Our hearts are in Gaza, and they also continue to be in Guantanamo. Read on about simple ways to advocate for the release of those unjustly bound in Guantanamo Prison. In peace and solidarity,
The WAT Organizing Team
The article discusses Colombian President Gustavo Petro's efforts to reform labor laws in response to social upheaval and economic inequality, inspired by the popular song "El Jefe" by Shakira. Petro aims to reverse decades of neoliberal policies and increase labor rights, addressing issues created by past reforms in the 1990s and early 2000s. The proposed reform faces opposition from conservative forces in Congress, and while progress has been made, it has not yet become law. The US embassy expressed support for the reform, and there is a call for popular mobilizations to pressure Congress. The success of Petro's labor reform remains uncertain in the volatile political climate of Colombia.
In El Salvador's recent elections on February 4, President Nayib Bukele, accused of rigging the system and suppressing opposition, faced technical issues as the platform for uploading preliminary results crashed. A recount revealed allegations of fraud, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election. Bukele's prior actions, including unconstitutional reelection bids, authoritarianism, and reforms favoring his party, had already raised concerns about free and fair elections. The State of Exception, ongoing since March 2022, has led to mass arrests, repression of opposition, and control over public institutions. Despite concerns about the election process, Bukele's party, New Ideas (NI), secured a supermajority in the legislature. The results have sparked calls for the elections to be reconvened amid doubts about democratic conditions and the integrity of the electoral process. The opposition, including the Popular Rebellion and Resistance Bloc, has rejected the results, and claims have been submitted to annul the election. The discrepancy between Bukele's popularity and that of his legislators suggests skepticism among Salvadoran voters about one-party rule and raises questions about the true extent of Bukele's support.
Five years after he was lavished with praise by Donald Trump for “stopping drugs at a level that has never happened” – and two years after he was extradited in shackles to the US – the former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández is to stand trial in New York on Monday, accused of overseeing a “narco-state” and accepting millions in bribes from drug traffickers, including the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
National and international organizations demand that Honduran authorities respect the decision of the people of Tocoa to say NO to the petroleum coke thermoelectric plant and Emco's mining megaproject, among other demands. On Saturday, December 9, 2023, the people of Tocoa were called by the Municipal Corporation to participate in an open town meeting regarding the Ecotek petroleum coke thermoelectric project, one of the seven components of an iron oxide megaproject promoted by the "Emco Holdings" consortium of Ana Facusse and Lenir Perez.
The water defenders' arrest signals both a crackdown on civil society under President Nayib Bukele and a signal that Bukele may seek to resume metal mining operations.
Washington, D.C. and San Salvador – On February 15, 245 international organizations from 31 countries delivered a petition demanding that the Salvadoran Attorney General drop the politically-motivated charges against five prominent Water Defenders arrested on January 11, 2023.
Human rights defenders are at great risk in the Magdalena Medio Valley of north-central Colombia.
Several individuals and organizations were named in pamphlets circulated by Magdalena Medio Block of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army) on January 18. Then on February 1, the AGC paramilitaries (Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) issued their own pamphlet declaring members of even more organizations as military targets. At least two well-known and respected organizations appeared in both sets of pamphlets: Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS) and Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC). IRTF’s Rapid Response Network has written about 20 letters on behalf of CREDHOS and its leadership over the past 20 years, and several for ACVC as well. The faithfulness and persistence of these human rights defenders is admirable considering the toll that these threats take on them and their families.
We wrote to officials in Honduras about another attack on a campesino cooperative leader in the Aguán Valley, Colón Department, in northern Honduras.
José Abel López Perdomo has been outspoken in denouncing the activities of criminal groups (suspected to be aligned with agroindustrialists) who threaten and extort the families of the Remolino Cooperative in Trujillo. He has also been falsely criminalized by the Agroindustrial Company Oleopalma and the head of security of the company Grupo Litoral, hired by Oleopalma, who accuse him of usurpation of the Remolino farm.
On January 30, while transporting palm fruit with other farmers, their vehicle was intercepted by armed men in hoods who forced José Abel López Perdomo into another vehicle and drove away. He has not been seen since.
Brutal violence against campesino leaders is on the rise in the the Aguán Valley of northern Honduras.
According to campesino leaders, agroindustrialists are employing criminal organizations to wage violence against them because they fear the pending investigations of the Tripartite Commission, a keystone of the agreement signed by President Castro with several campesino cooperatives in February 2022.
There were two assassination attempts, both on January 27, 2024:
Franklin Izaguirre, president of the Camarones Farmers Agricultural Cooperative, was driving home at 11:30am, when he was surprised by two heavily armed men who approached him on a motorcycle and shot him repeatedly. Injured in the neck, hand and right side, he miraculously survived the attack.
Leaders of the Las Brisas Cooperative were ambushed by four armed men wearing hoods who shot out the rear window of their car and stole their mobile phones and approximately $13,000 that was intended for payroll for the 200 families of the cooperative.
We are reminding authorities in Honduras of their mandate by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to offer protection measures to land defenders in the Aguán Valley. Violence is expected to continue if not escalate while preparations are being made for the installation of the Tripartite Commission
For the past five years, IRTF has played an active role in the international campaign to support the Guapinol River defenders in northern Honduras. They are up against some mighty players with interlocking ownerhip: Emco Holdings (thermal electric generation), Inversiones Los Pinares (iron oxide mine), and Ecotek (pelletizing plant). Some principle owners include family members of the longstanding oligarchy. Ana Facussé, daughter deceased land baron Miguel Facussé, and her husband Lenir Pérez (currently residing in Florida and under investigation by the FBI), are the owners of Inversiones Los Pinares and have financial stakes in the other companies.
Environmental defenders like Carlos Leonel George have been falsely criminalized, stigmatized, and imprisoned. He was already previously criminalized and imprisoned (falsely) in 2019 for his active participation in the organized environmental defense movement led by the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT). On January 28, he was detained again on an old arrest warrant. This recent illegal arrest signals a reactivated campaign against environmental defenders leading up to the request of renewal by Inversiones Los Pinares for its mining concession.
