La postal de Cheno.

¿Cual de los dos es el chupacabras y cual es el alcalde?

Esto es inaudito!

JOSE ANTONIO LOPEZ plays "Un sueño en la floresta"

Lamento Borincano - Facundo Cabral

La postal navideña de Santini

Bella la foto familiar de Santini.

Discurso de Danny Glover en Occupy Oakland (15 de octubre de 2011)

Drug violence at America’s other southern border

Last Friday night, a married couple entering their home in the town of Hatillo, Puerto Rico, was startled by two armed burglars. The husband was fatally shot, becoming the 1,000th murder victim of 2011. This was Puerto Rico’s highest annual homicide toll — until the record was surpassed the next day.

On average, someone is murdered every 7 1 / 2 hours in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory populated by 3.7 million American citizens. At least half of these murders involve drug trafficking organizations, whose growing presence has bred a culture of violence that emboldens criminals and threatens the lives of innocent people. The homicide and unemployment rates in Puerto Rico are higher than those of any U.S. state.

Much has been said about the Mexican drug wars that have left 40,000 dead since 2006. Yet proportionally, the level of violence in Puerto Rico is higher than in Mexico. Last year there were 26 homicides for every 100,000 Puerto Ricans vs. 18 for every 100,000 Mexicans, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Puerto Rican police are clearly overwhelmed.

One would think the federal government would see its obligation to intervene. Controlling the flow of drugs, dirty money and illegal weapons is a national priority. Yet Washington has been slow to react.

Violent crime was not always a concern in Puerto Rico. Throughout the 1970s, safety in the San Juan metropolitan area was comparable to that in similar-size cities in the continental United States. This changed in the 1980s, when Colombian cartels flooded the island with drugs. Criminal activity, no longer confined to drug hot spots, quickly spread throughout the San Juan metro area.

In time, a fragile truce was brokered. Walls went up around neighborhoods, not just the affluent ones, and security guards were hired. Puerto Rican governors periodically activated the National Guard to back up police on drug raids. It was a shocking display of force, but residents got used to it.

The recent outburst of violence, however, is more intense. It has been fueled by the recession and, indirectly, by Mexico’s aggressive drug interdiction campaign.

The recession devastated the Puerto Rican economy. From 2006 to 2010, gross national product and employment there contracted at a rate three times higher than that of the United States overall, according to the Center for the New Economy. This economic downturn coincided with crackdowns on drug cartels by the Mexican and U.S. governments, which caused some drug traffic to shift to Caribbean routes. Puerto Rico’s unimpeded access to the mainland made it an ideal entry point to the U.S. drug market. The Drug Enforcement Administration has reported a marked increase in drug seizures in the past two or three years. When drug traffic increased during this period, plenty of impoverished young men were willing to move it along for an easy buck.

Puerto Rico’s police force has approximately 17,000 officers — making it the second-largest U.S. force — but is still ill-equipped to combat this crisis. In a September report, the Justice Department accused the police department of constitutional violations, corruption and statistical manipulations.

For more than a year, the Puerto Rican government has sought help from the Justice and Homeland Security departments. Attracting and retaining federal agents in Puerto Rico is difficult. The local offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the DEA; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are severely understaffed. Puerto Rican officials have also complained that the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection lack equipment to intercept drug shipments.

Since 2008, Puerto Rico has received about $260 million in direct federal support for crime prevention and forensic science, judicial systems, police and corrections, crime victims and rehabilitation of substance abusers. During the same period, Washington has allocated $1.6 billion for the Merida Initiative, a U.S.-Mexico partnership to combat drug production and traffic in the region.

The U.S. response to the Mexican drug war is appropriate. Mexican drug smuggling and spillover violence are a national security threat. Puerto Rico deserves an equivalent response. It is the main drug pipeline in the Caribbean, and the safety of almost 4 million Americans is threatened by the presence of drug organizations.

Drug violence has spilled over the U.S. border — just not the border most Americans think of. If drug cartels set up shop along our southern border states and their murder rates increased fivefold, to the level found in Puerto Rico, the federal response would be immediate. As American citizens, Puerto Ricans deserve the same reaction.

Drug violence at America’s other southern border
By Gretchen Sierra-Zorita, Published: November 24

Ana María Martínez soprano puertorriqueña.

Ana María Martínez soprano puertorriqueña. Se le considera “la voz más bella de Latinoamérica.”

Se ha presentado en el Metropolitan Opera de New York, Staatsorper de Viena, Royal Opera House-Covent Garden de Londres, Deutsche Opera Berlin, entre otros.

Martinez cuenta con más de veinte producciones.

Ana María Martínez es egresada de Juiliard Schooll de New York con Bachillerato y Maestría en música.

La fiebre de Victoria’s Secret.

Hacer fila desde las 4:00 AM para comprar ropa interior de mujer en Victoria’s Secret. Como es posible!








Foto de Mariel Mejía/El Nuevo Día.

Libertad de expresión

Policía de Nueva York




Foto:

Robert Stolarik, The New York Times

Utopía por Eduardo Galeano

Occupy Wall Street EXPLODES! Bankers Fund Arrests...

"We Are the 99%": Voices From the Occupy Wall Street March

Puerto Rico Prodded to Get Tough on Police

The discrepancies in the Puerto Rico police logs were hard to miss. Burglaries, including stolen plasma televisions and jewelry, were coded as mere breaking and entering. Large-scale thefts of telephone company cables were labeled property damage.

After months spent investigating, it was clear to Norman O. Torrens, an internal affairs agent for the Puerto Rico Police Department, that scores of felony crimes in Vega Alta, in the north, were being intentionally recorded as misdemeanors. The result was that these crimes were not counted in statistics released by the Police Department to support its claim that while the murder rate was higher than ever, other felonies were declining.

“They are lying to the people of Puerto Rico by telling them that crime statistics are going down,” said Officer Torrens, 37, who was abruptly demoted this summer after presenting his findings, first to his supervisor and then to officials in Puerto Rico’s Justice Department. “The bosses are the ones who push this to happen. The culture here is if you don’t produce, you get nowhere.”

The manipulation of statistics, long suspected by Puerto Ricans, is just one of the systemic failures that the Police Department must reverse after a blistering report last month from the United States Department of Justice outlined widespread dysfunction and civil rights violations.

For decades, the Police Department has operated without much oversight and officers have maneuvered with little supervision, training or accountability. The failings, detailed not only in the Justice Department report but also by the governor’s own monitor, are glaring:

Until recently, not one police precinct had instructions for handling domestic violence; civilian complaints piled up by the thousands, unaddressed; hate crimes went unrecognized; continuing training for police officers was unheard of; officers went unpaid for long stretches; and the Police Department was not connected to the national crime database, which meant that criminals from the 50 states could easily slip through the cracks here.

Gov. Luis G. Fortuño, a Republican, said in an interview that he was well aware of the department’s turbulent history and that the problems were worse than anticipated when he took office in 2009.

“Most of the problems occurred before my time,” Mr. Fortuño said. “I accept responsibility. My mandate is to change that. But this will take time. It was years in the making, and it will take years to fix.”

Rooted in the dictate of “la mano dura” — the Puerto Rican version of “get tough on crime” — the department operated for decades under a system that rewarded arrests much more than community policing, criminologists say. The result, they say, is that most Puerto Ricans do not trust or respect the police, including claims that most violent crime is down.

“This was all predicted 15 years ago, this problem,” said Dora Nevares-Muñiz, a criminologist and law professor at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico who sat on a commission that evaluated the Police Department in 2008. “The vision of the police is not a vision of prevention. The vision is a vision of control, of intervention after the crime is committed. And even at that they are not efficient. And then every time the government changes here, they want to reinvent the wheel.”

Ms. Nevares-Muñiz said the public’s views about the police force had further deteriorated under Mr. Fortuño, whose New Progressive Party won supermajorities in the 2008 election. There is a sense, Ms. Nevares-Muñiz said, that the governor further politicized the Police Department — already an established tradition — and installed people who were overly eager to please.

This was one reason that ill-trained police officers used too much force on demonstrators last year in front of the Capitol, she said. The demonstrators were protesting government layoffs and college fee increases. The other reason is that Puerto Rico lacked an explicit policy on when and how to use force. The governor was widely criticized for his handling of the protest.

Favoritism in the department, Ms. Nevares-Muñiz said, had reached the point that many supervisors no longer relied on exams to promote officers.

This is why, in part, Officer Torrens chose to speak publicly. Rather than being promoted for his diligence — he had been assigned the task of investigating the department’s statistics in the Bayamón District — he was returned to patrol duty in the precinct he had investigated, a tricky turn of events for an internal affairs officer. He is suing the Police Department for what he said was his wrongful transfer.

“An officer knows he can get a special job if the boss is able to say that crime is going down,” said Officer Torrens, who has a record of positive evaluations. “So with traffic cops, you give tickets. With drug busts, you make arrests, whether the person has drugs or not. If you don’t arrest, you’re out.”

The governor said he was already working to change the culture of the Police Department along with its operational nuts and bolts long before the Justice Department report. Last month, he announced that the police and prosecutors would now work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on armed robberies, carjackings and other crimes in five regions. Those cases will be handled in federal court, and the regions have been assigned six special prosecutors to expedite the cases.

Mr. Fortuño said he recognized that the department needed outside assistance last year, so he contracted Robert Warshaw, a career police chief who specializes in overhauling police departments. The same year, Puerto Rico finally looped into the national crime database.

Mr. Fortuño said he and his aides also had sought out experts in New York City. One day after the June 30, 2010, demonstration in front of the Capitol, during which the police struck protesters with truncheons and used pepper spray, the governor called to ask Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly for help, he said. The city complied.

The governor began in internal investigation of his own last September, when he appointed an independent monitor to investigate the scope of the failures, a precursor to the Justice Department report. The conclusion: the department was in disarray.

Four months ago, Mr. Fortuño replaced the police chief and began phasing in some of the changes, including better training — 2,000 officers so far have received it — and a detailed “use of force” policy. The tactical squad, which was often at the center of abuse accusations, has been cut by half. And promotions are reverting back to an exams-based system.

Other changes will follow in the next year, including the retraining of all supervisors and police officers and new software to track statistics and complaints.

But a few things are not likely to change soon. While police officers finally received the pay they were due, their salaries — the lowest in the United States — are not likely to rise with the economy still struggling. The median salary for a police officer in Puerto Rico is $31,000; in Orlando, Fla., for example, starting salaries are nearly $42,000. Still, police jobs are coveted on an island where college graduation rates are low and unemployment is high.

The governor’s critics say they wonder whether the flurry of changes will amount to anything lasting. After all, they say, the findings did not come as a surprise.

“There had to be pressure from outside for this to change,” said Osvaldo Toledo Martinez, the president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and a vocal critic of Mr. Fortuño. “So it will change because he is now obligated to comply. We have to believe that people will trust in the police again. But they have to see positive action right away. If that happens, they will have confidence.”


October 4, 2011
Puerto Rico Prodded to Get Tough on Police
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
nytimes.com

Ibrahim Zaza, el niño de Gaza que los periódicos ignoraron

“Ibrahim tenía los dos brazos arrancados, un agujero en el pulmón, parte de sus piernas habían desaparecido y el hígado en muy mala situación… Necesitamos que la gente nos apoye”. Estas fueron las palabras de un hombre exhausto mientras describía la situación de su hijo moribundo en una entrevista con The Real News, una fuente alternativa de información.

Ibrahim Zaza no era más que un niño de doce años. Él y su primo Mohamed, de 14, fueron alcanzados por un misil israelí en Gaza, un misil disparado desde un avión no tripulado cuando se encontraban jugando delante de su hogar.

La historia empezó el 18 de agosto. Al día siguiente, el Telegraph británico informaba: “Israel toma represalias tras un ataque de militantes en la frontera egipcia”. El encubrimiento de los recientes ataques israelíes contra la asediada Gaza le hace a uno preguntarse si acaso todos los periodistas utilizaron las explicaciones del ejército israelí cuando trasmitieron la historia. Se castiga a los palestinos por un ataque contra los israelíes que al parecer se produjo cerca de la frontera israelí con Egipto. No existen pruebas que vinculen Gaza con el ataque y las autoridades egipcias están también ahora cuestionándose el relato israelí de los hechos.

“Al menos seis palestinos murieron en la primera oleada de bombardeos. Israel dijo que pertenecían, incluido un líder, al grupo militante conocido como Comités Populares de la Resistencia, acusándoles de la responsabilidad de los ataques”, escribieron Phoebe Greenwood y Richard Spencer (The Telegraph, 19 de agosto).

Los Comités Populares de la Resistencia se habían desvinculado del ataque, al igual que Hamas y todas las facciones palestinas. Pero eso no fue suficiente para perdonar las vidas de los inocentes hombres y mujeres de Gaza que bastante tienen ya con soportar una situación de inenarrable dureza. Entre los muertos de esa oleada de ataques sobre “militantes” había dos niños, uno de tres años y otro de trece.

En los medios, las víctimas palestinas solo ocupan un lugar cuando alcanzan una cifra considerable. E incluso entonces, se les sitúa en un contexto que priva a esas víctimas de cualquier simpatía, o peor aún, se culpa a los militantes palestinos de responsabilidad indirecta (que empujan a Israel a echar mano de la violencia para defender su seguridad). De hecho, el término “seguridad palestina” es prácticamente inexistente, aunque miles de gazatíes hayan muerto asesinados solo en los tres últimos años.

Incluso la noticia de los niños palestinos asesinados en los ataques de agosto se dio a conocer de forma vaga y dudosa. Las redes de información restaron importancia al hecho de que la mayoría de las víctimas palestinas eran civiles. The Telegraph informaba así: “Hamas, que gobierna Gaza, declaró que también habían muerto dos niños en los ataques aéreos…” Citar a Hamas y no a fuentes hospitalarias ni a grupos por los derechos humanos, no es algo que sorprenda cuando el periodista tiene su sede en Tel Aviv o Jerusalén.

Tampoco fue una sorpresa que el niño, Ibrahim Zaza, muriera. Su corazón era el único órgano que continuó funcionando durante casi treinta días tras el ataque con aviones no tripulados. Al padre, a quien se permitió acompañar a Ibrahim y Mohamed hasta un hospital israelí, se le impedía abandonar el hospital porque constituía una amenaza para la seguridad. Se quedó allí dando vueltas alrededor del frágil cuerpo de su hijo, esperando y rezando. Hizo un llamamiento a la gente para que apoyara a su familia, subrayando su falta de medios para comprar una silla de ruedas, que pensaba que Ibrahim iba a necesitar una vez que consiguiera despertarse de nuevo.

Ya no hay necesidad alguna de una silla de ruedas. Y el implacable dolor de Mohamed continúa. Sus piernas han perdido toda la piel. La zona de su estómago está completamente expuesta. Sus gritos son estremecedores.

Parece que la muerte de Ibrahim obligó un poco, en algún caso, a la cobertura de los medios. No hubo artículos en el New York Times, tampoco ninguna foto en la revista Time de la desconsolada madre y la devastada comunidad. La existencia de Ibrahim en este mundo ha sido breve. Su muerte no supuso acontecimiento alguno fuera del pequeño círculo de quienes le amaban entrañablemente.

No habrá debates sobre la utilización de Israel de ataques aéreos que asesinan civiles ni ninguna reunión urgente en las Naciones Unidas para tratar las incesantes muertes causadas por los aviones no tripulados israelíes, que en sí mismos constituyen una industria muy rentable. Sus clientes no tienen dudas acerca de la eficacia, por ejemplo, de los Elbit Systems Hermes 900 UAV, sólo necesitan contemplar los videos de la Fuerza Aérea Israelí con los teledirigidos cerniéndose suavemente sobre Gaza. Según UAS News, “llegan a alcanzar una altitud superior a los 9.000 metros… y pueden rápida y fácilmente transformarse ajustándose a las necesidades del operador, sin tener que cambiar la infraestructura de funcionamiento en cada misión” (6 junio 2011).

Israel lleva años probando sus teledirigidos con los palestinos. En Gaza, esos buitres se pueden observar a simple vista. Cada vez que el planeador se acerca, la gente corre a protegerse. Pero fue necesario un informe de WikiLeaks para verificar que Israel utiliza los aviones no tripulados con propósito de matar. Según un documento recientemente filtrado, el fiscal general del ejército de Israel, el general de división Avichai Mandelblit, había informado, en febrero de 2010, al anterior embajador de EEUU en Israel, James Cunnigham, del uso de Israel de aviones armados no tripulados para matar a militantes sospechosos.

En el informe del video de The Real News, Lia Tarachansky habla con el teniente coronel Avital Leibowitz, un portavoz del ejército israelí, para intentar entender por qué Ibrahim y su primo se habían convertido en un blanco.

Lia Tarachansky: “Según los testigos, solo hubo un disparo de misil y cayó sobre dos niños, de 12 y 14 años de edad, que estaban sentados fuera de su casa”.

Avital Leibowitz: “La lógica es que cuando alguien está intentando lanzarte un cohete, entonces la lógica es que… mejor es darle a esa persona antes de que ella nos dé a nosotros”.

La única foto que he podido recuperar de Ibrahim Zaza le mostraba posando tímidamente para la cámara, con el pelo peinado hacia delante. El corazón se me rompe cuando pienso en él y en todas las demás víctimas de la “lógica” de Israel.

N. de la T.:

Véase video de vigilia organizada frente a la embajada de EEUU en Tel Aviv con pancartas donde se expresa: “Necesitamos esperanza, no apoyo militar”

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/vigil-in-memory-of-shaheed-ibrahim-zaza-video/

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) es un columnista que publica sus artículos en diversos medios internacionales. Es editor de PalestineChronicle.com. Su último libro es “My father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story” (Pluto Press, Londres), disponible en Amazon.com.

Fuente: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424577

Por Ramzy Baroud
Ma’an News
Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por Sinfo Fernández

Vito Marcantonio

Lo que Puerto Rico necesita para resolver sus problemas
Es soberanía, plena soberanía.

Vito Marcantonio

Democracia en NY

Libertad de expresión en Nueva York

LARES EN LA ESPERANZA

LARES EN LA ESPERANZA


Algún día vendrá la fuente tan serena
En que dormí las flores

Si acudo al grito ya trenzado
Por el yo tan inquieto
Es por que vi. Tan huérfano
En las dulces colinas
Donde pido la aurora de la madre.

Si me subleva esa piel indecisa
En que vive el tirano
Es por que nací tan libre,
Tan sellado
Por las procelas del Maestro.

Pero quiso subir a Bartolo,
Al esplendor agudo de los montes.
Allí se estatiza
La mano atribulada,
Ese tejer de atmosfera asesina
En que convivo.

La abeja esta ya quieta
Sin militancia en el abismo
De la flor.
Y la flor no la conoce más.

Ahora quiero hablar
Del aire vasto
Que socava mis huesos.

Tal vez la tierra mansa
Me sorprenda en el llanto
De los siglos,
En esas veredas verdes
De la esperanza cumplida.

Francisco Matos Paoli

La Niña Isabel por Danny Rivera

Troy Davis Case in Georgia Rekindles Debate Over Death Penalty

A Grievous Wrong

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the 1989 killing of a police officer in Savannah, Ga. The Georgia pardon and parole board’s refusal to grant him clemency is appalling in light of developments after his conviction: reports about police misconduct, the recantation of testimony by a string of eyewitnesses and reports from other witnesses that another person had confessed to the crime.

This case has attracted worldwide attention, but it is, in essence, no different from other capital cases. Across the country, the legal process for the death penalty has shown itself to be discriminatory, unjust and incapable of being fixed. Just last week, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Duane Buck, an African-American, hours before he was to die in Texas because a psychologist testified during his sentencing that Mr. Buck’s race increased the chances of future dangerousness. Case after case adds to the many reasons why the death penalty must be abolished.

The grievous errors in the Davis case were numerous, and many arose out of eyewitness identification. The Savannah police contaminated the memories of four witnesses by re-enacting the crime with them present so that their individual perceptions were turned into a group one. The police showed some of the witnesses Mr. Davis’s photograph even before the lineup. His lineup picture was set apart by a different background. The lineup was also administered by a police officer involved in the investigation, increasing the potential for influencing the witnesses.

In the decades since the Davis trial, science-based research has shown how unreliable and easily manipulated witness identification can be. Studies of the hundreds of felony cases overturned because of DNA evidence have found that misidentifications accounted for between 75 percent and 85 percent of the wrongful convictions. The Davis case offers egregious examples of this kind of error.

Under proper practices, no one should know who the suspect is, including the officer administering a lineup. Each witness should view the lineup separately, and the witnesses should not confer about the crime. A new study has found that even presenting photos sequentially (one by one) to witnesses reduced misidentifications — from 18 percent to 12 percent of the time — compared with lineups where photos were presented all at once, as in this case.

Seven of nine witnesses against Mr. Davis recanted after trial. Six said the police threatened them if they did not identify Mr. Davis. The man who first told the police that Mr. Davis was the shooter later confessed to the crime. There are other reasons to doubt Mr. Davis’s guilt: There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime introduced at trial, and new ballistics evidence broke the link between him and a previous shooting that provided the motive for his conviction.

More than 630,000 letters pleading for a stay of execution were delivered to the Georgia board last week. Those asking for clemency included President Jimmy Carter, 51 members of Congress and death penalty supporters, such as William Sessions, a former F.B.I. director. The board’s failure to commute Mr. Davis’s death sentence to life without parole was a tragic miscarriage of justice.

nytimes.com

Tony Bennett, Norah Jones

La Bomba de Emmanuelli tiene Candela

Heroes tell of lifting burning car to save man.

Nació el 12 de septiembre del 1891 en Ponce. Murió el 21 de abril del 1965, en San Juan. Fue abogado y político.


La victoria de una puertorriqueño sobre otro puertorriqueño es la derrota de la patria.

Pedro Albizu Campos

Golpe de Estado en Chile de 1973

Aniversario 38 del golpe de Estado a Salvador Allende.

Marcos Rodríguez Emma

El secretario de la gobernación Marcos Rodríguez Emma, fue nombrado por el gobernador Fortuño para supervisar que se cumplan con los señalamientos del Departamento de Justicia Federal. El mismo que dijo que sacaría a patadas a los estudiantes de la Universidad de Puerto Rico.

Que cínico el Sr. Fortuño

Police in Puerto Rico Are Accused of Abuses in Justice Dept. Report

Ricardo Arduengo/Associated Press

In a blistering condemnation of the second-largest police force in the United States, the Justice Department is accusing the Puerto Rico Police Department of a “profound” and “longstanding” pattern of civil rights violations and other illegal practices that have left it “broken in a number of critical and fundamental respects.”

In a 116-page report that officials intend to make public Thursday, the civil rights division of the Justice Department accused the Puerto Rico Police Department of systematically “using force, including deadly force, when no force or lesser force was called for,” unnecessarily injuring hundreds of people and killing “numerous others.”

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, says the 17,000-officer force routinely conducts illegal searches and seizures without warrants. It accuses the force of a pattern of attacking nonviolent protesters and journalists in a manner “designed to suppress the exercise of protected First Amendment rights.”

And it says investigators “uncovered troubling evidence” that law enforcement officers in Puerto Rico appear to routinely discriminate against people of Dominican descent and “fail to adequately police sex assault and domestic violence” cases — including spousal abuse by fellow officers.

“Unfortunately,” the report found, “far too many P.R.P.D. officers have broken their oath to uphold the rule of law, as they have been responsible for acts of crime and corruption and have routinely violated the constitutional rights of the residents of Puerto Rico.”

The report is likely to intensify a sense of distress among the nearly four million American citizens who live on Puerto Rico, where violent crime has spilled into well-to-do areas. While violent crime has plummeted in most of the mainland United States, the murder rate in Puerto Rico is soaring. In 2011, there have been 786 homicides — 117 more than at this point last year.

Rather than helping to solve the crime wave, the Puerto Rico Police Department is part of the problem, the report contends. In October, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 61 officers from the department in the largest police-corruption operation in bureau history. And the arrest of Puerto Rican police officers, the report says, is hardly rare.

From January 2005 to November 2010, it said, there were more than 1,709 such arrests for offenses “ranging from simple assault and theft to domestic violence, drug trafficking and murder.” During a comparable period, the New York Police Department, with a force about twice the size, had about 607 such arrests.

“The degree of police corruption and criminal misconduct in Puerto Rico is high and contributes to the public safety and civil rights crisis,” the report said. “More P.R.P.D. officers are involved in criminal activity than in any other major law enforcement agency in the country.”

A “finding” by the civil rights division of a pattern or practice of constitutional violations by a police department is a precursor to a lawsuit, which either goes to trial or, if the local authorities agree to changes, may be settled on the day it is filed. The division has 17 such investigations open, including in New Orleans, Newark and Seattle.

Its investigation of the Puerto Rico police, which began in July 2008, resulted in one of the most extensive such critiques the department has ever produced. It condemns nearly every aspect of the force — its hiring and training practices, the way it assigns and promotes officers, and its policies governing officer behavior and accountability for misconduct.

The report recommends 133 remedial measures that would amount to a sweeping intervention. It is likely to create a political headache for Puerto Rico’s governor, Luis G. Fortuño, a Republican who took office in 2009 and, as chief executive, oversees the department.

Mr. Fortuño has been criticized for his administration’s handling of a series of mostly nonviolent demonstrations by students and workers to protest higher university fees and government layoffs. Riot police hit protesters, bystanders and journalists with batons and used pepper spray and choke holds, in incidents that were videotaped and are discussed in the report.

Two months ago, Mr. Fortuño named a new police superintendent, Emilio Díaz Colón, a former National Guard adjutant general. During his confirmation, Mr. Díaz said he would not shy away from doing what was necessary to “convert the Puerto Rican police into an example of a disciplined, effective” force, but also said he did not plan any immediate major changes.

“We all recognize that there have been challenges at the Police Department that pre-date the governor’s administration,” Edward Zayas, a spokesman for Mr. Fortuño, said on Wednesday. “The governor has always acknowledged that the Puerto Rico Police Department needs reforms. However, he did not wait for any report from the D.O.J. in order to act.”

The Justice Department began the investigation in part due to complaints by the American Civil Liberties Union. In June, when President Obama visited the island, the A.C.L.U. sent him a letter contending that the police had “engaged in a level of brutality against U.S. citizens” with a degree of impunity that “would not be tolerated in the 50 states.”

While the report said Puerto Rican officials cooperated with the investigation, it was hindered by poor record-keeping. For example, the Puerto Rico Police Department reported 39 rapes last year — a figure the report portrays as unbelievable because nearly every other jurisdiction has far more rapes than murders.

The report focused on the “rampant” use of “unnecessary or gratuitous” force, a problem made worse by the use of tactical units — heavily armed officers who are poorly trained and steeped in “violent subcultures” — for ordinary police work. It says such units frequently “rely on intimidation, fear and extreme use of force to manage crowds and are often deployed to low-income and minority communities on routine patrols.”

The report also recounts many “illustrative incidents” and includes a nine-page appendix listing dozens more. One example it said exemplified “many of the deep-rooted deficiencies that continue to plague P.R.P.D.” was the killing of Cáceres Cruz in August 2007 by a tactical unit officer.

Mr. Cruz was directing traffic near a birthday party when three officers drove by and thought he had insulted them. They told Mr. Cruz he was under arrest and wrestled him to the ground, during which time one officer shot himself in the leg.The officer then repeatedly shot Mr. Cruz, who was lying on the ground, in his head and body before they drove off. An internal investigation cleared them of misconduct. But after a video of the incident surfaced in the news media, one officer was convicted of murder. It emerged that seven complaints had been filed against him, but had been largely ignored.

“The tragic events surrounding the Cáceres Cruz shooting served as a stark reminder of P.R.P.D.’s institutional dysfunction,” the report said.



NYT
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and LIZETTE ALVAREZ

Charlie Savage reported from Washington, and Lizette Alvarez from Miami.

Save The Children's East Africa

Crisis alimentaria en Africa

New York Jazz

Dandy and Friends performs Son Montuno

Dr. King Weeps From His Grave

THE Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was to be dedicated on the National Mall on Sunday — exactly 56 years after the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi and 48 years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Because of Hurricane Irene, the ceremony has been postponed.)


These events constitute major milestones in the turbulent history of race and democracy in America, and the undeniable success of the civil rights movement — culminating in the election of Barack Obama in 2008 — warrants our attention and elation. Yet the prophetic words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel still haunt us: “The whole future of America depends on the impact and influence of Dr. King.”

Rabbi Heschel spoke those words during the last years of King’s life, when 72 percent of whites and 55 percent of blacks disapproved of King’s opposition to the Vietnam War and his efforts to eradicate poverty in America. King’s dream of a more democratic America had become, in his words, “a nightmare,” owing to the persistence of “racism, poverty, militarism and materialism.” He called America a “sick society.” On the Sunday after his assassination, in 1968, he was to have preached a sermon titled “Why America May Go to Hell.”

King did not think that America ought to go to hell, but rather that it might go to hell owing to its economic injustice, cultural decay and political paralysis. He was not an American Gibbon, chronicling the decline and fall of the American empire, but a courageous and visionary Christian blues man, fighting with style and love in the face of the four catastrophes he identified.

Militarism is an imperial catastrophe that has produced a military-industrial complex and national security state and warped the country’s priorities and stature (as with the immoral drones, dropping bombs on innocent civilians). Materialism is a spiritual catastrophe, promoted by a corporate media multiplex and a culture industry that have hardened the hearts of hard-core consumers and coarsened the consciences of would-be citizens. Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.

Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse. Arbitrary uses of the law — in the name of the “war” on drugs — have produced, in the legal scholar Michelle Alexander’s apt phrase, a new Jim Crow of mass incarceration. And poverty is an economic catastrophe, inseparable from the power of greedy oligarchs and avaricious plutocrats indifferent to the misery of poor children, elderly citizens and working people.

The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy. Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable.

As the talk show host Tavis Smiley and I have said in our national tour against poverty, the recent budget deal is only the latest phase of a 30-year, top-down, one-sided war against the poor and working people in the name of a morally bankrupt policy of deregulating markets, lowering taxes and cutting spending for those already socially neglected and economically abandoned. Our two main political parties, each beholden to big money, offer merely alternative versions of oligarchic rule.

The absence of a King-worthy narrative to reinvigorate poor and working people has enabled right-wing populists to seize the moment with credible claims about government corruption and ridiculous claims about tax cuts’ stimulating growth. This right-wing threat is a catastrophic response to King’s four catastrophes; its agenda would lead to hellish conditions for most Americans.

King weeps from his grave. He never confused substance with symbolism. He never conflated a flesh and blood sacrifice with a stone and mortar edifice. We rightly celebrate his substance and sacrifice because he loved us all so deeply. Let us not remain satisfied with symbolism because we too often fear the challenge he embraced. Our greatest writer, Herman Melville, who spent his life in love with America even as he was our most fierce critic of the myth of American exceptionalism, noted, “Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less finished than an architectural finial.”

King’s response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a re-evaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.

In concrete terms, this means support for progressive politicians like Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Mark Ridley-Thomas, a Los Angeles County supervisor; extensive community and media organizing; civil disobedience; and life and death confrontations with the powers that be. Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.

August 25, 2011
Dr. King Weeps From His Grave
By CORNEL WEST

PrinceCornel Westton, N.J.
Cornel West, a philosopher, is a professor at Princeton.





Fuente NYT

Lo que el viento se llevo

65 millones de personas afectadas por el huracán/tormenta tropical Irene, 44 muertes y 7 billones en daños.

La cuidad que nunca duerme esta paralizada por el huracán Irene.

350 mil personas son evacuadas y el servicio de trasporte quedara suspendido. Es la primera vez en 107 años que se suspende el servicio de transporte en la cuidad de NY.


El gobernador Andrew Cuomo declaró el estado de emergencia y la MTA suspenderá el transporte público de autobuses y trenes subterráneos, los trenes Long Island y Metro North. El servicio de ferry, además de los puentes al medio día de hoy.

“En un huracán categoría uno se pedirá evacuación voluntaria, en categoría dos será obligatoria y en categoría tres hasta bomberos y policías recibirán orden de evacuación”.




Tenemos que prepararnos para lo peor y esperar por lo mejor. Michael Bloomberg, alcalde de NYC


Preparativos en NYC.

















Fotos, NY Times

Alerta de huracán costa este de los Estados Unidos.

Qué hacer:

Manténgase informado:

• Escuche las noticias para saber los últimos detalles del huracán.
• Visite la página de internet de la ciudad (NYC.gov) para saber las más recientes indicaciones sobre la emergencia.
• Mantenga constante seguimiento a la trayectoria del huracán para saber con exactitud cuándo y dónde hará impacto.

Proteja a su familia:

• Arregle una maleta o bolso con provisiones de emergencia en caso de que deba salir apresuradamente.
• Lleve suficiente agua como para tres días. Un galón por persona por día es recomendable.
• Por lo menos debe llevar comida no perecedera que pueda ser fácil de cocinar para unos tres días.
• Baterías y radios portátiles de batería para mantenerse informado.
• Linternas.
• Maletín de primeros auxilios con medicinas esenciales para varios días.
• Productos sanitarios para su limpieza personal.
• Teléfonos celulares y cargadores portátiles de baterías para su teléfono.
• Copia de documentos personales como pasaportes, partidas de nacimientos, etc.
• Dinero en efectivo.
• Mapas.

Proteja su casa:

• Cubra las ventanas con tormenteras para evitar la rotura de vidrios e inundaciones por las lluvias.
• Lleve dentro de la casa todos los muebles usados fuera de su vivienda.
• Cierre con doble seguros las puertas de sus garajes.
• Instale generadores de energía de emergencia.
• Llene contenedores con agua para estar listo para la posterior limpieza, en caso de que luego no tenga suministro.


Conozca las rutas de evacuación:

• En caso de evacuación, es fundamental saber cuáles son las mejores y más directas vías para salir de las áreas que serán más afectadas por el huracán.

Visite esta guía de la ciudad para conseguir la mejor vía de evacuación:

http://gis.nyc.gov/oem/he/index.htm

Consiguir un refugio:

• Si no tiene ningún lugar donde ir, puede acudir a alguno de los refugios preparados por la ciudad.

Visite esta página de internet para saber dónde está el refugio más cerca de su área: http://home2.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/storms_sheltering.shtml

Cuide a sus mascotas:

• Téngales comida extra.
• Esté seguro de que su animal tenga la vacunas al día.
• Lleve una foto de su mascota en caso de que esta se pierda.
• Consiga un lugar donde llevar su mascota, como su veterinario, la casa de un amigo u otro lugar de emergencia, ya que muchos refugios no permiten la presencia de animales.

Para más tips puede visitar esta páginas de internet:

http://www.nyredcross.org/?nd=hurricane_safety_guide
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/prepare/pet_plan.shtml

Greenpeace encuentra sustancias peligrosas en ropa de 14 conocidas marcas internacionales

Greenpeace encuentra sustancias peligrosas en ropa de 14 conocidas marcas internacionales

Greenpeace Internacional dio a conocer hoy los resultados de su última investigación sobre contaminación del agua y esta reveló la presencia de una peligrosa sustancia química, nonilfenol (1), en artículos de ropa de 14 marcas mundiales (2), incluyendo Adidas, H & M y Lacoste.

A diferencia de sus competidores Puma y Nike, Adidas aún no se comprometió a dejar de contaminar el mediomabiente.

Los productos químicos detectados estaban presentes en ropa de estas marcas, que son compradas en 17 países y fabricadas en 12 lugares diferentes alrededor del mundo, lo que demuestra que el uso y la liberación de productos químicos peligrosos es un problema generalizado, con graves consecuencias a largo plazo y de largo alcance para las personas y el medio ambiente.

"Nuestra investigación demuestra que hay marcas de ropa muy reconocidas que son responsables del vertido de productos químicos peligrosos en los cauces de los ríos de países fabricantes como China, pero también en los países donde se vende la ropa", declaró Li Yifang, miembro de la campaña de Aguas de Greenpeacede Asia Oriental. "La gente tiene derecho a saber que hay sustancias químicas presentes en el tejido de su ropa y que tienen efectos nocivos cuando se liberan en el medio ambiente”.





Esta segunda parte del informe "Dirty Laundry" (3) presentado hoy en en Beijing y Manila, muestra los resultados del análisis de prendas y zapatillas de tela que son vendidas por importantes marcas de ropa a nivel internacional. De los 78 artículos analizados, en 52 se detectó nonilfenol etoxilatos, una sustancia química que se descompone dando lugar al peligroso nonilfenol, que se comporta como alterador hormonal. Estos resultados proporcionan un claro ejemplo de la clase de productos químicos tóxicos que son liberados por la industria textil en los canales de agua de todo el mundo y revelan de un problema mucho más amplio.



El primer informe "Dirty Laundry", que fue publicado hace seis semanas y que dio comienzo la campaña Detox (desafío contra la contaminación) de Greenpeace, recopilaba los resultados de una investigación de un año de duración que vinculaba a un gran número de estas mismas marcas (4) con proveedores en China que vertían un "cóctel" de sustancias químicas tóxicas a los deltas de los ríos chinos Yangtzé y Perla (5). La campaña, que incluyó numerosas actividades por todo el mundo, incluyendo un strip-tease mundial (6) y un cambio de logo (7) en los locales comerciales de las empresas, logró que marcas como Nike y Puma hicieran público su compromiso (8) de eliminar todas los vertidos de sustancias peligrosas de su cadena de suministro y de sus productos.



"Ahora que Nike y Puma se comprometieron con la limpieza de sus cadenas de suministro y están utilizando su poder como propietarios de marcas para tener influencia en los impactos ambientales de su producción, Adidas y otros líderes de la ropa ya no puede eludir la responsabilidad de asegurar que el medioambiente, sus clientes y las personas en todo el mundo no estén amenazados por la liberación de sustancias químicas peligrosas", manifestó Li.

"Algunas marcas como Adidas no tomaron ninguna medida al respecto y parecen estar esperando a que sean los consumidores quienes laven sus "trapos sucios". Porque cada vez que la ropa contaminada se lava, estas sustancias se liberan a los canales de todo el mundo. Las marcas tienen que eliminar estas sustancias de sus productos, y no seguir eludiendo su responsabilidad de termnar con la amenaza de las sustancias químicas peligrosas para las personas y el medioambiente", concluyó Li (9)

Greenpeace está llevando adelante una campaña internacional para detener la contaminación industrial del agua con productos químicos peligrosos y persistentes que provocan trastornos hormonales. Por ello, la organización exige que las empresas y los gobiernos tomen medidas para crear un futuro sin tóxicos.

Notas:

(1) Greenpeace envió 78 artículos de ropa para su análisis a un laboratorio independiente en el que se examinó la presencia de nonilfenol etoxilatos (NPE), unos productos químicos sintéticos que se utilizan a menudo como surfactante en la industria textil. Al liberarse al medio ambiente, los NPE se descomponen formando nonilfenol (NP), una sustancia tóxica, persistente y que provoca trastornos hormonales. Incluso cuando existen instalaciones de tratamiento de aguas residuales, éstas no son capaces de descomponer el NPE por completo. Sólo lo hacen parcialmente y, a menudo, aceleran su transformación en el peligroso NP.

(2) Las 14 marcas en las que se detectó NPE sobre el límite de detección son: Abercombie & Fitch, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Converse, G-Star RAW, H&M, Kappa, Lacoste, Li Ning, Nike, Puma, Ralph Lauren, Uniqlo y Youngor.

(1) Para leer el informe “Dirty Laundry 2”, en español hacé click aquí.

(4) Las marcas vinculadas con proveedores en China que vierten sustancias tóxicas son: Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Bauer Hockey, Calvin Klein, Converse, Cortefiel, H&M, Lacoste, Li Ning, Meters/bonwe, Nike, Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH Corp), Puma y Youngor.

(5) Más información en el informe “Dirty Laundry”

(6) Para leer la nota sobre el strip-tease mundial de la campaña, hacé click aquí


(7) Para leer la nota sobre el cambio de logo a los locales de Adidas, hacé click aquí

(8) Para leer el compromiso de Puma, hacé click aquí.

Para leer el compromiso de Nike, hacé click aquí

(9) Las marcas necesitan establecer sistemas adecuados de gestión de productos químicos que obliguen a sus proveedores a informar y divulgar públicamente en sus descargas de sustancias químicas peligrosas.

Sismo En la costa Este de Estados Unidos.

Ayer fue un día de confusión, movimiento, miedo, fallas, desalojo, complicaciones. Después del terremoto de 5.8 grados en la escala de Richter. La última vez que la costa Este fue sacudida por un sismo de igual magnitud fue hace más de 100 años.






Fotos CBS

Buenos deseos

Esperamos que todos se encuentren sanos y salvos después de Irene!

Barlovento, barlovento....

Vientos, lluvia, tormenta tropical, huracán, plantas caídas, ramas en el suelo, declaración de estado de emergencia por el gobernador, pedir dinero a FEMA, tumbe, mas tumbe.

Antonio Fernós López-Cepero.

Que descanse en paz Antonio Fernós López-Cepero.

El Día Mundial de la Asistencia Humanitaria

Paul Jacobs' Tiny Desk Concert

Utuado campo de entrenamiento de TEG

Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico

ARTICULO II

CARTA DE DERECHOS

Sección 6. Las personas podrán asociarse y organizarse libremente para cualquier fin lícito, salvo en organizaciones militares o cuasi militares.


Violación a la Constitución de Puerto Rico a la vista.




Triangle will hone the war fighter or bring a life-changing experience to an individual

About TEG

Overview: Triangle Experience Group, Inc (TEG) (Puerto Rico Based Co.) has developed a process of tactical training for both military and civilian personnel. TEG is in a position to deliver training anywhere that the client deems advantageous. TEG has brought together a team of professional instructors and consultants who are nationally and internationally recognized subject matter experts. This allows us to rise to any challenge and accomplish each and every mission efficiently and effectively.

TEG possesses solid professional and academic backgrounds, thereby are able to provide the most current, up-to-date and technologically advanced training and services available. TEG considers its product an enhanced method for civilian/corporate institutional and scientific exploration. The programs of Instruction that are offered are very specific to meet the particular needs of its clients worldwide.We have solidified key corporate partnerships with government service based businesses, technology sector companies, as well as, non-governmental organizations and higher learning institutions.

Capabilities: Flat Range shooting, CQB structures live and simulated munitions (Law Enforcement and Allied Military Forces), Urban training area for tactical movement, access to helo/fixed wing assets, MFF, Specialized Operator Skills FTXs, Tactical Mountaineering/Confined Space Rescue Skills Training, Live Tissue Training, E&E FTXs, Heavy Weapons Training, Tactical on/off Road Driving Skills, Unknown Distance Marksman Training. Accreditation programs to certify operators in specific skill sets are available. Additional capabilities, which fall outside the scope of this document, are available upon request.

Locations: These locations indicate the capabilities of TEG

Albuquerque, NM--Our location here serves to give our clients a tactical edge in a high plains desert environment.

Puerto Rico--Our location in PR serves to be the gateway to Central/South America. PR offers realistic value of a semi non-permissive Central/South America culture with the benefits of being on U.S. soil, which keeps the client safe in a permissive environment.

Mobile Training Team (MTT)--TEG maintains an MTT capability because it is not always convenient for the customer to travel. TEG has secured agreements to utilize locations throughout the world.


Military/Law Enforcement Training - Offered Curriculum Minimize

Basic Jungle Warfare Skills - Basic soldiering in a jungle environment. Focus on field craft, individual care and maintenance, and offensive and defensive positions
Jungle Tracking School - Instruction from world renowned jungle trackers, Patrolling techniques, defensive perimeters and offensive ambushes and much more…
Water Borne Operations - TEG can facilitate land targets in which units can use water borne infiltration methods to gain access to these targets.

Search and Rescue - Jungle rescue scenarios. FTX full mission profile: depart home station on tactical airlift, Halo into jungle DZ, locate and secure survivor (or perform hostage rescue), provide medical treatment and move to exfil. Scenarios like these will be available with most curriculums upon customer request.

Stalks and Shot - For the Belly shooters. Long distance shots from hilltop-to-hilltop, High angle shots and through high velocity turbulent valleys. Advanced reconnaissance techniques of the mock prison can be used in order to provide accurate intelligence to assault force.

Advanced Booby-Trap Skills - Learn to defeat and establish booby-traps for some of the world best jungle experts. Several booby-trap lanes are established in the jungle designed to hone a team’s jungle patrolling skills.

Tailoring and Course Design - Any portion of the above classes can be tailored/combined to meet the customers’ needs. TEG stands-by its claim to have created a learning environment that truly addresses a perishable skill of Jungle warfare. These courses are not designed with a ridged syllabus, we will train to the customers skill level and finally set a new level of understanding. From refresher training to new information let TEG design a course for you.

Advanced Medical Program - TEG has a separate medical curriculum specifically designed for medical providers
Surveillance/Street Craft Skills - Using the Metro area of San Juan units can enhance this specialized skill set. Units can take full advantage of the Puerto Rico’s Urban and Rural environments. TEG also offers a full spectrum curriculum upon request.

Tactical Training Course - TEG has crafted a course curriculum which captures the basic soldiering skills of “shoot-move-communicate”. This course is an excellent opportunity to hone skills, upgrade new operators, or accomplish pre-deployment tasks. The courses of fire and operator skills are set into one package deal.

Training locations are flexible
Max of 25 personnel unless prior coordination is approved
Core Skill Upgrade - TEG's operator upgrade program allows for teams and units to bring newly assigned personnel up to speed with regards to specific mission tasking.

Directivos:

Robert Clare, Owner and CEO

Summary of Career: Twenty-years of high-intensity direct-action military experience worldwide in both USAF and US Army Special Operations. USAF pararescueman as a Special Tactics Squadron operator. Deployments to various combat theatres around the world. Military expertise as MFF Jumpmaster, STL Jumpmaster, Urban and rural tactical navigation, Team tandem/bundle master. Served as Team mobility specialist and Special Reconnaissance team member while working in-squadron. Participated in numerous recent worldwide operations including: direct action, special recon, long-distance marksmanship and other sensitive missions.




Scott Billingslea, President

Summary of Career: Scott spent 4 years as a member of 3rd Ranger Battalion. He had the opportunity to fill every role from Rifleman to Squad Leader. In addition to the Airborne and Ranger course, he graduated from the Scout Swimmer course as well as basic and advanced demolitions. His training included deployments to the UK, Korea, Belgium and the Jungle Operations Training Center in Panama. He had one combat deployment to Somalia. His post military career includes extensive experience in operations management leading teams that ranged in size from 20 to 1,000 personnel. He also has a comprehensive background in vendor selection and negotiation. Scott volunteers a significant amount of his time giving back to the Special Operations community. He is currently the Ranger Regiment Association's Unit Director for 3/75 as well as the Treasurer. His combination of military and civilian leadership experience is an invaluable asset to TEG.



Jose Rosario, Subject Matter Expert

Summary of Career: Jose spent 20 years of military service as a U.S. Special Forces soldier. Jose is a native of the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico. He spent his years of service in SF as a tropical warfare expert. The many highlights of his career include training of Indigenous Forces in South America and executing high profile missions for the US in a tropical region during the "drug-war". Jose’s experiences in the jungle offer TEG’s clients a unique look into tropical warfare.





Es lo que faltaba.

Fuente TEG

Guerra y revolución en España

Gaza

Sin palabras

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez Denounces Civil Rights Violations in Puerto Rico

Gutierrez Puts Focus on Seniors' Complaints About Gasoducto Project

Aliens en la Playa

Fue un día de playa: aire, sol, arena, salitre, olas, aves, risas y risas, hasta que... ¿que caramba es eso? Digo, ¿Quiénes son esos? La gente se conmocionó viendo a dos Aliens, uno verde, otro amarillo, quienes saludaban a todo el mundo. Las mujeres, sobretodo, se posaban y tomaban fotos con ellos, sin saber quienes estaban detrás de la máscara. Ningún policía los paró y ni la migra se dio por enterada. El Homeland Security ni se preocupó por investigar a los felices Aliens.

Vivaldi-Concerto RV315 "L'Estate"3/3-Biondi-Europa Galante

Don Raúl Serrano Geyls

Que descanse en paz el Don Raúl Serrano Geyls. Fue juez asociado del Tribunal Supremo y profesor de derecho.

Nelson Mandela

Las Naciones Unidas adoptaron una postura firme contra el apartheid; con el paso de los años, se construyó un consenso internacional, que ayudó a terminar con este sistema inicuo. Pero bien sabemos que nuestra libertad está incompleta sin la libertad de los palestinos."

Nelson Mandela

Los motivos del hambre en el mundo

La independencia Inconclusa

Litchfield Performing Arts

In a Mellow Tone from Litchfield Performing Arts on Vimeo.

Arturo Massol on Risks of Proposed Puerto

No al gasoducto en Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico aún no se recupera de las décadas de daño ambiental causado a la municipalidad de Vieques. Ahora, la propuesta para construir un gasoducto que cruce la isla de sur a norte vaticina más devastación.

Propuesta en el 2010 con el propósito de incrementar el suministro de gas en la isla, el gasoducto de 92 millas ha provocado grandes demostraciones en contra, y con toda razón. Se han documentados diversas consecuencias adversas a la construcción, entre los que se encuentran el daño significativo a los bosques, especies animales y sitios arqueológicos, así como la contaminación del agua potable que podría afectar a cientos de miles de residentes.

Los líderes electos y de la comunidad en los Estados Unidos son responsables de esclarecer el asunto —más aún si se considera la actitud del gobernador de Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño.

El gobernador estableció una medida de emergencia en el ámbito de la energía para agilizar el contrato multimillonario —sin seguir las reglas básicas que rigen los contratos públicos ni consultar la opinión de los residentes.

La administración de Fortuño no ha sabido responder con claridad a las preguntas de cómo es que se concedió este enorme contrato de construcción. Y, en una economía que no puede exponerse a un traspié más, la administración no ha explicado cómo el proyecto es más económicamente más eficiente que otras fuentes de energía alternativa.

Los puertorriqueños se han dado cuenta de estas marcadas discrepancias: 70 por ciento de ellos, de acuerdo a una reciente encuesta del Nuevo Día, ha expresado su oposición al proyecto.

Para sortear mayor escrutinio público, la administración de Fortuño sacó su propuesta de construcción de Puerto Rico y la envió al US Army Corps of Engineers, en Jacksonville, Florida, donde será evaluado —en inglés y lejos de los afectados.

Los riesgos del mal llamado proyecto Vía Verde no se deben ignorar. La oposición ha presentado sus inquietudes al cuerpo técnico estadounidense, los legisladores federales y, hace poco, a la Casa Blanca.

Los puertorriqueños fuera de la isla deben expresar sus preocupaciones en nombre de los isleños —como han hecho a través de la historia— acerca de un plan que huele a peligro. Esto incluye a los congresistas puertorriqueños José Serrano y Nydia Velásquez, quienes no han declarado su posición al respecto.

La preservación de las riquezas naturales de Puerto Rico —como proclamaron tanto los boricuas como los latinos en el más reciente desfile boricua — es tarea de todos. La suspensión de este peligroso gasoducto debe ser inminente.




No al gasoducto en Puerto Rico
2011-07-22
El Diario NY

Fotos:
El Diario NY
Diálogo Digital