Source: http://peoplesmovementsassembly.blogspot.com/2012/11/
Timestamp: 2017-09-21 22:54:05+00:00

Document:
Peoples Movements Assembly: Asamblea de los Movimientos Sociales: November 2012
Palestina, Estado observador
Logro histórico: Palestina, Estado observador no miembro de la ONU
Miles celebran en Gaza y Cisjordania
Adiós a la entidad sin personalidad jurídica y política
Mahmoud Abbas, presidente de la Autoridad Nacional Palestina, ayer en su discurso de 22 minutos ante el pleno de la Asamblea General de la ONUFoto Reuters
Afp, Reuters, Dpa y Notimex
Viernes 30 de noviembre de 2012, p. 33
Nueva York, 29 de noviembre. Palestina fue reconocida hoy como Estado observador no miembro de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU), en histórica sesión de la Asamblea General del organismo en la que una abrumadora mayoría de países votó favorablemente la resolución presentada, no obstante la labor de Israel y Estados Unidos por tratar de desvirtuar su trascendencia en la solución del conflicto palestino-israelí.
De los 193 estados miembros de la ONU, 138 –incluidos México, Francia, España e Italia– votaron a favor de la resolución no vinculante, nueve sufragaron en contra, con Estados Unidos e Israel al frente, y 41 se abstuvieron, entre ellos Alemania y Gran Bretaña.
Con esta histórica decisión, Palestina dejó de ser una entidad sin personalidad jurídica y política, estará en condiciones de firmar tratados internacionales y será tratada como cualquier otro país del mundo en las agencias especializadas de la ONU, incluido el Tribunal Penal Internacional (TPI), ante el cual las autoridades palestinas podrán presentar denuncias por violaciones a los derechos humanos, que hasta ahora han quedado en el limbo. También será suceptible de represalias económicas de Washington y Tel Aviv.
Aniversario de la resolución de 1947
La aprobación de Palestina como observador no miembro ocurrió en el 65 aniversario de la resolución de la ONU que ordenó la partición del territorio en dos estados, uno judío y otro árabe , lo que llevó dos años más tarde a la creación del primero, pero no del segundo.
El estatus adquirido hoy por Palestina le abre el camino para ser reconocido como Estado con plenos derechos en la ONU, como ha sido el caso de otros países en los 67 años de vida del organismo internacional. Algunos medios de información en el mundo, incluida la televisora ABC, señalaron que el reconocimiento alcanzado confiere implícitamente a Palestina el rango de Estado, a pesar de que esto es sólo el comienzo de un proceso institucional que llevará tiempo.
La sesión de la Asamblea General comenzó a las tres de la tarde en Nueva York con discursos del secretario general de la ONU, el sudcoreano Ban Ki-moon, y del presidente de la Autoridad Nacional Palestina (ANP), Mahmoud Abbas, pero también desde temprano los gobiernos de Israel y Estados Unidos dijeron que la resolución adoptada hoy en nada cambiará la realidad en el terreno del conflicto y aleja la posibilidad de crear un Estado palestino.
Es el momento de actuar y el momento de avanzar , dijo Abbas al solicitar apoyo para firmar el acta de nacimiento del Estado Palestino, reconocimiento –agregó– que constituye la última oportunidad de paz con Israel.
Su respaldo le dará una razón de esperanza a un pueblo asediado por una ocupación racista y colonialista ; el pueblo palestino no aceptará menos que la independencia del Estado de Palestina, con Jerusalén del este como su capital, sobre el territorio ocupado en 1967 (Gaza y Cisjordania), para vivir en paz y seguridad junto a Israel , puntualizó.
Abbas recibió una ovación antes de comenzar su discurso, y una vez más al concluir su alocución, que duró 22 minutos.
En Ramallá, la sede el gobierno palestino en Cisjordania, unas tres mil personas se concentraron inicialmente en el centro de la ciudad para ver y escuchar el discurso de su líder, en transmisión televisiva directa desde Nueva York. El resultado de la votación fue recibido con proclamaciones de larga vida a Palestina y más gente se sumó a las celebraciones.
En otras localidades cisjordanas, incluso en Jerusalén este que paulatina e ilegalmente ha sido poblada por israelíes, también hubo manifestaciones callejeras de júbilo. En la ciudad de Gaza, que todavía restaña las heridas por el intenso bombardeo israelí entre el 14 y 21 de noviembre, la gente ondeó banderas de Palestina para celebrar este hecho histórico; la celebración incluso comenzó horas antes de la votación en Nueva York.
Casi no puedo traducir mis sentimientos en palabras , dijo Mohamed Humaid, de 27 años, habitante en Gaza. Todo lo que puedo decir es que estoy orgulloso de ser palestino , agregó.
También de cara a la Asamblea General, Ban pidió a palestinos e israelíes que rompan con la mentalidad de suma cero , en la que no puede haber cabida más que para un Estado u otro.
Hace 65 años, la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas adoptó la resolución 181 que planteó la partición del territorio (entonces bajo el mandato del organismo) en dos estados. Transcurrido este tiempo, esta visión de la solución de dos estados permanece trágicamente incumplida , dijo Ban.
Medio Oriente está cambiando rápida y profundamente, por lo que es más urgente que nunca para la comunidad internacional y las partes en conflicto intensificar esfuerzos hacia la paz , añadió.
Por la mañana en Israel, el primer ministro Benjamin Netanyahu afirmó que la decisión en la ONU no cambiará nada en el terreno y no promoverá la creación de un Estado palestino, sino que la alejará .
Algunos medios israelíes criticaron a Netanyahu en los últimos días por la gran derrota diplomática , y en una aparente respuesta, el jefe de gobierno aconsejó a los israelíes y a la comunidad internacional que “no se dejen impresionar por los aplausos en la Asamblea General de la ONU. No importa cuántas manos se alcen contra nosotros, no hay fuerza en el mundo que me haga ceder en la seguridad de Israel.
La paz sólo se puede conseguir a través de las negociaciones directas sin condiciones previas y no con decisiones unilaterales de la ONU, que no tienen en cuenta la necesidad de existencia y seguridad de Israel , añadió.
Más tarde, cuando en Israel ya era casi la medianoche, la oficina de Netanyahu difundió un comunicado en el que señaló que el discurso de Abbas estuvo lleno de odio y veneno contra Israel, así como de mentiras y propaganda falaz contra el ejército israelí y sus ciudadanos .
También desestimaron la decisión de la Asamblea General, la secretaria estadunidense de Estado, Hillary Clinton, y la representante de Washington ante la ONU, Susan Rice.
Clinton dijo que la resolución la asamblea general fue desafortunada y contraproducente porque genera más obstáculos para la paz, mientras Rice puntualizó que esta resolución no establece un Estado palestino .
Al justificar su abstención respecto de la resolución, el ministro alemán de Relaciones Exteriores, Guido Westerwelle, explicó: en nuestra opinión hay dudas de que el paso que darán hoy los palestinos sirva al proceso de paz en estos momentos y tememos que, más bien, lleve a que se endurezcan las posiciones .
El largo sendero recorrido por Palestina para constituirse como Estado comenzó con la resolución de 1947, pero en 1974 tomó un sentido más claro, cuando su líder histórico, Yasser Arafat, consiguió que la ONU reconociera la soberanía e independencia del pueblo palestino.
En noviembre de 1988, el dirigente reconoció el derecho de Israel a su existencia y en 1993 fueron concertados los acuerdos de Oslo, que aprobaron la formación de la autogestión palestina , convertida luego en la Autoridad Nacional Palestina.
La resolución aprobada hoy no dará derecho de voto a Palestina en la Asamblea General, pero podrá tener representantes en muchos de los comités especializados de la ONU, en los que se abordan temas que atañen la vida de los palestinos y de sus relaciones con el resto del mundo, hasta ahora bajo la supervisión del Estado de Israel, en su calidad de país ocupante. Sólo las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad tienen carácter vinculante.
Posted by Sin Fronteras at 7:23 AM No comments:
10mo Aniversario del Cese del Bombardeo en Vieques 1ero de Mayo de 2013, celebrado en Vieques
otas presentadas por R. Rabin durante el primer diálogo sobre el 10mo Aniversario del Cese del Bombardeo en Vieques 1ero de Mayo de 2013, celebrado en Vieques el pasado domingo, 25 de noviembre de 2012
Felicitamos a Ismael por la iniciativa de convocar esta conversación comunitaria.
Que nos cogió diez años para esto… debe ser tema de sincera reflexión individual y colectiva.
Todos entendemos la importancia de conmemorar ese momento tan crítico en la historia de Vieques y de Puerto Rico. Sin embargo, estamos igualmente conciente de la urgencia de aprovechar esta coyuntura para retomar los muchos temas que todavía nos agobian a una década del cese del bombardeo.
Durante la intensa lucha de 1999 a 2003 hubo una amplísima participación. En Vieques, tanto en la zona de tiro – campamentos de resistencia civil - como en la zona civil, surgieron un sinnúmero de organizaciones de base:
(corro el riesgo de omitr a mucha gente, grupos, acciones, con el fin de proveer una mirada a la grandeza de ese momento de valor y sacrificio; agradecería mucho recibir info. para completar la lista de organizaciones, acciones, personas claves.. etc.)
Monte David
Campamento Mapepe
Colectivo Cayo La Yayí
Campamento Lula Tirado
Campamento del Congreso Nacional Hostosiano (La Escuelita)
Campamento de los grupos sindicalistas
Campamento de los Ecuménicos
Campamento Angel Rodríguez Cristóbal
Campamento Estudiantes Universitarios
Campamento del Amolao
Campamento del PIP
Campamento de los Maestros (FMPR)
Campamento Justicia y Paz
Campamento Luis Guadalupe
Jinetes por la Paz
Alianza de Mujeres
Iglesia Católica (P. Nelson)
Juventud Viequense Unida
Uniones de Vieques
Pescadores viequenses
Pupa (Alba Encarnación)
Campamento Milivy
Viequenses Ausentes
Faro de Manolín Silva
Universitarios (FUPI, APPU, y mucho más, y de tantos recintos!)
Coordinadora Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques
Concilio Ecuménico por la Paz de Vieques
Don José Aponte/Municipio Caguas
Frente Socialista/Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores
Proyecto Caribeño de Justicia Paz
Misión Industrial
Parroquia del Volcán (P. Alvaro)
Congreso Nacional Hostosiano
Todo Cayey con Vieques
La Montaña con Vieques
Mayaguezanos con Vieques: alertas y disponibles
Empleados Federales con Vieques
Médicos por Vieques
Tantas uniones obreras….
Escuela de Trabajo Social UPR
Colectivo de Trabajo en Apoyo a Vieques
Internacional (EU y otros países)
Nueva York – son demasiados para nombrar aquí!
Todo Massachussetts con Vieques (Boston, Springfield)
Connecticut con Vieques (Hartford)
Washington DC (Flavio Cumpiano)
Durante el proceso de la desobediencia civil entre 2000 y 2003, aproximadamente 1500 arrestad@s (además de las aproximadamente 250 personas que ocupaban las zonas militares arrestadas el 4 de mayo de 2000).
Millones más participaron: escribieron cartas, organizaron y participaron en piquetes, actividades en escuelas, iglesias, lugares de trabajo, universidades, orando, cantando, pintando, cocinando, transportando, donando, hospedando, animando….
Una combinación de factores – el evento catalítico de la muerte de David Sanes el 19 de abril de 1999; la lucha en la calle, acciones de desobediencia civil pacífica, acciones violentas contra militares, trabajos de cabildeo en PR y EU y a nivel internacional, acciones importantes de la clase artística de PR y el sector religioso - y las realidades histórico-políticas del momento – se conjugaron para producir la gran victoria de 1 de mayo de 2003
Los temas principales articulados durante esa lucha se recogieron en las 4 D’s:
Desmilitarización - a pesar del cese del bombardeo, los militares todavía mandan sobre la mayor parte de la isla, a cargo de la limpieza, operan su Radar Relocalizable Más Allá del Horizone en la zona suroeste de Vieques y controlan el punto más alto de la isla, Monte Pirata.
Descontaminación está en manos de la Marina y las compañías extranjeras que extraen millones de dólares y utilizan metodologías inapropiadas; la comunidad no tiene ninguna participación en el proceso
Devolución: este tema crucial está totalmente ausente de los procesos políticos en Vieques, Puerto Rico, Washington.
Desarrollo: especulación; desplazamiento; control extranjero sobre el turismo y otros sectores de la economía, describen la situación actual. El Grupo de Apoyo Profesional y Técnico para el Desarrollo Sostenible de Vieques (GAPT) nos ofreció una oportunidad única para crear una economía justa, genuinamente viequense. Sin embargo, tanto las Guías para el Desarrollo Sostenible (GAPT) como el Plan Maestro para el Desarrollo Sustentable – la ley actual que rige el desarrollo socio-económico de Vieques - se han ignorado por ambos partidos en el poder durante estos diez años. En lugar de un proceso de desarrollo a fin con lo articulado paralelamente con la lucha, los alcaldes viequenses durante esta década han permitido a los ingenieros y ‘desarrollistas’ partidarios a saquear el fondo público sin beneficios para el pueblo.
Trabajos importantes en estos diez años:
• Esporádicas entradas a la zona de tiro para presionar por la descontaminación, contra las detonaciones abiertas, etc.
• Proyectos cooperativos como la Cooperativa Cine-Teatro
• Incubadora de Microempresas Bieke
• Relevo por la Vida
• Servicios médicos comunitarios
• Radio Vieques (CPRDV)
• Trabajos de Casa Pueblo y científicos boricuas y otros ante los atropellos de la ATSDR
• Vieques en el Foro Social Mundial y de Puerto Rico
• La obra fílmica de Andrés Nieves
• Festival de los Reyes Magos (Comité de Trabajo en Apoyo a Vieques)
• Trabajo musical de Lady M y McNatra, hiphoperos viequenses
• Caso Vieques en la ONU
• Caso legal de 7000 viequenses vs. la Marina por daños a la salud
• Diálogo Internacional de Municiones Subacuáticos
• Trabajos de la Asociación Nacional de Derecho Ambiental (ANDA) en apoyo a la comunidad de Vieques
• Reciente denuncia de Jorge Fernández Porto et al vis a vis plan militar de encercar, en lugar de limpiar, una zona de contaminación militar en la parte oeste de Vieques
El 10mo aniversario debe promover acciones para conmemorar la lucha (“prohibido olvidar”) y para retomar las luchas comunitarias por la justicia y la paz de Vieques.
Este ejercicio de hoy (25 nov.) es, entiendo, el comienzo de un diálogo, un torbellino de ideas, que debe incluir cada sector de la comunidad que participó en las acciones gloriosas de 1999-2003 y todo el mundo interesado en seguir la lucha por la justicia y la paz de Vieques. Se busca, en este proceso, desarrollar una multiplicidad de acciones, limitada únicamente por nuestros niveles de energía y creatividad.
Posted by Sin Fronteras at 3:55 PM No comments:
Keystone XL pipeline protesters
Keystone XL pipeline protesters released, tar sands ‘Blockade’ vows to continue
By Newsmonger
Tuesday marks just the second week of the new presidency and already protestors have descended on the nation’s capital and held rallies across the nation. They are not opposing the election outcome, but a pipeline that would carry tar sands from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.
Thousands of citizens took to the streets around the White House Sunday following Bill McKibben’s 350.org Do the Math lecture to protest TransCanada’s plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline.
On Monday, the Tar Sands Blockade, some of whose members have been living in East Texas trees blocking construction of the southern portion of the pipeline route for 59 days, held solidarity actions nationwide from Florida to Oregon with some ending in pepper spray and arrests.
“In D.C., members went into the Canadian Embassy and released a ‘No Tar Sands’ banner with balloons in the atrium. Some supporters got arrested in Florida when they tried to personally deliver a letter to the manager of a Deutsche Bank [an investor of the pipeline]. People were arrested in Nacogdoches for blocking the path of cherry pickers rolling in to rip tree sitters from their platforms,” Rue Tarsby a representative of the Tar Sands Blockade said. (Some members of the Tar Sands Blockade have adopted pseudonyms in an effort to “avoid personal lawsuits that have been filed by TransCanada to keep people from protesting. Especially in East Texas, they’ve been keeping a close eye on us, documenting and filing lawsuits to intimidate anyone they can,” Tarsby says.)
The action in Nacogdoches was the biggest and drew more than 100 supporters. Four people locked themselves to machinery and three others attempted to establish a second tree village in the pathway of the pipeline. The East Texas affair was the most confrontational with officers arresting 11 and pepper spraying many others. By Tuesday evening, however, the Tar Sands Blockade had raised $14,000 to post bail and get those arrested in Texas out for the Thanksgiving holiday.
This is a sign of things to come according to both 350.org and the Tar Sands Blockade as a decision on the second presidential permit request for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline looms.
President Obama denied the first presidential permit request to approve the Keystone XL pipeline in January citing the need for a thorough environmental review, one which would not be complete until early 2013 at best. Two months later, however, Obama began publicly supporting the fast track of the southern portion of the line. Construction started in August and there have been people getting arrested at actions ever since.
Although 350.org’s 21-city tour is not coming through this time, Texas is in the center spotlight right now as it’s the only place where construction has actually started.
“I had the honor of being in the capitol of Texas last month to talk about the campaign we are running. We’ll do our best to get the word to the whole U.S. and, beginning in June, to the other 190 countries,” Daniel Kessler from 350.org said.
Opposition to the pipeline has also formed a head-scratching partnership between the Sierra Club and the East Texas Tea Party and resulted in the arrest of a 78-year-old grandma for trespassing on her own property in Winnsboro (with Darryl Hannah no less.)
The Tea Party members are fighting the pipeline for perceived abuses of eminent domain, the ability of public or private entity to take or force the sale of private property. Some landowners complain the pipeline is a threat to democracy itself, since those who don’t willingly sign over their land are forced to watch as it is subsequently condemned and taken away — as was the case with Julia Trigg Crawford. A Lamar County Court judge ruled in favor of TransCanada’s condemnation of Crawford’s land, although Crawford is appealing.
So what’s all the ruckus about another oil pipeline?
Beyond the ramifications of mining these oil-bearing sands and refining them into usable petroleum (a process that requires several times more CO2 than the development of traditional oil fields), contamination via spills is a major concern to residents living around the pipeline. Existing tar sands pipelines have already suffered more spills than forecast by the oil companies. Enbridge’s infamous Keystone I pipeline, one-third the size of the proposed Keystone XL expansion project, experienced 12 spills in its first year of operation. And when spills do happen, cleanup is incredibly difficult. Two years after Enbridge leaked tars sands into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, parts of the river are still restricted from public use because they have not been able to clean up the site, despite federal and state efforts.
Tar Sands Blockaders promise that the resistance in Texas will continue because, although the construction on the southern leg of the Keystone XL is happening, the transcontinental pipeline has not yet been officially approved.
Posted by Sin Fronteras at 12:15 PM No comments:
Texas police helicopter fires on immigrants, killing two
A Texas state police helicopter opened fire on a truckload of fleeing immigrants Thursday, killing two and wounding at least one other.
The deadly incident took place near La Joya, Texas, about 70 miles northwest of Brownsville. State authorities reported that it began when Texas Parks and Wildlife police began pursuing a red pickup truck packed with immigrant workers, who were suspected of having crossed the border from Mexico.
When the pickup failed to stop for the game wardens, they called in the Texas Department of Public Safety, which sent the helicopter. DPS helicopters patrolling the border area carry snipers armed with high-powered rifles.
A spokesperson for the DPS, also known as the Texas Rangers, initially called the shooting an “enforcement action,” but declined to comment further on the killings. On Friday, the agency issued a statement claiming that the police had fired on the vehicle in an attempt to disable it.
The DPS added that the vehicle was traveling at “reckless speeds” and appeared to be a carrying a “typical covered drug load.” After the killings and the recovery of the truck, however, no drugs were found.
The regulations governing the Texas Rangers allow them to fire on vehicles carrying fleeing suspects, a procedure that is formally banned by most law enforcement agencies in the state and nationally. As Thursday’s incident demonstrated, the Rangers’ rules of engagement have turned the border into a combat zone.
Eight passengers of the vehicle were arrested after the shooting. Seven of them were from Guatemala. A Guatemalan government official expressed shock over the incident.
“This incident surprises us because we had never seen force being used from a helicopter... What had happened in the past were car pursuits and, in some cases, the shooting of undocumented persons,” said Rita Claverie, Guatemala’s deputy minister of foreign relations.
Since 2007, the Texas state government headed by Republican Governor Rick Perry has poured some $600 million into what it has dubbed Operation Border Star, an effort to deploy militarized state and local police units along the border.
In addition to the armed helicopters, the Texas Rangers have deployed six armored high-speed gunboats on the Rio Grande River. Each of them is mounted with six .30-caliber fully automatic machine guns capable of firing 900 rounds a minute on the Rio Grande River.
The state also recently purchased a $7.4 million high-altitude spy plane equipped with high-resolution cameras and thermal-imaging capabilities.
Also operating on the border are Ranger Reconnaissance Teams, uniformed in combat fatigues and carrying assault rifles. Other funding has gone to pay overtime to local sheriff’s and police departments to deploy more cops on the border.
The Texas police measures that claimed the lives of two unarmed immigrants Thursday are part of a broader militarization of the 2,000-mile-long US-Mexican border that has produced steadily escalating brutality and death.
In addition to the latest killings in Texas, there have been at least four other unarmed people shot to death by federal agents in the border area just since July.
The most recent, the October 10 killing of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez by Border Patrol agents shooting through the border fence from Nogales, Arizona, prompted outrage in Mexico and a condemnation by the United Nations human rights division.
“There have been very many young people, teenagers, who have been killed at the border,” Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a news conference in Geneva last week. “The reports reaching me are that there has been excessive use of force by the US border patrols while they are enforcing the immigration laws.”
The Border Patrol claimed that its agents fired on the 16-year-old as he and others were throwing rocks at them, a form of deadly retaliation that the agency finds legitimate. Witnesses in Nogales said that the youth’s body was riddled with bullets and that he had been shot in the back.
The shooting of Elena Rodriguez came just a week after another incident in which Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie was shot to death on October 2 in southern Arizona. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer and other right-wing anti-immigrant politicians seized upon the shooting to demand a greater crackdown to secure the border.
An investigation, however, established that Ivie was the victim of “friendly fire” resulting from the militarized atmosphere that already exists. Having gone to check a tripped ground sensor, he saw someone approaching and fired. The person approaching was another Border Patrol agent who returned fire, killing Ivie.
Since 2010, at least 18 people have been killed by the Border Patrol. In other recent incidents:
Valeria “Munique” Tachiquin Alvarado, a 32-year-old mother of five and a US citizen, was shot to death on September 28 by Border Patrol agents who came upon her while searching for an undocumented immigrant in Chula Vista, California. The Border Patrol claimed that its agent fired through Alvarado’s windshield after she struck him with her car and drove away as he clung to her hood. But witnesses said the agent fired while standing in front of the car, which some insisted was backing away from him. The agent has been identified as Justin Tackett, who was hired by the Border Patrol after being forced out of the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department, which described him as “a person who cannot be trusted with a badge or a gun.”
On September 3, Border Patrol agents in a patrol boat shot and killed Guillermo Arevalo Pedroza, a 36-year-old Mexican bricklayer, who was celebrating his wife’s birthday with a cookout by the Rio Bravo in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just south of Laredo, Texas. Again the agents said someone had thrown rocks at them, a claim that witnesses denied.
On July 8, Juan Pablo Perez-Santillan, 30, was shot while standing on the Mexican side of the border across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. A lawsuit filed by the family against the US government recounts that Santillan was shot by an agent with a long-range rifle as he was showing a group of immigrants how to swim across the river. When his brother cried out for help, one of the agents replied in Spanish “let the dog die.”
The legal complaint argues: “This heinous act was apparently also the result of the ‘corporate culture’ or general mentality of the US Border Patrol—which the United States of America and its agencies have allowed to develop and go unchecked—regarding its unofficial ‘open season’ policy concerning the use of excessive and deadly force against Mexicans and other Latinos in the area of the Mexican-American border.”
Since 2004, Washington has doubled the number of Border Patrol agents to over 20,000, even as the rate of immigration has slowed substantially following the financial crisis of 2008 and the fall in employment in the US.
Posted by Sin Fronteras at 5:24 AM 1 comment:
Obama win because of Latino Voters In Election 2012
Elise FoleyBecome a fan
Latino Voters In Election 2012 Help Sweep Obama To Reelection
Posted: 11/07/2012 12:53 am EST Updated: 11/07/2012 7:29 am EST
Immigration, Video, Latino Politics, Latino Politics, Latino Vote 2012, Barack Obama Latino Vote,Latino Politics, Latino Politics, Immigration Latino Voters, Immigration Reform, Latino Politics, Latino Vote Election 2012, Latino Politics, Latino Voters Election 2012, Mitt Romney Immigration, Mitt Romney Latino Vote, San Francisco News
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama won reelection on Tuesday thanks in part to near-record levels of support from Latino voters, who came out in huge numbers to support him over GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
An impreMedia-Latino Decisions poll released Tuesday as an alternative to exit polls found Obama had won 75 percent of Latino voters nationwide, while exit polls found him with around 70 percent Latino support, with figures likely to change throughout the night as tallies come in from the West Coast.
Either way, the margins are likely bigger than ever before, and bad news for the GOP.
"Republicans are going to have to have a real serious conversation with themselves," said Eliseo Medina, an immigration reform advocate and secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union. "They need to repair their relationship with our community. ... They can wave goodbye to us if they don't get right with Latinos."
The country is becoming more diverse in general, with a growing Latino population and an even faster-growing Asian population. Those demographic changes will spell trouble for the Republican Party if it remains on in its current trajectory, among Latino voters in particular.
Immigration isn't the top issue for most -- jobs and the economy rank higher -- but it remains an important one, and for many Latino voters it's something of a litmus test. If a politician seems to disrespect immigrants or Latinos overall, or if the party seems uninterested in winning their votes, the support isn't going to come. This year, it didn't.
Polling shows that Latino voters not only felt they aligned better with Obama on many issues, including jobs and the economy, they also felt the Democratic Party seemed to actually care about getting their votes.
Republicans touted their unprecedented efforts in 2012 to win the Latino vote, from wider get out the vote efforts to more Spanish-language advertising. Romney's son Craig, a fluent Spanish-speaker from his time as a missionary in Chile, appeared on his behalf before Latino audiences, as did Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and a handful of other Latino Republicans.
Those unprecedented efforts didn't seem to pay off. Exit polls place Romney at winning 29 percent of the Latino vote, which is lower than Republican candidates received in 2008, 2004, and 2000. The lowest percentage of Latino voters won by a Republican was in 1996, when Bob Dole garnered only 21 percent of Latinos to former President Bill Clinton's record 72 percent.
Latino vote pollsters believe exit polls are even overestimating Romney's share this year. ImpreMedia and Latino Decisions' "election eve" poll was conducted in the final days of the race with Latinos who had either already voted or were certain they would. They found that only 23 percent of Latino voters supported Romney.
A look at the states shows particularly how far slanted Latinos are toward Democrats. Romney won in Arizona, one of the most Latino-heavy states in the nation. But it was despite major opposition from Latino voters, who will almost certainly be an even larger share of the population there in 2016. According to exit polls, 77 percent of Latino voters supported the president; the impreMedia-Latino Decisions put thatsupport at 79 percent.
Obama's win in Colorado, a key swing state, can be attributed in part to Latino voters, who make up about 20 percent of its population. The "election eve" poll found that 87 percent of Latino voters planned to vote for Obama. Election polls put that figurelower, at 74 percent. Either way, the margins were enough to help pull the state to the left for the president to eke out a victory.
In every state polled by impreMedia and Latino Decisions, immigration was a major factor in the decision-making process. Most Latino voters support the president's policies on the issue, even if he has not succeeded in enacting many of them.
The Dream Act, a bill to help undocumented young people, has support from a strong majority of Latino voters, and many said they became more enthusiastic about the president after his June announcement he would no longer deport some young undocumented immigrants who fit the same general requirements.
The impreMedia and Latino Decisions poll shows a pretty clear indicator of why many of those supporters may care strongly about immigration reform: 60 percent of those polled said they knew an undocumented immigrant.
Romney, on the other hand, took a hardline stance on immigration in the GOP primary and was never quite able to shake it as he moved into the general election. His calls for "self-deportation" -- making life difficult for undocumented immigrants until they left -- and for vetoing the Dream Act drew ire from immigration activists and Latino groups in general.
His party had enacted a string of anti-undocumented immigrant legislation in Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia, Indiana and Alabama, and had helped in the Senate to defeat the Dream Act in 2010.
There are plenty of people on the GOP side who have urged a softer tone on immigration, but it didn't seem to sink in with the Romney campaign until after the primary. In the final months of the campaign, he pitched his desire to find a solution for undocumented young people already in the country and advocated a broad fix for immigration problems.
Too little, too late, said Lawrence Benito, CEO of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which organized Latinos and other immigrants to vote for the president this year.
"Romney during the primaries put himself into a corner," he said. "He went to the right of everyone in the Republican field, even respected conservatives, and the Latino and the immigrant community was not fooled."
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