Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

Carlos Herrera was arrested on Espíritu Santo Island in El Salvador on May 13. His family has been unable to contact him since.

Mr. Herrera is 21 years old. He had been working as a “lanchero,” a harbor ferry boat skipper, since he dropped out of high school, supporting his family by moving people and goods back and forth from the mainland and Espíritu Santo, an island in El Salvador’s Jiquilisco Bay in the southeast department of Usulután. Esperanza Pineda, Mr. Herrera’s aunt, described him as a fun-loving young man who is always making people laugh and teasing her by disheveling her hair.

. The main economic activities on Espíritu Santo are subsistence agriculture and fishing. There are no gangs. Espíritu Santo’s comparable immunity to the gang violence that is a plague to other Salvadoran communities makes the arrests here that much harder to understand, residents say.

Honduras: Following a congressional delegation trip to Honduras in 2021, representatives Cori Bush (MO-01), Ilhan Omar (MN-05),  Jesus “Chuy” García (IL-04), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), and Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (NY-16) introduced a resolution in support 0f the Afro-Indigenous Garífuna people. The Garífuna communities have been been facing violence by the Honduran government and complicit multilateral institutions. These violations against the Garífuna communities were out called by The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights earlier without any severe consequences. The resolution condemns violence against the communities going on for years without any accountability towards the perpetrators, as proven by an incident in July 2020 when four Garífuna men were abducted at gunpoint by men in Honduran security force uniforms. Instead of initiating an investigation into  those responsible, the Honduran attorney general has called for criminal proceedings against leaders of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH).

The new resolution specifically:

• Condemns violence against the Garífuna people and the illegal separation from their legitimate land rights, and calls for the implementation of a 2015 Inter-American Court ruling restoring those land rights;
• Calls for the full participation of an independent commission created by Garífuna communities in the investigation of the four Garífuna men abducted in July 2020;
• Calls for a Special Prosecutor for Enforced Disappearances in Honduras;
• Calls for a review of past projects by multilateral development banks that may have contributed to violating the rights of the Garífuna people, and compliance with human rights law before the approval of projects that affect Garífuna communities; and
• Calls on the U.S. government to engage with the Honduran government and international allies and organizations to promote the rights of Garífuna communities and to advocate for reparations for affected communities.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The resolution is endorsed by: Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective (WfP-SC), Institute for Policy Studies - Global Economy Program , School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), and Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN).

More on the motivations of the congresspeople and NGOs can be found in their statements in the full article, which also includes a link to the full resolution. 

As El Salvador sinks into violence and authoritarianism, another country takes a comparable, straight edge "anti-crime" approach. 

On November 24, the Honduran government announced a plan for the temporary suspension of constitutional rights and a deployment of security forces in two crime rigged cities. Besides the capital Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula will be implementing the approach. Honduras has been struggling with a rise of extortion, leading to fear among the population and a mass closure of small to medium sized businesses. 

Human rights activists who have been criticizing the rise of authoritarianism in Central America are warning to ensure the upholding of human rights. Honduras has a history of violence by security forces and a lack of accountability. Nevertheless, many civilians are welcoming the measure. Though the approach is often compared to El Salvador's extreme militarization and totalitarianism, experts doubt that the measures will have a comparable impact. They believe that widespread human rights violations could endanger the internal peace within the center-left coalition governing the country. Furthermore, the comparison lacks validity since El Salvador,  with its massive military and police force as well as its enormous prison capacity, is far more militarized than Honduras. Another impactful difference between the two countries is the takeover of the judicial branch by the Salvadoran government, enabling it to prosecute without hearings. 

Still, the fear of unhinging authoritarianism is a strong indication of danger. Many are speculating the iron fist approach could overshadow the government's plan of legal reforms like resource upgrades aiming to dismantle gang leaders and cracking down on money laundering, which is believed to have a long term impact.

As the deployment of special forces proceeds, it is likely to be implemented in more cities as well. 

In El Salvador 10,000 military troops have surrounded the city Soyapango, one of El Salvador's biggest cities with 290,000 inhabitants. 

The recent surrounding is part of the ongoing gang crackdown under the state of emergency, which was initiated in late March and has seen 58,000 imprisoned. A mind boggling number considering that El Salvador's total population is just 6.5 million. The government has stated that all roads to the city have been blocked and special forces are searching homes in the effort to "extract" gang members. President Bukele has claimed that ordinary people "have nothing to fear" as it is "an operation against criminals, not honest citizens." Activists fear that the operation may lead to mass imprisonment, though polls show, that 75.9% of Salvadorans support the state of emergency. So far 12 individuals have been arrested as part of the crackdown on Soyapango.  

Wednesday November 30 marked one of the most important days for journalism and freedom of press in recent years. 

After several members of the Salvadoran investigative news outlet El Faro found proof of the Israeli spyware Pegasus on their smartphones, El Faro takes on Pegasuses developers head on and goes to court. "We are filing this lawsuit to defend our right to investigate and report, and to protect journalists around the world in their pursuit of the truth," the co-founder of El Faro, Carlos Dada, stated. It is not the first Pegasus attack in El Salvador. Dozens of activists and journalists have been targeted so far. 

The spyware developing company behind Pegasus, the NSO Group which has been blacklisted by the United States, has stated that it has no ties with the Salvadoran government. They say they only sell their system to legitimate law enforcement and intelligence in foreign countries and that it does not operate the system, thus has no oversight over the users. Furthermore, NSO stated that the use against activists and journalists "is a severe misuse of any technology and goes against the desired use of such critical tools." The attack gets even more upsetting by the fact that Pegasus is marked as a military export by the Israeli state, which has to approve any sales of the spyware. Israel's government has been criticized for the sale of the system to countries violating human rights before. 

The recent lawsuit against the NSO Group in a U.S. court claims that NSO violated US law by developing and using spyware against El Faro. 

In this montly newsletter, please read about : (1) Immigration Court in Cleveland, OH: Nicaraguans rank #1 in deportation proceedings filed; (2) - Recent Border Trends: Why We See so Many Nicaraguans and Venezuelans Arriving at the U.S. Southern Border; (3) Title 42: Expelling Migrants in the Name of Health Measures: Biden Urges Mexico to Take Migrants under COVID Expulsion Order He Promised to End; (4) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Increase in ICE’s use of Ankle Monitors and Smartphones to Monitor Immigrants and Detention Numbers; (5) At The Border: Recent Incidents at and around the US-Mexico Border. TAKE ACTION ITEMS: After reading the articles, please take a few moments to advocate for migrant justice with our TAKE ACTION items: (1) Support Ohio Immigrant and Refugee Businesses this Holiday Season; (2) ​​​​​Urge Congress to Support and Pass Permanent Pathways to Citizenship (3) Stop the illegal and immoral transportation of migrants by certain governors to other states and Washington, DC.

https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog

In 2021 the Biden administration established the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a Covid relief bill that was directed to communities to cope with financial difficulties during and after the Covid 19 pandemic. 

Cuyahoga County received close to a billion dollars including $511 million for the city of Cleveland. Following this, the city asked its residents how the funding should be spent, to which one in five Clevelanders marked "safety and policing" as the most important issue. This fear of crime legitimized the city and wider county to spend a bulk of the ARPA funding on law enforcement and public security, directing it in large parts towards salaries and bonuses for police officers and the recruitment of new personnel. Cleveland alone secured $190 million for policing, with $63 million going into salaries and bonuses, adding up to over $150 million in salaries county wide. Much of this funding comes from the state's Violent Crime Reduction Grant program, a program that before Covid had a budget of $8 million and was supposed to included financing for social crime prevention initiatives.        

The second largest investment coming from the security budget was spent on purchasing police equipment, vehicles and hundreds of cameras, adding up to around $14.6 million from Cleveland alone. 

Critics state that the narrow spending on violence reduction and crime prevention is not nearly enough to bring actual security to the city's street. Even though the ARPA guidelines include "community violence intervention," these guidelines can be interpreted loosely, leading to Cleveland categorizing police equipment as "community violence intervention.                                

Cleveland leaders acknowledged that policing alone won't solve the problem of community violence but have also affirmed that shifting money away from police is a difficult task. Cuyahoga County Council representative Richard Starr has supported the use of more ARPA funding to help at-risk kids to get mentors, education and to aquire job skills to prevent them from sliding off into crime, stating that "it starts with them lacking recourses and support." The Greater Cleveland American Rescue Plan Coalition demanded  to prioritize housing, behavioral health, broadband access and education for those most affected by the Covid pandemic. The Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, another social organization, calls for the use of mental health experts as first response to mental health crises and not armed police officers. Cleveland lawmakers approved $5 million of the ARPA  funds for a pilot Crisis Intervention Team,  enabling them to double the size of their first response social worker force and hiring strategists to oversee the program. Lawmakers also left the door open to "explore opportunities" to a community response that isn't police. 

Furthermore, the grassroots coalition Participatory Budgeting Cleveland brought forward a proposal to set aside $30 million of the ARPA funds for the 30.8% of Clevlanders living in poverty, to have a say in the spending of the budget. Mayor Justin Bibb promoted a small amount of $5 million for a Civic Participation Fund that would involve residents' input on spending.  Cuyahoga County already set aside $5 million to create a Youth Diversion Center as an alternative, to offer mental health and substance abuse treatment instead of sending kids to juvenile detention centers. The program has yet to launch.  

2022 marked the 25th anniversary of the  Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice. Every year thousands of followers visit the Teach-In to honor the Jesuit martyrs and pledge for justice in Central and South America. 

The annual meeting first took place in 1997 as a commemoration for six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 15-year-old daughter who were murdered by Salvadoran government forces in 1989 during the Salvadoran civil war. The victims worked at the Jesuit-run University of Central America (UCA) and were strongly outspoken about about the rights of the poor and about the military’s violence against Salvadorans. During an offensive on the nation's capital, San Salvador, a group of soldiers searched the UCA and executed the eight victims. Nineteen of the soldiers involved in the massacre were previously trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas as part of U.S. aid to the Salvadoran government and military.

Ever since the civil war started, the Jesuit community in the United States was strongly opposed to U.S. military aid. The murders were a sad proof of what was always stated, the U.S. trained war criminals. 

Every year the Jesuit community gathers to remember there martyrs and demand peace and equality.