Archive for December 10th, 2008
International Human Rights Day : Puerto Rican Political Prisonor Carlos Alberto Torres
4:33 pm By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Justice|Puerto Rico · 3 Comments
10 Dec 2008
Many people are surprised that there are political prisoners in the United States. What? In the home of the brave and the land of the free? Yes, and the overwhelming majority of them are people of color who are incarcerated for the simple fact of wanting freedom and liberty for their community.
One of these political prisoners is Puerto Rican Carlos Alberto Torres. Carlos is scheduled to meet with the Federal Parole Board on Monday January 19, 2009.
Carlos Alberto Torres was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on September 19, 1952. His parents moved to New York, finally settling in Chicago. He studied in the University of Illinois in Carbondale and Chicago. He studied sociology at Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Carlos Alberto was involved in the struggles to recruit more Latin@s to the University, against racism, and police abuse. Carlos was one of the founders of the Rafael Cancel Miranda Puerto Rican High School now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School and participated in the Committee to Free the 5 Nationalists.
In 1976, Carlos was forced to go underground and was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. He was captured along with other comrades and sentenced to 78 years on charges of seditious conspiracy, among other charges.
Although the Clinton Administration offered clemency to 12 Puerto Rican political prisoners in the fall of 1999, no leniency was granted to Carlos Torres, whom prosecutors described as a leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), an underground organization which fought for Puerto Rico’s independence in the 1970s and ’80s. His release date is 2024. He is currently in prison in Oxford, Wisconsin.
The Universal DEclaration of Human Rights
10 Dec 2008How many violations is the U.S. guilty of?
Make a list while reading the entire document after the jump.
ICE Beats Detainees? I Don’t Believe it!
2:20 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · Comments Off
10 Dec 2008
The New York Times is reporting that various pro-immigrant groups are gearing up for a legal battle against ICE. Apparently (shock of all shocks!) ICE is abusing it’s power while arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants:
At a news conference, Mr. Rodriguez and others said agents had relied on vaguely worded warrants to invade people’s homes and arrest nearly anyone who looked Hispanic. In all, according to the federal agency, 77 illegal immigrants were detained in the operation, and only a handful appear to have been charged with a crime.
In the case involving the accusations of beatings, none of the men have been charged with sex trafficking. Lawyers working with the men said the agents used excessive force: bursting into their home in Homestead about 8:30 p.m., pulling their guns in front of a 4-year-old girl, then forcing all 10 or 11 men inside onto the floor in handcuffs.
No guns or drugs were found. All the men were Guatemalan immigrants, and the advocates said at least six of them arrived at a nearby detention center with bruises and cuts.
The wife of one detainee, the mother of the 4-year-old girl, said she saw agents kick her husband and others while they were on the floor. She declined to give her name because she feared retribution.
The interesting thing to me will be to see how all the anti-immigrant-they-shouldn’t-break-the-law-if-they-don’t-want-to-be-arrested folks will be out in arms to defend these tactics. I guess the government is not required to follow its own rules?
Huckabee defends the honor of marriage
10 Dec 2008Mike Huckabee pulls out every well thought out reason why gay marriage sux big hairy man balls here, and fortunately, Jon Stewart calls him on every single one of them. In light of the fact that two Latin@s were brutally beaten, one of them to the point of death, because of gay hate, it’s important to remember that not calling out even the well thought out homophobic reasoning has consequences.
There is no reasonable hate–I am glad Jon Stewart, at least, recognizes that.
Images of Human Rights Violations on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
12:33 pm By Maegan La Mala · Justice|World · 2 Comments
10 Dec 2008Update on Brooklyn Hate Crime Against Latino Hermanos
10:33 am By Maegan La Mala · crime|Ecuador|GLBT|Immigration|Justice|New York City|race · 1 Comment
10 Dec 2008
Yesterday I wrote about the horrific hate crime against two Latino brothers in Brooklyn and many of you have commented. Even as I write this update, I am cursing out of anger and sadness.
Jose O. Sucuzhanay was declared brain dead yesterday at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, where he was on life support and a death certificate has been filed.
Meanwhile no arrests have been made and the attack is only seen as a “possible” bias crime.
I wonder how many of nuestros hermanos have to die before our reality moves becomes more than a “possibility”
Via / The NYT
International Human Rights Day and Plan Mexico
8:33 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Justice|mexico|Politics · Comments Off
10 Dec 2008Today is International Human Rights Day, and all my posts today will focus on the issue of human rights in Latin America and within the Latino community in the United States.
To kick things off, let’s look at Plan Mexico aka the Merida Initiative which would allow the U.S. intervention via so called “anti-drug” aid which really would, as shown in Colombia, serve to suppress and oppress grassroots movements, especially Indigenous movements.
Hola!
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