Women weaving in a Guatemalan valley. Photo: Anna Vogt
US drafts new assistance plan for Central America
Addressing problems of security and poverty will both “help Central America and protect U.S. national security,” Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in her appeal before Congress in November. Jacobson said the State Department predicts it could take $5 billion over five years to fully implement its strategy. The $300 million proposed in November was double the funds available for Central America for 2014.
No safe haven: Immigrant victims of sexual violence receive little support in US
But reaching the U.S. does not guarantee migrant women safety and protection from abuse. Rather than safe sanctuary, migrant women often find that they are still at risk of being raped, abused and exploited. Threatened by employers, immigration and detention workers and members of their own communities, undocumented women are at particularly high risk, as fears of deportation often prevent them from reporting rape and assaults.
Report: US trade and migration policies feed crisis in Honduras
The report concludes: “Failed trade and migration policies continue to exacerbate Honduras’ problems. The U.S. government criminalizes migrant children and their families, while pursuing trade deals that simultaneously displace subsistence farmers and lower wages and standards across other sectors, and eliminate good jobs, intensifying the economic conditions that drive migration. This dynamic is enhanced in countries like Honduras, where the government’s own policies leave workers and families vulnerable to abuse.”
Deported children face deadly new dangers on return to Honduras
The victims are typically aged between 13 and 17, sent back home after being detained by immigration authorities for entering the country without authorization. But a report released last year by UNHCR, entitled “Children on the Run,” found that a significant number of minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras entering the US irregularly might be in need of international protection.
The Power of the Spectacle: Evo Morales’ Inauguration in Tiwanaku, Bolivia
But the politics of decolonization in Bolivia are never simple, and the spectacle represented more than these contradictions. This complexity was on fully display in Tiwanaku, where indigenous movement leaders walled off beyond the main event complained that the Argentines with blond dreadlocks yelling “Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé, Evo, Evo” were blocking their view while “Hallelujah” played on the loudspeakers at the same time that Andean priests blessed a Middle Eastern dignitary shaking hands with the president right after Evo said “there’s no first world… or third world… only one world” while a local worker cleaned out the dozens of porta-potties.
Constitutional Court upholds Right to Conscientious Objection in Colombia
In order that the acts which led to this ruling do not continue to occur in the future, the Court orders the National Office of Recruitment to resolve applications for conscientious objection within 15 days, to not deny such applications by arguing that there is no existing law, to publish a booklet that notifies youth at the time of registration their grounds for exemption, deferral, and their right to conscientious objection, and to end the practices of arbitrary detention, such as “batidas.”
U.S. Ambassador to Colombia: U.S. Aid to Colombia could change with peace accord
In a January 25 interview with El Tiempo, the United States Ambassador to Colombia, Kevin Whitaker, said the administration would request funds for post-conflict initiatives in the event of a peace accord between the FARC rebels and Colombian government. While Colombia continues to be the top recipient of U.S. military aid in the region, this assistance has been declining since 2010. Here is a summary of some key points on security from the interview.
The suspected involvement of police and other public servants in the disappearance of student activists at Iguala awakened Mexicans, and the world, to the continuing horrors and corrupting nature of the drug war in a way that migrant massacres far larger in number never have. Indeed, thousands of similar cases—if smaller in number—have failed to produce the kind of outrage seen after the forty-three vanished in September. In a tragic but ironic twist to the Iguala story, investigators digging for evidence in that case have uncovered the remains of at least thirty-nine other individuals whose killings were not related to the Iguala disappearances. Mexico is only now beginning to understand the scale of the violence that has plagued the country over the last decade.
Is Haiti Backsliding Into Dictatorship?
After three years of fighting and delayed elections, the president and opposition members of the Senate blew the final deadline despite at least 10 months of warning, leaving President Michel Martelly ruling without any checks and balances. The opposition, meanwhile, continues its favorite tactic: sending thousands of angry protesters into the streets.
How one Guatemalan woman’s quest for justice inspired a regional anti-violence movement
“In the case of a documentary that deals with human rights issues, getting an audience to see a film can be a question of life or death. I ultimately hope to affect real change in people’s lives by educating audiences about these unsolved and sometimes unreported murders. I hope that audiences will be inspired by Rebeca’s unwavering determination to bring justice to light and will question how they can contribute to diminish violence against women and rework the way they think about gender power dynamics in their own lives,” says Bautista.
El Salvador Gang Leaders Confirm Truce
In a joint statement, the leaders of El Salvador‘s largest gangs — including the MS13 and Barrio 18 — said they had forged a truce on January 17. As a result, they said, El Salvador‘s murder rate dropped from an average of 14 homicides a day to less than five a day over the following week, and included the first homicide-free day of the year (something that was also confirmed by police).