Action Center - Latin America Working Group

Cuba Schools Us on Self-Sustainable Agriculture

by LAWG Guest Blogger, Amy Truax, Witness for Peace on March 13, 2013

In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund declared that Cuba is the only country in the world that qualifies as developing sustainably. I imagine that this may come as a shock to some people, who, when they think of Cuba, imagine old cars from the 1950s on the roads, crowded city blocks in Havana, or retrograde political leaders and systems that surely couldn't be so modern as to incorporate eco-friendly policies around climate change. However, once you know a little bit more about the history of Cuba, it makes perfect sense that this small country would be the only one around the globe whose ecological footprint isn't far outreaching its development index.

:2013, Blog, Blog Posts, Cuba, End the Travel Ban on Cuba

Cuban-American Leader, Francisco Aruca, Dies

by Emily Chow on March 11, 2013

Francisco Gonzalez Aruca – Rest in Peace. The Latin America Working Group’s Cuba team extends sincere sympathy to family, friends, and colleagues of Francisco Aruca on his passing on March 6, 2013. Mr. Aruca died unexpectedly of a heart attack in his sleep in Denver, Colorado, where he lived. He was 72 years old. You may read the post sent out today by Progreso Weekly announcing Mr. Aruca’s passing, here...

:2013, Blog Posts, Cuba, End the Travel Ban on Cuba, Mavis Anderson

“If You’re Invisible, You’re Harmless”: The LGBT Community in Honduras, Invisible No Longer

by Jordan Baber, LAWG Intern on March 05, 2013

José “Pepe” Palacios, a leading LGBT activist from Honduras, recently visited the United States at the invitation of the Honduras Solidarity Network and the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN). Pepe is a founding member of the Diversity Movement in Resistance (MDR), created in the wake of the June 2009 coup d’état in Honduras that replaced the democratically elected government. He is also a program officer at the Swedish aid agency Diakonia. At events in Washington, DC that the Latin America Working Group helped arrange, Pepe spoke about the violence the LGBT community has faced after the coup and what they are doing to organize for change...

:2013, Being Better Neighbors towards Latin America, Blog, Blog Posts, Honduras, Voces

Latin America Says Goodbye to Leader Hugo Chávez

by Emily Chow on March 08, 2013

In light of the passing of Venezuela's President, Hugo Chávez, we think the following statements are well worth reading

Representative Jose Serrano: '"His focus on the issues faced by the poor and disenfranchised in his country made him a truly revolutionary leader in the history of Latin America. He understood that after 400 years on the outside of the established power structure looking in, it was time that the poor had a chance at seeing their problems and issues addressed. His core belief was in the dignity and common humanity of all people in Venezuela and in the world."...

:2013, Blog, Emily Chow, Latin America

What DOES Border Security Look Like?

by Emma Buckhout, LAWG Intern, with contributions by Ruth Isabel Robles on February 26, 2013

President Obama, Congress, and a growing majority of American voters agree that the U.S. immigration system is broken and must be fixed. However, more than a month into the president’s second term and an unending national debate, the question remains: will anything actually happen on immigration reform? Recent events, including a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” held February 13th provided us with an inkling of what we might have in store. Committee Chair Senator Leahy (D-Vt.) echoed President Obama saying “Now is the time” for immigration reform. Meanwhile, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) saw “overconfidence on this (immigration reform) bill” and asserted that he and others will continue to fight it over issues of earned legalization, enforcement, and border security. While Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators working on their own comprehensive immigration framework, indicated support for making reform happen, he also noted that any discussions thus far include “triggers that need to be trippled in terms of border security...”

:2013, Blog Posts, Ruth Isabel Robles, U.S.-Mexico Border, U.S.-Mexico Border

Purely Pineapples: Aerial Spraying Continues to Miss Its Target in Colombia

by Winifred Tate, Guest on March 06, 2013

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.

:2013, Blog, Blog Posts, Colombia, Guest, Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

Killings of Human Rights Defenders Increase in Colombia: What Is Going Wrong?

by Lisa Haugaard on February 25, 2013

"What is going wrong in Colombia?" asks the coalition of human rights defenders in Colombia. The government of Juan Manuel Santos last year invested time and funding in mechanisms to protect communities and people at risk, among them human rights defenders.

And yet, in 2012, every five days a defender was assassinated in Colombia, and every 20 hours one defender was attacked. In 2012, 357 men and women in Colombia were attacked for their work as human rights defenders, according to Somos Defensores ("We Are Defenders"), which maintains a unified database of attacks against human rights defenders. Sixty-nine defenders were assassinated, a jump from 49 assassinations in 2011. Indeed, this is the highest number of aggressions against defenders registered by the database in the last ten years, and a 49 percent increase since 2011. The attacks include: 202 threats, 69 assassinations, 50 assaults, 26 arbitrary detentions, 5 forced disappearances, 1 arbitrary use of the penal system, 3 robberies of information, and 1 case of sexual violence...