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"We just want the government to enforce its own laws," we heard over and over again, as we listened to women and men from campesino communities who were testifying about murder, torture and violent land evictions in Bajo Aguán, Honduras.  

On May 11 in rural Honduras, a late-night anti-narcotic mission involving American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and U.S.-owned equipment resulted in the death of four people—two of them pregnant women, a fourteen-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man.  One of the leading Honduran human rights organizations, COFADEH, released this detailed report, calling the event “unacceptable and reprehensible.”

In a surprise move, the Guatemalan government has announced the effective closing of the “Peace Archives,” one of the most active and important institutions created in the wake of the 1996 peace accords to promote peace, truth and reconciliation. According to Guatemalan press accounts, the Secretary of Peace Antonio Arenales Forno stated that by June 29 the government would “cancel [labor] contracts for which I see no justification and end the functions of an office that I find makes no sense.”

With nearly 2 million Cubans in the United States, approximately 400,000 travelled last year to Cuba. Fifty percent of family members who travel to Cuba are U.S. residents, not citizens. U.S. Rep. David Rivera has proposed an amendment to make it illegal for Cuban residents living in the U.S. to travel to Cuba for any reason (i.e. a death in the family, daughter is sick…etc.) and then return to the United States. What will happen if this goes into effect? Well, before that happens, the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (CACFR) is speaking out; and its executive director, Silvia Wilhelm, said, “We will fight this cruelty proposed by Rivera.” The Latin America Working Group is 100% behind CACFR. See below for CACFR's full press release.

Yesterday in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Policy Enforcement a bill proposed by Representative David Rivera (R-FL-25) was heard. His bill H.R. 2831 aims to amend the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1996  to " prohibit Cubans who claim political asylum in the United States from returning to the island nation. The proposal would revoke the residency status of any Cuban national who returns to Cuba after receiving political asylum and residency in the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act," says the Miami Herald's "Naked Politics" blog. 

Many of the displaced residents of Buenaventura live in the La Playita neighborhood. The homes sit on stilts over the water, and the roads usually flood in the daily rains. (Christian Fuchs — Jesuit Refugee Service/USA)

(Buenaventura, Colombia) May 21, 2012 — Between the Western-most range of the Colombian Andes and the Pacific Ocean in the Department of Valle de Cauca lays the city Buenaventura — Colombia's principal port city and also one of its deadliest. 

While there are few international headlines that highlight the ongoing nearly 50-year-long armed conflict, Buenaventura has received massive numbers of displaced Colombians in recent years fleeing violent displacement by armed groups. Buenaventura also has one of the highest rates of intra-urban displacement, and struggles with a 60% unemployment rate.

(Bogota) May 14, 2012 — It is easier to be optimistic about the humanitarian situation in Colombia from within the confines of the vibrant city centers of Bogota, Cartagena and Barranquilla. There the thriving economy, spurred by a surge in foreign investment, reports of a growing middle class and the general warmth of the Colombian people can lull you into feeling that all is well in Colombia, that the nearly 50 years of civil war have been left behind and that the shadowy illegal armed groups who leave terror in their wake have all but been defeated.

Last night, 4, 200 boxes of beautiful flowers took flight on a plane from Bogotá, Colombia to Miami, Florida. They arrived early this morning to US shores and represent the first product to enter the US under the Colombia-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The agreement went into effect today.

El homicidio el pasado 27 de abril en Florida, Valle , de Daniel Aguirre Piedrahíta fue un asesinato de alto perfil. Él fue uno de los principales voceros de los corteros de caña y el secretario general de una de las más importantes organizaciones sindicales, Sinalcorteros. De origen campesino y un antiguo trabajador de Incauca, desde 2004 participó en todas las negociaciones con los directivos de los ingenios. Fue uno de los líderes de las huelgas de 2005 y 2008. Su lucha fue a favor de la contratación directa, la estabilidad laboral, los servicios sociales, las inversiones para la comunidad y el derecho a la unión sindical, entre otros.

On April 27, 2012, labor union leader Daniel Aguirre was murdered by an assailant who shot him in the head twice while he was walking home in the town of Florida in Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Mr. Aguirre was Secretary General of the SINALCORTEROS union and had been a leading figure in the sugarcane cutters’ movement since 2005.