The Livestream of our 2022 Liberation Lab: A Social Justice Teach-In on Abolition and Environmental Justice is now available! Watch it if you couldn't make it on Saturday or if you want to revisit the wonderful and interesting discussions we had on March 19!
This Monday, March 21, will mark the second anniversary of the start of Title 42, the CDC health order that has been used to rapidly expel hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border without due process for their asylum claims. The Biden administration has an opportunity to end this disastrous policy and restore the asylum system.
Catholic priest José Enrique Vásquez left his mother’s house after a visit at 10am on March 2, returning to his parish in San Pedro Sula, Cortés Department, for Ash Wednesday religious services. He never showed up. At 10pm that night, his lifeless body was entered at the morgue as an unknown person. There were six bullet wounds in his body, including two in the head and two in the chest.
The Title 42 expulsion policy — issued just days after COVID-19 began taking its grip on the U.S. — has driven a wedge between the Biden administration and immigrant communities, many of whom see its continued implementation as a broken campaign promise. As the Biden administration oversees the two-year anniversary of Title 42, it has given little sign it intends to lift the Trump-era policy that cites the pandemic as a reason to summarily expel asylum-seekers, even amid increasing pressure from members of its own party.
The 22nd Annual Social Justice Teach-In is a great opportunity for high school and college students--as well as people of all ages-- to learn about critical human rights issues. The theme for the 2022 Teach-In is Liberation Lab: A Social Justice Teach-In on Abolition and Environmental Justice. Attendees will be invited to attend different sequential panels that focus on grief, empathy, apathy, and, of course, liberation–and much more. Between the main sessions of panel presenters, participants will go into small breakout rooms so that they can share and reflect on what they’ve just heard. We are training volunteers to facilitate these break-out sessions.
The West has a historical interest in Colombia, both for trade and for its regional geopolitical importance. Indebted due to financial backing during the independence struggle, Colombia’s sprouting elites were pushed into unequal trading and political relations with the UK and the US. Now, Colombia’s left-wing and progressive coalition, Pacto Historico, has become the country’s most popular political movement following the congressional elections last Sunday. Depending on what happens in May’s presidential election, this win could have global reverberations. Crucially, the West stands to lose the unconditional loyalty of their most stable ally in the region.
Letter to the DFC, expressing our alarm and concern about the rapid deterioration of the rule of law in Guatemala and the implications of this deterioration for investments by the Development Finance Corporation. We are aware that in January 2020 Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei signed a memorandum of understanding with the DFC, aiming to catalyze private sector investment of up to $1 billion over three years in support of development in Guatemala. The Guatemala of today, however, is markedly different than the Guatemala of two years ago. Accordingly, we believe the DFC should revisit its investment plans with respect to Guatemala.
The deputy of the National Congress for the Libertad y Refundación (Libre) party, Jari Dixon, presented this Thursday a bill so that the lands in possession of the Oficina Administradora de Bienes Incautadas (OABI), become property of peasant groups in Honduras. Dixon Herrera argued that "it would be appropriate" that those lands that have been seized by the OABI and that have received a final sentence become administered by the National Agrarian Institute (INA).
In the open meeting, Quimistán was declared free of ZEDES and ratified free of mining and hydroelectric power. Amada Lopez, vice coordinator of ASODEBICOQ, was elected member of the Municipal Transparency Commission.
The country’s Supreme Court of Justice said late Wednesday via Twitter that the judge had decided to grant the U.S. extradition request. Hernández has maintained that statements against him have been made by drug traffickers extradited by his government who wanted to seek revenge against him. He denies having any ties to drug traffickers.
