IRTF News

During a two-day visit to Bogotá, and first as U.S Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland outlined concerns by the government of President Joe Biden that Colombia faces “risks by external actors and authoritarians,” as well as “cybersecurity threats to propagate lies and stories that are not of Colombian origin.” Nuland’s visit also included a U.S.-Colombia Strategic Security Dialogue to discuss regional security, democratic institutions, and economic ties. “We have shared intelligence information, national security information, where any foreign influence, or attempted influence, can be identified in our electoral process,” stated President Duque. Without mentioning specific countries by name or those “who do not wish our democracies well,” recent allegations by the Colombian government that Russia is engaging in a military build-up with Venezuela’s Armed Forces, and charges by the country’s Defense Minister Diego Molano, of “foreign intervention” along the Colombia-Venezuela border, once again, signals a new low in deteriorating Russia – Colombia relations.

What a turnaround. On February 9, six Guapinol water defenders were found guilty, A decision widely denounced and which left them with the, supposedly, only hope in the new amnesty bill. Yesterday morning, they lawyers presented an appeal based on the bill. But then all of this became redundant as the Supreme Court finally resolved the appeals in favor of them. "According to the resolution, by unanimous vote, the Constitutional Chamber ruled in favor of two appeals filed by the defense of the 8 defenders criminalized by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares, for the crimes of deprivation of liberty, aggravated damages and simple damages." This ruling annuls the trial and Wednesday's verdict. OACNUDH welcomed the ruling and called for their immediate release. People in Tocoa took to the streets to celebrate.

The Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Agua Caliente is nestled in the mountains surrounding Guatemala’s Lake Izabal, in the sacred Valle del Polochic. Located in the municipality of El Estor, Izabal, Agua Caliente is also known for its abundant deposits of nickel. These riches have for decades made El Estor a target of looting by multinational corporations seeking to exploit and profit from the land and resources. This case against a particular Fénix nickel marks the first time the Guatemalan state has faced judgement in an international court for violating the ancestral land rights of Indigenous communities. The court’s ruling could force the Guatemalan government to finally recognize the Q’eqchi’ people’s collective rights to their ancestral lands and their right to protect their natural resources from exploitative megaprojects—including the destructive open-pit Fénix nickel mine that stands on the banks of Lake Izabal.

El Salvador has released another woman imprisoned for aggravated homicide who after suffering an obstetric emergency was accused of aborting her pregnancy in a country where abortion under any circumstances is banned. The woman, who activists helping her identified only as Elsy, had served more than a decade of a 30-year sentence. She was the fifth woman released before completion of her sentence since late December of last year. In the past 20 years, El Salvador has prosecuted 181 women who suffered obstetric emergencies. A local rights organization has succeeded in freeing 61 of them since 2009.

U.S. civil society organizations from different sectors released a statement during the high-level dialogue between the U.S. and Colombian governments to demand a serious police reform in Colombia and to stop supporting the Colombian police until that is achieved.

In Colombia, the signing of peace with the defunct FARC guerrilla five years ago caused a profound transition to which the military has not been able to adapt with the required speed, and the National Police has not been able to respond to the challenge in 2021, which represented the wave of protests against the government of President Iván Duque, an unprecedented social outbreak. The country is heading to close the year with the highest homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants since 2014, according to data from the Defense Ministry itself. And in the midst of that crisis that multiple indicators show, a succession of scandals has cracked the image of the uniformed.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) admitted a complaint filed after the 2009 coup d'état by the victims of the systematic violation of human rights, which included deaths, torture, imprisonment, and persecution, among others. The communication was sent in December to the previous government but it was not disclosed. "The issue of human rights is a priority for the government of President Castro, it is an issue that is linked to justice, it is a moral feeling, to recover that image, that dignity that Honduras has," said the foreign minister.

2022 started in Honduras with everything in place for a new start. Xiomara Castro won the election with a clear mandate for change and even in Congress, the opposition alliance together with some Liberal Party dissidents could have reached a simple majority. But this in not the story of this month. Last month, several human rights defenders were murdered, the Guapinol water defenders are still in detention, the Congress is splitting in two and on top of everything, the Omicron-wave is hitting Honduras and its public health system. Read Daniel Langmeier's full report on January 2022 in Honduras.

For years, under multiple presidents of both parties, the immigration court system has been something of a mess, struggling with a huge backlog of cases that has just seemed to snowball and snowball, sometimes keeping individuals in legal limbo for several years. Now new data shows the backlog of cases in immigration court has reached the highest level ever—at almost 1.6 million, according to a recent report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. And it’s not just that more cases are being added because more people are trying to either request asylum or enter the US illegally. Changing politics actually have a lot to do with it, and it’s been a constant challenge for immigration judges, lawyers, and immigrants themselves to survive the whiplash. While talking about court backlogs can seem abstract or too in the weeds, each of these cases has a person’s future at stake; it can determine whether someone gets deported, is granted asylum, is released from a detention center, or is given a green card.