Report from Panama
During the week of March 11, Quixote Center, together with our partners with the Franciscan Network on Migration, organized and led a group of U.S.-based immigration advocates and policy experts to visit the migrant path in Panama, starting with the treacherous Darien Gap. Our Panama colleagues released a report in response to what we witnessed at the Darien.
Our colleagues note the following concerns:
Update on Quixote Center Work in Haiti
Haiti continues to appear in unsettling news reports. There is a new presidential council which seems to have already split into factions. The violence in the capitol continues unabated, with many Haitians living in fear, and most with life-threatening food insecurity.
In Haiti: Every Day is Earth Day
Quixote Center began its Haiti work in 1999. The first of many projects was a partnership with the Jean Marie Vincent Center in Grepen to restore the forest on a mountainside called Tet Mon. In 1999 the mountain was bare; today it is home to more than 200,000 trees. With your help, Quixote Center continues to sustain the forest by covering the cost of maintenance and security. The Tet Mon forest has become a model for the whole region.
Defending the Rights of Migrants in Panama
For Additional Information, Contact:
Kim Lamberty, Executive Director, Quixote Center
kim@quixote.org; 301-699-0042
Take Action for Haiti
Haiti is desperate. According to the UN special envoy to Haiti, criminal gangs control 80% of the capital and are moving further and further into other parts of the country, leaving many people trapped in their homes with little means to feed their families, or forced to flee their homes with nothing. Scarcity of gasoline and water, and high prices of essential products are transforming an already distressed State into ashes.
Human Rights in Panama’s Darien Gap
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
-Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 13/14
The Intolerable Role of the United States in Haiti
Haiti’s capital has shut down. With gangs in control, the airport is closed, roads are blocked and the de facto prime minster is stuck in Puerto Rico.
Quixote Center Travels to Panama
Beginning on Monday, March 11, Quixote center will be leading a group of nine advocates to bear witness to the migrant experience in Panama.
Migrants face extreme conditions crossing through Panama’s treacherous Darien Gap; and yet desperation led 500,000 migrants to pass through last year alone.
Homeland InSecurity
We are getting closer to unpacking the complicated web of laws and agencies responsible for preventing U.S.- made weapons from getting into the hands of criminal elements in Haiti.
On Wednesday Quixote Center convened partner organizations together with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff director in charge of global trade violations and export enforcement coordination.
Armed Gangs Invade Gros Morne
Last week saw days of violent protests in Haiti. Thousands took to the streets across the country to demand that de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry step down, as required by law on February 7.
