PRÓXIMA PARADA: MÉXICO
by Claire Ellins
Para los viajeros, México es un lugar precioso donde encuentran de todo. Las playas y fiestas de Cancún, las ruinas de las civilizaciones antiguas, tamales y tacos de verdad, y claro, todo el tequila que se puede beber. Pero, para los residentes del país, estas fiestas y estos encantos ni siquiera se les pasan por la cabeza. Los mexicanos están luchando contra una fuerza que afecta a todos, cuya fuerza incrementa cada día: el narcotráfico y su violencia.
La mayoría de los problemas surgen en el noreste del país, en la frontera con los Estados Unidos, y aunque el gobierno mejicano está intentando controlar el problema, los grupos narcotráficantes no se lo está poniendo fácil. Desde 2006, los "narcos" han asesinado a más de 28,000 miembros de los diversos grupos, y los números van aumentando.
Pero no solo mueren los que están involucrados con el tráfico de drogas, sino también ciudadanos inocentes. El jueves 25 de noviembre en la ciudad de Monterrey, la policía encontró a un estudiante de 21 años muerto por culpa de un disparo ‘accidental’ en la cabeza. En la misma zona halló a una mujer muerta, rodeada por su familia traumatizada. Según la historia, los narcos pretendían matar a un guardia de seguridad, mientras tanto, por cualquier razón, empezaron a disparar al azar. Otra demostración de la violencia de estos grupos apareció en el estado de Tamaulipas, también en la frontera con los Estados Unidos.
Un ranchero, Alejo Garza Tamez, falleció defendiendo su granja. Recibió un aviso del grupo narco-traficante, el cual amenazaba con asesinarle si no les entregaba su rancho en un plazo de 24 horas. Tamez decidió luchar por lo que era suyo, y aunque muriera en el intento, consigió acabar con cuatro de los narcos, y por consecuencia el resto del grupo huyó. Finalmente perdiendo el rancho a las autoridades. Estas situaciones no son situaciones menudas. Este tipo de violencia por parte de estos carteles aparece cada día en varias zonas del país, y parece que no pretenden cesar en el futuro cercano.
La guerra contra las drogas y el narcotráfico es un problema serio en todo el mundo, pero para los residentes de México (y los demás países de Sud América), es algo real, algo físico, y lo peor de todo es el hecho grave de que no hay un final previsto. Se puede preguntar si la legalización de marihuana (una de las drogas más traficadas en la zona) ayudará a mejorar la situación, pero el resultado es muy inseguro y tampoco ofrece mucha esperanza. Por ahora, mientras los gobiernos debaten sobre las maneras más útiles de luchar para conseguir el cese de esta guerra, la gente tendrá que depender de sus propios recursos para evitar la violencia que les rodea.
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"PROXIMA PARADA: BRASIL"
by Claire Ellins
Watch out world, there’s a new up and coming país in the making, and it is subtly demanding our attention. Brazil, the biggest country on the South American continent is booming not only culturally, economically and politically, but it is also making all kinds of new social breakthroughs. It currently boasts the best economy in South America, and, unlike many countries we’re all so familiar with, the Central Bank expects a 5% increase in profits for the year (world factbook).
Thought it was weird that people had a problem when a woman and a black man ran for the U.S. presidency? Think again because there are all kinds of interesting characters who ran on October 3rd for Brazil’s next presidency, with supporters coming from all sides. To mention a few, starting with the ladies…
Dilma Rouseff, member of the Workers Party, has the feisty attitude to hold her own against just about anyone. Word on the street is that back in the day, she was a part of the underground resistance against the military dictatorship (1964-85) in Brazil, and was even thrown in jail and tortured with electric shock! Definitely keep an eye on this revolucionaria!
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we’ve got Marina Silva, member of the Green Party and an adamant voice against the deforestation of the Amazon. Not to be viewed as any less headstrong than her opponent Dilma, Marina has grown from an illiterate 14-year-old living in poverty to a powerful activist in Brazilian society. Her dirt? She worked side by side with the famous Chico Mendes until his murder in 1988. ¿Tímida? Not Marina.
Switching tones, we all know politics is run by a bunch of clowns, but ever heard of an ACTUAL clown running for a presidential position?? Believe it, because Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, circus kid from age 8 and current television comedian has the support of over a million of Brazil’s voters! Maybe there is something to being the funny guy...
And, to swing this full circle, we are talking Brazil, fútbol capital of the world...until this past summer anyway...so why not throw in Romario de Souza Faria, MVP, if you will, of the 1994 World Cup? But he’s had his fun and now wants to focus on cleaning up the drug scene in his hometown Rio de Janeiro and providing a safer environment for the niños…can’t have the next generation of possible world champion fútbol players suffering from drug abuse, etc. Power to you Romario!
Since none of these candidates or any of the other 6000 that are running gained more than 50% of the votes on the 3rd, the suspense extended until the 31st of October…and the winner is Dilma Roussef.
So, fellow knowledge seekers, keep an eye on the papers to see if new president elect Dima Roussef can juggle the responsibility as well as current president Lula da Silva has been able to.
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"A native insight into an increasingly difficult situation..."
by Fabi Roche
Nací en Venezuela en 1987. Desde ese entonces he recorrido el mundo física y mentalmente.
Lo que siempre he llevado conmigo es el pensamiento de hacer preguntas.
No importa donde me encontraba, llevaba dentro el deseo de conocer y hacer el mundo mi hogar.
Ahora que Venezuela está tanto en las noticias-vayas donde vayas escuchas "Venezuela? Chávez?"- he vuelto a recoger mi deseo de hablar de cómo Chávez ha afectado mi vida y no las cifras numéricas que utilizan los medios de comunicación.
Mis padres son venezolanos, pero mi hermano nació en Madison, Wisconsin cuando mi padre estaba haciendo su máster en administración de empresa.
En verdad no los quiero aburrir con historietas de mis padres, pero lo que esto significa es diferencia de pasaporte.
Ahora estoy en el proceso de mi "naturalization" para hacerme ciudadana de los Estados Unidos.
Tendré que dejar de ser venezolana (en cuestión a mi pasaporte) y llevar dentro la lucha de mi alter ego diciéndome "has renunciado a Venezuela".
La mayoría de mi familia vive en el extranjero: Canadá, Florida, Texas, Boston, Nueva York, España, Arabia Saudita y Chile.
Todos se están tratando de hacer ciudadanos de esos países.
Claro está que no es por decisión propia sino una consecuencia de malos presidentes y una extrema división de clase social en Venezuela.
Tengo que decir que los Estados Unidos me han brindado muchas oportunidades pero como ustedes pueden comprender mi sangre arde por Venezuela y por su gente.
Mi padre siempre me ha dicho que el mejor ingreso es la educación y yo digo que con la educación podemos luchar contra la ignorancia.
Los venezolanos son más que unas cifras numéricas.
Son gente como tú y yo, que lo que queremos es vivir en paz, con las necesidades básicas cubiertas para poder sobrevivir.
Por eso me hago ciudadana americana.
Para poder educarme y luego llevar conmigo el poder de educar a los demás.
Piénsalo.
Todos somos diferentes, pero todos queremos vivir y otros -en el caso de Venezuela- sobrevivir.
Así que con la crisis mundial debemos utilizar nuestro tiempo para hacer preguntas y buscar soluciones.
Debemos unirnos y dejar de lado esas fronteras que nos dividen.
No creas que yo pienso que se hará de la noche a la mañana, pero se puede con conocer, aprender y sonreír al que está al lado tuyo.
Quizás hasta es una chama venezolana.
Ahora sigue con tu vida del día a día, pero no olvides hacerte preguntas de lo que hay a tu alrededor.
Peace
-----------------------------------------------
"Justice for Liberia?"
by Victoria Perez de Agreda
Many of us know that Liberia was a nation founded in 1822 by African slaves who after being taken to the Americas during the slave trade in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, were freed and taken back to Africa and there formed their own state. It is perhaps also known by the majority of you that Liberia was the first African country to declare its independence, making things official in 1847, thus escaping the waves of European colonialism on the continent after that. How many of you are aware, however, of the gruesome conflict and civil wars that ravaged the country until as recently as 2003 and the fact that its former president, Charles Taylor, is currently on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court?
www.sc-sl.org/)
Liberia experienced seven years of civil war from 1990 to 1997, during which they endured an unstable government, with a constantly changing, military-controlled, presidency that was never quite able to gain control of their country. In 1997, the civil war finally ended and the first democratic election in the history of Liberia took place. It was voted that Charles Taylor and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) would assume power.
Charles Taylor was a former rebel leader who by making agreements with other rebel factions opposing the government during the civil war managed to gain popularity and guarantee his presidential win that year.
In 2003, after progressively losing the support of the armed rebel groups which had helped him come to power, Taylor began to be challenged by those same groups, and another civil war broke out. Rebel and government troops would attempt to gain control of various regions; a process in which the Liberian peoples - their fellow citizens - were killed, kidnapped, abused and mutilated. The most vulnerable in these types of conflicts are women and children: the females are systematically kidnapped and raped, while young boys are taken from their families and forced through a process of dehumanization and psychological warfare to become child soldiers for the rebel groups. Their duties? Commit the same atrocities that they witnessed being done to their families and to others.
In an effort to stop these massacres, the women of Liberia got organized and petitioned the government - Charles Taylor’s government - to negotiate a lasting peace with the rebels. These women campaigned for peace because they had had enough of living in fear; fear of leaving their homes, fear that their children would be murdered in front of them, fear that they would be kidnapped and gifted to one of the soldiers as reward for their good work terrorizing the town’s folk. Liberia’s women pressured the president and rebel leaders to engage in peace talks, held in Accra, Ghana. Whilst attending these peace talks, on June 4th, 2003, news surfaced that Charles Taylor was to be indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for alleged war crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s conflict in the 1990s. He fled to Liberia, fearing arrest. In August of 2003 Taylor resigned as president of Liberia and went into exile in Nigeria. Almost three years passed before Taylor was arrested.
Today, Charles Taylor is on trial for war crimes in The Hague (Netherlands) at the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, the crimes he is being tried for are not those he committed in his own country, but rather those committed in neighboring Sierra Leone. He is said to have knowingly supported war lords who were practicing wide-spread mutilation and massacres of the local population to spread terror during the conflict that started there in March of 1991. It was during the civil war in Liberia that conflict spilled over the border into neighboring Sierra Leone and when Taylor is said to have developed a close tie to the Sierra Leonean warlords.
As defined and explained by the ICC’s website, "The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. It is mandated to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996. Currently, the three cases heard in Freetown (Sierra Leone) have been completed, including appeals. The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is in the Defense phase at The Hague." (
www.opendemocracy.net).
The charges brought against Taylor are as follows: Eleven counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. These include acts of terrorism, unlawful killings, murder, violence and threats to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, pillaging, sexual violence (rape, sexual slavery, etc), cruel treatment, inhumane acts, use of child soldiers/conscription or enlistment of children under the age of 15 into armed forces/use of child soldier to participate actively in hostilities, abductions, forced labor, and last, but not least, enslavement.
Taylor’s trial began on January 6th, 2008 - over four and a half years after his induction. He pleaded not guilty and his defense case began July 13th of 2009.
Taylor, while being accused by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, is being tried by the ICC in The Hague because Liberia’s newly elected president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Africa's first female elected head of state, feared that there would be unrest in Liberia if Taylor, who still has support of some of the population, was tried in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Various questions arise: Should Charles Taylor be tried for crimes he committed in Sierra Leone or rather those he committed in his own country? Is it fair that he is tried in The Hague at the ICC and not in Sierra Leone? Why, with hundreds of perpetrators against international law and human rights, was Charles Taylor chosen to be tried?
The ICC in The Hague is an independent international organization governed by the Rome Statute and is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court whose function it is to deal with the most serious crimes to the international community such as war crimes and genocide. Since 2002 it has indicted fourteen persons, launched two trials, and provoked controversy across the globe. Kofi Annan hailed the court’s birth in 2002 (after the Rome Statute was ratified by 60 countries on July 1st 2002) as, "a great victory for justice and for world order" (
However, the presence of some disturbing facts such as the exemption of United States citizens from the jurisdiction of the ICC, due to their government´s failure to ratify the Rome Statute, causes some to wonder if the so called ‘supporters’ of the system are just using their leverage to undermine it.
by Fabi Roche
Nací en Venezuela en 1987. Desde ese entonces he recorrido el mundo física y mentalmente.
Lo que siempre he llevado conmigo es el pensamiento de hacer preguntas.
No importa donde me encontraba, llevaba dentro el deseo de conocer y hacer el mundo mi hogar.
Ahora que Venezuela está tanto en las noticias-vayas donde vayas escuchas "Venezuela? Chávez?"- he vuelto a recoger mi deseo de hablar de cómo Chávez ha afectado mi vida y no las cifras numéricas que utilizan los medios de comunicación.
Mis padres son venezolanos, pero mi hermano nació en Madison, Wisconsin cuando mi padre estaba haciendo su máster en administración de empresa.
En verdad no los quiero aburrir con historietas de mis padres, pero lo que esto significa es diferencia de pasaporte.
Ahora estoy en el proceso de mi "naturalization" para hacerme ciudadana de los Estados Unidos.
Tendré que dejar de ser venezolana (en cuestión a mi pasaporte) y llevar dentro la lucha de mi alter ego diciéndome "has renunciado a Venezuela".
La mayoría de mi familia vive en el extranjero: Canadá, Florida, Texas, Boston, Nueva York, España, Arabia Saudita y Chile.
Todos se están tratando de hacer ciudadanos de esos países.
Claro está que no es por decisión propia sino una consecuencia de malos presidentes y una extrema división de clase social en Venezuela.
Tengo que decir que los Estados Unidos me han brindado muchas oportunidades pero como ustedes pueden comprender mi sangre arde por Venezuela y por su gente.
Mi padre siempre me ha dicho que el mejor ingreso es la educación y yo digo que con la educación podemos luchar contra la ignorancia.
Los venezolanos son más que unas cifras numéricas.
Son gente como tú y yo, que lo que queremos es vivir en paz, con las necesidades básicas cubiertas para poder sobrevivir.
Por eso me hago ciudadana americana.
Para poder educarme y luego llevar conmigo el poder de educar a los demás.
Piénsalo.
Todos somos diferentes, pero todos queremos vivir y otros -en el caso de Venezuela- sobrevivir.
Así que con la crisis mundial debemos utilizar nuestro tiempo para hacer preguntas y buscar soluciones.
Debemos unirnos y dejar de lado esas fronteras que nos dividen.
No creas que yo pienso que se hará de la noche a la mañana, pero se puede con conocer, aprender y sonreír al que está al lado tuyo.
Quizás hasta es una chama venezolana.
Ahora sigue con tu vida del día a día, pero no olvides hacerte preguntas de lo que hay a tu alrededor.
Peace
-----------------------------------------------
"Justice for Liberia?"
by Victoria Perez de Agreda
Many of us know that Liberia was a nation founded in 1822 by African slaves who after being taken to the Americas during the slave trade in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, were freed and taken back to Africa and there formed their own state. It is perhaps also known by the majority of you that Liberia was the first African country to declare its independence, making things official in 1847, thus escaping the waves of European colonialism on the continent after that. How many of you are aware, however, of the gruesome conflict and civil wars that ravaged the country until as recently as 2003 and the fact that its former president, Charles Taylor, is currently on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court?
www.sc-sl.org/)
Liberia experienced seven years of civil war from 1990 to 1997, during which they endured an unstable government, with a constantly changing, military-controlled, presidency that was never quite able to gain control of their country. In 1997, the civil war finally ended and the first democratic election in the history of Liberia took place. It was voted that Charles Taylor and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) would assume power.
Charles Taylor was a former rebel leader who by making agreements with other rebel factions opposing the government during the civil war managed to gain popularity and guarantee his presidential win that year.
In 2003, after progressively losing the support of the armed rebel groups which had helped him come to power, Taylor began to be challenged by those same groups, and another civil war broke out. Rebel and government troops would attempt to gain control of various regions; a process in which the Liberian peoples - their fellow citizens - were killed, kidnapped, abused and mutilated. The most vulnerable in these types of conflicts are women and children: the females are systematically kidnapped and raped, while young boys are taken from their families and forced through a process of dehumanization and psychological warfare to become child soldiers for the rebel groups. Their duties? Commit the same atrocities that they witnessed being done to their families and to others.
In an effort to stop these massacres, the women of Liberia got organized and petitioned the government - Charles Taylor’s government - to negotiate a lasting peace with the rebels. These women campaigned for peace because they had had enough of living in fear; fear of leaving their homes, fear that their children would be murdered in front of them, fear that they would be kidnapped and gifted to one of the soldiers as reward for their good work terrorizing the town’s folk. Liberia’s women pressured the president and rebel leaders to engage in peace talks, held in Accra, Ghana. Whilst attending these peace talks, on June 4th, 2003, news surfaced that Charles Taylor was to be indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for alleged war crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s conflict in the 1990s. He fled to Liberia, fearing arrest. In August of 2003 Taylor resigned as president of Liberia and went into exile in Nigeria. Almost three years passed before Taylor was arrested.
Today, Charles Taylor is on trial for war crimes in The Hague (Netherlands) at the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, the crimes he is being tried for are not those he committed in his own country, but rather those committed in neighboring Sierra Leone. He is said to have knowingly supported war lords who were practicing wide-spread mutilation and massacres of the local population to spread terror during the conflict that started there in March of 1991. It was during the civil war in Liberia that conflict spilled over the border into neighboring Sierra Leone and when Taylor is said to have developed a close tie to the Sierra Leonean warlords.
As defined and explained by the ICC’s website, "The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. It is mandated to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996. Currently, the three cases heard in Freetown (Sierra Leone) have been completed, including appeals. The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is in the Defense phase at The Hague." (
www.opendemocracy.net).
The charges brought against Taylor are as follows: Eleven counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. These include acts of terrorism, unlawful killings, murder, violence and threats to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, pillaging, sexual violence (rape, sexual slavery, etc), cruel treatment, inhumane acts, use of child soldiers/conscription or enlistment of children under the age of 15 into armed forces/use of child soldier to participate actively in hostilities, abductions, forced labor, and last, but not least, enslavement.
Taylor’s trial began on January 6th, 2008 - over four and a half years after his induction. He pleaded not guilty and his defense case began July 13th of 2009.
Taylor, while being accused by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, is being tried by the ICC in The Hague because Liberia’s newly elected president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Africa's first female elected head of state, feared that there would be unrest in Liberia if Taylor, who still has support of some of the population, was tried in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Various questions arise: Should Charles Taylor be tried for crimes he committed in Sierra Leone or rather those he committed in his own country? Is it fair that he is tried in The Hague at the ICC and not in Sierra Leone? Why, with hundreds of perpetrators against international law and human rights, was Charles Taylor chosen to be tried?
The ICC in The Hague is an independent international organization governed by the Rome Statute and is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court whose function it is to deal with the most serious crimes to the international community such as war crimes and genocide. Since 2002 it has indicted fourteen persons, launched two trials, and provoked controversy across the globe. Kofi Annan hailed the court’s birth in 2002 (after the Rome Statute was ratified by 60 countries on July 1st 2002) as, "a great victory for justice and for world order" (
However, the presence of some disturbing facts such as the exemption of United States citizens from the jurisdiction of the ICC, due to their government´s failure to ratify the Rome Statute, causes some to wonder if the so called ‘supporters’ of the system are just using their leverage to undermine it.
