by Emily Chow
on November 01, 2012
While many of us are facing the difficult task of rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy’s devastation along the north Atlantic coast, there are many others who face this undertaking with few or no resources, even without food reserves to face the days that have followed. Those living in Cuba’s second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, and in other towns in eastern Cuba were directly hit by Sandy’s wrath a few days before she reached the shores of the United States. On October 25, winds of 110 miles per hour devastated homes, businesses, and agriculture in the eastern provinces of Cuba for up to five hours. Now the Cuban people, just like many here in the United States, are in the recovery stages.
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by Danielle Marie Mackey
on October 22, 2012
The Honduran LGBTQ community is a relatively young movement that faces overwhelming discrimination and violence in a post-coup nation. In the early years, the community was nominally tolerated; gay male hairdressers of the Air Force wives, for instance, competed as comedy acts in annual Air Force beauty pageants. It was not until the year 2000 that the first legally-constituted LGBTQ organizations appeared. Activists say that advances in human rights protections have historically been followed by waves of repression, but that the most recent wave—that which has followed the 2009 coup—is the most severe. The Diversity Resistance Movement (MDR for its name in Spanish) is an LGBTQ group that formed in the tumultuous wake of the coup. In June 2012, I sat down with three of its members—Roberto Canizales, a history professor at the National University; and Ever Guillen Castro and Jose Palacios, both advocacy officers with European cooperation agencies based in Honduras. The three long-time activists discussed everything from who’s behind the repression, to the recent murder of their friend Erick Martinez, to the hope they have for the future of their community. Visit MDR on Facebook or at their blog-news site.
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by Guest Blogger, Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick
on October 19, 2012
I have been curious about Cuba since 1999 when a friend told me to get there before the United States invaded because there would be a Gap store on every corner. Her photos showed a uniqueness, an old authenticity that I didn’t think I had experienced before. As a long- time wanderlust sufferer, if a highly-regarded worldly friend tells me a place is a “must see,” it goes on the list. I never did my homework about Cuba but rather, like many of us, allowed myself to be fed the random dogma and propaganda from the news. My curiosity lingered, and in 2007 while working for the U.S. government in the Caribbean, I learned the HIV rates in Cuba were thought to be among the lowest in the world. This was largely accomplished through quarantine. If you had HIV, you were segregated. How awful, I thought. What a terrible and demoralizing way to treat people. This rounded out my perceptions about Cuba. A place full of culture and antiquity but drowning in oppression and prejudice. I still wanted to go. In May of this year, while trolling the net for Cuba trips, I discovered Global Exchange; and as crazy luck would have it, Busboys and Poetswas taking a group to Cuba the same week I was free! [editor’s note: Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, bookstore, lounge, and theater in Washington, D.C., founded in 2005 by Andy Shallal. It has been described as a haven for writers, thinkers and performers from America's progressive social and political movements.]
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by Emily Chow
on October 16, 2012
The Cuban government has lifted travel restrictions for its citizens. Yes, you’re reading that correctly…the Cuban government.
Reuters reports that the announcement was made official today in the Cuban state newspaper, Granma. “The government now is set to lift requirements to obtain an exit visa permitting departure from Cuba and a letter of invitation from someone in the destination country. Instead, starting on January 14, Cubans will simply have to show a passport and, if needed, a visa from the country to which they are traveling, Communist Party newspaper Granma said.”
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by Chelsey Crim, LAWG Intern
on October 16, 2012
“Here we have two governments and a very standard labor issue with a small group of workers, yet no resolution, which is very disconcerting. If this can’t be resolved, what can we expect to happen in terms of broader protection for labor?”
Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director of the Latin America Working Group
On September 13, 2012 the Washington Office on Latin America, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, Witness for Peace and the United Steelworkers welcomed Jorge Parra, leader of ASOTRECOL, Association of Injured Workers and Ex-workers of General Motors Colombia, to speak about the group’s struggle protesting their illegal firing from the U.S. - based company. Claiming they were fired for their work-related injuries, members of ASOTRECOL have been protesting in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, demanding to be reintegrated into the company -and to be fairly compensated for their work-related injuries.
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