Si Jose

ONU: Concluye #Cancún con acuerdos. Menciona Declaración sobre Derechos de los PPII #cop16

2010-12-12T12:11:00.001-08:00

Servindi, 12 de diciembre de 2010.- La cumbre de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático finalizó la madrugada de ayer en Cancún, México, con la aprobación de un paquete de decisiones, considerado mínimo por muchos observadores pero que sorprendió a quienes vaticinaban que no se llegaría a nada.

Los acuerdos de Cancún fueron adoptados con el respaldo de 193 países. Bolivia se opuso y reservó su apoyo. Para el lider indígena Umuro Roba Godana, de Kenia, los resultados son un éxito a pesar que no se pudo conseguir todo lo que los pueblos indígenas deseaban.

“Este no es el final, pero es un nuevo comienzo. No es lo que se requiere en última instancia, sino que constituye la base fundamental sobre la que construir una mayor, la ambición colectiva”, dijo Christiana Figueres, secretaria ejecutiva de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre Cambio Climático.

Los gobiernos han dado una clara señal de que se dirigen hacia un futuro bajo en emisiones y se han puesto de acuerdo para rendir cuentas, uno al otro, en las acciones para llegar allí. Y lo han establecido de una manera que alienta a los países a ser más ambiciosos en el futuro, expresó Figueres.

Emisiones

Cancún fija como objetivo reducir antes de 2020 los gases de efecto invernadero entre un 25 y un 40 por ciento con respecto a los niveles de 1990. Este compromiso atañe a aquellos países vinculados legalmente por el actual Protocolo de Kyoto, que expira en 2012.

En la práctica es un acercamiento hacia una prolongación del protocolo durante ocho años más, aunque los países se han negado a renovar automáticamente el tratado.

Sin embargo, el llamado “acuerdo de Cancún” sería más ambicioso que el tratado de Kioto, firmado en 1997, ya que éste último sólo establecía una reducción del 5 por ciento de las emisiones.

Hay que considerar que el acuerdo de Cancún es un acuerdo marco y los países no han hecho aún compromisos concretos de reducción de emisiones ni se han establecido mecanismos de control.

Ambos temas serán discutidos en la próxima reunión para el cambio climático organizada por la Naciones Unidas en diciembre de 2011 en Sudáfrica.

Respecto al calentamiento global en el preámbulo, los estados se comprometen a que el calentamiento de la tierra sea como máximo de dos grados, y además, se analizará si es necesario rebajar la meta a 1,5 grados.

Declaración de los Pueblos Indígenas

Sheena Watt, de Australia, a nombre del Foro Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas sobre el Cambio Climático, saludó el texto revisado que insta a los países desarrollados a reducir sus emisiones en un 25 – 40 por ciento, aunque precisó que la posición indígena es una reducción del 50 por ciento.

De igual modo recalcó que si no existe un acuerdo jurídicamente vinculante no será posible actuar con la urgencia necesaria para prevenir los impactos del cambio climático, y expresó su petición de que este acuerdo vinculante salga de las negociaciones futuras.

Sheena reiteró que los pueblos indígenas del mundo demandan incluir en todos los resultados el pleno respeto de sus derechos, incluidos en la Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, y el respeto al consentimiento libre, previo e informado en todos los programas y actividades del cambio climático.

Pidió asimismo el reconocimiento y protección de los conocimientos tradicionales en todas las medidas de mitigación y adaptación y la participación plena y efectiva de los pueblos indígenas en todos los procesos, mecanismos y organismos relacionados con el cambio climático en todos sus niveles.

La representante indígena exhortó a los países desarrollados a cumplir sus obligaciones legales y reducir drásticamente sus emisiones, y no pasar la carga a los países en desarrollo y los pueblos.

En tal sentido, reafirmó la posición de los pueblos indígenas y calificó de falsas soluciones al cambio climático al mercado del carbono, incluyendo los mecanismos de desarrollo limpio, las compensaciones de los bosques, y más planes sobre REDD (reducción de emisiones por deforestación y degradación).

Finalmente, dejó en claro que proteger la Madre Tierra es una obligación de toda la humanidad. “Por esta razón, estamos comprometidos a mantener nuestro papel como guardianes de la Madre Tierra, y todos los ecosistemas de los que depende nuestra supervivencia colectiva” concluyo Sheena.

Para acceder a los documentos de acuerdos en Cancún ingresar al siguiente enlace:

http://unfccc.int/2860.php

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#México: Crece el uso de internet entre #indígenas mexicanos | #idigenous

2010-12-12T11:44:00.001-08:00

Servindi, 12 de diciembre, 2010.- Cada día son más los indígenas de México que aprovechan la tecnología de última generación como el internet para investigar, informarse, contactarse, participar en debates virtuales, difundir sus culturas, denunciar casos, reclamar por sus derechos y además, realizar negocios.

Pese a que son muy pocos los que poseen una computadora personal y acceso frecuente a internet, los nativos se las ingenian para acceder a esta tecnología y ofrecer sus artesanías, muy cotizadas en el mundo entero.

Un estudio realizado por el Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social (Coneval) reveló que el 75 por ciento de los indígenas del país viven en una pobreza multidimensional.

Esto significa que, además de pocos ingresos, la mayoría no cuenta con servicios de salud, educación, agua potable y desagüe.

Un factor importante para obtener equipos tecnológicos son los aportes de los indígenas que han viajado hacia otras zonas de México o a Estados Unidos. Los inmigrantes envían recursos destinados a preservar sus costumbres y sus lenguas, dentro de los que se encuentran los teléfonos celulares, computadoras e internet.

Hasta hace algunos años, el desarrollo tecnológico de los pueblos indígenas se limitaba a las radios comunitarias, cuya tramitación era limitada, sin embargo, internet ha venido a paliar esta falta de medios.

Incluso, muchos indígenas ya están empleando las llamadas redes sociales como Facebook, MySpace y Sónico para conservar vínculos.

Según expertos consultados, la etnia de los triquis -provenientes de Oaxaca, uno de los estados con mayor población indígena de México- constituyen un claro ejemplo del impacto que tienen estas tecnologías en los usos y costumbres de la población autóctona.

“Oaxaca se distingue por una tradición en la apropiación de tecnologías de información, desde la fotografía hasta internet”, dijo Carmen Gómez Mont, experta en el tema.

“Mientras que en zonas tales como Tarahumara (estado de Chihuahua) la producción es muy débil”, agregó.

Allan Lee, creador y administrador del sitio, expresó por su parte que los miembros del pueblo triqui usan espacios como nuestra página o YouTube para compartir imágenes de donde viven con amigos y familiares; Nueva York y Alaska, por ejemplo”.

Otro sitio ofrece un servicio de noticias de amplia cobertura; mientras que la radiodifusora de la Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas (CDI) cuenta con un programa diario de una hora que se transmite en español y en su lengua y puede sintonizarse en vivo por internet.

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Derechos de la Madre Tierra #Cancun #cop16

2010-12-11T21:02:00.001-08:00

2010-12-11

Cierre COP16: Cancún decepciona a los pueblos del mundo

Alianza Social Continental
En la madrugada de hoy 11 de diciembre de 2010 se anunció la existencia de un acuerdo en las negociaciones de la COP16, sin embargo, este texto no constituye ningún avance, por el contrario, implica la adopción formal del llamado “Acuerdo de Copenhague”, evadiendo por completo la búsqueda de soluciones reales a la crisis climática.

En relación con el proceso, aunque se habla de un rescate del multilateralismo, la aprobación fue lograda a través de negociaciones en grupos pequeños y reuniones informales, que facilitaron la división de los países más pobres, usando mecanismos financieros para convencerlos de cambiar su posición. Este proceso lejos de ser democrático, reprodujo los esquemas de negociación de la OMC, donde la voluntad de unos pocos se impone sobre las necesidades de la población mundial.

En cuanto a los contenidos del acuerdo, no responden a la urgencia de reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero para frenar los fenómenos climáticos extremos que afectan a la humanidad y ya han causado miles de muertes. Aunque se menciona la adopción de un segundo período de compromisos del Protocolo de Kyoto, no se explicitan fechas ni mecanismos para que ello ocurra y se incluye solamente la adopción de compromisos voluntarios. En consecuencia, las reducciones de gases que se adopten serán definidas por la voluntad de los países y no por una meta común global. En Cancún se demostró que los países del norte no están dispuestos a reducir sustancialmente sus emisiones.

La meta aprobada de aumento de la temperatura promedio global es de 2°C, la misma que había sido presentada en el llamado “Acuerdo de Copenhague” y que fue rechazada por ser insuficiente para evitar la desaparición de regiones enteras. A pesar de ello, ayer este límite fue aprobado. Además de ser insuficiente, no hay compromisos que garanticen su cumplimiento, con los ofrecimientos voluntarios se llegaría a un aumento de 5°C. Con esta meta se pone en riesgo la existencia de algunas islas y en menos de un siglo, la sobrevivencia misma de la humanidad.

El texto incluye la creación de mecanismos de flexibilización y compensación para que los países puedan cumplir con sus compromisos de reducción, esto no es más que la creación de nuevos mecanismos de mercado. Es la extensión de la lógica de la especulación financiera a las soluciones del clima, que hasta ahora sólo ha generado aumento de ganancias y ninguna reducción real de las emisiones.

En relación con financiamiento, aunque se aprobó la creación de un fondo global, no están garantizados los recursos, su origen ni la forma de implementarlos, el monto ofrecido es insuficiente para enfrentar realmente las consecuencias de la crisis climática. Aunque no se hizo explícito, países como EE.UU. expresaron el interés de que el Banco Mundial coordine ese fondo. El mismo Banco Mundial que ha promovido proyectos extractivos y contaminantes, ha generado el endeudamiento de los países del Sur y ha fomentado el modelo neoliberal en todo el mundo, ahora aparece como el encargado de buscar soluciones reales al cambio climático.

A pesar de las reiteradas críticas a las propuestas sobre bosques, el texto sólo incluye consideraciones financieras sobre el manejo de los mismos, se avanza cada vez más en los mecanismos de mercado y se desconocen los derechos de las comunidades sobre sus territorios. Los bosques son mercantilizados, al considerarlos como “sumideros de carbono”. En relación con transferencia tecnológica, se eliminaron del texto las referencias a la eliminación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual para el desarrollo de tecnologías alternativas y sustentables.

Bolivia había presentado propuestas que recogían las discusiones de los pueblos y organizaciones sociales, estas propuestas fueron ignoradas, no se hace mención a los derechos de la naturaleza ni a un tribunal vinculante de justicia climática. No existe ningún mecanismo para juzgar a los culpables del cambio climático y de las falsas soluciones, por el contrario, ahora tienen un marco jurídico para mantener su nivel de emisiones y reproducir los esquemas financieros de mercados de carbono.

Los gobiernos del mundo estaban en la obligación de buscar soluciones a la crisis y ofrecer respuestas para garantizar la sobrevivencia de la humanidad y no fueron capaces de hacerlo, el resultado de las negociaciones muestra que la lógica de la ganancia está por encima de la vida y el planeta.

Cancún, 11 de diciembre de 2010. Alianza Social Continental.

via movimientos.org

UN Guards Beat Reuters Photographer At #Cancún Climate Talks #cop16

2010-12-11T18:16:00.001-08:00

#Cancun Climate Breakthrough | Mother Jones #cop16

2010-12-11T18:14:00.001-08:00

— Photo by Kate Sheppard.
It's not perfect, and it's not binding, but international climate negotiators have struck a deal.

The final hours in Cancun were a world of difference from the closing night of the Copenhagen climate talks. Last year's summit closed with drama, confusion, and plenty of unhappy delegations, but the Mexico conference came to an end with multiple standing ovations for the host country and widespread agreement among countries to approve the text of an agreement.

It was after 3 a.m. when the parties adopted the two agreements—one that delays a decision on the future of the Kyoto Protocol and another laying out in more detail a new agreement on climate that includes major emitters like the US and China. Of the 194 countries represented in Cancun, 193 backed the text—which, while it falls short on many fronts, represented "a new era in international cooperation on climate change," said Patricia Espinosa, the minister of foreign affairs for Mexico and president of the summit. Much of what is included in the 32-page agreement for a new climate agreement is based on the spare Copenhagen Accord, formalizing it within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The greatest success may have been that the Mexican organizers, particularly Espinosa, were able to restore faith in the process. India's environment Jairam Ramesh praised Espinosa as a "goddess" for her bringing together the parties around an agreement. "You have not only crafted a balanced agreement but most importantly you have restored the confidence of the international community in multilateralism and the multilateral process at a time when the confidence had hit a historic low," he said. "I believe we have launched a process where the trust deficit has been considerably bridged."

Broadly, the agreement accomplishes most of what observers hoped it would heading in two weeks ago: It records the commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions that developed and developing countries made in Copenhagen, establishes a framework for transparency, sets up a global climate fund with the goal of providing $100 billion in financing to developing countries by 2020, and establishes an initiative aimed at curbing deforestation.

Observers and many parties acknowledged that the progress was modest, and that the emission pledges still fall short of the stated goal of limiting global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Those pledges are not legally binding—nor do they answer the outstanding questions about the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, which binds most industrialized nations to emmissions targets, and which is set to expire in 2012.

Not everyone is entirely happy with the final text. Bolivia objected to the adoption of the agreements, saying it did not require enough of wealthy nations. Ambassador Pablo Solon said his country "is not prepared to sign a document which means an increase of the average temperature which will put more human lives in a situation close to death." But Espinosa moved to adopt the agreement anyway, calling it "one party trying to impose a right of veto upon the will of the conference." Solon objected to the move to override dissent, a departure from the usual practice to accept agreements only with complete consensus. "Today it is Bolivia, tomorrow it could be any other country," said Solon.

Most delegations, however, were eager to walk away with something they could declare a win—including the US and China, a signal that the language in the text bridged differences between the two countries about emissions targets and how they would be tracked by other countries.

"What we have now is text that, while not perfect, is certainly a good basis for moving forward," said US climate envoy Todd Stern. Xie Zhenhua, Stern's Chinese counterpart, gave similarly positive remarks.

via motherjones.com

Excluidos y Explotados: El Nuevo Sistema de Comercio, Migración Controlada y Represión #cop16 #cancun #Mexico

2010-12-11T18:01:00.001-08:00

Excluidos y Explotados:

El Nuevo Sistema de Comercio, Migración Controlada y Represión

Colin Pajan de La Red Nacional de los derechos de emigrantes y Refugiados (NNIRR)

Mientras la migración global se facilita mediante la tecnología, comunicaciones y transporte aéreo, nefastas condiciones económicas y conflictos políticos y civiles continúan a impulsar el dramático y creciente movimiento del pueblo, en particular dentro del los países del Sur. La raíz de dichas condiciones se pueden encontrar en las políticas económicas de desarrollo y comercio que han dominado el mundo, junto con las políticas de migración nacionales en los países de destino que se han convertido en países más restrictivas e injustas.

Antecedentes: Las Políticas Neoliberales de Desarrollo Económico

Desde el año 1990, ha habido un aumento de 50% en el número de migrantes en todo el mundo, con más de 220 millones de personas actualmente viviendo fuera de los países en donde nacieron. En los Estado Unidos (EE.UU.), 13% de la población total se constituye por personas nacidas en el extranjero, mientras ese porcentaje es más alto en otros países de destino de migrantes como Canadá (19%), Australia (20%), y Suiza (23%)

Los migrantes han contribuido a los cambios de población mayores en otras partes del mundo. Por ejemplo, en el Golfo Pérsico – una región que atrae a varios individuos nacidos en el extranjero en la búsqueda de empleo - los migrantes constituyen el 69% de la población total de Kuwait, 71% de la población de Emiratos Árabes Unidos, y más del 80% de la población de Qatar. Mientras la población de los EE.UU. nacida en el extranjero ha casi aumentado lo doble en los últimos 20 años, en comparación, la población de Qatar ha cuadruplicado. Las dinámicas que impulsan tales cambios dramáticos, las cuales se refieren a menudo como los “factores de expulsión” o las “causas fundamentales” de la migración, son complejas. (Calculaciones de la División de Poblaciones de la ONU)

En los países del Sur, las políticas neoliberales de desarrollo económico, incluyendo los tratados de “libre comercio,” han sido promovidas y – en algunos de los casos – impuestas por los países del Norte más ricos y políticamente más poderosos, los cuales cosechan los beneficios significativos de estas relaciones desiguales. Las políticas económicas neoliberales generalmente incluyen tres elementos claves: 1) la privatización de los servicios públicos; 2) el rebajo drástico de las subvenciones gubernamentales a las industrias locales y fabricantes; y 3) la eliminación de aranceles para permitir los costos baratos de las mercancías importadas. Estas medidas a menudo tienen un efecto inmediato de “doble golpe” sobre los más pobres residentes del país: un rápido aumento del costo de la vida, junto con una disminución rápida de los ingresos reales.

Cuando los servicios públicos como el agua o la electricidad de repente se privatizan resultan consecuencias directas al costo total de la vida y el mercado laboral. Incluyen:

Un aumento en el costo de servicios. Proveedores particulares, los cuales ante todo se preocupan con la rentabilidad, por lo general aumentan los precios de tales servicios para los consumidores. Por ejemplo, entre los años 1998 y 2010, cuando Guatemala privatizó el suministro de electricidad a una compañía ubicada en los EE.UU., el costo por kilovatio al público Guatemalteco aumento más de 120%, duplicando el costo de electricidad para los consumidores.

Un aumento en el precio de la mercancía y productos locales. Costos más altos de energía ocasionó aumentos en el costo de producción al igual que los costos de la mercancía producida.

Los despidos masivos de trabajadores del servicio público. Mientras algunos ex empleados de servicio público pueden ser contratados nuevamente por las compañías particulares que asumen el control de estas industrias, la mayoría se encuentran en un grupo creciente de trabajadores desempleados.

El rebajo drástico de las subvenciones gubernamentales a las industrias locales pueden ocasionar el aumento de costos de producción, los cuales daña ambos fabricantes locales y consumidores. Mientras al mismo tiempo, la eliminación de los aranceles de importación abre la puerta a un flujo de mercancía y productos baratos fabricados en masa, a veces subvencionado por el gobierno exportador (Lea a continuación El Maíz en México: Un Estudio de Caso Prácticos). Estas políticas no solo impiden el crecimiento económico en muchos países empobrecidos, pero también impulsan la migración global mediante el desplazo de personas las cuales están forzadas a huir a las regiones más desarrolladas con el fin de sobrevivir.

El Maíz en México: Un Estudio de Caso Práctico

Un ejemplo principal del impacto de las políticas neoliberales de desarrollo económico es la aniquilación de la producción de maíz en México – un cultivo tradicional que ha sido producido y consumido localmente por varias generaciones. Conforme al Tratado de Libre Comercio de America del Norte 1994 (TLCAN), las subvenciones gubernamentales a los productores de maíz fueron eliminadas mientras el maíz cultivado en los EE.UU. – producido casi exclusivamente por los Agronegocios multinacionales – quedan como la industria más subvencionada en el país. (Como parte del proyecto de la ley agrícola del gobierno estadounidense, la subvención actual de $10.5 mil millones de dólares anuales entregados a los productores de maíz estadounidenses es diez veces más del presupuesto de agricultura mexicana en total.)

En solo unos pocos años bajo TLCAN, las exportaciones de maíz a México se han duplicado y el precio del maíz importado desde México bajaron más del 70 por ciento. Las exportaciones agrícolas en total desde los EE.UU. a México aumento de $4.6 mil millones a $9.8 mil millones entre 1994 y 2008, con $2.5 mil millones (25%) en solo el maíz.

Los resultados de este cambio bajo TLCAN han sido devastadores para el pueblo de México. Desde 1994, más de 1.8 millones de familias agrícolas han sido desplazadas, y México que solía ser el líder de exportaciones de maíz, ahora importa la mayoría de su maíz, junto con otros productos agrícolas de los EE.UU. A su vez, el maíz producido en los EE.UU. ahora abarca más del 70% del mercado mundial, produciendo enormes ganancias solo para un puñado de empresas multinacionales. La pérdida de la producción de maíz en las áreas rurales de México tuvieron un efecto dominó en el país – la pérdida de granjas resultó en el aumento de la pobreza y desempleo, ocasionando a las personas en busca de empleo trasladarse a las áreas urbanas lo cual contribuye al flujo de migrantes a los EE.UU.

Un Triángulo de Políticas Destructivas: El Impacto a la Migración Global

El desplazamiento de las comunidades en países menos desarrollados no es una consecuencia totalmente no intencionada o inesperada de las políticas económicas neoliberales. De hecho, desde el punto pico del colonialismo por las fuerzas europeas y otras en el último siglo, las políticas extranjeras (incluyendo las políticas migratorias) han buscado a: extraer materiales primas de países económicamente pobres pero ricas en recursos naturales; acceder y controlar los mercados de exportación alrededor del mundo; y controlar el flujo de la mano de obra barata y desechable.

Esta historia ha informado el ambiente actual en donde los tres elementos dan forma al “sistema triangular” de los programas y prácticas extranjeras, económicas y migratorias impulsados por los países del Norte: 1) los tratados de comercio y desarrollo; 2) medidas represivas de hacer cumplir la ley migratoria y fronteriza; y 3) las políticas gubernamentales de la “migración administrada.”

Tratados de Comercio y Desarrollo

El fundamento de este modelo de política son los Tratados de Libre Comercio bilaterales (TLCs) o los Acuerdos de Asociación Económica (AAE), impulsado por la Unión Europea (UE). Al igual en el debate del TLCAN, cuando los proponentes alegaban que el TLCAN estimularía la economía mexicana y reduciría las presiones para la migración, el UE también establece un enlace entre el comercio y la migración. De hecho, en la reunión ministerial del UE en 2002 aun manifestó que los “tratados de libre comercio bilaterales deben abordar el <sic> problema de migración ilegal.”

Bajo dichos tratados, los países de la UE ofrecen un acuerdo abarcador o ayuda de desarrollo a una antigua colonia (comúnmente una nación africana) en cambio por el acceso a recursos naturales muy valiosos. El socio no perteneciente a la UE es obligado a importar productos y adquirir servicios de las empresas europeas y de hacer cumplir las políticas migratorias y fronterizas de la UE (vea recuadro: El Acuerdo Berlusconi-Gadhafi)

[SIDEBAR: The Berlusconi-Gadhafi Agreement]

En 2001, el acuerdo multimillonario Berlusconi-Gadhafi fue firmado entre Italia y Libia. Conforme a este acuerdo:

Italia puede acceder los gasoductos de Libia.

Libia patrulla sus costas y fronteras interiores, detiene y deporta miles de migrantes de los países vecinos africanos (Argelia, Níger, Chad, Sudán, Etiopía, Somalia, etc.) los cuales van rumbo a Italia y Europea con la intención de huir la pobreza y/o la guerra.

Libia usa (parte de su económica?) ayuda recibida de Italia para comprar botes de patrulla, armas de fuego, materiales para construcción y otro equipo de tipo militar de las empresas italianas para cumplir con su obligación de hacer cumplir las políticas migratorias y fronterizas.

Como resulto, Libia ahora es el país principal que deporta migrantes del norte de África, ejecutando políticas migratorias draconianas e italianas en su propio interior. Pero el acuerdo sin duda no ha puesto en alto los intentos desesperantes de los migrantes a través de África, a migrar a Italia y más allá para salir de la pobreza, el hambre, guerras u otros conflictos.

Los EE.UU. ya están experimentando con políticas similares, significativamente a través de la iniciativa de Mérida por $1.4 mil millones (o Plan México). Como parte de esta iniciativa, el ejercito militar Mexicano está siendo entrenado y equipado por las compañías de abastecimiento del ejercito de los EE.UU. para combatir el narcotráfico a través de la frontera de los EE.UU. y México.

Cumplimiento de la ley represivamente: militarización, criminalización y explotación

Después del ataque del 11 de Septiembre del 2001, ha existido un incremento sin precedentes en la hostilidad hacia migrantes alrededor del mundo. En gran parte, esta hostilidad ha sido impulsada por las medidas rigurosas para el cumplimiento de las leyes migratorias adoptadas en la Unión Europea y los EE.UU., bajo la apariencia de proteger la “seguridad nacional”.

Los EE.UU. lanzaron una campaña intensa para disuadir migrantes de ingresar al país a través de la frontera del sur, previo a los eventos del 11 de Septiembre. En 1994, el gobierno de los EE.UU. adoptó una estrategia multifacética de ”Prevención a través de Disuasión” la base fundamental de la militarization de la frontera con Mexico. Este programa creado en la administración de Clinton incluyó el lanzamiento de la Operación Guardián (Operation Gatekeeper), una iniciativa para construir en la frontera un muro de 3,000 millas (4,828 kilómetros) de largo, que fue extendida significativamente en la administración de Bush. Recientemente, el Presidente Obama asignó $600 millones de dólares adicionales para incrementar la seguridad en la frontera y añadió 2,000 nuevas patrullas fronterizas, ICE y Agentes de Aduana y otro personal de seguridad a una lista de más de 20,000 agentes de patrullas fronterizas. (Sin incluir las tropas de Guardia Nacional de 1,200 militares enviados a la frontera de los EE.UU. y México).

El efecto acumulativo de estos programas y políticas ha sido la movilización intencionada de los migrantes a través de las regiones más peligrosas, montañas y desiertos desolados a lo largo de la frontera de los EE.UU. y México. Desde 1994, los restos de por lo menos 8,000 migrantes han sido recuperados en la región fronteriza y los expertos estiman que decenas de miles de restos aun no han sido encontrados.

Junto con la militarización incrementada de la frontera de los EE.UU. y México, la criminalización de los migrantes en los EE.UU. continúa a intensificarse. Los arrestos de migrantes en los EE.UU. han incrementado casi el 400% desde 1994 y el número de camas en las celdas de las prisiones designadas a migrantes detenidos se ha duplicado en los últimos cinco años. Solamente en el año fiscal 2010, los EE.UU. deportó casi 400,000 migrantes, una estadística alarmante en medio de un récord preocupante.

Las operaciones y redadas para hacer cumplir las leyes laborales en los lugares donde trabajan migrantes, están ocurriendo con mayor frecuencia en los EE.UU., pero el resultado de estas operaciones casi nunca resultan en algo más de un “tirón de orejas” para empleadores que contratan trabajadores indocumentados. De otra manera, miles de trabajadores migrantes capturados en estas redadas han sido arrestados y deportados, separados de sus familias, o puestos en situaciones vulnerables y de explotación. La amenaza de deportación obliga a muchos trabajadores indocumentados a soportar violaciones a los derechos laborales y abuso generalizado de pequeños empleadores y compañías grandes.

Como los EE.UU., la Unión Europea a seguido los mismos pasos de incrementar fuerzas militares en la frontera y criminalizar a migrantes en los últimos 20 años. Por ejemplo, Fortaleza Europea (Fortress Europe) a triplicado el número de tropas de seguridad en la frontera, el número de centros de procesamiento (de detención) de la Unión Europea a incrementado significativamente, muros han sido construidos a lo largo del cruce de Ceuta y Melilla en Marruecos (replicando el muro fronterizo entre los EE.UU. y México), y cerca de 10,000 muertos se han recuperado de los mares alrededor de las Islas Canaria de España y Lampedusa de Italia.

La Migración Administrada: ¿La Nueva Frontera?

Los migrantes internacionales están viviendo en una inmensa crisis humanitaria a pesar de el importante papel que su trabajo desempeña a todos los niveles en la economía global. En vez de aliviar el sufrimiento y acabar con el abuso, los gobiernos han desarrollado una nueva estructura en la última década, la “Migración administrada”. Esta estructura alega que los migrantes pueden hacer contribuciones significativas al desarrollo de los países que envían y reciben, siempre y cuando la migración es administrada de acuerdo a las necesidades actuales de la economía (mercado). Mientras que los gobiernos afirman que esto “reduciría la represión” en contra de los migrantes, trabajadores sujetos a este sistema no les va mejor y son reducidos a ser solo un artículo laboral para ser usado y dispuesto de acuerdo a tendencias económicas y necesidades de los empleadores.

La dependencia de los gobiernos sobre los programas de trabajadores temporales o extranjeros se ha convertido en el fundamento de la política migratoria entre muchos países que reciben migrantes en los países del Norte. Estos programas están basados en una teoría de “migración circular” en el cual los trabajadores migrantes retornan a sus países de origen después de un periodo de tiempo de estar empleado. Supuestamente adquiriendo cualidades para contribuirle al desarrollo de sus países de origen y si es necesario, migrar nuevamente en el futuro para buscar trabajo. No obstante, como estos migrantes no reciben los mismos derechos que otros ciudadanos mientras están en este estado de “temporalidad,” ellos son frecuentemente sujetos a explotación por sus empleadores y son casi siempre obligados a permanecer separados de sus familias por lo que ellos reciben visas de trabajo temporales solo para ellos mismos.

Muchos países de origen de migrantes de los países del Sur apoyan las políticas circulares de migración por que ellos dependen de las remesas que los migrantes envían a sus países para cumplir con las necesidades económicas y de desarrollo. Algunos gobiernos, como las Filipinas, han llegado hasta desarrollar Programas de Exportación Laboral (LEP por sus siglas en inglés) para asegurar que la exportación de su gente continúe a ser una de los principales fuentes de ingreso para el país. (Actualmente, mas del 10% de trabajadores Filipinos son empleados en el exterior.)

Quizás lo mas problemático ha sido como agencias internacionales encargadas de la migración y desarrollo están institucionalizando una política de migración administrada. Por ejemplo, en 2008 la Organización Internacional para Migración (IOM por sus siglas en inglés) estableció su primer Centro Administrativo Migratorio en Bamako, Mali. El Centro costó mas de 10 millones de Euros y fue diseñado para:

Atraer y reclutar trabajadores migrantes potenciales de África Occidental de acuerdo a las necesidades del mercado de la Unión Europea

Entrenar trabajadores migrantes potenciales para cumplir con las habilidades requeridas por la Unión Europea

Deportar migrantes que no cumplan con las necesidades de la Unión Europea

Monitorear el flujo de remesas

Promover “Manejo eficiente del valor del ser humano, financiero y técnico de las personas de Mali en el exterior

La administración de Obama está promocionando los beneficios de la administración migratoria como una estructura de política deseada. Para revertir previas políticas de la Administración de los EE.UU. de no participar, los EE.UU. recientemente se unieron al comité coordinador del Foro Global de Migración y Desarrollo (GFMD por sus siglas en inglés), el cual busca “hacer mas eficiente la política migratoria e identificar formas y recursos para maximizar los beneficios al desarrollo por la migración.” La reunión en noviembre del 2010 del GFMD en México será una oportunidad sin precedentes para observar a los EE.UU. en este papel y ver si la administración de Obama promoverá la mejor protección para migrantes o si ayudará a dirigir otros países al camino ya avanzado y peligroso de la Unión Europea y su modelo de migración administrada.

Los Principios para Abogar

A medida en que este “sistema triangular” progresa, políticas y principios concentrados en derechos humanos y en los intereses de migrantes deben liderar conversaciones acerca de la economía y la migración global. El actual modelo económico neoliberal y el desarrollo desigual que este causa debe ser expuesto por impulsando, y no aliviando las presiones de la migración. En el nexo de migración y desarrollo, grupos civiles de sociedad deben defender que los gobiernos apoyen modelos de desarrollo basados en la comunidad, incluyendo la creación de trabajos, que aseguren sostenimiento, equidad, y que comunidades sean las beneficiarias, en vez de promover el trabajo de los migrantes como un artículo del mercado laboral.

Además, los gobiernos deben ser instados a:

No depender de las remesas como fuente de ingreso y desarrollo. Remesas deben ser tratadas como intentos familiares de cumplir con las necesidades más básicas en casos extremos.

Desarrollar, aprobar e implementar políticas migratorias basadas en el reconocimiento, protección, y avance de los derechos humanos de toda la gente, sin importar su estado migratorio, clima político, y presiones socio-económicas. Migrantes que no son excluidos y explotados por la sociedad pueden contribuir al florecimiento de las comunidades donde viven, trabajan y juegan.

Reconocer oficialmente el estándar definido por la Convención de los Derechos de los Trabajadores Migrantes y sus Familias de las Naciones Unidas en 1990, y aquellos que han fallado en ratificarlos, incluyendo los EE.UU., deben hacerlo de forma oportuna.

Adherirse a principios básicos de recursos humanos y ser responsable ante leyes internacionales en formular políticas migratorias, en vez de ser manipulados por necesidades falsas del mercado.

Involucrarse en procesos de consulta factibles en crear políticas donde comunidades, especialmente de migrantes, sean tratadas como participantes críticos y tener una voz decisiva en determinar el tipo de políticas que los impactaran a ellos directamente.

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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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Denuncian persecución y amenazas a dirigentes Campesinos

2010-12-11T17:58:00.001-08:00

Integrantes del Comité de Unidad Campesina –CUC- repudiaron las amenazas de muerte e intimidaciones que de forma constante que sufren lideres y lideresas de la comunidad El Manaco de Los Amates Izabal.

Representantes de la comunidad dieron a conocer que desde el año 2005 alrededor de 35 familias que se ubican en la comunidad han sido hostigadas y amenazadas por parte de la administración de la finca, asimismo señalaron que han denunciado dichas amenazas ante los entes correspondientes como el Ministerio Público pero no han dado respuesta.

Alejandro Hernández líder de la comunidad el Manaco e integrante del -CUC- señaló que las familias viven una situación crítica de amenazas y hostigamientos por ex comisionados militares que actualmente son administradores de la finca; señalo que la finca ya esta adjudicada y lo que existe de por parte de quienes la administran es la intención de que las familias sean desalojadas para que los grandes finqueros continúen apropiándose de las tierras para la siembra de agrocombustibles.

El líder comunitario denunció que varios dirigentes han perdido la vida dentro de la comunidad, mencionó que en el 2005 fue asesinado Maudiel Ramírez y Williams Hernández; el 3 de septiembre de 2009 fue asesinado Julio Iriarte y el 2 de noviembre de 2010 fue asesinado Efraín Mantar Corea. Y condeno que hasta el momento no ha existido respuesta a las denuncias planteadas.

Fabiana Ortiz de la dirección Nacional del CUC, señaló que quienes amenazan y persiguen a los campesinos y campesinas son los que quieren apoderarse de sus tierras para la siembra de agrocombustibles, violando el derecho individual y colectivo de las familias. Por ello exigen al Ministerio Público y a la Policía Nacional Civil investigar de oficio los casos denunciados para que los responsables de los asesinatos y amenazas en contra los líderes sean puestos a disposición de las autoridades de justicia.

Además señaló que solicitan a la Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala CICIG su apoyo para la investigación de los grupos armados organizados que han asesinado, amenazado y violado los derechos humanos de campesinos, indígenas y demás activistas de derechos humanos en Guatemala.

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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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Derechos de la Madre Tierra

2010-12-11T17:57:00.001-08:00

2010-12-10

Via Campesina Declaration in Cancún

Via Campesina
No agreement is better than a bad agreement:

The people hold thousands of solutions in their hands

Global Forum for Life, Environmental and Social Justice (December 4-10, 2010)

(Photos, videos, news at www.viacampesina.org)

Members of La Vía Campesina from more than thirty countries from all over the world united our thousands of struggles in Cancun to demand environmental and social justice, and respect for Mother Earth at the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 16). We joined together to denounce the attempts of governments, mainly from the North, to commercialize the essential elements of life in benefit of transnational corporations and to publicize the thousands of grassroots solutions to cool the planet and stop the environmental devastation that seriously threatens humanity today.

Working mostly out of our base at the Alternative Global Forum for Life, Environmental and Social Justice, we held workshops, assemblies, and meetings with allies. On December 7 we staged a global action that we called “Thousands of Cancuns”. The events this day had an impact across the planet and even into the halls of the Moon Palace where delegates to the COP 16 meet. Actions included a march of thousands of members of La Via Campesina accompanied by indigenous Mayans from the Mexican peninsula of Yucatan and our allies from national and international organizations.

Mobilization to Cancun began November 28 with three caravans that left from San Luis Potosi, Guadalajara and Acapulco and traveled through places that exemplify environmental destruction, as well as local resistance of affected communities. The organization of the caravans was carried out along with the National Assembly of Environmentally Affected Peoples, the Movement for National Liberation, the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and the hundreds of villages and people who opened their doors with generosity and solidarity. On November 30 the caravans arrived in Mexico City, where we held an International Forum and march accompanied by thousands of people and hundreds of organizations that also struggle for environmental and social justice.

On our journey to Cancun, other caravans—one from Chiapas, one from Oaxaca and one from Guatemala—joined us after many hours of traveling. We met up in Merida to hold a ceremony at Chichen Itza and finally arrived in Cancun on December 3 to set up our camp for Life and Environmental and Social Justice. The next day, Dec. 4, we inaugurated our Forum and began activities in Cancun.

Why did we go to Cancun?

Current models of consumption, production and trade have caused massive environmental destruction. Indigenous peoples and peasant farmers, men and women, are the main victims. So our mobilization to Cancun, and in Cancun, sought to tell the world that we need a change in economic and development paradigms.

We must go beyond the anthropocentric model. We must rebuild the cosmovision of our peoples, based on a holistic view of the relationship between the cosmos, Mother Earth, the air, the water and all living beings. Human beings do not own nature, but rather form part of all that lives.

Given the urgency to reconceive the system, the climate and the earth, we denounce:

1.       That governments remain indifferent to global warming and instead of debating the policy changes necessary for cooling the planet, they are debating speculative financial schemes, new “green” economies and the privatization of the commons.

2.       False and dangerous solutions that the neoliberal system implements like the REDD+ initiative (Reduction of Emissions for Deforestation and Forest Degradation), the CDM (Clean Development Mechanisms), and geoengineering. These promote the commercialization of natural resources, and the purchase of permits to pollute, or “carbon credits”, with the promise of not cutting down forests and plantations of the South.

3.       The imposition of industrial agriculture through the implementation of genetically modified products and landgrabs that go against food sovereignty.

4.       Nuclear energy, which is very dangerous and in no way a real solution.

5.       The efforts of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization to facilitate the entry of huge transnational corporations in our countries.

6.       The impacts of Free Trade Agreements with the United States and the European Union-- trade and investment treaties that open the doors of our countries to transnational companies to take control of our natural resources.

7.       The exclusion of peasant and indigenous peoples in discussions on key issues that affect human life and the Mother Earth.

8.       The expulsion of members of our organizations from the official talks of the COP 16 due to their opposition to government proposals that promote a system of depredation that threatens to exterminate the Mother Earth and humanity.

We do not agree with the simple idea of “mitigating” or “adapting” to climate change. We need social, ecological and climate justice, so we demand:

1.       Incorporation of the principles of the Cochabamba Accords of April 22, 2010 as a process that leads to real reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases and achieves social and environmental justice.

2.       Food sovereignty based on sustainable and agroecological peasant agriculture, given that the food crisis and the climate crisis are the same and both are consequences of the capitalist system.

3.       Changes in life-styles and destructive relations with the environment.

La Vía Campesina, as an organization that represents millions and millions of small farmer families in the world, is concerned about the need to recover climatic equilibrium. Therefore we call for:

1.       Assuming collective responsibility for Mother Earth, changing patterns of development and economic structures, and breaking down the power of transnational companies

2.       Recognizing governments like Bolivia, Tuvalu and others that have had the courage to resist the imposition of governments of the North and transnational corporations. We call on other governments to join the people’s resistance against climate crisis.

3.       Reaching binding agreements that force all those who pollute the environment to be accountable for the disasters they cause and the crimes they have committed against mother nature. Likewise, require a reduction of carbon gases at the source--polluters should stop polluting.

4.       Alert the social movements of the world about what is happening on the planet to defend life and Mother Earth, because we are defining the model for future generations.

5.       Grassroots action and mobilization of urban and peasant farm organizations, innovation and the recuperation of ancestral ways of life to save our Mother Earth from attacks by big capital and bad governments. This is our historic responsibility.

6.       Policies to protect biodiversity, food sovereignty, water management and administration based on experience and the full participation of the communities themselves.

7.       A worldwide consultation with people to decide the policies and global actions needed to defend against climate crisis.

Today, right now, we call on humanity to act immediately to rebuild the life of all of nature, applying the concept of “life in balance.”

This is why, from the four corners of the planet, we stand up to say:

No more harm to our Mother Earth! No more destruction of the planet! No more evictions from our territories! No more murder of the sons and daughters of the Mother Earth! No more criminalization of our struggles!

No to the Copenhagen agreement. Yes to the principles of Cochabamba.

¡REDD NO! ¡Cochabamba SI!

The earth is not for sale, it must be recovered and defended!

GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE

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Miles de Cancún

2010-12-11T17:53:00.001-08:00

Cumbre

sobre

Cambio Climático

(COP 16)

Del 29 nov. al 10 de dic. 2010

Cancun México
CLOC -
La Vía Campesina

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Get a chance to win $5000 Green Home Remodel - Sponsored Post

2010-10-24T23:05:00.001-07:00

treeliving.com Fans can Win $5,000! Become our Fan now & get a chance to win a green makeover. http://www.mylike.treeliving.com/

"Reconsider Columbus Day" #indigenous

2010-10-11T01:57:00.001-07:00

New York, NY (UCTP Taino News) - Filmmakers Carlos Germosen and Crystal Whelan of Nu Heightz Cinema have produced a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) urging the American Public to "Reconsider Columbus Day".The 60 second spot features a compelling message which they hope will "encourage people to learn the other side to the story of Columbus".
"We want to help shed light on the truth by using mass media" stated Whelan. She continued stating "We hope people will petition for a nationally recognized indigenous holiday to honor the people who were here first."
The producers reached out to local community activists and indigenous organizations like the United Confederation of Taino People to help develop the script.
"We were honored to be asked to collaborate on this project as our ancestors in particular were the first to be negatively impacted by Columbus" stated Roberto Borrero, a representative of the Confederation.
"The issue goes beyond Caribbean Indigenous Peoples however, it is really about society being complacent with symbols of genocide." said Borrero.
The Reconsider Columbus Day PSA is currently being featured on You Tube and the producers are working to broadcast it on local television networks. Nu Heights Cinema has also set up a Reconsider Columbus Day website at www.reconsidercolumbusday.org to help bring more attention to the issue.

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"Reconsider Columbus Day"

2010-10-11T01:54:00.001-07:00

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better living through alchemy - Sponsored Post

2010-10-03T00:25:00.001-07:00

The articles here encourage a practical application of self awareness in our lives. http://chemistryofmiracles.com/

For Maya community, a paradise lost #Immigration #immigrants

2010-09-18T22:44:00.001-07:00

For Maya community, a paradise lost

Passersby put money in a box for slain day laborer Manuel Jamines in L.A.’s Westlake district. Jamines was fatally shot by police. (Jay L. Clendenin, Los Angeles Times / September 7, 2010)

Hector Tobar

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LAPD officer who fatally shot day laborer was accused of using improper deadly force in 2008 shooting

Day laborers who knew Manuel Jamines, shot to death by police, talk about where they came from — families and natural beauty — and where they are now: struggling to find work amid urban despair.

By Hector Tobar
September 17, 2010

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The five day laborers were huddled over some dice and coins they'd tossed on the asphalt of a Home Depot parking lot in Westlake. They were passing the time on a late afternoon, after another fruitless day waiting to be hired.
I asked them about another day laborer, Manuel Jamines, who was holding a large knife when he was shot by police just a block away. The shooting led to a near riot and ongoing protests, and I'd come to the neighborhood to get a feel for what was happening.
As luck would have it, the laborers were from the same region as Jamines: the Guatemalan departamento, or province, of Sololá.

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"He was trying to make some money for his family so that he could educate his children," said a laborer named Diego, who spoke of Jamines' circumstances in Spanish with a distinct Mayan accent.
"All of us guatemaltecos here have hurt in our hearts," Diego said. "Who doesn't want to go home? If we had something to take back — $3,000, $4,000 — we'd return."
Jamines got drunk on the weekends and was very drunk on the morning he was shot and killed, according to police and family members. The laborers I met knew him only in passing. But they were intimately familiar with the sort of life he lived as a Maya illegal immigrant in the midst of California's economic collapse.
The most talkative among them, a 29-year-old man named Hamilton, explained how he and other Maya have found themselves trapped in an L.A. limbo.
Hamilton now lives in the center of L.A.'s Maya community, amid the aging brick tenements of the Westlake district. It's a grim cityscape dominated by gang graffiti and stores selling plastic toys and discount clothing.
He spent the first 27 years of his life in the town of San Pedro de la Laguna, which sits alongside the cool waters of Lake Atitlán, in a vast highland valley surrounded by three volcanoes. Patches of corn cover the hillsides like a quilt. For American and European backpackers, it's a vision of paradise on Earth.
Hamilton made handicrafts to sell to the tourists — bamboo flutes and figurines crafted from coconut shells. He wanted something more.
So he borrowed $5,000 to pay an immigrant smuggler — money he has to repay with 10% monthly interest. As a guarantee, he gave a loan shark the deed to his family home. "No one gets here for free," he said.
Listening to him, I thought: That's insane. Why subject oneself to usury in Guatemala, to the possibility of being kidnapped and held for ransom by a Mexican smuggler, of being deported by U.S. authorities, to look for a job in a city where even the locals are down on their luck?
Hamilton's now in a lonely purgatory after giving up a rural heaven where — despite impoverishment — he lived surrounded by family members and natural beauty.
In L.A., he sees the trappings of an affluent society — skyscrapers, luxury SUVs humming past the parking lot on Wilshire Boulevard. But for him there's only the rare job, at $7 or $8 an hour.
At that rate, it can take an immigrant from Central America more than 600 hours of work to pay off just the principal of the debt to a smuggler — if he can get regular work, that is, and live very cheaply otherwise.
"Over there people say there's a lot of money over here," Hamilton said. "But not everyone has the same luck."
Manuel Jamines' family members say he didn't drink in Guatemala. He started, they say, when he got here.
In Guatemalan slang, Jamines was a bolo, a public alcoholic. Overpowering a bolo should have been easy for police, the laborers said.
"The officers could have knocked him down with one of their batons, or with electricity [a Taser], and taken him to prison, or deported him," Diego said. Instead, Jamines was killed. "If this is such an elevated country," he asked, "how could something like that happen?"
Word of the killing soon spread. And for the next several nights many immigrants joined street protests against the police.
The demonstrations were instigated in part by a small group of activists who've papered the neighborhood with fliers attacking the LAPD and the Latino officer who fired the shots. They say the shooting and other such incidents are symptomatic of an anti-immigrant climate in the city. Making those arguments to the day laborers is like pushing at an open door.
"This place is going to explode," said another Guatemalan laborer, whom I found sitting on the steps of a nearby apartment building with a Mexican friend from Veracruz. "The police know they did something wrong. They're not here on their bikes anymore. They're only going by in their patrol cars."
The man from Veracruz said he didn't have a crushing debt to pay. He could go back home, but for one powerful thing: pride.
He'd come expecting jobs that paid up to $15 per hour. Now he can't go back and face his family empty-handed. "I still haven't met my goal," he said.
He was taking a sip from a can hidden under his sweater. After a few minutes, I could smell the alcohol.
There was no drinking at the hiring site where I found Hamilton, Diego and the others speaking in their native Mayan language, Tz'utujil.
Hamilton also spoke perfect Spanish and passable English. He's a young man with smart eyes. If he ever goes back to Guatemala, he'll share what he's learned here in L.A., I think, and help make life better for his community on that mountain lake.
He's hoping to make it back safely — not like the cousin who died in L.A. some years back and returned home in a coffin.
"That's the most expensive trip," he said with a dark laugh. "Because it costs something like $10,000 to ship your body back…. And you don't even get a chance to see your family."
hector.tobar@latimes.com

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Malby 1 at 9:50 PM September 18, 2010
Here's a solution to the horrible problems of being an ILLEGAL immigrant. GO HOME. Please don't demand that the police find a way to manage a raging drunk with a six-inch knife who was threatening local folks--the nerve. And this was a family man trying to save money, except somehow he was a drunk; these other illegals are here for admirable purposes but they're drinking and gambling. The only reason that there the city might explode is people getting sick and tired of being unemployed and seeing their savings disappear while millions of illegals are here whining.

jagexxx at 12:32 PM September 18, 2010
Please, Mr. Tobar - write an article on what this man was doing with multiple ID's. Was he collecting money from the government on each one? Was he using someone else's Social Security number?
As a taxpayer and a 5th generation Angeleno, I would find it very interesting to learn about the ways people fleece the system. I've heard from a co-worker about many of her friends and the numerous ways they get support from the state. Why not an expose on this?

aaronking63 at 10:15 AM September 18, 2010
Drving out those of European decent is a double edged sword........
How would you fund all of the programs needed to float the boat without their tax dollars?

I'm just sayin.................

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

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"Orange" Maize Could Save Eyesight of Millions of African Children - IPS ipsnews.net

2010-09-14T20:25:00.001-07:00

"Orange" Maize Could Save Eyesight of Millions of African Children
By Peter Boaz

WASHINGTON, Sep 12, 2010 (IPS) - 'Orange' maize, a variety of the common cereal crop, could improve the lives of millions of malnourished people by providing increased vitamin A in their diet, according to a new study released here this week.
Vitamin A deficiency is endemic in many poor populations, causing up to 500,000 children a year to go blind and increasing the risk of other diseases and death. Sources of Vitamin A like meat, eggs, darkly coloured green vegetables, and orange fruits are generally too expensive for poor populations, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
But amongst other things, maize is a major source of everyday nutrition in the region. People consume white maize porridge in large amounts, sometimes eating as much as a half kilo a day.
Conscious of this traditional preference, researchers have bred orange maize to contain more beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A.
A recent study headed by Dr. Wendy White of the Iowa State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition discovered the new vitamin A source.
HarvestPlus, which supported the study, is a programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a World Bank-based consortium of 15 research centres worldwide devoted to enhancing agricultural productivity, particularly in developing countries.
In the study, six healthy women were given three different types of maize porridge, one of which was orange maize. The research proved that the beta-carotene from the orange maize was converted at nearly twice the rate previously assumed for maize. The findings were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition earlier this week.
"This study answered a major feasibility concern for the biofortification programme," said White. "Plant breeders were quickly successful in ramping up the beta-carotene content in the corn, but then the question was, 'Would it be available to be absorbed and utilized by people?'"
"So what we've shown is the beta-carotene is bioavailable to be converted to vitamin A in the body, and much more so than previously expected," White continued.
In 2012, HarvestPlus intends to introduce the variety into Zambia, where vitamin A deficiency affects over 53 percent of the child population. They speculate that the new crop could account for 30 percent of the daily vitamin A required for children two to six years old and 40 percent for women of child-bearing age.
According to Dr. White, HarvestPlus is already conducting a pilot programme in Zambia to provide young children with the biofortified, beta-carotene maize.
Though the variety is developed for northern climates right now, Dr. Kevin Pixley and the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) are now developing the adaptations for growth in Zambian conditions.
Once fully developed, the maize would be meant for "growing zones" rather than country borders, explained Bonnie McClafferty, HarvestPlus's chief of development and communications, in an email exchange with IPS.
Though the maize will be introduced within Zambia, she expects the varieties produced will have large spillover benefits for other countries in the region.
While there may be numerous health benefits to bringing orange maize to Zambia, history has shown that introducing new crops is not always an easy task.
A similar attempt to relieve vitamin A deficiencies came in 2000 with the development of 'golden' rice by researchers in Switzerland. The 100 million-dollar project was supported by four different public funding institutions.
After much optimism on the discovery's potential impact on malnutrition in Asia, planting of golden rice was stalled over concerns about growing genetically modified crops. Only this year has one country, the Philippines, begun cultivating the new rice strain. In 1987, a study on soybeans in Nigeria by Agricultural Research for Development in Africa (IITA) revealed that consumer resistance to soybean consumption at the household level arose from a lack of information on the correct processing and cooking methods for the bean.
"Consumer communication is essential for the creation of sustained demand for biofortified maize," according to HarvestPlus, which said there were two major strategies for popularising its cultivation and consumption.
"The push strategy is supply driven and focuses on the supply of biofortified seed. The pull strategy is demand oriented. By creating effective demand, a chain for the production and consumption of biofortified varieties is put in place."
Consumer research in Zambia has shown that the current market is dominated by white maize, the preferred ingredient for the widely consumed meal nshima. Yellow maize has been typically rejected because it is associated with drought and food aid.
"If this negative perception carries over to orange maize," according to HarvestPlus, "there is reason to be skeptical that biofortified maize will find enough of a niche in Sub- Saharan Africa to be able to make an appreciable difference in micronutrient intakes among target populations."
But findings by HarvestPlus indicate that orange maize has a different connotation in Zambia. "Orange maize is considered to have added value and is clearly distinguished from the less desired yellow maize varieties," explained McClafferty. "In addition, a nutrition campaign would translate into substantial value added for orange maize which in turn would spur greater adoption among farmers."
To advance on these findings, HarvestPlus hopes to promote national and local ownership of the crop from the beginning.
"As a truly multidisciplinary approach to agri-health interventions,HarvestPlus invests in research and development of these varieties and does not pass costs on to farmers or the national agricultural sector," said McClafferty.
(END)

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Nicaragua ratifies ILO #Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) [Press releases]

2010-08-31T18:43:00.001-07:00

GENEVA (ILO News) – The Government of Nicaragua has delivered to the ILO the instrument of ratification of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), whose purpose is to protect the rights of these peoples and to guarantee respect for their integrity.

Mr Néstor Cruz Toruño, Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the United Nations in Geneva, delivered the instrument bearing the signature of the President of Nicaragua, Mr. Daniel Ortega Saavedra, to Mr Kari Tapiola, Deputy Director-General and Executive Director of the Standards and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Sector of the ILO.

ILO Convention No. 169 is based on the recognition of indigenous and tribal peoples’ aspirations to exercise control over their own institutions, ways of life and economic development and to maintain and develop their identities, languages and religions within the framework of the States in which they live

Through ratification of the Convention, Nicaragua has committed itself to giving full effect to the provisions of the Convention, including the development of coordinated and systematic action to protect the rights of the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua and to guarantee respect for their integrity. The establishment of appropriate and effective mechanisms for consultation and participation of indigenous and tribal peoples regarding matters that concern them is the cornerstone of the Convention.

Convention No. 169 is the only legally binding international instrument that specifically addresses indigenous peoples’ rights. In other countries where it has been ratified the Convention has served as a framework for constitutional and legal reforms leading towards the development of more equitable and inclusive societies. In Guatemala Convention No. 169 was instrumental in the peace accords that ended 30 years of civil war between indigenous groups and the government.

Indigenous and tribal peoples constitute at least 5,000 distinct peoples with a population of more than 370 million, living in 70 different countries.

The ratification by Nicaragua brings the total number of ratifications of Convention No. 169 to 21.

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2010-08-27T21:33:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-26T15:14:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-26T05:39:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

About this talk

After he swam the North Pole, Lewis Pugh vowed never to take another cold-water dip. Then he heard of Mt. Everest's Lake Imja -- a body of water at an altitude of 5300 m, entirely created by recent glacial melting -- and began a journey that would teach him a radical new way to approach swimming and think about climate change.

Sneak Preview of NIOT's Next PBS Film | Not in Our Town

2010-08-01T00:48:00.001-07:00

Sneak Preview of NIOT's Next PBS Film

-->

Submitted by suefish on July 21, 2010 - 8:20pm

in
NIOT III

Patchogue

PBS

We've been burning the midnight oil in our Oakland editing room to bring you preview scenes from our next PBS film, NIOT III: The Patchogue Story.

It's the story of a small Long Island community where Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant, was murdered in November 2008 in an attack by seven high school students who were looking for "Mexicans" to beat up.

NIOT film crews have made more than a dozen visits to Patchogue. We've gotten to know the Lucero family as well as civic leaders and elected officials, who tried to bring the community together in the aftermath of this shocking hate crime.

Why did we choose this story as our film's centerpiece?

"People around the country have seen the escalating rhetoric and violence against immigrants," says NIOT CEO and Executive Producer Patrice O'Neill. "This is just an extreme case. And what was important for us is that the tragedy awakened many good people in Patchogue-- including the Mayor and other local leaders, who are trying to make their community safer."

In addition, O'Neill says, Marcelo's brother Joselo has proven to be a powerful voice for many people, especially immigrants, who feel increasingly vulnerable.

NIOT III: The Patchogue Story will be presented on PBS stations nationwide in 2011.

via niot.org

Scenes from #SB1070 Demonstrations Across the Nation

2010-07-29T17:09:00.001-07:00

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This page will be updated throughout the day.

ColorLines hit the streets in Los Angeles, Oakland and New York City to bring you images from demonstrations happening as on the first day of enforcement for the non-injoined sections of SB1070. You'll also see photos from many organizational allies of our publisher, the Applied Research Center. Do you have video or pictures to share? Post links in the comments and we may feature them on this page, too.

New York

Photo by Naima Ramos-Chapman
Los Angeles

Photo by Jorge Rivas
Arizona
Protesters Block Sheriff Arpaio's Jail Entrance (Photo by PuenteAZ/Anita Sarkeesian)

On Wednesday, protesters in Phoenix, Arizona scaled a downtown crane to display their message, "Stop hate, no 287g, no 1070," linking the local racial profiling law with the federal policy of criminalization. The banner was unfurled at approximately 6:00 p.m. and remained on display for over an hour. The climbers released a statement that read, "Stopping the hate means not just stopping SB 1070 and Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona but stopping all the Arpaios that the President's ICE access program is creating all across the country." (Photo by PuenteAZ/Anita Sarkeesian)

Oakland

Oakland photos: Hatty Lee
. . . .

Los Angeles

New York

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ICE announces launch of Online Detainee Locator System – Sistema Localizador de Detenidos | Voice Of The Migrant

2010-07-25T16:22:00.001-07:00

ICE announces launch of Online Detainee Locator System – Sistema Localizador de Detenidos

By ThereisawayJose | July 25, 2010

ICE announces launch of Online Detainee Locator System

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today the launch of ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS), a public, Internet-based tool designed to assist family members, attorneys and other interested parties in locating detained aliens in ICE custody. The creation and implementation of the ODLS is a concrete example of ICE’s commitment to detention reform.

The ODLS is located on ICE’s public website, http://www.ice.gov, and provides users with information on the location of the detention facility where a particular individual is being held, a phone number to the facility and contact information for the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office in the region where the facility is located. A brochure explaining how to use the ODLS is also available on the website in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Somali.

“The ODLS is an easy, accessible tool that allows family members and counsel to locate an individual in ICE custody in a matter of minutes,” said Phyllis Coven, acting director of ICE’s Office of Detention Policy and Planning. “ICE is making great strides in our effort to translate the principles of reform into innovative, practical and timely solutions.”

ODLS users will be able to locate detained aliens by two different search methods. First, users can search by entering an individual’s alien registration number, also known as their “A” number, and their country of birth. Users can also search by entering an individual’s first name, last name, country of birth and date of birth.

Since the ODLS will be available for use on ICE’s public website, the agency is committed to ensuring detainee privacy while making ODLS a useful tool for family members, attorneys and other related parties. Therefore, responses to ODLS queries are only generated if the data entered is an exact match of data in the system.

ICE will properly notify detained aliens that the accuracy of biographical information they provide to the agency will be very important in allowing their family members and counsel to locate them using the ODLS. Likewise, ODLS users will need to ensure that the information they are entering into the system (e.g.: proper spelling of a detained alien’s first and last name) is correct.

The ODLS will not provide any additional biographical information about an individual detainee other than what the user has already entered into the system. For instance, if a user searches by first name, last name and country of birth, the system will not provide the detainee’s “A” number and vice versa. ICE intentionally limits the availability of this data within the ODLS to ensure that users cannot phish the system for information.

On Aug. 6, 2009, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton announced that the agency was undertaking sweeping reforms of the immigration detention system to improve medical and mental healthcare, conditions of confinement, fiscal prudence and ICE’s critical oversight of the system. ICE’s Office of Detention Policy and Planning (ODPP) was also created to August 2009 to spearhead the agency’s detention reform efforts.

The creation and activation of the ODLS is one of many concrete steps ICE is taking to implement these reforms. To learn more about ICE’s detention reform, please visit: http://www.ice.gov/dro/detention-reform/. An ODLS brochure is available by visiting the following URL:

http://www.ice.gov/news/library/factsheets/odls.htm

Online Detainee Locator System Brochure (PDF | 732 KB)

Folleto del Sistema Localizador de Detenidos en Línea (PDF | 720 KB)

Brochure du Système de recherche en ligne de détenus(es) (PDF | 739 KB)

Folheto Informativo do Sistema Online Para Localização de Detentos (PDF | 733 KB)

Брошюра Онлайновая Система Определения Местонахождения Задержанного (PDF | 893 KB)

Buug yaraha Nidaamka Lagu Ogaado Halka Ay Ku Xiran Yihiin Dadka Xiran ee barta internetka (PDF | 741 KB)

Tài Liệu về Hệ Thống Tìm Người Bị Giam Trực Tuyến (PDF | 1.3 MB)

被拘留者在线查询系统手册 (PDF | 1.4 MB)

كتيب نظام تحديد مواقع المحتجزين على شبكة الانترنت (PDF | 1.3 MB)

– ICE –

via ICE announces launch of Online Detainee Locator System.

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Around Country, UNITE-HERE Actions Take on Hotel Giant -#hyatt Working In These Times

2010-07-23T22:03:00.001-07:00

Around Country, UNITE-HERE Actions Take on Hotel Giant

Friday
July 23
4:17 pm

By Micah Uetricht

UNITE-HERE protesters block traffic in downtown Chicago on July 22, 2010. (Photo by Timna Axel)

Many labor movement observers have lamented the movement's dismal state throughout the past several decades—and rightly so, much of the time. But a series of coordinated civil disobediences on Thursday reminds us that some segments of the movement aren't dead yet. They're alive and kicking—hard.

Arrests from coast to coast

The hospitality workers union UNITE HERE coordinated civil disobediences around the U.S. and Canada yesterday against Hyatt Hotels, claiming nearly 1,000 people might be arrested. The union says Hyatt and its billionaire owners are using the economic downturn to squeeze workers into a "permanent recession," despite a rebound in the industry. In 15 cities—many of which rarely see mass protests or civil disobedience—workers and their supporters hit the streets to express displeasure with the company.

In Chicago, about two dozen were arrested in front of the downtown Hyatt Regency. (David Moberg offers a detailed account of that action here.) In San Francisco, 152 were arrested. Vancouver saw a rally of over 600. Sixty-three were cuffed in West Hollywood. Long Beach, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and several other cities also saw actions. All made frequent mention of Hyatt's owning family, the Pritzkers.

The best of times, the worst of times

The Pritzkers, one of the richest and most politically-connected families in the country, have rode out the recession fairly well. The billionaire Hyatt ownership family took the hotel chain public last year, cashing out over $900 million in shares, and watched the stock's value skyrocket over six months.

Penny Pritzker, the most powerful member of the family, wrapped up her tenure as National Finance Chair for President Obama in early 2009, and now serves the President's Economic Advisory Board evaluating policy for the commander-in-chief -- while remaining a board member and chair of several companies, including the Hyatt, an airport parking company, and a credit check company. The economic crisis remains grave, but the union says the Pritzkers are doing all right.

Finances and high-profile accolades aside, however, the company's public image has taken a serious beating recently. There was the firing of almost 100 housekeepers in Boston last year, who were allegedly told they were training subs from a temp agency to cover for their vacation time, only to discover the minimum wage subs were intended to be permanent and the vacations to be unending. The story blew up around the country. (Even the business press couldn't hold back their incredulity.)

Then there was the National Labor Relations Board case Hyatt settled in San Antonio where two fired workers who engaged in union activities were offered reinstatement with thousands of dollars in back pay. (Hyatt admitted no wrongdoing.) The National Football League players union sent out a letter in May warning that it might boycott a Hyatt hotel in Indianapolis, where they say management has not respected workers' rights to organize and collective bargaining.

Anger at the company has quickly come to a boil—and UNITE HERE has kept the heat on full blast. In May, workers went on a brief wildcat walk-out (a militant move the likes of which probably has not been seen since the Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation) at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, overlooking the city's Magnificent Mile and near the site of yesterday's civil disobedience. Then San Francisco Hyatt workers went on a surprise three-day strike over lagging contract negotiations. Workers swarmed the outside of the annual Hyatt shareholders meeting in Chicago, leading Hyatt to sweat so much that they barred media from entering.

Hyatt weighs in

For its part, the hotel claims it is being treated unfairly and its business practices misrepresented. "The union has made this a social justice issue," said John Schafer, vice president and managing director for the Hyatt Regency Chicago. "It is claiming that we mistreat our employees. We don't. Our base pay is $15 an hour. Entry level, we've got a package, with benefits, of about $50,000. That doesn't sound like poverty to me."

Annemarie Strassel, spokeswoman for UNITE HERE, said those numbers reflect past struggles by union members. "Hotel workers have fought very hard to create jobs that people can support their families on," she said in response to Schafer. "Nobody's getting rich on a $14-per-hour housekeeping job."

Schafer also accused the union of employing theatrics instead of hashing out a contract. "We don't want to take anything away from anybody. Our time would be better spent sitting around a negotiating table rather than getting arrested in the street," he stated.

Bridget Stalla disagreed. A cook at the Park Hyatt Chicago, Stalla stood in her white chef's uniform and hat several feet from where she would be arrested and accused management of preventing a new contract's passage since the last one expired in 2009. "They're using the recession as an excuse to lock us into a bad contract. They're the ones that are refusing to budge at negotiations."

The union cites data they say shows that the hotel industry is "on the rebound," with projected revenues exceeding previous estimates.

Stalla took offense to statements placing responsibility for the actions on union leadership.

"I'm not being duped by anybody," she asserted. "I see at work everyday that I'm being expected to work more and more, that they're making cuts to our personnel, yet they want to keep cutting. I hope Hyatt will understand that it's not just a couple of us that feel this way, and that they'll actually sit down with us and work this out."

Based on yesterday's actions, worker/management relations don't seem to be improving. Hyatt contracts around the country will expire this year, and both sides are sure to continue slinging mud at the other.

But yesterday's actions gave a glimpse of an increasingly fed-up labor movement that is willing to take bold action against employers to protect what they feel are hard won (if incomplete) gains. If other unions were to follow suit, corporations could have a tough time containing their pissed-off workforce.

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More by Micah Uetricht

Around Country, UNITE-HERE Actions Take on Hotel Giant

A Union for the Unemployed? ‘UCubed’ Tries to Organize Jobless in Internet Age

Workers File Lawsuit, Take Wage Theft Fight to Swank Chicago Restaurant

Grassroots Movement Grows in Mexico, as Unionists Escalate Opposition to Government

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Insurers Get $465B in Subsidies. Uninsured Could Get Fined.

House Progressives: Labor-White House Excise Tax Deal Helps All Workers

GOP Blocks Financial Reform As Millions Lose Homes

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Voice Of The Migrant

2010-07-23T17:57:00.001-07:00

Rage Against The Machine To Rock Against ‘Racist’ Arizona Immigration Bill

By PunkJohnnyCash | July 23, 2010

Tom Morello says that when he and his Rage Against the Machine brethren first heard about the passing of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 immigration bill, they knew they had to do something about it.

So the band decided to do what it does best: bring the sound and fury.

n tandem with Sound Strike — an organization that calls on musicians to boycott the state until SB 1070 is repealed — Rage organized a benefit show set for Friday in the band’s hometown of Los Angeles. Considering the heft of the situation (and the fact that the gig will be RATM’s first L.A. appearance in 10 years), well, you can expect that it’s going to be a pretty monumental evening.

“Sound Strike is artists united against Arizona’s recently passed, racist immigration legislation,” Morello told MTV News on Wednesday. “[And] Rage Against the Machine are playing our first show in 10 years in our hometown of Los Angeles to support activists within the state of Arizona who are against this legislation. We’re playing with Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, and it’s going to be a pretty fantastic time.”

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A DREAM is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Immigrant Youth and Economic Crisis - Working In These Times

2010-07-23T12:33:00.001-07:00

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Alaka to Tierra del fuego Is called America We are all Americans we all have dreams !!

Mayan king's tomb discovered in Guatemala #indigenous #Guatemala #Archaeology

2010-07-18T16:33:00.001-07:00

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2010) — A well-preserved tomb of an ancient Mayan king has been discovered in Guatemala by a team of archaeologists led by Brown University's Stephen Houston. The tomb is packed with carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who may have been sacrificed at the time of the king's death.
See Also:
Fossils & Ruins
Cultures
Ancient Civilizations
Anthropology
Fossils
Lost Treasures
Origin of Life
Reference
Tutankhamun
Chichen Itza
Egyptian pyramids
Maya civilization
The team uncovered the tomb, which dates from about 350 to 400 A.D., beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz in May. The news was made public July 15 during a press conference in Guatemala City, hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, which authorized the work.
Before making the actual discovery, Houston said the team thought "something odd" was happening in the deposit they were digging. They knew a small temple had been built in front of a sprawling structure dedicated to the sun god, an emblem of Maya rulership. "When we sunk a pit into the small chamber of the temple, we hit almost immediately a series of 'caches' -- blood-red bowls containing human fingers and teeth, all wrapped in some kind of organic substance that left an impression in the plaster. We then dug through layer after layer of flat stones, alternating with mud, which probably is what kept the tomb so intact and airtight."
Then on May 29, 2010, Houston was with a worker who came to a final earthen layer. "I told him to remove it, and then, a flat stone. We'd been using a small stick to probe for cavities. And, on this try, the stick went in, and in, and in. After chipping away at the stone, I saw nothing but a small hole leading into darkness."
They lowered a bare light bulb into the hole, and suddenly Houston saw "an explosion of color in all directions -- reds, greens, yellows." It was a royal tomb filled with organics Houston says he'd never seen before: pieces of wood, textiles, thin layers of painted stucco, cord.
"When we opened the tomb, I poked my head in and there was still, to my astonishment, a smell of putrification and a chill that went to my bones," Houston said. "The chamber had been so well sealed, for over 1600 years, that no air and little water had entered."
The tomb itself is about 6 feet high, 12 feet long, and four feet wide. "I can lie down comfortably in it," Houston said, "although I wouldn't want to stay there."
It appears the tomb held an adult male, but the bone analyst, Andrew Scherer, assistant professor of anthropology at Brown, has not yet confirmed the finding. So far, it seems likely that there are six children in the tomb, some with whole bodies and probably two solely with skulls.
And who was this man? Though the findings are still very new, the group believes the tomb is likely from a king they only know about from other hieroglyphic texts -- one of Houston's specialties in Maya archaeology. "These items are artistic riches, extraordinarily preserved from a key time in Maya history," said Houston. "From the tomb's position, time, richness, and repeated constructions atop the tomb, we believe this is very likely the founder of a dynasty."
Houston says the tomb shows that the ruler is going into the tomb as a ritual dancer. He has all the attributes of this role, including many small 'bells' of shell with, probably, dog canines as clappers. There is a chance too, that his body, which rested on a raised bier that collapsed to the floor, had an elaborate headdress with small glyphs on them. One of his hands may have held a sacrificial blade."
The stone expert on site, Zachary Hruby, suspects the blade was used for cutting and grinding through bone or some other hard material. Its surface seems to be covered with red organic residue. Though the substance still needs to be tested, "it doesn't take too much imagination to think that this is blood," Houston said.
"We still have a great deal of work to do," Houston said. "Remember, we've only been out of the field for a few weeks and we're still catching our breath after a very difficult, technical excavation. Royal tombs are hugely dense with information and require years of study to understand. No other deposits come close."
Houston, a 2008 MacArthur fellow, is the Dupee Family Professor of Social Science and professor of anthropology at Brown.
Houston's co-director of the site is Edwin Román. He is working with a group of Brown graduate students and researchers, including Thomas Garrison, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Joukowsky Institute and the Department of Anthropology, and graduate students Sarah Newman, Nick Carter, James Doyle, Alex Knodell, and Alex Smith. Scherer, the bone analyst, is working with graduate student Kate Blankenship and undergraduate Morgan Ritter-Armour on the laboratory portion of the analysis.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

via sciencedaily.com

Servindi » Perú: 7 y 8 de julio paro por crimen ecológico en río Opamayo | Servicios en Comunicación Intercultural Servindi

2010-07-03T20:36:00.001-07:00

Servindi, 3 de julio, 2010.- Comunidades afectadas por el derrame de desechos tóxicos en el río Opamayo realizarán un paro regional los días 7 y 8 de julio por el “atentado criminal” cometido por la minera Caudalosa Chica.

Además, las comunidades emprenderán una marcha de sacrificio a la ciudad de Lima para exigir el cierre definitivo de la empresa minera, responsable de cometer un atentado criminal contra la flora y fauna del río Opamayo y Huachocolpa, y afectar a más de 40 mil pobladores de la provincia de Angaraes, en Huancavelica.

Edgar Zegarra, presidente de las comunidades campesinas de la provincia de Angaraes, responsabilizó a la empresa minera por la secuela de daños que ocasionará en ñiños y población en general, quienes consumieron truchas muertas por envenenamiento con plomo.

En ese sentido, Zegarra declaró en emergencia las cuenca de los ríos Totora, Opamayo y Lircay, contaminados por los relaves mineros que se han expandido luego de una presa artesanal en mal estado.

César Zorrilla, alcalde encargado de la Municipalidad Provincial de Angaraes, anunció que denunciará penalmente a la empresa minera por la grave contaminación generada.

Asimismo, exigió la renuncia de los funcionarios del organismo supervisor Osinerming, del Ministerio de Energía y Minas y de la Dirección Regional de Minería de Huancavelica, encargados de supervisar el cuidado del medio ambiente.

Celso Condori, alcalde del distrito de Huachocolpa, dijo que la contaminación por los relaves se extiende hasta el río Opamayo afectando directamente a las comunidades de Palcas, Totora, Yanaututo, Tucsipampa, Rumichaca.

La afectación comprende a los distritos de Lircay, Ocopa, Anchonga, Huayllay Grande, Cangalla, Callanmarca y Huancahuanca agregó Condori.

En tanto, Hugo Caballero, subgerente de Gestión Ambiental del Gobierno Regional de Huancavelica, indicó que la contaminación se habría extendido hasta la cuenca del río Mantaro y afectó unas seis hectáreas de la localidad de Pomacocha.

Leído: 51 lecturas | Servindi | Actualidad, Noticias | 07 3rd, 2010 | 2 comentarios »
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Raising the Floor for American Workers #immigration

2010-07-02T01:21:00.001-07:00

Raising the Floor for American Workers

The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform

SOURCE: AP/Mark Lennihan
Comprehensive immigration reform that legalizes currently unauthorized immigrants and
creates flexible legal limits on future immigration in the context of full labor rights would
help American workers and the U.S. economy.

By Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda | January 7, 2010

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Sinopsis disponible en español (pdf)

Video: Immigration Reform is an Economy Booster (Español)

The U.S. government has attempted for more than two decades to put a stop to unauthorized immigration from and through Mexico by implementing “enforcement-only” measures along the U.S.-Mexico border and at work sites across the country. These measures have failed to end unauthorized immigration and placed downward pressure on wages in a broad swath of industries.

Comprehensive immigration reform that legalizes currently unauthorized immigrants and creates flexible legal limits on future immigration in the context of full labor rights would help American workers and the U.S. economy. Unlike the current enforcement-only strategy, comprehensive reform would raise the “wage floor” for the entire U.S. economy—to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers.

The historical experience of legalization under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act indicates that comprehensive immigration reform would raise wages, increase consumption, create jobs, and generate additional tax revenue. Even though IRCA was implemented during an economic recession characterized by high unemployment, it still helped raise wages and spurred increases in educational, home, and small-business investments by newly legalized immigrants. Taking the experience of IRCA as a starting point, we estimate that comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. This is a compelling economic reason to move away from the current “vicious cycle” where enforcement-only policies perpetuate unauthorized migration and exert downward pressure on already low wages, and toward a “virtuous cycle” of worker empowerment in which legal status and labor rights exert upward pressure on wages.

This report uses a computable general equilibrium model to estimate the economic ramifications of three different scenarios: 1) comprehensive immigration reform that creates a pathway to legal status for unauthorized immigrants in the United States and establishes flexible limits on permanent and temporary immigration that respond to changes in U.S. labor demand in the future; 2) a program for temporary workers only that does not include a pathway to permanent status or more flexible legal limits on permanent immigration in the future; and 3) mass deportation to expel all unauthorized immigrants and effectively seal the U.S.-Mexico border. The model shows that comprehensive immigration reform produces the greatest economic benefits:

Comprehensive immigration reform generates an increase in U.S. GDP of at least 0.84 percent. Summed over 10 years, this amounts to a cumulative $1.5 trillion in additional GDP. It also boosts wages for both native-born and newly legalized immigrant workers.

The temporary worker program generates an increase in U.S. GDP of 0.44 percent. This amounts to $792 billion of cumulative GDP over 10 years. Moreover, wages decline for both native-born and newly legalized immigrant workers.

Mass deportation reduces U.S. GDP by 1.46 percent. This amounts to $2.6 trillion in cumulative lost GDP over 10 years, not including the actual cost of deportation.2 Wages would rise for less-skilled native-born workers, but would diminish for higher-skilled natives, and would lead to widespread job loss.

Legalizing the nation’s unauthorized workers and putting new legal limits on immigration that rise and fall with U.S. labor demand would help lay the foundation for robust, just, and widespread economic growth.

Download the full report (pdf)
Download the executive summary (pdf)

Sinopsis disponible en español (pdf)

Video: Immigration Reform is an Economy Booster (Español)

To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:

Print: Suzi Emmerling (foreign policy and security, energy, education, immigration)
202.481.8224 or semmerling@americanprogress.org

Print: Megan Smith (health care, economic policy)
202.741.6346 or msmith@americanprogress.org

Radio: Nicole Murphy
202.478.6345 or nmurphy@americanprogress.org

TV: Andrea Purse
202.741.6250 or apurse@americanprogress.org

Web: Erin Lindsay
202.741.6397 or elindsay@americanprogress.org

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In Memoriam - Bety Cariño

2010-06-08T12:40:00.001-07:00

Bety cariño masacrada en san juan copala.abril 2010

2010-06-08T12:35:00.001-07:00

Paraguay's growing drug trafficking threat

2010-05-16T07:07:00.001-07:00

GRAIN | Seedling | 2010 | Confronting the FAO to stop GM

2010-05-03T13:16:00.001-07:00

Confronting the FAO to stop GMOs

By GRAIN

Between 28 February and 3 March 2010, the Network for the Defence of Maize, the National Assembly of Environmentally Affected People and Vía Campesina–North America held an independent public hearing in Guadalajara, Mexico. The objective was to bring together the evidence and to elaborate the arguments for starting proceedings in international courts of justice against the Mexican government for deliberately permitting the introduction into the country of genetically modified maize. Mexico is where maize originated, thousands of years ago, and where today more than 1,500 native varieties grow, evolve, and are bred. The cultivation of these varieties is governed by a complex interaction of not only social relations, profound knowledge and trust, but also community resistance.

Ten years ago, Mexico’s government began to distribute large quantities of GM maize seeds in the countryside, in an illegal, undercover operation, and native maize in different regions began to be contaminated. In response, indigenous and peasant communities from many regions formed the Network for the Defence of Maize (Red en Defensa del Maíz). They exchanged local knowledge and experience, and decided to ban the introduction of GM maize in their regions. The network was a space where they could share views, and they became more convinced than ever that the best way of protecting maize was by growing it. For these communities, agriculture is not a commercial activity but a way of caring for the planet through continuous work. Growing their own food is not only a way of understanding the complex relations between winds, water, forests, other crops, animals and soils but also of protecting human life and promoting justice. Only then can communities be sure that the diversity of maize will not be lost and that the natural and social fabric of relations that lie behind maize will not be weakened.

The decision to hold a first public hearing to make an international case against the Mexican government and the major corporations involved in GM agriculture and food stemmed from the perception that the Mexican judicial system is completely closed or corrupt, or both. Over the last decade the Mexican government has approved a set of reforms and laws to privatise, register, certify or ban what were once commons – water, forests, seeds, biodiversity. It has encouraged intellectual property rights through patents and other legal devices and supported the introduction of GM crops. These laws have created a huge new space for the big corporations to manoeuvre at large but restricted yet further the already limited legal space available to common people. The three most damaging measures have been: the land counter-reform that permits the privatisation of public or communal land; the approval of NAFTA, which provides the big corporations with a totally different set of rules with which to advance their interests; and the refusal to acknowledge indigenous rights in the Constitution.

It is no coincidence that, just a few months after the Mexican government had made it legally possible to grow GM maize experimentally in field trials (which, in practice, ended the moratorium that had been in effect since 1998), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) decided to come to Mexico to hold a “technical meeting” to promote biotechnologies as a solution to hunger in the world. At the very least, the decision showed a crass lack of sensitivity to the deep struggle being waged in Mexico over the issue.

Indigenous communities went further: they saw it as little short of a provocation from both parties. FAO was openly backing the Mexican authorities in their efforts to release GM crops, while Mexico’s decision to host the meeting was a way of publicly acknowledging its support for FAO’s biotechnology approach. So to hold a public hearing to enquire into these events was also meant as a counter-attack upon the FAO for holding a meeting that was geared to promoting GMOs and to advancing the interests of the corporations.

The FAO’s involvement with biotechnology is blatant, as these three quotations from its official preparatory documents show:

“Agricultural biotechnologies provide opportunities to address the significant challenges of ensuring food security without destroying the environmental resource base. [Executive summary]

More emphasis and activity have been focused on developing policies and regulations related to preventing risks arising from GMO than to facilitating the use of agricultural biotechnologies for the benefit of poor rural producers. [p. 9, 2.7, 42]

Over-emphasis of and polarization within the “GMO debate” has distracted and diverted scientific and policy resources from focusing on the needs of poor rural producers. The controversy regarding GMOs in food and agriculture over the past decade has had significant effects in stalling, reducing and redirecting some public sector research efforts in agricultural biotechnologies …” [p. 9, 2.7, 43]1

In a context so biased in favour of corporations, Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group, a veteran civil society member of the FAO’s steering committee and a known activist against GMOs from the beginning, decided to resign publicly in protest:

“The overwhelming thrust of the guiding documents for the meeting are hopelessly biased in favour of biotechnology and skewed to persuade developing countries that they have no option but to climb on the biotech bandwagon. It’s unacceptable that a supposedly neutral inter-governmental body like FAO would allow itself to be turned into a billboard for Big Biotech,”

Mooney said.2 The ETC Group press release goes on to point out:

“The choice of Mexico as a venue for the biotech conference is also controversial. The Mexican government has recently broken a 10-year moratorium on the planting of GM maize. Answering a letter against these GM maize trials, sent by 1,500 organisations from 67 countries, the FAO secretariat said that it was a ‘national matter’ for Mexico, not for FAO.”3

The resistance is joined

Many different people from communities, organisations, research centres and civil society groups from Mexico and abroad, all linked to one of the three main organisers, participated in the public hearing and helped to develop a judicial strategy for building a case to present internationally. The sessions heard a different range of voices from those heard at the FAO’s meeting. People presented a general diagnosis of GMOs, gave examples of the lies told to promote them and put forward strategies for building a judicial case to present internationally. All participants agreed that GMOs interfered with the processes of breeding and natural selection, with unknown consequences. In their early stages, GMOs allowed the corporations to act as controllers of who could and could not grow food, with what methods and with whose seeds. More recently, however, GMOs have been used increasingly to jeopardise natural and social processes, as companies are making GMOs that are, in fact, small factories for manufacturing fuels, toxins, hormones, drugs and other dangerous substances.

It was clear that, while GM contamination has affected native crops quickly and extensively in many countries, the GM offensive has encountered widespread peasant and indigenous resistance in Mexico. Although the government and the corporations have tried to pollute the whole country with clandestine GM seeds, this resistance has prevented contamination on a massive scale. The government has tried to enforce a huge battery of laws, regulations, certifications and registrations to criminalise the time-honoured behaviour of indigenous and peasant communities, but these communities’ resistance is based on a determination that cannot be easily broken: it relies upon the daily local practice of traditional knowledge to prevent contamination, to continue exchanging ancient native seeds, and to plant native maize and all its associated crops, season after season. This is the statement of a comunero, Eutimio Díaz, of the Wixárika people:

“We are not going to allow a few scientists and politicians (who know nothing about our relations with the land, with maize) to impose on us their “worsened” maize. Maize wants and requires special attention. Far from saying we will give up our maize, we need to find ways of looking after her better.4 We have lost a lot in our history – dances, music, festivities, clothing, knowledge. So with our maize we need to be more careful. If we lose her, our community will end. With maize, we can share. So we have spoken: we are not going to accept transgenic maize. If Mexico loses its seeds, the consequences in other areas may be even worse. So we are not going to give up our seeds. Ever. From our assemblies we have spoken: we are not going to respect any law that is set against our peoples, we are not going to allow alien maize to come in. We are not going to accept any law that affects our maize. What they want to impose on us brings with it a great deal of harm.”5

The testimonies and evidence brought together at the hearing constitute a strong legal case for arraigning the Mexican government in an international court of justice for abuse of power. But for the communities the case is important for another reason too: it helps them to increase their understanding and strengthen their organising. After all, the future is not written.

Going further

The complete coverage of the public hearing, “Los transgénicos nos roban el futuro”, can be downloaded, in Spanish, from ttp://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/54866

“In Defense of Maize (and the Future)”, Americas Program, August 2004, http://americas.irc-online.org/citizen-action/series/13-maiz.html

Diario Oficial de la Federación, 6 March 2009; La Jornada, 10 March 2009; “México da luz verde a maíz transgénico”, La Jornada, 15 October 2009.

Ana de Ita and Pilar López Sierra: “La cultura maicera mexicana frente al libre comercio”, in Maíz, sustento y culturas en América Latina. Los impactos destructivos de la globalización. REDES–AT Uruguay, Biodiversidad–sustento y culturas, Montevideo, 2004, p. 28.

FAO International Technical Conference, Document ABDC10/9: Agricultural Biotechnologies for Food Security and Sustainable Development: Options for Developing Countries and Priorities for Action by the International Community, January 2010, http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/abdc/documents/optpriore.pdf

ETC Group, “FAO’s Biotech Meeting Dubbed ‘Biased for Business’ as Steering Committee Member Resigns in Protest”, 26 February 2010

GRAIN, “Las mentiras de los transgénicos”, March 2010.

GRAIN, “Fighting contamination around the world”, Seedling, January 2009, http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=575

1 FAO International Technical Conference, “Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries: Options and opportunities in crops, forestry, livestock, fisheries and agro-industry to face the challenges of food security and climate change” (ABDC–10), Guadalajara, Mexico, 1–4 March 2010, document ABDC10/9 [Issues–Recommendations]: Agricultural Biotechnologies for Food Security and Sustainable Development: Options for developing Countries and Priorities for Action by the International Community, January 2010, http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/abdc/documents/optpriore.pdf
2 ETC Group, “FAO’s Biotech Meeting Dubbed ‘Biased for Business’ as Steering Committee Member Resigns”, 26 February 2010, http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/5078
3 Ibid.
4 For the Wixárika, maize is a young girl.
5 Presentation by Eutimio Díaz Bautista at the public hearing, titled “Los Transgénicos nos Roban el Futuro” (“GM Crops Steal Our Future”), 2 March 2010. See http://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/54866 (in Spanish).
Ref: seedling|seed-10-04-5

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Immigrants: Microchipped, Galvanized, Possibly Unwelcome Elsewhere

2010-04-28T21:19:00.001-07:00

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More than surviving (English subtitles) #350ppm #ecology #sustainability

2010-04-27T13:32:00.001-07:00

Indigenous People issue warning of bloodshed over Amazon dam approval : Intercontinental Cry

2010-04-25T00:23:00.001-07:00

Photo: Verena Glass

Indigenous leaders have issued a warning that "bloodshed" is imminent now that Brazil has granted rights to build the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.

The Auction was rushed through on Tueday, April 22, following a set of court injunctions that blocked and then unblocked the auction process.

About 500 Indigenous people, environmentalists and other concerned citizens had gathered to protest the auction, which took place inside the offices of the National Electric Energy Agency in Brazil's capital.

The disappoing move by the government also triggered what one Kayapo leader has desciribed as a 'war.'

"I think that today the war is about to start once more and the Indians will be forced to kill the white men again so they leave our lands alone," said Kayapo leader Raoni Metuktire, who acts as an ambassador in the battle to protect the Amazon rainforest. "I think the white man wants too much, our water, our land. There will be a war so the white man cannot interfere in our lands again," he added.

Another Indigenous Leader, Luis Xipaya, warned that "There will be bloodshed and the government will be responsible for that."

On Wednesday, Xipaya also said that a group of Kayapos have been sent to occupy the proposed dam site:

"Boats are in the process of leaving and we hope to occupy the territory tomorrow (Thursday). We will build a permanent village there and will not leave so long as the project is on."

Chief Xipaya, who presides over a council of Elders, went on to explain that 150 Kayapos will set up the initial camp, but "we would like to number 500 by the end of the month and ask for reinforcements.... Our goal is to place 1,000 Indians there."

UPDATE:There are atleast 10 other ongoing protests in Brazil against the Belo Monte.

Since it was first proposed in the 1980s, the Belo Monte hydro project has been at the forefront of numerous protests and gatherings led by the Kayapo and other Rainforest Peoples.

They have been consistenly opposed to the dam because it threatens to devastate a massive portion of the Amazon, divert the flow of the Xingu River and displace nearly 20,000 people from their ancestral lands. the dam will also destroy the livelihoods of more than 12,000 Indigenous people.

What You Can Do

Sign a Petition in Support of the Xingu River

Send a letter to Government officials opposing the Belo Monte dam.

Palawan: Voices from the Lost Frontier : Intercontinental Cry #indigenous #Philipines

2010-04-25T00:21:00.001-07:00

Palawan: Voices from the Lost Frontier : Intercontinental Cry #indigenous

2010-04-25T00:19:00.001-07:00

9500 Liberty | a documentary on America's explosive battle over immigration policy

2010-04-20T12:50:00.001-07:00

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Al Jazeerah covers CMPCC (English) - World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth

2010-04-20T11:42:00.001-07:00

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World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth

2010-04-20T01:45:00.001-07:00

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Servindi » Mundo: 22 de abril, Día Internacional de la Pachamama | Servicios en Comunicación Intercultural Servindi

2010-04-18T00:04:00.001-07:00

FRANCISCO ECUADOR - Ñuca Huarmi

2010-04-12T13:21:00.001-07:00

Musica Music de Peru Selva Amasonica Amazon Jungle

New music: Tuareg guitarist Bambino of Niger - Projo Subterranean Homepage News

2010-04-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

YouTube - Bambino Concert, Agadez

Some of the most interesting modern music is coming from the edges of the Sahara Desert -- Issa Bagayogo and Tinariwen from Mali, and now Bambino from Agadez, Niger.

This is mood music, an emphasis on rhythms. Put it on when you get home from work and you're somewhere ancient and else.

From the blurb of the video above:

February 11, 2010 -- Tuareg musician Bambino from Agadez, Niger performs with his band at the foot of the ancient Grande Mosque attended by close to a thousand people. At the edge of the Sahara Desert, Agadez has been cut off from the rest of the world due rebellions and floods for three years. This concert gave Agadez a chance to celebrate its culture and heritage, ushering in a new generation of Tuareg. A new double CD, feature documentary and world tour are planned for the Fall of 2010. For more info go to: zerogravityfilms.com

Omoura Moctar, aka Bambino.

Five more videos of Bambino.

Tags Bambino music Tuareg

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Sabidong ti Balitok Toxic Gold, Ecological and cultural devastation of gold mining in the Philippines. mcnn on USTREAM. Politics

2010-04-07T09:17:00.001-07:00

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We want to shut down this mine : Intercontinental Cry

2010-04-04T13:32:00.001-07:00

Servindi » Perú: El modelo extractor de recursos naturales no es rentable, afirma especialista | Servicios en Comunicación Intercultural Servindi

2010-03-29T00:27:00.001-07:00

Servindi, 28 de marzo, 2010.- Los países sudamericanos sostienen sus economías en la extracción de recursos naturales, sin embargo el Secretario Ejecutivo del Centro Latinoamericano de Ecología Social (CLAES) Eduardo Gudynas aseguró que esto no es rentable.

El experto informó que en Ecuador se realizaron estudios que prueban que las actividades extractivas producen pérdidas al Estado, producen contaminación ambiental y no solucionan el problema de pobreza.

Gudynas manifestó que no sólo Ecuador no observa mejora con la extracción de recursos, sino que también Perú no ha obtenido beneficios, e incluso ha tenido que asumir pérdidas, un ejemplo que ello son las actividades extractivas en Cajamarca, donde el Estado asumiría los pasivos ambientales, según informó un conocido medio especializado en economía (Gestión).

Ante esta situación, el experto aseguró que el dinero que destinará el Estado para remediar los pasivos ambientales debería ser utilizado en otras actividades.

Si bien Gudynas aseguró que la extracción de recursos no es ninguna salida para el desarrollo, dejar de hacerlo tomará su tiempo, para lo cual es necesario discutir vías alternas.

Para Carlos Monge, miembro de Revenue Watch, se debe apostar por modelos económicos que no refuercen la dependencia en la extracción de recursos, por el contrario, el país debería buscar otras maneras de obtener energía.

Exportación consultada

Por otro lado, el economista Jorge Manco Zaconetti explicó que no está en contra de las exportaciones de gas natural, pero que se deben evaluar los términos de la venta al exterior como a qué precio se venderá, si los contratos que se firmen tienen naturaleza lícita y sobre todo proyectar la demanda nacional futura para no quitarle gas al Perú.

En ese sentido recomendó que las reservas del Lote 88 sólo sean destinadas al mercado interno, sin plazos ni límites; y que se renegocien las regalías del Lote 56, (cuyas reservas son para la exportación) para que éstas sean favorables para el Estado peruano.

El especialista Aurelio Ochoa remarcó que a pesar de las limitadas reservas probadas comprometidas para el mercado interno, en unos pocos meses se iniciará la exportación del gas natural sin haber garantizado primero la satisfacción de la demanda interna.

Según la auditoría realizada por Gaffney, Cline & Associates el estimado total de reservas probadas es de 8,8 Trillones de Pies Cúbicos – TCF; sin embargo para satisfacer la demanda de gas natural para el 2009 – 2029 se ha comprometido 4,2 TCF para la exportación y solo 4.6 TCF para garantizar la demanda interna nacional, cuando ésta se ha estimado en 6.6 TCF.

Esta situación deja una demanda interna insatisfecha de 2 TCF, hecho que evidencia la priorización de la exportación sin garantizar previamente nuestra industria nacional.

El experto destacó el caso de Colombia, país donde el gas es utilizado por casi la mitad de su población, de los cuales el 87% son de bajos recursos; mientras que en nuestro país solo el 0.07% de peruanos utilizan el gas.

Ante esto, César Gamboa, presidente de Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR) aseguró que es necesario que se constituya una política energética consistente e integrada, debido a que actualmente sólo existen normas dispersas.

Estas declaraciones se dieron en el Simposio “Política Energética y Amazonía ¿Qué nos espera?”, organizado por Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales – DAR y Acción Ciudadana Camisea – ACC, evento que contó con la participación de destacados especialistas nacionales e internacionales.

Leído: 57 lecturas | Servindi | Actualidad, Noticias | 03 28th, 2010 | Alguien opino »
(+1 calificacion, 1 votos)

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Tens of Thousands of Protesters Gather to Press for US Immigration Reform

2010-03-21T18:17:00.001-07:00

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Will White House Motion Lead to Progress on Immigration Reform? Â« SpeakEasy

Will White House Motion Lead to Progress on Immigration Reform? Â« SpeakEasy

2010-03-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Urban Food Growing in Havana, Cuba

2010-03-02T21:01:00.001-08:00

http://posterous.com/bookmarklet/iframe_contents#

Aidesep, pueblos #indígenas amazónicos del Peru | Portada #indigenous

2010-02-25T08:44:00.001-08:00

Dictamen sobre consulta previa estaría listo antes de abril

AIDESEP, 24 de febrero de 2010. La presidenta de la comisión de Pueblos Andinos, Amazónicos y Afroperuanos del Parlamento, Elizabeth León Minaya, sostuvo que a fines de marzo tiene que estar listo el dictamen de la Ley de Consulta Previa a las Comunidades Indígenas, plazo que debe cumplirse porque los pueblos se encuentran impacientes por este tema que lleva bastante tiempo sin solución y que la propia Defensoria del Pueblo ha considerado necesario.

“Entendemos que hay diversos puntos controversiales y empezaremos el debate el 2 de marzo para consensuar los artículos que generan polémicas y esperamos terminar a fines de marzo, para que pase al Pleno al debate final”, señaló.

Presentación de la Defensora del Pueblo en el Congreso
cuando pidió aprobar el derecho a la consulta

La parlamentaria reveló que revisarán el documento emitido por la Mesa de Trabajo con las Comunidades Amazónicas, presidida por el ministro de Agricultura, Adolfo De Córdoba, y buscarán dialogar con los representantes de las comunidades amazónicas.

“Es difícil recoger las expectativas de todos, pero buscaremos recoger las opiniones de los principales representantes de las comunidades amazónicas y de la sierra”, enfatizó e hizo un llamado para promover el diálogo y no repetir los escenarios de protesta.

Asimismo, la integrante de Bloque Popular también se refirió al proyecto de ley remitido por el Ejecutivo que modifica el artículo 8 de la Ley de Desplazamiento Interno, favoreciendo el desplazamiento de poblaciones en beneficio de la ejecución de proyectos de inversión.

“Hemos recibido el proyecto con sorpresa, porque el gobierno nos saca la vuelta con algo que estamos promoviendo que es el diálogo y el tema de la consulta previa para la ejecución de proyectos”, lamentó.

En ese sentido, consideró que es increíble que el Estado “sea el promotor del desplazamiento de poblaciones (…) me parece absurdo cuando lo que le toca al Estado es proteger a las poblaciones desplazadas”.

Así mismo expresó su confianza en que el proyecto pueda pasar por su comisión, pese a ser remitido con carácter de urgencia, para evitar que esta propuesta gubernamental prospere.

via aidesep.org.pe

Aidesep, pueblos #indígenas amazónicos del Peru | Portada #Indigenous

2010-02-25T08:40:00.001-08:00

Saúl Puerta, AIDESEP, sostuvo que la policía quiso
boicotear movilización amazónica

AIDESEP, 24 de febrero de 2010. La movilización de los pueblos andinos y amazónicos, en protesta por la indiferencia del Ejecutivo para solucionar sus demandas, tuvo contundencia en Jaén y Yurimaguas, así lo informó Saúl Puerta, secretario nacional de la AIDESEP y sostuvo que muchos hermanos decidieron no salir a las calles para evitar caer en la provocación del contingente policial que llegó a las diferentes zona.

“Esta fue una movilización anunciada como pacífica, no había razón para trasladar tantos policías, era una clara provocación en la que no queríamos caer.”, expresó.

Asimismo, el líder indígena anunció que la marcha pacífica del 22 de febrero es el inicio de más movilizaciones en todo el país que continuará en los próximos meses hasta lograr que el gobierno escuche las demandas de los pueblos, hasta lograr el retorno libre del Apu Alberto Pizango al Perú, la derogatoria de los decretos legislativos que atentan contra la amazonía.

“AIDESEP convocará otras marchas pacíficas, realizaremos vigilias hasta lograr que este gobierno acepte que se equivoco, que sigue cometiendo los mismos errores de intentar –con sus políticas- desaparecer a los pueblos indígenas, no cesaremos en nuestra lucha, continuaremos hasta lograr el triunfo final”, concluyó.

Ver video de Marcha del 22 de febrero

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MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action

2010-02-23T13:42:00.001-08:00

Join the Virtual March

As Washington stalls on health care, real people are hurting. To remind Congress voters want them to get the job done on reform, we're holding our biggest day of health care action ever on February 24th. Together, we'll flood Congress with a million messages for real reform.

Sign up for the march �

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Join in

YouTube - I Serve My Culture - A Visit With Hale Mawae

2010-02-23T13:14:00.001-08:00

Don’t mine us out of existence : Intercontinental Cry #Indigenous

2010-02-22T18:04:00.001-08:00

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2010-02-07T16:26:00.001-08:00

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
..................................... Martin Luther King, Jr.

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras COFADEH #Honduras

2010-01-10T21:47:00.001-08:00

Noticias Destacadas

Terratenientes estarían planificando asesinato de campesinos encarcelados

La existencia de un plan que estaría siendo auspiciado por terratenientes del departamento de Colón para terminar con la vida de los campesinos Carlos Antonio Maradiaga e Isabel Morales, del Movimiento Campesino del Aguán, MCA, quienes se encuentran detenidos... Más

Gobierno de facto prepara represión en el preámbulo de ilegítimas elecciones

El Cofadeh advierte sobre un plan que el gobierno de facto prepara para arreciar la represión en contra del pueblo hondureño y que estaría gestándose los días previos al desarrollo de las ilegítimas y fraudulentas elecciones del 29 de noviembre. Más

Organizaciones condenan implementación de Estado de Sitio

El gobierno golpista de Roberto Micheletti a través de un decreto Ejecutivo procedió a restringir Garantías Constitucionales de la población, por un término de 45 días a partir de este domingo en que se publicó esta ilegalidad, en el Diario Oficial La Gaceta, lo cual fue condenado por el... Más

Juventud del COFADEH recuerda el Día Nacional del Detenido Desaparecido

via cofadeh.org

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras COFADEH

2010-01-10T21:43:00.001-08:00

via cofadeh.org

Anti-Olympic Convergence February 2010 | No Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics On Stolen Native Land

2010-01-08T22:43:00.001-08:00

CONVERGENCE FEB 2010

ALL OUT AGAINST THE 2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES!

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver & Whistler, on unceded Indigenous land, from February 12-28 2010. We call on all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents. We are organizing towards a global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence against the 2010 Olympic Games.

BASIC SCHEDULE:

The basic plan thus far is:

- Conference and People's Summit on Wed Feb 10- Thurs Feb 11

- Fri Feb 12: Take Back Our City! “Welcome” the 2010 Olympic Torch with
Free Games, Free Speech, and Free Food! Beginning with a festival at the
Vancouver Art Gallery at 3 pm, followed by a parade and protest to BC
Place Stadium. Details, including childcare arrangements, at:
http://2010welcoming.wordpress.com/

- Autonomous days of action on Sat Feb 13 and Mon Feb 15 including
anti-corporate actions, rallies to oppose militarization, and more.

- On Sun Feb 14th, we will be standing with the 19th Annual Women's
Memorial March to honour all the missing and murdered and women in the
DTES (this is not an anti-Olympic protest). Details at:
http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/

We will also be updating our website with additional anti-Olympic events
occurring during the month of February:
http://olympicresistance.net or http://no2010.com

LOGISTICAL INFORMATION:

We are working to coordinate the logistics to host this convergence. For
information on billeting (whether you are in need of billeting or can
provide billeting), travel and border information, legal updates, food and
childcare arrangements, community spaces, welcome package, and more,
please check http://olympicresistance.net frequently for updates.

SUPPORT THE CONVERGENCE AND GET INVOLVED!

1) Sign-up for our low-traffic list (1-2 emails per week) to stay updated
on upcoming events, meetings, and actions. Please email
olympicresistance@riseup.net and ask to be added to our announcement list.

2) If you are part of another group (artist, activist, community, union,
campus etc) and are planning any kind of activity or event to oppose the
Games during Jan-Feb 2010, please do let us know so we can stay in touch.

3) Host an anti-Olympic educational on your campus or at your next
conference. Or invite a speaker to your next meeting to discuss what your
group can do. We are able to provide educational materials including
films, tshirts, comics, buttons, stickers and more!

4) Get involved in the Olympic Resistance Network or other anti-Olympic
groups in your neighbourhood or campus. The ORN has regular General
Meetings on Sundays as well as many committees.

5) Spread the word about the convergence! Forward this notice to your
contacts, join our facebook group
(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22399134613&ref=ts), download
posters and flyers about the convergence from our website and pass them
on!

6) Please donate! Hosting this convergence requires significant funds,
including legal defence funds. You can donate securely through PayPal on
our website: http://olympicresistance.net/content/send-us-money or cheques
can be made out to Olympic Resistance Network and mailed to ORN, 6 - 1857
Kitchener St, Vancouver, BC, V5L 2W5. Email ornfundraise@riseup.net to
arrange direct deposits or other queries.

WHY OPPOSE THE GAMES:

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place on unceded Indigenous land. Far
from being simply about sport, the history of the Olympics is one rooted
in displacement, corporate greed, and repression. As Olympic promoters and
sponsors seek to present their sanitized corporate brand image to the
world, the real impacts of the Games are apparent to everyone:

* Expansion of sport tourism on Indigenous lands
* Increasing homelessness across the province and especially in
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
* Misdirected public spending and debt totaling $6 billion while funding
for the arts, educations, and health care are suffering cutbacks
* Corporate bailouts and corporate profits for companies with some of the
worst social and environmental records.
* Threats to basic civil liberties and free speech
* Union-busting and vulnerable working conditions for migrant labour
* Unprecedented destruction of the environment
* Unparalleled $1 billion police and security spending that is turning our
city into a militarized zone.

Watch: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics:

ABOUT US:

The Olympics Resistance Network is primarily based in Vancouver, Coast
Salish Territories and exists as a space to coordinate anti-2010 Olympics
efforts.

The ORN supports the international resolution passed by over 1500
Indigenous delegates at the Intercontinental Indigenous Peoples Gathering
in Sonora, Mexico to “boycott the 2010 Olympic Games” based on Resolution
#2 of the Gathering which states “We reject the 2010 Winter Olympics on
sacred and stolen territory of Turtle Island–Vancouver, Canada”.

Based on this call, our organizing as natives and non-natives alike is
largely being done under the slogan of "No Olympics on Stolen Native
Land". In doing so, we act in solidarity with other communities across
'BC' - particularly indigenous communities who have been defending their
land against the onslaught of the Olympics since the bid itself.

We look forward to working together across our experiences and movements,
while sharing a common understanding including an anti-colonial and
anti-capitalist analysis; respect for diversity of tactics and strategies;
an anti-oppression understanding and solidarity with those most directly
affected; and organizational philosophy based on decentralization within a
coordinated and accountable structure.

----------------

WEBSITE: olympicresistance.net
EMAIL: olympicresistance@riseup.net

via no2010.com

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/29-0

have you heard what's happening on the ocupaied land of Palestine ? #gaza

2009-12-29T10:39:00.001-08:00

Gaza #Gaza Israel #israel Did You heard about Gaza ??? the Protest ? the freedom march ? Ocupaied lands ??? hu nger strike #satyagraha

From the stalled and detoured Gaza Freedom March, a hope-filled report from Philip Weiss on the achievement it represents. Borders have fallen away, he says, and an international conversation is taking place among diverse peoples on the injustice that is Gaza.

"They reflect an international consensus: the end of patience for war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and an ideology of Jewish exceptionalism supported by western governments. Those governments have failed to act, so we are speaking out as civil society."
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/12/28-3

Posted via web from Satyagraha_Ji

Narco News: Colombianos se niegan a ser desplazados: Cerca de 5 mil personas ocupan la oficina del inspector de policía de Piñuña Negro en Putumayo

2009-12-27T16:27:00.001-08:00

Colombianos se niegan a ser desplazados: Cerca de 5 mil personas ocupan la oficina del inspector de policía de Piñuña Negro en Putumayo

Indígenas y campesinos afrocolombianos demandan el fin de la erradicación de la coca y del Plan ColombiaPlan Colombia

Por James Jordan
Especial para The Narco News Bulletin

21 de diciembre 2009

Más de 5 mil indígenas, afrocolombianos y miembros de comunidades campesinas se encuentran ocupando el centro de la comunidad de Piñuña Negro en el departamento de Putumayo, Colombia. Usando tácticas de resistencia no violenta, la multitud de personas de todas las edades se ha reunido en la oficina gubernamental más importante del área—la oficina del inspector de policía—con el fin de demandar la negociación con representantes del gobierno local y nacional, el fin de los acosos militares y paramilitares, así como de los programas de erradicación de la coca que causan el desplazamiento de miles de pobladores. Las comunidades afectadas dicen que luego de tres años de promesas incumplidas y de llamados para el diálogo no respondidas, no ha habido esfuerzos duraderos del gobierno para el desarrollo de la sustitución de los cultivos, de los mercados, así como de la industria para llevar los cultivos a los mercados. En lugar de eso, los líderes comunitarios y los pobladores han sido acusados falsamente de operar para las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) sometiéndolos a una represión en curso.

Sin medios para ganarse la vida, las comunidades rurales están sufriendo una generalizada malnutrición, enfermedades, y una carencia de oportunidades educativas o económicas. La población local ha sido sometida a constantes abusos cometidos por militares, incluyendo asaltos a mano armada en contra de la población civil sin provocación alguna, apropiación forzosa de los cultivos y de otros recursos, ocupación de los hogares y granjas y un bloqueo militar que prohíbe la entrada a la región de alimentos y otras necesidades básicas. Los escuadrones de la muerte paramilitares han operado con impunidad, amenazando a la población, y peor aún, cometiendo homicidios y otros actos violentos. El vicepresidente de ASCAP y miembro del directorio nacional de FENSUAGRO fue asesinado luego de numerosas amenazas tan solo el año pasado.

Desde el 19 octubre, al menos 5,263 residentes han ocupado la oficina del inspector de policía de Piñuña Negro, parte de la municipalidad de Puerto Leguizamo, cercana a la frontera entre Colombia, Perú y Ecuador. La ocupación está encabezada por la Asociación Campesina Agrícola del Putumayo (ASCAP). La ASCAP es miembro de la Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria (FENSUAGRO), la organización campesina más grande de Colombia. La FENSUAGRO es también el sindicato más atacado en Colombia. De cada cinco trabajadores sindicalizados que son asesinados en el mundo tres son asesinados en Colombia.

Una encuesta reciente en la ocupación popular revela que de los participantes: 1,024 son niñas, 828 niños, 1828 hombres y 1543 mujeres, con un 20% de las mujeres embarazadas. Muchos de los adultos son también adultos mayores. La ocupación protesta por los esfuerzos de erradicación y por los ataques paramilitares/militares en Putumayo, especialmente cerca de las municipalidades de Puerto Leguizamo y Puerto Asís, los dos puertos más importantes del Río Putumayo.

Putumayo ha sido uno de los departamentos más afectados por los esfuerzos estadunidenses/colombianos de erradicación de la coca, incluyendo la fumigación indiscriminada del herbicida de Monsanto Round-Up Ultra. Estas fumigaciones no solo han afectado la coca, sino que, debido a la arbitrariedad y a la manera generalizada en que es aplicado, una rica variedad de cultivos, bosques y poblaciones humanas se han visto igualmente afectadas. Estos esfuerzos de erradicación son parte del Plan Colombia, el cuál ha recibido más de Plan Colombia, el cuál ha recibido más de USD$7 billones de financiamiento por parte del gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Los esfuerzos de erradicación son coadministrados por el gobierno colombiano y por el Departamento de Estado de los EEUU.

Recientemente, los esfuerzos de erradicación han sido a mano, acompañados por movimientos de tropas militares y paramilitares. Estos esfuerzos no han incluído los programas prometidos para rehabilitar el área para otro tipo de cultivo, incluyendo la infraestructura y los mercados necesarios para vender los productos. Igualmente se carece de un sistema educativo adecuado, de salud y de otros servicios básicos. No hay carreteras que conduzcan las cosechas hacia o desde lugares como Puñiño Negro. Los únicos dispuestos a hacer el viaje en esta parte remota de Colombia son los que tienen motivos comerciales con la coca. Sin embargo, se especula que compañias mineras están interesadas en desarrollar el área debido a la riqueza en recursos minerales, y que incluyen depósitos de oro, plata y platino. Esos intereses a menudo están precedidos por esfuerzos de gran escala para desplazar a la población, abriendo así la tierra para el desarrollo corporativo.Colombia son los que tienen motivos comerciales con la coca. Sin embargo, se especula que compañias mineras están interesadas en desarrollar el área debido a la riqueza en recursos minerales, y que incluyen depósitos de oro, plata y platino. Esos intereses a menudo están precedidos por esfuerzos de gran escala para desplazar a la población, abriendo así la tierra para el desarrollo corporativo.

Se han intensificado las amenazas en contra de líderes de la ocupación, y en contra representantes indígenas y afrocolombianos. Una de las preocupaciones principales de los manifestantes es la seguridad de sus líderes. ASCAP y FENSUAGRO llaman a observadores internacionales y de acompañamiento para poder proporcionarles seguridad antes, durante y después de las negociaciones.

Los miembros comunitarios, indígenas y afrocolombianos que están ocupando Puerto Piñuña lo están haciendo porque no quieren convertirse en uno de los más de 4 millones de desplazados en la actualidad en Colombia—la población de refugiados más grande en el mundo. Más del 60% de los desplazados en Colombia son campesinos. Las principales razones de dichos desplazamientos son debido a las amenazas militares y paramilitares, y a las amenazas de la destrucción de ranchos por los esfuerzos de erradicación—las mismas condiciones resistidas por las comunidades reunidas en Piñuña Negro.

En respuesta a la actual ocupación y a la creciente presión nacional e internacional, los días 13 al 15 de diciembre, funcionarios del Ministerio Interior y Justicia de Colombia visitaron Piñuña Negro para escuchar las preocupaciones de la ocupación popular y para evaluar la situación general. A pesar de que el informe publicado por el ministerio da detalles y evidencia anecdótica, no se dieron planes concretos para su seguimiento. En lugar de eso, los representantes prometieron la creación de una comisión gubernamental que atendiera las quejas y las demandas hechas por la comunidad. Sin embargo, no se propuso una fecha para la constitución de la comisión y no hubo concesión alguna con respecto al establecimiento de negociaciones con la comunidad.

La ocupación popular de Piñuña Negro está pidiendo a la comunidad nacional e internacional que se unan en apoyo a sus demandas. Dos importantes acciones que la gente en los EEUU pueden hacer son el enviar un correo electrónico o llamar a organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos, autoridades colombianas, a la Casa Blanca o a Congresistas estadunidenses para demandar:

· El fin de las erradicaciones de la coca en Putumayo hasta que las autoridades hayan negociado y aprobado un plan con las autoridades colombianas que incluya un reemplazo del cultivo;

· La garantía a la seguridad de los líderes de la protesta y de los negociadores comunitarios;

· El fin del Plan Colombia y de la triple amenaza de la represión militar y paramilitar, y de los programas de erradicación que son las causas principales para el desplazamiento de los indígenas, afrocolombianos y comunidades campesinas.

A continuación información de contactos relevantes:

Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Ministerio de Interior y de Justicia de Colombia

dhdirector@mij.gov.co

Embajada de Colombia en los Estados Unidos:

embassyofcolombia@colombiaemb.org teléfono: 202-387-8338

Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos:

cidhoea@oas.org

Alto Comisionado de la ONU para los Derechos Humanos:

oacnudh@hchr.org.co

Para escribir a su Congresista (EEUU)

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

La Alianza para la Justicia Global (Alliance for Global Justice) es el principal contacto en los Estados Unidos para comunicaciones con el sindicato que apoya la ocupación popular. Para aquellos que quieran saber más acerca de la situación, escriban a: james@afgj.org
o llamen al 520-243-0381 ó 202-544-9355.

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Tsunami Survivors Fight for Land Rights by Robert Reynolds — YES! Magazine

2009-12-27T12:53:00.001-08:00

Human Rights | People vs corporations

Tsunami Survivors Fight for Land Rights

Five years ago, the Indian Ocean tsunami allowed resort developers in Thailand to push indigenous coastal communities off their land. Villages are fighting back—and winning legal rights to their homes.

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by Robert Reynolds

posted Dec 26, 2009

Tsunami Memorial in Baan Nam Khem.

Thailand's Andaman coast was flattened by the tsunami that ravaged much of Southeast Asia in 2004. In the fishing village of Baan Nam Khen alone, some 2,200 of the village´s 4,000 inhabitants died when the village was washed away.

The shocked survivors spent several weeks in inland resettlement camps, waiting to return to the places where their people had lived for generations.

When they finally returned to the places where their homes had been, however, they were in for a surprise. It wasn't the utter destruction of their villages—they had expected that—but the chain-link fences around their land.

In Baan Nam Khen, returning villagers were greeted with a sign that read "No Entrance-No Fishing-Do Not Take Coconuts." Armed guards stood nearby, ready to enforce these edicts. The villagers, who were still trying to deal with the loss of their homes, families, and friends, were now being forced off their land as well.

NGO representatives on the scene advised them to seek legal aid, but the villagers mostly saw the attorneys as the same type of urban, educated people who were trying to take their land. So at first they squatted on the land in direct defiance of the guards, fences, and signs.

For members of Thailand´s indigenous coastal communities, the tsunami accelerated a process of displacement that had begun more than two decades before, as longtime residents were pushed aside to make way for the development of international resorts and the infrastructure that supports them.

Despite generations of residency, the villagers lacked the legal knowledge to officially claim their land. But following the tsunami, the villagers were ready to make a stand. With the help of NGOs that assisted them with legal issues, they won back much of their land and gained legal rights to it for the first time in history.

Before the tsunami: A history of discrimination

Decades of discrimination had left these villagers with little faith in the legal system. Descended from indigenous groups who settled along the beaches of the Andaman Coast, they continued to build semi-permanent wooden homes on stilts during the monsoon season in order to be close to their boats, the sea, and the fish. They lived day to day, following the fish and catching only what they needed. They spoke their own languages and followed their own traditions.

While they are made up of several distinct groups, urban Thai people tended to refer to all of them as Sea Gypsies, or "Chaolay" in the Thai language. The Chaolay have never been fully recognized as Thai citizens. They did not possess Thai national ID cards or house registration books, and in many cases did not speak Thai. The discrimination they faced in schools and companies led most of them to remain in their traditional ways of life.

But that way of life was threatened when wealthy Thai developers arrived who wanted to transform the Andaman beaches into luxurious resorts. The Chaolay did not understand how newcomers with documents in their hands had the right to ask them to leave the land where they had lived for generations. In most instances, the Chaolay simply ignored the official landowners. In some areas they were eventually pushed aside to make room for airports, piers, and highways, while tensions escalated in others. In many places, an uneasy stalemate emerged, with both sides waiting for the other one to blink.

Then came the tsunami, which answered developers' dreams by sweeping the Chaolay villages off the beach. The developers took advantage of the sudden vacancy by building fences, hiring security, and starting construction. They hoped the Chaolay were gone for good.

Standing Up for the Land

Over 30 coastal communities faced eviction from their ancestral homelands, but many Chaolay were literally ready to die to defend them. In Baan Nam Khem, for instance, villagers hesitant to work with lawyers became squatters, a strategy that exposed them to violence, as well as to counter lawsuits.

Returning survivors took a different tactic in the nearby village of Baan Tap Tawan, where villagers—many of them Chaolay— had lived on a little more than ten acres of coastal land for over 100 years. Just as in Baan Nam Khem, they returned after the tsunami to find it locked up with fences and gates. The villagers did not possess a legal title deed, and they couldn't get legal building permits to rebuild their homes without one. Many NGOs weren't willing to help with rebuilding on property whose ownership was under dispute.

Attorneys advising the villagers of their legal rights after they were evicted from their land.

Photo courtesy Andaman Legal Aid Center.

It became clear that to protect their homes and their way of life, the Chaolay needed something they never had before: legal ownership of their land. Advocates at the Bangkok-based Lawyers Association of Thailand assembled a coalition of lawyers from Bangkok and the Andaman region to form the Andaman Legal Aid Center, which worked in conjunction with NGOs such as Action Aid, Save Andaman, and the Asia Foundation. These groups trained local paralegals to advise local villagers of their rights, and the Andaman Legal Aid Center provided lawyers to dispute the new owners land claims.

Sootipong Laithep, the coordinator who worked in Baan Ta Tawan, faced a difficult task in organizing the local villagers, but he had years of experience working as a volunteer community lawyer for the impoverished and homeless throughout Thailand. His experiences as the head of the Subcommittee for Land for the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand would enable him to convince the locals they had a chance. He told the people of Baan Tap Tawan that if they could prove they had lived in the village for more than ten years, they could apply for a property title.

He filed a total of 36 cases against the company claiming to be the new owner. The company offered a settlement under which each villager would receive a small home plot with a tiny yard in the back. The settlement would have ceded just one quarter of the land that originally made up the village, and the villagers refused it. When the community returned to court, villagers from many surrounding communities came to stand by their side.

Community organizing

Villagers drawing their village plans with assistance of paralegal volunteers.

Andaman Legal Aid Center

The training provided by the local lawyers and NGOs gave the villagers legal knowledge and confidence, yet many remained hesitant to testify in court or accept help from outsiders. Concerned about maintaining a united front, community leaders emerged who struggled to keep everyone organized and focused. In many villages, the success or failure of the movement came down to their hard work and persistence.

In Baan Tap Tawan, it was the women of the Chaolay community who led their people in protest and helped organize the legal actions. Orawan Hantalay, a 22-year-old Chaolay woman who had struggled through a life of discrimination in Thai schools, became the secretary for the Andaman Legal Aid Center in Baan Tap Tawan. She organized paperwork and kept the records that the court decisions depended on. Lab Hantalay, (no relation to Orawan) a gray-haired Chaolay woman whose small frame seemed barely able to contain her abundant energy, served as an informal communications director and kept the villagers up-to-date about the court proceedings.

She also made sure that everyone involved pulled their share. In a community meeting in late 2005 attended by lawyers from the Andaman Legal Aid Center, she pointed out the poor performance of the male village elders in organizing the protest efforts. She understood that success would require the entire community working together. If the villagers fought as individuals, they were sure to fail.

Squatting on the raised wooden floor of the community center, she told those gathered that she was currently employed as a gardener at a local resort, but that she was impatient to return to traditional life. "I want my land back so I can go back to live by the sea as I always have," she said.

In March, 2009, after four and a half years of battle, the courts finally ruled that the villagers of Baan Tap Tawan could retain nearly three-quarters of their original land. While some villagers wanted to press on to win back the rest, most were happy with the result, and the company that claimed ownership of the land clearly saw it as a defeat.

Some villages accepted relocation, and others fought with varying outcomes. Resort development continues to displace more traditional communities, and developers usually have money and legal savvy on their side. But in Baan Tap Tawan, villagers proved that they have the power to resist the seemingly inevitable wave of development—to choose their own future.

Robert Reynolds wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Robert is director of the Sriphong Phukaoluan Foundation, which supports tsunami survivors in Thailand´s Krabi province, and a staff writer for the Phuket Gazette.

YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps. Reynolds, R. (2009, December 25). Tsunami Survivors Fight for Land Rights. Retrieved December 27, 2009, from YES! Magazine Web site: http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/tsunami-survivors-fight-for-land-rights.> This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

There's still time in 2009 … to make a tax-deductible donation to YES! Magazine.

via yesmagazine.org

Brazilian Guarani tortured and murdered - Survival International

2009-12-24T18:48:00.001-08:00

Brazilian Guarani tortured and murdered 22 December

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Guarani men
© João Ripper/Survival

A Brazilian Indian has been murdered in the latest in a string of killings related to the theft of his tribe’s land.

The man, Osmair Martins Ximenes, is a Guarani Indian from southern Brazil. Two other members of his community, Kuretê Lopez and Ortiz Lopez, were killed in 2007 by gunmen hired by ranchers, as they attempted to reoccupy their ancestral land.

The Guarani, of Kurusu Mba, demand that their land rights be recognized as soon as possible. They said ‘we are growing impatient with the delay; it is slowly draining us of our life, and exposing us to genocide’.

Meanwhile, around twenty Guarani Indians were tortured on 8th December after they attempted to reoccupy their ancestral land of Mbaraka’y in the municipality of Iguatemi, close to Brazil’s border with Paraguay.

These Guarani were expelled from their land in the 1950s, by cattle ranchers. They have since been living in the overcrowded reserves of Sassoró and Porto Lindo.

Security guards hired by ranchers attacked the Guarani close to the ranches which now occupy their land.

The Indians were beaten up and thrown on the top of trucks with their hands and feet tied up, and five were shot.

Five Guarani were taken to hospital with injuries. The rest of the group remains on the side of the road, with no food or water.

This is the third conflict between Indians and ranchers in the last two months in Mato Grosso do Sul state.

At the end of October, the Guarani teachers Rolindo Vera and Genivaldo Vera disappeared during an attack on their community by gunmen near the city of Paranhos. The body of Genivaldo was later found, and Rolindo is still missing.

In 2007 the Attorney General’s office ordered the government to survey and demarcate all traditional Guarani territories, but the project is bitterly opposed by farmers and cattle ranchers who are supported by the state government, and it has effectively ground to a halt.

Act now to help the Guarani

Your support is vital for the Guarani’s survival. There are lots of ways you can help.

Donate to Survival’s campaign for the Guarani

Write to the Brazilian government using Survival’s online letter-writing tool

Write to your MP or MEP (UK) or Senators and members of Congress (US).

Write to your local Brazilian embassy

If you want to get more involved, contact Survival

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Upside Down World - Action Alert: Demand an Investigation Into the Murder of Anti-mining Activist Ramiro Rivera Gómez

2009-12-24T18:23:00.001-08:00

Action Alert: Demand an Investigation Into the Murder of Anti-mining Activist Ramiro Rivera Gómez

Written by CISPES

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Demand an investigation and an end to the murders!

Ramiro Rivera Gómez, vice-president of CAC (Comité Ambiental de Cabañas/ the Environmental Committee of Cabañas) and a local leader in the community struggle against the environmentally-destructive gold mining projects proposed by Pacific Rim, was assassinated on Sunday, December 20, 2009 in the Trinidad neighborhood of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas where he lived.
Héctor Berríos reports that Ramiro Rivera was killed by hitmen carrying M-16 rifles. Ramiro’s thirteen-year old daughter who was with him on Sunday afternoon was also injured but is reportedly in stable condition.
On August 7 of this year, Ramiro Rivera was shot 8 times, but survived the vicious attack. Oscar Menjívar, previously implicated in physical attacks on anti-mining activists, was arrested and charged with Ramiro’s attempted murder. Community members report that Menjívar had previously worked for Canadian mining company Pacific Rim; Pacific Rim denies that he has ever been an employee.
Since his recovery, Mr. Rivera had been under the protection of two police officers from the Witnesses and Victims Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police. On the afternoon of December 20th, they were apparently unable to protect him.
Since June of 2009, when anti-mining and FMLN activist Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and killed in Cabañas, there have been continued attacks, death threats and attempted kidnappings of community members and activists who have vehemently opposed the proposed El Dorado gold mine. The Ministry of Environment denied mining exploitation permits to Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, which subsequently announced a $77 million dollar lawsuit against the Salvadoran government under CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (watch the America Free Trade Agreement (watch the Real News video here ).
Despite the overtly political overtones of this wave of violence, local police authorities and the former Attorney General's office have classified these cases as common crimes. Salvadorans are fearful and outraged by the continued violence but also by the inability or unwillingness of the police and the office of the Attorney General to protect community activists like Ramiro Rivera and to halt the violence.
Join the international response to this repression of anti-mining organizers in Cabañas TODAY. Call on the Salvadoran authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation of these crimes and their motives.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAKE ACTION:
1) E-mail Rodolfo Delgado, head of the Organized Crime unit of the Attorney General’s Office (Sample e-mail text at the end of this alert) radelgado@fgr.gob.sv. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Please copy Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna to your email, via his front desk: heidybrizuela@pddh.gob.sv This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
2) Please forward a copy of your sent email to cispes@cispes.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
SAMPLE E-MAIL (English translation below):
Estimado Señor Rodolfo Delgado:
Como miembro de la comunidad internacional, quiero expresar mi profunda preocupación por lo más reciente hecho de violencia contra un líder social en Cabañas, el asesinato de Ramiro Rivera Gómez. Después de que él fue baleado ocho veces en agosto del 2009, fue bajo la protección de la Unidad de Protección de Víctimas y Testigos de la Policía Nacional Civil.
El asesinato de Ramiro Rivera parece otro hecho de violencia sistemático que ha traspasado en Cabañas desde el junio de este año: el secuestro y brutal asesinato del activista Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; las amenazas de muerte a periodistas de Radio Victoria, al director de la Asociación de Desarrollo Económico y Social Santa Marta (ADES) y a varios líderes comunitarios de Cabañas; el sabotaje al sistema electrónico de Radio Victoria; y los intentos de asesinato de los líderes comunitarios, Padre Luis Quintanilla y Ramiro Rivera.
Considero que existen suficientes evidencias para presumir que el asesinato de Ramiro Rivera y los demás crímenes están relacionados y forman parte de una campaña para intimidar a las organizaciones sociales en Cabañas. Es preocupante que la Fiscalía, bajo la dirección de Ástor Escalante, adjudicó a priori estos crímenes a la violencia común, ignorando las evidencias y antecedentes presentados que indican la naturaleza política de los eventos.
Por lo tanto como miembro de la comunidad internacional, hago un llamado para que ahora bajo la dirección del nuevo Fiscal General de la República Romeo Barahona, la Fiscalía realice una investigación imparcial, exhaustiva y efectiva en el caso del asesinato de Ramiro Rivera y de todos estos casos, para dar a conocer a los autores intelectuales y materiales de estos crímenes y garantizar así la protección de los líderes sociales en la región de forma verdadera.
Después del asesinato de Marcelo Rivera en junio, más de cien organizaciones de los Estados Unidos y Canadá mandaron una carta a la Fiscalía expresando su preocupación grave con los atropellos a los derechos humanos. También el Congresista Jim McGovern de los Estados Unidos expresó la misma preocupación en reuniones con el Señor Fiscal General, Romeo Barahona, y representantes de la Administración del Señor Presidente Mauricio Funes, durante su visita reciente a El Salvador. Mauricio Funes, durante su visita reciente a El Salvador.
También le estoy mandando una copia de este mensaje al señor Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, licenciado Oscar Humberto Luna, quien ha mostrado un compromiso fuerte para proteger la seguridad y los derechos humanos de los líderes sociales en Cabañas.
De quedar estos eventos en la impunidad, se estaría generando un clima de temor e incertidumbre para los demás líderes comunitarios, contrarrestando así los avances logrados en el proceso de democratización del país.
Agradezco de antemano sus gestiones para agilizar las investigaciones y espero que pronto se haga justicia en estos casos y se brinde protección a las víctimas y reparación a los familiares de Ramiro.
[Tu nombre/ Your name]
___________________
Translation of Email:
As a member of the international community, I want to express my profound concern about the most recent act of violence toward a community leader in Cabañas: the assassination of Ramiro Rivera Gómez. After being shot eight times in August, Mr. Rivera was under the protection of the Victims and Witnesses Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police.
The assassination of Ramiro Rivera appears to be another systematic act of violence that has occurred in Cabañas since June of this year: the kidnapping and brutal assassination of the activist Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; the death threats against journalists at Radio Victoria, the director of the Association for Social and Economic Development (ADES) and other community leaders in Cabañas; the sabotage of the broadcasting equipment at Radio Victoria; and the assassination attempt against the community leaders Father Luis Quintanilla and Ramiro Rivera.Economic Development (ADES) and other community leaders in Cabañas; the sabotage of the broadcasting equipment at Radio Victoria; and the assassination attempt against the community leaders Father Luis Quintanilla and Ramiro Rivera.
I believe there is sufficient evidence to assume that Ramiro Rivera's murder and the other crimes are linked and part of a campaign to intimidate community organizations in Cabañas. It is alarming that the Attorney General’s Office under the direction of former acting Attorney General Ástor Escalante attributed these crimes to common violence, ignoring the evidence and antecedents that indicate the political nature of these events.
Therefore as a member of the international community, I now call on the Attorney General’s Office under the leadership of new Attorney General Romeo Barahona to carry out impartial, exhaustive and effective investigations of the assassination of Ramiro Rivera and all of these crimes in order to bring to justice the intellectual and material authors of these crimes and guarantee the protection of other community leaders in the region.
After the assassination of Marcelo Rivera in June, over 100 organizations in the U.S. and Canada sent a letter to the Attorney General’s office expressing their serious concern about the human rights abuses. Representative Jim McGovern of the U.S. Congress expressed the same concern in his meetings with Mr. Attorney General Romeo Barahona and with representatives of the administration of Mr. President Mauricio Funes during his recent visit to El Salvador.U.S. Congress expressed the same concern in his meetings with Mr. Attorney General Romeo Barahona and with representatives of the administration of Mr. President Mauricio Funes during his recent visit to El Salvador.
I am sending a copy of this message to the Human Rights Ombudsman, Mr. Oscar Luna, who has shown a strong commitment to protect the security and human rights of social movement leaders in Cabañas.
Leaving these crimes in a state of impunity creates a climate of fear and uncertainty for the rest of the community leaders, undermining the advances in the democratic process in El Salvador.
I thank you in advance for your efforts to speed up the investigations and I hope that there will soon be justice in these cases and that the victims' lives will be protected and Ramiro’s family will be compensated for their loss.
[Your name]

via upsidedownworld.org

Upside Down World - Bolivia: Native People Take First Steps Towards Self-Government #indigenous

2009-12-24T18:20:00.001-08:00

Bolivia: Native People Take First Steps Towards Self-Government

Written by Franz Chávez

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

(IPS)-Indigenous people, who make up more than 60 percent of the population in Bolivia, South America's poorest country, are taking their first steps towards self-government under their own cultural traditions that date back to pre-colonial times.Alongside the Dec. 6 presidential and legislative elections, 12 of Bolivia's 327 municipalities voted in favour of indigenous self-government, which will give them control over the natural resources on their land and a greater say in how to use funds transferred from the central state, as well as redefining how government funds are disbursed. South America's poorest country, are taking their first steps towards self-government under their own cultural traditions that date back to pre-colonial times.Alongside the Dec. 6 presidential and legislative elections, 12 of Bolivia's 327 municipalities voted in favour of indigenous self-government, which will give them control over the natural resources on their land and a greater say in how to use funds transferred from the central state, as well as redefining how government funds are disbursed.

via upsidedownworld.org

VOID MIRROR: Keny Arkana - Cinquième Soleil (The Fifth Sun) check the lirics

2009-12-24T11:35:00.001-08:00

via voidmirror.blogspot.com

Posted via web from Satyagraha_Ji

Fiesta Latina: Too Hot for Barack Obama? - AOL Noticias Beta

2009-12-23T15:48:00.001-08:00

via noticias.aol.com

OPINION ARGENTINA: URGENTE BOLIVIA: 40 LATIFUNDIOS EN BENI MANTIENEN PERSONAS EN ESCLAVITUD. SUS TIERRAS PODRÍAN SER EXPROPIADAS POR EL ESTADO #human rights, #indigenous #bolivia

2009-12-21T11:49:00.001-08:00

lunes 21 de diciembre de 2009

URGENTE BOLIVIA: 40 LATIFUNDIOS EN BENI MANTIENEN PERSONAS EN ESCLAVITUD. SUS TIERRAS PODRÍAN SER EXPROPIADAS POR EL ESTADO

ERBOL (BOLIVIA)
Descubren empleo de trabajo forzoso en 40 haciendas del Beni
Algunas familias aún son sometidas al trabajo forzoso al menos en 40 haciendas ganaderas del departamento del Beni, denunció el Proyecto Pueblos Indígenas y Empoderamiento, dependiente del Viceministro de Justicia Comunitaria.
La Coordinadora Nacional de Proyecto, Miriam Campos, indicó que ahora se trabajará en el restablecimiento de los derechos humanos de las victimas o familias sometidas a trabajo forzoso en las 40 haciendas identificadas.
Según la información de la radio Pio XII de la Red Erbol, se prevé ingresar a las haciendas en las próximas semanas, con la finalidad de hacer respetar y cumplir las leyes bolivianas, que señalan “un salario justo”, “un trato justo”.
Asimismo se verificará las condiciones de presunta explotación laboral y una vez que se haya establecido ese posible trato de trabajo forzoso se convocará a los sectores involucrados para dialogar, además de sancionar a los infractores de los derechos humanos.

via la-opinion-argentina.blogspot.com

OPINION ARGENTINA: PARAGUAY. LUGO DENUNCIA INTENTO DE GOLPE DE ESTADO #rights

2009-12-21T11:46:00.001-08:00

lunes 21 de diciembre de 2009

PARAGUAY. LUGO DENUNCIA INTENTO DE GOLPE DE ESTADO

TERCERA INFORMACION
Presidente de Paraguay denuncia intento de golpe de estado
Fernando Lugo dijo que su proyecto de cambios no se puede frenar

El pasado fin de semana Fernando Lugo, presidente de Paraguay, denunció que parlamentarios opositores a su gestión intentaron depararlo del poder siguiendo cauces antidemocráticos.
El peligro de golpe en Paraguay está cada vez más vigente. Desde hace varios meses, con el llamado de terratenientes cercanos a la extramaderecha parlamentaria de UNACE a crear fuerzas paramilitares para derrocar a Fernando Lugo, y ahora con las amenazas de una destitución al estilo del golpe hondureño junto las declaraciones del vicepresidente paraguayo en las que asegura estár preparado para suceder a Fernando Lugo.
El presidente Lugo a medida que ha ido desarrollando medidas de izquierda ha ido perdiendo el apoyo parlamentario de los partidos de centro y centro-derecha que lo apoyaron en las elecciones presidenciales, y ahora está en minoría, por lo que podría sufrir un golpe de estado "constitucionalista" como el que sufrió Manuel Zelaya, presidente de Honduras.
Las fricciones entre Lugo y su presidente Federico Franco, perteneciente a uno de esos partidos que le ha dado la espalda a Lugo, el Partido Radical Liberal Auténtico, no han hecho más que aumentar en los últimos meses. El videpresidente ha llamado traidor a Lugo y el presidente ha declarado que "Estamos ante un Estado que vuelve a funcionar y esto tiene muy preocupados a unos pocos. Pero este proceso, tengan también por seguro, no se va a detener y, menos aún, lo frenarán aquellos que siempre han estado detrás de la especulación política y de los pescadores en río revuelto."

Publicado por flavio en 09:51

1 comentarios:

parapiti pora dijo...

ADVERTENCIA SOBRE EL OBISPO FERNANDO LUGO
A MEDIOS Y COMUNICADORES. Para evitar papelones, al hablar de Fernando Lugo no se debe omitir:
1- Su probado relacionamiento con secuestradores y asesinos, cuyo más sonado golpe fue el secuestro y asesinato de la joven empresaria Cecilia Cubas. Varios de los miembros de dicha banda fueron sus monaguillos y discípulos de seminario.Ver:
http://miguelito790.vox.com/library/post/mas-escraches-a-fernando-lugo-con-afiches.html
2- Su culpabilidad en casos de estupro y acusaciones de violación, cuando mantenìa relaciones con adolescentes indigentes en su obispado y siendo cura, dejando preñadas a varias de ellas de manera absolutamente amoral e irresponsable.Ver;

http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2009/09/13698.php

3- Su vinculacion a feminicidios, como el de la esposa de su íntimo confidente Kencho Rodríguez. Ver:
http://www.democraticamente.com/page/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=893:homicidios-que-involucran-a-fernando-lugo&catid=40:opini&Itemid=59
La objetividad y veracidad de la información lo agradecerán.

via la-opinion-argentina.blogspot.com

Noticias de Prensa Latina - denuncian violaciones en caso de antiterroristas cubanos

2009-12-20T21:21:00.001-08:00

Denuncian en Panamá violaciones en caso de antiterroristas cubanos

15 de diciembre de 2009, 11:07Panamá, 15 dic (PL) Las denuncias a las violaciones jurídicas en el caso de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos presos en Estados Unidos destacan hoy entre los principales resultados del Foro Académico realizado en Panamá, con vistas al debate del caso.

Demandan en España liberación de antiterroristas cubanos

14 de diciembre de 2009, 08:15Madrid, 14 dic (PL) El Comité de Madrid por la libertad de cinco cubanos presos en Estados Unidos hace más de 11 años reclamó hoy aquí a la potencia norteña la inmediata excarcelación de esos luchadores contra el terrorismo.

via prensa-latina.cu

Rebelion. Vigésimo aniversario de la invasión yanqui de Panamá

2009-12-20T20:27:00.001-08:00

La aguja del sismógrafo del instituto de Geociencias de la Universidad de Panamá, registró la explosión de la primera bomba a las 12 horas, 46 minutos y 40,3 segundos; era el 20 de diciembre de 1989 y con ella se iniciaba la invasión estadounidense. Cuatro minutos después, las explosiones registradas ascendían a 68. Trece horas estuvo funcionando el sismógrafo desde el inicio de la agresión hasta que, debido a la violencia de ésta, se averió. En todo ese tiempo, sólo en la capital panameña, llegaron a caer 422 bombas, lo que equivale a una por cada dos minutos.
El estúpido pretexto utilizado por el gobierno yanqui, para justificar la invasión a Panamá con más de 20.000 de sus soldados y derrocar a Manuel Antonio Noriega –apoyado años atrás por los propios Estados Unidos-, fue que éste estaba vinculado al narcotráfico internacional. En realidad Noriega, quien también estuvo en la nómina de la CIA –su ex director Furner dijo que lo había excluido en 1976, pero el vicepresidente Bush volvió a integrarlo y utilizarlo en 1981 para infiltrar redes de inteligencia en Cuba y Nicaragua-, se estaba volviendo demasiado independiente como para ligar sin problemas con los intereses del imperio.
La de Panamá fue una de las más de cien intervenciones armadas que el imperialismo yanqui ha llevado a cabo en América Latina y el Caribe, siempre con el perverso propósito de instalar gobiernos que les faciliten el saqueo de los recursos nacionales.
Se estima que, a resultas de la sangrienta intervención, entre 3.000 y 5.000 panameños fueron exterminados.
http://baragua.wordpress.com
Rebelión ha publicado este artículo con permiso del autor, respetando su libertad para publicarlo en otras fuentes.

via rebelion.org

OPINION ARGENTINA

2009-12-20T20:26:00.001-08:00

URGENTE HOLANDA NIEGA QUE QUIERA INVADIR VENEZUELA JUNTO A EEUU

EL DÍA (ESPAÑA)
Chávez dice que Holanda planea agredir al país desde las Antillas
El presidente venezolano dijo ayer en Copenhague que Holanda está colaborando con EEUU en un plan para agredir a Venezuela.
"Estoy acusando al Reino de los Países Bajos de estar preparando, junto con el imperio yanqui, una agresión contra Venezuela", señaló Chávez según recoge una nota emitida por el departamento de prensa de la Presidencia en Caracas referida a las declaraciones que emitió en la capital danesa.
El gobernante, según la nota, explicó que "las islas de Aruba y Curaçao, ambas pertenecientes al Reino de los Países Bajos, han permitido la instalación de equipos militares estadounidenses en su suelo, poniendo a Venezuela en la mira de los estadounidenses".

via la-opinion-argentina.blogspot.com