December 16, 2024

Why Is the Cuban Immigrant Story in the US So Different from Others

Cold War politics led to special policies and domestic political power

August 1, 2022
Joel Brown

- snip -

Since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, Cubans have enjoyed a special status that the United States government does not bestow upon any other immigrant group. Presidents and Congress have given them different rules and benefits. In part as a result, they have become one of the most prosperous and politically powerful immigrant subcultures in the country.“It has given them special rights to emigrate to the United States. It has given them special entitlements once they are in the United States,” says Susan Eckstein,Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies professor of international relations and sociology. Eckstein’s new book, Cuban Privilege: The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America (Cambridge University Press, 2022), examines how and why immigrants from Havana were treated differently and how it has affected them—and us.

“Most immigrants from Cuba have arrived without authorization, they come without visas,” she says. “But Cubans have been able to come by any means—in a boat, by land, as tourists, whatever—and then have been able to have their status adjusted, so they are lawful immigrants with a path to citizenship.”After the Revolution, Cubans were on the receiving end of the largest refugee program in US history, Eckstein says, including college tuition, job training and placement, and much more.

“It was a refugee program, which was I guess a way of getting around giving other immigrant groups the same entitlements,” Eckstein says. “But the only criteria that Cubans needed to get access to this generous program was to have come to the United States after January, 1959.… This was a way of getting around immigration law.”

Although Castro’s rebels began as self-styled freedom fighters overthrowing the dictatorial and corrupt Batista regime, their government moved quickly to a communist system. Many Cubans, especially the moneyed class, fled over the next few years amid confiscation of property and nationalization of businesses. And the US government, unhappy with having a communist regime just 90 miles from Florida, was happy to welcome them. It was all part of a Cold War strategy that also included the ongoing economic embargo (Cubans call it the “blockade”), as well as 1960s assassination attempts on Castro and the doomed Bay of Pigs “Invasion.”

. . .

“It has really become the Cuban Americans almost dictating US-Cuba policy as opposed to presidents, for Cold War reasons, wanting to use the Cubans for their own political agenda,” she says.

More:
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/cuban-immigrant-story-in-us-is-different-from-others/

December 15, 2024

Activists release images of foxes at Finnish fur farms to push EU to ban the trade

By JAMEY KEATEN

The Associated Press
December 14, 2024 at 10:01PM

GENEVA -- A red fox frantically scratches the wires of its small cage. An Arctic fox meanders lazily with a bloody tail. Other furry creatures, some with teary eyes, stare blankly into a light on an activist's video camera.

Finnish advocacy group Oikeutta Elaimille, or Justice for Animals, and Humane Society International have released images taken from an “undercover investigation” at three fur farms in western Finland in late October to highlight the behind-the-scenes realities of the trade.

The activists’ incursion came as the European Union, which counts Finland as a member, is awaiting advice in March from the EU agency that oversees animal welfare before deciding in March 2026 whether it should propose a ban on fur farming altogether.

FIFUR, a Finnish fur-breeders group, blasted the “covert filming” of the farms, accusing the intruders of “breaching strict biosecurity requirements” on farms where operations are “strictly controlled by national laws and regulations” and where veterinarians monitor animal welfare.

More:
https://www.startribune.com/activists-release-images-of-foxes-at-finnish-fur-farms-to-push-eu-to-ban-the-trade/601195104

December 15, 2024

Chile's Mejillones transforms from coastal paradise to industrial pollution crisis

A particular camping trip with my children haunts me. I wanted to show them the Mejillones of my childhood—the pristine beaches and abundant sea life. We brought a pot and gathered crabs and shellfish, but as we made our way to a nearby beach the staff stopped us. We saw pipes and fences. What appeared to be waste dumping into the sea turned the water into a yellow foam. It looked dangerous and unnatural. My heart broke.

Sergio Andres Vargas Salvatierra
2 days ago

December 13, 2024



Maria Brevis walks near the industrialized zone of Mejillones. | Photo courtesy of Maria Brevis.



MEJILLONES, Chile — Skilled trades once sustained the people of Mejillones, Chile. Today, those crafts disappear. Traditions fade and the skills families once boasted garner little respect. The peaceful people of Mejillones failed to defend their land. Though not born here, I love Mejillones, just like those native to it.

To protect Mejillones from the changes taking place, we shift our focus to institutional action. Along with others, we protest chemical dumping and the blocking of fishermen’s boats. The moment requires more than protest, however. We need to push for change through official channels. While I face persecution, I remain committed to ensuring companies comply with environmental regulations and invest in technology to reduce pollution.



Living in a paradise: Mejillones becomes home

Although my father worked for a shipping company, as children, we never experienced the sea. Where we grew up in Valdivia, we faced poverty, cold, rain, and hunger. Then one day, due to political reasons, my father left Valdivia for the north. He went to Mejillones. My sister and I followed with nothing but the clothes on our backs. At just 10 years old, I arrived in my town at just 10 years old.

We reached Mejillones during the Cojinova [silverside fish] boom. My father immediately began fishing. We possessed no spoons, plates, or even a blanket; we had absolutely nothing. Yet, the moment I set my eyes on Mejillones, it felt like stepping into paradise. Coming from the greenery of the jungle, this new, bright, sunny place felt breathtaking. The white, warm sand beneath my feet left a glorious first impression. Despite the hardships, those early days felt magical.

Living near the pier, many people I met back then remain my dearest friends today. They gifted us tarpaulins, linens, mattresses, and blankets in order to sleep near the shore. Dad fished for cojinova and taught us to provide for ourselves. We soon adjusted to our new life, learning to dive and gather crabs, clams, and oysters.

Every morning, we awoke steps from the water. It felt like paradise; like living a dream. We ate fried fish for breakfast and drank tea. For lunch, we feasted on oysters, sea urchins, clams, and crabs. We ate what we caught. Many of these items became expensive seafood over time.

More:
https://orato.world/2024/12/13/chiles-mejillones-transforms-from-coastal-paradise-to-industrial-pollution-crisis/

December 9, 2024

Colombia Asks U.S. to Declassify Records on 1985 Palace of Justice Case

till from from the 2011 documentary film La Toma (The Siege)

Published: Dec 6, 2024
Edited by Michael Evans

For more information, contact:
202-994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu

Subjects
Human Rights and Genocide
Secrecy and FOIA
Regions
South America
Project
Colombia

Washington, D.C., December 6, 2024 - Yesterday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he has asked the United States to expedite the declassification of archival records on the 1985 Palace of Justice case. The request is an important step forward for human rights advocates seeking to clarify the motivations and actions of the M-19 insurgents who stormed the building on November 6, 1985, and the Colombian government’s responsibility for those who died in the fire that tore through the seat of Colombia’s judicial branch and for the disappearances that occurred in the aftermath.

The request was welcomed by Helena Urán Bidegain, author of Mi Vida y El Palacio (My Life and the Palace), a memoir of her own investigation of the disappearance of her father, Carlos Urán, an auxiliary magistrate who is believed to have been tortured and murdered by the Colombian Army after surviving the initial assault on the building. The latest edition of the book includes cites a number of declassified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive that raise important questions about the U.S. role in the episode that remain unanswered.

In seeking the records, Petro is complying in part with a recommendation made by Colombia’s truth commission, which said that the president should ask the U.S. to declassify records relating to human rights violations in Colombia, including the Palace of Justice case, among others. President Petro’s request to President Biden is also made in compliance with the 2014 ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which found the Colombian state responsible for deaths and disappearances during the episode and ordered Colombia to satisfy the victims’ right to know the truth about what happened (the “Right to Truth”).

The case is of particular interest to President Petro, who was a member of the M-19 insurgent group that seized the Palace on November 6, 1985, but was detained at the time and was not involved in the takeover of the building. The request for declassification comes less than two months before President Joe Biden leaves the White House and turns the office over to Donald Trump.

The Palace of Justice case has long been a focus of the Archive’s Colombia documentation project. Last year, as part of a call by Urán and others for Petro to request such a declassification, the Archive published a collection of U.S. records on the case, highlighting some important revelations and raising questions about documents and portions of documents that remain secret.

U.S. military reports included in the posting confirm that Colombian military intelligence knew about the M-19 assault at least a week in advance and that Colombian President Belisario Betancur “gave the military a green light, telling them to do whatever was necessary to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.” The CIA ultimately found that Betancur acted mainly out of “fear that failure to act forcefully would anger military leaders.” A U.S. Embassy cable written years later found that the Colombian Army was responsible for deaths and disappearances during the Palace of Justice case.

More:
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/colombia/2024-12-06/colombia-asks-us-declassify-records-1985-palace-justice-case

December 9, 2024

With Bolsonaro Facing Prosecution, NYT Renews Attacks on Brazil's Courts

December 6, 2024

Brian Mier


Brazil’s Federal Police released an 884-page report on November 26, laying out the evidence used for its November 21 indictments of former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 of his cronies. Among the revelations are evidence showing that Bolsonaro knew about a plot carried out by army special forces officers to assassinate President Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes, and proof that Bolsonaro oversaw a complex plan with six working groups to enact a military coup after losing the election in 2022.

This news was covered in media outlets around the world, from the Washington Post, Reuters and AP to the Guardian and Le Monde. Curiously enough, the New York Times, which has given ample coverage to Brazilian politics and the ongoing investigations against Bolsonaro, remained silent.

Five days earlier, in an article about the indictments, Times reporter Ana Ionova (11/21/24) misleadingly wrote, “The police did not provide any specifics about Mr. Bolsonaro’s actions that led to their recommendations.” So why, five days later, when a mountain of material evidence and plea bargain testimony transcripts were released, demonstrating exactly why the police recommended that the attorney general file three criminal charges against Bolsonaro, would the Times not join in with the other media outlets to add clarification?

As I’ve written before (FAIR.org, 7/7/23), the Times has aligned itself with a toxic narrative pushed by Bolsonaro, along with international allies like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, to discredit Brazil’s court system. Most of their efforts have focused on Moraes, the former Electoral Court president and current Supreme Court minister. As the police report shows, delegitimizing Moraes was one of the strategies used to build public support for the 2023 coup attempt.

Furthermore, since the failure of that attempt, the attacks on Moraes have been used by conservatives to build public sympathy for amnesty for Bolsonaro, in a move to pressure Congress to restore his political rights so that he can run for election in 2026.

Moraes’ central position as a target in the strategy is demonstrated in intercepted WhatsApp conversations between members of the group who were indicted in the coup investigation. A review of Times articles covering Moraes over the last two years shows that, at the least, the newspaper has acted as an unwilling accomplice, or “useful idiot” by perpetuating the coup plotters’ judicial overreach narrative.

More:
https://fair.org/home/with-bolsonaro-facing-prosecution-nyt-renews-attacks-on-brazils-courts/

December 8, 2024

Mexico just put animal welfare into its national constitution

These reforms are a big win for advocates, but what happens next will be crucial for animals rights.

by Sam Delgado
Dec 7, 2024, 6:00 AM CST



President Claudia Sheinbaum a the daily morning briefing at the National Palace on October 14, 2024, in Mexico City, Mexico.
Emiliano Molina/ObturadorMX/Getty Images


On December 2, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a set of constitutional reforms that will pave the way for a comprehensive federal animal welfare law. The changes represent the first-ever mention of nonhuman animals in the Mexican Constitution, marking a milestone achievement for Mexico’s animal rights movement, which has for years been drawing attention to pervasive animal cruelty and extreme confinement in the country’s growing meat industry.

“This is huge,” says Dulce Ramirez, executive director of Animal Equality Mexico and the vice president of Animal Equality’s Latin American operations. These constitutional changes come after two years of campaigning by animal advocacy organizations, including Igauldad Animal Mexico, Humane Society International/Mexico (HSI/Mexico), and Movimiento Consciencia.

These reforms are internationally unique. While national animal protection laws aren’t uncommon, most countries have no mention of animals in their Constitutions. Constitutions are “a reflection of socially where we are,” Angela Fernandez, a law professor at the University of Toronto, told Vox, making any constitutional reform symbolically a big deal.

Beyond Mexico, nine countries include references to animals in their Constitutions, but those mentions have generally been brief and open to interpretation. “Mexico is different,” Kristen Stilt, faculty director at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Program, told Vox. “It’s longer, it’s more specific. It’s in several provisions. It’s not just a general statement.”

Plenty of countries have laws against animal mistreatment, including the US, where all 50 states have an anti-cruelty law, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been particularly effective at stopping violence against animals. Part of the problem is that these laws very often exempt farmed animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens, thereby excluding from protection the overwhelming majority of animals that suffer at human hands. That’s where Mexico’s reforms stand out: They’re intended to protect all animals, including farmed animals and other exploited species.

More:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/390144/mexico-constitution-reform-animal-rights

December 5, 2024

Women at the wheel: the female taxi services bringing safety and independence to Bolivian travel

Sarah Johnson
Tue 3 Dec 2024 06.00 EST



Felicidad Quispe is an Indigenous driver with Linea Lila (Lilac Line) in El Alto, one of a few female-led taxi firms providing safe trips to Bolivian women, children and elderly people, July 2024. Photograph: Claudia Morales/Reuters


Cab companies run by women provide safe rides in a country with one of the worst rates of sexual violence in Latin America


The first hint that something was wrong came when Jacqueline Diaz received a call at work from a friend. “You need to come here, to my shop, now. It’s urgent,” she was told. Diaz rushed to her friend’s shop in La Paz, Bolivia, where she found her daughter, Michelle, who was 12 at the time, crying and in shock.

That morning, on her way to school, a van had pulled up, the door opened and two men pulled her inside before speeding off. Michelle managed to escape by jumping out of the vehicle when it slowed down going over an unpaved section of road. When she stopped running, she recognised the area and made her way to the shop owned by her mum’s friend.

“It really made a big impression on me,” says Diaz. “I realised how important the safety of our children is, because my daughter was kidnapped two blocks from school. Something clicked.” She reported the incident to the police, but no one was arrested.

The life-defining event pushed Diaz to learn how to drive, buy a car and work for Mujeres al Volante (Women at the Wheel), a taxi service exclusively for children, women and older people, for three years.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/03/women-female-taxi-services-safety-independence-to-bolivia-travel

~ ~ ~

Article published by the U.N. following trip to Bolivia by a U.N. official in 2007:

UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES


4. Bolivia is a multi-ethnic country. In 2005 an indigenous president was elected for the first time, and announced his intention of introducing sweeping changes in the country’s social and economic policy aimed at benefiting the indigenous peoples and remedying the historic injustices perpetrated against them. President Morales also appointed several indigenous ministers and vice-ministers to his Cabinet. One of the first decisions of his Government was to dismantle the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and Native Peoples, which has been replaced by a cross-cutting approach led by the Ministry of the Presidency.

The Government has taken steps to incorporate in domestic law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly in September this year. The Political Constitution of the State recently approved for the most part by the Constituent Assembly contains numerous provisions on the collective rights of indigenous peoples, including the concept of indigenous autonomy.

One of the main issues that drew the attention of the Special Rapporteur during his visit is the serious persistence of racism and discrimination against indigenous people, and especially against indigenous women. This is still manifested in the behaviour of public officials at the national and subnational levels and in the attitudes of political parties and pressure groups, which sometimes incite violence against persons based on their indigenous status. Expressions of

anti-indigenous racism frequently occur in some media, which often sacrifice the principles of objectivity and impartiality for the sake of political interests. It is a matter of concern that the current political conflict in Bolivia has given rise to a resurgence in manifestations of racism more suited to a colonial society than a modern democratic State.

Denial of the right to lands and territories, as recognized by the Declaration, is the main focus of concern for indigenous communities in Bolivia, and the principal source of violation of their rights. While some progress has been made in land reform and the granting of title under the Act on the National Agrarian Reform Institute and community renewal of agrarian reform, there are still many obstacles in the way of this process, which is a source of frustration for the communities. In the highlands, where smallholdings and extremely small plots (known as “surcofundios”) are prevalent, many indigenous communities are demanding a reconstitution of their ancestral territories. In the Eastern region (Oriente) and the Bolivian Amazon, land has been consolidated, in many cases illegally, into very large estates (“latifundios”), giving rise to numerous conflicts with the indigenous people who have been affected and, in some cases, displaced, and serious violations of their human rights have been documented.

A matter of special concern is the bondage in which Guaraní communities are still living in three departments of Bolivia as a result of historical dispossession of their territories; the Special Rapporteur was able to observe this personally. Also of concern is the situation of high-risk vulnerable communities such as the Yuki people in the tropical lowlands of Cochabamba and the Ayoreo in the department of Santa Cruz.

The Special Rapporteur was able to examine several cases of environmental pollution caused by extractive industries, with highly detrimental effects on the health and habitat of adjoining communities. This is the case of mining activities in the departments of Oruro and Potosí, as well as hydrocarbon extraction in other areas.

The mobilization of indigenous peoples in recent years has led to substantial progress in recognition of their rights and their role in the national political process. The many documented instances of assault and attacks on indigenous leaders and human rights defenders, with the support of economic actors and local authorities, are a matter of concern, and reflect the difficulties in the way of building a pluralistic democratic society in the country.

More:
https://un.arizona.edu/2007-report-situation-indigenous-peoples-bolivia

(The report by the UN official was the faintest shadow of the reality in Bolivia for the very substantial native Bolivian population.

Indigenous Bolivians were unable to vote before a revolution in 1952, and could NOT walk upon the sidewalks used by the ruling "white" class, which calls them "fu**in' Indians" or "llama abortions," etc. They have been terrorized and beaten and worse up to this day. There are fascist militias of young men who drive into their neighborhoods and abuse them, even burning their homes, carrying clubs embedded with barbed wire.





























Adding political "cartoon":

November 30, 2024

How Brazilian police say Bolsonaro plotted a coup to stay in office

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and ELÉONORE HUGHES
Updated 10:07 PM CST, November 29, 2024

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Federal Police in late November formally accused far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others of planning a coup to keep him in office. The agency described a multi-step scheme, substantiated by evidence and testimony, in an 884-page report.

The plan included systematically sowing distrust of the electoral system among the populace, drafting a decree to give the plot a veneer of legal basis, pressuring top military brass to go along with the plan, and inciting a riot in the capital.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet will now decide whether to formally charge the accused parties, toss the investigation or request more testimony to understand each person’s participation in different parts of the alleged plot before deciding who stands trial on which counts. Bolsonaro and his main allies have denied any wrongdoing or involvement and accuse the authorities of political persecution.

Here is a breakdown of the plan’s key elements as laid out in the report and how they are supposedly connected.

Police allege that efforts to disseminate fake news about Brazil’s electronic voting system began in 2019, Bolsonaro’s first year in office, but were conducted more strategically and intensively as his 2022 reelection bid drew near.

More:
https://apnews.com/article/bolsonaro-brazil-coup-legal-woes-report-43bae30906925a8dc04e319b901488f8

November 28, 2024

Slave memoirs yanked the veil off of America's facade

Narratives by formerly enslaved writers were critical to shedding light on the unthinkable realities of enslavement.
Feb. 13, 2024, 7:00 AM CST
By Zahara Hill

In the everlasting faceoff between Black history and America’s self-conception, it’s worth revisiting one of the fight’s earliest and most valiant weapons of war: the slave memoir.

Narratives by formerly enslaved writers like Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass and Solomon Northup were critical to shedding light on the otherwise unthinkable realities of enslavement. Whatever idea of civility and morality America wanted to project to the world, slave memoirs were gutting proof to the contrary.

“They emphasize the torture, they emphasize the separation of families, they emphasize the slave trade that would reduce human beings to property.”

Manisha Sinha historian

“The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” — one of the foremost examples of the literary genre — offered a firsthand glimpse into the depravities that constituted chattel slavery. In it, Douglass recounts being emotionally and physically brutalized by Edward Covey, who had a reputation as a “slave-breaker,” and watching slaveholders cite Bible verses as they whipped the enslaved, among other atrocities.

The scholar says he was first introduced to the cruelties of enslavement when he saw his Aunt Hester stripped and beaten by her slaveholder, Captain Anthony. Douglass writes that his aunt was being punished for going against Anthony’s demands. But the author also suspected the slaveholder had a sexual interest in his aunt and that his attack was retaliatory because she’d recently spent time with a male slave. (Harriet Jacobs’ 1861 “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” also provides further insight into the deplorably complex experiences of enslaved women.)

More:
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/slave-memoirs-american-history-rcna137930

November 22, 2024

The dizzying array of legal threats to Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and DAVID BILLER
Updated 4:38 PM CST, November 21, 2024

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been a target for investigations since his early days in office, and the swarm of cases since his failed reelection bid in 2022 has left him in ever-deeper legal jeopardy.

In the latest indictment Thursday, he was accused of attempting a coup to keep himself in the presidency. In another case, the electoral court ruled the far-right leader ineligible to run for office until 2030.

There are dozens of other probes that could produce criminal charges at low-level courts, where he could appeal any eventual conviction. But the country’s Supreme Court will have the final say regarding more than five in-depth investigations, including into the alleged coup attempt, which could land the former president behind bars or under house arrest.

Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases, and his allies have alleged they are political persecution, while recognizing the severity of the legal risks on multiple fronts.

More:
https://apnews.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-legal-cases-attempted-coup-2917f4ce10ebf34864d90890dd146f7a