Disappearances

Parents Of Disappeared Ayotzinapa Students Begin Indefinite Sit-In

September 24, 2023 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. Resist! Accountability, Ayotzinapa 43, Disappearances, Mexico, Military bases

On Thursday, September 21, parents of the 43 students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, who disappeared in September 2014, demonstrated in front of the Military Camp No. 1 in the capital Mexico City. Carrying large banners that read “Where are our children?”, “We are missing 43”, and “Because they were taken alive, we want them back alive,” among others, the parents demanded that the Mexican Armed Forces hand over all available information about the mass kidnapping and disappearance of their loved ones. The parents and relatives of the students, with the help of students from different rural colleges, set up a camp outside the camp and began an indefinite sit-in protest.

The Chris Hedges Report: Journalism And Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’

June 25, 2022 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Argentina, Dictatorship, Disappearances, Operation Condor

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Argentina’s civic-military dictatorship disappeared over 30,000 people, using death squads trained by the US as part of the now infamous Operation Condor. The victims were held in secret prisons, savagely tortured, and murdered. To this day, many families do not know the fate of their loved ones. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, former Buenos Aires Herald editor Robert Cox joins the show to recount his experiences reporting on the disappeared during Argentina’s “Dirty War.” Robert Cox is a British journalist who served as editor and publisher of the Buenos Aires Herald, an English-language daily newspaper in Argentina. Cox became famous for his criticism of the military dictatorship; he was also targeted by police forces and was detained and jailed, then released after a day.

Internationalist Solidarity And Support For Disappeared Defenders

June 14, 2022 Friends of the Earth International. Resist! Brazil, Disappearances, Indigenous Activism, Journalists

Friends of the Earth International expresses its concern, indignation and condemnation at the disappearance of Brazilian indigenist activist Bruno Araújo Pereira and Dom Phillips, a British journalist and contributor to The Guardian newspaper. The two men disappeared on the morning of June 5 in the indigenous territory Vale do Javari, in Brazil’s Amazonas state. The defenders were last seen as they made their way from the community of Ribeirinha São Rafael to the town of Atalaia do Norte (where they were expected). Both men were working on a project with the Indigenous group Unión de Organizaciones Indígenas de Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA). The Vale do Javari Indigenous Reserve was recognised and demarcated in 2001 and is inhabited by 26 Indigenous Peoples, among them peoples who live in voluntary isolation and others with recent initial contact.

Kenya: US Government Fueling ‘War on Terror’ Disappearances And Killings

November 26, 2021 Center For Constitutional Rights, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Disappearances, Kenya, US Imperialism, War on Terror

Family members of people disappeared and executed by police and paramilitary units in Kenya say the U.S. government is funding and fueling these abuses, and are demanding answers. Acting on their behalf, Mombasa-based Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) and its U.S. partners, the NYU School of Law’s Global Justice Clinic and the Center for Constitutional Rights, today filed Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests focusing on grave violations committed by Kenyan units “set up, equipped, trained, funded, and/or guided” by the U.S. government. The request comes after press investigations revealed that the U.S. government has close ties to a secretive Kenyan paramilitary team implicated in human rights abuses.

International Day Of The Disappeared

August 30, 2018 School of Americas Watch. Resist! Disappearances, Drug War, Guatemala, Mexico

This August 30th marks the International Day of the Disappeared, initiated by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared, FEDEFAM, an organization founded in 1981 at the height of US-backed state terrorism throughout Latin America. On this day, SOA Watch salutes the thousands of families who continue their unwavering search for their disappeared and celebrates the trials that continue to take place in spite of a legacy of terror and impunity that seeks to silence the demands for justice.

‘We All Know Someone’ Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women

April 11, 2017 Mary Annette Pember, www.rewire.news Educate! Disappearances, Indigenous Women, Murder

By Mary Annette Pember for Rewire - "It’s a hard struggle when a member of your family passes away. But this Day of Awareness can mean that her memory will live on forever.” This piece is published in partnership with the Indian Country Media Network. You can read other pieces about the missing and murdered Native women in the United States and Canada here. On February 15, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), the Indian Law Resource Center, and the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center co-sponsored a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The briefing, titled “Moving Ahead in Addressing Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Efforts to Address Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls...

Tens Of Thousands Of Child Refugees Are Missing In Europe

June 17, 2016 Vijay Prashad, www.alternet.org Educate! Children, Disappearances, Europe, Refugees

By Vijay Prashad for AlterNet - UNICEF–the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund–has released two reports on the tragic situation of refugee children who are fleeing areas of conflict and poverty for the West. These reports–Danger Every Step of the Way (June 5) and The Refugee Crisis in Europe (June 16)–are written with great understatement. They tell a few individual stories, accumulate statistical data of the problem and make pleas based on the international legal obligations on states.

No One Knows How Many Native Women Have Disappeared

April 16, 2016 Mary Annette Pember, www.rewire.news Educate! Disappearances, Indigenous Women, Murder

By Mary Annette Pember for Rewire - Although Trudi Lee was only 7 when her big sister went missing back in 1971, she wept when she talked about that traumatic event 45 years later. “Sometimes I would catch our mom crying alone,” Lee said. “She would never tell me why, but I knew it was over Janice.” Janice was 15 when she went missing near the Yakama reservation in Washington. Although her parents reported her missing to tribal law enforcement, there was never any news of the lively, pretty girl. “Mom died in 2001 without ever knowing what happened,” Lee said.

Egyptian Students ‘Kidnapped By Security Forces’

February 13, 2016 Staff, www.alaraby.co.uk Educate! Disappearances, Egypt, Students

By Staff of The New Arab - Mohammed Yousry Ali, an engineering student, was kidnapped by police while he was heading to see friends, reported Egypt's Human Rights Monitor, a group set up to act as a watchdog for violations of rights. Ali's family have made numerous complaints with the Attorney General and other relevant authorities, but have seemingly been ignored, and Egyptian authorities have refused to declare his whereabouts. The family said that since his abduction, they have faced "psychological hell" as they wait for news about their son.

Mexico Violence Never Ends, 5 More Disappeared By Police

January 17, 2016 Staff, http://www.telesurtv.net/ Educate! Disappearances, Mexico

By Staff for Telesur. Four police officers were detained in Mexico’s violence-ridden state of Veracruz Thursday for suspected involvement in the forced disappearance of five youth. A father and relative of one of the five said “Imagine the hell” when you find out your loved ones have been disappeared by the authorities. “Imagine, it's hell here … something similar happened to me seven years ago when they took my father, they asked for ransom, which I paid, and today I still don’t know where he is,” Bernardo Benitez told Aristegui Noticias. “Why do they do it? I don't understand. In the case of my son and nephew, I am sure that more than four police took part in the enforced disappearance, but the authorities will ignore all the rest who are involved.”

18 US Trained Military Arrested In Guatemala

January 16, 2016 Linda Cooper and James Hodge, www.ncronline.org Resist! Disappearances, Guatemala, Massacres, School of Americas, SOA Watch, Torture

By Linda Cooper and James Hodge for NCR - In a daring and historic move just one week before a new president takes office, Guatemalan authorities arrested 18 former high-ranking military men Jan. 6 for massacres and forced disappearances during the bloodiest years of the dirty war that particularly targeted indigenous populations. Most of the arrests resulted from an investigation that exhumed the remains of 558 people -- 90 of them children -- buried in clandestine mass graves on a military base in Cobán, formerly known as Military Zone 21. DNA testing identified victims who were killed or disappeared by the military in the 1980s.

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