Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

In her 2024 book Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities, Dr. Gina Pérez, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Oberlin College,  presents a practical political strategy to cultivate safety, trust and belonging in all communities. It includes both physical sanctuary, where sacred space becomes a place of refuge, and a broader commitment to accompaniment and public advocacy.

Here Dr. Pérez reflects on the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee of Hope. Pope Leo XIV frames migrants and refugees as “messengers of hope”—a powerful challenge to the stigmatizing narratives that characterize migrants and global migration in our world today.

Dr. Pérez also highlights essays by two young IRTF student interns who are living out their commitment to “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable…”  By participating in acts of accompaniment and collaboration across faith and secular communities, they credit IRTF with playing a significant role in their formation to become leaders in a new generation for social justice. Student intern Lucia reflects: “IRTF has been an indispensable part of discerning the world I want to live in, the role I will have in that, and the way I hope to go about it.”

This article by CovertAction Magazine provides an elaborate overview of Honduras' recent electoral history, its many struggles with this very crucial democratic procedure and the very recent electoral disaster. 

This article from NACLA provides insight on the Trump administration's contradictory polices. Occurrences such as the bombing of fisherboats in the Caribbean are contrasted with the pardon for fomer president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in US federal court for trafficking tons of drugs into the US.  

This digital report by Andrew Trasher explores the nature of ICE's 287(g) agreements with local law enforment forces enabling the agencie to build a "deportation army." The report highlights the extend of ICE expansion by signing areements with different kinds of law enforcement entities, reaching from state prison systems and highway patrols to fish and wild life agencies.  Most importantly it  emphazises the fact that this quiet mobilization is what makes this widespread deportation action possible in the first place. 

A recent article published by The Guardian elaborates on the criminal history of former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez who was pardoned by Trump. It casts light on a long history of US support for him and shows how the US deliberately looked away during Hernandez's years of eroding democratic institutions and building the narcostate in Honduras. 

ICE released new detention data. Austin Kocher breaks down the data and discusses why the composition of people in detention with various criminal histories matters politically and legally.

Juan Orlando Hernández, former President of Honduras who last year was sentenced to 45 years in prison for flooding the United States with cocaine was recently pardoned by President Trump. A new article by the New Yok Times illuminates how this political act is in reluctance with the administrations “fight against drugs” and how Donald Trump's longest-serving political adviser and lobbyist Roger Stone has played into this.

On November 30, Hondurans go to the polls on November 30 to elect their next president. But the elections are happening against the backdrop of escalating U.S. interference in the region. U.S. officials in the White House, State Department and Congress have been nurturing a propaganda campaign by the Honduran right wing press and organizations against the progressive forces in the country reminiscent of Cold War propaganda.

Inside Honduras, there have been attempts to undermine the democratic process.

The National Electoral Council (CNE), headed by three coucilors (each representing one of the major political parties) is highly politicized. Conflicts within the Council have caused concerns for the election.  During the March 2025 primary elections, some  polling stations in the two largest cities were left without any ballots,  while others received the materials many hours late. There were accusations made that the military had not done its job of ensuring that election materials were delivered. There were also accusations that one of the CNE councilors contracted a private transportation company to deliver ballot boxes, but some deliveries were not made. The conservative pro-2009 coup press then used the crisis to undermine public confidence in the electoral infrastructure and institutions.