http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3579 Venezuela and OAS Reject EU Anti-Immigrant "Law of Shame"Mérida, June 20, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- The immigrant incarceration and deportation law passed by the European Union's (EU) parliament on Wednesday is a "law of shame," according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who threatened economic retaliation and urged Latin American and world leaders to unite against the measure.  "We call on Latin America, members of parliament, independent of whether we are from the Left or the Right, the OAS [Organization of American States], the United Nations and African nations," Chávez proclaimed Thursday, "let us unite forces in one single cry: Respect the dignity of our people, we will make it be respected." The EU approved a law Wednesday that could force the 27 member states to adopt stricter immigration policies by 2010, including the detention of undocumented immigrants for 18 months prior to their expulsion, 5-year bans on returning after expulsion, and the use of advanced satellite technology and more invasive screening procedures. Chávez threatened to deny investment opportunities to countries which enforce the new law. "If any European country begins to apply this, and puts in jail Colombians, Paraguayans, Ecuadorians, Bolivians... then we are going to review the investments that they have here in order for us as well to apply a return order. Return their investments to them!" Chávez exclaimed. The leader of Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution" also vowed that Venezuelan oil "should not arrive to those European countries" which carry out the law. In addition, President Chávez asserted that future political and economic summits with EU leaders will not be necessary if the new law takes effect. "For what are we going to meet with them, if they are mistreating our Latin American brothers?" he asked rhetorically. The EU Foreign Relations Chief, Javier Solana, deemed Chávez's reaction "totally disproportionate." The Czech Foreign Relations Minister, portrayed Chávez's threats as economically empty. "Venezuela supplies oil principally to the United States, so if they decide to cut off deliveries to us, it would not represent a big change for us," he said. According to the Venezuelan newspaper Panorama, the most recently available statistics show that Venezuelan oil represented less than 1% of European oil imports in 2005. Chávez, however, emphasized along with many of his Latin American counterparts the moral significance of the EU law. He highlighted that "legions" of hungry, impoverished European immigrants came to Latin America throughout the World Wars and depressions of the Twentieth Century, and "none of them was mistreated or returned to Europe." Asking where the half a million undocumented immigrants in Europe are supposed to go, Chávez railed, "they will have to make concentration camps... will Europe be so indignant as to return to concentration camps?" But President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, a country already invested heavily in Venezuela's banking, airlines, hotel, energy, and communications industries, suggested that Chávez has misunderstood the new law, and promised to "explain to the Venezuelan president exactly what the directive consists of." "Have no doubt that we will explain it," said Zapatero, to be sure that "the relationship of Europe with all the Latin American countries continues being positive." The Organization of American States (OAS) and several Latin American heads of state have also issued harsh rejections of the new EU policy. "Once again the developed world has approved a repressive measure against illegal immigrants that directly affects many Latin Americans," said OAS General Secretary José Miguel Insulza in a statement released Thursday. Insulza called it "paradox" that EU countries "insist on the positive character of the process of globalization," then "insist on rejecting for political reasons that which is stimulated by economic globalization" by adopting "measures like prolonged internment that treat illegal immigrants like delinquents, without even discussing or negotiating the issue with Latin American governments." The Paraguayan President-elect Fernando Lugo, who was visiting Chávez in Caracas Thursday, said the new immigration law is "erasing the image of good will" cultivated by the EU's behavior at summits such as the Trans-Atlantic summit held in Lima last month at which Latin American and EU leaders pledged to strengthen trade relations and put poverty and global warming at the top of their agendas. If this law were to take effect, "Europe would be converted into a big jail of immigrants from other continents," Lugo stated Thursday. Brazilian Foreign Relations Minister Celso Amorim called the law "contrary to the desired reduction of barriers to the free circulation of people." Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa condemned the law as a "true embarrassment" for Europe, and Bolivian President Evo Morales called for Latin American countries to unite with African countries to oppose the policy. The anti-immigration measure "violates human rights," according to Carlos Alvarez, the president of the South American free trade bloc MERCOSUR, who reiterated that it is "paradoxical" that the EU supports the free flow of capital but not of people.  Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/ Printed: June 25th 2008 License: Published under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-nd). See creativecommons.org for more information. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> |
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Venezuela and OAS Reject EU Anti-Immigrant “Law of Shame”
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Armed revolution in Latin America is over, says Chavez + Comment
Armed revolution in Latin America is over, says Chavez Hugo Chavez said Farc guerrillas should lay down their arms The armed revolutionary has no place in modern Latin America, the Venezuelan President has declared. Catching his critics off guard, Hugo Chavez called on the Marxist rebel army in neighbouring Colombia to lay down its arms and release its hostages, declaring that guerrilla armies are now "out of place".
Adopting the mantle of international statesman, the Venezuelan President appeared to be stepping forward finally to turn a page of history for a continent that for decades has been blighted by eruptions of insurgent violence, not just in Colombia but also Nicaragua and El Salvador. As most of those conflicts have come to an end, Colombia has been alone in failing to end its own internal strife. "At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place," Mr Chavez said. "The guerrilla war is history," he asserted in his weekly television address, prompting expressions of both surprise and welcome among government leaders in Colombia. They have recently accused Venezuela of running a clandestine campaign of support for the Marxist rebels. Mr Chavez is no stranger to the revolutionary mantle. In 1992 his Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement – inspired by the 19th century independence guerrilla Simon Bolivar – made a doomed attempt to overthrow the government. Even now, having made the transition from rebel to politician, Mr Chavez is still the staunchest of supporters of the world's most famous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. Whether his latest comments represent a profound change of heart or not, they may help open a path to long-term peace in Colombia after 40 years of bloodshed. It is a time of deepening difficulties for Farc, the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which recently confirmed that its founder and top commander, Manuel Marulanda, also known as "Sureshot", had died of a heart attack at a jungle base in March. It has lost several other members of its top leadership in recent months. "I think the time has come for the Farc to free everyone they have in the mountains. It would be a great, humanitarian gesture in exchange for nothing. That is what I propose to the new [Farc] leader."Since the death of Mr Marulanda, who instigated his Marxist-inspired struggle in Colombia with a group of armed peasants in 1964, the group has been led by Alfonso Cano, a man described as being more bookish and potentially more moderate than the man he replaced. His statement on Sunday marked the first time that the Venezuelan leader had addressed Mr Cano directly. "I say to Cano, let's go. Release those people," Mr Chavez said unambiguously. Farc is believed to be holding as many as 750 hostages in remote jungle areas of Colombia. For much of its existence, it has relied on taking citizens captive in the hope of extracting large sums in ransom – a practice that became known as "miracle fishing". For years, Colombians lived in terror of Farc roadblocks when any of them could have found themselves snatched from their cars. A few dozen of those still in captivity are considered high-profile hostages. They include three military contractors from the United States and the former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt. Believed to be in poor health, Ms Betancourt holds joint French-Colombian citizenship. Her plight has been the subject of persistent lobbying by the French government for her release. Since coming to office in 2002, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe has waged a determined effort to restore order to the country and end civil war. Over four decades, tens of thousands of lives have been lost as Farc battled it out against right-wing paramilitary groups that sprung up to combat its grip on the country as well as government forces. Last year, he invited Mr Chavez to help mediate with the group for the release of its hostages but withdrew that invitation in November, claiming that the Venezuelan leader was not sticking to his side of the bargain. The breach triggered a deep chill in relations between the two leaders as Mr Chavez loosed a string of derogative remarks about Mr Uribe's competence. Tensions spiked further when a computer belonging to Farc's second-in-command was found, which Colombia said showed Mr Chavez had funnelled $300m (£152m) to the group. There was no concealing the surprise in Bogota at the switch Mr Chavez seems to be making. "He was their defender and ally and so it's surprising that he has acted like this," said Carlos Holguin, Colombia's Interior Minister. "I hope Farc hears him – that all of Latin America hears him." Indeed, while Colombia may retain some scepticism about Mr Chavez's motives, its government also knows that Farc has a long history of ignoring all outside appeals for an end to its struggle. However, Mr Chavez, who has been leading his own "socialist revolution" in Venezuela, may be the one leader able to bring influence on them. In his statement, Mr Chavez offered a reason of his own to bring Farc's campaign to an end, pointing to the US. "You in the Farc should know something," he offered. "You have become an excuse for the empire to threaten all of us." He often uses the term "empire" to refer to the United States. Washington has made no secret of its desire to isolate Mr Chavez from other governments in Latin America. A revolutionary region *Caracas' most famous son, Simon Bolivar, led the charge in Hispanic America's struggle for independence. He is remembered across Central and South America as El Libertador after defeating the Spanish colonialists, and establishing the Gran Colombia federation in 1821 that would bring independence to Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. *Mexico's revolution began with a letter. Thrown in jail in 1910 for declaring his intention to run against the dictator of 30 years Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero issued a note from his cell calling for revolt. A bloody decade of civil war ensued. *Guatemala's 'October Revolutionaries' – a group of dissident military officers, students and liberals – struck in 1944, overthrowing the military junta that had ousted dictator Jorge Ubico. Guatemala was to experience a decade of change known as the "Ten Years of Spring". *Aided by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Fidel Castro landed in eastern Cuba in 1956 and over the next two and a half years rolled his '26th July Movement' across the country and into Havana, toppling the US-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959. *Nicaragua's Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dynasty in 1979. They lost elections in 1990, but returned to power in 2006 with the former guerrilla leader Daniel Ortega once more at the helm. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Related Article: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3537Venezuela Denies Arms Smugglers Caught in Colombia Belong to its Military Mérida, June 9, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)— According to the Colombian Attorney General, Mario Iguarán, Colombian officials arrested a sergeant of the Venezuelan National Guard for attempting to smuggle ammunition to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Friday. Venezuela says, though, the arrested man is not a National Guardsman and pledged to carry out a full investigation of the incident "in accordance with the law." "Four people were captured in a flagrant act, from whom 40,000 AK-47 cartridges were confiscated," Iguarán told the press Saturday. Two were Colombians, he said, and "two of them identified themselves with Venezuelan I.D. cards, one of whom claims to be Manuel Agudo Escalona, a junior sergeant in the National Guard." The Colombian government says the ammunition was destined for the FARC's 16th Front. However, Fredys Alonso Carrión, the top commander of the Venezuelan National Guard, announced Saturday, "When we received the information [of the arrest], we immediately began investigating." "I can tell all of you with total confidence that there exists no active duty or retired member within or in relation to the National Guard by the name of Manuel Agudo Escalona," Carrión declared on the Venezuelan state television channel, VTV. The Colombian Chancellor, Fernando Araújo, appealed to the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Department for "coordinated work between both chancellors" in order to "verify the identities and who could be implicated." In response, the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry released a statement Saturday, assuring that the incident would be rapidly investigated and submitted to thorough legal proceedings. According to the statement, "From the first moment in which the information circulated the press, we established communication with the Colombian Foreign Minister in order to comply with the legal steps by which we will verify the identity of those detained." Once the "transparent facts" are clarified, the Venezuelan government will proceed "in accordance with the law and the truth" in order to solve the issue, the Venezuelan Ministry communicated. The Venezuelan daily newspaper El Universal reported Monday that Agudo Escalona and the other captured Venezuelan, a civilian named Germán Castañeda Durán, pleaded guilty to arms trafficking charges before a public tribunal in Bogotá. In a contrary account, the Venezuelan Minister of Justice and the Interior, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, speculated Monday that the arrest is actually a "false positive," in which Colombian officials "simulated some punishable act, attributed it to the guerrilla and took the credit for having resolved the case, which they themselves had set up." According to Minister Chacín, Agudo Escalona has alleged that he was offered more than 100 million bolivars (US$46.5 million) to cross the Orinoco River in a small boat in military uniform, then the ammunition was planted in his boat and Colombian authorities arrived "immediately" afterward to make the arrest. In any case, the arrests were made by Colombia's Technical Investigations Body (CTI) in the borderlands between the Colombian Guainía and Vichada provinces, along the frontier shared with Venezuela. They were part of broader operations that also led to the arrest Friday of a bodyguard of the FARC's top military commander, Jorge Briceño, who is known as "Mono Jojoy," and several other insurgents. Colombia has accused Venezuela of financing and facilitating arms purchases for the guerrillas, citing as evidence computer files found in FARC laptops its says it recovered from the wreckage of a FARC camp that Colombia bombarded within Ecuadorian territory last March. The computers spent a month in the custody of Colombia, after which a forensic analysis by INTERPOL found "no evidence" that the computers were tampered with, but INTERPOL did not evaluate whether the files under question actually belonged to the FARC. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez energetically denies the accusations, saying his relations with the FARC have been exclusively aimed at hostage releases. Colombia's raid in March killed the FARC's chief hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, two days after Chávez, in collaboration with Colombian opposition Senator Piedad Córdoba, negotiated the liberation of four high profile FARC hostages and garnered international praise. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Comment: I suspect Chavez's statement was torn out of the actual context of his intention and the focus was more on the role of FARC in Latin America. Nevertheless, the essence of true revolutionary analyse should be based upon 'factual analyses of actual conditions' or, to use a Leninist term, 'concrete analyses of concrete conditions'. Lenin put the question well when he said that "it is not enough to be a revolutionary and an adherent of socialism or a Communist in general. You must be able at each particular moment to find the particular link in the chain which you must grasp with all your might in order to hold the whole chain and to prepare firmly for the transition to the next link...[4] " We should still be prepared to deal with now unseen complexities, arm the people in all ways possible, including spiritually to wage spiritual warfare. Unless we deal with our old character defects we will be replacing one set of fascist fools with another set of fanatics. The people need to take revolutionary vanguard elements seriously, not as a bunch of isolated crazed clowns without mass support. We need to go far beyond last century's Left vs. Right schizophrenia divorced from connected reality. The truth is in the center, the people are the truth, the obvious conditions of their lives: hunger, poverty and repression. Take a good look at the people! Sit down, talk to and question the people. I do every day and night with an open mind and ear. Do they seem happy and content or troubled and perplexed? As educators, we must first relate to the people's level of social consciousness, then elevate it with basic community education, dong local community work where the people gather and most important of all learning from the people what their survival needs and immediate concerns are in their lives, not simplistically import foreign ideology without breaking in down into understandable terms. When someone is hungry, feed him. When someone is ragged, clothe them. When someine is illiterate, teach him. When someone is lost, give him shelter. When you see a need, meet that need! Be for real! We should see our participation in electoral politics ~ war without guns ~ as another expression of our revolutionary fervor. Be rational and not fanatical. No, we are not going to elect a socialist for President nor does one have a snowball's chance in hell of becoming the next President. We need to be realistic and work with what we got without fantasies. Understanding the ebbs and flow of vibrant revolutionary movements, sometimes coming closer to our calculations, other times drifting further away, but never stagnant. All is in a state of flux on the quantum level. Venceremos Unidos! Come Together and Create! C/S |
Friday, May 30, 2008
A New Direction In Latin America: By Shannon O'Neil
A New Direction In Latin America:
From the Council on Foreign Relations
Friday, May 30, 2008; 5:34 PM
Friday, May 30, 2008; 5:34 PM
Latin America has never mattered more to the United States. The region is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States and a strong partner in the development of alternative fuels. It is one of the United States's fastest growing trading partners, and its biggest supplier of illegal drugs. Latin America is also the largest source of U.S. immigrants, both documented and undocumented. No less important, nearly all Latin American nations are now vibrant, if imperfect, democracies. Not only does the United States affect Latin America, but Latin America increasingly shapes the United States as well. Yet despite these deepening strategic, economic, cultural and political ties, U.S. policies toward the region have remained relatively unexamined.
A new Council on Foreign Relations report, U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality, takes stock of these changes in the Western hemisphere and assesses their consequences for U.S. policy toward the region. It finds that the decades-old U.S. foreign policy trifecta of trade support, drug eradication and democracy promotion is not effectively advancing U.S. interests. Instead, the report identifies four areas that should provide a new basis for U.S. policy toward Latin America: poverty and inequality,public security, migration and energy security.
The region has undergone significant changes in recent decades, making substantial progress but also facing ongoing challenges. Democracy has spread, economies have opened, and populations have grown more mobile. But many countries have struggled to reduce poverty and inequality and to provide for public security. These endemic problems limit economic growth and allow illegal activities and crime organizations to flourish, undermining Latin American governments and U.S. interests in the process.
The United States can help Latin American governments face these challenges. To start, the United States should expand assistance for poverty alleviation and institution-building by fully funding the Millennium Challenge Account and developing new initiatives to reach the poor regions of the larger middle-income countries. This funding should reflect the priorities of Latin American governments and also involve restructuring and integrating the programs of various U.S. government bureaucracies and multilateral institutions. Alongside aid, the United States should approve pending free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama and extend trade preferences to Bolivia and Ecuador, encouraging productive relations and expanding economic opportunities for both Latin America and the United States.
In addition, the United States can aid Latin America in its quest to improve public security. In part, the United States can offer significant support and technical expertise to governments reforming their law enforcement and judicial systems. As important, the U.S. can halt the flow of guns and money across its own border south, reducing the arms that strengthen and fund drug cartels.
While reformulating approaches to traditional objectives, expanding U.S. ties with the region means that new issues -- migration and energy integration among them -- must be part of a comprehensive foreign policy strategy. Comprehensive immigration reform is necessary to create a system that better meets U.S. security, economic and foreign policy interests, and must be a priority for the next administration. While incorporating better security and employment verification systems, it must also address the 12 million unauthorized individuals currently residing in the United States, and provide a flexible program that can adjust to future U.S. labor demands.
In the energy sector, the United States can provide incentives for investment in traditional energy sources and infrastructure to increase supply throughout the region. It can also take the lead in the development of alternative energy sources, boosting energy security through diversification while also promoting environmentally sustainable options in a shared hemisphere.
In redirecting its relations with Latin American nations, the United States needs to recognize the limitations of its traditional policy tools. Latin America is not Washington's to lose; nor is it Washington's to save. Latin America's future rests chiefly in the hands of its own elected leaders. But, the United States can play a positive role, supporting regional efforts and ultimately better promoting U.S. and Latin American interests in the process. By truly beginning to engage Latin America on its own terms, Washington can mark the start of a new era in U.S.-Latin America relations.
Shannon O'Neil is a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S.-Latin-America Relations.
Comment: In the Western Hemisphere the whole mind-set of the United States needs to be transformed. The U.S.A. is not ALL OF AMERICA. There is a South America with its own regional interests,global priorities and vanguard leadership. There msut be joint discussions and negotiations with all elements involved as equal partners with no frozen agenda other than the foundation of respect for a basic humane rights agenda, including humane immigration legislation that recognizes the objective existence of connected reality and the humane rights of immigrants .
~ Peta-de-Aztlan
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Come Together and Create!
Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
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C/S
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Read: My Mother the Matriarch
Gracias Hermano Javier ~ She must of been a great woman to know and you are surely blessed. Earth's cry, Heaven's smile~ ~ Hermano Peta
javier rodriguez <bajolamiradejavier@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Come Together and Create!
Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
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C/S
javier rodriguez <bajolamiradejavier@yahoo.com> wrote:
My Mother the MatriarchBy Javier RodriguezMay 27, 2008 Isabel Hernandez de Rodriguez, the Matriarch of our family, passed and moved on to eternity onMay 20th 2008 at the age of 94. She was admired as a feminist and a giving strong willed woman who built, guided and was the spiritual pillar of the activistbased Rodriguez Family, my family. Through decades she built an enviable network of close friends and adopted sons and daughters, mostly all activists including activist Isaura Rivera, Atty. Alba Marrero, her neighbor Senator Gloria Romero, Senator Gil Cedillo, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Richard Alatorre, Mexican Congressman Jose Jacquez Medina, Union leader Joel Ochoa, Nativo Lopez and many many more. Los Angeles Like the late Bert Corona, a historical figure and mentor of the immigrant rights struggle, she traveled many years and many miles in her lifetime and was touched by history and truly, she is the history of our family. She was a mother, a friend and a confidant who was with you in all the battles and victories. She raised us in the most difficult of conditions, including extreme poverty. Personally she was an inspiration to me and like magic realism, even in death she handed me historical realizations that had been hovering around the family for years, like transparent but invisible veils.On two occasions before on her 80th and 90th birthdays I published biographical articles on her in the LA Times and Eastern Group Publications. Then I thought her political awareness commenced here inin 1966. I was wrong. The beginnings of her political formation were in Los Angeles , our home country. She was born in 1913 in Mexico , the birthplace of Francisco "Pancho" Villa, in the midst of the Mexican Revolution. Like Durango , born in 1917 in Corona , she lived the rumblings of the war against the tyrant Porfirio Diaz and the rich. In the twenties she saw firsthand the Mexican Civil War against the reactionary right wing Cristeros. Then at the age of eighteen, approximately in 1931, she married my father Antonio Rodriguez, a miner, a union delegate and a Cardenista, who like her had a very limited formal education. With him she lived the revolutionary nationalist years of President Lazaro Cardenas and the epical nationalization of Mexican oil in 1938. El Paso ,Texas They began their trek northward migrating from the High Sierra ofto Durango and from 1939 to 1948 the family began to grow and lived relatively well off. Then we moved to the border town of Torreon and in the early 1950s she experienced the painful years of the Bracero Program because her husband contracted as a farm laborer in the Juarez . Three years after, my father got his permanent residency. So on US August 19, 1956 , our family became part of the Diaspora that has migrated by the millions to the land that once belonged to us, Mexican people. This was her background when she crossed into El Norte.It is no wonder she joined and supported us wholeheartedly when the civil rights movement of the sixties swept our whole family into the social struggle. Along with us she became active in denouncing discrimination and police brutality. She supported theEast LA Walkouts of 1968 and 1970. OnAugust 29, 1970 she marched against the war inand 33 years after she was a staunch opponent of the war on Viet Nam . As an immigrant she became a precursor of the immigrant rights movement in Iraq , as an officer of the Los Angeles for Social Action-C.A.S. Autonomous Center A. Since then she fought and marched for immigrant rights and supported many progressive causes. In 1985 she acquired her citizenship only to vote for her son's candidacy (Antonio) for the LA City Council and since then never missed an election. That same year she was a co-founder of the nationally famous La Serenata de Garibaldi Restaurant. US Her eight sons and one daughter have been activists and movers in LA politics since the late sixties and were key leaders of the mass street movement that led to the 1986 IRCA Amnesty Law that successfully legalized several million immigrants. Again in 2006-2008 they have been motivators and initiators of several of the mega mass street demonstrations that have made history in this country, in the fight for a humane immigration reform and legalization for over 13 million undocumented immigrants.In the heart of the, Isabel Rodriguez is a symbol of Mexican pride. She never uttered the words "God Bless US " because like us, she was conscious of the history of this country. Since she entered in 1956, not once did she ever own or display the flag of the America in her home. She was a proud Mexican nationalist till the end. US This memoir of my mother is dedicated to her 76 descendants, to the more than five hundred members of our extended family, to all our friends, to all the women in the struggle and finally to the history of our people.Javier Rodriguez is a journalist and a media and political strategist. He was the initiator of the historical mega immigration march inon March 25, 2006. Los Angeles
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Come Together and Create!
Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
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C/S
Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates: SF Chronicle
Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates
Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
(05-26) 17:02 PDT -- San Quentin State Prison inmate Lexy Good is white, hangs out with whites on the prison exercise yard and must be careful not to associate with blacks and Latinos. No cards, no basketball outside the color lines.
Those are the unwritten inmate rules of prison life. People stick to their own race.
Good, who's doing a short stretch for receiving stolen property, likes it that way.
"We segregate amongst ourselves because I'd rather hang out with white people, and blacks would rather hang out with people of their own race," said Good, 33, of Walnut Creek. "Look at suburbia. Look at Oakland. Look at Beverly Hills. People in society self-segregate."
Soon that may change in the prisons.
San Quentin and 30 or so other state penal facilities are gearing up to carry out a federal court mediation agreement for integrating double cells and ending the use of race as the sole determining factor in making cell assignments.
Men in California's prisons have long been segregated in cells to quell racial tensions.
But Good, along with California's other 155,700 male inmates, may soon be forced to live in a 4-by-9-foot cell with an inmate of a different race.
A 1995 lawsuit filed by a black California inmate, Garrison Johnson, said that the California Department of Corrections' practice of segregating prisoners by race violated his rights. A 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court led to federal court mediation and the agreement that double cells would be desegregated.
While most inmates and correctional officials agree that it is a noble idea, many fear the worst.
"They should be thinking about what kind of war they are going to start," said a San Quentin inmate who identified himself only as S. Styles, 36, of Vallejo. "It is like putting a cat and a dog in a cell together."
Lt. Rudy Luna, assistant to the warden at San Quentin, said there is some concern among prison officials about the change because much of the violence is already based around racial gangs.
State mandate
"There is always concern, but that is a rule that has been sent down. There are a lot of times we don't like what we have to do," Luna said. "I think we will have a spike in fighting because we have races that don't get along. If it was up to us, we'd keep it the way it is. But it is a state mandate."
Among the state's male inmates, about 28.9 percent are black, 39.3 percent are Latino, 25.9 percent are white, and 5.9 percent are classified as other, according to figures from the state Department of Corrections.
"There are a lot of incidents in prison where you have a group of inmates going against another group of inmates," said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "You have these groups aligned along race but it is about control. It is about criminal activities."
As currently planned, the cell integration will begin July 1 as a pilot project at two prisons - Mule Creek State Prison in Ione (Amador County) and the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown (Tuolumne County). Next year, the plan calls for integration to begin at other prisons.
Interviewing inmates
In carrying out the plan, prison officials will interview and evaluate each inmate. Department of Corrections officials know some inmates cannot be placed with inmates of other races. But those who are deemed eligible and still refuse will face discipline ranging from loss of privileges to solitary confinement.
Guards and staff have also been undergoing training for the past year on procedures and have been told to be alert for signs of abuse or fighting, Thornton said.
"The benefit is for inmates to live how they are supposed to live. It is rehabilitative. This is how we live in the world. It should be the same way in prison too," Thornton said. "It breaks down all of those prejudicial barriers."
Inmate David Johnson said that all the races sit together peacefully in the prison church and they work together with few problems. But he wouldn't socialize with inmates of another race outside of those settings where he is forced to mingle.
Loyal to his race
"Prison politics" dictate that he stay loyal to his race, Johnson said. And the repercussions for a violation are swift and severe.
"You would be taken care of in some way. You could get stabbed or worse," said Johnson, 38, of San Diego. "Whether you agree with the (unwritten) rules or not, you have to follow them."
That's why prison officials said the new plan will help the prisons manage the criminal prison gangs, which are divided racially and strictly control who their members associate with.
"Ninety percent of the gang members don't want to be in a gang but they can't get out. But now we are giving them a way out. It will be an excuse for a white to be with a black and a black to be with a white," Luna said.
The race lines are stark throughout the prisons. One recent sunny afternoon on the exercise yard of San Quentin, a group of two dozen or so African American inmates congregated around the basketball court, shooting hoops or just talking. White inmates were in the middle of the yard, playing ping pong or cards. And the Latino inmates were at the far end of the yard where there was some exercise equipment.
In a nearby courtyard, inmates who had recently arrived sat in small groups, mostly segregated except for those doing an intake exam.
Carnell Bradley, 23, Gregory Ealey, 27 and Wayne Griffin, 22, all of Oakland and all black, sat together and agreed that the integration plan is flawed.
'That is how jail is'
"It is going to cause problems. As soon as the cellmates get into a fight, it will become a race against race thing," said Ealey. "It is going to bring everybody into it because that is how jail is. It is just more comfortable being with your own race."
However, experts say it can work. The Texas prison system integrated its cells in the early 1990s and eventually saw a decline in racial tensions, said Professor Jim Marquart, chair of the criminology department at the University of Texas at Dallas, who studied the transition and is advising California during its process.
"The people said, 'It can't be done, you are going to have helter skelter in the prisons.' On the other side, you had people say it can be done. But basically, it was somewhere in between," said Marquart, who authored a report called "The Caged Melting Pot."
He said there was a spike in interracial violence at first. But after a while it died down, and the levels of interracial violence are now less than in the general population.
"We are not here to say that everybody is holding hands and singing Kumbaya. There is a lot of hate. There is a lot of animosity. But inmates are intelligent and they want to just do their time and they want to go home," said Marquart. "It worked here. It is an uneasy peace and truce, but it worked. I have ultimate faith in their ability to do it in California."
E-mail Tanya Schevitz at tschevitz@sfchronicle.com .
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Comment: Forced integration will cause a lot of problems, that is, ethnic/tribal violence, but I pray the humans will eventually learn to get along, make new alliances and see the common conditions of their situation in order to build up a mutli-ethnic prison justice movement. At least Latinos are number one in percentage somewhere! What does this say about the state of race-ethnic relations in the State of California? Recall: Among the state's male inmates, about 28.9 percent are black, 39.3 percent are Latino, 25.9 percent are white, and 5.9 percent are classified as other, according to figures from the state Department of Corrections. ~ Unidad! ~Peta-de-Aztlan
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Come Together and Create!
Peter S. Lopez ~ aka:Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/
http://www.networkaztlan.com/
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