Aliados

It's Halloween. Even with all the vampires, witches, and zombies wandering out tonight, in my mind there is still nothing scarier than human rights abuses running amuck.

I just read a special report which was released earlier this month by WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America), entitled The Captive State: Organized Crime and Human Rights in Latin America. It approaches the situaton from a different perspective, outlining how organized crime is not just a law enforcement issue, but a paramount threat to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. It is both informative and impactful. You can download the report here: WOLAreportOrganizedCrime.pdf, or by visiting their website.

Argentina has elected a Female Head of State. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was elected President of the South American Nation. According to the New York Times she defeated the other candidates with 45% of the vote.

On that note, the one year anniversary of the death of Transgender Activist Pelusa Liendro is fast approaching and little has been done to investigate and bring Pelusa's perpetrators to justice. Rosario, Pelusas friend and fellow activist is the only person suspected in the crime. The accusations from law enforcement towards Rosario came after Rosario accused local police of involvement in the crime. Police in Argentina has a history of violence towards members of the Trans Community.

I am not an expert on Argentina but I just read The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission action and agree that this is a good time to hold Argentinean authorities accountable.

Its not an AI action, but it is definitely in violation of International Human Rights.

Click here to read more about this issue and take action!

I always say this, but it continues to be true that Aliados is awesome because it's a coming together of so many interests and so many causes. I feel like I can run across an action I care about and post it here because Aliados are so open, diverse and passionate about many issues.

I hope everyones fall is off to a good start! Cuidense!

-eleazar juarez

What is it?

86 days separate two infamous dates: October 17th marks the first year anniversary of the Military Commissions Act and January 11th marks the anniversary of the first detainee held at Guantánamo Bay. Both dates represent all that is wrong with this administration's policies: torture, indefinite detention, guilty until proven innocent. It's time to "86" the administration's failed policies and restore our nation's reputation as a leader on human rights.

What are we hoping to accomplish?

We are calling on activists across the country to stand in solidarity against torture: to call for the closure of the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, the repair of the Military Commissions Act so that it reflects international legal norms, and the end of torture in the name of "security."

How can you help?

During the 86 Days, there will be activities you can get involved in every month, along with actions that you can take online. We will kick off our campaign on October 17 with public demonstrations, but will follow that with new actions each month:

Please visit our 86 Days page to find a list of new and exciting resources to take action today!

In my blog last month I wrote about how I was looking forward to going to see "Bordertown" and catching a few Jaguares shows.  Well a few things changed, the movie was not released (the link and article are below,) and the Jaguares show in Cd. Juarez was postponed.  Last I heard they were looking into adding a show in El Paso, so I am hopeful for that.  As for the show in Acoma, it was great, and more importantly we helped spread the word to a lot of new people.  We had people sign up to join Amnesty, sign our petitions,  and hopefully they will start reading our blog and helping spread the word.  I want to take this time to thank Sandra, Liliana, and Julissa for having the confidence in us to be able to pull it off and for helping us get everything ready so that we would be when the show started.  I also want to thank the volunteers Monica, Dalia, David and Ben, as well everyone else that was there that helped make it a success.  Here are a few photos from Acoma.

J-Lo movie, 'Bordertown,' no longer on release schedule
Times staff report Article Launched: 10/10/2007 02:25:21 PM MDT                     http://www.elpasotimes.com//ci_7138535?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com

"Bordertown," a movie based on events in Juarez and starring Jennifer Lopez, is no longer on the distributor's release list.  The movie was originally scheduled to premiere on Oct. 19 in El Paso.  "Due to circumstances outside of our control, Bordertown is no longer on THINKFilm's release schedule," Dylan Marchetti of THINKFilm said. "I do not anticipate it returning in the foreseeable future, unfortunately."
"Bordertown," based on true events, is the story of one woman's passionate struggle for justice in a town gripped by fear. American journalist Lauren (Jennifer Lopez) arrives in Juárez determined to find the truth about hundreds of murdered women.
The film, directed by Gregory Nava, also stars Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen.
Lopez received the Amnesty International "Artists for Amnesty" award at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year in recognition of her work as producer and star of "Bordertown."
According to a comprehensive analysis by Amnesty International, about 400 young women have been murdered or abducted in the Mexican cities of Juárez and Chihuahua since 1993.

"I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity."

-Fredrick Douglas

Please sign the Global Petition for Darfur by October 24th, in honor of United Nations Day, and your signatures will help send the message to the White House that the violence in Darfur will not be tolerated.

Join the campaigning to put Darfur at the top of the President’s agenda!

To keep the President's attention squarely focused on resolving the Darfur crisis during this critical period before UN peacekeepers arrive, we will carry out our petition campaigning in two phases: (1) delivering thousands of petition signatures to the White House on October 24, United Nations Day, and (2) mobilizing in communities around the U.S., and delivering tens of thousands more signatures on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

Why a Global Petition to President George W. Bush?

The U.S. government is a leading member state in the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council, which authorized the peacekeeping force for Darfur (UNAMID) and the multidimensional force in Chad and CAR (MINURCAT). We want to ensure that President Bush lives up to his promises to get UN peacekeepers into Darfur by early 2008, to provide critical funding for peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance, and to protect conflict-affected civilians in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic. Thanks to significant pressure from concerned citizens, the U.S. government has taken some important steps on Darfur – now we need to ensure the U.S. government takes additional critical action to facilitate the speedy arrival of these peacekeeping forces.

Get the Darfur Action Guide to mobilize for United Nations Day and into late November.

Thank you to the over 466,000 people who have already signed the petition. You can help Amnesty reach its goal of 500,000 by signing today!

Learn more about the conflict: Spanish » | English »

Hola Aliados!

I need a favor!

Click HERE to quickly enter your zip code and find out who your representative is or call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak with your Representative's office.

Call, fax or e mail today! Today. Ask him/her to urge for an all inclusive ENDA. If you have time to say a little more click on this link for some important talking points.

ENDA would make it illegal for employers to discriminate against the LGBT community... Only that; as it stands now ENDA would exclude gender identity. Meaning that it would be legal to discriminate towards our Transgendered brothers and sisters. Legal.... To DISCRIMINATE.

As a member of the LGBT community, the passing of the bill as it is would not be a step forward, it would be a horribly devastating step back for everyone who has worked so hard for equality for ALL.

Congress will be voting on ENDA TOMORROW Wednesday, October 24^th

Please go to the AI Action page on ENDA and let us know how your call went!

Gracias!

Que maravilloso fuera vivir en un mundo sin enfermedades donde todos pudiéramos vivir sanos, desafortunadamente no logramos frenar las enfermedades en especial El Sida. Gracias a héroes como el sicólogo venezolano Jesús Aguais, de 41 años, soluciones existen para personas que sufren de este mal en Latinoamérica sin recursos médicos. Aguais desde los Estados Unidos ha logrado llegar a mas de 20 naciones, con su esfuerzo de luchar contra esta epidemia que ha cobrado muchas vidas. Su empeño por educar a jóvenes lo ha llevado a ofrecer clases de prevención del VIH y a distribuir medicamentos a personas contagiadas gratis. Aguais fundo su organización Aid For Aids (www.aidforaids.org) sin fines de lucro hace 11 años con el propósito de ayudar a combatir este mal y de prolongarle la vida a las personas infectadas.

APRENDA COMO USTED PUEDE RECIBIR AYUDA O AYUDAR

Para mas información visita la pagina de Internet abajo donde encontraras un video de Jesús Aguais hablando de la ayuda que ofrece.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/cnn.heroes/

As Dia de los Muertos approaches, let us remember the women of Ciudad Juárez and Guatemala. Over 400 women since 1993 and over 2,000 women since 2001, have been brutally murdered in Juárez and Guatemala, respectively. Their issue is an important one. We must keep it alive! We must continue to demand justice for our fellow mujeres. Please sign the petition and email the senate to help eradicate femicide today. ¡Corre la palabra! Consider making an altar or cross action (cross_action_07.doc) as an homage to the victims this Day of the Dead. Creating awareness inspires a change. 

Artwork: Rini Templeton

Many will be stun to discover that slavery still persists in the United States.  Nevertheless, we live in a society where we consume and buy products brought to us by people who are not adequately paid for the sweat of their labor, people who live in fear everyday.  In Nobodies: Modern America Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, award winning author John Bowe depicts the modern day working conditions of migrant farmworkers  and the hardships they endure to benefit corporations such as Burger king.

He takes us to the fields of Immokalee, Florida where we meet under-paid, sometimes not paid at all, undocumented immigrants who pick the produce we consume for huge corporate companies, such as Tropicana, PepsiCo, and Taco Bell.  Bowe personally interviews workers, which openly tell him their stories.  Most of these workers are found in situations where they are terrorized by their employers, work at gun point, and have no right to decent pay and to organize.

 He also introduces the work of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, which for years has been fighting for the rights of farmworkers in Florida.  This coalition has launched an active campaign against fast food chains and their suppliers. To learn more about the struggle of Immokalee farmworkers and join the CIW campaign, visit their website at http://www.ciw-online.org/

John Bowe does a great job at presenting the struggles between the unfree and the free, the rich and the poor.  This is a powerful book that will open your eyes to horrible reality of farmworkers in our country. To learn more about John Bowe and to read an excerpt from his book, please visit http://johnbowe.info/

Hello!

Below is our most recent call to action concerning human rights activist José Manuel Gómez. Please take a few minutes to read over his case and do your part to bring him and his family the justice they deserve.

Thank you!

José Manuel Gómez, an activist and member with the national Colombian human rights NGO, Comité Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (CPDH), received an electronic death threat on September 11th by the paramilitary group Black Eagles (Águilas Negras). The message indicated that they considered him to be a "terrorist" and a "guerrilla". For this reason, they have declared him to be a military target and decided to carry out their threat.

» Act Now!

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¡Hola!

Esto es uno de nuestros recientes casos humanitarios con respecto al activista de derechos humanos, José Manuel Gómez. Por favor tome unos minutos para leer sobre su persona y danos tu apoyo para traerle a él y su familia la justicia que merecen.

¡Gracias!

José Manuel Gómez, activista y miembro del ONG colombiano, Comité Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (CPDH), recibió una amenaza de muerte el 11 de septiembre. El mensaje fue por medio de un correo electrónico mandado por el grupo paramilitar Águilas Negras. El mensaje indicó que lo consideran un "terrorista" y un "guerrillero." Por eso, lo declararon un objetivo militar y determinaron a cumplir su amenaza.

» Actúa ahora!

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (also called "The DREAM Act") is a bill that has been introduced several times in the United States Congress that would provide a path to citizenship for immigrant students. It is intended to provide a path to a permanent legal status for persons brought illegally or legally to the United States by their parents or guardians as children. This includes individuals whose parents attempted to immigrate legally but were then denied legality after several years in application, thus deriving their illegal status solely from their parents as well as those initially brought here illegally. In most versions of the DREAM Act immigrants with current legal status brought here as children would also qualify.

The bill is sitting on Governor Schwarzenegger's desk. He has until Sunday, October 14 to approve or veto it. Please sign the online petition in support of it today!

Join UCLA today, Wednesday October 10 at 12:00 PM, and UC Berkeley tomorrow, Thursday October 11 at 12:00 PM, for their Dream Act Speak Outs! Email me at voluntarios@aiusa.org for more details.

Artwork: Rini Templeton

Amnesty International just released a statement urging US and Mexican lawmakers to consult with each other in order to ensure that human rights are protected in an upcoming transaction between the two countries. The deal, being dubbed "Plan Mexico" includes the US handing over a one billion dollar aid package to Mexico over the next 2 years that would be used towards Mexico's crackdown on narcotics trafficking.

I am and have always been a supporter of the US aiding Mexico or any other country in need and especially when it comes to ending the drug trade which is huge problem that impacts every part of Mexican society. However, If the U.S truly wants to end the drug problem and help Mexico they need to ensure that human rights are respected and that massive corruption does not negate the purpose of this treaty. My biggest beef with US/Mexico relations is that the US can and should be doing more to help its lovely neighbor to the south in addition to fighting the drug war (much of which is fueled by US consumption). Considering how many in the US tend to blame Mexico, Mexican Immigrants and drug trafficking, (not to mention the fact that a large part of the US was once Mexico, but I wont go off on that tangent) for troubles in the US, you would think that the US, a mega power with a large developing country along its borders would care more to ensure that that country was doing well in all aspects.

So, when I first read the headline in an article in the UK's Financial Times I was, of course, pleased to learn that a dialogue was taking place between my two homelands. Unfortunately, like with many political deals between the US and Mexico it is horribly flawed. The lack of a mechanism to ensure that human rights are observed, incorporated and enforced really bothers me.

If this plans continues as discussed it will be a billion dollar mistake possibly further empowering an infrastructure already riddled with corruption. There exits corruption in Mexican institutions, heck... many would argue that corruption exits in US institutions as well. I don't understand why no one in either government is flagging the fact that the plan will never work if it is not also approached from a fundamental human rights stand point.

I am not an expert or opposed to US aid to my homeland, but I hope this aid is able to serve its purpose and help Mexico while still respecting human rights.

I dont know everything there is to know on this issue and am by no means an expert. I just feel that you can't feed money into a problem without making sure that safety, rights and justice are not going to be sacrificed or ignored.

These are my thoughts and my statement. To read Amnesty International's statement click here!

-Eleazar

Happy first day of October Aliados! As some of you may know I recently began a two year stint as OUTfront Coordinator for Puget Sound/Seattle. I also work for Gay City Health Project, a local Non Profit where we are constantly trying to find ways to connect to Latinos and continually strive to build a healthy Gay Community. I was just talking with a colleague about how Amnesty International had a current action on sodomy laws in Nicaragua and how I was going to incorporate that action into an event I am organizing for the end of the month. 

I don't know about you but after meetings or events I always come home and need to get to work immediately. So I have been hard at work for the last 2 hours researching the heck out of Nicaragua.  Tonight was the second meeting of a group run by Gay City for Gay and Bisexual Latino Men. Our conversation on the challenges and benefits of being Latino Gay Men quickly led us all to talk about our respective countries of origin or ancestry and I got to think about Mexico and my experience in Mexico City not too long ago as a Mexican American Gay Man. Mexico City was a fun place to be Gay, I must admit, but most Latin American Countries as a whole have posed a challenge for members of the LGBT communities in them.

Nicaragua comes to mind along with Amnesty Internationals efforts to reverse a vague law banning Sodomy and other forms of Homosexual affiliation or associations. The thought that simply being associated with LGBT rights is cause for imprisonment and persecution is almost unbelievable. Nicaragua isn't some far off land with people I have never met. It is a unique place but not too different from here and from where a great deal of Latinos hail.

As Americans, we cant allow for any country, especially countries so close to home to criminalize a private act between two consenting adults, moreover criminalizing the support for LGBT rights.

I certainly stand for equal rights in the US with my support of measures like ENDA or my strong opposition to any ban on same sex marriage. However,  LGBT rights have to be as equal here as they are everywhere. We can have gay marriage or even a gay president in the US but it would be a disgrace to humanity if we didn't demand the same rights for everyone in every country. I suppose I am preaching to the choir here but in such an exciting and crucial time in American Politics and Civil Rights I encourage all of us to remember that simply writing a letter to a political leader in another country can create change for someone in perhaps a more dire situation.

Follow this link to take action on this terrible law. I am not advocating that we don't work on domestic issues but the awesome thing about AI is that we can be passionate about ENDA or Police Abuse in the US, but we can also sign an online petition to ensure the rights of activists in another countries. This way people can fight there for what we are free to fight for here.

On a side note: Aliados is awesome because I really feel like the issues we all bring to the table hit close to home, are diverse and I am learning so much reading all of your blogs.  

In Solidarity,

Eleazar  

Save the DATE!

 Casa de Maryland is organizing a rally to demand Domestic workers rights. Please see the information below.   

DOMESTIC WORKERS HAVE RIGHTS

 IT'S TIME TO RESPECT THEM! 

Join Casa de Maryland and the Coalition to Support Domestic Workers to demand rights for all Domestic Workers 

SAT OCT 13 12:30 PM

22^nd and C Streets NW, Washington DC

Closest Metro is Foggy Bottom (Orange line)

The march will start at the State Department and culminate at the Organization of American States to end diplomatic immunity in cases of Domestic Worker Abuse.

For more information call Alexis De Simone at 301-257-6034