LAWG Blog - Latin America Working Group

Sonia Pierre and Dominicans of Haitian Descent: “We are being erased as human beings”

bleiter@lawg.org (Cecily Scott Martin) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:49:49 +0000

Back in October I was lucky enough to see Sonia Pierre, a longtime activist for Dominicans of Haitian descent, speak at what would be one of her last public events before her death the following month. Like the people she spent her life defending, Sonia was born on a batey to Haitian parents who migrated to the Dominican Republic in search of better jobs. Bateys are Dominican sugar plantations where Haitian migrant workers and their offspring face appalling working conditions and live in poverty, marginalized from the rest of Dominican society.

“Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives,” a Reflection

bleiter@lawg.org (Amy Smetana, LAWG Intern) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:56:49 +0000

I was not prepared when I opened Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives. One moment I was sitting at my desk, and the next I was with Roberto, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. I followed him as he moved from one underpaying, exhausting job to the next; working even harder once he had his own family. I was by his side when he received amnesty, but his family didn’t. They voluntarily left the country while he stayed behind to continue working to support them. Here Roberto recounts his own experiences, providing me a glimpse into his struggles and feelings of profound loneliness and loss.

Back from Havana

echow@lawg.org (Emily Chow) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Taking advantage of President Obama’s liberalized regulations that have re-established people-to-people licensed travel to Cuba, members of LAWG staff partnered with Witness for Peace and led a delegation of 25 people to study and learn about the art and culture of Cuba. Our delegation met with artists such as Sandra Ramos, Kadir and Kelvin Lopez, saw performances by students in one of Havana’s many schools for the arts, visited Ernest Hemingway’s home, witnessed the magic of the Cuba National Ballet, participated in folkloric dance led by a community group “Okantomi,” dialogued with members of the Cuban National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ministry of Tourism, Union of Artists and Writers, and the United States Interests Section in Havana.

“It Could Happen to Any of Us”: Deadly Attacks Against Colombian Human Rights Defenders

vkritzer@lawg.org (Lisa Haugaard) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:40:00 +0000

“It’s hard for us to do human rights work where we are. We have to hide what we are doing so they don’t watch us. Our comings and goings are monitored. Our emails are monitored. Our leaders are in a permanent state of stress, not just for themselves but for their children. It was hard for us to even get out to talk to you.”

This is what I heard from one activist when I visited Colombia on an international mission to investigate the status of human rights defenders this past December. Unfortunately, he was not alone in describing this systematic persecution and attacks against those working for justice in Colombia.

Open the Suitcase: Declassify Guatemalan Military Files

vkritzer@lawg.org (Lisa Haugaard) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:52:49 +0000

Fifteen years after the Guatemala's brutal internal armed conflict, justice is still out of grasp and much remains secret. In 2008, Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom promised to set up a commission to declassify top-secret military documents on the war. The new military archive could be a crucial part of advancing justice for cases from the war. However, when the archive opened last year, human rights groups found that it revealed far less than it should. Located on a military base, it is not welcoming to the human rights groups and victims who will make greatest use of its documents. And what’s more, many documents that should be there, such as operational military plans, are not included.

The Putumayo Women’s Alliance: “Here We Are Still Fighting” (Part One)

vkritzer@lawg.org (Winifred Tate, LAWGEF Board Member) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:24:08 +0000

“On horseback, on motorcycles, in canoes, in jeeps, on unpaved roads, over mountains and through jungles, we arrived to listen to the voices of women.”

This account of a powerful Colombian women’s movement is brought to us by Winifred Tate, a LAWGEF Board Member and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Colby College. Ms. Tate translated and edited the following interview with Nancy Sanchez of the Colombian human rights group Asociación MINGA about the Putumayo Women’s Alliance, a network of women’s organizations and activists working together for peace and justice in the middle of a conflict zone. This is the first of two posts about the Putumayo Women’s Alliance.

Rep. Serrano "shocked and apalled" at attempt to suffocate Cuba family travel

echow@lawg.org (Emily Chow) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:19:03 +0000

Congressman José Serrano (NY-16) issued a statement today saying he was "shocked and apalled" at the "heartless approach" by House Republicans to shut down all family travel to Cuba during the holiday season (read full press release below). Rolled into a spending “Megabus” bill that is being pushed through Congress is language that would restrict family travel to Cuba for Cuban Americans to once every three years, no exceptions. However, not only does this amendment, led by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, separate families, it also redefines what constitutes a family circle, limiting the definition to immediate family only.

What This Company Did to Us: Rape and Displacement in Guatemala

vkritzer@lawg.org (Vanessa Kritzer) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“It was like out of a movie. Planes, helicopters, flying in over our houses. No one knew they were coming.” Irma Yolanda told us. “The women were in our houses with our children. I was cooking the little bit of beans I had to give to my children and making tortillas… Then the [armed] men came in. They ate all the food they found in every home. After they ate, they threw gasoline over all the houses and set them on fire. We tried to find refuge in the mountains. But it was raining. My children shivering with cold. So there was nothing we could do but return.” Two weeks later, these private security, police, and national armed forces came back to evict Irma Yolanda’s poor, Maya Q’eqchi community once and for all to make way for the nickel mining company that wanted their lands. Finding that the men were out in the fields, they gang raped Irma Yolanda and ten other women, a brutal tactic used to convince the community to abandon their homes.

Remove Cuba from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism

echow@lawg.org (Katherine Trujillo) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:14:48 +0000

Last week, the Latin America Working Group partnered with the Center for International Policy to host a conference examining Cuba’s placement on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Along with Mavis Anderson from LAWG, speakers included renowned Cuba experts Wayne Smith (Center for International Policy), Robert Muse (Muse and Associates), Carlos Alzugaray (University of Havana), Sarah Stephens (Center for Democracy in the Americas), and Arturo Lopez-Levy (University of Denver). Each panelist spoke critically of this designation, which has served to hurt Cubans rather than affect political changes in Cuba, or combat real terrorist threats.

"When people take over the policy, it's going to change"

echow@lawg.org (Emily Chow) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:21:51 +0000

Last night on "Strategy Session with Antonio Gonzalez" on 90.7 KPFK, LAWG's Senior Associate, Mavis Anderson, discussed the current political reality of U.S. policy towards Cuba. While there are some who will criticize President Obama's slow movement in changing our outdated Cuba policy, "kudos should be given where kudos are due," says Anderson. Obama has made some of the changes available to him under executive authority in permitting Cuban Americans to travel freely back and forth to the island, liberalizing the travel licensing process, and also issuing a veto threat if any legislation is proposed in Congress that aims at repealing his positive changes.