James Patrick Jordan

Interview with Victor Osorio, President of Colombia’s Memoria Viva Security Guards Union

This interview with the Memoria Viva Union’s president Victor Osorio is available in Spanish on the AFGJ Youtube Channel The Memoria Viva (Living Memory) Union of bodyguards is the largest union in its sector. They are made up almost entirely of signers to the 2016 Peace Accord who ended the armed insurgency in favor of…

Interview with Wilder Andrey Téllez Gonzalez, Colombian teacher, union member, eco-defender, and human rights defender

Police, Repression, and Popular Movements in Colombia: Webinar this Thursday, September 15, 8p ET, 7pm CT and Colombia, 6p MT, and 5p PT. Featuring presentations by Colombian Congressperson Alirio Uribe, Juan Esteban Martínez (Campaña Libertad Ya), Camille Landry (AFGJ), Alberto Bejarano (Trabajo y Justicia—Grupo Jurídico), and Stephanie Ortiz (Fundación Lazos de Dignidad). Moderated by Nina…

Are We Witnessing a Preemptive Coup in Colombia? – Take ACTION!

  (ESPAÑOL ABAJO: Activistas acorralados en Colombia antes de las elecciones, Los Detenidos en Cali se declaran en huelga de hambre – Actúa Ya) Young activists are being detained just days before elections as part of the Ministry of Defense’ “Plan Democracy.” Many are saying that the plan is really an attempted “preemptive coup” to…

Disability rights are human rights – and they affect ALL of us

By James Patrick Jordan (Program Coordinator) Talking about disability Language matters, and in the case of people with disabilities, it matters a lot. Ableism, exclusion, and misconceptions are held up by a foundation of words that are still abundant in U.S. society. The very concept of “ability” is a continuum that varies from person to…

Security, Empire and Life in the USA

by James Patrick Jordan Originally published in  Catalán by the magazine Revistat, and in English, by CovertAction Quarterly The word “security” conjures a couple of distinctly different and conflicting images. One is of human beings living in safe, viable, and sustainable communities, where individuals can freely develop their full potential, not hindered by threat and…

Death Squads threaten Colombian Human Rights Defender Darnelly Rodriguez twice in two weeks

We are very worried for the safety and security of Centro Pazífico coordinator, Darnelly Rodriguez. On November 19 2021, she received the second of two death threats in two weeks. This threat came from the AGC paramilitary group. She was listed along with several other social movement and union leaders in a pamphlet that was…