Hwc-md.org - Hwc-md.org - Washington Hispanic; Washington, Maryland, Virginia


Sotomayor does history	They present law projects to protect arrested in raids
Latin soldier dies in Iraq	Bill Clinton says “complete mission”
Purple line will be for train	Experts re-live through invasion to Panama

The first Latin magistrate of the Supreme Court

Sotomayor does history

Sonia Sotomayor will take an oath supervised by magistrate of the Supreme Court of the United States this Saturday, the 8th. It is the first jueza of Hispanic origin in coming to this high charge, of life character. photo: AP

V�ctor Caycho
Washington Hispanic

Minutes after 4:00 p.m. of Thursday, the 6th, the jueza Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed like member of the Supreme Court, turning into the first person of Hispanic origin in integrating the highest court of justice of the nation.
For 68 affirmative votes and 31 in against – all republicans in the latter case - the Senate confirmed the first nomination for supreme judge done by the president Barack Obama.
Sotomayor, of 55 years and of Puerto Rican parents, achieved also the privilege of which the senators were standing up to vote, done that was considered to be unusual but according to the historical situation that one lived in the Upper House.
The magistrate will take an oath constitutional this Saturday, the 8th, at 11:00 a.m., in the head office of the Supreme Court. The private ceremony will realize in the Room East of Conferences and John G will be headed by the supreme magistrate. Roberts, president of the highest court of the country.
Another formal investiture ceremony will take place on Tuesday, the 8th of September, at 2:00 p.m., in the assembly hall of the same Court. The president Obama, after expressing his gratitude to the Senate for taking “without delay” the historical decision, thought that with his vote the senators “have confirmed that the jueza Sotomayor is provided with the necessary intellect, the temperament, the history, the integrity and independence of thought to be able to give services with skill in the highest court of our country”.
“ This achievement fills me with pride and I have confidence great in that the jueza Sotomayor will be outstanding magistrate of the Supreme Court; this is a wonderful day for Jueza Sotomayor and his family, but also I believe that it is a wonderful day for the United States”. it added.
The result of this awaited voting was received by enormous enthusiasm for the Hispanic community, which even organized a “holiday of celebration” in a central hotel of Washington DC. Similar acts were fulfilled in New York, city of residence of the flaming supreme jueza and where he was exercising the charge of Fiscal Assistant.
One of most filled with enthusiasm by the event was senator Robert Men�ndez, who affirmed that “this is a moment in which every Hispanic, seated young woman in a lounge of classes of an elementary school, will understand clearly that any thing is possible in this wonderful country; and this is a moment in which the Hispanic community sits pride, hope and affirmation”.
The National Council of The Race (NCLR, for his initials in English), across his president Janet Murguia, applauded the vote of the Senate and said that “on August 6, 2009 it marks a real milestone for this big nation, and is a date that quickly will keep in the memory of million Spanish Americans of all the ages and knowledge”.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) qualified the assertion like “a victory for all the Americans who believe in the equitable justice under the law”, to add that “she will be an outstanding jueza.
CAP augurs that “the record of Sotomayor as judge who faithfully applies the law to all the interested parties who appear before her is precisely the change that the Americans wanted when they voted in the elections of last November”.
The day previous to the vote of assertion, hundreds of Hispanic demonstrators were mobilized up to the Acropolis to support Sotomayor, where they joined senators and community leaders. There, Lillian Rodr�guez L�pez, the president of National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, incited to the presents speaking about how the assertion of the magistrate will inspire million Americans. “We will have more faith in ourselves and in our country”, he said.
As for the vote against the republican senators he thought that “what is in question is the motivation that they have had not to vote for her”, and added: "We can excuse, but never, never forget”.

The following day before fulfilling years

Latin soldier dies in Iraq

V�ctor Caycho
Washington Hispanic

Herberth Berr�os Campos.
Photo: AP.

Herberth Berr�os Campos, born in San Miguel, El Salvador, and courageous soldier of the parachutists' regiment of the American Army, died in Iraq and he was buried on Wednesday, the 5th, with all the honors, in a cemetery of Virginia, in the middle of the pain of his mother Armida Carballos and of relatives, friends and partners of weapon.
“ The Specialist Berr�os-Campos was a valuable member of the regiment. We are very grateful for the services that it gave to our unit and to the nation”, affirmed Lieutenant colonel Dave Blair, commander of his battalion, during the homage in Strong Bragg. Herberth Berr�os Campos, American soldier of Salvadoran origin, was already a military hero in spite of his youth. It had be 21 years on July 23 and one had put many goals ahead, but the biggest of them was to protect and to take care of his adorable mother Armida Carballos, born in El Salvador, of whom his friends call affectionately “Queeney“ (Reinita).
The destination cut tragically the sleep of Herberth on Friday, the 24th, the following day before having reached the adulthood, very far of the country that received it from when he was seven years old. Herberth died victim of serious wounds on Friday, the 24th of July, in the locality of Salman Pak, in Iraq, in an incident that the military authorities investigate.
“ The very affectionate and very intelligent era, was always embracing me and was saying to me the great thing that loved”. This way it is remembered by his mother Armida, today distressed by the terrible loss of his only son male. She has left his daughter 22-year-old Ivania.
Two months ago, the heroic soldier came from Iraq, having a good time of two weeks of permission. It was Holy Week and he traveled to San Miguel, in El Salvador, to know the ground that saw it being born.“ It was with my nephew William Berr�os V�lchez and when it returned to our house in Manassas he said to me that he had liked so much that it was going to return to El Salvador, but with me and for one month, during his holidays in December, after fulfilling a year of service in Iraq”, expresses the mother in declarations to Washington Hispanic. Also he says that in his last visit, his son obtained his driver's license and it was ready to buy a car in December, “and was saying to me all the time that he was going to buy to me a wife's and beautiful house”. On Friday, the 24th of July, Armida woke up very sadly, as he mentioned to us. Hours later, they informed him about the tragic death of his son. His remains were brought on Tuesday, the 28th of July and there got in a solemn ceremony by his partners of weapon of the First Battalion of the Regiment 505 of Parachutists of the Infantry, of the team of combat of the Third Brigade of 82 Airborne Division of the Army, with base in Fort Bragg.
The remains of the heroic soldier were buried in a cemetery of Virginia on Wednesday, the 5th of August, during an act in which Armida Carballos received the flag of the United States of hands of commander Blair. On Monday, the 3rd and Tuesday, the 4th each wakefulness was realized with assistance of numerous relatives, friendly and related of the dead.

Public transport

Purple line will be for train

Mitzi Mace
Washington Hispanic

After years of dialogues and endless discussions what the best option would be to construct a Purple Line of public transport that the governor of Maryland connects the suburbs of Maryland, between Bethesda and New Carrolton, finally, Martin O'Malley decided that the light train will be the best alternative.
The controversy on the project of the Purple Line was taking root in two fundamental points: if it would be a train or bus and how would the funds be obtained for the self-seeker, but necessary transport project.
O'Malley in press conference on Tuesday, the 4th of August gave his support to a train line instead of one rapid buses system and argued that the train not only will be more rapid, but also less noisy and more according to the projects of urban development of the future.
It is believed that the light train will cover in less than one hour a 16 miles whole between Bethesda and New Carrolton with a whole of 21 stops on the level of the highways. It has not been considered to be an underground construction due to his high costs and the town-planning alterations that that represents.
It is believed that the cost of the construction and establishment of the Purple Line will be 1.68 billion dollars for which one relies on that the federal government should grant half of the funds. Of obtaining the financing, the construction might begin in 2013 and being optimistic the new transport system might move passengers for the suburbs of Maryland without having to cross the whole District of Columbia for the year 2016. On the other hand, the Purple Line would not be under the administration of METER but under the operation of the Administration of Transit of Maryland. One is believed that for 2030 the new system transports every day 64.800 passengers. According to the project the Purple Line might spread along Georgetown Branch of the way known as Cardinal Crescent Trail, a route for pedestrians and bicycles between Bethesda and Silver Spring. Inside the design it might support the route, but some trees would have to sacrifice themselves to pass to the constructions.
For this reason the principal opponents to the light train line argue his position in which the project of the Purple Line of train will destroy the environment and have expressed that in spite of the decision of the governor they will continue with his struggle to annul the decision of O'Malley.

Immigration

They present law projects to protect arrested in raids

Mitzi Mace
Washington Hispanic

In answer to a report spread by the University Yeshiva of New York that it reveals that yes a series of constitutional violations was committed on the part of the authorities of the Service of Immigration and Customs (I HOISTED, for his initials in English) during the raids, senators Robert Men�ndez (D-NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) presented two law projects to protect the rights of the arrested during the raids and to regulate the detention process.
Senators Men�ndez, Kennedy, and Gillibrand presented the “Law of Protection of Citizens and Residents from the Unlawful detention” (S.1549) and senators Men�ndez and Gillibrand presented the “Law of Sure Dealing, Avoiding Unnecessary Deaths and Reduction of the Abuse in the System of Detention” (1550th Century). These important legislative pieces are called of attention to the urgent need to reform our disfunctional immigration system.
The law projects it establishes establishes a series of protections and proposes an alternative detention system for those vulnerable persons as they are the children and the pregnant women. Also he assures that the arrested should have the right to ask for the assistance of a lawyer and the appearance before an immigration judge before signing some document, like the voluntary exit that in many cases the arrested immigrants have seen in the need to accept for lack of information and for the deplorable conditions that they had to support in the centers of detention.
These projects were applauded by organizations pro immigrant.

It obtains pardon for two journalists in North Korea

Bill Clinton says “complete mission”

Jean H. Lee
Seoul / AP

Laura Ling (to the center) receives a kiss of his mother Mary, along with Euna Lee, another reprieved journalist, after there comes to the airport Bob Hope, of California, where the ex-president (left) Bill Clinton observes ex-vice-president Al Gore, who gives them the welcome. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP

The chief norcoreano Kim Jong Il granted a “special pardon” to two American journalists accused of infiltrating illegally to the country, and on Tuesday, the 4th it arranged his liberation on request of the ex-president Bill Clinton.
He reads, of 36 years and Ling, of 32, correspondents of the channel Current TV of ex-vice-president Al Gore, were arrested in March after crossing North Korea from China, where they had been covering information about deserters norcoreanos.
Both had been sentenced in June to 12 years of forced works.
Clinton and two Californian ones flew on returning to the United States, less than 24 hours after the ex-president landed in the capital norcoreana in a humanitarian trip deprived in search of the liberation of the journalists.
The ex-president went out “in sure conditions of North Korea with Laura Ling y Euna Lee” and the three came on Wednesday to Los Angeles, where the correspondents met his respective families, in an emotive reunion.
The game was the successful conclusion of an odyssey of more than four months for the women arrested close to the border between North Korea and China in last March.
The historical trip of Clinton to Pyongyang also included an unusual conversation with the leader norcoreano that was “wide“ and “finished“, according to state means. It was the Kim's first meeting with a prominent western figure since supposedly he suffered an apoplexy attack one year ago.
The means norcoreanos said that the liberation of the journalists is an indication of the “politics humanitarian and lover of the peace” of the communist government. The state press thought that the visit will serve “to deepen the understanding” between both countries, and emphasized that Clinton apologized on behalf of the women and transmitted the gratitude of the president Barack Obama.
Nevertheless, the spokesman of the White House, Robert Gibbs, denied that Clinton should have delivered an Obama message.
Both nations were hostile during the War of Korea, from 1950 to 1953, and they do not have diplomatic relations.

After 20 years

Experts re-live through invasion to Panama

Andrea Alema�y
Washington Hispanic

John Dinges, Juan Williams and Betty Brannan Ja�n during the panel on the invasion of Panama of 1989. Photo: alvaro ortiz / wH.

Although 20 years have already passed from the invasion to Panama for the army of the United States, it seems that scarcely it begins the conversations of these times.
This was what happened last Wednesday, the 5th in the auditorium of the National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington A.D., when a panel of journalists expert in the topic spoke about his experiences.
The experts were including Betty Brannan Ja�n, of The Press of Panama, and the teacher of journalism John Dinges. Both covered the judgment of Manuel Antonio Noriega, the military dictator of Panama that was imprisoned after the arrival of the American troops and that prisoner is still in Miami.
The disputants spoke about what has been announced of Noriega in the last 20 years, including that was in the CIA, for example. But it was not up to the section of questions of the public when persons who were in Panama in 1989 commented of the topic.
“ Memory to smell the dead bodies the following day. It is true that Manuel Antonio lost the control”, said Aracelly Watts, who was in the cellar of his house in Panama when the invasion happened. “But I am not going to justify an invasion so that they were returning us the democracy. I am not here to speak badly about the United States, but if the principal goal was to stop the drugs traffic and to protect the channel, we could do that”.
Brannan added: "I should like something pacific and with less losses of life. Every life that got lost was a tragedy, but the options that we had in this moment were limited”. Dinges said that approximately 272 deaths are estimated of civil Panamanian.
The event is a part of the “Panama in the Smithsonian” a series of presentations, workshops and exhibitions that are carried out during the whole year.