Phew!!!!!!
PHOENIX – A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown.
The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.
The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.
“Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked,” U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled.
She ruled that the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m.
Judge Bolton’s order is available here for the legal wonks among us.
One step forward…
With the failed state of Arizona about to devolve back to the Mississippi of the 1950s, a word should be said in favor of the United States Congress, for a small legal change that is of vital importance to the lives of Latin Americans. One provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires oil, gas, and mining companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to publicly disclose their payments to governments for the extraction of natural resources on an annual basis.
From Earth Rights International:
Once the provision takes effect — likely beginning in 2012 — payments to governments will be publically available to citizens in resource-rich countries, providing crucial information to hold governments accountable for the spending of this revenue. Senator Cardin (D-MD), one of the transparency provision’s lead supporters added, “This provision is a critical part of the increased transparency and corporate responsibility that we are striving to achieve in the financial industry. Given the catastrophic events in the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies, in particular, should well understand that secrecy fosters instability, corruption and greater risk. We now have the tools to help people in resource-rich countries hold their leaders accountable for the money made from their oil, gas and minerals.”
Corresponsales Indígenas, quoting a spokesman for the Spanish-based Economic Justice organization InspirAction, writes:
In many of the developing countries where InspirAction works, there is a wealth of natural resources, despite which the population lives in poverty as a result of tax evasion and corruption. The transparency provisions of the new law will ensure an increase in corporate responsibility, giving civil society and political leaders a much more precise understanding of the nature of agreements between their governments and extractive industries, making corruption more difficult. The adoption of this law marks a major step forward in the fight for transparent information on the taxes paid by multinationals.
While Mexico has so far been able to resist pressure to sign extraction agreements with foreign oil companies, and most of the mining companies are Canadian, as are most small (and socially irresponsible or downright exploitative mining companies in Latin America), by making the U.S. listed firms disclose their agreements, it will be harder and harder for others NOT to disclose, and give communities affected by mining operations more leverage to demand the information.
And, to ask their own governments why, if the state is receiving X million dollars in revenue from their local mine, their community is not reaping the benefits.
I recognize that the new law was for the protection of U.S. investors, but protecting the investor has the happy effect of protecting (or at least somewhat equalizing) the position of the producer… making “free trade” a bit more “fair trade” and that should be celebrated.
Arizona — what else is there to say?
Barring a last minute injunction by United States District Court for Arizona Judge Susan Bolton, the state’s “Show us your papers” law goes into effect tomorrow. Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas, joined by Shakira, Juanes, Eva Longoria, Oscar de la Hoya and Delores Huerta would like to make a last minute statement.
The ransom of el Jefe
As I predicted, Jefe Diego has resurfaced as soon as the elections were out of the way. David Agren has a well-balanced report on the release of a photo and letter, supposedly from the “kidnapped” Jefe (and I only write kidnapped in quotes, because we’re talking about a guy just 
devious enough to arrange his disappearance himself, if only to avoid tax liabilities) and a photo, showing him with a recent issue of what David calls “muckraking news weekly, Proceso“.
I find it ironic that “The letter – which lacks any sort of polish or the prose for which Fernández de Cevallos, a gifted orator, is known – begins with an admonishment to quit penny pinching and to pay any ransom as quickly as possible.”
Diego Fernández de Cevallos didn’t get filthy rich by being a pushover in negotiations, and now he appears to be complaining that his son is trying to low-ball the ransom. Considering that the muck raked up by Proceso included an incomplete list of Jefe Diego’s ill-got gains, it’s not like whoever is holding him isn’t able to come up with a reasonable ransom demand. One thing Diego (if Diego is the author) says is:
“… They tell me that they made you a concrete proposal and that you haven’t answered them with a reasonable counter offer. You have to do it now, immediately.
” … Any advice that that you’re poor is absurd and will be fatal.”
(Agren’s translation).
Maybe Diego Jr, who was the presumed recipient of the missive, is a chip off the old block, and just following in the footsteps of dear old dad.
I admit, I kinda appreciated having Jefe Diego around, thinking of him as a Mexican version of Bob Dole, and finding something endearing about cantankerous curmudgeons with a wicked sense of humor. But, then, Jefe Diego isn’t just a conservative political figure, but the embodiment of everything wrong with Mexican political elites. There are plenty of Mexicans who would be perfectly happy to NOT have him around, even for entertainment value. When Jefe Diego writes, “I can’t describe the hell that your father is living,” a goodly portion of Mexicans figure his getting in practice for his eternal reward is a good thing. And, should something happen, even with a hefty ransom, there’s still plenty of loot to keep the heirs in the style to which they’ve become all too accustomed.
Heating up the immigration crisis
I’m glad to see Felipe Calderón is back to talking about climate change — given that one of the few positives of his administration (before it got sidetracked into the proxy war on drugs for the United States) was giving serious attention to steps to ameliorate the global warming problem. The Billion Trees Program, which showed so much promise, has basically been forgotten, but it did start with some tree-planting along the border, as much to cover that ugly U.S. fence as to offset at least some of the deforestation and environmental degradation that only adds to this country’s — and this planet’s woes.
Perhaps this (from the BBC, via Mexico Portal) might make the U.S. sit up and take notice:
A warming climate could see millions of adult Mexicans migrate to the US as rising temperatures cause a drop in crop yields, according to a study by researchers at Princeton University.
For every 10% of lost crop yields in Mexico, another 2% of Mexicans are likely to leave their country, the study says.
The research draws a clear connection between climate change and immigration – two heavily debated issues in the US. It says warming may bring between 1.4m and 6.7m Mexicans to the US by 2080.
Just because they’re paranoid…
When it isn’t Iranians disguised as Venezuelans disguised as Mexicans (damn tricky, those Persians) … or Mexican intellectuals it’s the damn Chinese. It’s not the first time Asian hoardes have invaded the American heartland… though usually it’s via Baja California. and not just popping in Nebraska.
Brad Reed (Crooks and Liars):
The bloodbath continues in America’s heartland and now word is coming in that the People’s Liberation Army, the highly trained killers on the payroll of the Communist Chinese government, have crossed into the United States by tunneling through the center of the Earth and have taken over at least two ranches in the Springview, Nebraska area. I am receiving word that the owners of the ranches have evacuated without being harmed.
Founder of the San Diego Minutemen Jeff Schwilk tipped me off to this story and passes along the following information on the location. Schwilk, you may remember, was the incredibly reliable source who tipped us off the this story about our Mexlamofascist overlords starting the reconquista of the Southwestern United States….
It’s a small world, after all…
This isn’t a flag I knew, but it showed up as two percent of the most recent 100 hits sorted by location… something I look at once in a great while.
Who knew, that at least around nine P.M at night, somebody in the Swedish speaking, demilitarized, autonomous Finnish province and “Special Member State of the European Union” of Åland accesses the Mex Files. TWICE! in the same night.
Whoever you are among the 925 or so people in Eckerö — ¡bienvenido!
Just as a rule of thumb, about 15 percent of hits come from California and another 15 from Texas. Depending on the time of day, the United States and Canada accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of Mex Files readers, Mexico for 15 to 20 percent. The rest during my day is pretty much evenly split between Europe and elsewhere in Latin America. Late at night, or early morning here, there are more hits from eastern Europe and Asia (not a lot of traffic, but some, from Africa).
Australia, India and the Philippines each account for about five percent of hits during the middle of my night.
Hits from people looking for porn or at least cheese-cake and beef-cake come from all over, with more from India and Egypt than anywhere else. Can’t say why, and wouldn’t want to speculate.
Israel and Iraq send me the most middle-eastern traffic. I do get a couple of hits from Iraq every night (and once in a while from Iran) — but the Iraqi readers are probably with the U.S. occupation. Or the military intelligence guys who check in regularly from Germany.
Nice to see you all.
Virtue-al campaign?
For a guy that’s been out of the limelight (at least in the mainstream media) for the last couple of years, Andres Manuel López Obradór certainly can draw a crowd. The photo (by Carlos Ramos Mamahua) in yesterday’s Jornada — one of the only “mainstream” media outlets to take AMLO seriously — was from an article on the former candidate (and “presidente legitimo”)’s launch of a new campaign for the Presidency in 2012...
As much moral crusade as political theater, Lopez Obradór said he is not seeking the Presidency for personal gain but “to pull the country out of backwardness and give future generations the right to hope and to live in a better society.”
In addition to specific constitutional reforms (including an elected Supreme Court), Lopez Obradór is basing his campaign on calls for :
… democratizing the media, tax optimization, support for domestic industry and strengthening social programs. López Obrador stressed the importance of transforming the country through moral ideals, with principles grounded not in the accumulation of material wealth, but in stewardship and a sense of community.
He … said he was convinced that not sufficient to improve living conditions and working conditions, but is also “essential to create a new thinking to strengthen cultural, moral and spiritual values” , the current crisis created not so much by a lack of jobs, but because “greed has become a virtue, and the scramble for money has led a belief that that one should triumph at any cost, without regard to moral or ethical scruples.”
I’m not sure how that will be reduced to a bumper sticker, and I’m not sure where, anywhere on the planet, you’d find a professional political operatives who know anything about virtue — ok, maybe one, but I don’t think she works in Mexico.
Work release?
Via BBC News:
Guards at a prison in Durango state are accused of lending the inmates weapons and vehicles to commit the murders in neighbouring Coahuila state before returning them to their cells.
The same group of prisoners are thought to have carried out other killings.
The prison director and at least two other officers are under investigation.
This is, of course, a reference to last week’s slaughter at the Quinta Italia Salon de Fiestas in Torreón. While I at first thought this might be a particularly gruesome gay bashing, the best evidence is that the hit was just a business shake-down, with the gangsters in question having to contract out the hit — which I suppose the Calderón Administration will consider evidence of “success” in the drug war… in that the gangs are getting out of the narcotics trade and engaging in old fashioned criminality. Not to mention having to go to outside contractors for personnel.
I’ll cut the snark… not to discount the tragedy — or tragedies, as Torreón suffered not just the deaths of 18 people at Quina Italia, but earlier mass murders that were the work of the same killers — but the news that the killers were “on loan” from CEDESO #2 (Center for Social Readaption… i.e., state prison) in Gomez Palacio — brings up other issues that will need to be considered, though I’m not sure what it all means. Some points to consider though:
- Los Zetas were the “victims” (if that’s the right word) of an apparent false-flag operation. That state officials were implicated, even if they were denounced by the State Governor as “traitors” suggest some truth to the popular belief that officials back various gangs against other gangs. Is the prison warden a traitor for backing the wrong gangsters in the area, or for her own rogue operation? I don’t think it matters much, but worth noting is the gender of this traitor — Margarita Rojas Rodríguez: is it sexist to be assume the warden at a Mexican men’s prison is male? Or that gangsters and mass murders aren’t female?
- Although no one sees the Quinta Italia massacre as a gay-bashing, I’d want to know more on why that particular business (and the other clubs that were hit) were targeted. Do they have the same owner, and what is his or her connection to all this? Or, was there a common denominator among the clientele served in these establishments? Were they the sort of people others might decide are socially unacceptable for some reason? I’ve floated the possibility of “death squads” before, and it’s not unreasonable to assume a death squad masquerading as one criminal band might be covering unrelated murders. Here in Sinaloa, petty criminals like car thieves have ended up dead, supposedly victims of gangland violence, but who can say for certain?
- Even though Ismael Hernández, Durango’s governor, has been proactive in condemning the “work release killers”, it is going to reflect badly on his administration and his party. The PRI managed to hold on to Durango in the July elections without much trouble from a united opposition front, but it means the new administration, under governor-elect Jorge Herrera Caldera is coming into office with a stinking pile of shit on the state house steps.
Coahuila — and Torreón is in Coahuila, but, together with Lerdo, Durango part of a larger metropolitan community — is also under a PRI administration, but PAN is competitive in the state. It holds elections for governor next year. The sitting governor, Humberto Moreira Valdés, seen by some as a “liberal” or reformist PRI leader, but he and his party has been losing popularity because of the violence in Torreón. Moreira has been mentioned as an alternative to Enrique Peña Nieto as PRI’s 2012 Presidential nominee, so his handling of this latest crisis will bear watching.
Utter and total bullshit!
The latest lies and fearmongering coming from anti-Mexican groups and conspiracy wingnuts such as ALIPAC, Jeff “Bikini Boy” Schwilk of San Diego Minutemen, Dan Amato of “Diggers Realm”, World Net Daily and Glenn Beck, in their ongoing attempts to spread fear of and hatred against Hispanics is the report that ranches have been seized in Laredo Texas by Los Zetas, the paramilitary enforcers for the Gulf Cartel.
In as few words as possible,
UTTER AND TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!!
…
Gaga for bigotry
Sombrero tip to Bina’s always amusing, enlightening and infuriating weekly bile dump, Wankers of the Week. It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity that makes this week’s list of wankertude longer than usual. Among the expected targets — mostly U.S. and Canadian politicos of the rightist stripe, this week Bina takes on “Queerty” for posting “The Stupid Attempt to Get Lady Gaga to Cancel Her Arizona Concert” — “Shameful”, she says straight-forwardly of the bigotry and xenophobia expressed by a website which claims to be “Free of an agenda — except that gay one”.
Lady Gaga is scheduled to give a concert in Phoenix on 31 July, and — as is common in the music and entertainment industry — has been asked to voluntarily cancel the appearance in protest of Arizona’s “show us your papers” law. “Queerty” makes the very odd argument against Lady Gaga canceling her appearance, as musicians, especially those with a minority-group following have felt honor-bound to do, based on a very odd and specious argument:
So the gay boys and girls in Arizona should be deprived of a night of Gaga because their lawmakers are tools? No. The Gaga putting on a concert there is instead an opportunity to raise more awareness about prejudicial laws of the land, from SB1070 to the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Appearing will, of course, give credence to those tools within Arizona that claim their stupid, racist law is supported by “other” minorities. Apparently, the “gay agenda” of Queerty does not extend to those who are gay AND members of ethnic minorities, or immigrants…. those likely to be affected by the law (and– seeing the concert is scheduled after the implementation date of the law, perhaps likely to be detained for “suspicious activities” like attending a Lady Gaga concert).
What’s particularly ironic is that Lady Gaga is extremely popular in Mexico, and not just among GLBT Mexicans. When rumors that Gaga and Colombian star Shakira were scheduled to appear in free concerts sponsored by the Federal District to honor the bicentennial were officially denied, most of the comments on the articles (both the rumor and the denial) were pro-Gaga.
Perhaps, rather than appear in Arizona, Gaga would have more impact on GLBT rights by appearing in Mexico City, where at least same-gender marriage is legal, and the Constitution specifically guarantees equal rights for citizens regardless of sexual preference. THAT makes a stronger statement than aiding and abetting (and justifying and economically supporting) bigotry and xenophobia.
So, Lady Gaga:
You know they love you, you’re
hot in Mexico. But…
At this point you gotta chose,
Nothing to lose…*
…but your self-respect, and the respect of your fan base, and any credibility as a spokesperson for human rights.
*(OK, I like the music, though I can’t say I’m … ahhh… going gaga about the Gulag Archipelago Gym Bunnies meets S&M Club meets the Spanish Inquisition meets Moe from the Three Stooges choreography:
A gringo they like
Another weekend trivia question. While you find places in Latin America named for the first of the American caudillos, George Washington, aside from a smattering of Abraham Lincolns and Benjamin Franklins (and a Rio Roosevelt in Brazil, explored by Theodore Roosevelt in 1913), you don’t find a lot of gringo names on Latin American maps. Except for this guy, who has sizable chunks of real estate named for him… despite never having traveled in Latin America and his connection to the event that brought him to prominence in Latin American history having occupied maybe 15 minutes of his seventy year life.
I thought this would be a difficult one, but Gary Denness — an Englishman and turtle fancier living in Mexico City who puts out the fine photo blog, The Mexile, nailed it with no problem. I forget what I was even looking for when I ran across the story of Rutherford B. Hayes and Paraguay, but Paraguayan history is a gold-mine of weirdness, and I only had to scratch the surface to hit pay dirt.
Hayes — an Ohio politician, Civil War general of minor note and Governor of Ohio, was the Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1876, supported by President Grant as a successor who would continue Grant’s “liberal” policies. Like George W. Bush in 2000, Haye’s election was questionable… his opponent, Samuel Tilden of New York, had more popular votes, but (again, like Bush) the electoral votes from Florida — which were in doubt — determined the winner. There had been a questionable election in the United States before, which, Consitutionally, it is up to Congress to resolve. In the Hayes-Tilden election, a Congressional committee worked out some kind of closed door deal, awarding Hayes the victory, in return for ending “Reconstruction” — the federal occupation of the former Confederacy that had protected the civil rights of former slaves (and for a short time, meant former slaves were office holders throughout the South). Like Felipe Calderón here, sworn in at Los Pinos to prevent demonstrations, Hayes was sworn in at the White House in the middle of the night.
Then… faded into obscurity. His only really lasting contribution to the United States (besides setting back civil rights in the South for a century) was pushing for competitive examinations for federal civil service positions. And supposedly authoring the unforgettable phrase “Endeavor to persevere” (supposedly in reply to a petition by one of the western tribes seeking redress for grievances against the United States). Although he’d expressed some interest in building a canal through Panama, he really didn’t have any interest in Latin America. However, with the War of the Triple Alliance –not managing to accomplish anything except killing a lot of Argentines, Brazilians and Paraguayans (Paraguay lost two- thirds of its entire population, and nearly all its adult men… and would make polygamy mandatory for a time) — a bust, Hayes had the chance to imprint his memory on the hemisphere.
Himself -- memorialized in Villa Hayes
Exhausted, the three countries agreed to arbitration over ownership of the Chaco — Hayes being the arbitrator. Which he really didn’t do, turning the matter over to the State Department, then forgetting about it. I guess it was a fair trade… Paraguay lost about 60 percent of its people, so gained about 60 percent more territory (in which to not have very many people). The State Department people did the heavy lifting, but Hayes signed the findings (which he probably didn’t bother to read) — on 12 November 1878, awarding what had been Argentina’s Provincia de Chaco Boreal) to Paraguay. Which is why, in the Paraguayan Departmento de Presidente Hayes and in the state capital, Villa Hayes, 12 November is a state holiday.
Incidentally, given the strange parallels between Hayes’ 1876 election and George W. Bush’s 2000 election, it’s probably not completely coincidental that the Bush family bought up huge chunks of the Chaco several years ago.
… off topic, only slightly: although I can’t find anything named for Rutherford B. Hayes in Mexico, “Amplificacíon Presidentes” — an extention of Colonia Presidentes in Delegacíon Alvaro Obregón (95-D-5 in the Guia Roji) — has streets named for Kennedy, Truman, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Lincoln (who also has a street named for him in Polanco), Grant and Herbert Hoover. Try saying “calle Herbert Hoover” in Spanish!
At least nobody laughs in Paraguay when you say “Rutherford Birchard Hayes”.
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