The International Herald Tribune covered a survey by the Inter-American Development Bank which was “conducted in Spanish from Feb. 9-23 with a sample of 5,000 interviews and a margin of error of 1 percentage point,”  found that in the last two years Latin American immigrants in the US have stopped sending money back home to their families.  The percentage dropped by 73% to 50%, a 23% decrease in 2 years.  Although remittances have increased from 2006 by $500 million dollars, it may not be long until the remittances decrease along with senders.  The survey found that immigrants are deciding to save their money instead of sending it back to their families because ,

“…life is becoming more difficult for them here (US) . Of those interviewed, 81 percent said it was harder to find a good-paying job. Almost 40 percent said they were earning less this year. The largest group of immigrants in the survey, 18 percent, worked in construction, which has been especially hard hit in the slowdown.”

The survey also found that the immigrants have been hit hard by the Bush administration cracking down on illegal immigrants by penalizing companies for hiring them, and also been affected by the economic trouble the US is experiencing.

Remittances are a vital source of income for many families in Latin America, as well as important to the  economies of Latin American countries.  Decreases in remittances could mean serious trouble for not only the families who may rely on them to survive, but also for the economies of these countries as less money will be available for circulation (less purchasing power on consumers).

Since the introduction of Raul Castro many countries have jumped on the opportunity of pressuring the government for much needed change.  So far, Cubans have been opened up the capitalist world of technology: use of cell phones, and computers; as well enjoying luxury tourist hotels, and now a change in prosecution?  Raul Castro has changed most death sentences by extending prison terms, he says for humanitarian purposes rather than due form international pressures, according to BBC.  The death sentence will remain legal.  Human rights organizations have been putting pressure on Cuba to end the death sentence because it is conducted using a firing squad, inhuman right?  There are two exceptions to using longer sentences than the death penalty and that is the two central American men who bombed a hotel, and a Cuban American who is accused of murder during a armed “infiltration of the island.”

Raul claimed that excuses these peoples, “It would be irresponsible and disingenuous to renounce the dissuasive power that capital punishment has on the real terrorists, the imperialist mercenaries.”

Although more change is needed to liberate the oppressed Cubans, I find the international pressures interesting.  The international organizations have become obsessed with Cuba for change maybe because they see this as an opening.  To me it seems ironic that human rights organizations are trying to make Cuba abandon the death sentence instead of just changing it, because as we have witnessed in the US the death sentence has and will be a controversial topic that maybe never be resolved or compromised.  As I stated it seems that a lot of international attention is focused on changing Cuba, who seems to be starting it on their own; maybe organizations should focus more on the Middle East and Africa where humanitarian issues are not changing.

Argentina asked Spain to extradite Isabel Peron, whom has been living in Spain since 81, for human rights violations associated with the disappearance of two leftist activists in 1976. Peron was also accused of being involved with the with activities of the paramilitary squad, whom according to ” Argentine investigators [have] kidnapped and killed about 1,500 government opponents, including politicians, lawyers and journalists.” The National Court located in Madrid denied the claims of Argentina on the basis that they “charges did not constitute crimes against humanity and that therefore the statute of limitations had expired.”

The response of the National Court is confusing to me, maybe because I am not an international law expert and know little on the subject. What I find fascinating is that Spain jumped on the opportunity to extradite Pinochet, but not to take a look into Peron as her presidency was followed by the Dirty War. Spain listened to Chile when they wanted Pinochet back to Chile to try him there, so maybe Argentina needs to try ask of the same. Prosecution of human rights offenders in Latin America is stalemate. Some countries like Guatemala, are still awaking trials and justice. One thing I know about international law is that is is complicated. Therefore, I just may not know enough about international court to fully comprehend the legal situation, however I know that justice may never come for Argentina whether Peron is tried there, and it appears that she won’t be tired abroad either. Another interesting phrase, or food for thought, is from the article was that Peron has been branded as a “ineffectual leader” meaning that any of her mistakes were not her own as her decisions were based upon her advisers. My take on the subject is that as a leader one takes upon the responsibilities of the events that occur within that country. Mistakes under ones rule, is that rulers mistakes for they were weak to let another make a decision for them, and can simply be put as guilty by association.

I found this video interesting, especially because I am not a coffee nor soda drinker; and find energy drinks disgusting and make me sick.  In other words, I try to find what is portrayed as healthy energy supplements, and now I have my eye on this.  Maca is a indigenous root of Peru, used by indigenous peoples for thousands of years.  The video is self-explaining and I am just wondering when I can try some

Check out the Video: it’s called the Medicine Hunter in Peru

The left has yet again reaped sweet victory in Latin America, as former catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo  won the presidential elections with 41% of the votes, as reported by the NY Times.  The NY Times noted that this is the fourth free elections since the dictatorship of Stroessner.  As i previous noted there were concerns about rigged election but the OAS ” found no evidence of foreign interference.”

This is a very interesting gain for Paraguay as it just may be the first political freedom in decades, by this I mean a signal to the end of domination whether its from one person or one party.  I did learn from this article which makes the election even more incising, and im sure the losing opponents will jump on is that, the” Paraguayan constitution prohibits church officials of any denomination from being elected president.”  The material that followed was confusing for me as they noted that he resigned as bishop in 2006, but that the Vatican refused to acknowledge his resignation; but suspended his “clerical duties.”  So what I gather from these two statement is that one the Catholic church is being particular on their wording to enable more power on their part, or help Lugo manipulate the law; and two the international response (or just the US) will be in a frenzy because a left-Catholic leader will be in power, and that just seems like a total nightmare for the Bush administration.

Today were the presidential elections for Paraguay. As of now with half the votes counted the left-wing and former catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo is ahead by 8%, as reported by BBC. Many opposition leaders were worried about rigged elections due to the domination of the 61 yr ruling Colorado Party, “the longest-serving party in continuous rule in the world.” Lugo’s party called the centre-left Patriotic Alliance for Change, is made up of indigenous peoples, poor farmers, and leftist unions.

It is a very exciting time for Paraguyans I believe because it is a signal for change. Whether it is a woman in charge, or the end of domination it is nonetheless going to affect politics and whom has power in Paraguay. It is so typical as the BCC article touched upon and I did not until here, of criticize if Lugo becomes president for his left ideas and being compared to Venezuela and Bolivia. If Lugo is elected I am sure that we will be reading more about them in the US papers. I wouldn’t be surprised at the increase attention the country will receive if Lugo is elected. I am sure the US will respond in a typical manner and have a heart attack (Bush) to have one more leftist leader in power in the western hemisphere. I assume that because the Bush administration criticizes Venezuela, Bolivia, and Chile for the left leader, or leftist policies (as with Chile). I will this week be paying attention to what if any gets covered in the US mainstream news. It just may be interesting.

Profile of the candidates

Thousands of people are displaced with Mondays eruption of the volcano, Nevado de Huila, which lies about 149 miles from the capital, Bogota.  Colombia has issued a state of red alert, and experts are not sure if the situation is going to escalate.

The eruption is significant to politics, because if the situation worsens it will be interesting to see how the government will respond in aid, and how much attention those displaced people will receive.  How is the government going to help the thousands of people who lost their homes? where will they all go?  They cannot stay at the schools for long.  Maybe for a second Colombia can take its focus away from the FARC and violating human rights to help some of its people.  Although I know that could be asking a lot.  I tried looking on three Colombian (Bogota) news websites, and nothing about the situation was found on the front pages.  We can see how much concern there is.

Human trafficking is a serious issue that affects every country. It is a horrific, disgusting, inhuman billion dollar industry. The issue at hand really becomes how to end human slavery in an international community with no real world judicial system. The fact of the matter is that, human trafficking is hard to prosecute in general because of this lack of a international court system that can execute punishment, and on the state level very few countries have specific laws for human trafficking.

Argentina has taken the stride, after years of debating, and has introduced a new human trafficking bill. This is due in part to the fact that (according to IPS who cited the information from the Network), “some 500 missing women in Argentina are presumed to have fallen prey to forced prostitution rings. In some cases they were kidnapped, but the majority were lured in by promises of well-paid jobs or other forms of deception.”

Although some people like, Eugenio Ambrossi, the representative of the IOM in Argentina, thinks that the law was “excellent news,” many womens rights organizations beg to differ. The confrontation lies within the part of the law that “requires victims over 18 to prove that they didn’t give their consent.” Marta Fontenla, a feminist lawyer with the Women’s Association for Work and Studies, told IPS,

“It’s not what we wanted; we are going to ask the executive branch to veto it. This law is a setback, because it creates the idea that there is illegitimate trafficking that is penalised and legitimate trafficking in which the victims supposedly give their consent to be prostituted. But we believe that no one can consent to their own exploitation.”

“The lawyer said the highest profile cases of trafficking, in which women are kidnapped, actually make up a small portion of the total. Much more common, she said, are girls or young women who are recruited by means of deception or who knowingly enter into prostitution out of necessity. Those cases are also crimes; you shouldn’t have to prove that violence was used.”

Another response came from Elena Reynaga, head of the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina (AMMAR), who said,

“To put an end to trafficking in persons, we have to put an end to hypocrisy, because in Argentina there are a number of crimes related to trafficking that are already punishable by law, but the problem is that these laws are not enforced, whether due to negligence or intentionality on the part of the political powers-that-be or the judicial authorities. For example, procuring is a crime, but it is practiced anyway.”

The present law dealing with human trafficking ( “participating in the entrapment, recruitment, transportation or reception of people for the purposes of sexual or labor exploitation or organ harvesting”) gives a prison sentences of 3-6 years, and if the victim is under 13, the sentence increased to 15 years. Womens rights groups just want to get the consent part of the law vetoed.

In my opinion, the consent part is bull crap as one of the woman pointed out earlier, it is hard to measure consent when there is fear involved. I once watched a human trafficking movie and it was so disturbing to hear the women’s stories. One woman from Colombia was lured in by a friend with the false pretensions of working abroad as a maid. However, she ended up in Japan as a prostitute, and was beaten badly; just escaped by a hair. Although she took the plane ticket, which is consent, she had no idea she would be going to work as a sex slave. I think that consent should not be in the law either, it opens up too many doors that do not need to be opened; but instead locked.

Political history is being witnessed in Paraguay, as for the first time a woman is running for president.  IPS reported that, Blanca Ovelar, a school teacher and former Education Minister, is running for president under the Colorado Party, and 2nd in the polls.  There are split opinions amongst the female community to how monumental this moment is. Or is this really a giant step forward for women in Paraguay, is this going to affect the lives of women?  Does her presence open the door for an equal opportunity for woman in politics?  I guess as Americans we can ask ourselves the same question in regards to Hilary Clinton.

We can start analyzing the first question, how monumental is her presidency (?), by looking at womens current political presence in Paraguay.  IPS reported that according to the Office of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses that, although they make up about half of the population in Paraguay (49%)  “ they hold barely 10 percent of the seats in Congress and the Cabinet, one of the lowest rates in Latin America.”

When analyzing those statistics above, it is a monumental moment for women to have a woman running for president, when there are barely any women holding political positions there.   10%  is barely having any power or influence.  However,  Line Bareiro, a political scientist, told IPS that, “Ovelar’s candidacy is a great step forward, arising from women’s struggle over decades to gain access to political power.” Graziella Corvalán, a member of the Coordination of Paraguayan Women (CMP), added, “that although Ovelar is not a standard-bearer for women’s causes, her candidacy is an advance.”

The fact that Ovelar is not a woman’s right activist has many womens’ organizations claiming that she is just another candidate. They claim that she “was nominated because the Colorados want to stay in power rather than because they are taking gender issues seriously.”  The issue with the political party is that the Colorado Party has had their presidential nominee hold power for 61 years.  Therefore, many organizations feel that her presidency represents ” 60 years of poverty and injustice.” Lilian Soto, a political science said that Ovelar, “is a person whom a certain power group finds useful for their own ends, and I don’t think she’s really interested in defending women’s rights.” Another comment was made by a member of Parlamento Mujer (forum to empower women and increase their access to the structures of political power), Angélica Cano, “When a political project has run out of male representatives that can sustain it, it calls in a woman to legitimise a model that is already obsolete. The contribution of women should be to improve the political sphere, it’s important to know whether she is going to defend issues that are sensitive for women, because what’s happened to many women who have gone into politics could also happen to her: they don’t know whether they’re defending their gender or their party.”

The comment made above is and extremely good point, and a realistic one.  With Hilary Clinton, who is the first woman in the US with a realistic chance at obtaining the presidency, her platform does not really include gender issues.  Most of her platform consists democratic views, which do help some women (poor) but not specifically aimed at bettering the lives of woman.  Although, I should note before I get criticized heavily that women do have it better here than in Paraguay, however, equality on many levels is still in a slow process of progress.  Woman are slowly progressing and as for me not at a fast enough pace ( I will stop here before I have a essay on womens’ issues in the US).

Ovelar is quite confident in her ability to win for she says, “I will be the first woman president of Paraguay, breaking with the machista tradition.”  She then stated that she represents “true change, because of [her] public service record, and because I am a woman.”  She went on to say, “being on the left or on the right is no longer relevant from an ideological point of view,” although she said she is in favour of “a free-market democracy with an active state to direct the country and protect the poor.”

April 30, when the elections are held will determine how monumental her presidential nominee is.  If she wins could just mean another face under the same ‘regime’.  Or it can turn for the better and she can really have an impact on the lives of the women in her country.  I will be keeping a eye on the events and be interested to see how she handles the presidency if she gains power.  I hope she will empower woman, and prove that she is not just another face under the same ‘regime’.

Mexico City is taking a stance and fighting sexual harassment.  A video, from NYTimes.com covered the woman only buses in Mexico.  The buses were created in response to massive daily reports of sexual harassment by woman who take the metro or public buses.  Although they have not segregated the metro system, they have a few buses and it has been a success.   The need for the buses is apparent, one woman was stating that the buses are so overcrowded that you cannot avoid contact.  She then went on to describe that men rub their genitals on woman.  I can assume that there is a lot of grabbing, vocal harassment  and so forth as well.  In reality, no woman wants to be subjected to such degrading!  I personally would be completely stressed out if i had to ride public transportation where I was insulted and molested everyday.  A few woman interviewed in the video expressed their happiness with the new buses, said they felt safer, and said they would wait longer for the female buses.

The responses from the three men are not surprising.  The first, a young man, stated that the buses were a good thing because there is no cultural respect for women.  The other older two men, which I will group together, stated that men are animals and cannot control themselves (poor helpless men!); and the other a typical response blaming it on the way woman dress.

Mexico realizes this is not a permanent solution to stopping sexual harassment and are in the mist of developing a new ordinance to prosecute sexual harassment offenders.  As a woman I am very pleased to see that  Mexico City is taking the step to ensure the comfort and protection of their women.  For many countries women are the subject of discrimination, abuse, and degradation with little if any repercussions taken against perpetrators of the crimes above.  Therefore, I was very interested in this video and pleased with the information, good job Mexico City!