Please join us for an interfaith service at Trinity Cathedral to pray and witness our public support for migrant/refugee families whose human and civil rights are being violated by forcible deportation and incarceration without due process.
We’re proud to announce our 2025 Movement Builder Award honoree C Stonebraker Martinez!
As Co-Director of the IRTF - The InterReligious Task Force on Central America, C. has been a tireless force for human rights and collective liberation. From Cleveland to Colombia, their work uplifts those most impacted by state violence—including Afro-Indigenous communities, LGBTQ+ folks, workers, and people with disabilities.
Rooted in a legacy of solidarity, C. leads with courage and conviction—mobilizing our communities through popular education, mutual aid, and direct action.
C. reminds us that building movements means centering the people, standing in solidarity, and never backing down.
Join us in celebrating C. at Noche de Guayabera 2025!
Get your tickets now at: ylncle.org/noche-2025
The Cleveland NETWORK Advocates Team invites you to join us for a prayer walk to support our immigrant neighbors and oppose funding for detention and deportation in the Budget Reconciliation bill!
Please join the Rochester Committee on Latin America for this 90-minute webinar featuring a recent official Veterans for Peace delegation to Nicaragua. They will share their experience and the knowledge they gained.
Register here: bit.ly/NicaJune22
Members of the LGBTIQ+ community are among the most vulnerable of all populations in the Americas. Often they must migrate due to persecution, further increasing their vulnerability because of the marginalization migrants frequently endure, especially if they are Black, Indigenous, or otherwise non-White.
States’ responses to LGBTIQ+ migrants are vastly deficient throughout the hemisphere, including in the United States. They constitute a growing human rights crisis and a major lost opportunity for progress and prosperity.
“Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,” Cristosal said in a statement last week. “Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.”
As she entered the court for her initial hearing on June 4, Ruth said "'¡No me van a callar, un juicio público quiero!", ("they won't silence me; I want a public trial). She was remanded into pretrial custody for an additional six months. Read this update here: https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Ruth-Eleonora-Lopez-enfrenta-audiencia-inicial-por-enriquecimiento-ilicito-20250604-0022.html
More than one hundred national, international, and solidarity organizations, with a presence in Canada, Europe, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America, signed an open letter addressed to the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of El Salvador to demand the immediate release of environmental lawyer Alejandro Henríquez and community leader Ángel Pérez, president of the El Bosque Agricultural Cooperative, who were arbitrarily detained on May 12 and 13, 2025.
In the letter, the organizations condemn the use of security forces to repress the families of the El Bosque community, who were exercising their legitimate right to peaceful protest due to a planned eviction, when they were dispersed by riot police, resulting in the arrest of Ángel Pérez and, subsequently, of lawyer Alejandro Henríquez, who was providing legal advice to the affected families.
Marco Rubio, Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump Jr. have made pilgrimage to El Salvador, and Republican commentator Tucker Carlson said Bukele “may have the blueprint for saving the world.”
The Garífuna, an Afro-Indigenous people with a profound historical and cultural presence in Honduras, continue to be targeted for defending their rights to territory, culture, and life. Despite legal victories, the Honduran government has failed to implement structural reforms or offer protection for these communities.
On April 10, the Garífuna community, which lives primarily along the Atlantic coast, led mobilization in the nation’s capial, Tegucigalpa. They demanded that the Honduran government comply with binding rulings issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (2015, 2023) in favor of three Garífuna communities in Colón (Punta Piedra) and Atlántida (Triunfo de la Cruz, San Juan).
Barely two days later, in the early morning hours of April 12, Max Gil Castillo Mejía, brother of the president of the community council of Punta Piedra was kidnapped from his home in San Pedro Sula (Cortés Department) by armed individuals who identified themselves as police officers. Just two days later, prominent Garífuna leader Miriam Miranda and other members of the Garífuna community of El Triunfo de la Cruz received threats.
Silencing Indigenous and Afro-descendant voices through fear and violence is a violation not only of human dignity but of binding international commitments. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has already warned that this violence will persist as long as the Honduran State refuses to uphold international legal mandates. IRTF calls on the government of Honduras to implement the rulings of the Inter-American Court to ensure that justice, reparations, and peace are no longer deferred for the Garífuna people.
Read IRTF’s recent letter demanding justice for Max Castillo here. To add your name to these urgent human rights letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/RRN/join-RRN .
