Category: Human Rights

Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, between States’ criminalization and the violence of armed groups

December 20, 2021

Indigenous Peoples in Latin America are facing a profoundly grave situation. They are on the losing end in the gap between the development of national and international normative standards for the protection of their rights and their lack of implementation on the ground. They not only face the State’s force, imposing “development” projects and dispossessing them from their lands; but also illegal armed groups that dispute their territories with deadly force.

Latin America: In Search of Lost Sovereignty

August 24, 2021

Two recent events have activated the possibility of relaunching Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and coordination, so neglected during the last five years: Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) speech during the meeting of Foreign Ministers during the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and that of the newly appointed Foreign Minister of Peru, Héctor Béjar, during his inauguration at the Torre Tagle Palace in Lima, who recently made a 180-degree turn in Peru’s foreign policy.

Yaqui pipeline fighters need immediate relief

August 12, 2021

In the Indigenous Yaqui territory of the Mexican state of Sonora on the northern border, water defenders who oppose pipelines  have to choose between self-exile or the likely outcome of imprisonment, kidnapping, disappearance, and murder. The defenders have called for ‘cease-fire’ in the long-running water war.

The Exaggerated Death of Mexico’s Drug War

August 9, 2021

If this announcement, like previous ones, is merely a way of marking rhetorical distance from the U.S. government without charting a completely different and sovereign national security policy, we´ll be where we started–with uncontrolled violence in many parts of the country.

Organizational Sign-on Statement on David Castillo trial for murder of Berta Cáceres

June 23, 2021

The March 2, 2016 murder of Honduran indigenous rights defender Berta Cáceres, Coordinator of the Lenca organization COPINH, provoked indignation in Honduras and around the world. Berta was murdered while supporting Indigenous Lenca communities in opposing the Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project that was being advanced through a public limited company created for the project, Desarrollos Enérgeticos S.A. (DESA).

The Paths of Justice for Berta

June 22, 2021

On March 2, 2016, the world suffered the murder of land defender Berta Cáceres. From that moment, those of us who took on the fight for justice pointed out that this act was aimed at stopping the struggle of the Lenca people in defense of the Gualcarque River.