Action Alerts

As a newcomer to the LAWG team, and inside the beltway advocacy, I have been surprised over the last few months to learn what it actually takes to achieve the change we want. Before I started, I assumed that if we could simply bring the facts about real people who are suffering as a result of U.S. policies in countries like Mexico and Colombia, we could make it happen. But it turns out that there's so much more that goes on in DC every day than I could have anticipated.

They don't get it... yet.

Although we now have new leadership in Washington, they still don't understand what they need to do to stand up for human rights. They think that by saying more about the importance of human rights and democracy than the Bush Administration did, they are making progress. But we know that until they actually change U.S. policies to support victims of violence in places like Mexico and Colombia, they will continue to be a part of the problem, not the solution.

Now, if we can get them to hear what we hear from people in Mexico and Colombia and know what we know, they might change their tune.

So, this month we are launching a "Human Rights NOW" campaign, which will use innovative tactics to get them to make human rights come first in U.S. policy.

Actions speak louder than words.

This seems like a simple concept. But lately, the Obama Administration and the State Department seem to have forgotten it when dealing with Latin America. Despite serious human rights abuses by Colombian and Mexican security forces alike, the State Department just went ahead and declared that both countries were meeting the human rights requirements needed in order to receive more U.S. military aid.

Click here to send a fax to Secretary of State Clinton asking her to stand up for human rights!

$800,000 on hearts.

You heard that right. With a massive humanitarian crisis on their hands, the Colombian government is spending $800,000 on an installation of more than forty, 8-13 ft tall heart sculptures in DC and New York this fall. This campaign, called "Colombia Is Passion," was supposedly designed to educate Americans about the "real" Colombia, a fun and beautiful country in which violence and human rights abuses are a thing of the distant past.

At this point, you might be asking, "Why this? Why now?"