You are here

Home » » IRTF News

IRTF News

News Article
Nicaragua: World Report 2022 Nicaragua - Human Rights Watch
January 15, 2022
President Ortega was elected to a fourth consecutive term in November amid government repression of critics and the political opposition. To pave the way for his re-election, authorities arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted government critics and political opponents. Police abuses committed during a brutal crackdown by the National Police and armed pro-government groups in 2018 have gone unpunished. Persistent problems include severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association, political discrimination, and stringent restrictions on abortion. This is the Human Rights Watch 2022 World Report on Nicaragua.
Read more >
News Article
Honduras: Combating Narcos or Criminalizing Indigeneity?
January 13, 2022
On September 16, 2021, a military helicopter appeared and began firing—seemingly indiscriminately—from above. The unsuspecting residents of Ibans, a small Afro-Indigenous community on the northeastern coast of Honduras, ran for cover from the stream of bullets raining down. The authorities, including DEA, initially tried to cover up the Ahuas incident and subsequently to justify it as a matter of security: they alleged that the commercial passenger boat was involved in trafficking drugs and that it opened fire on the military helicopter. Illicit drugs do transit parts of this region in Honduras, and much of the rest of it. In fact, since the Ahuas massacre, cocaine transit through the region has remained, on average, unchanged despite ongoing U.S.-funded enforcement. In this context, these extrajudicial killings have come to represent an ongoing counter-narcotics operation that serves not to stop illegal drug trafficking, but rather to perpetuate violence and impunity through the militarization of Indigenous territories in Honduras. The cost of this overzealous response and intentional neglect can be seen in the lives of Miskitu, Tawhaka, Garifuna, and other Indigenous Peoples.
Read more >
News Article
Environmental Human Rights: The growing resistance to Biden’s ‘smart’ border — and what it means for climate refugees
January 13, 2022
Voces Unidas is one of many organizations working with residents of border towns to dismantle the physical and electronic walls that upend their lives. Local and national migrants’ rights groups are determined to weaken the government’s access to databases and other technologies used to surveil migrants and undocumented immigrants, and they are pressuring elected officials to stop funding such efforts. As extreme weather, droughts, and other effects of a warming world become the norm, the number of climate refugees is expected to skyrocket. And though droughts, floods, and other climate disasters lead farmers in places like Guatemala to move, their migration occurs within a larger context in which U.S. foreign policy plays a key role.
Read more >
RRN Letter
Colombia, 1/13/2022
January 13, 2022
We expressed deep concern to officials in Colombia about the lack of government response to the paramilitary invasion of campesino townships and villages in the South of Bolívar which began during the last week of December, despite a large presence of the Colombian Armed Forces. The Armed Forces are allowing paramilitaries to take control. We are worried that massive displacement of villagers might result. We are urging authorities in Colombia to (1) consult with local leadership in the Montecristo region to devise a plan to project the local population from further violence and displacement by paramilitary forces, (2) reevaluate the mission the Colombian Armed Forces in the region, and (3) take decisive actions to dismantle paramilitary groups that are operating in the South of Bolívar.
Read more >
News Article
Nicaragua: Legendary Sandinista Leader Inaugurated as President, Defies US & Monroe Doctrine
January 13, 2022
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas, who dared to overthrow a US-backed dictatorship and choose their own allies to defend their revolution, represent a direct threat to the Monroe Doctrine. And now Ortega, who has been in office since 2007 and was re-elected again as president in a landslide victory in November, has thrown down another gauntlet to challenge American domination. One of the biggest fears of the US, and one of the greatest threats to the viability of the antiquated Monroe Doctrine, is that Ortega will partner with China to build a major shipping canal which would link Nicaragua’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
Read more >
RRN Letter
Honduras, 1/12/2022
January 12, 2022
Pablo Isabel Hernández, a 34-year-old father of four and community leader, was assassinated with seven gunshots just outside his home in Lempira Department on January 9. As a respected Indigenous Lenca leader, he was a constant target of persecution. As an environmental defender, Pablo Isabel Hernández served as president of La Red de Agroecologists of La Biosfera Cacique Lempira Señor de Las Montañas. As a person of faith, he organized local Christian base communities. As a journalist, he directed a community radio station and denounced human rights violations on his program. As a person committed to democratic process, he served as a human rights observer for the national and local elections on November 28.
Read more >
RRN Letter
Colombia, 1/11/2022
January 11, 2022
The National Police and its Anti-Riot Mobile Squad (ESMAD) carried out brutal repression against residents who are protesting against fare increases in Bogota’s TransMilenio transportation system. On January 5, ESMAD agents arrived with two military tanks at the Molinos neighbhorhood of Bogotá. They threw stun grenades at demonstrators and fired tear gas indiscriminately. ESMAD detained a young journalist and kicked him. As many as 2,500 National Police and ESMAD officers were deployed around the city on January 11, when the fare increase went into effect. Many demonstrators have been arrested.
Read more >
News Article
Exploited Labor: January is National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month
January 11, 2022

According to the International Labour Organization there are more than 40 million victims of human trafficking and forced labor around the world today, including children. This is a hard truth that the Fair Trade movement is fighting to change.

Read more >
News Article
Migrant Justice: Democrats request Temporary Protected Status for migrants from 4 Central American countries
January 10, 2022

Senate Democrats in Washington on Monday asked the Biden administration to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) be extended to migrants of four Central American countries from where most are migrating to the U.S. Southwest border. The request was made to re-designate TPS for migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. The senators cited worsening humanitarian conditions across Central America, as well as rising coronavirus cases and multiple natural disasters.

Read more >
News Article
Honduras: In Honduras, Victory of Leftist Woman President Rests on Other Women’s Struggles
January 10, 2022

Women have been at the forefront of struggle in Honduras throughout its history, from fighting dictatorships to challenging political corruption to seeking civil improvements such as gender parity in politics and education. The recent presidential election of Xiomara Castro Sarmiento Zelaya of the Libertad and Refundación (Libre) party has exhilarated women from various sectors and in the diaspora. And as the first woman president, In her campaign and platform, Castro embraced gender rights and sought to address femicides and structural violence against women and LGBTI communities—issues ignored in previous campaigns. But the most far-reaching policy for women is Castro’s support of the right to sexual and reproductive rights. Now, 67 years after women won the right to vote, Xiomara Castro is promising to be a president of the people and to restore Honduras’s constitutionality and rule of law. It promises to be a new era for women, of all races and ethnicities, and LGBTI communities.

Read more >

Pages