A celebration of Puerto Rican Culture in California.
Sunday Nov. 15, 2009, at 2 p.m., Club Puertorriqueño of San Francisco, 3249A Mission Street, San Francisco.
Tickets maybe purchased at Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco 415-920-9606 or Discolandia
2964 24th Street, SF 415-826-9446.
Advance Tickets: $20. At the door: $25. Youth unde 12: FREE
by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Wisin & Yandel: (photo by Marvun J. Ramirez)
FOUR TIMES THE FUN: This year’s MTV Latinoamerica awards have been split into ceremonies in North and South America, culminating with a live broadcast from Los Angeles this week. nominees are Wisin & Yandel, with six nods, followed by Paulina Rubio, with 6ve, and Lady Gaga and Zoe with four each.
Many of the winners have been chosen by viewers of the MTV Latinoamerica channel (or MTV tres in the United States), who voted online at www.mtvla.com.
VISA GRANTED: Omara Portuondo will be able to keep two California commitments this month after the Cuban singer was granted a rare visa to enter the United States.
The vocalist, best known as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club, announced last month that she has received the visa and said in a press release that she hopes her visit will allow her to be a mediator between the U.S. and Cuba Portuondo will sing Oct. 20 at the San Francisco Jazz Festival and on the 23rd at the University of California, Los Angeles.
While the visa for the singer was seen as a sign of a new openness to Cuba by the Obama Administration, the news contrasted with a recent announcement by the New York Philharmonic that it was canceling a planned Cuba tour.
The Philharmonic said it had received permission from the U.S. Treasury for its musicians and staff to travel to the island, bu
At the Gibson Amphitheater Oct. 15, host rapper René Pérez (of Calle 13) and Nelly Furtado include snippets from previous ceremonies in Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Mexico City.
Several of the Lenguas— tongue-shaped trophies—in regional categories have already been awarded, but the winners in main categories will be announced this week. Top not for its sponsors. The federal government, it said, determined that allowing the sponsors would go against travel restrictions long imposed by the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
The New York orchestra was slated to perform in Cuba Oct. 30 through Nov. 2
STAGE PIONEER: Gilberto Zaldivar, founder of NewYork’s prestigious Repertorio Español theater company, died Oct. 6 in his Manhattan home following a long illness. He was 75. Hispanic Link.
compiled by the El Reportero staff
Tenants demand reform from CalPERS to prevent predatory investments.
In a major victory for tenants, New York State’s highest court ruled yesterday that the owners of two large New York City apartment complexes, in which CalPERS was an investment partner, improperly raised rents on tenants in thousands of rent-regulated apartments.
The news follows a similar decision by a San Mateo County court in California which granted an injunction last month against Page Mill Properties, also a CalPERS partner, barring it from raising rents on a number of its 1800 rent-controlled apartments in the Silicon Valley community of East Palo Alto.
These decisions mark major legal setbacks for predatory landlords whose investment schemes were premised on evicting tenants in order to evade rent control laws for quick profit.
Mayor Dellums to swear-in new police chief for Oakland
During the ceremonial portion of Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, Mayor Ron Dellums will swear-in Anthony Batts as Oakland’s new police chief.
“Chief Batts is an extraordinarily capable police chief whose professional expertise, outstanding leadership skills and brilliant operational savvy make him the right choice for Oakland. I am confident that our residents, police department
staff and city officials alike will find Chief Batts to be an accomplished leader and a great police chief for Oakland,” said Mayor Dellums.
Batts brings nearly 30 years of experience as a member of the City of Long Beach Police Department, where he has served as Chief for the past seven years. Under his leadership, the crime rate in Long Beach fell to its lowest level since 1975.
Immigration officials reminds applicants for travel documents to apply early
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds individuals that they must obtain Advance Parole – permission to reenter the United States after traveling abroad – from USCIS before traveling abroad if they have:
Advance Parole is permission to re-enter the United States after traveling abroad. To obtain Advance Parole, individuals must file Form I-131, Application
for Travel Document, which is available under “Forms” on USCIS’ Web site. www.uscis.gov.
Lawsuit filed to overturn Public Land Mining regulations
A coalition of conservation and Native American organizations on Oct. 20, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. challenging two regulations issued by the Bush Administration that weakened the requirements for environmental and taxpayer protections on federal public land involved in mining operations.
The Bush regulations overturned previous regulations and policies that had limited the dumping of mine waste to what was strictly allowed by federal mining and public land laws. For details visit: http://earthworksaction.org/.
by John Flórez
SALT LAKE CITY — Years ago, the late Utah State Sen. Pete Suazo and Judge Andy Valdez presented me with the “Eagle Award” after I played a hand in shaping and launching this city’s first Chicano organization.
They were doing so, they said, “even though we haven’t figured out the criteria,” to which I replied, “Thanks, I’m glad I got it before you did.”
I suspect it was not so much for what I accomplished, but rather how I encouraged them and made them feel back when they were aspiring to public service careers. They were young and we were all involved in helping improve our community.
One of the most common and honored awards is, “Teacher of the Year.” It’s an expression of appreciation by those giving the award, done with much thought and work, often by committees — because as a nation we see the value of education. It says more about the givers than the recipients.
Teachers, like great leaders — political, business, religious — are valued for the contribution they make to promote the common good in keeping with the values of our society. Their accomplishments are not always visible; rather they create a culture for the good of the whole.
Teachers plant the seeds and don’t expect to see what they produce right away.
Namely, successful grown-ups who return to thank those dedicated instructors who believed in them, gave them hope, and challenged them. The same holds true for leaders in other fields: employees who improve their companies’ productivity because their bosses inspire and give recognition; religious leaders who instill faith and hope; and elected leaders who bring people together to work for the common good.
All are people who look beyond themselves. They don’t expect to see the fruits of their labor. Their internal compass drives them. It is its own reward. They have a vision of what can be, rather than what is; they challenge the human spirit by offering hope for a better world.
They are driven by principles, not fads, short-term solutions or publicity. They are not discouraged by criticism or their failures. It is the price of growth, they know.
They are transformational individuals who change the tone and direction of an organization or a society.
President Reagan transformed the culture of our country from one of malaise to one of pride, patriotism, and a renewed respect from other nations for these United States of America. That was Reagan’s legacy — giving hope and belief in ourselves, and regaining the respect of other nations.
Now we have a president who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his “… extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Unlike some of the Nobel Prizes given for tangible accomplishments, the Peace Prize is given for vision, for starting, furthering a process where the world environment is conducive to discussion and cooperation for settling world disputes, and shoring up human rights.
Those who say President Obama has done nothing to deserve the award see only specific ills that need correcting. They fail to understand the complexity of a society and how it functions.
Striving for a peaceful world is a never-ending task that requires respecting and working with other nations, including those that hold different views.
The award represents how our leader has gained the respect of other nations by creating an atmosphere of cooperation. Rather than complaining, we should be thankful we have a president who is motivating, inspiring, instilling hope and willing to reach out to all nations to work for world peace.
Our country needs us to come together more than ever. Let us join him in that effort. Hispanic Link.
(John Flórez, a contributing columnist with The Deseret News in Salt Lake City and Hispanic Link News Service, has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations, served on the staff of Sen. Orrin Hatch and on more than 45 state, local and volunteer boards. E-mail: jdflorez@comcast.net) © 2009.
by Ricardo Ávila
On Long Island, the end of October brings Halloween – a day when my children behave even younger than they are. So do some adults. Silliness and greed rule. In my Mexico City childhood, it brought El Día de los Muertos, a pause that mixed celebration with solemnity. The Day of the Dead was an adult ritual fashioned to include the participation of children.
My strongest memory of a Halloween-past in the United States is when, a few years ago, we ran out of candy and a disgruntled trick-or-treat child painted “Cheap SOB” on our front walk.
My strongest memory of a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico is when, per custom, my parents led me to the cemetery to pay tribute to our departed with food, song, flowers and words. A majestic woman in black arrived a few graves down the row with a piano. She had it planted on top of her buried husband and delivered him a personal concert.
My one daughter and three sons welcome Halloween as an excuse to behave foolishly and beg for candy which will destroy their teeth.
For my wife Annette and I, it has become an occasion to worry about our children and others as they race mindlessly across streets, of endless dog-barking and door-knocking, of graffiti and candy wrappers to be cleaned up the morning after.
Sometime I have to take a drink to settle my uneasiness, and the alcohol doesn’t mix well with the collection of candy my children force me to share with them. It gives me indigestion and makes me reflect on the issue at hand: death.
It appears to me that death has two very different meanings in the United States and Mexico. Here it is the final act. There, it is no more than a stage of being which can bring joy and strength to life.
Mexicans are used to celebrating death from pre-Christian or pre-Columbian times.
Most Aztec celebrations included human sacrifice to please the season’s gods and bring success in war, business, matrimony, health, and other worldly affairs – even peace. The advent of Christianity did not erase such thinking. Today, as funeral processions in New Orleans become more and more rare, Mexico’s dead may still enjoy a wake surrounded by friends who relish good food and drink, music till dawn, a priest’s farewell, and a procession aplenty with brass and drums.
The Spanish conquistadors were shocked to see skulls and bones decorating temples and palaces. Yet, when they massacred the Indians, the victims didn’t condemn the act as a holocaust.
The thousands of deaths were just acts of fate, mundane passings.
Technology and IBM have not changed Mexicans’ attitudes towards the celebration of All Saints Day.
The first day is for the small dead, children who’ll dwell in limbo. Families, rich and poor, sweep their dead children’s graves and decorate them with toys, fruit, pottery and flowers. Cemeteries become splashes of color on the hillsides. The bright orange of the sempasuchitl (African marigold) can be seen for miles.
The second day is reserved for the adult dead. Los Fieles Difuntos. It is the main celebration. Some of us still carry on the pre-Christian traditions. We spend the entire night visiting the dead, offering them their favorite foods, serenading them with a hired mariachi or our own guitars, and keeping the candles burning.
Bakeries display their delicious pan de muerto (the dead’s bread) with “bones” running like spokes to its edges, sprinkled with white frosting or coconut flakes.
Families prepare dulce de calabaza (pumpkin candy); The women wash the pumpkin tejocotes (Hawthorne fruit) ; the men bring the panocha (brown sugar) from the market; the children clean the sugar-cane stalks.
Vendors in the plaza offer sugar-candy and chocolate skulls, big and little for parents to give their children – friends and lovers to exchange.
The candy skulls bear names — Lupita, Petra, Juanito, Carlos — across the forehead.
Other vendors go door-to-door hawking papier-maché masks of skulls and animals.
In newspapers, politicians are drawn with skull faces – calaveras – and ridiculed in verse. It is an exciting day for artists, writers and poets. It is an exciting day, period.
This year there will be no American Halloween at our house. Together, as family, we will bake pan de muerto; we will prepare pumpkin dessert; we will make calaveras, those personalized candy skulls, to share with each other and friends. It will be old times again.
I cannot wait to watch the expressions on the faces of Ricardo, Rafael, Laurie and David when I tell them the exciting news. Hispanic Link.
(Ricardo Avila wrote this piece, now a part of “Hispanic Link’s classic column collection,” 28 years ago. He and his wife Annette recently abandoned New York’s Long Island to retire in Rockledge, Florida. Reach them at annetteavila@cfl.rr.com). © 2006
by Marvin J.Ramirez
Marvin J. Ramírez
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: As an editor with little resources available to be as powerful as the mainstream media, I try to do the best I can to spread information that I believe the masses should know.
It is my believe that the corporate government that rules corporate United States is just a puppet of the corrupt banking elite that maintains the people in complete ignorance and poverty, and is about to fulfill its mandate to reduce the U.S. population.
Based on so many medical and scientific statements released recently, some of them published in El Reportero, I am putting my neck on the line to continue publishing articles that show the opposite opinion to that of the World Health Organization, which is constantly censured by our media, especially those media who receive money from the establishment by way of advertisement.
And this applies equally to Spanish TV and radior.
The subject matter that I am most worry about now is the swine flu pandemic. I am giving you my readers the opportunity to read this article, which clearly advocates against you giving consent to the corporate government to vaccinate you and your family with this deadly H1N1 Vaccine. Following is the article, which if read online, it will give you the chance to click on the liks:
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED! please read and forward to other antivax- activists
Dr. Chris Shaw of UBC was a guest on the NutriMedical Report today (Oct. 22), discussing his peer reviewed evidence of nerve damage caused by aluminum and squalene adjuvants in vaccines. http://www.falseflagflu.com/DR_CHRIS_SHAW,PhD-VACCINE_DAMAGE_CONFIRMED.html.
We recorded this interview (commercial free). Please listen and circulate this info far and wide!
Free download: Dr. Deagle with Dr. Chris Shaw of UBC – Aluminum in Vaccines Causing Nerve Damage Oct-22-2009.mp3.
According to recent polls, around 70 percent of Canadians, Americans, Brits and others (those polled are people in mainstream society) do not want the H1N1 Vaccine according to, so we have been very effective, BUT what about those who are most vulnerable? The street people and the indigenous peoples in remote communities who do not have access to the same info as the rest of us, and who are often reliant upon gov’t aid?
Now that the “roll out” has begun, we must make an effort too reach these people and to warn them about the vax, as well give them tips to help them prevent becoming ill. I’m not sure how practical the latter will be, given that they have few resources, if any. I also don’t know how we can get info to people in remote communities, BUT in every city and town we DO know where to find the street people!
I think it is imperative that we do a “preemptive strike,” and that we begin immediately, THIS weekend (before the vax stations in Canada open), to hand out as many informational flyers, wherever the street people gather (parks, shelters, Salvation Army, soup kitchens, welfare offices, etc.
If we don’t, they will be lining up for “free shots” with live virus and toxic waste next week, which could make them sick, cause serious damage, or kill them, and actually cause the “pandemic” that the WHO and our governments seem to want so bad.
I am appealing to ALL activists who know about H1N1 and the vaccine issues to assist with this, and take action in your city or town! We only have a small window of opportunity, but it is still a window of opportunity, and we must use it.
Additionally, next week, those who can, should try to get around to schools and give info to parents as they drop off their kids at school, or pick them up after school.
Bus stops would also be a good place to hand out flyers that have a lot of info that people can read on the way to work or to school. Other places to target are maternity clinics.
Please do what you can to alert the vulnerable and empower them to make informed decisions that will save their lives and their health!
Activists tools (flyers and Signs) http://www.falseflagflu.com/index.html#Tools.
by Marvin Ramírez
From left-right: Oren Rubinstein (project manager), Vladimir Abramov (Parrilla Grill), and Alexander del Valle (traduciendo). (photo by Marvin J Ramirez)
Even as violence has recently hit hard one of the corners of the Latin quarters in San Francisco by shootings and gang activities, the merchants and residents have not given up. They are committed into transforming this wounded but vibrant neighborhood, into a prosperous and artistic community.
The advent of a new business owner to the heart of the Mission District Latino neighborhood brings that determination to bring that change; and for that he purchased a property that had been sitting empty for several years, to build something so good, that he promises it will transform 24th Street.
Purchased by Vladimir Abramov, an immigrant from Russia, is a well-educated entrepreneur who in arrive in the U.S. approximately 15 years ago with his girlfriend to San Francisco as a student, the former body shop building located at 3135 24th street, will no longer be a sore in the barrio – if the city approves his plan. This neighborhood with Latinos as the majority of its residents, taquerías, galleries, artisans and laundry mats will have another look that probably will he envy of other districts.
At a meeting at La Parrilla Grill, organized by the Latin Business Network, a network of Latino business and professionals whose goal is to provide support, held an event on Friday, Oct. 16, to unveil the master plan.
Oren Rubinstein, project manager contracted by Abramov, made the presentation and described the project before approximately 25 people, causing excitement and energy among the audience.
The proposed building structure, which will create a new family housing in the upper level of the structure, and a commercial retail space on the ground floor, still needs to be approved by the City of San Francisco.
“The idea is that local artists, designers and merchants will be offered space to operate a business and sell their products. This project will benefit the Mission as a whole,” said Robinstein, since it will be a key to find people, potential business owners who are artists.
“We want people who are going to get integrated with other community people who are already involved with such as Carnival SF and other cultural events and be the opportunity to the individual business owner, Rubinstein said.
According to their concept proposal, both the property owner and retailers will benefit mutually from this partnership, especially those who will share retail location to sell their merchandise in relatively competition-free environment.
This project offers a short-term micro-leases and opportunity open to those who do not have the financial ability to rent a storefront.
Each commercial space will be about 300 square feet, within the total amount of 1,700 square feet of the structure, a considerably very small space for each unit. The cost per square foot prices have not been yet determined.
Among those present were San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, members of the Latino media, merchants, and neighbors.
Awards were giving to several merchants fortheir effort to confront and overcome the current economic crisis and survive as a business. They were: Joel Campos (La Corneta Taquería), David Campos (S.F. Supervisor), Cony Prado (Partyland), Orquesta Najera, Jorge Saradia (El Delfín Restaurant) Tony Pérez (Pérez Auto Service), Juan Mora(Botas Mora), George’s Barbecue 24th Street.
by the University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — University of Michigan mathematicians and their British colleagues say they’ve identified the signal that the brain sends to the rest of the body to control biological rhythms, a finding that overturns a long-held theory about our internal clock.
Understanding how the human biological clock works is an essential step toward correcting sleep problems like insomnia and jet lag. New insights about the body’s central pacemaker might also, someday, advance efforts to treat diseases influenced by the internal clock, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar disorder, said University of Michigan mathematician Daniel Forger.
“Now that we know what the signal is, we should in the future be able to change it in order to help people,” said Forger, an associate professor of mathematics and a member of the U-M’s Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics.
The body’s main time-keeper resides in a region of the central brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei, or SCN. For decades, researchers have believed that it is the rate at which SCN cells fire electrical pulses – faster during the day and slower at night – that controls time-keeping throughout the body.
Imagine a metronome in the brain that ticks quickly throughout the day, then slows its pace at night. The rest of the body hears the ticking and adjusts its daily rhythms, also known as circadian rhythms, acSurcordingly.
That’s the idea that has prevailed for more than two decades.
But new evidence compiled by Forger and his colleagues shows that the old model is “completely wrong,” he said. The true signaling mechanism is very different: The timing signal sent from the SCN is encoded in a complex firing pattern that had previously been overlooked, he said.
“We have cracked the code for the circadian day, and that information could have a tremendous impact on all sorts of diseases that are affected by the clock,” Forger said.
Forger and U-M graduate student Casey Diekman, along with colleagues at the University of Manchester in England, report their findings
in the Oct. 9 edition of Science.
The British team collected data on firing patterns from more than 400 mouse SCN cells. Forger and Diekman plugged the experimental data into a mathematical model that helped test and verify the new theory.
Though the experimental work was done with mice, Forger said it’s likely that the same mechanism is at work in humans.
In mammals, the SCN contains both clock cells (which express a gene call per1) and non-clock cells.
For years, circadian-biology researchers have been recording electrical signals from a mix of both types of cells. That led to a misleading picture of the clock’s inner workings.
But Forger’s British colleagues were able to separate clock cells from non-clock cells by zeroing in on the ones that expressed the per1 gene. Then they recorded electrical signals produced exclusively by the clock cells. The pattern that emerged matched the predictions made by Forger’s model, bolstering the audacious new theory.
“This is a really clear example of a model making a prediction that’s completely at odds with what the biologists are saying, yet turns out to be dead-on,” Forger said. “We have a very solid case here, and it would be very hard for anyone to argue against it.”
The researchers found that during the day, SCN cells containing per1 sustain an electrically excited state but do not fire. They fire for a brief period around dusk, then remain quiet throughout the night before releasing another burst of activity around dawn. This fi ring pattern is the signal, or code, the brain sends to the rest of the body so it can keep time.
“The old theory was that the cells in the SCN which contain the clock are fi ring fast during the day but slow at night. But now we’ve shown that the cells that actually contain the clock mechanism are silent during the day, when everybody thought they were firing fast,” Diekman said.
by the El Reportero’s news services
Evo Morales
Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed during a summit in Bolivia on creation of a regional currency aimed at reducing the use of the US dollar.
The decision came shortly after members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba) gathered in the central city of Cochabamba for the start of the two-day summit, the AFP news agency reported.
Top on the agenda for the left-leaning regional trade group, which includes Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, were talks to implement the new currency, known as the sucre, for use among Alba nations.
“The document is approved,” Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president and summit host, said on Friday.
Earlier, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, described the new currency as a “revolution of paradigms”.
“The sucre is born in the Alba,” Chavez said ahead of the meeting.
“The sucre – an autonomous and sovereign monetary system that will be agreed upon today so that it can be implemented in 2010.”
Colombia and Ecuador move swiftly towards restoring diplomatic ties
Colombia and Ecuador aim to re-establish diplomatic relations at the level of chargés d’affaires by the end of October. This was one key advance made by Colombia’s foreign minister, Jaime Bermúdez, and his Ecuadorean peer Fander Falconí in the Colombian border town of Ipiales on Oct. 9.
The Colombian government will also provide Quito with information on two camps of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in Ecuador at another meeting, scheduled for Oct. 16 in the Ecuadorean border city of Ibarra, when both countries plan to reactivate the binational border commission (Combifron). Tension over two judicial processes in Ecuador affecting Colombia, however, could jeopardise progress.
Leftist Latin American bloc rejects Honduras election
OCHABAMBA (Bolivia): Leaders of a bloc of leftist Latin American governments urged the international community on Saturday to reject the presidential election planned by Honduras’ interim government next month.
The leaders of the Boliviarian Alternative group also denounced Colombia’s plan to give the US military expanded use of bases in that South American nation, calling it a threat to the region’s security.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the two-day ALBA meeting, the leaders criticized the coup-installed government in Honduras and urged the world’s nations to continue pressing for the reinstate- ment of ousted President Manuel Zelaya HYPERLINK “http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Leftist-LatinAmerican-bloc-rejects-Honduras-election/articleshow/5135566.cms” .
“No electoral process held under the coup-installed government, or the authorities that emerge from it, can be recognized by the international community,’’ the statement said. It added that “it is fundamental to drive a diplomatic offensive and to promote forceful actions for the total re-establishment of the constitutional’’ order in Honduras.
On Friday, the nine-nation ALBA bloc — formed by socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — approved more economic sanctions against Honduras to punish the interim government led by RobertoMicheletti HYPERLINK “http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Leftist-Latin-American-bloc-rejects-Honduras-election/articleshow/5135566.cms” .
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said the bloc urged Zelaya’s supporters to peacefully resist the coup-installed government. But Chavez several times argued that people have a right to rebel.
The ALBA leaders also said they rejected the “installation of military bases of the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean,’’ saying they “endanger the peace, threaten democracy and facilitate the hegemonic interference’’ of the US in the region’s affairs.
“The government of Colombia must reconsider the installation of these military bases,’’ the statement said.
Chavez called the bases a “threat to all of us.’’ The ALBA leaders also called for an “International Tribunal of Climate Justice’’ that would presumably seek to oblige rich countries to pay “damages’’ for their disproportionate consumption of fossil fuels.
by Camila Rodríguez Campo
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Adjusting to civilian life can be a daunting task for war veterans. It can be even more so if the war you have been fighting for the past several years has been against your own government. In Colombia, the streamlined process is being viewed as a prototype for dealing with these once-embittered rebels.
Colombia’s high commissioner for peace and high counselor for social and economic reintegration Frank Pearl, based in Bogotá, described the process to Weekly Report and other invited guests, including that nation’s ambassador to the United States, Carolina Barco, on a recent visit here.
In a “conversation” led by Center for American Progress senior fellow Louis Caldera, Pearl detailed the reintegration process that the Colombian government has implemented to demobilize former rebel group combatants in the South American country through persuasion rather than combat.
It is an essential step in establishing peace in the country, which has been plagued for years by armed conflicts, Pearl explained.
He broke down the First: The former revolutionaries have to pass through a process based on the Justice and Peace Law.
Second: To facilitate their adaptation to civil life, the ex-combatants’ families, most of whom have been violently separated, receive orientation while being monitored during the process.
Third: The Colombian government works on building useful skills in ex-combatants, giving them an opportunity to become active and productive members in that country’s society.
Finally: Long-term results are achieved when ex-combatants become good citizens.
The concept and process is attracting worldwide interest.
It has been in planning and implementation stages for more than five years now, with support from international peace foundations and some U.S. aid money.
To date 50,000 former combatant shave become involved in the integration process.
Combatants willing to give up arms and participate receive both psychological and educational support, as do their families. For employment, they are asked to choose an activity they like and in which they already show some abilities.
Job opportunities remain limited in that country. Alliances with the private sector are still being built—a difficult task since there is some fear and distrust but “we need to transform the environment,= Pearl said.
Pearl, who had worked as a presidential adviser for reintegration and is the cofounder of the board of j NO MAS!, has an experienced background trying to implement peaceful and alternative solutions to solve the civil conflict in Colombia.
The Colombian approach helps ensure that ex-combatants remain off the battlefield and become contributing members of society.
Pearl acknowledged that many challenges exist for improving this processes results. However, he added that it is an example of peace-willing for the rest of the world.
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