Central America and Caribbean

This is a fresh update written by Caitlin Roberts on events in Honduras! -Rick

U.S. imperialism is alive and well, this much we know. Here in Honduras,
rifle-bearing soldiers and cops, or perhaps police dressed in military
garb, or perhaps private security guards borrowing police uniforms – it's
never easy to tell – are vigilant at grocery stores, Dunkin Donuts, and
banks, as well as rural communities. Where do these armed forces get their
funding? You guessed it, your wallet.

Of all security funds pouring into Central America from Washington, 52% go
to Honduras' highly corrupt and repressive post-coup military outfit.
Since the military coup d'etat on June 28, 2009, which was condoned and
forgotten by the U.S. government, over 400 Hondurans have been targeted

On the morning of June 28th, around 200 people gathered a few miles away from the entrance to Palmerola Air Base, which is located in Honduras but used by the United States Air Force. The marchers proceeded towards the main gate to denounce the US military base due to the US's military presence and its role in the overthrow of Honduras' democratically elected government on June 28th, 2009. The plane that sent Honduras' president Manuel Zelaya into exile on that day flew from the capital Tegucigalpa to Palmerola Air Base before continuing in the opposite direction to Costa Rica.

Media Island's Caitlin Roberts was part of this delegation and will be reporting about it soon!
-bruce

On June 26th, Honduras Security Forces and private paramilitaries violently evicted 150 families from the town of Rigores (Trujillo municipality, Colon Department, in the Aguan Valley). The armed men burned down homes, businesses, the school and town church, leaving the residents sleeping on the streets or in the community center.

Yet another anti-mining activist has been murdered in El Salvador.
Canadian civil society organizations are calling for a full investigation
into the murder of Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, the fourth such death in
two years that local organizations believe are linked to the presence of
Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining in the department of Cabañas.

On June 2nd, Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, a thirty-year old linguistics
student at the Technological University in San Salvador, was hanging
posters in the city of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas as part of a
campaign against mining and Pacific Rim. The Cabañas Environmental
Committee reported that the local mayor ordered municipal police to remove
the banners and intimidate the activists hanging them. The next day, Juan

On youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfnHO_1aWZI&feature=player_embedded

By MARK WEISBROT

Haiti's infamous dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier, returned to his country this week, while the country's first elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is kept out. These two facts really say everything about Washington's policy toward Haiti and our government's respect for democracy in that country and in the region.

Asked about the return of Duvalier, who had thousands tortured and murdered under his dictatorship, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, "this is a matter for the Government of Haiti and the people of Haiti."

But when asked about Aristide returning, he said, "Haiti does not need, at this point, any more burdens."

Published: guardian.co.uk Friday, 21 January 2011:

Confidential US diplomatic cables from 2005 and 2006 released this week by WikiLeaks reveal Washington's well-known obsession to keep exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of Haiti and Haitian affairs. (On Thursday, Aristide issued a public letter in which he reiterated "my readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time" from South Africa for Haiti, because the Haitian people "have never stopped calling for my return" and "for medical reasons", concerning his eyes.)

In a 8 June 2005 meeting of US Ambassador to Brazil John Danilovich, joined by his political counsellor (usually, the local CIA station chief), with then President Lula da Silva's international affairs adviser Marco Aurelio Garcia, we learn that:

Not enough could easily be said about the importance of Samuel Ruiz' legacy. From the time of the scorched earth campaigns in Guatemala when hundreds of thousands of Mayans fled into Chiapas, to the 1994 Zapatista uprising his efforts have been critical. He will be sorely missed. -Rick

By David Agren
Catholic News Service

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100290.htm

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Retired Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, known as the champion of the poor and indigenous in southern Mexico, died Jan. 24 of complications from long-standing illnesses. He was 86.

14 Countries have movements to shut down School of the Americas. The recent maximum prison sentences in federal court in Georgia (for sweet people who challenge the legitimacy of SOA by crossing a line)
demonstrate denial in action. The US so dislikes talking about the badness of these folks.
Check out this cool video!:

http://soaw.org/component/content/article/3564

by Gerardo Torres Zelaya (Español abajo.)
Secretary General, Los Necios Political Organization (OPLN)
International Committee, National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP)

The beginning of a year always brings with it a series of promises and illusions and of course 2011 is no different. When the boundry of 12 midnight was crossed, Honduras began a new year in the middle of what can become the most important moment in its political history and at the same time left an unforgettable decade.

Pastors For Peace has been the U.S. promoter and pre-screener of students for the Latin America School of Medicine in Cuba. We have also visited several of the communities mentioned in Honduras reporting on human rights. -Rick

Ciriboya
Garifuna community is located in the municipality of Iriona, Department
of Colón, about 2 hours on a dirt road from the capital city of Tocoa.
It is in this community that the first Garifuna People's Hospital of
Honduras was strategically built and was declared real and intangible
Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

June 19 - 28, 2011

This delegation will focus on examining the US role in Nicaragua's November 2011 elections for President and for members of the National Assembly.

A similar delegation in 2006 found substantial US intervention which Nicaraguans who met with the delegation felt had gone well beyond what was appropriate or correct. A representative of the International Republican Institute in Nicaragua equated the relationship between Nicaragua and the US to that of a son to a father. "Children should not argue with their parents," she said.

At a time when foreign funding in US elections has raised an outcry, it is important to expose the US role of US funding in other countries elections.

http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3486

The debate over climate change generally transpires within
the cloistered confines of expensive hotels, executive boardrooms, and
diplomatic halls. As seen in the failure
to arrive at binding agreements in Copenhagen, the talks are generally
as sterile as the surroundings. Now, all signs point to another
high-level fiasco at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 16), to be
held Nov.29-Dec. 10 in the beach resort town of Cancun, Mexico.

Award-Winning Filmmaker Yolanda Cruz Presents Her New Film on Immigration and Indigenous Identity in the Global Economy

Yolanda Cruz, an
award-winning Chatino filmmaker from Oaxaca, Mexico and an Evergreen
graduate, will present her most recent film, "2501 Migrants," and
discuss her experiences filming in indigenous Oaxacan villages, where
migration to the U.S. has significantly changed the reality of life on
both sides of the border.

“2501 Migrants: A Journey” explores global migration through the art of

Peasant leader. Augusto Obregon of Esteli, Nicaragua will be speaking on Friday, November 5th from 12:30 to 2:00 P.M. in Lecture Hall 1. He is part of the Fall Speakers tour, Migrating Towards Justice: Stories to Transform People and Policy,
being organized by Witness for Peace Join us for a unique investigation
into the root causes of migration and the impacts of free trade on Nicaragua.