Our story on the Mexican town of Jalpa, Zacatecas, organizing a December fair to greet returning migrants and their children drew a variety of responses. About half a dozen people wrote comments like this one: "These aren't migrants, rather illegal trespassers, felons." Many others were filled with ethnic slurs. Apparently, these days it isn't possible to write the word "immigrant" without a certain segment of the readership thinking "illegal," even though according to several studies, including this one, the vast majority of immigrants are legal residents or U.S. citizens.
Indeed, my story quoted several U.S. citizens among the returnees, including many who are the children of people who migrated from Zacatecas decades ago. Other comments were from people with roots in Jalpa, many happy with the story, including a California state senator who sent us a message from his BlackBerry en route to Jalpa — he was going to visit his wife's family there.
But one Jalpa native now living in the U.S. wasn't so happy with the tough-looking guys in the photos that ran with the story: "You should of taken pictures of beautiful scenes of Jalpa and the town.... Not all people from that town are ghetto." Point taken. Here's one shot from our camera that didn't make the paper. From left to right: Adrian Garcia, Alberto Guerrero, an unidentified friend, Ruby Rodriguez and Henry Rodriguez, all natives of Southern California, who had just finished shopping in Jalpa's town center.
Santa's Christmas present to chilangos, as Mexico City residents are known, was a day without traffic. Christmas Eve was also a holiday for most people here, thus this picture in the newspaper El Universal, celebrating a rare day without the city's notorious gridlock.
The government of the tiny Caribbean island state of Dominica wants to ban toy guns and camouflage clothing to cut down on robberies by perpetrators with fake weapons.
Police on the verdant, mountainous island, which is popular with eco-tourists, have reported a rash of holdups in recent months by men in military-style clothing using toy guns that looked real enough to fool victims.
National Security Minister Rayburn Blackmore has asked the parliament of the former British colony to vote on a ban when it reconvenes in January.
Real handguns are already officially limited to the police and military, but as in many Caribbean nations, the restrictions are widely flouted.
They're at it again, the soccer party poopers. And Bolivian President Evo Morales is vowing to challenge this affront to the beautiful game. His Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, likewise promised to stand up for "the universal character of futbol and the right to practice sport where one is born and lives,'' as Los Tiempos newspaper reported.
At issue is the latest effort by FIFA, soccer's governing body, to remove its stamp of approval from matches played in stadiums at high altitudes. South America, with its sundry cities in the clouds, would be hardest-hit.
Officials cite potential health problems for players used to kicking the ball at lower altitudes. Teams from sea-level squads in Argentina and Brazil have long complained about a competitive disadvantage. In May, FIFA tried to ban international matches above 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). Bolivia's Morales, an ardent sportsman, led the charge against that "discriminatory'' action, eventually forcing the soccer sovereigns to back down.
But last weekend FIFA did it again, allowing international matches above 2,750 meters only if players were allowed to "acclimatize.'' How much time is needed to "acclimatize'' to a town like La Paz (3,600 meters, almost 12,000 feet) varies; some people never get used to the place, where a block-long uphill walk can leave the unwary gasping for oxygen. Arriving here by plane can be a particular shock: The capital's airport stands at an elevation of some 13,600 feet, less than 1,000 feet below the top of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States.
To illustrate his point about soccer's height adaptability, Morales, a native of the high-plains altiplano, played a pickup game on a snowbound volcano at 6,000 meters (almost 20,000 feet!) earlier this year. Even the intrepid Evo admitted being a bit gassed afterward.
The speck on the map called Dennehy, a cow-burg lost in the vastness of the Argentine plains, is the kind of place where folks pass the time watching the occasional car come and go. A big event for the 200 or so inhabitants is the thrice-weekly arrival of the train that connects from Buenos Aires, 160 miles to the east.
Founded by impoverished Irish immigrants in the 19th century, Dennehy's big moment was a 1941 regional soccer championship, still commemorated. An unlikely setting for a South American crime of passion. Yet the sensation-seeking press descended en masse this week after a singular court ruling. The suspect was acquitted in the execution-style shooting death of a laborer, Angel Enrique Palacios, who had allegedly experienced "relations'' with the suspect's wife and sister-in-law, noted the Argentine daily Clarin.
A judicial panel cited a lack of proof, but also noted a bizarrely permissive moral ambience, describing Dennehy thusly: "A mythological Greek woods where various rural fauns and nymphs clandestinely and openly consummate their romantic encounters, some fleeting, some lasting.'' Lurid tales followed about the debauched, inbred pueblo of the pampas. Villagers are indignant. They are demanding a judicial apology. Some wonder if they missed the fun all these years.As local rep Jorge Silvestre explained: "Residents are really offended by this decision. It is a defamation against the morals of the people of Dennehy.''
Diego Armando Maradona wants a new tattoo. One to match the likeness of Fidel Castro (left leg); of Ernesto "Che'' Guevara (right shoulder); of his parents' and his two daughters' names. His body may be running out of real estate; still, the retired Argentine soccer legend tells Diario de Hoy: "I'd like to have something of Chavez.'' That would be Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Maradona is a dedicated chavista. They hang together (as in this photo from Diario de Hoy), mutual celebrity admirers, open to new experiences. Maradona has embraced leftist politics.
Chavez the baseball man is getting into futbol. The question: Where will Diego find room for more body art?
Every year, on the north side of Mexico City, a remarkable sight begins to materialize around mid-December. Thousands of worshipers of the Virgen de Guadalupe converge on the basilica named for her, an oasis of calm and spiritual contemplation in the heart of this restless metropolis.
They come by foot, subway, bus and car, from all parts of the republic. Some arrive on their knees, inching along the rough sidewalks in a gesture of contrition and devotion. Some carry children in their arms. Some pilgrims bear flowers, or paintings of the icon strapped to their backs. Mexicans revere their national heroes: Pancho Villa, Frida Kahlo, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
But by far the country's most beloved figure is the Virgen de Guadalupe, the dark-skinned, Mexican incarnation of the Virgin Mary, synthesized with the indigenous Aztec goddess Tonantzin. According to Roman Catholic belief, she first appeared as a vision to the Indian peasant (and, eventually, saint) Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, 1531, and spoke to him in the indigenous Nahuatl language.
Since then, her image has spread across the hemisphere, and she is worshiped as ardently in East Los Angeles as in Guadalajara, by Latinos and non-Latinos alike. But for the faithful, there is nothing quite like the ritual unfolding this week in Mexico City, where the Virgencita (little virgin) is making her annual procession before the powerful and the poor.
For those wanting a more strenuous pilgrimage, residents of Tilaco undertake a 250-mile torch relay to their town from Mexico City in veneration of the Virgen de Guadalupe.
Mexico is not at war. The "drug war" consumes some cities and towns, but the vast majority of Mexicans don't live in fear of getting caught in the crossfire between competing traffickers and the police. And the guerrillas of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR in Spanish) may have declared war on the government of President Felipe Calderon, but Mexicans only notice when the EPR blows up an oil or gasoline pipeline, something it hasn't done since September. Still, a rather vociferous war of words has broken out on the Internet this month between the EPR and Mexico's Interior Ministry.
On Dec. 3, the EPR issued a communique announcing it would soon resume hostilities against the government. At 2,000 words, it was a typically verbose assault on Mexico's political elite, commenting on a variety of political actors and issues, including the Supreme Court, the Catholic Church and the recent reform of the social security system. The EPR accused Calderon of selling out the country to the United States by agreeing to U.S. military and logistic aid in the fight against organized crime. And it said it would continue its bombing campaign until the government released two EPR militants who disappeared earlier this year.
Four days later, the Interior Ministry shot back with a detailed, angry and highly unusual 1,600-word response. The government doesn't have the missing men, it said, and the EPR knows this. "The supposed 'dirty war' of which they are victims does not exist," said Ministry Bulletin No. 331/07. "In the government of Felipe Calderon, no one has been and no one will be persecuted for merely being a social activist."
On Monday night, more than 3 million people in greater Mexico City were left without power after an explosion rocked the city. Rumors swirled that the EPR had made good on its promise to renew "hostilities." But no: Local officials said the explosion had been caused by a short circuit at a local substation.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ample allies in the world of commerce. Venezuela, with its surfeit of petro-dollars, is for some a cash cow to be milked. U.S., Latin American and European interests all vie for government contracts, concessions and investment opportunities in the cradle of "21st century socialism.''
It's not news that profit may trump ideology. And it was likewise no surprise that hundreds showed up for a Chavez gabfest Monday at the Sheraton in Buenos Aires organized by the Argentine-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce. Chavez spoke for an hour and 29 minutes, clearly unbowed by Spanish King Juan Carlos' recent suggestion that he "shut up.''
The business elite listened as Chavez excoriated the "evil empire'' [the United States] and jovially recounted how he and ex-Argentine President Nestor Kirchner combined to torpedo George W. Bush's plans for a free-trade zone of the Americas. It did seem odd, however, wrote the correspondent for the Argentine daily Clarin, when the assembled capitalists broke into spontaneous applause at the mention of Fidel Castro's name, "something difficult to imagine in a meeting of Argentine businessmen.''
— Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell and Andres D'Alessandro in Buenos Aires
The inauguration of Cristina Fernandez as Argentina's new president moved Monday afternoon from the stately confines of the congressional palace to a raucous outdoor concert at the Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires.
There Fernandez and her husband, now ex-President Nestor Kirchner, joined on stage with assorted Argentine musical luminaries, including Mercedes Sosa, the legendary chanteuse, and a riffing Gustavo Santaolalla, two-time Oscar winner for his film scores.
Clarin reports that the presidential couple, a bit out of place in their formal get-ups amid the mostly jeans-clad musicos, nonetheless did a few steps and even sang along. President Fernandez flashed lots of smiles and delivered a bevy of hugs and kisses after her mostly somber and humorless inaugural address. Some 10,000 people showed up in the central plaza, and business came mostly to a halt downtown.
That fans from New York to Liverpool to Tokyo mark Saturday's anniversary of John Lennon’s slaying is no stunner.But the annual public manifestations of homage in the Peruvian capital of Lima may surprise those unfamiliar with the deep affection here for the ex-Beatle.
Banners in the seaside San Miguel neighborhood advertise a free memorial concert under the heading "John Lennon, Más Allá del Rock & Roll," (roughly, John Lennon, More Than Rock 'n' Roll).
The Lima district hosts what is billed as South America’s sole public monument to Lennon, a quirky, life-size statue of the bespectacled songwriter performing with guitar.
The likeness stands in a patch of green overlooking the crashing waves of the Pacific. A circular mosaic at the foot of the monument advises visitors: "Imagine."
Two grupera musicians slain in Mexico in the last 13 months, in hits apparently related to organized crime, appear in the annual list of Grammy nominations announced this week. Valentin Elizalde was killed in November 2006 in the border city of Reynosa. And the body of Sergio Gomez, lead singer for the group K-Paz de la Sierra, was found this week dumped outside the city of Morelia, in the southern state of Michoacan.
Both Elizalde and K-Paz were nominated in the Best Banda Album category, Elizalde for "Lobo Domesticado" (Domesticated Wolf) and K-Paz for "Conquistando Corazones" (Conquering Hearts).
No one has been arrested or charged in either case.
Elizalde, who sang songs associated with the leader of the so-called Sinaloa cartel, was killed after a concert in territory associated with the drug ring's northern rivals, the so-called Gulf cartel. But no such associations have been made (that I know of) with Gomez. Nevertheless, Gomez's killing had all the hallmarks of an organized crime hit. Among other things, his body showed signs of torture.
Today there was news of the killing of another musician, Jose Luis Aquino, trumpet player for the group Los Conde. Why are so many musicians being slain? No one can say with certainty.
It’s official: The ancient citadel is a must-see for the jet set. Celebrity chic has come to the Andes.
Already this year, reports the Lima daily El Comercio, Bill Gates and Cameron Diaz made the trek to the misty Andean ruins. Diaz even caused a bit of a stir when her military-style shoulder bag — emblazoned with a red star and the inscription "Serve the People," in Chinese — brought back bad memories of Peru’s bloody battles with Maoist-inspired Shining Path rebels. The starlet explained she hadn’t meant to offend anyone.
"Inca culture is so splendid," Diaz was quoted as saying.
As Diaz checked out, CNN’s Ted Turner showed up with his family.
This week, actors Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson have deplaned in Cuzco, the former Inca capital, reportedly en route to the Inca's Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu.
"Wilson’s clothes denoted an indelible California style," noted El Comercio. What's that mean, anyway? The newspaper cited the actor’s straw hat, jeans and mountain jacket. Hmm.
Sidekick Harrelson was pictured leaving the airport in low-key, backpacker-type garb: plaid shirt, cotton slacks, cloth cap, fleece jacket — and, yes, that de rigueur khaki shoulder bag, presumably sans the red star and maxims of Chairman Mao.
The Peruvian press reports today that the duo suspended their journey to Machu Picchu after visiting a nonprofit group and having a run-in with several local journalists.
On the night of his first electoral loss in nearly nine years in office, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez conceded defeat and suggested that his opponents go home calmly and "enjoy your triumph." Today, three days after his Sunday loss, Chavez was singing a different, uglier tune.
At a press conference with armed services commanders, he said the opposition had won a "triumph of [excrement]" and that he would soon repropose the constitutional changes voters had rejected. The apparent purpose of the press conference was to refute published reports that Chavez conceded only because military leaders had urged him to so as to avoid violence.
Amid rising tensions, the National Electoral Council waited nine hours after the polls closed Sunday to deliver the first bulletin of results from the electronic balloting.
The tenor of Chavez's talk Wednesday quickly dashed hopes that he might take a conciliatory tack. Praise earlier in the week from Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, for showing "enormous valor" in conceding defeat suddenly rings hollow.
"Manual laborers of the future." That was the stinging headline on a story in the print edition of today’s El Financiero newspaper about the dismal performance of Mexican students in the latest education rankings put out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
According to analysis by El Financiero and other major dailies, Mexican 15-year-olds ranked dead last in their performance among the 30 member nations of the OECD and 49th overall out of the 57 countries that participated in the evaluation of math, science and reading abilities.
Just over half of Mexican students — 51% — exhibited extremely low proficiency in these critical areas. Only 3% scored in the top levels of science, compared with an average of 9% among OECD member countries.
The findings bode ill for Mexico, which can no longer compete with low-wage countries for factory jobs. The nation needs to harness its brainpower to move up the economic ladder. But the education system clearly is failing to prepare Mexico’s youth to compete in a global economy. For that, give Mexican educators a big, fat F.
The Senate approved a free-trade pact with Peru by a vote of 77 to 18 on Tuesday. The United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act will open the Peruvian market to American wheat and beef producers and requires the countries to implement and enforce labor and environmental protections. The agreement passed the House on Nov. 8 and now goes to President Bush to sign into law.
Trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and Korea remain in limbo. Bush said in a statement that the agreement "will level the playing field for American exporters and investors and will expand an important market in this hemisphere for U.S. goods and services." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who recently returned from a fact-finding trip to Latin America, took the opportunity to criticize the administration’s policies in the region. "What we heard repeatedly there in almost every country we visited was that the Bush administration had neglected the region," Reid said. "And, in fact, they are right. We have cut development assistance, eliminated programs and repeatedly overlooked our neighbors to the south." Instead of aid or a variety of trade tools, Reid said, "we have a simplistic, singular policy of free-trade agreements."
The U.S. Senate began debating a free-trade agreement with Peru on Monday, its first day back after a two-week Thanksgiving break. The agreement, negotiated by the Bush administration, would immediately eliminate duties on about two-thirds of U.S. farm exports and about 80% of industrial exports.
Supporters estimate that it could increase American exports by $1 billion a year. But advocates for the poor are urging senators to oppose the deal. "Free trade has forced many Mexican farmers off their land, causing them to move to Mexican cities and cross the border to find ways to support themselves and their families," said the California-based nonprofit Food First. "These trade agreements do not improve the lives of the majority of the citizens of the countries that the U.S. signs agreements with."
Senate approval would allow President Bush to sign the pact into law.
The defeat Sunday of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's electoral plan to change the country's constitution and augment his powers led newspaper accounts throughout the region.
El Mercurio, Chile: "En reñida votación, Chávez pierde referéndum que le permitía nuevas reelecciones" [In tight voting, Chavez loses referendum that would have allowed new reelections]
La Razón, Bolivia: "El NO gana en Venezuela y Chávez admite su derrota" ["The NO wins in Venezuela and Chavez admits his defeat"]
Clarín, Argentina: "Venezuela le dijo NO a la reforma de Chávez" [Venezuela says NO to Chavez's reform]
Our story on the Mexican town of Jalpa, Zacatecas, organizing a December fair to greet returning migrants and their children drew a variety of responses. About half a dozen people wrote comments like this one: "These aren't migrants, rather illegal trespassers, felons." Many others were filled with ethnic slurs. Apparently, these days it isn't possible to write the word "immigrant" without a certain segment of the readership thinking "illegal," even though according to several studies, including this one, the vast majority of immigrants are legal residents or U.S. citizens.
The inauguration of Cristina Fernandez as Argentina's new president moved Monday afternoon from the stately confines of the congressional palace to a raucous outdoor concert at the Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires.
It’s official: The ancient citadel is a must-see for the jet set. Celebrity chic has come to the Andes.
Chris Kraul
Buenos Aires:
Patrick McDonnell
Caribbean:
Carol Williams
Mexico City:
Hector Tobar
Deborah Bonello
Marla Dickerson
Ken Ellingwood
Reed Johnson
San Diego:
Richard Marosi
Washington:
Nicole Gaouette