IRTF News

By Melissa Berkey-Gerard

Bryan Stevenson says, “Everyone is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, defends those who are unfairly imprisoned, especially those wrongfully condemned to death row in the US. He has dedicated his life to ending the injustice that is the death penalty. If we start with the belief that each person is deserving of grace and dignity, regardless of what they have done, we can imagine a different approach. A premise that people deserve a second chance, a real opportunity for transformation and restoration, healing from trauma and a way out of poverty. An outlook that recognizes that the current system both criminalizes poverty, and profits from incarceration. 

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.”

The need to challenge U.S. militarism has never been more urgent. Authoritarians rely on militarism to stoke fear, silence dissent, and concentrate control. Trump has done this expertly—treating both migrants and political opponents as security threats, all while pumping billions into a war machine that bankrupts our social safety net. He’s doubled down on military spending in preparation for the next war, reinforced border controls to keep out those fleeing conflict, and used fear to create a pervasive sense of insecurity in many people’s minds. 

“The Feminist Peace Playbook” charts a path to real security, which is grounded in human rights, collective care, and community safety.

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.

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.

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

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.”