Thursday, May 17, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
COHA: Chavez needs "effective coherence, fixity of purpose"
CIA funded paramilitaries in Guatemala 1954Think Guatemala 1954, When Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela Springs To Mind
This analysis was prepared by COHA Staff
May 14th, 2007
In 1954, United Fruit, in concert with the CIA, successfully orchestrated the overthrow of Guatemala’s democratically-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, charging that the Central American nation had fallen under communist influence. The demise of Arbenz took time to accomplish, with the fatal draught being a casual concoction of miscommunication, corporate arrogance, misinformation, outright deception, a naïve reform-minded government and arrogance on the part of the Eisenhower administration. Arbenz was neither a communist, nor was his government profoundly sympathetic to extreme leftist ideas as charged at the time by U.S. government officials and media outlets. Upon his election in 1951, Arbenz took office in a country in which 70% of the arable land was controlled by 2.2% of the population – only 12% of which was being cultivated at the time of his overthrow in 1954. Like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, he wanted to reform what was palpably neither a good nor just society.
Case Studies of Guatemala and Venezuela
The parallels between Guatemala in 1954 and present day Venezuela are uncomfortably close, which is cause enough for concern that the U.S. government and its compliant media have predictably taken sides. It was of little surprise therefore that land reform was one of the priorities chosen by the democratically-elected Arbenz just as it has become for President Chavez. Soon after taking office, both reformers similarly instituted wide ranging agricultural reform policies that sought to distribute uncultivated land to thousands of poor, landless peasants. Arbenz’s plan, however modest it initially was in scope, struck a raw nerve with the largest landowning enterprise in Guatemala, the United Fruit Company. The holdings of this agro-industrial giant in the country were 85% uncultivated, therefore facing heavy taxes under extant law. A similar shock faced Venezuelan land holders when their fallow and speculative land parcels were scheduled to be seized by the government, to be redistributed to landless campesinos.
Bananas or Oil, the Process is the Same
Back in the early 1950’s, United Fruit, a major hemispheric banana company with extensive ties to U.S. power brokers both within and outside the government, had consistently undervalued the worth of its land reserves for the purposes of evading heavy property tax obligations. Yet, when Arbenz approached United Fruit with a compensation plan for their land scheduled for expropriation, the company balked at the $3 per acre validation price. In fact, this was the artificially low figure which had been previously designated by the company itself for tax purposes. The Guatemalan government, for its part, claimed that in fact the true assessed value of the land should have been pegged at $75 per acre. The details of this squabble mattered little, because ultimately ‘might made right’, a parable regarding the articulation of U.S. hemispheric policy that Hugo Chavez would be well advised to have on his mind without interruption.
Read full report at Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
Monday, May 14, 2007
Ecuador's Correa: Government to investigate crimes against humanity of 1980s & 1990s
Ecuador has set up a truth commission to investigate human rights abuses committed over the last 27 years, particularly during the right-wing rule of Leon Febres Cordero, who was president during the 1980s.
The role of the four-member commission is intended to "halt impunity", Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, said on Friday.
The commission is composed of a lawyer, two human rights activists and Pedro Restrepo, whose two sons disappeared in January 1988 at the end of Febres Cordero's 1984-1988 government.
Restrepo's sons are believed to have been killed by police, who mistook them for Colombian guerrillas. Their bodies were never found.
Human rights
Gustavo Larrea, Ecuador's interior minister, said the human rights of "hundreds of citizens were systematically violated" during parts of the 1980s and 1990s when the government fought to put down a series of relatively minor leftist uprisings.
He said there have been 327 cases of political assassinations, torture and disappearances that have gone unpunished during the period.
"Impunity has made society, the state, close their eyes to the events that occurred in the country in a planned and systematic manner," he said.
Members of the victims' families and human rights groups accuse the 76-year-old Febres Cordero, for decades a dominant figure in Ecuadorean politics, of ordering political killings during his government. He has strongly denied the accusations.
Ex-president hits back
Febres Cordero, speaking at a press conference in his native port city of Guayaquil, accused Correa on Friday of forming "a tribunal of the Inquisition" and said his political enemies want to try him "for having fought terrorism".
He also called Correa "a totalitarian" and said that if the government sought to proscute him, he would not flee.
"I've never run, nor will I run," he said. "If they want to look for me, they know where to find me."
The commission will have nine months to present a report, with a possible extension of three months.
Source: Al Jazeera
Latino orgs send letter to Bush: "to express our outrage"
Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned Latino organizations, write to express our outrage and deep concern over the manner in which workplace raids have been conducted all across the United States in the past few months. As organizations that work closely with the communities that are directly impacted by these raids, we are often the first to respond to the immediate humanitarian crisis that occurs when a raid is conducted. Particularly, we are concerned about the raids’ short- and long-term impact on children. There are approximately 3.1 million U.S. citizen children who have at least one undocumented parent, and there are 1.8 million undocumented children in the U.S. We believe that the U.S. must take the needs of these children into account and fix the broken immigration system that separates them from their parents.
Workplace raids leave a long-lasting impact, not only on the local economy, but on the children who are separated from their parents as a result of a raid. Recently, thousands of immigrant workers have been detained as the result of raids. Many of these workers are parents of young children, many of whom are U.S. citizens. While it is our understanding that single parents are occasionally released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody to care for their children, there are many parents who are transported to ICE detention facilities far from their homes, and their family members have no ability to communicate with them.
In the aftermath of the raids, churches, schools, and social service agencies have scrambled to determine which workers have children, assess which children must be picked up from day care and school, find caregivers for the children, and provide basic health and nutrition services. In addition to providing basic necessities, advocates have encountered other problems trying to care for the children of detained parents. For example, after the Swift and Co. raids in December 2006, advocates highlighted cases in which they were not able to interview parents to determine any special needs their children may have. It has also been difficult, if not impossible, for advocates to gather information about sick children who needed medication. Following the recent raid in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a dehydrated infant was hospitalized because her mother had not been able to breastfeed her. Family members or friends have been put in the difficult position of having to care for the children of detained parents, and teenage children have been placed in the unfortunate and unfair position of having to care for younger siblings on their own.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick correctly characterized the recent raids as a “humanitarian crisis.” Our children deserve better, and it is up to the Administration and Congress to deliver to them a sound immigration policy that does not result in parents being separated from their children. The time is long overdue for our nation to stop tearing apart these hardworking families and bring about real, comprehensive solutions to our immigration problems. We strongly urge you to work with Congress to bring about an immigration reform that will allow immigrant workers to work legally, American communities to prosper, and children to thrive.
cc: Michael Chertoff
Julie Myers
Sincerely,
Academia Cesar Chavez – Saint Paul, MN
Acercamiento Hispano de Carolina del Sur – Columbia, SC
AltaMed Health Services Corporation – Los Angeles, CA
Bridge Academy Charter School – Bridgeport, CT
Calexico Community Action Council – Calexico, CA
CARECEN – Washington, DC
Carlos Rosario School – Washington, DC
CASA of Maryland – Silver Spring, MD
CASA of Oregon – Newberg, OR
Center for Hispanic Policy & Advocacy – Providence, RI
Center for Training & Careers/WorkNET – San Jose, CA
Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, Inc. – Florida City, FL
Centro de Amistad – Guadalupe, AZ
Centro de la Comunidad – Baltimore, MD
Centro de Residentes Bolivianos – Madison, WI
Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe – El Paso, TX
Centro Hispano of Dane County – Cambridge, MA
CentroNía – Washington, DC
Centro Presente, Inc. – Cambridge, MA
Cesar Chavez Academy – Pueblo, CO
Cesar Chavez Dual Language Immersion Charter School – Santa Barbara, CA
Chicano Awareness Center – Omaha, NE
Chicano Federation of San Diego County – San Diego, CA
Coalition for New South Carolinians – Columbia, SC
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition – Denver, CO
Colorado Rural Housing – Westminster, CO
Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc. – New York, NY
Community Child Care Center of Santa Clara County – San Jose, CA
Conexión Américas – Nashville, TN
Congreso de Latinos Unidos – Philadelphia, PA
Council for the Spanish Speaking – Milwaukee, WI
Del Norte Neighborhood Development Corp. – Denver, CO
Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation – Detroit, MI
Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School – Pueblo, CO
DRAW Academy – Houston, TX
East Las Vegas Community Development Corporation (ELVCDC) – Las Vegas, NV
El Centro de la Raza – Seattle, WA
El Centro de las Americas – Lincoln, NE
El Pueblo, Inc. – Raleigh, NC
Emigrantes Sin Fronteras – Phoenix, AZ
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center – Miami, FL
Florida Immigrant Coalition – Tallahassee, FL
Gads Hill Center – Chicago, IL
Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) – Atlanta, GA
Hands Across Cultures – Española, NM
HELP – New Mexico, Inc. – Albuquerque, NM
Hispanic American Student Association (HASA), University of Central Oklahoma – Edmond, OK
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
Hispanic Coalition of Florida – Miami, FL
Hispanic Committee of Virginia – Falls Church, VA
Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama – Birmingham, AL
Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas – Springdale, AR
HOLA – Hispanas Organizadas de Lake y Ashtabula (OH) – Painesville, OH
Hyde Square Task Force – Jamaica Plain, MA
Idaho Community Action Network – Boise, ID
Kentucky Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights – Lexington, KY
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – Chicago, IL
Information Referral Resource Assistance Inc. – Edinburg, TX
Instituto del Progreso Latino – Chicago, IL
La Casa de Esperanza – Waukesha, WI
La Casa Health Network, Inc. – Little Rock, AR
Latin American Coalition – Charlotte, NC
Latin American Community Center, Inc. – Wilmington, DE
Latin American Research and Service Agency – Denver, CO
Latin American Youth Center – Washington, DC
Latino Community Development Agency – Oklahoma City, OK
Latino Economic Development Corporation – Washington, DC
Latino Family Services – Detroit, MI
Latino Leadership – Orlando, FL
Latino Memphis, Inc. – Memphis, TN
Latinos for Education and Justice Organization – Calhoun, GA
Latinos United for Change and Advancement – Madison, WI
Law Offices of Navarro & Associates – Santa Ana, CA
Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care – Washington, DC
Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) – Jackson & Biloxi, MS
Montebello Housing Development Corporation – Montebello, CA
Mujeres Latinas en Acción – Chicago, IL
NAF Multicultural Human Development Corporation – North Platte, NE
National Association of Latino Independent Producers – New York, NY
Near Northside Partners Council, Inc. – Fort Worth, TX
New Jersey Immigration Policy Network – Newark, NJ
NEWSED CDC – Denver, CO
Parent Institute for Quality Education – San Diego, CA
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund – New York, NY
Repertorio Español – New York, NY
Rural Opportunities, Inc. – Rochester, NY
Salem/Keizer Coalition for Equality – Salem, OR
San Diego County SER/Jobs for Progress, Inc. – Oceanside, CA
SEA MAR Community Health Centers – Seattle, WA
Servicios de La Raza, Inc. – Denver, CO
Siete del Norte CDC – Embudo, NM
Southern Poverty Law Center – Montgomery, AL
Southwest Key Program, Inc. – Austin, TX
Spanish Speaking Citizens’ Foundation – Oakland, CA
St. Matthew Immigration/Detention Committee – Baltimore, MD
Tejano Center for Community Concerns – Houston, TX
Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) – Nashville, TN
United Dubuque Immigrant Alliance (UN DIA) – Dubuque, IA
United Hispanic Americans, Inc. – Fort Wayne, IN
University of Wisconsin Latina/o Law Student Association – Madison, WI
Vecinos Unidos – Dallas, TX
Washington State Migrant Council – Sunnyside, WA
Watts/Century Latino Organization – Los Angeles, CA
Western Colorado Justice for Immigrants Committee – Grand Junction, CO
Liberation Theology Under Papal Scrutiny
Source: Brazzil Magazine
The Real Reason Behind Pope's Visit to Brazil: to Squash Liberation Theology
Written by Marcelo Netto Rodrigues
Thursday, 10 May 2007
Ask any ordinary Brazilian Catholic why the pope is visiting Brazil, and the corny old tune will be the same: "Benedict XVI is coming to canonize friar Galvão, the first genuinely Brazilian saint". Try to ask a layman, and his answer will add an enigmatic acronym to those who do not follow the Church's history: "He is coming for the opening of the 5th CELAM's Conference".
Ask now any Liberation Theology representative, and Ratzinger's jovial visit turns into a clear message in which friar Galvão is a mere popular supporting actor in a plan to contain the Catholic exodus; and the bishops conference becomes the main stage to attack those who live under the prism of "preferential option for the poor" - an option by the way germinated in Medellin (Colombia), in 1968, during the encounter's 2nd edition and irrigated in the following meeting in Puebla (Mexico), in 1979.
Benedict XVI did not choose Brazil by chance for his first trip as a pope to the American continent. His stay, although short, can define the Church's course in Latin America for the next ten years. This because traditionally the inaugural talk of the General Conference of the Latin-American and Caribbean Episcopate (CELAM), which will be delivered by Ratzinger the same day he leaves the country, May 13, serves to delimit the discussions ground, which this time will be conducted by 280 bishops who will remain gathered in the city of Aparecida do Norte up to May 31.
And it's precisely here that Ratzinger's concerns play a role. He will be treading Brazilian territory for the third time. The first one was in 1985, soon after the proceedings against Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff and the second, in 1990, to teach a course to Brazilian bishops in Rio de Janeiro.
Almost half of the planet's Catholics live in Latin America. They are 480 million faithfuls who little by little are abandoning the Catholic Church. Ratzinger is hopeful that his talk has direct influence on the lines of pastoral action adopted by the bishops at the end of the meeting.
As a curiosity in this battle between the Catholic Church and the neopentecostal churches we need only say that the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, belonging to bishop Edir Macedo, has just announced that his pastors will be handing out condoms to all their faithfuls, as a follow-up to what they are already doing in South Africa.
Appetizer
This line of reasoning supports in part the opinion of Father João Pedro Baresi, a Combonian priest aligned to the Liberation Theology. Says he, "Ratzinger's visit is part of a plan in which the biggest concern is the exodus of the Catholic believers." Not only that.
For Baresi, the pope is also going to use the trip to try "to put a brake on Liberation Theology," since Ratzinger blames the Liberation Theology for the increasing loss of believers since its affirmation as theology in the decade of 1960.
"What the just-installed São Paulo archbishop, Odilo Scherer, said a few days ago, that the time of that theology has passed may just be an appetizer of things to come." That's what Baresi believes.
And in this context, the inaugural talk of the CELAM Conference is extremely important for the pope to convey his message. "Friar Galvão's canonization complements the plan: it is the Catholic popular religiosity being used to try to hold the people in exodus."
Still commenting on bishop Odilo, Baresi adds:"He should substantiate his statement. And another thing, what matters is not the Liberation Theology, but the liberation itself, as Gustavo Gutierrez always says. If anyone has something better that contributes to the commitment of liberation in the light of faith, he should propose it".
But Scherer's statement is not the only clue left by the current pope on his way to Latin America. The Vatican's recent warning to the Jesuit aligned to the Liberation Theology, Jon Sobrino, who lives in El Salvador, sounds like a new condemnation by Ratzinger of this Gospel's interpretation key.
Liberation Theology Lives
Brazilian Benedictine monk Marcelo Barros subscribes to the idea that Liberation Theology would only be obsolete if the conditions and motives that originated it didn't exist any longer. "Now, we all know that on the contrary, unjust poverty and social inequality increased a lot, as well as it can be said that the resurgence of indigenous and peasant popular movements is more organized. All over the planet the number of those who are getting organized in order to make a different world possible is also increasing.
"As many of these people are protestants, Christian or from other religions, not only the Liberation Theology remains valid, but it also stopped being just a Latin-American phenomenon to become global."
Barros, who belongs to the Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of the Third World Theologians, says that he has seen a bridge-building movement between Liberation Theology and the Cultural and Religious Pluralism Theology.
"That means that there is today an inter-religious Liberation Theology, which is not only Christian. With a wide literature that didn't exist before and that includes Black Theology, Indigenous Theology, Feminist Theology, Eco-Theology, which have become new branches of Liberation Theology."
The Dominican Friar Betto was also contacted for this story. His adviser told us, however, that he was in Cuba and that he wouldn't be able to answer since he has a hard time using the Internet because of the United States blockade of the island.
This article appeared originally in the magazine Brasil de Fato - www.brasildefato.com.br.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
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