Women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and….revolution?

cenutrio | 30.12.2007 06:59 | Gender | Social Struggles | Zapatista | Liverpool | Scotland

Since 1994, the Zapatista's have placed women's rights and participation at the centre of their social and health agenda, including the promotion of sexual and reproductive rights. Today the Zapatistas run a health system autonomous from the Mexican government that includes community educators, trained midwives, community clinics and an autonomous hospital. This transformation is promoting women's sexual and reproductive health and rights.

(Tamil Kendall
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=153291)

La Garrucha, Chiapas
December 28, 2007

Mexico’s indigenous people suffer serious disadvantages related to sexual and reproductive health. Most Mexican women in urban areas now have access to modern family planning methods and reasonable hospital care in case of emergencies related to labor and birth. But rural women, and particularly rural indigenous women, lack access to these services to ensure their reproductive and sexual choice and rights. These gaps in services are on of the main reasons that Mexico may not achieve the Millennium Development Goal for reducing deaths associated with labor and birth (maternal mortality).

In indigenous communities, poverty, limited health services, long-distances to hospitals, and in some cases, the lack of value given to women’s health, contribute to these needless deaths. International experts agree that ensuring women’s rights and full participation are cornerstones for improving sexual and reproductive health and promoting human development. The Mexican government has affirmed its commitment to these goals through various international conventions, including the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000).

Independent of the Mexican government, Zapatista women and their communities are seeking to improve sexual and reproductive rights on the foundation of women’s rights and participation. Not very long ago, the situation for these rural indigenous women from Chiapas was grim. Adriana, an unmarried Zapastista woman says: “In the past we were only good to look after the family and the house and they sold us like animals.” On the coffee plantations, women suffered sexual harassment from the landowners, and if the women or their parents resisted, they were rounded up and punished and the women were raped. Women weren’t allowed to choose their own husbands. If they were lucky, their father chose their husband. If they were unlucky, a suitor asked the landowner for the woman’s hand. In this case, many of the women had to have sex with the boss until he tired of her and passed her on to the spouse.

Today, Adriana says: “Our parents have started to learn that we have the same rights as men.”
Commander Rosalinda of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) states that before the establishment of the autonomous communities: “Only men had rights, even our parents said that women weren’t worth anything. Our rights were crushed. If we participated in meetings, the men made fun of us. We weren’t allowed to go out in the street. We only worked in the house and taking care of the animals. Our grandmothers worked in the corn field (milpa) and then came home to work and wash the clothes, while the men had time to go out and have fun.” She goes on to say that: “Part of the collective work after the uprising was to help women see that they have rights, the same as the men.” These changes are having an impact in women’s lives, and promoting community respect for their sexual and reproductive rights.
Grandmother Elisa says that today: “Our daughters marry as they wish, they are not forced.

The go where their destiny and their luck leads them. Now we know our rights as women, to go where we want and to work, not only the men.” Mireilla, a young married Zapatista says: “I married after ’94 [the armed uprising] and no one made me marry. I chose my husband. We also give freedom to our children because children also have rights, just like adults”.

Rosaura, a Zapatista community health promoter says that before the 1994 uprising women’s health wasn’t a priority for the government or for the community: “Sometimes the men didn’t worry about our health, they just waited to see if we would get better.” Medical attention in their communities was very limited and many women died during or after labor and birth, or because of sexually transmitted infections. Transporting women to hospitals in obstetric emergencies was and continues to be a problem because of lack of roads and limited radio communication. Traditional midwives lacked training and materials, such as gloves.

Today the Zapatistas run a health system autonomous from the Mexican government that includes community educators, trained midwives, community clinics and an autonomous hospital. Sexual and reproductive health is a priority supported through ongoing community based education on sexually transmitted infections, diagnosis for the human papiloma virus and cervical cancer, family planning, and preventative health care before, during and after pregnancy and birth. However, there are ongoing economic and human challenges: they lack sufficient specially trained personnel, medical equipment and essential medicines. And what about condom use in Zapatista communities? Rosaura says “Yes, they are recognized and some men and women use them, but it is the decision of each individual.”

Armed uprising may not be the path to ensuring women’s rights for all communities, but it is clear that since 1994 the Zapatistas have made considerable gains in transforming an extremely macho indigenous culture into one where women participate fully and their rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights, are promoted.

cenutrio

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Report to be released today on ICE raids' impact on kids

By Harold Reutter harold.reutter@theindependent.com

The National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute are scheduled to release a report today about how Grand Island children and families were impacted by last December's ICE raid on the local Swift plant. The report will be released during a presentation to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In addition to studying the impact on children and families in Grand Island, the report also looked at the effects on children and families following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on the Swift & Co. plant in Greeley, Colo., and on the Michael Bianco Inc. plant in New Bedford, Mass. According to the Boston Globe, the Michael Bianco plant is a leather goods operation. It's also a military contractor that makes backpacks and survival vests. Grand Island Superintendent Steve Joel, although not involved in the creation of the report, has been invited to be one of the panelists when the report is presented to the National Press Club. The report had two main researchers from the Urban Institute, which describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization. It says it "investigates the social, economic and governance problems confronting the nation and evaluates the public and private means to alleviate them." The Urban Institute was commissioned to complete the report by the National Council of La Raza. The Independent has received an advance copy of the 99-page report and will post excerpts after the embargo has ended at 10 a.m. today. Marie Watteau, associate director of the Office of Public Information for the National Council of La Raza, said the report deals with current immigration law, which is an enforcement-only policy of deportation when it comes to illegal immigrants. Watteau said La Raza may favor what some people have called comprehensive immigration reform, but the report makes no recommendations on changing current immigration law. Instead, it focuses on the impact on children and families when ICE takes work-site enforcement actions in various communities, Watteau said. That is reflected in the report's title: "Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children."

Freed FARC rebel in Venezuela for hostage talks

A Colombian guerrilla freed to broker a deal over hostages has travelled to Venezuela to help set up talks with President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking to end a deadlock over negotiations, the government has said.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in June released from prison Rodrigo Granda, known as the "foreign minister" of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a gesture to advance talks.

The recent involvement of Chavez raised hopes the leftist may secure a deal to free hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans held by the FARC for more than four years in secret jungle camps.

"Rodrigo Granda was authorized ... to seek peace efforts and to move between Havana and Caracas, and he has travelled to Venezuela to serve as a bridge of communication," Colombia's peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, told local radio.

Granda travelled to Cuba after his release in Colombia.

The announcement came after a left-wing Colombian senator, who is acting as a facilitator in talks, also said efforts to broker initial negotiations between Chavez and the FARC leadership had advanced, but without giving details.

Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, has said he plans to meet with a representative of the Marxist FARC leadership in Venezuela in an effort to end a stalemate over hostages. Granda is acting as a mediator for possible talks.

Negotiations are stalled over FARC demands Uribe pull troops back from an area the size of New York City and that two guerrilla commanders in US prisons are freed and included in the deal to exchange key hostages for jailed FARC fighters.

Uribe, popular for his hardline stance, has rejected a demilitarized zone under FARC conditions saying that would allow the guerrillas to regroup in an area strategic for arms and cocaine trafficking from the south of the country.

Uribe has employed billions of dollars in US aid to send troops to drive the FARC back into the jungles, but Latin America's longest-running insurgency is still fighting in remote areas, often financed by funds from the cocaine trade.

Venezuela to Give 14.2 Million for Emergency in Nicaragua

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Managua, Oct 30 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan government will give 14.2 million dollars to help to fix the damages caused by the recent meteorological phenomena in Nicaragua, as told by President Daniel Ortega.

The Nicaraguan leader made the announcement during his intervention in the plenary of the National Assembly Tuesday to request a budget reform that allows to assign more funds to repair roads damaged by the rains.

Venezuela already approved a help to Nicaragua for 14.2 million dollars to face this emergency, Ortega expressed and said that the good news was told to him on the phone by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro.

The funds, he added, will be used to guarantee roofs of zinc to 10,000 houses and to buy foods and other materials for those affected by the rains of the last weeks.

Ortega also confirmed that a ship with Venezuelan fuel will arrive in Puerto Cabezas, in the Caribbean north shore of Nicaragua in the next days to supply that area which was desolated by Hurricane Felix on September 4.

The remnant of the help that Caracas will give Nicaragua was determined by a technical mission of the South American country that arrived in Managua on October 19 to evaluate the damages caused by the rains in the area of the Pacific.

The Venezuelan cooperation is coming in the right moment; Ortega assured, in allusion to the emergency that Nicaragua lives as a result of Felix's impact in the Atlantic, the floods in the Pacific and of a leptospirosis sprout in the west.

According to calculations, the three phenomena almost caused in total 250 dead people, more than 215,000 damaged and material damages for about 400 million dollars.

hr tac nm

PL-49

Driver licenses for undocumented: Clinton stumbles

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the presidential candidates debate in Philadelphia. Photo by Stan Honda//AFP/Getty Images)

By Mark Silva

A potentially dangerous new story-line could be developing in the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for the White House: Multiple-choice answers to the same difficult question.

Clinton already suffers from a certain “if I had known then what I know now'' syndrome over the war in Iraq – she voted along with an overwhelming majority of senators to authorize military force in Iraq, but now says she opposes the war. She promises to end it, if elected president, but will not commit to when all the U.S. troops deployed there will come home.

Clinton also has voted for a resolution on Iran supported by an overwhelming majority of senators which critics call a predicate to war, but she maintains that she is in no “rush to war'' in Iran. And last night, during a Democratic debate, she refused to pledge that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons during her presidency – her leading rivals also demurred.

But it was a question about driver's licenses for “undocumented workers'' – the politically neutral terminology for “illegal aliens'' which she prefers – that created the most trouble for Clinton during last night's two-hour debate of the Democrats staged in Philadelphia. Her leading rivals pounced on Clinton for her conflicting answers – she supports New York's plan but says it's not the best idea -- and the GOP is pouncing today.

Clinton complained that she is a victim of the “gotcha'' on this controveral question. She may well be right – her rivals seized on a rare debate flub for the candidate who has proven toughest in Democratic encounters. And the GOP today is calling it “Hillary's Debate Dodgeball.''

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, NBC moderator Tim Russert reminded Clinton. “You told the Nashua, N.H., editorial board it makes a lot of sense,'' he said. “Why does it make a lot of sense to give an illegal immigrant a driver's license? ''

“ Well, what Gov. Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform,'' she said. “We know in New York we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented workers.

“They are driving on our roads,'' she said. “The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It's probability. So what Gov. Spitzer is trying to do is to fill the vacuum.

“ I believe we need to get back to comprehensive immigration reform because no state, no matter how well-intentioned, can fill this gap,'' Clinton continued. “There needs to be federal action on immigration reform. ''

“Does anyone here believe an illegal immigrant should not have a driver's license?'' Russert asked the other six Democrats assembled on stage.

“ This is a privilege,'' Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said. “And look, I'm as forthright and progressive on immigration policy as anyone here, but we're dealing with a serious problem here. We need to have people come forward. The idea that we're going to extend this privilege here of a driver's license, I think, is troublesome. And I think the American people are reacting to it. ''

Clinton attempted to clarify her own response: “I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Gov. Spitzer is trying to do it. And we have failed....

“Wait a minute,'' Dodd interrupted. “No, no, no. You said yes, you thought it made sense to do it.

“No, I didn't, Chris,'' Clinton said. “But the point is, what are we going to do with all these illegal immigrants who are (driving )?''

“Well, that's a legitimate issue,'' Dodd said. “But driver's license goes too far, in my view. ''

“ Well, you may say that,'' Clinton said, “but what is the identification if somebody runs into you today who is an undocumented worker?'

“What Gov. Spitzer has agreed to do is to have three different licenses, one that provides identification for actually going onto airplanes and other kinds of security issues, another which is an ordinary driver's license, and then a special card that identifies the people who would be on the road,'' the senator from New York said.

“ That's a bureaucratic nightmare,'' the senator from Connecticut said.

“Sen. Clinton,'' Russert interjected, “I just want to make sure what I heard. Do you, the New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, support the New York governor's plan to give illegal immigrants a driver's license? You told the Nashua, New Hampshire, paper it made a lot of sense. .. Do you support his plan?''

“You know, Tim, his is where everybody plays gotcha,'' she said. “It makes a lot of sense. What is the governor supposed to do? He is dealing with a serious problem. We have failed, and George Bush has failed.

“ Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to do?'' Clinton continued. “No. But do I understand the sense of real desperation, trying to get a handle on this? Remember, in New York we want to know who's in New York. We want people to come out of the shadows. He's making an honest effort to do it. We should have passed immigration reform. ''

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina seized the opening in Clinton's defenses.

“ I want to add something that Chris Dodd just said a minute ago, because I don't want it to go unnoticed,'' Edwards said. “Unless I missed something, Sen. Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes just a few minutes ago, and I think this is a real issue for the country.

“I mean, America is looking for a president who will say the same thing, who will be consistent, who will be straight with them,'' Edwards said. “Because what we've had for seven years is double-talk from Bush and from Cheney, and I think America deserves us to be straight.''

And Obama's head-nodding caught the moderator's attention.

“ Well, I was confused on Sen. Clinton's answer,'' Obama said. “I can't tell whether she was for it or against it, and I do think that is important.

“You know, one of the things that we have to do in this country is to be honest about the challenges that we face,'' Obama said. “Immigration is a difficult issue. But part of leadership is not just looking backwards and seeing what's popular, or trying to gauge popular sentiment. It's about setting a direction for the country, and that's what I intend to do as president.''

How about the issue, then. Is Obama “for or against it?''

“I think that it is a -- the right idea,'' Obama said of the New York governor's plan. “And I disagree with Chris, because there is a public safety concern. We can make sure that drivers who are illegal come out of the shadows, that they can be tracked, that they are properly trained, and that will make our roads safer. That doesn't negate the need for us to reform illegal immigration.''

Posted by Mark Silva on October 31, 2007 10:53 AM | Permalink

Large Ancient Settlement Unearthed in Puerto Rico

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Kelly Hearn for National Geographic News

October 29, 2007

Bodies, structures, and rock art thought to belong to an indigenous pre-Columbian culture have been unearthed at an ancient settlement in Puerto Rico, officials recently announced. Archaeologists say the complex—which dates from A.D. 600 to 1500—could be the most significant of its kind in the Caribbean. "This is a very well preserved site," said Aida Belén Rivera-Ruiz, director of Puerto Rico's State Office of Historic Preservation. "The site seems to show two occupations: a pre-Taino and a Taino settlement." The Taino are thought to be a subgroup of the Arawak Indians who migrated to the Caribbean from Mexico or South America hundreds of years ago, experts say. (Related news: "Jade Axes Proof of Vast Ancient Caribbean Network, Experts Say" [June 12, 2006].) They were among the first tribes to encounter Europeans. Huge Plaza The ancient Taino settlement was discovered in southern Puerto Rico (see map). Archaeologists have known since 1985 that the area contained indigenous artifacts. But the scope of the site became clear only recently, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction on a new dam meant to protect the region from flooding. Perhaps the most significant find is a large plaza covering an area of about 130 by 160 feet (40 by 50 meters). Rivera-Ruiz said the plaza appears to be a batey, a rectangular area around which the Taino built their settlements. The plaza, which contains stones etched with ancient petroglyphs, might have been a court used for ceremonial rituals or ball games. "If this information is confirmed, this would be the largest known indigenous batey in the Caribbean," Rivera-Ruiz said. Roberto Mucaro Borrero, a representative of the United Confederation of Taino People, agreed. The site "could be the largest ancient Taino cultural area found not only in Puerto Rico but throughout the Caribbean," Borrero said. And petroglyphs of a masculine figure with frog legs could prove especially important in understanding the culture's roots, he added. "They could reveal evidence of direct links between the Taino and the Mayan peoples," he said, although other experts strongly refute that the two cultures are related. Storm of Controversy Confusion and criticisms are already swirling amidst excitement over the findings. Initial reports about bodies found in several graves at the site suggest that the people were buried in unique positions. The bodies were "buried facedown with the legs bent at the knees—a style never seen before in the region," the Associated Press reported. But Miguel Rodriguez, a member of the Puerto Rican government's archaeological council, said the burial positioning isn't unheard of in the area. Kit Wesler, a Taino expert at Murray State University in Kentucky, also said that the "facedown position is unusual but probably not unprecedented." Rivera-Ruiz of the state preservation office stressed that any claims about the uniqueness of the burial arrangements must await a full excavation and studies of any funerary objects. Meanwhile, the U.S.-based New South Associates—a private archaeology company contracted by the Corps of Engineers to salvage the site—is at the center of controversy over their excavation methods. According to AP, the company had initially been using a bulldozer that caused damage to centuries-old bones. Members of the Taino who visited the dig on Saturday "witnessed damage to the site, particularly to some human remains and stones" that was apparently caused by a backhoe, Taino representative Borrero said. Rodriguez was adamant that the company should be pulled off the project. "This is a textbook case of what they shouldn't do," he said. "They are using mostly diggers and bulldozers and they must stop." Rodriguez also accused the company of violating Puerto Rican law by failing to register artifacts it had taken off the island. "They haven't told us anything about the materials, so they are not following the rules," he said. An official from New South Associates said the Corps did not permit them to answer press inquiries. But Rivera-Ruiz, of Puerto Rico's historic conservation office, defended the Corps and its contractor. "The contractor was originally hired by the Corps of Engineers to conduct a salvage data recovery operation on a site that was essentially doomed," she said via email. "Once preservation became an option, the scope and invasive nature of the project was shifted in favor of the more low-key, less intrusive hand excavation of already exposed features." About 80 percent of the site will be left intact, Rivera-Ruiz added, allowing for the long-term preservation of most of the site. She added that Puerto Rico's State Historic Preservation Office has overseen the company's operation, and the parties are complying with the law. And Corps spokesperson David McCullough told National Geographic News via email that his agency stands behind New South Associates and is reworking its plans based on the new findings. "When the Corps recognized the extreme significance of this site," he said, "we redesigned the parts of the dam project that would create the greatest adverse effect to the site." Free Email News Updates Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample).

Glare of Fires Pulls Migrants From Shadows

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and WILL CARLESS

Published: October 27, 2007

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 26 — Out of the burning brush, from behind canyon rocks, several immigrants bolted toward a group of firefighters, chased not by the border police but by the onrush of flames from one of the biggest wildfires this week.

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Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Waiting for work in Rancho Peñasquitos, a part of San Diego affected by the fires.

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The Extent of the Fires

Related

Despite Progress, California Fires Still Pose Threat (October 27, 2007)

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Fake News Briefing by FEMA Draws Official Rebukes (October 27, 2007)

Their appearance startled the firefighters, who let them into their vehicles. But with the discovery of four charred bodies in an area of heavy illegal immigration, concern is growing that others may not have survived.

“Their hands were burned, and they were clearly tired and grateful,” Capt. Mike Parkes of the State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported on what his firefighting team saw.

Immigrants from south of the border, many illegal, provide the backbone of menial labor in San Diego, picking fruit, cleaning hotel rooms, sweeping walks and mowing lawns.

The wildfires, one of the biggest disasters to strike the county, exposed their often-invisible existence in ways that were sometimes deadly.

The four bodies were found in a burned area in southeastern San Diego County, a region known for intense illegal immigration. It is near Tecate, where a chain securing an evacuated border crossing was cut and people were seen flowing into the United States until the Border Patrol arrived, said Michael J. Fisher, the chief patrol agent in San Diego.

As firefighting continued on Friday, makeshift camps for immigrants in the northern part of the county stood largely abandoned. Some immigrants were said to be hiding in even more remote terrain. Others sought help from churches.

“I was pretty scared. We had to leave in the middle of the night, and we went to the church,” said Juan Santiago, a immigrant worker in the Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood, just south of the hard-hit Rancho Bernardo area.

Terri Trujillo, who helps the immigrants, checked on those in the canyons, urging them to leave, too, when she left her house in Rancho Peñasquitos ahead of the fires.

Ms. Trujillo and others who help the immigrants said they saw several out in the fields as the fires approached and ash fell on them. She said many were afraid to lose their jobs.

“There were Mercedeses and Jaguars pulling out, people evacuating, and the migrants were still working,” said Enrique Morones, who takes food and blankets to the immigrants’ camps. “It’s outrageous.”

Some of the illegal workers who sought help from the authorities were arrested and deported. Opponents of illegal immigration, including civilian border watch groups, seized on news that immigrants had been detained at the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center as evidence of trouble that illegal immigrants cause.

The Border Patrol also arrested scores of illegal immigrants made visible by the fires. Agent Fisher of the Border Patrol said 100 had been arrested since the fires started Sunday.

He said that the agency never abandoned enforcing the border and that agents helped with removals and rescues. Fire blocked some access points to border areas, but Agent Fisher said, “We were very conscious in making sure our border security mission was met.”

Some people have speculated, including on the Web, that immigrants might have set some of the fires, as has occurred with campfires lighted in fields.

The authorities have not given any causes linked to immigration.

Two men, one in San Diego County and the other in Los Angeles, who were arrested on arson charges, accused of setting small fires this week, are believed to be deportable, a federal immigration official said.

The San Diego police detained people suspected of stealing at Qualcomm Stadium. Six were handed over to the immigration authorities when it became apparent that they might be in the United States illegally.

The Border Patrol said the six, and at the group’s request, an American juvenile with them, were returned to Mexico.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it had received reports that people had been denied help at shelters because they lacked proper identification. Officials have been checking identification to prevent people not affected by the fires from taking advantage of the free food, clothes and other services.

The concerns of the rights group drew a rebuke from Representative Brian P. Bilbray, a Republican who represents areas along the border.

“People are dying because we can’t control our border,” Mr. Bilbray said. “That’s what they should be screaming about. Anyone who knows the land and the illegal activity in that rugged terrain knows there was no way we would avoid deaths in this.”

Wayne A. Cornelius, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, who studies border questions, said that if the past was a guide there would be more friction over the fires and their effects on illegal immigrants.

“San Diego likes its illegal migrants as invisible as possible,” Mr. Cornelius said. “So whenever something happens that calls attention to their presence, it is fodder for the local anti-immigration forces.”

In one sign of cooperation, a Mexican firefighting team from Baja California helped American firefighters with a major blaze along the border early in the week.

For the immigrants, the fires may have dried up some work. But some speculate on strong work prospects like cleanups. By early afternoon near a heavily damaged neighborhood in the Rancho Bernardo area, four men stood on a corner, waiting for work offers.

“It is a shame what happened,” said a man who gave just his first name, Miguelito. “But we think there will be jobs to clean or build.”

Dan Frosch contributed reporting from Denver, and Carolyn Marshall from San Francisco.

Archaeologists in Puerto Rico surprised by discovery of Indian artifacts

The Associated Press

Saturday, October 27, 2007

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: U.S. and Puerto Rican archaeologists say they have uncovered what they believe to be one of the most important pre-Columbian sites found in the Caribbean, containing stones etched with ancient petroglyphs and graves that reveal unusual burial methods.

The stones at the site in southern Puerto Rico form a large plaza measuring some 130 feet by 160 feet (40 meters by 50 meters) that could have been used for ball games or ceremonial rites, said Aida Belen Rivera, director of the Puerto Rican Historic Conservation office.

The petroglyphs include the carving of a human figure with masculine features and frog legs. Archaeologists believe the site might belong to the Taino and pre-Taino cultures that inhabited the island before European colonization.

The plaza could contain other artifacts dating from 600 A.D. to 1500 A.D., said Rivera, whose office is receiving general reports about the findings.

"I have visited many sites and have never seen a plaza of that magnitude and of those dimensions and with such elaborate petroglyphs," said Miguel Rodriguez, member of the government's archaeological council and director of a graduate school in Puerto Rico that specializes in history and humanities. He is not involved in the project.

Archaeologists also uncovered several graves where bodies were interred face-down with the legs bent backward at the knees — a type of burial believed to be new to the region.

The site was discovered while land was being cleared for construction of a dam to control flooding in the area. Experts have called for a halt to the excavation, saying the team's use of heavy machinery has exposed the stones and possibly destroyed important evidence.

Jose Oliver, a Latin American Archaeology lecturer at University College London, called the discovery one that archaeologists come across every 50 or 100 years — if they are lucky.

"I'm convinced that a competent investigation of that site will offer us a rare perspective of our Pre-Columbian and Pre-Colonial history," Oliver, who has overseen several high-profile digs in the U.S. Caribbean territory, said by e-mail.

But he warned that the company in charge of the site is not equipped to handle such a massive and complex job.

The lead investigator for Georgia-based New South Associates, the archaeological and historical consulting firm leading the excavation, said a backhoe that scrapes inches (centimeters) at a time did break some bones, but that the same would have occurred through manual excavation.

The company switched to slower and more detailed excavation methods about two weeks ago, after the site's significance became clear and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would preserve the site, investigator Chris Espenshade said.

Experts have suspected since 1985 that the area might yield indigenous artifacts because of its proximity to other archaeological sites.

The Tainos were a subgroup of the Arawakan Indians, native to the Caribbean islands. They migrated to the Caribbean from Mexico's Yucatan centuries before European colonizers arrived.

Four years after Columbus landed in Hispaniola in 1495, one-third of the 300,000 original Indian population was killed or exported. Half a century later, the Tainos there became extinct.

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Puerto Rican Leader Backs Cuba

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Quito , Oct 27 (Prensa Latina) Puerto Ricans are with Cuba and, as fighters for the independence of our territory, we defend self-determination and sovereignty of that country, Rafael Cancel Miranda stated in this capital Saturday. Special guest to the Fifth Continental Meeting of Solidarity with the Cuban people, Cancel Miranda talked Prensa Latina of his love for Cuba, saying that he is "a light in Latin America." "From my land, controlled by the US government, I am ready to fight Cuba , as I have done for the independence of my country," stated the leader, who served 25 years imprisonment in United States for his independentist struggle. Cancel Miranda was one of the activists that, along with Lolita Lebron and Andres Figueroa, attacked the US Congress in 1954, to demand the end of that northern country's intervention in Puerto Rico. Expressing his solidarity with five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned by the empire, Cancel Miranda recalled that he and other independentists were also sentenced in manipulated trials full of irregularities. In addition of Cancel Miranda, nearly 20 Puerto Ricans and representatives from Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina , Chile, Peru, Brazil , Colombia, Nicaragua and Mexico , among others, are attending the event. ef iff lgo PL-18

Ecuador wants military base in Miami

http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUKADD25267520071022

Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:38pm BST

By Phil Stewart

NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington
must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to
keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to
expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics
surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.

"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami
-- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.

"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely
they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."

The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights
from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug
seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.

It offers a fact-sheet on the base at:
http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/topics_of_interest/manta-fol.html

Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before
extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George
W. Bush a "dimwit".

But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he
believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base
closing.

He rejected the idea that the episode reflected on U.S. ties at all.

"This is the only North American military base in South America," he said.

"So, then the other South American countries don't have good relations with
the United States because they don't have military bases? That doesn't make
any sense."

Sin posición Pelosi sobre el status de Puerto Rico

Dijo que, aunque cree en la autodeterminación, deberá estudiar cómo quedó el proyecto tras su aprobación en el Comité de Recursos Naturales de la Cámara.

Por NÉSTOR IKEDA (AP)
WASHINGTON — La presidenta de la Cámara de Representantes, Nancy Pelosi, dijo hoy que no tiene una posición como para sugerir a Puerto Rico la forma en que debería finalmente resolver su relación política con Estados Unidos.

“No tengo una posición”, dijo en una rueda de prensa en el Capitolio federal. “Amo a Puerto Rico: He pasado mi luna de miel en Puerto Rico y vuelvo cada vez que puedo”.

El comentario fue formulado luego que el Comité de Recursos de la cámara que preside aprobara esta semana un proyecto de ley que permitiría una consulta en la que los puertorriqueños determinarían si quieren o no continuar con su actual status territorial.

“Nunca me involucraría en un argumento entre estadolibrismo, anexionismo o la independencia allí”, dijo Pelosi. “Ése es un nivel de pasión que posiblemente nunca podamos entender en nuestra política en Estados Unidos”, agregó.

“Sin embargo, creo en la autodeterminación y sabía lo que estaba en el proyecto al entrar (al debate). No he visto la forma en que el proyecto ha quedado al salir. Pero, son fuertes los del pro y el contra en nuestro grupo (demócrata) y escucharé cuidadosamente a todos ellos”, adelantó Pelosi.

El Comité de Recursos Naturales aprobó el martes a viva voz el proyecto y en caso de que su contenido fuera preservado al pasar por las dos cámaras, las autoridades puertorriqueñas deberán conducir un plebiscito no más tarde del 31 de diciembre de 2009 sobre si desean seguir con su actual relación de ELA o cambiarla.

Si la mayoría opta por el cambio, Puerto Rico elegiría entonces una Convención o Asamblea Constitucional o iría a un nuevo plebiscito para decidir por “una opción de autodeterminación” entre las cuales figurarían convertirse en un estado de Estados Unidos o en república.

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

Periodista colombiano abandona su país por amenazas de muerte de paramilitares

http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2007/10/74078.php

versión para imprimir - enviar por e-mail
por Telesur Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 3:39 PM

A Hollman Morris le enviaron correos electrónicos que le prometían ''muy pronto'' un ataúd. El comunicador, quien desde hace años trabaja para denunciar los crímenes producto del conflicto armado en Colombia y es crítico del Gobierno del presidente Álvaro Uribe, se toma muy en serio estas amenazas. - Tercera parte de municipios colombianos en riesgo de violencia durante elecciones

El periodista Hollman Morris, destacado activista por los derechos humanos en Colombia y crítico del Gobierno del presidente Álvaro Uribe, abandonó su país junto a su familia, tras recibir reiteradas amenazas de muerte en su contra por parte de paramilitares de ultraderecha, informó su hermano.

"Él tomó la decisión después de recibir nuevas amenazas y en medio de un clima peligroso por recientes enfrentamientos del presidente (Uribe) con varios periodistas (críticos de su Gobierno) y una campaña electoral tremendamente violenta", dijo Juan Pablo Morris, hermano del comunicador.

Morris explicó que su hermano recibió el pasado 26 de septiembre un correo electrónico firmado por un presunto grupo paramilitar autodenominado "Frente Patriótico", donde le decían que se había ganado la rifa para un ataúd y con la leyenda "Por guerrillero, sapo y apátrida".

Al día siguiente recibió otro mensaje. En esta ocasión se había incluido una imagen del periodista tachada con una "X" y el texto: "4,3,2, ya casi".

"Con estas elecciones como están, con esa matazón de gente y las amenazas a los periodistas críticos del Gobierno, Hollman no se sintió con garantías para seguir ejerciendo su profesión y decidió irse junto a su familia", añadió.

Hollman Morris, director del programa televisivo de investigación "Contravía", transmitido por TeleSUR, es conocido por sus críticas al Gobierno colombiano y por denunciar terrorismo de Estado y violaciones de los derechos humanos.

Fue galardonado recientemente con el premio de TV de la Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, creada por el también colombiano Gabriel García Márquez.

Además, Hollman Morris ha sido merecedor de los más importantes reconocimientos periodísticos en Colombia, por sus trabajos sobre el conflicto interno.

Asesinados reportero gráfico y su asistente

Este miércoles se conoció que un reportero gráfico y su asistente fueron asesinados en la Cali, en hechos cuyos móviles y autores se ignoran, informó este miércoles la Federación Colombiana de Periodistas (Fecolper).

Carlos Alberto Jaramillo y su colaborador Julio César García, quienes trabajaban en forma independiente, fueron ultimados el domingo cuando se desplazaban en un vehículo hacia la localidad de Palmira para cubrir una competencia de ciclismo, señaló la Federación en un comunicado.

Jaramillo, de 50 años, "murió instantáneamente por varios disparos que lo impactaron en el pecho", mientras que García, de 43, falleció en un hospital adonde alcanzó a ser llevado con vida, agregó el reporte.

De acuerdo con la Federación Internacional de Periodistas (FIP), entre 1993 y 2006 fueron asesinados 111 periodistas en Colombia, crímenes de los cuales está plenamente establecido que 57 están directamente vinculados al ejercicio de su profesión.

Colombia y los periodistas

El director de la Felcoper y director del centro de solidaridad de la FIP, Eduardo Márquez, aseguró a TeleSUR que los profesionales de la comunicación social en Colombia "estamos viviendo una verdadera oleada de agresiones" y a su juicio, la situación "convierte a la autocensura en el chaleco antibalas de los periodistas".

En septiembre pasado, el presidente Álvaro Uribe acusó al corresponsal en Colombia del diario estadounidense "El Nuevo Herald", Gonzalo Guillén, de haber participado en la redacción del libro "Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar", cuya autora es una de las ex compañeras sentimentales del capo de la droga, Pablo Escobar.

En la obra se destaca la amistad entre Escobar y Uribe, quienes también, de acuerdo con el texto, fueron viejos socios de negocios.

Guillén negó los señalamientos del jefe de Estado y le envió una carta en la que denunció que las declaraciones del Mandatario lo ponían en "la mira del sicariato y en la picota pública" y, días después, ante nuevas amenazas de muerte en su contra, se fue del país suramericano.

Uribe también se enfrentó públicamente al periodista Daniel Coronell, director del noticiero independiente "Noticias Uno", a quien acusó de difamarlo por indicar en una columna que usó un helicóptero de Escobar para trasladar a su padre y hermanos, heridos en un hecho aún no esclarecido.

Coronell estuvo fuera de Colombia por un año por amenazas de muerte provenientes de paramilitares.

Márquez aseguró que "los periodistas somos puntal de las sociedades" y más en Colombia, donde "la guerrilla, grupos paramilitares, y el propio presidente de la república, hay sectores de poder que no están interesados que los ciudadanos tengan acceso a una información ajustada a la realidad".

Mexicans Miss Money From Relatives Up North

October 26, 2007

By ELISABETH MALKIN

EL RODEO, Mexico — For years, millions of Mexican migrants working in the United States have sent money back home to villages like this one, money that allows families to pay medical bills and school fees, build houses and buy clothes or, if they save enough, maybe start a tiny business.

But after years of strong increases, the amount of migrant money flowing to Mexico has stagnated. From 2000 to 2006, remittances grew to nearly $24 billion a year from $6.6 billion, rising more than 20 percent some years. In 2007, the increase so far has been less than 2 percent.

Migrants and migration experts say a flagging American economy and an enforcement campaign against illegal workers in the United States have persuaded some migrants not to try to cross the border illegally to look for work. Others have decided to return to Mexico. And many of those who are staying in the United States are sending less money home.

In the rest of the world, remittances are rising, up as much as 10 percent a year, according to Donald F. Terry of the Inter-American Development Bank. Last year, migrant workers worldwide sent more than $300 billion to developing countries — almost twice the amount of foreign direct investment.

But in Mexico, families are feeling squeezed.

Estrella Rivera, a slight 27-year-old in this stone-paved village in Guanajuato state in central Mexico, was hoping to use the money her husband, Alonso, sent back from working illegally in Texas to build a small clothing shop at the edge of her garden.

But a month ago, Mr. Rivera returned home. His hours at a Dallas window-screen factory were cut and rumors spread that he would inevitably have to produce a valid Social Security number. Now, he works odd jobs or tends cornfields. Mrs. Rivera’s shop is indefinitely delayed, a pile of bricks stacked on the grass.

Like Mr. Rivera, some of the men who went to work in the United States illegally have returned discouraged. And less work means less money to send home — particularly from the southern United States and other areas where Mexican migrants are a more recent presence.

“One out of three people in these new states who was sending a year ago is not sending it home today,” Mr. Terry of the Inter-American Development Bank said. “There are some 500,000 families who aren’t receiving this year.”

Until last year, the American housing trades absorbed hundreds of thousands of migrants, and the hardships of the trip north seemed to pale beside the near certainty of finding work.

Now, the construction slump — along with a year-old crackdown on illegal immigration at the border and in the workplace, and mounting anti-immigrant sentiment in places — has made it even harder for Mexican migrants to reach the United States and land well-paying jobs.

Many experts say it is too early to know if the negligible increase in remittances will continue. Some argue it was to be expected: much of the initial spike in money transfers had resulted from better accounting. In addition, earlier waves of migrants are returning to the houses they built, or they have managed to legalize their status in the United States and bring their families, sending less money back.

But the events of the last year in the United States, political and economic, have also clouded the prospects of many illegal Mexican workers. New walls, new guards and new equipment at the border have dissuaded many from trying to cross and raised the cost for those who try to as much as $2,800. Workplace raids and stories of summary deportations stoke fears among Mexicans on both sides of the border.

Referring to tougher measures in the United States, Primitivo Rodríguez, a Mexican immigration expert, said: “Psychologically, they lead you to save money in case of an emergency. You send less, you save more.”

The shakier economy in many states means that migrants have moved from well-paying steady jobs to work as day laborers.

“In our interviews with families, they say that migrants are now working two or three days when before they worked four or five days,” said David Skerritt, a historian at Veracruzana University.

Rodolfo García Zamora , an immigration expert at the University of Zacatecas, said money transfers to Zacatecas state fell by about 25 percent this year.

Here in Guanajuato state, remittances have created a peculiar economy in villages tucked among rolling corn and sorghum fields. There are few jobs, yet many houses have stereo systems, washing machines and three-piece living room sets.

Things are changing, though. Some of the men are back and need cash for seeds and fertilizer to plow long-neglected fields. At the microcredit association operated by a local nonprofit group, the Bajío Women’s Network, loans for agriculture, which barely existed last year, now account for 11 percent of all borrowing.

Women are finding it harder to save, said Evelyne Sinquin, the network coordinator. “The people who have come back can’t work, and the people in the United States are working fewer hours.”

Other than agriculture, the jobs here are in construction, building houses of absentee owners houses along the cobbled streets. Some are modest with a few brick rooms; others are ornate tributes to their absentee owners’ success: gold-painted balconies, the Virgin of Guadalupe etched in a window, Greek columns. Los Emigrantes carpentry shop in nearby La Cuevita sits on a traffic circle adorned with a monument showing several figures, one of them a migrant waving a fistful of dollars.

Not much else flourishes. Three months ago, Mónica Núñez closed her tortilla shop in the village of San Lucas. “Most people went to the United States and sales went down,” she said.

Her husband has been home from Houston for a year, but she has seven brothers and a sister in the United States who still send money. She is planning a new business, perhaps an Internet cafe so people can connect with relatives in the United States.

Less than an hour’s drive away, the city of Querétaro is prospering, turning out home appliances for the world market. But for most people in the villages, education ended after elementary school. An unskilled factory or construction job pays little more than $50 or $60 a week.

With those prospects, the next generation — some of them as young as 15 — seemed to have few doubts about heading to the United States.

Estrella Rivera’s brother Francisco left for the first time when he was 16. Now 21, he recently came home after a year and a half in Orlando, Fla., working in construction. He earned enough to add a floor to his parents’ house, but then he struggled.

“Either there was no work or they did not want to hire somebody without papers,” he said, perched on an old Ford pickup truck with Michigan tags beside his family’s sheep and cow pens.

But he expects to go back again. “To tell the truth, it really is worth the trouble,” he said, recounting a terrifying crossing getting lost in the Arizona desert.

Mrs. Rivera’s husband is not so sure. “It’s really tough to go back,” he said. “Now they lock you up. Before, they grabbed you and sent you back. The laws were never this tough.”

Blackwater's run for the border

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/23/blackwater_border/

The notorious security contractor has plans for a military-style complex near the U.S.-Mexico border. Critics worry the firm's "mercenary soldiers" could join the U.S. Border Patrol.

By Eilene Zimmerman

Oct. 23, 2007 | There are signs that Blackwater USA, the private security firm that came under intense scrutiny after its employees killed 17 civilians in Iraq in September, is positioning itself for direct involvement in U.S. border security. The company is poised to construct a major new training facility in California, just eight miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. While contracts for U.S. war efforts overseas may no longer be a growth industry for the company, Blackwater executives have lobbied the U.S. government since at least 2005 to help train and even deploy manpower for patrolling America's borders.

Blackwater is planning to build an 824-acre military-style training complex in Potrero, Calif., a rural hamlet 45 miles east of San Diego. The company's proposal, which was approved last December by the Potrero Community Planning Group and has drawn protest from within the Potrero community, will turn a former chicken ranch into "Blackwater West," the company's second-largest facility in the country. It will include a multitude of weapons firing ranges, a tactical driving track, a helipad, a 33,000-square-foot urban simulation training area, an armory for storing guns and ammunition, and dorms and classrooms. And it will be located in the heart one of the most active regions in the United States for illegal border crossings.

While some residents of Potrero have welcomed the plan, others have raised fears about encroachment on protected lands and what they see as an intimidating force of mercenaries coming into their backyard. The specter of Blackwater West and the rising interest in privatizing border security have also alarmed Democratic Rep. Bob Filner, whose congressional district includes Potrero. Filner says he believes it's a good possibility that Blackwater is positioning itself for border security contracts and is opposed to the new complex. "You have to be very wary of mercenary soldiers in a democracy, which is more fragile than people think," Rep. Filner told Salon. "You don't want armies around who will sell out to the highest bidder. We already have vigilantes on the border, the Minutemen, and this would just add to [the problem]," Filner said, referring to the Minuteman Project, a conservative group that has organized civilian posses to assist the U.S. Border Patrol in the past. Filner is backing legislation to block establishment of what he calls "mercenary training centers" anywhere in the U.S. outside of military bases. "The border is a sensitive area," he said, "and if Blackwater operates the way they do in Iraq -- shoot first and ask questions later -- my constituents are at risk."

A spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied there are any specific plans to work directly with Blackwater. And Blackwater officials say the complex would be used only for training active-duty military and law enforcement officials, work for which the company has contracted with the U.S. government.

But statements and lobbying activity by Blackwater officials, and the location for the new complex, strongly suggest plans to get involved in border security, with potential contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, Blackwater enjoys support from powerful Republican congressmen who advocate hard-line border policies, including calls for deploying private agents to beef up the ranks of the U.S. Border Patrol. Lawmakers supporting Blackwater include California Rep. and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter -- who met last year with company officials seeking his advice on the proposal for Blackwater West -- and Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who is sponsoring a bill to allow private contractors such as Blackwater to help secure U.S. borders.

When questioned at a public hearing with the Potrero planning group on Sept. 13 about Blackwater West, Brian Bonfiglio, a Blackwater spokesman, said, "I don't think there's anyone in this room who wouldn't like to see the border tightened up." Blackwater currently had no contracts to help with border security, Bonfiglio said, but he emphasized that "we would entertain any approach from our government to help secure either border, absolutely." Bonfiglio was responding to questions from Raymond Lutz, a local organizer who opposes the new complex. (Lutz recorded the exchange and posted video of it on Oct. 12 at CitizensOversight.org.) Lutz also asked Bonfiglio if Blackwater West would be used as a base for deployment of Border Patrol agents. "Actually, we've offered it up as a substation to Border Patrol and U.S. Customs right now," Bonfiglio replied. "We'd love to see them there."

Ramon Rivera, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, denied Bonfiglio's claim that the agency is entertaining an offer to use Blackwater West as a substation. "I think that's just Blackwater trying to sell themselves," Rivera said.

In fact, Blackwater has been selling itself for direct involvement in border security at least since May 2005, when the company's then president, Gary Jackson, testified before a House subcommittee. Jackson's testimony focused on Blackwater's helping to train U.S. Border Patrol agents and included discussion of contracts theoretically worth $80 million to $200 million, for thousands of personnel. Asked by one lawmaker if his company saw a market opportunity in border security, Jackson replied: "I can put as many men together as you need, trained and on the borders."

The company has turned to powerful allies on Capitol Hill for support, including Hunter, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee and a longtime proponent of tougher border security. Joe Kasper, a spokesman for Hunter, confirmed to Salon that Blackwater officials sought guidance from Hunter on getting Blackwater West approved for Potrero. Hunter met with Blackwater officials in May 2006, at which time Hunter recommended the firm contact Dianne Jacob, the county supervisor responsible for Potrero and one of five supervisors who would vote on countywide approval for Blackwater West. Blackwater officials then met with Jacob in May, and in June the company submitted its proposal to the county, where it now must go through an approval process.

Rep. Filner says Potrero residents have complained to him that Hunter also brought pressure locally for Blackwater West. "People in the area told me he called the landowner [of the proposed site] to urge him to sell [to Blackwater]. I don't know that he did, but it wouldn't surprise me," says Filner. "That's what people in the area are saying." (Hunter has ties to Potrero, which used to be part of his congressional district; after a redestricting in 2001, Potrero became part of Filner's district, which borders Hunter's district.)

Spokesman Kasper denied that Hunter called the landowner, whose identity remains unclear. But Kasper also said that Hunter "supports Blackwater and other private security contractors in Iraq, and he supports the training facility in Potrero."

One specific concern Potrero residents have raised with relation to Blackwater West is the high risk of wildfires in their part of the county -- a danger on display the last two days as Potrero has been ravaged by fire along with other parts of Southern California. Blackwater has in fact pushed as a selling point that the complex would be a "defensible location" during wildfires. But opponents, including Jan Hedlun, the only member of the Potrero Planning Group opposed to Blackwater West, foresee danger rather than a safe haven. As Hedlun wrote in a recent editorial in the San Diego Union-Tribune, "residents state they would not flee to a box canyon with one access point and an armory filled with ammunition and/or explosives."

Ever since illegal immigration became a top issue for the Bush administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, there have been growing calls for the U.S. to bring private security companies into border enforcement. In September 2006, the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington released a policy paper titled "Better, Faster, and Cheaper Border Security," which urged Congress and the president to beef up forces as fast as possible. "In particular," the report said, "private contractors could play an important role in recruiting and training Border Patrol agents and providing personnel to secure the border." Late last month, one of the report's authors hosted a symposium in Washington for an updated discussion on the topic, for which Rep. Rogers -- a proponent of both Blackwater and DynCorp International, another private security contractor with personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was the keynote speaker.

On June 19 of this year, during a House subcommittee meeting titled "Ensuring We Have Well-Trained Boots on the Ground at the Border," Rep. Christopher Carney, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, acknowledged "it's no secret that CPB [Customs and Border Protection] as a whole lacks the manpower to fulfill its crucial mission." Robert B. Rosenkranz, president of the government services division of DynCorp, presented a plan for putting 1,000 DynCorp employees at the border in 13 months, at a cost of $197 million.

In May 2006, the Bush administration had called for a sharp increase in manpower, at least with the existing federal force. President Bush then signed a bill into law on Oct. 4, 2006, to boost the number of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on the ground by nearly 50 percent, from approximately 12,300 to approximately 18,300, by the end of 2008.

But even such an ambitious increase would do little to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, says T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents most U.S. Border Patrol agents. Bonner, himself a field agent in east San Diego County, told the House subcommittee in June, "Realistically, there is no magic number of Border Patrol agents required to secure our borders and even if there were, it would certainly be much higher than the 18,000 proposed by the administration."

Scott Borgerson, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who specializes in homeland security, says it makes sense that U.S. companies would try to position themselves to fill gaps in national security with lucrative private-sector solutions. "If I was running a company doing private security, it's definitely what I would do," he says of Blackwater's plan to locate near the border.

In an Oct. 15 article in the Wall Street Journal, Blackwater CEO Erik Prince said that the company now sees the market diminishing for the kind of security work its employees have done in Iraq. He said that going forward the company's focus "is going to be more of a full spectrum," ranging from delivering humanitarian aid to responding to natural disasters. But priorities for the Bush administration, including immigration and border security, could also figure into Blackwater's plans -- as Salon reported recently, the company's skyrocketing revenues during Bush's presidency are accompanied by the firm's close ties with influential Republicans and top Bush officials.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said that the notion of Blackwater vying for lucrative border security contracts is "merely speculation," and noted that the location for Blackwater West is close to San Diego's military bases, a major training market for the company. "But hypothetically," Tyrrell added, "if the government came to us and needed assistance with border security, we'd be honored."

Borgerson says there is a role for private contractors in helping keep the United States safe. "But certain jobs belong to trained U.S. government officials -- men and women in uniform who have a flag on their sleeves," says Borgerson, who was a Coast Guard officer for 10 years. "You recite an oath that says you will defend -- not Congress, not the president, not even the people -- but the Constitution. You don't sign that oath when you go to work for Blackwater."

Bonner, of the U.S. Border Patrol, remains skeptical about Blackwater getting involved, and he says others in the upper ranks of the Border Patrol are opposed to private contractors working alongside them. He sees potential problems with both training and patrolling. The much higher pay likely offered to private agents, for example, would threaten an already difficult-to-retain federal force. "It will entice people to jump over to the other side," he says, "especially if they don't have a long-term career in mind." Bonner also says it is crucial to have a single training curriculum, and a single chain of command, to help ensure effective and lawful operations. "This is a bad idea from so many perspectives," he says of potentially privatizing the force.

The issue may be linked to broader problems the U.S. is currently facing with national security. "If we weren't allocating a tremendous amount of our resources in Iraq, we wouldn't have to outsource to companies like Blackwater," Borgerson says. While securing the U.S. borders is an important priority, he adds, "I feel we shouldn't outsource our sovereignty."

-- By Eilene Zimmerman

++++++ 2/2

Justice for Some Restrictions on federal grants starve the poor of much-needed legal representation

Published on Thursday, October 25, 2007 by In These Times
(from www.commondreams.org)
by Megan Tady

When the U.S. Supreme Court refused on October 1 to hear Legal
Services for New York City v. Legal Services Corporation, a case
challenging restrictions on access to lawyers for the poor, it sent a
clear message: Courts shouldn't be bothered with the problems of poor
people.

Funny, I thought "justice for all" meant justice for every person. It
now appears an asterisk is missing from the last line of our nation's
pledge. For clarity, perhaps it should read so like this:

"…And justice for all.*

* (The validity of this clause is subject to class and race
restrictions and can be ruled null and void upon persons' failure to
comply. The government reserves the right to alter the meaning of
eligible applicants for justice at any time. The wealthy may
disregard this disclaimer.)"

The loopholes for equality are pervasive in this country. This time,
the government wiggled out of protecting poor peoples' legal rights
when Congress passed a law in 1996 that limits the work of
independent civil legal aid programs that receive federal funding.
The government's Legal Services Corporation provides grants to
independent programs that offer free legal service to low-income
people across the nation.

The rule prevents legal aid centers from using either federal or non-
federal funds to file class action lawsuits, claim court-ordered
attorneys' fee awards, or represent certain categories of immigrants.
There's one exception: Centers can do this work if they establish a
separate office with non-federal dollars.

In other words, legal aid centers around the country that take
government funding are only allowed to use private money-funds from
the state and individual and philanthropy donations-to represent a
huge group of people in a class action suit, go to bat for exploited
immigrants, or use attorneys' fee awards as a tactic, if they set up
a physically separate facility with a different staff. It's as
rational as mandating that someone trying to spend their last two
dollars on milk at the local grocery store can only buy it at a store
that's a bus-fare away. No money when you get there? No luck.

Laura Abel, deputy director of the Justice Program at the Brennan
Center for Justice, explains why the "physical separation
requirement" has a "devastating effect" on the 138 centers that
receive government grants.

"Civil legal aid programs are notoriously underfunded and they never
have even the fraction of the funds they need, so they don't have any
extra money at all," Abel says. "So they may think, `Could we open up
a separate office across the street?' But they would have to turn
away hundreds of clients a year."

The Brennan Center is currently representing three legal aid centers
that are challenging the constitutionality of the separation
requirement, saying it violates the First Amendment. The Center first
filed the lawsuit in 2001. But the Supreme Court's refusal to hear
the case will send the long-languishing case back to a district court.

The implication of the restriction is as stark as the Supreme Court's
indifference. Abel says one "glaring example" of how the rule hurts
low-income people is the current predatory loan crisis. Had legal aid
centers been able to represent entire communities suffering at the
hands of predatory lenders, the bottom may not have dropped.

"Unfortunately [legal aid centers] haven't been able to bring class
action lawsuits; all they can do is represent one person at a time,"
Abel says. "As a result…the lenders continue their practices."

If it seems like legal aid centers have their hands tied, their
mouths are gagged as well. Federally funded centers are also not
allowed to use private funds to tell people about their legal rights
and then offer to represent them, and they can't lobby on behalf of
their clients-unless of course they lease and staff another office.

Lewis Papenfuse, executive director of the Farmworker Legal Services
of New York, a plaintiff in the case, says he was "extremely
disappointed" that the Supreme Court had turned up its nose.

In 1996, rather than accept the restrictions, Papenfuse says
Farmworker Legal Services rejected any federal funding. Papenfuse and
his staff had to take a severe pay cut, and have been building up
their center ever since.

"There's so many people with so many issues-so many people not
getting paid what they're supposed to," Papenfuse says. "Access to
justice is even less for people who are invisible in society or have
no access to even getting the information."

Not every program can be as resilient. According to the Legal Service
Corporation, the agency on average endows half the budgets of the
programs it funds.

Papenfuse and other advocates have been urging the courts and
Congress to toss out the restriction for years. In 2005, 130 non-
profit organizations and philanthropies filed an amicus brief on
behalf of the plaintiffs, and the National Council of Churches and 30
faith groups appealed to legislators in a letter, noting, "The law
closes the doors of justice for many low-income individuals and
families who simply cannot afford to hire a private lawyer to help
them in civil matters."

Congress, it appears, doesn't sympathize. A 2005 editorial in The New
York Times chastised the government: "The fact that Washington
provides money for legal representation does not give it unlimited
authority to control what lawyers say or do, or to restrict the use
of private money so severely."

The Legal Services Corporation, on the other hand, feigns compassion
on its website, writing, "…our nation falls far short of meeting the
need for civil legal aid." So why has the agency repeatedly fought
and appealed the current court case?

To go to such lengths to keep certain groups of people from obtaining
legal aid speaks volumes about the government's fear of the informed
and represented masses. Abuse and mistreatment becomes trickier when
the adage "I'll see you in court" actually has weight.

Of course, what's particularly troubling about this rule is that low-
income people, communities of color, and immigrants are those groups
most at risk of being exploited and violated, from employers
withholding a worker's wages to corporations dumping toxins in entire
neighborhoods.

It should be easy, not almost impossible, for the country's most
vulnerable to seek redress. By standing firmly with this rule, we are
merely offering a cruel taunt when pledging our allegiance
to "justice for all."

Megan Tady is a National Political Reporter for InTheseTimes.com.
Previously, she worked as a reporter for the NewStandard, where she
published nearly 100 articles in one year. Megan has also written for
Clamor, CommonDreams, E Magazine, Maisonneuve, PopandPolitics, and
Reuters.

© 2007 In These Times

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Billionaires Up, America Down

Published on Monday, October 22, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

by Holly Sklar

Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us" and "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future." She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.

When it comes to producing billionaires, America is doing great.

Until 2005, multimillionaires could still make the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2006, the Forbes 400 went billionaires only.

This year, you'd need a Forbes 482 to fit all the billionaires.

A billion dollars is a lot of dough. Queen Elizabeth II, British monarch for five decades, would have to add $400 million to her $600 million fortune to reach $1 billion. And she'd need another $300 million to reach the Forbes 400 minimum of $1.3 billion. The average Forbes 400 member has $3.8 billion.

When the Forbes 400 began in 1982, it was dominated by oil and manufacturing fortunes. Today, says Forbes, "Wall Street is king."

Nearly half the 45 new members, says Forbes, "made their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity. Money manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit this summer."

The 25th anniversary of the Forbes 400 isn't party time for America.

We have a record 482 billionaires - and record foreclosures.

We have a record 482 billionaires - and a record 47 million people without any health insurance.

Since 2000, we have added 184 billionaires - and 5 million more people living below the poverty line.

The official poverty threshold for one person was a ridiculously low $10,294 in 2006. That won't get you two pounds of caviar ($9,800) and 25 cigars ($730) on the Forbes Cost of Living Extremely Well Index. The $20,614 family-of-four poverty threshold is lower than the cost of three months of home flower arrangements ($24,525).

Wealth is being redistributed from poorer to richer.

Between 1983 and 2004, the average wealth of the top 1 percent of households grew by 78 percent, reports Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University. The bottom 40 percent lost 59 percent.

In 2004, one out of six households had zero or negative net worth. Nearly one out of three households had less than $10,000 in net worth, including home equity. That's before the mortgage crisis hit.

In 1982, when the Forbes 400 had just 13 billionaires, the highest paid CEO made $108 million and the average full-time worker made $34,199, adjusted for inflation in $2006. Last year, the highest paid hedge fund manager hauled in $1.7 billion, the highest paid CEO made $647 million, and the average worker made $34,861, with vanishing health and pension coverage.
The Forbes 400 is even more of a rich men's club than when it began. The number of women has dropped from 75 in 1982 to 39 today.

The 400 richest Americans have a conservatively estimated $1.54 trillion in combined wealth. That amount is more than 11 percent of our $13.8 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - the total annual value of goods and services produced by our nation of 303 million people. In 1982, Forbes 400 wealth measured less than 3 percent of U.S. GDP.

And the rich, notes Fortune magazine, "give away a smaller share of their income than the rest of us."

Thanks to mega-tax cuts, the rich can afford more mega-yachts, accessorized with helicopters and mini-submarines. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of bridges, levees, mass transit, parks and other public assets inherited from earlier generations of taxpayers crumbles from neglect, and the holes in the safety net are growing.

The top 1 percent of households - average income $1.5 million - will save a collective $79.5 billion on their 2008 taxes, reports Citizens for Tax Justice. That's more than the combined budgets of the Transportation Department, Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Tax cuts will save the top 1 percent a projected $715 billion between 2001 and 2010. And cost us $715 billion in mounting national debt plus interest.

The children and grandchildren of today's underpaid workers will pay for the partying of today's plutocrats and their retinue of lobbyists.

It's time for Congress to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy and close the loophole letting billionaire hedge fund speculators pay taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries.

Inequality has roared back to 1920s levels. It was bad for our nation then. It's bad for our nation now.

Venezuela Seeks Puerto Rican Partnership

By DANICA COTO Associated Press Writer

© 2007 The Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The head of Puerto Rico's state-owned power company welcomed a Venezuelan delegation to the U.S. territory on Tuesday, downplaying verbal assaults by their leader who has called the American president the devil.

Jorge Rodriguez, the top official with the Electric Energy Authority, said tensions that Caracas might have with Washington did not carry over into discussions about trade and energy with the Caribbean island.

"That doesn't stop us from having a relationship" with Venezuela, Rodriguez said. "The meeting was very good, very fruitful."

Venezuela wants to strengthen economic and political ties with the self-governing, Spanish-speaking island, said Jorge Valero, the South American country's ambassador to the Organization of American States.

He said delegates promised to introduce Puerto Rican mayors to Venezuelan educational and health programs, inviting some to visit Venezuela to establish sister-city agreements.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has rallied opposition to U.S. policies throughout the hemisphere and frequently ridiculed President George W. Bush, calling him "the devil" in a speech last year at the United Nations.

Asked Monday if Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. commonwealth would dissuade increased cooperation, Valero said Chavez wants to begin a "new era" in diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the U.S. territory.

A message left Tuesday with a spokesman for the State Department, which has responsibility for the island's external affairs, was not immediately returned.

Democrazy in Puerto Rico

Soft Spot for the South Bronx

October 21, 2007
Soft Spot for the South Bronx
By ANNE BARNARD



Henry Lajara is mapping out where to install a rain barrel in his manicured South Bronx backyard, to show his neighbors how they can channel storm water to feed their gardens and keep runoff from flushing sewage into the Bronx River.

Lenard Ramsook, 20, glides down that river in a wooden boat, teaching local high school students how to row. He shows them the ospreys and leaping fish that share the estuary with concrete plants and expressway bridges, making the point that environmentalism is not just for the rich.

Across the South Bronx, residents are beginning cooperatives to create jobs and tend to their communities' social needs and physical health. One will recycle demolition debris. Another sells fruit and vegetables. A third will provide childcare for working families.

Behind all these projects is a man who has called President Bush "the devil," embraced Iran's firebrand leader as a fellow crusader against "the U.S. empire," and vowed to help the poor and disenfranchised everywhere, even - or, perhaps, especially - in the world's most powerful country.

That man, Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela , began his love affair with the Bronx during a visit in 2005. Since then, he and his socialist government have funneled millions of dollars of aid to the South Bronx, home to New York's poorest Congressional district, through Citgo Petroleum, the American subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.


It is an unlikely flow of largess, from an oil-rich South American country where much of the population lives in poverty to one of the neediest pockets in the seat of American capitalism.
Citgo started its outreach in 2005 with a 40 percent discount on heating oil for poor households and expanded it in August to finance social and economic development. The company has committed to donating $3.6 million over the next three years to nine Bronx initiatives that would use the money to create jobs, foster community empowerment and clean up the urban environment.

The program has made Mr. Chávez the talk of the South Bronx .

"He came in here and took over - like a Spanish Napoleon!" Lucy Martinez said.

Ms. Martinez, 57, said Mr. Chávez has helped the needy residents she meets while working the front desk at Nos Quedamos, a nonprofit community development corporation. However, she knows, too, that his philanthropy has chafed some American politicians.

Patrice White-McGleese, 37, an employment counselor who saved $160 to $300 a month during the past two winters through the discounted oil program, said she knows why Mr. Chávez's actions have rankled.

"It's a sore point because it took what most people would consider a third world nation to help the U.S.," she said. "Which is kind of a slap in the face because we're supposed to be one of the superpowers; why can't we help our own?"

Some people in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, have the same question for their own government, said Leopoldo López, mayor of the downtown district of Chacao and a leader of the Venezuelan opposition.

"Why is the government giving away money to the richest city in the world?" he asked.
Mr. López said Mr. Chávez should first tend to the needs of Venezuelans who lack shelter, sewage and drinking water.

He said Mr. Chávez was giving the money to the Bronx to win support around the world while distracting attention from his moves to crack down on the opposition at home.

So the program has made Bronx residents, who are trying to solve the most local of problems, party to a global dispute. They are caught between Mr. Chávez, who markets his populist platform as a counterweight to the worldwide influence of the United States, and the Bush administration, which contends that Mr. Chávez's stress on racial and economic equality masks a dictatorship-in-the-making.

Mr. Chávez began clashing with Venezuela's corporate leaders and the United States shortly after being elected in 1998. In 2002, military officers staged a coup to oust him. The Bush administration quickly recognized the new government. However, Mr. Chávez returned to office days later after a wave of street protests, and he accused the United States of aiding the coup.

He turned his attentions to the Bronx in the fall of 2005, when he visited South Bronx community organizers with Representative José E. Serrano, the Democrat who represents the district. Those meetings led to the discounted heating oil program.

By the winter of 2006-7, the program had doubled to deliver 100 million gallons to 1.2 million people from Alaska to Vermont. Citgo said it expected to supply 110 million gallons this winter.

Some recipients bridled in September 2006, when Mr. Chávez stepped up to a United Nations podium - one that President Bush had used the day before - and declared that he smelled traces of "the devil."



"It smells of sulfur still today," Mr. Chávez added.

Said Mr. Serrano: "Was it tacky? Yes." However, he said, Mr. Chávez was just being emotional.

Meanwhile, Citgo and Venezuelan officials made follow-up visits to the Bronx . During one of them, Mrs. White-McGleese said she wanted to thank Venezuelans for their generosity. Within weeks, in April 2006, she and 62 people who had received the discounted oil were on a plane to Caracas as Mr. Chávez's guests.

A band met them at the airport. They watched an African-Venezuelan dance performance. In addition, they visited Mr. Chávez at Miraflores Palace, the president's official residence. A few of the American guests - including Pamela Babb, a vice president of the Mount Hope Housing Company, a nonprofit group that provides low-income housing in the Bronx - appeared on Mr. Chávez's weekly television show.

"It was pomp and circumstance," said Ms. Babb, 47.

She said she remained suspicious of Mr. Chávez's efforts to expand his presidential powers. ("I question that," she said.) In addition, a Mount Hope tenant, Lenice Footman, noticed children playing in garbage on Caracas's streets and came away "grateful for what we have."

But many of them were impressed when a Philadelphia woman told Mr. Chávez of the lack of jobs and services in her neighborhood and the Venezuelan leader declared it was time to aid development in poor United States communities.

"And all these ministers started writing things down," Ms. Babb said. "It shows you what happens when a visionary person starts to do something. And I was there."

Ms. Babb said Citgo officials visit the Bronx more often than the other corporate donors she works with. They have asked community groups what kinds of grants they need, awarding one to Mount Hope for a childcare cooperative. In addition, they celebrated with the locals in Hunts Point Riverside Park over Venezuelan food - arepas and carne mechada - and Latin American music.

The Citgo donations are a tiny percentage of its annual budget. It does not have to disclose financial statements because it is not a publicly traded company. Citgo, which sold 25.1 billion gallons of petroleum products last year, estimates that last winter's oil program cost it $80 million, according to a Citgo document provided by Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States.

That is about the same amount that Exxon Mobil - the largest publicly traded Oil Company, with roughly 10 times the revenue of Citgo - reported spending on philanthropy in the United States in 2006.



"We are not trying to impose," Mr. Alvarez said, "or to intervene in the politics here."

United States petroleum industry officials are not happy, however, with Citgo's program.
It is "designed to embarrass us," Larry Goldstein, the president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, an industry-supported analysis group in New York, said when it was launched in 2005.

"It's not designed to help poor people," he said. "Chávez is astute, clever, with a major political agenda, largely to get under our skin, and he does that everywhere and anywhere he can."

On the ground, Citgo's money seems to come without strings - or even much branding.

At Rocking the Boat, the Bronx River education program, Mr. Ramsook, who left behind a fisherman's life when he moved to the Bronx from Trinidad, said he could not place Mr. Chávez's name. "It sounds familiar," he said. He was more enthusiastic about taking seniors from Bronx Guild High School on the water to learn the history of the river.

"There are no sharks, right?" asked Shawnisha Roebuck, 19, as she settled into the stern. On shore, an iron claw lifted metal scraps from one pile to another. However, on the river, gulls stalked the banks, and the movements of small fish made the water flicker. An osprey plunged to the water, but came up empty.

Citgo's $210,000, three-year grant has allowed the group to expand the high school program and hold free Saturday rowing lessons that have drawn 500 people since August.

A $230,000 grant is helping Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice build rain barrels, plant rooftop vegetation and reshape gutters to feed sidewalk trees. In addition, the South Bronx Food Co-operative will use its $49,000 to open a storefront to sell affordable produce.

Anna Vincenty of Nos Quedamos, who is working on a program to improve the diets of elderly residents, said she takes Mr. Chávez's good will, as if she does with all politicians, with a grain of salt.

"He says he wants to help people over here," she said. Yet her Venezuelan friends have told her "some of the people over there are afraid of him."

On the other hand, she said, in the United States, "one of the most generous countries in the whole world," pervasive inequality is on display.

But no matter what one thinks of Mr. Chávez, she said: "If your child is cold and hungry and someone offers to help, do you care if it's Moe or Larry or Curly? I don't think so."