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RRN Letter
Guatemala, 12/14/2021
December 14, 2021
We wrote to officials in the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) of Guatemala to express our disappointment that it has not resolved the 15-year controversy surrounding the El Fénix nickel mine in El Estor, Izabal Department. On December 10, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) announced that the community consultation process on the mine was officially completed and that mining operations could resume in January 2022. This is preposterous. The consultation—a process which normally takes at least a year to complete—was conducted in just over three months, during the majority of which the community of El Estor was under a state of siege (cf our letter of November 21, 2021). The Xinka Parliament, the Q’eqchi’ Ancestral Council, the Defensoría Q’eqchi’, and the El Estor Fisherman’s Guild have all refused to recognize the rushed and inadequate consultation process. We urging that MEM suspend the mining license until there is a new consultation process that includes the legitimate ancestral authorities who have been elected by their communities and representatives of the Fishermen’s Guild.
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RRN Letter
Honduras, 12/13/2021
December 13, 2021
We wrote to officials in Honduras with our concerns about acts of intimidation against Nidia Castillo, staff attorney with the National Network of Women Human Rights Lawyers in Choluteca. Unknown actors damaged her car, and a man on a motorcycle followed her when she left home to run errands on December 2. This was the same day she had attended a press conference to oppose the ZEDE Orquídea (Employment and Economic Development Zone); construction commenced in the village of Las Tapias in January. Due to the vast biological diversity of flora and fauna of this area situated near the border of Nicaragua, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) declared it a biosphere reserve in 2017. Opponents have concerns that the ZEDE’s industrial agriculture projects, designed to produce exports to the U.S., will create severe negative environmental destruction, disrupting communities and threatening the biosphere of the region.
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News Article
Nicaragua: How the Nicaraguan People Are Punishing Their Coup-Mongering Priests
December 9, 2021

After burning down the FSLN party headquarters and raiding the city's social security building, priests in Nicaragua are now having to face empty churches and masses as Nicaraguan Catholics are protesting their political actions. Although the U.S. was funding the attempted ousting of Nicaragua’s democratically elected Sandinista government, the Catholic Church hierarchy in Nicaragua was instigating it. And while the Bishop’s conference was ostensibly “mediating” a national dialogue, its own priests were calling for violence.

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News Article
El Salvador: U.S. accuses El Salvador of cutting secret deal with MS-13 to tamp down killings
December 8, 2021
The United States accused El Salvador’s government of negotiating a secret pact with leaders of MS-13 and another gang under which the armed groups would cut back on bloody street killings and support the president’s party in midterm elections. The accusation, denied by El Salvador, was a new jolt to the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Washington and a longtime ally. The US Treasury Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on two Salvadoran officials for their roles in the alleged gang negotiations: Osiris Luna Meza, the vice minister of justice and director of the prison system, and Carlos Amilcar Marroquín, head of a major social welfare agency. José Miguel Cruz, a specialist in Salvadoran security issues, said the imposition of U.S. sanctions brought the allegations to a new level.
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News Article
Exploited Labor: Workers from Mexico, Central America Exploited Through US Work Visa Program
December 8, 2021
“Although they are legally authorized to work, temporary migrant workers are among the most exploited laborers in the US workforce because employer control of their visa status leaves many powerless to defend and uphold their rights,” according to a February report from the Economic Policy Institute. The H-2A visa program creates a severe power imbalance. The system almost always ties workers to their specific employer, which means that a worker’s legal status to work depends on maintaining the job they were contracted to do. As such, workers are hesitant to speak out about deplorable working conditions due to fears of losing their legal status and facing deportation.
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News Article
Honduras: Juez desconoce resolución de CSJ sobre cementerio de Azacualpa, La Unión, Copán
December 7, 2021
El juez Rafael Rivera, declaró sin lugar la nulidad argumentando en su resolución que «el cementerio de Azacualpa no constituye patrimonio cultural indígena» de la población Maya Chortí, que «si fuesen los peticionantes indígenas, esto no significa que puedan decidir sobre el cementerio» y que «es de interés público las exhumaciones en el cementerio», según lo compartido por el abogado Mejía con Criterio.hn. Frente a estos argumentos del Juez Rivera de Santa Rosa de Copán, el integrante del bufete Estudios Para la Dignidad expone que el cementerio de Azacualpa fue declarado patrimonio cultural indígena en Cabildo Abierto, que está dentro del territorio Maya Chortí, y que fue la misma Corte Suprema de Justicia la que en su sentencia de amparo dispuso que en caso de existir fallas geológicas, las autoridades municipales debían hacer lo necesario para garantizar la integridad del cementerio por ser un mandato popular a través de Cabildo Abierto.
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News Article
Honduras: entre países con las tasas más bajas de obtención de asilo en EEUU
December 7, 2021
México y Haití figuran entre los países que han tenido menos éxito en el proceso de solicitud de asilo en Estados Unidos en las últimas dos décadas, informó este martes el centro Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), de la Universidad de Syracuse, en Nueva York. De acuerdo con el informe de TRAC, las cinco nacionalidades con las tasas de obtención de asilo más bajas en las cortes de inmigración son México (15 %), Honduras y Haití (18 % cada uno), Guatemala (19 %) y El Salvador (20 %). Indica además que en conjunto, las personas de Honduras, Guatemala y El Salvador son el segmento más grande de solicitantes de asilo en los últimos años.
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Content Page
WEBINAR: Crisis in Honduras: A post-election update from on-the-ground activists
December 7, 2021

WATCH RECORDING HERE

Watch this webinar to hear from Honduran activists an update on the state of affairs in the weeks after the highly contentious 2021 Presidential Elections. In particular, we learned more about the trial against the eight political prisoners of Guapinol, which started December 9, 2021. The webinar features Juana Zúniga: activist, community leader, and the spouse of one of the political prisoners of Guapinol, and analysis of the elections by Padre Ismael Moreno, of the Jesuit-sponsored media outlet Radio Progreso.
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News Article
LGBTQ+: En Honduras, discriminación, prejuicios y exclusión: los obstáculos para el acceso al trabajo de las mujeres trans en Honduras
December 4, 2021
Thalía, Amelian y Lucía son mujeres de distintas realidades, pero se enfrentan a la discriminación y falta de oportunidades tanto laborales como integrales. Ellas luchan día a día por la subsistencia. Mientras tanto, el Estado de Honduras ignora las sentencias de la Corte Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos que mandan el reconocimiento de la ley de identidad de género para permitir a las personas trans adecuar sus datos de identidad, algo determinante para mejorar su calidad de vida. “¿Realmente quién es el protagonista de todos los daños que nos hacen a la comunidad de mujeres trans?”, pregunta Thalía. “Es el mismo Estado”, se contesta. “Quien dice que vela y protege es el que nos mata, el que nos lastima”....Las mujeres trans sufren violencia en muchos de los ámbitos donde se desempeñan. Según el estudio del Centro de Documentación y Situación Trans de América Latina y El Caribe (CeDosTALC), las víctimas trans de vulneraciones de derechos humanos en Honduras son en su mayoría trabajadoras sexuales, el 42% del total. El 34% son trabajadoras formales, el 5% son activistas y el 7% trabajadoras informales.
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News Article
Migrant Justice: migrants face deadly peril as Biden restores Trump Remain in Mexico policy
December 3, 2021
After reaching a deal with Mexico, the US will by 6 December start returning asylum seekers from other Latin American countries to Mexico, where they will be obliged to wait while their case is assessed. Mexico said US officials met its concerns over funding for migrant shelters, protection for vulnerable groups and access to medical checkups and Covid-19 vaccines. It also promised to take “local safety conditions” into account before accepting asylum seekers – a pledge that provoked disquiet among migrant advocates. But advocates argue that the main shortcomings of the programme are unchanged. “The violence faced by migrants in Mexico is going to outweigh any sort of promise made by the Mexican government to try to make this better,” said Linda Rivas, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas. “There aren’t enough shelters. People are continuing to be kidnapped – sometimes in their own shelter … Mexico can try [to protect migrants] but the reality is Mexico doesn’t have the means of doing it.”
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