Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1066, February 6, 2011
1. Haiti: Deportee Dies, the Displaced Are Forgotten
2. Haiti: Coup Enforcer’s Son Murdered in Honduras
3. Puerto Rico: Student Protesters Face “Egyptian” Repression?
4. Mexico: Rights Group Pins Killings on Military
5. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Amazonia, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Haiti: Deportee Dies, the Displaced Are Forgotten
A Haitian national with symptoms of cholera died in Haiti just two days after his Jan. 20 deportation from Florida by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Wildrick Guerrier was one of 27 Haitians repatriated in ICE’s first deportation of Haitian immigrants since an earthquake devastated southern Haiti in January 2010 [see Update #1064]. Immigrant rights advocates had warned about the dangers of resuming deportations, especially after a cholera epidemic struck Haiti in mid-October. “This is death by deportation,” Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) executive director Cheryl Little said in a Jan. 31 press release.
On arriving in Haiti the detainees were put in one of the country’s notoriously unsanitary prisons. Guerrier, 34, suffered from “extreme vomiting and uncontrollable diarrhea,” according to FIAC. These are symptoms of cholera, which can develop in less than one day after exposure, although the cause of death seems not to be established--Guerrier was complaining of stomach pains before his deportation.
ICE officials say they are only deporting Haitians convicted of violent crimes. Guerrier, a permanent US resident who came to Florida as a teenager in 1993, had been sentenced to an 18-month prison term, but it’s not clear what he was convicted of. “A criminal record should not be a death sentence for Haitians,” Little said. “Sadly, Guerrier's family now mourns his loss.” (FIAC press release 1/31/11; Miami New Times blog 2/3/11)
Dominican authorities are also deporting Haitians, but their pretext is that the immigrants could spread the cholera among Dominicans. More than 3,000 Haitians were expelled in January, according to Dominican officials cited in a press release from Haiti’s Ministry of Haitians Living Abroad. The ministry said “a number of repatriated citizens” reported “acts of brutality, humiliating persecutions on public streets, the separation of families, the loss of goods and merchandise.” A Dominican group, the Jesuit Service for Refugees and Migrants (SJRM), charged that “[t]hese actions are not effective for avoiding the spread of the epidemic, but instead they undermine the rule of law, give rise to violations of migrants’ human rights, promote racism and generate economic losses.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Haitians remain homeless in the Port-au-Prince area more than a year after the 2010 earthquake. The International Organization for Migration (IOM, or OIM in French) reports that the number of people living in temporary camps has gone down to 810,000 from 1.5 million in January 2010, but it is not clear how many actually obtained shelters and how many continue to live outdoors after leaving the camps--or being expelled from them by people who claim to own the land.
The deportations and the situation of displaced persons are largely ignored in the media as attention stays focused on disputes over the chaotic Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections, according to Haitian journalist Wooldy Edson Louidor. “The current post-electoral political crisis tends to make people forget more and more the multiple urgent problems the country faces,” he wrote on Feb. 4. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 2/4/11)
On Feb. 3, one day behind schedule, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced its official election results. As expected, the council named two conservatives--Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response)—as the candidates for the Mar. 20 presidential runoff [see Update #1065]. US ambassador Kenneth Merten congratulated the CEP on its decision. “Finally it’s a good day for Haiti,” he said. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 2/3/11)
*2. Haiti: Coup Enforcer’s Son Murdered in Honduras
Jean-Michel François, the son of exiled former Haitian police chief Joseph Michel François, was killed the night of Feb. 3 in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula. The younger François, a law student, was thrown from a moving vehicle in front of his father’s electronic appliance store in the Medina neighborhood; he died hours later at a nearby hospital. According to some sources he died of bullet wounds, while others say he was badly beaten and died from his injuries. No motive had been given as of Feb. 5.
The elder François, then a lieutenant colonel, was part of a triumvirate of military officers that overthrew then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a bloody September 1991 coup and ran a ruthless dictatorship until a US military intervention restored Aristide to office in the fall of 1994. François was allowed to leave for the Dominican Republic but was expelled in 1996. He then moved to Honduras. The US indicted him for drug trafficking in 1997 [see Update #372], but the Honduran Supreme Court rejected the US extradition request. The other coup leaders, Gen. Raoul Cédras and Gen. Philippe Biamby, both moved to Panama, where Biamby died of cancer in 2008.
“Crime isn’t just in Honduras,” François said after his son’s murder, according to the Honduran daily La Prensa. “It’s in all countries…. [T]here’s a saying that ‘everything that happens in the life of a believer is for the good,’ because God is sovereign.” (La Prensa 2/4/11; Latin American Herald Tribune 2/4/11 from EFE; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 2/4/11, 12/15/08)
*3. Puerto Rico: Student Protesters Face “Egyptian” Repression?
Students protesting an $800 tuition surcharge imposed this year at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) marked the beginning of the spring semester on Feb. 7 with a two-hour march and rally at the school’s Río Piedras campus in San Juan. Adriana Mulero, a spokesperson for the protesters’ Student Representative Committee (CRE), called the demonstration a success, since “they didn’t use brute force,” referring to the large police presence at the campus.
The CRE had made it clear on Feb. 4 that at this point they were simply calling for an interruption of classes, not a strike like the one that shut down the UPR last spring. The UPR administration has been trying to maintain a ban on all demonstrations at the system’s 11 campuses. (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 2/7/11; Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 2/4/11 from Inter News Service)
Civil disobedience actions by the students during the school’s registration period over the previous two weeks were met with harsh police tactics, which were forcefully denounced by UPR professors and the local media [see Update #1065]. On Feb. 5 four women legislators presented a resolution in the Chamber of Representatives calling for an investigation into “offensive and undue” acts by police while arresting protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 27. Rep. Brenda López de Arrará said a young woman “was touched inappropriately by an agent” while she was handcuffed inside a police vehicle. (END 2/3/11 from INS) Wanda Vázquez Garced, conservative governor Luis Fortuño’s nominee to head the Office of the Women’s Advocate, has also condemned the groping of women protesters by police agents. (La Opinión (Los Angeles) 2/6/11 from INS)
Some commentators drew parallels with the repression of protesters in Egypt, where massive demonstrations started shaking the 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak the week of Jan. 24.
“As I watch the news from the States and I see [US secretary of state Hillary Clinton] exhort the Egyptian police and military to use ‘restraint’ and demand that leaders in the Middle East open up to reforms,” Puerto Rico-based constitutional law professor Judith Berkan told US senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) in a Feb. 2 open letter, “I ask myself--why the silence about Puerto Rico, the largest remaining direct colony of the United States?” (Puerto Rico Daily Sun 2/2/11) Elba Carrasquillo, a Puerto Rican living in Egypt, praised the UPR protesters and warned that “if Puerto Ricans don’t wake up about what has been going on in my island…the road to becoming a country like the Egypt of the past 30 years will get shorter and shorter.” (NotiCel (Mayagüez) 2/3/11 from INS)
Meanwhile, UPR students were trying a new tactic in fighting police repression. On Feb. 4 the Student Communication Center (CCE) released a short video, “No, Sir: 7 Arrested Students Talk to the Police.” Noting that police agents too are exploited, the students explain that the struggle against the tuition surcharge “isn’t just for those of us who are here, because we want a university that’s accessible to all, because we want for you too to be able to aspire to it.” “[Y]ou too can disobey,” the students said. “You don’t have to carry out an unjust order that goes against your principles--orders that seek to go on fomenting injustice and to go on committing abuses and violations of civil rights.” (Primera Hora 2/4/11 from INS)
*4. Mexico: Rights Group Pins Killings on Military
There were at least eight killings last year in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León “that evidence indicates were the result of unlawful use of lethal force by army and navy officers,” according to a Feb. 3 press release from the New York-based nonprofit Human Rights Watch (HRW). A recent fact-finding mission by the group to Nuevo León also “documented more than a dozen enforced disappearances in which the evidence points to the involvement of the army, navy, and police,” HRW said.
One case the group researched was the shooting of a married couple, Rocío Romeli Elías Garza and Juan Carlos Peña Chavarria, by soldiers on Mar. 3 in Anáhuac. The couple was caught in a shootout between the military and armed men; Peña was wounded, but he and Elías managed to take cover behind an automobile. “When the shooting stopped, Elías raised her hands and pleaded for help for her husband, yelling that they were civilians and were unarmed. She was shot by a soldier standing approximately 10 feet away. Soldiers approached the bodies and shot them again from point-blank range. Then, the witnesses said, the soldiers moved the bodies and planted arms near both victims.”
Another case was the killing of a Vicente de León Ramírez and Alejandro Gabriel de León Castellanos, a father and his teenage son, near Apodaca on Sept. 5 when soldiers opened fire on the family car on a highway [see Update #1049]. Other victims included Jehú Sepúlveda Garza, who disappeared on Nov. 12 after being arrested in San Pedro Garza García and José Guadalupe Bernal Orzúa, who disappeared on May 23 in Monterrey.
“Victims' families told Human Rights Watch that they had complained to state and federal authorities, and that in most cases investigations had been formally opened,” the report says. “But no one has been held accountable for any of the crimes Human Rights Watch documented in Nuevo León, according to the families.” (HRW press release 2/3/11; La Jornada (Mexico) 2/4/11) Human rights complaints against the military have risen dramatically since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa deployed soldiers in a “war on drugs” shortly after taking office in December 2006 [see Update #1065].
In other news, thousands of unionists and campesinos marched in Mexico City on Jan. 31 in what has become a traditional annual protest against the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the federal government’s neoliberal economic policies [see Updates #933, 1020]. This year about 40,000 people participated, according to the organizers; the Mexico City police estimated 22, 000. Martín Esparza, general secretary of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) [see Update #1057], called for driving President Calderón out of office, even though his term ends in less than two years. “This government only has a few months left,” Esparza told the marchers, “but we should overthrow it, the way they did in Tunisia and the way it’s being done in Egypt. We need to raise up a civil and peaceful insurgency throughout the country.” (LJ 2/1/11)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Amazonia, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico
Living under the Oppression of Democracy – The Mapuche People of Chile
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/chile-archives-34/2887-living-under-the-oppression-of-democracy-the-mapuche-people-of-chile
Is Amazon rainforest becoming net CO2 emitter?
http://ww4report.com/node/9439
New photos of "uncontacted" Amazon tribe released (Brazil)
http://ww4report.com/node/9438
Brazil: construction of Belo Monte dam (illegally) approved
http://ww4report.com/node/9437
Brazil: Why land reform makes sense for Dilma Rousseff
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2893-brazil-why-land-reform-makes-sense-for-dilma-rousseff
Brazil Lending a Hand to Less Developed Countries
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2888-brazil-lending-a-hand-to-less-developed-countries
Bolivia: Cochabamba coca chew-in for legalization
http://ww4report.com/node/9441
Peru: appeals court upholds release of Lori Berenson
http://ww4report.com/node/9442
Peru: Camisea consortium in royalty dispute
http://ww4report.com/node/9440
Ecuador: protest demands release of Amazon indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/9451
Colombia: indigenous reintegrate demobilized guerrillas
http://ww4report.com/node/9443
Multinational Banana Corporation Displaces Afro-Colombian Peace Communities
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2895-multinational-banana-corporation-displaces-afro-colombian-peace-communities-
Banana companies steal land from Afro-Colombian peace communities
http://ww4report.com/node/9453
An Assessment of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution at Twelve Years
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5971
Venezuela’s Chavez Calls for Non-Interference in Egypt
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5968
Venezuela: Chávez threatens to boot Coca-Cola
http://ww4report.com/node/9454
Central America Raises Its Voice in Defense of Its Migrants
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2891-central-america-raises-its-voice-in-defense-of-its-migrants
Panama: indigenous protesters blockade capital
http://ww4report.com/node/9444
Hondurans march in solidarity with Egyptian uprising
http://ww4report.com/node/9445
Action Alert! Death Threats against Environmental Defenders in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2885-action-alert-death-threats-against-environmental-defenders-in-el-salvador-
Guatemala: campesinos targeted in "state of siege"
http://ww4report.com/node/9446
MexicoBlog Editorial: Napolitano in Texas: Tough Talk, Little Coherence
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2011/02/napolitano-in-texas-tough-talk-little.html
Mexican Political Transition Underway
http://www.grass-roots-press.com/2011/02/02/mexican-political-transition-underway/
Mexico: narcos escalate war on security apparatus
http://ww4report.com/node/9451
New Cuba Travel Regulations Published in Federal Register Today
http://www.thehavananote.com/2011/01/new_cuba_travel_regulations_published_federal_register_today#
The Right to Housing for Internally Displaced Haitians
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/bell040211.html
Violence Against Student Strike in Puerto Rico Escalates With Police Brutality and Rubber Bullets
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maritza-stanchich-phd/violence-against-student-_b_817297.html
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
WNU #1065: UN Troops Are “Tool” for US in Haiti
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1065, January 30, 2011
1. Haiti: UN Troops Are “Indispensable Tool” for US Policy
2. Haiti: Is the Election Runoff Finally Set?
3. Mexico: Security Operations Killed 111 “Innocents” in 2010
4. Mexico: US Agents Have Access to Detained Immigrants
5. Puerto Rico: Teachers, Media Condemn Police Actions
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Haiti: UN Troops Are “Indispensable Tool” for US Policy
Even before a major earthquake hit Port-au-Prince in January 2010, the US embassy planned for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)--an international force then numbering about 9,000 soldiers and police--to remain in the country through 2013, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks group and published by the Spanish daily El País on Jan. 28.
The Oct. 1, 2008 cable by the embassy in Port-au-Prince described the UN mission as “a financial and regional security bargain for the USG [US government],” “a good deal for the US” and “an indispensable tool in realizing core USG policy interests in Haiti.” In the absence of a strong Haitian police force, the troops provide “a security force of last resort,” the cable said, and a withdrawal of MINUSTAH could lead to “resurgent kidnapping and international drug trafficking, revived gangs, greater political violence, an exodus of seaborne migrants, a sharp drop in foreign and domestic investment, and resurgent populist and anti-market economy political forces.”
The cable goes on to say that in addition to providing “real regional security dividends for the US,” MINUSTAH, which is led by Brazilian officers and includes troops from other South American countries, helps US policy by “developing habits of security cooperation in the hemisphere that will serve our interests for years to come.” One major concern, however, is “Latin fears that any Haitian opposition to the UN presence undermines their domestic support for deployments in Haiti.” During protests over the high food prices in April 2008 [see Update #943], the cable reports, “the Brazilian MINUSTAH force commander told [the US ambassador] and others that his greatest fear was that his troops would be forced to fire on demonstrators. He understood that this could ignite opposition in Haiti, Brazil and other contributing countries to his troops’ presence in Haiti.”
The cable also contains the embassy’s assessment of drug traffickers’ influence in the Haitian Parliament at the time: “we estimate perhaps a score of deputies and senators are linked to the drug trade.” (El País 1/28/11)
Other cables, released by WikiLeaks the week of Jan. 17, suggest that pressure from the US resulted in a MINUSTAH “anti-gang” operation that led to several deaths and dozens of injuries among civilians in Port-au-Prince’s impoverished Cité Soleil section. In a June 10, 2005 meeting with Brazilian under secretary for political affairs Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, US ambassador to Brazil John Danilovich and an unnamed “political counselor” complained that “MINUSTAH has not been sufficiently robust,” apparently referring to concern by mission commander Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro about causing unnecessary casualties. Less than a month later, Gen. Heleno ordered the bloody operation in Cité Soleil [see Update #812].
Heleno was soon replaced by Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, who died of a gunshot wound on Jan. 7, just as MINUSTAH was about to undertake another operation in Cité Soleil [see Update #832]. The Brazilian government ruled the general’s death a suicide, but according to another cable, Dominican president Leonel Fernández expressed doubts during a Jan. 11 meeting with US deputy assistant secretary of state Patrick Duddy. President Fernández “believes that the Brazilian government is calling the death a suicide in order to protect the mission from domestic criticism,” the cable says. “A confirmed assassination would result in calls from the Brazilian populace for withdrawal from Haiti. Success in this mission is vital for President [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] of Brazil, because it is part of his master plan to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council." (Guardian (UK) 1/21/11)
*2. Haiti: Is the Election Runoff Finally Set?
On Jan. 28 Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced its new schedule for the long-delayed runoffs for the presidency and for many legislative seats. The CEP set Feb. 2 as the day when it would announce the results of the first round, held on Nov. 28; campaigning is to take place from Feb. 17 to Mar. 18; and the actual vote is planned for Mar. 20, with the preliminary results to be announced on Mar. 31. The second round was supposed to be held on Jan. 16 but was delayed by disputes over the results of the chaotic first round.
Most people assume that the two contenders for the presidency will be Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response). Jude Célestin, the candidate of President René Préval’s Unity party, came in second in the CEP’s official results, but a team from the Organization of American States (OAS) concluded that Martelly should have been in second place. On Jan. 26 Unity leaders issued a communiqué agreeing to have Célestin withdraw from the race, although there was no sign that Célestin was willing to go along with the decision.
The US had been putting pressure on Préval and Unity leaders, suspending US entry visas for many of them [see Update #1064]. According to Ginger Thompson of the New York Times, unnamed “senior officials” in the administration of US president Barack Obama also “made it clear that Washington would withhold more than $1 billion in aid from Haiti unless there was an election the United States deems credible.”
Meanwhile, 12 of the original 18 presidential candidates continued to call for annulling the entire vote and holding a new election. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/26/11; New York Times 1/27/11; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 1/28/11)
*3. Mexico: Security Operations Killed 111 “Innocents” in 2010
Hundreds of students, residents, artists, religious people and activists from some 70 organizations started a fast the morning of Jan. 29 in Ciudad Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, to mark the first anniversary of the Jan. 30 massacre of 15 youths in the city’s Villas de Salvárcar neighborhood. “No more blood!” “No more impunity!” and “No more feminicides!” were among the slogans of the commemoration. Later in the morning a group of the fasters marched to Puerto de Anapra, near Sunland Park, New México, where they and US residents held a ceremony in memory of the victims. The demonstrators were divided by a metal fence the US government has built at the border and watched over by US Border Patrol agents.
The youths at Villas de Salvárcar were attending a party when they were killed, apparently by a drug gang that intended to kill a different group. The massacre came as violence, much of it drug-related, continued to escalate in northern Mexico following President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s decision to militarize the “drug war” after taking office in December 2006 [see Update #1064]. Participants in the Jan. 29 events said they were “fed up with the violence and the actions of the authorities against the criminal underworld, since they don’t bring results and the bloodshed continues.”
Participants also remembered the hundreds of women murdered in the area since 1993, including Rubí Marisol Frayre and her mother, activist Marisela Escobedo Ortiz [see Update #1061]. (La Jornada (Mexico) 1/30/11)
2010 left “the highest number of violent deaths in recent years” in the country, National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) president Raúl Plascencia Villanueva said in Mexico City on Jan. 26 as he presented the semi-independent commission’s annual report to the federal Congress. Plascencia Villanueva said the situation has “had an unjust effect in the sphere of the rights and freedoms of people who have nothing to do with criminality: 111 innocent people, without links to any crime, lost their lives over the last year in public security operations; in the vast majority of the cases, they are still waiting for justice to be carried out.” (LJ 1/27/11)
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton gave a more upbeat view during a brief visit to Guanajuato state in central Mexico on Jan. 24. She admires President Calderón, she told a press conference, and is impressed by his leadership in the fight against organized crime. “We still have work to do," Clinton admitted. “I'm not going to deny that. But we are making progress.” She noted that the US is providing $500 million this year through the Mérida Initiative security cooperation agreement for Mexico’s anti-drug operations. (LJ 1/25/11; EFE 1/25/11 via Fox News Latino)
*4. Mexico: US Agents Have Access to Detained Immigrants
A secret US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks group and published by the Spanish daily El País on Jan. 23 reveals that the main Mexican intelligence agency, the Center for Investigations and National Security (CISEN), “has allowed USG [US government] officers to interview foreign nationals detained at Mexican immigration detention centers dispersed around the country for potential CT [counterterrorist] information of interest.” The May 16, 2008 cable—described as a “scene setter for the visit to Mexico of FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] deputy director John S. Pistole”--also reported that “senior migration officials” in Mexico “are sympathetic to our concerns” and are working with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency to locate terrorism suspects.
El País noted that “Mexico is a very nationalist country where the intervention of third parties causes political and social frictions.”
Another US embassy cable, marked “confidential,” shows Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa in effect acknowledging that he needs US assistance to regain control of the violence-wracked border city Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua state. The Feb. 18, 2010 cable describes a meeting between Calderón and US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano the day before. “Mexico needs the right USG counterparts, and Calderón asked whether the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) might fill that role,” the cable said, referring to a joint project of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the customs and immigration agencies in El Paso, Texas.
“Secretary Napolitano responded that EPIC can help to identify the right organized crime targets,” the cable continued, “but that Mexico must move beyond military deployments and establish a police capacity in Ciudad Juárez capable of policing every block and street. Social services and rule of law must also be extended throughout the city.” (El País 1/23/11)
*5. Puerto Rico: Teachers, Media Condemn Police Actions
Student strikers at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) continued using mass civil disobedience the week of Jan. 24 to push their demand that the university drop an $800 tuition surcharge the administration is imposing this year [see Update #1064]. Some 200 protesters occupied parts of the Río Piedras campus in San Juan at various times on Jan. 25, with a total of 32 arrests. "We’re going to emphasize civil disobedience as a strategy to bring the message that there are students ready to commit themselves totally because they believe there are alternatives to the fee,” said Xiomara Caro, a spokesperson for the Student Representative Committee (CRE). (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 1/25/11)
On Jan. 27 the strikers took their protest to the Capitol building in San Juan, where they demonstrated in support of a measure that Rep. Luis Vega Ramos of the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) had introduced in the House of Representatives to allocate to the UPR what he said was a $50 million surplus in the government’s Fiscal Stabilization Fund. Students blocked avenues around the Capitol, and about 30 were arrested, including Xiomara Caro. Vega Ramos’ legislative measure--which would make the tuition surcharge unnecessary--was defeated by representatives from Gov. Luis Fortuño’s conservative New Progressive Party (PNP), which holds a majority in the House. (END 1/27/11)
Meanwhile, police tactics during the protests have become a separate issue. Reporters and photographers have been complaining ever since the civil disobedience actions began on Jan. 19 that police agents were keeping them from covering the arrests. On Jan. 21 Puerto Rican Journalists Association (ASPPRO) president Rafael Lenín López and Puerto Rican Photojournalists Association president Luis Rolón issued a statement saying the police seemed to be “trying to prevent the people from seeing how they are arresting civil disobedients.” They charged that agents kicked cameras and wouldn’t allow members of the press to enter the Río Piedras campus. “The police cannot determine how the press should cover the news,” the statement said.
On Jan. 26 the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP) issued its own statement on the actions of the Puerto Rican police, expressing solidarity with ASPPRO and condemning the arrest on Jan. 25 of Ricardo Olivera Lora Ricardo, the director of Radio Huelga, the UPR strikers’ radio station. (Puerto Rico Daily Sun 1/21/11; New California Media (NCM) 1/25/11 via Vos el Soberano (Honduras); FRELAP statement 1/26/11, posted on ASPPRO website; Adital (Brazil) 1/28/11)
At a Jan. 29 press conference María Gisela Rosado, director of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU), said “acts of torture” during the arrests “have been obvious in the visuals shown on television, on internet networks, in the written press.” She said police agents were “following the governor’s directives” as they “apply pressure points, block the detainees’ breathing and the flow of blood to their heads…touch women’s bodies and pursue university students with tear gas and pepper spray.” (Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 1/29/11) Police colonel Leovigildo Vázquez, who heads the operations, has told reporters that the agents are acting “professionally,” since they’ve been trained in using “pressure points to weaken the body” though “pain.” (Adital 1/26/11 from NCM)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti
The Human Faces of Latin America’s Cold War (Latin America)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/2881-the-human-faces-of-latin-americas-cold-war
Women Lead Latin America’s Growing Anti-Militarization Movements
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3906
Judge Opens Investigation Into Death Of Salvador Allende (Chile)
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/28/judge-opens-investigation-into-death-of-salvador-allende/
Action Alert: Sign Letter to Hillary Clinton in Support of Traditional Coca-Chewing Rights (Bolivia)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2878-action-alert-sign-letter-to-hillary-clinton-in-support-of-traditional-coca-chewing-rights
Bolivia: People with Disabilities Demanding Rights and Payment
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2876-people-with-disabilities-demanding-rights-and-payment-in-bolivia
International gains for Palestinian sovereignty; Zionists aghast (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/9385
Ecuador: Seven Foreign Oil Companies to Pull Out
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2879-ecuador-seven-foreign-oil-companies-to-pull-out
Pentagon moves ahead with Colombian bases plan
http://ww4report.com/node/9391
Human Rights in the Rear View Mirror: Colombian Commandos Training Mexican Military and Police
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2875-human-rights-in-the-rear-view-mirror-colombian-commandos-training-mexican-military-and-police
Clinton in Mexico: "No Alternative" to Taking on Traffickers
http://www.joshuafrens-string.com/2011/01/clinton-in-mexico-no-alternative-to.html
Mexican Labor Year in Review: 2010
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=182#1238
Oaxaca meets the new boss-—or does it? (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/9392
Mexico - A Man of Peace: Don Samuel Ruiz 1924-2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2877-mexico-a-man-of-peace-don-samuel-ruiz-1924-2011-
U.S. Authorities In Phoenix Break Up Gun Running Ring For Sinaloa Cartel (Mexico)
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/26/u-s-authorities-in-phoenix-break-up-gun-running-ring-for-sinaloa-catel/
The Man-made Aftershocks of a Natural Disaster: Haiti One Year Later
https://nacla.org/node/6868
Cracking the Donor Discourse on Haiti
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2883-cracking-the-donor-discourse-on-haiti
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1065, January 30, 2011
1. Haiti: UN Troops Are “Indispensable Tool” for US Policy
2. Haiti: Is the Election Runoff Finally Set?
3. Mexico: Security Operations Killed 111 “Innocents” in 2010
4. Mexico: US Agents Have Access to Detained Immigrants
5. Puerto Rico: Teachers, Media Condemn Police Actions
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Haiti: UN Troops Are “Indispensable Tool” for US Policy
Even before a major earthquake hit Port-au-Prince in January 2010, the US embassy planned for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)--an international force then numbering about 9,000 soldiers and police--to remain in the country through 2013, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks group and published by the Spanish daily El País on Jan. 28.
The Oct. 1, 2008 cable by the embassy in Port-au-Prince described the UN mission as “a financial and regional security bargain for the USG [US government],” “a good deal for the US” and “an indispensable tool in realizing core USG policy interests in Haiti.” In the absence of a strong Haitian police force, the troops provide “a security force of last resort,” the cable said, and a withdrawal of MINUSTAH could lead to “resurgent kidnapping and international drug trafficking, revived gangs, greater political violence, an exodus of seaborne migrants, a sharp drop in foreign and domestic investment, and resurgent populist and anti-market economy political forces.”
The cable goes on to say that in addition to providing “real regional security dividends for the US,” MINUSTAH, which is led by Brazilian officers and includes troops from other South American countries, helps US policy by “developing habits of security cooperation in the hemisphere that will serve our interests for years to come.” One major concern, however, is “Latin fears that any Haitian opposition to the UN presence undermines their domestic support for deployments in Haiti.” During protests over the high food prices in April 2008 [see Update #943], the cable reports, “the Brazilian MINUSTAH force commander told [the US ambassador] and others that his greatest fear was that his troops would be forced to fire on demonstrators. He understood that this could ignite opposition in Haiti, Brazil and other contributing countries to his troops’ presence in Haiti.”
The cable also contains the embassy’s assessment of drug traffickers’ influence in the Haitian Parliament at the time: “we estimate perhaps a score of deputies and senators are linked to the drug trade.” (El País 1/28/11)
Other cables, released by WikiLeaks the week of Jan. 17, suggest that pressure from the US resulted in a MINUSTAH “anti-gang” operation that led to several deaths and dozens of injuries among civilians in Port-au-Prince’s impoverished Cité Soleil section. In a June 10, 2005 meeting with Brazilian under secretary for political affairs Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, US ambassador to Brazil John Danilovich and an unnamed “political counselor” complained that “MINUSTAH has not been sufficiently robust,” apparently referring to concern by mission commander Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro about causing unnecessary casualties. Less than a month later, Gen. Heleno ordered the bloody operation in Cité Soleil [see Update #812].
Heleno was soon replaced by Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, who died of a gunshot wound on Jan. 7, just as MINUSTAH was about to undertake another operation in Cité Soleil [see Update #832]. The Brazilian government ruled the general’s death a suicide, but according to another cable, Dominican president Leonel Fernández expressed doubts during a Jan. 11 meeting with US deputy assistant secretary of state Patrick Duddy. President Fernández “believes that the Brazilian government is calling the death a suicide in order to protect the mission from domestic criticism,” the cable says. “A confirmed assassination would result in calls from the Brazilian populace for withdrawal from Haiti. Success in this mission is vital for President [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] of Brazil, because it is part of his master plan to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council." (Guardian (UK) 1/21/11)
*2. Haiti: Is the Election Runoff Finally Set?
On Jan. 28 Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced its new schedule for the long-delayed runoffs for the presidency and for many legislative seats. The CEP set Feb. 2 as the day when it would announce the results of the first round, held on Nov. 28; campaigning is to take place from Feb. 17 to Mar. 18; and the actual vote is planned for Mar. 20, with the preliminary results to be announced on Mar. 31. The second round was supposed to be held on Jan. 16 but was delayed by disputes over the results of the chaotic first round.
Most people assume that the two contenders for the presidency will be Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response). Jude Célestin, the candidate of President René Préval’s Unity party, came in second in the CEP’s official results, but a team from the Organization of American States (OAS) concluded that Martelly should have been in second place. On Jan. 26 Unity leaders issued a communiqué agreeing to have Célestin withdraw from the race, although there was no sign that Célestin was willing to go along with the decision.
The US had been putting pressure on Préval and Unity leaders, suspending US entry visas for many of them [see Update #1064]. According to Ginger Thompson of the New York Times, unnamed “senior officials” in the administration of US president Barack Obama also “made it clear that Washington would withhold more than $1 billion in aid from Haiti unless there was an election the United States deems credible.”
Meanwhile, 12 of the original 18 presidential candidates continued to call for annulling the entire vote and holding a new election. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/26/11; New York Times 1/27/11; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 1/28/11)
*3. Mexico: Security Operations Killed 111 “Innocents” in 2010
Hundreds of students, residents, artists, religious people and activists from some 70 organizations started a fast the morning of Jan. 29 in Ciudad Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, to mark the first anniversary of the Jan. 30 massacre of 15 youths in the city’s Villas de Salvárcar neighborhood. “No more blood!” “No more impunity!” and “No more feminicides!” were among the slogans of the commemoration. Later in the morning a group of the fasters marched to Puerto de Anapra, near Sunland Park, New México, where they and US residents held a ceremony in memory of the victims. The demonstrators were divided by a metal fence the US government has built at the border and watched over by US Border Patrol agents.
The youths at Villas de Salvárcar were attending a party when they were killed, apparently by a drug gang that intended to kill a different group. The massacre came as violence, much of it drug-related, continued to escalate in northern Mexico following President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s decision to militarize the “drug war” after taking office in December 2006 [see Update #1064]. Participants in the Jan. 29 events said they were “fed up with the violence and the actions of the authorities against the criminal underworld, since they don’t bring results and the bloodshed continues.”
Participants also remembered the hundreds of women murdered in the area since 1993, including Rubí Marisol Frayre and her mother, activist Marisela Escobedo Ortiz [see Update #1061]. (La Jornada (Mexico) 1/30/11)
2010 left “the highest number of violent deaths in recent years” in the country, National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) president Raúl Plascencia Villanueva said in Mexico City on Jan. 26 as he presented the semi-independent commission’s annual report to the federal Congress. Plascencia Villanueva said the situation has “had an unjust effect in the sphere of the rights and freedoms of people who have nothing to do with criminality: 111 innocent people, without links to any crime, lost their lives over the last year in public security operations; in the vast majority of the cases, they are still waiting for justice to be carried out.” (LJ 1/27/11)
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton gave a more upbeat view during a brief visit to Guanajuato state in central Mexico on Jan. 24. She admires President Calderón, she told a press conference, and is impressed by his leadership in the fight against organized crime. “We still have work to do," Clinton admitted. “I'm not going to deny that. But we are making progress.” She noted that the US is providing $500 million this year through the Mérida Initiative security cooperation agreement for Mexico’s anti-drug operations. (LJ 1/25/11; EFE 1/25/11 via Fox News Latino)
*4. Mexico: US Agents Have Access to Detained Immigrants
A secret US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks group and published by the Spanish daily El País on Jan. 23 reveals that the main Mexican intelligence agency, the Center for Investigations and National Security (CISEN), “has allowed USG [US government] officers to interview foreign nationals detained at Mexican immigration detention centers dispersed around the country for potential CT [counterterrorist] information of interest.” The May 16, 2008 cable—described as a “scene setter for the visit to Mexico of FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] deputy director John S. Pistole”--also reported that “senior migration officials” in Mexico “are sympathetic to our concerns” and are working with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency to locate terrorism suspects.
El País noted that “Mexico is a very nationalist country where the intervention of third parties causes political and social frictions.”
Another US embassy cable, marked “confidential,” shows Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa in effect acknowledging that he needs US assistance to regain control of the violence-wracked border city Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua state. The Feb. 18, 2010 cable describes a meeting between Calderón and US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano the day before. “Mexico needs the right USG counterparts, and Calderón asked whether the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) might fill that role,” the cable said, referring to a joint project of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the customs and immigration agencies in El Paso, Texas.
“Secretary Napolitano responded that EPIC can help to identify the right organized crime targets,” the cable continued, “but that Mexico must move beyond military deployments and establish a police capacity in Ciudad Juárez capable of policing every block and street. Social services and rule of law must also be extended throughout the city.” (El País 1/23/11)
*5. Puerto Rico: Teachers, Media Condemn Police Actions
Student strikers at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) continued using mass civil disobedience the week of Jan. 24 to push their demand that the university drop an $800 tuition surcharge the administration is imposing this year [see Update #1064]. Some 200 protesters occupied parts of the Río Piedras campus in San Juan at various times on Jan. 25, with a total of 32 arrests. "We’re going to emphasize civil disobedience as a strategy to bring the message that there are students ready to commit themselves totally because they believe there are alternatives to the fee,” said Xiomara Caro, a spokesperson for the Student Representative Committee (CRE). (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 1/25/11)
On Jan. 27 the strikers took their protest to the Capitol building in San Juan, where they demonstrated in support of a measure that Rep. Luis Vega Ramos of the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) had introduced in the House of Representatives to allocate to the UPR what he said was a $50 million surplus in the government’s Fiscal Stabilization Fund. Students blocked avenues around the Capitol, and about 30 were arrested, including Xiomara Caro. Vega Ramos’ legislative measure--which would make the tuition surcharge unnecessary--was defeated by representatives from Gov. Luis Fortuño’s conservative New Progressive Party (PNP), which holds a majority in the House. (END 1/27/11)
Meanwhile, police tactics during the protests have become a separate issue. Reporters and photographers have been complaining ever since the civil disobedience actions began on Jan. 19 that police agents were keeping them from covering the arrests. On Jan. 21 Puerto Rican Journalists Association (ASPPRO) president Rafael Lenín López and Puerto Rican Photojournalists Association president Luis Rolón issued a statement saying the police seemed to be “trying to prevent the people from seeing how they are arresting civil disobedients.” They charged that agents kicked cameras and wouldn’t allow members of the press to enter the Río Piedras campus. “The police cannot determine how the press should cover the news,” the statement said.
On Jan. 26 the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP) issued its own statement on the actions of the Puerto Rican police, expressing solidarity with ASPPRO and condemning the arrest on Jan. 25 of Ricardo Olivera Lora Ricardo, the director of Radio Huelga, the UPR strikers’ radio station. (Puerto Rico Daily Sun 1/21/11; New California Media (NCM) 1/25/11 via Vos el Soberano (Honduras); FRELAP statement 1/26/11, posted on ASPPRO website; Adital (Brazil) 1/28/11)
At a Jan. 29 press conference María Gisela Rosado, director of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU), said “acts of torture” during the arrests “have been obvious in the visuals shown on television, on internet networks, in the written press.” She said police agents were “following the governor’s directives” as they “apply pressure points, block the detainees’ breathing and the flow of blood to their heads…touch women’s bodies and pursue university students with tear gas and pepper spray.” (Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 1/29/11) Police colonel Leovigildo Vázquez, who heads the operations, has told reporters that the agents are acting “professionally,” since they’ve been trained in using “pressure points to weaken the body” though “pain.” (Adital 1/26/11 from NCM)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti
The Human Faces of Latin America’s Cold War (Latin America)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/2881-the-human-faces-of-latin-americas-cold-war
Women Lead Latin America’s Growing Anti-Militarization Movements
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3906
Judge Opens Investigation Into Death Of Salvador Allende (Chile)
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/28/judge-opens-investigation-into-death-of-salvador-allende/
Action Alert: Sign Letter to Hillary Clinton in Support of Traditional Coca-Chewing Rights (Bolivia)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2878-action-alert-sign-letter-to-hillary-clinton-in-support-of-traditional-coca-chewing-rights
Bolivia: People with Disabilities Demanding Rights and Payment
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2876-people-with-disabilities-demanding-rights-and-payment-in-bolivia
International gains for Palestinian sovereignty; Zionists aghast (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/9385
Ecuador: Seven Foreign Oil Companies to Pull Out
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2879-ecuador-seven-foreign-oil-companies-to-pull-out
Pentagon moves ahead with Colombian bases plan
http://ww4report.com/node/9391
Human Rights in the Rear View Mirror: Colombian Commandos Training Mexican Military and Police
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2875-human-rights-in-the-rear-view-mirror-colombian-commandos-training-mexican-military-and-police
Clinton in Mexico: "No Alternative" to Taking on Traffickers
http://www.joshuafrens-string.com/2011/01/clinton-in-mexico-no-alternative-to.html
Mexican Labor Year in Review: 2010
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=182#1238
Oaxaca meets the new boss-—or does it? (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/9392
Mexico - A Man of Peace: Don Samuel Ruiz 1924-2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2877-mexico-a-man-of-peace-don-samuel-ruiz-1924-2011-
U.S. Authorities In Phoenix Break Up Gun Running Ring For Sinaloa Cartel (Mexico)
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/26/u-s-authorities-in-phoenix-break-up-gun-running-ring-for-sinaloa-catel/
The Man-made Aftershocks of a Natural Disaster: Haiti One Year Later
https://nacla.org/node/6868
Cracking the Donor Discourse on Haiti
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2883-cracking-the-donor-discourse-on-haiti
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
John Ross and Los de Abajo
Our longtime friend John Ross died last week in Mexico. An appreciation of John as a political thinker by WNU co-editor David Wilson appeared on the MRZine website on Jan. 24:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/wilson240111.html
We will notify our readers as soon as we have more information on memorial events for this amazing activist journalist.
The Editors
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/wilson240111.html
We will notify our readers as soon as we have more information on memorial events for this amazing activist journalist.
The Editors
Monday, January 24, 2011
WNU #1064: Puerto Rican Students Start CD Actions
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1064, January 23, 2011
1. Puerto Rico: Student Strikers Start Mass CD Actions
2. Mexico: US Pays Colombia to Train Mexican Soldiers
3. Mexico: UN Calls for Inquiry in Migrants’ Kidnapping
4. Haiti: Duvalier Is Back--But Why?
5. Haiti: US Pressures Préval, Starts Deporting
6. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Puerto Rico: Student Strikers Start Mass CD ActionsChanting slogans from a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), on Jan. 21 a group of students and activists interrupted a talk that conservative Puerto Rican governor Luis Fortuño Bruset was giving at Valladolid University Law School in Valladolid, Spain. The activists said they were Puerto Ricans living in Spain who wanted the international community to know about Gov. Fortuño’s “destruction” of the UPR, and “the repression, the criminalization and abuse of power against the student demonstrators.” A group of students has been on strike at several of the university’s campuses since December to protest an $800 surcharge on tuition at the large public university [see Update #1063].
Fortuño was visiting Spain as part of a trade mission that the protesters denounced as “a subterfuge by this colonial administration so as not to confront the social and political situation that the country is undergoing.” (Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 1/22/11)
Earlier in the week, UPR students and their supporters began a series of mass civil disobedience actions, blocking entrances to the Río Piedras campus in San Juan to escalate their protest against the surcharge. A total of 49 protesters were arrested on Jan. 19, including Sister Elizabeth Concepción, from a Catholic community in the El Volcán neighborhood of Bayamón; solidarity activist Mary Ann Grady; and Rafael Feliciano, president of the Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR). There were 44 arrests on Jan. 20; among the detainees was the well-known environmental activist Alberto de Jesús Mercado (“Tito Kayak”). (Primera Hora 1/20/11; El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 1/20/11, 1/21/11)
The UPR administration claimed that 90% of the students had registered for the semester and had paid the surcharge by Jan. 21. At a Jan. 22 press conference Xiomara Caro, a spokesperson for the Student Representative Committee (CRE), said that the actual number given by UPR president José Ramón de la Torre was 35,407 registrations from a student body of 61,565, nowhere near 90%. She noted that the strikers hadn’t asked students not to register; instead, strike supporters could stay in school by paying the first installment of the fee, but they were urged to mark their checks “Payment Under Protest.”
Caro said another round of civil disobedience was planned for the next week. (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 1/23/11; Huffington Post 1/18/11)
*2. Mexico: US Pays Colombia to Train Mexican SoldiersSome 7,000 Mexicans have participated in a program through which the Colombian government trains Mexican soldiers and police in techniques for fighting drug cartels, according to an article in the Jan. 22 Washington Post. The administration of US president Barack Obama is encouraging this effort, and the US is paying part of the costs. Washington’s share so far is $800,000, according to the article.
The program provides the Obama administration with “a politically viable way to improve Mexican security forces without a substantial American military or police presence in Mexico,” reporter Juan Forero writes. "The American military can indirectly do a lot more through the Colombians than they politically would be able to do directly," Roderic Ai Camp, of Claremont McKenna College in California, told the Post. "Given the loss of half of Mexico's national territory to the United States in the 19th century, and the Mexican army's hesitant cooperation with their American counterparts, the Colombians are a logical proxy."
Nearly 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence since Mexican president Felipe Calerón Hinojosa militarized the fight against drug trafficking soon after taking office in December 2006; the US helps fund this “war on drugs” through the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation agreement between the Mexico, the US and Central American countries [see Update #1059]. “Mexico has what we had some years ago, which are very powerful cartels,” Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos told the Post. “What we can provide is the experience that we have had dismantling those cartels, training intelligence officers, training judicial police.” (WP 1/22/11)
The Colombian military is notorious for human rights violations, including the practice of creating “false positives”—murdering civilians and counting them as rebels killed in battle. An article in the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada about the Post’s revelations drew a number of sarcastic comments on the Mexican paper’s website. “Don’t forget to give them a lot of courses in HUMAN RIGHTS and the PREVENTION OF DRUG ADDICTION,” one reader wrote. “Will the course include the subject ‘obtaining false positives’…?” another asked. One comment called the program a “training camp for prospective Zetas,” referring to Los Zetas, a criminal gang started by Mexican Special Forces deserters and specializing in the drug trade. (LJ 1/23/11)
*3. Mexico: UN Calls for Inquiry in Migrants’ KidnappingOn Jan. 21 United Nations high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay called on the Mexican government to determine whether there was complicity by the military, the police or other officials in the mass kidnapping of some 40 Central American immigrants by an armed gang in the southern state of Oaxaca on Dec. 16.
The incident, which brought protests from Mexican human rights activists [see Update #1062], took place as some 250 immigrants were riding on a freight train operated by Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuántepec, a company owned by the federal government. Mexican police, soldiers and immigration officers detained some of the immigrants but let the rest proceed. The train operator then tried to extort money from the immigrants but wasn’t satisfied with the amount they offered. A short while later, an armed group entered the train, robbed and beat the immigrants, and abducted about 40. The whereabouts of the victims are still unknown. (New York Times 1/22/11)
With an increase in news stories about the mistreatment, kidnapping and murder of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico, the Mexican government has been working to improve relations with Central American governments on immigration issues. Mexican and Honduran officials held their first high-level meeting on immigration on Jan. 22 in Mexico City. The two governments agreed to carry out a joint campaign to warn undocumented immigrants about the dangers they might encounter and to advise them on their rights and obligations and where they can file legal complaints or seek assistance. (La Jornada (Mexico) 1/23/11)
*4. Haiti: Duvalier Is Back--But Why?On Jan. 21 former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier (1971-1986) gave his first press conference since arriving unexpectedly in Port-au-Prince the evening of Jan. 16 after 25 years of exile in France. Speaking at a private residence in Montagne Noire, on the eastern edge of the capital, Duvalier expressed his “profound sorrow” on behalf of his “compatriots who legitimately claim that they were victims” of his regime, along with his “sympathy” for his “millions of supporters,” especially the “thousands” who were “cravenly assassinated…roasted…their houses, their goods pillaged, uprooted.”
Duvalier said his “departure” from Haiti in a US plane on Feb. 7, 1986, was “voluntary” and that he had wanted “to avoid a bloodbath and to facilitate a conclusion to the political crisis.” His return this year was to express his “solidarity” with the victims of a devastating January 2010 earthquake, he said. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/22/11)
Duvalier didn’t return “to support the Haitians or to take part in politics,” National Disarmament Commission director Alix Fils-Aimé said on Jan. 18 as he filed a legal complaint against Duvalier for his imprisonment in the notorious Fort Dimanche prison in April 1976. The former dictator came “to demonstrate to the Swiss bankers that he doesn’t have any pending business with the justice system, and so to get the $8 million dollars unfrozen from his accounts,” Fils-Aimé said.
Others share Fils-Aimé’s opinion, although they give $6 million rather than $8 million as the amount of money currently frozen in Duvalier’s Swiss bank accounts because of claims by the Haitian government that he had embezzled it. A new Swiss law will take effect on Feb. 1 that would allow Swiss authorities to transfer the funds to the Haitian government, and Duvalier had to move quickly if he hoped to get the money. According to New York Times reporter Ginger Thompson, Duvalier suffers from lupus and may have pancreatic cancer. “[S]o what did he have to lose?” an unnamed official said to Thompson.
“This was probably a calculation on Duvalier’s part, that the state was so weak that he could return to Haiti and leave without being charged with anything,” Human Rights Watch spokesperson Reed Brody told the Times. “Then he could go back to Swiss authorities and argue that he should get his money because Haiti’s not after him anymore.” If so, the ploy backfired. Haitian authorities opened a case against Duvalier for embezzlement on Jan. 18 and told him not to leave the country. (NYT 1/21/11; La Jornada (Mexico) 1/22/11)
Duvalier’s return has increased pressure for the return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004). Despite factional disputes within his Lavalas Family (FL) party, several FL leaders were united on Jan. 19 in calling for the Haitian government to renew Aristide’s diplomatic passport so that he could leave South Africa, where he has lived in exile since 2004. Aristide himself issued a statement that day saying he wanted to return to Haiti “[t]o contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in the field of education.” He also cited “medical reasons.” “It is strongly recommended that I not spend the coming winter in South Africa because in six years I have undergone six eye surgeries.” (Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 1/19/11; Haïti Libre 1/19/11)
Haitian president René Préval was asked about Aristide’s possible return at a joint press conference that he held with Dominican president Leonel Fernández on Jan. 22 during a brief visit to Santo Domingo. Préval said that the 1987 Haitian Constitution did not allow for exile and insisted that Aristide was therefore free to return. (Radio Kiskeya 1/22/11)
*5. Haiti: US Pressures Préval, Starts DeportingWhile media attention remained focused on the return of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier to Haiti, disputes over the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections continued. A week after a technical group from the Organization of American States (OAS) recommended a runoff between presidential candidates Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response) [see Update #1063], Haitian president René Préval still had not agreed to have his Unity party’s candidate, Jude Célestin, cede the number two spot on the ballot to Martelly.
The US government appeared to be pressuring Préval to accept the OAS recommendation. On Jan. 22 Unity’s coordinator, Senator Joseph Lambert, confirmed in a radio interview that the US was now suspending entry visas for a number of Unity members and supporters, including Social Affairs and Labor Minister Gérald Germain; former interior minister Jean Joseph Molière; former commerce and industry minister Jean François Chamblain; and René Momplaisir, an activist in grassroots organizations linked to ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Family (FL). Momplaisir apparently supported Célestin in the November election.
Senator Lambert said these people weren’t too disturbed about the visa denial, but he acknowledged that a meeting of party leaders the night before had discussed the possibility of Célestin’s withdrawal from the race. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 1/23/11)
At the same time that it was apparently pressuring Préval on the elections, the US government issued a new travel advisory for its citizens on Jan. 20. The US “strongly urges avoiding all but essential travel” to Haiti because of dangers from crime, violent protests and the cholera epidemic, the warning said. Previously the US had simply “recommend[ed] against non-essential travel” [see Update #1061].
Also on Jan. 20, the US carried out its first deportation of Haitian immigrants since an earthquake devastated southern Haiti in January 2010. A group of 27 Haitians were flown to Port-au-Prince, including Lyglenson Lemorin, who was charged in an alleged conspiracy to destroy the Sears Tower a Chicago but was acquitted in 2007. (US Department of State travel warning 1/20/11; Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 1/21/11)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Book Review: Dancing with Dynamite in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2869-book-review-dancing-with-dynamite-in-latin-america/
Flash Flooding In Brazil Claims More Than 470 Lives And Shines Spotlight On Brazilian Housing Policy
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/14/flash-flooding-in-brazil-claims-more-than-470-lives-and-shines-spotlight-on-brazilian-housing-policy/
Brazil: New President's First Steps Fuel Optimism of Women's Movement
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2870-brazil-new-presidents-first-steps-fuel-optimism-of-womens-movement
Brazilian Authorities Approve Amazon Dam Despite Presence of Uncontacted Indians
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2866-brazilian-authorities-approve-amazon-dam-despite-presence-of-uncontacted-indians
Bolivia: New Pension Law Lowers Retirement Age, Raises Expectations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2871-bolivia-new-pension-law-lowers-retirement-age-raises-expectations
Peru: labor, campesino unrest plagues mineral sector
http://ww4report.com/node/9355
U.S. Company Threatens Peru with Free Trade Lawsuit
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2867-us-company-threatens-peru-with-free-trade-lawsuit
Colombia: Piedad Córdoba’s Turbulent Fall
https://nacla.org/node/6864
Arrests Made in Arson of Venezuelan Government Building, Opposition Involvement
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5950
Coca-Cola Workers on Strike in Carabobo, Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5942
Honduran Constitution: Still Explosive, But No Longer Set in Stone
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2874-honduras-constitution-still-explosive-but-no-longer-set-in-stone
Ciudad Juárez: another "femicide" activist murdered (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/9275#comments
The Murdered Women of Juarez (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3895
The New Wave of Cross-Border Activism (Mexico)
http://www.grass-roots-press.com/2011/01/20/the-new-wave-of-cross-border-activism/
Mexican Military Raids Social Organization’s Office
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2872-mexican-military-raids-social-organizations-office
The Lead Prosecutor in the Cuban Five Case Refused a DHS Request to Press Criminal Charges Against Posada Carriles
http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra01212011.html
Haiti: ex-dictator Duvalier charged with theft, corruption
http://ww4report.com/node/9362
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1064, January 23, 2011
1. Puerto Rico: Student Strikers Start Mass CD Actions
2. Mexico: US Pays Colombia to Train Mexican Soldiers
3. Mexico: UN Calls for Inquiry in Migrants’ Kidnapping
4. Haiti: Duvalier Is Back--But Why?
5. Haiti: US Pressures Préval, Starts Deporting
6. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Puerto Rico: Student Strikers Start Mass CD ActionsChanting slogans from a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), on Jan. 21 a group of students and activists interrupted a talk that conservative Puerto Rican governor Luis Fortuño Bruset was giving at Valladolid University Law School in Valladolid, Spain. The activists said they were Puerto Ricans living in Spain who wanted the international community to know about Gov. Fortuño’s “destruction” of the UPR, and “the repression, the criminalization and abuse of power against the student demonstrators.” A group of students has been on strike at several of the university’s campuses since December to protest an $800 surcharge on tuition at the large public university [see Update #1063].
Fortuño was visiting Spain as part of a trade mission that the protesters denounced as “a subterfuge by this colonial administration so as not to confront the social and political situation that the country is undergoing.” (Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 1/22/11)
Earlier in the week, UPR students and their supporters began a series of mass civil disobedience actions, blocking entrances to the Río Piedras campus in San Juan to escalate their protest against the surcharge. A total of 49 protesters were arrested on Jan. 19, including Sister Elizabeth Concepción, from a Catholic community in the El Volcán neighborhood of Bayamón; solidarity activist Mary Ann Grady; and Rafael Feliciano, president of the Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR). There were 44 arrests on Jan. 20; among the detainees was the well-known environmental activist Alberto de Jesús Mercado (“Tito Kayak”). (Primera Hora 1/20/11; El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 1/20/11, 1/21/11)
The UPR administration claimed that 90% of the students had registered for the semester and had paid the surcharge by Jan. 21. At a Jan. 22 press conference Xiomara Caro, a spokesperson for the Student Representative Committee (CRE), said that the actual number given by UPR president José Ramón de la Torre was 35,407 registrations from a student body of 61,565, nowhere near 90%. She noted that the strikers hadn’t asked students not to register; instead, strike supporters could stay in school by paying the first installment of the fee, but they were urged to mark their checks “Payment Under Protest.”
Caro said another round of civil disobedience was planned for the next week. (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 1/23/11; Huffington Post 1/18/11)
*2. Mexico: US Pays Colombia to Train Mexican SoldiersSome 7,000 Mexicans have participated in a program through which the Colombian government trains Mexican soldiers and police in techniques for fighting drug cartels, according to an article in the Jan. 22 Washington Post. The administration of US president Barack Obama is encouraging this effort, and the US is paying part of the costs. Washington’s share so far is $800,000, according to the article.
The program provides the Obama administration with “a politically viable way to improve Mexican security forces without a substantial American military or police presence in Mexico,” reporter Juan Forero writes. "The American military can indirectly do a lot more through the Colombians than they politically would be able to do directly," Roderic Ai Camp, of Claremont McKenna College in California, told the Post. "Given the loss of half of Mexico's national territory to the United States in the 19th century, and the Mexican army's hesitant cooperation with their American counterparts, the Colombians are a logical proxy."
Nearly 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence since Mexican president Felipe Calerón Hinojosa militarized the fight against drug trafficking soon after taking office in December 2006; the US helps fund this “war on drugs” through the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation agreement between the Mexico, the US and Central American countries [see Update #1059]. “Mexico has what we had some years ago, which are very powerful cartels,” Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos told the Post. “What we can provide is the experience that we have had dismantling those cartels, training intelligence officers, training judicial police.” (WP 1/22/11)
The Colombian military is notorious for human rights violations, including the practice of creating “false positives”—murdering civilians and counting them as rebels killed in battle. An article in the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada about the Post’s revelations drew a number of sarcastic comments on the Mexican paper’s website. “Don’t forget to give them a lot of courses in HUMAN RIGHTS and the PREVENTION OF DRUG ADDICTION,” one reader wrote. “Will the course include the subject ‘obtaining false positives’…?” another asked. One comment called the program a “training camp for prospective Zetas,” referring to Los Zetas, a criminal gang started by Mexican Special Forces deserters and specializing in the drug trade. (LJ 1/23/11)
*3. Mexico: UN Calls for Inquiry in Migrants’ KidnappingOn Jan. 21 United Nations high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay called on the Mexican government to determine whether there was complicity by the military, the police or other officials in the mass kidnapping of some 40 Central American immigrants by an armed gang in the southern state of Oaxaca on Dec. 16.
The incident, which brought protests from Mexican human rights activists [see Update #1062], took place as some 250 immigrants were riding on a freight train operated by Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuántepec, a company owned by the federal government. Mexican police, soldiers and immigration officers detained some of the immigrants but let the rest proceed. The train operator then tried to extort money from the immigrants but wasn’t satisfied with the amount they offered. A short while later, an armed group entered the train, robbed and beat the immigrants, and abducted about 40. The whereabouts of the victims are still unknown. (New York Times 1/22/11)
With an increase in news stories about the mistreatment, kidnapping and murder of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico, the Mexican government has been working to improve relations with Central American governments on immigration issues. Mexican and Honduran officials held their first high-level meeting on immigration on Jan. 22 in Mexico City. The two governments agreed to carry out a joint campaign to warn undocumented immigrants about the dangers they might encounter and to advise them on their rights and obligations and where they can file legal complaints or seek assistance. (La Jornada (Mexico) 1/23/11)
*4. Haiti: Duvalier Is Back--But Why?On Jan. 21 former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier (1971-1986) gave his first press conference since arriving unexpectedly in Port-au-Prince the evening of Jan. 16 after 25 years of exile in France. Speaking at a private residence in Montagne Noire, on the eastern edge of the capital, Duvalier expressed his “profound sorrow” on behalf of his “compatriots who legitimately claim that they were victims” of his regime, along with his “sympathy” for his “millions of supporters,” especially the “thousands” who were “cravenly assassinated…roasted…their houses, their goods pillaged, uprooted.”
Duvalier said his “departure” from Haiti in a US plane on Feb. 7, 1986, was “voluntary” and that he had wanted “to avoid a bloodbath and to facilitate a conclusion to the political crisis.” His return this year was to express his “solidarity” with the victims of a devastating January 2010 earthquake, he said. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/22/11)
Duvalier didn’t return “to support the Haitians or to take part in politics,” National Disarmament Commission director Alix Fils-Aimé said on Jan. 18 as he filed a legal complaint against Duvalier for his imprisonment in the notorious Fort Dimanche prison in April 1976. The former dictator came “to demonstrate to the Swiss bankers that he doesn’t have any pending business with the justice system, and so to get the $8 million dollars unfrozen from his accounts,” Fils-Aimé said.
Others share Fils-Aimé’s opinion, although they give $6 million rather than $8 million as the amount of money currently frozen in Duvalier’s Swiss bank accounts because of claims by the Haitian government that he had embezzled it. A new Swiss law will take effect on Feb. 1 that would allow Swiss authorities to transfer the funds to the Haitian government, and Duvalier had to move quickly if he hoped to get the money. According to New York Times reporter Ginger Thompson, Duvalier suffers from lupus and may have pancreatic cancer. “[S]o what did he have to lose?” an unnamed official said to Thompson.
“This was probably a calculation on Duvalier’s part, that the state was so weak that he could return to Haiti and leave without being charged with anything,” Human Rights Watch spokesperson Reed Brody told the Times. “Then he could go back to Swiss authorities and argue that he should get his money because Haiti’s not after him anymore.” If so, the ploy backfired. Haitian authorities opened a case against Duvalier for embezzlement on Jan. 18 and told him not to leave the country. (NYT 1/21/11; La Jornada (Mexico) 1/22/11)
Duvalier’s return has increased pressure for the return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004). Despite factional disputes within his Lavalas Family (FL) party, several FL leaders were united on Jan. 19 in calling for the Haitian government to renew Aristide’s diplomatic passport so that he could leave South Africa, where he has lived in exile since 2004. Aristide himself issued a statement that day saying he wanted to return to Haiti “[t]o contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in the field of education.” He also cited “medical reasons.” “It is strongly recommended that I not spend the coming winter in South Africa because in six years I have undergone six eye surgeries.” (Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 1/19/11; Haïti Libre 1/19/11)
Haitian president René Préval was asked about Aristide’s possible return at a joint press conference that he held with Dominican president Leonel Fernández on Jan. 22 during a brief visit to Santo Domingo. Préval said that the 1987 Haitian Constitution did not allow for exile and insisted that Aristide was therefore free to return. (Radio Kiskeya 1/22/11)
*5. Haiti: US Pressures Préval, Starts DeportingWhile media attention remained focused on the return of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier to Haiti, disputes over the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections continued. A week after a technical group from the Organization of American States (OAS) recommended a runoff between presidential candidates Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response) [see Update #1063], Haitian president René Préval still had not agreed to have his Unity party’s candidate, Jude Célestin, cede the number two spot on the ballot to Martelly.
The US government appeared to be pressuring Préval to accept the OAS recommendation. On Jan. 22 Unity’s coordinator, Senator Joseph Lambert, confirmed in a radio interview that the US was now suspending entry visas for a number of Unity members and supporters, including Social Affairs and Labor Minister Gérald Germain; former interior minister Jean Joseph Molière; former commerce and industry minister Jean François Chamblain; and René Momplaisir, an activist in grassroots organizations linked to ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Family (FL). Momplaisir apparently supported Célestin in the November election.
Senator Lambert said these people weren’t too disturbed about the visa denial, but he acknowledged that a meeting of party leaders the night before had discussed the possibility of Célestin’s withdrawal from the race. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 1/23/11)
At the same time that it was apparently pressuring Préval on the elections, the US government issued a new travel advisory for its citizens on Jan. 20. The US “strongly urges avoiding all but essential travel” to Haiti because of dangers from crime, violent protests and the cholera epidemic, the warning said. Previously the US had simply “recommend[ed] against non-essential travel” [see Update #1061].
Also on Jan. 20, the US carried out its first deportation of Haitian immigrants since an earthquake devastated southern Haiti in January 2010. A group of 27 Haitians were flown to Port-au-Prince, including Lyglenson Lemorin, who was charged in an alleged conspiracy to destroy the Sears Tower a Chicago but was acquitted in 2007. (US Department of State travel warning 1/20/11; Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 1/21/11)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Book Review: Dancing with Dynamite in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2869-book-review-dancing-with-dynamite-in-latin-america/
Flash Flooding In Brazil Claims More Than 470 Lives And Shines Spotlight On Brazilian Housing Policy
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/14/flash-flooding-in-brazil-claims-more-than-470-lives-and-shines-spotlight-on-brazilian-housing-policy/
Brazil: New President's First Steps Fuel Optimism of Women's Movement
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2870-brazil-new-presidents-first-steps-fuel-optimism-of-womens-movement
Brazilian Authorities Approve Amazon Dam Despite Presence of Uncontacted Indians
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2866-brazilian-authorities-approve-amazon-dam-despite-presence-of-uncontacted-indians
Bolivia: New Pension Law Lowers Retirement Age, Raises Expectations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2871-bolivia-new-pension-law-lowers-retirement-age-raises-expectations
Peru: labor, campesino unrest plagues mineral sector
http://ww4report.com/node/9355
U.S. Company Threatens Peru with Free Trade Lawsuit
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2867-us-company-threatens-peru-with-free-trade-lawsuit
Colombia: Piedad Córdoba’s Turbulent Fall
https://nacla.org/node/6864
Arrests Made in Arson of Venezuelan Government Building, Opposition Involvement
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5950
Coca-Cola Workers on Strike in Carabobo, Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5942
Honduran Constitution: Still Explosive, But No Longer Set in Stone
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2874-honduras-constitution-still-explosive-but-no-longer-set-in-stone
Ciudad Juárez: another "femicide" activist murdered (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/9275#comments
The Murdered Women of Juarez (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3895
The New Wave of Cross-Border Activism (Mexico)
http://www.grass-roots-press.com/2011/01/20/the-new-wave-of-cross-border-activism/
Mexican Military Raids Social Organization’s Office
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2872-mexican-military-raids-social-organizations-office
The Lead Prosecutor in the Cuban Five Case Refused a DHS Request to Press Criminal Charges Against Posada Carriles
http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra01212011.html
Haiti: ex-dictator Duvalier charged with theft, corruption
http://ww4report.com/node/9362
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
WNU #1063: Honduran Right Offers Constitutional Reforms
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1063, January 16, 2011
1. Honduras: Right Wing Offers Constitutional Reforms
2. Honduras: Campesino Leader Kidnapped, Released
3. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Resumes
4. Haiti: Quake Anniversary Ceremonies Protested
5. Latin America: Four More Countries Recognize Palestine
6. US: SOA Protesters Get the Max, Again
7. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Honduras: Right Wing Offers Constitutional Reforms
On the evening of Jan. 12 Honduras’ National Congress passed reforms to Articles 5 and 213 of the 1982 Constitution that would open the way to changing key elements of the document--including the ban on presidential reelection--by popular referendum. The changes were proposed by the rightwing National Party (PN) of President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa and were backed by other parties, including the Liberal Party (PL) of former president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009); 103 of the 128 legislative deputies voted for the reforms.
Two different sessions of the National Congress need to approve an amendment, so the changes will not be official unless approved the next session, which begins on Jan. 25.
Commentators were quick to note that the military removed former president Zelaya from office in June 2009 on the pretext that a nonbinding referendum he was promoting could have resulted in similar changes to the Constitution. President Lobo and many of the current legislators supported the 2009 coup as a defense of the Constitution. “So something that was bad when Zelaya tried it is good now?” a reporter asked President Lobo on Jan. 12. “Let’s not mix water with oil,” Lobo answered, claiming that Zelaya had been trying to extend his term.
Grassroots organizations denounced the new reforms as an inadequate response to the popular pressure for more extensive changes to the current Constitution, which was created at the end of nearly two decades of military dictatorship. The National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition of many different groups opposing the 2009 coup, said it would continue to push for a constituent assembly with the power to rewrite the Constitution, the object of the June 2009 referendum. The FNRP says it gathered 1,342,876 signatures for such an assembly during a petition campaign in the spring and summer of 2010 [see Update #1051].
Tomás Andino, a former Congress member from the center-left Democratic Unification (UD) party, attributed the government’s reforms to international pressure. He said the US was following a policy of supporting “moderate coup supporters” and dissociating itself from the “recalcitrant coup supporters.” According to Andino, Washington pushed the Lobo government in December to return Zelaya to Honduras from exile and to punish the "visible faces of the coup." The government’s failure to follow the US plan lost Honduras $215 million of US aid from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Andino said, and could result in the loss of other aid. (Prensa Latina 1/12/11; La Nación (Costa Rica) 1/13/11, some from ACAN-EFE; Red Morazánica de Información 1/13/11 via FNRP website; Honduras Culture and Politics blog 1/13/11) The US announced the Millennium Challenge suspension on Jan. 6. (AP 1/6/11 via SFGate)
*2. Honduras: Campesino Leader Kidnapped, Released
Honduran campesino leader Juan Ramón Chinchilla was safe and was staying in an undisclosed location on Jan. 11 after two days in captivity, according to the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition of labor and grassroots organizations. Chinchilla, a leader in the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA), said a group of hooded men seized him on Jan. 8 on a road near La Concepción, Tocoa municipality, in the northern department of Colón. The kidnappers questioned him, beat him and burned his hair, Chinchilla said. Most of the men wore uniforms; some spoke English and one spoke a language Chinchilla couldn’t understand. He escaped while the kidnappers were moving him to another location on the night of Jan. 9.
The FNRP thanked political and social organizations and the international community for mobilizing in Chinchilla’s defense. The kidnappers “were concerned about the national and international pressure,” Chinchilla told an interviewer. “They were monitoring the news on the internet and radio. That is why they decided to move me to another location…. I believe that all of this pressure helped so that something worse did not happen.”
The Lower Aguán Valley in northern Honduras has been the site of repeated and often violent land struggles between campesino families, grouped together in the MUCA, and large landowners seeking to use the land for growing African oil palms [see Update #1059]. Chinchilla and the FNRP suggested that three of the largest landowners in the country, Miguel Facussé Barjum, Reinaldo Canales and René Morales, were behind Chinchilla’s kidnapping. (Prensa Latina 1/11/11, 1/12/11; FNRP website 1/12/11 from Rel-UITA (Argentina))
*3. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Resumes
Students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) renewed militant protests around economic issues as the school reopened on Jan. 11 following winter holidays. The actions had started in December in opposition to an $800 tuition surcharge for 2011 [see Update #1060]; protest leaders said the increase would keep as many as 10,000 of the system’s 65,000 students from attending the public university. The students called a 48-hour strike on Dec. 7-8, and an indefinite strike starting on Dec. 14, but the actions were only observed at six of the UPR’s 11 campuses, in contrast to the 10 campuses shut down last spring, when students beat back major budget cutbacks with a two-month strike. (People’s World 1/10/11)
The students’ first action when school reopened was a march on Jan. 11, but acts of vandalism by masked youths during the march put the student movement on the defensive. On Jan. 12 police agents arrested nine students at the Río Piedras campus in San Juan as they distributed fliers; they were released later in the day for lack of evidence to support charges. An assembly of student strikers that evening condemned the arrests as a demonstration that “the university administration and the executive [of the Puerto Rican government] continue to restrict, without right or reason, freedom of expression, reflecting in the process the totalitarian character of [Gov.] Luis Fortuño’s government.” The assembly also condemned vandalism and the “irresponsible use” of masks for “acts…which go against the spirit of struggle of this student movement,” but the students defended the “use of masks as a way to protect the compañeros and compañeras from being arrested or penalized for participating in demonstrations and public activities.” (Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 1/13/11, ___)
On Jan. 13 some 75 strikers attempted to disrupt the first day of registration with a sit-in at the Río Piedras campus’ administrative buildings. The protesters occupied a stairway and hung a giant banner reading: “No fees” in various languages and quoting the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Only through education can man be a man; man is no more than what education makes of him.” Police agents eventually used pepper spray and their shields to push the protesters outside, where a larger number of students continued to demonstrate. Seven arrests were reported. (Primera Hora 1/13/11; Puerto Rico Indymedia 1/14/11)
*4. Haiti: Quake Anniversary Ceremonies Protested
Thousands of Haitians turned out for religious ceremonies in Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country on Jan. 12 to mark the one-year anniversary of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that leveled much of the capital and the surrounding area. Cardinal Robert Sarah, sent by Pope Benedict XVI, joined the papal nuncio and Haitian bishops and priests in a special mass at the ruins of the city’s Catholic cathedral. Protestants held a service at the Champ-de-Mars park, across from the shattered National Palace, while Vodou followers participated in a ceremony of remembrance at the National Bureau of Ethnology.
The death toll from the earthquake has generally been estimated at 220,000 to 250,000, but on the anniversary Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive announced that the official estimate had risen to 316,000. Some 206,000 victims were reportedly buried just in the mass graves at Saint-Christophe (Titanyen) north of the capital. (Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 1/12/11)
Not all the anniversary ceremonies went smoothly. The government planned an event to mark the start of an ambitious housing project supposed to provide some 3,000-4,000 apartments in the impoverished Fort National neighborhood near the center of Port-au-Prince. The event was called off after a group of unidentified persons threw stones and an apparently unrelated group of about 20 local residents carrying signs occupied the site. Police and members of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), an international police and military operation, intervened, but there were no reports of injuries. The protesters said they didn’t oppose reconstruction but were demanding greater transparency. “We want explanations, we want to know how the state expects to help people who well before Jan. 12 [2010] lived in subhuman conditions,” a protester explained to a MINUSTAH agent, who took notes. “This is unacceptable now in the 21st century.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/12/11)
A memorial at the Applied Linguistics Faculty of the State University of Haiti (UEH) for more than 150 students and faculty lost in the quake was disrupted by dozens of protesters, mostly from the UEH Human Sciences Faculty (FASCH), demanding justice for sociology professor Jean Anil Louis-Juste. A well-known radical, Louis-Juste was shot dead in broad daylight in downtown Port-au-Prince just a few hours before the earthquake [see Update #1026]. The FASCH students were protesting the lack of progress in the murder investigation and what they said was UEH rector Jean Vernet Henry’s failure to honor Louis-Juste on the Jan. 12 anniversary. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 1/12/11)
In other news, on Jan. 13 Organization of American States (OAS) representatives in Haiti sent President René Préval a report by OAS technical experts on the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections. The report recommended that presidential candidates Myrlande Manigat and Michel Martelly (the popular singer known as “Sweet Mickey”) should be the two candidates in a runoff election originally scheduled for Jan. 16. Martelly would replace Préval’s designated candidate (and future son-in-law), Jude Célestin, who was originally assigned second place. One person was killed on Jan. 14 during street demonstrations against the OAS recommendations, and 14 people were arrested; they were released without explanation the same day. The detainees had been carrying a large amount of money in their vehicles, along with old tires and pamphlets proclaiming Célestin the victor; witnesses said they had been shooting guns and building barricades. (AlterPresse 1/14/11; Radio Kiskeya 1/15/11)
Adding to the tensions, former “president for life” Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier (1971-1986) arrived in Port-au-Prince on an Air France flight at about 5 pm on Jan. 16, apparently without warning, after nearly 25 years of exile in France. Several hundred supporters and opponents gathered at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport as the news spread. The ex-dictator stayed at the airport for about three hours and then was driven away in a vehicle under heavy escort by Haitian police and MINUSTAH agents. (AlterPresse 1/17/11)
*5. Latin America: Four More Countries Recognize Palestine
On Jan. 14 Guyana’s Foreign Ministry announced that his country was recognizing Palestine as an independent nation in the hope that “that the increasing recognition of the state of Palestine will contribute to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of lasting peace and stability in the region.” Guyana is the sixth South American country to recognize Palestine in a little more than a month. (Haaretz (Israel) 1/14/11)
Brazil started the wave of recognitions on Dec. 3, and Argentina followed on Dec. 6 [see Update #1060]. Bolivian president Evo Morales announced his country’s decision to recognize Palestine on Dec. 22; Bolivia had broken relations with Israel in January 2009 in response to an Israeli offensive in Gaza. (Reuters 12/22/10 via Europa Press) On Dec. 24 Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry announced that President Rafael Correa had approved that day “official recognition by the government of Ecuador for the Palestinian State as free and independent, with the borders from 1967.” (EFE 12/24/10 via La Hora (Quito))
The government of rightwing Chilean president Sebastián Piñera announced its recognition of Palestine on Jan. 7. A statement read by Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno stressed that Chile has also “fully supported the right of the state of Israel to exist inside secure and internationally recognized borders.” Like Bolivia, Chile didn’t define the borders of the Palestinian state; Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador all specified the borders from 1967, which would include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Moreno noted the presence in Chile of large communities of people of Arabic and Jewish descent; there are about 300,000 Arab Chileans and 30,000 Jewish Chileans. Moreno also announced a visit by Piñera to Israel and Palestine and Mar. 4 and 5. (AFP 1/7/11 via El Comercio (Quito))
Venezuela had recognized Palestine earlier, as had three other Latin American countries: Costa Rica, Cuba and Nicaragua. Uruguay indicated that it would make a similar move sometime in 2011 [see Update #1060].
*6. US: SOA Protesters Get the Max, Again
For the second year in a row, a federal court in Columbus, Georgia, has sentenced activists to six-month prison terms for trespassing on the US Army's Fort Benning base during protests against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). This is the maximum sentence for the offense, and US federal magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth surprised observers when he imposed the penalty on three activists in January 2010 [see Update #1020].
Four of the activists arrested during the most recent protest—the 20th annual demonstration, held last Nov. 20—have received six-month sentences. Father Louis Vitale and Michael Omondi were sentenced after making a no-contest plea in November, and Nancy H. Smith and Christopher Spicer were sentenced by US Magistrate Stephen Hyles on Jan. 5. This is the third time Father Vitale has served time in jail for participating in the protests against SOA, which trains Latin American soldiers. SOA Watch, which sponsors the protests, says SOA graduates are among the region's most notorious human rights violators.
Information on sending letters of support to the jailed activists is available at http://www.soaw.org/about-us/pocs . (SOA Watch 1/5/11; Bryan County (GA) News 1/6/11 from AP)
Correction: In Update #1058 we reported that the 2010 SOA Watch demonstration was about the same size as in 2009, based on police and media reports indicating that about 5,000 people participated in both. An experienced activist who was present for both protests reports that the 2009 demonstration was larger, with significantly more than 5,000 participants.
*7. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
The Decade that Transformed a Continent
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3841
Once Upon a Time in Argentina: Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s Latest Fairy Tale
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2857-once-upon-a-time-in-argentina-mary-anastasia-ogradys-latest-fairy-tale-
Argentina: "national hero" recast as mass murderer of indigenous people
http://ww4report.com/node/9342
Chile: Flood of Indigenous Demands a Challenge for Government
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2856-chile-flood-of-indigenous-demands-a-challenge-for-government
Easter Island: Chilean forces suppress indigenous protests
http://ww4report.com/node/9341
Protests paralyze southern Chile
http://ww4report.com/node/9346
The Rio de Janeiro War: Farce and the Geopolitics of Crime
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3863
Flash Flooding In Brazil Claims More Than 470 Lives And Shines Spotlight On Brazilian Housing Policy
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/14/flash-flooding-in-brazil-claims-more-than-470-lives-and-shines-spotlight-on-brazilian-housing-policy/
Inter-American rights commission to rule on Bazilian Amazon land claim
http://ww4report.com/node/9345
Bolivia: New Pension Law Lowers Retirement Age, Raises Expectations
https://nacla.org/node/6858
Open Letter to Evo Morales and Álvaro García Against the Gasolinazo
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2854-open-letter-to-evo-morales-and-alvaro-garcia-against-the-gasolinazo
WikiLeaks Peru: cable alleges military ties to narco-traffic
http://ww4report.com/node/9340
Peru: army rewrites history of "dirty war"
http://ww4report.com/node/9343
Peru: evidence mounts of "uncontacted peoples" in Amazon oil zones
http://ww4report.com/node/9344
The Battle Next Door: An Insider’s Experience with Colombian Military Discourse
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3889
Two, Three, Many Colombias
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2862-two-three-many-colombias
Colombia: new charges in "false positives" scandal
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9349
Venezuelan link seen in supposed FARC-ETA connection
http://ww4report.com/node/9347
Hugo Chávez: "I am not a dictator"
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9348
New U.S. Ship Deployment to Costa Rica Heightens Tensions
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3852
US: Wrong on Honduras
http://www.thenation.com/article/157725/us-wrong-honduras
Guatemala declares emergency as Zetas threaten state
http://ww4report.com/node/9350
Mexico: Zapatistas deny link to Fernández de Cevallos kidnapping
http://ww4report.com/node/9351
Mexico: leader of "Santa Muerte" cult detained on kidnapping charges
http://ww4report.com/node/9352
Mexico: 2010 narco-violence again breaks record
http://ww4report.com/node/9353
Mexico: Guerrero campesinos reinstate blockade against Parota hydro-dam
http://ww4report.com/node/9354
The Other Arizona Shooting (Mexico)
http://vivirlatino.com/2011/01/11/the-other-arizona-shooting.php
Where the People Order and the Law Obeys: The Policía Comunitaria in Guerrero, Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2855-where-the-people-order-and-the-law-obeys-the-policia-comunitaria-in-guerrero-mexico
Mexican Army attacks human rights defenders in Oaxaca
http://elenemigocomun.net/2011/01/mexican-army-attacks-human-rights-defenders/
Former CIA Asset Luis Posada Goes to Trial (Cuba)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5929
Haiti One Year Later: Light at the End of the Tunnel or Oncoming Train?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-schuller/haiti-one-year-later-ligh_b_807756.html
Haiti: January 12, 2011 - Frustration, Anger, Exclusion
http://www.ayitikaleje.org/haiti-grassroots-watch-engli/2011/1/13/january-12-2011.html
Beyond the Blue Helmets: Stability in Haiti Requires New Elections
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3869
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1063, January 16, 2011
1. Honduras: Right Wing Offers Constitutional Reforms
2. Honduras: Campesino Leader Kidnapped, Released
3. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Resumes
4. Haiti: Quake Anniversary Ceremonies Protested
5. Latin America: Four More Countries Recognize Palestine
6. US: SOA Protesters Get the Max, Again
7. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Honduras: Right Wing Offers Constitutional Reforms
On the evening of Jan. 12 Honduras’ National Congress passed reforms to Articles 5 and 213 of the 1982 Constitution that would open the way to changing key elements of the document--including the ban on presidential reelection--by popular referendum. The changes were proposed by the rightwing National Party (PN) of President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa and were backed by other parties, including the Liberal Party (PL) of former president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009); 103 of the 128 legislative deputies voted for the reforms.
Two different sessions of the National Congress need to approve an amendment, so the changes will not be official unless approved the next session, which begins on Jan. 25.
Commentators were quick to note that the military removed former president Zelaya from office in June 2009 on the pretext that a nonbinding referendum he was promoting could have resulted in similar changes to the Constitution. President Lobo and many of the current legislators supported the 2009 coup as a defense of the Constitution. “So something that was bad when Zelaya tried it is good now?” a reporter asked President Lobo on Jan. 12. “Let’s not mix water with oil,” Lobo answered, claiming that Zelaya had been trying to extend his term.
Grassroots organizations denounced the new reforms as an inadequate response to the popular pressure for more extensive changes to the current Constitution, which was created at the end of nearly two decades of military dictatorship. The National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition of many different groups opposing the 2009 coup, said it would continue to push for a constituent assembly with the power to rewrite the Constitution, the object of the June 2009 referendum. The FNRP says it gathered 1,342,876 signatures for such an assembly during a petition campaign in the spring and summer of 2010 [see Update #1051].
Tomás Andino, a former Congress member from the center-left Democratic Unification (UD) party, attributed the government’s reforms to international pressure. He said the US was following a policy of supporting “moderate coup supporters” and dissociating itself from the “recalcitrant coup supporters.” According to Andino, Washington pushed the Lobo government in December to return Zelaya to Honduras from exile and to punish the "visible faces of the coup." The government’s failure to follow the US plan lost Honduras $215 million of US aid from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Andino said, and could result in the loss of other aid. (Prensa Latina 1/12/11; La Nación (Costa Rica) 1/13/11, some from ACAN-EFE; Red Morazánica de Información 1/13/11 via FNRP website; Honduras Culture and Politics blog 1/13/11) The US announced the Millennium Challenge suspension on Jan. 6. (AP 1/6/11 via SFGate)
*2. Honduras: Campesino Leader Kidnapped, Released
Honduran campesino leader Juan Ramón Chinchilla was safe and was staying in an undisclosed location on Jan. 11 after two days in captivity, according to the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition of labor and grassroots organizations. Chinchilla, a leader in the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA), said a group of hooded men seized him on Jan. 8 on a road near La Concepción, Tocoa municipality, in the northern department of Colón. The kidnappers questioned him, beat him and burned his hair, Chinchilla said. Most of the men wore uniforms; some spoke English and one spoke a language Chinchilla couldn’t understand. He escaped while the kidnappers were moving him to another location on the night of Jan. 9.
The FNRP thanked political and social organizations and the international community for mobilizing in Chinchilla’s defense. The kidnappers “were concerned about the national and international pressure,” Chinchilla told an interviewer. “They were monitoring the news on the internet and radio. That is why they decided to move me to another location…. I believe that all of this pressure helped so that something worse did not happen.”
The Lower Aguán Valley in northern Honduras has been the site of repeated and often violent land struggles between campesino families, grouped together in the MUCA, and large landowners seeking to use the land for growing African oil palms [see Update #1059]. Chinchilla and the FNRP suggested that three of the largest landowners in the country, Miguel Facussé Barjum, Reinaldo Canales and René Morales, were behind Chinchilla’s kidnapping. (Prensa Latina 1/11/11, 1/12/11; FNRP website 1/12/11 from Rel-UITA (Argentina))
*3. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Resumes
Students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) renewed militant protests around economic issues as the school reopened on Jan. 11 following winter holidays. The actions had started in December in opposition to an $800 tuition surcharge for 2011 [see Update #1060]; protest leaders said the increase would keep as many as 10,000 of the system’s 65,000 students from attending the public university. The students called a 48-hour strike on Dec. 7-8, and an indefinite strike starting on Dec. 14, but the actions were only observed at six of the UPR’s 11 campuses, in contrast to the 10 campuses shut down last spring, when students beat back major budget cutbacks with a two-month strike. (People’s World 1/10/11)
The students’ first action when school reopened was a march on Jan. 11, but acts of vandalism by masked youths during the march put the student movement on the defensive. On Jan. 12 police agents arrested nine students at the Río Piedras campus in San Juan as they distributed fliers; they were released later in the day for lack of evidence to support charges. An assembly of student strikers that evening condemned the arrests as a demonstration that “the university administration and the executive [of the Puerto Rican government] continue to restrict, without right or reason, freedom of expression, reflecting in the process the totalitarian character of [Gov.] Luis Fortuño’s government.” The assembly also condemned vandalism and the “irresponsible use” of masks for “acts…which go against the spirit of struggle of this student movement,” but the students defended the “use of masks as a way to protect the compañeros and compañeras from being arrested or penalized for participating in demonstrations and public activities.” (Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 1/13/11, ___)
On Jan. 13 some 75 strikers attempted to disrupt the first day of registration with a sit-in at the Río Piedras campus’ administrative buildings. The protesters occupied a stairway and hung a giant banner reading: “No fees” in various languages and quoting the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Only through education can man be a man; man is no more than what education makes of him.” Police agents eventually used pepper spray and their shields to push the protesters outside, where a larger number of students continued to demonstrate. Seven arrests were reported. (Primera Hora 1/13/11; Puerto Rico Indymedia 1/14/11)
*4. Haiti: Quake Anniversary Ceremonies Protested
Thousands of Haitians turned out for religious ceremonies in Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country on Jan. 12 to mark the one-year anniversary of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that leveled much of the capital and the surrounding area. Cardinal Robert Sarah, sent by Pope Benedict XVI, joined the papal nuncio and Haitian bishops and priests in a special mass at the ruins of the city’s Catholic cathedral. Protestants held a service at the Champ-de-Mars park, across from the shattered National Palace, while Vodou followers participated in a ceremony of remembrance at the National Bureau of Ethnology.
The death toll from the earthquake has generally been estimated at 220,000 to 250,000, but on the anniversary Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive announced that the official estimate had risen to 316,000. Some 206,000 victims were reportedly buried just in the mass graves at Saint-Christophe (Titanyen) north of the capital. (Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 1/12/11)
Not all the anniversary ceremonies went smoothly. The government planned an event to mark the start of an ambitious housing project supposed to provide some 3,000-4,000 apartments in the impoverished Fort National neighborhood near the center of Port-au-Prince. The event was called off after a group of unidentified persons threw stones and an apparently unrelated group of about 20 local residents carrying signs occupied the site. Police and members of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), an international police and military operation, intervened, but there were no reports of injuries. The protesters said they didn’t oppose reconstruction but were demanding greater transparency. “We want explanations, we want to know how the state expects to help people who well before Jan. 12 [2010] lived in subhuman conditions,” a protester explained to a MINUSTAH agent, who took notes. “This is unacceptable now in the 21st century.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/12/11)
A memorial at the Applied Linguistics Faculty of the State University of Haiti (UEH) for more than 150 students and faculty lost in the quake was disrupted by dozens of protesters, mostly from the UEH Human Sciences Faculty (FASCH), demanding justice for sociology professor Jean Anil Louis-Juste. A well-known radical, Louis-Juste was shot dead in broad daylight in downtown Port-au-Prince just a few hours before the earthquake [see Update #1026]. The FASCH students were protesting the lack of progress in the murder investigation and what they said was UEH rector Jean Vernet Henry’s failure to honor Louis-Juste on the Jan. 12 anniversary. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 1/12/11)
In other news, on Jan. 13 Organization of American States (OAS) representatives in Haiti sent President René Préval a report by OAS technical experts on the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections. The report recommended that presidential candidates Myrlande Manigat and Michel Martelly (the popular singer known as “Sweet Mickey”) should be the two candidates in a runoff election originally scheduled for Jan. 16. Martelly would replace Préval’s designated candidate (and future son-in-law), Jude Célestin, who was originally assigned second place. One person was killed on Jan. 14 during street demonstrations against the OAS recommendations, and 14 people were arrested; they were released without explanation the same day. The detainees had been carrying a large amount of money in their vehicles, along with old tires and pamphlets proclaiming Célestin the victor; witnesses said they had been shooting guns and building barricades. (AlterPresse 1/14/11; Radio Kiskeya 1/15/11)
Adding to the tensions, former “president for life” Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier (1971-1986) arrived in Port-au-Prince on an Air France flight at about 5 pm on Jan. 16, apparently without warning, after nearly 25 years of exile in France. Several hundred supporters and opponents gathered at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport as the news spread. The ex-dictator stayed at the airport for about three hours and then was driven away in a vehicle under heavy escort by Haitian police and MINUSTAH agents. (AlterPresse 1/17/11)
*5. Latin America: Four More Countries Recognize Palestine
On Jan. 14 Guyana’s Foreign Ministry announced that his country was recognizing Palestine as an independent nation in the hope that “that the increasing recognition of the state of Palestine will contribute to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of lasting peace and stability in the region.” Guyana is the sixth South American country to recognize Palestine in a little more than a month. (Haaretz (Israel) 1/14/11)
Brazil started the wave of recognitions on Dec. 3, and Argentina followed on Dec. 6 [see Update #1060]. Bolivian president Evo Morales announced his country’s decision to recognize Palestine on Dec. 22; Bolivia had broken relations with Israel in January 2009 in response to an Israeli offensive in Gaza. (Reuters 12/22/10 via Europa Press) On Dec. 24 Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry announced that President Rafael Correa had approved that day “official recognition by the government of Ecuador for the Palestinian State as free and independent, with the borders from 1967.” (EFE 12/24/10 via La Hora (Quito))
The government of rightwing Chilean president Sebastián Piñera announced its recognition of Palestine on Jan. 7. A statement read by Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno stressed that Chile has also “fully supported the right of the state of Israel to exist inside secure and internationally recognized borders.” Like Bolivia, Chile didn’t define the borders of the Palestinian state; Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador all specified the borders from 1967, which would include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Moreno noted the presence in Chile of large communities of people of Arabic and Jewish descent; there are about 300,000 Arab Chileans and 30,000 Jewish Chileans. Moreno also announced a visit by Piñera to Israel and Palestine and Mar. 4 and 5. (AFP 1/7/11 via El Comercio (Quito))
Venezuela had recognized Palestine earlier, as had three other Latin American countries: Costa Rica, Cuba and Nicaragua. Uruguay indicated that it would make a similar move sometime in 2011 [see Update #1060].
*6. US: SOA Protesters Get the Max, Again
For the second year in a row, a federal court in Columbus, Georgia, has sentenced activists to six-month prison terms for trespassing on the US Army's Fort Benning base during protests against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). This is the maximum sentence for the offense, and US federal magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth surprised observers when he imposed the penalty on three activists in January 2010 [see Update #1020].
Four of the activists arrested during the most recent protest—the 20th annual demonstration, held last Nov. 20—have received six-month sentences. Father Louis Vitale and Michael Omondi were sentenced after making a no-contest plea in November, and Nancy H. Smith and Christopher Spicer were sentenced by US Magistrate Stephen Hyles on Jan. 5. This is the third time Father Vitale has served time in jail for participating in the protests against SOA, which trains Latin American soldiers. SOA Watch, which sponsors the protests, says SOA graduates are among the region's most notorious human rights violators.
Information on sending letters of support to the jailed activists is available at http://www.soaw.org/about-us/pocs . (SOA Watch 1/5/11; Bryan County (GA) News 1/6/11 from AP)
Correction: In Update #1058 we reported that the 2010 SOA Watch demonstration was about the same size as in 2009, based on police and media reports indicating that about 5,000 people participated in both. An experienced activist who was present for both protests reports that the 2009 demonstration was larger, with significantly more than 5,000 participants.
*7. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
The Decade that Transformed a Continent
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3841
Once Upon a Time in Argentina: Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s Latest Fairy Tale
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2857-once-upon-a-time-in-argentina-mary-anastasia-ogradys-latest-fairy-tale-
Argentina: "national hero" recast as mass murderer of indigenous people
http://ww4report.com/node/9342
Chile: Flood of Indigenous Demands a Challenge for Government
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2856-chile-flood-of-indigenous-demands-a-challenge-for-government
Easter Island: Chilean forces suppress indigenous protests
http://ww4report.com/node/9341
Protests paralyze southern Chile
http://ww4report.com/node/9346
The Rio de Janeiro War: Farce and the Geopolitics of Crime
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3863
Flash Flooding In Brazil Claims More Than 470 Lives And Shines Spotlight On Brazilian Housing Policy
http://latindispatch.com/2011/01/14/flash-flooding-in-brazil-claims-more-than-470-lives-and-shines-spotlight-on-brazilian-housing-policy/
Inter-American rights commission to rule on Bazilian Amazon land claim
http://ww4report.com/node/9345
Bolivia: New Pension Law Lowers Retirement Age, Raises Expectations
https://nacla.org/node/6858
Open Letter to Evo Morales and Álvaro García Against the Gasolinazo
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2854-open-letter-to-evo-morales-and-alvaro-garcia-against-the-gasolinazo
WikiLeaks Peru: cable alleges military ties to narco-traffic
http://ww4report.com/node/9340
Peru: army rewrites history of "dirty war"
http://ww4report.com/node/9343
Peru: evidence mounts of "uncontacted peoples" in Amazon oil zones
http://ww4report.com/node/9344
The Battle Next Door: An Insider’s Experience with Colombian Military Discourse
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3889
Two, Three, Many Colombias
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2862-two-three-many-colombias
Colombia: new charges in "false positives" scandal
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9349
Venezuelan link seen in supposed FARC-ETA connection
http://ww4report.com/node/9347
Hugo Chávez: "I am not a dictator"
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9348
New U.S. Ship Deployment to Costa Rica Heightens Tensions
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3852
US: Wrong on Honduras
http://www.thenation.com/article/157725/us-wrong-honduras
Guatemala declares emergency as Zetas threaten state
http://ww4report.com/node/9350
Mexico: Zapatistas deny link to Fernández de Cevallos kidnapping
http://ww4report.com/node/9351
Mexico: leader of "Santa Muerte" cult detained on kidnapping charges
http://ww4report.com/node/9352
Mexico: 2010 narco-violence again breaks record
http://ww4report.com/node/9353
Mexico: Guerrero campesinos reinstate blockade against Parota hydro-dam
http://ww4report.com/node/9354
The Other Arizona Shooting (Mexico)
http://vivirlatino.com/2011/01/11/the-other-arizona-shooting.php
Where the People Order and the Law Obeys: The Policía Comunitaria in Guerrero, Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2855-where-the-people-order-and-the-law-obeys-the-policia-comunitaria-in-guerrero-mexico
Mexican Army attacks human rights defenders in Oaxaca
http://elenemigocomun.net/2011/01/mexican-army-attacks-human-rights-defenders/
Former CIA Asset Luis Posada Goes to Trial (Cuba)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5929
Haiti One Year Later: Light at the End of the Tunnel or Oncoming Train?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-schuller/haiti-one-year-later-ligh_b_807756.html
Haiti: January 12, 2011 - Frustration, Anger, Exclusion
http://www.ayitikaleje.org/haiti-grassroots-watch-engli/2011/1/13/january-12-2011.html
Beyond the Blue Helmets: Stability in Haiti Requires New Elections
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3869
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
