- Home
- About Us
- Issues
- Countries
- Rapid Response Network
- Young Adults
- Get Involved
- Calendar
- Donate
- Blog
You are here
IRTF News
News Article
July 9, 2026
News Article
July 7, 2026
Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador welcomes tourists with open arms while ruthlessly imprisoning its own people.
News Article
July 6, 2026
Under the heat of the morning sun, more than 600 people marched from the permanent resistance in Casillas to a rally and Catholic mass in the center of town to honor the anniversary of resistance against the Escobal mine, currently owned by Canadian corporation Pan-American Silver. Volunteers from the communities surrounding the mine have served 24 hour shifts on a rotating basis for the past nine years monitoring fuel quantity and movement in the region, in order to ensure the mine remains out of operation. While this was the 9th anniversary of the resistance, the struggle against the mine began 18 years ago, marked by criminalization, repression, denial of the existence of the Xinka people, and violence against land and water defenders.
News Article
July 6, 2026
This article details how the second Trump administration's mass deportation campaign has dramatically increased the detention and removal rates of immigrants who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, often rolling back legal protections previously granted to them. Through the lens of 18-year-old Elder Chavez and other detained youth, it highlights the rapid-fire deportation orders in immigration courts, the harsh conditions within detention centers, and the growing pushback from federal judges and legal advocates.
News Article
July 6, 2026
On June 4th, the community of Copal AA La Esperanza invited NISGUA to participate in their annual Mother Earth Festival—a day to celebrate the soil, water and forest that sutain their livelihoods and to explicitly reject the corporate interests that exploit them.
News Article
July 6, 2026
June 21 marks National Day Against Forced Disappearance in Guatemala, honoring the estimated 45,000 people who were disappeared by the State during the Internal Armed Conflict. This year, NISGUA accompanied a commemoration organized by Genocide Never Again Coordination, a network of organizations that includes the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA, by its Spanish acronym), Mutual Aid Group (GAM), Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice and Against Erasure and Silence (HIJOS), and the Center for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH), among others. Volunteers set up 450 chairs in Plaza de Las Niñas, Guatemala City’s large, central public square directly in front of the Presidential Palace. Taped to each chair was a picture of one of the disappeared, as well as a flower. Throughout the event, all 450 pairs of photographed eyes were trained on the Palacio Nacional—a powerful reminder of the Guatemalan state’s’culpability in the repression of its own citizens.
News Article
July 2, 2026
New analysis and firsthand accounts reveal the toll of the crackdown on immigrant communities in L.A. County and beyond. Thousands of people detained during the height of the raids remain in immigration custody or have already been deported.
News Article
July 1, 2026
One week after the Colombian elections, Community Peacemaker Teams met with local leadership in El Guayabo to collectively reflect on emerging risks, evaluate past strategies, and adapt their approach to defending their territory. Despite the exhausting challenges of ongoing resistance, the community drew strength from their shared experience, international support, and mutual care, reaffirming that their collective organization is what keeps hope and resilience alive.
RRN Letter
June 26, 2026
The Bajo Aguán Valley in northern Honduras became a center of agrarian reform beginning in the 1970s when hundreds of families relocated to these fertile lands under the promise of economic opportunity. But its vast size and high value for agricultural production made it a highly coveted place for various agro-industrial actors, namely for the production of palm oil. The struggle of campesinos to secure land in that area has historically resulted in violence from armed groups—both state and private actors. In the past decade, there have been more than 200 victims of armed conflicts arising from movements to reclaim farmworkers’ land in the Bajo Aguán region.
A horrendous massacre occurred on May 21 in the campesino community of Rigores. Gathered in prayer on a palm plantation to begin their workday, campesinos were met by several heavily armed men wearing Honduran police uniforms (although it is unclear whether the perpetrators were actually state security forces or private actors). They opened fire, killing all 20 (including five who were minor children of some of the workers).
News Article
June 25, 2026
Starting in May, immigration attorneys began reporting that they were arriving at immigration court to find judges’ dockets packed with over 100 hearings scheduled in a single morning—a phenomenon that quickly became known as “mega master calendar hearings,” ...
