Red Venezuela
by: Daniel Nardini

         Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez intends to withdraw from the Organization of American States' (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Why? Because of a 300-page report put out by the Commission that details the lack of freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and journalist press freedoms in that country. The Venezuelan government's power is now so thorough that even mere criticism can land anyone in jail, and those who are known critics of the government are carefully watched. While the report noted advances in universal education, universal healthcare and a drastic reduction in crime, the Venezuelan government tolerates no organized opposition. The report was done by an independent panel of officials and lawyers who have examined the situation in Venezuela, and have concluded that Venezuela is now a largely unfree country.

      If one looks at the report, there is one anecdotal reference of the sheer number of Cuban personnel who are in the Venezuelan government training their Venezuelan counterparts on how to run the country. This part is very important. They are not only training their Venezuelan counterparts in how to administer health standards, law enforcement and local administration, but also how to conduct secret police operations, use of the government's newsmedia for propaganda purposes, and organizing campesinos into government controlled work units. In other words everything the Cubans have learned over the decades they are teaching the Venezuelans. They are trying to help Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Circles run the country on the Cuban model (or you might say a sort-of Chinese model).

          What is also important is that with the reforms carried out by Cuban President Raul Castro in Cuba the Cubans are providing the Venezuelans with a greatly modified form of their "socialism." This means that the Venezuelan government will encourage tourism to bring in badly needed revenue, and not dismantle private agriculture but rather provide more technical assistance for it to work more efficiently. And of course all of the country's natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold and steel production are being brought under the direct control of the government. And in a way the Cubans are learning that what works in Venezuela might also work in Cuba. Venezuela's technology in oil exploration and drilling will help the Cuban government do the same. This close-knit relationship between Cuba and Venezuela is changing the face of Venezuela and is making the country a Communist state. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report should be sounding alarm bells all across South America and in Washington, D.C. Sadly, it is not.

Ask An Italian
by: Daniel Nardini

         The column "Ask A Mexican" by Gustavo Arellano is a very popular and well-done series. Arellano answers all questions with wit, finesse and tongue-in-cheek humor. He gets some of the most off-the-wall questions and some very nasty ones. And it is almost always about what Americans think about Mexicans. Carried in almost 30 newspapers in the U.S. southwest, Arellano's column is one I highly recommend to my readers if ever they get a chance to search for his column online. One letter to "Ask A Mexican" came from someone in Arizona who said that he has worked with Mexicans for 25 years. The writer said that Mexicans do not "try" to "become American," and they have Mexican flags and Mexican flag stickers attached to their vehicles. The writer further states that the Mexicans bring down the wages and are trying to "flood" into this country. Well, Arellano gave a beautiful answer. He stated that this type of talk goes all the way back over 100 years with Samuel Gompers, and that while the immigrants may not "fit in" their children go to school and become Americans.

        The point should not be lost---the immigrant generation is the one that establishes the roots from where future American generations shall sprout. Arellano also made it clear that those born and raised in the United States do not necessarily understand what background the immigrants may come from nor what their lives are like. I can relate to this only too well. When I look at my great grandfather and my grandfather's lives, I see in many ways the Mexican immigrant experience as not being too different from the Italian immigrant experience. What most Americans do not realize is what their ancestry may have gone through in order to not only get to the United States but what they had to endure when they got here. My great grandfather was born a slave in the Italian states. He fought in the wars of Italian unification (1850-1867) in good part for his freedom as well as uniting the country. But Italian unification only brought high unemployment and extreme poverty. So he immigrated to America. My grandfather followed, and together they tried to make a living in this country. My great grandfather was killed in an industrial accident---no compensation. Since no one would hire my grandfather (yes, many argued then the Italians "brought down the wages"), he along with three other Italian immigrants started a small dairy business on the near north side of Chicago.

       No, he hardly spoke any English. It was extremely hard for him to start learning English in earnest and run a business at the same time. Eventually he learned English, although he always spoke it with a thick northern Italian accent. In his neighborhood Italian flags were as common as American flags. My grandfather married a nice Italian lady named Maria and they had nine sons and two daughters. My father told me that during World War II, FBI agents went into the Italian neighborhoods to question and haul off Italian immigrants and Americans of Italian descent for being "enemy aliens." I am sure my grandfather got more than his fair share of being called an "enemy alien" or a "t." This despite the fact he served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and despite the fact that his oldest son Daniel served in the U.S. Army in World War II. This does not include two other sons who served in the Korean War (1950-1953). So the arguments against Mexican immigrants today are not new---Italians suffered similar vicious discrimination and stereotyping a long time ago as well. And like Mexican immigrants today, Italian immigrants were discriminated against by other American workers and even by the unions of the time. This remained true until the unions recognized that it was better to include Italian workers than to discriminate against them.

            Eventually the children and grandchildren and even great grandchildren of these Italian immigrants have helped to change the face of this country. We cannot imagine what America would be like without the contributions of Italians. Arellano said to the writer that maybe he should try to help the Mexican immigrants he works with "become American." In other words help them in the workplace, help them form a union, help them with trying to have a better life for them and their families in the United States, and most important of all try to become a part of this country. Cursing them and telling them to be "Americanized" will not change the situation, nor make their lives any better. Sometimes we have to learn from the past in order to move forward.

The Exclusive Club
by:Daniel Nardini

         A gathering of almost all leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico City was the beginning of creating an "alternative" to the Organization of American States (OAS). The new organization, so many have declared, will include all countries and South America as well as the Caribbean. However, the new organization will not include the United States and Canada. Apparently, almost all of the Latin American and Caribbean governments feel they should handle their own affairs and problems without "interference" from Washington, D.C. The new ogranization has yet to be named, and its rules have yet to be set. But there is no question that it is going to include all of Latin America and the Caribbean but exclude North America (with the exception of Mexico).

         The whole event sounds like an exercise in America (and Canada) bashing. Without the two largest land countries in any organization of the Americas, it begs for the question of why these two cannot have representation? It sounds almost like anti-American and anti-Canadian prejudice. Regardless of what other nations in the Caribbean and Latin America may think, the United States and Canada are too important to keep out for whatever reason. For one, any organization without these two big countries will most likely not be able to deal with trade and territorial disputes. And in Latin America there are a number of such disputes. One that comes to mind is the sea boundary between the Falkland Islands and Argentina. Argentina claims not only the waters around them but also the Falkland Islands themselves (a crown colony of Great Britain).

       Now there is the dispute of the Falklands putting in an oil rig to drill for oil. The Argentine government is furious about this, but short of military ventures there is nothing for now they can do. Then there is the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana to its south. To this day Venezuela claims half of the territory of Guyana even though a treaty was signed on this question over 100 years ago. Problems that are inherent in Latin America could rise to the fore and there may not be enough Latin American or Caribbean countries able to stop a possible conflict between the belligerents. And one must take into account that with the sheer number of diverse opinions of each country, many governments may not get along with their neighbors. This was expesially true of the vicious and bitter argument between Colombia's President Juan Urbe and with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at the gathering to found the new organization. Even though Cuban President Raul Castro managed to stop the belligerents from excalating their verbal attacks against each other, next time they might take actions that are sharper than words.
 
       With the United States and Canada in any organization their presence would add weight in resolving disputes and persuade all involved parties to stop or resolve a border dispute and conflict that these nations have. For all its faults, the Organization of American States has largely worked. Even though it is headquartered in Washington, D.C., the United States is simply an equal member like all of the rest in the OAS. Would this work in any other organization? To exclude any country in the Americas, and especially the United States and Canada, would simply be opening up a pandora's box of internal animosities, border disputes, and the possibility of war itself. Will this new unnamed organization come about soon? I cannot answer, but all I can say is that the Organization of American States has worked. I just hope that other Latin American states will recognize that the whole of the Americas must be included to solve the problems of this hemisphere.