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Event
Solidarity Bazaar and State of Nonviolence 2024
November 30, 2024
Gather for solidarity to overcome our violent nation and build nonviolence together. There will be an unveiling of a peace & justice poster by a local artist. Vendors will offer their wares. Presentations to be made regarding nonviolent struggles.
Our esteemed speaker: Larry Clark is a United Methodist pastor and a sociologist. He has a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian Education from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology of Conflict from Bowling Green State University. In retirement he has been filling in a various churches who are without pastors. He is the project director for Bluff Street Village – a tiny home community for low income persons. Larry has facilitated a weekly clergy study for twenty years and has taught Sociology at the University of Toledo. For forty years he has been studying and leading groups in the Holy Land of Israel/Palestine/Jordan
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Event
Black Friday Walk/Fast for Humanity
November 29, 2024

12-2pm: The Walk & Fast for Humanity will convene at  the Fountain of Eternal Life at 120 Public Square on "Black Friday," November 29, 2024, Noon - 2pm. This is to name four world famines and food insecurity in Cleveland, Ohio. We emphasize the huge Pentagon budget and campaigns that foment poverty and famine in proxy war zones of our government. Famine in Gaza, Haiti, Sudan, and Yemen are our focus. We ask that participants everywhere fast from food, fuel and consumerism on "Black Friday." Readings and songs will be offered. From there we will walk to a public building to address our legislators. We invite you to join us and, if you wish, assist with a reading or song. Please reply to this email maria.smith9907@gmail.com if you'd like to be part of the program, or call Don Bryant at 216.255.1576

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Event
Nonviolence Training
November 25, 2024

In preparation for the Black Friday the Cleveland Nonviolence Network and Cleveland Peace Action are hosting a Nonviolence Training. The training will take place at the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Tremont. A registration is not required.

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News Article
El Salvador: Protests Erupt Against Bukele’s Crackdown
November 24, 2024
Hundreds of Salvadorans protested to demand the release of “innocent” individuals imprisoned during President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs.
“Freedom now,” read a banner carried by members of the Victims of the Regime Movement (Movir). Approximately 83,000 alleged gang members have been imprisoned under the state of emergency, which allows for arrests without warrants. However, according to humanitarian organizations such as Socorro Jurídico Humanitario, Cristosal, and Movir, around 30,000 of those detained are “innocent.”
The demonstration, which took place in the historic center of the city, was joined by doctors and teachers calling for improved public services
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Event
Trade Justice Power Hour: Where is trade policy headed under Trump?
November 21, 2024

Where is trade policy headed — and what is the role of trade justice activists — now that Donald Trump has won control of the White House?

Join this month’s Trade Justice Power Hour briefing to hear from Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade and Arthur Stamoulis of the Trade Justice Education Fund about trade issues on the immediate horizon when President-elect Trump takes office — from potential tariff increases to renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (aka, “Trump’s NAFTA”).
 
As part of the briefing, we’ll hear about the importance of pushing for alternatives to both the business-as-usual, corporate-driven “free trade” neoliberalism that has failed our communities and the corporate-driven “America first” nationalism that stokes hatred while offering only false solutions.
 
Please send an email to info@tradejusticeedfund.org to register.
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News Article
Guatemala: The court overturns order that freed journalist José Rubén Zamora, orders his return to jail
November 20, 2024
 
The founder and publisher of elPeriódico, one of the most important oppositional newspapers in Guatemala, was ordered to return to jail after a appeals court overturned the order of freeing him.
 
He was convicted last year of money laundering, sentenced to six years in prison and fined about $40,000. He called the charges politically motivated and said they were retaliation for his newspaper’s focus on public corruption. The case became a sign of crumbling democracy in Guatemala and a symbol of threats against press freedom across Latin America.
 
The IRTF wrote several letters about Zamora as part of the Rapid Response Network, these are two of them:
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Event
Online briefing: The Santa Marta 5 Water Defenders, What's Next?
November 18, 2024

Join two of the Santa Marta 5 water defenders and representatives from the international campaign for an update of their legal case, and how we can support the Five.

Thousands of individuals and organizations from all over the world have worked with civil society groups in El Salvador for the freedom of the five Santa Marta water defenders who were unjustly arrested in January 2023 and charged with an alleged crime said to have occurred 35 years ago during that nation's brutal civil war.  Finally, in October 2024, the five were found innocent of all charges in a court in northern El Salvador.  However, the Salvadoran Attorney General has appealed this verdict to a higher court.  We will discuss the case and ways the international community can support the Five.

(Spanish-English interpretation will be provided)

register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvdOiprDouH9Ugdi5E3rB7_US2m4f4VX-x#/registration

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News Article
IRTF is grateful to all who gathered for our annual Commemoration of the Martyrs
November 7, 2024

IRTF is grateful to the 200 supporters who gathered on October 27 at Pilgrim Church in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood for IRTF’s annual Commemoration of the Martyrs. In addition to marking the 44th anniversary of the martyrdom of Cleveland’s missioners in El Salvador (Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel, alongside Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke), we commemorated 36 human rights defenders killed in Central America and Colombia this past year because they dared to speak truth to power.

Our keynote speaker, Lorena Araujo of the largest campesino organization in El Salvador (CRIPDES), held the crowd’s attention with horrific stories of mass arrests, detentions and deaths currently happening under their government’s State of Exception, now in its third year. With more 88,000 imprisoned (and more than 300 deaths in prison), El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world—surpassing the astronomical rate of incarceration in the United States. 

As the people of El Salvador face the greatest challenge to their democracy since the end of the civil war in 1992, they invite us to renew and deepen our solidarity.

If you would still like to make a donation:

https://bit.ly/3YDmETj     via Zeffy platform

irtfcleveland.org/donate  via Network for Good

facebook.com/IRTF1981

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RRN Letter
Colombia, 10/26/2024
October 26, 2024

René Alfonso Garavito is a valued community member of the Indigenous Makaguan tribe in Arauca Department. He juggles being a a father of three, a university student (studying public administration), and an active member of the Indigenous Guard on his people’s reservation (Reserve Cusay la Colorada).

Tragically, while he was commuting between two towns on September 20, three armed men apprehended him, held him at gunpoint, tied him up and took him away while his 11-year-old nephew watched. His relatives, who suspect he is being held by the National Liberation Army (ELN),  are experiencing much distress and anguish; his nephew now has routine nightmares after watching the kidnapping.

IRTF has joined an international call to prioritize a thorough investigation into the kidnapping of René Alfonso Garavito, publish the results, and bring those responsible to justice. With his family, we pray that he is released and returned unharmed.

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RRN Letter
Colombia, 10/25/2025
October 25, 2024

Heber Rivera Méndez was a pivotal figure advocating for peasant farmer rights, human rights, and social justice in Valle del Cauca Department. He served as president of both the Communal Action Board of the Venus district of Tuluá municipality and the Association of Peasant Workers of Valle del Cauca (ASTRACAVA).

Tragically, in the early morning hours of September 24, armed individuals entered his home, shooting him multiple times and tragically ending his life. His death leaves behind a great void in the local community.

We are urging that the government work with community based organizations to dismantle illegal armed groups operating in the region that continue to impose norms and social control, targeting those who defend human rights.

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