Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Venezuela's Democratic Electoral ProcessLast Friday, representatives of 47 countries were present in Venezuela at the swearing-in ceremony for their president-elect Nicolas Maduro. Yet one nation was glaringly missing: the United States. The refusal of the US to recognize the winner of last Sunday's election is damaging our own nation. CRLN recently signed onto an organizational letter initiated by the Alliance for Global Justice calling on Secretary of State Kerry to respect the autonomous and democratic elections in Venezuela.

You can send your message to Secretary Kerry too! Please click here to demand that the U.S. respect Venezuela's electoral process and stop intervening in Venezuela's democracy.

The "Gang of 8" Senators introduced Bill S. 744, A Proposal for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Read the full bill here. Find summaries of the bill here.

Leer un resumen del proyecto de ley aqui.

Illinois is a key state in the push for Comprehensive and Compassionate Immigration Reform!  Two of our elected officials are in the forefront of this push: Senator Durbin and Congressman Gutierrez. 

YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE! Please see below on how you can support the efforts for a Comprehensive and Compassionate Immigration Reform. 

On April 5-10, CRLN members were in our nation's capital to join with other groups as part of Ecumenical Advocacy Days in education and action on human rights in Latin America, Immigration, and a host of other issues.  Members met with their congressional representatives, as well as the offices of Senators Kirk and Durbin.  On the home front in Chicago, we called our represenatives' offices to reinforce the efforts toward comprehensive, compassionate immigration reform.  One of our Immigrant Welcoming Congregations, St. Nicholas Parish, delivered 300 postcards to Sen. Kirk's office on April 10, which were received by the staff.

Urge President Obama to grant general licenses for ALL purposeful categories of travel, doing away with the laborious license application process through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Contact your House Representative TODAY to encourage her/him to sign on to Rep. Farr’s Dear Colleague letter that supports granting general licenses for all of the current categories of travel to Cuba. Remember to thank Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL 9th district) for being one of the first signers!

In a 2011 executive order, President Obama included academic and religious travel in the categories of travel covered by a general license and re-instated specific licenses for people-to-people travel. This change made it possible for CRLN to once again send a delegation to Cuba without applying and waiting for permission, but many are still barred or discouraged from travel to Cuba. Granting a general license to all purposeful categories of travel will mean that the many groups doing people-to-people trips now would not need to wait each year to see if their license will be renewed. This will be one more step toward our ultimate goal of ending all the travel and trade restrictions of the U.S. embargo of Cuba. 

Read the "Dear Colleague" letter or download the attached pdf.  Please act today to make it possible for more people to see Cuba for themselves!

Between 2006-2012, there were 7,441 human rights violation complaints filed against Mexico's military. Zero of these complaints have led to a conviction in Mexico's civilian court system. And, according to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), not a single soldier or federal police officer was sanctioned for any of the human rights violations filed in 2010 and 2011. Representatives Jim Moran and Ted Poe have drafted a Dear Colleague letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to make human rights a central part of our bilateral agenda with Mexico. This is a strategic moment for Congress to weigh in with the Obama Administration as President Obama prepares to visit Mexico May 2nd - May 4th.

So far, only a few representatives have signed on. That's why we need your help! Click here to send your member of Congress a quick email urging them to sign on to this important letter. 

Stephen with family on his 60th birthdayCRLN is greatly saddened to report that Stephen Coats, the founder and director of the US Labor Education in the America's Project (USLEAP), died in his sleep the night of April 1.  Stephen was a valued colleague and great friend of CRLN.  Stephen had an amazingly generous spirit, a brilliant mind, an activist faith in God, and an unshakable commitment to human rights and justice struggles in our hemisphere.

  

Joliet is Considering Building a Private Immigration Detention Center that would harm many families in the state of Illinois

 

Rally against CCA For-Profit Immigrant Prison with Congressman Gutierrez

When: 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm Saturday, April 6^th

Location: Azteca De Oro, 1013 Collins St, Joliet, IL 60432

Contact: Jesse Hoyt - JesseHoyt@icirr.org 

"We demand justice"Yesterday, March 18, 2013, was Day 1 of the trial of former President and retired General Rios Montt for genocide of the Maya Ixil people.  This is a small subset of the many Mayan people whom Rios Montt attempted to destroy during the scorched earth campaign in the early 1980's during his presidency, but the one for which the prosecution thinks it has the most conclusive evidence.

We at CRLN would like to share with you an email we received from someone in Guatemala who attended the first day of the trial.  We cannot reveal the name because of the person's safety concerns, but we print the impressions here to keep you abreast of some of what happens during the trial and how it is being received by those who have been longing for justice for years for the manycivilian Mayas killed in Guatemala during the time of Rios Montt's presidency.

To read daily posts about the trial, see the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA blog at 

http://www.riosmontt-trial.org

The reflection follows:

"Colombia Quiere la Paz": Colombia Wants PeacePlease ask your U.S. Representative to sign the Rep. McGovern and Rep. Schakowsky's Dear Colleague letter calling for meaningful and inclusive peace in Colombia! To find your Rep and make the call, click here! 

 

The Peace Process is under way between the Colombian Government and the FARC. But for over fifty years, Colombia has been engaged in an internal conflict that has left over five million displaced, thousands of victims of violence, and a country yearning for peace. Colombians have suffered through unspeakable violence, forced displacements, kidnappings, widespread massacres, threats against unionists and human rights activists, and the social exclusion of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.

One of CRLN's reasons for being is to connect people living in the US with the views of Latin Americans working with communities struggling for political, social and economic inclusion.  Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president until he died last week, was viewed as a powerful ally by those who formerly felt that their concerns were not addressed by the Venezuelan political process.

 

We reprint here a personal reflection on what Hugo Chavez meant to her by Lisa Sullivan, who  has lived and worked in Venezuela for twenty-eight years and translated for Venezuelan nun Sr. Eugenia Russian Sole at the 2007 CRLN Annual Luncheon.  Lisa is also Latin America Liaison for the School of the Americas Watch, an organization with which CRLN has partnered since its beginnings.  Here is her reflection:

YO SOY CHAVEZ, TU ERES CHAVEZ, TODOS SOMOS CHAVEZ

Reflections by Lisa Sullivan on the death of President Chavez

Barquisimeto, Venezuela    March 5, 2013

In the past hours my inbox is bursting with messages of condolences from El Salvador, Haiti, Chile, California, Oregon,Spain, Michigan, Italy, North Carolina, Costa Rica, Miami, Nicaragua, Japan, Honduras, and just about everywhere in between, expressing solidarity with my loss. The notes are profound and personal.  It's as though Chavez were my father.