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22

March
2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration & Call to Action
March 22, 2017 admin Events

When: Sunday, January 15 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Where: Willye B. White Park Fieldhouse, 1610 W. Howard Street, Chicago, IL 60626

At the event, 500 people from Chicago and the Chicago-land Area will come together to discuss the important issues facing the community and call on elected officials to make commitments to address those issues. Issues on the agenda include Police Accountability, Living Wages, Immigration Rights, Religious Freedom, and Human Rights for ALL.

 

Please contact crodriguez@crln.org if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you on January 15th!

 

 

Celebracion & Llamada a la Accion en honor a Martin Luther King, Jr. 2017

 

Cuándo: Domingo, 15 de enero de 2:00 p.m. a 4:00 p.m.

 

Dónde: Willye B. White Park Fieldhouse, 1610 W. Howard Street, Chicago, IL 60626

 

En este evento, 500 personas de Chicago y el area de Chicago se reunirán para discutir los asuntos importantes que enfrenta la comunidad y para pedir a los funcionarios electos que se comprometan a abordar esos temas. Los temas en la agenda incluyen el control social de la policia, salaries justos, los derechos de inmigración, la libertad religiosa y los derechos humanos para TODOS.

Por favor, póngase en contacto con crodriguez@crln.org. Esperamos verlx el 15 de enero!

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22

March
Continue resistance to U.S-funded Militarization in Honduras in 2017!
March 22, 2017 admin Central America

Honduras is the most dangerous country in the world in which to be an environmental activist and one of the most dangerous to be a journalist, union member, or member of a social movement opposed to the current Honduran administration’s policies. Members of the military and police have been implicated in violence against, including assassinations, of members of these groups. 97% of crimes committed in Honduras are left unsolved, with no consequences for the perpetrators.

In this context, we thank you for your signatures supporting the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act (H.R. 5474). They helped CRLN convince 7 out of 10 Democratic Illinois U.S. Representatives to co-sponsor this important legislation introduced by Rep. Hank Johnson. By the end of 2016, the bill, which would suspend U.S. security aid to Honduras pending compliance with international human rights standards, garnered a total of 52 co-sponsors nationwide.

Because the 114th Congressional session ended January 3 and any legislation that did not come to the House and Senate for a vote ended with it, H.R. 5474 will need to be reintroduced in the 115th Congressional session that runs from now through the end of 2018. Rep. Hank Johnson plans to reintroduce this bill.

As soon as that happens, CRLN will contact U.S. Representatives from Illinois to ask those who signed on (Schakowsky, Gutierrez, Davis, Rush, Quigley, Lipinski) to do so again. We will contact those of you in their districts to contact them, identify yourselves as CRLN members, thank them for their co-sponsorship last year, and ask support them to sign on again.

For those of you in districts whose Representatives did not co-sponsor, we will construct new arguments for why they should co-sponsor and will contact you at the appropriate time for signatures again to show support in your district for this bill. In addition, we have a fresh opportunity to speak with Representatives elected in November (Brad Schneider in the10th District, who replaces Bob Dold; and Raja Krishnamoorthi, who replaces Tammy Duckworth—now one of Illinois’ U.S. Senators—in the 8th District).

It is vitally important to people whose lives are under threat in Honduras that the U.S. stop providing weapons and training to the forces under the authority of the current Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, whose party illegally used and deprived the public of funds designated for the health care system to support his last election and who has just orchestrated a change to the constitution to allow himself to run again for President in 2017. Under his administration, military and police forces have been unleashed to do violene against those who oppose the corruption and anti-democratic maneuvers of many of those currently in power.

If you would like to take part in a delegation to Honduras to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Berta Caceres’ death and visit other groups struggling to defend their land and human rights, click here for more information.

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22

March
Sanctuary FAQs
March 22, 2017 admin Immigration

As people of faith and people of conscience, we must pledge to take the lead of directly-impacted communities engaged in transformative work. This includes opening up our congregations and communities for sanctuary. We must pledge to fight with ALL our siblings, brothers, and sisters in the ongoing struggle to dismantle U.S. militarism, neoliberal economic and xenophobic immigration policy, and other forms of state and institutional violence. We are united by our liberating faiths and inspired by the power of people to organize and to find allies to work for sustainable economies, just relationships and human dignity.

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22

March
200 Holiday Cards for Sen. Durbin: “Suspend Security Aid to Honduras”
March 22, 2017 admin Central America

On Friday morning, December 16th, CRLN, La Voz de Los de Abajo, and several other Chicago partners delivered over 200 holiday post cards signed by Illinois residents to Senator Durbin’s Federal Plaza office urging him to place an immediate hold on all military and police aid to Honduras pending compliance with international human rights standards.

 

CRLN members and many friends stepped up to sign letters to Senator Durbin, a high ranking Senate Appropriator and the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense, who has the power to suspend security aid to Honduras given the grave and consistent state-sponsored human rights violations in that country. Our folks met briefly with Senator Durbin’s staff who expressed concern with the situation and who ensured us that they would give the Senator our message. At this time, they were unable to give us a definitive answer about withholding security aid. We will continue pressuring Senator Durbin into 2017 and we expect to work hard to win support from Senator-elect Duckworth as well.

The 200 signatures delivered to Durbin also appeared on letters to Illinois members of the House urging that they support H.R.5474, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, a bill that would also suspend U.S. security aid to Honduras. At this time, seven out of ten Democrats in the Illinois delegation have decided to cosponsor the legislation, a major win that would not have been possible without grassroots pressure from those who signed.

 

Berta Cáceres, co-founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), was assassinated on March 2nd, 2016 and in the nine months that have passed since her murder, her case files have been stolen and her family has been kept in the dark about the judicial process. In July, COPINH member Nelson Garcia was murdered and Tomás Gomez Membreño, COPINH’s current General Coordinator who visited the Senator’s office asking that he withhold security aid in June 2016, recently survived an assassination attempt.

 

In October, Jose Angel Flores, President of the campesino organization MUCA (Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguan) and Silmer Dionosio George, another MUCA leader, were killed by gunmen as they left a meeting of MUCA members. More activists and human rights defenders were illegally detained and threatened by Honduran security forces while peacefully protesting highway privatization. The latest report on Human Rights in Honduras from the Association of Citizen Participation reported that in 2016 there were 32 assassinations of human rights defenders, environmental activists, and Indigenous and rural farmer defenders.

Despite these ongoing attacks, credible accusations of Honduran state complicity, and an ongoing 95% impunity rate, the U.S. has sent over $200 million in police and military aid since the 2009 coup and, last month, the State Department certified—with little to no evidence—the Honduran government for having met human rights conditions, thus releasing $55,000,000 in security aid.

 

In response, roughly 200 Illinois residents were represented in the December 16th holiday post card delivery urging the Senator to use his, “power to suspend security aid to Honduras until their police and military demonstrate compliance with international human rights standards. Our tax dollars can no longer provide Honduran security forces with both the material resources and international legitimacy to commit human rights violations with impunity.”

 

While the 114th Session of Congress has adjourned for 2016, we will continue supporting our partners in Honduras and pressuring Senator Durbin and all of our elected officials to suspend U.S. security aid and to respond to the ongoing assassinations of and violence against human rights defenders in Honduras.

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22

March
Celeste—CRLN’s Public Policy Coordinator—Departs with Gratitude & Determination
March 22, 2017 admin General

(Photo: CRLN staff and OCAD members at CRLN Luncheon, Celeste far right) Reflection by Celeste Larkin, CRLN Public Policy Coordinator, Aug 2012 – Dec 2016: The past four and a half years at CRLN have given me a profound and humbling time of learning, fighting, and advocating alongside a beautiful community that envisions a world where human rights are valued over profit—and, for this, I’m deeply grateful. I’ll be leaving CRLN by the end of this month and will take with me that vision and all that I’ve learned from CRLN staff, board, members, and—most importantly—undocumented people and organizers in Latin America who are fighting for their rights, their lives, and their lands.

As many people can imagine, working at CRLN is more than just having a job. CRLN gives people the chance to take risks and interrupt state violence in the service of transnational solidarity and migrants’ rights. I’ve been able to participate in international delegations wherein committed people from my town learn from and build relationships with organizers in other countries. I’ve helped coordinate speaker tours so that Latin American leaders come to Chicago to share their struggles and connect with people entrenched in parallel struggle here in the U.S. I’ve been able to work with CRLN members to hold our elected officials accountable and speak truth to power, making demands that support CRLN’s vision for world where imperialism & roots of forced migration can be named, checked, and—in the long haul—abolished.

In taking those risks and trusting each other, I’ve been blessed to build a community at this organization and I’m hopeful for the future of this work. That sense of hope is directly inspired by the efforts, principles, and labor of people leading these struggles from the front lines of Latin America and the undocumented community. I feel hopeful because of the base here in Illinois that has made CRLN what it is and that commits to the work ahead when the risks feel great and the country barrels forward toward heightened nationalism. I’m deeply grateful for the work of all of you reading this statement, and I hope you all know that, as we continue learning how to do this work better under ever-changing conditions, I’m thankful that you’re in this world and adding your grain of sand to the mountains being built throughout the hemisphere.

If you have questions about foreign policy and need to be in touch with CRLN staff, please contact Sharon Hunter-Smith at shunter-smith@crln.org and if you would like to be in touch about trade policy, please contact Claudia Lucero at clucero@crln.org. You can also call our office for any reason at 773-293-2964.

Celeste, La Coordinadora de Política Pública, Deja su Posición con Gratitud y Determinación

Escrito por Celeste Larkin, Coordinadora de Política Pública de CRLN, Aug de 2012 – Dic de 2016: Los últimos cuatro años y medio en CRLN me han dado una experiencia profunda y un sentido de humildad mientras aprendía, luchaba, y abogaba al lado de una bella comunidad que imagina un mundo donde los derechos humanos tienen más valor que el beneficio privado—y, por eso, estoy profundamente agradecida. Estaré dejando mi posición en CRLN al final de este mes y tomaré conmigo esta visión y todo lo que aprendí del equipo de CRLN, de nuestra junta directiva, de nuestrxs miembrxs, y—lo más importante—de la personas indocumentadas y organizadores de América Latina luchando por sus derechos, sus vidas y sus tierras.

Como muchxs pueden imaginar, trabajar en CRLN significa más que simplemente tener un trabajo. CRLN da a las personas la oportunidad de tomar riesgos e interrumpir la violencia del estado en el servicio de la solidaridad transnacional y los derechos de lxs migrantes. Yo he podido participar en delegaciones internacionales en las cuales gente de mi ciudad aprende de y construye relaciones con organizadores de otros países. He ayudado a coordinar giras de líderes Latinoamericanxs visitando Chicago para que compartan sus luchas y conecten con personas  involucradas en las luchas paralelas en los EE.UU. He podido trabajar con lxs miembrxs de CRLN para hacer a lxs oficiales públicxs responsables de sus decisiones y para que digan la verdad al poder. Al mismo tiempo, exigiendo que apoyen nuestra visión para un mundo donde el imperialismo y las raíces de migración forzada puedan ser nombradas, combatidas, y—en el largo plazo—abolidas.

Al tomar estos riesgos y confiar uno en el otrx , he sido bendecida al construir una comunidad en esta organización y tengo mucha esperanza para el futuro de este trabajo. Este sentido de esperanza está directamente inspirado por los esfuerzos, principios, y trabajo de las personas en las líneas del frente de estas luchas, desde América Latina hasta la comunidad indocumentada. También siento esperanza por la base aquí en Illinois que ha hecho CRLN lo que es y que se compromete a trabajar aun cuando los riesgos parecen demasiado grandes y el país avanza hacia un nacionalismo intensificado. Estoy profundamente agradecida por todo el trabajo que ustedes leyendo este mensaje han hecho y espero que sepan que, mientras seguimos aprendiendo cómo hacer mejor este trabajo bajo condiciones que siempre cambian, doy gracias que ustedes estén en este mundo añadiendo su granito de arena a las montañas de trabajo construidas por todo el hemisferio.

Si tiene preguntas sobre el trabajo de la política extranjera, póngase en contacto con Sharon Hunter-Smith a shunter-smith@crln.org y si tiene preguntas sobre nuestro trabajo en el asunto de los tratados de libre comercio, póngase en contacto con Claudia Lucero a clucero@crln.org. También pueden llamar a nuestra oficina para cualquier otra razón al numero 773-293-2964.

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15

December
Today! Call the State Department and White House! Cut of aid to Honduran coup regime!
December 15, 2016 admin Edu. Central America

Thanks to all of you who have urged your members of Congress to support HRes 630, condemning the coup in Honduras. Today you have another opportunity to act on behalf of democracy. See below for the Action Alert from SOA Watch.

Earlier this week, the SOA graduate-backed Honduran military coup regime refused all diplomatic options to return democracy. The U.S. State Department responded by asserting that visas to Hondurans would no longer be granted under the coup. Late yesterday State Department officials made it clear that they are considering legally defining the situation as a “military coup.” This would create an automatic cut-off of all remaining aid to Honduras. The coup regime immediately responded by saying that they would allow the rightful President Zelaya to return with amnesty, but not as president. Clearly the coup leaders are caving to the pressure.  For more background information, check out this article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN27328207

. We need you to act now to return democracy to Honduras. Please make two very important phone calls!  For information on how to respond, please read below or click the “read more” link.

1.) Call the State Department at 202-647-5171 or 1-800-877-8339 and ask for Secretary Clinton. Deliver the following message:

“My name is ________ and I live in ______ (city/state). I am calling to ask you to legally define the de facto regime in Honduras as a military coup and cut off all aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is unconditionally reinstated.”

2.) Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and repeat the same message

“My name is _______ and I live in __________ (city/state). I am calling to ask you to legally define the de facto regime in Honduras as a military coup and cut off all aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is unconditionally reinstated.”

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15

December
This is Not Politics; This is Faith
December 15, 2016 admin General

by Alexandra Buck

Here in Menomonee Falls, it’s holiday season again: pumpkin pies, snowy days, and Christmas lights. But I can’t see any of this the way I used to, before I traveled to Colombia for two weeks in August. I went with a group from the Chicago Presbytery and the Chicago Religious Leadership Network. We met with church leaders who defend the human rights of people displaced by the armed conflict.

One especially difficult afternoon our delegation visited Afro-Colombian women heads of households who had been forcibly displaced from their villages around Colombia. Many of their husbands had been murdered, disappeared, or recruited by either paramilitaries or guerrillas, two groups in the armed conflict.

Felicidad, whose name means happiness, recounted the years before when she was forced to leave her village by an armed group and, with a small child holding her hand and pregnant with another, found shelter in the slums outside Bogota. Rosa told us about her three children whom she cannot afford to send to school and about the threats she has received to leave the corner of a warehouse she currently calls home. Juana shared the pain of having her 5 year-old son’s arm severed when hit by a truck in the road while she was searching for work to feed her family.

None of the women in the room receive sufficient reparation for their displacement to sustain their families. Worst of all, in many cases their status of displacement has been denied, thereby excluding them from compensation promised under government law.

After Juana spoke, we had snacks and conversation in fellowship, despite language differences and extreme divergences in our lived experiences.

Now, our delegation is fundraising money for a Day Care Center for these women’s children. The least we can do, after they shared their hurt lives and the little they have, is share some of our great wealth to fulfill one aspect of their need. With a Day Care center, the children will be secure, fed, and educated so that their mothers can work to support the family.

Experiencing the incredible faith of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia and all of its partners gave me a deeper sense of faith than I have ever had. I am convinced that being faithful to our God means taking risks that challenge our comfortable involvement in political and economic systems that oppress our sisters and brothers all around the world. Following Christ means demanding that the ignored are heard, that the vulnerable are cared for, and that our selfish, worldly desires are de-prioritized in seeking a more equitable distribution of power and wealth. This is not politics; this is faith.

I feel urgently that it is time we as a Christian community stand up like our Colombian sisters and brothers to work for a more just, peaceful world as we are meant to do through the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus fought against the powers that oppressed. He challenged empires and governments. To call ourselves Christians in his name, we need to do the same. And Colombia is a perfect place to begin.

If you feel called to be in solidarity with our Colombian sisters and brothers, consider being an

Accompanier

. This is a program of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.  PCUSA is also in solidarity through policy and advocacy efforts, such as the

General Assembly Resolution 11-18

.

Instead of Christmas presents this year, I have asked my family and friends to donate the money they would have spent on my gifts to the Day Care project. I have all I need; others should receive from the abundance of this world.  We are still raising funds, so if you can contribute, please contact me as soon as possible.

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15

December
Update from Honduras
December 15, 2016 admin Edu. Central America

CRLN board member, Sidney Hollander, and program director, Gary Cozette, are currently in Honduras on human rights delegation with our partners,


La Voz de los de Abajo

a Chicago-based group. Yesterday, on the anniversary of the coup, the group attended the Resistance March in Tegucigalpa, in solidarity with the Resistance movement and in protest of the on-going human rights abuses committed under coup-successor, President “Pepe” Lobo. Below is a letter from Gary and pictures from the march.
Dear CRLN Members and Friends,

Yesterday, our Chicago delegation accompanied the lively, diverse Resistance March in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. Sidney Hollander, the CRLN Board member on this delegation, calculates turn-out by about how many people can fill a baseball stadium, which he estimates at 40,000. His guess? A shade under 40,000. Others estimated as high as 100,000.   We heard unconfirmed reports that some buses coming to the march were not allowed to enter Tegucigalpa. The reason the numbers were lower in Tegucigalpa than in previous major marches is in large part because the Frente has decided to decentralize them. Subsequently, major marches took place in all parts of the country yesterday. In Tegucigalpa, I was amazed by the great number of young people, ages 14-25, participating with great creativity. We hope to have pictures on our web site soon. In the mean time, you can see pictures from one of the web sites noted below in today’s


Hemispheric Brief


coverage of the coup anniversary.

On a negative note,


Berta Caceres,


a key leader of COPINH, the national indigenous organization of Honduras, was taken captive by military police in the town of La Esperanza. After the local population mobilized at the police station and an urgent action alert went out, Berta was released several hours after her capture. However, the police confiscated from Berta 400 signed affidavits seeking a national Constitutional assembly. The Resistance Front is organizing across Honduras to secure over 1 million signed affidavits to convene a national constituent assembly to draft a new Constitution to replace the current one drafted in 1982 amid the Cold War violence of the 1980s.  Diverse sectors of Honduran civil society in the resistance movement tell us that the current Constitution is privileging the interests of the oligarchy, the elite and transnational corporations seeking to “loot” their national resources.


Gary L. Cozette, Program Director

Hemispheric Brief – June 29, 2010 / Excerpts covering Honduras

In Honduras, more on the one year anniversary of the coup.

IPS has a good report

from Thelma Mejía who says “defacto” military veto power in the country continues to block any possible political or electoral reforms in the country.  The story comes after the head of the Honduran Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) said the possibility of ending the military’s role as the transporter of ballot boxes during elections was being considered.  Just days later, however, the TSE changed its tune entirely after a meeting with senior military officials.  According to IPS, the TSE now it “will seek to ‘expand’ the functions of the military [in the electoral process], including the possibility of allowing members of the armed forces to vote. According to Leticia Salomón, an expert in military affairs, one of the most significant consequences of last year’s coup has been the growing role of the military in the public sphere.  The country now has “highly politicized security forces, and in the case of the military, the leadership has become a decision-making body, says Salomón.

The pro-coup


El Heraldo


reports on FNRP protests yesterday, saying only about 2000 individuals showed up for marches in the capital commemorating last year’s coup.  I haven’t seen figures from the FNRP itself yet but

Vos el Soberano

does have photos. Pro-coup

La Tribuna

, meanwhile, reports on FNRP marches in San Pedro Sula where some 3000 resistance members took a bridge for nearly three hours.  Meanwhile, the FNRP announced it had collected

some 600,000 signatures

in favor of holding a constituent assembly.  For his part, Mel Zelaya watched events from the Dominican Republic.  In a letter released on the coup’s anniversary, Mr. Zelaya’s harshest words were saved for the United States, which, he now claims, was “behind the coup.”  As the

AP

reports, Zelaya cited what he called the “public support the United States wound up giving to the coup.”  And RAJ at

Honduras Culture and Politics

has a list of recommendations about what the Lobo government could do to start a process of real national dialogue.  I recommend reading in-full.

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15

December
Honduran Police and Military Attack Radio Station and Peaceful March in San Pedro Sula
December 15, 2016 admin Edu. Central America

More Death Caused by Honduran Military and Paramilitaries

CRLN’s partners, La Voz de Los de Abajo, report on their blog about the latest military and paramilitary violence in Honduras.  Media, newspapers, radio stations, and journalists have been targeted for repression, abduction and execution; this latest episode included a police attack on Radio Uno in the town of San Pedro Sula.  At least one death was reported.  For more information, check La Voz de Los de Abajo’s blog Honduras Resists at

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/

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15

December
Come Bowl for Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities!
December 15, 2016 admin Events

March 6th, 4pm – 7 pm, Timberlanes (1851 W. Irving Park Road)



Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities’ annual Bowl-a-Rama to raise funds for the rural community of Cinquera, El Salvador, is coming up again, and CRLN will be forming a team.  Will you bowl with us?  Will you form your own team?  Call the CRLN office at 773-293-2964 and let us know if you will participate by collecting pledges from donors and spending a few hours bowling with others interested in people-to-people development.  The cost to bowl is $25, but if you collect $50 or more in pledges, bowling is free!

Chicago-Cinquera is a community to community-based solidarity organization, whose collaboration seeks to work together to build an international movement for social justice and human dignity through a hopeful alternative strategy and vision for development.  For more information, go to

www.chicago-cinquera.org

.

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The Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN).

  • Tel: +773-293-2964
  • Fax: +773-293-3677
  • Email: crln@crln.org