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http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/12/sabbath-december-2-2006-aztlan-news.html
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http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/12/1/1842/57005
Posted on Fri Dec 1st, 2006 at 06:04:02 PM EST
Mexico Today: December 1
By Simon Fitzgerald,
On December 1, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, of the PAN takes power as President of the United States of Mexico... Two days ago the voice of the Oaxacan uprising Radio Universidad fell silent. The Cinco Señores barricade at the doorstep of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca was left unguarded... Days after some 160 Oaxacan protesters were arrested without warrents or even charges, news comes that the two murderers of New York Indymedia videographer who had been arrested have been released While Radio Universidad remian's silent, will any one hear Calderón''s iron fist falling on Oaxaca?
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Today, December 1, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, or PAN for its Spanish initials) takes power as President of the United States of Mexico after an election victory that many see as fraudulent.
The San Lazaro legislative Palace, the home of the Mexican national congress, had become a strange sort of battle ground as legislators of the PAN and of the center-left Party of Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática) physically fought to control the podium. Expecting a coordinated action designed to prevent the inauguration of Calderon in San Lazaro, as the PRD had done to prevent President Fox from giving his state of the union address (informe) in September, the PAN delegation pre-emptively seized the stage November 28th. Fighting off PRD delegates, the PAN legislators even sleeped on the floor of congress in order to hold the stage and allow Calderon to be sworn in.
Calderon was indeed sworn in today. A private ceremony was held, without prior announcement at midnight in the Presidential Palace. This unprecendented secretive nighttime inauguration was followed this morning at 9:48 in San Lazaro, as reported by La Jornada. In both cases, President Vicente Fox turned over power to Felipe Calderon, but not before new physical altercations between PAN and PRD legislators, as well as catcalls and chants desinged to interrupt the ceremony. In any case, Felipe Calderon is now the official president of Mexico.
Radio Universidad Falls Silent
All of this noise in Mexico City drowned out the important news coming out of Oaxaca. In addition to the "toma de protesta" (inauguration) of Calderon and the return of The Other Campaign to Mexico City, December 1 was supposed to be a key moment in the popular uprising in the southern state of Oaxaca.
For months a common rallying cry of the Oaxacan people was "si Ulises no se va, Calderón caerá," (If Gov. Ulises doesn't go, Calderon will fall") connecting the demand that the repudiated Oaxacan governor resigned with a threat to nationalize the state's uprising against the (perhaps fraudulently) elected president.
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Nevertheless, this past week has seen a de-escalation of the Oaxacan peoples' movement. Last weekend, state and federal police (as well as vigilantes) attacked a protest of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca as they surrounded a Federal Preventative Police (PFP) encampment in the Oaxacan city center for a "48 hour nonviolent seige" of the PFP. The attack triggered a five hour battle and city-wide riot. Some 160 people were arrested, many of them randomly from the site of the police attack. Others were "disappeared," though initial reports of dead protesters have not been confirmed. For days after the attack, protesters remained hidden in homes and offices, afraid to walk through the streets to return to their own homes and families. Fourteen such people were hiding out in the office of Nueva Izquierda when it was shot up and burned to the ground. Thirteen managed to escape, and one is considered "disappeared." I wrote about this several days ago, detailing as much as possible. Since then many other important stories have come out.
John Gibler writes about a human rights observer from Mexico City who was arrested randomly, and has had ample opportunity to observe human rights abuses in police custody. Luis Hernandez Navarro suggested that this attack marked "the end of tolerance" for the protest, and connected the violent repression with the inauguration of Calderon.
Furthermore, this attack at the rank and file of the protest, instead of against its leadership, seems to have severely weakened the APPO. The attack of a peaceful march, the arrest of so many people, their transfer to far away states where family cannot see them, and the torture employed by the captors seems to have been the first serious blow to the movement's motivation.
On October 29, Radio Universidad fell silent. The administrators of the radio broadcasting station turned it over to the university where it is located. The decision was made after the barricade of Cinco Señores, at the doorstep of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, was left unguarded. Federal and state police were able to simply drive up and dismantle the same barricade where, at the beginning of November, an attempt to do the same caused an epic six hour battle in which two armored police trucks were torched, and the PFP eventually retreated.
After the fall of the last barricade around the university, the the administrator's of the radio station, also called Radio Planton and Radio APPO, decided to turn it over to university officials so that federal police would not invade the campus as they had been threatening to do. The defense of this station had been the primary goal of the Oaxacan resistance ever since the PFP entered Oaxaca on October 27th. International listerners can still hear Radio APPO's silence over the internet.
Flavio Sosa, member of Nueva Izquierda and a leader of the APPO, says that the government is trying to crush the movment with a "dirty war." Sosa's brother is currently being held by the PFP. It remains to be seen if this is a strategic retreat on the side of the Oaxacan protesters, but it makes them look week. Radio Universidad made calls for reinforcements over the air, when people did not show up ready to defend the station, as they had previously, they decided to avoid a fight they could not win. Felipe Calderon is promising to dialogue with any one who is interested in dialogue (which APPO have repeatedly called for since the uprising began this summer). With foreign media largely ignoring it, the left wing of the Mexican media relegating it from the front page, and Radio Universidad falling silent- will any body ear Calderón's iron fist fall on Oaxaca?
Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, had good reporting from Mexico on December 1. John Gibler: the unprecendented private inauguration ceremony "a sign of the weakness of this presidency."
Government Murders Bradley Will with Impunity
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While some 160 Oaxacan protesters were arrested without warrents or even charges, news comes that the two murderers of New York Indymedia videographer who had been arrested have been released. The killers, cheif of security for Santa Lucía del Camino ("regidor" also called a city council member by some media), Abel Santiago Zárate, and Orlando Manuel Aguilar Coello, an official under his command with the Municipal police, were caught on film and publicly identified by newspapers such as El Milenio and El Universal. They were not sought by authorities for a week, until pressure from news reports made their arrests unavoidable. The same authorities responsible for murder and torture of protesters in support of Gov. Ulises Ruiz seem to be allowing two of their own to kill with impunity. WIll anyone notice?
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Simon Fitzgerald recently returned from Mexico where he reported on The Other Campaign and translated Spanish-language articles into English for Narconews.
He also runs the web log La Luchita.
http://laluchita.blogspot.com/
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http://vivirlatino.com/2006/12/01/evo-morales-in-cuba-to-celebrate-fidels-birthday.php
Friday, December 01, 2006
Evo Morales in Cuba to Celebrate Fidel's Birthday
Fidel Castro may not be coming out in public to celebrate his 80th or the historic 50th anniversary of the Granma, but other Latin American world leaders are coming out. Bolivia's President Evo Morales arrived in Cuba today.
We express gratitude for solidarity from the Cuban to Bolivian people as well as Fidel Castro s friendship," said the South American statesman.
"This year," stated Morales, "the country has made two changes, one was nationalization of hydrocarbons and the other the land law, although there are still a lot of things to do, among them, the laws of pensions and mining." Morales arrived in Cuba from Nigeria, where he participated in the South-South Summit in which "colonized countries met to free not only peoples, but also natural resources." The Bolivian president was welcomed by the island s Vice President Carlos Lage Davila and other top leaders and diplomatic staff from Cuba and Bolivia.
Now all we're missing is Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who will be remaining in his home country for the presidential elections.
Via / La Prensa Latina
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http://vivirlatino.com/2006/12/01/world-aids-day-and-latinos-in-the-us.php
December 1, 2006
World AIDS Day and Latinos in the US
08:50 H | Topics: Health
Today marks World AIDS Day and despite all the commercials, campaigns, and condoms, AIDS remains a dirty big secret in the Latino community. Acoording to the Latino Commission on AIDS, while we rep about 14% of the population in the U.S., we represent 20% of AIDS cases inside the US. Some more scary stats about AIDS in our community:
• Latinas, often the victims of sexism and machismo, now account for 25% of all Latino infections, as compared to only 2% in 1981.
• Latina intravenous drugs users are five times more likely to have AIDS than their White counterparts. Latino men who are intravenous drug users are 10 times more likely than White drug users to have AIDS.
• Latino men who have sex with men are three times more likely to test positive for HIV than White men who have sex with men.
• Heterosexual Latino men are 10 times more likely to test positive than their White counterparts. Latina heterosexuals are 7 times more likely than their White counterparts to be infected with HIV.
• Latino teens in the United States make up 19% of the national teenage population ages 13-19, but account for 20% of the cumulative AIDS cases.
Let's be real, so many in our generation, Latinos in their 20's and 30's, don't even know their HIV status because they haven't gotten tested. When were you last tested for the HIV virus, the virus that is believed to cause AIDS? I was tested last summer. And yes, testing can be scary, but not knowing and possibly infecting other people should be even scarier.
The Latino community needs to get over its homophobia that surrounds AIDS because AIDS is not a disease just for "patos". Men need to get over their machismo and practice safe sex. Mujeres need to step up to the homophobia and machismo and speak to our fellow sisters.
Today make a promise to do something to commemorate World AIDS Day. Get tested. Stock up on condoms. Educate yourself. Talk to your vecina about AIDS. Because the reality is that no se puede tapar el sol con un dedo, AIDS is here.
Via / The Latino Commission on AIDS
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htp://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/16138995.htm
Posted on Fri, Dec. 01, 2006
AIDS HITS LATINOS HARDEST
County outreach efforts increase
By Jim Johnson / Herald Salinas Bureau
Email= jjohnson@montereyherald.com or Call 753-6753
Rabbi Bruce Greenbaum, of Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel Valley, tells the story of his younger brother, Brian, who was 30 when he died of AIDS 15 years ago, on Thursday in Seaside. Greenbaum was one of the speakers at the World AIDS Day Eve Community Service at St. Matthias Episcopal Church.A decade ago, John XXIII AIDS Ministry Executive Director Katherine Thoeni remembers only one in 10 people who came into the nonprofit for help were Latino. Today about half are, reflecting a trend that has revealed the Latino community having the highest number of HIV/AIDS infections in the county.
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Today, Thoeni's Salinas-based nonprofit, which provides housing and other services for people living with HIV/AIDS, and other HIV/AIDS organizations will observe World AIDS Day with several events, leading off with a commemorative service at noon at Hartnell College's Steinbeck Room in Salinas. The event is co-sponsored by the John XXIII AIDS ministry and the college.
While infection numbers have fallen steadily over the past decade among people in most demographic and ethnic groups in Monterey County, the decline has been far less pronounced among Latinos.
From 1996 to 2000, 191 county residents were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, and the number of diagnoses fell to 117 in 2001-05. While the number of diagnoses dropped by more than half among both whites and blacks between those two four-year periods, the number among Latinos saw a relatively nominal decrease from 69 cases in 1996-2000 to 64 in 2001-2005.
During the last five years, more than half of all new HIV/AIDS cases have been among Latinos, said the Monterey County AIDS Project.
Local experts say the reasons for a relatively steady number of cases among Latinos can include everything from poor access to education and prevention to cultural taboos about sex and related health-care issues. Income levels and distrust of government may also contribute, experts said.
Thoeni said the HIV/AIDS treatment community is working to improve outreach efforts to the Latino community, especially to bilingual and non-English speaking residents.
"In the old days, programs for HIV/AIDS education were not built on a model of diversity," Thoeni said. "They were not directed at communities of color. We're still catching up. As a country, we're just behind.
"HIV, as we know, does not discriminate."
Monterey County Health Department statistics say 550 people are living with a diagnosed case of HIV or AIDS, but Thoeni said the number is likely closer to 1,000 to 1,200.
She said among people with HIV/AIDS about a third have been diagnosed and are seeking treatment, another third are diagnosed but are not being treated, and a third have not been diagnosed.
Even with greater education and prevention efforts, there is still a stigma attached to an HIV/AIDS diagnosis, Thoeni said. That can make people put off a diagnosis until their health deteriorates to the point they seek health care for a serious illness resulting from their immune system being compromised by the virus.
Sometimes lower-income people avoid testing because they believe they can't afford treatment.
Eric Vogelgesang, an emotional support coordinator at John XXIII who has lived with HIV/AIDS since 1985, said that's especially true of some segments of the Latino community.
"A lot of people, especially within the Hispanic community, when they get diagnosed they're already in the late stages, which means they've probably already contracted AIDS. If they had been tested many years before, the earlier you get a diagnosis the better outcomes there are."
Vogelgesang said the stigma of HIV/AIDS can exacerbate cultural and religious barriers about discussing sex, and social and economic barriers about getting education, prevention and treatment. Those barriers are often more prevalent in ethnic communities, he said.
For example, religious beliefs can create resistance to using condoms, a key element in preventing infection, and discourage discussing healthful sexual behavior, Vogelgesang said.
The St. Matthias Episcopal Church's Susan Miller, who works with the John XXIII ministry, said certain cultural attitudes about sex are having a more profound effect on Latino women.
"The thing that's especially appalling, and this isn't just here but across the nation, is the number of monogamous Latino women who get infected by their husbands," she said.
Vogelgesang said language barriers can stunt educational outreach efforts. Cultural and socioeconomic barriers may include distrust of the medical community, differing attitudes about the importance of medical care, and limited access to clinics and treatment.
"When you're out trying to make a living, you can tend to make personal health a lower priority," Vogelgesang said. "It's about a lot of education, informing and enlightening the community. We need to create an open-door situation where there's less fear about the issue."
Low-income people can obtain medical treatment through free testing clinics offered by nonprofits such as the Monterey County AIDS Project and John XXIII. They also can get medication through the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program. But often, the real barrier to treatment is education.
Ethan Brown of the county Health Department said the county spends about 25 percent of its AIDS education and prevention budget -- about $60,000 a year -- on efforts aimed at the Latino community. He acknowledged more could be done.
"We're targeting our prevention efforts more specifically than ever before," Brown said.
Kathleen Banks, Monterey County AIDS Project executive director, said her organization's educational efforts are mostly focused on youth, including students at schools with largely Spanish-speaking populations.
The AIDS Project chose to continue its education outreach program, which includes bilingual educators, despite losing state funding a few years ago, she said.
"It's just too important," Banks said.
Better educational efforts will have to take place against a backdrop of more relaxed public attitudes about HIV/AIDS and a shrinking pot of government funding.
Vogelgesang said he hears talk, especially among young adults, that makes him think that advances in HIV/AIDS medication and testing have caused people to take the disease less seriously.
"There's a feeling that, 'Yeah, I need to be careful,' but the urgency isn't there," he said. "The perception is that there isn't the automatic death sentence there once was. It's not a death sentence, but that doesn't mean you should act irresponsibly. It's a respect for yourself and for others."
Banks said, "AIDS had its heyday in the 1990s, but it's off the radar. I think people feel there's no more urgency. People don't realize this is a lifelong illness."
Though infection numbers are dropping, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS is increasing, largely because of medical advances that allow people to live longer with the disease, Banks said. Meanwhile, government money is drying up.
The AIDS Project's annual budget is about $450,000, half of what it was five years ago.
In the late 1990s, Banks said AIDS Project clients could gain access to a wide range of government programs. None of that exists now.
Instead, MCAP raises its own money, partly through its Benefit Shop in Pacific Grove, to help clients pay for medical and living costs.
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Monterey County World AIDS Day events Today Noon: World AIDS Day Commemorative Service, Hartnell College's Steinbeck Room. Co-sponsored by John XXIII AIDS Ministry and Hartnell College 6 p.m.: Candlelight memorial service, CSU-Monterey Bay University Center, Rooms 115-116. Co-sponsored by the African-American HIV/AIDS Wellness Program and CSUMB. 6 p.m.: Candlelight vigil, Window on the Bay on Del Monte Avenue in Monterey. Sponsored by the Monterey County AIDS Project Box 2:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101332.html
Friday, December 1, 2006; 6:59 PM
Shelters Give Immigrant Kids Stability
By Peter Prengaman / The Associated Press
Fullerton, Calif. -- Life in a government-run shelter for illegal immigrant children might not sound very inviting, but for 16-year-old Sandra it's a vast improvement from what she left behind in Guatemala.
For starters, she has enough to eat and nobody beats her. She even gets to study, a luxury she hasn't had since leaving school in third grade.
She's been on her own since she was 10, when she fled an abusive home in Guatemala. She was picked up by U.S. immigration authorities two months ago while trying to enter the country illegally through the Arizona desert. She's among two dozen children at the shelter in Fullerton, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
"I feel more protected here than I've ever felt. It's like I'm a young girl again," said Sandra, whose last name could not be disclosed because she is a minor in government custody.
What happens when unaccompanied children are picked up varies by their country. Mexican children generally are sent straight back to their home country. Those not from Mexico are housed in shelters while the government decides whether to release them to family living in the United States, deport them or put them in foster care.
The shelters, meant to be a temporary refuge, resemble college dorms, where the children take English classes, receive medical care and play soccer at local parks.
"This is like a hotel," said Edwin, a 17-year-old Honduran detained while trying to cross the Arizona-Mexico border.
Before 2003, the children were often put in juvenile detention centers. They lived more like criminals than schoolchildren, and the conditions prompted lawsuits. Congress intervened and assigned the care of unaccompanied children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which revamped and expanded a sparingly used shelter system.
While day-to-day life is better, civil rights and legal groups criticize the system for not preparing children for the legal process awaiting them.
After being released, thousands don't show up to their immigration court hearings because of confusion about the process or fear they'll be deported. Many who don't show up would be eligible for U.S. residence because they were abandoned or abused in their homeland.
Sandra, who says her father beat her so often that she fled her home, could get a green card if she is able to convince a judge of the abuse and years on her own.
Civil rights groups say children like Sandra need legal help to navigate the immigration system.
"Most never apply for a legal status they are eligible for because nobody helps them," said Peter Schey, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles who specializes in minors.
A majority of the 7,800 immigrant minors who passed through government custody last year were teenagers from Central America, though countries of origin span from China to Iraq. Their reasons for coming vary, from seeking work or reuniting with family to fleeing violent street gangs.
On average, they spend between 45 and 60 days at a shelter in Arizona, California, Washington, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, New York or Florida.
Anti-illegal immigration groups say they are sensitive to the plight of children, but argue there are few situations that warrant allowing them to stay here. They are particularly unsympathetic to minors who come to be reunited with family members who themselves came here illegally.
If their parents "break the laws, and in doing so they broke up their families, it's their obligation to fix it," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Fear of deportation pushes some children to flee the shelters, even though by law they can't be sent home until after a hearing or agreeing to leave the country.
Lynda Scarlino, program director at the Fullerton shelter, said children close to 18 are particularly jumpy because they know as an adult they can be immediately deported.
Elsa, a 17-year-old Guatemalan who is eight months pregnant, is worried she'll be sent home. Her parents still are in Guatemala; she came to work and support them. She hopes she'll be released to a brother living in Phoenix before she turns 18.
Children can be released to adult relatives, regardless of their immigration status, if case managers at the shelters deem them capable providers.
No matter what, Elsa said, she can't attempt to do anything before she has the baby, who if born in the United States will be an American citizen. But the baby's status doesn't remove the possibility that Elsa could be deported.
"It's better for me to wait," she Elsa. "If I leave here and they catch me again it will be worse."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001269.html
Friday, December 1, 2006; Page A10
U.S. Citizenship Process Is Getting a History Test
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Bush administration yesterday unveiled dozens of new questions that may be added to the nation's naturalization test, and immigration advocates are concerned that the changes could make it more difficult for millions of legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
Immigrants seeking citizenship who now answer questions such as "What are the colors of our flag?" would be asked "Why do we have 13 stripes on the flag?" if the new questions are approved. Other queries include "Who sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.?," "Name the writers of the Federalist Papers" and "What did the abolitionists try to end before the Civil War?"
Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security agency that administers the exam, said the questions are part of an effort to standardize the tests, given nationwide, and increase immigrants' knowledge of U.S. history.
"It's a bold new era," said Emilio T. Gonzalez, director of the immigration agency. "We're not just giving a test for testing's sake, but giving a test which has meaning."
The agency will roll out the new questions in sample tests given to about 5,000 immigrant volunteers in 10 cities early next year, Gonzalez said. The cities include Boston; Miami; Denver; El Paso; Yakima, Wash.; and Albany, N.Y.
A notice will be mailed to applicants scheduled for an interview. It will explain the program and include a study guide. Volunteers who fail the new test can try again using the old test.
Immigrants must answer six of 10 questions correctly to pass. Officials will decide which of the 144 questions work and which do not. About 40 questions will be deleted before permanent changes are made in 2008.
Watchdog groups such as the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights say they are examining the process to make sure the immigration agency is not placing a heavier burden on people who use legal channels to enter the country.
"We ourselves are going to be trying this out in our citizenship classes," said Fred Tsao, policy director for the Illinois group. Teachers will be encouraged "to see which of these questions make sense, which are too hard and which of them are off the wall."
Some of the questions are simple, such as "What country is on the southern border of the United States?" The answer is Mexico, the home country of most legal and illegal immigrants.
Others are more difficult. "What alliance of North American and European countries was created during the Cold War?" The answer is NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The new test and its questions were drawn up because "over the past 10 years . . . the standardization and meaningfulness of the naturalization test have come under scrutiny," according to a statement by the American Institutes for Research, an independent firm that helped design the pilot program.
A 1997 study concluded that the test lacked standard content, protocols and scoring mechanisms, according to the research group. Also, the immigration agency found inconsistencies in the way tests were given in its district offices. The criticism led to the formation of a panel to guide the redesign.
The agency handles 6 million to 7 million citizenship-related applications each year, 1 million of which are applications from people hoping to become citizens.
The new questions are being proposed at a contentious time for legal and illegal immigrants.
Congress is set to continue debating several bills designed to keep closer tabs on the whereabouts of legal immigrants and to make it much more difficult for them to remain in the country if they overstay their visas.
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/01/1456203
Friday, December 01, 2006
Facing Fierce Protest, Mexico's Calderon Takes Power in Unprecedented Midnight Ceremony; Opposition Lawmakers Vow to Block Inauguration
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Felipe Calderon has taken over as Mexico's president in an unusual midnight ceremony at the presidential residence in Mexico City. Opposition lawmakers are vowing to physically block him from being inaugurated in Congress. Meanwhile, tension remains high in the southern state of Oaxaca where the federal police are attempting to crush a popular uprising. [includes rush transcript]
In Mexico, opposition lawmakers are vowing to physically block Felipe Calderon from being inaugurated today as Mexico's next president.
Calderon has been widely accused by supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of stealing July's election. Lopez Obrador has refused to recognize the election results and claims that he is the legitimate president of Mexico. He is planning to lead a major protest in Mexico City today.
Early this morning outgoing Mexican president Vicente Fox transferred power to Calderon in a midnight ceremony at the presidential residence. Then Calderon addressed the nation.
Felipe Calderon, national televised address.
Tension has been rising inside the Mexican Congress as well. On Tuesday supporters of Lopez Obrador and Calderon began fist-fighting on the floor on Congress. Injured lawmakers had to be carried out of the building.
Calderon's inauguration comes as tension remains high in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca where the federal police are attempting to crush a popular uprising. On Saturday police arrested over 150 protesters following a large protest march and more have been detained or disappeared since as police search for members of APPO, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Several leaders of APPO have reportedly disappeared including a chief spokesperson Cesar Mateos Benitez. Meanwhile protesters have surrendered control of a university radio station that they had converted into Radio APPO.
David Brooks, U.S. Bureau Chief for the Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada.
John Gibler, independent journalist based in Mexico. He joins us on the line from Mexico City.
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AMY GOODMAN: Early this morning, outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox transferred power to Calderon in a midnight ceremony at the presidential palace. Then, Calderon addressed the nation.
FELIPE CALDERON: I appeal to congress to respect the inauguration and the need to strengthen Mexico’s institution and the legislature’s patriotism, so that all can be done with full respect of the constitution. I do not ignore the complexity of the political situation or our differences, but I am convinced that today we must put an end to our disagreements and initiate a new era that has as its only objective to put the interests of the nation above our differences.
AMY GOODMAN: Tension has been rising inside the Mexican congress, as well. On Tuesday, supporters of Lopez Obrador and Calderon began fist-fighting on the floor on Congress. Injured lawmakers had to be carried out of the building.
Calderon's inauguration comes as tension remains high in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, where the federal police are attempting to crush a popular uprising. On Saturday, police arrested over 150 people, following a large protest march, and more have been detained or disappeared since, as police search for members of APPO, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Several leaders of APPO have reportedly disappeared, including a chief spokesperson Cesar Mateos Benitez.
Meanwhile, protesters have surrendered control of a university radio station that they had converted into Radio APPO.
David Brooks joins us here in New York City. He is the US Bureau Chief for the Mexican daily newspaper, La Jornada. On the phone from Oaxaca is Gustavo Esteva. He is the founder of the University of the Land in Oaxaca and author of many books, including Grassroots Post-
Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures. Gustavo has also been a columnist for La Jornada. And we’re also joined in Mexico City in the Zocalo, in the square, by independent journalist John Gibler.
Let’s start there. Can you describe the scene, John, in Mexico City right now?
JOHN GIBLER: Good morning. Hundreds of people are beginning to pour into the Zocalo, where Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called his supporters to gather to decide early this morning what steps to take in their protest of Felipe Calderon’s inauguration today. People are pouring in from every street, as we’ve seen time and time again over the past few months when Lopez Obrador has called the protests in. There is less paraphernalia this time, but just as many people walking in from all directions.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the reaction to the unprecedented midnight ceremony in the president's residence last night handing over power to Calderon?
JOHN GIBLER: Initially, shock and laughter. People -- I was actually somewhere where people were watching a soccer game on television, and immediately the television screen just switched to the national anthem being sung and Fox standing next to Calderon, both of them looking kind of stiff. People had no clue what was happening, and they’ve never seen anything like this in -- there hasn’t been a movement like this in the history of the country. And people pretty much saw it as a gesture of the weakened legitimacy of the transfer of power.
AMY GOODMAN: David Brooks, can you talk about the significance of what we're seeing right now: in the streets, major protests; Calderon, hidden away, taking power; and the reports in congress right now, riot equipment seen laid out?
DAVID BROOKS: That’s right. And it’s a manifestation of the deep uncertainty that’s now affecting every aspect of Mexican political life, and particularly probably the inauguration of one of the weakest presidents in Mexican history. The fact that despite -- that Vicente Fox, the outgoing president, had to go to pray at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe and then returned at midnight for a private ceremony with no public and no popular participation in the fortress of the Mexican White House, and that there’s deep uncertainty as to whether Felipe Calderon will be able to appear at the congress this morning to be formally inaugurated, raises what’s been happening in Mexico for the last many months, that there is a deep fragmentation of the political structure, of the system and a tremendous -- of a president that’s perceived by millions to be illegitimate.
And so, this is how it starts. And he faces now a country that is in crisis, both on the economic, on the political, on the social level. And so, this weakness in confronting this major moment in Mexican history is quite a contrast to six years ago, when we were all told that we were now celebrating the beginning of democracy in Mexico with Vicente Fox and the alternates in power and the institutionalizatio n of democracy in Mexico. And now, the congress is surrounded by about 500 navy personnel, along with riot cops. The fact that there’s repressions going on in Oaxaca and in other places, the fact that Vicente Fox is going out with blood on his hands and that the incoming president has to face this and nothing is resolved, is not an auspicious beginning, to say the least.
AMY GOODMAN: And the fist-fighting on the floor of the congress, what the floor looks like right now?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, over the last three days it’s been -- as you said, it started with a confrontation, because Felipe Calderon's party, the parliamentarians of that party, the congressmen, were terrified that Lopez Obrador’s party, the PRD, were going to take over the podium and that way make it impossible for Felipe Calderon to come in this morning and take the oath and whatever, so they rushed the podium.
AMY GOODMAN: The PAN.
DAVID BROOKS: The PAN did. And so the PAN has now taken over the podium for the last three days to make sure that there’s a little passageway where Felipe Calderon can come in. And so they’ve all stayed overnight. Two nights ago, they started singing classic Mexican songs in the middle of the night. There was romances going on. People were sleeping there, all holding their positions, and supposedly there was supposed to be an agreement as to what would happen today. No agreement was reached as of last night, and so nobody knows what’s about to happen in about an hour and a half, if and when Felipe Calderon arrives at the congress.
AMY GOODMAN: And in the midst of all of this, a previous president, Echeverria, was just charged with war crimes for the Tlatelolco killings, the university killings in 1968.
DAVID BROOKS: Right. One of the great -- one of the main promises of Vicente Fox was that he was finally going to let the truth come out of Mexico's secret wars, in which about 600 people were disappeared in the ’60s and '70s, and including in the ’80s, and that there was going to be a full investigation and that we would all know who was involved, who was responsible and who was to be -- and they were to be brought to accountability. This was almost a symbolic act on almost the last day of -- they have accused Echeverria before. Like three times, it’s failed. He’s now under house arrest. But it’s sort of like a parting symbolic gesture, because in fact there has been no accountability ’til now. We still don’t -- nobody’s been brought to justice for all these crimes. So again, we have a house arrest, but people assume it’s a symbolic thing at this point.
AMY GOODMAN: John Gibler, you’re right now in the Zocalo, but you’ve just come from Oaxaca. You’ve got a very graphic piece about a young man who was hooded, who was taken away. Can you describe what’s happening in the southern state of Oaxaca right now?
JOHN GIBLER: After clashes between protesters and federal police on Saturday, November 25, the federal and state police forces began a kind of witch-hunt operation, where they’ve been going across Oaxaca, Oaxaca City, where the protests have been concentrated for the past six months, looking for people who have been involved in the movement, picking them up off the street, whether or not they’re involved in any protest action at that moment or not, or actually whether or not they’ve been involved in the protest or not, and arbitrarily detaining people, torturing them, and planting evidence on them, forcing them to sign false confessions, and then sending them off to jail.
This happened in an incredibly poignant case of a young man, this university student and volunteer at a human rights organization in Mexico City called Yaxkin, who had come here on Monday, November 27. He had arrived in Oaxaca to document cases of forced disappearances. And within hours of his arrival, as he was walking between the university and another area to go and gather testimonies, he himself was disappeared, highlighting the incredible arbitrary nature of what he had come himself to bear witness to and to gather testimony for, so that family members would know where their relatives are being held and what conditions they are being held. But he himself, in the short time of half a day trying to document these cases, himself was grabbed off the street by hooded state police officers, who immediately threw him down, put a hood over his face, began to beat him and two friends he was with, then held him incommunicado, you know, forcibly disappeared for two days.
AMY GOODMAN: And this list that we’re hearing about of about 300 people in Oaxaca, I understand something like 200 leadership of APPO and 100 foreigners. Can you talk about this, a list of people to be apprehended?
JOHN GIBLER: Yeah, there are two lists going around. One is, as you mentioned, those who are supposed to or are considered the leaders of the APPO. These are people who have been very active in the organization of different civil disobedience activities throughout the months of the protests and who in the past two weeks became consejeros or advisors, council members of the new structure that the APPO took on during its congressional meeting they held on November 15. So this list comes from the people who had been elected by different organizations, different regional indigenous or farm labor groups who had to put their representatives forth to be their voices in the APPO or the assembly structure. So that’s one of the main lists.
And those are the people who I think are running the most danger right now. And these are people -- you know, we’re talking about preschool teachers and indigenous farmworkers, and yeah, there are several people in there who have worked in non-governmental organizations for a while. Most of these people are everyday working people who put their lives on the line in supporting this civil disobedience uprising in Mexico.
There’s also a list, which no one has seen, or no one I’ve been able to speak to in the government or the press has actually seen a copy, but this magical list of a hundred foreigners who have supposedly jumped in and violated Mexican federal law by actually directly participating in the protest. That number seems extremely inflated to me. I have been there for months, and it’s pretty easy to pick out the foreigners sometimes, and I have definitely haven’t seen a hundred people running around throwing rocks.
AMY GOODMAN: David Brooks, the use of foreigners in situations like this?
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I mean, throughout Mexican history, one problem with -- foreigners are, by the constitution, are not allowed to participate in internal Mexican politics and can be expelled within 24 hours if caught under a constitutional article. But also in the past, authorities have used the presence of foreigners to say that these are the outside instigators, that Mexicans don’t go on strike and Mexicans don’t, you know -- and this has been over decades -- don’t do this.
AMY GOODMAN: In fact, the teachers are striking now, aren’t they?
DAVID BROOKS: Right. There are 70,000 teachers that have called a 48-hour work stoppage in the state of Oaxaca, as we speak. And so, the problem is that often foreigners are accused of being the instigators, and therefore, the reason why repression comes in. And we’ve seen some of this, an attempt at this, with the Brad Will case, you know, where all of a sudden it’s legitimate -- the federal government used -- tried to use the Brad Will case as a way to send in federal troops under pressure by the US embassy.
AMY GOODMAN: Brad Will, the independent journalist from the New York Indymedia Center, who was killed about a month ago in Oaxaca.
DAVID BROOKS: That’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush, Sr. was expected to attend
the inauguration of Calderon?
DAVID BROOKS: Right. He’s supposedly leading the US delegation, along with Alberto Gonzales and the –
AMY GOODMAN: The Attorney General.
DAVID BROOKS: Attorney General. And they are supposed to be there. It looks like the foreign dignitaries -- it wasn’t clear -- might not show up at the congress. They might go to a separate event in the National Auditorium. But it’s unclear yet, because of the tension inside the Mexican congress, so even the celebration and the foreign dignitaries may not even convene at the congress this morning.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, John Gibler, in the Zocalo right now in Mexico City, you’ve come up from Oaxaca. You are a foreigner reporting in Oaxaca. First, what is the awareness in Mexico City of what’s happening in the southern state? And do you plan to return? Are you on a list?
JOHN GIBLER: Well, yes. The awareness is definitely -- from my little experience traveling out of Oaxaca, is that there’s national awareness about what is happening in Oaxaca. Several of the national newspapers, such as La Jornada, Millennio and El Universal, have given very consistent coverage to the uprising in Oaxaca. And I definitely think it’s on the tip of tongues across the country and definitely here in the capital. I, myself, plan to return to Oaxaca in a couple of days, Monday or Tuesday. And whether or not I’m on a list, I don’t know, but I’ll definitely continue to go back and continue covering what’s going on there.
AMY GOODMAN: You say, John, you have evidence that the Mexican government lied about Brad Will’s death?
JOHN GIBLER: I have been researching -- I’ve interviewed several people directly connected to the investigation, as well as the doctor who conducted the autopsy, and I’ve gotten a lot of evidence that they’ve lied in multiple cases. Very briefly, I was at the press conference with the state attorney general, where she said that the two bullets that entered Brad Will’s body were both fired point blank. She is now saying that she never said that. But I’ve got not only her quote, but the photograph of the Powerpoint slide. The autopsy doctor himself has said that there were no traces of gunpowder burning in the bullet wounds and that Brad was definitely not shot at point blank range, which was one of the key pieces of evidence that the state attorney general tried to use to say that members of the APPO, that the protesters themselves had shot Brad Will.
Another one of the more kind of quirky elements of their theory is that Brad Will himself was filming at the very moment of his death, when he was shot the first time -- he was shot from straight on -- and the state attorney general has the fantastical theory that Brad Will somehow turned his body 90 degrees without affecting his camera at all, as if he were filming ducks on a pond, and then received a bullet wound from the side. But I’ve interviewed at least five -- I’ve interviewed five people who were present at that very moment, both protesters and national press correspondents, photographers at national newspapers here in Mexico City, who have told me that there was no gunfire at that moment from the protesters, that Brad was shot straight on from three city council members and state police or local police officers who were gathered about a block away.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to leave it there, and people can go to our website and see the video images that Brad Will himself took, essentially filming his own death, when he was videotaping as the men with the guns came forward. John Gibler speaking to us, independent journalist, from the streets of Mexico City, from the Zocalo. And David Brooks, US Bureau Chief for the Mexican daily newspaper, La Jornada. We are sorry we weren’t able to reach Gustavo Esteva, who is in Oaxaca right now.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4371180.html
Dec. 1, 2006, 12:14AM
Houston Latinos divided on border fence
Leaders summit stirs debate over immigration and national security
By Susan Carroll
Email= susan.carroll@chron.com
Plans to build 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border is an "insult" to Latinos, some Houston Hispanics said Thursday.
"I am deeply offended," said Helen Cavazos, a Houston businesswoman who attended an immigration workshop at the 2006 Latino Leaders Summit on Thursday morning.
Cavazos, president of a human resources consulting company, said her grandparents brought her mother across the border illegally as a baby, in the days before there was a fence.
"It's an insult, but we stand here and take it and take it," she said. "We have to come together on this issue. We're empowered now, and we can make a difference. This is our country."
The summit, sponsored by Latino Leaders Magazine, was held at the Houston Marriott Westchase Hotel. The immigration workshop underscored divisions among some local business and community leaders on the immigration issue. When the moderator asked whether anyone was offended by plans to add new fencing to the border, a little over half raised their hands.
Sarah Toombs, a U.S. citizen who lived in Mexico for 42 years, said she isn't offended by the fence, saying it is up to the U.S. government to decide how it controls its borders.
"I'm 100 percent in favor of it," said Toombs, 58, who owns a business in Mexico.
"It may sound harsh, but it's like my son says: 'This is a country of immigrants, but the immigrants came legally,' " she said.
Hipolito Acosta, a former immigration agent and one of three panelists at the workshop, said the fence proposal is "ridiculous" and amounts to little more than political posturing.
However, Acosta added, the concerns about national security and the need to reduce crime in border communities is pressing.
"What I'm saying," he said, "is that we need a balanced approach."
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061218/lovato
Posted November 30, 2006 (December 18, 2006 issue)
Latinos Lean Left: Bringing Down the GOP's Big Tent
By Roberto Lovato
Until very recently, Phoenix businessman Elias Bermudez was content to wander the desert in search of faces that might bring some color to the overwhelmingly white tent of Republicanism. As an evangelical Republican in mostly Catholic and Democratic Latino Arizona, he was a lone voice in the political wilderness. But the 56-year-old activist and radio DJ took solace in knowing that a political prophet of a previous era, Barry Goldwater, had found success knocking on the rickety doors of the huge ranch houses and shacks dotting the same desert landscape, launching the first commercial radio station in Phoenix--and a grassroots revolution. Bermudez had initially been won over by the GOP because, he says, it backed his efforts to leave the "shadows" of undocumented life and become a citizen, then the first elected mayor of San Luis, Arizona, a border town of about 21,000--89 percent Latino--that he helped incorporate. And like many of the roughly 40 percent of Latinos wooed by Karl Rove and longtime GOP Latino strategy guru Lionel Sosa into voting for George W. Bush in 2004, Bermudez joined the party because it "believed more in family, morality and the ability of the individual to succeed by pulling himself up by his own straps." He broadcast his beliefs weekly on his popular radio show, Vamos a Platicar (Let's Talk), where he translated Rove's and Sosa's carefully crafted messages about Americano dreams for tens of thousands of potential recruits in the poor, Spanish-dominant sectors of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.
But then Arizona politicos like Congressman J.D. Hayworth and other GOP legislators began pushing "some of the most hateful legislation in the US," in Bermudez's words. (Consider for example Goldwater's nephew and GOP gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater, who proposed building a "tent city" where undocumented immigrants would be indentured "as labor in the construction of a wall [along the border] and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting.") Bermudez was, he says, "sickened" by the proposals on various state ballots in recent elections--four passed in Arizona--denying basic rights, like bail, to immigrants. These GOP-led initiatives, he believes, embolden those "flag-waving white people yelling at me, 'You're no better than a Mexican dog' and those I see at protests who burn the Mexican flag or wear it as a diaper or on the bottom of their shoes."
So, rather than go deeper into the tent of Republicanism, Bermudez opted to tear it down.
"I began a campaign to target Republicans," he said. During the elections, the born-again activist immigrant DJ used media and grassroots organizing methods to help oust anti-immigrant politicos like former TV anchor Hayworth, who was elected as part of the Gingrich revolution in the politically fateful year of 1994.
The roots of the Republican Latino debacle of 2006 lie in the launch of the immigration wars that began with California's Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative that denied education and healthcare to undocumented children. Bermudez's conversion and the fact that only 29 percent of Latinos voted Republican this past election indicate that the appeals to the lower instincts of the white base come at a steep electoral cost. And in this era of narrow victories and contested results, with black support of the GOP mired near the single digits of the post-Southern Strategy era, securing a significant percentage of the vote of Latinos, the country's largest minority group, is imperative for the GOP. In the same way that appealing to the desire among some whites to segregate the health, education and basic rights of blacks cost the GOP their votes for decades after Jim Crow, similar appeals to deny health, education and basic human rights to Latino and other immigrants may cost the GOP critical votes in the era of Juan Crow. The effects of such dynamics may be felt even more powerfully in the 2008 elections, in which 12 million new immigrant voters (303,600 in Arizona alone) could participate, according to a study by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. These are especially bad omens for the Republicans when we consider that foreign-born Latinos were largely responsible for the historic increase in Latino support for the GOP engineered in the '04 elections by Rove and a now glum Sosa.
From his office in San Antonio, Sosa lamented that "even though the President has been extremely vocal about a comprehensive immigration reform package, most Latinos will remember what the [anti-immigrant] Congressional position was--and that can't be good for the future of a [Republican] party that needs more than just the white vote."
For his part, Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen sees similar omens in the statistical tea leaves of a country that will be half minority by 2050. "Whites are the only group giving Republicans more than 50 percent of their vote. Even among white women they came in at 50 percent. They're not only a minority among minorities, but a minority among the majority."
At a recent Washington gathering of African-American, Latino and other representatives of the newsmedia that serve 51 million nonwhite Americans, Bendixen showed his enthusiastic audience how "the 'macaca' vote destroyed the Republicans in Virginia." The 78 percent of the electorate that is white went disproportionately for Allen, said Bendixen, who added, "That means the 22 percent that is the ethnic electorate defeated Allen."
Asked about the future of the GOP following an election that witnessed the largest Latino vote in an off year, the passionate Peruvian pollster responded by harking back to what happened in previous immigration wars. "The only historical measure we have is the California experience in 1993-94. The Republicans offended Latinos with their [anti-immigrant] ads, and we saw a very strong reaction there in '96, '98 and 2000. It lasted at least three political cycles," said Bendixen.
In what may portend a 187-ization of the nation, he and other analysts of the Latino electorate believe that this time around the national Republican appeal to the white core may be even more costly for them than it was in 1994. Since then, they say, GOP policies and the activities of the Minutemen and others in the burgeoning industry of anti-immigrant politics have negatively affected the lives of US and foreign-born Latinos and further poisoned the atmosphere. Even Latinos like Bermudez have begun to question whether they want to be members of a party that has so little sympathy for desperate immigrants who die in deserts like the one surrounding the Barry M. Goldwater [military] Range outside Yuma. Leaning his head to the side as if giving a prognosis to a patient in a hospital bed, Bendixen predicted, "This will last at least three election cycles, if not more." Add to this the long-term legacy of Hurricane Katrina, controversy over the renewal of the Voting Rights Act and continued electoral race-baiting like that in the Harold Ford Jr. "Call me" ad, and the future of the GOP looks very white--and not so bright.
But there's one important thing that Bendixen and Sosa agree on, something that could alter the fortunes of the GOP: The Latino vote is fluid. "The immigrant vote is a swing vote," says Bendixen, adding, "The question is, Will Democrats strongly support comprehensive immigration reform? If they don't, Latinos could turn against them." Sounding as if he's getting ready to launch GOP Latino vote campaign 2.0, Sosa concurs with Bendixen, arguing that Latinos won't necessarily respond to anti-immigrant policies in the same way that blacks responded when the GOP pursued its Southern Strategy by playing to the racial fears of whites. "I don't believe the damage is irreversible. The Latino vote is still in contention."
The GOP's refusal to write off the Latino vote, while giving up blacks for lost, is reflected in the fact that it just elected immigrant Mel Martinez GOP chair while at the same time resurrecting supposedly repentant segregationist Trent Lott (who said this year's immigration protests "make me mad") as its minority whip. The fissures over immigration within the Republican coalition will play out in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election, as potential candidates cover the pro- and anti-immigrant spectrum between reformer John McCain and Minuteman favorite Tom Tancredo.
But assuming that the Democrats are poised to pounce on Republican racial woes is a critical mistake. Many Latinos still remember that the exponential increase in immigrant deaths in the desert began not with the Minutemen patrols but with Bill Clinton, who launched "Operation Gatekeeper" in 1994. A considerable number of Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer's candidates and recently elected Democrats are hardly experts at microtargeting nonwhites. Harold Ford, the "rising star" who was being considered to chair the Democratic Party before his name was removed from consideration, is both victim and perpetrator of racial scapegoating, as is evident in the Dixiecrat-like anti-immigrant ads he and many of the "pragmatic" and "populist" crop of new Congressmembers ran. And many Latinos will not soon forget that it was Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Emanuel, along with recently elected majority whip Steny Hoyer, who pressured House Democrats to support legislation calling for the construction of the Mexican border wall loathed by Bermudez and millions of other Latinos who marched earlier this year.
While a segment of the Republican Party (and a good number of Democrats, including white liberal and progressive Democrats) still believe in "race neutral" politics, the 2006 elections make strikingly obvious the centrality of race and ethnicity in the politics of a darkening and diversifying United States. For their part, the Republicans must rebuild and color the tent burned down during recent elections. And while the short-term prospects of freshly victorious Democrats look promising among nonwhites, recent electoral history speaks loudly to the volatility of the political and racial moment. As they scour the country for votes in '08 and beyond, both parties would do well to wander in deserts like those in Arizona in search of their souls.
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http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/10221/1/349/
November 30, 2006
Colombia: blood on the coal
Author: W. T. Whitney Jr.
Email= atwhit@megalink.net
The Cerrejón mine in La Guajira, Colombia. Photo by Don McConnell/McConnell Productions.
LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — Cerrejón, the world’s largest open pit coal mine, materialized 25 years ago in the midst of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous Wayuu peoples living in this northeast corner of Colombia. The region is named after La Guajira peninsula, which juts into the Caribbean Sea.
Since 1981, 400 million tons of coal has been taken out of La Guajira’s subsoil.
Despite this economic “success,” the communities living here — situated on coal reserves estimated at 3 billion tons — are slated for destruction by the company and government of President Alvaro Uribe.
The unequal contest between giant multinational corporations and La Guajira’s communities plays out in an arid landscape marked by scrub-covered plains and distant mountains.
The forced exit of one community already, and the suffering of the remaining people living in half-empty, decrepit villages, has outraged activists and labor unions worldwide. This is nowhere more evident than in the countries that consume Cerrejón’s coal. Solidarity actions with the peoples of La Guajira are picking up.
A giant energy complex
Cerrejón, once the property of the Colombian state and Exxon, is now owned by multinationals BHP Billiton, Anglo-American, and Glencore (Xstrata). It generated $1.2 billion in earnings last year.
The companies operate a 90-mile-long railroad, a highway and their own seaport. The mine, 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, sells 22 percent of its coal to North America, 59 percent to Europe and 19 percent elsewhere. Last year the mine exported 25 million tons of coal.
Solidarity
Leaders of Sintracarbón, the national union representing Cerrejón workers, have taken up the cause of the beleaguered communities as they begin their own contract negotiations with the company. The union has over 3,100 members. Leaders of both the communities and the union are counting on a boost, however, from international public opinion.
The power of international solidarity was apparent earlier this year when the nation of Denmark banned coal from Alabama-based Drummond Company, a notorious anti-labor energy company, pending a U.S. court’s decision about Drummond’s possible complicity in the murder of three Colombian labor leaders in 2001.
The Dutch power generating company Essent indicated recently that it, too, would not be signing new coal supply contracts with Drummond, pending the court’s decision.
‘Blood coal’ in Salem
History professor Aviva Chomsky learned that a power plant in Salem, Mass., where she lives, was using Cerrejón coal. She and other activists there and in Nova Scotia, Canada, another consuming region, have turned Cerrejón into a symbol for “blood coal.”
This year, Chomsky recruited labor and human rights activists, physicians and academicians from Canada and the United States to visit La Guajira from Oct. 29-Nov. 3 to learn, carry out a requested health survey and prepare for solidarity work on their return.
Sintracarbón and organizations representing Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities had invited them to Colombia. When the delegation arrived, its members were greeted by union and community leaders, who subsequently accompanied them on the tour. The present writer joined the group’s medical contingent.
A solemn declaration
Responding to the owners’ plans for continued mine expansion, Sintracarbón leaders issued a declaration on the communities timed for the visitors’ departure. What it describes mirrors some of the impressions they took back to North America.
The declaration notes, “These communities are being systematically besieged.” The company has denied them access to employment, grazing land and rivers. The communities “do not have even the most minimal conditions necessary for survival,” it said.
The document continues: “The multinational companies that exploit and loot our natural resources in the Cerrejón mine are violating the human rights of these communities.”
Sintracarbón, the union, aims to “help unify the affected communities, to participate in their meetings, to take a stand with the local and national authorities ... to begin a dialogue with the company.”
Meeting with the communities
Interviewing residents of four communities, the North Americans learned that local schools and health facilities are virtually non-existent. To secure food and work, Wayuu people have to trek over mountains into nearby Venezuela. Harassment from company police and the national army is rampant.
Government officials have denied indigenous and Afro-Colombian people rights guaranteed them under the nation’s 1991 constitution. They refuse the official certification that would place the communities into protected categories.
Displaced former residents of the Afro-Colombian community Tabaco, living nearby in cruel circumstances, recalled the bulldozers, soldiers and company police that on Aug. 9, 2001, evicted them, destroying their village. Neither Cerrejón nor neighboring Hatonuevo municipality has complied with a Supreme Court ruling May 2002 to provide homes for the victims.
Before and later, some residents did settle individually with Cerrejón. Others, members of “Tabaco in Resistance” led by Jose Julio Perez, demand collective negotiations, collective resettlement, and reparations for loss of livelihood and community integrity.
U.S. and world solidarity
Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, have called upon the company to honor labor and human rights. Gerard wrote the mine’s owners, “We applaud Sintracarbón union’s courageous and unprecedented step in including in its bargaining proposal demands that the collective rights of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities affected by the mine are recognized and addressed.”
Chomsky reports that solidarity groups are active in Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, London and Switzerland. She and others have formed an international commission to monitor developments in La Guajira, including union negotiations for a new contract.
For more information, visit
www.colombiajournal.org
http://home.earthlink.net/~Sintracarbón/
http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia
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Building people-to-people solidarity
By Aviva Chomsky
SALEM, Mass. — It was in April of 2002 that a group of people here first learned that our power plant was importing coal from the Cerrejón mine in Colombia, then owned by Exxon.
Two representatives of local communities affected by the mine were coming to the United States to speak at the Exxon shareholders’ meeting about the mine’s abuses against the people in the region. They were eager to come to Salem to meet with people who were using coal from the mine.
So we scrambled to put together an ad hoc committee to organize their visit. To our surprise, the issue piqued the interest of many.
When she arrived, indigenous Wayuu leader Remedios Fajardo told Salem’s mayor, its city council, and others: “We want to tell the people of Salem that this coal has its origins in violence. Our communities have suffered greatly. Their human rights have been violated, their territory has been usurped, their houses destroyed and demolished, and they have had to shed their blood in order for this coal to arrive in Salem and other parts of the world.
“We beg the city of Salem to express their solidarity with us, because we have a relationship with them because of this situation,” she said.
Since that day, we’ve been trying to do just that.
Our campaign has mushroomed over the past four years. We’ve invited activists from La Guajira to the U.S. and Canada to bring their stories to coal-consuming communities. We linked up with solidarity groups in London, Switzerland and Australia, where the three companies that bought the mine in 2002 have their headquarters. We started attending their shareholders meetings and asking tough questions.
Here in Salem and in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada, our organizations have been pressuring the coal importers to press the mine on human rights issues. A Danish investigative report last spring led to DONG Energy in Denmark cutting off its purchases of coal from the U.S.-owned Drummond mine in Colombia, where three union leaders were killed in 2001. The New Brunswick Power Company recently wrote to the mine asking it to negotiate in good faith with the union and the affected communities, and to respect the communities’ right to collective relocation and reparations.
High levels of violence against unionists in Colombia have helped mobilize unions in the U.S., Canada and Europe to join the campaign.
When the Sintracarbón union at the Cerrejón mine decided to prioritize its relationship with communities affected by the enterprise, workers at the Ekati diamond mine in Canada’s northwest territories noted the similarities: the two mines are partially owned by the same Australian company, BHP Billiton, and both have usurped indigenous land and displaced communities.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which organized the Ekati mine in the country’s Northwest Territories two years ago, sent two representatives on our recent delegation to express their solidarity and to have a chance to exchange experiences.
Both the union and the communities have told us repeatedly that only international attention will pressure the mine owners to respect their rights. We hope we can bring the attention they need and deserve.
Aviva Chomsky teaches history at Salem State College in Massachusetts.
‘We are compañeros and friends who are forever united’
Following the delegation visit, Jairo Quiroz of the Sintracarbón union sent the visitors these reflections:
“This kind of experience is what brings us the strength and conviction that we need to continue our struggle against the social inequalities in our country. Our experience with you allowed us to come close to these uprooted and displaced communities that are suffering from desperation and depression because of the way they are humiliated and assaulted by the strength of foreign capital, with the blessing of the Colombian state.
“Their fundamental rights have been violated. Beginning now, we as a union are proposing that just as the company has a social responsibility for the way it runs its business, our union, seeing the destruction that the Guajira communities are suffering at the hands of Cerrejón, has a moral and political responsibility.
“The company generates huge profits through the misery, poverty, and uprooting of these populations. The communities have to pay a very high price for the company’s profits.
“We are convinced that only the unity among the different peoples of the world can allow us to confront these economically powerful and inhuman multinationals in the name of the communities that have the misfortune to be located in the path of the mine’s expansion.”
Quiroz had been asked the meaning of compañero. He explained by quoting Che Guevara: “We are not friends, we are not relatives, we don’t even know each other. But if you, as I, are outraged by any act of injustice committed in the world, then we are compañeros.”
Quiroz adds, “We also now consider all of you to be our friends and our relatives. Forever united.”
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W.T. Whitney Jr.
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http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGIOR400442006
November 30, 2006
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: IOR 40/044/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 307
30 November 2006
United Nations undermining its own Human Rights Council in failing to affirm the human rights of Indigenous Peoples
Amnesty International deplores the failure of the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at its 2006 session.
The Indigenous Caucus working on the Declaration has concluded that the UN is effectively affirming that “Indigenous Peoples are not equal to all other Peoples.”
Successful efforts to block adoption of this landmark Declaration were led by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States of America, Botswana and Namibia. Most African States had chosen not to participate throughout this standard-setting process. A resolution initiated by Peru called for the adoption of the Declaration by the Third Committee, allowing it to go forward for adoption by the plenary of the General Assembly. Taking advantage of the fact that amendments are voted on first, Namibia, as a delaying tactic, successfully introduced a motion to "amend" the Peruvian resolution to call instead for "time for further consultation". Amnesty International fears that this amendment may result in an indefinite delay in adoption of the Declaration or worse, open the door to the elaboration of a weaker alternate text.
The draft Declaration, the product of more than 20 years of deliberations, fills an important gap in international human rights standards. It has been endorsed by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and has already been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. The text which is now before the General Assembly, already reflecting numerous human rights compromises, represents the best that might reasonably be achieved and must not be further weakened.
In June 2006 the new UN Human Rights Council adopted the Indigenous Declaration as one of its first substantive actions and recommended to the General Assembly that it also adopt this important Declaration. In failing to do so, the General Assembly – the parent body of the Human Rights Council – risks undermining the new human rights body in its very first year of operation. Amnesty International calls on the General Assembly to uphold the work of the Council – the body it has charged with leading on human rights questions – and to support the adoption of the Declaration without further delay.
Background
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples addresses Indigenous peoples' protection against discrimination and genocide. It reaffirms their right to maintain their unique cultural traditions and recognizes their right of self-determination, including secure access to lands and resources essential for their survival and welfare.
It is estimated that 370 million persons worldwide identify as Indigenous. The text of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was drafted by a working group of the former UN Commission on Human Rights with the participation of indigenous peoples' organizations. It was adopted at the first session of the new 47-member Human Rights Council – which has replaced the Commission on Human Rights – in June this year by a vote of 30 in favour, two against (Canada and the Russian Federation), with 11 abstentions and four states not participating in the votes.
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http://www.innercitypress.com/3rdcomm112806.html
November 28, 2006
At the UN, Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
United Nations, November 28 -- The draft declaration on the rights of indigenous people got deferred on Tuesday, in a vote of the UN General Assembly's Third Committee that pitted Namibia, other members of the African Group, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and some others against Peru and other sponsors of the declaration. The vote on deferring action was 82 for delay, 67 for action, and 25 abstaining.
Following that, Peru urged supporters of the rights declaration to abstain from approving the draft with the deferral attached. On this second vote, 83 countries supported the amended draft, and 91 countries abstained. Under UN rules, the amended draft was deemed approved.
The United States abstained for the vote to defer, a move that a Chilean representative characterized as both deft and deceptive. The U.S. had previously spoken out against the declaration, when it was debated earlier in the year at the UN.. As with most opponents, the stated reason for concern is the draft's reference to self-determination.
. In the run-up to Tuesday's vote, Inner City Press twice asked U.S. Amb. Bolton for his position on the declaration. The first time, on November 22, the response was that Ambassador Miller would speak for the U.S.. But the item was not considered that day. From the second level of Conference Room 1, even on Friday indigenous representatives and other observers began a groaning -- which would only grow louder on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, Inner City Press asked Amb. Bolton for the U.S. view. "There's a procedural vote first," Amb. Bolton said. As it turned out, there were enough votes to defer that the U.S. could afford to abstain.
Namibia's pre-vote statement argued that some provisions of the draft would violate the constitution of some African countries. Egypt's representative noted that when the draft was considered by the UN Human Rights Council, ten African nations abstained. If what followed has been dialogue, he said, it has been "the dialogue of the deaf."
After the African Group voted as a block and the resolution as proposed by Peru was deferred, groans went up from the second level of Conference Room 1, where many indigenous representatives were sitting. When one hapless staffer of an African nation's mission wandered up to the second level looking for a seat, he was met with angry stares. "Divide and conquer," someone muttered.
Indigenous on the run
The mood Tuesday in Conference Room 1, at least here, was similarly angry and disappointed as when the small arms conference failed, and Sri Lanka's representative persisted in calling it a victory. Tuesday after the votes, nations continued speechifying until the translation services stopped. A point of order was raised, that this was no longer an official meeting. From the podium it was argued that it could still be official, even if the meeting continued in only one language, English. Eventually it was decided to resume the Third Committee's business on Thursday morning.
After Tuesday's votes, Inner City Press asked the North America representative to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Wilton Littlechild, was asked what the next steps are. "Now the onus is on Africa" and the other deferrers and abstainers, he said. Immediately following the first vote, Mr.. Littlechild says he approached Namibia's representative and asked how the amenders intended to proceed. "They didn't know," Mr. Littlechild summarized. "They said they'll talk to the co-sponsors."
Mr. Littlechild also opined that the draft declaration got caught in a wider debate concerning the authority of the UN's third committee, charged with social, humanitarian and cultural matters, to review the reports of the Human Right Council.
"We'll be back in the fall with the same text," promised Mr. Littlechild. The evening after the vote, Inner City Press asked representatives of Chile and Peru is they thought the declaration will pass before September, and neither could in good conscience say yes. On the other side, Inner City Press interviewed a representative of Guinea-Bissau, who emphasized the African countries' good faith in deferring action, with the argument that with up to 200 tribes in some countries, a vaguely-defined self determination could cause problems. (Like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has caused problems, he added.)
Some opined that General Assembly President Haya Rashed Al Khalifa might have gotten involved and tried to bring the sides together, as her predecessor Jan Eliason was known to have done. But a Peruvian staffer who has worked on the draft declaration for seven years said, "Clearly, the house is divided. It is up to the African Group to come back to us proponents with some reasonable changes, and then to make sure it gets adopted before the 61st General Assembly ends in September." Developing...
Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
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http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/news/english/story/13063336p-13717492c.html
Published Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 11:45AM
No language barrier for new Project Impact
By Luz Pena / VIDA EN EL VALLE
Email=lpena@vidaenelvalle.com
FRESNO — Roosevelt High School senior Verónica Cortes, 16, saw first hand the problems English Language Learners face.
Cortes a ELL student herself deals with them on daily basis. After attending a seminar in Reedley presented by college students, Cortes and fellow classmates decided to form Project Impact. Project Impact is a club to help ELL students access information to post-secondary opportunities and awareness about resources available to them.
"After attending a session in Reedley, we came back to decide to focus on our school," said Cortes. "We started an ELL Club to help our students and to present (our concerns) to our principal, counselors, teachers, and administrators."
Members of Project Impact contacted Paul A. García, director of English Learners Services for the Fresno Unified School District. He was pleased with their ideas. García hopes other school start their own version of Project Impact.
"I think Project Impact is the voice of the Valley's English Language Learners. I was always looking for that voice, the students voice," said García. "I hope they continue this and other schools participate as well."
Project Impact meets every Thursday after school on the Roosevelt campus to discuss present issues they face in the classroom. They also plan events like 'College Nights' at Fresno Pacific University Night, which was held Nov. 13.
The College Night provided information for parents and ELL students to help them attend college. The information is given in Spanish and Hmong.
"A big issue for us is A-G university entrance requirement," said Daniela Velásquez, 17. "Students in ELL or ELD don't know that some of their courses don't count, so they are behind on their requirements."
Currently Cortes is staying after school to catch up on courses to meet the requirements, so she can attend California State University, Fresno in the fall. Cortes has a GPA of a 3.8 and Velásquez GPA of a 3.4. Velasquez will also attend Fresno State in the fall.
Cortes and Velasquez have been asked by their school principal to return the next school year as volunteer advisors to help the younger students in the club continue their vision.
"We want to help out our community. We would like other schools to start a club like ours," said Cortes. "ELL students have a voice and they should us it. We want school administrators to hear our voices."
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http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/news/sacramento/english/story/13063331p-13717495c.html
Published Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 11:45AM
Angelides, volunteers help feed the homeless
By Hector Navejas / Vida En El Valle
Email= hnavejas@vidaenelvalle.com
SACRAMENTO — A generous Thanksgiving Day arrived last Thursday at the Salvation Army shelter on B Street in downtown Sacramento when hundreds of homeless lined up in the morning cold to receive a hot meal during the annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner.
"We are celebrating Thanksgiving Day by offering a meal to people who have no home or family, and the people in transition," said Elizabeth Gutíerrez, director of the Sacramento County Social Services Department.
"We got help from various social organizations, churches, businesses and community volunteers. Yesterday, for example, students from California State University, Sacramento helped decorate the local shelter for this celebration," said Gutiérrez.
Although he was scheduled for the program, the appearance of state Treasurer Phil Angelides and his wife, Julie, provided a surprise for the participants. The couple wore an apron and went to the kitchen where they began to serve meals.
"We're here as volunteers to help those who fight day to day, those who are the most vulnerable in our community," said Angelides.
"As I have said in the past, I will not back down. I will continue in the public arena fighting against the inequality in opportunities," said Angelides, who was soundly defeated in his race for governor earlier this month.
Dozens of volunteers continuously moved throughout the shelter, carrying trays of turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables and rich desserts. Others helped accommodate the groups of people who arrived for the meal.
"Last year we fed more than 500 persons, and this year we expect to serve approximately 800 people," said Capt. John Brackenbury, Salvation Army coordinator. "More than 50 volunteers have contributed their invaluable help in all areas of this celebration."
Gumercindo Hernández, 73 and a United States resident since 1957 when he worked as a bracero, said, "I was invited by this shelter because I have no family. I feel it's a good thing for all these people who don't have a place to live."
He added, "The food is very good and it's a blessing to celebrate Thanksgiving Day in this manner."
Bobby López, a volunteer and shelter client who wiped perspiration from his face while taking a break, said, "One feels good to help and be helped, because I believe the best is when we help each other not only on this day from everyday."
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Bobby Lopez
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http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/immig1206/k5d3i427mx3wb?
Tell the new Democratic Congress & President Bush: Now is the time for immigration reform!
Just when it seemed like comprehensive immigration reform had little chance of passing because of opposition from Republican lawmakers, the Nov. 7 Democratic congressional victory has breathed new life into this vital issue. Please e-mail President Bush, soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi and Majority leader Reid. Tell them it’s now time for more than talk. We need an immediate solution to this problem for which millions have marched and advocated.
The solution needs to include a clear path to earned legalization for undocumented immigrants who are living and contributing to the U.S. economy. Tell them to make the United Farm Workers-sponsored AgJobs bill (S. 359, H.R. 884) the law for farm workers, and adopt similar principles for comprehensive immigration reform. This bipartisan bill--negotiated by the UFW and the nation’s agricultural industry--would let undocumented farm workers earn the right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture.
Please send your e-mail today and tell them: Enough talk, it’s time for change.
Subject:
Dear [ Decision Maker ],
(Edit Letter Below)
When the new Congress takes office, please honor the American people's vote for change by immediately dealing with the important issue of genuine immigration reform.
Everyone agrees our immigration system is broken. Millions have marched and expressed their voices over the growing concern of immigration reform. The solution needs to include a clear path to earned legalization for undocumented immigrants who are living and contributing to the U.S. economy.
Please make the United Farm Workers-sponsored AgJobs bill (S. 359, H.R. 884) the law for farm workers, and apply similar principles for comprehensive immigration reform.
The bipartisan AgJobs measure--negotiated by the UFW and the nation's agricultural industry--would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture.
We urge you to move from words to actions. It is time for genuine comprehensive immigration reform.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address] Take Action on this Issue
Send this message to:
President George W. Bush
Representative Nancy Pelosi
Senator Harry Reid
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http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/immig1206/k5d3i427mx3wb?
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http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/chavezholiday?qp_source=web
Sign the Petition for a National
Cesar E. Chavez Holiday!
The United Farm Workers and the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation are proud to support the grassroots efforts of the Cesar E. Chavez National Holiday Coalition.
Cesar was in Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s words, "one of the heroic figures of our time." He led the historic non-violent movement for farm worker rights and dedicated himself to building a movement of poor working people that extended beyond the fields and into cities and towns across the nation.
He inspired farm workers and millions of people who never worked on a farm to commit themselves to social, economic and civil rights activism. Cesar’s legacy, like the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., continues to educate, inspire and empower people from all walks of life. He is a role model for all Americans and for generations to come.
Please help us ensure all Americans learn about Cesar’s life and work. The Cesar Chavez National Holiday Coalition is gathering signatures on petitions asking Congress to designate March 31, Cesar’s birthday and the day the UFW was founded, as Cesar Chavez Day. Sign the petition today. Help ensure Cesar's legacy is recognized and celebrated throughout our nation with a federal paid holiday and a day of service and learning in our public schools.
Full Petition Text:
Petition to President Bush and members of the U.S. Congress
I call on the U.S. Congress to establish an official federal paid holiday in honor of Cesar E. Chavez, the late president of the United Farm Workers, on his birthday, March 31. This should include a Cesar Chavez day of service-learning and community action.
Signed by:
[Your name]
[Your address]
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http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/chavezholiday?qp_source=web
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Liberation Now!!
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Email= sacranative@yahoo.com
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
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