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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122801417.html
Friday, December 29, 2006; Page B04
Washington D.C.: THE INCOMING ADMINISTRATION
Many of Williams's Officials Will Serve Fenty -- Temporarily
By Elissa Silverman / Washington Post Staff Writer
Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty named 15 members to his Cabinet yesterday, although a majority are interim appointees not likely to be sent to the D.C. Council for permanent consideration.
At a morning news briefing, Fenty (D) defended his decision to retain many agency directors and other high-ranking officials of the administration of Anthony A. Williams (D) when he takes over the D.C. government Jan. 2.
All but two of Adrian M. Fenty's appointees named yesterday currently work in city government. (Gerald Martineau - The Washington Post)
He cautioned against a throw-the-bums-out approach. "Sometimes when you knee-jerk look outside the city as the first approach, the city suffers for that," said Fenty, who has traveled across the country to meet with big-city mayors and their top staffs.
During his 18-month campaign for the job, Fenty stressed that he would bring new blood and energy to local government. All but two appointees named yesterday currently work in city government.
"If we just threw out everybody, then I wouldn't be able to come," said Fenty, who for six years was the Ward 4 council member.
Fenty plans to make Harriet Tregoning the director of the Office of Planning, replacing Ellen McCarthy. Tregoning is a former Maryland state planning secretary who is executive director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, an offshoot of Smart Growth America, a nonprofit group that advocates high-density development clustered near Metrorail stations and other transit centers.
Lisa Marie Morgan, who formerly worked in the Office of the City Administrator before establishing a consulting firm that contracted with the D.C. government, was named interim director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
Directors of departments keeping their jobs are Stephen T. Baron at Mental Health, Gregg A. Pane at Health and Thomas E. Hampton at Insurance, Securities and Banking.
Patrick J. Canavan, who is director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, will become chief operating officer at St. Elizabeths Hospital. Canavan is a licensed clinical psychologist who formerly worked at the psychiatric facility before taking other positions in the Williams administration.
Those now serving as interim directors who will remain in place are Kelly Valentine at Risk Management, Brian L. Wilbon at Human Services and Uma Ahluwalia at Child and Family Services.
D.C. law allows interim directors to stay in place for six months, Fenty said.
Some interim directors are coming from other positions in District government:
Gustavo F. Velasquez, currently head of the Office of Latino Affairs, will move to the Office of Human Rights; Wanda S. Durden switches from chief of staff in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer to Parks and Recreation; Soohyun "Julie" Koo will get a promotion from deputy director of the Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs; Mercedes Lemp will move up at the Office on Latino Affairs; Corey R. Buffo shifts from general counsel to the Department of the Environment; and Oscar S. Rodriguez will go from the city administrator's office to the Office of Contracting and Procurement.
Fenty said Rodriguez will not remain in place beyond six months because he does not have the requisite years of procurement experience.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_4916293
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Article Launched: 12/29/2006 12:00:00 AM MST
Grant helps hundreds in science, math at UTEP
By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times
Email= emolina@elpasotimes.com ; 546-6132.
UTEP junior Claudia Diaz was expecting to be considered only for the traditional Pell Grant and student loans when she received a financial aid notice earlier this year. Instead, the biology major was surprised to find she had received one of the new $4,000 annual National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grants.
"It was great," said Diaz, 21. "It helps me out a lot. It's paying for practically everything: tuition, books, all the things I need for school."
The grant, along with the Academic Competitiveness Grant, was approved by President Bush earlier this year. The grants are intended to encourage college students to pursue majors such as science, math, technology and languages, as well as to promote high-school enrollment in more-challenging courses.
The SMART Grant is designated for third- and fourth-year students enrolled in designated high-demand majors, who are U.S. citizens, full-time students and maintaining a grade point average of at least 3.0.
The Academic Competitiveness Grant is available to freshmen and sophomores who are U.S. citizens with grade point averages of at least 3.0 who also take a "rigorous high school program of study." It awards students up to $750 their first year and $1,300 their second year.
At the University of Texas at El Paso, about 250 students have received SMART Grants totaling about $792,000. UTEP students have also received about 700 Academic Competitiveness Grants.
"I've been very pleased with how quickly we've ramped this program up," said UTEP President Diana Natalicio. "Many universities have been complaining about the complexity."
Among the challenges that have been reported at other institutions are finding students who qualify for the grants' requirements. The Pell Grant, most commonly awarded to college undergraduates, is given simply on a need basis.
Natalicio said the grants, particularly the SMART Grant, complement UTEP very well.
"It's a terrific match," she said. "We have many students who are Pell eligible, we have strong programs in science and engineering, and we have a commitment institutionally to increase the number of students in science and engineering."
Raul Lerma, UTEP's director of student financial aid, said the university has been working to make sure students who qualify for the SMART Grant are identified.
"We are one of the first schools in Texas that started awarding it," he said.
Lerma said a new question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid will make identifying eligible students easier.
"Students who maybe never considered applying for financial aid may apply," he said. "If you were enrolled this semester, we can make it retroactive."
He added that the grant's two-year limit might encourage some students to finish more quickly.
Natalicio said the SMART Grant is unique because it helps students who are further into their academic careers.
"This gives us a way of recognizing the progress and achievements of students who have been at UTEP and performing well," she said. "I'm very pleased that this program was established. ... It creates a pathway for talented students to pursue degrees in science and engineering."
Learn more=
To apply for the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant or Academic Competitiveness Grant, students should first fill out the Free"Application for Federal Student Aid. For information call the UTEP financial aid office at 747-5204.
Visit www.fafsa.ed.gov to apply.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6215857.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 29 December 2006, 01:01 GMT
Argentine 'death squad' man held
Mr Almiron is alleged to have carried out many killings personally
A former police officer who is alleged to have been a leader of a far-right death squad in Argentina during the 1970s has been arrested in Spain.
Rodolfo Almiron was detained near Valencia on a warrant to face murder charges in Argentina. He is a suspected member of Triple A, the anti-communist alliance that operated under the governments of Juan Peron and then his widow Isabel. The group is blamed for the killings of 1,500 perceived government opponents.
The BBC's Daniel Schweimler says any mention of the Triple A still strikes terror into the hearts of many Argentinians today.
'Escaping his past'
The group is held responsible for killing at least 1,500 perceived left-wing opponents of the government of Juan Peron and when he died in 1974, that of his widow Isabel who was toppled by Jorge Videla in a 1976 coup.
Rodolfo Almiron, said to be one of the leaders of Triple A, is alleged to have carried out many of the killings personally. He fled to Spain in 1975 in the midst of chaos in Argentina, with left-wing factions battling against the right, the police and the armed forces.
The military took power shortly afterwards, ostensibly to restore order but imposing their own form of terror, killing at least 30,000 people over the next seven years.
Rodolfo Almiron, 71, thought he had escaped his past, living the last 30 years in comfort in Spain, our correspondent says. However, last week a judge in Argentina ruled that the crimes which he has been accused of do not fall under any statute of limitations and therefore he could be tried. Mr Almiron is expected to be transferred to Madrid's National Court in the next few days to start extradition proceedings, police said.
The arrest came as Argentina asked Spain to extradite a key figure in the military government.
Gen Ricardo Miguel Cavallo has been held in Madrid on charges of crimes against humanity for the past three years, but the high court decided last week it had no jurisdiction over him.
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Related Link=
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1192478.stm
Last Updated: Saturday, 9 December 2006, 11:32 GMT
Country profile: Argentina
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1229evcopcars1229new.html
Dec. 29, 2006 @12:00 AM
Mesa police double up for patrols
Senta Scarborough / The Arizona Republic
Mesa police are teaming up two in a patrol car as part of a pilot project aimed at increasing officer safety and maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.
Since mid-November, two-person patrol cars have been operating in two of the city's most densely populated areas during the graveyard shifts from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., when most violent crimes occur.
Valley officers primarily ride solo, except during specialty units or field training. Larger agencies, such as those in Los Angeles and New York, almost exclusively use two-officer patrol units. Phoenix changed to two-officer units for a time to increase safety after Officer Mark Atkinson died in an ambush in March 1999. advertisement
Mesa police Lt. Frank Hoglund, who is overseeing the 90-day pilot program in the Central District, says it helps both officers and citizens.
"Citizens get better service," he said. "If we are out on the streets more and take less time to book people into jail and do paperwork, then we are out in their neighborhoods stopping people."
Officers handle the same duties. The only difference is that they ride in pairs. On many of the calls, a second officer is automatically sent for backup for things such as loud parties and family fights. Officers can take action more quickly, do not have to wait and have more options to use less than lethal force when dealing with a threat.
One of the drawbacks is decreased visibility on the streets because of fewer cars, but officers riding in two-officer units say they have seen benefits.
Central patrol Officer Edward Bridges, a three-year veteran, said he has learned new ways to handle calls from more experienced officers.
"You can see how they do things and learn different ways of doing things," Bridges said.
Two-officer patrol cars are safer not only for officers, but also for violators and the public, police say.
With two police officers, one makes contact while the other provides cover and checks the surroundings. They also can head into higher-crime areas to search for criminal activity.
"The city changes into a whole different place at night," Officer Bruce Root said. "When you are alone, your face is in the computer, running plates or concentrating on the task of driving. Burglars and criminals' best friend is the cloak of darkness and with another set of eyes you can find a lot more things."
Officers in the Central District said they have recorded increases in criminal complaints, felony and misdemeanor adult arrests, juvenile misdemeanor arrests and officer-initiated activity.
By splitting up duties of writing a report, booking a suspect and entering evidence, they are clearing cases and getting back on the streets faster.
Officers said having two officers defuses what could be more dangerous situations and deters suspects from fleeing or fighting. The move is also saving money.
Overtime report writing in October has dropped from an average of 66 hours a week when officers were required to finish reports at the end of shifts to about 25 hours in November.
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http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/articles/2006/12/26/news/features/feature2.txt
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Blanket of faith: Red Cross helps preschoolers
By Carol Broeder/Arizona Range News
The American Red Cross delivered nearly 200 blankets last Wednesday to Willcox-area kids living without heat.
Volunteers from the Southern Arizona Chapter provided blankets to more than 45 families with at least 60 children in the Chicanos Por La Causa Head Start program.
The World Care organization supplied 120 of the blankets for the effort, said Amanda Thomas, administrative and public relations assistant with the Red Cross.
Late in the afternoon on Monday, Dec. 18, Red Cross volunteers received a request for services from Jeannine Sims, a HUB Coordinator with the Head Start organization in Phoenix.
Fillmore said that many of the children in the local program were coming to school sick and tired.
Upon further investigation, it was found that the students were living in homes without heat.
"We talked about it yesterday, and Jeannine remembered that the Red Cross had blankets," said Robert Fillmore, Center Service Manager for the Chicanos Head Start in Willcox.
The National Weather Service in Tucson had already predicted a low of 17 degrees in the Willcox area Wednesday night.
Red Cross volunteers Mary and George Allen delivered the blankets to Head Start, who helped to distribute them.
The Allens also hand delivered some of the blankets to a few families in the Winchester Estates area, known locally as Perra Flaca, about 15 miles north of Willcox.
Thomas said that Red Cross donations are down by 50 percent, while their disaster response calls have increased 300 percent over this time last year.
If you would like to donate to the American Red Cross, call (520) 318-6740.
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http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/24hour/politics/story/3458064p-12668758c.html
Published Thursday, December 28th, 2006 @08:16PM)
Court restores inmates' voting rights
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A state appeals court is restoring the voting rights of about 100,000 local jail inmates across the state who are serving a year or less for felony convictions.
The state said it would not appeal the decision from the 1st District Court of Appeal. The affected inmates were eligible to vote until last year, when the state disenfranchised them.
For three decades, California's secretary of state had interpreted that the state Constitution barred voting by those in state prisons and those on parole.
The appeals court said in it's decision last week that the state wrongly changed the policy last year to include people convicted of felonies but sentenced to a year or less in a local county jail.
The League of Women Voters brought the case on behalf of three San Francisco County jail inmates.
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1228disabled-ON.html
Dec. 28, 2006 08:45 PM
Disabled may lose jobs over new minimum wage law
Katie Nelson / The Arizona Republic
Steffi Edwards came home crying last week. She had overheard the news that she and nearly 100 other disabled workers will be laid off Friday."It was heart wrenching to see," said Bill Edwards, the 20-year-old Tempe woman's father.
Steffi Edwards is one of the Centers for Habilitation's employees whose hourly wage is based on a federal law that allows a lower pay scale to reflect a disabled worker's reduced ability. But Arizona's new voter-approved minimum-wage law, which goes into effect Jan.1, neglected to include an exemption for disabled workers and supersedes the federal laws.
As a result, some 75 employees at TCH's Tempe job center will, at least temporarily, lose their jobs. So will about 25 employees in Tucson.
"I'm really brokenhearted," said Edwards, who works three or four days a week and uses a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. "It gets me really emotional. This is my first paying job, and I love it."
The Tempe-based organization assists 900 adults and children with disabilities through employment, job training, housing and social services. The 39-year-old non-profit is one of the oldest and most well-regarded in the city. A former police chief and a current councilman sit on the TCH board. Tempe's mayor is leading an ongoing fund-raising campaign.
But even that couldn't spare its leaders from a tough decision. They chose layoffs, despite advice that came out Tuesdayfrom the agency in charge of enforcing the state's new minimum-wage laws. Larry Etchechury, director of the state Industrial Commission, encouraged employers of disabled workers to stick to their current routines until the state finds a remedy, possibly by early February.
If the law remains as is, industry experts say almost 5,000 Arizonans with disabilities will lose their jobs.
But Etchechury criticized TCH's decision.
"Quite frankly, that is shortsighted," Etchechury said. "We have to look past the money and to the needs of the people. I don't think there is any entity that would essentially hold someone accountable when clearly the regulating agency is saying we don't know."
Yet, that isn't enough to quell fears at TCH. The group could be fined for not following the rules, leaders there said.
"TCH has never willfully broken the law and they can't and won't at this point in time," said Vicki Kringen, the agency's vice president and CFO.
Also, paying the full $6.75 per hour for all TCH workers would cost an extra $425,000 a year.
The group can't afford it, said Dave Cutty, TCH president and CEO. Plus, he said, it doesn't make sense because the employees work at an average 35percent productivity compared to someone who is not disabled.
Tom Lambke's son, Bryan, works at the Tempe job center doing jobs like sorting papers, folding towels and compiling spice packets. Although Tom empathized with TCH's situation, he said the fallout is hard to watch.
"The hardest part is the unknown, the future," he said. "This is a place where we know he is going to be safe and still make a living and be socially active. Its very important to us he isn't at home alone watching TV, listening to the radio."
Others had similar sentiments.
"I've got a lot of friends here and the work is great," Edwards said. "It would tear me apart to leave."
Despite the emotion, Edwards is one of the lucky ones, TCH leaders say. She understands her employment future is uncertain. Many of her co-workers have physical and mental disabilities that keep them from comprehending.
Those are the same disabilities that bar them from finding other employment, said Sarah Bruner, a Tempe nurse whose 39-year-old sister, Beth Bruner, is a TCH employee.
Sarah said the TCH job gives Beth, who has cerebral palsy, a sense of independence and intellectual stimulus. Losing the job would be "devastating."
Sarah also worries about what will happen if the law remains as is and her sister is paid $6.75 an hour. That, Sarah said, would bring Beth to an income level that could jeopardize the family's access to care, travel assistance, health care and even prescription drug coverage.
"Would I have to quit my position as a nurse so I know she's taken care of?" Sarah said. "Talk about unintended consequences. This has implications like I couldn't even imagine when I checked that 'yes' box when I voted."
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http://news.monstersandcritics.com/energywatch/features/article_1237450.php/2006_Review_Bolivia_Venezuela_reshuffle_Latin_America_energy_sector
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Dec 28, 2006, 12:37 GMT
2006 Review: Bolivia, Venezuela reshuffle Latin America energy sector
By Veronica Sardon
Buenos Aires - The energy sector in Latin America was profoundly affected in 2006 by Bolivia's low-scale nationalization of its oil and natural gas resources, triggering readjustments for months in the region's economic and diplomatic relations.
Bolivia has the region's second-largest natural gas reserves after oil-rich Venezuela, and neighbouring Brazil - the 10th largest economy in the world - relies very heavily on Bolivian gas.
Yet Brazil also expressed its position as the region's superpower by demonstrating an upper-hand attitude to Bolivia similar to the one it complains of being victimized by in the US-Brazil relationship.
Bolivia's left-wing populist Evo Morales was inaugurated in January, with a pledge to generate greater income from the country's energy resources and use it to fight poverty, which affects 64 per cent of Bolivians.
On May 1, Morales took most people by surprise as he announced the 'nationalization' and gave transnational companies active in the Andean country 180 days to renegotiate contracts.
'The long-awaited time has come, the long-awaited day, a historic day for Bolivia to resume absolute control over its natural resources,' Morales said.
In fact, the 'nationalization' was not technically such - since it implied no actual confiscation of resources or facilities by the state. But it did imply substantial changes in the conditions of exploitation.
The new framework required all extracting companies to allow Bolivian state company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to market their entire production. Bolivia set out to claim 60 per cent of the energy proceeds - an amount that even Bolivian officials conceded was one of the highest energy-extraction taxes in the world.
The move unleashed a wave of complex negotiations across Latin America, and the initial reaction from oil companies and foreign governments alike was of deep worry.
The Brazilian state company Petrobras - responsible for over 40 per cent of the energy production in neighbouring Bolivia - was particularly shaken by Morales' decision, which caused a fair amount of tension between his government and that of his fellow-leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil's Petrobras claimed it had special rights because of its high levels of investment in Bolivia, equivalent to about 20 poer cent of Bolivia's total of direct foreign investments. It said that its overall economic contribution to Bolivia's economy was 18 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
But Brazil is equally dependent on Bolivia, drawing 25 million cubic metres of natural gas daily from Bolivia, about half the requirements of the largest economy in Latin America. Thus both sides were forced to reach an agreement.
'I have told President Evo Morales: 'Evo, you cannot put a sword over the head of Brazil because you supply gas, because we can put a sword over your head too, since we buy your gas. And if you do not sell it to us, it will be very difficult for you to sell it to anyone,'' Lula said graphically in September.
In this context, Petrobras - and the remaining nine foreign firms affected by the changes, including Spain's Repsol-YPF, Britain's BG, France's Total and the US-based Vintage - all signed new contracts with the Bolivian authorities hours before the deadline.
In parallel events, Argentina accepted in late June a 47 per cent rise in the price on its natural gas imports from Bolivia, obtaining in return an increase in the amount of gas imported.
However, Argenina is taxing its own energy exports and re-exports more heavily to Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, in an effort to compensate on its domestic market for Bolivia's increased prices.
The vital Chilean mining industries of copper and other metals relies heavily on gas imports, as do residential consumers and electrical plants, and bilateral relations with Bolivia were marked by the issue throughout 2006.
The so-called nationalization raised fears that Bolivia might take similar measures in its substangial mineral resources such as tin, iron and manganese - and that other countries might follow suit. Oil-rich Ecuador terminated in May its contract with US oil firm Occidental - until then the largest foreign investor in the Andean country, with a 20-year presence.
While the southern part of the region struggled to solve such immediate energy problems, Venezuela - the fifth largest crude oil exporter in the world - headed regional initiatives to look to the future.
Caracas, Buenos Aires and Brasilia agreed to move forward towards the 8,000-kilometre-long Gasoducto del Sur, an ambitious project which contemplates the construction of a natural gas pipeline that links Venezuela and Argentina, via Brazil, and also allows the supply of Venezuelan natural gas to Chile and Uruguay. It is estimated to cost is 20-25 billion dollars and to be built 2009-2017.
However, despite the insistence of the heads of state in the importance of the plan, Petrobras president Jose Sergio Gabrielli stressed in an interview earlier this year that the project 'must face many challenges - regulatory, environmental, technological and social.'
At the other end of the region, the Colombian-Venezuelan Pipeline appears more feasible, at least at this stage, and construction formally started in July. The 220-kilometre project linking eastern Venezuela and Colombia is scheduled to be completed in two years, at a cost of 230 million dollars which will be covered by Caracas.
Chavez has expressed a wish to see the pipeline extended to Panama and Central America in the future, and the project also foresees the possible construction of another pipeline from Venezuela to Colombia's Pacific Coast, in order to facilitate the export of oil to Asian countries.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by http://www.monstersandcritics.com/
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/argentina_missing_witness
Thursday, December 28, 2006
2 witnesses missing in Argentina trial
By DEBORA REY, Associated Press Writer
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A key witness in the trial of an ex-officer charged with torture during Argentina's military dictatorship has gone missing, officials said Thursday.
It is the second time in three months that a witness has disappeared during a human rights case stemming from the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Luis Angel Gerez, 50, who said he was tortured by retired police chief Luis Abelardo Patti in 1972, was last seen leaving a friend's home Wednesday night in the town of Escobar, just north of the capital of Buenos Aires, the public security department said in a statement.
In testimony before a congressional committee earlier this year, Gerez said he had been arrested and given electric shocks. He said that although he was blindfolded, he recognized Patti's voice as one of his torturers.
Patti, who is free while on trial, was prevented from assuming a congressional seat he won in October 2005 because of the accusations. He denied any connection to Gerez's disappearance, calling it "a very serious situation."
In September, Julio Lopez, whose testimony was instrumental in sentencing former police chief Miguel Etchecolatz to life in prison earlier this year for the disappearance of six people during the dictatorship, went missing and hasn't been found.
Some 13,000 people are officially reported as dead or missing from the Dirty War of the dictatorship era, in which prosecutors say military rulers waged a systematic crackdown with their police allies on leftists and other political foes.
Human rights groups say the death toll is closer to 30,000 people.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_us_extraditions
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Thursday, December 28, 2006
U.S. praises Mexico for extraditions
MEXICO CITY - U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza praised Mexico on Thursday for extraditing what he called "a record number" of fugitives to the United States in 2006, noting that Mexico sent 63 suspects north to face justice.
Extraditing fugitives to the United States remains a sensitive issue. Mexico only recently began extraditing people facing a possible life sentences and refuses to extradite those facing possible death sentences.
"This is the highest ever number of extraditions in a year from Mexico to the United States and demonstrates our countries' common commitment to bringing criminals to justice," Garza said in a statement.
In the whole of 2005, Mexico extradited 41 suspected criminals to the United States, up from 34 in 2004, 31 in 2003, 25 in 2002, 17 in 2001, and 12 in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In late 2005, Mexico's Supreme Court overturned a 4-year ban on the extradition of suspects facing life in prison.
Capital punishment is illegal here, and a 1978 treaty with the United States allows Mexico to deny extradition if the suspect could be executed.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/world/americas/28oaxaca.html?em&ex=1167454800&en=8a6b55ce81a5b269&ei=5087%0A
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Published: December 28, 2006
Oaxaca Journal
Painting Over Signs of Strife to Tidy Up for the Tourists
Eros Hoagland for The New York Times
Graffiti painted by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca demands the resignation of Ulises Ruiz, the governor of the state.
By MARC LACEY
OAXACA, Mexico, Dec. 21 — There is a new smell in the air here, competing with the aroma of mole sauce that routinely wafts through Oaxaca. It is the smell of paint fumes.
Protests are as much a part of the culture of Oaxaca as its cuisine.
Work crews are everywhere, retouching the colonial facades that give Oaxaca its charm and draw tens of thousands of visitors a year. But in this politically charged city in southern Mexico, where protesting is as much a part of the culture as the distinctive cuisine, even the cleanup is causing arguments.
Just weeks ago, Oaxaca was a wreck. Graffiti marred its buildings. Burned-out vehicles blocked its roads. Angry protesters confronted riot-equipped police officers around the charming central square.
The protests, which began with teachers seeking a pay raise but grew to include an array of leftist groups and indigenous organizations, are continuing sporadically, but officials have begun trying to scrub away the evidence of what occurred.
Not everybody agrees on the best approach.
Carlos Melgoza, director of the Institute for Cultural Patrimony of Oaxaca, which is responsible for sprucing up 482 blocks and 21 memorials in the city, intends to use high-pressure machines to spray sand onto limestone facades to grind away the painted slogans.
But Rafael Bergara, who helped in the effort to persuade the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to designate Oaxaca as a world cultural site in 1987, has argued in the local press that such an approach could do more harm than good and end up permanently damaging the structures.
Cost estimates are also at odds. The National Institute of Anthropology and History put the damage at $30 million. The Institute for Cultural Patrimony of Oaxaca says the cost of repairs will be less than a third of that. Estimates from other experts similarly vary widely.
Such back-and-forth is nothing new in Oaxaca, where historic preservation is a topic close to many hearts. When McDonald’s planned a restaurant in the central square some years back, Oaxacans took to the streets to keep the burger joint out. Some residents still resent the conversion of a 16th-century monastery into a luxury hotel.
“There’s always a debate about everything in Oaxaca,” said Jorge A. Bueno Sánchez, director of the botanical garden. He noted that Oaxaca, which is on an earthquake fault and has had quake damage at various times over the years, has experience remaking itself. “We’re used to starting again,” he said.
At the height of the protests, which began in the summer, Oaxaca was a shabby version of its former self. The slogans painted on surfaces everywhere shouted “Assassin!” and “Get Out, Ulises!” among other things.
Put up by followers of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, a loose coalition of protest groups, the messages were aimed at Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom many Oaxacans accused of engaging in heavyhanded tactics in breaking up a teachers’ strike in June and ignoring the people of the state.
The protesters have not changed their demand that Mr. Ruiz resign, but the authorities have rounded up many top leaders of the protest coalition. The federal police, who took back the center of the city from protesters in October, ceded control of Oaxaca back to state law enforcement officials this month.
The protesters say they have not given up, but the painting and scrubbing continues.
Private companies have adopted blocks around the central square and have begun repainting buildings there in their vivid blues, reds and yellows. Some of the graffiti is proving hard to wipe out, though.
The giant “666,” the apocalyptic biblical reference that someone scrawled on the front door of the 16th-century Santo Domingo Church, is still visible. Burn marks on some of the limestone outside the church, and in other parts of the city, are reminders of the bonfires that lit the evening air during the protests. Windows remain smashed, including those on the American Consulate here.
Still, Francisco Toledo, a noted Mexican artist who pours much of his wealth into buying up historical properties and preserving them, said the damage that protesters had left was not as bad as that committed by skateboarders who wore down the limestone with their boards, and drunks who threw bottles at historic artifacts.
“The city was not well taken care of before this,” Mr. Toledo said. “Now it’s worse.”
Claudia López Morales, an architect active in restoring Oaxaca’s historical structures, is philosophical about the effects of the protests that remain visible. “Some of this damage will always be visible, and maybe that’s not bad,” she said. “What happened is part of our history.”
As she walks the cobblestone streets of Oaxaca, she said, she feels a mix of emotions. “There’s more damage to the heart of this city than to the buildings,” she said. “We can paint everything, but how do we repair our heart?”
Mr. Ruiz, in a recent speech, spoke of his desire to reconcile with the protesters and salve the wounds of the community. “We want a new Oaxaca,” he said. But many saw that as just talk and said that they were not buying it.
Jesús Sánchez Alonso, an economics professor at the Oaxacan Technological Institute who sympathizes with the protesters, says the real cleanup that Oaxaca needs is of its corrupt and arrogant politicians.
“The government doesn’t want to change things,” he said. “They want to paint. They want cosmetic changes.”
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_us_3
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Reid seeks better U.S.-Bolivia relations
By DAN KEANE, Associated Press Writer
LA PAZ, Bolivia - A delegation of six U.S. senators led by incoming Majority Leader Harry Reid met Thursday with Bolivian President Evo Morales, seeking to smooth relations with the South American country's left-leaning government.
Relations have been tense since Morales' election a year ago, with the U.S. wary of his friendship with Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Morales has been critical of U.S. attempts to eradicate coca in the region.
Reid said the United States must pay more attention to Latin America, blaming the region's recent populist shift in part on U.S. neglect.
"I believe that the U.S. needs to be heavily involved in Latin America, and we're not," Reid told The Associated Press after what he called a "long, intense conversation" with Morales. "I believe that Bolivia is looking for help, and I think we can be an agent for help."
At a news conference earlier, Reid said it was not an accident that he chose Bolivia as the first country to visit as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress in the wake of last month's elections.
"We're here as Democrats and Republicans to help North America appreciate the potential of this mighty little country," he said.
The Nevada Democrat later praised Morales' "magnetic personality," saying he "could be, if things work out right, the best leader this country ever had."
But the senator cautioned that Morales' sweeping populist reforms must leave Bolivia's democracy intact. "The one thing we're going to do is make sure that this is democratic government," he told the AP.
Earlier, Sen. Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, told reporters in fluent Spanish that the visit "signals a different direction" for U.S.-Bolivian relations.
"I believe all of us want the same thing, to help lift up the people of Latin America so that they can achieve the human dignity they deserve," Salazar said.
Like Chavez, Morales has railed against U.S. foreign policy and occasionally accused the Bush administration of plotting to overthrow his government or even assassinate him.
But he also sent Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera to Washington twice to negotiate an extension of a key trade agreement with the U.S. — which President Bush himself eventually backed and Congress passed earlier this month.
Morales announced earlier this month that he would seek to significantly expand the area for the legal cultivation of coca, which is commonly used in Bolivia as a mild stimulant but also is processed into cocaine.
The announcement drew sharp criticism from Washington, which has strenuously objected to any increase in coca production. The two nations, however, signed an agreement guaranteeing $34 million in U.S. anti-narcotics aid for next year.
After meeting with U.S. and Bolivian officials, Reid said the Andean country was "moving forward" in its fight against drug trafficking.
The six-member delegation travels next to Ecuador where it will meet Saturday with President-elect Rafael Correa, another U.S. critic and Chavez ally who has said he will not sign a free trade agreement with Washington. Correa has also recently criticized U.S. backed fumigation of coca crops in Colombia along the border with Ecuador.
The senators will then travel to Peru for talks with center-left Peruvian President Alan Garcia.
Joining Reid and Salazar are incoming Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record), D-ND; Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H.; and Sen. Robert Bennett (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061228/wl_nm/brazil_crime_attacks_dc_2
Thu Dec 28, 9:34 AM ET
Wave of gang attacks in Rio kills 18 people
By Rodrigo Gaier and Andrei Khalip
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - At least 18 people were killed in gang attacks on buses and police posts in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, a state official said, as the Brazilian city fills up with tourists for New Year celebrations.
Seven of the people were burned to death on a bus and nearly two dozen were wounded in the violence, which was similar to a wave of bloodshed that hit the business capital Sao Paulo earlier this year on orders from a powerful prison-based gang.
Rio state public security secretary Roberto Precioso blamed drug gangs and their jailed kingpins for 12 attacks across the oceanside city.
"It's an act against changes in the penitentiary administration," he told a news conference.
The attacks came as Rio prepared for its spectacular New Year's Eve beach party, which draws huge crowds of tourists. More than 2 million people are expected to flock to Ipanema and Copacabana beaches where performers including U.S. hip-hop band Black Eyed Peas will take part in a globally-broadcast show.
Preciosa said police had occupied 10 slums, which are controlled by drug gangs, and reinforced patrols.
"The result (of the attacks) was tragic. If it had not been for police action it could have been worse," Precioso said.
Police killed seven suspected attackers and arrested three. Two officers had been killed, he said.
Firefighters said they found seven charred bodies inside a bus that was torched on the busy Avenida Brasil thoroughfare by attackers. Three suspects were arrested, police said.
Unidentified assailants sprayed a police post with bullets in the beachside neighborhood of Botafogo, killing a street vendor. One officer was killed in an attack in wealthy Barra da Tijuca district and another near Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
Three buses and a police post were torched in the Bangu area on the outskirts.
Over 200 people were killed in Sao Paulo after a powerful prison gang, known as the First Command of the Capital (PCC), ordered attacks on public targets in May. Police retaliated in violence that continued into July. The gang was protesting against transfers of ringleaders to tighter security prisons.
Rio police are notorious for tough tactics and their retaliation could be harder. Police kill over a 1,000 suspects per year in Rio, more than in some war zones, and human rights groups accuse police of summary executions.
The PCC is not active in Rio, but some of the city's drug gangs have links to it, police say.
Rio has a murder rate of around 40 per 100,000 people, which is one of the world's highest, and crime is rampant. Last March, army troops were sent into the slums, or favelas, in a crackdown on drugs gangs.
Municipal tourism secretary Rubem Medina told Reuters the attacks would further hurt Rio's image. Apart from its famed Carnival in February, the city will host the Pan-American Games next July.
"It's such a shame that we are working so hard to show the positive sides of our city and this act damages it all," Medina said. "It is lamentable, sad," he said.
He expected 550,000 tourists for the New Year's bash.
Earlier this month, police arrested about 80 fellow officers for links with organized crime and involvement in drugs and arms sales in the state's most high-profile attempt yet to stamp out police corruption.
(Additional reporting by Pedro Fonseca and Sergio Moraes)
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_media
Thu Dec 28, 20060@9:25 PM ET
Venezuela won't renew RCTV's license
By JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela will not renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station when it expires next year, President Hugo Chavez said Thursday, accusing the broadcaster of backing plots to topple him.
"There will be no new concession for that coup-plotting television channel named Radio Caracas Television," Chavez said in a year-end speech to troops.
But the head of the station, Marcel Granier, said the channel had a legal right to continue broadcasting under its current license for many years.
If Chavez "was serious, I think he's badly informed," Granier said.
"There is a lot of confusion among officials who have been threatening Radio Caracas Television, and that confusion is transmitted to the president," he told Globovision television. "The only thing that is clear is the desire to intimidate, to threaten."
Chavez, who was re-elected by a wide margin Dec. 3, has warned repeatedly that the government could deny broadcast licenses to media outlets accused of conspiring against him.
RCTV, as the station is known, is among several private Venezuelan media outlets that supported a devastating 2003 strike that failed to unseat Chavez.
The station, which has more than 2,000 employees, is one of the country's oldest channels and began broadcasting in 1953.
The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern the government appears to be targeting RCTV for political reasons.
Chavez, a former paratroop commander closely allied with Cuba's Fidel Castro, has repeatedly clashed with the private media but has said he respects press freedoms.
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http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=7778&cha=12
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Thursday, December 28, 2006
Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) Announces Technology and Small Business Advocate Award Recipient for 2007
The Honorable Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion has been chosen for his Dedication to the Latino SMB and the Latino Technology Community
Download this press release as an PDF document.
http://www.hispanicprwire.com/generarnews.php?l=in&id=7778&cha=12
New York, NY--(HISPANIC PR WIRE)--December 28, 2006--Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) announced today that The Honorable Adolfo Carrion Bronx Borough President is the recipient of the Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) 3rd Annual Business and Technology Government Advocate Award for his continuous effort to assist SMB and technology business in the Hispanic community, he will be presented this award at LISTA Three Kings Day Fiesta Navideña at Sol on January 4th 2006. The event sponsored by UBS, Microsoft, Staples, RCN, NBC/Telemundo, Sprint, CIT, HITN, Southwest Airlines, IBM, Hispanic Business Magazine Sanchez Bodden Lerner, Nielsen Media Research, SPRINT, Lehman Brothers, The New York Times, Verizon, Battery Park City Authority and the USHCC. LISTA will bring together over 600 Latino technology professionals, business owners, and government officials to share fresh new ideas and to celebrate the new LISTA Season.
“I am honored to be recognized by an organization that is at the forefront of progressive educational initiatives. In order to compete globally we must ensure that future generations have access to today’s latest scientific developments and technology, and LISTA clearly understands this. On the behalf of the 1.4 million Bronxites I represent, I also want to acknowledge and thank all those who commit themselves to ensuring that our workplaces are equipped with up -to -date technology and that are communities are properly trained,” said Adolfo Carrion
Jose Marquez, LISTA President/ CEO said, “It is with great honor that we present the LISTA Government Advocate award to Adolfo Carrion he has been at the vanguard as a government advocate for many years, and has given Latinos a strong voice in city government, he is a fighter for disenfranchise business and a strong advocate for the use of technology in the Latino community. We recognize him for his steadfast and life long commitment and dedication to our community.”
Event Information:
LISTA 3 Kings Fiesta Navideña
Date: Thursday January 4th 2007 6:30pm -10:30pm
Location: SOL Nightclub
609 w 29th street (Btw. 11th and 12th)
New York, NY 10001.
For more information please call 347 632 4542
About Adolfo Carrion:
Since becoming Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion the Bronx is leading the way in providing housing opportunities for people of all incomes in the borough. Since Carrión took office in 2001, over 2.2 billion dollars has been invested in residential real estate – resulting in 25,000 new units built. The Bronx has seen a pace of development never before experienced in the history of the county. Carrion has ensured that this development does not occur in a vacuum and has always insisted that the community must be involved. By working with developers the Borough President has created a set of standards for economic development in the Bronx. Simply put if you want to do business in the Bronx, you must do business with the Bronx. And this is working. Residents, Bronx businesses, community groups and neighborhoods have benefited from the economic development taking place throughout the borough. New Jobs, New businesses, new and better infrastructure, contract opportunities for Bronx businesses and benefits for community organizations are all a part of his building a stronger Bronx policy. Total investment in the borough has increased from $400 million in the year 2001 to almost $1 billion invested in 2005, a 236% increase. Since the Borough President took office in 2001, over $3 billion has been invested throughout the borough. Commercial land use and investment has increased by 116 %, the Bronx has created 71% of private sector jobs for the city many jobs that require a high technology background, property values have increased by 40%, and the unemployment rate has dropped nearly 6%.
To read more about Adolfo Carrion Click Here: http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov/en/gv/president/biography.htm
1st Years Government Advocate Award Recipient was the Honorable Gayle Brewer.
http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/member_details.cfm?con_id=28
Last Years Government Advocate Award Recipient was the Honorable Nydia Velasquez
http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=5401&cha=14
About Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association
Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association - LISTA ( http://www.a-lista.org ) is a not-for-profit organization focused on the advancement of Latino Technology professionals. It fulfills its mission through professional, business and community involvement.
CONTACT
Phyllis Shelton
Public Relations Coordinator
347-632-4542
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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/36779.php
Published: 12.27.2006
My Tucson: Diverse readership makes for interesting year
SALOMÓN R. BALDENEGRO / Tucson Citizen
Email= SalomonRB@msn.com
As I write this, my last column of the year, I find myself reflecting on my past columns.
My commentaries have ranged from downtown revitalization to the "Merry Christmas-Happy Holidays" controversy to profiling local personalities such as octogenarian artist Al Romo.
If the communications I have received are any indication, my columns have been stimulating. My pieces on immigration and on Mexican American-Chicano history have generated the most e-mails.
I have been a voice against the hate campaign that is being waged against Mexicans and people of Mexican descent. There are people, of course, who are genuinely concerned about immigration and the dynamics surrounding it, folks who are not driven by hate.
But most of the mail I receive on this issue is from people who insist they are not hate-driven even as they refer to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans as "cockroaches, a virus, the brown death" and urge people to shoot Mexicans when they cross the border "and leave the rotting car- casses as a message to the ones who would follow."
Some readers insisted that I "go back to Mexico." Representative of these is the guy who says that he wants to see me "beaten and shipped back to where you came from."
Another says he started a petition - and claims to have garnered hundreds of signatures - to have me deported.
I'm sure these folks were very disappointed when I told them that I ain't deportable.
I have written extensively on the contributions of Mexicans and Mexican-American- Chicanos to our country, state, and city, maintaining that Tucson and Arizona history cannot be told without discussion of the substantial and substantive contributions of Mexicanos and Chicanos.
In this regard, I said such things as:
"The sweat and blood of (Chicanos) have irrigated this land and made it rich. We have tilled the soil. We have mined the ore. We have laid the railroad. We have died on the battlefield. We have harvested the crops. We have built the schools and universities."
These assertions prompted much outrage, encapsulated in the following e-mail, from the haters:
"My problem with you Hispanicks (sic) is with you people trying to pass off the USA as a Hispanick (sic) creation . . . by forever trying to force the loser Spanish language on us, demanding we give full Spanish names to our cities and streets."
Offsetting the hate mail are many communications from readers who took issue with me in a civil and rational manner.
I truly appreciate these people and have even developed an e-mail friendship with one. This person is my ideological opposite, which shows that people of divergent views can argue civilly and rationally (every so often we even agree on something!).
I also appreciate those readers who, even as they agreed with the thesis of a particular column, corrected me or chided me for something I said.
What is evident to me is that the Tucson Citizen has a wide and diverse readership and that Tucson is a very literate community. Overall, it's been a good year, and I thank the Tucson Citizen - particularly Billie Stanton, Mark Kimble and Michael Chihak - and its readers for that. c/s
Political historian Salomón R. Baldenegro is a lifelong Tucsonan and longtime civil-rights activist. The "c/s" at the end of his column is a Chicano barrio term that stands for con safos, which denotes closure, along the lines of "that's all I got to say."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6213225.stm
Last Updated: Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 23:02 GMT
Lula bolsters Brazil minimum wage
By Tim Hirsch / BBC News, Sao Paulo
Lula has promised to help Brazil's poorest citizens
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he will raise the country's minimum wage by 8.5%. The increase takes the monthly minimum salary to $177 (134 euros, £90) and is well above inflation, but much lower than the demands of labour unions.
During his election campaign, Mr Lula pledged that the country's poor would be his top priority.
The decision to raise the minimum wage is his first major policy decision since he was re-elected in October.
Costly move: Mr Lula has signed an agreement which will raise the minimum wage more than five percentage points above inflation. The finance ministry, which has favoured a cautious public spending programme, wanted a more modest rise, while the unions had asked for a 20% increase.
Even though it will add only about $7 a month to each minimum wage, the increase is expected to cost the government more than $400m (304m euros, £204m) a year, as millions of Brazilian workers have their salaries pegged to the minimum.
Mr Lula signalled his determination to control public spending by threatening to veto any attempt in the Congress to increase the minimum wage above the level set by this agreement with the unions.
Even so, critics of the government say the rise will make it difficult for Mr Lula to keep promises of an austere period of spending, while at the same time offering tax breaks to stimulate investment in Brazil's crumbling infrastructure.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061228/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_flight_delays_3
Wed Dec 27, 2006 @10:39 PM ET
Brazilians storm runway in delay protest
By ALAN CLENDENNING, AP Business Writer
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazilian travelers incensed about an overbooked flight stormed a runway Wednesday to prevent a commercial jet from taking off, and a tourism industry leader said two months of chronic flight delays have been a "disaster" for tourism.
The protest happened after a group of about 30 travelers with tickets to the northeastern city of Recife waited more than 40 minutes aboard a bus outside a Tam Linhas Aereas SA jet at one of Sao Paulo's two airports, Brazil's Globo TV reported.
When the crew closed the jet's door because the plane was full, some of the passengers got off the bus in an attempt to stop the plane from leaving. It was unclear how many people were involved in the protest.
Police removed the protesters from the tarmac, but the flight was delayed for more than two hours in a repeat of similar incidents last week, when Brazilians invaded runways at several airports plagued by delays just before Christmas.
Tam did not immediately respond to an e-mail message seeking comment Wednesday night, and the phone at the company's press office went unanswered.
Leonel Rossi Junior, international affairs director for the Brazilian Travel Agency industry group, said the air travel chaos since late October has sent sales of tour packages plummeting by 15 percent just as the industry enters its busiest season.
Brazil is heading into high holidays, with children out of school until late January at the height of the South American summer. Because of the flight delays, many Brazilians are now considering driving instead of flying to vacation destinations.
Tour operators also fear that North Americans and Europeans seeking to escape the winter will be spooked away from Brazil by incessant media images of travelers sleeping in airports while awaiting flights.
The delays began about a month after a collision between a Gol airlines Boeing 737 and an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet killed 154 passengers on Sept. 29. It was the country's worst air disaster.
After the crash, air traffic controllers significantly slowed airline operations by following regulations to the letter in a "work-to-rule" protest to demand better pay and working conditions.
An air control system failure earlier this month, bad weather and maintenance problems with some Tam planes led to more delays.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6211695.stm
Last Updated: Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 12:21 GMT
Vatican warns Paraguay candidate
Fernando Lugo is known for his work among the poor
The Vatican has made public its displeasure at the decision of a retired bishop to run in Paraguay's 2008 presidential elections. Papal officials released the text of a letter handed last week to Fernando Lugo warning him of possible sanctions.
Mr Lugo said on Monday he hoped to lead an alliance against President Nicanor Duarte and had left the priesthood. The Pope "can either accept my decision or punish me. But I am in politics already," the 55-year-old said.
'Figure of unity'
The Vatican letter, signed by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re and made public on Tuesday, is dated 20 December, one day before Mr Lugo presented his resignation to the papal authorities.
"In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask him to seriously reflect about his behaviour," the letter reads. "The Holy See has learned with surprise that some political parties have the intention of presenting him as candidate in the coming presidential election in Paraguay. The acceptance of that offer would be clearly against the serious responsibility of a bishop... Canonic Law prohibits priests from participating in political parties or labour unions."
Known for his work among the poor, Mr Lugo is leading in the opinion polls. Many believe he is the only figure who can unite the opposition to defeat the conservative Colorado Party, which has been in power for about 60 years. Mr Lugo was appointed bishop of San Pedro by Pope John Paul II in 1994. He retired as bishop 10 years later.
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http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/news/english/story/13146583p-13792634c.html
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Published Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 @11:35AM
Single mom took leadership role in debate
By ÓSCAR AVILA / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CHICAGO — From the start, Elvira Arellano knew she had to stay quiet.
After illegally crossing the border from México, she kept her head down. Even her bosses didn't know who she really was.
Arellano sometimes thought she heard footsteps at night and awoke with thoughts of la migra, the immigration authorities. Then, one day in December 2002, they did knock on Arellano's door and arrested her.
She was working as a cleaning lady at O'Hare International Airport at a time when U.S. authorities worried that terrorists were trying to infiltrate the aviation system. They moved to deport her, raising the prospect that she would have to take her child — a U.S. citizen — away from medical treatment here.
Ever since, Arellano has tried a new approach: Be as loud as possible.
Arellano, a 31-year-old single mother from Pilsen, has become one of the nation's most visible advocates for undocumented immigrants. She now leads an organization of families who could be separated by deportation.
Four months ago, when she got an order from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asking her to turn herself in for deportation, Arellano responded by taking refuge inside Adalberto United Methodist Church.
Arellano is a problematic champion. She knowingly broke the law, twice coming into the United States illegally. At a time when many Americans can't afford health care, Arellano received a temporary visa until August to stay with her son while he is treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
That has made her a lightning rod for critics, who feel she embodies much of what is wrong with immigration in the United States, from lax law enforcement to a sense of entitlement among undocumented immigrants.
But supporters believe the complexity of her tale — a woman who is a caring mother, a contributing member of society and a lawbreaker — illustrates that immigration reform isn't black-and-white.
"I want to show them that just because we don't have papers doesn't mean we aren't human beings," Arellano said.
Arellano's journey began when the economy collapsed in her home state, Michoacan, after the 1994 peso crash. Like many women, Arellano went to work in a maquiladora, a factory on the U.S. border, making only $5.60 a week.
That wasn't enough. She crossed the border, was caught and deported, and then tried again. Arellano said she slipped through the turnstile of a border crossing near Mexicali, Calif., in 1997 and headed for Washington state.
She worked as a baby-sitter and had a son, Saul. She and the boy's father split up and she moved to Chicago in 2000, where she took the job at O'Hare.
That day in 2002, immigration agents came to her door as part of Operation Tarmac, a nationwide sweep of undocumented immigrants working at airports. Arellano faced the prospect of jail time because she entered the country after being deported.
Quiet as she was, Arellano was one of the few workers willing to speak at a news conference after the arrests, making the case that those arrested were not terrorists.
She quickly became the go-to source for media and activists.
Even her allies say she was in over her head. She cried on the way to public events. At rallies, she sat nervously and quietly with her son on her lap. After a radio interview, she was so star-struck that she shyly asked the disc jockeys for their autographs.
At one point, she thought of giving up and returning to México. A friend told her she would never forgive herself.
Arellano came to agree, saying, "If they are going to send me to jail, let them send me. But I am not going to go away quietly."
Instead she became a citywide cause, especially in the Latino press, as supporters held rallies before her impending deportation. Immigrant advocates realized that Arellano's story was, in some ways, typical. Her son, Saúl, is one of an estimated 3 million U.S. citizen children who have at least one parent living here without proper documents.
Driven by the public outcry, members of Illinois' congressional delegation introduced a private bill in 2003 that gave Arellano a temporary visa to care for her son.
Her story might have ended there. Instead, Arellano and her allies — churches, immigrant advocacy groups and labor unions — seized on the broader power of her tale. Having a temporary visa, she could speak openly and without fear of retribution about the experience of being an undocumented immigrant.
But Arellano said she was hurt by criticism that she was selfish and cared only about her case. Those suspicions, and the pleas from other families facing similar circumstances, spurred her to move beyond her own story and become a leader in the fight for immigration rights.
Since then, she has spoken at rallies from the Illinois Capitol in Springfield to Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago. She confronted Mexican President Vicente Fox during a town meeting in Cicero, Ill., pressing him to intervene for other families.
One supporter, Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said: "There are times when a pragmatic person might pull their punches and not speak truth to power. I haven't seen Elvira pull any punches yet. Not once."
The group she heads, about 30 families who call themselves United Latino Family, has persuaded U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., to sponsor a bill that would grant them legal status to avoid separating their families.
On a recent chilly night at a Pilsen community center, Arellano greeted children with hugs as families slowly filed in for an organizing meeting. After lighting a white candle next to a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Arellano led the families in quietly saying the rosary.
"I want to offer my mystery for the president of the United States," Arellano said in Spanish, "so that God will open his heart to see the suffering that is happening with our families."
But Arellano and other activists outrage critics of undocumented immigration, who say they have no legal or moral right to sympathy or assistance.
Critics say immigrants like Arellano might have compelling personal stories, but they should not overshadow the economic and social damage caused by illegal immigration.
"Illegal aliens feel that they have the right to demand the same things as a citizen," said Carol Helm, founder of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Law, which encourages members to report illegal immigrants appearing in the media. "They are trampling on our rule of law."
Arellano has even raised eyebrows among some immigrant advocates who favor a more moderate approach. She is seeking a presidential pardon for families that face separation.
Arellano said her next step is to encourage a national movement of families, and she has already received calls of interest from several states.
Now she doesn't mind that people know her name or stop her on the street — on one condition: "I don't want people to look at me and say, 'Oh, poor thing. They want to deport her,'" Arellano said. "I want people to see a simple mother, an undocumented person, who fought."
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Published Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 @12:45PM
Madre soltera tomó papel de liderazgo
By ÓSCAR AVILA / Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO -- Desde el principio, Elvira Arellano sabía que tenía que quedarse callada.
Después de cruzar ilegalmente la frontera con México, mantuvo la cabeza baja. Ni siquiera sus jefes sabían quién era en realidad.
A veces, Arellano creía oír pasos en la noche y despertaba pensando que era la migra, es decir, las autoridades migratorias. Luego, un día de diciembre de 2002, llamaron a la puerta de Arellano y la arrestaron.
Estaba trabajando como afanadora en el Aeropuerto Internacional O'Hare en una época en que a las autoridades estadounidenses les preocupaba mucho que los terroristas pudieran infiltrarse en el sistema de aviación. Se movilizaron para deportarla, lo cual significaba que tendría que suspender el tratamiento médico que su hijo -un ciudadano estadounidense- estaba recibiendo aquí.
A partir de entonces, Arellano ha probado un nuevo método: hacer el mayor escándalo posible.
Arellano, una madre soltera de 31 años establecida en Pilsen, se ha convertido en una de las defensoras de los inmigrantes indocumentados con mayor visibilidad en el país.
Actualmente dirige una organización de familias que pudieran ser separadas por la deportación.
Hace cuatro meses, cuando recibió una orden de la Policía Migratoria y Aduanal (ICE en inglés) del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional en la que se indicaba que debía entregarse para ser deportada, Arellano respondió refugiándose en la Iglesia Metodista Unida de Adalberto.
Arellano es una defensora problemática. Ha infringido intencionalmente las leyes, pues ingresó dos veces de manera ilegal en los Estados Unidos. En una época en la que muchos estadounidenses no pueden pagar la atención médica, Arellano recibió visa temporal hasta agosto para permanecer al lado de su hijo mientras éste recibe tratamiento contra el trastorno de hiperactividad por déficit de atención.
Eso la convirtió en blanco de los críticos, quienes sienten que ella encarna mucho de lo que está mal en el tema migratorio en Estados Unidos, desde la vigilancia del cumplimiento de la ley, hasta la idea de que los inmigrantes indocumentados tengan derechos.
Sin embargo, sus seguidores creen que la complejidad de su historia -- una mujer que es madre esmerada, miembro participativo de la sociedad e infractora de leyes -- pone de manifiesto que la reforma migratoria no es un asunto en blanco y negro.
"Quiero demostrarles que el hecho de no tener papeles no significa que no seamos seres humanos," dice Arellano.
La odisea de Arellano empezó con el colapso de la economía en su estado natal, Michoacán, después de la caída del peso en 1994. Al igual que muchas mujeres, entró a trabajar en una maquiladora, es decir, en una fábrica de la frontera con Estados Unidos, ganando apenas $5.60 a la semana.
Eso no bastaba. Cruzó la frontera, la atraparon y deportaron, pero volvió a intentarlo. Arellano asegura que se coló en 1997 por la reja giratoria de un paso fronterizo cercano a Mexicali, Baja
California, y de ahí se encaminó al estado de Washington.
Trabajó como niñera y tuvo un hijo, Saúl. Luego de separarse del padre del niño, se mudó a Chicago en 2000, donde tomó el empleo en O'Hare.
Ese día de 2002, los agentes migratorios llegaron a su puerta como parte de la Operación Tarmac, una redada nacional de inmigrantes indocumentados que trabajaban en aeropuertos. Arellano encaraba la posibilidad de ser encarcelada por haber ingresado al país después de ser deportada.
Callada como era, Arellano fue una de las pocas trabajadoras que estuvieron dispuestas a hablar durante una conferencia de prensa después de los arrestos, haciendo público que las personas detenidas no eran terroristas.
No tardó en convertirse en la fuente más buscada por los medios de comunicación y activistas.
Incluso sus aliados opinan que se le ha pasado la mano. Lloraba de camino a los eventos públicos. Durante las marchas, se sentaba nerviosa y calladamente con su hijo en el regazo. Después de una entrevista de radio, estaba tan impresionada, que les pidió tímidamente un autógrafo a los locutores.
En algún momento, pensó en darse por vencida y regresar a México. Una amiga le dijo que jamás se perdonaría a sí misma.
Arellano se dejó convencer y dijo, "Si me van a meter a la cárcel, que lo hagan. Pero no me voy a ir calladamente."
En vez de eso, se convirtió en una causa que afectó a toda la ciudad, sobre todo en la prensa latina, pues sus seguidores organizaron marchas de protesta antes de su deportación
inminente. Los defensores de los inmigrantes se dieron cuenta de que la historia de Arellano era, en cierto modo, típica. Su hijo Saúl es uno de los 3 millones de niños, según se estima, que son ciudadanos estadounidenses y tienen al menos un padre que vive aquí sin documentos.
Presionados por el clamor público, los miembros de la delegación legislativa de Illinois presentaron en 2003 una iniciativa privada a fin de concederle a Arellano una visa temporal para que cuidara de su hijo.
Su historia pudo haber terminado ahí. Pero en vez de eso, Arellano y sus aliados -- iglesias, grupos defensores de inmigrantes y sindicatos laborales -- se afianzaron al lado más ancho del poder de su historia. Una vez con su visa temporal, ella pudo hablar abiertamente y sin temor de represalias sobre la experiencia de ser un inmigrante indocumentado.
Sin embargo, declaró que le dolían las críticas de que era egoísta y sólo se interesaba en su propio caso. Esas inquietudes, aunadas al predicamento de otras familias en circunstancias similares, la impulsaron a ir más allá de su propia historia y convertirse en una líder en la lucha por los derechos migratorios.
A partir de entonces, ha hablado en marchas de protesta desde el Capitolio de Illinois, en Springfield, hasta las oficinas centrales de la Nación del Islam de Louis Farrakhan, en Chicago. Confrontó al presidente mexicano Vicente Fox durante una reunión ciudadana en Cicero, Ill., presionándolo para que interviniera a favor de otras familias.
Uno de sus seguidores, Joshua Hoyt, de la Coalición para los Derechos de Inmigrantes y Refugiados de Illinois, declaró: "Hay ocasiones en las que una persona pragmática podría atraer los golpes y no decirle la verdad al poder. Hasta ahora no he visto a Elvira atraer golpes. Ni siquiera una vez."
El grupo que encabeza, unas 30 familias que se autodenominan Familia Latina Unida, ha persuadido al representante demócrata Bobby Rush, de Illinois, para que sea el patrono de una iniciativa de ley que les conceda la estancia legal a fin de evitar la separación de sus familias.
En una reciente y helada noche, en un centro comunitario de Pilsen, Arellano recibió a los niños con un abrazo conforme las familias fueron llegando lentamente a una reunión que estaba organizándose. Después de encender una vela blanca junto a la efigie de la Virgen de Guadalupe, Arellano invitó a las familias a rezar calladamente el rosario.
"Quiero ofrecerle mi misterio al presidente de Estados Unidos," dijo Arellano en español, "de modo que Dios le abra el corazón para que vea el sufrimiento de nuestras familias por lo que está pasando."
Sin embargo, Arellano y otros activistas enfurecen a quienes critican la inmigración de indocumentados y aseguran que éstos no tienen ningún derecho, ni legal ni moral, a recibir simpatía o ayuda alguna.
Los críticos afirman que aunque las historias personales de inmigrantes como Arellano pueden ser conmovedoras, no deben enmascarar los daños económicos y sociales resultantes de la inmigración ilegal.
"Los inmigrantes ilegales sienten que tienen derecho a exigir lo mismo que un ciudadano," dice Carol Helm, fundadora de Ley para la Reforma Migratoria de Oklahoma, que pide a sus integrantes denunciar a los inmigrantes ilegales que aparezcan en los medios de comunicación. "Están pisoteando nuestro estado de derecho."
Arellano ha causado incomodidad aun entre ciertos defensores de los inmigrantes que se inclinan por una postura más moderada. Ella está buscando un perdón presidencial para las familias que pudieran ser separadas.
Arellano dice que su próximo paso será organizar un movimiento nacional de familias, y ya ha empezado a recibir llamadas de interés desde varios estados.
Ahora no le importa que la gente conozca su nombre ni que la paren en la calle... con una condición: "No quiero que la gente me vea y diga, 'Ay, pobrecita. Quieren deportarla,'" declara Arellano. "Quiero que la gente vea a una simple madre, a una persona indocumentada que supo dar la lucha."
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_border_crossings
Wed Dec 27, 2006 @6:00 AM ET
Illegal migrant arrests down in U.S.
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer
NOGALES, Mexico - Arrests of illegal migrants along the U.S.-Mexican border have dropped by more than a third since U.S. National Guard troops started helping with border security, suggesting that fewer people may be trying to cross.
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 149,238 fewer people from the start of July through November, down 34 percent from the same period last year, according to monthly figures provided Tuesday by U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Mario Martinez.
Arrests also had dropped by 9 percent for the same period from 2004 to 2005. If the downward trend continues, it would be the first sustained decrease in illegal immigrant arrests since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
National Guard troops started arriving along the border June 15, and 6,000 were in place by August.
Victor Clark, a Mexican migration expert in Tijuana, says many migrants fear they will confront U.S. soldiers on the border.
"The presence of the National Guard has had a big impact on migrants," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Border Patrol officials usually attribute a drop in arrests to fewer people crossing.
"We have seen some tangible results," Martinez said. "But we'll have to see over the next few months if it holds up. We are optimistic."
The National Guard troops are not allowed to detain migrants and have been limited to monitoring surveillance cameras and body heat detectors, but they have freed Border Patrol agents and "have helped us tremendously to detect illegal migration traffic," Martinez said.
The United States plans to expand the Border Patrol from just over 11,000 agents to about 18,000 by 2008. The U.S. also plans to build 700 miles of additional border fence.
Other measures may also be deterring crossers. In July, U.S. and Mexican officials started working together to prosecute human smugglers on both sides of the border.
U.S. immigration officials also have been raiding U.S. companies for illegal workers. Earlier this month, 1,300 people were detained in a sweep of meatpacking plants in six states. Added to that, smugglers have increased their fees, charging as much as $3,000 to hide migrants in their cars and drive them across the border. Before the National Guard troops arrived, the price was about $2,000, migrant activists say.
Still, border experts say the downturn may be temporary while smugglers search for new routes and migrants come up with the money to pay the higher fees.
Edgar Velasquez acknowledges it's become tougher to cross. He spent three days walking in freezing temperatures through the remote mountain country west of Tucson, Ariz., and still was caught.
Agents found a body in those mountains Dec. 19. But that did not deter Velasquez, who said he planned to slip across the Arizona border during the holiday week when he hoped the U.S. patrols will be short-handed as agents take vacations.
"I imagine they also want to be with their families," said Velasquez, resting in the border city of Nogales before embarking on his illegal odyssey to reach a construction job in Florida.
Gustavo Soto, a spokesman with the U.S. Border Patrol Tucson sector, said smugglers often tell migrants there are less border agents out in the desert on holidays or when the weather is bad, "even though we have surveillance on the border 24/7" and 365 days a year.
Some migrants are simply giving up after a single try, something that was almost unheard of only a few years ago.
Esther Ardia walked for nearly three days as temperatures dropped to 14 degrees in the Arizona desert, trying to get back to her job at a North Carolina pine tree farm.
Ardia, 21, couldn't keep up with the group of about 30 illegal migrants and was abandoned by her smuggler after her legs cramped up. She was picked up by the Border Patrol and returned to Mexico.
"I knew it would be hard, but I thought I could make it," said Ardia. "It's very hard. I'm not going to try (to cross) again."
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Associated Press Writer Ioan Grillo contributed to this report from Mexico City.
___
On the Net:
U.S. Border Patrol: http://www.cbp.gov
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http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/12/27/18341314.php
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Wednesday Dec 27th, 2006 9:52 AM
Report from Oaxaca
by Luciente Zamora and Nina Armand
First report from two Revolution correspondents who are now in Oaxaca as part of a delegation whose mission is to bring international attention to the situation in that southern Mexican state.
Report from Oaxaca
by Luciente Zamora and Nina Armand
This is the first report from two Revolution correspondents, Luciente Zamora, and Nina Armand, who are now in Oaxaca as part of a delegation whose mission is to bring international attention to the situation in that southern Mexican state. As the two correspondents wrote in a letter in Revolution #74: “Repression is hitting hard against a powerful struggle that has rocked Oaxaca for months and inspired many people throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Now more than ever there is a need to hear from the people who have been fighting with such determination, to bring to light the government-inflicted terror currently unfolding, and to get a deeper understanding of how people are confronting these new challenges and what the implications of all this are for emancipatory struggle on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.”
Watch this website and get the next issue of Revolution for further on-the-scene reports from Oaxaca.
Oaxaca, Mexico, December 18— Contrasted against the blue sky, the red noche buenas blooming throughout the city, along with the sounds of women cooking and children playing in the marketplace, make the center of town seem almost…normal. Oaxaca is not the same place it was before the people stood up in June of this year. The fact that for months the people raised their heads throughout Oaxaca—from the center region and through much of the countryside—cannot be erased. Oaxaca demanded to be heard.
* * * * *
On Sunday, December 17, 43 prisoners who had been detained in a prison in Tepic, Nayarit were released. Immediately upon their arrival back to Oaxaca City, many of the people released began sharing stories of the November 25th repression when the Federal Preventive Police (PFP)—which had been occupying the zocalo, the central city square, since October—attacked protesters demanding the ouster of Oaxaca's hated governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. More than 150 people were brutally beaten and arrested in the area around the zocalo, including many people who were coming home from work and shopping.
Magdalena was coming home from work on the afternoon of the 25th. She’s a 50-year-old widow and works as a housekeeper to support her family. She had heard of the popular movement, but didn’t really know too much about it. She remembered some of her neighbors telling her that the teachers were just troublemakers and that it was time for the authorities to bring down order. But on the 25th everything changed. She was swept up along with many others by the PFP while she was in the town center. She was hit, thrown down on the floor, had her hands tied and told—along with other women—that they were going to die and that after they were killed their bodies would be thrown in garbage cans where nobody would find them.
Magdalena saw her relatives bloodied and beat up. For the 21 days she was in prison, she and the others arrested that day had no contact with the outside world. For Magdalena, what is burned into her consciousness is the desperation of the women prisoners who don’t know where their children are and whether or not they are eating. Just as arbitrarily as she’d been grabbed off the street on the 25th, she was told that she was going home. She can’t stop thinking about the women she left behind.
Before, Magdalena hadn’t given much thought to the people’s struggle. Her experience has affected her profoundly. She says after what the government has done to her she wants to participate in the struggle however she can. She now remembers the repression against the people of Atenco, who were fighting against the government's moves to take their land, and never would have believed she’d find herself identifying with the women who were brutalized there. She is most of all driven by an urgency to free the prisoners who remain in the conditions she’s just escaped, and she says that though she can’t read or write she wants to be involved in whatever way she can. She says she doesn’t seek to be rich and live in a mansion like URO, but she demands respect and a more just world—not just for herself, but for everyone.
* * * * *
The air is still thick in Oaxaca. In the past weeks police helicopters have occasionally flown low over the city—their blades a reminder of the brute force of the state. Officially the PFP forces have withdrawn from the city, but there are still eyes and ears everywhere. Just last night Florentino Lopez, Pedro Garcia, and Macario Padilla, prominent figures in the APPO movement were detained at a stoplight and were beaten and arrested. They were released the same night—but the threat of more repression is clear, as is determination on the people’s side.
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Support the Revolution Reporting Trip to Oaxaca
From Luciente Zamora and Nina Armand:
“To accomplish what we’re setting out to do, we need your support. Primarily and urgently, we need funds to finance all this. We also need you to spread the word—pass on our articles, send them out to your listserves and e-mail lists and arrange speaking engagements in neighborhoods, schools, bookstores, etc.
“Send donations* to:
RCP Publications
attn: Oaxaca reportage
PO Box 3486
Chicago, IL 60654”
http://www.rev.com
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http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2970/
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* http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/
* http://www.treatycouncil.org/
* http://www.mexicodaily.com/
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* http://www.southamericadaily.com/
* http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
* http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/front/v-english/
* http://vivirlatino.com/
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