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What About Latinos in Other Parts of the Americas : UN Calls for End of Cuban Embargo, Again

12:20 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba · No Comments

30 Oct 2009

cuba There’s has been a ton of attention on Latinos in (The United States of) America, with little acknowledgment that the Americas go beyond the borders of the U.S. and that current U.S. policy towards Latin America isn’t any better than internal policy. Just the other day the United Nations’ General Assembly voted 187-3, coming down on the U.S.’s continued embargo on Cuba. This is the 18th consecutive U.N. vote of its kind.

UN Committee Approves Text Calling on U.S. to Expedite P.R.’s Self-Determination

7:30 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Politics| Puerto Rico · 1 Comment

17 Jun 2009

800px-flag_of_puerto_ricosvg On Monday afternoon, The Special Committee on Decolonization approved a draft resolution calling upon the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.

The above news that came into my inbox (gracias Jo Boriken) comes from Puerto Rico’s pro-independence party (PIP). A few thing right away caught my attention. One, the fact that this happened in a Committee on Decolonization, formally known as the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, reasserts what many have refused to say or covered up through semantics. Puerto Rico is a colony.

Second, I can’t be the only one who finds in strange that one country needs to request action from another in order to determine it’s own future. Pero maybe that’s just the radical in me.

By the terms of that text, which the Special Committee approved by consensus, the decolonization body… requested that the President of the United States release all Puerto Rican political prisoners serving sentences for cases relating to the Non-Self-Governing Territory’s struggle for independence -– including two who had been imprisoned for more than 28 years. It expressed serious concern about actions carried out against Puerto Rican independence fighters and encouraged rigorous investigations of those actions, in cooperation with relevant authorities.

The Special Committee, also known as the “Committee of 24”, urged the United States Government to complete the return of occupied land and installations on Vieques island and in Ceiba to the Puerto Rican people; respect their inhabitants’ fundamental human rights to health and economic development; and expedite and cover the costs of decontaminating the areas previously used for military exercises.

Introducing the draft resolution, Cuba’s representative said Puerto Rico was a Latin American and Caribbean country with its own national identity, and its long struggle for independence was deeply rooted in a sense of identity. Notwithstanding 27 resolutions and decisions approved by the Special Committee and the General Assembly, the people of the Commonwealth were still unable to exercise their legitimate right to genuine self-determination and independence due to continuing economic, political and social domination by the United States, the colonial Power.

Obama Administration Will Reportedly Sign UN Gay Rights Agreement

11:07 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| GLBT| Politics| World| society · Comments Off

18 Mar 2009

3105057712_feec724e1b Not to be all Obama administration “rah, rah, sis, boom ba!” but after quietly celebrating the latest reversal to the Bush farm worker rule, I’m celebrating this piece of unofficial news as well:

The Obama administration will support a United Nations declaration affirming that sexual orientation and gender identity are included in international human rights protections, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday evening.

According to officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Congress was still being notified, the Obama administration had reviewed the reasons why the Bush administration opposed the declaration, and decided to notify the French sponsors that the United States would support it.

As you might already know, the U.S. was, thanks to the prior administration, part of a shameful list of oppressive, anti-gay countries such as Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Egypt and the Vatican City. It’s impossible for people in Europe and other places that signed the agreement to understand this kind of hatred. Luckily, with this move, we are a millimeter closer to a more dignified world image.

There’s still a lot left for the Obama administration to do when it comes to gay rights. Namely: approve gay marriage.

Via / Advocate

Request for the UN to Look at Filiberto Ojeda Rios FBI Death

9:30 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice| Puerto Rico · Comments Off

30 Jun 2008

A Bar Association (it is not clear if this is the Puerto Rican Bar Association) requested that the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions, Australian Philip Alston, investigate the United States for the death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos at the hands of agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

Included in the 30 page request, is a request to interview 31 people including governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and Luis Fraticelli, director of the FBI in Puerto Rico.

The next step after filing the complaint is for Alston to communicate with the Government of the United States. Once the federal government approves Alston coming to Puerto Rico, the U.N. Rapporteur will visit the Island for a field investigation related to the death of Ojeda Ríos on September 23, 2005.

If the U.S. does not approve Alston’s visit, the Rapporteur will note the denial in his report and will denounce the U.S. position on an international level, according to Romany as well as attorneys Ricardo Alfonso García and Fermín Arraiza Navas, members of the third Bar Association commission to intervene in this case.

The attorneys posit that the case of Ojeda Ríos is not the only extrajudicial execution on the Island, mentioning as an example the death of Santiago Mari Pesquera, son of independentista leader Juan Mari Brás.

Do people really expect the U.S. to be held responsible to any international law?

Via / El Nuevo Dia

Mexico to World Court: U.S. Must Halt Executions

12:56 pm By Maegan La Mala · Justice| World| mexico · Comments Off

19 Jun 2008

The lives of 5 Mexican citizens are hanging in the balance as the United Nations’ top court hears a plea from Mexico to help save their lives. Mexico is accusing its neighbor to the north of disregarding a U.N. ruling which found that the 5 Mexican citizens, currently in prison, were denied assistance from their consulate. In his argument, Mexico’s top attorney Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo spoke some chilling words before the court:

Mr. Gomez-Robledo said that without urgent action now, five Mexican citizens “will be executed before the conclusion of these proceedings.”

What’s making all of this so difficult is that U.N. decision applies to countries, not individual states, or so alleges Texas, the state that is holding the 5 Mexican nationals. George W. Bush, as president, has recognized the U.N. ruling but the state of Texas has not. I wish I could say I am surprised, but in state known for thinking it’s a country unto itself and — even worse — for refusing to consider evidence that appears in death penalty cases, executing potentially innocent people, this is no bigs news to me.

Via / Globe and Mail

United Nations Tells Us What We Already Know : US Doesn’t Protect the Rights of Immigrants

8:45 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · Comments Off

10 Mar 2008

On Friday, the United Nations issued a report saying that the U.S. fails to protect the rights of immigrants, specifically citing the high rates of detention and the lack of access to legal counsel. In the international body’s first scrutiny of US treatment of its 37.5 million noncitizen migrants, UN investigator Jorge Bustamante on Friday took particular aim at what he criticized as the “overuse” of detention for immigrants.

Noting that the annual detainee population has tripled in nine years to 230,000, he called on the United States to eliminate mandatory detention for certain migrants and instead expand the use of alternatives, such as electronic ankle bracelets.
Bustamante also urged that migrants be given the right to legal counsel, more impartial hearings, and improved holding facilities, particularly for women and children.

Jolie to Colombian refugees: “The world hasn’t forgotten you”

1:06 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Celebrities| Colombia| Costa Rica · Comments Off

27 Dec 2006

capt.sjo10212260559.costa_rica__angelina_jolie__sjo102.jpg Angelina Jolie and her bf Brad Pitt spent the holidays in Costa Rica, visiting some displaced Colombian refugees and handing out gifts in the name of the U.N.:

Dressed in white and sporting a bright blue UNHCR baseball cap, Jolie called for more awareness of the plight of refugees around the world.

“It is especially shocking that such a tragedy can go on, year after year, with the rest of the world paying so little attention to it,” she said in the Costa Rican capital San Jose, according to the U.N. agency.

The Central American country is home to an estimated 10,000 Colombian refugees.

“My Christmas message to Colombian refugees and to the millions of displaced people in Colombia is that the world has not totally forgotten them,” Jolie said.

Whether these celeb visits are just good PR for the stars or actual humanitarian work is up for debate, but if anything it’s good that the media eyes that are constantly following Angie and Brad are also — at least momentarily — focused on the plight of these refugees.

Via / Yahoo! News

Image Boris Heger/UNHCR/Handout/Reuters

And the UN Seat Goes to Panama

11:35 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Panama| Politics · Comments Off

7 Nov 2006

The fight was originally between U.S. backed Guatemala and Venezuela, bit ultimately it was Panama who won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on the 48th ballot today.

Panama got 164 votes in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win a two-year term starting Jan. 1 on the U.N.’s most powerful body. Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala 4 votes, and Barbados 1 vote.

the five new members of the Security Council now are Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.

The 34 Latin American and Caribbean nations endorsed Panama as a candidate on Friday after a standoff between Guatemala and Venezuela that was the third-longest battle for a seat on the Security Council in the U.N.’s 61-year history.

Via / The New York Post
Image Via /InfoPlease.com

Latino Leaders Represent at the United Nations

11:21 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Latin America| Politics · Comments Off

20 Sep 2006

The U.S. media has been paying special attention to the United Nations General Assembly meeting going down here in NYC. Most of the focus has been on the verbal sparring between Iran’s Ahmadinejad and U.S. President Bush (who still can’t pronounce “nuclear”). Latin American leaders also represented however and had plenty to say. Among them Bolivian President Evo Morales who…:

…used a coca leaf as a prop during his speech which harshly criticized the “war on drugs” led by the U.S. “I invite the government of the United States to form a real alliance to combat drug trafficking and not just have excuses and pretexts to dominate us” said Morales who also spoke against neoliberal economic policies.

Our amigos over at The Latin Americanist have done a great job breaking down what some other Latino leaders said including outgoing Mexican pres Vicente Fox.

Via / The Latin Americanist

Chavez lashes out against the U.S. and Peru

5:47 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics| Venezuela · 1 Comment

22 Jun 2006

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez isn’t too pleased about the U.S.’s recent moves to block his country from the U.N. security council. Venezuela’s El Universal quoted his latest broadcast address in response to the move:

“Venezuela is going to pull out all the stops. It is David against Goliath. We do not care. Let the empire show its claws. We trust in the courage and dignity of the governments worldwide. I denounce that the United States government has started waging a world campaign against Venezuela, in an attempt at preventing Venezuela from being elected democratically as a member of the (UN) Security Council by countries around the world.”

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