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News Article
Honduras: Will there be justice for the military killing of Isy Obed Murillo? That was aided and abetted by impunity and corruption of U.S. and Canada
January 15, 2025
The so-called “democratic allies” of the U.S. and the Canadian government in Honduras are involved in drug-smuggling operations, importing cocaine in the U.S., the killing of Isy Obed Murillo during a protest and more.
 
Several key leaders of the military-backed Narco-Regimes that ruled Honduras for 23 years had to face trials because of their crimes.
 
It is impossible to overstate how much violence, destruction and harm the U.S. and Canadian-backed Narco-Regimes did to the Honduran people and society and all of its government and State institutions from 2009-2022, yet the U.S. and canadian government had no problem cooperating with them for their own profit.
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News Article
Honduras Will Reconsider u.s. Military Bases in the Country
January 3, 2025
 
Since 1982 the U.S. has maintained a Military Air Base, known as Palmerola. They have and still are using hounduran ground without ever paying for it.  
 
Now, on January 1, Honduran President Xiomara Castro critically addressed, among other things, the continued existence of the u.s. military bases in her New Year's message. She warned that these facilities would lose their justification if measures were implemented that harm Honduran citizens. Castro also expressed her desire to maintain a “constructive and friendly” dialogue with the new Trump administration; however, she made it clear that any attempt at mass deportation of Honduran migrants would be considered a hostile action.
 
 
 
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Event
IRTF Fair Trade Open House
December 21, 2024

IRTF will have an Fair Trade Open House at our office this Saturday. Stop by and give your friends and family gifts that support fair trade cooperative business that ensure living wages, community investment, and environmental sustainability. These fair trade products are grown and hand-crafted by families who depend on this vital income.

You have the chance to purchase Equal Exchange products like coffee, tea, chocolate bars, hot cocoa, baking cocoa and olive oil from a Palestinian-Israeli cooperative. But also silver bracelets and earrings with mother of pearl inlay from Nahua Indigenous people of Taxco, beaded ornaments, earrings, necklaces, headbands, and handbags from women artisans around Lake Atitlán, Mexico, jewelry and ornaments from Colombia and El Salvador and much more.

We hope to see you there!

 

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News Article
The Salvadoran trail of Ronald Johnson, Trump’s man for Mexico
December 12, 2024
Ronald Douglas Johnson served as the United States ambassador to El Salvador from 2019 to 2021. He was appointed by President Donald Trump.
 
Johnson quickly became a key ally of Bukele’s administration, making frequent appearances at press conferences, work meetings, and even private events. While Bukele ignored the criticism of  international organizations who raised concerns about the human rights violations, caused also through the detention of tens of thousands El Salvadorans without evidence or trial, Johnson downplayed the controversy, asserting that the priority was reducing crime. The US ambassador also ignored the criticism of Bukeles authoritarian tendencies. He never took a position on the fact that Bukele used heavily armed military personnel to take over Congress.
 
Sixteen months into Johnson’s tenure, Joe Biden assumed the U.S. presidency, reinstated Jean Manes as ambassador in El Salvador, and reversed many of Bukele’s concessions. But with the reelection of Donald Trump Johnson will, if the Senate confirms, become the new ambassador to Mexico.
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News Article
El Salvador: President's push to scrap gold mining ban causes outcry
December 10, 2024
El Salvador was the first country in the world to ban the mining of metals in 2017, warning of the harmful effects of the chemicals used in mining, like cyanide and mercury.
 
President Bukele, who used to be a strong advocate for the mining ban, now writes on X: "God placed a gigantic treasure underneath our feet," and argues that the mining ban was "absurd."
"If we make responsible use of our natural resources, we can change the economy of El Salvador overnight," he added a few days later.
 
Some El Salvadorans see the resumption of mining as a possibility to create jobs. Others who are earning their money through extracting gold nuggets from disused mining tunnels by hand are fearing to lose their income to multinationals.
 
And environmental activists warn about further poisoning of local rivers, which are a source of drinking water for many people.
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Event
Webinar: Political Prisoners and Persecution in El Salvador
December 10, 2024

This Thursday, December 12 at 3 pm ET CISPES will be hosting an important conversation about political persecution in El Salvador today, including political imprisonment, a repressive tactic not seen in El Salvador since the days of the civil war.

Bukele has made persecution of his political opponents, the grassroots opposition, and the independent press a hallmark of his regime. Just this week, police raided the homes of several journalists and artists, taking computers, hard drives, USB drives and other personal property - without even giving them a reason why. 

The raids confirm that Bukele’s widespread violation of due process and human rights is not limited to a supposed war on corruption or on gangs but is used to attack critics.

We are fortunate to hear from two leaders in the struggle to free political prisoners: Lourdes Palacios, coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners and the Politically Persecuted (COFAPPES), and Ivania Cruz, attorney with the Human and Community Rights Defense Unit (UNIDEHC). 

They will share information about several high-profile cases of political prisoners - including recent victories and ongoing challenges - and the important role that international solidarity campaigns have and will continue to play in the struggle for their freedom.

The webinar will be in Spanish (available via streaming on YouTube and Facebook). For interpretation to English and/or to join the Q&A, please register to join on Zoom here. 

Given that Trump has promised to persecute his political enemies and threats are on the rise against domestic dissent, we hope this conversation will offer timely, useful insights on effective organizing and solidarity. In the face of threats of mass deportations, it’s also critical that we understand the cruel realities of policing and prisons in El Salvador for asylum seekers and other immigrants who may be targeted. 

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News Article
Trump and the Latin American Left, Central America on The Dig podcast, CPAC in Buenos Aires, and more
December 7, 2024

NACLA editorial committee members Jorge Cuéllar and Hilary Goodfriend recently wrapped a marathon, three-episode podcast series on Central America with The Dig, a podcast hosted by Daniel Denvir through Jacobin Radio. This sweeping conversation on the region’s history, political economy, and present conjuncture is intended to serve as an accessible yet comprehensive tool for scholars and activists, beginning with Central American state formation and the imperialist interventions of the late 19th century and concluding with reflections on the far-right demonization of migration in the United States today. 

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Event
Fair Trade Market at Church of the Saviour - Advent Festival
December 7, 2024
Join the Advent Festival at Church of the Savior. They will have fair trade and local holiday gift market, live music, made-on-site fresh donuts, a cookie walk for charity and Dominick the Donkey will be there. We will also be there with our fair trade products!
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Event
Post-Election Direction: what do we do now?
December 5, 2024

It’s been an election like no other: polarizing, ugly, passionately contested. The results suggest a realignment of U.S. politics and a rightward shift in national policies and priorities. Yet most our greatest concerns were invisible during the campaigns.

Join Cleveland Peace Action for a panel and audience discussion, in-person and on Zoom, of the election and its implications for our work. They will address Palestine, the growing risk of nuclear war, the iron grip of the military-industrial complex, climate change, Latin America and immigration, and party politics.

register here for the online version: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMscO2pqTMvGdLzi1Afgi0RwdSyNiHeQb5y#/registration

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News Article
Beatriz v El Salvador: the abortion case that could set a precedent across Latin America
December 2, 2024

In 2013 a young woman, Beatriz had been denied an abortion, even though she was seriously ill and the foetus would not have survived outside the uterus. Beatriz died after being involved in a traffic accident in 2017, but her case is before judges at the inter-American court of human rights and could open the way for El Salvador to decriminalise abortion, which could also set an important precedent in across the Caribbean, South and Central America, abortion is not permitted in seven countries.

In El Salvador, abortion can be punished by up to eight years in prison, and women can even be charged with aggravated homicide, which carries a sentence of up to 50 years in prison. Women have been jailed for miscarriages. And women who advocate for safe access to abortion facing hate and threats online as well as offline.

The Global Center for Human Rights, a US-based anti-abortion organisation linked to conservative evangelical groups and the Heritage Foundation opposes what it calls “ideological colonisation [of] countries rooted in Christian values”. They create websites, petitions and videos where to spread fake news like that Beatriz case was made up by the inter-American court to legalize abortion but also to spread hate against abortion activists by for example calling them “enemy of the state”, a “colleague of terrorists” and a “feminazi”.

This has serious consequences. An activist telles the Guardian: “I have received a lot of threats and hate speech on social networks, especially on X,” she says. “A post can lead to a wave of comments where I’m called a murderer; people accuse me of promoting a crime and there are requests that the attorney general investigate me.”  Anti-abortion groups often gather outside her office to pray, which she sees as an act of intimidation. Her organisation’s website was the target of 13,000 cyber-attacks during the hearing of the landmark case of Manuela v El Salvador at the IACHR in 2021.

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