by Gast6n Kuperschmit

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled March 9 by the narrowest of margins, 5-4, to limit the protections afforded by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, saying that state legislatures are not required to draw electoral districts to the benefit of non-white candidates in districts where they encompass less than half of the population. Writing for the majority in Bartlett v. Strickland, Justice Anthony Kennedy stated race must be considered only in redistricting where “a geographically compact group of minority voters” comprise 50 percent or more of a single-member district.

The case before the Court concerned District 13 in North Carolina where the African-North American population prior to the redistricting after the 2000 Census was 39 percent. Afterwards, it was reduced to 35 percent. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully argued that state officials engaged in vote dilution.

The dissent through Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, agreed with plaintiffs that the ruling was “difficult to fathom and severely undermines the [Voting Rights Act’s] estimable aim.”

Following the ruling, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund released a statement expressing disappointment with the Court’s conclusion: “Bartlett v. Strickland closed the courthouse doors to many Latinos and other minority communities who face discrimination with regard to voting.”

The timing of this decision is critical as the federal government prepares to conduct the 2010 Census, which is the precursor to congressional redistricting. MALDEF stressed that with the meteoric increase in Hispanic population since 2000Mhe protections afforded by the Voting Rights Act are of utmost concern to the community.

The Court is scheduled to hear a case involving the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Act this term. It requires that states with a history of racial discrimination receive federal consent before amending voting laws.

­Several groups are expected to look at the implications that Bartlett will have on voting districts with significant Hispanic populations that do not meet the requirement of 50 percent.

Alan Clayton, Director of Equal Employment Opportunity at Los Angeles Chicano Employees Association, who filed a complaint with the Department of Justice in 2003 regarding the redistricting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, states that this decision will not impact that case.

However, he says, there are districts within California that may be affected and he is reviewing any potential impact in that state.

For more information contact Alan Clayton at (626) 979-4902. Hispanic Link.

by Marvin Ramírez

Members of the Latin Business Network during their six monthly reunion at La Corneta Restaurant.(photo by Marvin Ramírez)

While business is down for most merchants nationwide and the city looks for ways to finance for most social services that serve the poor, a group of merchants are uniting as a block to find ways to survive a predictable financial collapse that many experts call, will be worse that the Great Depression in the 1920s.

­“What can we do?,” asks Mission merchant Jorge Luis García Linares, who worries about the taxes the might increase. He and several other merchants, have organized a group that meet once a month to brainstorm and come up with ideas in how to approach the decrease in sales vs. an increase in taxes.

The group, called Latin Business Network, created on December 2008, had their sixth reunion on March 26, which attracted approximately ­72 business owners and other guests, most of them business owners, and professionals.

San Francisco’s District 9 Supervisor David Campos recognized to El Reportero, that although is trying to help businesses, tax increases are contemplated “Our agenda is to protect business,” Campos said, but was admitted that taxes are imminent.

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Daniel Ortega

Vietnam will begin prospecting for oil in Nicaragua within four week, according to an agreement signed here between both countries´ state-run companies.

The agreement was signed Monday night in Managua by a PetroVietnam delegation, headed by Dinh La Thang, and Francisco Lopez, president of the state-owned company Petronic.

Lopez announced oil technology transference between both countries will immediately begin, to complement works being done at the oil refinery under construction in Nicaragua with the support of Venezuela.

The refinery is part of the agreements signed by Nicaragua under the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which is also backed by Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras and Dominica.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega attended the signing ceremony between Petro Vietnam and Petronic.

U.S. to fund actions in Mexico against drug traffic

The administration of US President Barack Obama will invest 700 million dollars to support the Mexican government in its war against drug traffi cking, said the White House in a communiqué Wednesday.

The text of the communiqué picks the concern of the US President because of the growing violence by thedrug cartels in the north of Mexico, which are already infl uencing US regions limiting with Mexico.

The 700 million dollars will be saved in the funds of the Merida Initiative, a program promoted by former US President George W. Bush to fight the drug illegal trade in Central America.

Barack Obama promised he would do his job in the war against drug traffi cking and reduce the drug demand in the national market, just like his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon requested many times.

US National Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a press release that the Executive would increase border control, by sending more agents and equipments to the zone.

The new agents will have the mission to avoid the smuggling of drugs and people from Mexico to the US, and neutralize the traffic of weapons arming the drug cartels.

Salvadorians honor Archbishop Romero Salvadorian priests and numerous parishioners attended on Tuesday, March 23, a mass to pay homage to Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, on the 29th anniversary of his assassination by death squads.

The religious ceremony will take place at the Metropolitan Cathedral in this capital, presided over by San Salvador Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar.

On Saturday, they began the activities to honor Romero, who is an emblematic symbol of the struggle for peace, justice and national unity.

Honduran president proposes constitutional revamp

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is calling for a new constitution in his Central American nation, following the path of his leftist allies in the region.

Zelaya announced late Monday his government will hold a nationwide poll on June 24.

The poll will gauge whether Honduras should hold a binding vote in November on whether to draft a new charter.

If Hondurans agree, the government would convoke an assembly that would write a new constitution adapted to “substantial and significant changes” that Honduras has experienced since its current constitution was adopted in 1982 as the country was emerging from military rule.

Zelaya did not give details about what changes a new constitution might include, but similar recent reforms promoted by other Latin American leaders have expanded presidential powers and eased bans on re-election. Zelaya’s four year term ends in early 2010 and current law bans re-election.

Zelaya has forged increasingly close ties with Latin America’s leftist bloc, led by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez. He brought Honduras into the Chavez-founded Bolivarian Alternative trade bloc that also includes Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. (Prensa Latina and Associated Press contributed to this report).­

by Gabriela D. Lemus

The Latino community should whole-heartedly get behind the Employee Free Choice Act. Introduced March 10, the bill has a majority of support in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, but business groups are spending heavily to make sure the Senate does not reach the 60 votes that it needs to survive a filibuster.

EFCA levels the playing field for workers by ensuring a more democratic decision-making process, providing employees the room to be full partners with management.

At a minimum, democracy involves freedom of speech and freedom to organize collectively around issues. In the case of workers, a minimum standard of democracy involves the ability of workers to discuss and debate amc of harassment from either unions or corporate management as to whether they would like to join a union.

EFCA would reinvigorate the National Labor Relations Act, giving workers additional protections to bargain collectively and join a union. Time and again, we have witnessed that the current system for workers to form unions to bargain over wages and benefits is broken. As a result, the National Labor Relations Board would be better able to ensure that the processes regarding authorization forms are fair, thus preventing coercion from either side.

In 2008, workers represented by unions earned a median weekly salary of $886. This compared to non-unionized workers, with median weekly earnings of $691.

In particular, young men and women just entering the work world benefit from protections that collective bargaining provides.

Latinos are among the youngest population group in the United States. Their median age is 25.8 years – more than 10 years younger than that for the U.S. population as a whole.

Also worth mention: they have more children and greater family stability.

More than half are fully bilingual.

Needless to say, union membership would assist them not just in earning a livable wage.

It could move many into jobs where they learn more skills, take on greater responsibilities gain added benefits.

Latino workers want to join unions. Union membership, long in decline, actually increased in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics annual report.

The unionized share of the U.S. workforce climbed to 12.4 percent last year from 12.1 percent in 2007, an increase of more than 420,000 members.

While the gains were broadly shared across demographic lines and occupations, growth was strongest in the public sector, among Hispanics, and in Western states, driving the largest increase in more than a quarter of a century. More than 120,000 Hispanics became Union members last year. Their membership rate rose1nearly a full percent to 10.8 percent from 9.8 percent in 2007.

EFCA offers workers added access to such benefits as health insurance and pensions. Management gains from the skill sets, contagious motivation and increased productivity that satisfied workers provide. It follows that productive workers help companies grow profits and capital for further economic growth.

As President Obama reminds us daily, the need to revitalize our communities is paramount. Urgent.

Which communities will succeed in doing so?

Where unions are stronger, not only are wages higher and health insurance more accessible; there are numerous other benefits.

In states with higher Union density, it is more likely that poverty will be reduced. There will be more homeowners than renters and better schools because there is greater public education spending per pupil. The three are inter-related.

Together they bring an unintended benefit —a significant reduction in crime. Compare states where Unions are strong with those where they’re weak. In the former, public dollars are more likely to go to schools and less likely to building jails.

By bolstering the middle class, educating our communities and ensuring they are healthy, we give people hope. That’s the essence of the American Dream. The Employee Free Choice Act can help make it real again. Hispanic Link.

(Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus is executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), with headquarters in Washington, D.C. Email: glemus@Iclaa.org).

by Jacqueline Baylón

San Francisco childcare providers and housecleaners distribute flowers on March 30 in S.F. to raise consciousness about their working conditions.

The two dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus engaged in an hour long discussion with President Barack Obama strictly about comprehensive immigration reform at the White House’s State Room March 18.

Obama’s campaign promise to construct such a policy helped bring Hispanics to the polls on Election Day. Two-thirds of them checked his name on their ballots.

The meeting’s participants hailed it as a positive sign to the Hispanic community that the President will follow through with his promise to address the issue during his first year in office.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better response’” said CHC chair Nydia Velázquez.

“Under his leadership, we will repair this broken system and stop tearing families apart. ­We realize the real work begins now.”

Obama told caucus members that one of his first steps will be to conduct an immigration reform forum at the White House.

“To help us craft the best and most comprehensive immigration bill possible, he committed to hosting a public forum—as he has on other critical issues such as health care—that will include key stakeholders,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.).

The President didn’t specify when, but Velázquez offered her interpretation.

“We will enact comprehensive reform by the end of this year. And by end of the 111th Congress, we will have seen the beginning of the positive impact: of that legislation on our community and our nation’s economy, and put an end to people living in fear and in the shadows.”

During the meeting, CHC members were vocal in condemning the Homeland Security raids that have separated thousands of families around the nation.

In a follow-up news release, CHC referenced Obama’s assurance that he was looking for ways to end the raids, including administrative fi rst steps, so that enforcement policies do not result in the separation of families.

“His past efforts and commitment on this issue are a matter of record,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.).

Among other vocal reform advocates participating in the discourse were Senator Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez ­(D-lll.).

Key Obama administration staff in attendance included Cecilia Munoz, director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff.

­

by the El Reportero’s news services

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met leaders from Central America in Costa Rica on March 30.

BIDEN tells top leaders that deportations from U.S. won’t change in short-term This was Biden’s first trip to the region since the new Barack Obama administration took office in January.

Biden promised a new era for US-Central America relations, but delivered nothing firm.

What was interesting is which Central Americans turned up to meet him. The presidents of Nicaragua and Honduras, Daniel Ortega and Manuel Zelaya, both allies of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, spurned the invitation to attend, sending representatives instead.

Both presidents, however, are likely to meet President Obama when he comes to the forthcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad on April 17-19.

Clinton appeases Mexico

The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, pleased the Mexican government on March 25, the first day of her two-day visit to Mexico.

On the second day she was due to go north from Mexico City to Monterrey to get a clearer view of what is happening in the gang-ridden Mexican states which border the U.S.

In Jan. 14, El Reportero newspaper published a U.S. Army’s Journal story that suggested that because the United States was in danger of collapse, “the U.S. may be forced to intervene in México to prevent the country’s ‘rapid and sudden collapse.’” Another article published in the NPR online edition headline read: “the CIA And Pentagon Wonder: Could Mexico Implode?”

“Drug-related violence in Mexico is escalating at an alarming rate and threatening the government of President Felipe Calderon,” the article said. “CIA and U.S. military planners now fear a worst-case scenario — that the country could implode. The American military is quietly stepping in with more training.”

Colombia reassesses its foreign policy priorities

Colombia under the right-leaning administration of President Alvaro Uribe has positioned itself as the US’s closest regional ally.

The arrival in the White House of President Barack Obama has, however, prompted a subtle shift in Colombia-US relations, with the new administration likely to oversee a gradual reduction in US military aid to Colombia.

With this in mind, Colombia is reaching out to the region’s emergent leader – and Obama’s regional ally of choice – Brazil. Bogotá’s decision to join the Brazil-initiated South American Defense Council, attached to the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), formally launched in March, was a clear gesture to the government of President Lula da Silva.

Central America looks to U.S. for solution to economic crisis

To offset the recent wave of factory closings and work suspensions at U.S. textile and manufacturing plants in Central America, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is asking the U.S. government for an economic bailout plan for Central America.

Speaking at Wednesday’s extraordinary presidential meeting of the Central American Integration System, Ortega went against the current of other leaders in attendance by criticizing the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) as being fickle and unjust. Despite the promises of CAFTA-DR, Ortega said, “What’s happening now is that they are closing U.S. investment linked to the trade agreement in Central American countries, especially in Honduras and Nicaragua.’’

The closing of free-trade zones has already led to 20,000 lost jobs in Honduras, and independent economic analysts in Nicaragua predicts an additional 30,000 – 50,000 jobs will be lost in Nicaragua this year, on top of the thousands already lost at the end of 2008. more workers.

­(Latin News, NBC News, and the Miami Herald contributed to this report.)

by Cindy Von Quednow

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Of the 40,000 Salvadorans living outside this nation of seven million who were eligible to vote in its presidential election March 15, only 221 did so, according to El Salvador’s Supreme Tribunal Electorate.

Of those, 122 cast ballots for former CNN newsman Mauricio Funes, the candidate for the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), while 99 went to the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) candidate, Rodrigo Avila.

Funes won, 51%-49%.

The preference of those living abroad reflected the rest of the electorate in the first FMLN victory in history, which ended the 20year rule of its right-wing government Unlike Mexico and Peru, the Salvadoran government requires nationals who live outside the country to obtain an identification card and vote in person.

While ARENA’s Avila had opposed allowing those Salvadorans living abroad to vote as too difficult and costly, FMLN Vice President-elect Salvador Sanchez Cerén argued they should not be denied that right. He promised to “work hard with initiative” to allow them to participate in choosing the country’s elected officials in the future.

There are now an estimated 2.5-to-3 million Salvadorans living in the United States, most from refugee families who fled its civil war during the’80s and ‘9Os.

Gisela Edith Bustamante, who flew “home” to cast her ballot this month, agrees: “In a moment such as this, we have an opportunity to change the country’s history.” The San Salvador native has lived for eight years in Washington, D.C.

By Census count, 200,000 Salvadorans reside in the capital and surrounding suburbs, making it the second largest U S. conclave of Salvadoran immigrants after Los Angeles, which has 350,000.

Like other Salvadorans living in the exterior, Bustamante was assigned to vote in San Salvador’s Mágico Gonzalez Stadium.

To cast his vote, Benito Garcia, dressed in the red, white and blue colors of the ARENA party, had traveled from Bethesda, Md., where he has lived for 25 years. “If we could vote from there, we wouldn’t lose time off from work,” he said.

This was also the feeling in Ana Gladys Rubio’s family. She flew in from Los Angeles. Her husband stayed home. “Someone had to work,” said Rubio, who lived in Arlington, Va. for 18 years before moving West.

A survey conducted at the Central American Research and Policy Institute at California State University-Northridge showed that 87% of the Salvadorans living in the Los Angeles area would have liked to have voted from their U.S. city of residence Some 300 people participated in a March 8 symbolic election in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, a haven for Central American immigrants.

CARPI director Douglas Carranza noted that the results of El Salvador’s election clearly mimicked those of the survey, which showed that while there was a will to vote, most people could not do so because of immigration status, cost or time constraints.

TSE president Walter Araujo, who visited the stadium on election-day morning, emphasized the importance of being able to vote outside the country, stating, ­“Salvadorans want to participate in their democracy, even when they are far away. The state should revise the Constitution, and that can be done by the national assembly.”

(Cindy Von Quednow traveled to San Salvador to cover the election for Hispanic Link and El Nuevo Sol elnuevosol.net Email her at: vonquizu@gmail.com).