by Mario Aguirre

Linda Chávez-Thompson

Linda Chávez-Thompson, the first person of color to hold one of the top three elective offices at the 10-million-member AFL-CIO, retired Sept. 21 after serving as its executive vice president for the 5last 12 years.

Chávez-Thompson, 63, a second-generation U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, plans to remain active with a variety of AFL-CIO responsibilities while representing it with allied organizations, she told Weekly Report during an interview at her Washington, D.C., office on her next-to-last day officially on the Job.

As the union’s executive vice president emeritus, she will remain in the capital and will travel over the next few weeks before rejoining family members and friends in San Antonio. Chávez-Thompson, who has 35 years of experience in the labor movement started working with the Laborers ‘local union in her native Lubbock in 1967. Soon after that she went to work for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees where she became the international vice president in 1988. In 1993 she became the first Hispanic woman elected to the union’s executive council.

“In everything she’s done over a lifetime of service, Linda has broken new pathways for the labor movement,” AFL-CIO, president John Sweeney said in a statement.

“Countless working women and men, not only in the United States but through out the Western Hemisphere, have a better life because of all she’s contributed. She’s inspired tens of thousands of people to contribute through their own actions, and wherever she’s gone, she’s earned tremendous affection.”

Now Chávez-Thompson says she hopes to dip into some pastimes which she was unable to indulge in before, such as starting a garden that doesn’t get taken over by weeds.

She emphasized her intention to continue working for immigration reform because “certain people, primarily Latinos, are being mistreated. Their rights are being abused. Their rights are being violated, and we have to stand up for them because they can’t stand up for themselves.

In her efforts to help immigrants withstand discrimination, she said her primary intention is to encourage Latinos to join the labor movement, and to urge union activists to dedicate themselves to the community.

Chávez-Thompson spoke openly to Weekly Report about the AFLCIO’s opposition to competition from non-union immigrant workers in the mid-9Os, and how it changed its ways in 2000, recognizing a lack of organizational support offered to immigrants.

During her 12-year tenure, Chávez-Thompson stood at the forefront in the battle against unfair trade policies that encourage companies to relocate overseas in search of the least expensive labor possible.

“If I’ve done even a very small piece of that, I consider the last 12 years of my life here in the labor movement well worth it,” she said. Throughout her career, Chavez-Thompson maintained a busy lifestyle with her two children and grandchildren. Her husband, Robert Thompson, long-time president of AFSCME’s San Antonio local, died in 1993.

In retirement, she says she will continue to chair the AFL-CIO Immigration Committee and serve as head of the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers, the International Trade Union Confederation’s regional organization for the Americas.

She will also spearhead an organization that represents nearly 44 million workers in the Western Hemisphere—the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America—a project that she says she is committed to for the next four years.

­She hopes her menu of commitments won’t give the weeds an opening to choke her Texas garden again. Just some flowers. No decision yet as to what kind. But no vegetables, although she does like squash.

Chavez Successor Elected Arlene Holt-Baker, the first African-American to hold such a top position with the AFL-CIO, was elected Sept. 21 by unanimous vote of the union’s board of directors to succeed Chavez-Thompson as executive vice president.

Hispanic Link.

by the El Reportero staff

Long live the Independence! At center, the four Central American consuls in San Francisco: L-R: Rafael Vanegas, of Honduras, Rafael Carballo, of El Salvador, Denis Galeano, of Nicaragua and Ana Patricia Ramírez, of Guatemala, listen to Nicaraguan National Anthen. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

Four of the five countries of the isthmus said: Viva the Independence of Central America! on Monday, Sept. 17 in the city of San Francisco in a reception lounge at the Consulate of Nicaragua’s building. Costa Rica was absent.

In years past, the Central American consuls celebrants of the independence of their respective countries from Spain on Sept. 15, 1821, carried out a reception at some lounge at an elegant restaurant with special guests from the private enterprise and members of the community.

With new Central American consuls adjusting to their new job, with the exception of El Salvador, the tradition got almost interrupted. Nevertheless, considering the emergency situation in which the Republic of Nicaragua lives, the Consul of Nicaragua invited his colleagues of the other Central American countries to join for a patriotic toast, and to remember the importance of the Central American unit for the preservation of peace after years of war.

Nicaragua lives moments of sadness after the destruction caused by hurricane Félix on the Atlantic Coast recently, which left more than one hundred dead, a signifi cant number of injured people, and al- most an entire destruction of the infrastructure of the autonomous Atlantic zone.

The small, but cozy event, gave the opportunity to every consular representative to express his or her desire to continue in the way of understanding, peace and prosperity.

The Consul of El Salvador Rafael Carballo invoked the need to behold the Central American fl ag in high esteem, while the Honduran diplomat, Francisco Vanegas, alluded to the worthy of Central American independence Francisco Morazán, for “that we could fi ght in block ”, he said, while emphasizing the suffering through that Nicaragua is living now from the hurricane.

The diplomatic host of the event, Nicaraguan Consul Denis Galeano, only one ex-guerrilla direct combatant of the armed confl icts that affected Central America in the 80s and 90s, extolled the peace that now darkens the war events that left hundreds of thousands of dead and that stepped back decades to Centro América economically.

The previous Saturday, the United States of Mexico carried out the traditional Grito de Dolores’s, which sealed the independence of the Aztec country. The event tood place at the Civic Center of San Francisco, where mariachi music and folkloric ballet dancers played and danced respectively, before a multitude.

­by the El Reportero news services

The main television channel, Televisa, claimed on Sept. 14 that three of the policemen responsible for the biggest drug bust in Mexican history earlier this year had been killed. The raid on Zhenli Ye Gon’s Mexico City apartment in March found US$205m in cash.

Zhenli Ye Gon, who is now under arrest in the US, claimed that the money had been given to him by Javier Lozano Alarcón, the current labour minister, to help meet 2006 election expenses for the ruling Partido Acción Nacional.

Zhenli had some influence with senior members of the previous administration headed by President Vicente Fox, so the case against him has major political implications. The Mexican police say that Zhenli was a hugely successful producer and smuggler of methamphetamines to the U.S.

­by Ricardo Chavira

(Second in two-part series on changes in Cuba, exclusive to Hispanic Link News Service)

HAVANA— Just about every week poor Latin Americans arrive here for 5free eye surgery, courtesy of the Cuban government. Over the past few years, thousands have benefited from what the government has dubbed “Operation Miracle.”

Additionally, some 20,000 Cuban doctors are working in impoverished nations, tending to those who would not otherwise receive medical care.

Margarita Gómez, 75, meanwhile sits alone all day in a fetid shack here. Confined to a wheelchair since breaking her hip last year, Mrs. Gómez suffers from a chronic heart ailment. The dilapidated tiny shelter in Havana’s Husillo section floods whenever it rains. “I have to stay there,” she says, pointing to s filthy cot, “to keep from getting soaked.” A daughter who works long hours to support two children does her best to aid Mrs. Gómez, but there is only enough money to provide a sparse diet.

She would like to be admitted to a home for the disabled elderly. But because her official address is in another part of Cubs, health authorities refused her request. The frail widow has no way of getting to the office where she could solicit an address change. “I am like a prisoner here, because I can’t walk or even fetch water,~ she says. “My only hope is that the government will do something to help me.”

With Raul Castro gradually asserting control over the country, it is the same hope of millions.

Though Fidel Castro remains head of state and has an important voice in government policy, his brother Raúl is the unofficial president. This has left Cuba in a strange political configuration. For decades, the communist regime was an extension of Fidel. However since a serious intestinal ailment forced Fidel into seclusion and virtual retirement a year ago, Cubans have been left to wonder where their country is headed.

Many are convinced that Fidel will not resume his old duties and will die before too long. That belief is fueling widespread sentiment in favor of radical economic change. Dozens of Cubans interviewed this summer said they believed the elder Castro— who continues to denounce free market practices—is blocking badly needed reforms, including sharp wage increases.

His death should remove any barrier to change. The restiveness is palpable and a significant departure from the quiet apathy many Cubans have felt during nearly 50 years of communist rule.

Even now Cubans are generally unwilling to criticize the government, Article 62 of the constitution states: “No recognized freedoms can be exercised against the constitution or the law, nor against the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism,” greatly constricting freedom of speech.

“I think we are the only country with this kind of leadership,’’ says Jeanette, a teacher, who asked that her full name not be used for fear of political reprisal. “Officially Fidel is recuperating.

But it has been a year. What kind of recuperation is that for a man who is 80-plus-years-old? He has to be very ill, but we are not being told the truth.”

Jorge, a city bureaucrat who also asked that his last name not be used, says the mood of the country has radically changed.

“I think people abroad must believe we all either hate or love Fidel,” he says. “Actually a lot of us respect Fidel for what he did early on in helping the poor masses. But he became stuck in his old communist ways and has not allowed Cuba to develop along with the rest of the world. I can’t predict what will happen when Fidel dies, but I do know that we all expect some big changes.”

Long a problem, on the-job theft has skyrocketed, Cuban workers say.

What’s stolen ends up on the black market. Those who steal say it’s the only way to supplement salaries that average the equivalent of $16 monthly.

“If we want to have enough to eat, we have to do these things,” contends cab driver “Nadia,” who disconnects the meter in her car. With the meter off, she offers cut-rate fares and pockets the cash.

At an open-air market one recent morning there was no garlic available—at least not officially. Just beyond the stalls, though, there was plenty of stolen garlic to be had.

Fidel’s death will be a momentous event, but will it bring a violent upheaval?

Almost certainly it will not.

However, his passing will enormously increase pressure on Raul to take swift and decisive action on the economic front. Failure to do so could unleash pent up frustration among a people weary of endless sacrifice.

(Journalist/author Ricardo Chavira is conducting research for a book on contemporary Cuba. He teaches Latin American studies at the University of California at Irvine and journalism at California State University, Fullerton. Reach him by e-mail at: ricardochavira50@yahoo.com).
Hispanic Link.

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