Action Center - Latin America Working Group

Election Day in Honduras

by Lisa Haugaard on November 30, 2009

Elections took place Sunday, November 29th in Honduras with National Party leader Porfirio Lobo declared the winner.

But elections carried out under a state of emergency, with visible military and police presence, by a government installed by coup, with a significant movement opposed to the coup calling for abstention, and with the deposed President still holed up in the center of the capital city in the Brazilian Embassy, are no cause for celebration. As we wrote to the State Department on November 24th, “a cloud of intimidation and restrictions on assembly and free speech affect the climate in which these elections take place… basic conditions do not exist for free, fair and transparent elections in Honduras.”

:2009, Blog Posts, Honduras, Lisa Haugaard

Honduran Elections

by Lisa Haugaard and Vanessa Kritzer on November 30, 2009

Elections took place yesterday, November 29th, in Honduras with National Party leader Porfirio Lobo declared the winner. But elections carried out

under a state of emergency
with visible military and police presence
by a government installed by a military coup
with a significant civil society movement opposed to the coup calling for abstention
and with the deposed President still deposed and holed up in the center of the capital city in the Brazilian Embassy

are no cause for celebration.

If you haven't sent a message to our U.S. government about Honduras, click here now!

:2009, Action Alerts

Mexico's Tlachinollan: "Through the Language of Human Rights We Have Become Brothers."

by Suzette Diaz on November 23, 2009

This year, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) gave its annual Human Rights Award to the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center from the state of Guerrero in Mexico. This award honors the bravery and dedication of organizations and individuals defending human rights in Latin America.

LAWG has great respect for Tlachinollan’s work and we were moved by the beautiful words that Abel Barrera, the director of Tlachinollan, used in his acceptance speech. The following is an excerpt from that speech. To read the full speech click here. Para leer todo el discurso, haga clíc aquí.

:2009, Blog Posts, Mexico

What I Learned In Honduras

by Lisa Haugaard on November 25, 2009

I have just returned from Honduras, and I can tell you, there is no possible way that there are the basic conditions for free and fair elections on November 29th.

Click here to tell Secretary of State Clinton to call these elections what they really are—far from free and fair!

:2009, Action Alerts

Rethinking the U.S.-Mexico Border

by Brian Erickson on November 20, 2009

On Friday, November 13th, some influential thinkers from both the United States and Mexico gathered at the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute to discuss how our two nations must begin Rethinking the U.S.-Mexico Border.

The current model, as described by former Deputy Foreign Secretary of the Government of Mexico Andrés Rozental, is a system characterized by “irritation, inefficiency, illegality, and now, violence.” Moving forward, he stated, we need “cooperative solutions to shared problems.”

:2009, Blog Posts, Brian Erickson, U.S.-Mexico Border

Honduras: No Ones Idea of an Electoral Fiesta

by Lisa Haugaard on November 24, 2009

“Vote? Me? No way? For what?” said the young man, almost spitting out the words. “What is there to vote for in this election?”

All over Honduras, youth “in resistance,” women in resistance, artists in resistance, lawyers in resistance, well-dressed and blackberried political party leaders in resistance, campesinos in resistance, are saying no to these November 29th elections. While the word “resistance” may conjure up images of masked guerrillas, this image is totally misleading. As I could see in a trip this week to Tegucigalpa, it is, so far, in general an extraordinarily peaceful, civic resistance.

:2009, Blog Posts, Honduras, Lisa Haugaard