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Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

Event
Urgent Action: Demand a Search for Disappeared Garífuna Leaders in Honduras!
July 28, 2020 to August 17, 2020
On the morning of Saturday, July 18, Garífuna leader Snider Centeno and other three members of the Triunfo de la Cruz community where kidnapped and disappeared by a group of men wearing bullet proof vests. Snider was the president of the elected community council in Triunfo de la Cruz and his community received a favorable sentence from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2015. However, the Honduran state has still not respected it. The kidnapping and disappearance of Snider and at least three others is another attack against the Garífuna community and their struggle to protect their ancestral lands and the rights of Afro-indigenous and indigenous people to live. Join us to demand an immediate emergency investigation and action to save the lives of Snider and the others.
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Event
EJ Series: A Panel on the Intersection of Racial and Climate Justice in Cleveland
August 18, 2020

We would like to invite you to a three-part webinar series in August that will delve into topics regarding the intersections of environmental justice, racism, and classism. These webinars will discuss work being done by progressive people and organizations internationally, nationally, as well as locally in Cleveland. We are offering this program to educate people on how the unification of these progressive movements are critical in creating a Green New Deal that works for all people.


Webinars will launch on:

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Event
EJ Series: Red New Deal: Centering Afro-Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental Caretaking
August 11, 2020

We would like to invite you to a three-part webinar series in August that will delve into topics regarding the intersections of environmental justice, racism, and classism. These webinars will discuss work being done by progressive people and organizations internationally, nationally, as well as locally in Cleveland. We are offering this program to educate people on how the unification of these progressive movements are critical in creating a Green New Deal that works for all people.


Webinars will launch on:

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News Article
Minority Group Fears ‘Genocide’ in Trump-Backed Honduras
August 10, 2020
“It is the taxpayers of the U.S. who finance the Honduran military and police. If the U.S. stops supporting this narco-state, it will stop violating our rights,” said OFRANEH’s Miranda Miranda, general coordinator of OFRANEH (Fraternal Organization of Black Hondurans). The US State Department describes Honduras as being plagued by “significant human rights issues,” including extrajudicial killings and torture, arbitrary detentions and “widespread government corruption.” And yet in April 2020, Trump decided to gift President Juan Orlando Hernández (who is facing criminal charges of drug trafficking and alleged to have used drug money to rig his election) an extra $60 million in military and security aid. Not only is the Hernández regime not “stopping drugs,” it’s also not curbing illegal immigration to the U.S. In fact, critics say Honduras’ neoliberal policies—policies that cater to transnational corporations at the expense of local residents like the Garifuna—also foster or enable factors like displacement, mass poverty, and the presence of organized crime, all of which actually drive the wave of Honduran migrants headed north toward the U.S.
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News Article
Inter-American Court on Human Rights rules that Honduras must protect Garífuna communities and up its search to find the men who were disappeared
August 6, 2020
Inter-American Court on Human Rights issues a ruling, 1- to require that the State of Honduras adopt all necessary and adequate measures to determine the whereabouts of Milton Joel Martínez Álvarez, Suami Aparicio Mejía García, Gerardo Misael Trochez Calix y Albert Snaider Centeno Thomas, who have been disappeared since 18 July 2020…and 2- to require the State of Honduras to adopt all appropriate measures to effectively protect the rights to life and personal integrity of the members of the Garífuna Communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra that develop collectively actions in defense of the rights of the Garífuna people…
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News Article
Indigenous men in Honduras are being abducted. Are the police to blame?
August 5, 2020
Racism and a history of violence against human rights and environmental defenders in Honduras make the Garífuna people a vulnerable target. Garífuna territory stretches along pristine Caribbean beaches and includes fertile agricultural lands that have become of interest to international tourism developers and palm oil companies. Over the course of decades, large scale economic projects (e.g., Hilton’s Indura Beach and Golf Resort) have led to land grabs and a loss of farmland that the Garífuna people had used for subsistence farming. In 2015, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights ordered the Honduran government to compensate the community of Triunfo de la Cruz for the ancestral lands that had been lost, but close to five years later, it has not complied and economic development projects continue to proliferate in Garifuna territories. Francis Lopez, a resident of Triunfo de la Cruz, described an ongoing sense of fear and insecurity in her village. When those who abducted five men from the community on July 18, wearing bulletproof vests and police uniforms, arrived in unmarked vehicles and began pounding on doors, surprised residents quickly realized what was happening. The community responded with a roadblock to try and stop the abductions, but they were shot at before three vehicles got away.
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Event
EJ Series: Agro-ecology, Food Sovereignty, and an international Green New Deal
August 4, 2020

We would like to invite you to a three-part webinar series in August that will delve into topics regarding the intersections of environmental justice, racism, and classism. These webinars will discuss work being done by progressive people and organizations internationally, nationally, as well as locally in Cleveland. We are offering this program to educate people on how the unification of these progressive movements are critical in creating a Green New Deal that works for all people.


Webinars will launch on:

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News Article
Letter from Prime Minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines on Disappearance of the “Garifuna five” in Honduras
August 1, 2020
To President Juan O. Hernández of Honduras: "The abduction of "the Garífuna five" comes against the backdrop of widespread violations of the rights of the Garífuna people, including their ownership rights to ancestral lands...I should point out that this is not merely an internal matter for Honduras; this is an international human rights issue...The lawless and criminal campaign against the Garífuna people, and their leaders, in Honduras must stop.." Sincerely Yours, Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves Prime Minister and chair of CARICOM
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Event
IRTF Reading Group w/ Haymarket Books: "Who Do You Serve? Who Do You Protect?"
July 31, 2020
Join us for a guided discussion about "Who Do You Serve? Who Do You Protect?" This collection of reports and essays explores police violence against black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. The book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe, making a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Mexico 7/31/2020
July 31, 2020
The arrest and criminalization of indigenous and environmental rights defenders is part of a strategy of intimidation and violence against them. Fredy García is one victim of this violent strategy in Oaxaca, Mexico. Fredy García is the spokesperson for the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Peoples (CODEDI). He has been in Tanivet prison in Oaxaca since November of 2019 on fabricated charges of “assault,” “injuries” and “aggravated robbery.” On July 10, prison guards severely beat Fredy García, saying that they were acting on “orders from above.” On July 12 he was transferred to a cell in a different block where his use of the telephone is severely restricted, and he is forced to work outdoors in areas with very little shade. When his wife came to visit, she was told by prison authorities that Fredy García was placed in a punishment zone of the prison. During a restricted 20-minute visit, she saw his injuries, including several bruises and a blood spill in his left eye. We are urging authorities in Oaxaca to: 1) conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the harsh treatment of Fredy García, publish the results, and bring the perpetrators to justice , and 2) take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Fredy Garcia, in accordance with international standards (United Nations’ Set of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Prison, 1988)
PDF icon 2020_07_31_frontlinedefenders_mexico_letter.pdf
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