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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0116yzaguirre0116.html
Jan. 16, 2007 12:00 AM
Raúl Yzaguirre
ASU professor of practice in community development and civil rights
Editor's note: Raúl Yzaguirre is considered the Hispanic community's most influential and respected national advocate of the last-quarter century.Yzaguirre served as president of the National Council of La Raza for three decades. Two years ago, he joined Arizona State University as presidential professor of practice in community development and civil rights. Yzaguirre is based at ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. While he has been active locally, Yzaguirre has largely stepped out of the national limelight for the past two years.
Yzaguirre spoke with Hispanic Link News Service editors on Latino political empowerment and its rapidly growing national role. This is the first of a two-part interview, edited for length.
1. You have seen seven presidents in your tenure. How much did those presidents know about Hispanics, how much did they need to be educated, and how much did they learn?
At some level, every president that I have met has needed an education on Latino issues.
Lyndon Baines Johnson knew our community and we made significant progress in his administration, principally through the Great Society programs, but the Vietnam War and the huge media focus on civil rights violations against African-Americans, coupled with the riots, consumed most of LBJ's attention.
In terms of responsiveness, the one that surprised me was Richard Nixon. I expected little from him, but in retrospect he accomplished some important gains for Hispanics. He was the first president to appoint Latinos to sub-Cabinet posts and as heads of important independent agencies such as the Small Business Administration.
Gerald Ford came from a Michigan district without many Latinos and he was not particularly well attuned to us. We enjoyed access, but access doesn't mean influence. Jimmy Carter had very little personal interaction with Latinos.
The Bill Clinton-era represents the high watermark for Latino influence in the White House and in the federal government. Clinton does not have the personal visceral affinity for Hispanics as he has for African-Americans, but he gets it.
George W. Bush had a wealth of personal knowledge of our community. A significant number of Hispanics, including our attorney general, have had long and deep friendships with the president. Unfortunately he turned out to be more "conservative" than "compassionate."
2. Do you see a Hispanic finally being nominated as president or vice president?
I think New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has an excellent chance of being nominated for the presidency and certainly for the vice presidency in 2008.
3. What do you think of the Democratic strategy, with its "first 100 hours" priorities for the 110th Congress, which do not include comprehensive immigration reform?
The Democratic Congressional Leadership strategy for the first 100 hours includes items such as an increase in the minimum wage, which is very much a Latino issue as well as a national priority. Immigration reform in very different forms is on everybody's agenda. Comprehensive reform will happen because President Bush is more aligned with the Democrats than with members of his own party on this issue.
4. Do you feel Congress will address comprehensive immigration reform in a timely fashion?
Not as timely as some of us would like. Immigration legislation, as emotional and complicated as it may be, will happen because the political dynamics have changed. Before the November elections, we had a situation where the Democrats had the luxury of blaming the Republicans both for passing draconian measures, such as criminalizing acts of charity to undocumented aliens, and alternatively, of doing nothing.
5. How satisfied are you now with the progress Hispanics have made?
Until we achieve parity, until our ethnicity is not a barrier to opportunity, we cannot be satisfied. Our biggest enemy is not Anglo racism; it is our own willingness to be satisfied with small gains. Our biggest challenge is to overcome apathy.
6. How much impact would you say the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, or any Hispanics, now have in Congress?
Twenty years ago, the few Hispanics that we had in Congress were marginal in terms of influence. Now we have three U.S. senators, we will have committee and subcommittee chairs in both chambers. We are on an upward trajectory. The only thing that can hurt us is internal bickering, and we seem to be having some of that now. But I see that as part of the maturation process. We will get it together.
7. How well do you feel Hispanic organizations are partnering with mainstream or other ethnic community groups in dealing with mutual, sometimes conflicting, interests?
In general, we are having a modicum of success. The mainstream Jewish groups have been the most open and indeed persistent entities seeking to coalesce with Latinos. Some unusual coalitions have emerged. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and the National Council of La Raza formed an ad hoc coalition on immigration reform. Two important organizational "alliances" seem to be emerging: one between the League of United Latin American Citizens - LULAC - and the NAACP and the other between the National Urban League and the La Raza.
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http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003532489
January 15, 2007
Speaking Same Language Bilingual Web Sites Target Young Hispanics
By NANCY AYALA
MYSPACE WILL REMAIN a market leader among all demographics for some time, but newly launched or revamped social networking sites for 2nd- and 3rd-generation Latinos are trying to narrow the gap. Usage will overlap undoubtedly, but that has not stopped new portals from moving forward to lure U.S.-born Hispanics, ages 12 to 34, whose preferred language is English but who still straddle their Latino roots.
For young Hispanics, there are plenty of choices such as Batanga, newcomer elHood, MiGente, VozLatina and ZonaZoom, which says it will offer more sophisticated social networking tools when it debuts at the end of the month.
San Francisco-based LatinosConnected launched in early December to help Hispanics, ages 16 to 35, connect with peers to share their Latino experience, be it good or bad, said founder Veronica Alvarez.
"MySpace is a great community and a great success story of the evolution of online communities," said the former Yahoo! manager, "but it doesn t have the look and elements that make it feel like a Latino brand. I'm trying to send the message that [LatinosConnected] is a community for Latinos by Latinos."
As part of her viral marketing efforts, Alvarez often visits online forums attracting bilingual users and invites them to join the community at LatinosConnected. This month, Verizon and the U.S. Army are new advertisers on the site, and she's already in talks with other brands about specific areas geared to young Hispanics for Valentine's Day, a busier time for users to connect than the sluggish month of December.
Companies are interested in this demographic, said John Santiago, CEO of Miami-based digital marketing firm Media 8, who called social networking "the talk of the town." Viral marketing plays a huge part of social networking, he said. "It's how you do it and staying authentic. [Users] will see right through [anything else]. It's not advertising, and that's the big challenge," he said, though paid ads in controlled environments have increased.
And with so many portals populating the space, the number of eyes is an important part of any site's longevity.
Jose Marquez, director of digital media for the cable network mun2, has seen a big bump in traffic since relaunching the Web site in September as holamun2.com. The company estimates users have grown 300 percent, crediting TV promotions and strong word-of-mouth. Growth is attributed to engaging original content produced for the portal as well as leveraging video streams and other programming from mun2. "We don't see MySpace as a competitor," Marquez said.
With a new multimedia image campaign launching Feb. 15 — the first real PR push — the bilingual network hopes to increase other promotions and create a watercooler effect to draw more users. "But first you have to put something in the water," Marquez said.
According to the University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth, one in four teens in the U.S. is of Hispanic descent. The Hispanic teen population is expected to grow 62 percent by 2020 compared with 10 percent growth in the number of teens overall
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http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/107945.html
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, January 15, 2007
Cops huddle over illegal immigrants' cars
Courts at federal, state levels rule out automatic seizures.
By Aurelio Rojas - Bee Capitol Bureau
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A3
On the same day last week that state Sen. Gil Cedillo introduced legislation -- for the ninth consecutive year -- to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, law enforcement officials were meeting in Sacramento.
Among the issues discussed were federal and state court rulings restricting authority of law enforcement officers to seize vehicles.
Although decisions by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and the California Court of Appeal did not specifically deal with illegal immigration, in many communities the majority of cars impounded belong to unlicensed drivers in the country illegally.
As a result of the rulings, the California Police Chiefs Association has told its members it is illegal to impound vehicles of people whose only violation is driving without a license when the vehicle does not create a traffic hazard.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, after consulting with county attorneys, became one of the first jurisdictions in the state to follow the legal advice.
"This isn't an immigration or racial issue," Sheriff Bill Cogbill said. "But the majority of people who get their cars towed (in Sonoma County) are illegal immigrants because they can't get a driver's license."
Santa Rosa Police Chief Ed Flint, whose department is reviewing its towing policies, said there is a lot of disagreement "up and down the state" about the federal court ruling in an Oregon case that has prompted many departments to re-evaluate their procedures.
Like Cogbill, Flint emphasized this is not an immigration issue, but said "the failure of federal and state government to address the immigration problem" has forced local officials to take the initiative.
While cities like Costa Mesa and Escondido with predominantly white residents are cracking down on illegal immigrants, Latino cities such as Maywood have curtailed traffic stops and auto impounding seen as targeting illegal immigrants.
"Many of these problems are left up to local government officials to contend with," said Flint, a former police chief of Elk Grove. "And the whole licensing thing is out of the hands of sheriffs and police chiefs."
After eight years of disappointment, Cedillo believes the law will change this year. He points out that the federal government is scheduled to release regulations for the Real ID Act, saying immigration laws may change now that Democrats have become a majority in Congress.
Prompted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Real ID Act seeks to create a national standard for driver's licenses.
"If we're going to have legislation to come into compliance, it has to be done this year," Cedillo said Thursday, after introducing his latest bill, Senate Bill 60. "The governor has indicated in his objections in the past that we didn't have any guidelines, but he soon will."
In vetoing Cedillo's bill last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the measure -- Senate Bill 1162 -- premature because Real ID Act regulations and immigration changes had not been implemented.
But Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has been at the vanguard of the battle against illegal immigration, said Cedillo should not hold his breath.
"Unless there's something in the Real ID Act that says, 'Go ahead, issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens' -- which I seriously doubt -- I think it's going to be difficult for Schwarzenegger to do a 180 on this," Mehlman said.
Soon after taking office in 2003, Schwarzenegger moved to repeal a driver's license bill that former Gov. Gray Davis had signed. He said he would consider a new version of the bill with stricter security measures.
Each year since, the Republican governor has vetoed Cedillo's legislation. But the Los Angeles Democrat is heartened that this year the governor has said he wants everyone in California to carry health insurance and has not made a distinction between legal and illegal residents.
The governor also supports a law that allows illegal immigrants who graduated from high schools in California to qualify for in-state tuition in state colleges.
Allowing illegal immigrants to obtain licenses, Cedillo argues, would be a natural progression that would make it easier for them to get to a doctor and to school.
Under SB 60, applicants would be required to meet or exceed standards set forth by the Real ID Act. The license could be used for driving only.
But Mehlman said granting licenses to illegal immigrants would reward lawbreakers with "amnesty." That argument has thwarted changes by Congress.
By some estimates, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are already driving in California, which police deal with every day.
In places like Sonoma County, illegal immigrants make up a sizable share of workers in the area's famed vineyards. And many drive.
As sheriff, Cogbill acknowledges their contributions but does not advocate giving them licenses.
"We need to fix this whole immigration thing and make it easier for people to come into the country and to get work permits," he said. "Then, once they have those things, give them a license."
Prompted by a November 2005 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Cogbill's department recently stopped impounding the cars of people whose only violation is driving without a license.
In the case, the court ruled the Police Department in Cornelius, Ore., had no right to impound a car driven by an unlicensed driver when there was no other violation, the car's location did not pose a problem and a licensed driver was available to take charge of the vehicle.
Last month, the California Court of Appeal, citing the Oregon case, further restricted the authority of law enforcement in the state to seize vehicles.
Santa Rosa Chief Flint said the court rulings were discussed at the outset of last Thursday's meeting of law enforcement officials in Sacramento with Martin Mayer, a lawyer for the California Police Chiefs Association.
"Obviously, there's a lot of interest in this issue," Flint said.
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About the writer:
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas can be reached at (916) 326-5545 or arojas@sacbee.com.
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http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2007/Jan07/011507/011507-08.html
January 15, 2007
Trucker pleads guilty to hauling illegal immigrants, marijuana
A North Carolina trucker pleaded guilty last week to transporting illegal immigrants and marijuana from Mexico to Dallas.
Daylon Ray Owens, 63, of Kittrell, NC, pleaded guilty to transporting and harboring illegal immigrants and to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas.
Owens was arrested after witnesses in Dallas saw people leaving Owens’ trailer at a truck stop. Authorities claim Owens obtained 100 kilograms of marijuana in El Paso, TX, and was headed to Miami.
Owens has agreed to forfeit his semi-truck and trailer to the federal government. He is due back in U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis’ court on April 4 for sentencing, where he faces up to 60 years in prison and $2.5 million in fines.
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http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20070115h
January 15, 2007
Roots of Latino/black anger - Longtime prejudices, not economic rivalry, fuel tensions
By Tanya K. Hernandez, Contributing Writer
The acrimonious relationship between Latinos and African Americans in Los Angeles is growing hard to ignore. Although last weekend's black-versus-Latino race riot at Chino state prison is unfortunately not an aberration, the Dec. 15 murder in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood of Cheryl Green, a 14-year-old African American, allegedly by members of a Latino gang, was shocking.
Yet there was nothing really new about it. Rather, the murder was a manifestation of an increasingly common trend: Latino ethnic cleansing of African Americans from multiracial neighborhoods. Just last August, federal prosecutors convicted four Latino gang members of engaging in a six-year conspiracy to assault and murder African Americans in Highland Park. During the trial, prosecutors demonstrated that African American residents (with no gang ties at all) were being terrorized in an effort to force them out of a neighborhood now perceived as Latino.
For example, one African American resident was murdered by Latino gang members as he looked for a parking space near his Highland Park home. In another case, a woman was knocked off her bicycle and her husband was threatened with a box cutter by one of the defendants, who said, "You niggers have been here long enough."
At first blush, it may be mystifying why such animosity exists between two ethnic groups that share so many of the same socioeconomic deprivations. Over the years, the hostility has been explained as a natural reaction to competition for blue-collar jobs in a tight labor market, or as the result of turf battles and cultural disputes in changing neighborhoods. Others have suggested that perhaps Latinos have simply been adept at learning the U.S. lesson of anti-black racism, or that perhaps black Americans are resentful at having the benefits of the civil rights movement extended to Latinos.
Although there may be a degree of truth to some or all of these explanations, they are insufficient to explain the extremity of the ethnic violence.
Over the years, there's also been a tendency on the part of observers to blame the conflict more on African Americans (who are often portrayed as the aggressors) than on Latinos. But although it's certainly true that there's plenty of blame to go around, it's important not to ignore the effect of Latino culture and history in fueling the rift.
The fact is that racism - and anti-black racism in particular - is a pervasive and historically entrenched reality of life in Latin America and the Caribbean. More than 90% of the approximately 10 million enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were taken to Latin America and the Caribbean (by the French, Spanish and British, primarily), whereas only 4.6% were brought to the United States. By 1793, colonial Mexico had a population of 370,000 Africans (and descendants of Africans) - the largest concentration in all of Spanish America.
The legacy of the slave period in Latin America and the Caribbean is similar to that in the United States: Having lighter skin and European features increases the chances of socioeconomic opportunity, while having darker skin and African features severely limits social mobility.
White supremacy is deeply ingrained in Latin America and continues into the present. In Mexico, for instance, citizens of African descent (who are estimated to make up 1% of the population) report that they regularly experience racial harassment at the hands of local and state police, according to recent studies by Antonieta Gimeno, then of Mount Holyoke College, and Sagrario Cruz-Carretero of the University of Veracruz.
Mexican public discourse reflects the hostility toward blackness; consider such common phrases as "getting black" to denote getting angry, and "a supper of blacks" to describe a riotous gathering of people. Similarly, the word "black" is often used to mean "ugly." It is not surprising that Mexicans who have been surveyed indicate a disinclination to marry darker-skinned partners, as reported in a 2001 study by Bobby Vaughn, an anthropology professor at Notre Dame de Namur University.
Anti-black sentiment also manifests itself in Mexican politics. During the 2001 elections, for instance, Lazaro Cardenas, a candidate for governor of the state of Michoacan, is believed to have lost substantial support among voters for having an Afro Cuban wife. Even though Cardenas had great name recognition (as the grandson of Mexico's most popular president), he only won by 5 percentage points - largely because of the anti-black platform of his opponent, Alfredo Anaya, who said that "there is a great feeling that we want to be governed by our own race, by our own people."
Given this, it should not be surprising that migrants from Mexico and other areas of Latin America and the Caribbean arrive in the U.S. carrying the baggage of racism. Nor that this facet of Latino culture is in turn transmitted, to some degree, to younger generations along with all other manifestations of the culture.
The sociological concept of "social distance" measures the unease one ethnic or racial group has for interacting with another. Social science studies of Latino racial attitudes often indicate a preference for maintaining social distance from African Americans. And although the social distance level is largest for recent immigrants, more established communities of Latinos in the United States also show a marked social distance from African Americans.
For instance, in University of Houston sociologist Tatcho Mindiola's 2002 survey of 600 Latinos in Houston (two-thirds of whom were Mexican, the remainder Salvadoran and Colombian) and 600 African Americans, the African Americans had substantially more positive views of Latinos than Latinos had of African Americans. Although a slim majority of the U.S.-born Latinos used positive identifiers when describing African Americans, only a minority of the foreign-born Latinos did so. One typical foreign-born Latino respondent stated: "I just don't trust them.... The men, especially, all use drugs, and they all carry guns."
This same study found that 46% of Latino immigrants who lived in residential neighborhoods with African Americans reported almost no interaction with them.
The social distance of Latinos from African Americans is consistently reflected in Latino responses to survey questions. In a 2000 study of residential segregation, Camille Zubrinsky Charles, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, found that Latinos were more likely to reject African Americans as neighbors than they were to reject members of other racial groups. In addition, in the 1999-2000 Lilly Survey of American Attitudes and Friendships, Latinos identified African Americans as their least desirable marriage partners, whereas African Americans proved to be more accepting of intermarriage with Latinos.
Ironically, African Americans, who are often depicted as being averse to coalition-building with Latinos, have repeatedly demonstrated in their survey responses that they feel less hostility toward Latinos than Latinos feel toward them.
Although some commentators have attributed the Latino hostility to African Americans to the stress of competition in the job market, a 1996 sociological study of racial group competition suggests otherwise. In a study of 477 Latinos from the 1992 Los Angeles County Social Survey, professors Lawrence Bobo, then of Harvard, and Vincent Hutchings of the University of Michigan found that underlying prejudices and existing animosities contribute to the perception that African Americans pose an economic threat - not the other way around.
It is certainly true that the acrimony between African Americans and Latinos cannot be resolved until both sides address their own unconscious biases about one another. But it would be a mistake to ignore the Latino side of the equation as some observers have done - particularly now, when the recent violence in Los Angeles has involved Latinos targeting peaceful African American citizens.
This conflict cannot be sloughed off as simply another generation of ethnic group competition in the United States (like the familiar rivalries between Irish, Italians and Jews in the early part of the last century). Rather, as the violence grows, the "diasporic" origins of the anti-black sentiment - the entrenched anti-black prejudice among Latinos that exists not just in the United States but across the Americas - will need to be directly confronted.
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Tanya K. Hernandez is a professor of law at Rutgers University Law School.
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http://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2506.html
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January 15, 2007
Politics and Promises
Supreme Court Decision Against the PRI Shows the Party's Weakening Grip on Oaxaca
By Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca
On Tuesday, January 9, the Supreme Court of Mexico decided that the Oaxaca state legislature could not vote itself an extra year in office. Given this denial of “self-prorogation”, the “ordinary” elections for state legislators will be held the first Sunday in August of 2007. The newly elected legislators will take office on November 13, for a three year term.
Mexican elections are done in a double way; that is, there is a direct majority vote, plus there is a proportional vote, for which the political parties maintain a list of available people who are then assigned posts according to the number of votes their party gains. A legislator need not live in the area s/he represents. To that, add the fact that the majority of Oaxaca communities vote without any political parties (usos y costumbres), but somehow their non-affiliated representatives must be attributed to a party in order to take their seats.
Regarding the municipal elections, for those elected by political party it takes place on the first Sunday in October, and those elected assume office January 1, 2008, for a three year term. For city officials elected by the local usos y costumbres, each town elects where and when they choose, but their officials also assume office January 1, 2008. These officials serve under the norms of their local municipalities, but their service in office must not exceed three years.
OK, hold that thought.
Now remember that the federal Senate was asked several times to vote for the “disappearance of powers” necessary to throw out Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) as governor of Oaxaca. The Senate declined to do so, although they declared that the state was ungovernable, and hence needed federal intervention. This direct contradiction, that Oaxaca was not ungovernable (which would require destitution of powers) and was ungovernable (requiring federal intervention) led to the impasse temporarily resolved in the attack by the Federal Preventative Police, which the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) and the Oaxaca citizens endured on November 25. The impasse continues despite the repression which followed.
Prior to the federal intervention, a similar request for a declaration of “disappearance of powers” was presented by the APPO to the Oaxaca state legislature, which like the federal Congress, is controlled by the PRI and the PAN. Not surprisingly, although they were forced from their buildings by the APPO, and felt obliged to meet secretly in restaurants and hotels, the legislators did not vote that the state was ungovernable. Indeed, they voted to extend their terms of office, and to choose an interim governor in 2008, which is what the Supreme Court has just invalidated.
You may also remember that on July 2, 2006, the APPO called for a “punishment” vote in which the PRI was soundly defeated in ten of the eleven federal congressional seats, and of course for president of Mexico. The Democratic Revolution Party (PRD, in its Spanish initials) came out way ahead in Oaxaca.
In the Noticias of January 13, 2007 (page 9A) an ad has appeared signed by the PRD senator Salomon Jara Cruz, addressed to the People of Oaxaca, the State Council of the PRD, and Public Opinion. In it, Jara reminds the voters that it was the PRD along with the Convergence Party that brought before the Supreme Court the challenge to the invalid “reforms” which the local congress voted “behind the backs of the peoples of Oaxaca.”
With this decision by the Supreme Court, the 2007 electoral process, he reminds us, Oaxaca will choose 42 local deputies, 152 Municipal Presidents by the system of parties, and 418 Municipal Authorities by the system of usos y costumbres.
The PRD is betting that in these elections it will gain 25 electoral Districts and thus the majority in the state Congress. So it will then (then being November of 2007) be able to carry out, “jointly with the peoples of Oaxaca the constitutional, political, economic, juridical, cultural and institutional transformations that the state needs, such as achieving through the congress the yearning of the Oaxaqueños, the departure of Ulises Ruiz as governor of Oaxaca.” (emphasis added)
Now how often do we see a campaign promise like that!
Jara goes on to say in his ad that the PRD alone can’t gain this outcome. The success will depend on “our capacity to build a grand alliance, plural and inclusive,” with society and our natural party allies, plus political and economic organizations of civil society, peoples and indigenous communities, intellectuals and academics. If this cast of participants sounds familiar, it’s because it is a roll call of the APPO.
He points out that URO will try to divide the opposition, and especially each of the components of the broad progressive front, Frente Amplio Progresista.
The ad concludes, “Last July 2 we changed ourselves into the foremost political force of Oaxaca, winning the elections with the help of several fundamental factors, among them the heroic Section 22 teachers movement and the Popular movement represented by the APPO. Today we are moved to respond with higher sights, contributing to the basic modification of the conditions of life and work for the Oaxaqueños and the strategic part is winning all the elections of 2007.”
It’s a long time until the August elections. If the APPO maintains a presence on the streets without exasperating those who want to “return to normal,” and retains the affiliation of the public who despise URO, it may very well be possible to pull off another “punishment” vote. Destroying the PRI as a political force in Oaxaca may be possible, finally.
Elections are months away. This advertisement is certainly the most unusual campaign promise I have yet seen. But it’s only January. Jara hasn’t lost a minute in presenting the PRD as another way out of the impasse. The APPO, constructed as a non-political social movement, may achieve its second historic victory, once again changing the electoral landscape in Oaxaca by voting the rascals out.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/15/MNGHJNIR5V1.DTL
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Monday, January 15, 2007
Investors in Nicaragua banking on Ortega
Eric Sabo, Chronicle Foreign Service
(01-15) 04:00 PST San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua -- A barbed-wire fence and several angry men armed with machetes are standing in the way of Philip Christopher's dream to build a world-class surf resort.
The 46-year-old Missouri native has spent the past two years buying up property around Popoyo Beach, 17 miles from this Pacific beach community that is also known as a surfer's paradise.
"Popoyo is already its own brand," said Christopher, one of thousands of U.S. investors buying ocean-view lots and other properties in this once war-torn country. "Everyone knows that this is the best place to surf."
Yet his $14 million project, which includes beach condos and a clubhouse, has run afoul of the Nahualap, an indigenous group that first settled in the area. Its leaders claim nearly 15 acres of prime beachfront land stemming from an 1877 deed, which Christopher says is part of the 93 acres he bought from previous owners.
"You can't come into our home and buy whatever you want," said Bartolome Lopez, the president of the Nahualap community in Las Salinas, a town near Popoyo. "You have to respect those who live here."
Late last month, dozens of men brandishing machetes stood on the perimeter of Christopher's fence, claiming a new ally. "They were shouting that (new President Daniel) Ortega will never allow me to get away with this," said Christopher.
But Ortega, a 61-year-old former guerrilla commander viewed as a dangerous leftist during the Reagan administration, may do just that.
After nearly 17 years out of office and three consecutive election defeats, Ortega was sworn in last week to lead a country that has largely grown out of its revolutionary past. Ortega himself says he has changed from the days when he imposed a state-run economy, nationalized properties to give to landless peasants and fought U.S.-backed Contra fighters. In fact, he has courted nervous foreign investors by promising to respect private property and continue free-trade agreements. As a result, there have been few signs of investor flight.
"There is not even a thought of confiscations," Ortega told a group of business leaders at an October meeting at his Managua home, which included Christopher. "Foreign investment will help reduce our unemployment problem."
Indeed, his Sandinista party bears little resemblance to its revolutionary roots. Seven of the nine original junta leaders have abandoned Ortega, including his brother and former head of the army, Humberto Ortega. Jaime Morales, a former Contra whose home was confiscated by Daniel Ortega, is the nation's new vice president.
"Ortega has given absolute certainty for the respect of property rights," Morales said last month in a speech in San Juan del Sur designed to assure foreigners that their hotels and homes are safe investments.
Chris Berry, a 52-year-old former ballet dancer and a San Francisco resident who owns the Pelican Eyes resort in San Juan del Sur, says Sandinista officials have been "especially helpful" in his dispute over hillside property with a distant relative of Augusto Sandino, the famed revolutionary hero from the 1920s. "The Sandinistas have been assisting us throughout," said Berry.
Most political observers say Ortega is well aware that Nicaragua -- the hemisphere's poorest country after Haiti -- needs tourist dollars to benefit the impoverished voters who supported him. In 2006, tourism brought in $240 million -- surpassing the nation's coffee exports -- up from $189 million in 2005.
Indeed, Nicaragua's long stretch of white sand beaches and stunning vistas along the Pacific Coast have become hot destinations these days for not only investors but also retirees and U.S. and European tourists. Visitors are also lured by the nation's volcanoes, lakes, rain forests and colonial towns like Granada.
Calvet & Associates, a Managua consulting firm, says Californians are blazing the trail, accounting for nearly 20 percent of U.S. citizens inquiring about property. An estimated 6,000 U.S. citizens now live at least part time in Nicaragua, according to media reports.
Yet property confiscations during Sandinista rule in the 1980s have left bitter memories and a confusing array of title claims that can make buying property a tricky proposition. Although foreign investors can still find good deals, lawyers and real estate agents say, buyers should beware. A 2002 World Bank study said as many as 60 percent of Nicaraguan properties lack proper documentation.
"Finding property with a clear title is not an easy task," said John Margolis, who worked in the hospitality industry in San Francisco before purchasing 50 acres near La Bonita Beach, an hour's drive west of the capital, Managua. "We wanted something that was still off the radar, said the 41-year-old Margolis, who plans to build beachfront homes.
Aside from Christopher's experience, there have been at least three other beach area property disputes -- including one that turned violent. Three members of a group calling itself the Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Cooperative were shot and wounded Dec. 1 by security guards after entering a new development they claimed is being built on their land at Arenas Bay, a few miles south of Popoyo. The Nicaraguan owner, Armel Gonzalez, said that the guards acted in self-defense.
"Some followers of Ortega believe we are going back to the '80s," said Gonzalez. "But that's not going to happen."
Most owners of confiscated properties either have reclaimed their land or been compensated. According to the U.S. Embassy, more than 4,500 Nicaraguans who fled to the United States during the 1979 Sandinista's revolution against dictator Anastasio Somoza have received compensation mainly by government bonds.
Vice President Morales has warned poor Nicaraguans who have lost redistributed land in subsequent years not to expect the new government to return those properties. "No invasions will be allowed," he has said.
These few land disputes, however, have not deterred tourism, which is transforming once sleepy fishing villages such as San Juan del Sur into fashionable retreats dotted by million-dollar homes and $400-a-night hillside spas. Further up the coast are a growing number of gated communities, which offer American-style suburban homes and Nicaragua's first golf course along the Pacific Coast.
"There used to be nothing but livestock and farms here," said Steve Snider, who sailed to Nicaragua from his San Diego home 10 years ago.
Snider, now a real estate agent, says cheap land deals are becoming harder to find. Yet, he says property in Nicaragua still sells for about 25 percent less than in Belize and Panama, two other hot spots in Central America for American investors.
Meanwhile, Christopher is gearing up for what he describes as a "battle royal" if he and his business partners are forcibly evicted by the Nahualap. He expects a judicial order soon that will allow him to oust the protesters and fence off the disputed area.
"Clearly, this is not what the Sandinistas want to deal with right now," said Christopher.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301253.html
Sunday, January 14, 2007; Page A14
Argentina Pursues Iran in '94 Blast As Neighbors Court Ahmadinejad
By Monte Reel / Washington Post Foreign Service
BUENOS AIRES -- As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Latin America this weekend to strengthen economic and political ties with the region, Argentina's Néstor Kirchner will not be in the line of presidents turning out to greet him.
Kirchner's government has reinvigorated attempts to prosecute Iranian figures for their alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here, recently issuing arrest warrants for nine former Iranian officials. Among those sought is former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, accused of ordering the attack that killed 85 people and injured more than 200.
[A bomb exploded at a Jewish community center in downtown Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200. Efforts to prosecute in the case, initially stalled by judicial corruption, have led to the indictments of nine former Iranian officials. (1994 Photo By Alejandro Pagni -- Associated Press) ]
The pursuit of Iran has been frustrated over the years by blatant corruption in the Argentine judicial system and accusations of coverups. The latest efforts to resolve the case come as much of the region is expanding relations with Iran, and several of Argentina's regional allies are pledging support for Ahmadinejad's government.
The Iranian leader plans to meet this week with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Bolivia's Evo Morales and possibly others. They are expected to discuss broadening bilateral agreements, such as the technology-sharing deals that Chávez signed with Iran last year.
"Clearly the actors driving all of this are Chávez and Ahmadinejad," said Michael Shifter, an analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy forum in Washington. "Both of them see themselves as global players, and so it's nice for them to build these sorts of alliances and coalitions, which people like Correa and Morales are inclined to join in."
Although Argentina maintains friendly relations with each of those leaders, Kirchner's domestic agenda is driving him in a different direction. For example, he canceled plans to attend Correa's inauguration ceremony Monday after Ahmadinejad announced that he would attend.
The continuing U.S. conflict with Iran complicates matters further: Some critics contend that Kirchner's government has been manipulated by a regionally unpopular U.S. government that wants to use the Argentine court rulings to stir international outrage against Iran.
When one of Kirchner's most loyal and high-profile domestic allies -- former street activist Luis D'Elia -- recently suggested that U.S. and Israeli pressure was fueling Argentina's pursuit of Iran, he was forced to resign from his government post two days later.
For many people in Argentina, the indictments have been a bright spot in a case that has been marred for years by botched attempts to bring the bombers to justice.
"Now at least there is hope, a small light that can be seen in the darkness," said Luis Sergio Grynwald, president of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association, the community organization targeted in the attack. "That light hasn't been reached yet, and we'd like it to be bigger, but it's still a light."
The bombing was the second attack on a Jewish target in Argentina. In 1992, a suicide bomber struck the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29.
Shortly after the community center blast, then-Argentine President Carlos Menem blamed the attack on Islamic extremists from Iran. Menem was eventually saddled with some of the blame for the derailed investigations that followed: In 2002, a former Iranian intelligence official alleged that Menem, by then out of office, had received $10 million to cover up Tehran's role in the attack. Menem vigorously denied the accusation, but it nonetheless damaged his standing.
The judge investigating the community center bombing -- Juan José Galeano -- was also criticized for undermining the case. He was impeached after being found guilty of misdeeds including paying a defendant $400,000 to testify. He also lost hundreds of hours of wiretap recordings and other evidence.
The only suspects to be tried in the case have been four Argentine police officers and a car thief who were charged as accessories for providing the van used in the bombing. They were acquitted for lack of proof.
Following the judicial missteps, prosecutor Alberto Nisman has been leading a team of investigators dedicated solely to the community center bombing. In late October, Nisman said that his team traced the bombing to a planning session held in 1993 in the Iranian city of Mashhad. He said the motive for the attack had been Argentina's decision to withdraw some of its support for Iran's nuclear ambitions and for its decision to strengthen relations with the United States and Israel.
In November, an Argentine judge said that Nisman's team had provided convincing evidence and issued arrest warrants for the nine former Iranian officials, including Rafsanjani, who was president from 1989 to 1997.
Iran has repeatedly proclaimed its officials had nothing to do with the bombing. In the weeks since Iran said it would ignore the extradition requests, Rafsanjani has maintained a high public profile in Iran, running for a seat in a council of clerics in December.
Even Nisman acknowledges that arresting the suspects is a long shot as long as they stay in Iran. But he insisted that people who criticize his request for the warrants -- particularly those who say he did it solely to bolster the U.S. political case against Iran -- are wrong.
"Unfortunately, there's an upside-down analysis that's happening here," Nisman said. "Instead of analyzing all of this in terms of the proof we have compiled, people are analyzing the case in terms of political convenience."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400476.html
Sunday, January 14, 2007; 4:48 PM
Iran, Nicaragua leaders tour slums, share goals
By Anahi Rama / Reuters
MANAGUA (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a U.S. foe, toured shantytowns with Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega on Sunday and said the two countries share common interests and enemies.
On his second trip to Latin America in four months, Ahmadinejad called Ortega, a former Cold War opponent of Washington and part of a growing wave of leftist presidents in the region, a symbol of justice in Nicaragua.
"We have to give each other a hand," Ahmadinejad told reporters. "We have common interests, common enemies and common goals."
While distrusted by Washington, oil-exporting Iran's Ahmadinejad is welcomed in many Latin American countries where leftist leaders are trying to reduce U.S. influence.
Ahmadinejad, an ex-soldier, and Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, both came to power on populist platforms.
Ortega drove Ahmadinejad on a tour of Managua's poorest slums, past houses made of plastic sheets and Sandinista supporters waving banners and holding up photographs of the Iranian leader.
Ortega, a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, began his term last week after winning November's election on promises to fight hunger and corruption.
Ahmadinejad is also close to Chavez, a fierce critic of President Bush, and visited him on Saturday before going to Nicaragua later in the evening.
TAKING SIDES
Ortega said he would sign agreements with Ahmadinejad to help reduce poverty in Nicaragua, the Western Hemisphere's second-poorest country after Haiti. He gave no details.
"In our Iranian brothers we have a people, a government, a president willing to join with the Nicaraguan people in the great battle against poverty," Ortega said.
Washington accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism and seeking to build atomic bombs, charges Tehran denies.
Chavez has backed Ahmadinejad in his battle with the international community over Iran's nuclear program, which last month led to limited U.N. sanctions.
As president of Nicaragua in the 1980s, Ortega and his Sandinista movement confiscated businesses and farms after toppling a U.S.-backed dictator.
Those policies, combined with a U.S. economic blockade and a war against U.S.-backed Contra rebels, plunged the coffee-producing country into chaos.
Since then, Ortega has said he learned his lesson and has dropped Marxism for a center-left program.
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos told reporters both countries would reopen their embassies after withdrawing their diplomats in 1990, when Ortega left office.
Following his stop in Nicaragua, Ahmadinejad will visit Ecuador, where the presidential race was recently won by Rafael Correa, another critic of U.S. policies.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400354.html
Sunday, January 14, 2007; 1:15 PM
Iran Leader Courts Latin America Allies
By TRACI CARL / The Associated Press
MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Iran and Nicaragua said Sunday they will open embassies in each other's capitals as Iran's hard-line president courted leftist allies in Latin America in an effort to offset Washington's global influence.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Managua as part of a whirlwind series of meetings with Latin America's newly inaugurated leftist leaders, who are linked as much by their opposition to the United States as by their political tendencies.
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Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega (L) welcomes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the international airport in Managua, Nicaragua, Saturday, Jan, 13, 2007. Ahmadinejad visit Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador during a Latin American tour..(AP Photo/Esteban Felix) (Esteban Felix - AP) PHOTOS
Ahmadinejad visited fellow OPEC-member Venezuela on Saturday, pledging with President Hugo Chavez to spend billions of dollars financing projects in other countries.
Ahmadinejad, president of a fundamentalist Shiite theocracy deeply hostile to Washington, was meeting with Nicaragua's newly inaugurated leftist President Daniel Ortega, whose first government faced a U.S.-backed guerrilla insurgency during the 1980s.
Ortega's foreign minister, Samuel Santos, told reporters the opening of the embassies in Managua and Tehran was a step toward bringing the two nations closer. They previously had limited ties through Iran's embassy in Mexico City.
"I'm sure this won't be the last visit" by Ahmadinejad to Nicaragua, Santos said.
Ahmadinejad's tour comes as he seeks allies in the international debate over his country's nuclear program and its alleged meddling in Iraq. The Iranian leader has come under increasing criticism at home, with both conservatives and reformists alike openly saying his provocative remarks have increasingly isolated their country, which now faces sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.
On Monday, Ahmadinejad will attend the inauguration of Ecuador's new president, Rafael Correa, and meet with Bolivian President Evo Morales, both critics of the Bush administration and its policies in Latin America.
Venezuela and Iran, both oil-rich nations, had previously announced plans for a joint $2 billion fund to finance investments in their own countries, but Chavez and Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the money would also be used for international projects.
"It will permit us to underpin investments ... above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the (U.S.) imperialist yoke," Chavez said.
Ahmadinejad called it a "very important" decision that would help promote "joint cooperation in third countries," especially in Latin American and African countries.
It was not clear if the leaders were referring to investment in infrastructure, social and energy projects _ areas that the two countries have focused on until now _ or other types of financing.
Before his meeting with Ahmadinejad, Chavez said in his state of the nation address that he had told Thomas Shannon, head of the U.S. State Department's Western Hemisphere affairs bureau, he hoped for better relations between their two countries.
Chavez said he spoke with Shannon on the sidelines of Ortega's inauguration earlier this week, saying, "We shook hands and I told him: 'I hope that everything improves.'"
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro whom Washington sees as a destabilizing influence, has pledged billions of dollars to the region in foreign aid, bond buyouts and preferentially financed oil deals.
Iran, meanwhile, is allegedly bankrolling militant groups in the Middle East like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, as well as insurgents in Iraq, in a bid to extend its influence.
On Saturday, the U.S. military said five Iranians arrested in northern Iraq last week were connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq.
Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday denied reports that nuclear activities had stalled at one of its uranium enrichment plants and reiterated it would press ahead with the program, which the West fears could be used to make nuclear arms.
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http://www.spokesmanreview.com/features/story.asp?ID=168796
January 14, 2007
Book Review "Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge" edited by Ilan Stavans and Harold Augenbraum (Mariner Books, $13)
'Latinos' offers newer writers
Lesley Tellez / Dallas Morning News
The editors of "Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge" want to showcase the "next wave" of Latino writing – authors who, even though they're bilingual and bicultural, don't fixate on how their ethnicity makes them different from everyone else. They're American, and that's it.
For readers new to contemporary Latino literature, the anthology offers a chance to explore beyond tried-and-true authors such as Sandra Cisneros. Those more familiar with Latino writers might not see any new names, but it's exciting to see them all in one place. Many of the contributors are ambitious, bright up-and-comers, including Cristina Henriquez (whose stories have recently appeared in The New Yorker), "Loving Che" author Ana Menendez, and Oscar Casares, who writes for Texas Monthly. A few well-established veterans, such as Dagoberto Gilb, also make appearances.
"Lengua Fresca" purposely tries not to be stuffy, so pop culture is embraced, too. La Cucaracha's Lalo Alcaraz contributes a comic; the Hip Hop Hoodios, a Latino-Jewish hip-hop group based in New York, offer lyrics.
It's a wide spectrum, but not all of the pieces work. The mix of genres – an essay, followed by a comic, followed by a restaurant menu, for instance – can be jarring.
Readers may not like every story, but they'll enjoy the ride.
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http://www.workersliberty.org/node/7547
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Submitted on 13 January, 2007
Stop the repression in Oaxaca
The struggle in Oaxaca was one of high points of workers struggle anywhere in the world last year. Now the movement of teachers and others in APPO is facing savage repression. We need to tell the story of the Oaxacan commune and make practical solidarity with workers under attack.
The latest Mexican Labor News and Analysis contains a report on the situation, based on a visit by trade unionists and lawyers 17-21 December.
The report says that the Mexican National Commission for Human Rights issued its preliminary report on December 18, in which it concluded that 20 people had been killed, 370 injured and 349 imprisoned since June 2, 2006. The delegation were told that many others have disappeared or are in hiding. The Commission reported that it had received 1,211 complaints regarding alleged violations of human rights due to the “improper use of the police forces, arbitrary detentions, people held incommunicado, disappearances, damage, injuries, threats and illegal raids,” concluding: "The parties [to the conflict] and the Federal Preventive Police, which intervened for the purpose of restoring public order, have used violence repeatedly and excessively. As a consequence, the institutional, social and cultural life of the state has been damaged."
Examples of repression in the report are:
On October 28 four people were killed, including indymedia journalist Brad Will and a teacher, Emilio Alonso Fabian. The following day, the federal preventive police were sent into Oaxaca.
Then, on November 25th, the federal preventive police in full riot gear responded to provocateurs by firing tear gas into the crowd. The police had encircled the area some six to eight blocks away, so when people ran to escape the police and tear gas, many were picked up who had nothing to do with the march or with APPO.
Men and women were beaten, thrown face down and stacked on trucks. Of the 170 detained that day, 141 were subsequently transported to an airfield where they were taken by helicopter to Nayarit, some 745 miles away… The following week, some teachers were arrested in their classrooms, and people were dragged from their homes.
A student leader was detained by police wearing civilian clothing when leaving a movement radio station. He was hit on the head with a pistol, which left a gash in his face. He was told to write a false confession that he had a pistol and coke and was kicked and hit until he did so. He was also given the names of three activists and told to write that two had burned trucks and the third was the boss of the other two. He heard someone take off his belt and was asked if he had ever been fucked and how it felt. They subsequently sprayed something on his back which he understood they were going to set on fire, although they did not actually do so. Six days later he was finally released on bond and charged with theft.
A university student who was arrested affirmed that they did not have weapons, only papers, and that these were illegal arrests. He said two people were arrested for having union credentials, another for being the group’s spokesperson, one for wearing a Tai Kwan Do jacket, and that he believed that he was arrested for objecting, for having papers where he had written something about what was going on in Oaxaca, and for having UNAM identification. He said that some 200 armed Federal Highway Police stopped them, and hit them for three hours. They put blankets over them and kicked them, he explained, in order not to show marks. They brandished loaded weapons and told them they had three seconds to run. He said they suffered “physical blows and also with words.” When they were transported by helicopter, the police kept threatening to throw them out of the back of the helicopters and asking if they could fly.
We also know about other cases involving teachers:
On Wednesday 18 October, primary school teacher, Pánfilo Hernández Vásquez was coming out of an assembly with neighbours in the Jardín neighbourhood, when he was shot twice in the abdomen. He later died from his injuries.
Source: Narconews
Erangelio Mendoza Gonzalez, former general secretary of Section 22 del SNTE was imprisoned from the beginning of August until the end of October.
Source: Education International
Macario Otálo Padilla, the former director of Section 22 of the National Teachers Union (SNTE) was kidnapped on 18 December with two other APPO activists. They were taken to a private home, beaten and tortured and then dumped behind a shopping mall after a two-hour ordeal.
Source: Narconews
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/13/pentagon.bank.records.ap/index.html
POSTED: 10:30 p.m. EST, January 13, 2007
Pentagon, CIA check U.S. suspects' bank records
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon and to a lesser extent the CIA have been using a little-known power to look at the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage within the United States, according to a published report.
"It is our understanding that the intelligence community agencies make such requests on a limited basis," said Carl Kropf, a spokesman for the Office of the National Intelligence Director, which oversees all 16 spy agencies in the government.
The so-called national security letters permit the executive branch to seek records about people in terror and spy investigations without a judge's approval or grand jury subpoena. Government lawyers maintain the legal authority for such tactics is years old and was strengthened by the Patriot Act.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
That has prompted criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who claim they invade the privacy of Americans' lives, even though banks and other financial institutions typically turn over the financial records voluntarily.
The New York Times, in an article posted Saturday on the Internet, said the Pentagon and CIA also have been using their own versions of the letters to aid investigative work.
Congressional officials said members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had been briefed on the Pentagon and CIA's use of the letters, the newspaper said.
The vast majority of national security letters are issued by the FBI, but in very rare circumstances they have been used by the CIA before and after 9/11, said a U.S. intelligence official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.
The CIA has used these non-compulsory letters in espionage investigations and other circumstances, the official said.
"It is very uncommon for the agency to be issuing these letters," the official said. "The agency has the authority to do so, and it is absolutely lawful."
A government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said one example of a case in which the letters were used was the 1994 case of CIA officer Aldrich Ames, who eventually was found to have been selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
Neither official commented about the extent of possible use by Defense Department agencies, but Pentagon officials defended their use to the Times, saying they were part of a post-September 11 strategy to use more aggressive intelligence-gathering techniques.
Kropf's remarks to the AP did not address specifics of the Times story, which said military intelligence officers have sent letters in up to 500 investigations.
"There's a strong tradition of not using our military for domestic law enforcement," said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, a former general counsel at both the National Security Agency and the CIA and dean at the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific told the Times. "They're moving into territory where historically they have not been authorized or presumed to be operating."
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http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/107179.html
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Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, January 13, 2007
Border fence's cost estimate called too high
McClatchy Washington Bureau -
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A12
Estimates that a 700-mile fence along the Southwestern border could cost nearly $50 billion to build and maintain are more than 20 times the actual cost and are being circulated by the "mission impossible" crowd in Washington to help stoke opposition to the barrier, two Republican lawmakers said Friday.
California Rep. Duncan Hunter of Alpine and Rep. Steve King of Iowa challenged an analysis by the Congressional Research Service. The December report, which was publicized last week, said the cost of building and maintaining the fence for 25 years could range from $16.4 million to $70 million per mile. Under the highest projections, a 700-mile fence would cost $49 billion.
The CRS, which prepares analyses for lawmakers, detailed the cost projections in a 41-page overview of barriers along the U.S. border. The estimates were attributed to a study from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, based on the costs of erecting and maintaining a double-layer fence.
Calls to two CRS spokesmen weren't returned.
"These numbers are grossly inflated," said King, a former construction contractor who said he's familiar with fence building.
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http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/2007/enero07/vier12/03alba.html
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Havana. Januery 12, 2007
Now we are four in the ALBA
BY JOAQUIN RIVERY TUR AND JUVENAL BALAN—Granma daily special correspondents—
MANAGUA, January 11.—With the official declaration that Nicaragua is to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the signing of its founding document, there are now four countries making up this new form of peoples’ integration.
Representatives of the new integration bloc were present at an event in the Rubén Darío Theater that President Daniel Ortega described as historic when he affirmed that Nicaragua had adopted the principles of the ALBA founding declaration, dated December 14, 2004, and signed at that time by President Fidel Castro and President Hugo Chávez. Then Bolivia, the third member, joined in April 2006 and the Trade Treaty of the Peoples was incorporated.
The principles, as noted by José Ramón Machado, vice president of the Council of State of Cuba, are solidarity, cooperation and complementarity in a region where basic human rights like education, health and social security are problems that have to be solved.
The four signatories of Nicaragua’s incorporation condemned the trail of poverty left by the application of neoliberal formulas. Ortega noted that an emergency situation has been created in Nicaragua over the last 16 years, and Machado Ventura stressed the changes that are needed by the peoples and that cannot be postponed.
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“We are going in the right direction, we are already many,” exclaimed Evo. “The hour of the resurrection of the peoples in this new battle has arrived,” stated Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.
And Fidel was present. His name resounded in the theater in the voices of the four signatories with acknowledgment, in friendship, with affection. Because his ideas are starting to bear fruit.
The Nicaraguan president decorated Chávez and Evo Morales with the Augusto César Sandino Order in the highest grade of the Battle of San Vicente. Fidel has already received that recognition.
After signing the documents, the four signatories raised them on high and then, as a symbol of unity, extended their arms and placed them one over each other on the copies signed.
Translated by Granma International
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061120/ortega
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[posted online on November 7, 2006]
The Return of Daniel Ortega
by MARK ENGLER
If you listen to right-wing pundits and Republican officials, the return to power of former revolutionary Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua is not evidence of democracy in action but rather an invitation to Communist tyranny, terrorism and even nuclear holocaust. It appears that on November 5 Nicaraguans went to the polls and committed the sin of selecting a leader not in favor with the White House. With more than 60 percent of the votes now counted, Ortega has won 39 percent, while his nearest rival, right-wing banker Eduardo Montealegre of the of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, holds only 31 percent. In the five-way race for the presidency, this margin is enough to hand a victory to Ortega's Sandinista-led coalition, giving the political party control of the executive for the first time since 1990.
A statistical sample of polling places suggests that Ortega's lead will hold, and this likelihood has prodded US conservatives into some fits of fantastically overblown rhetoric. At National Review, former Reagan and George H.W. Bush speechwriter Mark Klugmann writes, "a Nicaragua that opens its arms to murderous radicalism poses a threat for America and the world.... A nuclear North Korea and a nuclear Iran could be in position, with an ally so close to our porous frontier, to wreak the havoc we once thought only the Soviet Union could ever bring home."
Of course, the fantasy that a small, poor and geopolitically marginal Central American nation could be a major threat to US national security is a throwback to cold war-era propaganda films like Red Dawn. It reflects the current foreign policy mindset of Washington conservatives but does not resemble anything like reality.
The return of Daniel Ortega to Nicaragua's presidency hardly portends a menacing new danger for the US heartland. It does, however, mark two important developments in the rise of an increasingly independent Latin America. First, given concerted efforts on the part of the Bush Administration to influence the outcome of the election, it signals that US threats of retaliation may no longer be sufficient to keep Central American citizens from voting for leaders willing to buck Washington's economic program. Second, in spite of Ortega's standing as a deeply compromised political figure, his election provides a modest opening for hope that a new Nicaraguan administration might do a better job of addressing the country's endemic poverty than have the past sixteen years of neoliberal rule.
The scare stories spun by conservative pundits like Klugmann echo the only somewhat more subtle alarmism voiced by Republican lawmakers in the lead-up to the Nicaraguan elections. In recent years, the White House has chosen to remain silent during many electoral contests in Latin America. This does not reflect a newfound respect for democratic self-determination; it is pragmatic. Washington learned the hard way that its admonitions can backfire when delivered to Latin America voters fed up with having economic policy dictated from the North--as was the case in Bolivia in 2002, when US attacks on Evo Morales helped him gain the stature that would ultimately propel him to the presidency this year. However, the United States has maintained an overt involvement in some elections, especially in cold-war hot spots Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Bush Administration efforts over the past year to prevent the Nicaraguan electorate from choosing Ortega were particularly heavy-handed. Violating diplomatic protocol, US Ambassador Paul Trivelli expressed an open preference for Ortega's opponents, and he made repeated efforts to unite the Nicaraguan right around a single candidate. (He failed, and the divide among Nicaraguan conservatives helped pave the way for the Sandinistas' victory.) Adding to Trivelli's meddling, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez suggested that more than $220 million in aid and hundreds of millions more in investments could be jeopardized if voters picked the wrong candidate.
In the last week of the campaign, several Republican members of Congress stepped up the threats. Most radically, they proposed to block the stream of money sent from Nicaraguan immigrants in the United States to impoverished family members back home in Central America. In an October 30 letter to Nicaraguan Ambassador Salvador Stadthagen, Representative Tom Tancredo wrote, "if the FSLN takes control of the government in Nicaragua, it may be necessary for the United States authorities to examine closely and possibly apply special controls to the flow of $850 million in remittances from the United States to Nicaragua--unfortunately to the detriment of many people living in Nicaragua." In a public letter addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Representatives Ed Royce and Peter Hoekstra added, "We share US Ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli's assessment that an Ortega victory would force the United States to fully 're-evaluate' relations with Nicaragua."
With the memory of the United States' debilitating economic embargo of the 1980s still fresh, Nicaraguan voters do not take suggestions of retaliation from Washington lightly. In 1990 the United States made clear that its embargo, as well as funding for terrorist contra forces, would continue if Ortega were re-elected. This blackmail played a decisive role in pushing the Sandinistas from office.
Ironically, even as the White House portrays Ortega as a committed and unrepentant leftist, the real concern is whether he has fully compromised the progressive ideals he once espoused as a leader in the movement that overthrew Nicaragua's longstanding Somoza dictatorship. Ortega has been criticized by former partisans for keeping a tight hold on the leadership of the Sandinistas, quashing efforts to democratize the party and expelling members like former Managua Mayor Herty Lewites, who announced intentions to challenge Ortega's power. In the 1990s, many of the most prominent cultural and intellectual figures in the Sandinista movement, including liberation theologian and poet Ernesto Cardenal, poet and novelist Gioconda Belli and Ortega's former Vice President Sergio Ramirez, broke ranks to form a dissident party, the Sandinista Renovation Movement. In the first half of this year, Lewites made a strong showing as that party's presidential candidate, but he suffered a massive heart attack and died in July, crippling the Renovation Movement's efforts for the election cycle.
Beyond internal strife within the Sandinistas, Ortega's record has been marred by public scandals. In 1998 a grown stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez, accused Ortega of sexually abusing her for years, starting when she was an adolescent. The following year, Ortega brokered a pact with then-president Arnoldo Aleman, who was facing charges of corruption. El pacto, as the shady deal is ominously known in Nicaragua, allowed both men to avoid prosecution by granting them parliamentary immunity. It also made Ortega into one of the country's most weighty power brokers by giving him control over many governmental appointments. While el pacto remains in place, Aleman was later stripped of his immunity and is now under house arrest, having been convicted of embezzling approximately $100 million from the government.
Despite Ortega's many flaws, the return of the Sandinistas to power creates the possibility of change that can genuinely benefit Nicaragua's poor. Ortega campaigned on a platform criticizing the "savage capitalism" implemented by the successive conservative governments that have ruled the country over the past sixteen years. In the decade and a half since the end of the contra war, neoliberal economic policies like privatizing public industries and creating "free trade" zones have failed to launch an economic recovery. Today Nicaragua ranks with Haiti and Bolivia among the poorest nations in the hemisphere. It remains to be seen what Ortega's political program will look like during his new term as president: whether he can be held accountable to the impoverished populations he claims to represent and whether his party can reverse trends of deepening hardship and desperation. But this is no reason not to applaud Nicaraguan voters who stood up to Republican threats, rejected a continuation of neoliberalism and demanded better of their government.
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