2013

As Colombia's peace process advances, here are some words to live by.

“We can't condemn Colombians to another one hundred years of solitude and violence.”
--Enrique Santos Calderón, former editor of El Tiempo, brother of President Juan Manuel Santos

“It's one thing that the victims aren't present at the table in Havana, and it's another thing to ignore their voice, deny their rights.  A peace without victims will have neither political nor moral legitimacy.”
--Senator Juan Fernando Cristo

"The dialogue for ending the armed conflict should be a moment in which sectors of Colombian society that have been marginalized, discriminated against and excluded have an opportunity to effectively present their demands, needs and rights that have long been neglected."
--Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos...

Expanding Military Jurisdiction in Colombia: A Major Setback for Justice
Versión en español.

January 28, 2013

Colombia’s recent passage [1] of a constitutional amendment that expands military jurisdiction in cases of human rights violations is a major setback for justice. The reform would allow grave human rights crimes to be investigated and tried by the military justice system, in direct conflict with years of jurisprudence of Colombia’s high courts and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights [2].

With a New Year comes resolutions and it’s no different here at the Latin America Working Group office.  U.S. policy towards our Latin American neighbors is, as usual, in need of a few New Year's resolutions. Will you join us in making these goals a reality? Check out the short video below to get an idea of exactly what we’ve got up our sleeve for 2013. 

The police tried to impede Trinidad Ruiz from looking for the bodies of her husband and son. They were disappeared by paramilitary forces on March 23, 2012.  Manuel Ruiz, age 56, and Samir Ruiz, age 15, were executed. Their bodies were dumped in a river and discovered more than four days later by the surviving members of the Ruiz family who were accompanied by Colombian and international human rights organizations. More than eight months later, Mrs. Ruiz and her family are still searching for justice in the highest profile murder of 2012 in Colombia.....

Cuba policy faces a new era with a second Obama Administration and a State Department soon to be led by Senator John Kerry (D-MA). We could well have have some friends in high places, and that’s not at all wrong. President Obama has made some serious changes to U.S.-Cuba policy in allowing for Cuban Americans to travel freely to Cuba without restriction and liberalizing purposeful (people-to-people), religious, academic and cultural travel. Senator Kerry has been a strong congressional ally in advocating for a rational policy towards Cuba. In 2011 he placed a freeze on $20 million in USAID funding that was designated for “democracy promotion” in Cuba, until a report on the ineffectiveness of these programs was produced by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). While there has been progress made in the last four years in pursuing a more sane Cuba policy, there is still a cloud hanging over a real change in our relations with Cuba. That cloud is Alan Gross, a USAID subcontractor who has been detained in Cuba since December 3, 2009. Why? Well, Arturo Lopez-Levy shares some important facts in his piece on The Havana Note, “Is Obama Acting Pragmatically in the Alan Gross Case?”...

What does food justice mean to you? Have you ever wondered why, if the world produces enough food for everyone, there are close to 1 billion people left hungry?  In Latin America alone, small farmers are undermined by mining and large-scale monoculture farming, not to mention harmful regional trading policies. When these small farmers and indigenous and Afro-Latino communities try to organize against these trends, they are met with violence and injustice. If you would like to help these communities in their quest for justice please consider registering for this year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C. on April 5th-8th where we will explore what it means to have food justice for the entire world. 

Register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days today to fight for justice on behalf of communities across Latin America! 

 
We hope you will join us April 5, 2013 - April 8, 2013 for Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2013 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Crystal City. Please click here to register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2013! Don't forget to stop by our LAWG Table in the Main Ballroom and say hello to your favorite LAWG Program Assistants.

Haiti Reconstruction Efforts and Challenges for Sustainable Agriculture

It has been three years since Haiti experienced the most devastating natural disaster in the country's history. Promises to "Build Back Better" have ignored the voices of Haitian civil society, especially hundreds of thousands of peasant farmers who constitute the country's backbone and still produce nearly 40 percent of the country's food. As Haiti's leaders promote a business-led model of development in Haiti, the country's capacity to feed itself is further endangered. Throughout Haiti, peasant organizations and their allies are demonstrating that reconstruction and sustainable agriculture centered on food sovereignty and food security are not mutually incompatible. This workshop will discuss the challenges and possibilities of sustainable agriculture in Haiti through discussions with representatives of Haitian peasant organizations and their allies.

Speakers: Louisiane Nazaire is the Coordinator of the National Coordination of Women Farmers (KONAFAP). KONAFAP was founded in 2008 by women from the 56 member organizations of the Haitian National Network for Food Sovereignty and Security (RENHASSA). Chavannes Jean-Baptiste is an agronomist, and founder of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP).  Chavannes founded MPP in 1973 to help promote the principles of sustainable agriculture in Haiti. Herode Guillomet is the Director of Christian Center for Integrated Development (SKDE), a Church World Service Partner. Rosnel Jean-Baptiste is the Coordinator of the National Executive Committee of Heads Together Small Peasant Producers of Haiti.

Sponsored by: Organizations part of the Haiti Advocacy Working Group

Time: Saturday, April 6, 2013 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Location: Monroe Room in DoubleTree Hotel Crystal City

It's go time! As we kick off 2013 and begin to work on our new year’s resolutions, we need YOUR help in pressuring the U.S. Embassy in Colombia to speak up for human rights defenders in Colombia. Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders, labor activists and human rights defenders’ calls for protection have fallen on deaf ears and this needs to change!

Today, President Obama unveiled an expansive plan to tackle gun violence.  For so many of us focused on ending the bloodshed that has devastated communities on both sides of the border, this is encouraging news.

We wanted to THANK YOU for adding YOUR voice to the groundswell calling for an end to gun violence.  Earlier this week, the petition that many of you signed urging President Obama to better enforce and tighten lax U.S. gun laws that traffickers exploit to get guns and smuggle them into Mexico was delivered to Vice President Biden’s task force on gun violence .  As you may recall, this is the same petition initiated by groups from Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in partnership with LAWG and dozens of faith-based, human rights and anti-gun violence groups from both sides of the border. 

As we continue our national conversation about gun violence in the aftermath of the Newtown elementary school shootings, let's also consider a plea from our neighbors in Mexico. One hundred thousand people -- yes, 100,000 people -- have been killed in the violence that has devastated Mexico in the last six years. Twenty-five thousand people have disappeared. Seven thousand bodies lie unidentified in morgues.