Silent traumas grip a growing number of families in Mexico. Not knowing where a loved one is, relatives comb jails, hospitals, morgues and common graves. Digging into the earth, their shovels probe for bodies or remains–fragments of a human being who once warmed their lives.
Since last spring, an estimated 13,000 Haitians and other foreign nationals have arrived in Baja California, with varying estimates of anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 more on the way.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and Attorney General Thelma Aldana arrived in Washington to convince aid and lending agencies of Guatemala’s commitment to rule of law just a day after their government arrested its most prominent human rights prosecutor.
Some fifty major Honduran human rights organizations wrote a letter to the New York Times expressing their conviction that US aid is perpetuating violations of human rights in their country.
On June 21, 2015 the London-based Guardian newspaper published an article describing the testimony of a soldier who says he deserted the army after his unit was given an order to kill activists whose names appeared on two lists. The second list contained the name of Lenca indigenous leader Berta Caceres, murdered last March.
The role of the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights has not ended with the exit of the GIEI. However, it now falls to Mexican society to assume the responsibility for continuing its work. The work isn’t so much technical, as political and social—it’s the work of mobilization, building solidarity and exerting constant pressure.
Our day of speaking truth to UNGASS began in Foley Square, New York City, just steps away from the federal prison. VOCAL NY, Latino Justice, Make the Road Brooklyn, LEAP, Moms United, Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), Stop the Harm, Drug Policy Alliance and others.
On December 28, 2015 in the early morning, the Honduran Navy shot and killed two Afro-Indigenous Garifuna men, Jostin Lino Palacios, age 24 and Elvis Garcia, age 19 in Barra de Iriona in the department of Colon, on the northeast coast of Honduras.
By the end of the pope’s visit, activists wondered whether their organizing efforts and messages to the pope were enough to inspire long-lasting justice on the border.
What is extraordinary is not the crime. The crime of disappearance is part of the structural violence that has become daily life in Mexico. What is extraordinary is the families’ fight for their missing loved ones. These men and women are an example of courage and good citizenship for the whole country.
