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Gender & Sexual Solidarity: News & Updates

RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Guatemala 1/15/2021
January 15, 2021
We wrote to the attorney general of Guatemala regarding the criminalization of the Reverend Delia Adelina Leal Mollinedo, a Christian minister in Cobán, Alta Verapaz Department. In December she was providing hospitality for two young women in a precarious, unsafe living situation who sought refuge at her home. On December 29, police broke into her home and arrested her on charges of kidnapping, trafficking of minors, and obstruction of an investigation. She was not permitted to appear before a judge until January 6. She was eventually released from jail and placed under house arrest on January 11. We believe the charges against Delia Leal have been fabricated because of her human rights work on behalf of women and children. We are therefore urging that authorities in Guatemala: 1) immediately drop all charges against Delia Adelina Leal Molinedo and release her from house arrest; 2) take all necessary measures to guarantee her safety and security; 3) guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions and judicial harassment.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Honduras, 1/14/2021
January 14, 2021
There was an attack on the home of LGBTI rights defender José Zambrano., who is receiving death threats. The day after he received the Franco-German Award for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in recognition of his four decades of human rights work, attackers set fire to his home. After he and three members of his family took shelter in another house, unknown individuals sent him death threats. We are urging that officials in Honduras: 1) investigate those responsible for setting fire to José Zambrano’s house and threatening his life, publish the results, and bring those responsible to justice; 2) ensure the right of human rights activists to carry out their work for justice in safety, under protection of the law.
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News Article
El Salvador: No Safe Haven for LGBTQ People in El Salvador; Strengthen Protections, End Asylum Pact with US
January 8, 2021
IRTF has been connecting with the LGBTQ+ community in El Salvador especially since we co-organized the first-ever LGBTQ+ delegation from Ohio to Central America in 2013. While visiting El Salvador, we have become friends with many transgender persons (particularly transgender women). Here in the US, we’ve also gotten to know many who have fled to the US seeking refuge and asylum. This new “cooperative agreement” makes an almost impossible asylum process even more impossible. But there might be hope: US President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to terminate the deeply flawed agreement.
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News Article
Colombia: Human Rights Update - December 2020
January 5, 2021

The year 2020 was the most violent in Colombia since the peace agreement was signed in November 2016, with widespread attacks on social activists, trade unionists and former guerrillas in the peace process. The figures released by the INDEPAZ human rights NGO make for shocking reading. During the calendar year, 309 social activists and human rights defenders were killed (totalling 1,109 since the peace agreement was signed) and 64 FARC former guerrillas were killed (249 in total). There were also 90 massacres which claimed the lives of 375 people. Additionally, state security forces killed at least 78 people.

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News Article
Women should decide whether to legalize abortion, Mexican president says
December 31, 2020

By Reuters Staff

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s president said on Thursday that women should decide whether the country should legalize abortion, but he declined to take a position on the issue, which is still opposed by many Mexicans.

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News Article
El Salvador woman imprisoned after miscarriage released
September 23, 2020

In 2011, Cindy Erazo experienced a miscarriage in a shopping mall bathroom on the outskirts of the capital. She was taken to a hospital where authorities accused her of attempting to abort the fetus. Convicted of aggravated homicide under El Salvador’s strict anti-abortion laws, Cindy served six years of a 10-year sentence. She was released from prison (“conditional release”) on September 23. She was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison, but that sentence was later reduced. Human rights groups say at least 18 innocent women are currently in prison for similar cases in El Salvador.

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Event
We Hold Up Half the Sky: Feminist Voices Against Militarism
September 21, 2020
The increasing push for global militarization directly impacts billions of women and gender nonconforming folks around the world each day. These voices, experiences and perspectives are often silenced when approaching solutions to this crisis. Hear about how militarism is experienced and about the stories of resistance to violence from several communities accompanied by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). CPT and the InterReligious Task Force on Central America & Colombia (IRTF) are partnering to bring several powerful voices together for a live webinar conversation on anti-militarism.
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Content Page
RIOT: Turning Over Tables AllianceQ Pride Worship Service
August 28, 2020

This Pride, the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance offered a Pride service on Sunday, June 28, at 6 p.m. CST, called RIOT: Turning Over Tables. 

Featuring IRTF Co-Director Chrissy Stonebraker-Martínez

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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Spring 2020 - urgent human rights cases
July 1, 2020
April, May and June RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US). Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, campesinos, and others.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Mexico 6/23/2020
June 23, 2020
We are deeply distressed over the death threats issued for feminist journalist Soledad Jarquín and members of the feminist organization Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad Oaxaca (Consorcio Oaxaca) in the municipality of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca State.
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