IRTF News

To commemorate the martyrdom of St Oscar Romero of El Salvador (who was assassinated on March 24 1980), Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso invited Catholics and “all people of conscience and goodwill” to join him for a prayer gathering and march for an end to mass detention.

In a letter he ordered to be read in all Catholic parishes in his diocese on March 15, Bishop Seitz called mass detention and mass deportation a “grave moral evil.”  He urged Catholics in El Paso who work for ICE and Border Patrol to obey God’s law over Trump’s.

His words are reminiscent of Archbishop Romero. In the final Sunday homily (sermon) he gave on March 23, 1980, Romero implored his fellow Salvadorans: “No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God… No one has to observe an immoral law.I would like to make an appeal especially to the men of the army, and concretely to the National Guard, the police, and the troops. Brothers, you are of part of our own people. You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos, and against any order a man may give to kill, God’s law must prevail: «You shall not kill!»

As we remember Oscar Romero’s dedication to the Gospel of love and nonviolence on this 46th anniversary of his assassination, may God give us the courage to speak prophetically and act boldly to end the militarized repression we are experiencing in the US today.

This article examines "Operation  Total Extermination", and how Trumps Donroe Doctrine is expected to cause a widespread US militarization across the Western Hemisphere. 

This Bloomberg Law article examines chief immigration judge Teresa Riley,  in her role in helping carry out Trump’s deportation agenda by pushing judges to deny more asylum claims and restrict bond hearings. It also raises concerns about her courtroom conduct and the impact of her guidance on immigrants’ chances of staying in the U.S.

This article exposes how El Salvador’s so‑called “security model,” praised internationally for reducing crime, is actually built on widespread human rights abuses

The January attacks by the criminal organization Barrio 18 sought to destabilize the country to benefit well-connected political elites who have challenged the government of President Bernardo Arévalo. NACLA provides analysis of Guatemala's ongoing challenges and efforts to end impunity. 

This article prents a report by a group of international jurists, reviewing Bukeles governmnet and contradictions between domestic popularity in El Salvador and how international organizations judgement of the government. 

another notable article about El Salvador mass arrests: click

Between 2015 and 2025, Honduras recorded 113 murders of environmental defenders, and nine out of ten cases remain unpunished, according to data from the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ). The departments of Colón, Yoro, and Atlántida account for the majority of these crimes, in territories marked by conflicts over land and natural resources. Meanwhile, environmental organizations and defenders denounce the lack of progress in investigations and the absence of state protection for those who defend the environment.

The history of bananas makes many people uncomfortable.

The industry is rooted in power imbalance. Whether it was tax-free land in Costa Rica (for United Fruit/Chiquita in 1884), forced labor by financing paramilitaries (2024 verdict for Colombian victims1), or chemicals like DBCP sold for use abroad even after having its production shut down in the U.S. for causing sterility2 (e.g. to Standard Fruit/Dole in Nicaragua3), there’s no shortage of examples of abuse of power and control. 

This article by Equal Exchange gives insight into what is possible when farmers are granted land and form co-ops unraveling power dynamics .

Cristosal says El Salvador is using the justice system to intimidate critics and silence dissent. The report argues that criminal charges and detention have become tools of political repression.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has now ruled in favor of four communities harmed by the government of Honduras and outside investors.

The ancestral homelands of the Garífuna people are the coastal lands of northern Honduras and islands just off  the coast. In 2003 they began filing legal complaints with the the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (based in Washington, DC for their government’s violation of its cultural and territorial rights.  Now more than a decade since the first court ruling in their favor, the government of Honduras has failed to implement the court orders. A big stumbling block is that the communities that won their cases in the Inter-American Court (2015: Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra; 2023: San Juan) are fighting private corporations and foreign investors who have a lot at stake. Some have already illegally usurped lands and built tourist resorts, so it’s tricky to figure out how to return ancestral lands to the Garífuna people and compensate the companies and investors for their losses.

As Garífuna leaders have become more vocal after the 2015 ruling, the persecution against them has increased—surveillance, intimidation, violence, criminalization. Repression is expected to increase following the fourth favorable ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On March 4, 2026, the international body “declared the State of Honduras responsible for the violation of the rights to collective property, participation, access to information, cultural identity, food and personal integrity of the Garífuna Community of Cayos Cochinos and its members.”

 Cayos Cochinos or Cochinos Cays consist of two small islands and 13 smaller coral cays situated 19 miles northeast of La Ceiba on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. The archipelago of cays is an ancestral home for the Garífuna people, whose subsistence, cultural identity and spiritual relationship are closely linked to the sea and artisanal fishing. Once the state declared the cays a protected environmental area, it authorized tourism and reality TV filming but restricted the Garífuna’s fishing rights. All of this done, of course, without prior, free and informed consultation of the community—in violation of international law.