ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
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CONTENT
PERU: Government decision disappoints Christians who defend children's rights in La Oroya CUBA: Cuban Council of Churches celebrates 65 years BRAZIL: Pankararu Village prepares celebrate to receive the first doctor MEXICO: Evangelicals call on the government to not use funds for social programs to support the official candidate HONDURAS: Combating Honduran youth gangs has provoked numerous abuses on the part of police officers
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PERU
Government decision disappoints Christians who defend children's rights in La Oroya
LIMA,June 1 (ALC). "Disappointment" is the word that best describes the feeling of Christians who have been defending the health of children in La Oroya, after the government gave US-based Doe Run more time to meet its environmental obligations, said the Rev. Alejandro Farrell.
The government gave the company a three-year extension to 2009 to build three sulfuric acid plans in the heavily polluted town of La Oroya where Doe Run operates a smelter.
Farrell told ALC that the government's decision "is disappointment because it prioritizes the earnings of a foreign company rather than the right to life and health of more than 10,000 children."
According to Farrell, in La Oroya, an Andean city 185 kilometers from Lima, 99% of children under the age of six have lead poisoning. "We remain firm in this campaign because we are convinced that Jesus Christ, who showed a clear concern for children and the vulnerable, is accompanying us," he said.
Pastor Farrell, a member of the Presbyterian Church of the United States and facilitator of the Joining Hands Network, said in La Oroya the probabilities of getting cancer are 2000 times higher than the maximum acceptable level.
"We cannot accept that shareholder interests take priority over the right to health," he said.
The Archbishop of Huancayo, Pedro Barreto; president of the National Evangelical Council, Rafael Goto, as well as leaders from the Charismatic Biblical Mission of the Peace and Hope Association, the Joining Hands Networks, the Micah Challenge and numerous Evangelical Churches and religious congregations joined Farrell's demand, calling on Christians to join in prayer to hear the cry of children from La Oroya.
The Movement for the Health of La Oroya (MOSAO) said that the authorization granted Doe Run Peru "condemns the population of La Oroya to 34 months of contamination with impunity."
In a press release MOSAO said that the Ministry of Energy and Mines "rewarded" the US mining company's failure to meet its commitment.
"We are concerned that a company that has not met its environmental and technical commitment for nine years is rewarded with this extension because given its antecedents nothing guarantees it will fulfill what is stipulated in the extension by 2009," it said.
Finally it demanded a more active role on the part of civil society to carry out social and technical monitoring to ensure that the government's condition are met because the health and lives of thousands are at risk.
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CUBA Cuban Council of Churches celebrates 65 years
HAVANA, May 31 (ALC). Voicing her gratitude for all of those who "have accompanied us in this long ecumenical journey," the president of the Cuban Council of Churches Pastor Rhode Gonzalez launched celebrations surrounding the 65th anniversary of this organization in the First Presbyterian Reformed Church of Havana.
Pastor Gonzalez affirmed the fact that they are able to celebrate is because those who went before were clear about the CIC's slogan: "United to Serve" which has been confirmed over the course of the decades as a Christian and Cuban commitment to serve the people.
The president of the CIC indicated that the celebration is not limited to one act but will be extended over an entire year of activities.
The Rev. Hector Mendez, moderator of the Synod of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Cuba and pastor of the First Church said that this same Church welcomed those who planted the seeds for the CIC 65 years ago.
"It is an honor and a privilege to serve as the stage for such an important celebration," he said. The origins of ecumenism on the Island date back to 1891, when some religious leaders began to raise the need to congregate, regardless of their theological differences, to adore the only God of History.
This effort gradually took on strength with missionary conferences from Evangelical Churches, pastors and ministers associations and the celebration in Cuban in 1929 of the Second Conference of Evangelical Latin American Churches. Finally, in May 29, 1941 the Cuban Council of Evangelical Churches was founded and its first president was Dr. Sterling A. Neblett.
Recently, the Religious Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party paid homage to CIC leaders for their decisive role in ecumenical activity, serving as a bridge of understanding between the authorities in the country, the Churches and other organizations.
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BRAZIL
Pankararu Village prepares celebrate to receive the first doctor
RECIFE, Mayo 31 (ALC). The indigenous village of Pankararu, in the northern region of Pernambuco prepared a major reception for the first indigenous women to receive a doctorate in Brazil.
María das Dores de Oliveira or María Pankararú as she is known defended her thesis at the Federal University of Alagoas in the Arts and Linguistics doctorate program.
"This title represents a series of conquests and victories, not just personal ones but for indigenous people because we have always been seen a second class elements and this is a way to show the world that, when we have the opportunity, we go far," she said in an interview with the Humanitas Institute of the University of Valle del Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS).
Oliveira is a professor at the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and lives in Maceio. For her doctorate she developed a thesis entitled "Ofayé, la lengua del pueblo do mel." The Ofaye people and language have been considered extinct. "As well as carrying out the research I sought to help the people reflect on their language, its importance as a mark of identity," she explained.
The Ofaye are based in Brasilandia, a municipality some 360 kilometers south of Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul. Only 46 people live in the village. When Oliveira began her research 13 people spoke Ofaye. Today there are only 11 as two passed away and the children do not speak the language. "This is one of the very worrying aspects, because so that a language remains alive, children must speak it," she said.
The FUNAI professor called on people of the village to speak Ofaye, reminding them that they are the only 11 people in the world who speak this language. Together with the professor from the village, Oliveira developed a workbook so that Ofaye could be taught to the children.
Even with all this support, resurrecting the Ofaye language is a complicated task. Recently the village in Brasilandia received electricity and children watch television all day in Portuguese, in school they only learn in Portuguese and the children go to the city and only hear Portuguese," Oliveira told IHU.
She lamented prejudice in Brazil against indigenous people, which is also socially invisible. "Generally people have a very stereotypical idea of the Indian," like someone who hunts, fishes and talks Tupi-Guarani she said. In Brasilandia, the city where the Ofaye go every day, there are people who know nothing about them.
There are close to 220 indigenous peoples living in Brazilian soil that still speak 1809 languages. "It is common to hear, even in the university that in Brazil people only speak Portuguese. That information is wrong is ends up contributing to the fact that people are unaware of the reality or do not want to see it," she said.
Oliveira grew up in the indigenous community of Pankararú in Tacaratú, 560 kilometers from Recife, the state capital.
She lived in the village until she turned six when she fled the drought with her parents to Sao Paulo. However, years later she returned to the village.
She graduated in History and studied pedagogy. She also did a Masters' degree in linguistics. The FUNAI professor defended her thesis on an emblematic date: April 19, consecrated Day of the Indian in Brazil.
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MEXICO
Evangelicals call on the government to not use funds for social programs to support the official candidate
XALAPA, May 30 (ALC). The coordinator of the Evangelical Ministerial Association (AMEV) in Veracruz, Armando Diaz Salazar called on the federal government to not use funds for social program to support Felipe Calderon, the official presidential candidate.
"We believe this is an unequal competition," he affirmed.
In his weekly Sunday press conference Diaz Salazar said that "as Evangelicals we have heard that the Federal Government uses these funds to support the National Action Party (PAN) candidate. As AMEV we make a call so this does not take place and there is greater supervision."
The Evangelical pastor indicated that it is unfortunate that in Mexico this type of practice "has not been overcome" and announced that if it is proven that resources for the Social Development Secretariat were used for political proselytism an investigation should take place and those responsible punished.
He mentioned that in a recent meeting of the Project to Protect Federal Social Programs of the UNDP program in Mexico, held in the government palace, "concerns were raised about the supposed partisan use of support from SEDESOL."
Diaz Salazar said the high number of complaints on the part of citizens that the government is using social programs to obtain votes in favor of the PAN is worrying.
He also called on presidential candidates to leave aside a dirty war and enter a competition marked by respect and proposals.
Mexico will elect a new president on July 2. The latest polls show a technical tie between the ruling PAN party candidate Felipe Calderon and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
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HONDURAS
Combating Honduran youth gangs has provoked numerous abuses on the part of police officers
TEGUCIGALPA, May 29 (ALC). Combating Honduran youth gangs, known for the use of extreme violence and drug trafficking, has provoked numerous abuses, including murders on the part of police officers and vigilance groups against young people accused of being members of this organization.
The accusation came from a conflict resolution trainer, Colombian Ricardo Torres who has dedicated the last 8 years to young gang members and was taken on by the Latin American Mennonite Communications Group (AMLAC) but has also been formulated in reiterated opportunities by human rights groups.
Torres has worked with gang members in many cities in northern Honduras, either in the streets or in meeting places, on football fields and in prisons. Once he wins their trust he asks them about their lives and offers help to leave the gangs.
"In our Church language, this is a process of Evangelism," said Torres. "Young people really need pastoral accompaniment," he added.
Torres works in the Justice and Peace Project, a Mennonite organization in Honduras in La Ceiba, with four other staff members and 20 volunteers in three regions of northern Honduras in the rehabilitation of current and old members of gangs, with an emphasis on HIV/AIDs prevention.
They visit gang members in hospital and in prison. They organize football games and trips to the beach and use these activities as opportunities to talk about how to improve self-esteem and resolve conflicts in an non violent manner.
For many members of gangs, beginning a different life style is difficult, affirmed Torres as we gang members try to kill people who seek to leave.
But the violence is not only internal, many gang members, young men with characteristic tattoos are frequently beaten by police officers or arrested and retained without trials for long periods of time.
"In the long term the prison violence separates gang members from society," said Torres.
An April 5, 2003 riot in the El Porvenir prison in La Ceiba left 69 dead at the hands of soldiers, police guards and other prisoners. According to a government report, the majority of victims are suspected of being members of gangs.
The Justice and Peace project helped members of the families to organize a massive funeral.
In December last year Brother Ricardo, as he is known among the gangs, was lauded by the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of Torture, a Honduras human rights organization.
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