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IRTF News
News Article
September 23, 2019
The Colombian military and FARC rebels stopped fighting three years ago. But there has been no peace for former FARC combatants and social leaders. Murders have continued--even skyrocketed--since the 2016 peace agreement. The worst hit have been those who sought to put the peace treaty into practice and implement the announced reforms -- many of which greatly displeased large landowners, ranchers and entrepreneurs. Hundreds of activists, local leaders and small farmer representatives have been shot and killed-- precisely those people that FARC had spent decades standing up for. Danilo Alvizú-- wearing camo pants, a Che Guevara T-shirt and rubber boots--says he's disillusioned. He also feels betrayed by a government that promised to treat the former guerrillas well and integrate them into society. Alvizú is now the commander of a newly mobilized combat unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). DER SPIEGEL visited a FARC training camp deep in the jungle.
News Article
September 22, 2019
Nidiria Ruiz Medina defends collective territorial rights and identity through a gender approach. Despite the risks that this victimized population confronts—resisting a complex reality of conflict, exclusion, marginalization and historical state abandonment—Nidiria believes the Colombian Peace Agreement has helped reaffirm the rootedness of the land and spurred dreams of hope.
News Article
September 18, 2019
Colombia is a country which is greatly affected by U.S. engagement and foreign policy in Latin America. This is frighteningly visible in these statistics.
News Article
September 6, 2019
"Liberty Weeps" featured a Statue of Liberty weeping over a child huddled in a cage. Members of Immigration Working Group CLE passed out flyers asking people to oppose family separation and child detention policies and to abolish ICE.
News Article
September 5, 2019
Priests, nuns, lay Catholics and Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin gathered outside an ICE office to protest the detention of migrant children and families. Fifty sat down and blocked traffic, risking arrest outside the ICE office and the federal building.
News Article
September 5, 2019
The installation calls into question many of the injustices perpetrated by our immigration system. The Statue of Liberty weeps because children are held in cages, our neighbors and community members are systematically rounded up and jailed, the immigration system favors the wealthy, our doors are being shut to refugees, legal asylum seekers are being forced to wait in Mexico and there is no longer a helping hand for legal immigrants. In response, the Immigration Working Group CLE calls for opposition to the new “public charge” rules, and end to family separation, permanent legal status for DACA and TPS recipients and the abolishment of ICE.
News Article
September 3, 2019
The incentive for the destruction comes from large-scale international meat and soy animal feed companies like JBS and Cargill, and the global brands like Stop & Shop, Costco, McDonald’s, Walmart/Asda, and Sysco that buy from them and sell to the public. It is these companies that are creating the international demand that finances the fires and deforestation.
News Article
September 2, 2019
The labor movement needs to take a stronger stand against agents of Trump's barbarous immigration policies.
RRN Letter
September 1, 2019
There has been an intensification of threats and attacks against Isabel Zuleta, spokesperson for Movimiento Ríos Vivos (MRV), Milena María Flórez, Vice-President of MRV, and William de Jesus Gutierrez, President of the Association of Fishermen and Miners in the municipality of Valdivia in the Cauca River region of Antioquia Department.
RRN Case Update
August 22, 2019
RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US).
Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, and others.
By signing our names to these crucial letters, human rights crimes are brought to light, perpetrators are brought to justice and lives are spared. Our solidarity is more important than ever. Together, our voices do make a difference.