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Anti-Militarism: News & Updates
Event
January 18, 2020
Saint Romero: Solidarity and the Struggle for Social Justice in El Salvador
News Article
January 15, 2020
President-elect Alejandro Giammattei took office yesterday in Guatemala City. Giammattei comes to the presidency backed by a group of hard-line former military officers reportedly associated with the sector that opposed the peace process that ended Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. Many are also associated with industries that extract resources from rural communities – often with US, Canadian and European investment – a sector Giammattei has pledged to promote. In one of CICIG’s first prosecutions, on August 9, 2010 an arrest warrant was issued against Giammattei on charges of extrajudicial execution related to violent deaths in the Pavon prison on September 25, 2006 while he was the National Director of the Penitentiary System. His then assistant and three police officers were arrested that day, but Giammattei, apparently alerted, had requested political asylum days before in Honduras’ embassy in Guatemala. His request was denied, so on August 13, 2010 he was taken into detention on the Mariscal Zavala military base.
News Article
January 15, 2020
* Daniel Berrigan would describe my first arrest as a "yogurt arrest", because it went down easy. Read here about why it was so tame and why I did it.
Event
January 14, 2020
War and militarism’s impact on women and girls; rape as a war crime; military sexual trauma; why permitting or requiring women to serve in combat is not a feminist act; and how women have been part of peace movements throughout history.
News Article
January 13, 2020
The director of a maximum-security prison in Honduras was brazenly murdered in broad daylight, in what was just the latest in a string of killings following the conviction for drug trafficking of Tony Hernández, the president’s brother, in the United States. The day before López was murdered, Marco Tulio Amador Varela was shot and killed inside La Tolva prison. Amador Varela was allegedly the “right-hand man” of former El Paraíso mayor Amilcar Alexander Ardón Soriano, according to La Tribuna. US prosecutors indicted Ardón in January 2019 on charges that he too participated in Tony Hernández’s drug trafficking conspiracy. Just two days after López’s brutal slaying inside El Pozo, authorities were quick to announce the arrest of four of the inmates believed to be involved, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office. However, six individuals were observed participating in the murder. It’s not clear what happened to the other two, or who may have ordered the killing. After his arrest, López was reportedly collaborating with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), according to Univision.
Event
January 7, 2020 to January 13, 2020
Please join us – for the week or for a day – for A week of witness against Guantánamo and all it represents, especially on January 11, the 18th anniversary of the opening of the facility.
Event
January 13, 2020
Please join the United Church of Christ Webinar on Asylum Accompaniment Training. January 13, 2020 4pmEST/1pmPST
RRN Letter
January 11, 2020
On December 29, the body of Efraín Martínez Martínez was found semi-buried in the department of Fransisco Morazán after having been reported missing a week prior. Efraín Martínez was a leader of the indigenous Tolupán community in Montaña La Flor. The Tolupán people are historically one of the most impoverished and isolated groups in Honduras.
Just a few days later, on January 3 the tortured body of Santos Felipe Escobar García was found in El Carbón, Olancho Department. Family members had reported his disappearance on December 29, when he was apparently abducted. Santos Felipe Escobar was a leader of the indigenous Pech community of Santa María del Carbón.
Event
January 10, 2020
Initial meeting to launch a local chapter of D4CC (Doctors for Immigrant Camp Closure) in Cleveland. This new national organization made the national news on 12/9/19 when they tried to bring the flu vaccine to immigrant detainees in San Diego and were turned away at the gate. Several physicians were arrested. D4CC is a non-partisan organization of over 2,000 physicians and healthcare professionals from all specialties who oppose the inhumane detention of migrants and refugees.
Event
January 9, 2020
We stand together to name the reality of families being separated by immigration practices. We name the reality of families being separated by immigration practices. We gather to raise visibility to the intense difficulty faced by thousands of families, not only on the US-Mexico border but in Ohio as well. We pray that the grace and healing power of God will comfort our sisters and brothers in these situations of suffering and despair.