HispaNews

INSIDE

Hispa News HISPANICS TAKING CONTROL OF THEIR FINANCES PG 06

HispaNews WITH BUSH GONE, CHAVEZ SMELLES NO SULFUR, WHILE NETANYAHU ASSAILS IRAN’S LEADER PG 14

CUBA ‘PEACE CONCERT’DRAWS MULTITUDES PG 26

November 10 2009 Volume 1 Issue 1

IN

$ 3.99

HONDURAS TALKING, TAKEOUT, BUT NO ACCORD

By MARC LACEY and ELISABETH MALKIN

November 10 2009

HispaNews

Hispa News

CONTENT

FEATURE

COUNTRY PALLET

16

IN HONDURAS, TALKING, TAKEOUT, BUT NO ACCORD The Struggle Continues for Power

ARGENTINA BOLIVIA BRAZIL CHILE COLOMBIA COSTA RICA CUBA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC EL SALVADOR ECUADOR GUATEMALA HONDURAS MEXICO NICARAGUA PANAMA PARAGUAY PUERTO RICO PERU URUGUAY VENEZUELA

By Marc Lacey and Elisabeth Malkin

BRIEFS

06

HISPANICS TAKING CONTROL OF THEIR FINANCES Finding Ways to Extend Your Dollar

by Coinstar, Inc. & Hispanicwire

08

MINORITIES FEEL SHARPER RECESSION PAIN-REPORT Economy Stractural Problems in America

by Hibah Yousuf

LATIN AMERICA BRAZILIANS CELEBRATE OLYMPICS BID IN RIO DE JANEIRO The First Olympics in South America

By Annie Correal

PG 10

MEXICO NEEDS INTERVENTION Mexico Struggles with Addiction

by Malcom Beith

ACCUSATIONS OF RIGGING ELECTION AND SILENCING MEDIA The Opposition’s Oppressed by the Current Government

by Tim Rogers

11 Brazilians Demostrating Their Joy of Hosting the Games

THE ERRADICATION OF ILLICIT CULTIVATION Bolivian’s Success Against the War on Drugs

by Jose Acosta COLOMBIA’S WORRY: LOOSER U.S. TIES The Fear of More Roadblocks

by Howard LaFranchi

14

09

HISPANICS AT RISK Why Hispanics are More Prone to the H1N1 Flu Virus

by Pedro Frisneda

CULTURE CUBA’S ‘PEACE CONCERT’ DRAWS MULTITUDES A Concert for the People

by Jose Acosta

26 EMBRACES 28 BROKEN Aldomodovar’s Lates Flim

WITH BUSH GONE, CHAVEZ SMELLS NO SULFUR, WHILE NETANYAHU ASSAILS IRAN’S LEADER The U.N. Outspoken Leaders

by Annie Correal

by Jonathan Holland

President Hugo Chavez at the U.N. Convention Early this Week

QUOTES OF THE WEEK CARTOONS OF THE WEEK

OPINION 31

November 10 2009

HispaNews 4

November 10 2009 Hispanic News

4

HispaNews

EDITORS’S LETTER

SPECIAL REPORTS FROM:

5

I

t’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes a person powerful. It’s even more difficult to quantify it, yet this is what we endeavor to do in this, our annual HispaNews.

Looking to those Latinos who have paved their own way while opening up a path for others, those who have left a mark on their industry, and those who are just starting their journey, we celebrate the people who represent what it means to be strong, fearless, relentless and in the end, persevere. That is why it is oru obligation to bring you the news that are creating impact in our community and internationaly. This issue goes beyong the point of conflict to try to inform you of the current issues that affect us. We want to create a bridge with you heritige so you can always be connected with those at home, we offer our point of view on the political, economic, music, film and the opinionated sections. In each one of them we go in depth, and anbias so you get the actual event as it is happening around you. This weeks issue focus on the current crises that Honduras in going through, in addition to that we cover the United Nations General Assembly and what the leaders said during the event. In the local news, the economic crises have hit many hispanic the hardest, therefore we bring you tips on what to do, and a detail explanation on how it is affecting the community. In the music and film sections the reaction to the Peace concert and the upcoming movie that could be making a buzz at the Oscars. All of this is brough to you by wonderful reporting who dedicate their time to bring you the world at the palm of your hands.

Marc Lacey and Elisabeth Malkin

Annie Correal

Victor Jimenez

Jose Acosta.

November 10 2009

6

BRIEFS

HispaNews

HISPANICS TAKING CONTROL OF THEIR FINANCES

An illustration of a piggy bank , and how money it redistributed to extend their dollar in this difficult times.

What are Hispanic Americans Doing to Stretch their Dollars Source Coinstar, Inc. & HispanicPRWire

W

November 10 2009

children and teach them the value of saving money. In fact, this year, one is six respondents said their primary reason for accumulating change is to set good example for their children, up from last year* when just one in ten said they accumulated change for this reason.

When establishing a saving goal, Gonzales recommends that part of the funds gathered be used for the set goal, and the rest should be saved. This way, you can accomplish a short-term goal, while learning how to work on a long-term accomplishment. “This system doesn’t work just with children-adults can use the same strategy of budgeting to save for future goals, while they work to treat themselves, or vice versa,” said Gonzales.

Even though the bail out money seems to start having an effect on Wall Street Main Street still is having problems getting their finances straight. That is why many people have opted to make many sacrifices to overcome this bad economic times.

Illustration/Lisa Zador

ith household budgets getting tighter every day, Hispanics in this country find that saving loose change over time can supplement their daily budget. The Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll revealed that an on overwhelming majority (92 Percent) of Hispanics currently accumulate coins compared to 77 percent just one year ago*, and most are either using these finds to help pay bills and other expenses, or saving it for a rainy day.

“In this economic climate Hispanics are realizing this is the year of changed are taking this time as an opportunity to rethink their budget and how they spend their money,” said Elianne E Gonzales, personal finance columnist and author.

While Hispanics are focus on their finances and making sure they are saving and paying bills, there’s a lot more on their minds. For some, the accumulate change is a great way to set an example for their

HispaNews

About the Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll The Coinstar Hispanic National Poll was conducted

by Kelton Research between April 29 and May 5, 2009, among 50 nationally representative Hispanic Americans using e-mail invitation and an online survey. Quotas are st. to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population of Hispanic Americans ages 18 and over, the survey has a margin of error +/- 4.4 percent. The poll was developed to provide information to better understand coin currency habits in America, and track trends, behaviors and attitudes towards currency - both traditional and new forms, as well as related topics.

The coinstar 2008 National Currency Poll was conducted by Kelton Research between May 9th and May 19th, 2008, using an e-mail invitation and online survey to 500 nationally. HP

WAYS OF STRETCHING THE DOLLAR HISPANICS ARE DOING.

52 % said their children have a piggy bank or container to save loose change.

38 %

reported their children save their money to buy special gifts for themselves.

34 % Reported their children have a savings account.

37% said their children are giving money for doing certain chores / housework.

94% Hispanics have cut back spending in many areas of their lives in the last 12 monts.

76% who plan on a stay-at-home vacation this

75% Dining out.

69% Entertainment.

67% Clothes Shopping.

69% of respondents 68% are clipping

said they are only buying coupons to help stretch their bidget. the necessities, rather than the “extras.�

59% are buying

genetic or store-brand products rather than name-brands.

summer say their originally wanted to go on a trip elsewhere but decided to remain home. for financial reasons.

Source Coinstar, Inc. & HispanicPRWire.

HispaNews 8

MINORITIES FEEL SHARPER RECESSION PAIN - REPORT

Liberal think tank says recession hits African Americans and Hispanics at steeper rates, signaling economic structural problems

By Hibah Yousuf

W

hile the recession has affected the entire nation, members of minority groups have suffered more pain than their white counterparts, according to a report released Wednesday by a liberal think tank.

The report by the Center for American Progress says economic pain among non-whites is lasting longer than before and signaling structural problems such as labor market discrimination and credit market steering.

"This has been the longest recession since the 1930s and it's triggered the sharpest increase in unemployment to date," said Christian Weller, a senior fellow at the center and author of the report.

Because little to no headway was made to improve the inequalities between the economic experiences of whites and minorities in previous economic cycles, "efforts to end economic decline will have to especially help minorities since they have been disproportionately impacted by it," the report said.

Overall unemployment reached its highest level in 26 years in August, and the rate for minorities grew by more than the rate for whites, according to the report. Between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of this year, African American unemployment climbed 4.2 percentage points annual rate and joblessness among Hispanics rose at 4.1 percentage points per year, while the rate among whites increased 2.8 percentage points annually.

The rates remained notably higher among educated minority workers, too. The unemployment rate for African American college graduates grew by 2.4 percentage points more than it did for white college graduates, and by 0.4 percentage point more for Hispanic college graduates. The disparity isn't unusual. During the recession lasting between March 2001 and November 2001, unemployment rates also rose at a sharper rate for all THE RATE FOR minorities, and the MINORITIES GREW increases lasted longer

BY MORE THAN for African Americans, THE RATE FOR the report said. While WHITES. unemployment rates fell November 10 2009

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE MINORITIES IN THE U. S. DECEMBER 2007 9.7%

Hispanics

12.6%

African-Americans Whites

JANUARY 2009

6.9%

for whites and Hispanics after June 2003, they continued to rise for African Americans for four months longer.

"Policymakers in Congress and the Bush administration chose to ignore the economy and the weak labor market recovery after 2001, especially in the African American community, who saw employment gains at the end of the 1990s" Weller said.

"The Bush administration's answer to all economic problems was that it passed massive tax cuts, and our message now is that we need a more targeted recovery plan this time."

Between 2007 and the full recession year of 2008, the center said median family income for whites fell 2.7%, while it dropped for African Americans at rate of 2.9% and at a 5.8% rate for Hispanics.

The report said the income gap between white families and African-American families increased by nearly $500 a year into recession to nearly $22,000.

While the government has poured millions to create jobs and spur economic growth, the center said more stimulus funds are needed to benefit minority groups, who will continue to be out of work.

"At this point, [the funds are] already in the pipeline, so it's a matter of making sure they get out quickly," Weller said, adding that job creation alone will not level the playing field in the current climate. "We have to make sure minority communities can

HispaNews

images Lisa Zador

9 participate in the programs." So that people can be benefit and have an impact in society.

Since the stimulus plan is designed to create some jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries requiring substantial skill levels, Weller says Congress must ensure that job training programs are available to minorities so that "all communicates can share in the stimulus that's still coming." Gicen that Hispanics represent the fastest-growing ethnic group, a dollar’s worth of presention for them today is a long-term investment in the future of the nation.

Consumers are more likely to tolerate an occasional “flat” tasting soda from their lifetime favorate brand than to forgive a financial institution for a significant loss of capital. That is why Hispanics are really struggling to rise in the grow scale of the United States because of the barriers that financial entities have focus on taking and not giving back to the community. The gap between monirities and white Americans is deepening even more, and the government is not doing much to help those who really need a bail. The weekly earning difference is so clear that points out how far are minorities from advancing in this society, less opportunities are presented to Hispanics and African Americans.

The biggest hurdle to full economic recovery is the decline of consumer trust in brand, institution, economic theories and leadership in general. The debate needs to turn now to asserting the cost, and consumer confidane. HP

USUAL MEDIAN WEEKLY EARNINGS DIFFERENCES

2009

Whites $748 Hispanics $593 African-Americans $535

As identify by Towers Perrin

HISPANICS AT RISK

Virus H1N1 more prone to Hispanics Pedro F. Frisneda.

I

Measures n the current campaign of taken to protect vaccinations against the H1N1 flu themselves virus that is done by the health from the Flu Virus H1N1. authorities of EE UU, it is diving priority to groups that are at high risk they add up to 160 million people. These groups are conformed by pregnant women; health service workers; children under 6 month old and people under 24 years old; those who take care of babies as well as those who a weak immune system and at risk of chronic illnesses as diabetes, asthma, or cardiac and pulmonary problems. Carmen Nazario, secretary of health and human services department of EE UU., said that, “ Hispanics fall under the group of high risk because they are more prone than others to chronic illnesses such asthma and diabetes”. The risk increase even more due to the lifestyle whom usually are keen to maintain a traditional culinary taste that includes lots of high cholesterol foods that increases diabetes among the community. In addition to that it is very hard for Hispanics to get medical assistance because of our broken health care system. HP November 10 2009

HispaNews

10

LATIN AMERICA MEXICO NEEDS AN INTERVENTION The critical increment of drug use in Mexico

M

By Malcolm Beith

exico is the highway of drug trafficking, no it final destination, or that is the popular say. While authorities there battle to defeat the powerful and violent cartels of the nation, now they are force to face a Drug addiction is becoming a big problem for mexico. new challenge: the local addiction. Even when the EE UU remains the number one market for illicit narcotics, Mexico’s appetite rises rapidly. According to the government, around 4.5 million now consume drugs, almost 30 percent more than five year ago, and the amount of addicts have increased 100 percent since 2002. Consumptions could rise even faster if president Felipe Calderon signs a new law, approved by Congress, to legalized drug possession.

This will allow authorities to focus trafficking and production instead of the common consumer, however the cartels continue to fight in the border with major security most likely they will try to exploit a way to cultivate even more for the local market. And Mexico is not ready to deal with an increase of addicts that could damage their social and economic structure.

This country has an overall of 100 center to treat addiction that are consider effective. The state awaits to increase this number to 1000 towards the end of the year, but even then with an augment of local drug consumption probably the state resources will be limited. HP

NICARAGUA: ACCUSATIONS OF RIGGING ELECTIONS AND SILENCING MEDIA

L

By Tim Rogers.

ast week, armed men raided, shut down, and confiscated all the equipment of a small radio station whose owner is affiliated with an opposition political movement. Put on the defensive by claims of fraud and silencing the media, Mr. Ortega has seized an opportunity to go on the offensive presented by the coup in Honduras. Mr. Ortega is taking advantage of the delicate situation that their neighbor country is going through so he can deviate and extend his power to a point of total control. He is following the same path that other leftist leaders are doing in the region, he is now looking to extend his term even though his term is about to end. It seems that it has become popular to create referendum to override the constitution. HP November 10 2009

COLOMBIA’S WORRY: LOOSER US TIES

By Howard LaFranchi.

O

fficials visiting this week press for continued funding of an antidrug strategy and passage of a free-trade agreement.

Continued funding of the antidrug partnership called Plan Colombia is the goal of Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who was meeting with officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, beginning Tuesday.

The strategy has cost Washington nearly $6 billion over the past nine years, though with little impact on the flow of Colombian cocaine into the US, critics say.

Defense Minister Santos equated any cut in what is now about $500 million in annual aid to “pulling the rug out”.

Colombian officials are caught between the consequences of claiming too much progress and the need to demonstrate that the country’s human rights situation in particular has improved, says Mr. Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue. HP

Defense Minister Mr. Santos.

BOLIVIA

THE ERADICATION OF ILLICIT CULTIVATION

B

By Malcolm Beith

olivia announced that they achieved the annual goal of eradication of cultivations of coca, the raw material for coke.

President Evo Morales received the information of eradication from the anti-drugs forces in a public act in the base of Fuerza Tarea Conjunta (FTC) at Chimore, about 380 Kilometer east of La Paz, informed the Bolivian Federal Agency of Information (ABI). “ Ensuring to Mr. president the accomplishment of our goal, having eradicated 5,064 square meters of coca”, Explained commander from the FTC, lieutenant colonel Carlos Ruck Arzabe. Included, that by the end of 2009 they will have eradicated some 6,000 square meter of coca leaf. This efforts however have not been taken peacefully sine many growers have protested for taking away their income and not giving them an alternative. HP

HispaNews 11

BRAZILIANS CELEBRATE OLYMPICS BID IN RIO DE JANEIRO

Thousands of people celebrated the announcement that Brazil will host 2016 Olympics

T

Photos/Lisa Zador

ByMalcolm Beith

Mexico Nicaragua Colombia Boliva Brazil

housands packed Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro after the city learned it will host the Olympics. "It was a fantastic victory. We beat the big cities.

Passion talked louder," said one man as he danced to live samba music in front of the stage, he was part of the euforia that most people were feeling. Rio de Janeiro beat out Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to become the first South American city to host the Games, something President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva made clear during his pitch to the International Olympic Committee.

"It is a time to address this imbalance," he told committee members making the selection in Copenhagen, Denmark. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country."

This is a historic and proud moment not only for Brazil but for all of Latin American nations.

Happiness was a big part of Rio's pitch after it was voted the happiest city in the world by Forbes magazine, something that added to the celebrations held in the city. On Friday, thousands of people piled onto the beach wearing green and yellow, many with the Brazilian flag painted on their faces "I thought that more than to the people, we owe this victory to our President Lula," said a woman wearing little more than a bikini.

Rio also won points with an ambitious budget and new venues like the Joao Havelange Stadium, which opened for the 2007 Pan American Games, which were a great success and opened a path for the olympics.

Rio's jaw-dropping natural beauty helped the city pull ahead of the competition.

"Rio is full of all things quintessentially Brazilian: sun, sand, soccer, samba, sensuality," the editorial director of Fodor's Travel, Laura Kidder, wrote in an e-mail. "In Rio, it's about taking each day as it comes and living life to the fullest."

Erik Torkells, editor for TripAdvisor, the world's largest online travel community, also praised the city for its social scene before the selection was made. “If the Olympic Committee wanted to be sure everyone had a good time, they'd go to Rio," Torkells said. The selection also had its critics in Brazil. ”I don’t think it’s appropriate considering what our country is going through,” said Orlando Pinto, a social worker. “We don’t have good health services, education; we have transportation problems, housing problems, crime problems.”

Yet the government is optimistic that they will fix the problem in time for the Olympics, and show the world a new Brazil.

Brazil’s Bovespa Stock market index has climed President Lula Da Silva celebrates 4% since Oct. 2, due to the announcement of the winning the Olympic bid.

Summer Olympics 2016 host. HP November 10 2009

HispaNews 12

November 10 2009

HispaNews 13

November 10 2009

HispaNews 14

WITH BUSH GONE, CHAVEZ SMELL NO SULFUR, WHILE NETANYAHU ASSAILS IRAN’S LEASER President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, reversing one of the more memorable lines in the annals of speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, declared Thursday that the smell of sulfur had deserted the green marble podium

P

By Todd Heisler

rime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel displayed concentration camp plans in attacking the Holocaust denials of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

“It doesn’t smell of sulfur here anymore, it’s gone,” said a grinning Mr. Chávez, who was one of about 40 leaders to address the assembly. “It smells of something else — it’s hope.” He was referring to the address by President Obama on Wednesday. Mr. Chávez infamously said from the same pulpit in 2006 that it smelled like sulfur shortly after President George W. Bush had spoken, and he referred to Mr. Bush repeatedly as “the devil.” His comments created a hostile atmosphere that he can only accomplish, his irrelevant speech has trigger many reactions.

November 10 2009

On Thursday, Mr. Chávez said Latin Americans were inclined to think the best of the new American government, but questioned its lack of action to reverse the overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, as well as the government’s military support of the Colombian government and its continuation of the 50-year embargo against Cuba.

“Is there one Obama or is there two?” Mr. Chávez said, using variations of the line several times throughout his rambling, 60-minute speech, well over the 15-minute limit. “Let us hope that the one we heard yesterday will prevail.” Asked about his remark at a rowdy news conference afterward, Mr. Chávez insisted that he was not denigrating Mr. Obama. “I don’t want to attack him personally,” he said. “I don’t want to say he is a fake.”

Photos/Lisa Zador

In an address to the General Assembly earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel heatedly denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran for frequently rejecting the Holocaust as a historical fact. Mr. Netanyahu also spent considerable time denying that Israel had committed war crimes during its three-week military attack on Gaza last winter, as it was recently accused of doing in a report by a fact-finding mission from the Human Rights Council.

Mr. Netanyahu began by waving a German document from World War II, the minutes of a meeting in which the Nazis planned the system of concentration camps used to kill people, primarily Jews. “Is this a lie?” he said, using the line repeatedly as he gave many other examples, including a list of his wife’s relatives who were exterminated.

Mr. Netanyahu said it was dangerous for United Nations members to ignore Mr. Ahmadinejad’s repeated attacks on Israel and his anti-Semitic outbursts. “History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others,” he said. HP

Opposite pg: President Hugo Chavez , and on top Prime Minister Netanyahu addressing the U.N. November 10 2009

HispaNews 16

Ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya demostrating gradituted to his supporters outside the Brazilian Embassy.

November 10 2009

HispaNews

IN HONDURAS, TALKING, TAKEOUT, BUT NO ACCORD

17

By MARC LACEY and ELISABETH MALKIN

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUAN MONTECINO

M

anuel Zelaya, the deposed president, had been complaining for some days that the Brazilian Embassy, where he and dozens of supporters were holed up, was running out of food. The options were grim: he could starve as a martyr, or leave the embassy and face certain arrest. But on Thursday, human rights workers managed to get past the military barricade outside with home-cooked chicken and takeout from Burger King, allowing this most unconventional international saga to conclude its third month unresolved.

November 10 2009

J

HispaNews

ust as Mr. Zelaya’s removal from office on the morning of June 28 in a most atypical coup d’état has stuck to no script — he was sent packing in his pajamas by soldiers who carried both automatic weapons and a court-issued arrest warrant — the crisis that followed has left veteran diplomats, foreign policy experts and even the participants themselves scratching their heads.

Predicting the next twist and turn has proved to be just as challenging as finding a viable solution to bringing together two stubborn men of the very same party who find themselves seemingly miles apart.

It was initially thought that Mr. Zelaya’s surprise return to the country on Monday might force a quick settlement. World leaders, riveted by the daring entrance, would redouble their efforts. Hondurans, massing in the streets, would ratchet up the pressure. The de facto government would wilt under all the pressure and restore Mr. Zelaya to his former perch.

While the principals have not communicated, emissaries have shuttled between them, giving some hope of movement. The immediate questions about Mr. Zelaya appear to be centered on whether he will be allowed out of the embassy and, if he is, whether he would be considered the president, a private citizen or some amalgam.

But the clock is ticking. Looming before all the actors is the presidential election called for Nov. 29. The vote, compounds the pressure on negotiators to resolve the crisis quickly while it paradoxically offers an expedient way out, an electoral do-over that would allow Honduras to simply drop the curtain on the whole drama and move on.

Tempting as that may be, leaders in the hemisphere are united in their fear that allowing the coup to stand sets a dangerous precedent in a region where coups have too long been the norm. The State Department suggested this month that it might not accept the election results if the Micheletti government remained in power to administer them.

HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS MANAGED TO GET PAST THE MILITARY BARRICADE OUTSIDE WITH HOME-COOKED CHICKEN AND TAKEOUT FROM BURGER KING. Nearly a week later, little had changed. World leaders reverted their gaze to Iran and other crises, the street protests were largely contained, and while Mr. Zelaya and the man who replaced him, Roberto Micheletti, talked about talking, they had not yet done, at least directly.

“There’s a lot of noise around the margins that did not exist a week ago,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Council of the Americas. “But whether it affects the nub of the problem is unclear.

The Presidential Roberto Micheletti expressing his argument against the actions taken by Zelaya.

November 10 2009

The warnings appear to have gotten through to the candidates running for office, who were selected before Mr. Zelaya was ousted but face the prospect of becoming, if they emerge on top, the president of a pariah state.“I think they should take that statement very seriously,” Hugo Llorens, the American Ambassador to Honduras, told reporters in Tegucigalpa, the capital, on Friday.

The candidates have turned in recent days into negotiators, albeit anxious ones.

Last week, just before Mr. Zelaya’s return, five of the six candidates went to Costa Rica, where they met with President Óscar Arias and called for national reconciliation. But, clearly worried about how their political backers would react to overt support for Mr. Zelaya’s return, four of them would not explicitly endorse the plan Mr. Arias had negotiated to resolve the conflict, which would restore Mr. Zelaya to power until January, when the new president is to take office. One of the contenders is Elvin Ernesto Santos, of the same Liberal Party that includes both Mr. Micheletti and Mr. Zelaya.

Mr. Santos had been Mr. Zelaya’s vice president before souring on him and voicing support for his removal.

Mr. Santos’s main opponent is Porfirio Lobo, of the National Party, who has been more equivocal making lot of negatives comments about his opponent.

HispaNews HispaNews 19

Presidential Candidates of Honduras, at the meeting held with the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias.

On Thursday, the candidates met with Mr. Micheletti at the president’s office and then trooped over to the Brazilian Embassy, where they sat down with Mr. Zelaya.

“What they’re trying to do is make Micheletti and Zelaya start talking,” said Miguel Angel Bonilla, a spokesman for the Lobo campaign. “They need to start thinking about the damage they are doing to Honduras.”

Mr. Lobo, like many Hondurans, was exasperated with both of them. “Life in Honduras has to go on,” he said in an interview on Saturday. “Micheletti and Zelaya is an episode that is over in four more months.”

The candidates did not achieve a breakthrough, but the Organization of American States, which has also sought to broker negotiations, did not even manage to get its delegation into the country after being invited, disinvited and then apparently re-invited by the de facto government.

So far, the sanctions — the stripping of visas of the coup leaders and their financial supporters, the withholding of aid and the harsh words emanating from Washington and elsewhere — have failed to break the de facto government, prompting a rethinking of the approach.

“Right now, the carrot we can offer is that an agreement would bring an end to the international condemnation, which we know is beginning to hurt them,” said a Congressional aide in Washington who is involved in the negotiations.

The fact that barely six months remained in Mr. Zelaya’s term when he was forcibly removed, as well as the fact that he is limited by the Constitution to a single term, may prove to be an opportunity. Some of the officials scrambling to cobble together a deal have proposed that Mr. Zelaya become president again for a day or even an hour, a symbolic restoration before resigning and ceding power to a caretaker government that would conduct the elections and prepare for a new, untainted leader.

There is no evidence right now that either side would agree to this. Mutual pardons would probably have to be included in any deal, since the prospect of lengthy trials involving Mr. Zelaya or his political enemies makes many Hondurans wince.

Lingering in the background of any discussion about how the situation in Honduras might unfold a threat of violance that can fume the situation in the country.

“At least four of the five scenarios I can think of lead to violence because of the polarization,” said Rosemary Joyce, an anthropologist at Berkeley who has worked in Honduras for decades. “The mutual demonization of those who don’t agree is a problem.”

Whether Mr. Zelaya’s return to Honduras has brought the crisis any closer to resolution remains to be seen, since they seems to be playing hide and seek.

November 10 2009

20

An unsettle atmosphere is felt around the Brazilian embassy where Mr. Zelaya is refuged.

“AT LEAST FOUR OF THE FIVE SCENARIOS I CAN THINK OF LEAD TO VIOLENCE BECAUSE OF THE POLARIZATION,” November 10 2009

Images by Juan Montecino

How long he can hold out in the embassy may turn on his fondness for burgers and cold chicken.

A year ago, President Manuel Zelaya surprised Honduran notables who turned up for the country’s traditional independence day celebration when the sitting president shouted “Long Live Independence!

Long Live the Republic!” It was supposed to be a moment of national unity.

But instead of unity, the president dished out division.

Wearing his trademark white Stetson hat, Zelaya berated his audience of slack-jawed businessmen for 15 long minutes. “The businessmen and corrupt oligarchy are responsible for our country’s two centuries of poverty because they support an unjust, neoliberal economic model that exploits humans and our natural resources,” Zelaya declared.

Many in his audience began to jeer. “Fuera! Fuera!

Fuera!” they shouted, urging that Zelaya be thrown out. As the situation threatened to get out of hand, Zelaya, surrounded by a large contingent of burly bodyguards, fled in his presidential motorcade.

On June 28, soldiers woke up the president at dawn and put Zelaya, in pajamas, on a plane out of the country, granting the majority of Honduras’ establishment its wish. Zelaya’s ouster—which has inspired flashbacks of an era not so long ago when soldiers seated and unseated Latin American presidents at will—has caused the biggest regional political crisis in years, and continues to pose a foreign policy dilemma.

On September 21, after two failed attempts to return to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, Zelaya finally made it, appearing unannounced at the Brazilian

embassy. His arrival electrified his supporters, about 2,000 of whom quickly amassed around the embassy.

And so began another chapter in the political crisis that has divided Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. “I’ve traveled for 15 hours, overcoming many obstacles, because there were a lot of checkpoints, a lot of persecution,” Zelaya said in an interview in CNN’s Spanish language network.

“Thanks to President Lula we have protection at the embassy of Brazil.”To news interviewers, Zelaya said he was there to find a negotiated and peaceful way out of Honduras’ impasse. But to the hundreds of followers who surrounded the embassy he shouted, “Restitution, Fatherland or Death!” Officials feared Zelaya meant to lead a mob of his followers to the presidential palace to dislodge the interim government headed by Roberto Micheletti. A curfew was declared and in a pre-dawn operation the next day, hundreds of police and soldiers cleared out the crowd in front of the embassy.

The stage was set for what could be a dangerous war of wills. Zelaya and dozens of his supporters set up camp in the embassy, whose water, telephone and electricity were temporarily shut off. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for Zelaya’s immediate restitution as president. It demanded Zelaya turn himself over to the courts to face charges of treason and abuse of power. If not, Micheletti said with a shrug, Zelaya was welcome to stay at the Brazilian embassy for “five to 10 years” if he so wants.

For Zelaya, who since his ouster had become an itinerant figure, jetting from one Latin American capital to another in quest of support, the prospect of being trapped in an embassy must have appeared daunting. By the end of the week, he was already complaining that, surrounded by police and soldiers, he felt as if he were in prison.

After Zelaya’s return, Honduras went into a state of virtual lockdown as the government imposed an extensive curfew throughout the country. International airports were temporarily closed, mostly to stop an announced mission by José Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States who hoped to mediate the dispute but is deeply distrusted by the Micheletti government. Meanwhile, Zelaya’s

HispaNews

supporters defied the curfew to battle with police and soldiers and sack supermarkets and banks. At least one person has died in the disturbances.

It’s hard to predict how the crisis will end, given its soap opera, roller coaster aspects. But as this article went to print, there were some positive developments.

Zelaya had met with an emissary from the Catholic Church as well as with the country’s leading presidential candidates. There was a new flurry of diplomatic activity in the works, with the OAS’ Insulza headed for Tegucigalpa for a new round of talks. Since his ouster, Zelaya’s quest to be reinstated as president has been at times dramatic and tragic, at other times clownish and silly. He has veered between being an unlikely symbol of democracy in peril to a laughingstock, with the situation always just a hair’s breath away from turning into a disaster.

On July 5, as Zelaya made his first attempt to return, at least one person died in violent clashes between soldiers and hundreds of demonstrators when Zelaya, on a Venezuelan plane flown by a Venezuelan pilot, urged his followers to take over the Tegucigalpa airport so he could land.

Three weeks later, Zelaya, accompanied by Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolás Maduro, tried to enter Honduras again. At the Las Manos border post, Zelaya was unwillingly pushed towards the border by a crowd of supporters and television reporters until he had no choice but to hold up the rusty chain that marks the border between the two countries and wander a few feet into Honduran territory. He remained in Honduras, continuously talking on his cell phone, for 30 minutes before returning to Nicaragua.

“I’m not afraid, but I’m not crazy, either,” Zelaya said in explaining his behavior to a television reporter. That tepid entry inspired a satirical rumba in Venezuela.

“Pasa la raya con Zelaya y brinca el muro con Maduro,” say the lyrics of the rumba, called El Zelayon.

Illustration how he really is trying to relate to Chavez’s character and imposed the same force in the country.

For Honduras, Zelaya’s erratic journey has been costly.

Since his ouster, Honduras, which was summarily suspended from the Organization of American States, has become an international pariah. No country recognizes the interim government headed by Micheletti, the former president of the congress who was named to succeed Zelaya by a congressional vote.

Until Zelaya’s return in September, life was headed towards a certain odd normalcy. The curfew that had marked the first days after his ouster had been lifted.

Life had resumed a more or less normal rhythm, even though a dwindling band of a few thousand protestors, most of them members of unions and popular

organizations loyal to Zelaya, had continued to block highways and briefly occupy government buildings.

Campaigning had begun for the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for November 29. The government and most of the country still hopes the new president that emerges from the election will provide a path out of the country’s present isolation, but the future is far from clear.

Honduras’ crisis has thrown a growing regional problem into sharp relief: the trend of democratically elected presidents attempting to stay in power past their designated time in order to carry out a populist and leftist agenda. These leaders, led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, have used the region’s historic poverty and inequality to gain support from the poor. On the way, they have created deep divisions and accentuated class hatreds while concentrating power by increasing government control over the economy and media.

Zelaya, a 57-year-old former rancher and logger, is part of this group that includes Chávez, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. In July, Ortega announced plans for a referendum to rewrite Nicaragua’s constitution to

21

Ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya demostrating gradituted to his supporters outside the Brazilian Embassy.

November 10 2009

HispaNews 22 22

ZELAYA’S OUSTER NOT AS A COUP BUT A LEGAL AND PATRIOTIC DEFENSE OF THE COUNTRY’S INSTITUTIONS FROM A CHAVEZ-STYLE POWER GRAB. allow him to be re-elected indefinitely, something Chávez has already achieved in oil-rich Venezuela.

A similar move by Zelaya is responsible for the unrest in Honduras. For more than a year, Zelaya led a drive to rewrite the constitution to abolish term limits.

On the day soldiers rousted him out of bed, he was planning a referendum to call a constitutional assembly, even though the vote had been declared illegal by the country’s Supreme Court.

U.S.-backed talks mediated by Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias appear to have come to a dead end—with Zelaya demanding an unconditional return to power, while the interim government, backed by the country’s courts, attorney general and congress, maintained such a return would be illegal, and therefore impossible.

The crisis put the Obama administration in a difficult spot. Hoping to mark a new day in its relations with the region and mindful of its past U.S. support of coups in Latin America, the U.S. has led efforts for a negotiated solution. But Washington’s insistence that Zelaya return to power has angered many middle-class Hondurans, who feel the U.S. has profoundly misread the situation. They view Zelaya’s ouster not as a coup but a legal and patriotic defense of the country’s institutions from a Chávez-style power grab.

“The terror of Chávez goes beyond the rational, it’s a panic,” says Edmundo Orellana, Zelaya’s former defense minister, who blames the fear inspired by Chávez for Zelaya’s ouster. Moises Starkman, who advised Zelaya on special projects and now works for the interim government, also blames Chávez. “This is a showdown which will determine if the Chávista model triumphs or not,” he says.

“We have received all sort of pressures from different people, which we will never accept in any circumstance,” Micheletti said in July following a phone call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging Zelaya’s return.

One irate Republican senator has refused to proceed with confirmation hearings for two important Obama administration appointments, including the State Department’s top Latin America hand. It also shows how Zelaya’s plans for adopting the Chávez recipe for getting and keeping power alienated virtually the entire Honduran establishment.There were other

November 10 2009

quirky moments. Others saw Zelaya developing a Chávez-like megalomania. He often commandeered all of the country’s television channels for long speeches. Zelaya took much of his cabinet along when he went scuba diving in a tourist development, wearing his Stetson until the last moment before hitting the water. Earlier this year, he skipped a meeting with donor countries to attend a private concert of Mexico’s Los Tigres del Norte, famed for their ballads honoring drug traffickers. Los Tigres serenaded Zelaya at the presidential palace with one of their hits Jefe de Jefes, or Boss of Bosses.

Zelaya quickly entered the Venezuelan’s embrace.

“They get along very well and trade jokes,” says Meza, the former interior minister. In August, Zelaya joined the ALBA—a nine-nation trade and political pact that Chávez uses to counter U.S. influence in the region.

Other ALBA members include Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, and Nicaragua.

At the ALBA ceremony in Tegucigalpa, Zelaya joined Chávez and Nicaragua’s Ortega before thousands of Hondurans, most of whom the government had paid a few dollars to attend. He copied Chávez’ incendiary rhetoric. “Today we are taking a step towards becoming a government of the center-left, and if anyone dislikes this, we’ll just remove the word ‘center’ and keep the left,” he said.

Chávez didn’t go down well in conservative Honduras, but Zelaya blamed lack of help from the U.S. and

HONDURAS PAST CRISIS The critical moments in Hondura’s history showing how unstable the government is, and the abused the people had endure for many years.

1963

Colonel Osvaldo Lopez Arellano takes power after leading a coup.

Brief but costly war with El Salvador over heavy immigration and disputed border.

others for his left turn. “I’ve been looking for projects from the IADB and Europe, and found a modest response. They don’t have emergency funds and I’ve been obligated to attract new forms of financing like ALBA,” he told Reuters in an interview. Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez, who taught Zelaya as a child, said the president told him he was getting close to Chávez “for the money.”

Zelaya, like Chávez, was soon battling most the country’s institutions. Last year, he refused to send Congress a budget by September 15, as required by the constitution. He blamed the world’s financial crisis for making it impossible to come up with numbers. But with no budget, Honduras couldn’t get new loans from donors like the International Monetary Fund. Julio Raudales, Zelaya’s former deputy minister, says the budgetary black hole cost the country some $400 million over the past year in lost funds.

Zelaya’s behavior greatly disappointed Cardinal Rodríguez, a respected figure and a top candidate to replace the late Pope John Paul II at the time of the pontiff ’s death. Cardinal Rodríguez, who worked for nine years to get the international community to forgive $2.6 billion of Honduras’ foreign debt, blames Zelaya for using public money to promote his referendum instead of spending it on the poor. “We were good friends. But he changed drastically,” the Cardinal says. “It was Chávez.”

Zelaya also tried to buy the army’s loyalty, as Chávez has in part done in Venezuela. He more than doubled the military’s budget to $100 million in 2008 and offered the military a multi-million dollar contract to build an airport terminal. But the U.S.-trained military refused the offer.

But what really set Zelaya on a collision course with most of the establishment was what many Hondurans believed was his drive to perpetuate himself in power

1975

Colonel Juan Alberto Melgar Castro take power.

Then Melgar ousted in coup led by General Policarpo Paz Garcia, to another dicterorship takes power.

1981

Roberto Suazo Cordova of the centrist Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) is elected president, leading the first civilian government in more than a century.

Zelaya and his supporters stormed an air force base in Tegucigalpa.

by rewriting the constitution to permit re-election— which is forbidden by Honduras’s charter. “He told me: Why can’t I get re-elected? Everybody’s doing it.

Why can’t I do it?” says Facusse, the businessman, a former friend. First, only Honduras’ election agency, not the president, can call a referendum. Second, the article in Honduras’ constitution that bars re-election is unchangeable—so much so that even attempting to change it leads to automatic dismissal from public office.

When the military, following court rulings, refused to help distribute the ballots days before the referendum, the president fired the military’s chief of staff, Gen. Romeo Vásquez, and accepted the resignations of the heads of the army, navy and air force and defense minister. “I told the president we could not act against a court order. If we did so, we would be committing a crime,” says Orellana, the former defense minister, a close friend of Zelaya,who had resigned days earlier because he believed Zelaya was breaking the law, also believes the soldiers’ action constituted a coup. “It’s the worse thing that could have happened.” HP

2001

Honduran Committee for the Defence of Human Rights says more than 1,000 street children were murdered in 2000 by death squads backed by the police.

2009

President Manuel Zelaya is removed by the military and forced into exile.

Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti is appointed acting president.

HispaNews 24

November 10 2009

HispaNews 25

November 10 2009

26

CULTURE

HispaNews

CUBA ‘PEACE CONCERT’ DRAWS MULTITUDES

It’s a message of peace, not only for cuba, it’s for the entire region

By Jose Acostas

H

undreds of thousands of Juanes and Migule Bose performing at Cubans attended an the Peace Concert. open-air “peace concert” in Havana on Sunday headlined by the Colombian rock star Juanes, an event criticized by some CubanAmericans who said the performers were lending support to the island’s Communist government simply by showing up.

One of the singers at the concert, Miguel Bosé, announced that the crowd in the sprawling Revolution Square numbered 1.15 million people. It was impossible to verify that number, but Juanes’s visit was clearly the biggest by an outsider since Pope John Paul II’s in 1998. Most concertgoers wore white to symbolize peace, and some held up signs reading “Peace on Earth” and “We Love You, Juanes.”

Juanes came on stage three hours into the show, gazing at the multitudes in evident disbelief. He said the concert was “the most beautiful dream of peace and love.” “I can’t believe what I am seeing with my own eyes,” he said, The affection shown here is a proof that the concert was a complete success.

November 10 2009

“We came to Cuba for love,” he said. “We have overcome fear to be with you, and we hope that you, too, can overcome it.”Even before the show started, colorful umbrellas sprouted like flowers across the wide square as revelers shaded themselves from the unrelenting sun.

“We are going to stay as long as we have the strength,” said Christina Rodríguez, a 43-year-old nurse accompanied by her teenage son, Felix. They and thousands of others had arrived hours before the concert to get a good spot, ignoring government warnings not to turn up until noon.

The excitement did not extend to some across the Straits of Florida, where Juanes had endured death threats, CD-smashing protests and boycotts since announcing his plan for the concert in Havana.

The police in Key Biscayne, Fla., said they were monitoring the homes of both the singer and his manager. The criticism from Florida was far from universal. Spanish-language stations covered the event, and several exile groups voiced support, describing it as a rare chance for Cubans to get a glimpse of the outside world.

Some Cuban officials used the opportunity to deride United States foreign policy toward Cuba, and the 47-year trade embargo in particular. But Juanes insisted that the concert was about music, not politics.

“It is one more grain of sand for improving relations through art,” he said upon arriving in Havana late Friday. Of the threats from Miami, he said only: “It is a city that I love.”

Juanes recently met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the concert even prompted comment from President Obama, who told the Spanish-language Univision network that the event probably would not have much effect on United States-Cuba relations.

“My understanding is that he’s a terrific musician. He puts on a very good concert,” Mr. Obama said in the interview broadcast Sunday. “I certainly don’t think it hurts U.S.-Cuban relations. These kinds of cultural exchanges — I wouldn’t overstate the degree that it helps.” Some went as far as breaking Juanes’ records on the street of Miami, even as the musician insisted that his voice was directed towards the Cuban people and as opposed to the government. The people who opposed do not have a clear idea of the concert;meaning.

HispaNews 27

Getty Images

The Havana show was planned as the last of a series of performances whose first stop took place in Cucuta, Colombia. On that occasion, Juaners attempted to mediate in the diplomatic confrontation between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. He could never had predicted that, while he was choosing the biggest of the Antilles as a stage, his performance at Revolution Square would cause a large outbreak of hives than he provoked in that other troubled region in Latin America. The idea of performing in a place that has been the epicenter of the current system for the past five decades was harshly criticized as a gesture legitimizing the prevailing order in Cuba. Some when as far as breaking Juanes records on the streets of Miami, even as the musician insisted that his voice was directed towards the Cuban people and not the government. It appeared difficult to dress up the event as a political when it was to be held in an esplanade surrounded by ministries and where a different discourse was heard only once with the Pope’s visit in 1998, when the pontiff said the word “Freedom” 16 times.

Juanes was able to create harmony and reconciliation.

Peace Concert Performances by: CUBA Silvio Rodriguez Los Van Van SPAIN Danny Rivera Miguel Bose X Alfonso Víctor Manuel Orishas Luis Eduardo Aute Amaury Pérez PUERTO RICO ITALY Olga Tañon Jovanotti COLOMBIA Juanes

Before midday the Plaza began to fill with very different people. There were all types: punks, teenagers, rockers, salsa aficionados, Latin American students and even a few plain-clothed cops. The sun shone down on Juanes, although by mid-afternoon clouds rescued the frying skin of those present. For a moment, the diatribe kicked up by the media was forgotten. People dance in the same place where years before calls of intransigence and vertical ideology were hear. They moved over the street that witnesses cries for “Paredon!” And firing in early 1959.

There was even time to remember those who were absent. The Boriquen singer Olga Tañon evoked those in exile and dedicated one of her songs to a young woman separated from her father for more than 20 years. Juanes had the last word and shouted, “For one Cuban Family!” In the same space where in days of old, those who emigrated were called vendapatrias, sellouts and traitors. Some wanted Juanes to use his microphone to call for freedom, but just the fact that he talked about reconciliation, in Cuba today, is a profoundly contentious discourse.

And although by concert’s end everything seemed to slip back to how things were a day before, something change in those of us who observed the call for peace without borders. It’s true the on Monday we woke up to monetary duality, censorship, state control over our lives and the same economic gags as always, but our self-esteem was much higher. We felt citizens of the world and change now did not seem so far away.

Thanks to Juanes we were able to break our routine and feel the freedom that we dream of during this five decades. We will now have a light of hope for things to change in the future, this concert has giving us the strength to continue to look forward. HP The tens os thousand that gather at the revolucion plaza.

November 10 2009

HispaNews 28

BROKEN EMBRACES (LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS) Penelope Cruz stars in Pedro Almodovar’s lates film

By Jonathan Holland

A

Warner Sogefilms (in Spain)/Sony Pictures Classics (in U.S.) release of an El Deseo, Universal Intl. Pictures Spain production, with participation of Canal Plus. (International sales: Focus Features Intl., London.). Produced by Esther Garcia.

Executive producer, Agustin Almodovar.

Directed, written by Pedro Almodovar.

With: Penelope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Jose Luis Gomez, Blanca Portillo, Lola Duenas, Ruben Ochandiano, Tamar Novas, Kira Miro, Chus Lampreave, Carmen Machi.

Partly a film about films and partly a film about love, Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces” can’t quite decide where its allegiances lie. A restless, rangy and frankly enjoyable genre-juggler that combines melodrama, comedy and more noir-hued darkness than ever before, the pic is held together by the extraordinary force of Almodovar’s cinematic personality. But while its four-way in extremis love story dazzles, it never really catches fire. The Spanish helmer’s biggest-budgeted and longest movie to date will get warm hugs from local auds on release March 18; headed for Cannes in May, it goes out Stateside via Sony Pictures Classics later this year.

There’s a sense here that Almodovar, who’s now a stylistic law unto himself, may be more interested in stretching himself technically than in engaging with issues of the wider world. Card-carrying fans can prepare themselves for a rare treat. But those who hoped the pic would extend the quieter, more personal mood shown in “Volver,” as the 59-year-old helmer moves into the late phase of his career, will be disappointed to find that “Embraces” is made not of flesh and blood, but of celluloid.

Harry Caine (Lluis Homar, “Bad Education”) is a blind screenwriter and former director whose real name, which he abandoned after losing his sight in a car crash, is Mateo Blanco. News arrives of the death of corrupt stockbroker Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), who once produced a movie Blanco directed, “Girls and Suitcases.”Blanco’s former production manager, Judit , who holds a candle for him, seems nervous at himself Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), who turns out to be Martel’s son, asks Blanco to help write a script that’s intended as an act of vengeance against his neglectful father.The film now flashes back to 1992, when Martel fell for his secretary, a wannabe actress-cum-part-time call girl, Lena (Penelope Cruz).

By 1994, he and Lena are an item. However, when Lena auditions for “Girls and Suitcases,”.

Chagrined, Martel gets his son (also Ochandiano, here as a wildly gauche, camp teenager) to spy on Blanco and Lena under the guise of making a docu about the shoot. Watching Martel’s life fall apart, as a lip reader (Lola Duenas) decodes Lena and Blanco’s conversations in the boy’s footage, is hilarious. But any compassion for Martel evaporates in the laughter -- one of several moments when the film deliberately undermines a particular mood.

Following a disastrous trip to Ibiza, Martel and Lena break up, and Martel initiates a slow, costly revenge designed to destroy Blanco. Hereon, much of the action takes place amid the volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote, opening things visually even as the drama becomes more and more claustrophobic.

Script moves fluidly back and forth in time, with superb editing by regular Jose Salcedo, and some of the witty, pointed dialogue is among Almodovar’s best. The labyrinthine plot is thick with twists, turns and resonances. But a couple of questions linger -- especially that the revelations in the final reel would hardly have remained under wraps for 14 years, given Blanco’s suspicions.

Cruz delivers a compelling, subtle perf as a woman continually aware that the shadow of tragedy hovers over her. But because her character is effectively split into three -- Magdalena the grieving daughter, Lena the actress and lover, and Pina in “Girls and Suitcases” Penelope Cruz and Luis Homarin a dramatic scene.

November 10 2009

HispaNews 29 Visually, the pic is an exquisite treat. Every richly hued wall is covered with eye-candy artwork, every doorway reps a second level of framing, and there is beauty even in the scattered contents of a drawer or in a pile of torn-up photos. Closeups are regularly used, particularly of Cruz’s hypnotically photogenic features.

Cinematic references abound. Several scenes featuring dangerous staircases recall Henry Hathaway’s ‘40s noir “Kiss of Death.” Pic’s title alludes to the Pompeii scene in Roberto Rossellini’s 1954 classic, “Voyage to Italy,” which Lena and Blanco watch in Lanzarote. And the entertaining “Girls and Suitcases” is a clear homage to Almodovar’s 1988 hit, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” Score by longtime collaborator Alberto Iglesias superbly evokes the moods and movies “Embraces” is so in thrall to.

Icipitatio etur maximus andaepel et arum quiasperro velendem ipsam quo beriaecte volore nonsequiae vereptata corit, qui te doluptat quiduci mporroriorro min parchil incillit, omnis maio tet maximus prenistempos moluptus, explitia iliquaercit laborer ovitiatin nonsenimus re cum atur secum fugitis am volores tionectotam et aut lati comnis voluptur solorer ferunt volorepro mos aut ex eos apero volupta tiorit qui in namet est, voluptatin et id ut et porehenda quist, et doluptat est explibus, commole niscim apidelitia corerep rorepreprae preic tota vit quo voloreh enitatur acepelenis estium hiciis dolut prepti beratem quas es dolores simaio. Nequam venihillab il ea derspis maio delis autatem oleseque voluptatur, cullia volum dolo et as modi dolorem ipiet quassi consequae con pro tem expedi vendi oditibus quibus ipsam volecerum que

Photos/Lisa Zador

Top: Penelope Cruz plays Marilyn Monroe.

Middle: Lena and Ibiza at the coast.

Bottom: Almodovar and cruz interchange ideas during the filming of the movie.

auds will struggle to locate an emotional center wigs.

Homar, who literally wears Almodovar’s own ‘90s wardrobe, makes a commanding screen presence as Caine/Blanco, but the character’s reactions to his multiple tragedies (including being blinded) seem stoical to the point of catatonia. Gomez and Portillo are solid in theslightly smaller roles of Martel and Judit, respectively. Multiple cameos -- including one by the helmer’s producer brother, Agustin -- are enjoyable, though none help move the story forward.

Camera (color, widescreen), Rodrigo Prieto; editor, Jose Salcedo; music, Alberto Iglesias; art director, Antxon Gomez, sound (Dolby Digital), Miguel Rejas.

Reviewed at Kinepolis, Madrid, March 13, 2009.

Running time: 128 MIN.Delendamet lignam, cusamusam vid untior adit hilique nobit adicimagni autesectur? Qui tem aute con cus. HP

Almodovar and Cruz movies Carmen Tremula 1997 Todo Sobre Mi Madre 1999 Volver 2006 La Concejala Antropófaga 2009 Los Abrazos Rotos 2009 November 10 2009

HispaNews 30

November 10 2009

OPINION

HispaNews

CARTOONS OF THE WEEK

31

QUOTES OF THE WEEK “There was the situation in Nicaragua where the Sandinistas had taken over a couple of years earlier. There was a civil war going on in El Salvador and there was a similar situation in Guatemala. So Honduras was in a rather precarious geographic position indeed.”

John Negroponte

“When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it's called a depression.”

Jesse Jackson "Not only Rio, but South America deserved it. For me, it was a big victory."

Pele

“The economy will recover. We’re very resilient as a society. But we’re concerned about the Latino Family.”

Monica Lazano

“Some wanted Juanes to use his microphone to call for freedom, but just the fact that he talked about reconciliation, in Cuba today, is a profoundly contentious discourse. ” Yoani Sanchez “It becomes a ‘Why Bother’ scenario.

When thousands of Americans who have given up searching for a job after months without success. ” Rick Alexander

© 2009 Breen-San Dieogo Union Tribune_creator News Service November 10 2009

HispaNews 32

November 10 2009