by Juliana Morris
on August 30, 2011
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.”
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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.
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by Andrew Carpenter
on August 24, 2011
Ciudad Juárez police officer Jose Alarcon fled Mexico to the United States in 2008 after a series of horrific events – he himself was injured and his partner killed in a shootout with organized crime, and then he was threatened by criminal gangs when he refused to accept bribes to overlook their activities. Seeking refuge for his family, he sought asylum in the United States, but a Dallas immigration judge denied Alarcon’s request, ruling that this was a “risk that police officers are supposed to take.”
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by Andrew Carpenter and Jennifer Johnson
on July 21, 2011
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.
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by Mavis Anderson
on August 01, 2011
Big news! Havanatur Celimar, which is the branch of Cuban tour operator Havanatur that handles the U.S. travel market, has reported that Cuba has approved a bundle of U.S. airports, plus charter service providers and relevant airlines, for landing rights in a variety of Cuban airports (Havana, Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara, and Manzanillo). These U.S. airports have already received U.S. permission to begin charter flights to Cuba, as directed by President Obama in January of this year.
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by Andrew Carpenter
on July 13, 2011
On Monday, July 11, activists from the United States and Colombia organized an emergency demonstration against the pending Colombia Free Trade Agreement across from the White House.
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