Wealthy Mexicans spend more on U.S. real estate

http://www.forbes.com/sites/doliaestevez/2016/03/22/despite-weak-currency-wealthy-mexicans-are-spending-more-on-u-s-real-estate/#2dc2e5d1bc34

The death of the Latin American left, for now

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/opinion/the-death-of-the-latin-american-left.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

En Argentina, contratos laborales débiles promueven despidos (1)

Trabajadores estatales en huelga por unos 10,000 despidos desde que el nuevo presidente Mauricio Macri comenzó su gobierno. 

Desde que asumió el nuevo gobierno, 20.000 empleados públicos fueron despedidos en Argentina. Un fenómeno explicado como una “limpieza” de “militantes” de la gestión anterior, que se facilita por la precariedad laboral en el sector, pese a los avances de formalización del empleo de la última década.

“Hemos encontrado un Estado puesto al servicio de la militancia política”, justificó el centroderechista Mauricio Macri, en la Presidencia desde el 10 de diciembre, tras ocho  años de mandato de la centroizquierdista Cristina Fernández, y cuatro de su ya fallecido marido, Néstor Kirchner, ambos del opositor Frente para la Victoria.

“Queremos un Estado sin la grasa de la militancia”, reforzó su ministro de Hacienda y Finanzas, Alfonso Prat Gay, en alusión a supuestas contrataciones clientelares.

El Observatorio del Derecho Social, de la Central de Trabajadores de Argentina, contabiliza como  despedidos a una mayoría de empleados de ministerios y empresas estatales, y de gobiernos provinciales y municipales, cuyos contratos eran temporales y finalizaban el 31 de diciembre.

Pero en muchos casos se trataba de trabajadores con entre cinco y 10 años de antigüedad, laborando en esas condiciones.

En La Plata, capital de la occidental provincia de Buenos Aires, ahora gobernada por Cambiemos, la coalición de Macri, fueron despedidos 4,500 trabajadores públicos, que además resultaron reprimidos cuando reclamaron por la medida.

“La forma de enterarnos de los despidos fue traumática”, relató una de esas afectadas, Marcela López que trabajaba desde hace ocho años en un programa municipal de asistencia a personas sin hogar, con un contrato que se renovaba cada tres meses.

“Cuando llegué a mi lugar de trabajo me habían sacado de la planilla. Nos mandaron a personal y  nos dijeron que estábamos despedidos, aunque ellos no plantean despido, dicen que es contrato vencido”, lamentó López, sostén de su familia y con un hijo discapacitado.

El gobierno argumenta que son “ñoquis”, como se llama popularmente en Argentina a los empleados públicos que solo concurren a su puesto para cobrar el 29 de cada mes, día tradicionalmente dedicado a comer ese tipo de pasta en el país.

Pero López y otros despedidos aseguran que tienen como demostrar su asistencia al trabajo y su idoneidad profesional.

“Creo que el tema de los ñoquis es algo histórico que tiene que ver con un sistema de funcionamiento de la política. A mí no me parece mal que se quiera ordenar eso. Pero no puede ponerse a todo el mundo en esa categoría. Sobre todo a quienes si trabajamos y que transformamos un programa en una política pública”, aclaró.

Julio Fuentes, dirigente de la Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado (ATE), consideró que si el gobierno quisiera detectar quien “cobra sin trabajar”, “nadie va a salir a defenderlo”.

“Pero eso se tiene que hacer sobre la base de un análisis serio, con participación de la organizaciones sindicales, con garantías para que no se cometan arbitrariedades”, dijo el también presidente de la Confederación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Trabajadores Estatales.

En las diversas dependencias estatales, trabajadores denuncian que son interrogados para saber quien los recomendó, cual es su trayectoria y formación profesional. Algunos denunciaron que se revisaron sus perfiles en redes sociales para constatar su militancia política.

 “¿Está el Estado hoy en condiciones de hacer un relevamiento exhaustivo, sistemático de las condiciones del empleo público cuando no existen siquiera estadísticas oficiales, o un organismo dedicado exclusivamente a compilar y sistematizar esta información?”, cuestionó el docente Gonzalo Diéguez, director del programa de gestión pública del Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC)

Para la ATE, es una maniobra para justificar despidos indiscriminados y reducir el Estado, en el marco del plan de ajuste emprendido.

Esa arbitrariedad, consideró Fuentes, es posible gracias a la precariedad del trabajo público, iniciado con la flexibilización laboral neoliberal de los años 90 en Argentina.

“Hace mucho que venimos denunciando en América Latina, y en Argentina en particular, la situación de lo que se denomina, contrato basura o empleo informal, pero que en definitiva son formas que han tomado los gobiernos para burlarse  de la Constitución”, que garantiza la estabilidad del empleo público, destacó.

Lea Empleo, Página 2. 

En Argentina, contratos laborales débiles promueven despidos(2)

Trabajadores estatales protestan en las afueras del Ministerio del Trabajo en Buenos Aires.  

Empleo, Página 2. 

Argentina, la tercera economía latinoamericana, cuenta con 43.4 millones de personas y una población económicamente activa de 19 millones, con una desocupación que según datos oficiales se situaba en el último trimestre de 2015 en seis por ciento, en una cifra considerada insuficiente por los especialistas.

Según Fuentes, del total de 3.9 millones de empleados dependientes del Estado,  600,000 aproximadamente son eventuales, regidos bajo diversas formas de contrato y muchos sin protección social alguna.

De estos 600,000 empleados, 90,000 corresponden a la administración nacional y 510,000 a las provincias y municipios, sin sumar los servicios tercerizados, “otra forma de burlar los mecanismos del empleo público”, sostuvo.

Otro argumento del gobierno para justificar las cesantías es el crecimiento del Estado.

Un estudio de CIPPEC, todavía sin publicar, indica que entre 2003 y 2015 los empleados públicos aumentaron en 55 por ciento, incluyendo la administración central, organismos descentralizados y empresas públicas.

En ese período se crearon  seis ministerios, 14 organismos descentralizados, 15 nuevas universidades y 10 nuevas empresas estatales.

“Creció el empleo público porque también creció el Estado, y su estructura organizacional. El Estado hoy brinda una cantidad de bienes y servicios que antes no brindaba”, rebatió Diéguez

Aun así, Fuentes opinó que la recuperación del empleo público fue “absolutamente insuficiente”, después del “desmantelamiento” estatal iniciado por el presidente Carlos Menem (1989-1999), durante un profundo proceso de privatización.

“No hay un número excesivo de empleados públicos. Faltan empleados públicos, enfermeros, profesionales en todas las áreas”, aseguró el dirigente sindical.

Pero, a su juicio, el nuevo gobierno argentino considera que hay exceso de empleo público porque “cree en un discurso en el que ya nadie cree, que el mercado va a regular las actividades y administrar un país”.

Para Fuentes, lo que se recuperó en la década pasada fue “el empleo de buena calidad prestacional pero de baja calidad contractual”.

El problema, expresó, es que la gestión pública se basó crecientemente en trabajadores con contratos flexibles, “fácilmente despedibles”, que los convierte en “rehenes políticos”.

En la última década, se crearon unos seis millones de puestos de trabajo, 19 por ciento de ellos en el sector público y el resto en el área privada, donde desde diciembre también se han producido unos 10.000 despidos, según fuentes sindicales.

También cayó el empleo informal, no registrado o negro, como se le llama en Argentina, que pasó de 50 por ciento a 35 por ciento, según los últimos datos, pero todavía afecta a unos cuatro millones de personas, especialmente jóvenes.

“Más allá de la naturaleza de la decisión política de gobierno, de si decide o no renovar contratos, lo que está como cuestión de fondo es la vigencia de la informalidad en el empleo público”, destacó Diéguez.

Eso, dijo, agravado por los criterios de reclutamiento y selección de personal, no basados en concursos públicos, y si en contratos que dependen de “cambios de color político partidarios”.

Para el especialista el gobierno anterior avanzó en la formalización del empleo público.

Pero la gran cuenta pendiente, concluyó,  es que no se repitan casos como los despidos masivos cuando h ay cambios en el poder y que cuando comience una nueva gestión en Argentina, en 2019 “no se tenga que rever contratos, o que si se hace no se asemeje a una caza de brujas”.

Mexico's official double standard with immigrants(1)

Cuban migrants wait to get temporary permits to stay in Mexico en route to the United States at a center in Chiapas.

The Mexican government’s decision to grant humanitarian visas to Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica contrasts sharply with the poor treatment received by the tens of thousands of Central American migrants who face myriad risks as they make their way through this country on their long journey to the United States, social organizations and activists complain.

Although migrant rights activists put the greatest blame on the United States, complaining that Cuban immigrants are given privileged treatment across the border, they also accuse Mexico of fomenting the differences.

Washington “promotes the irregular migration of Cubans,” activist Danilo Rivera said from Guatemala City. “They have double standards, and Mexico plays into their interests. It contradicts the goal of achieving orderly, safe migration flows.”

“Mexico isn’t coherent, because it’s a country that produces migrants itself,” said Rivera, with the Guatemala-basedCentral American Institute for Social Studies and Development (INCEDES).

INCEDES belongs to the Regional Network of Civil Organizations for Migration (RROCM), which studies these issues and works with governments on immigration policies.

The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, known as the “wet foot-dry foot policy”, grants Cuban immigrants U.S. residency one year and a day after they reach the country, regardless of whether their entry was legal or illegal.

Mexican Migrants in the U.S.

Tens of thousands of undocumented Mexican migrants also head to the United States. The Mexican authorities bitterly complain about the poor treatment this country’s citizens are given across the border, while they provide similar treatment to Central American immigrants here, human rights activists argue.

In a study published Jan. 20, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) reported that the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States fell to 10.9 million in 2014, from 12 million in 2008.

Six million of the undocumented immigrants in the country are from Mexico. But CMS Executive Director Donald Kerwin said the Mexican-born undocumented population was about 600,000 smaller in 2014 than in 2010.

The report also said that between 1980 and 2014, the population of Mexican-born legal residents grew faster than the number of undocumented Mexicans.

The previously little-known route taken by Cubans from Ecuador to the United States drew international attention in November, when nearly 8,000 Cubans found themselves stuck at Costa Rica’s border with Nicaragua, after the government in Managua refused to let them in the country.

A solution to the crisis was negotiated and the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico agreed to put an initial group of 180 of the migrants on a charter flight from Costa Rica to Guatemala – thus avoiding Nicaragua – as part of a pilot plan that got underway on Jan. 12.

The next day, the 139 men and 41 women were taken by bus to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala.

With the special humanitarian visas issued by the Mexican government’s National Migration Institute (INM), the Cubans were able to cross the country on their own, without being stopped by the migration authorities.

Read Cubans, Page 2.

Mexico's official double standard with immigrants(2)

A Cuban woman arrives to Mexico from a plane that carried migrants from Costa Rica.

Cubans, Page 2.

After the success of the test flight, the four governments involved in the negotiations agreed in a meeting in Guatemala to carry out more flights.

The possibility of issuing humanitarian visas is provided for in Mexico’s 2011 National Migration Law. The permits can be granted for a duration of 72 hours to 30 days, in cases where migrants are victims of a natural catastrophe, face danger in their country of origin, or require special treatment due to health problems.

In November, the last month for which official data is available, Mexico granted 1,084 humanitarian visas: 524 to Hondurans, 370 to Salvadorans, 146 to Guatemalans, 43 to Nicaraguans, and one to a Costa Rican.

That same month, the authorities in Mexico detained 73,710 Guatemalans, 53,648 Hondurans, 31,997 Salvadorans and 1,427 Nicaraguans, and deported 64,844 Guatemalans, 47,779 Hondurans, 27,481 Salvadorans and 1,188 Nicaraguans.

An estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants from Central America cross Mexico every year in their attempt to cross the 3,185-km border separating Mexico from the United States, according to estimates from organizations that work with migrants.

“No one cares about Central Americans migrants; they’re rejects from poor, violence-stricken countries,” Catholic priest Pedro Pantoja said.

“Political negotiations, and a state of servitude to the United States, were behind the way the Cuban migrants issue was handled. The Cubans have everything in their favor; the Central Americans have nothing,” said Pantoja, the director of the Belén Posada del Migrante migrants’ shelter in Saltillo, the capital of the northeast Mexican state of Coahuila, which borders the United States.

The activist also complained about the “unequal response” by the Central American governments, which showed solidarity with the Cuban migrants while being “so insensitive, distant and utilitarian” towards migrants from Central America itself.

On their way across Mexico, Central American migrants face the risk of arbitrary arrest, extortion, theft, assault, rape, kidnapping and murder, at the hands of youth gangs and people trafficking networks, as well as corrupt police and other agents of the state.

Defenders of migrant rights have asked Mexico to issue humanitarian visas to minimize these risks.

And in an August report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants also urged the government to issue humanitarian permits.

“We have called for a stop to the deportations. Mexico needs to make progress towards protecting migrants in transit, using safe-conduct passes to keep them from going through dangerous areas and to help them to avoid criminal groups. But the United States does not want the border area to become the impact zone,” Rivera said.

Activists blame the Southern Border Plan, implemented since August 2014 by the Mexican government with U.S. support, for the offensive against undocumented immigrants. The plan included the installation of 12 naval bases on rivers in the area, and three security cordons using electronic sensors and other security measures to the north of Mexico’s southern border.

So far, the United States has provided 15 million dollars in equipment and assistance, and an additional 75 million dollars in aid are in the pipeline.

The flow of Cubans without visas through Central America and Mexico to the United States is not likely to let up, even though in December the Ecuadorean government once again began to require a letter of invitation and other requisites to enter the country, after giving Cubans free access since 2014.

In September, the Costa Rican government reported that it had detained 12,000 undocumented Cubans in the previous 12 months.

Migrant rights activists plan to demand a response from Mexico regarding its double standards towards immigrants.

“We are not going to sit still. We’re going to demand that the INM (National Migration Institute) be held to account,” said Pantoja, a member of the INM’s Citizen Council, made up of representatives of civil society and academia.

Immigrant rights organizations met in Chiapas and the neighboring state of Tabasco to study the phenomenon and monitor migration flows and the performance of the local authorities.

They will also question the INM during the Citizen Council’s March session.

Univision / Al Punto con Jorge Ramos / 6 de marzo 2016

Univision / Al Punto con Jorge Ramos / 6 de marzo 2016

Rush (Cleveland 2011) [07]. Faithless

How Mexican immigrants ended 'separate but equal' in California

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0302-strum-mendez-case-20160302-story.html

In Highland Park, gentrification kills swap meet

The Highland Park indoors swap meet shut down due to gentrification. 

By Alfredo Santana. 

It’s been a year and about two months since the Highland Park indoors swap meet shut down and its 15 or so tenants were forced to vacate after a new developer, in lieu of the gentrification wave, purchased that property, along with several commercial units located in the same block.

Only two shops have opened for business under the new ownership. One is a coffee shop that began operating about six months ago, The other is a clothing store, which opened its doors within the last two weeks.  Both small businesses mostly cater to white adult residents.

I asked the manager of a liquor store, located next door of what once was the bustling swap meet, if he knew about the terms of the land acquisition, whether the former tenants received 30, 60 or 90-day notices to quit, or had long-term rent contracts that forced the new real estate owners to negotiate a settlement. “All I know is the new owners want to refurbish the place to have new, modern looking rental spaces,” he snapped, without revealing his name.

Indeed, construction crews stripped the old walls and ceilings down to bare wood studs inside the units, and covered the outdoors with plywood to block the view from pedestrians on the 5600 block of North Figueroa Street. Scaffoldings dotted the façade for months, and workers primed and coated with a layer of new white paint the units facing the commercial drag.

Now the empty structure is an eyesore to the community.

I knew some of the former tenants. I stopped to buy clothes, to repair my watches or to purchase backpacks for school or work. All were immigrants from Korea, Mexico, and Central America who hired Mexican Americans and black folks to provide security, and to pitch their wares.

At the entrance, a common fixture was a black or a Latino security guard who stood to watch and to greet customers. Sometimes, tattooed guys without uniforms sat on metal folding chair to backup tenants in case scoundrels snatched goods hanging from the partitions.

At least 25 to 30 jobs were lost in this swift move, in addition to the livelihoods of several families.

I’ve found the monthly stall rents fetched between $450 to almost $1,000 to the previous owner. 

Another micro business employee told me the new owners in the block paid almost $10 million for the properties, a price similar Engine Real Estate LLC unfolded almost a year ago to buy half a square two blocks north. The aftermath of that transaction resulted in the departure of several local businesses, including the local EGP newspaper, because the rents almost quadrupled.

Los Angeles First District councilman Gil Cedillo’s field office is located in the corner across the street from the swap meet premises. He told EGP his office was “concerned” with the displacement the new comers instilled, but has done little to cap this phenomenon.

The gentrification onslaught has also lured poor white folks searching for jobs, or to run other errands. When I asked the liquor store employee about the fate of the swap meet tenants, I noticed several white young males entering the shop to buy cigarettes, small bottles of whiskey or to pickup lottery tickets. 

Last August, during a march of commercial and residential tenants, the participants surrounded Cedillo’s office and urged his staff and the city of Los Angeles to write rent control ordinances that address skyrocketing rents. 

They also asked the new owners to learn about  the 38% poverty rate of residents in Highland Park, and to streamline rents in synch with these residents’ income. Affected tenants also want the city council to limit the issuance of new permits for shops that fail to address the presence of low-income dwellers.