IRTF News

In its annual human rights report released last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has placed Guatemala in chapter  IV.B, reserved for countries that violate aspects of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Analyzing the human rights situation in 2021 in the Organization of American States’ thirty-five member states, the IACHR has grouped Guatemala with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Explaining its decision to include Guatemala in this section, the IACHR cites “structural situations that seriously affect the use and enjoyment of fundamental rights recognized in the American Declaration, the American Convention or other applicable instruments,” including  “systematic noncompliance of the State with its obligation to combat impunity, attributable to a manifest lack of will.”

As the largest caravan of migrants so far this year journeys into central Mexico, the continued enforcement of a public health order barring their admission into the United States threatens to exacerbate already deteriorating humanitarian conditions on the southern border. The caravan, largely composed of asylum seekers from Venezuela, could add as many as 11,000 people to the population of migrants currently stuck in limbo near the U.S.-Mexico border—estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands. Many of them have been living in dangerous conditions for months or longer awaiting the final repeal of Title 42, the public health order that has effectively halted asylum admissions into the United States from Central and South America.

Since May, there has been an alarming trend of social movement leaders being arbitrarily arrested in the context of the nationwide State of Exception. Under the State of Exception, which was approved on March 27 for a 30-day period, but which has already been extended twice, raising concerns that the Bukele administration seeks to maintain its expanded power in perpetuity, constitutional rights such as the right to due process and the right to defense are suspended. A person can be arrested without a warrant and held for up to 15 days without charges being presented. As of June 5, the government reports that the total number of people arrested has since risen to over 37,000. As news outlet Gato Encerrado has reported, the number of people incarcerated in El Salvador has doubled within the span of less than three months.

The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas

Secretary of Homeland Security

Washington, DC 20528

Dear Secretary Mayorkas:

We write to express our concern over the drastic increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) which relies on punitive surveillance, such as the use of ankle shackles, and facial recognition and geolocation tracking through a mobile application called SmartLINK as an ill-conceived “alternative” to detention.

The Ohio Fair Trade Teach-In & Expo has showcased socially and environmentally conscious consumerism annually since 2009. At one of the largest regional fair trade events in the country, guest speakers will highlight the principles of fair trade, and more than 30 vendors will generate vital income for artisan and farming families by selling fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate, as well as clothing, handcrafts and jewelry. Registrations for the 2022 Expo are now open! Starting today, May 25, you can register to attend or sponsor the Ohio Fair Trade Expo.

By Kim LaCapria

The Supreme Court 100-Miles Border Ruling - Truth or Fiction?

Claim

"The Supreme Court just ruled [in June 2022] that Border Patrol can enter any home without a warrant and assault you, within 100 miles of the border. And no, you have zero federal protections if they do so."

Rating

Decontextualized

In the Salvadoran Constitution, Article 29 establishes the Regime of Exception aka State of Emergency, to respond to extreme circumstances, such as war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic, or other general calamities, or serious disturbances of public order. Thus, it is possible to suspend freedom of movement, expression, association, assembly, and inviolability of communications, among other rights. At midnight on March 27, 2022, the Legislative Assembly, which was by that time fully controlled by the ruling party, imposed an Regime of Exception of for 30 days, in response to a spike in homicides that claimed the lives of 62 people in a single day. These are the articles that were affected by the 30-day suspension.