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­by Orsetta Bellini

Mrs.Enriqueta, founder of the altar to the Holy Death of the Neighborhood of Tepito, in Mexico City observes her work. (PHOTO BY BY ORSETTA BELLANI)

On the night of Oct. 31 of each year, in Mexico City thousands of people gather around the 1500 shrines dedicated to Santa Muerte (Holy Death). The figure of Santa Muerte, also called “White Girl” is the image of the bony death wearing a scythe in one hand and with the other hand it holds the globe. The White Girl wears gold when asked for economic favors, black when asked for full protection or red when the devotee asks for love.

Her representations are found in all Mexican markets: statues, posters, necklaces, charms. The Santa Muerte is present on the altars of the peripheries of large cities and some small communities, in the dashboards of cars, in shirts or even in the tattoos of their young ­faithful.

The Santa Muerte is considered the Saint for drug traffickers, prostitutes, homosexuals and all those who are not accepted by the Catholic Church. In reality,her worship goes beyond this: according to the local press, the Santa Muerte has a number of faithful estimated between 5 and 10 million. In 2011 the Archbishop Norberto Rivera of Mexico City announced the arrival of a group of exorcists, to win back the lost souls.

The Santa Muerte doesn’t have bishops and is venerated in the houses, in the streets, in makeshift chapels. The most famous shrine is the one founded by Doña Queta, in the neighborhood of Tepito, where the rosary in her honor is prayed on the first day of each month. The most important night of prayer is on October 31st, the night of the dead according to the Catholic religion. “The Catholic Church does not recognize Santa Muerte because it does not understand her, it does not speak with her. Every month I travel from Cuernavaca (about a hundred miles south of Mexico City) to Tepito’s altar to pray, she is good, she helps me and protects me,” says Madam Teresa, as she hugs and kisses the statue of the White Girl she carries with her.

In Mexico, the worship of the death dates back to 1600 and has increased its number of followers especially in recent years, perhaps because of the collective trauma that has imposed a new way to relate to her: the war on drugs undertaken by the Mexican government, which in six years has caused more than 50,000 victims.

When the Spanish conquered America to devastate it and convert it to Catholicism, the indigenous religions were banned. To limit the loss of their culture, indigenous people created an interesting form of religious syncretism: mixing Christian and pagan symbols, they found a way to worship their idols by “disguising” them as saints.

In Tepito the faithful line up to touch the altar of Doña Queta accompanied by mariachis, traditional Mexican bands of trumpets and guitars. They exchange views on the miracles performed by the Santa Muerte and bring statues, flowers, incense, cigarettes, beer and liquor as an offering.

Some people approach the altar walking around the neighborhood on their knees, and many faithful come from far away. Mrs. Ana Hidalgo, from a city that is located about three hours from the capital, says: “They fired nine shots at my son and the doctors said he would have died. A friend of mine brought me a statue of the White Girl and ever since my son’s health started to improve. The Santa Muerte is good and is a beautiful woman. Julio from the city of Cuernavaca agrees: “The White Girl is a beautiful woman: the beauty of a woman has nothing to do with her appearance but with her inner self. Throughout a year, while praying, the Holy Death appeared before me, but I did not direct my prayers to her. Then I had a car accident, I thought I was going to die, but I survived. Since then, when I have the chance, I always go to the altar of Tepito to pray to the White Girl. And she gave me another miracle: my wife was pregnant and the doctors said my son would not be born. But in the end, thanks to her, he was born.”

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­by the El Reportero’s wire services

Otto Pérez Molina

Guatemalan analysts believe the government of Otto Perez is now facing the worst political crisis of his nine months in office, following the recent clash between soldiers and peasants with six dead and over 30 injured. Certainly, what happened in the southwestern department of Totonicapan last October 4 has placed the Otto Perez government at its worst political moment, criticized former deputy Anibal Garcia.

In Garcia’s view, this is a crisis caused by the government itself, because “with its repressive measures, it has only managed to revive people’s fear of the Army, as in times of armed conflict,” noted the former parlamentarian, as quoted by the media. (http://www.s21.com.gt­)

Luis Linares from the Association for Research and Social Studies, considered the October 4 riots at Kilometer 170 of the Inter-American highway a critical moment for the current administration.

In that sense, Linares called for the executive branch to have more consistency in its strategy to achieve “a change in the way it addresses social problems, because the conflict comes from unmet needs.”

Says Latin News: Chávez triumphs but Capriles could ultimately be the victor

It was closer – but the Venezuelan opposition remains unable to answer the electoral phenomenon that is President Hugo Chávez. Chávez will be the longest-serving democratically elected head of state in Latin American history if he completes his term in 2019. Chávez ran out a comfortable winner with 8.1m votes and an 11-percentage point advantage over his rival Henrique Capriles Radonski. He took all but two of the country’s 23 states. Capriles, however, won his electoral spurs, taking 6.5m votes, far more than previous challengers. If poor health prevents Chávez from finishing his term, Capriles would be in pole position to capitalise in fresh elections.

Mexican immigration plan causes concern in Honduras

The announcement of a new Immigration policy by the future Mexican government in its southern border is cause of concern to Hondurans, who in increasing numbers cross that country to reach the United States in search of opportunities.

The measure, disclosed by Arnulfo Valdivia, coordinator of immigration issues of the transition team of the future Mexican government, was released by the newspaper La Prensa and immedi­ately received comments.

Valdivia said the new administration headed by President-elected, Enrique Peña Nieto, expects to install 10 migratory posts in the border with Guatemala to control entries to Mexico.

According to that plan, all Guatemalans who want to work legally in the border states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo can do it properly documented, in order to regularize the labor market.

Organizations that defend Honduran migrantsâÖ rights expressed their concern to the newspaper La Prensa and they think the measure has an undercurrent and violates human rights.

They think that if that plan is implemented, the Central American countriesâÖ fight to promote respect for undocumented peopleâÖs rights will be wasted. (Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

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by Donna Anderson
Infowars.com

The New York Times reported this morning that the Federal Trade Commission is preparing a recommendation that the government sue Google for allegedly manipulating search results to favor its own products and big brand shopping websites. The investigation, which began more than a year ago, is the most far-reaching antitrust investigation of a corporation since the landmark federal case against Microsoft in the late 1990s.

Google has been accused of using its vast power over the Internet to give unfair advantage to certain advertisers, namely big name shopping sites and companies which they own, and to discriminate against small business Adwords advertisers competing in the same verticals. While the mainstream media makes it appear that this is a recent development, Google have, in reality, been perfecting their technique for manipulating search results since as far back as 2004, all under the guise of “providing a better search experience.”

In December 2004, just before the big Christmas rush for online shoppers, Darren Rowse of Problogger.net lost more than two-thirds of the traffic to his digital camera website. For those who aren’t familiar with Rowse he’s one of the most respected bloggers on the Internet. So for Google to claim there were “quality issues” with his site is like saying Nike doesn’t know how to make athletic shoes.

Rowse, however, sucked it up because at that time, no one really suspected that Google might be using their powers for evil. Remember, the changes were all being made to “improve the experience for the searcher.”

A few years passed and on February 25, 2009, Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com published a revealing post. After yet another of Google’s famous updates, Google Executive Chariman Eric Schmidt was asked about Google’s agenda regarding brands and cleaning up the Internet.

“The internet is fast becoming a ‘cesspool’ where false information thrives,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted.”

“Brands are the solution, not the problem,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

“Brand affinity is clearly hard wired,” he said. “It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component.

Using a rank checking tool, Wall also made a few startling discoveries. Small business websites and blogs that had previously been ranking for generic keywords were now being replaced in the search engine results pages (SERPS) by big name brands. For example, for the generic keyword “health insurance” the un-brand website healthinsurancefinders.com was bumped down the list and Eatna.com appeared over night, from out of nowhere, at the number two spot.

In December 2010, Google launched Google Instant which presumed to read searchers’ minds and help them with their typing. All you had to do was go to your Google search box and start typing and, based on the letters you entered Google would provide the most popular search terms. Now you didn’t need to waste all the time pecking around on your keyboard, you could just type A or B or Z and Google would show you the most popular search terms.

When they were accused of using Google Instant to manipulate search results, Google’s head of search, Amit Sinhal, denied the allegations, stating that the reason Amazon or Target kept popping up when searchers typed in A or T was because they were the most logical results based on statistics.

However, Courtney Mills at IneedHits.com found that for 21 out of the 26 letters of the alphabet, the first suggestion that came up was always a name brand.

Moving ahead to February and March of 2011 when Google unleashed their Panda and Farmer updates even more small business sites were dropped from the SERPs while big brand websites moved up to take their place.

TheFind, ShopWiki,BizRate, Kaboodle, and Shopping.com, all competitors of Google Shopping. Merchant Circle, InsiderPages, American Towns, Roadside America and CitiTownInfo, competitors of Google Maps. TravelPod, MyTravelGuide and Trails.com, in direct competition with Google Places. Dozens of high ranking article directories and answer sites. All of these sites were removed from the Google index or buried so deep they were no longer a threat.

An in-depth article at GrowMap.com by on February 27, 2011 states that Internet shopping search engine TheFind.com showed more than 4,400 stores with over 138,000 matching results when searching for the keyword “business card holders” but Google only showed five results. And those five results were Amazon, eBags, Buy.com, Walmart and Office Depot, all big brand online shopping sites.

In a similar GrowMap article inspired by eCommerce expert Rob Snell, author of “Yahoo! Stores for Dummies” the author states “Google KNOWS which of your keyword phrases convert! And they’re taking that converting traffic away from small business and handing it to their big brand buddies.”

In essence, Google Adwords advertisers are paying high bid rates for exact match keyword phrases. After the advertisers do the legwork to promote those keywords, Google is handing them over to the favored big brand stores allowing them to highjack the searchers, even if the ads aren’t relevant. And typically Google helps them along by initiating another of the famous “updates” during the peak of the holiday season, just in time for those big brand stores to snag the lion’s share of the business, crushing small business websites who rely on those holiday sales.

According to the New York Times, the FTC has been questioning NexTag, a comparison shopping service that, since June, has been known as Wize Commerce. NexTag executives say in the last year their online traffic coming from Google search has fallen by half.

Google’s answer is, they’re trying to clean up the Web and eliminate spam and weak content, and make the Internet a more pleasing place for searchers to hang out. By doing so, and by implementing all their complicated algorithms, they’re merely making it easier for people to search the Web and quickly find what they’re looking for.

Google said in a statement on Friday, “We are happy to answer any questions that regulators have about our business.” In the past it has said many times that “competition is a click away.”

But what they don’t say is that they’re burying the links. The only sites that are “one click away” are the sites Google wants you to see. Google is cleaning up the web and they are making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for because they’re eliminating most of the competition so they can create a perfect Utopian society on the Internet.

But top quality websites are disappearing from the Web over night. Small business advertisers who typically spend $300 in a month are watching their coffers get sucked dry in a single day, with zero return on their investment because Google gave the keywords to their competitors and their ads are being shown on parked webpages.

If the FTC does decide to pursue the lawsuit, the New York Times says, “The most probable outcome of the antitrust investigations of Google,” antitrust experts say, “is a settlement. The broad principle, would be an agreement not to discriminate in favor of its products over smaller competitors.”

The commission staff currently has a 100-page report drafted which is ­still being reviewed and the FTC is in the process of hiring a legal team to take Google to court. Three out of the five FTC commissioners would be required to vote in favor of the lawsuit before any action can be taken. Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC said a final decision will be made before the end of this year.

by Mike Adams

The big winter flu shot vaccine push is on! You are about to be bombarded with endless messages to “get vaccinated!” They’re even starting to lay a guilt trip on those who refuse vaccinations, illogically claiming that your lack of a vaccine somehow causes other people who are already vaccinated to catch the flu. Yeah, I know, it makes no sense, but then again the entire vaccine industry is based on the same fantasy logic as unicorns, fairies, leprechauns and garden gnomes.

And, for the record, all the healthiest people walking around who don’t catch the flu are the ones who refuse flu shots while taking care of their immune system. It’s the vaccinated people who always seem to be sick for one reason or another, have you noticed?

In any case, it’s important to find ways to boost your immune system and shield yourself from colds and the flu without resorting to jabbing yourself in the arm with a cocktail of mercury, formaldehyde, aluminum and MSG. Oh yes, all those things are found in vaccines, according to the CDC.

In fact, if you really like shooting up with brain-damaging mercury and essentially giving yourself a chemical lobotomy, just take more vaccines! It’s the only legal way to inject these chemicals into your body where they will quickly enter your bloodstream and be delivered right to your brain! So to avoid all that, here’s my list of the top 20 ways to boost your immune system without resorting to deadly vaccines and all the toxic additives they contain.

The top 20 ways to boost your immunity to colds and flu without using a vaccine

1) Take a vitamin D supplement every day. Check our Vitamin D guide for details about choosing the proper dosage.

2) Get as much sunlight as you can for as late into the year as you can manage. Even getting sunlight on just your face helps produce more vitamin D in your body.

3) Drink immune boost beverages like organic Cocoa Mojo, which contains a blend of 4 medicinal mushrooms.

4) Use a high-quality air filter in your home to filter out bacteria and mold spores that may be circulating inside your home.

5) Get regular exercise to boost your circulation and immune strength. This exercise should be frequent and moderate. Do not overstress yourself at the gym, or your immune system will be temporarily compromised.

6) Take supplements especially designed to protect your respiratory tract. These include Lomatium, Osha, Elderberry and more.

7) Take measures to minimize your exposure to immune-damaging chemicals such as those you’ll find in laundry products, cosmetics, personal care products and fragrance products. The artificial fragrance chemicals found in most of these products are carcinogenic and cause liver damage.

8) Get off all medications that you can safely eliminate! Work with a naturo-path to accomplish this, of course, as quitting medications cold turkey can also be dangerous. Most medications suppress your immune system, liver function, kidney function and even your reproductive function.

9) Eat more meals that are rich in pungent spices. Eat more curry, which is rich in turmeric. Eat more ginger. Eat more cilantro, rosemary, thyme and other rich spices. This includes cloves and nutmeg, two spices you’ll typically find in eggnog drinks.

10) Clean up your diet. If you’re eating cheese and drinking processed milk, those substances are to be avoided during the winter

influenza season, especially. In many people, cheese and dairy products tend to cause sinus stuffiness, which is really a lack of sinus circulation. This can make you more susceptible to physically catching and harboring a virus floating around.

11) Boost your trace minerals intake, especially zinc. Both zinc and selenium are hugely important for immune function. Zinc is especially well known for functioning as a shield support against many viral attacks. One of the best ways to boost your trace minerals intake is to switch to a natural sea salt or a high-mineral salt.

12) Move your lymph! Re-bounders (mini trampolines) are great for this purpose. Jumping rope also works, as does just hopping in place for a few minutes each day. You can also do arm rotations and other

simple movements to keep your lymph circulating.

13) Take immune protective herbal tinctures such as golden seal, garlic, echinacea, osha root and elderberry. All of these herbs are found in the Ener-­food Herbal Medicine Cabinet – intermediate.

14)While you’re at it, wash your hands more frequently.

15) At the same time, demand high levels of hygiene by those around you. Ask them to wash their hands, for example.

16) Have an emergency supply of colloidal silver available. Not only do you want the liquid colloidal silver, you may also want to consider an inhalable form of silver like what you’ll find in the Silver Lungs product.

17) Get plenty of sleep. A lack of sleep compromises the immune system.

18) Reduce your levels of chronic stress, if possible.

19) Drink more “live” vegetable juice. If that sounds too cold, make yourself some warm but raw vegetable soups. Search online for recipes.

20) Laugh a little! Watch some comedy movies, or spend some fun time with family and friends. Laughter boosts immune function at many levels. It’s good for your body and your mental health.

by Ethan A. Huff

For at least a decade, Monsanto, the world’s most evil corporation, has been illegally charging Brazilian farmers growing the company’s genetically-modified (GM) crops a two percent tax on production, and a three percent tax for cross-contamination of seed, say plaintiffs in a new lawsuit. And according to CorpWatch, the agri-giant could soon have to fork over $7.5 billion in reimbursements to more than five million Brazilian farmers as a result of these blatant crimes.

Oddly enough, Monsanto’s very presence in Brazil was predicated on fraud, as its GM soy seeds were first smuggled into the country illegally back in 1998. Fast forward about 13 years and nearly 75 million acres of arable land in Brazil are now occupied by Monsanto’s GM crops, the vast majority of which constitute Roundup Ready soy.

But the en­tire Monsanto growing system for GMOs, which prohibits farmers from freely saving seeds and reusing them the following year — and in this case, requires farmers to pay private taxes directly to Monsanto to do so — is entirely against the law in Brazil. Even though former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” Da Silva basically grand­fathered-in legalization for Monsanto’s GM crops back in 2005 because they were already being widely grown in the country illegally, Monsanto is still breaking the law by levying taxes against farmers and requiring them to pay royalties.

“The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again),” said Jane Berwanger, a lawyer representing the Brazilian farmers in the case, concerning Monsanto’s illegal user fees and taxes. “Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production.”

Back in April, a judge in Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, ruled that Monsanto’s user fees were illegal, and ordered the company to not only stop collecting them, but also to begin reimbursing farmers in that state for all fees collected since 2004. This judge also noted that Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seed patent has also already expired in Brazil.

Monsanto is attempting to appeal this decision, of course, but in the process could be making its final penalty even worse. And in response to this appeal, the Brazilian Supreme Court has decided that the Rio Grande Do Sul court’s ultimate ruling, whatever that ends up being, will apply to every farmer throughout the country, and not just in Rio Grande Do Sul, which could make the final penalty for Monsanto upwards of $7.5 billion.

Monsanto has indicated that it plans to continue collecting fees and charging taxes until the courts issue their final ruling on the matter. But this ruling is not expected to be issued until 2014.

In other Monsanto related news:

92 percent of Americans want the FDA to label GMO foods – Sign this labeling petition if you’re one of them

by Ethan A. Huff
Natural News

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a legal responsibility to require proper labeling of foods containing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). But to this day, the FDA refuses to comply with the demands of the American people, who it is supposed to represent, or with the law, which is why your help is needed to force this rogue agency to finally step up and do the right thing.

Based on a number of different polls conducted, anywhere between 90 and 95 percent of people living in the U.S. want GMOs to be labeled. According to the new GMO labeling campaign Just Label It!, 92 percent of Americans want to know whether or not the foods they buy contain GMOs, especially when these foods are being fed to young children.

“While our reasons for wanting to know what’s in our food may vary, what unifies us is the belief that it’s our right,” says the Just Label It! campaign about mandatory GMO labeling. “Without labeling of GE (genetically engineered) foods, we cannot make informed choices about our food.”

This is why Just Label It! has created an online petition addressed to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that urges the agency to stand up for food transparency, and label GMOs. So far, more than 1.1 million people have signed this petition since it was first created just a few short months ago, and Just Label It! is now aiming to reach 1.2 million signatures as part of its next campaign goal. You can access and sign the petition here: http://justlabelit.org/.

Since March, more than 300,000 additional signatures have been gathered by Just Label It! (http://www.naturalnews.com/035223_GMO_labeling_petition.html), and several dozen new partner organizations have also joined in to support the initiative. (http://justlabelit.org/partners/).