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Costa Rica: SOA Graduate Arrested for Drug Trafficking |
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Written by Pablo Ruiz
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Wednesday, 02 August 2017 02:45 |
On June 21 of this year, José Pizarro Espinoza was arrested with 237 kilos of cocaine. In 2007, however, Pizarro had been nothing less than the Director of the Public Security Forces of Costa Rica.
According to online newspaper El Comercio, Pizarro “achieved that role thanks to his extensive training and his police career trajectory, where he gained knowledge that years later would be put into the service of the narco-trafficking cartels of Colombia and Mexico, according to investigations by the authorities.”
Pizarro received military training at the School of the Americas in Panamá, and by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
For Marcela Zamora, of the Costa Rica Friends Peace Center, “the arrest of Captain Pizarro, an SOA graduate, is a cause for concern because in the first place it shows us — as we had been warned — that the training has contributed to the creation of paramilitary groups like Patrol 1856 and the Patriotic Front for.National Defense. These groups were created with the excuse of defending our borders and thus justifying the establishment of a National Army — something which had been abolished more than five decades ago.”
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 02:49 |
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SOA Watch joins the Peoples’ Human Rights Observatory! |
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Written by Eduardo Garcia
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Wednesday, 02 August 2017 02:43 |
 As part of a commitment to active solidarity with the people and social movements of the Americas, SOA Watch joined the Peoples’ Human Rights Observatory this past June. The movement initiated by Father Roy Bourgeois 26 years ago started its participation in this effort during the First International Coordinating Assembly of the Observatory on June 13 and 14 and during the working sessions that extended until June 15 in the city of Oaxaca, in southwest Mexico. Thus, along with the Alliance for Global Justice, SOA Watch became part of the Observatory’s representation in the United States.
For three days, the People’s Defense Committee (CODEP in Spanish), a key member of the Observatory, coordinated the spaces where representatives of the indigenous and Afro-descendant communities of central and southern Mexico joined with social activists from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Palestine and the United States. The cornerstones of the conversation included the promotion of human rights in the Americas, solidarity with those who defend life outside the American continent, particularly in Palestine, the denounce of US imperialist aggression, as well as the defense of the environment and the territory against private and monetary interests.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 August 2017 02:51 |
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Carta Abierta en apoyo al Proyecto de Ley “Berta Cáceres” para los derechos humanos en Honduras |
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Written by Pablo Ruiz
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Friday, 21 July 2017 15:52 |
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Sign here / Firme haciendo clic aquí
Hace 8 años, el golpe de estado militar, realizado por la oligarquía hondureña en complicidad del gobierno de los Estados Unidos, instauró un periodo de represión y terror con el propósito de profundizar en grado extremo el saqueo y la venta del país a empresas privadas y el control del mismo por parte de una pequeña élite. Desde el 2009, mediante el apoyo y financiamiento de los EEUU, se ha implementado una agenda de muerte: privatización, neoliberalización extrema, militarización y represión en contra de los pueblos hondureños.
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Last Updated on Friday, 21 July 2017 16:27 |
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Colombia: In Solidarity With Political Prisoners |
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Written by Pablo Ruiz
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Friday, 14 July 2017 11:23 |
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This past June 20 to 25, I had the opportunity to participate in a Human Rights Mission to Colombia organized by Fundación Lazos de Dignidad and the Coordination for Human Rights in the Americas.
Among the activities we carried out was the visit to political prisoners of the Sixth Pavilion in the Chiquinquirá prison, whom today are staging a hunger strike, alongside over 1,500 organized political prisoners in different jails throughout Colombia. They demand the fulfillment of Law 1820, or the Amnesty and Pardon Law. This law will allow them to be free again. However, the judges arbitrarily, by hate and revenge, refuse to apply the law.
The political prisoners are members of the FARC-EP that signed the Peace Accords with the Colombian government, whom last June handed in the the UN their remaining arms. Today, the only arm they wish to hold onto is their word. It is necessary to say that the FARC-EP wants to transform itself into a movement or legal political group, and from there it will continue to fight for a more just Colombia.
We visited the “Mariana Páez” and “Simón Trinidad” Concentration Zones located in Buenavista, of the Mesetas Municipality, in the Meta department located in the Colombian mountains. On one side there are the guerrillas, and on the other, a group of political prisoners that have been brought to this place in compliance with the Peace Accords. Both Concentration Zones are in the process and transition towards a definitive standardization.
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Last Updated on Friday, 21 July 2017 15:57 |
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