Finally our October Migrant Justice Newsletter is up.
Read it now on our blog https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog/migrant-justice-newsletter-october-2022
We wrote once again to the attorney general and human rights ombudsman of El Salvador to express our concerns over human rights abuses occurring during the State of Exception, which was first declared in March and has since been prolonged multiple times. It has resulted in countless arrests and deaths in detention or on the streets. The laws and regulations authorized through this emergency state have invited serious human rights violations. Despite outcries from Salvadorans and international organizations and governments, it shows no signs of stopping.
This letter focuses on the death of detainee Henry Eleazar Joya. He was detained during a wave of mass arrests in April. His family was informed in September that Henry was dead and had been buried in a common grave, registered under a false name. A fellow inmate stated that Henry had been beaten in prison and was seriously injured.
Tens of thousands of suspected gang members have been arrested over the past seven months. Civil society organizations have documented more than 3,000 cases of abuse and torture, including the cases of at least 50 who died while detained. The University Observatory of Human Rights (OUDH) has documented at least 63 cases of cruel and degrading treatment, including cases of arbitrary arrests, deaths of detainees in custody, torture, and prison overcrowding.
We are urging the government of El Salvador to immediately suspend the State of Exception and restore constitutional protections to is citizens.
The Wiwa are one of four Indigenous groups (along with the Arhuaco, Kogui, and Kankuamo) who reside on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in La Guajira Department, one of the highest coastal mountain ranges on the planet, with snow-capped peaks rising from the Caribbean Sea to 5,800 meters. The Indigenous peoples believe that the mountain range is the heart of the world, where every element, object and organism from the highest peak to the stream below, forms an indispensable part of an interconnected body. Because of their spiritual beliefs that the mountains are sacred, the Wiwa have strongly denounced development and infrastructure projects in the area, including coal and gold mining, oil extraction, a coal port, hydroelectric dam, and a hotel—all of which have been carried out without their consent. Almost all of their primary forests have been wiped out. The Wiwa peoples have put forth legal challenges and, as a result, continue to receive threats.
In October, the paramilitary organization Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Self-Defense Conquistadors of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta) began distributing pamphlets, threatening to take measures against the Wiwa, whom they describe as "ass-kissers, drinkers, womanizers," among other adjectives. They are restricting the mobility of the residents, warning that anyone who is traveling after 8 p.m. in the territory will be declared a military objective. In other words, they will be targeted for killing.
More than a 1000 Honduran construction workers building the new U.S. Embassy complex in Tegucigalpa, Honduras have been on strike for over 4 months now. They are demanding fair payment, a safe workspace and for the contractor to respect their human rights. The state and the construction company are reacting with all of their power, firing strike leaders and bringing in riot police, tanks and sharpshooters. Learn how you can support the striking workers in the article below.
Since the Colombian peace treaty in 2016, many veterans of the civil war have taken part in a reincorporation program; many are being trained to become security guards. A multitude of security guards, including ex-combatants being retrained through the reincorporation process, seek representation by joining The Memoria Viva (Living Memory) Union of security guards. Following the rise of the union, many have become targets, leading to six killings of union leaders and intimidation actions.
The article below contains an interview explaining the struggles the union is going through as well as asking for support for its work.
October 13 the U.S. announced that it will donate 95 vehicles, valued $4.4 million to the Guatemalan government.
This concludes a 2019 proposal by the U.S. to donate equipment to Guatemala's border security forces.
The donation is funded through a Defense Department foreign military “capacity-building” authority established in 2017 as Section 333 of Title 10, U.S. Code, used as an alternative to the Foreign Military Financing program (FMF). Due to human rights and corruption concerns, there has been a prohibition on using the FMF program to aid the Guatemalan security forces and military.
Payment for the vehicles is part of the U.S. defense budget and does not come from the dedicated annual foreign assistance appropriation.
Journalists and activists criticize the aid for the border protection forces, fearing the equipment could be used to block migrants crossing the border, an act that is already in motion.
Besides the dangers for refugees and others transiting, the last money and equipment from the US government ended up being misused for intimidation against human rights and anti-corruption activists, a part of the ongoing crackdown on independent media and anti-corruption prosecutors and judges.
All this is bad enough, but the track records show that the anti-drug efforts barely produce any fruit. Even though 90% of all cocaine entering the United States passes through Guatemala, only 7-15 tons were seized by Guatemalan police. This hardly makes a dent in the total cocaine trafficking and is far behind other South and Central American countries.
Topping this off is the fact that the Guatemalan state has the necessary financial resources to pay for the donated vehicles.
Just two weeks back the Guatemalan Congress passed a law, promising each veteran of the 36-year long civil war, the equivalent of $4,500 U.S. dollars. The bonuses will be handed out with no regard for war crimes or crimes against humanity that the ex-soldiers may have committed during the conflict. The total is around $450 million.
Spending this $4.4 million on military is obviously a mistake. The money could have been spent far better, helping the civil society and simultaneously achieving crime fighting goals.
It could provide food security to half a million Guatemalans suffering from hunger.
A more efficient anti-crime program than militant oppression is always prevention. Funding community-based violence prevention would reduce violent crime; making communities safer might discourage the population from emigrating.
A further crime driving factor is the massive corruption keeping the country hostage. The U.S. budget could have been used to renew the 2010's efforts to strengthen Guatemala's judiciary, building an independent justice system, which is needed to reach a significant change in the rotting justice structures.
Over all, it is obvious that the military aid would do more bad then good and that Guatemala's society is likely to keep suffering for years.
El Salvador's State of Emergency, impeimented in March, has led to immense cuts in civil liberties.
It empowerd the police to arrest without warrents, causing 55,000 arrests since March.
This development alarms human rights groups, who criticise the curtailing of the right to a lawyer, the right to be informed about the reason for the arrest, detention for up to 15 days without charges and the reduction of the criminal responsibility age to 12 years.
In spite of these criticisms, El Salvador's Legislative Assembly has voted in favor of an extension of the State of Emergency several times; recenlty on October 14.
To keep up with the masses of imprisonments, the government is building a new jail desinged to hold 40.000 suspected criminals.
On behalf of IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) members, we wrote six letters this month to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries. We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, (3) bring human rights criminals to justice.
IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.
As Fiscal Year 2022 is almost over, we are hearing numbers of 750 or more migrant deaths over the past twelve months. While, tragically, it does still happen that migrants die while being chased by Border Patrol agents or shot when attempting to cross the border, the majority of these deaths are a result of the so-called “prevention through deterrence” strategy that forces people to take on more dangerous routes when traveling up to the southern U.S. border to seek safety. And if they do make it through to the U.S., they are often expelled immediately or put into deportation proceedings, waiting for their hearing in Mexican emergency shelters or U.S. detention centers. Read IRTF's monthly overview of recent updates on U.S. immigration and what has been happening at the border!
https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog/migrant-justice-newsletter-sep-2022
Dignity, justice, and criminalization in Guatemala.
The last few months in Guatemala have seen strong state repression against community leaders, activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. However, history shows us that the people rise up and resist in order to transform everything that oppresses; now more than ever we need international support and solidarity to accompany the peoples of Guatemala and the struggles they have waged for decades.
