IRTF News

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in a U.S. prison and fined $8 million for conspiring with drug traffickers to facilitate the shipment of over 400 tons of cocaine to the United States over more than a decade. The sentencing, delivered by Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan federal court, emphasized the gravity of corruption in power. Despite Hernández's claims of innocence and portrayals as an anti-drug crusader, the court found substantial evidence of his involvement in protecting drug trafficking interests using Honduran police and military resources. The case has significant implications both for U.S.-Honduran relations and the fight against drug trafficking in the region.

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!

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

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.

25 years ago, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The Declaration has been essential to protect those who defend human rights, but laws and contexts have evolved. The Declaration+25 supplements the Declaration and together they form a comprehensive set of standards to protect the right to defend rights.

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

The summer heat has started. A "heat dome" recently brought triple digit temperatures to parts of the Western United States in early June – with temps topping 110° in some areas. It's the first major heat wave of what's expected to be another abnormally hot summer. Farm workers and other outdoor workers desperately need a federal heat standard. 

See this urgent alert from United Farm Workers (UFW). Click here to take action to protect farm workers now!

The ongoing genocide trial against former Guatemalan military general Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, which started on March 25, 2024, in Guatemala City, continues to uncover the military's atrocities during the early 1980s genocide of the Maya Ixil people. Lucas García is being tried for his role in the forced disappearances and massacres in Santa María Nebaj, San Juan Cotzal, and San Gaspar Chajul, with over 844 victims identified.

These testimonies aim to shed light on the atrocities and the role of the Guatemalan armed forces and U.S. complicity. The Maya Ixil people seek justice and acknowledgment of the genocide from the Guatemalan government. The trial is being followed and supported by organizations such as AJR and NISGUA, with coverage available via social media and specific websites.

Public Citizen's Trade Justice project has a new in-depth report called Corporate Colonization of Latin America: How ISDS Harms Indigenous Communities, which explores ISDS’s colonial roots and the disproportionate harm it has caused to Indigenous peoples across Latin America.  The report is available now both as a website and as a PDF, so give it a look and please consider sharing it on social media or on any lists! 

 To release the report, earlier this month we hosted a special delegation of Latin American Indigenous leaders in Washington, DC to speak with policymakers, diplomats, and civil society about the adverse impacts of corporate trade policy on their communities.

On June 1, Nayib Bukele began his second presidential term in El Salvador, despite the constitutional ban on consecutive re-election, and has reformed the electoral system to consolidate his power. While Bukele's populist security policies against gangs are popular, his administration has undermined democratic institutions and human rights. For his second term, Bukele aims to improve the economy and shift from gang wars to fighting corruption.