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US Army arrives in Guatemala to stop migration to Mexico

by the El Reportero wire services

Despite the fact that the United States and Guatemala signed an agreement to stop migration, President Donald Trump requested the invasion of US military troops.

The Minister of Defense of Guatemala, Luis Miguel Ralda, indicated that the US military troops are already working with the department of Huehuetenango to stop the unauthorized migration that leaves the country.

Ralda, indicated that US military troops are already working in Guatemala to stop migration pic.twitter.com/CToNOlomnQ – Diario La Hora (@lahoragt) June 3, 2019

Last week the United States and Guatemala signed a cooperation agreement to stop human trafficking and criminal networks, the country committed to share information and improve border security.

Despite this, The New Yorker published a letter in which Donald Trump requested the intervention of US military troops in Guatemala, an action that President Jimmy Morales would have accepted.

According to the Washington Post, officials from the Department of Homeland Security would help the Guatemalan national police and immigration authorities in operations to intercept human trafficking.

“I am proud to sign this agreement with the Minister Enrique Antonio Degenhart. Through our ongoing collaboration and partnership, the United States and Guatemala are formalizing a series of initiatives to improve the lives and safety of our respective citizens through the fight against human trafficking and the smuggling of illegal assets, helping to limit the factors that encourage the dangerous irregular migration to the United States, perpetuating the crisis that exists on the border, “said Acting Secretary McAleenan. (Source: Migrant Connection).

The IACHR asks El Salvador to suspend the Reconciliation Law

The president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), Eduardo Ferrer MacGregor Poisot, issued on May 28 a resolution ordering the Salvadoran State to stop the process of the “Special Law of Transitional and Restorative Justice for National Reconciliation”.

Through a communiqué, the Inter-American Court ordered that El Salvador suspend the legislative process of the bill and asked for additional information about how this rule would affect the processes of several massacres that occurred in 1981, in which members of the Armed Forces killed more than 900 civilians.

The resolution requires the State to submit a report no later than June 14, 2019. The international body warns that “if approved in the terms in which the project is currently proposed, it could be a law incompatible with the articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention.”

The bill must be reformed since it contains inadmissible rules that could deprive thousands of victims of atrocious crimes of genuine justice.

This establishes alternative penalties for defendants who confess crimes and tell the truth about what happened:

• Would fully suspend the sentences imposed on those sentenced to 10 years in prison or less.

• Those sentenced to more than 10 years, even if they are massive and aberrant crimes, must comply with sanctions of “public utility work” for a maximum of 10 years.

The legislative project of the so-called “Special Law of Transitional and Restorative Justice for National Reconciliation” would benefit the military and guerrillas involved in serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, which occurred during the 12 years of internal armed conflict in the country. It ended in 1992. The massacre occurred in the El Mozote farmhouse and its surroundings, in the eastern province of Morazán, El Salvador, between December 10 and 13, 1981.

Those responsible for these deaths and forced disappearances, whether military or guerrilla, have never been tried in El Salvador, since they were protected by a general amnesty promulgated in 1993 by the then President Alfredo Cristiani, however, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice left it without effect in 2016.

FLO, The Funky Latin Orchestra

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

The band FLO led by Mio Flores, El Timbalero, consists of a collection of musicians based out of the San Francisco and greater East Bay Area. Each with 30 years and plus of professional entertaining, performing, recording and touring with many greats of the music industry.

This group of well seasoned musicians have been playing together and entertaining audiences of many diverse social backgrounds and genres of music and have crossed paths with each other anywhere from the last five to 25 years in their careers. “FLO” Funky Latin Orchestra is pleased to be at Club Fox with all of you on this great night.

Azul Latino is led by Ernie Nolasco who is a self-taught lead guitarist with over 30 years of experience in the local Bay Area Music Scene. Growing up in the Mission District of San Francisco, Ernie was immersed in the eclectic blend of musical scenes that traversed the Bay Area through the 70s and 80s. Drawing influences from Ernie Isley, Neil Schon, Jimi Hendrix, and Carlos Santana. Ernie is a product of the Guitar’s Golden Age; when artists used the guitar to organically emulate emotion. (www.azullatino.com).

On Saturday, June 1, at Club Fox, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City. Doors open 7 p.m. Show 8 p.m.. Advance: $20/ Door: $25. For More Information, call 415-285-7719 or write DrBGMalo@aol.com.

Teatro Nahual presents “The First Lady” (Spanish)

The First Lady written by the Mexican playwright Willebaldo López is a farce that reflects the absurd reality of the politics that surrounds us worldwide. This work, in a grotesque way and at the same time very close to reality, shows the scope of corruption in which the political layers and the type of ambitious individuals that make up the political posts move. The public, through laughter, can see reflected the reality of the town. Likewise, the eccentric personality of a political leader and the opulence and ambition of his first lady are caricatured, who try to reform the laws for their own convenience, regardless of the welfare of the people.

The work has the performances of Juan Aquino, Lucía Peralta, Geraldo Cadenas, Marco Morales, Brenda Gutiérrez and Carolina López.

The original music is by the masters Gerardo Fernández and Isidro Jiménez. The set design is by Bridget Wylie. The stage direction is in charge of Verónica Meza.

“The First Lady” will premiere on Friday, May 24 at 8 p.m., followed by more performances on Saturdays, May 25, Sunday, May 26, at matinee at 2 p.m .; Friday, May 31 and Saturday, 1st. of June.

Place: MACLA-510 S. First Street in San Jose, CA.

Tickets are on sale at the Teatro Nahual site: www.teatronahual.org. You can also buy them at the theater door or book your tickets at: (650) 793-0783.

San Francisco International Arts Festival

Since 2015 the San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) in collaboration with the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture has worked to expand its range of harmonically inspired offerings and this year’s program will feature 20 music concerts or other genres including live musical accompaniment.

The presentations cover many subjects as part of the Festival’s Path to Democracy theme including civil rights, social and racial justice; migration and the plight of refugees and a testimony to the re-emergent period of democracy in Spain’s post-Franco era in the mid-1970s; and concerts focused on protecting the environment and climate change. Among the lineup are:

– Caminos Flamencos (USA)
Flamenco Generation XYZ is a variety showcase by Caminos Flamencos featuring the next generation of dancers and musicians comprising a span of 50 years in a concert of solidarity, collaboration and the passion of flamenco culture.
Gallery 308. Friday May 24, 9:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 – $38.
– San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company (USA) – Don Quixote Rides Again
Get ready for another whimsical flamenco adventure for the whole family. Master Flamenco artist Luis de la Tota stars as Don Quixote in this bilingual, rhythmic adventure filled with dazzling footwork and colorful costumes. He can rap, tap and make you laugh! Don Quixote rides again and you’re invited!
Gallery 308. Saturday May 25, 2 p.m. Tickets: $15 – $28.
At Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. Thursday May 23 – Sunday June 2, 2019. $15 – $100. Box Office and Information: www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554.

Celebrating the joy of giving with Latino flavor!

The Latino Community Foundation will be honoring legends and celebrating the power of culture and courage. There will be dance, great food and wine, and sharing lots of loud, collective laughter.
The event will celebrate the leadership and contributions made by past, present, and future leaders. It’s a celebration of culture, values, and families. Celebrating and honoring the sacrifices that have been made to open doors of access of opportunities for others.
On May 17, 2019, from 5:30 p.m. to 12 midnight, at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason Street, San Francisco.
The Latino Community Foundation is on a mission to unleash the power of Latinos in California. Will you join us? www.latinocf.org.

Willie Colón celebrates 30 years of recording El Gran Varón

by the El Reportero’s news services

Willie Colón celebrates 30 years of recording The great man The musician has a lot to celebrate: 30 years of his famous melody and 50 of artistic career Willie Colón is celebrating his golden wedding for his artistic career, 30 of having recorded ‘El gran male ‘and 50 years of belonging to the Fania All Star group, which is why he will celebrate with a concert at the Metropólitan theater. “The song has become a hymn and is placed in the first 25 most listened songs.

‘The great man’ was ‘cooked’ in the La Maraka hall in Mexico, and from there he went out into the world … It’s a song that I have to sing in all the concerts, “said Willie.

Activist, politician, composer, music producer and now sheriff in the state of New York, Colón recognized that salsa is a genre that will not disappear.

“I do not have a lack of work. There is demand everywhere, in Latin America, in Europe and the United States. I know there are other genres right now that are standing out like reggaeton, but salsa has a special place … although there are also no great new values in salsa.”

And although the genre that currently dominates the music industry is urban, for the composer this type of music contains many influences of salsa, because as with reggaeton, the lyrics emerge from the experiences of the marginalized classes.
(Source: El Gráfico).

Bolivian Constitution to recognize three new indigenous languages

Joaquiniano, Paunaka and Kumsa are three new indigenous languages that will be added to all 36 tongues existing and recognized officially by the Political Constitution of the State of Bolivia, local media reported.

The general director of the Plurinational Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures (IPELEC), Pedro Apala, noted that those languages, which have a comparative grammar and vocabularies and are spoken in several regions of the country, will be recognized this year.

Apala pointed out that Joaquiniano is spoken in the plain regions of Beni, Paunaka in Santa Cruz and Kumsa in Sur Chichas (Potosi). He added that he was proud of these new contributions to the Constitution that will increase the cultural identity of the Bolivian peoples through language, which transmits knowledge and wisdom.

Bolivia’s recognized official languages are Spanish and those spoken by indigenous nations and peoples, and peasants, like Aymara, Araona, Baure, Besiro, Canichana, Cavineño, Cayubaba, Chacobo, Chiman, Ese Ejja, Guarani, Guarasu’we, Guarayu, Itonama, Leco, Machajuyai-Kallawaya, Machineri and Maropa.

It also recognizes Mojeño-Trinitario, Mojeño-Ignaciano, More, Moseten, Movima, Pacawara, Puquina, Quechua, Siriono, Tacana, Tapiete, Toromona, Uru-Chipaya, Weenhayek, Yaminawa, Yuki, Yuracare and Zamuco.

According to official statistics, Bolivia has the largest indigenous population in Latin America (62.2 percent, followed by Guatemala, Peru and Mexico).

France, Italy pay tribute to Da Vinci

After months of tensions between the governments of France and Italy, Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Sergio Mattarella joined Thursday to pay tribute to the great Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci.

On the 500th anniversary of his death, the two Heads of State moved to the town of Amboise, in the central valley of the Loire River, where Da Vinci had spent the last three years of his life.

The Italian genius was deemed as the Renaissance man archetype because of his incursion in many fields of knowledge and creation – painting, architecture, engineering, and design, among others. He arrived in Gallic lands at the invitation of King Francis I and here he died on May 2nd, 1519.

Although he left a prolific legacy that ranges from philosophical works to incredible engineering designs for his time, in the world he is known mainly for his painting The Giocconda, or The Mona Lisa, which today is exhibited in the Parisian Louvre Museum.

Whistled at, taunted, touched and grabbed: a snarky lesson for cat callers

Being grabbed by a strange man used to happen about once a year

by Sarah DeVries

During my first 10 or so years in Mexico, I would be grabbed by a strange man, on average, once a year.

All seemed to be crimes of opportunity, and it didn’t really stop until I got a big, scary-looking dog, and men would cross the street to avoid me. (Cat calls and whistles are several times a week, forever, until you’re a skeleton, I guess).

A few times were downright scary, like when a man ran up to me and reached under my skirt while I was walking early in the morning to the bus stop to go to work. He stopped and stared at me for a few seconds even as I screamed and hit him as if he were deciding what to do next. No one was around.

Another time someone grabbed me in front of my apartment building after having asked for directions, and said, when I protested, “What, you don’t like it?” He genuinely seemed confused.

I was so paranoid about him knowing where I lived that I went inside and barricaded my door and carried my keys points-out for months.

Nowadays I live in a decidedly more chill area, my neighbors know me, and often see me with my husband and daughter (having a child with you seems to reduce one’s “fair game” rating by about 70%, but is still no guarantee).

Like every woman I know here, foreign and Mexican, I’ve been whistled at, taunted, touched, and grabbed by men. It sucks. But what sucks more is that so many men don’t seem to realize that it’s something they seriously shouldn’t do, and the contempt it shows for women in general chills my blood. This letter (admittedly snarky) is for them.

Hey there, Cat Callers!

Cute gringa here with your first official class on how to not be creepy toward women. Welcome! I know, this isn’t the best introduction to put you at ease, and surely there are some of you out there who feel you’re being sexy and daring, but much like you feel the need to get things off your chest immediately when you see a female of our species that you think you might like (to harass?), I feel it’s best to just jump right in. Shall we?

First, and this is very important: do not, I repeat, DO NOT touch strange women. Or known women, for that matter, if you aren’t sure how they’re going to take it, and especially if it hasn’t even occurred to you that they’d have any emotions about it at all.

I’m not talking about handshakes and greetings in social situations, and I know you know what I mean. I don’t know a single woman, foreign or national, who hasn’t been grabbed on the street by a strange man and had the living daylights scared out of her, and not an insignificant number of women have disappeared and even died after precisely that kind of initial contact.

So take it from me, fellas: unless your end goal is to commit an actual crime, just keep your hands to yourself! If your end goal is to commit a crime, well, tie yourself up somewhere. I don’t know.

Second rule: direct and constant eye contact is very creepy, and not charming at all. Judging from the number of men who do this, I think this one might not be quite as obvious. Haven’t you ever seen those National Geographic documentaries where giant cats crouch, fixated and unblinking, on their prey?

It’s not a nice feeling, thinking you’re about to get pounced on or are being stalked. And it’s definitely not sexy. If you like someone, do this instead: glance over, catch the person’s eye, smile a bit, then look away again. If she smiles back, maybe do it once or twice more (but don’t sustain the look for over two seconds), then walk over and introduce yourself like a normal human being. You can do it!

Third, just do not do that thing where you turn your head a second too early when a woman walks by so that she just knows that you are checking out her behind. It’s icky. It’s gross. And most of all, it’s unwelcome. When you do that, any hope that you might just see us as regular people dissipates, and makes us feel like, well, an object: something to be compared and examined, then bought or left to rot on a shelf; and if you truly love women, I don’t think this is how you want to make them feel.

Lastly, and oh-so-importantly: when women protest in the streets because they’re tired of being ridiculed, ignored, abused, kidnapped, raped and killed at numbers so high Mexico might as well be one giant war zone, march with them instead of criticizing their efforts as “not the right kind” or “too soon” or discrediting the entire movement because a couple of people spray-painted some graffiti (if there’s one thing we won’t abide, it’s graffiti, amiright?): march with them side by side.

Sexism and machismo hurt all of us, but true equality is sexy.

(Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz).

New bill will force owners of hybrid & electric cars to pay fees to offset gas they don’t buy

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

I was, and still am, happy for having found the perfect car for my sister Juana, who was spending almost $100 per week in gas, driving about 100 miles weekly in her old 6-cylinder Ford Taurus. I felt sorry for her, because as a minimum-wage earner, it had become a real hardship for her. She is now driving the same number of miles, but spending just a fraction of what she was spending before after she got a hybrid car.
But when I read the article below, written by Matt Agorist, I just hoped our money-hungry California government doesn’t go the way other states are going: penalizing those hybrid-car drivers for not paying the gas tax the government has been accustomed to steal from its citizens. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen in California, since it is the US state leader that promotes and incentivizes the use of clean energy. – Marvin Ramírez

Because owners of hybrid and electric cars don’t pay enough in fuel taxes, the government is going to force them to pay exorbitant annual fees

by Matt Agorist

If ever you thought the government cares about possible solutions to environmental problems — like electric cars — the following case out of North Carolina proves just how much of a farce their “caring” is.
Legislators in North Carolina have introduced a bill that will force owners of hybrid and electric vehicles to pay exorbitant annual fees to offset the gas taxes they aren’t paying. This move creates a negative incentive to partake in the free market solution to a cleaner environment through purchasing fuel efficient and electric cars.

Senate Bill 446 will force owners of electric and hybrid cars to pay massive fees for the privilege of driving these cars in their state. Currently, the state is already stealing $130 a year in fees from citizens who drive electric cars, but the new legislation would more than double that to $275 by 2022 and add hybrid cars to the list of those to extort. The bill includes text that would raise rates every year as well — due to inflation, of course.

This is the opposite incentive other states use to encourage the use of cleaner technology. However, it is not exclusive to North Carolina as 19 other states have passed similar legislation.

As the free market provides solutions to a cleaner environment, here comes the state to make sure they can stifle it.

As the News Observer reports, Senate Bill 446 was introduced by Jim Davis and Tom McInnis, Republicans who head the transportation and transportation appropriations committees. The bill is designed to help offset the declining revenue generated by the fuels tax as cars and trucks get better gas mileage or don’t use any gas at all.

According to Davis, it comes down to “our roads.”

“Right now, they don’t pay any gas tax from the purchase of electricity, and they’re using our roads,” Davis said. “This bill is intended to bring parity so that everybody is contributing their fair share to the gas tax revenue.”

According to the News Observer, the massive jump in fees has worried automakers, according to Henry Jones Jr., an attorney who represents the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which includes Ford, GM, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and eight other automakers.

By creating a negative incentive for NC citizens to purchase electric cars, state lawmakers are not only stifling the growth of the fuel-efficient industry but they are also discouraging a free market solution to a cleaner environment.

“If we are in the process of trying to encourage more electric vehicles, it seems like that fee is a little bit more than it should be,” NC Sen. Joyce Waddell said.

Others lawmakers disagree and say that if they have to pay a fuel tax for driving their gas guzzlers then drivers of fuel-efficient vehicles need to ante up as well to drive on their roads.

“On the roads that they travel they cause just as much of a problem as my light pickup truck,” NC Sen Bill Rabon said. “I’m paying 36 cents a gallon to ride on that road, and it is only fair that they pay an equal amount.”

Naturally, proponents of this bill do not take into account the externalized costs of combustion engines which everyone pays. And, largely due to government subsidies and special privileges granted to massive polluters by the state, the actual costs of fossil fuels — which everyone pays without choice — are far greater.

Some of these externalized costs are easy to see such as smog, pollution, and land degradation. But others are not so easy to see like the costs of asthma and cancer. Sadly, this is one area in which total costs are not represented in market prices due to the fact that many of the world’s largest polluters are granted permission to degrade the environment by government agencies like the EPA.

In a corporatocracy, we would expect nothing less than a regulatory agency to have a backdoor for corporations to pillage human and environmental health for profit.

On example of this privilege to polluters is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) which was passed in 1976 and administered by the EPA. It is the primary gateway for chemicals to be introduced on the market. The TSCA is supposed to protect Americans from “unreasonable risk to health or to the environment,” but thanks to the trade secrets provision we are denied information on 65 percent of chemicals that have been introduced over the past 27 years.

As legislators across the country push to tax those who choose a free market solution to pollution, we would do well to remember that massive hidden costs due to their special privileges and loopholes granted to some of the largest polluters in the world are paid by us all — whether we legislate it or not.

Don’t just ACCEPT Alzheimer’s as inevitable

These lifestyle options can help you prevent it

by Vicki Batts

Many people assume that dementia is a “normal” part of the aging process — but the truth is that memory loss and cognitive decline are not rites of passage in your golden years. Recent survey data from the Dementia Attitudes Monitor shows that over 20 percent of people in the United Kingdom believe that dementia is inevitable as they get older, while over 70 percent of people believe that dementia cannot be prevented.

In the United States alone, nearly six million people are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease — and that number is expected to reach 14 million by 2050. An estimated one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia — and every 65 seconds, someone else is diagnosed with the disease.

For millions of people, dementia is already a reality. But despite what the corrupt medical establishment tells us about dementia, it can be prevented.

Dementia isn’t a fact of life

Across the board, the findings on dementia attitudes in the U.K. do not look good. In addition to believing dementia is inevitable and cannot be prevented, most people don’t know what the risk factors for dementia are or how to protect against it. Health officials believe that at least one-third of all dementia cases can be prevented with diet and lifestyle modification — which makes this lack of awareness especially concerning.

The polling data, collected by Ipsos MORI for Alzheimer’s Research U.K., included responses from over 2,000 participants.

However, the survey respondents were never asked why they thought dementia was unavoidable and unpreventable.

It is hard not to wonder if people have such an abysmal view of dementia because that’s the message they’re being given from health professionals. Even the pharmaceutical industry has been forced to admit defeat when it comes to dementia treatment. There are no prescription drugs that can put a band-aid on cognitive decline.

That sounds pretty negative — especially to someone who’s been conditioned to believe pharma drugs are the only path to wellness for their entire life. It’s really not surprising that most people put dementia up there with death and taxes: That’s basically what doctors tell them.

Preventing dementia is possible

Despite what the mainstream medical-pharmaceutical industrial complex would like for you to believe, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease can be prevented — just like other major Western ailments such as heart disease and diabetes. Admitting that the body can protect and heal itself without pharmaceuticals is a major threat to modern medicine (and all the profits that come with it).

Denying the biological reality that yes, the human body can take care of itself, is essential to their bottom line — but consumers can still take charge of their health.

There are a host of diet and lifestyle modifications people can make to reduce their dementia risk. As Daily Mail reports, experts suggest the following changes:

• Quit smoking if you are a smoker
• Drink in moderation, if at all
• Keep your brain active
• Be more social
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Follow a healthy diet
• Be physically active

These generic lifestyle changes can help improve overall health and can help reduce the risk of many diseases and conditions, including dementia. Recent research has shown that there may be another potential risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s: Aluminum exposure.

Studies have shown that aluminum in drinking water can increase your risk of dementia. According to reports, the scientists found consuming just 0.1 mg of aluminum per day from drinking water was enough to adversely effect cognitive ability over time.

Research has also shown that the aluminum adjuvants in vaccines can also threaten cognitive function and contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions. Fortunately, studies also show silica water can help protect your brain against the toxic effects of aluminum and other metals.

Learn more about preventing dementia and other diseases at Prevention.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk
ITV.com

Los Angeles has most to lose in Census undercount, study finds

For first time, state could lose a congressional seat and electoral college vote

by Mark Hedin
Ethnic Media Services

California is welcoming newcomers every day, but some regions are growing fast enough to take political power away from slower-growing ones. In today’s California, the most-populous county, Los Angeles, with more than 10 million people, is losing ground to the San Francisco Bay Area and the Inland Empire of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

In its recent report, “Winners and Losers: The 2020 Census and California’s 2021 Redistricting,” Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State and Local Government looks at population trends up and down the state and explains how changes play out in the political realm.

Overall, the state is projected to show an 8.7 percent population increase from 2010, while within California, the San Francisco Bay Area is expected to show 11.9 percent growth overall, with San Francisco County growing 14 percent, Alameda 14.5 percent and Contra Costa 13.4 percent. Santa Clara, Solano and San Mateo counties also are experiencing double-digit population growth.

In Southern California, Riverside County is up 15.2 percent, San Bernardino and Orange counties 8.6 percent each and San Diego 11.2 percent. But most of Los Angeles is growing at a less than 5 percent rate.

Political districts are intended to include equal numbers of people. So when the Census shows that one region has more people than it used to, and another has fewer, district boundaries are redrawn to balance out their respective populations.

But, just as Los Angeles stands to lose representation in Sacramento, the same principles that apply to state legislatures also come into play when seats in the U.S. Congress are apportioned. California, and the South and Southwest in general, have consistently gained seats. But in 2020, California could, for the first time, lose a seat in Congress.

Four central Los Angeles Congressional districts – each controlled by a Democrat of either Hispanic or Asian descent – would nonetheless be consolidated into three districts to allow another congressional seat to go to a faster-growing state, such as Texas or Florida.

The methodology of how Congressional seats are apportioned is bizarrely byzantine and impossible to explain. But basically, every state gets one seat and then the remaining 385 are distributed according to population.

The four Congressional districts seen as most likely candidates for contraction are Judy Chu’s 27th, in Pasadena; Grace Napolitano’s 32nd, in El Monte; Linda Sanchez’s 38th, in Lakewood; and Lucille Roybal-Allard’s 40th in Downey.

While in the past, redistricting efforts attempted to preserve a district’s ethnic identity, those four districts are all surrounded by others with similar demographics, so if California were to lose a seat in Congress, it seems certain that it would be one belonging to a Democrat of color, Douglas Johnson, one of the report’s authors, told Ethnic Media Services.

However, he said, a difference of as few as 40,000 more Californians being counted in the Census could keep that from happening.

The report’s projections are based on data gathered by the Census Bureau in its annual American Community Surveys up to 2017 and extrapolated forward from there, then compared to 2010 Census data.

Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties have all signed on to form Complete Count Committees to ensure all their residents are enumerated in next year’s census.

Belizeans voted yes for ending territorial dispute with Guatemala

Belizeans voted yes for the International Court of Justice (CIJ) to settle an old territorial, maritime and insular dispute with Guatemala, in a referendum held on Wednesday, according to reports issued today.

According to the announced data, 53,388 electors voted yes whereas 43,029 opposed it. Previously slated for April 10, 65.05 percent of the 148,000 Belizeans turned out to vote despite its deferral by the president of the Supreme Court, Kenneth Benjamin, to deeply analyze an appeal against such process filed by the opposition.

After the analysis, voters were summoned to respond whether they agree to any legal claim of Guatemala against Belize related to several territories should be submitted to the ICJ for a final decision and to determine the limits of these areas.

Guatemala recognized the independence of Belize in 1991 but it continues to claim approximately 11,030 square kilometers of Belize´s territory (from the Sarstun River in the south to the Sibun river to the north), as well as hundreds of islands and islets. (El Reportero’s wire services).

Longtime Immigrant Rights Activist Nativo López Dies at 68

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights issued a statement remembering López as a “fierce defender of immigrants and of all Angelenos”

by City News Service

Longtime immigrant rights activist Nativo López, the executive director of Hermandad Mexicana, lost a battle with cancer, the Santa Ana-based nonprofit announced Monday.

A memorial service is in the planning stages for López, who died on Sunday at the age of 68, according to a statement from Hermandad Mexicana, which provides a variety of services for immigrants.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved leader, friend and fierce immigrant activist, Nativo López, on May 19, 2019,” the statement says. “He dies after two months of battling with cancer.”

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights issued a statement remembering López as a “fierce defender of immigrants and of all Angelenos.”

“The history of social justice movements in Los Angeles will include the name of this fighter and describe him as an influential immigrant rights advocate at a time when leadership and passion were badly needed,” said Angelica Salas, the coalition’s executive director. “Our condolences go to his family and friends, and we join them in honoring his contributions to our community.”

López, who was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Norwalk, was known for his part in winning amnesty for undocumented immigrants in 1986 and for the campaign to allow undocumented immigrants to receive drivers licenses.

López was on the Santa Ana Unified School board from 1997 until 2003, when a recall effort led by multimillionaire Ron Unz, the backer of a proposition opposed to bilingual education, successfully ousted him.

López sued to block the recall effort and won in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 decision that was later overturned by a ruling from the full court.

López also made headlines in 2009 when he was charged with voter registration fraud. López pleaded guilty in June 2011 to voting from an office space in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles when he actually lived in Orange County, and he was sentenced to 400 hours of community service.

Donations in López’s memory can be sent to Hermandad Mexicana, 900 N. Broadway, #604, Santa Ana, 92701.

No celebration for the mothers of the missing, who are marching in 23 cities

Eighth annual National Dignity March is for 40,000 moms of missing children

by Mexico News Daily

It’s Mother’s Day in Mexico but 40,000 moms whose sons and daughters are missing have nothing to celebrate.

Thousands of mothers of the missing will march in at least 23 cities today to draw attention to their ongoing struggle to locate their children in a country where rates of violence remain stubbornly high, thousands of unidentified bodies lie in morgues and hidden graves are regularly discovered.

It will be the eighth consecutive year that mothers and other family members of missing persons take to the streets to demand that authorities increase their efforts to find their loved ones.

In Mexico City, the National Dignity March will begin at the Monument to the Mother and conclude at the Angel of Independence, located on the capital’s emblematic Paseo de la Reforma boulevard. Simultaneous marches are planned for 22 other Mexican cities.

Among the participants in the Mexico City march will be members of a collective from Coahuila known as United Forces for our Missing.

“. . . We have nothing to celebrate,” said spokesperson María Elena Salazar.

“Even though we have other children, one of them isn’t with us. While we don’t know what happened, we can’t let this date go by unnoticed.”

Salazar called on the federal government to treat all missing persons cases equally and not just focus on “emblematic cases,” such as the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Guerrero in 2014.

“We have a new government and we continue to demand that it help us and listen to us. It shouldn’t seek [to solve only] emblematic cases . . . we all have the same necessity,” she said.

In Veracruz, where crimes including homicides and kidnappings have spiked recently and a secret cemetery was discovered last month, Lucía Díaz, founder of the Solecito Collective, said that mothers of the missing will march today in the port city of Veracruz.

During a previous march, the collective received a macabre gift: a sketch of the location of a mass clandestine grave at Colinas de Santa Fe, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Veracruz city. The remains of 300 people were exhumed from the site.

In contrast to Salazar, Díaz argued that the federal government has shown interest in solving Mexico’s thousands of missing persons cases, pointing out that it allocated 407 million pesos (US $21.3 million) to the National Search Commission.

However, Díaz said that the state’s top prosecutor is not offering the same support to the hundreds of collectives in the state that are made up of family members of the disappeared.

“The attorney general [Jorge Winckler] doesn’t make the slightest effort to hide his repudiation toward us,” she said.

Announcing the federal government’s search commission funding in February, human rights undersecretary Alejandro Encinas described Mexico as an “enormous hidden grave.”

“It’s estimated that there are currently 40,000 disappeared persons, more than 1,100 clandestine graves and around 26,000 unidentified bodies in morgues . . . that gives an account of the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis and the violation of human rights that we are confronting,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

In other Mexico news:

National Guard short on personnel: neither police nor navy have provided any

Secondary laws and other issues remain outstanding. Until then, only army soldiers are on patrol

Neither the navy nor the Federal Police has yet provided any personnel to the National Guard, leaving the first units of the new security force to be made up entirely of soldiers.

The secretariats of the Navy (Semar) and Security and Citizens Protection (SSPC), which has responsibility for the Federal Police, said they can’t transfer personnel to the force because a secondary law establishing the regulatory framework for the National Guard is not yet in place.

The secretariats also said they cannot begin the recruitment process for the security force because of a lack of legal clarity regarding a range of aspects related to the formation of the Guard, including entry requirements, evaluation and training.

That information, which came in response to a request by news website Animal Político, contradicts statements made by President López Obrador this week.

Yesterday he said that members of the navy police had already joined the National Guard and earlier this week he declared that the recruitment process was under way.

The first unit of the force started operations in Minatitlán, Veracruz, last month and further contingents have been deployed to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca; Tijuana, Baja California; and Cancún, Quintana Roo.

López Obrador has said that the initial deployments are legal even without secondary laws in place as the constitutional reform that enabled the creation of the National Guard allowed them.

However, the president’s office refused to provide Animal Político with copies of “general agreements” that showed that to be the case, stating that “it’s not a matter within its jurisdiction” and that it has no obligation to provide information to support statements made by López Obrador.

The National Guard was declared constitutional in March after both houses of federal Congress and all 32 states approved the security force.

Members of a special naval police force based in the most dangerous municipalities of Veracruz were López Obrador’s choice to be the first recruits.

But while Semar said it plans to transfer 6,288 naval police to the force it has not specified when that will occur.

Senate committees will begin discussion and analysis of a National Guard Law next week and according to the constitutional reform which was published in the government’s official gazette on March 26, legislation governing the security force must be drawn up by May 25.

Senators have said the law will set out the complete architecture for the Guard’s operation, including how it will be organized and how it will collaborate with other entities as well as the requirements for recruitment that Semar and the SSPC are currently awaiting.

Luis Rodríguez Bucio, an army general with extensive experience fighting and studying Mexico’s notorious drug cartels, has already been named commander.

The federal government has expressed confidence that the broader deployment of the force will be effective in combating the record levels of violent crime that are currently plaguing the country.

(Source: Animal Político (sp).

Your questions about the Census: What happens if I don’t answer a question in Census 2020?

by Ethnic Media Services
In partnership with La Opinion

The 2020 Census can be as important to the community as the presidential election that will be held on the same year.

Why? Because only once every ten years, and by constitutional mandate, the federal government counts the total number of people living in the United States. The resulting count determines how federal funds are distributed and how electoral districts are drawn. In other words, services for our community and our political representation depend on an accurate count.

Today we launch an occasional new series to answer the most frequently asked questions about the Census. If you have a question or concern about the Census, please write to pilarmarrero700@gmail.com and we will get the answers from the experts.

Question: What if I only answer part of the Census? For example, if the courts allow the citizenship question, what if I leave it blank and answer the rest? What if I don’t want to give some other details about some family members? Are there legal consequences?

We explain, making several important notes.

1. Not responding to the Census in whole or in part is technically illegal.

Not responding to the Census, in whole or in part, violates federal laws. The law provides various levels of punishment for those who do not answer the Census or give deliberately false information.

The law (Title 13, Census, Chapter 7, Subchapter II) considers three levels of punishment: failure to answer a question carries a $100 fine. Giving false answers can result in a $500 fine, and giving information to deliberately affect the count can result in a $1,000 fine or up to a year in prison.

2. This is a law that has rarely been applied in U.S. history but…

The last criminal charge of non-response in a Census took place in 1970, when a dissident publicly announced that he would not respond to the Census, and was fined $50 for it. The activist appealed, indicating that many other people did not answer the Census but made no noise about it and no one persecuted them. The courts agreed and dropped his conviction.
“A prosecution would be unusual, unexpected, unprecedented”, said Thomas A. Saenz, President of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), who represents his organization in the Census´s National Advisory Committee On Racial, Ethnic And Other Populations. “That said, this is the Trump Administration and they are very unpredictable”.

3. Census officials have said that even if you leave one question blank, the other answers will count.

According to the internal memos of the Census, there is always a percentage of non-response to various survey questions, and that does not disqualify the other answers.

The historical reality is that there is always a level of non-response in all Censuses, this will not be something new in the 2020 Census. For example, the citizenship question, which has been asked from only a fraction of the U.S. public in the American Community Survey , had a level of 11.6 percent to 12.3 percentnon-response among Hispanics in 2013-2016. However, there was also a similar level of non-response to other questions on the questionnaire.

Last year, Acting Census Director Ron Jarmin testified before a congressional subcommittee that: “we process many surveys with incomplete responses, the Census is one of them”. When Rep. Grace Meng of New York asked him whether people who don´t fill out the citizenship question on the Census form would be counted, Jarmin replied: “Yes, but we would definitely encourage people to fill it out as completely as possible”.

Several interviewees for this column indicated that they are afraid to answer the citizenship question if it is ultimately allowed by the courts or that they intend not to do so in protest of its inclusion in the 2020 Census. However, so far everything seems to indicate that if they fill out the rest of the survey, this would not affect the total count and they would not stop being counted.

Saenz, from MALDEF, indicates that “we will never advocate or recommend that anybody not answer any questions”.

4. Omitting answers may or may not increase the likelihood that a Census worker will knock on your door.

The common practice in the Census is to send agency workers to count those who have not filled out the initial questionnaires. Will someone be sent if only a few answers are left blank? It’s impossible to know but Saenz says he doesn´t think so.

The Census has announced, however, that they will use other “administrative records” to try to complement that information that is left blank.

“What would guarantee the visit from a Census worker is not to answer the questionnaire at all”, said Saenz. “I say if you want to avoid a visit, answer as best as you can”.

Door-to-door enumeration usually happens when there´s no response to the initial questionnaire, but Census studies indicated that this can also be a problem, since in communities affected by the anti-immigrant environment, there is an informational campaign to advise that no one “open the door” unless there is a court order, as many fear it is “la migra” knocking.

There´s no report of anyone been prosecuted for not opening the door to a Census taker, but nongovernmental campaigns that insist on a complete count of all communities will use local organizations that have the trust of the community to encourage participation.

Please send your questions about the Census to pilarmarrero700@gmail.com

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