Blog

In 2005, I visited the community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia. A group of poor farmers who had been repeatedly displaced from their homes by violence, they had decided to call themselves a “peace community” and reject violence from all sides—paramilitaries, guerrillas and the army.  Yet the community was subjected to ever more harassment and violence, including by the local 17th army brigade.  Some 170 members of the peace community have been assassinated since 1997. My visit came soon after seven members of the peace community, including three children, and a local farmer had been massacred and dismembered.  The community members had left their army-occupied town to construct a bare-bones, dirt-floor village down the road.

The Latin America Working Group joins thousands of friends of Rev. Lucius Walker, here and abroad, in expressing our great sense of loss at the death of Rev. Walker – and our tremendous admiration for his life.  A mentor to many, and friend to more, and a tireless worker for justice and peace, Lucius was and remains a model of commitment, dedication, and faith that lives in actions. He inspired, challenged, guided, and led. Through his leadership of IFCO/Pastors for Peace and through his personal sacrifice, he made people aware and added to the throngs of U.S. citizens who work to end the unjust embargo on Cuba and the Cuban people. Cuba was not the only country to benefit from his humanitarianism, but that is where we at LAWG intersected with his charisma and his example. LAWG sends our sincerest sympathies to the family, friends, and co-workers of Rev. Walker. May he rest in peace.

Persistence, local organizing, effective advocacy and international pressure have ultimately won out in bringing justice to Raúl Hernández Abundio, an indigenous rights defender from Guerrero, Mexico who was targeted by authorities and unjustly imprisoned. Since we wrote about his case in July, international and local human rights groups have been working tirelessly to clear his name of the murder charges for his exposure of abuses committed by soldiers and local authorities.

Today, August 25, three key congresspersons sent a letter to President Obama lauding the rumors (that we believe are substantiated) that his administration is on the brink of an announcement easing the ban on travel to Cuba – which is within the executive purview of the President (both President Clinton and President Bush took advantage of the authority of the executive to revise and reinterpret the regulations governing travel to Cuba by limited categories of U.S. citizens).