Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

It is impossible to discuss justice and democracy in Guatemala without considering the outsized role of the Guatemalan army in every sphere of Guatemalan politics. To analyze the role and rise to power of the army, we must go back to the year 1954, when what has been called the October Revolution (1944 to 1954) was interrupted. Guatemalan playwright and author Manuel Galich refers to those ten years as “the revolutionary decade” in his article "Ten Years of Spring in the Country of Eternal Tyranny."

IRTF is among the 50 faith-based organizations representing many faith traditions calling
on the Biden Administration to immediately rescind harmful and sweeping asylum bans – including
the “Securing the Border” Proclamation and its implementing Interim Final Rule (or the ‘Rule’) first
announced on June 4. We, the signatories on this letter to President Biden, insist that the US support asylum and border policies that live up to our values
and affirm the value and dignity of all

In the first half of 2024, Colombia saw a slight decrease in deadly violence against community leaders and human rights defenders compared to the same period in 2023. According to Indepaz, an NGO monitoring armed conflict, 86 such individuals were assassinated between January and June, down from 96 during the same period last year. The region of Cauca continued to be a hotspot for these assassinations, often linked to conflicts over territory left by the FARC guerrilla group in 2017. The United Nations emphasized ongoing concerns about violence targeting social leaders in its report to the Security Council, criticizing insufficient investigations into these crimes. Despite more than 1,600 assassinations since the start of Colombia's peace process in 2016, the UN highlighted that only 75 perpetrators had been successfully prosecuted by the Prosecutor General's Office. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the Colombian government to swiftly implement security guarantees outlined in the Final Agreement and to enhance state presence nationwide to support peace efforts. Recently, national officials, diplomats, and social leaders convened to discuss improving security conditions for human rights defenders and leaders in conflict-affected areas.

Over the past decade, the Afro-Indigenous ethnic Garífuna communities in northern Honduras have been expecting that their government would abide by three separate rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to return their stolen lands. That hasn’t happened. After taking their cause to Capitol Hill (along with our friends from the Honduras Solidarity Network), Rep. Cori Bush (01-MO) introduced into the US House of Representatives a resolution supporting Garífuna ancestral territorial rights.

IRTF was in Washington, DC, the second week of June. We walked the House office buildings on Capitol Hill and dropped off memos to the foreign policy aides of 55 US congresspersons who have previously co-sponsored legislation in support of human rights in Honduras. We also visited the offices of all 14 congresspersons from Ohio.

But they need to hear from their constituents!

Please read the email below from our friends at Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective and Latin America Working Group (LAWG). Take a few minutes to contact your congressperson today. Urge that they co-sponsor H.Res.1278.

Thank you!

Erlin Centeno's family has been in turmoil since he was detained four months ago during a routine check-in with immigration authorities in New York City. Centeno, a father of three, fled Honduras due to death threats related to his advocacy for Garifuna rights, following the murder of several cousins involved in similar activism. His wife, Trini Merced Palacios, fears deportation to Honduras where they faced threats, despite Centeno's ineligibility for asylum due to a prior deportation order. His detention has sparked legal battles and emotional hardship for the family, hoping to reunite him with them in safety in the U.S.

In IRTF’s June 2024 newsletter on Migrant Justice, please read about (1)  President Biden Announces New Actions to Secure the Border; Critics point to its illegality, (2)  ICE Air: Update on Removal Flight Trends, (3) Child Migration in Darien Gap, (4) At the Border: Recent Incidents at and around the US-Mexico Border, (5) Mind the Darién Gap, Migration Bottleneck of the Americas, (6)  Immigration Court: unjust denials call for structural realignment, not further restrictions, and (7) Immigration is the demographic savior too many refuse to acknowledge.

Then take a few minutes to read what you can do to take action this week in solidarity with migrants and their families. (See details at the bottom of the newsletter.)

A) Support LGBTQ+ Migrants

B) Oppose Border Closures

C) Support Migrants in Detention

D) Root Causes: Cut US Militarism in Latin America

Read the full IRTF Migrant Justice Newsletter each month at https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog

The issues at hand--mining-linked repression; collusion with corrupt and repressive business partners, governments, security guards, police and military; widespread impunity--are similar to other cases of corporate wrong-doing and criminality around the world. For a number of reasons, however, these legal cases in Canada and Guatemala are painstakingly overcoming legal, jurisdictional and political obstacles (including on-going repression).

Thirteen Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs, sued Hudbay Minerals and CGN (Guatemalan subsidiary company, formerly owned by Hudbay) for mining related repression, having traveled to Toronto (11 of them in November 2017; 2 more in early 2018) to be deposed by Hudbay lawyers as part of the precedent-setting Hudbay/CGN lawsuits.

Two of these mining repression victims are also pursuing a parallel but separate criminal trial in Guatemala against Mynor Padilla, former head of security of Hudbay/CGN.

Read more background at Business and Human Rights Resource Centre