Saturday, December 26, 2009

Murders of resistance activists in Honduras



By Joseph Shansky
Upside Down World
December 23, 2009


   "As a revolutionary I will be today, tomorrow
   and forever on the front lines of my people,
   all the while knowing that I may lose my life."
   - Walter Trochez, 25, murdered in Tegucigalpa
   on December 13.

The bodies of slain activists are piling up in
Honduras. While it's being kept quiet in most Honduran
and international media, the rage is building among a
dedicated network of friends spreading the word quickly
with the tragic announcement of each companero/a.

Now that the world heard from mainstream news outlets
such as the New York Times of a "clean and fair"
election on Nov. 29 (orchestrated by the US-supported
junta currently in power), the violence has increased
even faster than feared.

The specific targets of these killings have been those
perceived as the biggest threats to the coup
establishment. The bravest, and thus the most
vulnerable: Members of the Popular Resistance against
the coup. Their friends and family. People who provide
the Resistance with food and shelter. Teachers,
students, and ordinary citizens who simply recognize
the fallacy of an un-elected regime taking over their
country. All associated with the Resistance have faced
constant and growing repercussions for their courage in
protesting the coup. With the international community
given the green light by the US that democratic order
has returned via elections, it's open season for
violent forces in Honduras working to tear apart the
political unity of the Resistance Front against the
coup.

The killings are happening almost faster than they can
be recorded.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Fraud in Honduran elections

Election report.  In Spanish.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4654

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Gutierrez introduces a new immigration bill


Congressman Luis Gutierrez Introduces Immigration Bill


Below is a summary of the immigration reform legislation introduced by Congressman Luis Gutierrez and many other members of the U.S. Congress. We would qualify this legislative initiative as a very good beginning of the immigration debate about the character of immigration reform that is good for immigrants and good for America.We find much more to support in this legislation than to recommend for improvements and call on all immigrant communities to review it closely, draw your own conclusions, and make your voices heard. The debate now begins. We certainly will do our part to make the information available to our constituents, organize informational forums and hearings, make our recommendations and suggestions known to the legislators, and mobilize our community in favor of the best possible deal that we can get under the dire circumstances that we currently face in the country.
We applaud Congressman Luis Gutierrez for his perseverance, his colleagues of the various congressional caucuses, and the many organizations, churches, and unions that played a role in bringing to light this legislation. Now the really tough fight begins to seeing it through to the U.S. Senate - secure a comparable companion bill - and corraling enough votes for its approval in 2010 with the signature of the president.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Brazil's differences with Washington are Positive


Mark Weisbrat 
Over the last decade an epoch-making political change has taken place in the Western Hemisphere: Latin America, a region that was once considered the United States' "back yard," is now more independent of Washington than Europe is.

But while Latin America has changed, U.S. foreign policy has not - even now, with the election of President Obama. Hence the region, including Brazil, finds itself increasingly at odds with Washington. The military coup in Honduras is just one recent and glaring example.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Socialist Morales wins re-election in Bolivia


With Victory, Morales and Social Movements Confront New
Challenges in Bolivia

By Tanya Kerssen
Bolivian president Evo Morales and his political party,
the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), won a resounding
victory in the presidential elections this past Sunday,
December 6. The nearest challengers, Manfred Reyes
Villa and his running mate Leopoldo Fernandez--whose
current address is a La Paz prison, where he stands
accused of ordering the murder of pro-government
peasants --represent an old political and economic order
that has used sedition and violence in an effort to
obstruct and destabilize the Morales government.

The old order and the new are locked in a struggle for
the future of Bolivia. "The social movements are
critical for presidents to be able to create a new
alternative," declared Bolivian Foreign Minister David
Choquehuanca in the tropical city of Cochabamba in
October at a summit of leftist Latin American
presidents, including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and
Ecuador's Rafael Correa. At the parallel Social
Movements Summit comprised of 700 delegates from 40
countries, Isaac Avalos, leader of the Bolivian
Peasants Federation promised to help "bury the
opposition" in the election.

Read the entire article here:  http://globalalternatives.org/node/110

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Justice for Nativo Lopez

Justice for Nativo Lopez and Overhill Farms Workers
"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Fact Sheet
INTRODUCTION. Nativo Lopez is known nationally for his organizing and support of immigrants, workers, and students. As president of the Mexican American Political Association and national director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, Nativo is a vocal advocate for the rights of undocumented immigrants who face persecution because of their status: be it at their workplace, school, or communities. Most recently he founded a new independent union, the General Brotherhood of Workers International Union, and has been working closely with terminated employees from the company Overhill Farms and assisting in their fight against unjust firings. Overhill Farms is the largest food processing and manufacturing company in California with between 800 and 1,000 employees, based in the city of Vernon, and supplies packaged food product to companies such as Jenny Craig, Panda Express, El Pollo Loco, American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Safeway, and many other super-market chain stores.
· Nativo faces eight felony charges by the Los Angeles District Attorney, Steve Cooley, that include: fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury, and fraudulent voting. On July 8th, 2009, Nativo declared himself "NOT GUILTY" to a judge during his arraignment. These charges are based on allegations that he used a business address (of his organization) to register to vote and vote in an election, while allegedly residing at a different location. The period in question was January 2006 to March 2008. He voted on one single occasion, and never in multiple jurisdictions. The California Secretary of State investigated the case for one-and-a-half years, while the department could have decided to take administrative action, instead turned it over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney for prosecution.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Uruguay Elects leftist, former guerrilla

Written by Darío Montero
Monday, 30 November 2009

  Left-wing candidate José Mujica was elected
president of Uruguay with nearly 52 percent of the vote
Sunday, seven to eight percentage points ahead of his
rival, the right-wing Luis Alberto Lacalle, according
to projections by pollsters.

Mujica, a former senator and agriculture minister, will
take over from socialist President Tabaré Vázquez on
Mar. 1, to head the second administration of the
leftist Broad Front coalition.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Eduardo Galeano on elections in Uruguay and Honduras

Whitewashing Elections in Honduras




by Lisa Sullivan
School of The Americas Watch.
And now, the second bath of whitewash was even more
challenging, especially since the first whitewash
proved to be kind of thin and exposed the words from
below. Thus, it didn't really convince many. As a
matter of fact, it didn't convince anyone except the
United States government (or woops, maybe they actually
helped to stir the first batch), Now, the challenge of
November 29th whitewash was to transform the civilian
coup into a shining electoral display of freedom,
fairness and grand participation so that all the world
would say, "wow, that Honduran coup is gone. Now
Honduras has a real and wonderful democracy, End of
story".

Except that it's probably the beginning of a story. One
that we thought had been left to rest in Latin America
years and years ago. One of fear and repression and
deaths and disappearances. We know the litany all too
well, and we remember the names of its thousands of
victims each November. This year we had to add too many
new names from Honduras. And, if our government chooses
to recognize these elections, this massive whitewash, I
fear that many more names will be read from the stage
in front of Ft. Benning next year. And perhaps not just
from Honduras.