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Guatemala: News & Updates

Guatemala had the longest and bloodiest civil war in Central American history: 36 years (1960-96). The US-backed military was responsible for a genocide (“scorched earth policy”) that wiped out 200,000 mostly Maya indigenous civilians.  War criminals are still being tried in the courts.

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News Article

Guatemalans and Hondurans are struggling to reclaim their democracies from decades of corrupt, military-backed governments that were supported by the U.S., Canada, the World Bank, and various transnational companies and banks. The complicity of the U.S. and Canadian-led international community is highlighted, emphasizing their economic, political, and military relations with these repressive governments. The article focuses on Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, a major Honduran drug trafficker with ties to the ousted government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Despite his arrest and imprisonment, there has been no media investigation or justice for transnational corporations, such as Gildan Activewear Corporation, that had business dealings with criminal cartels.

News Article

Thousands of farmers and Indigenous supporters in Guatemala have taken to the streets to defend president-elect Bernardo Arévalo as government prosecutors seek to ban his political party, the Seed Movement. Protests, organized by the Farmworkers’ Development Council, have resulted in numerous road and street blockades across the country. Demonstrators are demanding the resignation of the prosecutors involved in the attempt to ban the party. Despite Arévalo's landslide victory in the presidential runoff, prosecutors are investigating his party's registration and alleged election fraud, a move criticized by international observers. Arévalo has labeled these actions as an attempt at a "coup" and called for increased international pressure to ensure the election results are respected.

News Article

Thousands of indigenous supporters in Guatemala City protested in defense of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, as government prosecutors seek to ban his party. The protesters demanded the resignation of officials involved in prosecuting Arévalo and his party, viewing it as an attempt to stage a coup.

Despite Arévalo's landslide victory in the presidential runoff on August 20, prosecutors have continued investigations related to his party's registration and alleged election fraud.

Arévalo has called for public support to protest efforts to derail his presidency, with a coalition of academic and rights groups urging international pressure to respect election results. The Attorney General's Office's actions have faced criticism both domestically and internationally.

Arévalo acknowledges the challenges ahead in addressing years of marginalization and corruption but hopes to bring positive change and responsiveness to the people's needs. This week, prosecutors opened boxes of votes in violation of electoral law, prompting calls for the Attorney General's resignation and a temporary suspension of the transition process.

News Article

In the Cleveland EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review, aka Immigration Court), there has been a significant increase in FY23 in both 1) new deportation proceedings filed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and 2) deportation orders issued by Cleveland EOIR immigration judges.

New Deportation Proceedings Filed in Cleveland

FY22 = 940 average per month

FY 23 = 2,015 average per month

 

Deportation Orders Issued by Judges in Cleveland

FY22 = 293 average per month

FY23 = 449 average per month

IRTF publishes these numbers in the monthly Migrant Justice newsletter, which can be accessed at https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog .

News Article

On behalf of IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) members, we wrote six letters this month to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Guatemala, 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: (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, (3) bring human rights criminals to justice.

Volunteers with the Rapid Response Network (RRN)—together with IRTF staff—write letters in response to six 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.

News Article

In this monthly newsletter, we highlight the work of Ohio Immigrant Alliance in advocating for the asylum rights of Black Mauritanians.

Black, African and Caribbean migrants seeking safety in the United States have been treated unfairly for decades. They are subject to deportation proceedings at a higher rate than other migrants. They are denied asylum at higher rates. They have higher rates of detention and solitary confinement. All of this is rooted in institutionalized racism.

The racist treatment of Black migrants is very much reflected in Ohio’s sole immigration court (Cleveland) where deportation proceedings against Mauritanians are disproportionately represented. While Cleveland is just one of 69 immigration courts, 18% of all deportation proceedings filed against Mauritanians have been filed in Cleveland this fiscal year (11,623 nationally; 2,146 Ohio).

In the Take Action section, you can learn more about Ohio Immigrant Alliance’s efforts to get DHS (Dept of Homeland Security) to designate TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for Mauritanians. If granted TPS, they would not be placed into deportation proceedings.

Read this monthly newsletter in its entirety at https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog.

News Article

Indigenous environmental activists globally, especially in countries like Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and the Philippines, face alarming rates of violence and assassination. A report by Global Witness revealed that 1,733 environmental and land-defense activists were killed between 2012 and 2021, with one murder occurring approximately every two days. These defenders, often from Indigenous communities, resist exploitation by industries like mining and logging. The violence, fueled by factors like corporate interests and governmental negligence, poses a severe threat to these activists. The situation underscores the urgent need to protect Indigenous communities, whose harmonious coexistence with nature is essential for the planet's future amidst the onslaught of capitalist-driven environmental destruction.

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