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News Article
The Companies Behind the Burning of the Amazon
September 3, 2019
The incentive for the destruction comes from large-scale international meat and soy animal feed companies like JBS and Cargill, and the global brands like Stop & Shop, Costco, McDonald’s, Walmart/Asda, and Sysco that buy from them and sell to the public. It is these companies that are creating the international demand that finances the fires and deforestation.
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News Article
Abolish ICE’s Union
September 2, 2019

The labor movement needs to take a stronger stand against agents of Trump's barbarous immigration policies.

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RRN Letter
Colombia, 9/1/2019
September 1, 2019
There has been an intensification of threats and attacks against Isabel Zuleta, spokesperson for Movimiento Ríos Vivos (MRV), Milena María Flórez, Vice-President of MRV, and William de Jesus Gutierrez, President of the Association of Fishermen and Miners in the municipality of Valdivia in the Cauca River region of Antioquia Department.
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RRN Case Update
RRN 2019 - urgent human rights cases
August 22, 2019
RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US). Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, and others. By signing our names to these crucial letters, human rights crimes are brought to light, perpetrators are brought to justice and lives are spared. Our solidarity is more important than ever. Together, our voices do make a difference.
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News Article
The Student Movement Standing up to the Honduran Regime
August 20, 2019
The student movement is diverse, accommodating a range of ideologies and tactics. This year it has intensified as wider movements against President Hernández’s attempts to privatize the health and education sectors have grown. Massive street protests have been led by La Plataforma para la Defensa de la Salud y Educación (Platform for the Defense of Health and Education), made up of various unions with more than seventy thousand combined members. Despite attacks by the staunchly pro-regime media, La Plataforma achieved a huge victory in June when Hernández backed down and repealed the law. It was a watershed moment of popular power against a regime that needed to deploy the military, when the police alone could not repress the movement.
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RRN Letter
Colombia - 08/16/19
August 16, 2019
On July 6 unknown men broke into the home Danelly Estupiñan, a human rights defender with Black Community Process (PCN) in Buenaventura, Valle de Cauca Department. Human rights organizations have reported that unknown persons made a payment to kill her.
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RRN Letter
Mexico 08/15/2019
August 15, 2019
Mexican authorities’ harassment and intimidation of personnel working at the Casa del Migrante de Saltillo (Saltillo Migrant House)in Saltillo, Coahuila State.
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RRN Letter
Honduras 08/14/2019
August 14, 2019
recent death threats to COPINH finance coordinator Rosalina Domínguez, her family, and other members of the indigenous Lenca community at Río Blanco in Intíbuca Department. Seven individuals, one of whom was armed, intercepted Domínguez’s path and called her “a witch like Berta,” i.e., Berta Cáceres, the indigenous and environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016. This reference implied intention to cause physical harm to Rosalina Domínguez.
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RRN Letter
Guatemala 08/13/2019
August 13, 2019
Quelvin Jiménez, lawyer for the Xinca indigenous people in San Rafael las Flores in Santa Rosa Department, continues to be under threat.
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News Article
Locals Only? How to Live Your Values and Still Eat Bananas
August 12, 2019

Shopping to meet the locavore ethos ("eat local") is never simple, but taking a follow-the-money approach enables shoppers to support products that share their values. And this is where bananas come in. Buying Equal Exchange bananas from a local food co-op not only keeps money cycling through your community, but also ensures that communities of farmers in Ecuador and Peru are receiving a fair price for their products, which then keeps money flowing through their communities, as well. In a way, eating fair trade bananas gives you a local eater two-for-one, and you support both your community and the cooperative community of farmers that grew the fruit. It may not have been grown physically close to your co-op, but it creates an interconnected network of solidarity between communities.

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