IRTF News

The undersigned concerned individuals, scholars, human rights organizations, environmental organizations, and representatives of the tourism sector in Rio Dulce are writing to express our serious concerns over mining activities planned to be carried out by the Canadian company Central America Nickel (CAN) via their subsidiaries Rio Nickel S.A. and Nichromet S.A in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Guatemala.

As you will see in the news articles and timeline below, opposition to mining in this region is vehement and virtually unanimous by Indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya communities. Moreover, community members, tourism sector representatives, environmental experts, public health authorities, leading scholars, and human rights NGOs see any form of mining in the Santa Cruz Mountains as a fundamental threat to Indigenous sovereignty, to human rights, and to the local water supply.

The arrest of López, a prominent lawyer in El Salvador who helped uncover alleged government corruption, has become emblematic of the increasing authoritarianism of President Nayib Bukele.

The arrests are part of an escalating crackdown by Bukele on the last bastion of dissent in a country where he already controls all state institutions, analysts and activists say. López’s arrest and a new law targeting nongovernmental organizations have accelerated an exodus of civil society: In recent weeks, dozens of academics, lawyers, researchers, human rights defenders and journalists have fled the country.

Their departures resemble the flights of critics from autocratic regimes in Nicaragua and Venezuela, but with a key difference. This time, the United States isn’t condemning the repression — it’s deepening ties with its author.

The Trump administration, which is paying Bukele’s government to imprison migrants deported from the U.S., is praising his leadership and holding him up as a model for the region. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau traveled to El Salvador last week as part of his first foreign trip, the purpose of which was to “further strengthen diplomatic ties and cooperation.”

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.

As immigration detention capacity in Ohio has jumped from 120 to 1,500 in recent weeks, IRTF (InterReligious Task Force on Central America) hopes to increase the visibility of faith leaders and communities showing our collective support for vulnerable migrant* families.

To that end, we hope you can take 3 minutes to read the attached letter and offer your endorsement by May 27, 2025 to brian@irtfcleveland.org .

Appendices to the letter include statements on the rights of migrants (and biblical mandate to “welcome the stranger”) from Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious bodies. There is also a statement from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and a national interfaith coalition.

What will we do with the sign-on letter?

-make it public at a prayer vigil/press conference in mid-June (date/location to be determined)

-use it as a basis to build interfaith solidarity in defense of migrants over the next several months or more)

Please contact brian@irtfcleveland.org  if you as a faith leader endorse the letter. If you endorse, please list your name with your title, congregation/organization, and city. Info: 216 961 0003

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 .

Members of the Parliament of the Indigenous Xinka People (PAPXIGUA) gave a press conference on May 8, 2025 in front of the Government Palace in Guatemala City after delivering the results of the community consultation ordered by the Constitutional Court in 2018. The consultation process lasted 7 years, but the resistance against the El Escobal mine, that was arbitrarily installed in the territory, has been ongoing for more than 15 years—with intense moments of repression, including states of siege, attacks and assassinations of their members. Throughout the struggle, the state and corrupt local and international forces have intervened in the consultation process, worked to delay it, spread misinformation, and attempted to modify the results.

This mine has passed through several companies, finally remaining in the hands of the Canadian mining company Pan American Silver, which has yet to respond to the refusal of mining extraction by the Xinka people of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa. The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the state body in charge of this process, must respond to the will of the Xinka people.

Despite community opposition since 2010, the Ministry of Energy and Mines granted the exploitation license in 2013. Communities organized demonstrations in protest. On May 1, 2013, President Otto Pérez Molina declared a State of Siege, deployed 8,000 soldiers and police, suspended constitutional guarantees, and made numerous arrests. Police and protesters were killed during the State of Seige.

 Resistance continued on the streets and in the courts. Judges issued injunctions to suspend mining operations; other judges undid those injunctions. Finally, the highest court of Guatemala (Constitutional Court) ruled on September 3, 2018 that the government must conduct a proper, thorough and transparent consultation with the Xinka people.  After stalling by the Ministry of Energy of Mines and the Ministry of the Interior, the consultation was conducted 2019-2025, and the Xinka people have now formally announced their decision. No to silver mining !

With the persistence that characterizes the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala, the Xinka people said NO!  In their statement, PAPXIGUA said: “We deny our consent to the Escobal mining project.” We are now awaiting the response from the corresponding entities, as well as actions and calls for solidarity from the Xinka people.  #TheRightToConsentIsRespected