 Edición Semanaria de Noticiero Latino |
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November 2001
November 2nd | Listen to the program
MIXED VIEWS AT SAN FRANCISCO HEARING ON WELFARE REFORM - Officials of the Department of Health and Human Services are currently touring the country gathering opinions to evaluate reforms to public assistance. During a recent stop in San Francisco they met with state government officials and representatives of organizations that work with the poor in the western states. The meeting produced mixed views on the current state of welfare and on welfare reform. Maria Eraña has the details.
VOLUNTEERS RESPOND TO NATIONWIDE CALL TO HELP LATINO VICTIMS OF TERRORIST ATTACKS - Dozens of professionals responded to a call by New York's Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund to help Latino immigrants who survived the September 11th attacks. Paying for their own airfare and receiving no pay, these volunteers came to New York from all over the U.S. particularly to help undocumented immigrants who are not receiving assistance from family aid centers. Correspondent Marco Vinicio Gonzalez has this report.
NEW MEXICO LAND GRANTS VALIDATE HEIRS' CLAIMS - Officials, lawmakers and academics met recently in Durango, Colorado with more than fifty heirs of land grants originally given to Spaniards or Mexicans. The land grants where communal territories used by Mexican peoples along the southwestern United States. The heirs to these properties claim the government appropriated their land in violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe. As Noticiero Latino contributor Adam Saytanides explains, Congress is finally investigating the case.
November 9th | Listen to the program
IMPRISONED MEXICAN PEASANT ECOLOGISTS FREED - Acting on an executive order given by President Vicente Fox, Mexican officials this week unexpectedly freed peasant ecologists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. The two peasant leaders had spent more than two years in prison, despite proof that they had been tortured by the military into pleading guilty to trafficking in banned firearms and marijuana. Their release comes soon after the slaying of human rights attorney Digna Ochoa, who was in charge of their defense. Noticiero Latino contributor Alicia Reardon has this report from Mexico City.
RELATIVES OF DISAPPEARED DISSIDENTS MEET WITH PRESIDENT FOX - In another important human rights case, family members of disappeared Mexican political dissidents met this week with President Vicente Fox. Members of the Eureka Committee, headed by activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, asked that their missing relatives be returned alive. Just a few hours earlier, it was announced that in the next few days the National Commission on Human Rights would be releasing a report confirming the execution of at least 250 of the more than 500 dissidents who disappeared during the so-called silent war of the 1970s. Correspondent Raul Silva has the details.
ERROR COULD RESULT IN PASSAGE OF LAW ALLOWING DRIVERS' LICENSES FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS - A proposal to permit immigrants in the process of legalizing their status to obtain drivers licenses may have inadvertently become law. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, and the resulting heightened restriction on immigrants, California Assembly member Gil Cedillo decided to withdraw the proposal he authored to avoid a veto by Governor Gray Davis. However, as Alejandro Glusman reports, doubts have surfaced about the validity of the way the proposal was withdrawn.
November 16th | Listen to the program
RESIDENTS OF EAST L.A. WELCOME ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT - Tired of the violence that plagues their neighborhoods, more than five hundred Latino residents of East Los Angeles succeeded in getting their political representatives and the city police to stand behind a community police pilot project. The program aims to fight delinquency, but without turning police and members of this poor community against each other. Correspondent Ruben Tapia reports from East L.A.
MURDER OF YOUNG WOMEN STIRS OUTRAGE IN CIUDAD JUAREZ - The discovery of the bodies of eight more young women murdered in Ciudad Juarez has sparked a new wave of protests in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. These deaths are in addition to the more than sixty murders committed in this city since 1993 which have yet to be solved. Now, and for the first time, the principal union syndicate in the U.S. is joining in the call for justice. Kent Patterson was in Ciudad Juarez and has this report, voiced by Alejandro Glusman.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PEASANT LEADERS ON PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA - While the governments of Mexico and of Central America continue to promote the Plan Puebla-Panama, arguing that it would serve to fight inequities and create more jobs, peasant leaders from the region insist that this development will not be possible without establishing rules for large corporations. Moreover, as correspondent Raul Silva reports, these workers believe that no project can succeed if the opinions of the communities are not taken into consideration.
November 23rd | Listen to the program
HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS ATTEMPT TO SEND RELIEF TO AFGHANISTAN - While the U.S. and its allies continue their military strikes in Afghanistan against those accused of planning the September 11th attacks and supporters of the Taliban regime, various humanitarian organizations await the opportunity to help hundreds of thousands of refugees. To date, the region's instability and the closing of Afghanistan's borders have hampered efforts to distribute the desperately needed aid, a need made all the more urgent with the approach of a harsh winter. One international organization ready to aid these refugees is Doctors Without Borders. Their representative in Barcelona, Spain, Dr. Jordi Raisch, spoke with Noticiero Latino director Samuel Orozco about the organization's efforts to prevent a situation that could become a humanitarian catastrophe.
NATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLER GIVES THANKS TO THE TURKEY - In this season of Thanksgiving, have you thought of giving thanks to the turkey? There are plenty of reasons to do just that, according to storyteller Emma Ortega of San Antonio, Texas. Doña Emma is half Apache and half Mexican, and the celebration of Thanksgiving reminds her that, according to tradition, we owe the humble turkey much more than a place as the centerpiece of a great dinner.
November 30th | Listen to the program
ACLU QUESTIONS BUSH'S MEASURES TO PROSECUTE SUSPECTED TERRORISTS - President Bush this week defended his order to create military tribunals to prosecute immigrants suspected of terrorism. Critics of these measures and others that make it easier to interrogate and indefinitely detain thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants, argue that violating the Constitution and sacrificing civil liberties will not make the nation safer. Attorney Lida Rodriguez, national spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union, shared these concerns with Noticiero Latino.
SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT PROPOSED IN MEXICO TO REPRESENT MEXICANS ABROAD - Mexico's Congress recently received a proposal to create a sixth congressional district with forty representatives and ten senators to represent Mexicans living abroad. The idea for the new district was enthusiastically embraced by Mexican organizations and union syndicates in Los Angeles, despite the difficulty they see in getting it approved. Correspondent Ruben Tapia reports.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT FOX AT AN IMPASSE OVER IMPRISONED GENERAL'S CASE - The government of Mexican President Vicente Fox has let lapse the deadline to act on the recommendation by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to release imprisoned General Jose Francisco Gallardo. The general has rejected an offer of a presidential pardon and insists that he has been imprisoned for the last eight years for calling for the creation of a human rights defender's office in the armed forces. General Gallardo spoke from prison with Noticiero Latino director Samuel Orozco about his defense before Mexico's high courts.