Colombia Update: Human Rights Report / El Quimbo Dam resistance

January 2012
*International Verification Mission to Colombia finds that human Rights Defenders are still at risk
*Women Human Rights Defenders Report
*Suppport Self-Determination of the People of Huila, Colombia

*Misión Internacional de Verificación afirma que la situación de los defensores en Colombia sigue siendo crítica
*Reporte sobre la situación de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos
*Acciones y Campañas
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Bolivia Dinner/Cena Boliviana Feb. 8 7-9pm at St Mark’s Episcopal Church

Bolivia Flyer

The Rise of Indigenous Leadership in Bolivia: A Round Table Discussion

February 8, 2012  7:00-9:00pm   $10/person

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
4714 Clifton Avenue, 63109
Hampton south to Nottingham west

Menu: ENSALADA Y SALTEÑAS

Please RSVP with veggie or chicken preference by February 6th to IFCLA at ifcla@ifcla.net or 314-721-2977       (no RSVP, no food guaranteed)

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From Chiapas to Wall Street: “A collective awakening against global injustice”

From Chiapas to Wall Street: “A collective awakening against global injustice”

Written by Jessica Davies
Published in Upside Down World
Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Where did it come from and what do the movements have in common?

The second international seminar of reflection and analysis, “Planet Earth: anti-systemic movements”, was held from the 30th of December to the 2nd of January at Cideci, the University of the Earth, situated outside San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, south-east Mexico. Hundreds of people from all over Latin America, Europe, Asia and the US gathered to listen to intellectuals and social activists, from Mexico and other parts of the world, share their reflections and experiences of the many social struggles that have erupted in different places in recent years.
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Take action to protect a Honduran journalist

On January 23, 2012, the same day Honduran journalist Gilda Carolina Silvestrucchi hosted a radio program on problems related to gold mining in the Siria Valley and the controversial new Mining Law, she received a death threat.

This is not the first death threat Gilda has received for her reporting.

Now we need you to send a message in defense of Gilda’s life. Click here now to take action!
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Guatemala: Breaking News: Rios Montt Charged with Genocide & Update from NISGUA

HISTORIC RULING: RIOS MONTT CHARGED WITH GENOCIDE AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

[en español abajo]
On Thursday, January 26, Guatemala’s former dictator Efrain Rios Montt sat in court while the Public Prosecutor read the evidence against him…and read…and read…until he had summarized the crimes committed by armed forces under Rios Montt’s command in 1982-83 which constituted acts of genocide in Guatemala’s Ixil Triangle (San Juan Cotzal, San Gaspar Chajúl and Santa María Nebaj): the forced displacement of 29,000, the deaths of 1,771 individuals in 11 massacres, as well as torture and 1,485 acts of sexual violence against women.

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Update on SB 590 in Missouri General Assembly-voted out of committee – sign petition

As many of you have heard by now, we have had a very eventful week in Jeff City.

SB 590, Kraus’ Anti-Immigrant Omnibus, passed out of the Senate General Laws Committee on a party-line vote on Tuesday.  As of Friday afternoon, the bill has not been referred to the Senate debate calendar, but that is the next stop.  Please ask your members to CALL their senator, and ask them to Vote NO on SB 590.  (Legislator look-up here.)  If we can generate enough grassroots opposition to this bill, we can stop it in the senate.  MIRA is looking for volunteers to help with the campaign to oppose SB 590.  If your organization or any of your members are interested in participating, please let us know.
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HONDURAS – “THE COUNTRY IS … A DISASTER ZONE”/Bajo Aguan news

In Honduras, a Mess Made in the U.S.
Dana Frank, New York Times, January 26, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/opinion/in-honduras-a-mess-helped-by-the-us.html

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.
IT’S time to acknowledge the foreign policy disaster that American support for the Porfirio Lobo administration in Honduras has become. Ever since the June 28, 2009, coup that deposed Honduras’s democratically elected president, José Manuel Zelaya, the country has been descending deeper into a human rights and security abyss. That abyss is in good part the State Department’s making.
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