|
|
|
|
|
April 2022 Newsletter
Your Funds At Work
To date in 2022, Rights Action has sent $90,000 of your donations to support human rights and justice struggles, land, territory and environmental defense struggles, and emergency response work in Honduras and Guatemala, and also in El Salvador.
|
|
~ Guatemala ~
Community land, rights & justice defense struggles
- Ancestral Council of Q’eqchi’ People. Resisting harmful mining operation of Switzerland-based Solway Investment Group and the Guatemalan regime’s military state of siege.
- Gremial [Union] of Q’eqchi’ fisherpeople. Involved in same struggle as Ancestral Council of Q’eqchi’ People, as well as the Constitutional Court legal challenge against the illegal mining operation of Solway Investment Group
|
|
- Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence network. Human rights accompaniment for community defense struggles, including Bufete de Rabinal’s Achi women’s sexual assault and slavery case.
- Bufete de Rabinal (Legal support clinic). Justice struggles for crimes against humanity cases from Achi territories, including the Achi women’s sexual assault and slavery case.
- CODIDENA (Diocese Defense of Nature committee). Resisting manipulated consultation process spear-headed by Canadian company Pan American Silver (formerly Tahoe Resource).
- El Estor Q’eqchi’ land defenders. Support for 13 victims of mining violence, plaintiffs in landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada.
- FAMDEGUA (Family Members of Disappeared). Numerous crimes against humanity justice struggles.
Victims continue to press for justice for wartime atrocities in Guatemala
Hope amidst the darkness:
https://www.wola.org/analysis/wartime-justice-guatemala/
“In the midst of this hostile counter-offensive by the oligarchy, conservative politicians, and former military officials against the rule of law, judicial independence, and anti-impunity efforts, survivors, families of the victims, and civil society organizations continue to press forward in their demands for justice.”
Guatemalan Judge Erika Aifan forced into exile, facing death threats
https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/guatemalan-judge-erika-aifan-forced-into-exile
“The state and three branches of government have been co-opted by criminal networks. It is a megastructure, including international actors, rooted in Guatemala’s past”
Community development & Environmental projects
- Q’eqchi’ women of Lote 8. Family subsistence projects for victims of violent eviction, burning of homes and property and violence caused by successive mining companies
Education: Schools & scholarships
- El Estor: School and college studies, families of Q’eqchi’ land/ human rights/ environmental defenders resisting 60 years of nickel mining companies.
- San Miguel Ixtahuacan: College studies and law degree, families of Mam community defenders who had been in resistance to Goldcorp’s gold mining operation.
Emergency relief funds
- German Chub: health support, paralysis victim of mining repression.
- Refugee support: forced migrants, Achi people from Baja Verapaz.
Truth, Memory, Justice
- Commemoration: Achi victims of Feb.12, 1982, Xococ massacre, to make way for World Bank/IDB’s Chixoy dam investment project
- Commemoration: Achi victims of Mar.13, 1982, Rio Negro massacre, to make way for World Bank/IDB’s Chixoy dam investment project
- CIRMA, Center for Mesoamerican Research
- Carlos Ernesto, Prensa Comunitaria: reporting on climate disasters, mining harms and community resistance struggles.
|
|
|
~ Honduras ~
- Azacualpa Environmental Committee. Resisting theft of coffins and cemetery desecration, and community destruction by Aura Minerals’ cyanide-leaching, open-pit gold mine.
- Berta Caceres family. Family security for mother, and participation in struggle for justice for assassination of her daughter and attempted killing of Gustavo Castro.
- CInPH (Coordinadora Indígena del Poder Popular de Honduras). Education and community mobilizing for transition back to democracy.
- Guapinol community. Resisting mining harms and corruption, working for freedom for jailed community members.
- Honduras Now. Karen Spring’s education and advocacy work for human rights, critically addressing impacts of U.S. and Canadian policies and neoliberalism.
- Mujeres Ambientalistas Progresenas. Education and community mobilizing for transition back to democracy.
- OFRANEH Garifuna land and rights defense organization. Resisting violence and corruption of tourism industry and African palm exporters; work for truth and justice for July 18, 2020, disappearance of 4 community defenders.
- PROHN-Net. Reporting on organized crime/ drug-trafficking trials against Honduran regime leaders.
|
|
|
|
Ousted “President” Juan Orlando Hernandez,
for 12 years and 7 months a staunch “democracy ally’ of the U.S. and Canada
|
|
|
~ Other countries ~
- El Salvador: Jocoaitique historic memory committee. Resisting government destruction of monument commemorating victims of 1981 U.S.-backed El Mozote massacre.
- El Salvador: Herbert Anaya Sanabria Collective. Demanding justice for victims of El Mozote massacre.
- Canada: Tiny House Warriors “our land is our home”. Struggle against “Coastal Gaslink” pipeline being forced across the territory of Wet’suwet’en Nation. (http://www.tinyhousewarriors.com/)
|
|
|
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict
between the powerful and the powerless
means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
Paolo Freire
|
|
Tax deductible donations (Canada / U.S.)
To support the community defense and justice struggles of our partner groups,
Checks should be payable to 'Rights Action' and mailed to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
Credit-Card Donations: https://rightsaction.org/donate
Donations of stock? Write to: [email protected]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
