Immigrant sanctuary laws seen as practical: SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/05/MN7U11JLM7.DTL&tsp=1 Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer E-mail: thendricks@sfchronicle.com . Saturday, July 5, 2008 San Francisco's 1989 sanctuary law grew out of the religious-based sanctuary movement through which churches across the country offered a safe haven to Central Americans who fled civil war and political persecution but were unable to gain asylum in the United States. For local governments, however, the motivation behind sanctuary policies today has more to do with effective policing than humanitarian impulses. "Some police departments say ... 'We don't want our police officers enforcing immigration law because if they do, victims and witnesses of crimes won't cooperate with us,' " said Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis law school and an expert on immigration and civil rights law. Last week, San Francisco's sanctuary ordinance came under fire after The Chronicle revealed the Juvenile Probation Department's practice of flying illegal immigrant teenagers convicted of drug offenses back to their home countries or housing them in unlocked group homes. Mayor Gavin Newsom denounced the practice, and city officials are now working with federal immigration authorities to develop a new approach for handling juvenile illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Legal analysts, city officials and immigrant advocates say San Francisco's practice was not required - and not intended - by sanctuary laws. Former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara, who is now a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, was aghast at the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department's approach: "It's just incredible to think they were spending all that money to help criminals evade being deported," he said. But he directed his officers not to cooperate with federal immigration raids when he was chief from 1976 to 1991 and said the policy played an important part in rebuilding community trust in the department. "There's a real debate going on nationally in police circles, but in almost every large city I know of, police departments have the same attitude: We have to work with these communities; we can't have them viewing the police as the enemy because then you get this 'Don't snitch' policy," McNamara said. Richmond police spokesman Lt. Mark Gagan has said his department's policy is not to investigate immigration status on its own but to work with the federal office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in dealing with violent criminals. San Francisco is among scores of cities in California and around the country with sanctuary laws, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Several states also have such policies. The laws vary, but most bar the use of local resources to enforce federal immigration rules or prohibit police and other local officials from questioning residents about their immigration status. They do generally allow cooperation with federal immigration officials in dealing with criminals. San Francisco's "city of refuge" policy arose in the 1980s when the United States was backing the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala and didn't recognize most of the refugees from those countries as having legitimate asylum claims. Kathleen Healy, a nun with the Sisters of the Presentation, remembers working with St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church to establish what is believed to be San Francisco's first sanctuary church. "We felt we were doing the right thing, even though we were warned we could be arrested," she said. "We took three refugee women into our convent." In 2007, faith leaders launched a new sanctuary movement geared toward protecting today's undocumented immigrants, most of whom are in the country for economic reasons. A pledge drafted by the interfaith New Sanctuary Movement states in part, "We are deeply grieved by the violence done to families through immigration raids. We cannot in good conscience ignore such suffering and injustice." Federal law doesn't require local governments to report illegal immigrants, but ICE officials encourage local and state law enforcement to collaborate. "We understand there may be policies and procedures at the local level that affect the way that collaboration can occur," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. "Our goal is to impress upon local agencies the ways the community can benefit." Federal immigration officials have been increasing their efforts to screen jail and prison inmates to find people who may be deportable, including both undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants who have committed certain felonies. Some local officials - from Florida state troopers to Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff's deputies - are getting training from federal immigration authorities and being deputized to enforce immigration law themselves. "Why is it that some cities are sanctuary cities and some are tough on immigrants? That reveals the ambivalence we have as a nation toward immigrants of all sorts and undocumented immigrants particularly," said Johnson, the UC Davis dean. "This is one of the myriad issues that come up in immigration law that hopefully Congress and the new president will take up in the near future. "Sometimes you want a policy even if you don't like what the policy is. I think the nation is yearning for a policy one way or another." San Francisco's City of Refuge Ordinance The ordinance reads, in part: "No department, agency, commission, officer or employee of the City and County of San Francisco shall use any City funds or resources to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law or to gather or disseminate information regarding the immigration status of individuals in the City and County of San Francisco unless such assistance is required by federal or State statute, regulation or court decision." The law was amended in 1992 to add: "Nothing in this Chapter shall prohibit, or be construed as prohibiting, a law enforcement officer from identifying and reporting any person pursuant to State an federal law or regulation who is in custody after being booked for the alleged commission of a felony and is suspected of violating the civil provisions of the immigration laws." Sanctuary laws More than 80 U.S. cities or states have sanctuary laws. They range widely from philosophical resolutions to more specific guidelines for police conduct. California sanctuaries Berkeley East Palo Alto Fresno Garden Grove (Orange County) Los Angeles Oakland Richmond San Diego San Francisco San Jose San Rafael Santa Cruz Watsonville Sonoma County U.S. sanctuary cities (A partial list) Anchorage, Alaska Hartford, Conn. Chicago Portland, Maine Baltimore Boston Ann Arbor, Mich. Detroit Minneapolis St. Paul, Minn. St. Louis Newark, N.J. New York Philadelphia Austin, Texas Houston Seattle Madison, Wis. Sanctuary states Alaska District of Columbia Montana New Mexico Oregon Source: National Immigration Law Center http://www.nilc.org/ c/s >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Comment: The only humane way to deal with the whole question of undocumented Mexican immigrants functioning and working inside the United States is complete and unconditional amnesty for otherwise law-biding immigrants. A general amnesty that can be complimented with background checks for violent crimes that have been committed by anyone after a fair trial by a jury of peers, according to the U.S. Constitution. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Come Together and Create! Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta Sacramento, California, Aztlan Email: sacranative@yahoo.com C/S

Migrants back and forth: by SAMER ELATRASH

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2006/102606/news1.html Migrants back and forth An anti-union environment and the threat of repatriation make life difficult for Quebec's Mexican agricultural workers by SAMER ELATRASH photos by RACHEL GRANOFSKY It is a summer afternoon on a farm near St-Rémi, a half hour drive from Montreal, and columns of hunching Mexican workers trudge along rows of onions to harvest the crop. They pause when this correspondent and a photographer show up to snap pictures. Two forewomen, young Quebecers both, look on amusedly for a few minutes before shooing us away. This would be another summer of diminishing returns for Quebec farmers, and of defiance from some of their Mexican workers. The returns of farming in Quebec are as fickle as the weather here, and this year farmers began the season with growing debt and news that the federal government wouldn't meet its promises of assistance. At le Légumière, a farm close to St-Rémi, the boss had another surprise as the summer ended, when he approached three Mexican workers who were organizing to become the first unionized migrant Mexican farm workers in the province and told them they would be sent back to Mexico the next day. One of the workers, Bonifacio Santos, never boarded the plane, opting to challenge the repatriation before the Quebec Labour Relations Commission. The Commission awarded him an injunction and will consider this week a motion filed by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada arguing for the migrant workers' right to join a union. Devil may care The owners of le Légumière refuse to comment on the case and their lawyer didn't return calls from the Mirror. Santos claims that, ever since he was reinstated, the boss has taken to insulting him before other workers, referring to him as "the devil." "'Where is the devil?', the boss asks when I'm not around," Santos says, shrugging his shoulders. "When he approached me to send me back, he said there wasn't enough work, and that was good enough reason. But he's never done that before. The way they repatriate us is unjust, and I want to say: 'No, this is not right." Over the summer, Santos had gone on St-Rémi's radio station asking for better conditions for the estimated 4,000 migrant workers who came to Quebec this year—3,000 from Mexico, and others from Guatemala and the Caribbean. Some 150,000 Mexican workers, many from farming communities in the Mexican states of Morelos and Pueblo, have come and gone on a seasonal agricultural workers' agreement between the Canadian and Mexican governments since it began 32 years ago, says the Mexican consulate in Montreal. The workers, most family men, some teenagers and some well into retirement age, might work every day of the week at the height of the season, making enough money to cover their debts in Mexico (many workers, especially the newcomers to the program, come saddled with debt) and to send remittances to their families. Santos is sitting behind a large table in the meeting room of the radio station, which the UFCW organizers have turned into a makeshift office for the evening. The radio station is across a parking lot from a Provigo. Every Thursday and Sunday, buses bring in Mexican workers from their lodging on surrounding farms to shop at the Provigo, and the workers, dressed in their finest shirts, then stroll out into the lot pushing carts of bread, milk, chips and hot dogs. Every Thursday and Sunday, the union organizers hand out leaflets and go through paperwork brought to them by workers. This evening, two UFCW organizers sit at the end of the table labouring through a thicket of tax and medical forms, surrounded by tired looking workers. All comes to a standstill when Santos, a charismatic man in his 30s who holds the respect of the other workers in the room, thumps the table when asked why migrant workers need to unionize. "[The people at the Mexican consulate] are a bunch of liars," Santos says. "Workers aren't content if they're tempted to unionize. Ask the consulate how many ill workers they sent back without support or benefits. Ask them how many times they have visited the farms to see the conditions of the workers." Negotiation without representation Fernando Borja, the Mexican consular official stationed in Montreal to oversee the migrant labour program, says most workers are happy with their conditions. "The Ministry of Labour in Mexico took a poll of workers in Mexico, and 91.2 per cent say they're happy," according to Borja. However, a 2003 poll conducted in Mexico by the North South Institute suggests 60 percent of surveyed workers supported unionizing in Quebec. Borja says the Mexican government constantly negotiates the contract with the Canadian government, increasing their wages over the years to $8.50 an hour. When a farm boss has a problem with a worker and wants to repatriate him, Borja is the person whom an employer should approach. He says the consulate takes no sides in these conflicts. "We don't make decisions based on accounts from employees," he says. But, "We also talk to the worker to see who's saying what." However, Borja says the first time he heard of Santos's case was when he learned Santos hadn't boarded the plane back to Mexico. In that case, he wasn't approached, he says, because Santos was being sent home on grounds of lack of work, and he has learned the details from Santos's lawyers. "It wasn't a repatriation per se," he says. "But apparently he was the one doing union activities." In the summer, another worker was repatriated shortly after he complained about his conditions in a radio interview, UFCW organizers say. Borja says he hasn't heard of that case, nor of the worker who was sent back after it was discovered he had developed a hernia while in Quebec, according to the UFCW. Borja refuses to take a position on unionizing, although he says, "If the Canadian government decides this is too much trouble, that the workers are not happy, that could be bad for the workers." Protection lacking The UFCW says it has to intervene. "I've never in my life seen a contract negotiated without the involvement of workers," says Louis Bolduc, assistant director of UFCW Canada. "These people have a right to be represented and to join a union. Most farmers are good employers. But some others, they treat the workers as garbage." UFCW organizers and workers who spoke to the Mirror say many of them don't trust the Mexican consulate, which they accuse of usually siding with the bosses, and workers face problems that remain outstanding and ignored. "The migrant workers want to see the contracts respected, have proper wages and housing should be respectable," says Bolduc. "Sometimes the workers are sent to the field an hour after the chemicals are placed," he claims. René Mantha, who heads Foundation of Companies for the Recruitment of Foreign Labour, an association of more than 300 farms in Quebec that hire migrant labour, says unionizing workers threatens Quebec agriculture by increasing production costs. "There are no unions in agriculture elsewhere," he says. "How can we compete?" Mantha says he was surprised to hear Mexican workers were calling for a union. "These workers have good conditions," he says. "They're paid more than minimum wage, they come back every year. No one forces them to come back." Quebec farms need the migrant workers because, "There are no Canadians available to do this job," he says. "They have the choice to do something else. We can't force anybody to work in agriculture. "I don't think consumers are preoccupied by these questions," he says. "They're looking for the cheapest price." COVER | INSIDE | NEWS | MUSIC/FILM/ARTS | ENTERTAINMENT LISTINGS | LETTERS | COLUMNS SEARCH | WEBMASTER | STAFF - CONTACT US | ARCHIVES | SITEM http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/ http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/ Come Together and Create! Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta Sacramento, California, Aztlan Email: sacranative@yahoo.com C/S

Venezuela and OAS Reject EU Anti-Immigrant “Law of Shame”

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3579 Venezuela and OAS Reject EU Anti-Immigrant "Law of Shame" June 21st 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com Mérida, June 20, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- The immigrant incarceration and deportation law passed by the European Union's (EU) parliament on Wednesday is a "law of shame," according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who threatened economic retaliation and urged Latin American and world leaders to unite against the measure. "We call on Latin America, members of parliament, independent of whether we are from the Left or the Right, the OAS [Organization of American States], the United Nations and African nations," Chávez proclaimed Thursday, "let us unite forces in one single cry: Respect the dignity of our people, we will make it be respected." The EU approved a law Wednesday that could force the 27 member states to adopt stricter immigration policies by 2010, including the detention of undocumented immigrants for 18 months prior to their expulsion, 5-year bans on returning after expulsion, and the use of advanced satellite technology and more invasive screening procedures. Chávez threatened to deny investment opportunities to countries which enforce the new law. "If any European country begins to apply this, and puts in jail Colombians, Paraguayans, Ecuadorians, Bolivians... then we are going to review the investments that they have here in order for us as well to apply a return order. Return their investments to them!" Chávez exclaimed. The leader of Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution" also vowed that Venezuelan oil "should not arrive to those European countries" which carry out the law. In addition, President Chávez asserted that future political and economic summits with EU leaders will not be necessary if the new law takes effect. "For what are we going to meet with them, if they are mistreating our Latin American brothers?" he asked rhetorically. The EU Foreign Relations Chief, Javier Solana, deemed Chávez's reaction "totally disproportionate." The Czech Foreign Relations Minister, portrayed Chávez's threats as economically empty. "Venezuela supplies oil principally to the United States, so if they decide to cut off deliveries to us, it would not represent a big change for us," he said. According to the Venezuelan newspaper Panorama, the most recently available statistics show that Venezuelan oil represented less than 1% of European oil imports in 2005. Chávez, however, emphasized along with many of his Latin American counterparts the moral significance of the EU law. He highlighted that "legions" of hungry, impoverished European immigrants came to Latin America throughout the World Wars and depressions of the Twentieth Century, and "none of them was mistreated or returned to Europe." Asking where the half a million undocumented immigrants in Europe are supposed to go, Chávez railed, "they will have to make concentration camps... will Europe be so indignant as to return to concentration camps?" But President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, a country already invested heavily in Venezuela's banking, airlines, hotel, energy, and communications industries, suggested that Chávez has misunderstood the new law, and promised to "explain to the Venezuelan president exactly what the directive consists of." "Have no doubt that we will explain it," said Zapatero, to be sure that "the relationship of Europe with all the Latin American countries continues being positive." The Organization of American States (OAS) and several Latin American heads of state have also issued harsh rejections of the new EU policy. "Once again the developed world has approved a repressive measure against illegal immigrants that directly affects many Latin Americans," said OAS General Secretary José Miguel Insulza in a statement released Thursday. Insulza called it "paradox" that EU countries "insist on the positive character of the process of globalization," then "insist on rejecting for political reasons that which is stimulated by economic globalization" by adopting "measures like prolonged internment that treat illegal immigrants like delinquents, without even discussing or negotiating the issue with Latin American governments." The Paraguayan President-elect Fernando Lugo, who was visiting Chávez in Caracas Thursday, said the new immigration law is "erasing the image of good will" cultivated by the EU's behavior at summits such as the Trans-Atlantic summit held in Lima last month at which Latin American and EU leaders pledged to strengthen trade relations and put poverty and global warming at the top of their agendas. If this law were to take effect, "Europe would be converted into a big jail of immigrants from other continents," Lugo stated Thursday. Brazilian Foreign Relations Minister Celso Amorim called the law "contrary to the desired reduction of barriers to the free circulation of people." Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa condemned the law as a "true embarrassment" for Europe, and Bolivian President Evo Morales called for Latin American countries to unite with African countries to oppose the policy. The anti-immigration measure "violates human rights," according to Carlos Alvarez, the president of the South American free trade bloc MERCOSUR, who reiterated that it is "paradoxical" that the EU supports the free flow of capital but not of people. Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/ Printed: June 25th 2008 License: Published under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-nd). See creativecommons.org for more information. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Come Together and Create! Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta Sacramento, California, Aztlan Email: sacranative@yahoo.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/ http://www.networkaztlan.com/ C/S

Armed revolution in Latin America is over, says Chavez + Comment

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/armed-revolution-in-latin-america-is-over-says-chavez-843553.html Armed revolution in Latin America is over, says Chavez Hugo Chavez said Farc guerrillas should lay down their arms By David Usborne Tuesday, 10 June 2008 The armed revolutionary has no place in modern Latin America, the Venezuelan President has declared. Catching his critics off guard, Hugo Chavez called on the Marxist rebel army in neighbouring Colombia to lay down its arms and release its hostages, declaring that guerrilla armies are now "out of place". Adopting the mantle of international statesman, the Venezuelan President appeared to be stepping forward finally to turn a page of history for a continent that for decades has been blighted by eruptions of insurgent violence, not just in Colombia but also Nicaragua and El Salvador. As most of those conflicts have come to an end, Colombia has been alone in failing to end its own internal strife. "At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place," Mr Chavez said. "The guerrilla war is history," he asserted in his weekly television address, prompting expressions of both surprise and welcome among government leaders in Colombia. They have recently accused Venezuela of running a clandestine campaign of support for the Marxist rebels. Mr Chavez is no stranger to the revolutionary mantle. In 1992 his Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement – inspired by the 19th century independence guerrilla Simon Bolivar – made a doomed attempt to overthrow the government. Even now, having made the transition from rebel to politician, Mr Chavez is still the staunchest of supporters of the world's most famous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. Whether his latest comments represent a profound change of heart or not, they may help open a path to long-term peace in Colombia after 40 years of bloodshed. It is a time of deepening difficulties for Farc, the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which recently confirmed that its founder and top commander, Manuel Marulanda, also known as "Sureshot", had died of a heart attack at a jungle base in March. It has lost several other members of its top leadership in recent months. "I think the time has come for the Farc to free everyone they have in the mountains. It would be a great, humanitarian gesture in exchange for nothing. That is what I propose to the new [Farc] leader." Since the death of Mr Marulanda, who instigated his Marxist-inspired struggle in Colombia with a group of armed peasants in 1964, the group has been led by Alfonso Cano, a man described as being more bookish and potentially more moderate than the man he replaced. His statement on Sunday marked the first time that the Venezuelan leader had addressed Mr Cano directly. "I say to Cano, let's go. Release those people," Mr Chavez said unambiguously. Farc is believed to be holding as many as 750 hostages in remote jungle areas of Colombia. For much of its existence, it has relied on taking citizens captive in the hope of extracting large sums in ransom – a practice that became known as "miracle fishing". For years, Colombians lived in terror of Farc roadblocks when any of them could have found themselves snatched from their cars. A few dozen of those still in captivity are considered high-profile hostages. They include three military contractors from the United States and the former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt. Believed to be in poor health, Ms Betancourt holds joint French-Colombian citizenship. Her plight has been the subject of persistent lobbying by the French government for her release. Since coming to office in 2002, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe has waged a determined effort to restore order to the country and end civil war. Over four decades, tens of thousands of lives have been lost as Farc battled it out against right-wing paramilitary groups that sprung up to combat its grip on the country as well as government forces. Last year, he invited Mr Chavez to help mediate with the group for the release of its hostages but withdrew that invitation in November, claiming that the Venezuelan leader was not sticking to his side of the bargain. The breach triggered a deep chill in relations between the two leaders as Mr Chavez loosed a string of derogative remarks about Mr Uribe's competence. Tensions spiked further when a computer belonging to Farc's second-in-command was found, which Colombia said showed Mr Chavez had funnelled $300m (£152m) to the group. There was no concealing the surprise in Bogota at the switch Mr Chavez seems to be making. "He was their defender and ally and so it's surprising that he has acted like this," said Carlos Holguin, Colombia's Interior Minister. "I hope Farc hears him – that all of Latin America hears him." Indeed, while Colombia may retain some scepticism about Mr Chavez's motives, its government also knows that Farc has a long history of ignoring all outside appeals for an end to its struggle. However, Mr Chavez, who has been leading his own "socialist revolution" in Venezuela, may be the one leader able to bring influence on them. In his statement, Mr Chavez offered a reason of his own to bring Farc's campaign to an end, pointing to the US. "You in the Farc should know something," he offered. "You have become an excuse for the empire to threaten all of us." He often uses the term "empire" to refer to the United States. Washington has made no secret of its desire to isolate Mr Chavez from other governments in Latin America. A revolutionary region *Caracas' most famous son, Simon Bolivar, led the charge in Hispanic America's struggle for independence. He is remembered across Central and South America as El Libertador after defeating the Spanish colonialists, and establishing the Gran Colombia federation in 1821 that would bring independence to Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. *Mexico's revolution began with a letter. Thrown in jail in 1910 for declaring his intention to run against the dictator of 30 years Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero issued a note from his cell calling for revolt. A bloody decade of civil war ensued. *Guatemala's 'October Revolutionaries' – a group of dissident military officers, students and liberals – struck in 1944, overthrowing the military junta that had ousted dictator Jorge Ubico. Guatemala was to experience a decade of change known as the "Ten Years of Spring". *Aided by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Fidel Castro landed in eastern Cuba in 1956 and over the next two and a half years rolled his '26th July Movement' across the country and into Havana, toppling the US-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959. *Nicaragua's Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dynasty in 1979. They lost elections in 1990, but returned to power in 2006 with the former guerrilla leader Daniel Ortega once more at the helm. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Related Article: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3537 Venezuela Denies Arms Smugglers Caught in Colombia Belong to its Military June 9th 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com A dispute has erupted over whether one of the Venezuelans arrested for smuggling AK-47 ammunition to the FARC Friday is a National Guardsman, and what the real events were leading up to his arrest. (Colombian Attorney General's Office) Mérida, June 9, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)— According to the Colombian Attorney General, Mario Iguarán, Colombian officials arrested a sergeant of the Venezuelan National Guard for attempting to smuggle ammunition to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Friday. Venezuela says, though, the arrested man is not a National Guardsman and pledged to carry out a full investigation of the incident "in accordance with the law." "Four people were captured in a flagrant act, from whom 40,000 AK-47 cartridges were confiscated," Iguarán told the press Saturday. Two were Colombians, he said, and "two of them identified themselves with Venezuelan I.D. cards, one of whom claims to be Manuel Agudo Escalona, a junior sergeant in the National Guard." The Colombian government says the ammunition was destined for the FARC's 16th Front. However, Fredys Alonso Carrión, the top commander of the Venezuelan National Guard, announced Saturday, "When we received the information [of the arrest], we immediately began investigating." "I can tell all of you with total confidence that there exists no active duty or retired member within or in relation to the National Guard by the name of Manuel Agudo Escalona," Carrión declared on the Venezuelan state television channel, VTV. The Colombian Chancellor, Fernando Araújo, appealed to the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Department for "coordinated work between both chancellors" in order to "verify the identities and who could be implicated." In response, the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry released a statement Saturday, assuring that the incident would be rapidly investigated and submitted to thorough legal proceedings. According to the statement, "From the first moment in which the information circulated the press, we established communication with the Colombian Foreign Minister in order to comply with the legal steps by which we will verify the identity of those detained." Once the "transparent facts" are clarified, the Venezuelan government will proceed "in accordance with the law and the truth" in order to solve the issue, the Venezuelan Ministry communicated. The Venezuelan daily newspaper El Universal reported Monday that Agudo Escalona and the other captured Venezuelan, a civilian named Germán Castañeda Durán, pleaded guilty to arms trafficking charges before a public tribunal in Bogotá. In a contrary account, the Venezuelan Minister of Justice and the Interior, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, speculated Monday that the arrest is actually a "false positive," in which Colombian officials "simulated some punishable act, attributed it to the guerrilla and took the credit for having resolved the case, which they themselves had set up." According to Minister Chacín, Agudo Escalona has alleged that he was offered more than 100 million bolivars (US$46.5 million) to cross the Orinoco River in a small boat in military uniform, then the ammunition was planted in his boat and Colombian authorities arrived "immediately" afterward to make the arrest. In any case, the arrests were made by Colombia's Technical Investigations Body (CTI) in the borderlands between the Colombian Guainía and Vichada provinces, along the frontier shared with Venezuela. They were part of broader operations that also led to the arrest Friday of a bodyguard of the FARC's top military commander, Jorge Briceño, who is known as "Mono Jojoy," and several other insurgents. Colombia has accused Venezuela of financing and facilitating arms purchases for the guerrillas, citing as evidence computer files found in FARC laptops its says it recovered from the wreckage of a FARC camp that Colombia bombarded within Ecuadorian territory last March. The computers spent a month in the custody of Colombia, after which a forensic analysis by INTERPOL found "no evidence" that the computers were tampered with, but INTERPOL did not evaluate whether the files under question actually belonged to the FARC. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez energetically denies the accusations, saying his relations with the FARC have been exclusively aimed at hostage releases. Colombia's raid in March killed the FARC's chief hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, two days after Chávez, in collaboration with Colombian opposition Senator Piedad Córdoba, negotiated the liberation of four high profile FARC hostages and garnered international praise. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Comment: I suspect Chavez's statement was torn out of the actual context of his intention and the focus was more on the role of FARC in Latin America. Nevertheless, the essence of true revolutionary analyse should be based upon 'factual analyses of actual conditions' or, to use a Leninist term, 'concrete analyses of concrete conditions'. Lenin put the question well when he said that "it is not enough to be a revolutionary and an adherent of socialism or a Communist in general. You must be able at each particular moment to find the particular link in the chain which you must grasp with all your might in order to hold the whole chain and to prepare firmly for the transition to the next link...[4] " http://www.etext.org/Politics/AlternativeOrange/4/v4n1_dx4.html We should still be prepared to deal with now unseen complexities, arm the people in all ways possible, including spiritually to wage spiritual warfare. Unless we deal with our old character defects we will be replacing one set of fascist fools with another set of fanatics. The Amerikan Left has failed to galvanize the broad masses of the people because it has not united one with the people and their present level of consciousness. Only the Black Panther Party with its basic Community Survival Program came close to being a true Vangaurd Party in terms of the most advanced rebel consciousness, general strategy and set of tactics. Learn from the mistakes of others! The people need to take revolutionary vanguard elements seriously, not as a bunch of isolated crazed clowns without mass support. We need to go far beyond last century's Left vs. Right schizophrenia divorced from connected reality. The truth is in the center, the people are the truth, the obvious conditions of their lives: hunger, poverty and repression. Take a good look at the people! Sit down, talk to and question the people. I do every day and night with an open mind and ear. Do they seem happy and content or troubled and perplexed? As educators, we must first relate to the people's level of social consciousness, then elevate it with basic community education, dong local community work where the people gather and most important of all learning from the people what their survival needs and immediate concerns are in their lives, not simplistically import foreign ideology without breaking in down into understandable terms. When someone is hungry, feed him. When someone is ragged, clothe them. When someine is illiterate, teach him. When someone is lost, give him shelter. When you see a need, meet that need! Be for real! We should see our participation in electoral politics ~ war without guns ~ as another expression of our revolutionary fervor. Be rational and not fanatical. No, we are not going to elect a socialist for President nor does one have a snowball's chance in hell of becoming the next President. We need to be realistic and work with what we got without fantasies. Understanding the ebbs and flow of vibrant revolutionary movements, sometimes coming closer to our calculations, other times drifting further away, but never stagnant. All is in a state of flux on the quantum level. Venceremos Unidos! Come Together and Create! Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta, One Humane Being Sacramento, California, Aztlan Email: sacranative@yahoo.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/ http://www.networkaztlan.com/ C/S