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Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

News Article
Migrant Justice: Housing for CIS University Scholarship Student 2021
August 25, 2021
Many students cannot travel back and forth to their community to university each day because of distance, expense, and security. We do not have sufficient space for the demand for students who need housing closer to the university. As plans for opening the universities to classroom learning, many new students have requested to enter already overflowing small apartments. The overcrowding was lessened by the pandemic as some students were able to go home and study with CIS provided computers and internet. Still, some stayed in CIS dormitories due to extremely inadequate internet connections in their village. We want to prepare for the 2022 cycle to have space for students to live and study. For this reason, we are asking you for a one-time investment for the CIS to acquire an additional apartment for university scholarship students.
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News Article
Colombia: Prosecutors pursue murder charges against former army chief in ‘False Positives’ killings of civilians
August 25, 2021
The charges, pursued by an attorney general closely aligned with President Iván Duque, could signal that the government is now willing to come to terms with one of the darkest aspects of its military’s history, said Adam Isacson, director of the Defense Oversight program for the Washington Office on Latin America. At least 6,402 Colombians were killed as false enemy combatants between 2002 and 2008, according to a postwar court created in 2016 as part of the peace deal with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The court, known as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, is charged with investigating the facts of the war and holding those who committed crimes accountable through restorative sentences and, in some cases, prison time. In July, the tribunal charged 11 top military leaders, including a general, in the deaths of at least 120 people in Catatumbo, Norte de Santander. The kidnappings and killings of innocent people, many of them unemployed, homeless or disabled, were carried out in response to pressure to meet body counts as measures of success, the court said. Military leaders incentivized soldiers to kill by offering medals, awards and even vacation time.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia, 08/16/21
August 16, 2021
Social leaders and ex-combatants who are working to forge peace in Colombia do so at their own peril. Since 2016, at least 278 signatories of the Peace Agreement have been assassinated. One of those is Jesús Danilo Mora Londoño , who was assassinated on July 21 in Puerto Leguízamo, Putumayo Department. He was traveling with his wife on a motorcycle taxi when two men wearing dark clothes and balaclavas (ski masks) forced him off the vehicle and killed him. As an ex-FARC combatant, Jesús Danilo Mora Londoño had been enrolled in the reincorporation process.
PDF icon 2021_08_16_conexionputumayo_colombia_letter.pdf
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, 8/16/21
August 16, 2021
AUG 2021: RRN letters summaries
Please see this summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries. We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, (3) bring human rights criminals to justice. IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.
PDF icon 08_rrn_letters_summary_aug_2021_-_for_website.pdf
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News Article
Migrant Justice: Judge orders Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' policy to be reinstated
August 15, 2021

In June, the Biden administration formally ended Trump's immigration policy, which required asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico as their cases awaited trial in the U.S. But in a ruling on August 13, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said that the Biden administration had violated procedural laws and failed to see "several of the main benefits" of the Remain in Mexico policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). In his ruling, Kacsmaryk, stated that Texas and Missouri (the two states that brought forth the lawsuit) were being harmed by the Biden administration's decision to end the MPP, as migrants released into the U.S. would use the country's health care system, apply for driver's licenses and send their children to U.S. schools.

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News Article
Guatemala: Tensions Escalate as Attorney General Remains Defiant and National Strike Continues
August 6, 2021

In response to Attorney General Consuelo Porras’ dismissal of top anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, the Biden administration has taken steps intended as a rebuke. On July 27 the administration announced it had “temporarily paused programmatic cooperation” with the Guatemalan Public Ministry. “Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras’ July 23rd decision to remove Special Prosecutor Against Impunity, or FECI, Chief Juan Francisco Sandoval fits a pattern of behavior that indicates a lack of commitment to the rule of law and independent judicial and prosecutorial processes,” according to the State Department’s spokesperson. “As a result, we have lost confidence in the attorney general and their decision and intention to cooperate with the US government and fight corruption in good faith.”

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Honduras, 08/03/2021
August 3, 2021
Police in Honduras routinely use violence to repress freedom of expression. On August 1, while reporting for TVC Corporation, police officers in Intibucá shoved journalist Henry Fiallos to the ground and broke his mobile phone. Henry Fiallos had been receiving death threats (threatening to kill his children) because of his reporting on the case of Keyla Martínez (cf IRTF RRN letter February 15, 2021), who was killed in police custody in February. This is not the first time that police attacked Henry Fiallos. In July 2020, while the journalist and his cameraman were covering an attempted escape of inmates from La Esperanza prison, a police officer was recorded on video hitting the cameraman on his right arm to prevent him from recording the unfolding news events. We demand an immediate investigation and disciplinary action against the police who assaulted journalist Henry Fiallos.
PDF icon 2021_08_03_pasosdeanimalgrande_honduras_letter.pdf
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: July 2021
July 31, 2021
July 2021 - RRN Letters Summary
Please see below a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries. We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: -protect people living under threat -demand investigations into human rights crimes -bring human rights criminals to justice IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.
PDF icon 07_rrn_letters_summary_jul_2021_-_for_website.pdf
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News Article
Guatemala: Focus on Root Causes of Migration
July 20, 2021
During her visit to Guatemala in early June, Vice President Kamala Harris made comments regarding migration to the southern U.S. border that sparked controversy.
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News Article
Nayib Bukele's recipe for limiting the exercise of human rights
July 19, 2021
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, was elected in June 2019 on a platform in which he promised, among other things, to promote and defend human rights. So far, he has silenced those who dare to protest.
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