WNU #1180: Mexican Army Rescues 165 Kidnapped Migrantsby Weekly News Update on the Americas (noreply@blogger.com)
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1180, June 9, 2013
1. Mexico: Army Rescues 165 Kidnapped Migrants
2. Brazil: Top Indigenous Official Resigns as Conflicts Continue
3. Argentina: Eight Activists Arrested in Mining Protest
4. Panama: Campesinos Demonstrate Against Dams
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. It is archived athttp://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
Note: There will be links but no Update on June 16, 2013. Publication will resume the following week.
*1. Mexico: Army Rescues 165 Kidnapped Migrants
On June 4 Mexican army soldiers freed 165 people, mostly Central Americans, who the authorities said had been held for as much as three weeks by an unidentified criminal organization at a safe house in the Las Fuentes neighborhood in Gustavo Díaz Ordaz municipality, a few miles from the US border in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. One person, apparently a lookout for the kidnappers, was arrested. The captives were reportedly migrants who were planning to cross illegally into the US; the smugglers (“polleros”) they had hired may have turned them over to a criminal group, possibly the Gulf drug cartel or the Los Zetas gang.
According to the government, the group kidnapped was composed of 77 Salvadorans, 50 Guatemalans, 23 Hondurans, 14 Mexicans and one Indian national. There were 20 minors, including seven under the age of 13; two of the women migrants were pregnant. The federal National Migration Institute (INM) removed the 151 foreign nationals to Mexico City and began deporting them on June 7.
The June 4 rescue was the second largest such operation reported by the government to date, but the kidnapping of migrants—either for ransom or to be used as drug couriers--has become increasingly common over the past few years. In January 2009 a total of 189 Central Americans were found hidden in Reynosa, Tamaulipas; the kidnappers were demanding a $5,000 ransom for each. A military operation rescued 88 migrants in Arriaga in the southeastern state of Chiapas in 2010; 54 kidnapped migrants were found in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state’s capital, in March of this year. Some 11,000 migrants were kidnapped in just six months in 2010, according to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). The most notorious case occurred in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, in August 2010, when a Los Zetas group massacred 72 Central and South American migrants who refused to turn over their cash or work for the gang [see World War 4 Report 8/24/10].
Alberto Xicoténcatl, director of the Migrant House shelter in Saltillo, Coahuila, warned that the kidnapping of migrants is on the rise, partly because of complicity by government employees. “We know that the army goes to the [criminal groups’] safe houses and gets paid to keep quiet,” he told the Mexican daily La Jornada. “What happened a few days ago in Tamaulipas was a matter of an accidental discovery and didn’t result from a real investigation.” The military found the 165 kidnap victims because of a tip from a civilian. (New York Daily News 6/6/13; La Jornada (Mexico) 6/7/13,6/9/13, 6/9/13)
Foreign nationals aren’t the only victims; thousands of Mexicans are being murdered or kidnapped each year. The Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) reported on Feb. 26 that 26,121 people disappeared in the 2006-2012 period. The British-based human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) released a 16-page report in Mexico City on June 4 citing the “systematic failure” of the government in dealing with the phenomenon. The report, “Confronting a Nightmare: The Disappearance of People in Mexico,” noted the complicity or responsibility of government employees in many of the cases. AI reviewed 152 disappearances for the report; in 85 of them “there are sufficient signs of the implication of public officials… and of a lack of diligence on the part of the authorities to locate the victims.” (LJ 6/5/13; Los Angeles Times 2/16/13)
In other news, the bodies of three activists in the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) were found on June 3 beside a road in the southwestern state of Guerrero. One of the victims, Arturo Hernández Cardona, was the leader of the Popular Union (UP) in the city of Iguala; the other two, Félix Rafael Bandera Román and Ángel Román Ramírez, were members of the organization. The men were last seen on May 30 when they blocked a tollbooth on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway to demand that Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez, also a PRD member, provide fertilizers for campesinos. Media reports suggest that the killings might have been a common crime, since drug gangs are active in Guerrero. But Sofía Lorena Mendoza Martínez, Hernández Cardona’s widow, insisted the motivation was political. “[W]e are never going to accept that [the victims] could be linked to organized crime,” said Mendoza Martínez, who is a local rural development official. Some1,000 people attended the three activists’ funeral on June 4. (BBC News 6/3/13, LJ 6/5/13)
*2. Brazil: Top Indigenous Official Resigns as Conflicts Continue
Security guards shot and seriously injured an indigenous Terena, Josiel Gabriel Alves, on June 4 when a group of about 60 protesters tried to occupy the São Sebastião estate in Sidrolandia municipality in the southern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Doctors said Gabriel might lose the use of his arms and legs. This was the second shooting in less than a week in an ongoing dispute over lands claimed by the Terena: Osiel Gabriel, Josiel Gabriel’s cousin, was killed by federal police on May 30 at a nearby estate [see Update #1179]. The Terena have been occupying several large estates in Sidrolandia since May 15; they say the estates are on land the federal government designated as indigenous territory in 2010. The 28,000 Terena live on just 20,000 hectares in Mato Grosso. (Adital (Brazil) 6/5/13)
On June 6 Terena activists joined with representatives of the Munduruku indigenous group for protests at government offices in Brasilia. The Munduruku are among eight indigenous groups that have repeatedly occupied construction sites at the Belo Monte dam in the northern Brazilian state of Pará over the past year; the most recent occupation took place on May 28. The protests have held up work on the dam, which is projected to be the world’s third largest when completed. Some 140 Munduruku were in Brasilia for a meeting with Presidency Minister Gilberto Carvalho and other government officials on June 4. Valdenir Munduruku, a spokesperson for the group, told Brazilian media that the activists are demanding a complete halt of construction until indigenous people in the region have been consulted on the project, as required by International Labor Organization (ILO)Convention 169. Brazil has signed on to the convention, which guarantees a number of rights for indigenous people, including the right to prior consultation on projects that will affect their communities. The Munduruku are threatening to resume the occupation if they aren’t satisfied with the results of negotiations.
Brazil recognizes 305 different ethnic groups, representing some 896,900 indigenous people, less than 0.5% of Brazil’s 194 million citizens; officially designated indigenous lands take up about 12% of the national territory. The protests in Mato Grosso and Pará confront Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff with the most serious indigenous conflicts since she took office in January 2011. On June 7 the president of the government’s National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), Marta Azevedo, announced her resignation. FUNAI is the agency responsible for Brazil’s indigenous policies. Azevedo cited health problems. (Agência Brasil 6/7/13 via Ultimo Segundo (Brazil); TeleSUR 6/7/13, some from AFP)
*3. Argentina: Eight Activists Arrested in Mining Protest
The Argentine branch of the international environmental organization Greenpeace marked World Environment Day--a United Nations-sponsored event held each year on June 5--with a protest highlighting damage that the pro-mining policies of José Luis Gioja [see Update #1162], governor of the northwestern province of San Juan, could have on Argentina’s San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve. Eight Greenpeace activists climbed the Civic Center building in the city of San Juan and unfurled a 20-meter banner with a photograph of a puma and a caption reading: “Gioja: no mining in San Guillermo.” The activists were arrested and taken to the central police station.
The Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation has two open-pit gold mines in San Juan province: the Veladero mine and the massive Pascua Lama mine, still under construction, which extends from San Juan province into Chile’s Huasco province. San Juan province also hosts part of the large San Guillermo reserve, which includes both swampy lowlands of the Chaco region and Andean highlands. Greenpeace says that Barrick’s mining projects endanger Andean glaciers, a major source of water for the region, and the animals and vegetation in the reserve; the group has launched a “Save the San Guillermo Campaign” and as of June 5 had gathered more than 320,000 signatures from Argentine citizens on an internet petition. Barrick insists that the mines won’t affect the reserve.
On May 24 rightwing Chilean president Sebastián Piñera’s government ordered construction work suspended on the Chilean section of the Pascua Lama mine; the project’s completion may be postponed for years [see Update #1179]. In Argentina the center-left government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner continues to back the massive open-pit mining projects that environmental activists refer to as “mega-mining.” Greenpeace’s June 5 demonstration fell on a day when Gov. Gioja, a Fernández ally, and national officials were scheduled to present a “Plan for Management of the San Guillermo Reserve.” Once the plan is approved, San Juan province will receive $7 million from Barrick designated for care of the reserve. (Perfil (Buenos Aires) 6/5/13; Adital (Brazil) 6/5/13)
*4. Panama: Campesinos Demonstrate Against Dams
Members of 27 campesino communities in the San Francisco district of Panama’s western Veraguas province held a protest on June 7 to demand the cancellation of permits given for the construction of the Lalin 1, Lalin 2 and Lalin 3 hydroelectric projects on the Gatú river. The protesters charged that there were irregularities in the environmental impact studies for the dams. They also said that they hadn’t been consulted on the projects and that the companies involved were ignoring an order from San Francisco’s mayor to suspend construction. The communities proposed the promotion of cooperatives, ecological tourism and farming based on ecological principles as alternatives to what they consider the government’s bad development policies. The demonstration ended without incident, although the protesters complained about the presence of investigative and anti-riot police. Veraguas’ governor agreed to start negotiations with the campesinos. (Radio Temblor (Panama) 6/7/13)
Meanwhile, the indigenous Ngöbe Buglé are continuing to protest the Barro Blanco hydroelectric project in their territory in the western province of Chiriquí [see Update #1170]. According to Ricardo Miranda, a spokesperson for the Apr. 10 Movement, various communities in the area carried out actions on May 24 to demand the project’s cancellation. Miranda called on traditional Ngöbe-Buglé leader (cacica) Silvia Carrera to give up on the negotiations being held with the government at the United Nations (UN) office in Panama City. Even though an independent study mandated by a UN report last year still hasn’t been completed, Generadora del Istmo, S.A. (GENISA), the Honduran-owned company building the dam, says the project is now 40% complete. The company indicated that it was reforesting the area around the dam to compensate for clearing done in the construction. (Radio Nacional de Venezuela 5/27/13, some from Prensa Latina)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico
Latin America Just Says "No" to the War on Drugs
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/latin-america-just-says-qnoq-to-the-war-on-drugs
'Drug war' dissent at OAS summit
http://ww4report.com/node/12316
From Water Wars to Water Scarcity: Bolivia’s Cautionary Tale
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/5/water-wars-water-scarcity-bolivia%E2%80%99s-cautionary-tale
Bolivia: break between Evo, labor federation?
http://ww4report.com/node/12318
Vigilante justice in Bolivia —or autonomy?
http://ww4report.com/node/12322
Peruvian left bids farewell to Javier Diez Canseco
http://ww4report.com/node/12317
Peru: life term for neo-senderista
http://ww4report.com/node/12321
Peru: protest vigil against Trans-Pacific trade pact
http://ww4report.com/node/12320
Peru: new confrontation at Conga mine site
http://ww4report.com/node/12318
The Peace Process in Colombia and U.S. Foreign Policy: Plan Colombia II
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/3/peace-process-colombia-and-us-foreign-policy-plan-colombia-ii
Venezuela-U.S. Relations May Improve, Following Meeting of Foreign Ministers
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9670
Gang truce extends to Honduras
http://ww4report.com/node/11602#comment-451349
Civilian Policing "Reform" Consolidates Power (Honduras)
http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2013/06/criminal-investigations-halted.html
In Guatemala, a long road to justice
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/in-guatemala-a-long-road-to-justice/
Guatemala: criminalization of peasant protests
http://ww4report.com/node/12262#comment-451348
Report Dubs Mexico “A Graveyard for Migrants”
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/9626
Mexico Celebrates “Carnival of Corn” and Rejects Monsanto
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/9636
Feggo: Political Neighbors (Video, Mexico)
http://nacla.org/news/2013/6/4/feggo-political-neighbors-video
Maya pyramid bulldozed in Belize
http://ww4report.com/node/11648#comment-451347
New Report Shows that Migrant Deaths Remain High in Arizona (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/4/new-report-shows-migrant-deaths-remain-high-arizona
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as “Weekly News Update on the Americas” and include a link.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org/
Issue #1180, June 9, 2013
1. Mexico: Army Rescues 165 Kidnapped Migrants
2. Brazil: Top Indigenous Official Resigns as Conflicts Continue
3. Argentina: Eight Activists Arrested in Mining Protest
4. Panama: Campesinos Demonstrate Against Dams
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. It is archived athttp://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
Note: There will be links but no Update on June 16, 2013. Publication will resume the following week.
*1. Mexico: Army Rescues 165 Kidnapped Migrants
On June 4 Mexican army soldiers freed 165 people, mostly Central Americans, who the authorities said had been held for as much as three weeks by an unidentified criminal organization at a safe house in the Las Fuentes neighborhood in Gustavo Díaz Ordaz municipality, a few miles from the US border in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. One person, apparently a lookout for the kidnappers, was arrested. The captives were reportedly migrants who were planning to cross illegally into the US; the smugglers (“polleros”) they had hired may have turned them over to a criminal group, possibly the Gulf drug cartel or the Los Zetas gang.
According to the government, the group kidnapped was composed of 77 Salvadorans, 50 Guatemalans, 23 Hondurans, 14 Mexicans and one Indian national. There were 20 minors, including seven under the age of 13; two of the women migrants were pregnant. The federal National Migration Institute (INM) removed the 151 foreign nationals to Mexico City and began deporting them on June 7.
The June 4 rescue was the second largest such operation reported by the government to date, but the kidnapping of migrants—either for ransom or to be used as drug couriers--has become increasingly common over the past few years. In January 2009 a total of 189 Central Americans were found hidden in Reynosa, Tamaulipas; the kidnappers were demanding a $5,000 ransom for each. A military operation rescued 88 migrants in Arriaga in the southeastern state of Chiapas in 2010; 54 kidnapped migrants were found in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state’s capital, in March of this year. Some 11,000 migrants were kidnapped in just six months in 2010, according to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). The most notorious case occurred in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, in August 2010, when a Los Zetas group massacred 72 Central and South American migrants who refused to turn over their cash or work for the gang [see World War 4 Report 8/24/10].
Alberto Xicoténcatl, director of the Migrant House shelter in Saltillo, Coahuila, warned that the kidnapping of migrants is on the rise, partly because of complicity by government employees. “We know that the army goes to the [criminal groups’] safe houses and gets paid to keep quiet,” he told the Mexican daily La Jornada. “What happened a few days ago in Tamaulipas was a matter of an accidental discovery and didn’t result from a real investigation.” The military found the 165 kidnap victims because of a tip from a civilian. (New York Daily News 6/6/13; La Jornada (Mexico) 6/7/13,6/9/13, 6/9/13)
Foreign nationals aren’t the only victims; thousands of Mexicans are being murdered or kidnapped each year. The Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) reported on Feb. 26 that 26,121 people disappeared in the 2006-2012 period. The British-based human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) released a 16-page report in Mexico City on June 4 citing the “systematic failure” of the government in dealing with the phenomenon. The report, “Confronting a Nightmare: The Disappearance of People in Mexico,” noted the complicity or responsibility of government employees in many of the cases. AI reviewed 152 disappearances for the report; in 85 of them “there are sufficient signs of the implication of public officials… and of a lack of diligence on the part of the authorities to locate the victims.” (LJ 6/5/13; Los Angeles Times 2/16/13)
In other news, the bodies of three activists in the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) were found on June 3 beside a road in the southwestern state of Guerrero. One of the victims, Arturo Hernández Cardona, was the leader of the Popular Union (UP) in the city of Iguala; the other two, Félix Rafael Bandera Román and Ángel Román Ramírez, were members of the organization. The men were last seen on May 30 when they blocked a tollbooth on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway to demand that Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez, also a PRD member, provide fertilizers for campesinos. Media reports suggest that the killings might have been a common crime, since drug gangs are active in Guerrero. But Sofía Lorena Mendoza Martínez, Hernández Cardona’s widow, insisted the motivation was political. “[W]e are never going to accept that [the victims] could be linked to organized crime,” said Mendoza Martínez, who is a local rural development official. Some1,000 people attended the three activists’ funeral on June 4. (BBC News 6/3/13, LJ 6/5/13)
*2. Brazil: Top Indigenous Official Resigns as Conflicts Continue
Security guards shot and seriously injured an indigenous Terena, Josiel Gabriel Alves, on June 4 when a group of about 60 protesters tried to occupy the São Sebastião estate in Sidrolandia municipality in the southern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Doctors said Gabriel might lose the use of his arms and legs. This was the second shooting in less than a week in an ongoing dispute over lands claimed by the Terena: Osiel Gabriel, Josiel Gabriel’s cousin, was killed by federal police on May 30 at a nearby estate [see Update #1179]. The Terena have been occupying several large estates in Sidrolandia since May 15; they say the estates are on land the federal government designated as indigenous territory in 2010. The 28,000 Terena live on just 20,000 hectares in Mato Grosso. (Adital (Brazil) 6/5/13)
On June 6 Terena activists joined with representatives of the Munduruku indigenous group for protests at government offices in Brasilia. The Munduruku are among eight indigenous groups that have repeatedly occupied construction sites at the Belo Monte dam in the northern Brazilian state of Pará over the past year; the most recent occupation took place on May 28. The protests have held up work on the dam, which is projected to be the world’s third largest when completed. Some 140 Munduruku were in Brasilia for a meeting with Presidency Minister Gilberto Carvalho and other government officials on June 4. Valdenir Munduruku, a spokesperson for the group, told Brazilian media that the activists are demanding a complete halt of construction until indigenous people in the region have been consulted on the project, as required by International Labor Organization (ILO)Convention 169. Brazil has signed on to the convention, which guarantees a number of rights for indigenous people, including the right to prior consultation on projects that will affect their communities. The Munduruku are threatening to resume the occupation if they aren’t satisfied with the results of negotiations.
Brazil recognizes 305 different ethnic groups, representing some 896,900 indigenous people, less than 0.5% of Brazil’s 194 million citizens; officially designated indigenous lands take up about 12% of the national territory. The protests in Mato Grosso and Pará confront Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff with the most serious indigenous conflicts since she took office in January 2011. On June 7 the president of the government’s National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), Marta Azevedo, announced her resignation. FUNAI is the agency responsible for Brazil’s indigenous policies. Azevedo cited health problems. (Agência Brasil 6/7/13 via Ultimo Segundo (Brazil); TeleSUR 6/7/13, some from AFP)
*3. Argentina: Eight Activists Arrested in Mining Protest
The Argentine branch of the international environmental organization Greenpeace marked World Environment Day--a United Nations-sponsored event held each year on June 5--with a protest highlighting damage that the pro-mining policies of José Luis Gioja [see Update #1162], governor of the northwestern province of San Juan, could have on Argentina’s San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve. Eight Greenpeace activists climbed the Civic Center building in the city of San Juan and unfurled a 20-meter banner with a photograph of a puma and a caption reading: “Gioja: no mining in San Guillermo.” The activists were arrested and taken to the central police station.
The Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation has two open-pit gold mines in San Juan province: the Veladero mine and the massive Pascua Lama mine, still under construction, which extends from San Juan province into Chile’s Huasco province. San Juan province also hosts part of the large San Guillermo reserve, which includes both swampy lowlands of the Chaco region and Andean highlands. Greenpeace says that Barrick’s mining projects endanger Andean glaciers, a major source of water for the region, and the animals and vegetation in the reserve; the group has launched a “Save the San Guillermo Campaign” and as of June 5 had gathered more than 320,000 signatures from Argentine citizens on an internet petition. Barrick insists that the mines won’t affect the reserve.
On May 24 rightwing Chilean president Sebastián Piñera’s government ordered construction work suspended on the Chilean section of the Pascua Lama mine; the project’s completion may be postponed for years [see Update #1179]. In Argentina the center-left government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner continues to back the massive open-pit mining projects that environmental activists refer to as “mega-mining.” Greenpeace’s June 5 demonstration fell on a day when Gov. Gioja, a Fernández ally, and national officials were scheduled to present a “Plan for Management of the San Guillermo Reserve.” Once the plan is approved, San Juan province will receive $7 million from Barrick designated for care of the reserve. (Perfil (Buenos Aires) 6/5/13; Adital (Brazil) 6/5/13)
*4. Panama: Campesinos Demonstrate Against Dams
Members of 27 campesino communities in the San Francisco district of Panama’s western Veraguas province held a protest on June 7 to demand the cancellation of permits given for the construction of the Lalin 1, Lalin 2 and Lalin 3 hydroelectric projects on the Gatú river. The protesters charged that there were irregularities in the environmental impact studies for the dams. They also said that they hadn’t been consulted on the projects and that the companies involved were ignoring an order from San Francisco’s mayor to suspend construction. The communities proposed the promotion of cooperatives, ecological tourism and farming based on ecological principles as alternatives to what they consider the government’s bad development policies. The demonstration ended without incident, although the protesters complained about the presence of investigative and anti-riot police. Veraguas’ governor agreed to start negotiations with the campesinos. (Radio Temblor (Panama) 6/7/13)
Meanwhile, the indigenous Ngöbe Buglé are continuing to protest the Barro Blanco hydroelectric project in their territory in the western province of Chiriquí [see Update #1170]. According to Ricardo Miranda, a spokesperson for the Apr. 10 Movement, various communities in the area carried out actions on May 24 to demand the project’s cancellation. Miranda called on traditional Ngöbe-Buglé leader (cacica) Silvia Carrera to give up on the negotiations being held with the government at the United Nations (UN) office in Panama City. Even though an independent study mandated by a UN report last year still hasn’t been completed, Generadora del Istmo, S.A. (GENISA), the Honduran-owned company building the dam, says the project is now 40% complete. The company indicated that it was reforesting the area around the dam to compensate for clearing done in the construction. (Radio Nacional de Venezuela 5/27/13, some from Prensa Latina)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico
Latin America Just Says "No" to the War on Drugs
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/latin-america-just-says-qnoq-to-the-war-on-drugs
'Drug war' dissent at OAS summit
http://ww4report.com/node/12316
From Water Wars to Water Scarcity: Bolivia’s Cautionary Tale
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/5/water-wars-water-scarcity-bolivia%E2%80%99s-cautionary-tale
Bolivia: break between Evo, labor federation?
http://ww4report.com/node/12318
Vigilante justice in Bolivia —or autonomy?
http://ww4report.com/node/12322
Peruvian left bids farewell to Javier Diez Canseco
http://ww4report.com/node/12317
Peru: life term for neo-senderista
http://ww4report.com/node/12321
Peru: protest vigil against Trans-Pacific trade pact
http://ww4report.com/node/12320
Peru: new confrontation at Conga mine site
http://ww4report.com/node/12318
The Peace Process in Colombia and U.S. Foreign Policy: Plan Colombia II
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/3/peace-process-colombia-and-us-foreign-policy-plan-colombia-ii
Venezuela-U.S. Relations May Improve, Following Meeting of Foreign Ministers
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9670
Gang truce extends to Honduras
http://ww4report.com/node/11602#comment-451349
Civilian Policing "Reform" Consolidates Power (Honduras)
http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2013/06/criminal-investigations-halted.html
In Guatemala, a long road to justice
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/in-guatemala-a-long-road-to-justice/
Guatemala: criminalization of peasant protests
http://ww4report.com/node/12262#comment-451348
Report Dubs Mexico “A Graveyard for Migrants”
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/9626
Mexico Celebrates “Carnival of Corn” and Rejects Monsanto
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/9636
Feggo: Political Neighbors (Video, Mexico)
http://nacla.org/news/2013/6/4/feggo-political-neighbors-video
Maya pyramid bulldozed in Belize
http://ww4report.com/node/11648#comment-451347
New Report Shows that Migrant Deaths Remain High in Arizona (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/4/new-report-shows-migrant-deaths-remain-high-arizona
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as “Weekly News Update on the Americas” and include a link.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org/
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
Small Businesses Urged to Look to Latin America
HispanicBusiness.com Latin American and Caribbean trade conferences held in Miami often concentrate on the big players — the multinationals — and global economic trends. But Trade Americas Expo, which began Thursday, is shifting the focus to small- and medium-sized … |
1 Comment, last updated on Sunday Jun 23 by Jorge
I knew almost immediately that when a story from offthegridnews.com began with this headline, “U.S. Food Stamps In Puerto Rico Costing You 2 Billion Dollars,” readers weren’t going to get much actual real information about Puerto Rico and its relationship with the United States.
That was pretty much confirmed when the piece’s author, Tara Dodrill, last night included the following photo of “Puerto Rico” (FYI, that’s the Philippines and there is a rail in the street, which doesn’t exist at all in Puerto Rico) as the featured image of the story:
That photo of “Not Puerto Rico” was replaced later with this photo, one that is widely used:
So now we know the initial intentions of the piece, which confirms that Dodrill was just going to write drivel about Puerto Rico and create the myth that Puerto Ricans are a bunch of foreign Third World moochers. Yet in the interest of taking a moment to respond to yet another example of how some Americans have no idea about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, I will share a few more thoughts about Dodrill’s sham of an article.
Let’s start:
Do Puerto Ricans living on the island get $2 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) money from the federal government? Yes. But did you know the federal government spent $80 billion on SNAP last year? Dodrill only gives you one tree instead of the forest to prove her point that Puerto Ricans are taking away “American money.” So Puerto Ricans living on the island, who by the way ARE American citizens (something Dodrill’s story tends to brush aside until the very end), account for 2.5% of the entire 2012 SNAP budget. 2.5%. And those American citizens living on the island can’t even vote for President or have representation in Congress. Dodrill’s story could have easily have read, “U.S. Food Stamps in California Are Costing You 5.6 Billion Dollars,” or ”U.S. Food Stamps in Texas Are Costing You 5.5 Billion Dollars,” or ”U.S. Food Stamps in New York Are Costing You 4.9 Billion Dollars.” Instead Dodrill makes this illogical assumption that Puerto Ricans are not “American” and have no right to the same programs that are offered other U.S. citizens.
Do Puerto Ricans living on the island pay federal taxes? Yes. Let’s stop that myth right now. It’s just not true. Here is what the IRS has to say:
In general, United States citizens and resident aliens who are bona fide residents of Puerto Rico during the entire tax year, which for most individuals is January 1 to December 31, are only required to file a U.S. federal income tax return if they have income from sources outside of Puerto Rico or if they are employees of the U.S. government. Bona fide residents of Puerto Rico generally do not report income received from sources within Puerto Rico on their U.S. income tax return. However, they should report all income received from sources outside Puerto Rico on their U.S. income tax return. Residents of Puerto Rico who are employed by the government of the United States or who are members of the armed forces of the United States also should report all income received for their services to the government of the United States on their U.S. income tax return.Special rules apply to civilian spouses of active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces who work in Puerto Rico but retain their tax residency status in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. If these spouses’ Puerto Rican income is only from wages, salaries, tips, or self-employment, they will only file a U.S. income tax return. For more information on how MSRRA applies to civilian spouses, refer to Publication 570 and Notice 2012-41.United States citizens or resident aliens who are not bona fide residents of Puerto Rico during the entire tax year are required to report all income from whatever source derived on their U.S. income tax return. However, a U.S. citizen who changes residence from Puerto Rico to the United States and who was a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico at least two years before changing residence can exclude from U.S. taxable income the Puerto Rican source income received while residing in Puerto Rico during the taxable year of such change of residence.If you are a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico and qualify to exclude your Puerto Rican source income on your U.S. tax return, you must determine your adjusted filing requirement based on the filing thresholds shown in the tax return instructions. For more information about how to determine the amount of income that requires filing a U.S. income tax return, refer to Publication 570 and Publication 1321 (PDF).If you have no U.S. filing requirement but have income that is effectively connected with a trade or business in Puerto Rico, you must fileForm 1040-SS (PDF) or Form 1040-PR (PDF) with the United States to report your self-employment income and, if necessary, pay self-employment tax. For more information on self-employment reporting requirements, see the Form 1040-SS Instructions and Form 1040-PR Instructions.
Also, since we are still talking about federal taxes, the IRS also says this: “Employers in Puerto Rico are subject to the taxes imposed by the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) (Social Security and Medicare taxes) and the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA). An employer is a person or organization for whom a worker performs services as an employee. As an employer you are required to withhold, report, and pay employment taxes on wages paid.”
Wait a minute, Puerto Ricans serve in the U.S. military? They’re not foreigners? Yes. In fact, Dodrill should be praising those who do serve and protect her right to write ignorant articles that suggest that Puerto Ricans are just a bunch of foreign Spanish-speaking poor people who live on the other side of the tracks and are just taking advantage of the system. Maybe Dodrill should read this piece from 2004: “Soldiers Can Die But Can’t Vote; Puerto Ricans Serve Without Representation,” which pretty much sums it up perfectly.
Is Puerto Rico a welfare state dump? Seriously? I have to address this one? Ok, I will. Yes, the island has problems, both in crime and unemployment, but I believe that this has to do more with the political status issue that has dragged on for decades and the island’s mediocre politicians who have placed status over the real issues surrounding Puerto Rico. I do agree with what Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi told the United Nations this week that the island’s current territorial (yes, colonial) status is the “root cause” of its problems, but I am equally disappointed that Puerto Rico’s current and past leaders aren’t working together to solve the status issue. Instead, they just keep bickering and blaming each other. It also does not help when the island’s own governor Alejandro García Padillaclaims that if Puerto Rico were to become a state of the Union, it would turn into a “Latin American ghetto.” Comments like that play right into Dodrill’s thesis, which is also implied in posts by the likes of Alex Jones’ InfoWars. So García Padilla just gave Alex Jones even more fodder to justify InfoWars’ views on Puerto Rico as being a backward welfare state instead of promoting what is good about the island and what Puerto Rico offers. Thanks a lot, governor.
Let’s be real for a minute: the current political system in Puerto Rico is broken. The status quo no longer works. Right now, those who believe in Puerto Rico’s future and potential must be attentive to the misinformation that is being shared online through so-called “alternative journalism” sites. Dodrill’s “story” clearly suggested that “foreigners” are taking away “YOUR hard-earned tax dollars,” when in fact, that is just not true. However, this type of content will continued to get shared and it is the biggest reason why I tell my pro-statehood friends that a very small yet influential group of Americans will do anything to discredit their statehood efforts and say that the United States should not take on a “Latino welfare state” full of Spanish-speaking people.
It is critical that Puerto Ricans of ALL political stripes start becoming Pro-Puerto Rico first and foremost. Take off your status badges now. We MUST be ever so vigilant of how the rest of the world views us, and when we see problems that ignorantly portray us, we must act together and feverishly defend ourselves. This is not about political status —let’s leave that debate for later— this is about working together to change how the rest of the United States views Puerto Rico and the 8 million of us who form part of the American fabric. And that perspective is one that is bilingual, bicultural, sometimes American, sometimes Puerto Rican. It is what makes us so unique. It can be our greatest strength, but also our greatest weakness. Yet it is purely Puerto Rican, and that is what we need to share, now more than ever.
Does the island have serious economic and social problems? Yes, and those problems will be tackled if the island’s bitter political struggles disappear, when we start promoting new industries on the island and move away from what is and what will always be a colonial system.
But does Puerto Rico also have millions of proud boricuas who can and will speak out againstimbéciles like Dodrill and Jones? Of course we do.
Let’s defend Puerto Rico at all times. Let’s make sure that the our authentic narrative is being shared online more and more so that our house is united and in order. Then we can worry about how the inside of our house will look like eventually.
Who’s in?
I am, and I will always support any fellow portorro who puts Puerto Rico first.
***
Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR, Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.
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Reblogged from NBC Latino: Puerto Rico's current commonwealth status is "the root cause of the economic and social problems that impair quality of life on the island," said Puerto Rico pro-statehood leader Pedro Pierluisi to members of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, arguing that Puerto Ricans have expressed a preference for statehood over its current […]
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- Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:29am EDT
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Washington, DC—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced that the House Appropriations Committee has approved the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2014, and the bill includes specific language proposed by the Resident Commissioner, which expresses concern about the high level of drug-related violence in Puerto Rico and which requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide a report within 90 days on the steps DOD is taking, and the steps it intends to take going forward, to make it more difficult for drug trafficking organizations to transport drugs to and through Puerto Rico.The language states as follows:“The Committee remains concerned over the high level of violent crime in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Committee notes that the homicide rate in each territory is significantly higher than any other U.S. jurisdiction and that many of these homicides are linked to the cross-border trade of illegal narcotics. The Committee further notes that data collected by federal law enforcement agencies appear to confirm that the U.S. territories in the Caribbean have become an increasingly attractive trans-shipment route for drug traffickers seeking to supply the U.S. mainland. The Committee directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a report not later than 90 days after the enactment of this Act to the congressional defense committees on detection, monitoring, and other counterdrug activities the Department is undertaking, or intends to undertake, to support law enforcement operations in and around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”“I want to thank the Appropriations Committee for including the language I requested, which requires DOD to ensure that it is taking the necessary steps to protect the U.S. jurisdiction of Puerto Rico from the scourge of drugs and related violence,” said Pierluisi.“I have made a commitment to the 3.7 million American citizens living in Puerto Rico that I will do everything within my power to enable them to live in security and peace. I am pleased that my efforts are producing results, and I will not rest until the crisis of violence in Puerto Rico is alleviated,” added the Resident Commissioner.Relatedly, Pierluisi met earlier this week with senior officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to receive a briefing on the status of the agency’s “surge” to Puerto Rico, which the Resident Commissioner announced in February after his longstanding efforts to urge federal law enforcement agencies to increase resources on the Island finally bore fruit. Pierluisi was informed that additional federal law enforcement agents have already been deployed to Puerto Rico, and that many more will be deployed to the Island this summer, with the specific goal of reducing drug-related violence. The Resident Commissioner was also told that, as he has requested, DHS is closely collaborating with the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and the United States Postal Inspection Service to improve and enhance joint efforts to reduce the flow of drugs and guns to Puerto Rico. The DHS officials provided Pierluisi with a great deal of information about the new federal efforts, most of which the Resident Commissioner will not publicly reveal in order to maximize the effectiveness of those efforts.“I am very pleased with what I heard from DHS. The senior officials informed me that Secretary Janet Napolitano, who visited Puerto Rico in the summer of 2012, has great interest in this subject, and regularly seeks updates about the status of efforts to reduce drug trafficking and violence in Puerto Rico. I am particularly pleased by the inter-agency cooperation that DHS officials briefed me on. This effort requires cooperation—both among federal law agencies and between federal agencies and local agencies. Rest assured that I will continue my efforts until the public safety crisis in Puerto Rico is brought under control.”
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More than 29% of the people born in Puerto Rico still alive had left the territory for the States as of two years ago, according to U.S. Census data.
The 1.5 million residents of the States who formerly lived in the islands did not include the 3.4 million people of Puerto Rican origin born in the States.
As Puerto Rico has continued to decline economically and socially in its territory status, often misleadingly called “commonwealth”, millions of Puerto Ricans have ‘voted with their feet’ for the equality of opportunities and benefits of statehood by moving to a State.
As of 2011, there were an estimated 4,916,000 people of Puerto Rican origin in the States.
The migration has been so great in recent years that the islands’ population has declined for the first time in recorded history. In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 3,808,610 people in Puerto Rico. A year ago, it estimated the population at 3,667,084 – a net decrease of 141,526.
It also, however, estimated the population two years ago at 58,705 less than at the time of the 2010 census. This means that the pace of migration from the territory to the States has substantially increased in more recent years.
The 2010-12 personal seeking of statehood averaged more than 80 Puerto Ricans every day.
Although ‘commonwealther’ opponents of statehood and right-wing allies they have enlisted in the States have tried unsuccessfully to make Puerto Ricans’ use of Spanish a disqualification for statehood, the Census data found that 82% of Puerto Ricans in the States were fluent in English.
Puerto Rico is the second-largest place of origin of Hispanics in the States. Mexico is the largest.
In 2011, there were an estimated 1,070,000 people of Puerto Rican origin in New York and 850,000 in Florida.
The number of people of Puerto Rican origin in New York has been about the same since at least 1990 — but the number in Florida has ballooned from 247,000 in 1990 and 482,000 in 2000.
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