Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Don’t miss the opportunity to see the work of Pedro Miguel Gonzalez Pulido, an internationally recognized sculptor from Cuba, at two galleries in Chicago.  The opening of his exhibit at Calles y Sueños Gallery is this Saturday January 28 at 7pm at 1900 S. Carpenter in the Pilsen neighborhood.  His exhibit at the Swarm Gallery at 2902 N. Clark will open on February 17 at 7 pm.  Pedro Pulido has been creating sculpture and exhibiting his work internationally for more than forty years as well as teaching sculpture at the university level as well as in sculpture projects for young people in Cuba. 

In partnership with the Albany Park Theater Project (APTP), CRLN is organizing a fundraiser around APTP's upcoming production entitled Home/Land! In this show, the award-winning APTP ensemble brings to vivid theatrical life stories of desire, risk, resilience, heroism, love, and hope as immigrant families strive to stay together and make a better life in the land they've come to call home.

CRLN is organizing a group to attend the 8pm performance on Friday, Feb 17^th  at The Laura Wiley Theater, Eugene Field Park, located at 5100 North Ridgeway in Chicago. Tickets with the CRLN group will be sold for $36 and include a pre-show reception with light refreshments, a group of great people with whom to watch and reflect upon the show, as well as a post-show discussion hosted by the Albany Park Theater Project. To purchase tickets, please call or e-mail Erica Spilde at ESpilde@crln.org or 773-293-3680.

Please consider making a year-end contribution to support CRLN's work on behalf of human rights, economic justice, and peacemaking in our hemisphere.

You can donate with a credit card online (www.crln.org/membership) or by sending a check to CRLN's office: 4750 N Sheridan, Ste 429, Chicago, IL 60640. It is your contributions that make our work possible.

Here is how CRLN is making a difference: 

Priests, Pastors, Rabbis, lawyers, advocates, and community members gathered on Monday, December 12^th at 11 am to call for an end to unjust conditions and the expansion of the inhumane system of immigration detention in a press conference at the Chicago Temple, 77 W Washington.  A new report on the state of immigration detention in the Midwest will be released by the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights.  Leadership of the Interfaith Committee on Detained Immigrants called for an end to the human rights abuses that occur in Illinois and beyond.
Click here to download the report

Rep. Danny Davis with IL District 7 Constituents from First United of Oak ParkEcumenical Advocacy Days Conference March 23-26, 2012

Join the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) in the nation’s capitol, Washington, DC for the 10th Annual Ecumenical Advocacy Day (EAD) Conference.  The 2012 EAD Conference theme, “Is this the Fast I seek” will offer a faith based vision for a just economy and a healthy livelihood, along with training on key policy issues and grassroots advocacy –culminating with lobby visits on Capitol Hill. Participate in emotive worship, thematic dialogue, informative workshops with policy experts and lobby visits with US policy makers.  Area specific workshops will be offered on Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Domestic U.S., Eco-Justice, Global Economic Justice and Peace & Global Security. 

For more information, contact Corinthian by email at cdavis@crln.org or by phone at (773) 293-2964. Or visit http://advocacydays.org/ for more information about this year’s conference.

 

Friday vigil returns to Broadview Detention Center

The weekly Friday morning vigil that was temporarily moved to 101 W Congress Parkway has been moved back to the Broadview Detention Center because the facility has been re-opened for processing of deportations.  

Interfaith Vigil for Immigrant Justice  at Broadview Detention Center

Join us the first Friday of every month for an interfaith prayer vigil at Broadview Detention Center at 1930 Beach St, Broadview, IL 60153.  Every other Friday of the month the vigil is centered on the Catholic Rosary.  Everyone is always welcome to participate any Friday of the month in this important and powerful public witness.  

Join the Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition, Sisters of Mercy, Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Office for Immigrant Affairs & Immigration Education of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and other members of the religious community in a vigil to stand in solidarity with those being deported, the families of those in detention or facing deportation and be a public witness to the injustices of our broken immigration system. 

Updated: 12 November 2011 

59 Killings in 2011

 

05 November 2011 - José Luis Lemus Ramos, age 32 and the father of two children age 4 and 7, died at 2:00 a.m. en el Hospital Catarino Rivas, in San Pedro Sula, Cortés, from gunshot wounds fired by security guards of René Morales on 01 November 2011 in the Aguán.  (FIAN)

 

01 November 2011 - A group of campesinos farmers and children belonging to the Authentic Struggle Organization of the Campesinos of Aguán (MARCA) were attacked by a patrol of heavily armed security guards of René Morales.  The campesinos were returning from a cemetery having visited the graves of family members on the Day of the Dead.  As the campesinos neared the palm oil processing plant owned by René Morales, guards began firing against the group of farmers who were traveling in a vehicle, assassinated Catalino Efrain Lopez, the father of six children who died instantly, while Jose Luis Lemus and Nilda Funez were wounded by bullets.  Jose Luis Lemus is hovering between life and death.  Nilda Funes was shot but her life is not at risk.  Nilda Funez is liaison for the Human Rights Commission of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) in the municipality of Trujillo for the campesino sector.  On one of the occasions in which the Honduran army violently evicted the settlement of La Despertar, they took Nilda's vest that identified her as a defender of human rights, tore it, stomped on it and burnt it. They told her that if she didn't disappear from the scene of the eviction the same thing that happened to her vest would happen to her; the same thing happened on that day to two other human rights defenders. (FIAN)

 

22 October 2011  - Alejandro Rafael Vargas Castellanos, age 22, the son of National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) president Julieta Castellanos, and his friend Carlos David Pineda Rodríguez, age 24, were found murdered in Tegucigalpa at kilometer 8 on the highway that leads from Tegucigalpa to southern Honduras. Rafael Vargas and Carlos Pineda left a friend's birthday party called their relatives to say they were heading home, the police spokesman told reporters.  Relatives began to search for the young men when they failed to arrive home.  AlejandroVargas was in his last year of law school.  Carlos Pineda was finishing a degree in sociology.  The motive for these murders remains unclear. However, since these murders have subsequently been shown by video to have been carried out by uniformed police, and one of the victims is the son of the national university rector who is a member of the government's own Truth & Reconciliation Commission, it is reasonable to conclude at this time that political motives may be behind these two murders.  Photo: Carlos Pineda (El Tiempo, Latin American Herald Tribune)

Can't make the November 18-21 SOAWatch Vigil to close the School of the Americas?  Here's a way you can help support SOAWatch's efforts:  participate in the Heartland Athletes United for Peace's 5k Harvest Run!  All proceeds will go to SOAWatch.

Date:  November 20

Time:  8:00 am

Place:  Heartland Café

            4000 N. Glenwood

            Chicago, IL  60626

Run will take place in Loyola Park along Lake Michigan, with a post-race meal available.

GHRC Speaker Tour by Guatemalan Human Rights Defender Maria Choc.

Maria will be speaking about Guatemala and the ongoing struggle for land, justice and indigenous rights at various venues around the city. Please see the details below to find out when and where Maria will be sharing her story.

Maria Cuc Choc is a 32 year-old Guatemalan Q'eqchi' woman who, at great personal risk and sacrifice, accompanies indigenous farming communities in their struggle for land and justice.