2012

The U.S. Peace Caravan Route Schedule

 

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U.S. Peace Caravan Route-- San Diego to Washington, D.C.: August 12 - September 12

San Diego, CA – Sunday, Aug 12

Los Angeles, CA - Monday – Tuesday, Aug 13 - Aug 14

Phoenix, AZ – Wednesday, Aug 15

Tucson, AZ – Thursday, Aug 16

Las Cruces, NM – Friday, Aug 17

Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM – Saturday, Aug 18

Santa Fe, NM – Sunday, Aug 19

Rest Day, Santa Fe, NM – Monday, Aug 20

El Paso, TX – Tuesday, Aug 21

Laredo, TX – Wednesday, Aug 22

Harlingen/Brownsville, TX – Thursday, Aug 23

McAllen/San Antonio, TX – Friday, Aug 24

Austin, TX – Saturday, Aug 25

Houston, TX – Sunday, Aug 26

New Orleans, LA – Monday, Aug 27

Jackson, MS Rest Day – Tuesday, Aug 28

Montgomery, AL – Wednesday,Aug 29

Atlanta/Ft Benning, GA – Thursday - Friday, Aug 30 - 31

Louisville, KY– Saturday, Sept 1

Travel Night to Chicago, IL & Rest Day – Sunday, Sept 2

Chicago, IL – Monday - Tuesday, Sep 3-4

Cleveland, OH – Wednesday, Sept 5

New York, NY – Thursday - Friday, Sept 6-7

Baltimore, MD – Saturday - Sunday, Sept 8-9

Washington, D.C. – Monday - Wednesday, Sept 10-12

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Florida Lawmakers overstep Obama on Cuba policy: Where’s SCOTUS?


These days, current United States policy towards Cuba seems to be maneuvered by a strong backbone called Florida, who appears to be standing a little taller. With recent news of stiffer laws that Florida state legislators have backed to their 90.5-mile away neighbor, could the state of Florida be overstretching its rights and treading upon the federal government by creating its own foreign policy?

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Hillary Clinton: tell the truth about human rights abuses in Mexico


You may not know who Israel Arzate Meléndez is, but we think you should hear his story.

In February 2010, Israel was picked up by Mexican soldiers in Ciudad Juarez. Sounds terrifying, right? Well, it gets worse. He was then taken to a military base where he was beaten, given electric shocks, and suffocated repeatedly until he finally gave in and confessed to a crime he didn’t commit. No one seemed to mind that it was a false confession, only offered to make the torture stop.

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LAWG and Partners Tell Secretary Clinton: Mexico Has Failed to Advance Human Rights


On June 25, 2012, the Latin America Working Group and partner U.S. and Mexican organizations issued a memo to the State Department and congressional leaders stating that Mexico has failed to make meaningful progress in key human rights areas identified by the U.S. Congress, including an end to impunity for human rights abuses committed by soldiers and police and the prohibition of the use of testimony gained through torture. 

To read the full memo, click here.

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Wake Up Call: Human Rights in Honduras


By: Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director 6/8/2012

Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and 93 other members of the Congress sent a letter on March 12th, 2012 to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing grave concern about human rights violations in Honduras, particularly the murder of 45 people associated with small farmer associations in Bajo Aguán.

"This is a wake up call for the Lobo Administration," said Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director of the Latin America Working Group. "Forty-five campesino leaders in a small area of Honduras have been murdered. Human rights defenders of all stripes -- campesino leaders, lawyers, LGBT community members, women defenders, journalists, opposition activists -- are being threatened and killed. And not only is the Honduran government failing to do enough to protect them and prosecute those who endanger them, but in too many cases, police or military agents are involved directly or are collaborating with those who commit abuses. We need to see greater effort to protect the rule of law in Honduras."

LAWGEF provided information for the letter and worked with an energetic network of activists across the country, with leadership from the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, to encourage the amazing number of signers.

Honduras was singled out for a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, who following her visit, asserted that: "The 2009 coup d'état aggravated institutional weaknesses, increased the vulnerability of human rights defenders and provoked a major polarisation in society. Due to the exposed nature of their activities, human rights defenders continue to suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, death threats, attacks, harassment and stigmatisation." She went on to say, "I have observed that certain categories of human rights defenders are at particular risk, including journalists, staff of the National Human Rights Commission, lawyers, prosecutors and judges, as well as defenders working on the rights of women, children, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex community, the indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities as well as those working on environmental and land rights issues." 

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Granito: How to Nail a Dictator Airing on PBS

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator will be nationally broadcasted on June 28, 2012 by PBS as part of the Documentaries with a Point of View (POV) program.

In a stunning milestone for justice in Central America, a Guatemalan court recently charged former dictator Efrain Rios Montt with genocide for his brutal war against the country's Mayan people in the 1980s -- and Pamela Yates' 1983 documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, provided key evidence for bringing the indictment. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator tells the extraordinary story of how a film, aiding a new generation of human rights activists, became a granito -- a tiny grain of sand -- that helped tip the scales of justice.

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We Just Want the Government to Enforce Its Laws: Violence in Bajo Aguán, Honduras


"We just want the government to enforce its own laws," we heard over and over again, as we listened to women and men from campesino communities who were testifying about murder, torture and violent land evictions in Bajo Aguán, Honduras.  

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