Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Obama meets with Latino groups before Mexico trip - MiamiHerald.com | Latinos Are the Engine of Small Business in America - Fox News Latino | Latino News Review: Dame Margot Fonteyn and the Panama coup 29/04/13 19:27 from BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean

Photo: Check out Levi Ponce's beautiful murals http://huff.to/15V6vJ9
Courtesy of Levi Ponce

Check out Levi Ponce's beautiful murals http://huff.to/15V6vJ9
Courtesy of Levi Ponce

______________________________________________


» Obama meets with Latino groups before Mexico trip - MiamiHerald.com
29/04/13 20:27 from latino - Google News
Politic365 Obama meets with Latino groups before Mexico trip MiamiHerald.com WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has met with Latino leaders ahead of an upcoming trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. Obama met Monday at the White House with lead..

» Obama meets with Latino groups before heading to Mexico, Costa Rica
30/04/13 07:26 from NBC Latino
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has met with Latino leaders ahead of an upcoming trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. Obama met Monday at the White House with leaders from National Council of La Raza, the National Hispanic Council..


» Obama meets with Latino groups before Mexico trip - MiamiHerald.com
29/04/13 20:27 from latino - Google News
Politic365 Obama meets with Latino groups before Mexico trip MiamiHerald.com WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has met with Latino leaders ahead of an upcoming trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. Obama met Monday at the White House with lead..


» Latinos Are the Engine of Small Business in America - Fox News Latino
29/04/13 16:34 from latino - Google News
Latinos Are the Engine of Small Business in America Fox News Latino This week, small business owners from around the nation will come together for The Latino Coalition and U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2013 America's Small Business Summit i..


» As America's Latino population grows, will Spanish thrive in the US? - 89.3 KPCC
29/04/13 15:27 from latino - Google News
89.3 KPCC As America's Latino population grows, will Spanish thrive in the US? 89.3 KPCC The acknowledgment is that many Latinos born or raised in the U-S struggle to read, speak and write Spanish. The hope, as far as Telemundo is conc..


» Queen Maxima: A royal love story
30/04/13 06:14 from BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean
How the Dutch fell in love with their future queen from Argentina


» VIDEO: Police occupy favelas in Rio
29/04/13 23:21 from BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean
Police in Brazil have occupied three shanty towns around Rio de Janeiro's famous Christ the Redeemer statue, ahead of a visit by Pope Francis.


» Mexico probes 'abuse of power' raid
29/04/13 20:40 from BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean
Mexican authorities investigate allegations that an official's daughter used her influence to close a restaurant, amid outrage on social media.



» Voices from Spain's jobless millions
29/04/13 20:12 from BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean
How unemployment is affecting Spaniards and immigrants


» Dame Margot Fonteyn and the Panama coup
29/04/13 19:27 from BBC News - Latin America & Caribbean
Ballerina Margot Fonteyn and the failed Panama coup




Dame Margot Fonteyn and the Panama sanitary towel coup


Margot Fonteyn exits BOAC plane on her return from Panama


It was one of the world's stranger coup plots, described by British diplomats as a "slapdash comedy", with the famous prima ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn and her Panamanian husband trying to topple the government of Panama with the help of a flighty British model, Judy Tatham.

"It was all so amateur. She did it for a lark," says Tatham, about the escapade more than 50 years ago.

"Margot thought that [her husband] would end up as head of the country, and that she would be Queen of Panama. Her role was a romantic one. Mine was to help a friend."

Sitting at her home in the picturesque Tuscany countryside, Tatham, now 87, is keen to share her memories of her famous friend and of the almost comical coup.


Margot Fonteyn plays it cool answering reporters' questions
Tatham has rarely spoken before about what were clearly thrilling though slightly terrifying times for the well-spoken daughter of a solicitor from north London. Her "sense of good manners", she admits, prevented her from asking too many questions.

It was early April 1959, and Tatham - by her own admission "flighty and rather naive" - was working in New York, having landed a modelling job thanks to Dame Margot's contacts. The ballerina was in town with her husband Roberto "Tito" Arias, the son of a former president of Panama, whose liberal-leaning family opposed the authoritarian rule of the then president, Ernesto de la Guardia.
The three of them met for breakfast one morning at New York's Plaza Hotel. And it was then that Dame Margot and Arias made a rather strange request. "They said, 'can you get me some shirts?' I said yes, of course, thrilled at having the chance to do something for Margot.
"'How many?', I asked, thinking perhaps two or three. 'About 500,' Tito replied."
Taken aback, but not wanting to seem rude, Tatham then asked about sizes. "Small, medium and large," he replied. The conversation was getting odder every minute. "And what colours?" Tatham inquired. Dame Margot thought for a moment, then, looking down at the hotel's bright green carpet, said quickly: "Like this, Kelly-green. On no account khaki."

That was not all. Tito and Margot also wanted Tatham to use her connections with the New York rag trade to get them a similar number of armbands to be used over the shirts.
Now it was Tatham's turn to ask for something. Neither Dame Margot nor Arias had offered any explanation of what they were up to, but a clearer idea was beginning to dawn on her.
"No revolution was mentioned and I was too polite to ask. But at that point I said to Tito, 'If you are planning something, I have an Easter holiday coming up and I'm not going to be out of it. I want to be part of it'"
"'All right,' he said almost immediately. 'You can bring the armbands with you.'"

So she ordered the 500 Kelly-green shirts, handed them over to Arias, and then went to the workshop of "a rather grubby man somewhere in east New York" to get the arm-bands made. But as Judy packed her bags in preparation for her trip to Central America, she still had to work out how she would smuggle her cargo through customs.
She is still clearly very pleased at her own resourcefulness and she laughs loudly before continuing the tale: "I was walking through [the New York department store] Macy's when I saw some large boxes containing sanitary towels. So I bought one."
Leaving the contents back at her flat, she stuffed the armbands into the box and headed for the airport. No-one thought to stop the pretty young model - or ask why she needed so many sanitary towels in her luggage - as she swept through the airport in Panama City and headed for the Arias family home.
For the next week, with Dame Margot nowhere to be seen, Arias showed Tatham around his native Panama.
"It seemed very primitive," she recalls. They ate out at "very rough restaurants in the jungle" and went to parties. But there was never any mention of the coup.

"I thought it bad manners to ask," Tatham says. Eventually however, Arias's sister, Rosario brought up the subject, much to Tatham's relief. But Rosario just told her not to worry - "overthrowing presidents is what our family does". Tatham returned to New York none the wiser.
Strange as it might appear, Tatham says she did not find out about the extent of Dame Margot's involvement in events in Panama - or what happened to the uniforms and armbands - until many years later.
Confidential British government files from 1959,released in 2010, describe "a slapdash comedy" brought to the attention of the then British Ambassador to Panama, Sir Ian Henderson, in the early hours of 21 April 1959. That was when he first received news of Dame Margot's shock arrest in Panama city.
She and Arias, aboard their luxury yacht in the bay of Panama, had been supposed to land and collect ammunition and men to seize a major highway. But they were given away by local fishermen and forced to flee. When Dame Margot was arrested, Arias was still on the run. A group of students had been supposed to rise up in the capital, but gave themselves away before the agreed time, alerting the authorities. And rebels supplied by Cuba's Fidel Castro, meant to land on the Atlantic coast, never arrived.

Henderson wrote in an official telegram that he was not impressed by Dame Margot's behaviour and did not regard her conduct "as fitting in any British subject". With the help of embassy staff, the ballerina was freed from custody and put on a plane to the US. She called Tatham from the airport. She was characteristically tight-lipped about what she had just been up to. And once again, Tatham says she did not want to intrude.
On the insistence of British diplomats in New York, the pair were soon on a flight back to London.
"I was shovelled out of the plane by the pilot's door, while she went out to face the press," Tatham recalls. News footage of the time shows the composed ballerina laughing off the journalists' insistent questions about her or her husband's role in the foreign coup.
"Did you carry a gun in Panama," one reporter asks. "I won't answer that, because you can guess whether I carried a gun or not!" Fonteyn replies.
Tatham has never been back to the US, where she had left behind friends, a flat and a job. She and Dame Margot fell out shortly after their arrival back home and never saw each other again. Dame Margot and Arias did eventually return to settle in Panama, where the dancer died in 1991.
More than five decades on, Judy is reluctant to judge her one-time friend too harshly. "Margot had no imagination whatsoever. She couldn't imagine that anything could actually go wrong," she says. "For her it was a lark, a bit of an adventure. She thought it was exciting… so did I."
Mike Lanchin interviewed Judy Tatham for the BBC World Service programme Witness. Listen to the programme via BBC iPlayer Radio, ordownload a podcast.
Follow the Magazine on Facebook or Twitter.

Judy Tatham and Dame Margot Fonteyn

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Judy Tatham (L) and Dame Margot in London, a week after the failed coup

"No revolution was mentioned and I was too polite to ask”
Judy Tatham

Find out more

Judy Tatham
Mike Lanchin interviewed Judy Tatham for the BBC World Service programme Witness



From swan to duck

Fonteyn in Swan Lake, 1951
In a statement to the House of Commons in London, shadow foreign secretary Aneurin Bevan welcomed her release from Panama.
"The British public did not appreciate having seen her in the role of the swan, then seeing her in the role of a decoy duck," he said.


What happened next?

Margot Fonteyn and her husband, 1965
  • In 1964, after Roberto Arias won a seat in elections for Panama's National Assembly, he was shot by a former political associate. Treated at Stoke Mandeville hospital in the UK, he resumed his political career in Panama in 1967
  • Dame Margot, meanwhile, had revived her career by forming a partnership with Rudolf Nureyev - 20 years her junior
  • She gave her last performance in the early 1970s before retiring to Panama to live with her husband
  • She died of cancer in 1991

2 top officials at Puerto Rico's largest public university resign - BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Puerto Rico Senate leader targets board of troubled university - GlobalPost | Feds search UPR in NSF funding probe - By CB Online Staff | QUE LAS SOLUCIONES SEAN UNIVERSITARIAS - from Opinión - El Nuevo Día


2 top officials at Puerto Rico's largest public university resign

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The president of Puerto Rico's largest public university is resigning, along with the head of the institution's board of directors.
Miguel Munoz and Luis Berrios said they are leaving because of the governor's plan to revamp the university board by creating new positions and reducing the amount of time members would serve.
Munoz said Tuesday that he considered the plan an assault on the university's autonomy.
Many students cheered the resignations because they blame Munoz and others for an $800 fee that led to violent protests in recent years. It has since been eliminated. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla also has said that the university reported a drop in enrolment as a result.



Shakeup in top leadership at UPR

By CB Online Staff

University of Puerto Rico President Miguel Muñoz tendered his resignation late Monday after repeated calls by Gov. Alejandro García Padilla for his ouster as head of the 11-campus public university system.
Muñoz had resisted García Padilla’s call for a new UPR president, saying as recently as Monday morning that he wouldn’t step down.
However, Muñoz, an agronomist from the UPR Mayaguez, was on his way out by Monday night. The UPR Board of Trustees accepted his resignation, effective May 1.
Earlier in the day, the chair of the UPR Board of Trustees tendered his resignation as island lawmakers debated legislation to completely overhaul the panel.
Luis Berriós sent his resignation to García Padilla with a plea not to let “minorities who clime to represent the 75,000-member UPR community inflict serious damages to the institution by trying to hurt a few people.”
Agustín Cabrer will head the board on an interim basis.
The shakeup comes against the backdrop of a federal probe into the UPR’s use of National Science Foundation funding. Agents from the NSF’s Office of the Inspector General executed search warrants at the flagship Río Piedras campus last week as part of an investigation into potential misuse of research funds.


» Puerto Rico Senate leader targets board of troubled university - GlobalPost 

29/04/13 17:26 from puerto rico - Google News
Puerto Rico Senate leader targets board of troubled university - GlobalPost GlobalPost San Juan, Apr 29 (EFE).- The leader of the Puerto Rican Senate announced Monday that measures will be taken against the board of the University of Puert..

» Puerto Rico Senate Leader Targets Board of Troubled University
30/04/13 08:12 from Latin American Herald Tribune
The leader of the Puerto Rican Senate announced Monday that measures will be taken against the board of the University of Puerto Rico over its failure to oust school chancellor Miguel Muñoz despite recent scandals involving money.




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Feds search UPR in NSF funding probe


By CB Online Staff


Federal authorities executed search warrants Friday at the University of Puerto Rico’s flagship Río Piedras campus, where the use of National Science Foundation (NSF) funding has been under scrutiny.
The search was conducted by agents from the NSF’s Office of the Inspector General. Another raid was conducted at an AT&T facility in Hato Rey that houses UPR databases.
UPR President Miguel Muñoz said he was served a subpoena seeking information related to NSF-funded research projects.

A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman confirmed that searches were carried out at UPR, but declined to provide details on an ongoing investigation.
Wrangling between the UPR and the NSF, dating back to February 2010, has led to the suspension of tens of millions in NSF funds destined for scientific research.
The funding issues have focused on scientist Manuel Gómez, founder & director of the UPR’s Resource Center for Science & Engineering, where the searches took place Friday. Gómez has denied allegations from within the UPR community that he and other scientists made wrongful profits with the federal funds.
The NSF was created by Congress in 1950 to promote advances in science. The federal agency currently funds roughly 20 percent of research at U.S. universities.
Gov. Alejandro García Padilla called for the ouster of UPR President Miguel Muñoz in the wake of the raids Friday.
“I have been governor for 3 1/2 months and for 3 1/2 months I’ve been asking the UPR Board of Trustees to change the president,” the governor said. “It’s nothing personal against professor Miguel Muñoz. It’s because all 11 campuses have asked for this.”
The governor shrugged off any possibility that the federal probe could trip up his brother, former UPR President Antonio García Padilla.
Muñoz said he was at ease and had no plans to step down.
“I’m not going to resign,” he said during a press conference in Río Piedras.


» QUE LAS SOLUCIONES SEAN UNIVERSITARIAS 
30/04/13 06:06 from Opinión - El Nuevo Día
QUE LAS SOLUCIONES SEAN UNIVERSITARIAS El escándalo por el alegado mal uso de fondos de la Fundación Nacional de las Ciencias (NSF) por la Universidad de Puerto Rico le ha asestado un golpe fatal a uno de los activos más importantes para c..

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30 abril 2013

QUE LAS SOLUCIONES SEAN UNIVERSITARIAS

El escándalo por el alegado mal uso de fondos de la Fundación Nacional de las Ciencias (NSF) por la Universidad de Puerto Rico le ha asestado un golpe fatal a uno de los activos más importantes para cualquier institución: su reputación; un asunto que no se subsana simplemente con la creación de un nuevo ente rector.

En lo inmediato, e independientemente de las renuncias y suspensiones de las últimas horas,   institucionalmente la Junta de Síndicos y la Presidencia de la UPR tienen la obligación de emprender un proceso serio de auditoría, de rendición de cuentas y de cooperación con las autoridades federales, de manera que puedan restablecerse los fondos suspendidos por la NSF, y todos los involucrados en la supuesta malversación de fondos respondan por sus acciones.

Porque no fue solo el prestigio de la institución lo que quedó mancillado cuando inspectores de la Oficina del Inspector General de la NSF allanaron instalaciones de la UPR el viernes pasado en búsqueda de evidencia sobre una supuesta malversación de fondos federales asignados a investigaciones. Esta acción también acarrea serios daños a los objetivos de convertir a la Isla en un centro de investigación y desarrollo y de crear una economía del conocimiento, una actividad que requiere del uso de nuevas tecnologías, investigaciones y desarrollos como los que hoy están desacreditados en nuestro principal centro de educación superior.

Descrédito comenzó cuando decenas de proyectos e investigaciones y los fondos que los subvencionaban se perdieron por el cierre de los laboratorios durante la huelga del 2005; y  continuó hasta los desgraciados casos de la actualidad. Esta es una de las razones por las cuales a duras penas, el sistema de la UPR recauda unos $90 millones anuales en fondos gubernamentales y donativos privados para investigaciones científicas.

Y es que sin prestigio, la Universidad no puede conseguir beneficios concretos como mejores aspirantes que soliciten su ingreso, más benefactores y donaciones para investigación y otras actividades, como la expansión de su oferta académica.

El allanamiento de los inspectores federales se traduce en algo más desafortunado aun, al ocurrir la misma semana en que el gobernador Alejandro García Padilla le anunció al País su intención de reactivar la llamada Ciudad de las Ciencias para explotar la investigación básica y aplicada de alto nivel como instrumento de transformación económica y social. De ahí lo severo del golpe que estos acontecimientos asestan a un proyecto en el cual la Universidad tiene un papel protagónico.

Por ello advertimos sobre la peligrosidad de continuar enfocando el debate público sobre la UPR meramente en la figura de un presidente o  en la creación de una nueva entidad burocrática.

Lo medular es dirigir los esfuerzos a soluciones permanentes y tangibles que posicionen y legitimen nuevamente los objetivos fundamentales de la UPR y sus resultados, liberándola de las presiones políticas y el activismo que arriesgan su crecimiento y su capacidad para servir a sus estudiantes y al País.

Y hay que ir mucho más allá.

Los desafíos crecientes de la competividad en las economías globales plantean nuevas necesidades colectivas para el desarrollo social y económico que requieren un posicionamiento sólido de la oferta de la Universidad basada en una reputación intachable.

 Vemos en la crítica coyuntura en que se encuentra la Universidad, el espacio idóneo para lograr esta meta, repensando la institución mediante la participación democrática de todos los sectores de la comunidad universitaria, desde todas las perspectivas y dentro del marco regulatorio de la autonomía universitaria, pero también tendiendo puentes con la comunidad a la que sirve.

Statehooders Want Statehood Bill to Implement Obama Status Vote Plan via Puerto Rico Repor | Puerto Rico Statehood Legislation Heading To Congress, PNP Says - Huffington Post


via Puerto Rico Report by Jeff Farrow on 4/30/13
Puerto Rico’s statehood party leadership yesterday agreed to seek Federal legislation to make the territory a State.
The legislation will be sponsored next month by the party president, who is also Puerto Rico’s representative to the Federal government with a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, although with a vote only in committees, Pedro Pierluisi (D). He was the highest vote getter in last year’s elections.
The party’s Board of Directors agreed that former Governor and Resident Commissioner in the U.S. Carlos Romero Barcelo, Party Vice President and Puerto Rico House of Representatives Minority Leader Jenniffer Gonzalez, as well as others, will assist Pierluisi in lobbying for the legislation. Romero will in particular work with Pierluisi in lobbying the U.S. Senate.
The legislation will complement President Obama’s proposal earlier this month of legislation to provide for a status plebiscite in Puerto Rico. The statehood party legislation will include a plebiscite on statehood.
Like Obama’s legislation, the party legislation responds to a plebiscite in Puerto Rico on political status questions held in conjunction with last November’s elections for office. The plebiscite rejected continuation of the islands’ current territory status by 54% and chose statehood among the possible alternatives by 61.2%.
But Puerto Rico’s new “commonwealth” party governor, elected by a tiny margin, and legislative majority dispute last year’s plebiscite. Their opposition to acting on the territory’s plebiscite petition to the Federal government to begin the transition to statehood based would make it highly unlikely that Congress would take such action.
Because of this, the Obama and statehood party legislation would confirm the status aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico under Federal auspices. That would make it extremely difficult for “commonwealth” party leaders like Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla to dispute another plebiscite.
Obama’s legislation is for a vote on options that are not incompatible with the Constitution and basic laws and policies of the U.S. The options — or option — would be proposed by Puerto Rico’s Elections Commission, which has representation from all of the territory’s political parties, but ultimately determined by the attorney general of the U.S. The Obama legislation could be held on a plebiscite on statehood for the territory.
Leaders of the “commonwealth” party have previously called for Federal legislation for a vote on statehood in the territory.  Some leaders of the small independence movement have as well.


Puerto Rico Statehood Legislation Heading To Congress, PNP Says - Huffington Post - 4/29/2013 



29/04/13 11:12 from Puerto Rico Report
Major law and lobbying firm Bryan Cave says that it was paid $30,000 for lobbying Congress and Federal agencies on behalf of the governor of Puerto Rico’s Washington office during the first quarter of this year. The activity is surprising ..


Puerto Rico Report

Primera Hora en la Calle: flashmob en las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián | Puerto Rico - 2/5/2013 - primerahoravideos


NPP crafting status bill for Congress - 4/29/2013


Primera Hora en la Calle: flashmob en las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián | Puerto Rico - 2/5/2013 - primerahoravideos


Obama Calls Jason Collins, 'Impressed By His Courage' In Coming Out - Huffington Post - 4/29/2013