Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalPope reinstates Sandanista priest
Pope reinstates Sandanista priest
Miguel d'Escoto served as president of UN general assembly
Redazione ANSA
Vatican City
04 August 2014
15:53
(ANSA) - Vatican City, August 4 - Pope Francis has reinstated a South American priest who had been penalized in the 1980s for his political activities, including involvement with the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua.
Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, 81, had been suspended in by then-pope John Paul II.
Among other activities, d'Escoto had publicly expressed his support for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and, after the Sandinistas took office in 1979, d'Escoto became minister for foreign affairs until 1990 under Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega.
After the defeat of the Sandinistas in the 1990 elections, d'Escoto continued to be active politically and in June 2008 was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to his UN biography, d'Escoto was born in Los Angeles in 1933 and spent his childhood years in Nicaragua, before returning to the United States in 1947 to study.
He entered the Catholic seminary at Maryknoll in New York state in 1953, and in 1961 was ordained a priest. http://popefrancisnewsapp.com/
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/vatican/2014/08/04/pope-reinstates-nicaraguan-priest_80100ea1-a0af-4354-b6d5-c93935d8c0c4.html
(Short article, no more at link.)
USAID Hired Young Latin Americans to Incite Cuban Civil Society Revolt
Published on Monday, August 04, 2014
USAID Hired Young Latin Americans to Incite Cuban Civil Society Revolt
Participants were given little training and payed less than minimum wage, despite known danger, AP investigtion finds.
by Max Ocean, editorial intern
A program established under the Obama Administration by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) endangered about a dozen young Latin Americans by employing them to incite political revolt in Cuba by using civil society and humanitarian aid programs as fronts for the real aim of political destabilization on the Communist island, reveals an extensive new AP investigation published Monday.
The secret program "was launched during a time when newly inaugurated President Barack Obama spoke about a 'new beginning' with Cuba after decades of mistrust, raising questions about whether the White House had a coherent policy toward the island nation," according to the AP.
To help it implement the plan, USAID hired the firm Creative Associates International, the same Washington-based company that played a central role in the creation of the secret "Cuban Twitter" that the AP reported on in April.
Characterizing the program as "an operation that often teetered on disaster," the investigation's most shocking discovery was perhaps that of an attempt to recruit dissidents using "a ruse that could undermine USAID’s credibility in critical health work around the world." This "ruse" was an HIV-prevention workshop put together by one of the key hires made by Creative Associates, Fernando Murillo, the 29-year-old head of a Costa Rica-based human rights group. Murillo reported back to his employer that such a workshop was the “perfect excuse” to recruit political activists."
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/04/usaid-hired-young-latin-americans-incite-cuban-civil-society-revolt
Colombia senator challenged to duel from lawyer over paramilitary accusations
Colombia senator challenged to duel from lawyer over paramilitary accusations
Aug 4, 2014 posted by Tim Hinchliffe
Senator Ivan Cepeda officially declined attorney James Restrepo’s challenge to a duel on Monday, saying that he does not believe in violence.
On his Twitter account, the lawyer for the Democratic Center Party challenged Cepeda, Colombia’s spokesman for the Movement of Victims of State Crime, to a duel after the senator had accused him of having ties with the demobilized paramilitary group AUC.
“Do not defame me anymore you disgusting guerrilla. Tell me where and when and let’s set it up. Choose your weapon. I await your answer,” said Restrepo on his Twitter page.
Restrepo’s proposed duel comes after Cepeda had attacked him on his own Twitter account saying that Restrepo was actually alias “Samuel” of the Magdalena Medio Bloc of the AUC. Cepeda’s attack came in retaliation from another Tweet from Restrepo that said, “If Piedad Cordoba and Ivan Cepeda represent the victims of the FARC drug traffickers, I am Mother Teresea of Calcutta.”
~snip~
Restrepo is a lawyer for the party of former president and current Senator Alvaro Uribe, who has been under scrutiny for many years regarding his alleged ties with paramilitaries.
~snip~
Senator Cepeda, is the son of Senator Manuel Cepeda, who was gunned-down in Bogota in 1994 by unknown assassins. Ivan Cepeda is the official spokesman of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes that was founded in 2003.
http://colombiareports.co/colombia-senator-challenged-duel-lawyer-alleged-paramilitary-accusations/#prettyPhoto
US sent Latin youth undercover in anti-Cuba ploy
US sent Latin youth undercover in anti-Cuba ploy
By DESMOND BUTLER, JACK GILLUM, ALBERTO ARCE and ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press : August 4, 2014 : Updated: August 4, 2014 3:28am
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Obama administration program secretly dispatched young Latin Americans to Cuba using the cover of health and civic programs to provoke political change, a clandestine operation that put those foreigners in danger even after a U.S. contractor was hauled away to a Cuban jail.
Beginning as early as October 2009, a project overseen by the U.S. Agency for International Development sent Venezuelan, Costa Rican and Peruvian young people to Cuba in hopes of ginning up rebellion. The travelers worked undercover, often posing as tourists, and traveled around the island scouting for people they could turn into political activists.
In one case, the workers formed an HIV-prevention workshop that memos called "the perfect excuse" for the program's political goals — a gambit that could undermine America's efforts to improve health globally.
But their efforts were fraught with incompetence and risk, an Associated Press investigation found: Cuban authorities questioned who was bankrolling the travelers. The young workers nearly blew their mission to "identify potential social-change actors." One said he got a paltry, 30-minute seminar on how to evade Cuban intelligence, and there appeared to be no safety net for the inexperienced workers if they were caught.
More:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/article/US-sent-Latin-youth-undercover-in-anti-Cuba-ploy-5666288.php
We Reap What We Sow: The Link between Child Migrants and US Policy
We Reap What We Sow: The Link between Child Migrants and US Policy
Written by Diego Cupolo
Friday, 01 August 2014 16:21
Seven-year-old children wandering alone through desert landscapes are the result of a long string of events that are now demanding a closer look from mainstream media and a wider audience in the United States.
“How did it get this bad?” is the phrase repeated daily by television pundits as they seek out explanations for the current immigration crisis along the U.S. border, often placing the spotlight on criminal gangs and corrupt governments in Central America.
Yet, “How did these gangs and governments come to power?” is the follow-up question largely absent from mainstream debates. In effort to guide a more accurate discussion, a growing chorus of activists, journalists and historians are pointing to U.S. foreign policy in the region as the root cause for mass migration movements in recent years – if not decades.
“Every major wave of Latino migration has been very directly connected to actions taken by the United States in Latin America to either further the country’s economic or military interests,” said Eduardo Lopez, co-director of Harvest of Empire, a film based on a book by journalist Juan Gonzalez that links immigration trends to U.S. intervention in Latin America.
More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/4965-we-reap-what-we-sow-the-link-between-child-migrants-and-us-policy
Why Uruguay’s David and Goliath fight with big tobacco really matters
Simeon Tegel July 16, 2014 00:36
Why Uruguay’s David and Goliath fight with big tobacco really matters
Smoking is on course to kill up to 1 billion worldwide this century, most in poor nations. Could this little South American country, in a legal fight with Philip Morris, help turn that around?
LIMA, Peru — A protracted legal battle in an obscure World Bank tribunal over the principles of market competition in a South American backwater. Even by trade dispute standards, this one sounds arcane — the perfect cure for insomnia perhaps.
But before you nod off, here’s a triple shot of espresso:
Uruguay’s fight with Philip Morris, the world’s largest cigarette manufacturer, just might mark a turning point in the global smoking pandemic that the World Health Organization (WHO) expects to cost up to 1 billion lives this century.
Four out of five of those deaths will happen in developing nations, acting like a ball and chain on those countries' attempts to grow economically and lift hundreds of millions out of desperate poverty.
Philip Morris, whose brands include Marlboro, is objecting to a 2009 Uruguayan law that requires cigarette packs to be 80 percent covered by health warnings, including graphic photos of cancer victims.
More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140714/uruguay-v-philip-morris-tobacco-smoking
Hundreds in Spain demand release of El Salvador priest
3 August 2014 Last updated at 16:28 ET
Hundreds in Spain demand release of El Salvador priest
Hundreds of people in the Spanish town of Daimiel have marched to demand the release of a Roman Catholic priest detained in El Salvador.
Father Antonio Rodriguez, who was born in Daimiel, has been accused of smuggling mobile phones to imprisoned members of El Salvador notorious gangs.
Demonstrators say Father Tono has dedicated much of his life to helping gang members turn away from crime.
El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
More than 300 of Father Tono's supporters, including Mayor Leopoldo Sierra, marched through the streets of Daimiel in Spain on Sunday.
Among them was a former Salvadoran gang member, Isamar Orellana, who now lives in Spain.
"I am a living example of how much Father Tono has done to help us get out of that difficult world," Ms Orellana told the EFE news agency.
"He was a wonderful person to me, the father I never had."
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28632879
DU'ers have been discussing the oil which has gone to US Native American tribes
and to other US citizens whose Democratic Congressmen, governors, mayors secured deeply discounted oil for the neediest among us starting in 2005, when they ran out of oil companies they had believed might be moved to provide assistance with cheaper heating oil for the harsh, deadly winters here.
Once they had gained audience with the US oil companies, they were blown off, told to pound sand. It was only AFTER they had been rejected by domestically owned companies that the next step was Venezuela.
It was a topic of conversation at DU for many, many years, and was even covered by corporate tv and print "news."
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From DU'er Cal04:
cal04 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 08:14 PM
Original message
Venezuelan Oil Reaches Alaska Villages
Alaskan villages have begun receiving a much-criticized donation of heating fuel from the Venezuelan oil company Citgo, about two months later than organizers had hoped.
More than 11,000 homes in rural Alaska are eligible for 100 gallons each as part of Citgo's pledge to donate 1 million gallons of heating fuel to poor Americans.
Coordinators of the giveaway, led by the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, had hoped vouchers would reach villages by Nov. 1. But Citgo needed paperwork verifying addresses and head of households for every home in more than 150 villages - an enormous undertaking in many remote areas, said Steve Sumida of the tribal council.
(snip)
``It was a great way to start the new year,'' said Gambell resident Jennifer Apatiki, whose husband hauled home a 55-gallon drum of free heating oil late last month. Heating fuel costs $4.65 a gallon in Gambell, and Apatiki said she has spending more than $600 a month to heat her home this winter.
http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2690295
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From DU'er PeacePatriot:
U.S. Poor to Benefit from 6th Year of Subsidized Venezuelan Heating Oil
By JUAN REARDON – VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM
Mérida, January 28th 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Yesterday Venezuela’s Petroluem Corporation, CITGO announced the start of its sixth year providing subsidized heating oil to low-income people in the United States. An estimated 132,000 households across the U.S. will benefit from the program this year, amounting to $60 million dollars worth of savings.
Joseph P. Kennedy II, son of the late U.S politician Robert Kennedy and president of Citizen Energy Corporation, the U.S.-based non-profit organization that partnered with Citgo in 2005 to launch the Citgo-Venezuela Heating Oil Program, spoke at the Citgo ceremony on Thursday.
“Every year, we hear from families who struggle each and every day to put food on the table and heat their homes,” he said.
“We are deeply grateful to CITGO and the people of Venezuela for their generosity... Every year, we ask major oil companies and oil-producing nations to help our senior citizens and the poor make it through winter, and only one company, CITGO, and one country, Venezuela, has responded to our appeals,” he said.
In 2010, an estimated 500,000 people in the U.S. benefited from the program....in 25 states.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x47806
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From DU'er Joanne98
Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 03:57 PM
Original message
Hugo Chavez steps up for Native Americans and the poor
http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarti...
Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) 3/19/2007
Native American journalist Jodi Lee Rave of Lee Enterprise Newspapers was recently lambasted in a letter to the editor to our local daily for having the temerity to laud the donation of funds for heating fuel for the very poor Indian nations of the Northern Plains.
The criticism was initiated by the fact that the donor was the Citgo Petroleum Corporation based in Houston, Texas and headed by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, the man reviled by many Americans for referring to President George W. Bush on the floor of the United Nations as the “Devil.”
How did it happen that the President of Venezuela reached out to help the poor and the indigenous people of the United States? After two major hurricanes devastated the Southern U. S., a group of U. S. Senators sent out a plea to the major oil companies to help low-income families with energy assistance. Most major oil companies were coming off of scandalous profits because of the sharp rise in fuel costs. Only one company heeded the plea of the senators and that was Citgo Petroleum Corporation headed by Chavez.
Federal and state funding for low-income energy assistance programs has dropped dramatically in the past few years. A late winter blast in the Northern Plains hit at a time when most of the federal dollars for low-income energy assistance had run out. The late winter freeze left many indigenous people in dire straits. When it comes to a matter of surviving, Indians and other impoverished people reach out to any assistance available. Olympic Gold Medallist Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota, used his non-profit Running Strong Foundation to raise energy funds for some low-income households, but even his generosity could not fill the need.
Many tribes in Montana and North and South Dakota were advised to attend a meeting in Polson, Montana on December 13, 2006 to listen and discuss how they could avail themselves of the money for heating assistance. Rafael Gomez, Vice President of Citgo, and Brian O’Connor of the Citizens Energy Corporation of Boston attended the meeting. O’Connor’s non-profit organization administered the program last year and would be charged with administering the program for the Indian tribes.
Although major oil corporations like Exxon had reaped more profit last year than at any time in their history, they declined the invitation to lend a helping hand to the poor people of America. Hugo Chavez stepped in to fill the gap. What motives would prompt him to do this? Certainly it would not help him politically, at least not in America where one of this Nation’s top religious figures, Pat Robertson, called for his assassination.
Some of the very poor Indian tribes like the Chippewa Cree of the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana, the Cheyenne River and the Oglala Sioux Tribes in South Dakota needed the funds in order to keep their people from freezing to death and accepted the donation from Mr. Chavez willingly. Where was the rich casino owning tribes? Busy counting their money I would guess.
There is an old saying out here that goes, “You will know me better when you walk a mile in my moccasins.” Hugo Chavez is a member of an indigenous tribe in Venezuela. He has been called “Indio” and worse while growing up as the child of very poor parents. He has walked in the moccasins of the indigenous people.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x269818
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From DU'er Catherina:
A Song for Hugo Chavez
Friday, 15 March 2013 12:47
By Winona LaDuke, Indian Country Today Media Network
...
I was a great admirer of Hugo Chavez, thankful for his generosity, his courage, his leadership, and his commitment to Indigenous peoples.
My first memory of Venezuela, being an American educated child, was dim. But, I do remember pictures of Native people in the Venezuelan jungle being gunned down, and hanging like deer from trees- the result of gold prospecting in their territories. The year was 1977. That is a stark image- one where humans are treated like game animals, and I have never forgotten it.
...
At a 2005 Congressional hearing , oil executives were being chastised because corporate earnings were matched with dire conditions in many communities. Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch/Shell reported total earnings last quarter of nearly $33 billion. In the meantime, many Americans were facing fuel poverty, absolute hardship about keeping their houses warm. Twelve U.S. Senators asked oil companies to donate some of their record-setting profits to people in need.
Citgo was the only company to respond. Citgo Petroleum, joined with Citizens Energy under the leadership of Joseph Kennedy and began distribution of fuel oil from the Bronx and Brooklyn to the Alaskan Sub Arctic. Our reservation was included. Our first year, we received roughly $l.7 million in fuel assistance, and this continued for six years since. Each year, tribes in northern Minnesota, North Dakota and elsewhere have benefitted from the largesse of the Venezuelan government owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. As the price of fuel went up, 240 tribal communities received hundreds of millions of dollars of fuel assistance as fuel prices skyrocketed.
Some politicians encouraged our tribes to turn down the money, but Wayne Bonne of the Fond du Lac tribe, commented, "to us, it would be a foolish move. We're not a wealthy tribe," Bohn said. "We could make a political statement, but making a political statement while your people freeze is not very wise."
...
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/15145-a-song-for-hugo-chavez
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110810298
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This is the story of how several U.S. based organisations asked every oil company operating in America for assistance to provide free or cheap heating oil to the disadvantaged in the United States of America.
Exxon , BP and all the major and minor oil firm refused point blank.All except one.That company was the Venezuelan state run oil giant PDVSA and there state owned subsidiery CITGO :-
CITGO, Venezuela Distributes Oil To U.S. Services
January 8th 2008, by Tony Aiello - WCBSTV
NEW YORK (CBS) ― For scores of low-income families it will be like the equivalent of winning a small lottery jackpot. A program run by former Congressman Joe Kennedy will deliver free heating oil – donated by Citgo and the Chavez regime in Venezuela – to some 200,000 households. CBS 2 takes a look at how the program works, and who qualifies.
~snip~
According to CITGO, The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program will provide an estimated 112 million gallons of fuel this winter to be distributed in more than 224,000 households and 250 social service providers in 23 states. These totals include the CITGO-Venezuela Tribal Heating Oil Program.
Once CBS 2 was able to get through, operators said they would send an application, asking basic information about household size and annual income.
Kennedy's office disclosed the income limit as 60 percent of the state median. So a New York family of four, for example, must make less than $43,302 to qualify. The only income verification is your signature, certifying you are telling the truth.
Santiago applied on Dec. 4, 2007, and a week later received a voucher to pay her oil company when it delivered 100 gallons on Dec. 14.Santiago says it's almost $400 she won't have to spend, warming her home. For many, that's a warm thought.
Kennedy's office says every qualifying household that applies will be approved until all the available oil is allocated. That is projected to occur before the application period ends on Feb. 29, so the time to apply is now.
source http://wcbstv.com/local/joe.kennedy.citgo.2.624860.html
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A ton of easily located information beckons you to familiarize yourself with the facts.
Ban lauds Nicaragua's 'forward-looking' energy policy during day-long visit
Ban lauds Nicaragua's 'forward-looking' energy policy during day-long visit
29 July 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today hailed Nicaragua's “forward-looking” energy policy as he arrived on an official visit to discuss how the United Nations and the Central American nation can work together in promoting peace and sustainable development.
“Renewable energy is important to promoting sustainable development – this is the golden thread in achieving sustainable development in the social, economic and environmental areas,” Mr. Ban noted in remarks at a press encounter with President Daniel Ortega in the capital, Managua.
During his meeting with the President, Mr. Ban praised Nicaragua’s commitment to renewable energy, taking note of the country’s goal of having 97 per cent of its energy come from renewable sources by the year 2028.
The Secretary-General and Mr. Ortega visited the Camilo Ortega Wind Park in Rivas, a project that represents almost one quarter of Nicaragua’s capacity to generate wind power. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions – at least 100,000 tons of CO2 each year.
“Modern energy really is the key to changing people’s lives,” Mr. Ban said during his visit to the wind farm. “It can enhance the quality of life and it can effectively be used to promote human dignity. And it can also contribute to stemming violence.
More:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48366#.U92Uz2cg_mQ
Court ruling attacks Guatemala for failure to tackle crimes against women
Court ruling attacks Guatemala for failure to tackle crimes against women
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Thu, 31 Jul 2014 16:34 GMT
Author: Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A landmark ruling handed down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights this week put the spotlight on the high level of violence against women in Guatemala, a country with one of the highest femicide rates in the world.
The ruling addressed the case of teenager Maria Isabel Veliz, who was kidnapped in Guatemala City in December 2001 and whose body was found days later.
The 15-year-old had been raped, her hands and feet bound with barbed wire. She had been stabbed, strangled and put in a bag. Her face was disfigured from being punched, there was a rope round her neck and her nails were bent back.
The investigation into her killing was delayed so many times that the girl’s mother, Rosa Elvira, took the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2004 and later to the Inter-American Court, the regional human rights court for the Americas.
More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20140731163500-tfad3/
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