| Congress: Stop Bankrolling Militaries! | | 
| | | Dear Supporter,
Would you be fine with Congress funding rape, torture, and violence? Didn’t think so. In this time of budget constraints, you would think and hope that Congress would be drawing lines in the sand so that our foreign aid to Latin America does not fund abuses. Some representatives in the House, however, beg to differ.
Sign our petition and demand Congress to stand for human rights!
Some members of Congress who oversee foreign aid want to outright eliminate human rights conditions tied to military and police assistance for Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala. These conditions are one of the ways we can try to ensure the United States does not do business with human rights violators. Congress has a short memory if it is willing to bankroll militaries and police forces with long histories of abuse with no strings attached. x25ba; Colombia: Of the over 3,000 extrajudicial executions allegedly committed by members of the security forces, the vast majority remains unpunished. x25ba; Honduras: 149 civilians have been killed by the police in the past two years alone. As violence has soared, so has impunity. Crimes committed by both police and military personnel have not been investigated. x25ba; Mexico: Since 2006, when former President Calderón deployed tens of thousands of soldiers across Mexico to take on public security matters in an effort to combat organized crime, Mexico has seen a significant increase in the number of reports of human rights violations committed by Mexican armed forces. Between 2003 and 2006, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received 691 complaints of human rights violations committed by the armed forces. This figure surged to 4,803 reports of human rights violations between 2010 and 2012.
x25ba; Guatemala: The military is increasingly used for law enforcement, leading to abuses. In October 2012 soldiers fired on and killed 6 indigenous protestors and wounded 34. The military continues to fail to fully cooperate with investigations into human rights violations committed by members of the armed forces during the civil war. Send a message to those that will decide: Support human rights, not abusive militaries!
We don't believe military aid to Latin America is ever a good idea. PERIOD.
But, if military aid continues to flow despite our objections, there must be strong and enforceable human rights conditions linked to it. If not, there is zero accountability. Rape, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, torture, and other grave human rights violations continue to be committed by members of the armed forces of Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. As taxpayers, and members of the human rights community, we insist that Congress ensure our tax dollars aren’t used to violate human rights or line the pockets of corrupt officials.
Tell Congress you don’t want your tax dollars used to violate human rights!
Thanks for all you do, Lisa, Jenny, Mavis, Emily, Ruth, Omar, Vanessa, and Jeanette
The LAWG Team  
|
No comments:
Post a Comment