IRTF News

Fifty social leaders were assassinated in Colombia from January this year onwards, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz) confirmed. According to an early warning issued by the Ombudsman’s Office in 2018 for the municipalities of Mapiripan and Puerto Concordia, the presidents of Community Action Boards and governors of indigenous reservations are populations at risk.

The Biden administration will end Trump-era pandemic restrictions that effectively blocked migrants from entering the United States on May 23, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. Former President Donald Trump invoked a public health authority, known as Title 42, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, a move that was immediately met with skepticism by immigrant advocates, public health experts, and even officials within the administration who believed it to be driven by political motivations. Yet the Biden administration continued to lean on Title 42 despite objections from its allies.

According to the INDEPAZ human rights organisation, the first three months of 2022 saw a rise in killings of social activists and massacres. From 1 January to 31 March, there were 48 murders of social activists and 27 massacres, compared with 42 and 23 respectively in 2021. There was a slight decline in the number of former FARC combatants murdered, from 14 in January-March 2021 to 11 this year. The scale of violence reflects the lack of a non-military state presence in many parts of the country and the expansion of paramilitaries and other armed groups. The government of Iván Duque still has not properly implemented security mechanisms contained in the 2016 peace agreement even though the United Nations has repeatedly said these are urgently required to address the violence. Here is JFC’s monthly summary of human rights violations in Colombia.

At the end of March, JOH had run out of almost all legal options and his extradition to the US seems imminent. The MP even requested the seizure of his properties. In a re-trial, the former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo was found guilty, again. And more corrupt actions will likely come to light thanks to the repeal of the JOH-era Secrecy Law. In February we celebrated the freedom of the Guapinol defenders, but one month later, while in freedom, the judges still deny to drop the charges against them. On a more positive note, several political prisoners had the charges dropped against them - among them a student leader who was able to return to Honduras after four years of exile. The situation in Azacualpa remained tense throughout the month as the mining company MINOSA continued to ignore court rulings to stop their operations. The US was very present again in March. The US Senate confirmed Laura Farnsworrth Dogu as the new ambassador to Honduras and three members of Congress visited the country and met with President Xiomara Castro. Welcome to another month in Honduras.

Witness for Peace and other organizations were honored to lead a Congressional delegation that included Representatives Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Cori Bush (MO-01), Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (IL-04), and Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) – as well as representation from the office of Jan Schakowsky (IL-09). The delegation was coordinated alongside other U.S.-based solidarity organizations, including SOA Watch, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, and the Institute for Policy Studies - Global Economy Program.

With April Fools on our doorstep, it's time we said goodbye to Banana Month. Thanks so much to everyone who came to our webinars, engaged with our traveling team, read our musings, and used our new POS in their stores! 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown the extent the U.S. can marshal its immigration resources to be a safe haven for those in need — when it wants to. In the month since the Russian invasion began, the U.S. has offered Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Ukrainians, allowing those already here to remain without fear of deportation. The U.S. government also waived the Title 42 prohibition on seeking asylum for Ukrainians who present themselves at the border. And President Biden has pledged to take in 100,000 Ukrainians over the next several years.

Please see a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia  and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries.  We join with civil society groups in Latin America to (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, and (3) bring human rights criminals to justice…..IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.