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We heard from our longtime LAWG partner Nancy Sánchez, who has worked many years in Putumayo, Colombia, about this sorry case of fumigation of pineapple crops of the Association of Women Pineapple growers, Oroyaco Hamlet, Municipality of Villagarzon, Putumayo.

The police tried to impede Trinidad Ruiz from looking for the bodies of her husband and son. They were disappeared by paramilitary forces on March 23, 2012.  Manuel Ruiz, age 56, and Samir Ruiz, age 15, were executed. Their bodies were dumped in a river and discovered more than four days later by the surviving members of the Ruiz family who were accompanied by Colombian and international human rights organizations. More than eight months later, Mrs. Ruiz and her family are still searching for justice in the highest profile murder of 2012 in Colombia.....

 

On May 11 in rural Honduras, a late-night anti-narcotic mission involving American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and U.S.-owned equipment resulted in the death of four people—two of them pregnant women, a fourteen-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man.  One of the leading Honduran human rights organizations, COFADEH, released this detailed report, calling the event “unacceptable and reprehensible.”

In a surprise move, the Guatemalan government has announced the effective closing of the “Peace Archives,” one of the most active and important institutions created in the wake of the 1996 peace accords to promote peace, truth and reconciliation. According to Guatemalan press accounts, the Secretary of Peace Antonio Arenales Forno stated that by June 29 the government would “cancel [labor] contracts for which I see no justification and end the functions of an office that I find makes no sense.”

Many of the displaced residents of Buenaventura live in the La Playita neighborhood. The homes sit on stilts over the water, and the roads usually flood in the daily rains. (Christian Fuchs — Jesuit Refugee Service/USA)

(Buenaventura, Colombia) May 21, 2012 — Between the Western-most range of the Colombian Andes and the Pacific Ocean in the Department of Valle de Cauca lays the city Buenaventura — Colombia's principal port city and also one of its deadliest. 

While there are few international headlines that highlight the ongoing nearly 50-year-long armed conflict, Buenaventura has received massive numbers of displaced Colombians in recent years fleeing violent displacement by armed groups. Buenaventura also has one of the highest rates of intra-urban displacement, and struggles with a 60% unemployment rate.

(Bogota) May 14, 2012 — It is easier to be optimistic about the humanitarian situation in Colombia from within the confines of the vibrant city centers of Bogota, Cartagena and Barranquilla. There the thriving economy, spurred by a surge in foreign investment, reports of a growing middle class and the general warmth of the Colombian people can lull you into feeling that all is well in Colombia, that the nearly 50 years of civil war have been left behind and that the shadowy illegal armed groups who leave terror in their wake have all but been defeated.

Last night, 4, 200 boxes of beautiful flowers took flight on a plane from Bogotá, Colombia to Miami, Florida. They arrived early this morning to US shores and represent the first product to enter the US under the Colombia-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The agreement went into effect today.

El homicidio el pasado 27 de abril en Florida, Valle , de Daniel Aguirre Piedrahíta fue un asesinato de alto perfil. Él fue uno de los principales voceros de los corteros de caña y el secretario general de una de las más importantes organizaciones sindicales, Sinalcorteros. De origen campesino y un antiguo trabajador de Incauca, desde 2004 participó en todas las negociaciones con los directivos de los ingenios. Fue uno de los líderes de las huelgas de 2005 y 2008. Su lucha fue a favor de la contratación directa, la estabilidad laboral, los servicios sociales, las inversiones para la comunidad y el derecho a la unión sindical, entre otros.

*Spoiler alert! Details of Demián Bichir’s Oscar-nominated performance in A Better Life exposed here!

Bummed all the hype surrounding the Oscars is over? Hopefully the annual awards show opened your eyes to some fantastic films. One that I would personally urge you to see is A Better Life.

Mexican actor Demián Bichir was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in this timely film about immigration. Bichir plays Carlos Galindo, an honest, hardworking gardener and undocumented Mexican immigrant living in East Los Angeles with his teenage son. The struggles Carlos faces as a single father are exacerbated by his undocumented status and the gangs that are constantly trying to recruit his son, Luis.

Back in October I was lucky enough to see Sonia Pierre, a longtime activist for Dominicans of Haitian descent, speak at what would be one of her last public events before her death the following month. Like the people she spent her life defending, Sonia was born on a batey to Haitian parents who migrated to the Dominican Republic in search of better jobs. Bateys are Dominican sugar plantations where Haitian migrant workers and their offspring face appalling working conditions and live in poverty, marginalized from the rest of Dominican society.

I was not prepared when I opened Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives. One moment I was sitting at my desk, and the next I was with Roberto, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. I followed him as he moved from one underpaying, exhausting job to the next; working even harder once he had his own family. I was by his side when he received amnesty, but his family didn’t. They voluntarily left the country while he stayed behind to continue working to support them. Here Roberto recounts his own experiences, providing me a glimpse into his struggles and feelings of profound loneliness and loss.

“On horseback, on motorcycles, in canoes, in jeeps, on unpaved roads, over mountains and through jungles, we arrived to listen to the voices of women.”

This account of a powerful Colombian women’s movement is brought to us by Winifred Tate, a LAWGEF Board Member and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Colby College. Ms. Tate translated and edited the following interview with Nancy Sanchez of the Colombian human rights group Asociación MINGA about the Putumayo Women’s Alliance, a network of women’s organizations and activists working together for peace and justice in the middle of a conflict zone. This is the first of two posts about the Putumayo Women’s Alliance.

“Es una situación de completo abandono.” Few people know of the struggles experienced by the miskito buzos of Honduras, a group of indigenous scuba-divers forced to work under terrible conditions to harvest lobster and shrimp. These divers—ranging from young boys to elderly men—dive into depths beyond what is safe for the human body, with little to no protective equipment and at great risk to themselves.

“And the worst of all is when the things happen to you and you can’t do anything,” said María, a displaced woman in Colombia who has endured abuses by guerrillas, paramilitaries and the army.  “And you have to just watch and simply be silent. If you say something, it will happen all the same. That’s when I saw that the only real right we have as people is to be silent. Maybe that’s the real right I’ve exercised here, in Colombia.  It’s watch and be silent, if you want to survive.”

LAWGEF is pleased to publish this selection from a book coming out in 2012 from McSweeney’s Voice of Witness, by editors Max Schoening and Sibylla Brodzinsky.  This will be a powerful collection of oral histories, compiling the life stories of a selection of Colombia’s over 5 million internally displaced people. In their own words, narrators recount their lives before displacement, the reasons for their flight, their personal tragedies and struggles to rebuild their lives. By amplifying these unheard voices through the intimacy of first person narrative, this Voice of Witness book aims to increase awareness of Colombia’s human rights catastrophe and illuminate the human impact of the country’s ongoing war.

When Ana Pineda* left her small village in Nacaome, Honduras in 2009, she was full of hope: “I had dreams of going to the United States to get a good job and to help support my mother and father.” But her hopes were soon crushed when she was kidnapped by criminal gangs in Coatzalcoalcos, a coastal city in Veracruz, Mexico that is a frequent transit point for Central American migrants. “They brought me to a house in Tamaulipas, Mexico and had me there for four months, imprisoned along with other Central Americans, South Americans, and Mexicans. I was abused, terribly abused. Many of the others were raped, even the men. Thank God I was able to escape.”

The Latin America Working Group salutes our faith community colleagues who are taking a stance to protect the poor, around the world as well as in the United States.  As we said in the attached letter, the budget should protect assistance to the most vulnerable in Latin America—and around the world, and here at home.

WASHINGTON -- Frustrated that their pleas to the Administration and Congress to protect funding for the nation's most vulnerable are being ignored, nearly a dozen leaders from the faith community were arrested in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building on Thursday, July 28th.  Despite repeated warnings from the U.S. Capitol Police, the leaders refused to end their public prayers asking the Administration and Congress not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.  Over twenty-five other religious observers were present to witness the demonstration as an act of solidarity.

Last month, a congressional report noted that a staggering 70% of the weapons recovered in Mexico in 2009 and 2010— and submitted for tracing— originated in the United States, overwhelmingly from Southwest border states. The controversial and highly flawed ATF Operation Fast and Furious has drawn attention to not just the staggering number of firearms that flow over our southern border, but to loopholes and shortcomings in our policies surrounding firearms purchases that have enabled straw purchasers (people who claim to buy weapons for themselves, but then pass them on to criminal groups) and other gun traffickers in the U.S. to channel thousands of weapons to organized crime in Mexico.   

Facundo Cabral, a singer/ songwriter from Argentina, was one of the leaders in nonviolent protest music throughout Latin America for over 50 years. Born in La Plata, Argentina in 1937, Cabral grew up in extreme poverty. As he learned to play the guitar, sing, and write, he quickly became known as the voice of the people who could not speak. His dedication to social justice movements and his response to violent military dictatorships in Latin America forced him into exile in Mexico following the Argentine coup in 1976, where he continued writing and performing, and gained wide-spread popularity. In 1996, the United Nations designated Cabral a "worldwide messenger of peace" for his continued commitment to the people and to justice and freedom for the powerless in Central and South America.

Last year, 280,041 Colombian civilians were forced to leave their homes, fleeing from the extreme violence of Colombia’s decades-long conflict. This statistic is the centerpiece of a February Spanish-language report published by the Colombian human rights NGO CODHES, a group that has worked tirelessly for nearly two decades to shed light on the human rights crisis in Colombia. As CODHES’ report highlights, almost 33 percent of displaced civilians are forced to flee from zones that are a focus of “territorial consolidation,” the signature program of the Uribe administration that aimed to set up military control of areas of the countryside while also, at least in theory, expanding civilian government institutions.

For nine years Valentina Rosendo Cantú has been seeking justice for human rights violations committed against her by the Mexican military. In 2002, Valentina was raped by Mexican soldiers while washing clothes in a stream running through the indigenous community of Me’phaa in Guerrero state. In 2010, Valentina’s case reached the Inter-American court of Human Rights where the court issued a sentence mandating Mexico to make reparations for Valentina and re-open the criminal investigations in civilian courts. Mexico has yet to fulfill its obligation so Valentina continues to fight.

In this winter moment when we begin to think of “peace and good will to all,” we thought you might like to see this report by our colleague Virginia Bouvier of the US Institute for Peace. Her insights offer a bit of cautious hope for the prospects for peacemaking in Colombia.

On October 6, nearly 10 months after the devastating earthquake tore through Haiti, Refugees International (RI) released the report “Haiti: Still Trapped in the Emergency Phase” detailing the continuing crisis. “Action is urgently needed to protect the basic human rights of people displaced by the earthquake,” RI reported. “Living in squalid, overcrowded and spontaneous camps for a prolonged period has led to aggravated levels of violence and appalling standards of living.”

History was made on Thursday when a U.S. District Court Judge in Southern Florida, William J. Zloch, sentenced former Guatemalan special forces soldier Gilberto Jordán to ten years in federal prison. Jordán was convicted of lying on his citizenship application to hide his role in the 1982 massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians in Dos Erres, Guatemala. In condemning Jordán to the maximum time allowed by law for naturalization fraud, Judge Zloch made clear that he intended the ruling to send a clear message that “those who commit egregious human rights violations abroad” cannot find “safe haven from prosecution” in the United States. The sentence marks the first time that any of the dozens of Kaibil special forces who carried out the murders almost 28 years ago has been prosecuted.

On Wednesday, June 30, the House Agriculture Committee votes on H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which restores U.S. citizens' right to travel to Cuba, creates jobs in the U.S., and puts food on Cubans' tables. What happens Wednesday will determine if this landmark legislation sees the light of day on the House floor this summer or dies in committee. The LAWG Cuba Team will be on the Hill (in 1300 Longworth) for the vote on the bill, championed by Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota (picture right), at 2pm EST. You can follow our "live-tweets" via Twitter or tune in online through the Agriculture Committee's website. Live video coverage can be found here once the "mark-up" begins.

Photo Credit: aflcio

Here’s an update on the recent natural disasters that have hit Guatemala from Kelsey Alford-Jones of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC/USA):

A week after Guatemalans experienced a dual assault from Pacaya Volcano and Tropical Storm Agatha, volcanic ash still hangs in the air. Over 80,000 people wait in emergency shelters—the homes, crops and livelihoods of many completely destroyed.

The pursuit of justice “is a challenge that we have been called to take on, and we have no idea how far this journey will lead us,” said Guatemalan human rights defender Jesús Tecú Osorio at a reception in his honor on May 17th, 2010. Human Rights First and the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) organized this gathering to celebrate Tecú’s selection as winner of the 2010 Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award for international human rights defenders.

Take a look at a quality analysis by Salvador Sarmiento of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights of the road to travel between an apparently successful donors conference and the actual delivery of well-targeted aid, published on the Center for International Policy’s Americas Program blog. 

We thought you should hear this story from Lisa Bonds, with our partner Lutheran World Relief in Colombia.  See LWR’s blog on Colombia and other topics by clicking here.

“I joined my Lutheran World Relief colleagues and Rosario Montoya, the Director of Fundacion Infancia Feliz, in a visit to the ‘Finca la Alemania,’ the German farm… As we drove to the farm, Rosario briefed us on the farm's history and the people who had recently returned to the farm after having been displaced by one of the most feared paramilitary leaders, called ‘the Chain,’ in the state of Cordoba...

Amanda Martin of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA provides this important update on the arduous search for justice in the cases of disappeared Guatemalans.

On December 3, 2009, a former military official and three former commissioners were sentenced to 53 years in prison for the forced disappearance and illegal detention of six people in El Jute, Guatemala in 1981. This marks the first time in Guatemalan history that a high-ranking military official has been sentenced for forced disappearance. In the sentence, the tribunal also ordered an investigation of former defense minister Angel Anibal Guevara, former head of Defense Security (EMD) Benedicto Lucas Garcia, and other officials and soldiers assigned to the same military base as the guilty parties in 1981.

After months of a virtual standstill in Honduras between democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and regime leader Roberto Micheletti, we might be seeing the end of what one writer called, “The Little Coup That Couldn’t.” On October 29th, Honduras’ defacto leader Roberto Micheletti agreed to step down, allowing the Honduran Congress to decide whether President Zelaya would be returned to power. But, the fate of democracy in Honduras still remains to be seen.

Writing a few days ago in El Espectador, columnist Felipe Zuleta reported that mothers of young men killed by the Colombian military have begun receiving anonymous threats.

The mothers live in the poor Bogotá suburb of Soacha, where in 2008 elements of the Colombian Army abducted young men, killing them and later presenting their bodies as those of illegal armed group members killed in combat. When news of the Soacha killings broke in September 2008, the scandal forced the firing of 27 Army personnel. Murder trials have been proceeding very slowly, with an increasing likelihood that some of those responsible may not be punished.

An invitation from Wayne Smith, Former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and Senior Fellow and Director of the Cuba Program at the Center for International Policy

This conference in New Orleans on disaster preparedness seems to open a new and critical door for bilateral exchange.

Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast are both in the path of hurricanes, which are striking with increasing frequency and ferocity.  It is therefore of marked importance that they cooperate with one another against these onslaughts, exchanging information and providing assistance to one another as needed.  The Cubans have indicated their full willingness to do so.  It is fitting that Cubans and Americans gather in New Orleans, the American city that was most damaged by and had the highest losses in lives from Hurricane Katrina, to discuss how this cooperation can best be achieved. 

The Washington Ballet debuted a fantastic production of Don Quixote at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts this week.  The highlight was an awe inspiring performance by Viengsay Valdés, the Primera Bailarina of the Ballet Nacionál de Cuba. Ms. Valdés, a product of Cuba’s world renowned ballet schools, played the lead role of Kitri in a spectacular rendition of Cervantes’ classic Spanish novel.  Many in the crowd didn’t even know about the special guest, who tip-toed into DC almost unnoticed.  But the audience adored the Cuban ballerina and interrupted the show frequently with extended applause.  And out came Cuban flags with the endless standing ovation for such a rare and delightful performance.

It seems that a day cannot go by without an article in the MSM declaring that “Cuba is opening up to the world.” There’s a lot of tricky logic going in such statements, and this past Sunday’s Concert for Peace without Borders organized by Colombian pop star Juanes can help us to reflect on this a bit, and also to act to change United States restrictions on travel by Americans to Cuba.

Being the music lover that I am, before anything else I have to comment: What a spectacular display it was! Well over a million people – half of Havana’s population according to Cuban press sources – filled the Plaza of the Revolution to see performances by Cuban artists living on the island and abroad whose work most epitomizes their homeland, such as Los Van Van, Orishas, Silvio Rodríguez, Yerba Buena, Carlos Varela and Amaury Pérez. Hats off to saxophonist and music director extraordinaire Juan Manuel Ceruto and an amazing ensemble that accompanied many of the Cubans, as well as their foreign guests such as Luis Aute, Miguel Bosé, Olga Tañón and Danny Rivera, among others. It was great to see Cuban musicianship on display again here in the United States, if only via an online video stream provided by Univisión, something unheard of not so long ago.

Colombian pop star Juanes has planned his second “Peace without borders” concert for September 20th -- UN International Peace Day --  in Havana, Cuba.  Cuban stars Silvio Rodriguez and salsa band, Los Van Van, along with Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañon have also committed and there is speculation that some U.S. artists have been invited too.  Juanes has formally requested to sing in the Plaza of the Revolution between the statue to José Martí and the grand image of Che Guevara.  The show will be free and open to a huge Cuban audience. Juanes’ intention is to "transcend politics,” so what’s the big deal?

We know that you are anxious for a resolution of the situation in Honduras and are wondering what is going on. Where is President Zelaya? Will he return? What is the U.S. doing to move the negotiations forward?

Activist groups nation-wide continue to rally against the travel ban.  The Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization/ Pastors for Peace’s annual U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan (video) successfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with 100 tons of aid bound for Cuba. Click here to see the press release about the crossing.

Outside the Base at Guantanamo Bay last week, the US Military and Cuban Frontier Brigade worked together in basic preparation for major disasters. This is not a new collaboration, but the Obama Administration opted to make the exercise public, in contrast to the previous Bush policy of keeping it secret.  According to US Marine Corps General Jack Sheehan, the preparations are yet another sign of an “Incremental process” towards more cooperation.  ''We've never advertised [the exercise]… because it was very controversial,'' he said.  The Administration seems to be sending yet another “trial balloon,” with this announcement, following the talks on migration last week in New York. 

A Good Step, but Let’s Open the Conversation

The two neighbors are back at the negotiating table after a six year hiatus.  Since President Obama pledged to relax travel restrictions for Cuban Americans in April, we’ve all been looking for signs of a next step from the administration.  

These migration talks show a renewed willingness to engage in focused discussions – one issue at a time.  This limited engagement with Cuba is part of a clear signal coming from Washington that diplomacy will again be central to America’s foreign policy.  And as Hillary Clinton delivers a major speech this week at the Council on Foreign Relations to outline her global priorities, Latin America has to be high on the list. 

     “I urge all leaders in the Americas to see the Honduran crisis for what it is: an urgent call for the profound social and institutional changes our region has delayed for far too long.”

This is how Costa Rican President Oscar Arias closed his strongly worded op-ed, which was published in the Washington Post on Thursday, July 9th.

Mauricio Funes was sworn as President of El Salvador last June 1st. As Funes and his wife, Vanda Pignato, arrived at the inaugural ceremony, they were received by a cheering crowd chanting, "Yes, we did!" As the couple reached the stage, the chants turned into the traditional Latin American leftist hymn, "The people, united, will never be defeated." Monday's inauguration marks a turning point in the country's history, since it is the first time El Salvador elected a leftist president. Since colonial times, the smallest Central American country has had a troublesome history characterized by brutal repression of indigenous uprisings, decades of military dictatorship, a bloody twelve-year civil war and more recently, 20 years of right-wing party rule. Therefore, the FMLN victory represents a new era of hope and change for Salvadorans.

The Obama administration’s State Department has released a “Summary and Highlights” document for its 2010 foreign assistance request, which offers some significant clues about where future aid is headed.

El Salvador celebrated a historical presidential election on Sunday, March 15th. The Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), the former Salvadoran guerilla movement during the 12-year civil war, won 51.3% to 48.7% for the conservative ARENA party. Mauricio Funes, the president-elect, became the first left-leaning president in the country’s history. His victory puts an end to the twenty years of ARENA party rule and makes El Salvador the latest to join a growing number of Latin American countries that have democratically chosen leftist governments.