http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/19/barack-obama-stephen-harper-canada-visit

Obama raises Nafta renegotiation during first official visit to Canada

• Environment issues noted at appearance with Stephen Harper
• Barack Obama also warns of policies that hint at 'protectionism'

• Ewen MacAskill in Washington
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 February 2009 21.51 GMT
• Article history

Barack Obama is saluted by Royal Canadian Mounted Police as he arrives in Ottawa. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP

Potential strains in relations between the US and Canada were exposed today when Barack Obama, on his first foreign trip as president, hinted at renegotiation of the North American Free Trade agreement.

Obama at a joint press conference with the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, tried to square a campaign pledge to renegotiate the agreement while at the same time avoid sparking a trade war with Canada.

Obama told reporters at the press conference in Ottawa he wanted to begin talks on adding provisions to the agreement relating to workers and to the environment.

"My hope is as our advisers and staffs and economic teams work this through that there's a way of doing this that is not disruptive to the extraordinarily important trade relationship that exists between the two countries," he said.

It is a risky strategy for Obama to pursue. While some trade protection measures would be popular in parts of the US suffering worst from job losses, the US could suffer if trade partners choose to retaliate.

The president made the promise to renegotiate Nafta on the campaign trail in response to protests in the mid-west that it was partly response for a drain in jobs from the US. Nafta has created a free trade zone between the US, Canada and Mexico.

But Canada continues to champion free trade and has warned that any attempt to renegotiate part of the deal could see the whole thing unravel.

Obama may have raised Nafta with Harper in order to avoid accusations by the media and Republicans of reneging on a campaign pledge so early in his administration.

The president muddied his position on Nafta at the press conference by adding something positive. "Now is a time where we have to be very careful about any signals of protectionism," he said, adding a promise that the US will meet its international trade obligations.

Harper was equally anxious to avoid signs of a split. "I'm quite confident that the United States will respect those obligations and continue to be a leader on the need for globalised trade," he said, though he did not sound totally convinced.

As well as concern over Nafta, the Canadian government has been alarmed by other protectionist moves by Obama such as the "buy America" provisions in his $787bn economic stimulus package, which originally proposed only US steel be used for infrastructure projects. The "buy America" provisions have since been watered down, with Obama saying the US would not do anything that ran counter to existing trade agreements..

Relations between the two were more upbeat on climate change, with the two promising to work together to develop new technologies to reduce greenhouse gases.

Harper, in what sounded like a rebuke to George Bush, who opposed international action on climate change for much of his presidency, said he was confident that the continent had a leader who could provide a direction on climate change.

On Afghanistan, where Canada has troops engaged in the south of the country, Obama said he did not press Harper to send additional troops. The president did not ask him either to extend Canada's commitment beyond 2011, the timeline agreed by the Canadian parliament.

"I certainly did not press the prime minister on any additional commitments beyond the ones that have already been made," Obama.

"All I did was to compliment Canada on, not only the troops that are there ... but also the fact that Canada's largest foreign aid recipient is Afghanistan."

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Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

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Mexico Under Siege: Police officer, 10 relatives killed in attacks in Tabasco

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-violence16-2009feb16,0,2922749.story

JAIME AVALOS, EPA

Mexican soldiers guard the area where a group of gunmen killed Carlos Reyes Lopez, a police officer in an elite agency, and 10 of his relatives as well as a fruit vendor who was making a delivery at the home, in the Monte Largo community in Macuspana, Mexico.

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Police officer, 10 relatives killed in attacks in Tabasco

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JAIME AVALOS, EPA

Mexican soldiers guard the area where a group of gunmen killed Carlos Reyes Lopez, a police officer in an elite agency, and 10 of his relatives as well as a fruit vendor who was making a delivery at the home, in the Monte Largo community in Macuspana, Mexico.

Gunmen hit the homes of Carlos Reyes Lopez and extended family; a 2-year-old nephew and five other children are among the dead. Reyes Lopez was a member of an elite force.

By Tracy Wilkinson
February 16, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City -- A team of gunmen in southeastern Mexico opened fire on the homes of a state police officer and his extended family, killing 12 people, including a 2-year-old and five other children, authorities said Sunday.

The shootings Saturday night in the state of Tabasco stunned an oil-rich part of Mexico that has not experienced the same level of drug-related warfare common elsewhere in the country, despite its position of strategic importance to traffickers.

 

• 

  Full coverage of Mexico's drug war

The killing of police officer Carlos Reyes Lopez came days after police in Tabasco captured four gunmen and left one suspect dead. Although some speculate that the motive was retaliation, the state prosecutor's office also suggested that a personal dispute involving the Reyes Lopez family might have been behind the attack.

Reyes Lopez and 10 members of his family, including a 2-year-old nephew, were killed. The 12th victim was a fruit vendor who was there to deliver frozen strawberries. No arrests were reported.

"They killed my brother Carlos, his whole family, my son, my mother. . . . They killed everyone," said a sobbing survivor identified as a sister of the dead officer and mother of the 2-year-old, according to an account in Tabasco Hoy newspaper.

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The newspaper said Reyes Lopez was a member of an elite police agency formed last year amid efforts to rid public security forces of rampant corruption. Members of the new force had to pass rigorous exams, drug testing and additional vetting procedures.

In other violence, gunmen using grenades and assault rifles attacked, for the fourth time in two days, a police station in the state of Michoacan. A police officer was injured in Saturday night's incident, adding to two other officers and eight civilians who have been wounded in the string of attacks.

Michoacan is the home state of President Felipe Calderon, and a drug mafia called La Familia has been making inroads in parts of the state.

In Mexico City, authorities discovered the decapitated bodies of two women in the trunk of a parked car. The heads were in a cooler in the car's back seat, newspapers reported Sunday. Seven people were reported killed in a shootout at a restaurant in Jalisco state and five at a wake in Durango state.

Also on Sunday, colleagues reported the killing of a photographer for a newspaper in the town of Iguala, in Guerrero state. And the Mexican navy announced the discovery and confiscation of 7 tons of cocaine on a ship off the Pacific coast.

wilkinson@latimes.com

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Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

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Latin America sees wave of constitutional votes +

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/14/news/LT-Latam-Constitutions-Glance.php

Latin America sees wave of constitutional votes

The Associated Press

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Latin American leaders have long amended constitutions or rewritten them entirely to break with the past or simply prolong their rule. A flurry of such efforts accompanied the end of dictatorships in the late 1980s. Here's a look at some of the constitutional rewrites since then:

VENEZUELA: In 1999, President Hugo Chavez won a new constitution less than a year into his term, enhancing human rights protection, giving members of the military the right to vote and allowing the president to run for immediate re-election. In late 2007, voters narrowly defeated his attempt to make 69 more changes aimed at making Venezuela socialist. In a new vote Sunday, Chavez has rebounded with a narrower proposal that would remove term limits on politicians, including himself. Venezuela has had 24 constitutions since independence in 1811.

BOLIVIA: Last month, a proposal by President Evo Morales to give the indigenous majority greater rights and allow him to run for re-election was approved by 62 percent of voters.

ECUADOR: In September, Ecuadoreans overwhelmingly approved a new constitution championed by leftist President Rafael Correa that increased the social safety net for the poor, enhanced the power of the central government and lets Correa run for two more terms. Ecuador has had 20 constitutions since independence in 1822.

COLOMBIA: Colombia's constitution was amended in 2004 to let President Alvaro Uribe serve two consecutive terms; he won re-election in 2006. Supporters are seeking another amendment that would let him begin a third term next year; voters and the Constitutional Court would need to approve the change.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: The Dominican Republic has had an eye-popping 31 constitutions since its 1844 independence. The latest came in 2002, allowing presidents to serve more than one term. Leonel Fernandez won his second term two years later.

GUATEMALA: In a vote that fell largely along racial lines, Guatemalans rejected a 1998 package of 50 amendments intended to enshrine in the constitution the results of U.N.-brokered peace accords that ended a 36-year civil war.

PANAMA: Panamanian voters rejected a 1998 effort by President Ernesto Perez Balladares to establish consecutive re-election.

BRAZIL: Former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso won a constitutional amendment in 1997 allowing elected officials to run for consecutive re-election. He won re-election the following year.

ARGENTINA: Former President Carlos Menem pushed through an amendment in 1994 that expanded the bill of rights, streamlined the legislature and allowed presidential re-election.

PERU: Former President Alberto Fujimori rewrote the constitution in 1993 to allow his re-election, and he won two more terms until fleeing to Japan in 2000 when his government collapsed in a corruption scandal.

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Comment: Hell, we should still prosecute the Bush Cabal for crimes against humanity that actually violated the U.S. Constitution! Many Constitutional problems simply arise from governments not enforcing the good laws to ensure order and justice that are already on the law books, such as the Bill of Rights. Remember that one?

When was the last time you read the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and/or the Bill of Rights?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?

It is good that These Latin American governments are open to still make modifications to their own Constitutions and should be respected for their flexibiloity. People talk shit about Mexican corruption but the U.S.A. is the most corrupt government in all of human history!

People's basic humane rights are ordained by the Great Creator, by nature and by what is just, fair and right for people based upon our basic humane right to survival and our right to have our basic survival needs met by the powers-that-be. Or else why even have any government or system of laws?!? It always always goes back to and down to our basic survival needs as human beings: food, clothing, shelter, medicine and basic education.

Memory Links:

 

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights.html

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

The Latino vote and the GOP: Christian Science Monitor + Comment

http://www.csmonitor.com/patchworknation/csmstaff/2009/0211/the-latino-vote-and-the-gop/

The Latino vote and the GOP

Using demographic data, Patchwork Nation has identified 11 voter communities.

(Colors on map represent unique voter communities)

 

James Gimpel

Posted: 02.11.2009 / 10:34 AM EST

Exit polls from Election Day 2008 showed that nationwide, Barack Obama won 67 percent of the Latino vote and John McCain 32 percent. Latino support for Senator McCain was similar to what President Bush received in 2004, which was in the 39 to 44 percent range.

The Republicans did not gain ground with Latino voters in 2008. But a look back at a number of election cycles indicates that the GOP can rely on 30 percent of the Hispanic vote as a reliable base. In fact, Republicans see the Latino population as a growing constituency and a desirable target of their campaigns.

Here we examine the Latino vote across the 11 community types in Patchwork Nation. Was there geographic variation in Hispanic support for McCain, or did the same percentage of Latinos support Mr. Obama from region to region?

To answer this question, we analyzed a 50-state survey conducted online by Zogby International just before Election Day. It captured a sizable number of Hispanics, more than 3,400 of whom reported that they were likely to vote. The survey's sample was better educated than the voting population as a whole, yet the estimate for the final vote division among Latinos was 65 percent for Obama and 35 percent for McCain – not far off from the exit poll result.

The vote in Patchwork Nation locales

Their political preferences did vary somewhat by region, though not as much as one might expect. Our tabulations suggest that the most lopsidedly Democratic voting occurred among Latinos living in liberal "Campus and Careers" locations, where only 25 percent supported McCain. Support for Obama also went above the 65 percent figure in large cities of the old urban core ("Industrial Metropolis"), growing and diversifying cities ("Boom Towns"), wealthy and well-educated locales ("Monied 'Burbs"), and counties with large African-American populations ("Minority Central").

McCain had a good showing among Latinos in "Immigration Nation" communities, which includes many Arizona counties, where he received 45 percent of the Hispanic vote. McCain also won an estimated 41 percent of the Latino vote in "Military Bastions" (which are near armed-forces installations), 40 percent in small-town "Service Worker Centers," and 38 percent in culturally conservative "Evangelical Epicenters."

Moreover, in "Emptying Nest" locations, many of which are in Florida, McCain won a solid majority of Latinos polled. This probably reflects the Republican support among Cubans in that state, a notable exception to the generally 2-to-1 Democratic edge among Latinos.

There were too few Latinos participating in this particular survey from the most rural locations to obtain reliable estimates for "Tractor Country" locations.

Different concentrations of Hispanics

One thing to keep in mind in reviewing these figures is that the Latino population is not evenly spread across these communities. Latinos appear to vote the most Republican in the areas where they are least concentrated – specifically in "Military Bastions" and "Service Worker Centers," where they make up a rather small percentage of the total population. In areas where they find themselves in greater concentration, they vote heavily Democratic, as in the "Monied 'Burbs" and in "Boom Towns."

The fact that McCain won an estimated 38 percent of the Latino vote in "Evangelical Epicenters" may indicate that Republicans fare better among Evangelical and "born-again" Latinos than they do among traditional Roman Catholics or the nonreligious.

Although Republicans have made little or no headway over the past decade in efforts to realign Hispanic voters, some places may offer a glimmer of hope – especially the more Republican areas of the South and Southwest.

Over the long term, Republicans can try to enlarge their voting margins among Latinos by focusing on Hispanics who are moving into areas of existing strength for the GOP. In these places, Latinos can develop ties to Republican adherents and participate in elections where GOP candidates are competitive. This will undoubtedly be a multigenerational process, not one that will develop in response to a single campaign or two.

Comment: There can be no doubt that the Latino vote will continue to play a key role in American electoral politics, though much needs to be done to assure that Latinos are not taken for granted and stuck in anyone's back pocket. In between elections, we need to focus on the power of the vote, continue to do voter registration, continue to promote community education and always seek to raise consciousness.

Latinos must see themselves as a part of the larger general population, integrate on all levels and not isolate themselves into pockets of influence. We need to utilize with wisdom the power of the Internet to get our voices out, to express our opinions and to let the world know that we are here inside the U.S.A. in opposition to the global chess game of the old Amerikan Empire!

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com