­by the El Reportero’s news services

Hugo Chávez

On Dec. 14, the national assembly approved in a first debate a new Ley Habilitante (Enabling Law), granting President Hugo Chávez presidential legislative decree powers for a year. Chávez formally requested the new Enabling Law under the pretext of addressing the country’s extensive flood emergency. However, he was clear that the decree powers will extend beyond emergency measures (to deal with the floods), to the economy and also to the social and political arena. The plaint assembly, which is stacked with ‘Chavistas’, is set to approve this bumper Christmas gift for the president today (15 December), before heading into recess.

Is Peru’s stability at risk?

Peru’s long-term political stability is at risk as social and political pressures mount in the run up to the general election on 11 April 2011. Macro-economically speaking, Peru goes from strength to strength: real annual GDP growth is set for around 8.6% in 2010.

However, the political hijacking of social conflict and protests, which often erupts into violence, may increase in the run-up to the elections. It is not just the elections that act as a catalyst for political instability. The recently published findings of the Latin American Opinion Project (Lapop)’s regional citizens’ survey paint a grim (and worrying) picture for Peru. One in which disillusionment and dissatisfaction with democracy, the current political system and its institutions are bubbling away below the surface ready to erupt at any time. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the latest Latinobarómetro survey published on 3 December.

Political agenda flooded in Venezuela

Only a few months ago Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez was praying for rain. Now he is praying for it to stop. Venezuela has spent much of the year suffering from a serious drought, causing widespread power shortages. Heavy rains over the course of the last three weeks have caused extensive flooding and landslides.

The government was slow to react but Chávez is now in full swing, blaming capitalism for the harsh meteorological extremes that have afflicted the country, and requisitioning hotels for the homeless. The national ­assembly, meanwhile, has been inundated with government bills to change the national power structure before opposition legislators take their seats in January and deprive the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) of an all-important two-thirds majority.

Mexico IMF request `positive’ for peso, cuts need for reserves

Mexico’s request for a larger credit line from the International Monetary Fund should be a “positive” for the peso and may reduce the need to add more foreign reserves, according to RBC Capital Markets.

The request for a $73 billion flexible credit line for two years should be approved, Eduardo Suárez, an analyst at RBC, wrote in a note to clients. The original line ends in April.

“The increase in the size of the flexible credit line means Mexico could reduce its target foreign exchange reserve level (whatever that is), which would be supportive for the peso,” Suarez wrote.

Mexico yesterday requested a renewal of the $47 billion credit line that it secured from the Washington-based IMF last year. Colombia and Poland were the only other nations that set up precautionary arrangements with the IMF under its flexible credit line in 2009. The program is reserved for countries that pursue economic policies considered to be strong by the IMF.

Mexico has been buying dollars since March, pushing reserves to a record $111 billion last week, after the peso fell to an all-time low against the U.S. currency and the economy contracted 6.5 percent last year, the worst recession since the 1930s. The economy may grow 5 percent this year, Finance Ministry Ernesto Cordero said yesterday.

by John Hechinger y Janet Lorin

College graduates, wearing caps and gowns, walk into House Majority Leader John Boehner’s office on Capitol Hill to deliver mock diplomas with more than 10,000 signatures of students and parents demanding an affordable college education. (PHOTO BY MARK WILSON)

More than one in 10 borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans, intensifying concern about a generation hobbled by $1 trillion in debt and the role of colleges in jacking up costs.

The default rate, for the first three years that students are required to make payments, was 13.4 percent, with for-profit colleges reporting the worst results, the U.S. Education Department said today.

The Education Department has revamped the way it reports student-loan defaults, which the government said had reached the highest level in 14 years. Previously, the agency reported the rate only for the first two years payments are required. Congress demanded a more comprehensive measure because of concern that colleges counsel students to defer payments to make default rates appear low.

“Default rates are the tip of the iceberg of borrower distress,” said Pauline Abernathy, vice president of The Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit based in Oakland, California.

The data follows complaints that commission-driven debt collectors the government hires aren’t telling students about affordable options to repay their debt, especially a plan that lets them make payments tied to their incomes. Students have borrowed $1 trillion to pay for higher education, surpassing credit-card debt.

More Disclosure

Congress is also examining the often deceptive letters that college financial-aid offices send to admitted students that play down the cost of attendance by making government loans seem like grants. Barack Obama’s administration, as well as Republicans and Democrats in Congress, are calling for more disclosure about college costs and student outcomes.

On the stump, President Obama has touted an executive order that eases the process for applying for a loan program that lets students make lower payments tied to their income — easing their burden and making it less likely they will default.

Republican challenger Mitt Romney said that initiative encourages students to take on more debt. Romney advocates cutting education regulation and encouraging colleges to become more efficient, lowering costs partly through the use of online instruction.

The government tracks default data to protect taxpayers and keep students from attending programs that don’t prepare them for employment.

School Accountability

“We continue to be concerned about default rates and want to ensure that all borrowers have the tools to manage their debt,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. “In addition to helping borrowers, we will also hold schools accountable for ensuring their students are not saddled with unmanageable student loan debt.”

Under the new three-year measure, colleges with default rates of 30 percent or more for three consecutive years risk losing eligibility for federal financial aid. Schools can also be barred from the program if the rate balloons to 40 percent in a single year. The sanctions don’t take effect until results are released in 2014.

Today’s report covers the three years through Sept. 30, 2011. For all colleges, the 13.4 percent rate exceeded the two- year rate of 9.1 percent — the worst in 14 years — and up from 8.8 percent a year earlier.

By the new three-year yardstick, the default rate at for- profit colleges was 22.7 percent. Based on the two-year period, they reported a 12.9 percent default rate.

Under the three-year-period, public colleges reported an 11 percent rate while private nonprofit schools had a rate of 7.5 percent.

Rate Manipulation

Some for-profit colleges encourage students to defer payments in their early years, in an effort to keep down default rates that could jeopardize their federal funding, according to a report by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions released in July.

The report accused for-profits of using the tactic to manipulate their default rates. It singled out the role of SLM Corp. (SLM), the largest U.S. studentloan company commonly known as Sallie Mae. A subsidiary, General Revenue Corp. counsels for- profit colleges on keeping down default rates. University of Phoenix, owned by Apollo Group Inc. (APOL), is a customer, according to the Congressional report.

Apollo, SLM

Apollo and Sallie Mae use loan forbearance ­as “a last resort,” Patricia Nash Christel, a spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, and Richard Castellano, an Apollo spokesman, said in separate e- mails. Apollo provides financial incentives for those administering its loans to get students into repayment plans, rather than defer payments, Castellano said.

“Congress has encouraged schools to reduce default rates, and we help them achieve that goal,” Christel said. Phoenix-based Apollo, the largest for-profit college company, fell 0.65 percent to $29.05 at the close in New York. The stock has declined 31 percent in the past year.

For-profit colleges cater to working adults and firstgeneration college students, Steve Gunderson, president of the Washington-based Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, said in a statement about the default rates. The industry has said the demographics of its students account for its schools’ higher default rates.

The new data suggest that student-loan debt may damage students’ economic prospects for many years, said Stephen Rose, a labor economist at Georgetown University.

“The more people having trouble today means that more people will have trouble in the future because they are starting out building up a larger balance, and they’re not paying them off,” Rose said in a telephone interview.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Hechinger in Boston at jhechinger@bloomberg.net; Janet Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lisa Wolfson at lwolfson@bloomberg.net.

by J. D. Heyes

The fact that most fast foods are not a smart, healthy diet choice is well documented by now. Still, it never ceases to amaze us here at Natural News just what kind of harmful garbage fast food companies put in some of their most popular items.

Take the McRib sandwich from McDonald’s. Considering its ingredients it’s a good thing that the fast food chain only offers it once in a while.

According to the restaurant’s website, here are just three of the 70 chemicals and ingredients the sandwich contains: azodicarbonamide, ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80.

Chock full of…chemicals

“These components are in small enough quantities to be innocuous. But it’s still a little disconcerting to know that, for example, azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching agent that is most commonly used in the manufacture of foamed plastics like in gym mats and the soles of shoes, is found in the McRib bun,” Time magazine reported, noting that the compound is banned in Europe and Australia as an additive to foods (the U.S., meanwhile, limits it to 45 parts per million in commercial flour products, according to an analysis of laboratory testing).

In fact, the United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive has classified azodicarbonamide as a “respiratory sensitizer” that can potentially contribute to asthma via exposure on the job.

Why the attention? Because the sandwich has developed a sort of cultlike following since it was first introduced, writes Brad Tuttle at  Time’s Moneyland. “Few fast food menu items can say they have their own Facebook page. Then again, few fast food items have experienced the roller coaster-like ups and downs of the McRib,” he writes.

“First introduced in 1982, the sandwich first disappeared in 1985, but then has periodically resurfaced in McDonald’s in the U.S. and abroad. The McRib’s cultlike following has generated not only Facebook pages, but McRib Locator websites and a Twitter account.”

Perhaps if more Americans actually knew what was in a McRib they would be far less eager to find one. Besides the presence of a plethora of questionable ingredients, the sandwich itself is just over the top in terms of sodium content (980 mg – more than half of the daily recommended allowance) and saturated fat (10 g – not exactly heart-healthy).

Even ‘healthy’ fast food… isn’t

The McRib revelations go hand in hand with earlier field research that has found fast food wanting in terms of providing consumers with a healthy choice – even when the same fast food restaurants are hawking supposedly “healthy” choices.

Again, consider Mc-Donald’s. New York Times food writer Mark Bittman wrote that the chain’s Fruit & Maple Oatmeal, which was introduced in early 2011, isn’t even ‘marginally’ better for you, in terms of caloric intake, saturated fats, etc., despite being sold as a “bowl full of wholesome.”

The oatmeal and Mc- Donald’s story broke late last year, when Mickey D’s, in its ongoing effort to tell us that it’s offering “a selection of balanced choices” … began to sell the cereal.

Yet in typical McDonald’s fashion, the company is doing everything it can to turn oatmeal into yet another bad choice. … A more accurate description than “100 percent natural wholegrain oats,” “plump raisins,” “sweet cranberries” and “crisp fresh apples” would be “oats, sugar, sweetened dried fruit, cream and 11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen.”

Some people might even justify this by saying that buying the McDonald’s version of oatmeal is at least much more convenient­than making it at home, but many of those people likely have never made oatmeal at home. Besides, what about the waiting in line and the additional cost?

Other so-called “healthy foods” that are being misrepresented by fast-food chains include:

— McDonald’s Premium Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken (220 cal., 6 g of fat and 5 g of sugar per serving – without the dressing).

— Jamba Juice’s Mango Mantra Light Smoothie (Mango-a-go-go contains 85g of sugar – far above the daily limit of 34g of added sugar for women and 36g for men that is recommended by the American Heart Association).

— Subway’s Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich (contains 760 cal. and 2,020 mg of sodium – that’s 520 mg more salt than the USDA recommends that children, those with high blood pressure, the elderly and African Americans should consume in an entire day; it also contains 34 grams of sugar, all you should reasonably have in a single day).

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Antonio Trejo

Honduran attorney Antonio Trejo, who represented peasants who have attempted to reclaim land in the Caribbean province of Colon, was murdered by unknown killers in Tegucigalpa, a human rights group announced Sunday.

Trejo was the legal adviser to the MARCA land reclamation movement and was shot to death Saturday night near the Toncontin International Airport, the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras, or Cofadeh, said.

According to the versions of the murder published in the local media, Trejo attended a wedding on Saturday night in the southern capital neighborhood of America near the airport and when he left the noisy venue to answer a cell phone call he had received he was riddled with bullets by gunmen waiting outside.

Trejo was taken to the state-run Escuela Hospital, where he died, the Cofadeh report added.

The attorney was brought to trial by the Public Ministry in August after a peasant demonstration in the capital in which the protesters, some of them from MARCA, were demanding land.

The protest was broken up by the National Police and several of the demonstrators were injured in the melee.

Trejo, Confadeh said, “played a significant role in the defense of the right to land by peasant cooperatives affiliated with MARCA: San Isidro, Despertar, San Esteban and La Trinidad.”

The attorney presented “legal motions for several years until he got a civil judge to issue a ruling that returned the lands to the peasants on June 29 of this year, 18 years after they were taken from them by landowners Miguel Facusse and Rene Morales,” Cofadeh said.

However, according to the humanitarian organization, during a Supreme Court recess, the landowners had their lawyers introduce a motion that was resolved in an illegal manner to benefit them.

On July 18, Trejo said at a press conference at Cofadeh headquarters that the landowners were influence peddling in the courts to reverse a ruling returning the lands to the MARCA peasants.

In Bajo Aguan, one of the most fertile areas of Honduras, groups of peasants are demanding land from the government. It is a tense region with frequent armed clashes between laborers and security guards working for local landowners and over the past three years more than 60 people have been killed.

The violence has not fallen off despite the fact that the government signed an agreement with the landholders to buy more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres), some of it cultivated with African palm, from which palm oil is extracted, to return to the peasants.

Honduran authorities say that the clashes that continue to occur in the region are being provoked by armed criminal bands who say they are peasants.

Other groups of laborers who are demanding land are affiliated with the Unified Movement of Peasants of Aguan, or MUCA.

­(Reported by Hispanically Speaking News).