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CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA
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- Guatemalan Police Rescue Kidnapped Mexican Boy (GT)
- OPINION AND ANALYSIS
- Snipping the Bud: Prep Work is a Payday in the Marijuana Business (CA)
- Democratic Rep from IL: Undocumented Immigrants Should Carry Document Proving Ties to US (DC)
- What Does ‘Illegal immigration’ Really Mean
CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICAHow Trinidad is Tackling its Crime Crisis (TT)3 December 2011 BBC News Latin America
The fast patrol boat and its coastguard crew are about to start their nightly patrol of the territorial waters off the west coast of Trinidad. The country's location just 11km (seven miles) off the South American coast makes it an ideal staging post in the shipment of cocaine to the US and European markets. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, some 3% of cocaine entering the US comes from sea routes. The Caribbean Sea has declined as a smuggling route but the concern is that it will regain its importance as efforts continue to target trafficking via Mexico. And that is why Washington is renewing its focus on the region. Murder spike The US has spent $139m (£89m) since 2010 to train regional security forces. The US Coastguard is providing boats and equipment to some of the smaller Caribbean islands and improving the screening of containers bound for the US. …. That impact came to fore in August when there were 11 murders in 48 hours, killings the authorities blamed on a drug gang turf war. In response, the government imposed a state of emergency that gave the army forces the same powers as the police. All were allowed to search and arrest without a warrant. An overnight curfew was imposed on Port of Spain and surrounding areas, and also on the other urban centers considered crime "hotspots". The restrictions were lifted after several weeks, but military checkpoints and searches are still in place. Since the clampdown, the government says cocaine and marijuana with a street value of about $250m has been seized. "The criminal elements had a thriving business; they were practically running this country and the government was sitting back," says Gary Griffith, national security adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. "They're upset that we've messed up their business, their trade, their industry, and they plan to retaliate." Skepticism On 25 November, Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said the security forces had uncovered a plot to assassinate her and several government ministers. The nature of the threat was not made clear but Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said the security forces had "thwarted what is an evil, devious act of treason". …. Business leaders initially supported the curfew and the state of emergency, as the fallout from crime was estimated to add between 20% to 50% to costs, says Catherine Kumar from the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce. But not anymore. "We aren't seeing the benefits, it's time now for us to get back to business as usual," she says. Luxury lifestyles According to the government, there have been 305 murders so far this year, down on 443 at the same time last year. The security crackdown had taken 173 weapons off the streets, and 13,000 rounds of ammunition have been seized. But some feel the crime measures are not tackling the heart of the problem. …. Mr. Griffith says that going after illicit funds will be the next stage of the fight against the traffickers. "When you look into their bank accounts or salary they have £500 but yet they have luxury cars and boats," he says. Local people are convinced that big business, like in much of the world, is involved in the drugs trade. "When you hear of TT$1.5bn of drugs being taken off the road, it's not the small man, they can't afford it. So it doesn't make us feel good that there are members of the business community who are involved," says Ms Kumar. Given the scale of the crime, the prime minister has insisted that the drug traffickers still pose a threat to Trinidad and Tobago. She has also indicated the state of emergency is not likely to continue beyond 5 December, according to local media. But the longer the measure continues, the more polarizing it becomes between those who believe that restrictions on civil liberties are a price worth paying to reduce crime and others who believe that the measures have gone far enough already. Source: [www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15964364] Return to Contents Guatemalan Police Rescue Kidnapped Mexican Boy (GT)5 DECEMBER 2011 Mena
Return to Contents OPINION AND ANALYSISMexicos Président Calederon says Drug Cartels Threaten Democracy (DF)4 December 2011 Los Angeles Times
Return to Contents Snipping the Bud: Prep Work is a Payday in the Marijuana Business (CA)2 December 2011 Los Angeles Times
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He was happy to find this particular job, making about $200 a day, with not much risk. "Much better than working with a crazy guy in the middle of the woods with an AK-47," he said. This season his boss was an affable young man with a patchy beard, a wool cap and skinny jeans, who oversaw the operation as "trim manager." He wielded no weaponry; he was a bonsai enthusiast, and preferred audio books and NPR to keep minds engaged during the tedious work. The members of his crew, ages 22 to 32, had never met before this job and came here to Sonoma County from as far as Michigan and Louisiana. The rise of the medical marijuana industry has brought new growers, new techniques and higher visibility to the Northern California growing scene — both state-sanctioned and pure outlaw — and created a demand for more workers. The "trim circle," once a highly secretive, friends-and-family affair, now draws counterculture pilgrims from around the world. When authorities busted a large grow in Humboldt County in late October, the arrests included trimmers from Spain, France, Ukraine, Australia and Canada. "We're seeing a lot more of the foreign people coming in," Humboldt Dist. Atty. said. "It's sort of the new Gold Rush." From September through November, trimmers wander the streets of old logging towns with their dusty sleeping-bags and Fiskars, pruning scissors, networking with locals and fellow travelers at music festivals, bars and coffee shops. Some of the bolder ones stand on the side of the road with cardboard signs scrawled in marijuanese: "Have Fiskars, Will Work." In some cases, growers and trimmers openly seek each other out on Craigslist: "Need helping hand with trimming my 'rose bushes,'" read a posting on Oct. 21 from Arcata. "It's that time of the year, and I need a helping hand with the last bit of trimming. Females are preferred since I am in my 20s, so I like to keep it around my age. I'm a fun guy, and you'd have a great time." ….
State law allows collectives of patients to grow marijuana for doctor-recommended medical use. The federal government sees all marijuana use and production as illegal and, as part of a recent nationwide crackdown, raided the garden of a collective in Mendocino County that had even the sheriff's blessing. Many in the business suspect the enforcement will drive many growers complying with the state law underground. But how many people fit this category is anybody's guess. With no real state regulation, the line between the medical cannabis market and the plain-old illegal one has been murky. Growers can easily sell to both, trimmers work for both, and consumers can buy from both. During the holiday season, when there is a glut of cheap marijuana after the harvest, dispensaries in the Bay Area report a big drop in business as customers go to the black market. On a recent night, six mostly dreadlocked trimmers from a grow in Calistoga dined at the upscale Sea Thai Bistro in Santa Rosa after a long day of work. They reeked of pot, but no one seemed to care. Their circle came together mostly through the music scene and various peace-love-and-anarchy gatherings. At the world Rainbow Gathering in Argentina in March, a woman, 21, of Israel met a German couple, he was 29, and she was 32. The Israeli woman traveled with her sister to Northern California, where she met a grower while listening to a band at a bar. She got a job and invited the Germans to come take part. They joined three others from California and a brother and sister from Alaska. The grow straddled the medical and illicit markets, selling to dispensaries and an illegal dealer in Kentucky, who paid much more. That didn't matter to them; the line seemed artificial. And while they supported full legalization, at least some suspected it would spell the end to this lifestyle. "They would not pay us so good if it was legal," said the German man said. "If it's legal, I won't come back, because it'll be $7 an hour." It's not just that the price of marijuana will plummet, he said. It's that growers pay for trust as much as for labor. "If it's legal, they don't need people to trust." The Sebastopol trim operated under the aegis of medical cannabis laws, with the product going to a dispensary in the Bay Area. All the trimmers had joined the collective; they were technically patients. The man from Oregon removed a branch of cured marijuana from a black trash bag, cut off the wizened flower buds and gently placed them in his tray. ….
The work requires a deft hand. …. Paid by the pound, they were, in a sense, competing against each other. ….
One man from the Bay Area, last worked on a trim circle in Eureka, where he was not allowed to leave the house for two months. "They see anybody coming or going as a liability," he explained. One day, a man in a suit, whom the trimmers took to be a member of the Mexican Mafia, came and took half the crop. he had to fight to get his pay. Another from Massachusetts originally, took leave from his job on a tugboat in Louisiana to go to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, met people who knew the trim scene, and ended up here. Another man was a drifter, working at restaurants and ski resorts and the marijuana harvest. ….
"Legit" is a relative term. The windows were blocked off for a reason. They asked a visitor to be blindfolded for the final half a mile to the house. This caution was partially in fear of robberies, but just as much to avoid raids by federal law enforcement. ….
They joked that they were living a season of "The Real World," the long-running reality show in which young adults from different backgrounds are thrust together in a house. On other trims, they worked with people from England, Japan, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and Israel. ….
The youngest trimmer added, "We've all made plans to meet up next summer." By Thanksgiving, the marijuana would be delivered and the trimmers dispersed, back to their old lives — until next fall. Source: [www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1202-marijuana-trim-20111202%2c0%2c2941044.story?page=2&obref=obnetwork] Return to Contents Democratic Rep from IL: Undocumented Immigrants Should Carry Document Proving Ties to US (DC)5 December 2011 Huff Post Chicago WASHINGTON – Democratic Rep from Ill. urged undocumented immigrants on Friday to carry copies of documents that can prove their strong ties to the United States, such as high school transcripts, marriage certificates to U.S. citizens, and U.S.-born children's birth certificates. "The local cops are still going to get you for driving without a license, or not coming to a complete stop, or simply making up that your taillight was out," he said at a press conference. "But when they take you to Secretary of DHS officers at ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], what should happen is that you should show them that you have strong ties and when they run your record and it shows you have no criminal history, you should be allowed to go free right there and then." The Rep, a longtime supporter of immigration reform, recently visited Alabama and South Carolina to see the impact of their immigration enforcement laws firsthand. During the Alabama visit last week, a group of House Democrats heard from residents, including undocumented immigrants, about their experiences with the law. Both state legislatures passed laws that, like Arizona's S.B. 1070, allow police to inquire about immigration status during stops, should they "reasonably suspect" the individual is an undocumented immigrant. The Department of Justice sued both states, along with Arizona and Utah, to block the states' immigration laws on the grounds that they preempt federal authority over immigration. Nearly 40 House Democrats signed an amicus brief last week in support of the lawsuit against Alabama's H.B. 56. But some House Democrats want to see the Obama administration do more to block these laws in states. When DHS Secretary meets with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus next week, the Rep said he plans to ask her whether the government is deporting people arrested under the Alabama law. "They cannot on one hand fight against the legislation ... and on the other hand deport the very people who are victimized by that law," he said. "There has to be some consistency in how it is we look at the law." In the meantime, he said undocumented immigrants should be sure they can prove ties to the United States that might make them eligible for prosecutorial discretion. Under an Obama administration policy announced on Aug. 18, some 300,000 deportation cases will be reviewed with the aim of closing those deemed low priority. Undocumented immigrants who are related to military service members, have U.S. citizen spouses or children, who came to the country when they were younger than 18, or are elderly or disabled may be allowed to stay under the policy, as long as they do not have a criminal record. To prove they could benefit from that policy, undocumented immigrants around the country could carry or keep available records of their spouses and children, including documents proving they are related to someone in the military, the Rep from IL said. The congressman knows from past experience that proving strong ties to the United States can help undocumented immigrants get out of detention. He helped a South Carolina man get released by immigration authorities this week. The man was picked up by police for a traffic violation and found to be in the country illegally. He was able to prove, with the Representative’s help, that he had entered the United States as a child, had a citizen wife and children and had no previous arrest record. He was released, but he remains in deportation proceedings. House Democrats said they will continue to fight the Alabama immigration law, although they acknowledged that the best solution, comprehensive immigration reform, is likely impossible during this congressional session. "Looking at the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I doubt very much that we will see the reform that's necessary in this Congress," the Democratic Rep from CA, ranking member of the House Immigration Subcommittee, said at the press conference. "In the meanwhile, [we should] make sure that the Constitution is applied. The laws are unconstitutional." Source: [www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/luis-gutierrez-undocumented-immigrants_n_1125733.html?ref=chicago&ir=Chicago] Return to Contents What Does ‘Illegal immigration’ Really Mean ?5 December 2011 Newsworks
The real question—the real debate that we and our elected representatives in Congress must have—is this: Is undocumented immigration immoral? And, if so, how immoral? And what level of retribution does it deserve? What is the appropriate penalty for the young man who risks death crossing a border to be a migrant farm worker? Right now, it's a one-way ticket out of here and an invitation to try again. It's hard to make America less appealing to someone who hungers so much for a better life. How do we stop the undocumented children who grew up here—who've only known life here—from thinking that they, too, are American and deserve the freedom or liberty that comes with an education, even though they egregiously failed to fill out the proper paperwork as a toddler? I'll admit that I really don't care if someone cuts the line into America. I actually do think undocumented immigration is about as awful as failing to get your car registered and inspected. Both serve important purposes, and should give police probable cause to do some extra poking around, but really deserve no more than a fine. Neither one offends my moral convictions, at least not the way robbery, assault, and other similarly punished crimes do. Obviously, we need a secure process to vet immigrants in order to prevent terrorists and criminals from entering. Now, before you start raving about Mexican drug cartels, let me remind you that the vast majority of Hispanic immigrants are law abiding, much like the vast majority of Italian immigrants who, despite the Mafia, were law abiding too. Secondly, the resources we waste tracking down and deporting day laborers could be better spent tracking down and deporting gang members. Job creators More importantly, immigration is actually good for America. Immigrants don't take our jobs, they create our jobs. According to a Small Business Administration study, immigrants are 30% more likely to start a business than non-immigrants. Moreover, one of the key factors in economic growth is population growth. Without immigration, our economy would stagnate because, collectively, Americans are getting older and having fewer kids. A 2009 Cato Institute study found that opening the door to more immigrants would lead to economic gains of $180 billion annually, whereas more enforcement would result in an annual $80 billion in economic loss, marked by fewer jobs, less investment and lower levels of consumption. Now, you may disagree and think, despite the evidence to the contrary, that more immigration is a bad thing. That's fine—let's have that debate, which is a debate worth having. But let us emerge from the endless cycle of "illegal immigrants are criminals" against "we are a nation of immigrants." Sure, they both may be true, but that's not really saying much, now is it? Source: [www.newsworks.org/index.php/speak-easy-archive/item/30725-what-does-illegal-immigration-really-mean] Return to Contents Directory: gifiles -> attach -> 137 attach -> Russia 110204 Basic Political Developments 137 -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution attach -> South Korea and Brazil: Brazilian’s Plan and Korean Visit Download 162.51 Kb. Share with your friends:
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