Get Informed and Take Action: Protect Central American Democracy

Democratic institutions are under attack in Central America. Over the last week, the governments in Guatemala and Nicaragua have rejected United Nations efforts to advance justice and human rights in both countries, while in Honduras, increasingly violent attacks against human rights leaders combine with escalating restrictions on freedom of expression.
For 15 years, Alianza Americas has worked across borders to demand democracy, justice, and human rights for people across the Americas, including the migrants caught between two cruel realities: the escalating democracy, poverty, and violence that decimate their home countries and the inhumane and outdated immigration system that plagues the United States
As the United States puts asylum out of reach for those who desperately need it, heartbreaking scenarios—like this summer’s separation of thousands of migrant families—will become a new normal.  Indeed, even as hundreds of children remain separated from their parents, a new family separation crisis looms: More than 276,000 children of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders are set to be separated from their parents when TPS programs for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti end next year.
In light of these most recent developments in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, Alianza Americas has collaborated with dozens of civil society organizations across the United States and Latin America to demand protections for Central American democracy.

• In Guatemala, President Jimmy Morales has stalled the governments’ efforts to address impunity and corruption by deciding not to renew the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), established by the United Nations in 2007.  Alianza Americas has collaborated with the Latin American Working group on this letter (English and Spanish) calling on President Morales to reverse his decision to end the CICIG’s anti-impunity efforts in Guatemala. Please feel free to use this press release to share to your networks.
• In Nicaragua, following months of political opposition and repression that has left hundreds of people dead, disappeared or injured, President Daniel Ortega has closed the country to international human rights observers. More than fifty  organizations across the Americas have signed this letter to demand that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) remain in Nicaragua.
• In Honduras, increasingly violent attacks against human rights leader Father Ismael (Melo) Moreno Coto and his organizations, ERIC and Radio Progreso, threaten one of the country’s only independent media outlets. Alianza Americas and its more than fifty members prepared this declaration expressing support of Honduras’ democratic institutions and protection for human rights.  You can take action today by signing on to this letter to Heidi Fulton, the highest ranking official in the US Embassy in Honduras calling on the US Government to protect human rights defenders and suspend security assistance to Honduras.

Alianza Americas remains committed to its transnational mission to keep migrants safe, keep them out of detention, and keep families together. Consider becoming one of our #AlliesAcrossBorders to support our critical mission.