IRTF News

Please see a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, 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.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on the government of El Salvador Thursday to respect human rights, after authorities declared a state of emergency and rounded up 14,000 suspected gang members. The arrests often appear arbitrary, according to the commission, part of the Organization of American States. The commission warned the government that even with the decree, “its power is not unlimited, because it has the duty at all times to act in accordance with applicable rules and respect the rights of all of those under its jurisdiction.”

Over the last decade, a growing number of American cities and states have restricted the information local law enforcement departments can exchange with immigration authorities. But new documents reveal that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has tapped a network of private technology companies to skirt such sanctuary policies, facilitating access to “real time” information about incarcerations and jail bookings. Several US jurisdictions with sanctuary policies have started to ask questions about Ice’s use of tech solutions and loopholes. In Chicago, members of the Cook county board of commissioners in April requested an investigation into whether Ice’s use of data brokers violated sanctuary policies.

Over 65 U.S.-based human rights, faith, immigrant rights, diaspora and international solidarity organizations released a joint statement expressing “profound concern” about the Bukele administration’s mass arrests in El Salvador and reports of human rights violations at the hands of state security forces. Since early April, over 12,000 people have been arrested without warrants, predominantly in marginalized communities, in response to a tragic spike in homicides; many arrests have been denounced by witnesses and family members as arbitrary in nature. As the 15-day administrative period for which people can be held without charges under a 30-day State of Exception comes to close for many, the groups are calling on the Salvadoran government to reinstate due process, lest a door be opened to “profound and lasting injustice.” 

Top United States officials are in Panama for a summit on migration in the Americas, where migrant rights groups say US policies exacerbate the dangers faced by migrants and asylum seekers heading north. The US secretaries of state and homeland security are joining their counterparts from 20 other countries in the western hemisphere for a ministerial conference on migration on Tuesday and Wednesday in Panama City. However, migrant rights advocates contend that security and deterrence policies pushed by the US and other destination countries aggravate the risks migrants and asylum seekers face in transit through the region.

Colombia’s opposition and anti-corruption advocates have sued President Ivan Duque for allegedly trying to influence the May 29 presidential election. Senator Ivan Cepeda said last week that he would sue the president and seven mayors for abusing their position for electoral purposes. The Anticorruption Institute, a non-government organization, said Monday that it sued before the Cundinamarca Administrative Tribunal for his allegedly illegal participation in electoral politics.

Reporting on the human rights situation in Guatemala, the US State Department illustrated worsening conditions and highlighted the role that corruption and impunity have played in the last year. The 2021 Human Rights Report–released on April 12–summarizes and provides examples of what the State Department deems “significant human rights issues” in Guatemala, including the following: unlawful and arbitrary killings; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; restrictions on freedom of expression, including threats and violence against journalists; interference with freedom of association and organization; and significant corruption. 

On Monday night, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ) denounced the murder of John Jairo Esquivel. This fact brings to 55 the number of human rights defenders killed so far this year. Esquivel, who was a member of the Peasant Guard and a member of the National Peasant Association (ASONALCA), lived in the municipality of Fortul, in the department of Arauca. Illegal armed organizations and the Second Division of the Colombian Army are present in this area. The Association also highlighted that the persecution, stigmatization, prosecution, and murder of social activists aggravates the humanitarian crisis. This happens amid the reconfiguration of the armed conflict carried out by paramilitary structures, which are continuing the genocide against Colombians.

Ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro, who leads in opinion polls ahead of Colombian elections next month, signed an oath Tuesday not to expropriate property if he becomes the country's first-ever leftist president. "My proposal of transformation for this country is not grounded in, and does not include, any kind of expropriation," the 61-year-old senator told reporters.

Border Patrol car chases have been the subject of increasing scrutiny in recent months, amid a spike in deadly crashes, an increase in vehicular use-of-force incidents, and newly released information about U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s controversial Critical Incident Teams. Immigrant advocates and federal lawmakers are raising alarms about how the agency defines what counts as a pursuit, how those pursuits are carried out and how they are investigated when things go badly. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D- El Paso, recently joined other lawmakers in raising questions about Border Patrol pursuits. She signed a joint letter to CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus on April 4 calling for the agency to curtail the use of vehicle pursuits, update their vehicle pursuit policy and improve agency oversight.