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Dear Friend,

You can make a difference.

These are challenging times. Thanks to you, Quixote Center is making a difference in the places where we work, and we are expanding.

Quixote Center has initiated and is leading a growing coalition of organizations advocating for an end to small arms trafficking from the U.S. to Latin America and the Caribbean. Our country's loose gun laws diminish security in our own communities; they also supply gangs and cartels across the hemisphere, including Haiti.

In March, our advocacy action generated nearly 2000 messages from you, our supporters, to Congress and the White House about constructive next steps to end the chaos in Haiti. Together we are making a difference with our government.

Our work for food security in Haiti is lifesaving. We continue to support our long-term partners in Gros Morne and are expanding the work there to improve household income and impact food security. In addition to ongoing support for the Tet Mon reforestation project, which includes experimental gardens and cultivating food crops, this spring we are expanding a project that distributes plantain seedlings, and initiating a project to improve access to veterinary care for farm animals. We are also continuing to work on funding a much larger project in the south, which would increase income for an entire village.

In Panama, I have witnessed the trauma and suffering people endure on the migrant trail. What moves me most is to see how regular people recognize our common humanity and do what they can to help. Through our partnership with the Franciscan Network on Migration, Quixote Center offers this spark of humanity for the thousands of exhausted and traumatized migrants passing through Panama each week, providing care packages on the road, and shelter for people in dire need. We are in conversation with our partners about doing more in Panama, and are expanding in Brazil this month.

All of our work offers hope and improved quality of life for some of the world's most vulnerable people. You make a difference in people's lives through your financial gift to Quixote Center.
Thank you for all you give.

In solidarity,

Kim Lamberty, Executive Director

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The Intolerable Role of
the United States in Haiti

Haiti's capital has shut down. With gangs in control, the airport is closed, roads are blocked and the de facto prime minster is stuck in Puerto Rico.

It did not have to end this way. For two years Haitians, Haitian-Americans and the Haiti solidarity community, including Quixote Center, have been working tirelessly to convince the U.S. government to end its support for Haiti's illegitimate de facto prime minister, Ariel Henry. Haitians must determine their own path back to democracy. The U.S. government consistently responded that there are no other options and his resignation would lead to even more chaos. In fact, Henry's refusal to step down is what has led to the chaos.

Haitian civil society groups had been working with CARICOM mediators to negotiate an end to Henry's illegitimate regime and a process of transition to elections. The stalemate happened because Henry refused to step down and the United States supported the decision. The U.S. bet on the wrong guy. They should have placed their confidence in the Haitian people.

Violent criminal gangs are in charge due to widespread opposition to the Ariel regime, and because the U.S. has looked the other way while transnational cartels, taking advantage of our weak gun laws, traffic small arms and ammunition out of Miami and New York and into Haiti.

While all of this has been happening, citing security reasons, the U.S. ended its mango export contract with Haiti, putting up to 200,000 small farmers out of business. Our government has also made it increasingly difficult to export coffee out of Haiti.

Of course people are trying to leave. The conditions are unlivable. And when they do, many are forced to travel across the Caribbean and through Panama's treacherous Darien Gap, also controlled by criminal gangs, where they may or may not survive the ordeal. If they are lucky, they may make it all the way up to the U.S. border with Mexico, where they are threatened with detention and deportation back to Haiti.

 

Human Rights in Panama's Darien Gap

In March, Quixote Center, together with our partners, Franciscan Network on Migration, organized and led a delegation of immigration attorneys, policy experts and human rights defenders to Panama. We traversed the entire length of the country to encounter and understand the migrant experience, beginning with the treacherous Darien Gap.

The migrants and local Panamanians we spoke with detailed extreme levels of sexual violence, extortion, robbery, and murder in the Darien. Criminal gangs charge for safe passage, up to $1200 per person. Those who cannot pay and emerge alive often lose everything along the way. People exit the jungle by foot, or by boat if they have the money. Those who can pay immediately jump on government buses to Costa Rica. We heard that the government charges up to $70 per person. Those who cannot find the money get stuck in an overcrowded and unsanitary camp, or they walk up the highway to Costa Rica.

In the weeks before our arrival, there was a fire at the main government reception camp so the 1000 to 2000 people who exit the Darien Gap daily now all have to go to a place called Rajas Blancas, with room for about 200. People exiting the Darien are exhausted and traumatized. The camp is an overcrowded tinderbox, in all senses of the word.

Bajo Chiquito, the indigenous community located on the edge of the jungle, offers people transportation by boat to Rajas Blancas. They charge $25 per person to cover the cost of gas and boat drivers, and $5 for meals. They say they allow people who don't have the money to go free. They rent out tent space for those who don't want to depart immediately. Bajo Chiquito is quite poor and admittedly they benefit from the approximately 1000 people coming through daily, through infrastructure improvements, commerce, and salaries for those who serve the migrant flow.

We stopped at another community, Zapallel, along the road out of the Darien. Migrants who, for whatever reason, can't get on the buses and boats, pass by Zapallel. The churches in this community have joined together to provide some basic needs. In the past they provided full meals and shelter but the Panamá government made it illegal for private citizens to provide this in 2022. It is also illegal for private citizens to provide transport. They still hand out hygiene kits and bagged lunches on the highway; this was a taste of humanity in a sea of brutality.

Through our partnership with the Franciscan Network, Quixote Center pays for the hygiene kits, which have items like period products and toothbrushes for folks who are left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

We also visited Medalla Milagrosa, the non-profit shelter that the Franciscan Network organized and operates. Private shelters are mostly not allowed in Panama, but the government made an exception for this one, which provides services for migrants with special needs, usually medical needs. It can house up to 60 migrants at one time. Quixote Center provided funding to help them get started and provides ongoing funds for salaries and to improve shelter conditions.

There are alternatives to this sad, dehumanizing, and expensive system. Instead of funding militarized borders throughout the Americas and promoting a narrative of fear, the United States could:

1. Stop the traffic of weapons from the US to the cartels, which makes life unlivable in numerous countries, including Haiti;

2. Stop the use of economic sanctions that eliminate jobs and livelihoods for regular people (in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba);

3. Implement work visas. The US depends on immigrant labor. We could devise a system that benefits our country and the sending countries.

The root cause of people fleeing their homeland often rests in the United States. Quixote Center has prioritized advocacy to stop weapons trafficking, and we also advocate on the sanctions issue. Through our blogs and social media we also work to change the narrative, to uplift our common humanity, to seek empathy, and to promote justice.

Click here to support the
Franciscan Network on Migration Shelters ([link removed])

 

Take Action for Haiti

In response to the growing violence, we ask lawmakers to:

* Support efforts to identify and hold accountable those who are financing the gangs, especially those with assets in the US.
* Stop the illegal flow of weapons from the U.S. to Haiti.
* Do not waiver in ending U.S. support for de facto prime minister Ariel Henry.
* Redesignate and extend TPS for Haitians.
* Stop all deportation flights and interceptions at sea.
* Immediately increase humanitarian aid, and ensure consultation with impacted populations so that aid leads to sustainable long term poverty relief.
* Any international police or military intervention should:
* Consult with Haitian civil society before deployment;
* Take measures to ensure human rights protections;
* Provide support and capacity-strengthening to the Haitian National Police;
* Articulate a clear mission to support a Haitian-led solution to restore democracy and ensure elections.

CLICK HERE
TO TAKE ACTION ([link removed])

 

Brazil

We are pleased to announce our latest project with the Franciscan Network on Migration Brazil team. Brazil has experienced a dramatic increase in migrants entering the country. In 2022 there were approximately 1.8 million migrants registered, a 100% increase compared to 2000.

With the support of the Quixote Center the Brazil team will strengthen their capacity to promote a welcoming and supportive environment for migrants in Brazil.

Their first project will be to bring together members of civil society, religious institutions, members of the Franciscan family and general society. At this annual assembly the team will
* share migrant experiences, stories and challenges founded in empathy and understanding;
* establish connections between migrants, supporting organizations and other actors to strengthen the network;
* share information on rights, services and resources to facilitate the integration of migrants.
The Quixote Center, with your support, is providing funds for promotional materials, transportation, housing and food for participants.

 

Quixote Center
PO Box 1950
Greenbelt, MD 20768
www.quixote.org

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PO Box 1950 Greenbelt, MD 20770