by the El Reportero’s wire services

Francisco Flores Pérez

‘INDEFENSIBLE’: Former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores Perez said that Beijing had no right to insist that its allies sever relations with Taipei.

Countries that have turned their backs on Taiwan will one day face the consequences of their actions, former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores Perez said in Taipei.

Flores also said that China had no right to force its allies to sever relations with Taiwan as a condition to establishing ties with Beijing.

In an interview with the Taipei Times conducted on Friday, Flores, who led the Central American country from 1999 to 2004, said it was “morally indefensible” for China to require countries to dump Taiwan in order to become China’s ally.

“The request is morally indefensible because it is an intervention in another country’s sovereignty and China has no right to make such demands,” he said.

Flores asserted that, in the era of globalization, countries benefit where  there is a diversity in their foreign relations. However, the diversity should not come at the expense of another sovereign nation, he said.

When asked if he believed Costa Rica’s abrupt break-up with Taiwan last June could trigger a domino effect in Central America, Perez declined to comment, except to say that countries that snuggle up with Beijing, thinking that they would profit from an economic boom, are suffering from an “illusion.”

(The Miami Herald and Taipei Times contributed with this report).

Bolivia back at brink of institutional breakdown

Bolivia has been taken again to the brink of institutional breakdown, with the opposition rejecting the new constitution approved by the constituent assembly as illegal, and four departments approving statutes of unilateral autonomy which clash openly with the new draft constitution. The government accuses them of promoting secession and plotting a coup, and has said that it will use the military against any attempt to ‘divide’ Bolivia.

Nebot leads massive protest in Ecuador

Around 120,000 people joined the protest march led by Jaime Nebot, the mayor of Guayaquil, on 24 January. The size of the anti-government demonstration, in which all the protesters wore white, was bigger than either the government or Nebot had expected. The demonstration reinforces Nebot’s role as the leader of the opposition to the government of President Rafael Correa. The big question for him is whether he can expand his support beyond Guayaquil.

Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks

CARACAS: The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, urged his Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis.

Chávez made the suggestion Saturday as he hosted a summit aimed at increasing Latin American integration and countering U.S. infl uence.

“We should start to bring our reserves here,” Chávez said. “Why does that money have to be in the north? You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

To help pool resources within the region, Chávez and other leaders launched a new development bank at the summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.

The left-leaning regional trade alliance supported by Chávez is intended to offer an alternative, socialist path to integration while snubbing U.S.-backed freetrade deals.

Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks Chávez noted that the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, visited Colombia in recent days, saying “that has to do with ­this summit.”

“The empire doesn’t accept alternatives,” Chávez told the gathering, attended by the presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua, the vice president of Cuba, Carlos Lage, and other leaders. Chávez warned that U.S. “imperialism is entering into a crisis that can affect all of us” and said Latin America “will save itself alone.”

by Contessa Abono

Of those who skip school 33% are Latinos San Francisco District Attorney Kamla Harris and San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Carlos García hold a press conference in support of the Campaign Against Truancy on Jan. 22. (photo by Stephen Morrison)

On any average Tuesday midday hour it is common place to see children hanging out on the sidewalk or down by the park. It may not cross your mind but those kids very well should be in their classrooms at that moment.

Usually no one questions kids out on the street during school hours but recently new attention to the matter is causing kids and their parents alike to take the matter more seriously.

In between the year 2006 to 2007 nearly 5,417 San Francisco Unified School District students were habitually or chronically absent from school—33 percent of those habitual and chronic truant students were Latino.

“There is an achievement gap and Latinos are not doing well here in S.F.,” said San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia at a meeting for the Campaign Against Truancy on Jan. 22.

Habitual truancy means 10 or more unexplained absences per school year and chronic truancy means 20 or more absences in the 180-day school year.

This is not a minor case of High School students who are undermining their parents by skipping school; nearly 600 of the chronic truants in 2006 to 2007 were in the range of kindergarten to fourth grade.

“What is happening in the Latino community is that children are being used to watch other children,” said Garcia, “one child gets sick and the parents go to work and have the other children stay home to watch them.”

The anti-truancy programs were established a few years ago but San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris, said at the meeting that although no one has been prosecuted yet for contributing to the delinquency of a minor this year she is prepared to take action, “parents need to understand that if a child does not go to school it is a crime and I am prepared to prosecute,” said Harris.

But the program is aiming to help before involving the law with the Stay In School Coalition help line and the Nurse of the Day programs. “One of the biggest change is being able to talk with the whole community. We need to reach out,” said Harris. The programs are showing some signs of success.

Last year Mission High Schools overall attendance out of the 100 students in the mediation program improved 40 percent.

The Campaign Against Truancy says they will have more data to track how the program is going by June of this year but they ask that parents take this issue seriously and do what they can to help, “We like to assume that the parents do care but they just don’t have the tools,” said Harris.

Harris said a child being abused or with disability problems is usually fi rst detected at school, which makes the school contact with a child very critical, “the child that goes without an education will be the child you’re worried about robbing you,” said Harris, “our children can’t fall.­

by the El Reportero’s news services

Fidel Castro

The interim President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, declared on 20 January that the future government will be chosen by congress next month.

Raúl’s declaration came as he left the pooling station where he cast his vote for Cuba’s latest legislative elections. Raúl told reporters that members of the newly-formed congress will assemble on 24 February to choose the new Council of State.

The Council of State is, in effect, Cuba’s executive. The president of the Council doubles as Cuba’s President.

Calderón reshuffles Mexican cabinet

President Felipe Calde rón Hinojosa dropped two of his most important cabinet ministers, interior and social welfare, on 15 and 16 January.

The changes again point up the difference between Calderón and his predecessor, President Vicente Fox: Fox rarely sacked ministers, but Calderón has already made three cabinet changes, two of which involve the dismissal of underperforming ministers.

Felipe Calderón

The government’s spin on the changes is that Calderón now has his own men in three key jobs: the interior ministry; the social development secretary (Sedesol) and the presidency of the ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN).

Hugo Chvez: Latin America’s money man

With oil enriching Venezuela’s coffers, President Hugo Chávez is lavishing billions on other countries, boosting his socialist-tinged image Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making an unprecedented effort to win the hearts and minds of citizens from Buenos Aires to Boston as he seeks to export socialism and challenge the United States’ traditional role as the region’s dominant player.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making an unprecedented effort to win the hearts and minds of citizens from Buenos Aires to Boston as he seeks to export socialism and challenge the United States’ traditional role as the region’s dominant player. (The Miami Herald contributed to this brief).

For two hours, President Evo Morales huddled in this jungle city with a dozen area mayors as they pitched public-works projects — to be financed directly by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The Venezuelan and Cuban ambassadors to Bolivia flew here aboard the presidential jet to join the talks. The public was kept out.

After the money was divided up, Morales invited the media in and offered the mayors, one by one, a handshake and a Venezuelan embassy check for up to $150,000. In all, Venezuela  gave about $1.5 million that day last November.

‘’I admire the Venezuelan government for showing this solidarity,’’ said a beaming Walter Valverde, mayor of the town of Puerto Rico, holding a $28,917 check to build a new hospital.

Flush with oil profi ts, Chávez is making an unprecedented effort to win the hearts and minds of citizens from Buenos Aires to Boston as he seeks to export socialism and chal­lenge the United States’ traditional role as the region’s dominant player.

With Chávez’s multibillion-dollar gusher of aid, Bolivia is building new schools. Argentina paid off its debt to the International Monetary Fund. Caribbean nations are receiving subsidized oil. Even the U.S. poor and American Indians in Alaska have received discounted heating oil.­