IRTF News

The number of people in Colombia who identify themselves as right-wing has decreased dramatically since 2019, according to Colombia’s statistics agency DANE. They released the results of their poll weeks after congressional elections in which the far-right Democratic Center party of President Ivan Duque received a major blow. The elections made the progressive “Historic Pact” party of opposition leader Gustavo Petro the biggest party in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

As criminal groups battle for control over Mexican territory, the displaced are becoming increasingly visible, in towns such as Coahuayana and at the U.S. border. An estimated 20,000 people have fled violence in the past year in Michoacán state, roughly the size of West Virginia. Thousands more have abandoned their homes in other states like Zacatecas and Guerrero. Forced displacement is generally associated with armed conflict — it’s been a feature of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet it’s become such a problem in ostensibly peaceful Mexico that the country’s Senate is considering legislation to offer humanitarian aid to victims. Security officials describe the conflict as a battle between Jalisco and a rival cartel network to control the region, a hub of marijuana and methamphetamine production. But the accounts of the displaced underscore how unconventional this war actually is. At stake are not just drug routes, but timber, minerals and fruit plantations. In many cases, the armed groups have ties to local governments, business groups and the police.

For those on the frontlines of Mexico's drug war, the ubiquity of American-made weapons flowing across the border has long been a problem. Mexican police say that criminals and gangs in US border towns have ready access to weapons purchased and smuggled across the border. Mexico's National Guard - which is largely responsible for stemming the flow of weapons into Mexico - could not be reached for comment. Mexican officials at various levels of government, however, have repeatedly vowed to clamp down on the flow of weapons coming across the border, referring to the effort as a "national priority". These efforts occasionally net large quantities of weapons and lead to arrests. Between 1 January 2019 and January 2021 alone, Mexico's Milenio Televisión reported that 1,585 people were detained for weapons trafficking, over 90% of whom were US citizens. In the same time frame, official data compiled by Stop US Arms to Mexico - a project aimed at reducing illegal weapons in the country - shows that 11,613 weapons were seized by the army, a small fraction of what is believed to be on Mexico's streets.

On April 1, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “PBI accompanies ASODEBICOQ [the Association for the Defense of Common Goods of Quimistan] during the official presentation of declarations of Forest Protection Zone over 4 micro-watersheds in Quimistán. We celebrate these declarations and highlight the protection work of the communities as well as the defense work of ASODEBICOQ.”

The mining conflict in Azacualpa has shown the implications of mining activity in the territories of Honduras, under a state policy that promotes extractivism in an excessive manner and that, apart from environmental damage, has resulted in the exile of entire communities. This mining company generated the displacement of three villages in the municipality: San Andrés Minas, San Miguel and Azacualpa. In the case of San Andres, the mining company negotiated with the municipal and central government the total relocation of the community. While, in the case of San Miguel and Azacualpa, the displacement was partial. The current conflict in Azacualpa is a socio-political and environmental conflict motivated by the actions of the MINOSA mining company that, in its eagerness to extract and exploit the commons, has destroyed the biodiversity and ecosystems of the area and (if that were not enough) has dispossessed families of the cemeteries where their relatives have been buried for more than two hundred years.

The deportation of Hondurans, mainly from the United States and Mexico, increased by 84.2% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period of 2021, the Consular and Migration Observatory of Honduras reported Friday.  A total of 24,207 Hondurans were deported between January and March of this year compared to 13,140 in the same period of 2021, according to a report by the Consular Observatory. Of the total number of Honduran returnees in that period, US immigration authorities deported 11,368, including 2,617 minors. The Honduran returnees are attended in the Returning Migrant Attention Centers (CAMR) located in San Pedro Sula and Omoa, in the north and Caribbean of the country.

In a letter to U.S. State Department Secretary Antony Blinken, the two Senators Tim Kaine and Patrick Leahy recognized the steps new Honduran President Xiomara Castro has taken in the fight against corruption and impunity in Honduras, but expressed the urgency of strengthening the legislative framework through an "independent judiciary free of political influence". The letter was published by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras, Enrique Reina, who celebrated that both senators recognized, according to him, the leadership of President Xiomara Castro in the fight against corruption and her support in the installation of an International Commission Against Impunity in Honduras (CICIH).

Title 42 appears to be on its way out. After two years and 1.8 million expulsions, impacting well over 1 million people, Biden announced, and the CDC confirmed, that Title 42 would end on May 23, 2022. Now, the Attorney Generals of Arizona, Louisiana and Mississippi filed a lawsuit to block the administration from ending Title 42. The Arizona Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, who is also running for governor as a Republican, said, “If Title 42 ends, it will result in an even greater crisis at the border that will have a devastating impact, not just on border states, but across the country.” How ending Title 42 will lead to “devastation” across the country is not very clear. But while we think that the end of Title 42 is something to be celebrated, a return to “normal” is not such a great prize.

You’ve probably seen the terrifying headlines about the suspension of constitutional rights in El Salvador, the mass roundups of over 6,000 people now being held without charges and with no right to defense, President Bukele’s threats to deny prisoners food and other basic rights, and his accusations that any critic is a gang sympathizer. We at CISPES wanted to share a new round-up we put together of analysis from social movement organizations, human rights leaders, and journalists in El Salvador who are courageously speaking out against state repression and threats to democracy.