✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here. Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning: Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime. And recognized as such by the US Government. From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.
Jo-Marie Burt
@jomaburt.bsky.social
I'm a professor, researcher and writer focusing on human rights and justice in Latin America. I teach at George Mason University and am a Senior Fellow at WOLA. Formerly President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).
🚨 URGENTE | #CasoDosErres La Corte Federal de Canadá revocó la ciudadanía a Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, exmilitar señalado como responsable de la masacre de Dos Erres (1982).
Excellent essay on Franco’s fascist Spain, which many on the right today are looking to for inspiration www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
‘We’ve Got to Kill and Kill and Kill’ | Dan Kaufman
As Francisco Franco’s reputation grows on the far right, a new history of his regime reminds us of its unrelenting violence toward Jews.
nybooks.com
🎉 Congratulations to Senior Fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social on being selected as Visiting Research Scholar & Professor at Princeton University for Fall 2025. She brings decades of experience, with her extensive work on transitional justice and human rights. 👇 plas.princeton.edu/people/visit...
Visiting Scholars
plas.princeton.edu
🇵🇪 "This amnesty law is a law that consecrates impunity," @jomaburt.bsky.social told The Guardian on Peru's controversial legislation protecting military and police from prosecution. 🗞️ Read the full article: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Peru enacts amnesty for military and police accused of human rights abuses
Families of victims and advocacy groups condemn law that covers internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000
theguardian.com
🇵🇪 TODAY: IACHR hearing on Peru's amnesty law that could free perpetrators of human rights violations. 📄 Read WOLA Senior Fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social's analysis on how this threatens to block justice for families and close the circle of #impunity in #Peru. ⬇️ www.wola.org/analysis/per...
Peru’s Amnesty Law: Closing the circle of impunity? - WOLA
Gisela Ortiz was 19 years old in 1992 when her brother Enrique was forcibly disappeared from La Cantuta University by a military death squad, along with eight other students and a professor. I first m...
wola.org
#Peru El gobierno de Dina Boluarte blinda a quienes buscan impunidad por crímenes pasados y presentes. El 21 hay audiencia en la Corte Interamericana de DDHH sobre esa ley que la Corte exigio su no aplicación por ser contrario al derecho intl. Y, la CIDH tendría que incluir Perú en el Capítulo 4b.
LASA condena la eliminación de los límites a la reelección presidencial en #ElSalvador @lasabluesky.bsky.social lasaweb.org/es/news/reel...
Declaración pública de condena ante la eliminación de los límites a la reelección presidencial en El Salvador
Declaración pública de condena ante la eliminación de los límites a la reelección presidencial en El Salvador
lasaweb.org
🇵🇪 🧵 "This is a dramatic setback" - WOLA Senior Fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social told @aljazeera.com on #Peru's pending amnesty law that could erase years of progress on cases of human rights abuses during the country's armed conflict. Read here👇 www.aljazeera.com/features/lon...
‘Dramatic setback’: Will Peru’s new amnesty law put justice out of reach?
Survivors of Peru’s internal armed conflict fear a new amnesty law will shield military and police from accountability.
aljazeera.com
“A dramatic setback.” The Schar School's @jomaburt.bsky.social breaks down Peru’s new amnesty law and how it could derail justice for human rights abuses. She shares insights with Al Jazeera: www.aljazeera.com/features/lon...
‘Dramatic setback’: Will Peru’s new amnesty law put justice out of reach?
Survivors of Peru’s internal armed conflict fear a new amnesty law will shield military and police from accountability.
aljazeera.com
“When you peel back all the connections, it’s hard to imagine this is not orchestrated. How can faculty feel safe, not just to exercise their academic freedom, but safe in their personhood, when you have extremist board members siccing their orgs on us.” — Bethany Letiecq, @aaupmason.bsky.social
Judge Removes Youngkin’s University Board Picks
The ruling in favor of state Democrats will likely be appealed.
insidehighered.com
NEW: We interviewed nine Venezuelan men who were sent to CECOT by the Trump administration. Some said their feelings about what happened were still raw. All of the men said they were abused physically and mentally during their imprisonment.
Now That They’re Free, Venezuelan Men Want the World to Know What They Endured in CECOT
Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration say they endured months of physical and mental abuse inside a Salvadoran prison. Though happy to be home, they say the fact that they were released ...
propublica.org
“.. At no point in the unfolding Epstein scandal has Trump focused on the young victims of these heinous criminals. .. The president has shown no concern for anything other than protecting himself.” @rexhuppke.bsky.social @usatoday.com www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Today the human rights organization Cristosal announces that it is ceasing operations in El Salvador due to the climate of repression and intimidation imposed by the Bukele regime, which has now definitively crossed the rubicon into dictatorship. www.reuters.com/world/americ...
Exclusive: El Salvador rights group flees Bukele's deepening crackdown
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's drive to consolidate his grip on power and crack down on critics and humanitarian organizations has forced a leading human rights organization to suspend operations in the country and go into exile, the group told Reuters.
reuters.com
The United States government is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/u...
As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas
nytimes.com
#30dejunio Hoy conmemoramos a más de 200,000 víctimas asesinadas y 45,000 desaparecidas durante el Conflicto Armado Interno. Este día también es un llamado a la memoria crítica, al rechazo de la militarización y a la búsqueda de #justicia.
Final vote. 50-50. VP breaks the tie. One single GOP Senator could have stopped this abomination. Saved millions of parents from watching their child go hungry. Saved the lives destroyed when Medicaid disappears. They will all live forever with the horror of this bill.
En un perverso recuerdo de la anulación de la condena a Ríos Montt por genocidio en 2013, la CC anula todo lo actuado—mas de 100 audiencias—del juicio contra Benedicto Lucas García, exgeneral acusado tb de #genocidio. Impunidad tu nombre es #Guatemala. prensacomunitaria.org/2025/06/cc-f...
CC favorece al general Benedicto Lucas y anula el juicio por Genocidio Ixil
La Corte de Constitucionalidad avala por mayoría el cambio de tribunal ordenado por la Sala de Mayor Riesgo en el caso contra el militar acusado de delitos contra los deberes de la humanidad y desapar...
prensacomunitaria.org
61 years ago today, the Klan murdered three civil rights workers in Mississippi. One of them was a childhood friend. I'd like to share what he meant to me. https://youtu.be/u-kv3wdqqNo?si=Zc3Uh-CJOcODt-RW
When the KKK Murdered My Childhood Friend | Robert Reich
As the shortest kid in school, I was an easy target for bullies. When I was about eight, I befriended a kind teenager wh
youtu.be
American Spring? How nonviolent protest in the US is accelerating wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/amer...
American Spring? How nonviolent protest in the US is accelerating
Contrary to conventional wisdom, anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed 2017 in size, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful.
wagingnonviolence.org
Padilla: If this is how DHS responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California.
A DHS spokesperson defended the detainment, accusing Sen. Padilla of failing to properly identify himself during Sec. Kristi Noem's press conference. But multiple videos show Padilla clearly identifying himself as a senator.
Sen. Padilla pushed to ground, handcuffed for demanding DHS not lie
Forcibly removing a sitting US senator, as they opposed the president's immigration policy, is a part of a broader slide.
motherjones.com
Luz Ibáñez is one of the ICC magistrates absurdly sanctioned by the US government for investigating US personnel. As a prosecutor in her native #Peru, she helped convict Abimael Guzman, the feared leader of Shining Path.She has more cojones than Rubio will ever have. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/u...
State Dept. Imposes Sanctions on International Criminal Court Judges
nytimes.com
‼️ Today ‼️ 🇬🇹 A verdict is expected in the second case brought by the Maya Achi women, survivors of sexual violence during Guatemala’s armed conflict. WOLA Senior Fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social, with Paulo Estrada and Keily Colíndres, break it down 👇 🔗 nacla.org/indigenous-w...
Indigenous Women Survivors of Guatemala’s Rape Camps Seek Justice
Forty years after surviving state violence, Maya Achi women return to court to demand justice, challenging a long legacy of impunity for crimes against humanity.
nacla.org
"Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power ... With that done, power can rewrite history with grotesque, false narratives. They can make criminals heroes and heroes criminals." trib.al/oyBvPkF
The 35 richest Republican members of Congress have a net worth of $2.5 billion. They stand to gain from the GOP budget's tax cuts that disproportionately help the rich. Meanwhile, they're cutting Medicaid and food assistance for millions of their constituents.
🇬🇹 In 2022, Maya Achi women won a landmark case for wartime sexual violence. Now they seek justice against 3 more accused. A May 30 verdict looms. ✍️ WOLA senior fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social joins Paulo Estrada & Keily Colíndres to break it down in NACLA. 🔗 nacla.org/indigenous-w...
HASSAN: What is habeas corpus? NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country HASSAN: That's incorrect
What happens if the Executive tells the Marshals to ignore a court order? Steve Hirsch, John Hill, and Christie Wentworth argue that courts have tools—and a duty—to respond. 👇 #RuleOfLaw #SeparationOfPowers #USMS www.justsecurity.org/113218/feder...
When the Executive Defies the Judiciary: How Federal Courts Can Enforce Their Orders Without the Marshals
Federal courts possess a number of tools to ensure the U.S. government is held responsible for failing to enforce or execute court orders.
justsecurity.org
Happy Mother's Day. It's a moral outrage that we're the only industrialized country without paid family and medical leave.