Earlier this week, Arizona state legislators voted in favor of legislation that – if signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer - would institutionalize discriminatory and dangerous policies by effectively pressuring police to engage in racial profiling, criminalize unauthorized migrants for 'trespassing' into Arizona, and permit anyone to sue local agencies if they believe that the law isn't being adequately enforced. Such policies are as sweeping as they are dangerous.
The National Days of Action for Colombia have begun! As we write you this update, people all across the country are gathering their materials, friends, and families, and are preparing to "face the displaced." Are you?
If this is the first time you're hearing about it, don't worry; it's not too late. Here are four ways you can get involved in the movement to stand with those working for peace in Colombia.
Charles Bowden’s Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global
Economy’s New Killing Fields is an unflinching look at the
violence on the U.S.-Mexico border and the failing solutions by both
countries to address it. With an intense sympathy for the many victims
but also a degree of understanding even for a contract killer who finds
God, the author doesn’t let the reader find comfort in anything. The
book, just published by Nation Books (New York: 2010), can be found at
your local bookstore or online distributors. Here are a few selections
from this devastating catalog of violence.
If you ascribe to the old saying that "actions speak louder than
words," then March 21st, 2010 may become a historic moment. On that
day, an estimated 200,000 plus families, students and concerned
individuals from Delaware to Oregon participated in the "March
for America" in Washington D.C. to remind Congress and
President Obama that we're tired of empty promises and want to see
action towards immigration reform - and we want to see it now!
Working to protect human rights in the heavily militarized mountain region of Guerrero, Mexico is never easy; and threats and harassment are not new for the Mexican human rights defenders who work for the Organization of the Me’phaa Indigenous People (OPIM) and the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights. But we have been alarmed to see a rise in threats against them because of their outspoken advocacy, including their accompaniment of two indigenous women, Inés Fernández Ortega y Valentina Rosendo Cantú, who were raped and tortured by soldiers in 2002.
We know you want to see a just U.S. foreign policy to Latin America.
We're working on it. But we need your help. We need you to stay active and keep those calls and letters coming. And we need you to generously support our work, with a non-tax-deductible gift to the LAWG for our advocacy efforts. Or give a tax-deductible gift to the LAWGEF for our educational work.
Hoy, como todos ustedes saben, nos une en este lugar el recuerdo
imperecedero de Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero, guía espiritual de
nuestra Nación.
Me conmueve profundamente poder compartir este día con ustedes, porque
muchas veces en mi vida pensé que nuestra Patria no alcanzaría nunca la
paz si no recuperábamos la memoria de Monseñor Romero.
Lo que jamás había imaginado era que yo mismo sería uno de los
protagonistas de esta recuperación, al conducir los destinos del país.
On the 30th anniversary of the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes apologized for the role of the Salvadoran government in this cataclysmic event.
His words are so moving they require no further introduction.
Until two years ago, José Goyes had lived in the indigenous community of
Honduras in Cauca, Colombia. But his life came under threat because of
his role as a leader in his community's struggle for land rights in the
face of abuses committed by a multinational corporation that owns a dam
in their area. The threats got worse and worse until finally on July 5,
2008, as he was leaving his office, hitmen fired 4 shots at him.
Luckily, he survived, but he was forced to flee to Bogotá.
