Category: Human Rights

El Salvador Declares Gang Members Terrorists, and Violence Continues

September 7, 2015

The Salvadoran state has closed off all possibility of any kind of negotiation with the gangs. The constitutional court’s August ruling, which stated that gang members will be considered as terrorists under Salvadoran law, will also affect the thousands of people who work with the gangs, all the way from family members to taxi drivers.

Guatemala: A Post-Conflict Society

August 25, 2015

No one can understand Guatemalan society without looking at the consequences of state orchestrated oppression. These consequences include women being treated as spoils of war. The Report on the Recuperation of Historical Memory and other documents, like the ones produced by Jesuit anthropologist Ricardo Falla, document the violations of women’s human rights.

Dam to Flood Sacred Land of Amazonian Munduruku

August 24, 2015

The federal government’s plan to expel the Munduruku from their ancestral lands goes against the constitution because the displacement of indigenous people is prohibited under Article 231. Article 231 recognizes the right of indigenous people to live permanently on their traditional territories.

With Pain and Hope, Migrant Caravan Links Honduras and Washington

August 21, 2015

Paradoxically, from their status of limited mobility—both as unauthorized migrants and as individuals with injuries—the members of AMIREDIS demand the rights of human mobility, the right to cross borders with dignity, and the right of all to live with dignity in their homeland.

Join the Campaign for Justice for Victor Jara

August 20, 2015

The School of Americas Watch and the Center for Justice and Accountability are spearheading an international campaign for justice in the execution of Chilean folksinger, poet and activist Victor Jara. Please sign the petition and send the letters listed below. Our voices may not be as eloquent as Victor’s, but there is no more powerful expression than the demand for justice shared by thousands.

Is the Merida Initiative Working?

July 21, 2015

Now is a good time to examine a key question: Is Merida working? In light of the reality on the ground for many in Mexico (upwards of 130,000 have been killed in the country since December 2006, the year former President Felipé Calderón launched his drug war) the answer may seem obvious, and the question at best redundant, at worst perverse.

Slave in the Fields: A reporter goes undercover in the San Quintin Valley

July 16, 2015

This report developed in the fields of San Quintín about indigenous workers from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz and Guerrero migrating to agricultural fields to be used as laborers. There is no public policy to protect the human rights of these migrant farm workers who are subjected to labor abuses and low wages because they can not speak Spanish.