Category Archives: Migration

Draw The Line for people, for peace, for the planet

Global Days of Action for systemic change on issues of debt, migration and ecology are set for Sept. 19-21. In Canada, several networks are focusing attention on Saturday, Sept. 20 – a National Day of Action.

With rallies, strikes, marches and gatherings, communities will mobilize across the country to demand that Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Canadian government pick a side: injustice, violence, and climate destruction – or a just and safe future for all of us.

For more information and to find an event near you, follow this link. Some of the Canadian organizations involved include the Climate Action Network, Migrant Rights Network and Indigenous Climate Action, among others. 

The campaign in Canada has these demands:

  • Put people over corporate profit. Fund our families and communities. “We refuse to accept poverty while the wealthy hoard billions.”
  • Refuse ongoing colonialism. Uphold Indigenous sovereignty. “Canada continues to enforce colonial violence through Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people, mass incarceration, child-welfare systems, the underfunding of services, and destructive development across Indigenous lands. … We refuse colonial violence and demand radical transformation away from capitalist systems, justice for MMIWG2S, the return of land to its rightful titleholders, and funding for Indigenous housing, languages, land-based economies, and Indigenous-led climate solutions.”
  • Stop blaming migrants. Demand full immigration status for all now! “Denied permanent status, migrants who grow food, build communities, and care for the sick face exploitation, wage theft and exclusion from services. Corporate elites scapegoat migrants to hide the real culprits: landlords, grocery monopolies, and bank CEOs profiting off our misery.”
  • End the war machine. Stand for justice and peace. “We demand an immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel, cancelling Canada’s plans to balloon its military budget, and a foreign policy based on diplomacy and peace-building.”
  • End the era of fossil fuels. Protect Mother Earth. “We demand Canada end all fossil fuel subsidies, kick fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists out of politics, make polluters pay, invest in a Youth Climate Corps and publicly-owned East-West electricity grid, and do its fair share globally by cancelling unjust debt and funding climate solutions in the Global South with grants, not loans.”

The global campaign focuses on systemic change. 

“All over the world, people and communities are fighting for survival, for their rights, for justice in the face of economic turmoil, ecological and climate catastrophes, political instability, vicious attacks on fundamental human rights, militarization, and, in places like Palestine and Sudan, genocide.”

This September, let us carry the following demands:

  • Change the System through an equitable and just transition towards a world that is in harmony with nature and centered on people – communities, workers, women, farmers, fishers, pastoralists, youth, children, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, people of color, LGBTQI*, and future generations
  • Phase out fossil fuels – fast, fair, feminist, and forever; Shut down polluters; Build renewable energy systems that work for people and planet; Shift from high-carbon agro-industrial farming to agroecology and sustainable, resilient food systems that prioritize healthy staple food production for domestic consumption and the right to food
  • Fund the future, not the crisis! Tax multinational corporations and billionaires; Cancel the debt; Deliver climate finance; Divest from war, fossil fuels, and harmful projects; Scale up quality public services; Support people and community-led solutions; Finance the transition to resilient, sustainable, and equitable economies. 
  • Reclaim the Commons for sustainable support for life; Respect and uphold the territories of Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities; Restore the health of ecosystems; Stop extractivism
  • Defend Human Rights and Reclaim Democracy; End war and genocide; Demilitarise and work for peace based on justice
  • End inequalities across countries and within countries: Democratize global economic and financial governance; Make trade, investments, and tax systems just and fair; Redistribute wealth and power; End colonialism, patriarchy, and racism; Build solidarity across peoples and nations

Time to end the hypocrisy on global debt

by Jim Hodgson

“From collapsing ecosystems to collapsing economies, our communities have been battered by a storm of climate chaos, debt distress, deepening inequality, and systemic exploitation. These crises are the direct result of a global economic system built to extract from our lands, our people, our futures—so the rich and powerful can thrive off our suffering.”

That was the message May 29 of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), a Manila-based network that calls for change in debt, climate, economic and development systems.

In June 2024, Pope Francis and other church leaders around the world launched a new Jubilee campaign for debt cancellation. In Canada, the call is taken up by KAIROS, the Canadian Council of Churches and by Development and Peace (D&P) — among others. KAIROS launched a “Turn Debt into Hope” Jubilee 2025 petition that by June 13 had been signed by more than 36,400 Canadians.

Promoters of the campaign gathered for a People’s Forum in Calgary this past weekend ahead of the G7 summit and joined Sunday’s protests in the heart of the city. The Catholic Register reported on the event:

Salome Owuonda, executive director at the Africa Centre for Sustainable and Inclusive Development (Africa CSID), spoke about the consequences of crushing debt in Kenya…. She told participants that in her East African country “50 per cent of revenue generated is directed toward paying debt” and that puts health care, education, climate action and food security at risk. “And things are not getting better,” said Owuonda. “The government is calling for more taxes as they have to try and pay the debt.”

Dean Dettloff, a research and advocacy officer at D&P, shared that over “3.3. billion people in the world live in countries that spend more paying the interest of their debt than health care and education.” He added that many nation states also direct more funds to these expenditures than safeguarding the environment.

Tarek Al-Zoughbi, a Palestinian Christian who serves as the project and youth coordinator at Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Centre in the West Bank, spoke about the suffering in Gaza and many countries around the world.

Al-Zoughbi said that during this Jubilee year, we “must begin to recognize this image of God that is in each of us and that is in the spirit of creation.” He called for an end to environmentally exploitative practices that contribute to ecological debt. 

Some readers will recall the the Millennium Jubilee of 2000, which mobilized millions globally to demand debt cancellation for nations in the Global South. KAIROS reminds us:

In Canada, this movement took shape as The Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative, the country’s most successful faith-based advocacy campaign. This powerful campaign, led by church-based justice organizations, KAIROS’ predecessor coalitions, and the Canadian Council of Churches, played a crucial role in achieving over $100 billion in global debt relief.  

Yet, 25 years later, a worsening global debt crisis continues to affect vulnerable populations, exacerbated by rising interest rates, climate change, and economic inequality. An unacknowledged “ecological debt” owed by the North to the South and Indigenous Peoples further exacerbates the crisis.

Global “Financing for Development” system is part of the problem

When Pope Francis launched the new Jubilee debt campaign a year ago, he called for a “new international financial architecture” that breaks the financial-debt cycle that has contributed to a current global debt now estimated at $313 trillion. 

That APMDD statement that I referred to above presses hard on that global financial architecture, describing a “rigged system” that favours creditors. It criticizes the Financing for Development (FfD) process, which was created to ensure fair and just financing for development and climate action—especially for the Global South. “Instead, it has become another space for the Global North to rewrite the rules to protect their power, shirk their responsibilities, and advance false solutions. Their hypocrisy is most glaring when it comes to climate finance.”

At the end of June, world leaders will gather in Seville, Spain, for the fourth international conference on financing for development, dubbed FfD4. (I attended an ecumenical pre-event at the first FfD conference in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2002 and wrote about it here.) In recent months, negotiations on the outcome document have sparked intense civil society campaigning. 

The Global Policy Forum said June 17 that the final draft retains an intergovernmental process for managing debt, but weakened its mandate to making “recommendations”. Critics argue that this could kill whatever hope remains for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as “debt crises strangle fiscal space and derail the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.” Global Policy Forum describes some of what is gone from the outcome document (referred to now as the “Compromiso de Sevilla”):

The paragraph on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies (27i) has been deleted entirely, as well as the specification of asset types to be covered by national and global asset registries (28g). The language around the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Convention was also softened just two months before the first round of negotiations starts: “We support” was downgraded to “we encourage support” (28b).  A similar change occurred in the paragraph on investor-state dispute settlement, where the “we undertake reform” was replaced by “we support efforts to reform” (43l).

Meanwhile, the rich countries led by the United States are cutting international aid and increasing their military spending.

The G7 meeting near Calgary issued a series of statements (CBC, left) but one searches in vain for anything about debt cancellation or development assistance. The statement on “migrant smuggling” fails to address the question of why people leave their homes or how development aid and peace-making strategies can ease the problem.

The APMDD statement concludes:

“We are here to expose the Global North—not just for failing to deliver climate finance, but for actively sabotaging it in bad faith. This is no accident. It is a calculated strategy to protect their profits and deny justice to those they have exploited for centuries…. We see through every lie. We reject every excuse.”

Justice denied: U.S. sends Venezuelan asylum-seekers to Salvadoran prison

Even in the face of the Trump regime’s horrific arrests, extraordinary renditions, and forced disappearances of immigrants and asylum-seekers, there are shreds of hope.

Activists and journalists are gradually identifying and sharing the stories of victims, including the 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans shipped to a prison in El Salvador on March 15. And judges and some politicians are more vocal in support of “due process”—the U.S. constitutional guarantee of at least being heard before being deprived of liberty—for all migrants.

One group has built a website: thedisappeared.org. They make prominent use of the blue triangle, the symbol used by Nazis in their concentration camps to designate migrants. About the 238 Venezuelans, they say: “There is no evidence to support the allegations that they are hardened criminals.” The group also posts on Facebook.

Above on the left is Andry Hernández Romero, age 31. I learned of his case the way many others did. A photojournalist, Philip Holsinger, met the airplanes that brought the Venezuelans to El Salvador and then accompanied them to the prison. A man who caught Holsinger’s attention shouted “I’m innocent” and “I’m gay,” and was crying as his head was shaved. From Holsinger’s photo, friends and family members identified him as Andry. Details of his situation were covered first in LGBTQIA+ media (The Advocate and the Washington Blade) and later by NBC, CBS and elsewhere. His lawyer has mobilized political support in California, including that of Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia.

The disappeared.org site draws attention to many other cases, including that of two-year-old Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal (below) whose father, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, was sent to the prison in El Salvador. She and her mother Yorely Bernal Inciarte, were supposed to be sent together on a deportation flight back to Venezuela—part of her homeland’s “Vuelta a la Patria” program for citizens willing to go home. But the United States refused to return the child to her mother before she left.

When Yorely arrived back home alone, Venezuelan media and the government took up the family’s cause (image on the left, above). So too did CodePink (right), a women’s peace network in the United States with which I have collaborated to draw attention to the negative impact on Venezuelans of U.S. economic sanctions. 

The Disappeared shared a piece from a group called United Strength for Action about the U.S. role in creating the disaster that Venezuelans face. I can’t concur with all the group said–many people in the United States just can’t see the historical context of U.S. imperialism–but I am relieved that they at least acknowledged the role of U.S. sanctions in creating a humanitarian crisis that drives the exodus of refugees. “This wasn’t foreign policy; it was collective punishment that pushed millions of Venezuelans past their breaking point.”

Since 1998, successive U.S. administrations have done all they could to be rid of Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez: a coup attempt in 2002, a “revocatory” referendum in 2004, the effort to impose a “president” (Juan Guaidó) whom nobody had voted for, and through waves of sanctions. Given the failure of those efforts to induce regime change and seeing the flow of migrants out of Venezuela, President Joe Biden for a time tried a different approach, one of dialogue and engagement. The early weeks of Trump’s administration gave some hope this could continue, but the hard-liners seem to hold sway once again.

At a May Day march, President Maduro vowed to “rescue” Maikelys along with the Venezuelans now held by El Salvador. He also spoke directly to the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have tried to reach the United States in recent years: 

“Stop going there. The true dream is that of our land to build with our hands. Stop being victims of xenophobia, of abuse… The only land that will welcome you and serve you like the prodigal son is called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We must take care of it, fertilize it, and build it. This homeland belongs to all!”

Maduro emphasized Venezuela’s right to build its own social model. “We have the right to true democracy, to our cultural identity. We are not gringos. We are proudly Bolivarian, Latin American, Caribbean. We are Venezuelans!”

Venezuela says it is willing to receive people deported from other countries. Between February and April 25 this year, 3,241 Venezuelans had returned on 16 government-funded flights. Yorely (the mother of Maikelys) came home on just such a flight.

Two more issues. Trump officials say that the people sent to jail in El Salvador were linked to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang, and that they used tattoos to identify the gang members.

It’s good to see “mainstream” media like The New York Times (left) and Wall Street Journal (right) join the rest of us rabble-rousers in calling attention to the Trump regime’s actions.

Trump’s executive order decreeing the deportations said the gang is “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

But that is not true. In an article for The New York Times, a team of experts on violence in Venezuela said Tren de Aragua is not invading the United States. Nor is it a “terrorist organization,” and to call such “criminal groups terrorist is always a stretch since they usually do not aim at changing government policy.” The article goes on to show that Tren de Aragua is not centrally organized, though members were involved in migrant smuggling and the sexual exploitation of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Chile and Peru. 

The NYT piece adds that even U.S. intelligence officials do not believe the Maduro government is colluding with the gang, the key assertion in Trump’s justification for invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to render Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.

Immigration officials used tattoos to “determine” if someone was linked to Tren de Aragua, but the authors of the NYT piece say Venezuelan gangs (unlike Salvador groups like the MS-13) do not use tattoos that way. “Many young Venezuelans, like young people everywhere, borrow from the global culture of iconic symbols and get tattoos. That doesn’t mean they’re in a gang,” they wrote.

Moreover, the Tren de Aragua gang network in Venezuela is largely dismantled.

“The Tren de Aragua is cosmic dust in Venezuela; it no longer exists, we defeated it,” President Maduro said March 19. He was quoted by the English-language Orinoco Tribune in a longer article about the gang’s history in Venezuela.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello questioned whether all deportees were Tren de Aragua members, and demanded the US extradite captured suspects. “The US is acting in a confusing manner. They promised to send us Tren de Aragua members, but they have not. Someone there is lying.”

* Update, May 14 * Two-year-old Maikelys has been re-united with her mother in Venezuela. Her father remains in the Trump-Bukele prison in El Salvador. See the statement from CodePink.