ja_mageia

Paramilitaries Kill Leader of San José de Apartadó Peace Community

Members of a paramilitary group known as the Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) killed Dario Torres, a leader of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, on Friday, July 13. The killing occurred only two minutes from a police checkpoint, where earlier in the day witnesses saw the gunmen sitting and conversing with police. Torres was a passenger on one of the jeeps that serve as the only public transport between the city of Apartadó and San José, when it was intercepted by two paramilitaries – the same men who detained the jeep the previous day and made threats against the Peace Community. Continue Reading and take action...

CJA Files Lawsuit Against Peruvian SOA Graduates

The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) has filed two human rights lawsuits on behalf of two survivors of the infamous Accomarca Massacre in Peru where 69 innocent civilians were killed by government troops on August 14, 1985. The defendants, Juan Rivera Rondón and Telmo Hurtado Hurtado, are former Peruvian military officers who directly commanded the patrol units responsible for the massacre and eventually fled to the United States.Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon attended Arms Orientation courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas from 1981-1982 during the height of military repression.

- Find out more about Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rondon
- Read more about the CJA lawsuit

Call for International Solidarity with Oaxaca

Oaxaca, Mexico - July 20, 2007 - George Salzman writes: The struggle between the popular movement of rebellion and the government’s actions to totally crush it is at a critical point. I believe the situation is extremely dangerous for many oaxaqueños. Four days ago the governments (Oaxaca State, Mexican Federal, and I’m sure, fully backed by the United States) planned and executed a successful provocation followed by a savage attack on civilians. The resulting deaths, ferocious beatings, detentions, torture, etc., are by now well documented. Continue reading...

Sister Cities and CISPES Action Alert

National Call-in Day: Monday, July 30 - Demand the Immediate Release of Political Prisoners in El Salvador!
The protestors who were arrested on July 2 in Suchitoto, El Salvador are now being tried under the new “anti-terrorism” law, a law passed with full praise from the U.S. government. This draconian law defines different forms of public protest as terrorism and sentences offenders to up to 60 years in prison for such crimes as occupying a public building. For the second time this year, the law is now being used against social movements in El Salvador, criminalizing acts that do not in any way constitute terrorism! Five of the prisoners on trial have now been temporarily released; the other 9 remain in “preventative detention” for a term of 3 months while the prosecution builds a terrorism case against all 13. Contine reading...

Lisa Sullivan reportback on SOAW Delegation to Mexico and Costa Rica

The SOA Watch delegation to Mexico and Costa Rica was an important turning point for both the SOA Watch Latin America Project and the movement to close the SOA/WHINSEC. It was on this last trip that the President Oscar Arias announced that Costa Rica would cease to send police to be trained at the SOA/WHINSEC citing its history of human rights abuses and questionable reputation.

"On our last evening in Costa Rica, Roy, Rita, Isabel and I were shown into the office of President Oscar Arias, re-elected last year, 20 years after his first presidency. The Nobel Peace laureate ushered us in with a warm welcome." Continue reading...

Sister Helen Prejean to Sponsor Volunteer Program in Nicaragua

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of “Dead Man Walking” and SOA Watch supporter, has been working with Laura Hopps and Christine Ruppert to start a new volunteer program through the Centro Cultural Batahola Norte in Managua, Nicaragua. Hopps and Ruppert, will spend the next two years in Nicaragua teaching English, working with women's cooperatives, and collaborating on a variety of other projects with community members. Continue reading...