Mexico on The Huffington Post

Truck Carrying18 Immigrants Falls Off Cliff In Texas (VIDEO)

2009-11-25T15:32:08Z

McALLEN, Texas (AP)— Authorities say a truck carrying illegal immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico has plummeted more than 40 feet off a cliff in southwest Texas. All 18 aboard were injured.

The pickup truck went off the road near Alice on Tuesday afternoon and fell into a gravel pit. Alice is about 40 miles west of Corpus Christi.

Tracy L. Barnett: Lighting Out For The South

2009-11-23T08:46:00Z

Tomorrow I will follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, Che Guevara and Celia Cruz to the irrepressible rhythm of the Cuban sun - emanating from Cuban human beings, not my CD collection or a cover band in downtown Houston. Far from the Bayou City, I'll savor the sunset breezes on the Malecon, the famous boulevard that stretches the length of the city along the Bay of Havana. As many a tourist has done before me, I'll sit at Hemingway's favorite bar and have a mojito in his memory.

And while I will embrace the cultural magic of this legendary land, my journey goes beyond culture to something more essential, something universal and urgent.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek recently articulated my thinking better than I could have. Salopek won the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award last month from Colby College, and like a modern-day Horace Greeley, he uttered some sage words of advice to young journalists in his acceptance speech.

"I would advise any ambitious young reporter today not to head to Washington or to London to launch a career but to light out for the South, because that's where the global narrative is rapidly taking shape," he said.

Salopek, for those who may not know, is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who was captured and held captive in Sudan for a month while reporting a National Geographic cover story on Africa's Sahel region. One can only hope that his words will inspire a fraction of the shift in the national zeitgeist reflected in the famous 1800s phrase attributed to Greeley, "Go West, young man."

I am no longer a young reporter, but lighting out for the South is exactly what I am preparing to do. Over course of the next year, I will be traveling through Latin America, reporting on the important and innovative work of world-changers at the grassroots. Here is where the passion and the color and the sazon of the Latino people finds its nexus with what's been called the most urgent issue of our time: remaking society in a way that will avert an ecological catastrophe.

Citizens of the Global South have too often been portrayed as victims, villains and bit characters in the global narrative playing out around us. We see the images of the distressed and dismayed, buffeted by yet another catastrophe. We hear about the druglords and narcotraffickers, the swine flu outbreaks and the hordes of undocumented immigrants besieging our borders.

What I have seen in my travels in the Global South is a sharp contrast. Yes, there is suffering, but as Salopek also noted, there is great joy. He describes Africa, with all its entrenched poverty, as one of the happiest places he's been. Paradoxical, yes; but paradox is the great crucible of the soul, and therein lies the story I am about to tell.

My Global South is peopled with heroes and heroines, men and women who face down their fears and the formidable challenges that stand in their way to produce meaningful change. It's also peopled with ordinary folks who are tackling the same challenges we are, but from a different angle.

My Global South is working quietly to create a model for a future that is ultimately more sustainable than the one that we here in the overdeveloped world have created, and we have barely noticed.

In the year ahead, as humanity wrestles with what may be the greatest challenge of our times - re-creating a society and a sustainable way of life that is consistent with long-term planetary survival - I will be giving voice to some of these unsung world-changers in the pages of The Esperanza Project, a green bilingual (and ultimately, multilingual) news portal for the Americas.

Esperanza is the Spanish word for hope - a commodity seemingly in short supply these days. With the rapidly approaching Copenhagen conference, climate leadership is hard to find - unless one looks south, where Brazil, the world's fourth-largest carbon producer, is pledging to cut emissions by a third; Cuba, which has turned crisis to opportunity with one of the hemisphere's most sustainable infrastructures; and mega-metropolises like Mexico City and Bogota, with green initiatives that go far beyond what most U.S. cities have attempted.
I've already begun the reporting on this project with an October trip to Mexico, where young professionals in Guadalajara are putting their bodies on the line for a more sustainable city, and in Mexico City where a sprawling, 30,000-person complex is making the conversion to an ecovillage.

In Cuba, I'll witness the creative responses to the crisis that followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of its main source of petroleum. The country was forced to rapidly rethink its agricultural, energy, transportation and health care systems with a fraction of its previous oil supply, and in a process borne of necessity, created some of the world's most sustainable cities.

And in January, after packing up my belongings into a storage locker and saying goodbye to my family, I'll be hitting the road on a yearlong southward journey seeking and training collaborators for a new media project.

On this news network, Latin Americans are the protagonists of their own narrative, and one that we here in the North would do well to follow, as there is much to be learned from them. We'll be using all the tools of the digital age to tell their stories: video, photography, the new social media and, yes, the good old-fashioned written word.

Jorge Luis Sierra, an award-winning investigative journalist from Mexico City and a pioneer in online media himself, has signed on as The Esperanza Project's Spanish-language editor, giving the project greater depth and an exciting edge. Patricia Martinez, an environmental journalist from Guadalajara, Alejandro Manrique, an investigative journalist from Colombia, and Tami Brunk, an environmental writer based in New Mexico, are also among our collaborators.

We are looking for contributors from all over, and you can be one of them. You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feed or receive updates in your e-mail. You can post relevant stories in the newsfeed, contribute to the discussion in the comment fields or even write stories of your own, if you feel so inspired.

I hope you will join the hemispheric conversation that is about to begin at TheEsperanzaProject.org. Click around the site, share your thoughts, forward it to your friends. This is how a new online media project is born, and you can be a part of it.

Tracy L. Barnett, www.tracybarnettonline.com, is an independent journalist based in Houston. She is a blogger at The Huffington Post and founder of The Esperanza Project.
Paul Salopek's inspiring speech, delivered last month upon receipt of the Elijah Lovejoy Award, is available in podcast here.

Paul Helmke: Virginia Tech Survivor With Hidden Camera Films Dangerous Gun Sales at Gun Shows

2009-11-18T11:50:44Z

Should someone who wants to buy a military-style assault weapon be required to undergo a criminal background check?

In America they don't have to.

In fact, felons, gangsters, wife-beaters, and the dangerously mentally ill can buy as many military-style assault weapons, semi-automatic pistols and other firearms as they can carry, with no questions asked.

They just have to know where to go.

It's no secret. There are thousands of gun shows in 43 states that don't require Brady criminal background checks for all gun show sales.

Why do criminals and traffickers go to gun shows? As the bank robber Willie Sutton might have put it, "Because that's where the guns are."

Our weak gun laws make it lethally simple for unlicensed gun vendors to sell as many firearms as they can to whomever they can, cash and carry.

Colin Goddard proved it. Colin survived being shot four times at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. After learning more about our nearly non-existent laws restricting access to guns, he took it upon himself to document how easy we make it for dangerous people to get guns in this country.

Watch Colin's story here:

This past summer, Colin went to gun shows across America in Minnesota, Ohio, Texas and his home state of Virginia. Equipped with a hidden camera and accompanied by a resident of each state he visited, Colin filmed how recklessly -- even callously -- unlicensed gun sellers sold military-style assault weapons and semi-automatic pistols with no criminal background check, and without even requiring identification.

Currently, the Brady Law, requiring criminal background checks on gun buyers, applies only to federally licensed gun dealers. A loophole in the law allows the kind of gun sales that Colin was able to document in the video below: unlicensed gun sellers unloading their guns to anyone who has the cash.

Watch what Colin found here:

One gun show seller in Ohio sold an AK-47 military-style assault rifle to Colin's associate, even after he said he didn't have identification with him. After taking his cash, the gun seller told him, "Have fun with it."

Another gun seller in Minnesota sold a semiautomatic pistol with no questions asked. In fact, he clearly knew the underhanded nature of his business when he told Colin and his associate with a laugh: "OK, there's no tax. There's no paperwork. That's worth something." This seller clearly didn't care who his gun buyers were, anticipating that some of them will actually pay a premium to avoid a criminal background check altogether.

A gun seller in Virginia sold Colin a rifle with a high-capacity ammunition magazine and was only concerned about the sale price. He didn't ask Colin a single question about his background, didn't ask to see any identification, and didn't ask why he wanted the weapon.

The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, fights to keep these sales legal. Due to their lobbying, any felon can walk into one of approximately 5,000 gun shows in 43 states that do not require criminal background checks at gun shows, and buy whatever weapon he wants from these unlicensed gun sellers.

America's weak gun laws practically invite dangerous people to arm themselves.

You can help can change this by joining us in telling Congress to stand up to the gun lobby and require all gun buyers at gun shows to undergo a Brady criminal background check.

We make it too easy for dangerous people to get guns in this country. Tell Congress to close "the gun show loophole."

Please go to www.bradycampaign.org and sign our petition today.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

Josh Sugarmann: Armor-Piercing 5.7mm Pistol Used at Fort Hood Originally Designed for Military Only

2009-11-13T13:34:06Z

How the FN Herstal Five-seveN pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting--originally designed as a military-only handgun/ammo combination capable of piercing the body armor worn by soldiers on the battlefield--came to be sold on the U.S. civilian market is a stark example of the increasing militarization of the U.S. civilian gun market and the enabling role played by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)--even in the age of Obama.

As detailed in Big Boomers--Rifle Power Designed Into Handguns, a study released last December by my organization, the Violence Policy Center:

"FN Herstal originally created its novel 5.7X28mm cartridge as the ammunition for a submachine gun, the P-90, designed at the invitation of NATO and in response to military needs for a weapon to be used by 'troops who needed both hands for other tasks, such as officers, NCOs and technical troops,' and that would be effective against the body armor that has become a standard accoutrement on the battlefield."

Eventually, as one gun writer noted, "it became clear that a pistol was needed as an adjunct to the P90 SMG, so in the mid-1990s FNH set out to design a handgun to accompany the 'high-tech' P90 SMG."

Originally, FN Herstal stated that the pistol would not be sold on the civilian market. In 1996, a spokesman for the company described the pistol as designed for anti-terrorist and hostage rescue operations and "too potent" for normal police duties. In 1999, the National Rifle Association's American Rifleman magazine stated, "Law enforcement and military markets are the target groups of FN's new FiveseveN pistol," adding, "Don't expect to see this cartridge sold over the counter in the United States. In this incarnation, it is strictly a law enforcement or military round." In 2000, American Handgunner magazine assured the public, "For reasons that will become obvious, neither the gun nor the ammunition will ever be sold to civilians or even to individual officers."

To address rising concerns about the ability of specific types of ammunition available with the pistol to penetrate the body armor worn by law enforcement (and in effect acknowledging the severe limitations of the federal ban on armor-piercing ammunition which uses a content, as opposed to a penetration, standard to determine whether a round is "armor-piercing" or not) in January 2005 ATF announced that it had reached a voluntary agreement with FN to stop the civilian sale in the U.S. of specific types of ammunition available for the gun--including one type labeled SS192 ammunition. The effect of this gentleman's agreement between ATF (which, in an all-too-revealing choice of words, often refers to the gun industry as its "customer") and FN has been less than impressive. In writing this blog, yesterday I went on the Internet and within minutes found two sites offering "banned" ammunition for sale:

Ammunition to Go : "This is 5.7X28 FN SS192 Hollow Point Ammo. This ammo has been banned from importation because of its penetrating abilities. This ammo has been almost impossible to find for the last few years. This ammo is packed in 50rd. boxes, 2000rds. per ammo can." Fifty rounds can be purchased for $29.95, marked down from 39.95.

Gilbert's Guns: Now In Stock!. FN 5.7 x 28 SS192 Hollow Point Ammunition. This ammo has been banned from importation and we have a small qty of SS192 AVAILABLE...We do have multiple lots available. Please call to reserve this ammunition--these lots will go quickly."

As "Big Boomers" concludes:

"[T]he gun is being freely sold to civilians today, along with clearly problematic ammunition, through a variety of channels. What changed was precisely nothing. FN, like other gun manufacturers, simply followed the well-worn path of hyping its new cartridge and gun combination through widespread publicity in the gun press about 'restricted' sales to military and police, and then--having whetted the gun-buying public's appetite--moved into the much bigger and more profitable civilian market."

Anyone who doubts the proven success of this approach need only visit FN's web site to see photos of the PS90--the civilian-legal semiautomatic version of the full-auto NATO machine gun the Five-seveN was initially designed to complement.

Among those who have noticed the anti-personnel virtues of the Five-seveN are illegal arms traffickers helping feed the drug-related violence in Mexico (where the Five-seveN is known as the "mata policia," or "cop-killer") with military-bred weapons purchased from the U.S. civilian market. The recent VPC study Indicted reviewed records filed in 21 federal firearms smuggling prosecutions in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas between February 2006 and February 2009 and found:

"There were 501 firearms listed in the documents, with specific information about the weapon type for 492 of those firearms. Of the total of 492 firearms with detailed weapon type listed, nearly two thirds (63 percent) were either assault weapons (209 or 42 percent), armor-piercing handguns (88 or 18 percent), or anti-armor 50 caliber sniper rifles (11 or two percent). The remainder were primarily semiautomatic pistols (148 or 30 percent). Of the armor-piercing handguns, all were FN Herstal Five-seveN pistols."

The Obama administration could act today to prevent any more Five-seveNs from entering the country. The decades-old "sporting purposes" test contained in the Gun Control Act of 1968 grants ATF wide discretion to ban the import of the Five-seveN, the PS-90, and any other foreign-made, military-bred, "non -sporting" firearms. But since the agency treats the gun industry as its "customer," such an action--without direct engagement by the White House--is more than unlikely. And so far, the only consistent action from the White House on the gun issue is a virtually unmatched ability to ignore it.

Chamber Of Commerce Gives Colorado A Grant To Export Green Energy To China, Mexico

2009-11-12T12:14:26Z

DENVER — Colorado will receive a $363,135 federal grant to promote clean-technology exports to China and Mexico.

State officials announced the grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Thursday.

Gunmen Open Fire On AA Meeting In Mexico, Killing 1

2009-11-10T20:36:41Z

MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen burst into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and opened fire in a violence-plagued Mexican border state, killing one person and wounding four, authorities said Tuesday.

Investigators had not determined a motive for the attack late Monday in Chihuahua City, the state capital of Chihuahua, the state prosecutor spokesman Eduardo Esparza said.

In September, gunmen killed 28 people at two drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez, in the northern part of Chihuahua state across the border from El Paso, Texas. The city has seen some of the worst violence in Mexico's drug war, with more than 1,900 homicides this year.

Those killings prompted authorities to close at least 10 unregistered drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez out of concern that the facilities were serving as a cover or recruiting grounds for drug trafficking gangs.

Officials attribute the violence to a dispute between the rival Juarez and Sinaloa cartels. Esparza said Monday's shooting was the first such attack in Chihuahua City.

Jim Luce: El Museo del Barrio: Fifth Avenue on Fire

2009-11-10T10:54:51Z

Forty years ago, El Museo del Barrio was a dream contained in
a single classroom so far north that “sophisticated” Manhattanites would not
visit there after dark.

It was founded in 1969
by artist and educator Raphael Montañez Ortiz and a coalition of parents,
educators, artists, and activists who noted that mainstream museums largely
ignored Latino artists.

Last week, on a cold,
windy night, over 1,600 New Yorkers arrived to welcome the opening of the
Museum after more than a year of renovations.
The place was so alive, so hot – so on fire.

It was the
invitation-only inaugural preview and members’ reception of two shows, Voces y Visiones,
and Nexus
New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis.

I focus in this piece on Nexus New York, and in the Daily
Kos on the second show Voces y
Visiones.

In celebration of El
Museo’s reopening, the Empire State Building was illuminated with the museum’s
signature mango-yellow color.

“El Museo del Barrio is
at the junction of Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue and the gateway to El Barrio, a
neighborhood rich in Latino traditions,” says Julián Zugazagoitia, El Museo’s
Director and CEO.

“Our holdings and
programs span from our Puerto Rican roots to a wide range of Latino, Caribbean
and Latin American cultures,” Julián said.

I was delighted to meet
and chat with the curator of Nexus New
York, Deborah Cullen, who gave me a detailed understanding of her new
exhibition.

I was delighted to meet and chat with the exhibition’s curator, Deborah
Cullen.

“Nexus New York covers new ground for most viewers,” Deborah told me.
“The connections brought to life in our
galleries have never been concretely explored before – by bringing the actual
artworks from the times together, we are allowing them to speak for themselves
and the vibrant dialogues occurring from early in the 20th century.”

“The longstanding
intertwinement of Latin American artists in what has been thought of as
“American” modernism, their presence and impact, is very enduring, rich, and
multi-faceted,” she explained.

This landmark exhibition
examines pioneering Caribbean and Latin American artists who lived in New York
City before World War II and shaped the American avant-garde.

El Museo has unveiled a new visual
identity that reflects the vitality of its offerings and

programs. The new visual identity is the work of Miguel Sal, executed by Elvira
Moran

Between 1900 and 1942,
New York City was the site of extraordinary creative exchange where artists
could share ideas in a global context.

Nexus: New York is the first exhibition to explore the profound way
these artistic exchanges between Latino and non-Latino artists deeply impacted
art and art movements in this city and numerous countries for years to come.

Chief among them were Frida
Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Miguel Covarrubias – familiar to me from trips to the
museums of Mexico City. Works from each
of the artists’ are on show in el Museo’s Nexus
New York.

Salvador Dali, Robert
Motherwell, Wilfredo Lam, and Marcel Duchamp are also represented in the show.

The exhibition is also
deeply representative of El Museo’s mission to produce new scholarship on the
significant yet sometimes overlooked contributions made by Latino, Caribbean,
and Latin American artists.

More than 200 important
works by artists from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, as well as by artists working in
the United States, are presented together for the first time.

Chatting with El Museo del Barrio staff Michelle
de Leon and Mariana Salem.

The swiftly-changing
urban landscape before and between the World Wars inspired the erosion of
artistic boundaries and fostered a new climate of modernist experimentation.

Frida Kahlo’s haunting
work memorializing socialite Dorothy Hale’s 1938 suicide in New York is
included in the exhibition.

Frida Kahlo. The Suicide of
Dorothy Hale (El suicidio de Dorothy Hale). 1939.

Nexus New York focuses on key artists from the Caribbean and Latin
America who entered into dynamic cultural and social dialogues with the
American-based avant-garde and participated in the development of a new modern
discourse.

The exhibit features for
the first time ever, a fresco panel from Diego Rivera’s New Workers’ School
Cycle, completed in late 1933 after his ill-fated Rockefeller Center mural, one
of the most significant art world controversies ever to take place on U.S.
soil.

This scandal involved
Rivera’s 1933 mural Man at the Crossroads, which was destroyed in 1934 before
completion due to Rivera’s sympathetic depiction of Lenin.

Frustrated Rivera utilized
his large Rockefeller family fee to carry out the Union Square mural cycle that
clearly depicted his political ideologies, once the other project was abruptly
destroyed.

Before this controversy,
Rivera, who spent 1930 to 1934 in the United States, was honored with a solo
exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1931.

Diego Rivera. Opponent of Fascism (Adversario del
fascismo). 1933.
Photo courtesy Collection Michael Fuchs, New
York. Photo: Jason Mandella.
© 2009 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust,
Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

An illustrated,
bilingual scholarly catalogue, distributed by Yale University Press, will
accompany the exhibition, with essays that focus on specific environments,
exchanges, or centers, and which detail the various artists’ New York milieus
and artistic development.

The renovated museum
features a new glass façade, a redesigned courtyard, modernized galleries, as
well as a new café/programming space and an expanded shop.

The design by Gruzen
Samton Architects received an award for Excellence in Design presented by Mayor
Michael Bloomberg on behalf of the Art Commission of the City of New York.

Major support for the
exhibition was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, Agnes Gund,
and the Henry Luce Foundation. The lead
corporate sponsor is MetLife.

Miguel Covarrubias. Comedian (Humorista). 1927.
Photo courtesy of El Museo del Barrio, New
York City.
Photo: Jason Mandella. © María Elena Rico Covarrubias.

A dynamic artistic,
cultural, and community gathering place, El Museo is a center of cultural pride
on New York’s Museum Mile.

Since its inception, El
Museo has been committed to celebrating and promoting Latino culture, thus becoming
a cornerstone of El Barrio, and a valuable resource for New York City.

El Museo’s varied
permanent collection of over 6,500 objects spanning more than 800 years of
Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino art includes pre-Columbian Taíno
artifacts, traditional arts, twentieth-century drawings, paintings, sculptures
and installations, as well as prints, photography, documentary films and video.

El Museo del Barrio is
located at 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, across from Central Park and one
block above the Museum of the City of New York.
It is situated between the Upper East Side and East Harlem – “El Barrio.”

Photos of reception attendees by John Lee.

Mexican Pot Gangs Infiltrate Indian Reservations In U.S.

2009-11-04T21:37:36Z

WARM SPRINGS, Ore. -- Police Chief Carmen Smith says he knows three things about suspected drug trafficker Artemio Corona: He's from Mexico, prefers a Glock .40-caliber handgun, and is quite possibly growing marijuana on the Indian reservation that Mr. Smith patrols.

Evelyn Leopold: UN Starts World's First Arms Trade Treaty: Will It Work?

2009-10-31T01:04:41Z

At least 2,000 people a day are killed with weapons by criminal gangs, bandits, terrorists, insurgents -- and their own governments. In Africa alone $18 billion is consumed through armed conflict, about the same amount as non-military foreign aid.

In an effort to regulate the arms trade, UN members approved a resolution on Friday setting out a three-year timetable for negotiations on the world's first-ever Arms Trade Treaty. The aim is to set standards for the global $55 billion export business in guns, tanks, attack helicopters, jet fighters, missiles and other conventional weapons. The United States, the world's largest arms exporter, voted in favor.

The UN General Assembly's disarmament committee (known as the first committee) voted 153 to 1 (Zimbabwe) with 19 abstentions. Adoption by the committee, which includes all UN members, is tantamount to formal approval by the General Assembly by the end of the year. The goal is a conference in 2012 for a final accord.

Easier Said Than Done

The project is fraught with difficulties but is a major step forward after years of dithering. The purpose is to set international criteria to prevent weapons from reaching criminals, terrorists and human rights abusers and level arms trade regulations for major exporters. But diplomats acknowledge one could not stop leakage into the black market entirely.

"We need to have a standard that everyone is applying," said John Duncan, the British ambassador for multilateral arms control and a key force behind the resolution. "We now have lots of emerging suppliers operating with different rules. Because of that disunity, we are ending up with things flowing to where they shouldn't be going."

Hopefully, he said, there would be a "name and shame" list if the treaty is adopted. "It's not going to be a panacea but you raise the economic and political threshold. Currently we have nothing."

Arms sales are a major business and large manufacturers in Western nations welcome a treaty as it might help them compete against lax rivals.

The United States has the world's tightest export regulations but there was no dent in its weapons sales abroad last year, even amid a worldwide recession. U.S. firms exported arms valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, over 68 percent of all global business. (Italy was in second place with $3.7 billion, see chart below).

America was also number one in the arms bazaar to developing nations with $29.6 billion in conventional weapons agreements or more than 70 percent of the world's total, according to a U.S. government report in September. In contrast, Russian arms sales to developing countries were $3.3 billion.

Clinton Speaks

Reversing the policy of the Bush administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement on October 14 that:

[The treaty initiative] presents us with the opportunity to promote the same high standards for the entire international community that the United States and other responsible arms exporters already have in place to ensure that weaponry is transferred for legitimate purposes.

But she had a key condition -- consensus -- which gives nearly every country a veto. In practice it means Washington could demolish the treaty if it felt the standards were too low and would put its own companies at a disadvantage. (The proposed treaty already excludes any embargo on nationals bearing arms, thereby allowing the usual seepage of US weapons to Mexican gangs.) At the same time, however, countries who want to sell to human rights abusers can also block agreement.

In Friday's debate, Mexico, for example, noted that the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament was paralyzed because of the consensus rules and that all major treaties, including the key Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), had been adopted by majority vote. Ireland and Germany also had major doubts on consensus but in the end voted in favor.

Among the abstainers were Russia, China, India, and Pakistan, all arms producers, who wanted further discussion before serious negotiations could begin, indicating the process will be a tough one. But they are expected to join the talks, set to begin next July. Most nations in the Middle East abstained but nearly all countries in Africa and Latin America voted in favor.

Zimbabwe, which cast the sole negative vote on the resolution, is accused of using weapons for political oppression and has had some difficulty getting arms. In April 2008 a Chinese vessel carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe was forced to leave the South African port of Durban with its cargo intact after dock workers refused to unload the shipment.

Active in the lobbying effort was a coalition of hundreds of non-governmental groups from around the world. "For too long, governments have let the flow of weapons get out of control, causing pain, suffering and death in some of the world's poorest regions," said Anna Macdonald of Oxfam International.

ARMS TRANSFER AGREEMENTS WITH THE WORLD, BY SUPPLIER (IN US DOLLARS)

2008-- Total $55 billion:
United States 37.8. billion
Italy 3.7 billion
Russia 3.5 billion
France 2.6 billion
Germany 1 billion
China 800 million
Britain 200 million
All other Europeans 3.2 billion
All Others 2.4 billion

Source: U.S. Government, Congressional Research Service Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2001-2008 by Richard F. Grimmett , September 4, 2009 (PDF).

Vigilante Justice Spreads Across Mexico

2009-10-28T16:31:12Z

By Ioan Grillo

MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- The five teenage boys slump against the wall of a dark house and eye the camcorder nervously. Suddenly, a fist enters the frame smacking one of the boys in the face. Then the barrel of an automatic rifle appears and the teenagers' expressions turn to terror.

"Why are you here?" shouts a voice.

"For robbing," one of the boys mumbles.

"You see. You were little rats and now look at you," replies the interrogator.

The torture video of the five alleged house burglars was posted on the internet last week. It is the latest sign of brutal vigilante justice spreading across Mexico.

As kidnappings, muggings and car jackings spiral out of control, and the authorities appear increasingly impotent, shadowy groups have been advocating justice by the sword.

In other recent cases, alleged kidnappers and car thieves have been abducted and murdered and had their corpses dumped in public places along with threatening notes.

There are also rising cases of mobs lynching alleged thieves and leaving them beaten, naked and tied up.

"The government is failing to provide security and people are turning to some brutal alternatives," said Rossana Reguillo, who studies crime and violence at the Jesuit University of Guadalajara. "This is not something that has always been around in Mexico. It is a new phenomenon that has been growing since 2000."

In the latest case, the five teenagers were abducted after they allegedly robbed a house in the town of Tepic in the Pacific state of Nayarit.

The boys -- all students of a local high school -- were taken to an abandoned building where they had their heads shaved and then were beaten by fists and rifle butts and threatened at gun point, as shown on the video. One of the torturers is heard on the film saying he is the man whose house was robbed.

The teenagers were also forced to perform sexual acts -- including kissing each other in front of the camera -- as a humiliation. The gunmen are heard threatening to cut their hands off unless they comply.

After being held all night the students were dumped naked on the street and then attended at hospital for injuries including broken ribs.

The torture film was posted on YouTube under the title "Little Rats of Tepic." YouTube's monitors quickly removed it from the site, flagging it as unsuitable content.

Following an outcry over the film, police on Monday arrested four building workers for the torture.

However, one of the boys said they had first been arrested by state police and it was the officers themselves who turned them to the vigilantes. The Nayarit police chief denies the charge, saying officers did not question the boys until after they had been tortured.

The incident sparked disgust and condemnation from many.

"Opening the door to justice by your own hand is an enormous step back to a state of barbarism and lack of culture," said Huicot Rivas, the president of Nayarit's Human Rights Commission. "In a democratic state, crime can never be used to combat crime."

However, others cheered on the vigilantes for trying to clean up the streets.

"For me the men who made this video are heroes. I sincerely admire them," wrote a reader on the website of Mexican newspaper El Universal. "In Mexico, we need death squads to hunt and exterminate rats and kidnappers without further expense to society and the without human rights people getting in the way."

"I recognize that this is not the correct way to administer justice but I can't deny that it makes me happy that this type of thing happens," wrote another reader.

Such feelings reflect desperation among many in Mexico about the lack of security. Amid a drug war that has left thousands dead, rates of anti-social crimes such as kidnapping and carjacking have risen to become among the worst in the world. At the same time, conviction rates for these relatively minor crimes are as low as 5 percent.

Many readers of newspapers have also written in to commend shadowy vigilante groups that have publicly announced their appearance in crime-plagued communities.

One such group called the Popular Anti-Drugs Army materialized among farming towns in the southern state of Guerrero.

Displaying blankets with written messages on bridges and buildings, the group claimed to be made up of family men who had come together to force drug dealers off the street.

"We invite the people to join our struggle and defend our children who are the future of Mexico," it said on one of the blankets.

The group has been linked to several killings, including the decapitation of an alleged drug dealer in December.

Following stories of that slaying, readers hailed the efforts in some Mexican media outlets.

"My sincerest congratulations to these brave men with their courage and determination," wrote a reader of Mexican newspaper Milenio. "God help them with their noble cause."

Investigators suspect that organized-crime groups themselves could be behind many of the vigilantes. While the gangsters traffic drugs to the United States, some are against selling them in their own communities and are opposed to criminals such as muggers and kidnappers.

A similar situation emerged in Colombia in the 1990s, when paramilitary groups both trafficked drugs and enforced the law against petty crooks in the fiefdoms they controlled.

The investigator Reguillo says that while it may not get as bad as Colombia, the vigilantism does pose a real threat to the Mexican state.

"When armed groups administer their own justice, this represents an alternate power," she said. "This a major problem for democracy in Mexico."

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Michael Kimmel: Pink Taxis, Quotas, and Global Gender Equality

2009-10-28T14:09:24Z

Two items in the International Herald Tribune this past week caught my eye. I was thinking about the best strategies to engage young people in initiatives to promote gender equality, which is open of the major issues of my political life.

A fleet of 35 bright pink taxis debuted in Puebla, Mexico, a colonial city halfway between Mexico City and Veracruz. These taxis are driven only by women, and they do not stop for male passengers. They also come equipped with little beauty its inside. The female drivers are motivated by the fact that male taxi drivers are a relentlessly sexist lot, harassing female riders, leering at them, propositioning them every time they get into a taxi.

This may strike one as the sisters doin' it for themselves, but I find it a pretty strange way to generate social change. Yes, it may offer women a temporary vacation from male harassment, a respite from sexist behavior. But by running a parallel course, it leaves the men's behaviors unchanged, and their sense of entitlement to harass women unchallenged.

Vianeth Rojas, of the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Puebla, seems to agree: "We are in the 21st century, and they are saying women have continued worrying about beauty and nothing more...They are absolutely not helping eradicate violence against women."

Contrast this with the day's proclamation by Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of Norway, that henceforth, half of all Cabinet positions - 10 out of 20 - will be filled by women. This follows on the heels of last year's law, now in place, that women be appointed to 40% of all boards of directors of all private companies in Norway.

I know, I know, we don't like quotas here in the United States. And Norway's plan is an unapologetic quota. Despite dire predictions, Norway's private companies have not fallen off a cliff with their new female board members; indeed, the country is weathering the current recession at least as well as, if not better than, any in Europe.

Norway's policy acknowledges that the only ways to transform social institutions is to enact strong laws and then have the courage to enforce them. Such formal changes - okay, let's call them quotas - acknowledge that what keeps gender inequality in place is not so much for formal institutional structure, which may have all sorts of claims about gender neutrality, but the informal organizational culture, the sense of tradition, and the long-established tradition that those who are changed with hiring the "best" most often hire those who most resemble those doing the hiring.

It turns out that gender neutral isn't neutral; it ends up reproducing the very mechanisms for which a true meritocracy would have been a remedy. Quotas have the desired effect of neutralizing the uneven playing field, so that the informal cultures of institutions cannot undo what the formal gender neutral rules attempt to accomplish.

We can see how such policies work in real life in the World Economic Forum's rankings of the world's countries on gender equality, an annual survey. Every year, the WEF ranks countries on a host of variables clustered around four general areas: (1) economic participation and opportunity; (2) educational attainment; (3) health and survival; and (4) political empowerment.

This year, Norway slipped from first to third place, though it has ranked in the top three for the past five years. The top four slots were held by Scandinavian countries: Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden - countries where gender equality is mandated by law, and government policies put large amounts of money to support it. (For the curious, the United States ranked 31st, a drop of four slots since 2008. Right between Lithuania at 30th and Namibia at 32nd. While first in the world in education, the U.S. ranks 40th in health and 61st in political empowerment.)

Mexico ranks 99th, two spots lower than it did in 2008. Maybe such small symbolic steps are necessary to prime the pumps. But it seems to me that the way to eliminate taxi harassment is to increase penalties for lecherous drivers, install cameras or tape recorders to provide evidentiary documentation, and to encourage women to file complaints and grievances that would lead to harsher penalties for the drivers - loss of license, suspension, and the like. Hiring more women as "regular" taxi drivers wouldn't hurt either.

Until then, I'm afraid the women of Puebla they're just going to be driven to distraction. Even if they are driving themselves there --and in pink cars no less.

Laura Carlsen: Mexico's Union Bust Reveals Flaws in NAFTA

2009-10-26T15:31:35Z

Fernando Lopez woke up on a Sunday morning out of a job. For the electrical worker, the feeling was terrifying.

"From one day to the next, they left us with no job—nothing," Lopez said, as he marched alongside some 200,000 fellow workers and their supporters in downtown Mexico City on October 15.

On the night of Saturday, October 10, thousands of soldiers and federal police moved into position in the darkness. After cutting fences and forcing out the workers, they occupied over 50 installations of the state-owned utility company, Central Light and Power (Luz y Fuerza), awaiting the administrative blow that would follow. At midnight, President Felipe Calderon issued an executive decree to liquidate the company and its union, the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas—SME), one of the strongest and most vocal independent unions in the nation.

The move had been carefully prepared by the government. Troop movements throughout the central part of the country serviced by Central Light went unnoticed under cover of the massive mobilization of security forces fighting the militarized drug war.

The decree follows a union conflict that the government fueled and then took advantage of to eliminate the company and its union. Union elections last June were contested amid rumors that the federal government was actively fomenting division. In a warning sign, on October 5 Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano rejected registration of the new union leadership without waiting for a decision from the labor tribunal. The "Sabadazo," or Saturday Offensive, took place when the union and the government were still in talks.

NAFTA and the Battle Over Who Will Pay for the Crisis

I talked to Lopez because of the simple poignancy of the bright green sign he carried: "President Calderon—Your children eat well. Mine don't."

Similar signs read, "And now what do I do? What will my family eat?" Marchers revealed that the political issues of privatization and opposition to the Calderon government are prominent in the movement but above all, workers feel that their very survival is under attack.

The ravenous right has set out to prove that it's not the rich who will pay for the crisis. One of the arguments for eliminating Central Light and its union was that it employed too many people, making it "inefficient." For the Calderon government, offering decent employment to more than 40,000 families is a crime in a year when unemployment has doubled and nearly 800,000 Mexican workers have lost jobs due to the crisis.

The Mexican economy is at a crossroads as it faces a multi-billion dollar deficit this year. Due to its heavy dependency on the U.S. economy under NAFTA, it is the hardest-hit country in Latin America and predicts a 7.5% drop in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2009. The number of poor has increased above pre-NAFTA levels, leaving millions more families in poverty, while the unemployment rate has doubled.

The congressional leader of Calderon's National Action Party, Mario Alberto Becerra, estimated that even after doling out severance pay, the government will save money through the reduced costs of operating Central Light. The government plans to use some of that money for hand-out programs for the poor, a model it considers preferable to maintaining unionized workers in jobs. Treasury Secretary Agustin Carstens announced that the 42,000 SME workers will be replaced with 10,000 new hires. He didn't say any would be hired back; the message was clear—union members need not apply.

Obama promised a renegotiation of NAFTA to incorporate the toothless labor side agreement into the text and integrate core International Labor Organization principles in defense of workers' rights. At the recent Summit of North American Leaders he said that the promise has been placed on the back burner. But that burner seems to be turned off. At an October 19 meeting between trade representatives of the three NAFTA nations, they reaffirmed their commitment to the trade agreement with no mention of renegotiation.

Unionized workers are not the only ones who suffer. NAFTA has displaced some two million Mexican small farmers in the countryside due to competition with U.S. agricultural imports. A recent ruling of a NAFTA tribunal delivered a record ruling of $77.3 million to Cargill Incorporated to compensate the company for a government program that blocked the use of corn syrup to save Mexico's sugar industry—an industry heavily protected in the United States. NAFTA's investment provisions (known as "Chapter 11") allow corporations to sue governments under special tribunals as one of the many privileges offered transnational corporations under the agreement. This obscene ruling to one of the world's wealthiest agro-businesses illustrates the priorities of NAFTA and the constant erosion of worker's rights and livelihoods.

When NAFTA was being negotiated in the early 90s, many U.S. unions still considered Mexican workers the enemy of their members as unfair competition in an increasingly globalized workforce. That attitude has now changed.

An October 15 declaration of the AFL-CIO states:

"On behalf of over 11 million working women and men of the United States, the AFL-CIO condemns this unilateral action by the Mexican authorities, which effectively destroys the SME and the trade union rights of the Luz y Fuerza workers. Regrettably, the Mexican government has employed similar acts of intervention and repression against the Mexican Miners and Metalworkers Union.

"The AFL-CIO supports the following demands of the SME and of the Luz y Fuerza workers to reverse this egregious act of union-busting and violation of internationally recognized standards of freedom of association and collective bargaining: 1) a revocation of the government decree unilaterally liquidating the company; 2) an end to the occupation of the power plants by the Federal Police; 3) the implementation of good-faith negotiations between the Mexican government and the union on the relevant financial and administrative issues."

The Road to Privatization

Studies have revealed that the Central Light Company hasn't been funded for years, in preparation to make the case that it's nonfunctional. A 2005 report showed that the company had not installed new generating capacity since 1974.

Privatization of the parastate company lurks behind the liquidation on October 10. Marchers carried signs that warned "Today it's us—tomorrow PEMEX [the national oil company] and SEP [the education system]," and "No to privatization."

The Central Light Company leases over a thousand kilometers of fiber optic cable in its electrical network that it planned to offer to consumers in a "triple play" package. This combined service of electricity, telephone, internet, and cable threatened existing economic interests and lucrative future contracts in the private sector.

Although the Calderon administration has said it isn't privatizing the state-owned enterprise, SME Leader Martin Esparza revealed that two former secretaries of Energy, Fernando Canales Clarion and Ernesto Martens, have formed a private company to use the publicly funded LFC fiber-optic network for internet and voice services, called WL Communications. Esparza reports that the businessmen have already negotiated government discounts and subsidies for the lucrative enterprise.

For now, Central Light has been fused with the Federal Electricity Commission that manages services in the rest of the country. The suspicion is that the consolidated state-owned utility, stripped of a feisty union that rejected both privatization and the erosion of worker rights, will eventually be privatized. Pressures to privatize state-owned enterprises, including the oil company PEMEX and aspects of the education system, have characterized the Calderon administration and those of his predecessors from the PAN political party. The pattern is familiar—the majority of Mexico's billionaires made their initial fortunes off state privatizations under scandalous terms during the Salinas administration and since then they have formed a powerful lobby for further privatizations, along with international finance institutions like the World Bank.

SME member Juan Carlos Saucedo notes that the struggle to regain the company and the union "is just beginning." But it will be an uphill battle. The union has demanded a legal review of the measure and insisted that it violates the Mexican Constitution. It is currently working with other unions to possibly call a general strike. Following the mega-march, the federal government agreed to open up dialogue with the union, but the talks were broken off on October 19. The government discarded any future possibility for negotiations on reversing the presidential decree and the union declared the dialogue a "farce," since for them preserving their jobs is the top priority.

As SME member Apolinar Romero stated at the march, the issue at hand goes beyond income for workers and rests on "what kind of future we will leave our children." A unilateral move to eliminate a union and a state-owned company sets a terrible precedent for union-busting in the nation.

Interviews in the Mexican press with government officials reveal that the obliteration of the union was carefully planned for over six months. The Calderon government was just looking for the chance. Ironically, it was the profound economic crisis in Mexico that provided the Calderon administration with its opportunity. Over the past months, 76,000 businesses have closed their doors. The Mexican daily La Jornada reports that 2.8 million workers have lost their jobs in the Calderon administration. For families living on the edge, the blow against the union places them between a rock and a hard place.

Members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers and the Latin American Association of Labor Lawyers stated in a press conference on October 18 that the decree violates 25 clauses of the Mexican Constitution, and urged workers to file injunctions against the measure instead of accepting severance pay. But each day that passes with no wages sees more workers accepting the government's severance offer.

The administration has launched a campaign to malign the union, implying that the union members had manipulated cushy jobs at the expense of consumers. Consumers know the administrative problems of Central Light, with unexplained charges in light bills and impossible bureaucracies. These administrative problems could easily have been solved long ago, but by analyzing administrative faults and revamping systems—not liquidating the company and its union. Official statistics show that union members made an average of around $500 a month, and 20,000 members earn below this level, hardly a princely wage. What the union did manage to achieve for its members in democratic processes and benefits was an example for Mexican unions.

The real question is who will pay for the crisis. The Calderon administration tried to force through a tax on basic foods and medicines in the federal budget—another move to make the poor pay for the inordinate wealth and privilege of the elite in a vastly unequal nation. It was blocked at the last minute.

The U.S. government, instead of helping to provide jobs and labor protections as Mexico sinks into the deepest crisis in recent history, has concentrated aid in the Merida Initiative to corrupt Mexican Armed Forces and police through the war on drugs. It also continues to support NAFTA's skewed terms.

It's time to develop a more integral and humane binational relationship and renegotiate NAFTA. The long-term effects of allowing this crisis to erode labor rights and further impoverish an already stricken nation will only lead to instability throughout the region.

John Riofrio: Latinos in America

2009-10-24T18:35:37Z

I would like to open by stating unequivocally that I believe CNN's heart is in the proverbial right place in their attempts to document the lives of Latinos living in the U.S. I say this, however, while acknowledging that the advertisements leading up to the debut this week might easily lead us to a starkly different conclusion. The commercials essentially played on fears of a Hispanic reconquista by featuring the visibly Latino actor, Edward James Olmos, saying something to the extent that "people in the U.S. should be ready, Hispanics are here and we're not going away," while also featuring voice-overs which talk about how it's no longer about "keeping up with the Joneses, but rather keeping up with the Garcias." In other words, if you take CNN at their word, the Joneses have been replaced by the Garcias. This is precisely the fear which xenophobes like the Minutemen, Joe Arpaio and the tea-baggers exploit to gain leverage for their conservative ideologies. So flawed advertisements notwithstanding, I'm willing to take Soledad O'Brian's word about CNN seeing the importance of demystifying Latin@s to the rest of the U.S. Unfortunately, CNN's commitment to a hollow, toothless notion of "balance" ends up devolving, what by all rights could have been an in-depth portrait of the issues, obstacles and inspirations of the U.S.'s largest minority, into a fairly standard and unenlightening fulfillment of mythologies and stereotypes of both Latinos and the United States itself. In the end, CNN's commitment to balance in the form of equal representation of both sides with little context or social theory was troubling instead of enlightening and pedantic rather than productive. For the sake of clarity let me offer a few examples:

I applaud O'Brian's efforts to differentiate between Latin@ groups. The documentary features short shots of the many faces of Latin@s in the U.S. We see people who are dark-skinned and light-skinned, some who have accents and some who don't. This variation goes some way to ameliorate the notion that all Latin@s are "Mexican," a dynamic I will address below. I also believe that the rhetorical use of the name "Garcia" was helpful in that segment one (which aired on October 21) featured stories about different people with the surname Garcia. Since these many Garcia's came from various places of origin including foreign born Dominicans, Mexicans and Nuyoricans, the implicit argument was that not all Latin@s are Mexicans. The problem is that this dynamic, the grouping of disparate and often wildly different social groups under a single grouping, has a name, it is called homogenization and its effects on Latin@ communities has been severe. In part one of the documentary, the two teenage Garcia boys, both of whom completely disidentify with their Latino heritage, talk about what it's like to be Hispanic in the South. The eldest one says that most of his friends are either white or black and that when he says that he is Hispanic, everyone assumes that he is Mexican. He follows this up by saying "I don't like that." Part two features two different Puerto Ricans named Carlos one who lives in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania and one in Orlando, Florida. Both Carlos specifically mention the ways in which white residents use the term Mexican in a derogatory fashion in order to belittle them. O'Brian offers no commentary or clarification to a theme which comes up three different times. Why is the homogenization of Latin@s under the term "Mexican" so damaging?

For starters it ignores that fact that their resistance to being called "Mexican" is all about the process of homogenization and, more precisely, of the fact that Mexicans in this country have been stereotyped in hugely degrading ways. According to the larger U.S. population, to be "Mexican" is to be "illegal;" it is to be associated with illicit drug smuggling, gang violence and dead-end landscaping jobs. When the Garcia boy says, "I don't like that," what he is saying is that I don't want to be Hispanic because, in this day and age, that means being associated with negative stereotypes. It also doesn't do anything to highlight the pervading racism throughout the U.S. which has come to understand the term Mexican as implicitly derogatory thus effectively erasing the huge contributions which Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have made to the United States. CNN doesn't mention any of this and their silence does a profound disservice to the Garcia family and to any other Latin@ families who might see in the Garcia family a reflection of their own struggle to maintain Latin@ heritage between generations.

The Garcia boys' parents place the blame for their sons' cultural alienation squarely on themselves. They mention two pressing regrets when faced with the reality that neither of their two sons has any interest at all in associating or claiming their rich Latin@ heritage. They regret having moved out of Washington Heights in New York, and they regret not having done more to raise their sons bilingually. Both of those regrets are certainly valid and, as a father fighting to raise four bilingual children, I empathize completely with the struggle. However, what CNN fails to point out is the way in which the struggle to maintain both culture and language across generations is a societal fact of life in the U.S. And the reason that it is tough, all over, to raise Spanish-speaking bilingual kids and to raise kids who are proud of their Latin@ heritage is because the U.S. has, in many ways, been a tough place to be Latin@. The U.S. has been a place that has demanded that we make a choice between being Latin@ and being American. It also means that the struggle between generations for keeping language and culture alive is also tied to a significant and powerful social dynamic which also has a name: internalized racism. Second and third generation Latin@s struggle with seeing the value of their heritage because, in large part, they have internalized the racism with which our society has greeted large sectors of our Latin@ populations.

Instead of naming these social dynamics, instead of introducing them as realities which are directly germane to the topic at hand and which help to explain why Latin@s are struggling with these issues, CNN opted for balance in the form of silence. For every Latina actress who believes they are typecast, let's bring out one who is light-skinned and has never played the role of a maid. For every Garcia boy who feels alienated by his heritage let's bring out an uncle who has embraced it. And finally, instead of being truthful about who we as a nation have been in regards to the presence of fifty million Latin@s, let's trot out the tired rhetoric of the U.S. as a land of opportunity. Make no mistake; however, I do believe that the U.S. is a land of opportunity just not for everybody and not in the same way. When former Senator Mel Martinez tours the Boystown detention center where he stayed as a young Cuban refugee, O'Brian's voice over mentions that Cubans like him were greeted with open arms. CNN fails to mention that this welcome mat included free English classes and increased access to home and business loans. What, we might ask, might the fate have been of all the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Central Americans who came then, and continue to come now, if we were to welcome them in the same way?

Many have cheered CNN for presenting Latin@s "as they are." These same people (you can read their comments on Latino in America's facebook page) feel an overwhelming sense of pride at having a documentary dedicated to their lives and their people. Many of them are grateful for a program in which they saw themselves and their life experiences accurately reflected. Some, however, have expressed their frustration at representations of Latin@s which fully confirm the stereotypes already deeply in place about us, that we are high school drop-outs, that we are here illegally, that we run in gangs, and that we impregnate our teenage girlfriends. Where, I can't help but wonder, were the positive role models, the Latino success stories that have nothing to do with gangs and guns, drugs and drop-outs? Where were the professors of Latin@ Studies like Juan Gonzalez, Juan Flores or Paula Moya who could have explained these realities and shed light on our shared responsibility? Where were the doctors and the lawyers, the writers and the activists? CNN's mistake was not that they presented the realities of social ills which plague many Latin@ communties; Latin@ communities do struggle and will continue to struggle against these issues. Rather, CNN's sad mistake was to have categorically refused to take the risk of explaining these ills by placing them in a social context which has played an outsized role in creating them in the first place. I believe in and admire CNN's quest for balance. The truth though is that if we genuinely want to be balanced, and if we sincerely want to learn about Latin@s and about the nation which they, and we, inhabit, we need to embrace our mistakes and our failings. We need to name them and talk about them. We need to ascribe to them the true measure of their reality and import so that we can face them, own them, and ultimately, change them.

Al Eisele: Kelly McCormack's Inspirational Example

2009-10-23T14:32:56Z

At a time when we're being bombarded with media coverage of the noxious political atmosphere (see White House vs. Fox News), health care reform (see Obamacare vs. the insurance industry), rampant corporate greed (see AIG, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs etc.), the war in Iraq and Afghanistan (see Rahm Emanuel vs. Dick Cheney), and assorted odious celebrities (see Polanski, Lindsay Lohan, Jon & Kate, Rihanna, Letterman etc.), the example of Kelly McCormack is as refreshing as a summer breeze.

McCormack, a 26-year-old former reporter for the Hill, is completing a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. She's been keeping me and other former colleagues, family and friends informed about her experience through periodic reports since she arrived in the town of Todos Santos, located an 8,000-foot mountainous region of western Guatemala, in November, 2007.

McCormack, a graduate of James Madison University with a double major in political science and Spanish, was one of more than 80 young reporters at the Hill in the past 15 years who have gone on to greater things in journalism and other fields. As one of 197 Peace Corps volunteers in the Central American country of two million people, she is part of a group of 7,691 volunteers now serving in 74 countries, 60 percent of whom are women.

She sent a final report last week before returning to her home in Washington's Virginia suburbs that summed up what she calls "a life-changing experience that I wish all Americans could have." As one of nearly 200,000 Americans who have served in the Peace Corps since it was created in 1961 -- including a half-dozen present members of Congress -- she exemplifies the highest standards of American citizenship and public service.

I asked her if I could share her report with Huffington Post readers and she said I could. It's lengthy, about 1,500 words, but well worth the time to read it all. I guarantee you'll find it uplifting and enlightening, and will make you feel good about America. Welcome home, Kelly.

Hello everyone!

Time has really flown by and I find myself with only two more weeks in Guatemala (I arrived on Nov. 4!). If you had asked me 27 months ago [when she began training] if I would have made it here in Todos Santos for two years, I would have laughed in your face. But, look at me now, devastated to be leaving such a beautiful country, wonderful friends, and two years worth of memories that will last a lifetime.

These two years as a Peace Corps volunteer have been unforgettable. Some days were incredibly difficult, others very rewarding, some boring, but overall, this has been a life-changing experience that I wish all Americans could have. I've become fluent in Spanish, learned some of the Mayan dialect - Mam -in my tiny mountain village, have seen how people really live, have an immense appreciation for the comforts of home and have learned to see the beauty and happiness in a simple life like most Guatemalans, even in the worst situations.

I recently said goodbye to one of my women's groups (I taught them how to sign their names, and gave them talks about self esteem, women's rights, hygiene, health and many other topics). I spent a lot of time with this group of women... we planned to make a community greenhouse to grow flowers as a productive project to augment their household incomes.

They decided after almost eight months of planning that they didn't want to walk up the mountain where the greenhouse would be located. After planning for that long, I was so angry when they decided that walking up the mountain would be too hard. I soon got over it when I remembered that these women never went to school, are completely reliant on their husbands for food and shelter, and are not used to making decisions about their own futures. (We later we completed a family garden project.)

Anyway, we said goodbye, everyone cried (there are 100 women in the group). They gave me a little purse for their appreciation and the women's group leader, Rosa, told me that her husband has been drinking every day. She said she has no hope, five children and would like to be a little bird so she could fly away with me to the States. It was heartbreaking. I've found myself wanting to bring so many women and children back to the states with me, to give them the opportunities that they deserve...

It's been really difficult saying goodbye to people in my town. Especially the older people because they always say that they'll be dead when I come back to visit. They get so sad. I never really thought people cared about me or about what I did until I started saying goodbye...I guess you never know your true impact as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Well, I just finished hand washing my clothes, went for a long run on the country road below the mountains and am now sitting here on my porch drinking tea and watching the clouds pour over the pine-covered mountains (a huge firework that sounded like a bomb just went off and someone turned on Shaggy's 'Angel', so much for the tranquility). I'm off to say more goodbyes. I'm really going to miss this place...

Abrazos,

Kelly

P.S. Some random thoughts ...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED:
· How to be happy living on my own
· The importance of a strong education system - it might be the only way to develop the world
· Spanish
· A huge appreciation for:
* water that always comes out of the tap clean and hot if you want it to, 24 hours a day;
* electricity that works all the time;
* a toilet that flushes normally and disposes of waste in a sewage treatment plant, instead of onto the street outside your house;
* central heating and air conditioning; a washer and dryer;
* dishwashers;
* grocery stores with everything you could ever want and need;
* fast Internet;
* and last, but certainly not least, a car!
· How most people in the world live...what it's like to be poor
· To love Banda music (the Mexican music with at least 20 guys in each band)
· How lucky I am, especially as a woman, to be born in the U.S. These women have it so hard...

WHAT I'VE DONE:
· Finished a county-wide survey/diagnostic of all the women and their needs in Todos Santos Cuchumatan
· A large-scale trash campaign to clean up the town. We formed a commission, held monthly talks, did a public service campaign on the local radio station and recorded a message to be played on all the public buses in town.
· Talks and workshops for women's groups, covering self esteem, leadership, women's rights, the Guatemalan laws, citizen participation, how to sign your name, nutrition, hygiene, health, environmental awareness and family planning.
· Worked with Vets without Borders - Canada to try to quell the number of stray dogs in Todos Santos.
· Started a youth commission and to teach them about citizen participation and get them a seat on the village council.
· Helped to start the Municipality's website (still in the process of getting it filled and functioning!)
· Started a website for a women's coop in town to sell the beautiful things they make (still not published yet, but will be in a few weeks or months hopefully at www.wovents.com).

(Funny story: On a different note, I was sitting in my little house the other day and there was a HUGE boom on the tin roof. I run outside and my landlord has cut down a tree, which has fallen smack on the roof. He offers a huge smile, showing all of his fake teeth with gold stars etched into them, and asks me what's wrong. It seemed that I was the only one worried about whether the roof broke when the tree fell on it. He just laughed when I told him it scared the crap out of me! Can you imagine someone in the States cutting down his tree, letting it fall on the house, and not worrying at all about what happened to his house? Guatemalans are so funny! There was no damage to the house...maybe we should all have tin roofs in America....)

WHAT I'M NOT GOING TO MISS:
· Machismo
· Evangelical music over the megaphones at all hours of the night
· Being told that my face is red...yes, I'm Irish.
· Coffee with my sugar
· Carrying my five gallon water cooler up the hill to my house
· Zero exhaust regulations
· Having one electrical outlet on the other side of the room
· Washing my clothes and dishes by hand
· Bug bites
· Parasites

WHAT I'M GOING TO MISS:
· My boyfriend, Elias, and my friends in Todos Santos and Peace Corps Guatemala.
· Everyone saying, 'Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes or Buenas noches' when you pass each other on the streets.
· Everyone wanting to know what I'm doing and really worrying that I'm leaving to go back to the states without saying goodbye.
· Tortillas and beans
· Avocados for 25 cents each
· Fresh, mountain air
· The Todos Santos uniform: Red pants, white shirt for men. Blue skirt and woven top for women.
· Three hour lunch breaks (when necessary)
· Haggling for prices
· The Mayan sauna in my front yard...
· Guatemalan sense of humor. Even when things are really bad, they can still enjoy a good joke.
· More than 9 hours of sleep at night!
· Time for reading
· How people say "Cuuuuuuuuuu" to say goodbye (it's Mam for 'Bueno' and sounds like a bunch of birds Cu-ing at each other)
· The excitement of getting fast food (people here save up to eat McDonalds or Pollo Campero)
· People looking at me like I'm crazy when I go running (and making a hand gesture that means... 'girl, why are you working so hard?')
· Walking ridiculously slow, everywhere
· Not being judged for wearing the same clothes for two days in a row
· Zero volume control (when the music is good)
· Speaking Spanish
· Beautiful little Indian ladies and their adorable children
· Being asked where I'm from in the states, then told every state that they have visited or worked in while they were in the US (most of the time they have been to more states than me, and have usually gone illegally)
· The awkwardness of not knowing whether to shake someone's hand, hug them, give them a kiss on the cheek or, in the Guatemalan tradition, hold elbows...

No Boys Allowed: Pink Taxi Cabs Exclusively For Women

2009-10-22T17:18:26Z

Women in Puebla, Mexico who are tired of being gawked and leered at by cab drivers have a new option - female-only taxis.

Pink Taxi is a government-backed fleet of 35 cabs driven exclusively by women, and each is equipped with a beauty kit, an alarm button and a GPS system.

"Some of the woman who have been on board tell us how male taxi drivers cross the line and try to flirt with them and make inappropriate propositions," said taxi driver Aida Santos, who drives one of the compact, four-door taxis with a tracking device and an alarm button that notifies emergency services. "In the Pink Taxi they won't have that feeling of insecurity, and they feel more relaxed."

The taxi service creates new jobs for women in a traditionally male-dominated field, but women's rights activists feel the taxis do not fully address the harassment issue.

Similar women-only taxi services have cropped up from Moscow to Lebanon, where women have expressed that the taxis are a much safer and more comfortable means of transportation.

Ladies, have you felt harassed in taxicabs or on public transportation? Share your stories with us at impact@huffingtonpost.com.

La Familia Cartel Targeted, Police Arrest More Than 300 Across U.S.

2009-10-22T11:43:58Z

OKLAHOMA CITY — In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the U.S., authorities arrested more than 300 people in a sting that demonstrates an upstart cartel's vast reach north of the border.

The tentacles of "La Familia" extend coast to coast and deep into America's heartland, with arrests announced Thursday in 38 cities from Boston to Seattle and from St. Paul, Minn., to Raleigh, N.C.

Gustavo De La Rosa, Mexican Human Rights Activist, Detained By U.S.

2009-10-22T09:46:03Z

MEXICO CITY -- Gustavo de la Rosa looks over his shoulder, notes suspicious license plates, changes his routine. As one of the most prominent human rights officials in Ciudad Juarez, he says he would be a fool not to. On Wednesday, his home town reached a milestone: more than 2,000 people slain this year. His phone rings all day with pleas for help -- and with threats.

Latin American Countries Move To Decriminalize Marijuana, Drugs

2009-10-20T14:46:18Z

MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- After carefully packing light green Mexican marijuana into a homemade water pipe, university student Salvador Chavez drew a deep breath from the tube and blew the smoke out of the window of his modest family home.

Tony Sachs: Jose Cuervo Marks a Milestone Anniversary With a New Tequila -- And It's Only $2,250 a Bottle

2009-10-20T14:34:52Z

I was checking my email one morning when a subject heading caught my eye: "Cuervo 250 Aniversario Private Tasting - join us." I like to taste things, I thought. Especially things made by companies that make alcoholic spirits. I opened it up. Turned out that Jose Cuervo -- the company, not the long-dead tequila maker himself -- was celebrating its 250th anniversary in the tequila business by releasing a limited edition Extra Añejo tequila. Suggested retail price, a cool $2,250 per 750 ml bottle. Would I possibly like to come by and try some?

Um, was this a trick question? Yes, yes please.

The following Tuesday at 11:00 AM, I found myself in an enormous room in a posh midtown hotel, surrounded by three publicists plus, flown in direct from Mexico, the director of the Cuervo distillery and the Master Tequiliero who had blended the stuff. A fire was crackling in the fireplace, despite the fact that it was a warm, sunny day -- this was just to set the mood. The air conditioning was cranked high enough to negate the heat, natch.

And at the center of the action was the most expensive bottle of tequila I'd ever laid eyes on, a beautiful hand-blown decanter, individually numbered, with a silver band around the neck proclaiming the company's motto: Lineage, Prestige, and Tradition. Frankly, I was surprised that it was Cuervo producing such a monument to wealth and taste. In the States, at least, its best-known brand is Cuervo Gold -- a tequila not to be savored but pounded down as quickly as possible, in rituals involving salt, limes and, quite often, the naked flesh of one's fellow college students (hence the term "body shots"). Would tequila connoisseurs shell out the two grand-and-change for something with the Cuervo name on it, in the middle of a recession, no less?

Turns out that Cuervo has been actively courting more upscale and discerning tequila fans for a while now, with a line that's expanded to include products like their critically acclaimed Platino silver tequila and the Reserva de la Familia ultra-aged brand. If the less educated among us aren't in the know about the Cuervo tequilas that actually taste good, the company is counting on at least 495 people to be hip to the scene and willing to plunk down the bucks, as only 495 bottles of the 250 Aniversario have been made for worldwide consumption.

But before I got to taste bottle number 496, designated for the lucky so-and-sos in the press and the spirits biz, Maestro Tequiliero Francisco Hanal Alfaro walked me through the process of creating what Distillery Director Araceli Ramos called, hyperbolically or not, "the finest tequila ever produced in history."

The idea for a commemorative tequila was hatched in 1995, which was the 200th anniversary of the Cuervo family's selling and distributing tequila -- Cuervo is the oldest tequila distiller in the world, and it's still family-run. At that point, the company planted a fresh batch of blue agave (the cactus-like plant used to make tequila) on the original plot of land granted to Jose Cuervo himself in 1758. The agave was harvested in 2005 and aged in toasted American oak barrels for three years. During the process, the tequilieros blended in select aged tequilas from the family's reserves, ranging in age from five years up to 100 years. The precious booze was then aged for another ten months in used Spanish sherry casks. The process took long enough, in fact, so that the finished product is being released for Jose Cuervo's 251st anniversary, this November, the name notwithstanding.

Resplendent in a lavender shirt and a matching lavender tie with white polka dots, Maestro Alfaro directed me to swirl my specially designed Riedel tequila sipping glass along with him, and together we held them up to the light. In somewhat broken but eloquent English, he explained, "The first part is to see the color. Is important to put in this position the glass, so you can see the color in the middle. The color is an amber color, and in the sides [of the glass] you can see the shinings -- that these are some copper or red shinings, no? This represents the time in the [sherry] casks.

"Now the nose -- a very deep inhalation, to feel all the aromas, OK? You can feel better if you open a little bit your mouth and breathe with your nose, because the alcohol goes out your mouth and you can appreciate very clear, the aromas. Obviously we have complex aromas." Indeed. Pepper, vanilla, honey, and traces of cocoa and chocolate, just to name a few, lingered in my nostrils and made my taste buds water. Was it time to actually taste it, perhaps? Oh yes it was.

"Now," Maestro Alfaro said, "we are going to put a little bit in your mouth.... You feel in your tongue some kind of abrasive sensation? It's because of the wood, both the oak and the sherry casks. Both are white oak, but one comes from America and one comes from Europe, and in Spain they use it to age the sherry. The whole process of solera, you know, in Spain, they use that kind of process. The sherry is a very strong wine, because the palomina grape is strong, and it's extra mature. They even use these methods for brandies."

The whole time he was telling me these factoids, my eyes were rolling in the back of my head and I'm sure I had some kind of ecstatic, post-coital look on my face. I'd have been surprised if a tequila this pricey wasn't good, but seriously, this stuff was really, really good. It's the smoothest tequila I've ever tasted; instead of the familiar fiery flare you'll get from mere mortal tequilas, the 250 Aniversario's heat unfolds in a slow, graceful fashion, intertwining with the unfolding layers of flavor. There are gorgeous agave notes, of course, but lots of honey, butterscotch, traces of dried fruit, oak and dark chocolate, and even a little cognac, thanks to the sherry casks. It's a beautifully balanced tequila with an elegance you'll find in few sipping spirits.

But then there's the $2,250 question -- is Cuervo 250 Aniversario good enough to justify its price tag? My wise and fiscally prudent cousin, when told of the price, said, "Good gravy, Tony!" (Yes, she really talks like that.) "You could buy a car with that kind of money. A car!" Which is absolutely true. I guess it's all in how you see $2,250. If you think of a figure like that as a month's rent, or a trip to the dentist, or even a used car, then you're probably not in the market for this stuff, no matter how much you like tequila.

But if, on the other hand, you're one of the lucky and dwindling few who see it in terms of a dinner for four, or an impulse gift for the spouse, then a bottle of 250 Aniversario may be right up your alley. If you're a tequila connoisseur, isn't the urge to sample it overwhelming? And even if you're not, who wouldn't like to own something so exclusive that it's in only 494 other liquor cabinets in the entire world?

Hurricane Rick: Storm Becomes Category 5 Hurricane Off Mexico

2009-10-17T19:34:59Z

MIAMI — Forecasters say Hurricane Rick is the strongest hurricane in the eastern north Pacific Ocean in more than a decade.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Rick turned into an "extremely dangerous" Category 5 storm on Saturday with sustained winds reaching 180 mph (285 kph).

In Mexican Drug War, Investigators And Lawyers Become The Next Target

2009-10-17T11:25:34Z

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico The hit men moved in on their target, shot him dead and then disappeared in a matter of seconds. It would have been a perfect case for José Ibarra Limón, one of this violent border city's most dogged crime investigators had he not been the victim.

Mexico City Puts Cops On Diet

2009-10-15T21:09:18Z

MEXICO CITY — Some Mexico City cops are taking a bite out of more than crime.

The Mexican capital is putting its 1,300 of its heaviest police officers on a diet, concerned about rapidly expanding waistlines in the force.