by Marvin J. Ramírez

Dozens of cars with mourners followed Eric’s funeral Doris Campos says a preyer at her son’s grave ( Photo By Marvin J. Ramirez )

If people thought he had no friends, they were wrong.

The body of Eric Campos, 19, who got killed on May 15, by a 16-year-old man, in what appears to have happened during the course of a robbery on San Bruno Ave., was taken to his final rest in Colma. An unending caravan of cars carrying ­approximately 300 people drove to Cypress Memorial Cemetery on Tuesday May 22 and descended at the cemetery under a warm weather.

People of all ages, but especially adolescents from his own generation, attended the funeral of the young man who, undoubtedly, was loved by many, and to whom it was a big sorrow that he lost his life so young, and without a motive.

From the unloading of the coffin to the Catholic ceremony performed by the same priest who baptized him, confirmed him, and gave his First Communion, Father José Rodríguez, most watched him leaving and said good-bye in tears to Eric.

“I’ll you see later,” said with a dry and conforming voice his mother Doris Campos, who along with the rest of the family, watched when their beloved Eric was descended to the ground until a heavy, concrete plate sealed his grave. In just a few minutes it would be covered with dirt and grass.

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by Marvin J. Ramírez

Reafirming Hugo Chávez (L-R) Jan Kalicki looks at his watch while Venezuelan Ambassador answers questions from the audience.

­( Photo By Marvin J. Ramírez )

As Venezuela becomes the bastion of leadership of the new leftist movement in Latin America, and voices of criticism and support crash at political circles, many in the City were able to listen directly from Venezuela’s highest official in the U.S. on May 9, say the latest word on the vision of Hugo Chávez.

And no one could be bette­r prepared to respond than Bernardo Álvarez Herrera, an ex Vice Minister of Hydrocarbons at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Deputy of the National Congress, and Vice Chairman of the Armed Forces, including Chief of the Research and Development Division at the Venezuelan Institute of Foreign Trade.

He became Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States in 2003, and was in the Bay Area to respond to criticism of his country’s new Socialism of the 21st Century, created by President Chávez.

Defending Chavez’ expanded presidential powers as a necessity to carry out the president’s vision of a social democracy, Álvarez talked in very detail of why things are going the way they are going in Venezuela. He reminded the audience at the World Affairs Council of Northern California, of the hypocrisy of President Bush, who himself has claimed broader executive powers in his fight against terrorism, despite of extensive criticism at home and abroad.

“Why, when you give a lot of power to your president, it’s good, and when we grant powers to our president, it’s bad? I really want to know this,” the ambassador asked.

“What we see is a new reality,” said Álvarez, referring to Chávez’ increasing political power and his influence in Latin America. “People agree that Chávez is not an accident, and mentioned the rising to power of Evo Morales in Bolivia, as new changes not accepted by the Washington consensus. He said that there is a huge socioeconomic transformation of the region now underway.

For the first time, “we are creating a new change,” which in the past was impossible to make major changes in society … while poverty grew, he said.

He mentioned the three millions people who were invisible when Chávez took power, who did not have any identification.

“They were invisible, they could not be counted or vote,” he said, while explaining how Chávez government brought them from the shadows and started providing them with I.D and social benefits, and registering them as citizens.

He also mentioned the millions of Colombians who were also living in the shadows as undocumented immigrants, they also were provided with legal residence, as a move to improve their living conditions.

It was not clear if he said it to criticize the United States, which has been unable to legalize more that 12 million people.

“I just wanted to tell you about the level of exclusion that existed before with a two-party system,” which conducted negotiations between themselves.

Accompanied by the a delegation of Venezuelan officials from the Embassy in Washington and the Consul General in San Francisco, José Egidio Rodríguez, the Ambassador was also accompanied by Nicaraguan Roberto Vargas, a known Sandinista figure who twice took over the Nicaraguan Consulate in protest against the U.S. support for the Contras.

He reminded the audience that like in Bolivia, where the country was getting nothing out of its gas trade, companies in Venezuela made money but the people made nothing.

“We want to have mixed company, and if we want to have power, we have to empower the poor in a way it reflects democracy also – representative democracy,” Álvarez said.

“We respect the system of this country but I don’t understand how this democracy doesn’t allow someone to run for office unless you have $1 million,” he said, while responding to written questions from the audience.

If we are going to talk democracy, we are going to discuss democracy, he said, and criticized the fact that the territory of the United States is 33 percent of the American continent, while it consumes 71 percent of the energy. “It would required an energy capability of six planets to satisfy its oil consumption,” he said.

Energy brings us together to talk about development and talk peace. Venezuela, he said, is the second largest commercial partner of the U.S, while blaming the energy crisis partially on the U.S. for not having built refineries in 30 years.

In Venezuela we not only want to use the oil for profits, but also for social development, he said. And in replying to criticism for nationalizing the energy industry, has said that unlike Venezuela, other countries don’t have any private participation in their oil industry, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

He said that with the U.S. companies was no problem, they wanted to sell, and we bought, and added that nationalization has not always been good business.

“Chávez’ efforts to steer a far greater share of his nation’s increased oil revenue to the poor is framed by the New York Times as a sort of populist “scam,” said Randy Shao, of Beyond.com, an alternative online daily.

“A President who has won more honest and fair elections than George W. Bush is deemed a “strongman,” while his preventing foreign companies from reaping huge profits from Venezuela’s natural resources is described as akin to Soviet-style Communism (rarely are there stories about Venezuela’s robust private sector),” said Shao.

To Shao, Hugo Chávez provides an ongoing reminder of America’s distorted priorities. In other words, Chávez makes the U.S. government look selfish, uncaring, and even malicious toward the tens of millions of living in property in the world’s richest country.

­“No wonder our media regularly attacks him. The last message corporate America wants voters to hear is that it is possible to radically change economic policies to benefit the poor, and that populism has seven letters but is not a dirty word,” said Shaw.

In regard to freedom of the press and latest issue of not renewing the license of a 53-year-old T.V. chain, the ambassador said that out of the only six T.V. channels in the country, only one is being turned to public T.V. PBS.

On May 27, the government of Venezuela denied the renewal of RCTV’s broadcasting license to allow for the establishment of a state-controlled station.

Questioning Democracy in the United States, in Venezuela, he added, exists the referendum, a mechanism that allows to ask the people if they want Chávez or not. “Here this doesn’t exist.”

by the El Reportero news services

Manuel Zelaya

HONDURAS – President Manuel Zelaya ordered television and radio stations to broadcast two hours of government propaganda each day from 28 May in order to “counteract the misinformation” that he claims the media presents about his administration.

Zelaya’s move will make his already poor relations with the Honduran media even worse, and suggests that the government is starting to lose control in a country which has traditionally been one of the most stable (and pro-U.S.) in Central America.

The main problem is violent crime. In 2006 there were 3,118 homicides, placing Honduras third in the Central American crime league.

The president has taken to blaming the media for exacerbating Honduras’s security problems by writing sensational reports about violent crime. He failed to get a bill through congress to ban sensationalist reporting.

Peru returns to coca conformity to keep U.S. on side

President Alan García accepted the resignation of his maverick agriculture minister, Juan José Salazar, on 20 May after he made another headline-grabbing concession to coca growers which García dismissed as “mad and stupid”. Salazar signed an agreement with coca growers from the province of La Convención, in Cusco, committing the government to evaluate its stance regarding the 1961 Vienna Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Fearful of jeopardizing US congressional support for an FTA with Peru at a crucial time.

Toll of drug war rises in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — An anti-narcotics official is gunned down, two journalists are abducted and an army captain ends up slain.

The newly appointed head of a drug intelligence unit in the attorney general’s office was shot and killed Monday in a street ambush here that dealt a new blow to President Felipe Calderon’s campaign against this nation’s drug traffi ckers.

Officials said several assailants waited for José Nemesio Lugo Felix, director of the attorney general’s “Information Against Delinquency” unit, trapping his SUV on a narrow street.

Such assassinations have become common in many border and port cities of Mexico but are rare in the nation’s capital.

LocalLinks Lugo Felix had been appointed in April to head the unit specializing in the analysis of data about the activities of Mexico’s drug cartels, officials said. He was shot as he drove his vehicle during rush hour just outside an offi ce of the attorney general in the southern Coyoacan district, a center of the city’s.

Banco del Sur gets go ahead from Mercosur

Although Brazil and Uruguay will not be full members, the Banco del Sur will be launched at the next Mercosur summit in Caracas at the end of June.

The Banco del Sur (BdS) is the clearest sign of who is with, and who is agnostic, about President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela’s approach to international fi nance. Chávez wants the BdS to replace the IMF, World Bank and IDB in providing funds for economic development and emergency fi nancial stabilization.

Colombia may release jailed rebels

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombia will unilaterally release dozens of jailed rebels who agree to demobilize and work for peace, President Álvaro Uribe said Saturday, laying out conditions of a daring proposal to pressure the guerrillas into freeing hostages.

Rebels who agree to the deal must also promise not to return to the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, and to accept the supervision of either the Catholic Church or a foreign government, Uribe said. (Wires and McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.)

by Alex Meneses Miyashita

Carlos Gutiérrez

The U.S. Senate started to debate a compromise immigration proposal negotiated between Democratic and Republican legislators and Bush Administration officials.

The plan was announced May 17 by a bipartisan group of ten lawmakers along with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff following nearly three months of negotiations. Secretary Gutierrez called it a “historic moment.”

Hispanic and immigrant advocates reacted favorably that a compromise was reached and that the plan includes a pathway to immediate legalization and eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants who pass a background check.

‘This proposal contains this crucial element. and this debate is the first step,” said Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza.

The proposal would grant immediate temporary status to undocumented immigrants who are employed’ have no criminal record and pay a $1,000 fine. The cost to obtain a green card would be an additional $4~000 and the process could take a total of 13 years. Eligible applicants would be required to return to their home countries to apply for permanent residency.

The legalization plan would take effect once border and interior enforcement “triggers” take effect. These involve strengthening border security, including doubling the Border Patrol force, and implementing a strict employee verification program.

Frank Sharry, director of the National Immigration Forum, said the proposed fines to attain legalization are “steep” the time table lengthy, and the exit/re-entry scheme superfluous,” but added that it is “remarkable~ that a large group of Republicans are backing
the legalization of millions of immigrants.

Other proposals hailed by Latino and immigrant advocates included the inclusion of Ag/Jobs and the DREAM Act into the bill.

The former would offer a path to legalization to millions of undocumented farm workers and modify the H2-A visa program to meet the needs of the agriculture industry The DREAM Act would offer in-state tuition status o college-bound undocumented students.

In addition, advocates welcomed a plan to put in eight years most of the 4 million pending family backlogs.

However, advocates expressed concern about the future fl ow of immigrants to the .country, including the plan to create a guest worker program that would not offer a path 😮 citizenship for participants.

According to Sharry, if a path to permanent residency is not offered to guest workers, the bill will “create conditions that will lead to a rapidly increasing pool of undocumented immigrants in the future or creating a pool of second class non-citizens, defeating the goals of this reform.”

Another point of concern is a proposed change from a family-based system to a point system to determine who gets green cards in the future. Points would be given based on education, English-language proficiency and family ties.

Currently, about two-thirds of green cards are given to relatives of U.S. citizens.

Murguía said NCLR will engage in vigorous efforts~ to improve the bill.

Democratic and Republican negotiators of the bill said it was not perfect but ­that it offered a solid basis to start the debate.

“Now it’s time for action,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)’who was central to the negotiations. “I’ve been around here long enough to know that opportunities like this don’t come often. The American people are demanding a solution, the President is committed, Senator Reid has made this a priority, and senators from both parties are now determined to solve the crisis.”

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus May 17, also called for action.

“We have an obligation to the American people to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” she said. “The need is urgent.”

Hispanic Link.