2009

Have you called yet?

Last week, we told you about the letter on Colombia that's circulating in Congress and what you can do to help. We've had a good start, but we still need more action from grassroots activists like you and the people in your community.

Please take two minutes right now to give your representative a call.

Here's How:

In every province of Colombia, women long to know what happened to their husbands, to their daughters, to their sons. Children want to know what happened to their fathers, to their mothers.

Even Colombia’s associations of families of the disappeared have long estimated that at most the disappeared totaled 15,000. And many did not believe the toll was so high.

But as forensic teams are conducting exhumations following the partial paramilitary demobilization, prosecutors are interviewing paramilitary leaders, Colombia’s National Search Commission is soliciting information from the victims, and victims are organizing to know the truth, the scale of the human catastrophe is slowly being unveiled.

We have a real challenge with the Obama Administration. President Obama gets that we need to work together with the rest of the world. That’s great. But his administration hasn’t found its voice on human rights and backed up its words with action. They think that by mentioning more about human rights than the Bush Administration did, it is enough. So far, they haven’t been willing to actually change U.S. policy to support victims of violence in places like Mexico and Colombia, even though they must do so if they want to become part of the solution, not the problem.

The Miami Herald details a new report today on how money affects Cuba policy.  

Public Campaign , a non-profit campaign finance research group, just released the most extensive study of Cuban-American political donations to date.  The conclusion: big money from political action committees is the reason for our stagnant Cuba policy. 

Across the world, individuals this week celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. While this anniversary reminds us of the historical significance walls have served as barriers to the flow of goods, ideas, and people, many individuals forget the current realities of a similar wall being constructed along our southern border.

The international community initially celebrated an agreement negotiated  in Honduras, on October 28th, between coup regime leader Roberto Micheletti and deposed President Manuel Zelaya, which could have put an end to the crisis. But, less than a week later, the accord started crumbling apart.

On November 5th, 2009, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) sponsored a briefing of civil society leaders and activists on Capitol Hill to talk about the human rights violations that have been occurring in Honduras since the coup and give their vision for the future.  The leaders’ visits were coordinated by the Quixote Center and Just Associates, and LAWGEF pitched in to help. The following quotes were taken from that briefing.