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El Salvador: News & Updates
El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. The US-backed civil war, which erupted after the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980, lasted 12 years (1980-92), killing 70,000 people and forcing 20% of the nation’s five million people to seek refuge in the US.
Learn more here.
Event
September 26, 2019 to September 28, 2019
The Festival de Cine Latinoamericano celebrates Hispanic Heritage month with four films from Latin America, receptions and community dialogues. IRTF will participate in a panel discussion following the screening of The Wall on Saturday, Sep 28, at Art House, 3119 Denison Ave, Cleveland 44109. All screenings and events, including receptions, are free and open to the public.
Event
September 28, 2019
After a screening of The Wall (55min doc.), IRTF participates in a panel discussion about current immigration enforcement policies, including the vulnerability of DACA and TPS recipients. Held at Art House, 3119 Denison Ave., Cleveland 44109. Free and open to the public.
News Article
September 26, 2019
The US spends almost $5B a year attempting to intercept shipments of illegal drugs from Central America, but despite the enormous outlay, the quantities of cocaine delivered to the country have continued to rise. A new study comes to drastic results...
News Article
September 25, 2019
The Border Patrol (tens of thousands of federal police agents who constitute the law enforcement force arm of US Border and Customs Protection) want to have free access to Greyhound vehicles. Greyhound says they are legally bound to let these federal police onto their buses. The ACLU and other civil rights groups disagree. They point out that Greyhound DOES have the right to refuse entry to Border Patrol agents under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
RRN Case Update
August 22, 2019
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, and others.
By signing our names to these crucial letters, human rights crimes are brought to light, perpetrators are brought to justice and lives are spared. Our solidarity is more important than ever. Together, our voices do make a difference.
News Article
August 12, 2019
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday broadened his assault on the nation’s immigration system, issuing a new rule targeting legal immigrants who want to remain in the United States but whose lack of financial resources is judged likely to make them a burden on taxpayers.
News Article
August 8, 2019
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Four LGBT+ people are murdered every day in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to “alarming” new research released on Thursday by a regional network of gay rights groups.
At least 1,300 LGBT+ people have been murdered in the region in the past five years, with Colombia, Mexico and Honduras accounting for nearly 90 percent of all deaths, according to data collected by the network of 10 groups.
RRN Letter
August 1, 2019
threats, and online harassment that have intensified during the past several weeks against journalists Bessy Ríos and Karen Fernández and Mariana Belioso. Each has expressed concerns about adverse human rights impacts of the government’s new “plan de control territorial” which will increase police and military presence in certain regions.
News Article
July 30, 2019
IRTF friends at the CIS in San Salvador have committed to building 15 of the desperately needed homes in the community of Paso Puente. Most of the families are headed by mothers living on about $3 per day from washing other people’s clothes. CIS, which has worked in a neighboring community for many years, is building trust with residents, getting more children into school, and identifying skilled laborers. Folks there are building their own homes, but they need us to support them!
News Article
July 30, 2019
The ACLU said that more than 900 parents and children, including babies, have been separated by U.S. border authorities since U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, a George W. Bush appointee in San Diego, ordered the government to reunite more than 2,700 children with their parents more than a year ago. "It is shocking that the Trump administration continues to take babies from their parents," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "The administration must not be allowed to circumvent the court order over infractions like minor traffic violations."
