When he was repatriated to Colombia, Salvatore Mancuso was named a “peace facilitator” by Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, a designation that enables him to act as a mediator in talks with armed groups.
Now the former paramilitary leader has been sentencedto 40 years in prison for crimes committed against Indigenous communities in the province of La Guajira, including homicides, forced disappearances and the displacement of people from 2002 to 2006.
Protests rarely incite policy or cultural changes overnight. Often, their rates of impact are much more gradual. For that reason, looking at them through a historical lens – when movements can be digested in terms of years, or even decades – is a helpful way to appreciate the tangible effect of taking to the streets.
Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities are at constant risk of forced displacement in the Pacific coastal department of Valle del Cauca as armed group vie for social, territorial and resource control.
The families of the Indigenous Wounann community of the Santa Rosa de Guayacán Biodiversity and Humanitarian Reserve in the Lower Calima River region of Buenaventura have been forcibly displaced four times over the past two decades. Their traditional livelihoods—based on fishing, hunting, and agriculture—have been disrupted because of repeated incursions by paramilitaries, guerrilla rebel groups, and military forces. After their last displacement in November 2021, the national government finally gave them the green light to return in December 2023. But because of state neglect, the 30 families who make up the community have suffered from waterborne illnesses and food crises. Now they face another imminent forced displacement.
On November 15, six armed men dressed in black (who did not identify themselves) stormed into the community and started going through people’s homes. They began asking who the main leaders were, where they lived, how many young people were in the community, and what they did for a living. Although they remained for just an hour, the incursion left the families in a state of tension, fear, and anxiety in the face of a potential new displacement.
The Indigenous reserve is demarcated and clearly marked with fences indicating the prohibition of entry for armed individuals. We are urging that the government consult with residents of the Wounaan community to devise better mechanisms to implement precautionary measures issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect their lives and freedom of movement.
The Garífuna, descendants of Indigenous peoples from the Caribbean and formerly enslaved Africans, have lived on the Bay Islands and Atlantic coast of Honduras since 1797. The State of Honduras has already been condemned three times by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights for violating the Garífuna people’s right to collective land ownership.
Because of the government’s failure to implement the international court’s orders, Garífuna community members have taken matters into their own hands. Outside of Trujillo, Colón Department, they have “recuperated” (recoccupied) a neighborhood where outside investors have illegally begun constructing forty tourist condominiums. On October 23, fifteen masked and heavily armed men arrived in two armored vehicles, surrounded the Garífuna reoccupation site, fired weapons, and threatened to kill residents; the police failed to respond to repeated emergency calls. Days later, the mainstream media published a defamatory and false article accusing the Garífuna of illegally occupying the tourist condominiums.
Then on October 27 there were two more violent incidents. In Vallecito, Colón Department, armed men apparently aimed at Garífuna defender Miriam Miranda. And on the Bay Islands off the coast, Garífuna defender Melissa Martínez received a death threat which included racist slurs and warned her to “watch her steps.”
Garífuna defenders, particularly women, have faced years of armed aggression, threats, and smear campaigns. But the current racist media campaign is fueling hostility and is resulting in armed attacks. The intensification of violence demonstrates the urgent need for decisive state action to protect those defending collective land rights guaranteed under Honduran and international law.
Thank you to all who gathered with IRTF on November 9 for our annual commemoration event to mark the 45th anniversary of the sacrifice of four US women missioners in El Salvador. In response to that horrific tragedy, people of faith and conscience in Cleveland founded IRTF as a way to carry forward their legacy—taking action in solidarity with oppressed and marginalized communities as they struggle for peace, dignity, and justice.
IRTF board and staff wishes to thank all the volunteers who helped us set up, decorate, run the event and pack up at the end of the night, Pilgrim Church for hosting us, the kitchen staff at Guanaquitas pupsería for preparing our dinner, Megan Wilson-Reitz for coordinating our social hour (and the many kitchen volunteers!), Salim and Lucía for coordinating our raffle/auction, Pastor Jay for running the tech, and all who participated in the service and speaker program.
To our 46 co-sponsors: Thank you for your financial support that helps us continue calling people into solidarity with oppressed peoples in Central America and Colombia. We are deeply appreciative of your affirmation of our mission and ongoing commitment to this important work.
Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities who live in the Sierra Santa Cruz mountain range in Izabal Department, Guatemala, have been battling harmful and violent mining operations for over 60 years. Recently, following peaceful occupations, protests, and complaints filed with the Public Ministry over illegal excavations carried out by mining companies, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) announced on July 30 that ten environmental licenses granted for operations in the Sierra Santa Cruz had been cancelled. Despite this, Canada-based Central America Niquel (CAN) and its subsidiaries, Río Nickel S.A. and Nichromet Guatemala, have continued to illegally push ahead with mining operations in the Sierra Santa Cruz mountain range.
Following his vital work covering local resistance to these mining operations, journalist and human rights defender Carlos Ernesto Choc is facing targeted attacks of intimidation and harassment. Since 2017, Carlos Choc has faced unfounded criminal charges related to his coverage of police brutality during protests against the El Fénix nickel mine in El Estor (where 90% of the residents are Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’), arbitrary house raids, and threatening attacks by unidentified assailants. Now, he is experiencing escalating acts of intimidation, including shots being fired near his house, an unidentified car hitting the fence surrounding his house, and defamatory messages being circulated online. We are writing to Guatemalan authorities to implement immediate measures to protect Choc.
Karen Spring of the Honduras Solidarity Network exposes how Canadian and U.S.-backed tourism expansion has dispossessed Indigenous Garifuna communities along Honduras’ north coast. During 13 years of U.S. and Canadian support for corrupt, militarized “Narco Regimes,” tourism investors — many Canadian and American — illegally acquired Garifuna lands in Trujillo Bay. Now, as Garifuna communities reclaim their ancestral territories, Canadian investors and companies like NJOI are leading racist defamation campaigns against Garifuna leaders and OFRANEH, falsely portraying themselves as victims. The conflict highlights the ongoing colonial exploitation of Indigenous lands under the guise of “development” and tourism.
In November 2016, historic peace accords were signed between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the government. But several factions (called "dissidents") broke off from the FARC and refused to lay down their weapons. One of those dissident groups, the 33rd Front, is operating in the transborder Catatumbo region of northeast Colombia, whose inhabitants are mainly campesino organizations and the Bari Indigenous people. Social leaders face extreme danger as they attempt to work in this region characterized by poverty, militarized violence, and conflicting factions.
The 33rd Front is raising claims that the humanitarian organization Catatumbo Social Integration Committee (CISCA) is working with other armed factions in the conflict. This puts members of CISCA under increased threats of violence. CISCA states that not only are the claims baseless and unjust, but they put CISCA’s members in an extremely vulnerable position.
We urge that the government implement structural solutions based on a stronger presence of civilian State institutions, such as the Social Pact for the Territorial Transformation of Catatumbo, that should include authorities of the Bari Indigenous people and leaders of local civil society organizations.
The Bari Indigenous people live in the Perijá mountains near the Catatumbo-Bari National Natural Park in Norte de Santander Department in northeast Colombia. The binational people live on both sides of the Colombia-Venezuela border. Stretching between the Eastern Andes and Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, the Catatumbo region is rich in natural resources, particularly oil, but marked by extreme poverty, high militarization, armed violence, and the lack of access to health, food, education, water, and housing. These conditions have created a hostile environment for social leadership and human rights defense. The region also lacks infrastructure and connectivity with the rest of Colombia.
Since late August, dozens of people have been suffering from fever, pain, and hemorrhages; on August 26, a child died after presenting these symptoms. Residing far from municipal urban centers where health facilities exist, the Bari people are forced to travel long distances to seek medical attention. Without the resources for transport and lodging, these journeys further endanger their health. We are urging that authorities in Colombia consult with Bari settlements to establish adequately equipped medical facilities, so they do not have to risk their lives traveling for hours to access healthcare.
Indigenous communities in the southern border state of Chiapas have long been victim to political violence, paramilitary violence, extractivist dispossession, territorial and religious conflicts, and organized criminal activity.
FRAYBA (Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center) has a well-respected reputation for defending their human rights. But as FRAYBA conducts its legitimate work of denouncing the systematic rights violations against communities (and accompanying them in their search for justice), its members are subject to repeated attacks and accusations. The context of harassment, intimidation, threats, and systematic surveillance of FRAYBA members has escalated.
In late July, the newly-appointed director of FRAYBA, Dora Robledo, suffered a raid on her private home. This was the second such incident in the past ten months.
We are urging that federal authorities and those in Chiapas ensure that the protection measures issued on behalf of FRAYBA by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights be enforced.
