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Show HERALD DAILY A8 The hike takes place within Crossing the Continued from A J drive north of Mexico City. The spectacle unfolding here isnt an actual border crossing attempt but a live simulation-ad- that attempts to give participants a taste of what it's like for the thousands of Mexican and other Latin American undocumented migrants trying to enter the promised land of "el norte." Dubbed the "Caminata (Night Hike), the three-hosimulation is a combina- venture Noc-turn- ur tion obstacle course, sociology d lesson and family outing. Founded in 2004, it's run by members of a local village of Hnahnu Indians, an indigenous people of south-centrMexico, whose population of about 2,500 has been decimated by migration to the United States. F.very Saturday night, dozens of the remaining several hundred villagers take part in the Caminata. Many work as costumed performers impersonating Border Patrol agents, fellow migrants and masked "coyotes" and "polleros," the Mexican guides who escort v migrants for a fee. The 7 hike, which involves quite a bit of running, costs about $10 per person. The money raised from the Caminata, and other park ac- tivities such as cabin rentals, rappelling and boating trips, is shared evenly among the vilPG-rate- lagers.' Since it opened, the Camina- ta has drawn thousands of visitors, the majority from Mexico but also from Europe, the United States and Asia, Several of the roughly 50 participants in last Saturday night's outing said they were hoping to ' gain some insight into what their endure during migrants trans-borde- r odysseys. "It's part of our culture, and it's important to know it," said Sergio Mendieta, a secondary school teacher from the state of Mexico. Marcelo Rojas, a Mexico City biologist, knows "many, many Mexicans, some of them my relatives," who have crossed back and forth between their country and the United States. "What pushes them is to have the prospect of a better life," he said. "I know at least three people that went and didn't make it, that wanted to cross the desert. They died there." 3.000-acr- e Parque EcoAl-berta recreational park and campsite owned, operated and staffed on a rotating basis by the Hnahnu. The complex was developed by villagers without any government help, said Deliino Santiago, 33, a Hnahnu w ho is among the park's current group of o'erseers. Santiago said he first crossed the border when he was 16 and now regularly shuttles between his home here and Las Vegas, where he is legally employed with a landscaping company. Speaking in English (his third language, after Spanish and Hnahnu), he said that his fellow villagers wish they could work legally in the U.S. but that current U.S. immigration policy makes it extremely to difficult and obtain legal status. "I pay taxes. I understand the laws," he said. "But they don't allow us to become cit- izens.; A handful of media reports have raised the question of whether the Caminata is a kind of boot camp that trains Mexicans and Central Americans how to sneak into Brownsville, Texas, or San Diego.Hike organizers pump up participants with vaguely worded speeches about Mexican national pride and solidarity with migrants. The Caminata reflect s t he assumption that poor, desperate migrants have a right to seek work in foreign lands an attitude shared by most Mexicans, who adamantly op- Sunday, May 25, 2008 Leader of Latin America's guerrilla army dead Toby Muse THE ASSOCIATED PSESS The ColomBOGOTA, Colombia bian Defense Ministry said Saturday it believes the legendary , leader of Latin Amer- ica's largest guerrilla army is dead. Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, died on March 26, the ministry said in a statement, citing 'different Manuel military intelligence Marulanda means." "We know that in- side the FARC, the version is that he died of natural causes, specifically from a heart attack," the ministry said. "Whether the death of Marulanda came in a bombardment or from natural causes, this would be the most serious blow this terrorist group has suffered." Marulanda, whose real name is Pedro Antonio Marin, was believed to be about FARC 80, and had led the peasant-basesince its founding in 1964. Colombia's government has announced his death various times over the past 15 years, but each time proof that he was alive cropped up months later. T , d "If (the FARQ are going to say that the information we have is not true, they should show him," said the statement, which was read by the military's chief of issue, spoke on condition of anonymity. The ministry's announcement and the Semana interview Saturday follow a series of rebel setbacks. The past year's blows include the March killings of rebel staff, Adm. David Moreno. The FARC did not immediately respond commander Raul Reyes and another on the Web sites that publish rebel member of the rebel's seven-ma- n ruling Secretariat and the defection last week- Colombia has tried for years to bring end of a female leader well regarded inside the rebel group. down the FARC, which the government The military also said that Marulanda says is currently holding 700 hostages, has been replaced as FARC leader by a including three U.S. military contractors and Ingrid Betancourt, rebel ideologue known as Alfonso Cano. who was running for president when the The army has for months said it has Cano rebels kidnapped her in 2002. cornered in the southwest Colombian President Atvaro Uribe has made dejungle and that his death or capture is imminent. FARC statements have denied feating the FARC his chief objective. Cano is in the area. First word of Marulanda's possible Born to a poor peasant family, Marudeath came earlier Saturday when the landa was radicalized by the vicious newsmagazine Semana quoted Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos as saying civil wars that ravaged Colombia in the he had information that Marulanda died middle of the last century, pitting Liberals in the guerrillas' southern (lombiaiiL against Conservatives, He and other survivors of a 1964 army stronghold at the time of three bombing raids. attack on a peasant community escaped In the Semana interview, Santos said to the mountains and formed the FARC, that the government had been told of the which grew over the decades to include rebel leader's death from a "source who some 15,000 fighters. The defense minishas never failed us." ter now estimates the FARC's strength at A senior defense official told The Asaround 9,000. sociated Press that the military's main The guerrillas remain strong in many intelligence source is human and that com- parts of Colombia's countryside, but many munications intercepts support the claim Colombians believe they have abandoned but he cautioned that Marulanda's actu- their communist ideology as the moveal death remains to be confirmed. The offi- ment has come to rely chiefly on drug cial, who was not authorized to discuss the trafficking as its main funding source. s. French-Colombia- n pose extending the U.S. border wall. But the Caminata seems intended more as a homage to migrants than an overt political statement. Even so, the Caminata probably prepares you to cross the border about as much as playing a game of paintball would prepare you to take part in a Marine sweep of Sadr City. Santiago bluntly spelled out the difference between this ersatz "border crossing" and the real thing: "There, they truly suffer, and here you don't suffer." A recent hike began, as usual, with a convoy of pick- ups ferrying participants and guides into the center of the village. One villager, wearing a Dodgers baseball cap, estimated he had crossed the border 15 times. The group convened outside the walls of the village's crumbling church. The building has been all but abandoned because the Roman Catholic diocese no longer could supply a priest. Among the participants Apart from the occasional sprained ankle or cactus spine lodged in your hand, Mexiwere two middle-age- d the perils of the course are But the can teachers, an Ohio college entirely Caminata isn't without chalprofessor, several extended families and small clusters of lenges. The route takes participants giggling teenagers snapping e up steep mountains studded pictures. Several with spiky cactuses and sharp-edge- d men in black ski masks materialized, the evening's tour maguey plants, along the banks of the swift flowing guides. One, a stocky, garTula River, through cow pasrulous fellow who declined to tures and ancient Indian burial give his name, gathered the crowd together and launched grounds. For much of the jourinto a rambling ney, participants are pursued by the ersatz border guards monologue. "This night is perhaps a little (also known as "la migra"), ' magical, because we speak of racing along in pickups, barkthe theme that is the theme of ing commands to surrender and firing guns loaded with immigration," he said in Spanblanks. ish. "And in this night, perhaps, it is evoked in tribute and in Some artistic license comes with the price of admission. In honor of all those immigrants who have nurtured a dream." reality, border guards seldom use their sirens or discharge He then produced two Mexitheir firearms. can flags from his knapsack Although the simulation can and urged the crowd on in Mexican national only approximate the dangers singing the ' and physical hardships of anthem. Within a few minutes, the crossing the border, it reflects a harsh economic reality. Most entire pack was off and runof this village's residents spend ning: slipping on muddy all or part of the year working and mushy cowpats; illegally in places like Phoenix, scrambling under wire fences; Tampa, Fla., and Las Vegas. crouching behind bushes; inching along a narrow wall above They created the Caminata in 2004 as a cooperative busia drop; stumbling over ness to help compensate for the rocks in the moonlight. "Vamos! Vamos! Mas rapi-docollapse over the last generation of the local farm economy, the guides yelled. Let's go! from crops of tomatoes, corn Let's go! Faster! and chiles. As in many parts Most participants quickly of Mexico, mass migration entered the spirit from this area began in earnest of the occasion. Hours later, in the 1980s, when Mexico's recapping the evening, several farming sector went into depeople appeared to find the excline. Since the late 1990s, the perience almost too intensely North American Free Trade realistic. "I learned that it's very difAgreement has aggravated Mexico's job losses as small ficult. It's awful. I can't survive farmers have been driven unthis, I think," said Tamara der by competition from indus- Vazquez Hernandez, a trial farming. from Mexico City. make-believ- -- !" g Relief Continued fromAl that he knows the days when prices go up! (Sunday and Wednesday are cheaper.) More stats for the weary: The national average has gone from $3.20 a gallon to $3.80 in the same period, according to the American Automobile As- get through these tough times? Is it cheaper to drive south or north for a vacation? What about luggage racks on the roof? Good idea or bad? How far should you drive for cheap gas? Will slowing down on the highway, the bane of many existences, really help? We'll try to sort all that out. You're not in an action movie. Oh sure, it looks like fun, sociation. driving away in a great escape Susan Uttal of Potomac, Md., scene, bad guys clinging to the is still planning to take a trip to roof. But jthat is so, so wrong. It is so bad for gas mileage, the Outer Banks this summer. in a test of aero"How can I change my vacation plans?" she said. "Stay dynamics and fuel economy, home? That's not going to haprecently proved this (using a not vehicle with luggage pen. I stay home enough. My basic traveling is from home to people strapped to the roof). The automotive Web site work." So how can drivers like Uttal found that in testing on an MARK Veteran Gary Campbell holds a dog tag given to him during a recent trip back to Vietnam with members JOHNSTON, Daily Herald of his former unit Thursday. Vietnam The mystery of a lone dog tag Continued from Al hateful." In the city of Hue, at a "There was one experience that gave me chills," Gary Campbell said. "There was an old guy who came running up to us and he handed me a dog tag. I was the only one in the group who is LDS. I read the tag and read the religion and it said LDS and chills came down by back. Compared to the other religions, there were very few of us who were LDS. had to wonder if there was a reason he handed this to me." I na- tional cemetery where 12,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers are buried, Campbell had an encounter with a Vietnamese veteran wearing a uniform with Communist insignia. ' "He was wearing a hat with a red star on it," Campbell wrote in an from Vietnam to his family. "I was wearing a hat with the emblem of the U.S. Marine Corps on it. As he approached, he pointed at my hat, then stuck out both hands like he was shooting his rifle and went 'bang, bang, bang.' He then laughed, reached out his hand and took mine in a handshake." The man then kissed his cheek and said "Friends now," Campbell said "We then went to a monument and burned incense in respect of our fallen former enemies." The group even looked up the gravestones of soldiers who died in the area of Hill 362 in July 1966. "I had no anger because they showed no anger or animosity so it was easy for me to show respect," Campbell said of his decision to respect the enemies who killed his fel SUV, putting a suitcase and cooler on the roof while driving at 65 mph dropped fuel economy from 27.2 mpg to 21.6 mpg. Here's why: Adding stuff on the roof increases the amount of car that has to fight through the wind, creating drag. As Edmunds.com explained, "Aerodynamic drag increases in proportion to the square of speed, so doubling speed from 40 to 80 mph results in a quadrupling four times more of drag." The holy grail: Finding "cheap" gas The quickest way to compare prices is using the Internet. There's GasBuddy.com. There's Gaspricewatch.com. Mapquest and Google have interactive maps that allow Campbell received the tag at Long Phu village, near the former U.S. Chu Lai Airbase. Now Campbell wants to find the tag's owner, or family. The inscription on the dog tag reads: 1 M,S!,,. Miller, J.R. 2131687 A USMC LDS Anyone with information about the tag is asked to call Gary Campbell at low Marines. "I had thought there would be a little bitterness, but I absolutely did not the heat and humidity were oppressive. The group camped in the jungle and left early the see any." next morning, but about three hours into the hike, some of the Though they visited many former battle sites, the group's group developed heat exhaustion and began to show signs of plan to return to Hill 362 and bury stones inscribed with the heat stroke vomiting and an names of their fallen dead had inability to sweat. to be abandoned. The group had already wadTheir tour guide had to get ed through three rivers and special permits to allow them to traversed jungle and elephant hike six hours one way through grass, but it was impossible to the jungle back to Hill 362. But go farther. the men were not as youthful "We really wanted to get to as they were 41 years ago, and that hill, but the reality settled drivers to see gas prices along . their travel routes. You can even get updated information on your phone or PDA. Click over to on your phone. Or you can text gasgas-buddy.comessage or with the CityState or ZipPostal .Code as the body of the message. But the big question is: How far should you drive for cheaper gas? Of course, it would be downright Clark W. Griswold-lik- e to drive too far, because that would be defeating the purpose. BankRate. com has an elegant online calculator to help you figure out how far is too far before losing the benefit of the cheaper gas. Slowing down will take a little Gasbud-dytogo.co- Web-enable- d m more time (a little), but it will save fuel Cathy Schaeff , a biologist at American University, usually sets her cruise control by the way, use cruise control! to 7 or 8 mph over the speed limit while on the highway. But for her recent trip to Ontario, she scaled her speed back to 60 mph to save fuel. "I live in the Washington D.C. area so my normal mode is fast forward," she said. "It does take a conscious effort to slow down. Driving up to Canada, if it takes me an hour longer, it really isn't going to change my trip that much. But it is hard. It's irksome. I usually do things fast rather than slow." AAA says: "Gas mileage in," he said. "We lost too many on that hill last time. As disappointing as that was, it still was a tremendous trip." The group later returned to another hill, where they had been extracted by helicopter after the massacre on Hill 362. Here they buried stones inscribed with the names of their fallen dead and held a prayer ceremony. "We felt that our brothers knew that we had tried and we were there in honor of them," he said. decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.15 per gallon of gas. Using cruise control on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save gas." Trivial Pursuit: Gas version Which way is the cheapest direction to head ? Let's say you go north, headed for New York City, Let's say you need to fill up in New Jersey. At the Wawa at Woodbury Heights, off the New Jersey Turnpike, it will cost gas-wise- you $3.71 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.com. What if you went South on and needed gas in Roanoke Rapids, N.C? You would pay f |