IPS-SANTO DOMINGO, Aug 28 (IPS) - Authorities in the Dominican Republic are denying growing numbers of people of Haitian descent identity documents on the argument that their parents are illegal immigrants.

The founder and director of the Movement of Dominican-Haitian Women (MUDHA), Sonia Pierre, complained that the civil registrar’s office continues to demand that Dominican citizens of Haitian descent present their parents’ documents as a requisite for obtaining copies of their birth certificates.

The Haitian-Dominican activist who defends the rights of immigrants said the officials are fully aware that the applicants were registered at birth by their parents on forms handed out by the authorities to Haitian “braceros” or sugar cane cutters. (more…)

TeleSUR - La recién creada comisión que investigará las presuntas violaciones a las garantías individuales cometidas durante el conflicto social ocurrido en el estado de Oaxaca, tendrá seis meses para presentar un informe que será remitido por la Suprema Corte mexicana al Poder Legislativo, ente que deberá hacer el pronunciamiento final.

La Suprema Corte de Justicia Nacional de México (SCJN) aprobó los términos y las condiciones que deberá seguir la comisión designada para investigar la presunta violación grave de garantías individuales ocurridas en el sureño estado de Oaxaca (sur), entre mayo de 2006 y enero de 2007.

(more…)

By Kintto Lucas-Indigenous and black women in Latin America and the Caribbean face three-fold discrimination because of their gender, race and social class, in politics and at work.

That is how it was put by participants in a panel on “Citizenship and Political Participation by Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Women” at the 10th Regional Conference on Women that ended Thursday in the Ecuadorean capital.

Guatemalan indigenous activist Otilia Lux de Cotí said that from the indigenous women’s point of view, the struggle for women’s right to participate is inextricably linked to the struggle for indigenous peoples’ right to participate. (more…)

Legislation in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean has not succeeded in ending discrimination against women in political and public life, say participants at the 10th Regional Conference on Women being held in the Ecuadorean capital.

The meeting was inaugurated Monday by Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and addressed by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Spanish Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega. Delegations from more than 30 countries were present.

The present governments of both Chile and Spain began their administrations with gender parity in their cabinets: equal numbers of women and men in charge of ministries. (more…)

Washington D.C. – the Bush Administration is continuing its trials against Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera. The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera is calling a protest at the D.C. Federal Court Building to demand Palmera’s immediate release. Professor Palmera’s supporters plan to picket the courts prior to jury selection.
Ricardo Palmera is a peace negotiator for Colombia’s rebels - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. He was kidnapped in Ecuador and extradited to the United States where he sits in solitary confinement. Palmera is a political prisoner who should not be on trial in the U.S. (more…)

Autoridades de México, específicamente los gobiernos de Quintana Roo, Yucatán y Campeche, se declararon en alerta naranja (peligro latente) e iniciaron evacuaciones en las zonas que serán afectadas por el huracán Dean, que dejó en Jamaica más de 350 mil afectados.

El huracán Dean sacudió la costa sur de Jamaica la noche del domingo y la madrugada del lunes donde provocó destrozos de casas, derribó árboles y propició inundaciones, mientras sigue su ruta hacia la costa Caribe de México y las Islas Caimán. (more…)

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is a tireless fighter for the Haitian people: a grassroots leader, member of the Lavalas Party, and the head of Fondayson Tran Septanm, a Haitian human rights organization that advocates for victims of the 1991 and 2004 coups against the democratically-elected governments of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Lovinsky has not been seen since the evening of Sunday, August 12, 2007 after meeting with a U.S. human rights delegation currently in Haiti. He usually keeps his family posted on his whereabouts. His car was found on Delmas 10 in Port au Prince. His friends and associates in Haiti and around the world are deeply concerned about his safety and well-being. 

As a young psychologist working in Port au Prince, Lovinsky helped establish Fondsayon Kore Timoun Yo (Foundation for the Support of Children) for young street children in Port au Prince ; FAM (Foyer pour Adolescentes Mères), a center for teenage mothers ; and Map Viv (”I Live”), a program designed to give psychological and medical aid to the victims of the first coup against Aristide in 1991. The September 30th Foundation, named for the date of the first coup against President Aristide in 1991, emerged out of this work. (more…)

On Aug. 14 Judge Ana Rivera Vicenty of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, formally charged police agent Javier Pagan Cruz with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Miguel A. Caceres Cruz on Aug. 11 in the eastern city of Humacao. The authorities hadn’t decided whether to charge the two agents who accompanied Pagan Cruz during the incident, Zulma Diaz de Leon and Carlos Sustache Sustache. The judge set bail at $500,000 for Pagan Cruz, who was in the Rio Piedras medical center being treated for a bullet wound in the leg. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a separate inquiry into the incident on Aug. 13. (more…)

Telesur-Durante su discurso, el presidente Evo Morales destacó la importancia de que en Bolivia se consolide un pacto social donde no haya explotadores ni explotados, sin discriminados ni discriminadores.

El presidente de Bolivia, Evo Morales, y su gabinete ministerial arribaron el domingo a la ciudad de Sucre, en el departamento de Chuquisaca (sur), donde se realiza este lunes la celebración del 182 aniversario de esa nación. En el acto, el mandatario presentó un informe presidencial en el que enfatizó los avances de su gestión en materia económica y social.
El mensaje presidencial tiene como base la unidad nacional y la integración, procesos indispensables del cambio que impulsa el gobierno de Morales.

El mandatario denunció que el fallo del Tribunal Constitucional, fue un fallo político, al referirse a los obstáculos que ha enfrentado la Asamblea Constituyente para la reforma de la Carta Magna. (more…)

At least one million people–more than two million, according to some sources–marched in El Alto, Bolivia, on July 20 to call for national unity and to oppose proposals to move the executive and legislative branches of government from La Paz, the de facto capital, to the southern city of Sucre. Although no government officials spoke at the demonstration, in the evening President Evo Morales called the mobilization “historic”; analysts considered it the country’s largest demonstration in recent years. The media nicknamed it the “Pacenazo” (from La Paz), while participants called it a cabildo (a public discussion, like a town hall meeting).

Schools, banks and government offices were closed in La Paz and El Alto, which is a massive, largely working-class suburb of La Paz. Tens of thousands of people came to El Alto by bus and car from around La Paz department, and tens of thousands walked up the highway from the city of La Paz. The demonstration stretched for several kilometers on El Alto’s broad avenues.The unexpectedly huge protest came in response to proposals that delegates from Chuquisaca Department, where Sucre is located, made to the Constituent Assembly, which is to present the text of a revised Constitution by Aug. 6. Sucre is officially Bolivia’s capital, but the executive and the legislature have their headquarters in La Paz as the result of a civil war at the end of the 19th century; only the judicial branch is currently in Sucre. (more…)