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Venezuela watching US military deployment

by Luis Beatón

The recent visit of Kurt Tidd, head of the Southern Command of the United States, to Colombia, arouses suspicions and leads some to think that the order to attack Venezuela has already been given.

General Tidd said that Bogota and Washington must continue working to overcome ‘security threats’ that require mutual work to overcome them, according to reports in the newspaper El Espectador, in Colombia.

The high-ranking US officer said that ‘Colombians have much to be proud of and we join other democratic nations in expressing admiration for their firm commitment to the values we share’, a statement that apparently refers to that country becoming a large base for the deployment of Washington’s war machine.

International commentators believe that the fight against drug trafficking hides plans against Venezuela, something perhaps behind the deployment of Operation Atlas, the largest in recent years, which added almost 10,000 men from the military and police forces to face the networks of drug traffickers in Tumaco and its surrounding areas.

On the morning of February 10, the US admiral met behind closed doors with Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas and other senior officials, with whom he tried to coordinate efforts in the ‘construction of peace and security in the region.’

General Tidd arrived in Colombia just two days after the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, met with President Juan Manuel Santos in New Granada, to adjust plans against the authorities of Caracas, including ordering the Venezuelan opposition to abort the dialogue that should conclude with the signing agreement in Santo Domingo of a peaceful coexistence.

In this meeting, the Colombian president emphasized the importance for the region of what he worded as ‘restoring the democratic channel in Venezuela’, that is why the visit of the commander of the Southern Command of the United States could be linked with plans to continue the destabilization campaign of the government of Nicolas Maduro.

Regarding this situation, the Venezuelan academic and analyst Sergio Rodríguez Gelfestein wrote: If we accept the well-known maxim of Von Clausewitz that ‘war is the continuation of politics by other means,’ then, ‘the combat order was already given.’

The Venezuelan scholar affirms that ‘the preparation of the war has already begun. In Catatumbo, region of the Department of Norte de Santander, bordering Venezuela, specifically in the towns of Tibú and Tarra, the illegal armed groups have taken control of security, an advance of what may be in progress against Caracas.

He points out that in Villa del Rosario, in the same department, the armed group ‘Los Pelusos’ and the self-appointed ‘Autodefensa Gaitánista de Colombia’ (AGC) fight to take control of six neighborhoods (Galán, La Palmita, Pueblito Español, Montevideo, Primero de Mayo and San José) of this city of 90,000 inhabitants, where they have been deployed to prepare the invasion of Venezuela under the watch of the army and the authorities of Bogotá.

In the area of Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, paramilitaries operate under the command of ‘Cochas’, alias of Luis Jesús Escamilla Melo, head of the Paramilitary Army of North Santander (EPN) and in Venezuela they are already operating in Llano Jorge and San Antonio del Táchira, says the source.

There are also demonstrations at the US military bases in Colombia and the arrival of a contingent of 415 members of the United States air force to Panama, who arrived illegally in the country, even before that government authorized their presence, states Rodríguez.

Also, among those preparations should also be mentioned the completion of the Tradewinds 2017 naval maneuvers in June last year in Barbados, less than 685 miles from the Venezuelan coast and the AmazonLog17 military exercises, in the Brazilian Amazon, with the participation of troops from that country, in addition to Colombia and Peru, in November of last year, only 435 miles from the border with Venezuela.

On the other hand, the presence of the US military in Tumaco is striking, according to General Tidd to ‘counteract the security threats’ although they are evidently part of the plan of aggression against Venezuela.

Also the arrival in Panama of the 415 members of the US Armed Forces is seen as part of the creation of support and logistics bases for the operation to put an end to the Government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Undoubtedly, the Southern Command of the United States participates in these preparations in the first place, providing a joint military force of more than 1,201 people, including military and civilians, with personnel of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Coastal Guard and other federal agencies.

A prominent place appears to be assigned to two fast-acting US military bases installed in the communities of Vichada and Leticia, in the Colombian department of Amazonas, bordering Venezuela in the southwest of the country, according to reports.

These bases, which are added to those already existing, represent an important step in the military occupation of Colombia, considered by the late US Senator Paul Coverdell as a necessary preliminary action to invade Venezuela.

Also, the 2009 military agreement between Washington and Bogota allows Americans greater access to military bases, including Palanquero, considered strategic because of its position in the Americas.

In the siege of Venezuela, the US assault troops stationed in the ‘control and monitoring’ bases of Reina Sofía, in Aruba, and Hato Rey, in Curaçao, and the operations center would have a seat in the base of Palmerola, in Honduras, the largest foreign installation of that nature in Latin American territory.

The alerts expressed by different media and experts do not seem unfounded, and to give certainty Tillerson and Tidd visits the region, and especially Colombia, without doubt the spearhead against Venezuela.

Mexico: the volcano of resistence is about to explode

Mexico is a volcano, and the beauty and frailty of the snow gracing its peaks hide a scalding reality. An instability that at any given moment could explode

by Geoffrey Pleyers and Manuel Garza Zepeda
Analysis

For those interested in social movements, the 21st century began in Mexico with the uprising of the indigenous Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas. Their fight has been a source of inspiration for many other revolutionary movements around the world.

During the following years, Mexican civil society acquired a certain prominence in the so-called “transition to democracy”. After more than seventy years of electoral domination by one party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), a contender won the seat of Mexico City in 1997 and the presidency of the republic in 2000.

Faced with the Zapatista threat and an opposition triumph in the presidential elections, it appeared as though the country was going through a profound process of renovation. There were huge expectations for change.

Two decades later, this hope had entirely faded. The PRI recovered the presidency in 2012, the country continues to draw blood due to high levels of violence and organized crime, and the actions of the military continue violating human rights.

Poverty has reached terrifying levels, corruption is increasingly unashamed, and access to healthcare is difficult for huge sectors of the population.

The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow. Meanwhile, budget cuts to public spending are announced, particularly in education, science and technology, and health and social services, the National Electoral Institute (INE) declared a historic budget of more than 1 billion of euros for funding of political parties and the organization of the ballots in June.

In view of this situation, questions regarding the results of the so-called ‘democratic transition’ and the expectations it awakened have emerged.

Faced with the Zapatista threat and an opposition triumph in the presidential elections, it appeared as though the country was going through a profound process of renovation.

What happened to that social energy that the Zapatistas provoked almost a quarter of a century ago? Where are the reactions of the citizens that usually mobilize themselves against injustice and impunity?

At a quick glance, it appears that a type of drastic conformity reigns over the country when things fall apart. The media show is focused on the political campaigns through the lens of the republic, violence, or worries regarding the NAFTA negotiations.

John Holloway [1], author of the preface of the book Teoría volcánica, describes it in the form of a metaphor: the country is a volcano and the beauty and frailty of the snow that graces its peaks hides a scalding reality of rejection, fury, and a search for alternatives, an instability that in any given moment could explode.

 It would be an error to search for movements and mobilizations in the forms in which they appeared 20 years ago in the age of the so-called ‘democratic transition.’

The context in which movements and social resistance are coming to life today is very different from 25 years ago, and therefore so are the actors driving them. These differences impose the necessity to explore in new spaces the shifts that are occurring.

The chapters of the book “Mexico in Motion” [2] (Mexico en movimientos) point to several fundamental transformations in social movements in Mexico during the last decade:

1. The explosion of the internet and social networks provoked changes in the culture of and the organization of many social movements. Social networks allowed for the development of interpersonal and collective organizations that are more flexible in nature. At the same time, new channels of information and communication are opening up among citizens. However, it is important to recognize the limitations of these open possibilities. Internet access is still somewhat limited throughout the country, thus problems regarding misinformation have yet to cease.

The “battle of information” has become an all-out war, with a death toll of 35 Mexican journalists murdered from January of 2016.

The main television channels still retain a wide influence over public opinion. What’s more, Mexico is among the countries in the world with the highest spend on government and political propaganda. The relevance of this field is clear when warnings that the “battle of information” has become an all-out war, with a death toll of 35 Mexican journalists murdered from January of 2016.

2. In the last decade, violence has flared up in Mexico and has become a structural problem, with deep roots in every sector of the economy and public life, including the state and its own institutions. Journalism, defense of human rights and activism have become extremely dangerous activities in the country. The disappearance of 43 students from the Rural School of Ayotzinapa, in the south-east of the state of Guerrero, indicates the peak of a process of criminalizing social movements in general, and youths and students.

3. Attacks on the territory of indigenous communities can be added to the long list of general aggressions experienced by the population due to the development of mining megaprojects, the installation of Aeolic energy companies, the construction of roads, pipelines, and dams. On the other hand, attempts to privatize resources such as water have recently unfolded.

4. In comparison with the actors of the previous decades, one of the most profound transformations that affected social movements in Mexico is the loss of the prospect for democratization and the questioning of prospects for emancipation. Almost 20 years ago, the so-called ‘democratic transition’ generated hopes that political alternation would open up new political, economic, and social horizons, that it would put an end to corruption and impose a respect for human rights. Eighteen years later, and few expectations remain. The possible arrival to the presidency of a candidate that embodies honesty and strives to combat corruption could improve the situation, but it will not resolve the structural problems of the country.

5. A growing number of Mexicans consider the state to be part of their problem rather than the solution to it. What the experiences from this book show us is that resistance movements are not detached from alternatives. Citizens decide themselves who undertakes the construction of their lives, in limited, experimental and contradictory ways. As well as demanding that decisions be made among the most powerful, as a means of defense against attacks, the experiences transcend protest and assume new methods of communication. Many social and resistance movements were created to search for solutions at a local level beyond national reform.

6. The movements that arise currently do not do so with an institutional-political agenda in mind, but in lieu of the daily problems they experience: violence and aggressions towards women, the search for disappeared family members without the support of the state, the destruction of the Cherán forest, the environmental devastation caused by mining companies, the rise in petrol prices, the lack of resources going towards education. (This article was cut to fit space in the printed edition).

(Geoffrey Pleyers is FNRS researcher and professor at the Université de Louvain, Belgium and associate researcher at the Collège d’Etudes Mondiales.
Manuel Garza Zepeda holds a PhD in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Puebla, México).

Mexico: The security forces in Baja California Sur were not prepared, and still are not prepared

In State defenseless against violent crime

by Mexico News Daily

When violent crime began to increase in Baja California Sur in 2014, the state’s security forces were hopelessly unprepared to combat it, leaving them virtually defenseless against the scourge.

That’s the view shared by security analysts, civil society and both state and federal authorities, all of whom recognize that the same security shortcomings also made it easy for criminal gangs to establish a presence in the state.

A security official from state capital La Paz who spoke to the newspaper El Universal on condition of anonymity said that the state’s police remain both ineffective and unresponsive to violent crime.

“Our police don’t know how to handle a confrontation. Police from La Paz don’t know what to shoot at, how to hide, how to protect people or how to cordon off an area to provide support,” he said.

“If there is a clash . . . the police are simply not going to arrive, they’ll leave them, because they don’t know [what to do], they haven’t had any ongoing training program in [crime] response, prevention and investigation,” he added.

According to the non-governmental organization Causa en Común, police in Baja California Sur lag behind forces in every other state in the country in terms of training and professionalism.

In a study published in November, the organization pointed to shortcomings of the state’s police academy including the absence of a shooting range, driving track and facilities to carry out tactical training.

State governor Carlos Mendoza committed to having a new facility completed by the end of last year but it has not yet materialized.

In addition, Causa en Común said that police recruits had revealed that they had to pay for their uniforms and other expenses out of their own pockets and that their superiors often sent them on personal errands.

After two criminal groups faced off in a shootout in the state that left three people dead in July 2014, two things became immediately clear to the local population: organized crime had infiltrated the state and municipal and state police were not prepared to deal with it.

Statistics from the National Public Security System confirm those initial fears.

There were 126 homicides in the state in 2014 but that number almost doubled to 226 the following year. The figure reached 281 in 2016 before surging to a total of 701 murders last year. Only Colima recorded a higher per-capita homicide rate in 2017.

The number of homicides has increased so dramatically since 2014 that a new cemetery had to be built in La Paz.

But although the growing violence problem was clear to citizens, authorities were slow to react and it wasn’t until November 2016 that the first federal tactical and intelligence forces arrived in La Paz.

During a visit to Baja California Sur the same month, then interior secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said the state had practically started from zero in terms of its response to increasing levels of violent crime.

“There was no anti-kidnapping agency, there was nowhere to train police, it was thought that nothing ever happened in La Paz and nothing was ever going to happen,” he said at the time.

Finally, last month National Security Commissioner Renato Sales announced that 5,000 additional Federal Police officers would be deployed to “key cities” in the country including the popular tourism destinations of Los Cabos and La Paz.

However, the director of the National Citizens’ Observatory stressed that the presence of federal forces would not alone solve the problem.

Francisco Rivas also said that the organization had warned authorities since 2014 of an imminent security crisis but they failed to heed the warning and implement a security strategy that works.

Adding to Baja California Sur’s problems, there is a shortage of crime scene investigators to solve cases and the state’s medical emergency services are also severely inadequate.

Groups of volunteers or private companies respond to 90% of emergency calls that are made in the state and the state government only has one rescue aircraft and just five Civil Protection ambulances.

The leader of one group of volunteers that has been responding to emergencies in La Paz since 1999 attributed the situation to inaction and apathy on the part of successive governments.

“No government has been concerned about emergency attention,” Juan Alfonso Lamarque said, adding that the group has to do its own fundraising to cover the majority of its costs.

All of the state’s morgues — with the exception of the one in Los Cabos which was built last year — are also outdated and lack the space required to cope with the increasing number of bodies they are receiving.

Faced with the threat crime poses to the tourism-oriented state’s economy, the business community in Los Cabos last month pledged 140 million pesos to build new military barracks in the popular tourism destination.

Source: El Universal (sp)

In other Mexico news:

Nayarit gas station is community-owned
Indigenous community gets into the retail fuel market

It’s not just foreign oil companies that have jumped on the opportunity to enter Mexico’s retail fuel market.

At least 1,500 residents of an indigenous community in Nayarit pooled their resources to open Mexico’s first community-owned gas station.

The Wixáritari indigenous community of Santiago Pochotitán, Tepic, began the project in 2012 and initiated construction of the gas station in 2015. But funds ran out, delaying its opening until last Friday.

The 11-million-peso (US $590,000) investment was shared with the federal National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples, which ponied up 6 million pesos, and the community put up the rest.

Commission head Roberto Serrano said the project will benefit 15,000 people in the area, while Nayarit Governor Antonio Echevarría García forecast it would help boost the local economy.

The station will employ 15 people.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Florida bill seeks to stop arrests of injured immigrant workers

The bill follows an investigation by ProPublica and NPR, which found that insurance companies were turning in unauthorized immigrants who were injured on the job

by Michael Grabell

A new bill under consideration by Florida lawmakers would stop insurance companies from dodging payouts by aiding in the arrest and deportation of unauthorized immigrants who are injured on the job.

Legislators and advocates have been pushing for the measure since last summer when ProPublica and NPR documented more than 130 cases in which immigrants who had suffered legitimate workplace injuries were flagged to law enforcement agencies by their employers’ insurers. The workers faced felony fraud charges for using a fake ID when they sought medical care. Meanwhile, the insurers often avoided paying the workers’ compensation benefits legally due to all employees injured at work.

Some workers were detained by federal immigration agents and deported without getting proper medical treatment for serious injuries.

The practice stems from a provision in a 2003 workers’ comp law that made it a crime to file a claim using false identification. Many injured immigrants never pursued compensation themselves, ProPublica and NPR found. Instead, insurers turned them in after they sought treatment, and their employers transmitted paperwork containing the Social Security number they’d used to get hired.

Because the law also made it a crime to apply for a job with a fake ID, hundreds of immigrant workers were charged with workers’ comp fraud even though they had never been injured or filed a claim.

State insurance fraud investigators insist the law has nothing to do with immigration. But ProPublica and NPR found that more than 99 percent of the workers arrested under the statute were Hispanic immigrants working with false papers.

Critics of the 2003 law — and how it is being used — say that it not only harms workers, but it allows unscrupulous construction companies and other employers in dangerous industries to hire unauthorized immigrants, take safety shortcuts and know they won’t be financially responsible for any injuries that occur. And they say it shifts medical costs to taxpayers.

“This has sent a signal throughout the workforce that if you’re injured, don’t report it, don’t tell your boss because you know that in order to keep from paying benefits, they’re going to call immigration on you,” said Rich Templin of the Florida AFL-CIO. “You will wind up in the public health care system. That is essentially the taxpayer subsidizing the health care cost that should be paid by the employer and insurance carrier.”

The new bill, introduced by state Sen. Gary Farmer, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, would eliminate the false identity provision and clarify the statute so that it applies only to people who commit traditional workers’ comp fraud, such as lying about injuries or eligibility for benefits.

As is the case in nearly every state, all Florida workers — including unauthorized immigrants — are entitled to medical care and lost wages through their employers’ workers’ comp insurance.

“We have a whole separate system to deal with immigration status,” Farmer said. “All of that is neither here nor there. It comes down to the fact that these folks were doing their job, got hurt while they were doing their job, and the separate issue of immigration status shouldn’t be used to take away the benefits that they’re entitled to.”

It’s unclear what effect the bill would have. Unauthorized immigrants could still face charges under federal and state identity theft laws, and there’s no ban on employers calling federal immigration officials about their own workers. But Farmer’s bill also eliminates a provision that insurers said required them to inform the state whenever they discovered someone might be working with false papers.

The bill hasn’t received a lot of attention in the legislature yet and doesn’t have a companion bill in the state House of Representatives. But it has gained the support of Democrats and Republicans, worker advocates, and insurance groups, and could be attached as an amendment to other workers’ comp legislation making its way through both chambers.

After the ProPublica and NPR stories ran, Republican Sen. Anitere Flores, the president pro tempore of the state Senate and chair of the Banking and Insurance Committee, called the issue “borderline unconscionable.” And a national insurance group, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, urged lawmakers to “correct this loophole.”

In addition to the ProPublica and NPR investigation, the issue was also the subject of a Naples Daily News series in December.

Despite its supporters, passing the bill might not be easy, said Templin of the AFL-CIO. It’s unclear how much sway the national insurance group will have on Florida insurers, many of which are independent and tied to state business associations. In addition, he said, many lawmakers in Florida’s conservative House oppose legislation seen as helping unauthorized immigrants.

ProPublica has reached out to lawmakers, insurance attorneys and industry representatives who might oppose the bill, but have not yet heard back. But attorneys working for insurers have supported the current law in the past saying that anyone who lies should not have access to benefits.

Still, Templin remained hopeful.

“When you have something brought to light that is as egregious as this, that Republicans have said is wrong, that representatives from the insurance industry have said is wrong,” he said, “this seems like a no-brainer as something that has to be done right away.”

Trump urged to rescind decisión ending TPS for Salvadorians

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) presented House Resolution (HR) 69 in the Assembly Committee on Judiciary on Tuesday, Feb. 12. The measure, presented on the eve of an Assembly Delegation mission to El Salvador co-led by Carrillo, calls for the President to reverse his decision to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for El Salvador and urges him to work with Congress to find a legislative solution to establish permanent legal resident status for Salvadorans who were granted TPS.HR 69 passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 7 to 0 vote.

“As an immigrant from El Salvador, it’s my duty to shine light on President Trump’s misguided decision to end TPS,” said Assemblymember Carrillo. “HR 69 builds upon California’s commitment to protect our communities and the hardworking people in them. Our state is home to 49,000 Salvadorans and in just 18 months they could face removal from the U.S. and the inevitable split of thousands of families at a tragic human cost. I will continue fighting for solutions to find routes to permanent residency for Salvadorans.”

Forty nine thousand Salvadorans protected by TPS call California home. They participate in the labor force at a rate of 88 percent and 25 percent of them pay mortgages. The leading industries they work in are construction, restaurants, landscaping services, child day care services, and grocery stores. TPS beneficiaries contribute about $3.1 billion in gross domestic product to the United States and their removal will only serve to hurt our economy.

“The termination of TPS is devastating for the nearly 50,000 Salvadorans who have lived and worked in California for two decades, raising citizen children and contributing to our state’s prosperity,” said Martha Arevalo, Executive Director of the Central American Resource Center.“HR 69 sends a powerful message from California that the Trump Administration’s decision is not based on conditions in El Salvador, where underdevelopment and violence persist. Once again, California legislators take the lead by standing with immigrant families.”

Tomorrow, Assemblymember Carrillo and Speaker Anthony Rendon will lead an Assembly delegation to El Salvador to promote sustained ties with the country, particularly in light of the federal administration’s attempts to disengage. HR 69 exemplifies California’s commitment to its Salvadoran residents and to El Salvador with which California shares deep historical and cultural bonds.

HR 69 now heads to the Assembly Floor for consideration.

 
More than 30 million mexicans working in the informal economy

More than 30 million Mexicans are working in the informal economy, representing 57 percent of the working population, according to a report spread today by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

The Institute reported that in the fourth quarter of 2017, some 30.2 million people held informal jobs in Mexico, a 1.1 per cent increase with regard to the period of 2016.

The Inegi informed in its National Survey of Occupation and Employment that 1.8 million Mexicans are unemployed, which means 3.3 percent of the economically active population, lower than 3.5 percent registered in the same quaerterly of 2016.

The Mexican states with the greatest unemployment rate were: Tabasco (6.9 percent); Mexico City (4.8 percent); Queretaro (4.6); South Baja California (4.3 percent); Tamaulipas (4.3), State of Mexico and Coahuila (4.1 percent).

Electric power service restored in Puerto Rico

The Electric Power Authority (EPA) restored the service today, after large part of Puerto Rico was left in the dark as a result of an explosion at the Monacillos substation in San Juan.

The explosion brought out the San Juan plant and the Palo Seco thermoelectric plant in Toa Baja (north), which triggered the collapse of the weak Puerto Rican system, which was destroyed on September 20 last year by hurricane María, so that one third of the 1.6 million subscribers are without electricity.

Both plants resumed their operations at dawn on Monday, after leaving functions on Sunday night, which left several municipalities in the metropolitan area of ​​San Juan in the dark, as well as the northern fringe from the capital to Arecibo.

Ex-mayor of Mexico City will run López-Obrador campaign

by Mexico News Daily

The former mayor of Mexico City has burst back on to the political scene after a three-year self-imposed exile in France.

Marcelo Ebrard will head the campaign team of his former boss and three-time presidential aspirant Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, in eight states in northern and western Mexico.

López Obrador announced the ex-mayor’s appointment to the Morena party team at an event in a Mexico City hotel yesterday, whe re Ebrard was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters.

“Marcelo! Marcelo! Welcome Marcelo!” they shouted as he entered the reception room. Before taking to the stage, he stopped to shake hands and pose for photos with the adoring masses.

“I’m very happy to be in Mexico City,” Ebrard told attendees.

“I’ve always defended all of my actions in government, I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, that’s why I’m here . . .” he declared.

López Obrador said the main task for Ebrard and four other electoral coordinators will be to defend citizens’ rights to a free and fair vote in the July 1 election.

Ebrard will lead the Morena campaign in the nation’s number one electoral district, which encompasses the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua and Durango.

Residents of the region are considered among the least likely in the country to vote for López Obrador.

“We’ve strengthened the campaign team to organize booth by booth and avoid electoral fraud,” the Morena leader wrote on Twitter shortly after yesterday’s event.

Ebrard was in office in the capital from 2006 to 2012 but he left Mexico in 2015, the same year the federal government opened an investigation into irregularities in the construction of line 12 of the Mexico City Metro.

The so-called Golden Line was built during Ebrard’s administration but was partially closed just months after it opened in 2014 due to infrastructure defects. It also overran its budget by 7 billion pesos, or 60 percent of its initial projected cost.

In a television interview last night, Ebrard said that there isn’t and never has been any case against him in relation to the subway line.

“I’m clean, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” he said.  He also denied that the Metro investigation was the reason he left the country.

The ex-mayor added that he was “very happy” to join López Obrador’s team.

Ebrard also assured the crowd yesterday that he wasn’t seeking a seat in Congress in order to obtain legal immunity known as the fuero, although in the subsequent Televisa interview he said he would “love to have political representation and a public position.”

However, he added that he hadn’t asked for any position nor had López Obrador offered or suggested any role to him after the election should he win.

Prior to serving as mayor for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Ebrard held the positions of secretary of public security and secretary of social development during López Obrador’s term as Mexico City mayor from 2000 to 2005.

He also made an attempt to become the PRD candidate in the 2012 presidential election but ultimately lost out to López-Obrador.

Two political communications experts told Forbes that the inclusion of Ebrard to the Morena team will translate into more votes for López Obrador and add valuable political experience to his campaign.

Source: Reforma (sp), Animal Político, Forbes México (sp), Expansión (sp) 

Parents of the 43 denounce delay of judges to the Supreme Court
Relatives of the 43 disappeared teachers of Ayotzinapa presented today to the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN), Luis María Aguilar, what they describe as a delay by federal judges to resolve the case.
The meeting takes place three years after the disappearance of the students in Iguala, Guerrero, on the night of Sept. 26-27, 2014.
Although there are over a hundred detainees for that cause, the Mexican justice system has not issued a condemnatory resolution.
‘We will talk about the delay in which several federal judges have been in charge of resolving several cases related to the disappearance of the 43 students,’ the parents said in a statement issued before the meeting.
Yesterday, the Committee of Fathers and Mothers of the 43 met with the representatives of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Ayotzinapa case of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, who began their fifth working visit to Mexico to provide continuity and corroborate the advances in the investigations, and to find the whereabouts of young teachers.
Today, the Mechanism’s commissioners have agreed a meeting with representatives of the Attorney General’s Office and other instances of the federal government.

Boxing Schedule: The Sport of Gentlemen

FEBRUARY 3, 2018
BOA, Corpus Christi, TX, USA (ESPN / BoxNation)
• Gilberto Ramirez vs. Habib Ahmed
• Jerwin Ancajas vs. Israel Gonzalez
• Teofimo Lopez vs. TBA
• Andy Ruiz Jr vs. TBA
O2 Arena, Greenwich, London, UK (Sky)
• Reece Bellotti vs. Ben Jones
• Ted Cheeseman vs. Carson Jones
• Lawrence Okolie vs. Isaac Chamberlain
Bolshoy Ice Dome, Adler, Russia
• Murat Gassiev vs. Yunier Dorticos
FEBRUARY 4, 2018
Naha, Okinawa, Japan
• Daigo Higa vs. Moises Fuentes
FEBRUARY 10, 2018
Alamodome, San Antonio, TX, USA (Showtime)
• Sergey Lipinets vs. Mikey Garcia
• Rances Barthelemy vs. Kiryl Relikh
• Richard Commey vs. Alejandro Luna

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with the Library

Romance novels, crafts, valentine printing, poetry and handkerchiefs – all free at your neighborhood library

Compilado por el equipo de El Reportero

Looking for love this Feb. 14? The library is always a good place to meet new people – peruse the exhibition galleries, mingle at an author talk, smile in the stacks or get crafty with your neighbors. Or if you’re just looking for a fun way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, the library’s got you covered.

The History Center at the Main Library holds its 7th Annual Valentine Broadside Printing program on Saturday, Feb. 3. Participants will create a unique keepsake on the library’s 1909 Albion hand press complete with a poem and illustration by San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck.  

On Sunday, Feb. 4, Alan Blackman, San Francisco lettering artist and calligrapher, presents Letters to Myself, a discussion of the more than 200 embellished, illuminated and decorated envelopes he mailed to his son. His envelopes, with elaborate hand lettering and clever drawings directly inspired by the design of the stamps, span 40 years and bear cancellations from all over the world.

What’s more old-fashioned than handkerchiefs for Valentine’s Day? Starting Saturday, Jan. 27, the Library displays Amazing Handkerchiefs, selections from the collection of Ann Mahony, collector and historian of vintage handkerchiefs, featuring designs from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Teatro Nahual presents The imperfect married

The imperfect married presented by Teatro Nahual represents the daily life of a married couple living in the suburbs of a large city.

This marriage can represent the living image of any couple that apparently has an admirable relationship, children, a house, comforts and a stable job; where the husband is the provider of the family.

However, a seemingly stable family life can be turned into a pandora’s box by closing the doors of the house and entering into privacy where the probable and unusual human weaknesses manifest in a faraus manner.

At 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 17 (Premier), and the 24, on March 3, 10 and 17; on Sundays March 11 and 18.

Discount for teachers and students with school credentials. Tickets $20.00.

Premier: $30 (includes reception and be part of the raffle).

Ticket sales at the door, online and by telephone 650-793-0783, info@teatronahual.org.

At the MACLA (MACLA / Latin American Art and Culture Movement), 510 South 1st Street San Jose.

Mexico’s Aida Cuevas wins Grammy Award

She is the first female Mexican ranchera singer to win one

by the El Reportero’s news services

There was a surprise in store for a Mexican musician Sunday at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Mariachi and ranchera singer Aida Cuevas took home a Grammy in the best regional Mexican music album category for her Arriero Somos Versiones Acústicas album.

Her win was a surprise because she was nominated among genre favorites including Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga and Julión Álvarez.

Most notably, Cuevas is now an independent artist, and her album, a collection of covers performed with only guitar accompaniment, was released under her own label.

“I’m very proud to be Mexican and to be here with my charrera outfit,” Cuevas told the entertainment magazine Billboard, referring to the traditional embroidered charro outfit she wore to pick up her first-ever Grammy.

She later spoke with the newspaper Milenio, stating that “as a representative of ranchera music I feel doubly proud, because I’m the first female Mexican ranchera singer to win a Grammy . . . this is a milestone in my career.”

She recalled a similar milestone eight years ago when her De corazón a corazón . . . Mariachi tango album earned her a Latin Grammy.

Cuevas has earned more than 300 awards in her 42-year career, but Sunday’s was “certainly special.”

“It’s the greatest award in [the music industry] . . . It is very important and I was very fortunate to win one,” she said.

Known as “the queen of ranchera music,” Cuevas has released 39 albums, selling more than 7 million copies worldwide.

It was the second Grammy in the regional Mexican music category to be won by a Mexican woman in recent years. Lila Downs won the award in 2012.

Cuevas lamented that traditional music “is not listened to, receives poor promotion and gets little support,” and that it’s only after musicians win awards abroad that Mexicans turn around and see in a good way what is happening at the national level.

Song by Jennifer López ranked number 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay

The song Amor, Amor Amor, by U.S. singer Jennifer López, is currently ranked number one on Billboard’’s Latin Airplay list.

The song, featuring Puerto Rican singer Wisin, became the most popular track on Latin radio in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to Sony Music.

Amor Amor Amor has also achieved outstanding online rates with more than 59 million views on the Vevo channel on Youtube, and over 24 million streams on Spotify.

The song is the second single of the n ew album in Spanish by López ‘Por primera vez’, which will be released this year.

After ten years without recording in Spanish, Lopez, also actress and producer of Puerto Rican origin, returns to the music with this album, from which the song ‘Ni tú ni yo’ was also released.

The album, produced by Marc Anthony, includes featuring by Colombian singer Maluma and the Cuban duet Gente de Zona.

With various awards and recognitions throughout her career, Lopez has shared the stage with important figures of music.

WikiLeaks exposes how Council of Foreign Relations controls most all mainstream media

A single organization controls almost everything you see, hear, and read in the media and they’ve been handpicking your leaders for decades

by Matt Agorist

It is no secret that over the last four decades, mainstream media has been consolidated from dozens of competing companies to only six. Hundreds of channels, websites, news outlets, newspapers, and magazines, making up ninety percent of all media is controlled by very few people—giving Americans the illusion of choice.

While six companies controlling most everything the Western world consumes in regard to media may sound like a sinister arrangement, the Swiss Propaganda Research center (SPR) has just released information that is even worse.

The research group was able to tie all these media companies to a single organization—the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

For those who may be unaware, the CFR is a primary member of the circle of Washington think-tanks promoting endless war. As former Army Major Todd Pierce describes, this group acts as “primary provocateurs” using “‘psychological suggestiveness’ to create a false narrative of danger from some foreign entity with the objective being to create paranoia within the U.S. population that it is under imminent threat of attack or takeover.”

A senior member of the CFR and outspoken neocon warmonger, Robert Kagan has even publicly proclaimed that the US should create an empire. 

The narrative created by CFR and its cohorts is picked up by their secondary communicators, also known the mainstream media, who push it on the populace with no analysis or questioning.

When looking at the chart from SPR, the reach by this single organization is so vast that it is no mystery as to how these elite psychopaths guide Americans into accepting endless war at the expense of their mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters.

Top journalists and executives from all major media companies are integrated into the CFR. As the chart below illustrates, the CFR has even more control in the mainstream media than even the nefarious Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission.

As SPR points out, Richard Harwood, former managing editor and ombudsman of the Washington Post, wrote about the Council on Foreign Relations Recognizing that its members most likely correspond to what one might call the “ruling establishment of the United States.”

Harwood continued, “The membership of these journalists in the council, however they may think of themselves, is an acknowledgment of their active and important role in public affairs and of their ascension into the American ruling class. They do not merely analyze and interpret foreign policy for the United States; they help make it.”

Let that sink in. This group of unaccountable, unelected, professional propagandists in America doesn’t simply analyze US government policy—they make it.

While only five percent of the members of CFR work within the media, as SPR points out that is all they need to implement the will of its other members that includes:

• several US presidents and vice presidents of both parties;
• almost all foreign, defense and finance ministers;
• most chiefs of staff and commanders of the US military and NATO;
• nearly all National Security Advisers, CIA Directors, UN Ambassadors, Fed Chairmen, World Bank Presidents, and Directors of the National Economic Council;
• some of the most influential members of Congress (especially foreign and security politicians);
• numerous media managers and top journalists, as well as some of the most famous actors;
• numerous prominent academics, especially in the key areas of economics, international relations, political and historical sciences, and journalism;
• numerous executives from think tanks, universities, NGOs, and Wall Street;
• and key members of the 9/11 Commission and the Warren Commission (JFK).

To highlight just how much control over the media the CFR wields we need only look at the fact that they operate—in the open—and receive nearly no media coverage. The former chairman of the CFR, High Commissioner for Germany, co-founder of the Atlantic Bridge, World Bank president, and an adviser to a total of nine US presidents, John J. McCloy actually bragged publicly about the CFR hand picking US politicians.

“Whenever we needed a man [in Washington], we just thumbed through the roll of Council members and put through a call to New York [to the CFR’s headquarters office],” said McCloy.

Until the election of Trump the past four presidents have been the director of the CFR, George HW Bush, who was replaced by a member of the CFR, Bill Clinton, who was replaced by a family member of the CFR, George W Bush, who was then replaced by CFR aspirant candidate Barack Obama—who filled his cabinet with members of the elite group.
Although Donald Trump was never a public member of the CFR, that did not stop him from filling the White House with dozens of CFR members.

Here are just a few of the CFR members appointed by Trump:

• Elaine Chao, United States Secretary of Transportation (CFR individual member)
• Jamie Dimon, Member of Strategic and Policy Forum (CFR corporate member)
• Jim Donovan, Deputy Treasury Secretary (CFR corporate member)
• Larry Fink, Member of Strategic and Policy Forum (CFR corporate member)
• Neil M. Gorsuch, Supreme Court Justice (individual CFR member)
• Vice Admiral Robert S. Harward, National Security Advisor (declined appointment) (CFR corporate member)

Even though Trump wasn’t a CFR member outright, his cabinet is made up almost entirely of its members. As this information illustrates—democracy is an illusion. If ever you needed another reason to tune out of mainstream media and seek out information for yourself—this is it. It also explains why information like this, which challenges this worldview is under attack. 

Please share this article with your friends and family to show them just how much of the information, political process, and their lives are controlled by a mere handful of people.

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