OUR HISTORY

Task Force on the Americas was originally named Marin Interfaith Task Force. The group began in 1985 with the sanctuary movement around El Salvador and focus on Central America in response to US funded counter-revolution and terrorism.  Since then our scope has expanded to all of the Americas. We stand in solidarity with the social justice movements of Latin America and the Caribbean and in opposition to the US interference.

TFA conducts public education events and publishes a quarterly newsletter. We monitor the U.S. role – military, economic and political – in Latin America and respond to human rights violations with appropriate actions, which include an urgent action network

Working together with other groups such as School of the Americas Watch, Alliance for Global Justice, Rights Action, Pastors for Peace, Global Exchange, Let Haiti Live and Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, we increase our outreach and our impact.

Our volunteers seek to educate and inform the community through monthly public events and forums. Topics have ranged from structural adjustment and fair trade in the Americas to closing the SOA to ending the embargo against Cuba. Past speakers include noted linguist Noam Chomsky, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemala activist Jennifer Harbury, Pastors for Peace founder Rev. Lucius Walker, School of the Americas Watch activist Fr. Roy Bourgeois, and Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health (Haiti).

TFA has hosted West Coast premieres of important documentary films such as The School of Assassins, The Victims of the War in Chiapas, and Haiti: Harvest of Hope.

Our members have organized and participated in fact finding tours and election-monitoring delegations to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Early projects included providing continuous accompaniment to the Nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (1986-1991) and publication of a report detailing torture in El Salvador.

Recent projects include: support for an accompaniment program for witnesses of genocide in Guatemala; financial aid to schools in Chiapas, El Salvador, and Haiti; and support for a hospital in rural Haiti, a women’s clinic in Nicaragua, and women’s cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico.

In recent years TFA delegations delivered medical aid in Cuba and supplies to Cuban doctors working in Venezuela. TFA provided funds to cocoa farmers devastated by floods in the Dominican Republic, supported grassroots groups in Honduras, participated in the Haiti Accompaniment Project, and fiscally sponsored three others: SOPUDEP School, Haiti Information, and Haiti Victims assistance projects. We currently help support Accompaniment (on site activists) in Guatemala and Honduras.