IRTF News

This book explores the pernicious nature of US engagement with Nicaragua from the mid-19th century to the present in pursuit of control and domination rather than in defense of democracy as Washington has incessantly claimed. In turn, Nicaraguans have valiantly defended their homeland, preventing the US from ever maintaining its control for long. Led by Daniel Ortega, the Sandinistas established democracy in Nicaragua with the country’s first free and fair elections in 1984. Once again, the US attempted to subvert democracy by organizing Somoza’s former National Guardsmen into a terrorist group known as “the Contras.”  Directed and funded by the CIA, the Contras would terrorize Nicaragua for nearly 10 years. Paradoxically, the US government and media now castigate Ortega as somehow “a new Somoza,” a claim that is swallowed by some in the US left. This book debunks this claim by putting Nicaragua’s past into historical perspective and documenting the reality of today’s Nicaragua.

Men, women and children have been rounded up across the Central American country since the government declared a state of emergency on 27 March, suspending constitutional rights including the presumption of innocence. President Nayib Bukele has said that the detainees are all gang members and that they will not be released. While the police claim to have captured the MS-13 leaders who ordered the killings, there is mounting evidence that ordinary people who live or work in gang-dominated neighbourhoods have been arrested arbitrarily.

Francia Márquez Mina is an environmental grassroots leader and lawyer whose rapid rise is expanding a new political Black feminist perspective in Colombia and Latin America. Come on Colombia! From resistance to power until dignity becomes customary!” were her closing words in her first public speech after hearing the results of the March 13 presidential primary elections. Although she is not the first Black woman to run for the Colombian presidency, that day, Márquez made history. With a campaign executed in record time, she obtained the third highest turnout—783,160 votes—outnumbering former governors, mayors, and senators with longer political trajectories in Colombia. And while there is no guarantee that Márquez will become Colombia’s first Black woman vice president in May, her work so far has already blazed a path for future Black feminist politicians and created new space for people who have been historically excluded from Colombia’s highest political institutions.

This Monday, Honduras ratified its request to join the United Nations group for the protection of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex (LGBTI) people. "Honduras as a nation reiterates its strong interest in joining the United Nations Group for the Protection of the Rights of Persons belonging to the LGBTI community," the statement said. The Honduran government recalled that although the UN has called for the decriminalization of homosexuality, same-sex relationships between consenting adults are still classified as crimes in 70 countries, the statement said. See the full report here.

Last week, the aforementioned body approved a decision to set up a group of three experts to investigate possible human rights violations in the Central American country since April 2018. The Professor of Law at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) emphasized that the aforementioned council has little legitimacy when dealing with the human rights agenda. Gonzalez described this agenda as colonial, adding that it was a strategy to discredit left-wing governments in the region.

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.