhile in the East of the country which has the most land, there was almost no redistribution in the 50s and much of the land was taken on especially in the 70s and 80s by businessmen, European and Brazilian immigrants often depriving indigenous communities of their communal lands in the process. They were supported by the World Bank in the so-called Lowlands Project as a bid to build agro-industry especially soya as part of their strategy for export-led development and with a view to generating money to pay debt service payments.
In 1990, the indigenous communities of the East put the land issue back on the political map with a gruelling march across Bolivia to La Paz. A law, called INRA, was passed that was supposed to help indigenous communities confirm rights over communal lands and to start redistribution. Yet it was notoriously inefficient and slow. Consequently with a large base amongst social movement, MAS committed itself to land redistribution as a Government with an aim of redistributing all "unproductive" land which apparently make up a fifth of the country.
Yet when Congress passed the law, the opposition senators (in the only chamber where they have a majority) decided to boycott proceedings. They were backed by some civic groups (dominated by landholders) in the East who threatened strikes and civil disobedience. It is perhaps not a coincidence that several of the senators are major landholders themselves with thousands of hectares. Meanwhile the four marches edged ever closer to La Paz enduring boiling temperatures during the day, torrential downpours and freezing nights. The march continued even when three marchers tragically died (two as a car collided with them, and one woman struck down by lightening)
I, to be honest, couldn't see a solution. Redistributing land directly affected the economic interests of many of the rich elite in the country. Meanwhile indigenous and farmer movements were adamant that they would not accept anything less than the proposed changes to the land law. Gregorio Santoya in Guaqui was typical of the belligerent but just position of the indigenous movements: "If Evo backs down or the Senators stop this law being passed, then we will if necessary march on Santa Cruz to take on the landlords ourselves."
On my return to La Paz, I headed up to the Presidential palace where thousands of marchers were lined up outside the Palace, with indigenous muticoloured "wiphala' flags, textile cloths filled with coca leaves, and banners announcing where they were from. "We will stay here until we get justice" said one indigenous woman as she breastfeed her baby. "How can it be just that one man can have hundreds of thousands of hectares whilst others have none?" People I talked to on the streets expressed their support. One street seller said: "We are behind them. Their cause is just." Yet I still went home wondering how they could win.
But to my surprise, in a pattern that is becoming familiar here, the Government suddenly managed to pull a solution out of the bag. Each senator here has a "supplente" who can vote if the Senator can't attend for a particular reason. In an almost undercover operation, they managed to persuade two suplentes who were indigenous and apparently under a lot of pressure from their constituency and one Senator to switch sides for the vote. With a strong police presence, they snuck them into Senate and hurriedly passed not just the land reform law but four other laws which had been held up by the Senate boycott.
I turned the TV on just as the Senators emerged at about 11am. The Presidential Palace courtyard was packed with every balcony filled with indigenous groups cheering. I watched transfixed as various of the march leaders spoke. Teodocia Ruiz, from the Bartolina Sisa campesina (farmer) movement said: "We have suffered but the struggle has not been in vain. We are full of happiness and won't stop here but will continue struggling alongside Evo Morales. We are millions." Isaac Avalos, from indigenous movement CSUTCB said: "Many asked why are we marching when we have a Government supporting us. But although we have government, we don't necessarily have power. Today we showed the movements have power and we have a new law."
Vice-Minister, Almara (I think) is his name to cheers said: "This will be a day remembered for many years as he day the wiphala and the tamborita entered the palace victoriously to claim from the first Indigenous President the instrument of their liberation."
The next day, the papers were full of the victory, as well as the anger of landowners and the right-wing party PODEMOS who said it would damage production. There was also lots of speculation about the deals that MAS must have made to win. As one of my friends said: "It was tactically brilliant, but I feel uneasy about how it was done as those sort of machivelean tactics can become a norm rather than the exception, tainting politics and helping the machiaveli's rise to the top." I also feel that making the law work and deliver land redistribution will be a hard struggle with landowners saying they will militarily defend their land, whilst land redistribution could equally be held up in bureaucracy, corruption and legal fights
Yet there is no doubt it took the wind out of the sails of the right, whose planned strike on Friday in eight provinces only partially succeeded. Still the confrontation of forces is far from over. The battle moves now to the Constituent Assembly - where the lines are equally drawn. The right wing parties are saying they will accept nothing less than two-thirds approval for all decisions in the assembly, whilst MAS is sticking to their mixed-vote proposal saying two-thirds approval for everything will lead to a veto by a small minority protecting their interests. Across the country, middle class women are going on hunger strike (plus Burger King owner Samuel Doria Medina of the UN party who probably has enough fat reserves to last a good few weeks). Meanwhile social movements are descending on Sucre to bolster the government.
Bolivia is never dull.
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http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/11/30/_moneytransfers/
December 3, 2006
Latinos sending more money back home
by Ambar Espinoza, Minnesota Public Radio
Listen to feature audio
The Latino population in Minnesota is growing rapidly, and the money immigrants send to Latin America from Minnesota is growing even faster. A recent report estimates a doubling in the amount of money transfers over the last two years.
St. Paul, Minn. — Two young men from El Salvador are regulars at a money-wiring business called Los Gallos 10 on the west side of St. Paul. Charlie Garcia waits while his cousin confirms his transaction at the teller. His cousin is sending money to his mother. This is what they do at least once a month. They aim to send money home every 15 days.
Charlie Garcia says there's a lot of poverty in El Salvador and unemployment rates are high. At one point, he was earning only $40 a month.
"I'm a college graduate in El Salvador. I have my degree and I spent almost two years job-hunting and I never found anything," says Garcia. "So that's why I decided to move here."
Garcia is like many immigrants surveyed in a recent report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IAD), one of the biggest lenders to Latin America. Garcia moved to the United States seven years ago to work, send money home, and save. His mother is sick and can't work. So his money is her major source of income.
The IAD report shows seven out of 10 immigrants in Minnesota will have sent almost $300 million to Latin America by the end of 2006.
Greg Watson, consultant for the bank's multilateral investment fund, says more immigrants are sending money, and the average amount sent is also going up.
"New immigrants tend to send home more money than immigrants who have been in the country for two to three years," says Watson. "So you've got $300 now as opposed to $200 in the past. And so if you've got a new immigrant population, they're also going to be sending a higher proportion of their income as remittances."
Worldwide, wiring money is one of the most popular ways to help alleviate poverty.The Latino population in Minnesota grew by almost 20 percent from 2000 to 2004. Watson says the report shows immigrants are becoming drawn to states with strong economies, instead of states with large Latino populations.
Art Rolnick, vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, says even though Minnesota is far from the border, immigrants still move here for better wages than in other states.
"As the jobs that are available -- or are created -- in some of these states like California or Arizona dissipate, you could see where a state like Minnesota, even though it's farther away, would be very attractive," says Rolnick.
For all the money that's leaving the state, the IAD's Greg Watson says the real story is 90 percent of immigrants' income stays here.
"That means that immigrants are purchasing foods and services locally," says Watson. They're paying rent, they're going to the supermarket and buying food, and that's creating jobs and creating income in their local communities in the United States."
El Burrito Mercado
Even the money immigrants send home can come back when countries purchase goods from the U.S. For example, Minnesota has recently started to court Mexico with its soy products. According to an association called the Mid-America International Agri-Trade Council, Mexico's health market has been growing and their fastest growing sector is soy products.
For the receiving families in Latin America, the money is a decent source of income to pay for bills, buy groceries and medicine, and so on.
Greg Watson says lower wire fees put more money in the families' pockets. He says worldwide, wiring money is one of the most popular ways to help alleviate poverty. The report also shows about one-third of immigrants have started investing in real estate in their homeland.
Charlie Garcia was able to pay for two surgeries -- one for his mother, one for his aunt. Although he'd rather be in El Salvador, he has no regrets about coming to Minnesota for now.
"I've come here to work a job I've never wanted to do. One day, I'd like to go back to my country and pursue the career I've always wanted," says Garcia. "But with my wages here, I'm helping my family and I'm helping myself."
Garcia's money not only pays for his family's basic necessities. Part of the money is also going toward the construction of a house -- the house he plans to live in when he moves back.
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http://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2440.html
December 3, 2006
The APPO Lives
Communiqué from Somewhere in the State of Oaxaca, from the State Council of the Popular Peoples’ Assembly of Oaxaca
By the CEAPPO
The Other Oaxaca
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PEOPLE OF OAXACA! PEOPLE OF MEXICO! PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!
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From somewhere in the state of Oaxaca, as the State Council of the Popular Peoples’ Assembly of Oaxaca,
WE DECLARE:
FIRST: The APPO is more alive than ever in the hearts of the workers, indigenous people, campesinos, housewives, students, youth, children, and all the exploited and oppressed in Oaxaca and Mexico. The State Terror that has been unleashed on the people of Oaxaca and the international community with increased brutality since November 25 has not weakened our desire to be free men and women.
Nor has it made us change our minds about whether our struggle should continue to be a political, peaceful and mass movement, despite the fact that 17 people have been killed during this stage of the struggle, dozens of people have disappeared and hundreds are political prisoners; we consider this toll to consist of crimes against humanity.
SECOND: The APPO continues to act permanently; although we are not visible at sentries or heard over the radio 24 hours a day, we still live and communicate with the same indomitable spirit which we have inherited as exploited people. We are fighting and will continue to fight intensely for the fall of the tyrant and his dictatorship, the dictatorship of capital.
This new stage of struggle that we have named the “Stage of Peace with Justice, Democracy and Liberty without Ulises Ruiz Ortiz” is, at the same time, a novel exercise to continue the struggle that the APPO is learning to build with patience, perseverance and wisdom.
Our original peoples taught us this on November 28 and 29 at the Forum of Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca, when they told us that the “path must be taken slowly,” which is what we are doing now, without losing sight of the common objective, which is the profound transformation of living, working, academic and recreational conditions for our people. As the faithful puppet of the wealthy and the drug traffickers who he defends and represents, URO (Ulises Ruiz) stood in the way of this path. As representatives of a people who decided to embark on the route to their own emancipation, we will remove him from this path that belongs to us.
THIRD: The Council is calling all people of Oaxaca from now until December 10 to organize and carry out mobilizations and protest actions to spread the “Stage of Peace…”, the call for the release of political prisoners, the return of the disappeared, the cancellation of orders of apprehension, an end to illegal arrests, an end to gag orders, the withdrawal of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), and what brought us all together: the departure of the murderer Ulises Ruiz from Oaxaca. We call for this to happen in all regions of the state through our regional, municipal and sectorial Popular Assemblies. We do so because on December 10 we will hold a “Grand Concentration,” meeting at 10am at the monument to Juárez, located at the Crucero de Viguera in Oaxaca City, to express our condemnation of and opposition to the baton and rifle policy to which this group of murderers and thieves who call themselves the government in Oaxaca want to subject us.
FRATERNALLY,
“ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE”
STATE COUNCIL OF THE APPO
December 2, 2006
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http://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2439.html
December 3, 2006
The Zapatista Other Campaign Tour Arrives Back in Mexico City
Comandanta Grabiela: “We Are Here Because We Have Completed Our Work. Now We Get to Return, but You All Will Not Remain Alone”
By Amber Howard
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Today, after a long journey into the forgotten corners of the country of Mexico, the Zapatista Other Campaign tour begun on January 1st finally came to an end… and a new beginning.
DR 2006, Enlace Zapatista
To celebrate, adherents of the Other Campaign met together Mexico City to compare notes and shed light onto some of the results of the tour. The theme, the Other Campaign and the Anti-Capitalist Struggle, brought together eight panelists who addressed these topics to a full house, not a single chair left empty. Four of the panelists were the first four delegates of the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials): Delegado Zero, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos; Delegada Una, Comandanta Grabiela; Delegado Dos, Comandante Zebedeo; and Delegada Tres, Comandanta Miriam. Other representatives as follows: Rosario Hernandez, of the Independent Francisco Villa Front, Luis Alfonso Vargas of the Party of Mexican Communists, Sergio Rodríguez of Rebeldia magazine y Lucas Alvarez of Socialist Worker Unity.
The panelists each identified capitalism as the overriding cause of the problems that the Mexican people and environment are suffering today; the grievances heard over the past year by Delegate Zero on his nationwide listening tour. Vargas mentioned how since the end of the Cold War, capitalism has been presented to the world as the only natural and inevitable option. Since this system, according to Vargas, is based in exploitation and the sale of merchandise, it causes the destruction of natural resources and an even greater class struggle. He proposed that the only way out of this situation will be the destruction of the capitalist system, and described how the protests are growing around the world. “Now not only poor people are standing up against it, but people of all classes and especially indigenous people, immigrants, human rights organizations and more.” The movement against capitalism, Vargas said, is beginning to take the offensive.
Next Rosario Hernandez remembered that in the year 1810 Mexico fought for its Independence from Spain, and one hundred years later in 1910, came the Mexican Revolution against another dictatorship. Now, as 2010 approaches, the Other Campaign is laying the groundwork to vindicate those victories. “We have hit the limit of the disappearance of people, of land, and of culture, and every day the riches of the country are held in fewer and fewer hands.”
She declared capitalism to be like a cancer that destroys all of the natural wealth that is Mexico. “Capitalism has converted everything into merchandise: education, politics, even man himself. It is a crucial element of this system to destroy anything that is different, especially anything rebellious, and within this, to erase the past itself. Ignorance, by way of historical amnesia, serves as one of the principal weapons that allows for the continuation of this system. Erasing the history of centuries of humiliation, of people forced to sell their land and of people killed in the struggle, makes the current destruction appear isolated and alone. Another weapon is the institucional violence that causes anyone who acts out against the system to be followed, jailed, disappeared, or assassinated.” But in spite of all of this systematic opression, Hernandez points out a search for the real past that is still exists, even if underground. “We are learning today from The Other Campagin how many silent struggles are going on across the country, that don´t appear in the official data. We are recognizing the honest struggles, and these people are not alone….Today we are constructing a new form of politics, of uniting our strengths, together.”
Alvarez followed this notion of the formation of a new politics, from the Zapatista uprising in 1994, and the subsequent struggles over international trade policies. “Free trade served to deepen the political struggle against capitalism.” He mentioned the fact that students, now upon graduating, have no place to go to find a job, no place to create a better condition of life for this country, and for the defense of the mother earth. “Now what we have to do is find the links, the connections between all of these different struggles we have seen in this tour around Mexico. The left has to unite within itself against capitalism, to join together all of the different positions within the leftist movement.”
Rodríguez of Rebeldia talked about the importance of defining what it means to be anti-capitalist, and in this way defining exactly what is capitalism and neo-liberalism. “Today we are living a global offense of exploitation, of being kicked off of our lands, and of a development of politics that will destroy us.” The politicians, he continues, are now the “worst” or the “not as bad”, and either way they continue taking everything from us, little by little. “The only way that we can confront this is by struggling for the imposible or in other words, the necessary.” Rodríguez also talked about how the only politics that exist now in Mexico are the politics that give everything over to the great capital, making this country subordinate to the United States. Every time the demands are more and more intense, now creating a cultural crisis. The tenents of the Other Campaign, to unite those from below and to the left, are the destination of those searching out an alternative. “The possibility does exist, when we are able to join together all of our efforts.”
Delegada Tres, Comandanta Miriam, spoke on behalf of the Zapatista Sixth Commission. She said the EZLN is on alert for all of the political prisoners of Atenco, and all of the women raped there. “We see how the government has not been able to find a solution to the demands. We are not going to leave them alone. We must continue to organize ourselves. We also are organizing against the capitalistic system, which for us means only pain, hunger, oblivion and inequality.” Comandanta Miriam also focused on how important it is to fight for the lands, and for fair salaries, even if it does provoke repression. “They are trying to finish off our culture and our collective way of working, through privatization of our natural resources, by giving us transgenetic seeds, all from those rich countries, the capitalists. Every time the prices rise for things we need, and our salaries are lower and lower. They are making our youth learn English and the ways of individualism, this is what they put in the minds through the educational system.”
She spoke to the need to understand the collective way of working, as a method within the struggle. “The politicians talk about democracy, freedom and truth, but we know this is nothing more than talk and a manipulation of information. They want to fool us once again. We have to show them our ways, which don´t depend on institutions or on individuals. Our future is up to us, it depends on how we want it to be.” Miriam ended her speech by saying- “Keep heart! Don’t ever stop struggling. Soon this capitalist system will fall.”
Subcomandante Marcos spoke next, introduced by Miriam as “the person we have put in charge of the work of the Other Campaign.” Marcos began by addressing the situation in Oaxaca, the hundreds of people who have been illegally tortured, beaten and jailed, young, old, children and grandparents. “Brothers and Sisters,” he called out to the crowd, “this attack against Oaxaca cannot be forgotten, EZLN calls on all people to initiate the following demands: One, the presentation of all of the disappeared peoples, alive. Two, freedom for all of the political prisoners. Three, the immediate exit of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. And four, the recognition of all the wrong doing that has happened to the people of Oaxaca. Oaxaca is not alone.”
Next he referred to the entire journey of the Other Campaign, over 45,000 kilometers, in land that we now can call “from below”. Marcos talked about how this force is growing so much that it can´t even be contained by the country of Mexico, that to the North of the Rio Bravo there exists another Mexico, “one that we are not going to lose.”
He continued: “We cannot continue resisting separately, each person from their own place. We must unite ourselves.” He talked about how in each of the different eight corners of Mexico they saw people from below, criminalized for fishing, for taking care of the land, for struggling to maintain their territory. He talked about how the great machine of the north is making everything into merchandise, into property, into banks, malls- and all of the profits go to the foreigners. “We have returned to where we were in the 1900s, with the destruction of our land, our culture, our collective way of working, the destruction of our women, the lack of appreciation of our elders, and the merchandising of the youth. All of this, including the lack of maintaince of our educational system and the social security system, is for the benefit of the grand capital extranjero.”
Delegate Zero finished his speech by saying how it was more common in the North to find women as the bosses, but that this strong indigenous woman of the North, and her struggle for indigenous rights, was not created by the Zapatista Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle that began the Other Campaign, but, rather, that the Sexta serves simply as a call to get to know each other, to unite ourselves and to respond to the following questions. “Who are we?, Where are we?, How does it look? What do we want? How are we going to get it?” He called upon all to meet this Monday, December 4th to begin to discuss the answers to these questions. He also called upon the importance of creating a movement within the Other Campaign focused upon the following issues: 1) the high costs of electricity around the country. 2) the state and care of the environment, and, 3) the importance supporting small businesses instead of multinational corporations. “The hour has come,” announced Marcos. “It is time to wake up. It is difficult to distinguísh between day and night when everything appears to be a pre-dawn, but now is the time to recuperate our shadows. We have to awaken.”
Delegado Dos, Zebedeo, rose to invite everyone to the meeting with the Zapatista communities and with countries from around the world, in Oventic, the heart in the center of the Zapatista territory, December 30 to January 2. “So you all can get to know us directly, but it will not be just to get to know people, but also to see how we work: Our good health, our autonomous education, our basic alimentation, and our healthy justice. This is a new practice of government, a healthy government. It´s our new form of politics, our new way. Never will it be through the current political system, with big business. We are witnesses to the lies. We are sure that now is the time to plant the seeds, to create anew. We will make the rich people shake in their boots. Then we will see each other also in July of 2006, for the Intergalactic again in the Zapatista communities. We will be waiting for you all with open arms.”
Finally, the last Delegate stood to speak, with an obvious smile not well hidden behind her black mask. Delegada Una, Grabiela said “We are here because we have completed our work. El Compa, Marcos, has now finished his tour. Now we get to return, but you all will not remain alone. Other compañeros will come. Do not fear the government. We will continue advancing in our struggle. We must give our whole heart to this struggle. Now we can return happy to our communities.” She caused the entire audience to laugh by admitting that she was going to say other things, but she forgot it all. “It doesn´t matter”, she proclaims, “I am just so happy with you all and for this reason we can now go home. Redouble your efforts, friends, and stay optimistic.”
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http://www.slate.com/id/2154688/
Posted Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 @ 1:35 PM ET
Is There a "Black Vote" in Venezuela?
Sunday's election is about much more than the white elite versus the dark-skinned masses.
By Vinod Sreeharsha
SAN JOSÉ DE BARLOVENTO, Venezuela—Luis Perdomo, a black Barlovento resident, was denied entry to a Nelson Mandela birthday commemoration last year. Seeing his complexion, a "revolutionary" government official assumed he was a bike messenger and turned him away.
Perdomo had been an invited speaker. He eventually gave his speech, during which he also recounted this humiliating incident. But afterward, Venezuela's state TV network refused to interview him, though they spoke to the other presenters, upset that he dared to criticize the government at an event it had organized.
Harry Belafonte or Danny Glover would have fared much better. Glover was part of a TransAfrica Forum delegation that visited Venezuela earlier in President Hugo Chávez's second term. So enamored was el comandante that he wanted to form a Venezuelan branch. Perdomo, one of Glover's hosts, responded, "No. We are already here."
Barlovento is home to one of the largest concentrations of black Venezuelans in the country, and it is a center of the growing Afro-Venezuelan movement. But leaders here say that their struggle for increased visibility is too often a lonely one, even though the government claims to represent the world's downtrodden.
The Venezuelan divide is often described as the white elite versus the dark-skinned masses. Like most things Chávez says, there is some truth to this. But the black vote in Venezuela shows the enormous gap between the romanticized version of the "Bolivarian Revolution," Chávez's political program for Venezuela, and the real thing. It also explains why the opposition is having a difficult time winning over frustrated chavistas—even Perdomo is voting for Chávez.
Race is virtually never discussed among Venezuelans. Most subscribe to the myth of the mestizaje—that everyone is a mix and thus treated equally. As evidence that race is not an issue, Venezuelans point to their custom of addressing dark-skinned friends as "negro," seemingly oblivious to the irony. El Imperio, Chávez's nickname for the United States, cannot impose political correctness here, they boast.
It certainly cannot in the campaign of Manuel Rosales, Chávez's main challenger in the Dec. 3 presidential election. His signature proposal, "Mi Negra," a prepaid debit card for poor Venezuelans, means "My Black Lady." His supporters say that those who are squeamish about this nomenclature don't understand Venezuelan warmth. But Perdomo calls Mi Negra "offensive" and asks, "Why doesn't Rosales have a card called Mi Blanca?"
Perdomo is one of approximately 8 million Afro-Venezuelans, 30 percent of the country's population, says Jesus "Chucho" García, founder of the Afro-Venezuelan Network. There is no way to pin down the number more precisely, since the Venezuelan government does not ask questions about race in its census, despite years of lobbying from García.
How black Venezuelans figure in the Bolivarian Revolution remains unclear. On slavery, Chavez's hero Simón Bolivar took a position that was "ambiguous at best," says Venezuelan historian Elias Pino Iturrieta. Freedom was conditional on slaves serving in his army, and slavery was not abolished in Venezuela until more than 20 years after Bolivar died. Another Chávez idol, Fidel Castro, "took 40 years to acknowledge racism was an issue in Cuba," says García, who has studied the country.
During landmark constitutional reform in Venezuela in 1999, which García hailed for adding indigenous peoples' rights for the first time, blacks were excluded. The Chávez government has been perpetuating the myth of the mestizaje.
Most troubling to Barloventeños is the prevalence of endoracismo, the rejection of one's heritage. Marisela Álfaro says that her 13-year-old daughter already talks about marrying a white guy in order to "mejorar la raza," or "improve the race," a phrase commonly used in black families here. Such lack of self-esteem results from deeply engrained prejudice in wider Venezuelan society. The government as well as private companies routinely request photos in job-application packages. On Globovision, the country's main 24-hour news network, which essentially represents opposition to Chávez, guests have repeatedly referred to the president, who is of mixed indigenous and black origin, as a "monkey."
This is partly why many Afro-Venezuelans have not yet abandoned President Chávez: They empathize with him. They also point to some recent progress. The Ministry of Education has started to promote Afro-Venezuelan culture in schools, and a presidential commission on racism has been formed.
The economic message of Rosales' Mi Negra program also riles them. The opposition has long misunderstood that Chávez supporters prefer work or educational opportunities over freebies. Mervin Rodríguez, a Venezuelan political analyst, says, "Mi Negra is promoting a stereotype that many people in the barrios do not like."
Still, the economy is also President Chavez's Achilles' heel with Afro-Venezuelans. Many live in rural parts of Venezuela and work in agriculture, the long-neglected stepchild to the oil industry. Chávez's land-reform initiative, an attempt to redistribute large estates to the landless, was important in principle for Afro-Venezuelans. It was also supposed to promote local agricultural development and "food sovereignty," but in the last year alone, agricultural imports have grown by 31 percent, according to government figures.
Barlovento, which is mostly rural, produces world-class chocolate, but the government has done little to cultivate the industry. The administration opened a chocolate-processing factory in the middle of the election campaign, but it came two years later than promised.
García shrugs. He'll probably still vote for Chávez on Sunday but says, "I have never said that I was a chavista. If things don't improve in the next three months, this country will have a lot of problems."
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