October, 12 2016, 01:30pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Yvette Arellano, T.E.J.A.S., arellano.inbox@gmail.com
Jaron Browne, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, jaron@ggjalliance.org
Oil-impacted Communities from Across the Country Descend on Energy Transfer Partners in Houston in Solidarity with Standing Rock
#NoDAPL actions spread across the country following Indigenous Peoples Day
HOUSTON
Grassroots leaders from oil and energy-impacted communities across the country will gather at the Houston offices of Energy Transfer Partners for a prayer action in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of water defenders mobilizing against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In one of the largest environmental justice mobilizations in history, Standing Rock water defenders have drawn together more than 5,000 people representing over 280 Indigenous Nations and Tribes and forced a federal injunction against one of the largest oil pipeline projects in North America. Energy Transfer Partners has drawn national attention for driving both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the equally controversial Trans Pecos Pipeline, that has also violated the rights of Indigenous Peoples in West Texas, and poses significant threat to the water and land for many communities in Texas.
What: Prayer Action Opposing both the Dakota Access and the Trans Pecos Pipelines
Where: Energy Transfer Partners, 1300 South Main Street, Houston, TX 77002
When: 1:30pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Who: Environmental and Climate Justice Organizations Across the Country.
The Trans Pecos & the Comanche Trail Pipelines are being constructed to transport huge amounts of natural gas through the pristine Big Bend region under the sacred Rio Grande & into Mexico. Energy-impacted communities from Richmond CA, Chicago, Kentucky, Arizona, the Gulf Coast, New York, New Jersey, and national environmental organizations are all aligning with local organizers in Texas to oppose both the Trans Pecos Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline and call for a Just Transition to renewable energy alternatives.
"Clean water is a basic human right that should be afforded to everyone. No treaty, law or structure should have to reinforce a necessity, yet we understand that we live in a world driven by corporate greed that sacrifices sacred lands, vulnerable populations and people of color. I am humbled by the solidarity and courage grassroots, big greens and supporting organizations from all over the country are demonstrating to face Energy Transfer Partners at their doorstep in the house of the largest petrochemical complex of the nation. Together we press forward, rise and demand a clean world for future generations in our struggle to survive." - Yvette Arellano, T.E.J.A.S.
"It gives me great pleasure to see the networking that has arisen from finally deprogramming from forced and coerced corporate dependency on oil; to recognize the importance of Native Original People of Texas (NOPOT) as the intricate thread in holding accountable the oil super PACs for the destruction of humanity through the pollution of the four elements of life: Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. Please join us in this walk of sending our voices for Mother Earth. We call on the criminal Kelsey Warren and Energy Transfer Partners to stop the cycle of Genocide of NOPOT and Texas Tribal Ancestors by ending the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Trans Pecos Pipeline and the Comanche Trail Pipeline. AH'E YA'T PAYESE'L. Water is life!!" - Juan Mancias, Tribal Chairman, Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas
""From Chicago to Houston we stand with all of our communities impacted by the oil and gas industry in fighting back. It took us twelve years to shut down the two coal plant in Chicago and we commit to fighting until our communities have justice. While these companies think they have only money and stocks to lose we have to remind them it's our lives and world at stake." - Kim Wasserman, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), Chicago
"The fossil fuel industry and their financiers have desecrated our land and communities for decades, deeming communities of color and poor communities sacrificial in their conquest for profit. Today they threaten our collective futures from the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in ND to the Trans Pecos Pipeline in Texas. Yet, our universities remain invested in this violent industry. We stand with the Water Protectors and support the calls for divestment from Energy Transfer Partners and the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Divestment Student Network stands with Standing Rock for the protection of life, dignity, and self-determination." - Jess Grady-Benson, Divestment Student Network
"The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives stands in solidarity with the indigenous freedom fighters and allies from Standing Rock to West Texas. Our "dig, burn, dump" economy has entrenched us in an unsustainable system that we must move away from."
- Ahmina Maxey, The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
"There is no way to build these pipelines that will be safe or in 'the public interest,' as fossil fuel companies would like you to believe. Both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trans-Pecos Pipeline are dirty, large-scale fossil fuel projects that will put money in the pockets of high-paid executives while exploiting black and brown communities, releasing an enormous amount of greenhouse gasses and limiting our ability to leave a healthy world behind for generations to come. We need to end this cycle by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and putting resources towards the just transition to a 100% renewable energy economy." - Everette R. H. Thompson, 350.org
"We stand in deep solidarity with our Indigenous brothers and sisters banded together to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline. Our fights are quite literally one: the Gulf South is where that Bakken crude oil will eventually end up for refining and transportation. We are already on the frontline of environmental disasters, like the BP oil catastrophe, which we are still recovering from. It is time to put an end to extractive energy production, and the exploitation of our land and labor that comes along with that." - Jayeesha Dutta, Radical Arts and Healing Collective, New Orleans
NoTPPL NoDAPL Solidarity March FB Event
tejasbarrios.org
Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) is a national alliance of US-based grassroots organizing (GRO) groups organizing to build an agenda for power for working and poor people and communities of color. We understand that there are important connections between the local issues we work on and the global context, and we see ourselves as part of an international movement for global justice.
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Starmer Expected to Resign as PM, But UK Left Warns of 'More of the Same' From His Replacement
Jeremy Corbyn said Andy Burnham would be "accepting too much of the austerity that we've had imposed upon us" and "doesn't appear to be doing anything different internationally."
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to announce as soon as Monday that he will resign, according to new reports, as Labour supporters abandon the party.
But many on the left remain skeptical that his likely replacement, Andy Burnham, will truly bring the "change" he promises.
Britain's Observer newspaper reported on Saturday that the prime minister appeared "resigned" to stepping down, well aware that "support isn't there" for his continued leadership amid the party's dismal unpopularity.
Though Starmer swept away nearly a decade and a half of Conservative rule in 2024, his honeymoon has been short-lived. His embrace of austerity in the face of a cost-of-living crisis and his government's ferocious crackdowns on pro-Palestinian speech have left progressive supporters seeking alternatives like the ascendant Green Party.
Meanwhile, his hard-right pivot on immigration has done little to siphon votes from Brexiteer Nigel Farage's far-right Reform UK party, which currently leads in national polls.
The immediate trigger for Starmer's reported resignation was Burnham's victory in Thursday's Makerfield by-election, which marked the former mayor of Greater Manchester's return to Westminster. Burnham comfortably defeated a Reform UK candidate, and The Guardian reported that he was expected to have support from about 200 Labour MPs in a leadership challenge against Starmer.
Burnham emphasized during a victory rally that it was "a last chance to change" Labour as it heads for electoral oblivion.
Responding to what he said were requests from constituents to "do something to make life more affordable," Burnham called for an end to "trickle down economics," with government interventions to bring down utility bills and rail fares, public procurement of businesses, pushes for reindustrialization, and job guarantees for people ages 16 to 18.
But some leaders on the British left have warned that Burnham will do little to deviate from Starmer's failures.
While he has pledged to reverse Starmer's welfare cuts and privatizations of public services, Burnham has also committed to maintaining the party's spending limits, which may make significant changes impossible.
Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour Party from 2015-20, said that while he personally likes Burnham, "his basic economic strategy and views... seem to me to be accepting too much of the austerity that we've had imposed upon us."
The ex-leader also said Burnham "doesn't appear to be doing anything different internationally," noting that he has not given a straight answer on whether Britain should conduct an inquiry into the UK government's policy on Gaza and its supply of weapons to Israel.
Burnham has also drawn criticism for saying he would maintain Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has spearheaded hard-line changes to UK asylum policies and has enforced the repressive ban on Palestine Action, which has led to the arrest of thousands of nonviolent protesters, many of whom have been charged with terrorism.
"The architect of Labour’s cruel plans on settled status and persecution of free speech and protest stays in place," said Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who said it was a sign of "more of the same."
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Petro Demands Release of Colombian Activist Held as 'Political Prisoner' by ICE
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Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Saturday demanded that US President Donald Trump “tell the people of Colombia” where activist Beto Coral is after he was detained by immigration agents this week following his criticism of Trump’s preferred candidate in Colombia’s presidential election.
Coral, a progressive activist and Petro supporter, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his Phoenix home on Tuesday, immediately after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo claiming that Coral “has used his presence in the United States to conduct political activity in support of the Petro government.”
His family says they now have no idea where he is.
Atención: El activista colombiano @Betocoralg me llamó hace unos minutos para decirme que agentes de inmigración de @ICE lo están arrestando en este momento en Arizona, aparentemente con la intención de deportarlo. Está con su hijo que es menor de edad pic.twitter.com/sjlaGQdc4Y
— Daniel Coronell (@DCoronell) June 17, 2026
Coral is the son of Humberto Coral Caballero, a police captain who was involved in the 1993 operation that located and killed the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. His father was murdered just four months later, in a case that remains unsolved.
The younger Coral immigrated to the US in 2015 on a six-month tourist visa. He later applied for asylum in the US, saying he faced danger from drug cartels in Colombia.
Although the US Department of Homeland Security has also accused him of overstaying his visa for 10 years, the State Department memo pointed to his political activity.
“Allowing [Coral] to remain in the United States,” Rubio's memo said, “undermines US foreign policy interests in Colombia’s democratic processes and signals that foreign nationals may use US platforms to conduct politically motivated disinformation campaigns and litigation targeting foreign democratic actors without consequence.”
The memo reflects the State Department policy of seeking to deport foreign nationals explicitly over their expression of political viewpoints at odds with the Trump administration, particularly pro-Palestinian student activists such as Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia University and Rümeysa Öztürk of Tufts University.
Rubio’s memo also noted that Coral had opposed the right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, a former criminal defense lawyer supported by Trump, who has pledged to “disembowel the left” if he takes power in Colombia’s presidential runoff on Sunday.
Petro has accused De la Espriella of being a “defender of narcoparamilitaries,” citing his legal defense of armed right-wing groups tied to massacres, assassinations, forced displacement, and drug trafficking.
In a message from detention, Coral said that his arrest "is a sign of what can happen" if De la Espriella, whom he described as a "defender of mobsters and criminals," becomes president of Colombia.
According to The New York Times, Coral’s arrest is the first known instance in which Rubio has targeted an immigrant in the US over their advocacy in a foreign election.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called it an example of "free speech under attack" by the Trump administration.
"Marco Rubio just had a man arrested and jailed, and is seeking to deport him, because he publicly criticized a presidential candidate in Colombia that Donald Trump would prefer to be elected," he said, adding that Coral "committed no crimes and had an asylum application pending."
Beto Coral fue nuevamente trasladado este día por las autoridades migratorias estadounidenses. Su familia asegura que desconoce su ubicación actual y advierte que su nombre ya no aparece en el sistema oficial ICE Locator, situación que ha incrementado la preocupación y la… pic.twitter.com/cNh4qYy0fI
— Beto Coral (@Betocoralg) June 19, 2026
The 40-year-old Coral was arrested after returning to his Phoenix home with his 12-year-old son. Coral had recently been in Miami, where he said he'd filed a lawsuit against De la Espriella, whom he'd previously accused of illegally recording phone calls between the two.
Coral's former partner, Tatiana Camacho, told the Times that De la Espriella had contacted Coral multiple times "so he would retract his statements.”
US Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said Tuesday that Coral’s detention pointed to “coordination between American officials and Colombian political actors in this arrest—that would amount to our government aiding and abetting transnational repression.”
McGovern noted that he had helped lead legislation cosponsored by Rubio in 2023 to counter transnational political repression while Rubio was still a senator.
"Now he’s abetting it himself," McGovern said, "by weaponizing the law to punish free speech and help Trump’s right-wing buddies."
A Friday post from Coral’s X account stated that he had recently been transferred between facilities by immigration authorities, that his family does not know his current whereabouts, as his name no longer appears in the official ICE locator system.
Alberto Coral hijo del oficial de policía, capitán Humberto Coral Caballero, que fué asesinado en el operativo policial contra Pablo Escobar, es ahora, un preso político en EEUU.
Solo por el apoyo político que el secretario de estado de los EEUU Marcos Rubio dió al defensor de…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 20, 2026
On Saturday, Petro said he “demands” that Trump “tell the people of Colombia where [Beto] Coral is,” referring to him in another post as a “political prisoner.”
“Solely because of the political support that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave to Abelardo de la Espriella, a defender of the genocidal narcoparamilitary forces against the Colombian people, who suggested his capture, he has been detained and beaten by the US government, separating him from his family,” Petro said. “[Beto] Coral sought asylum in the US because drug trafficking mafias could have murdered him 10 years ago, and the anti-migrant attitude toward South Americans has not even allowed for his authorization.”
“What will the members of Colombia’s Public Force—which carries out the world’s largest cocaine seizures—think if the states that benefit from them reject and torture even the sons of those fallen in combat against drug trafficking?” Petro asked.
He continued: “I request the solidarity of the governments of the world and the world’s human rights organizations to free the prisoner of conscience [Beto] Coral.”
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Israel's 'Sabotage' of Peace Agreement Working Again as Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz in Response to Lebanon Assault
"When will Trump impose consequences for this obstructionism?"
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Israel’s attempts to sabotage the peace agreement between the United States and Iran appear to be working again, with its relentless attacks on Lebanon reportedly prompting Iran to once again close the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, mere days after it reopened.
"In light of the United States' clear bad faith and breach of its commitment to implement the first clause of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for ending the war, and in response to the continuous and ongoing violations of the ceasefire by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon, it is hereby announced that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to maritime traffic," said the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters of the Iranian armed forces on Saturday.
US Central Command claimed that traffic through the strait had continued, with 55 commercial ships traveling through it, though it was unclear when those crossings took place.
The announcement that the strait had once again closed came after days of escalating attacks by Israel despite the memorandum of understanding signed this week, which included terms for a ceasefire “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
🇮🇷 Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Israel’s continued violations of the Lebanon ceasefire have placed the entire U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding in jeopardy, with Washington failing to uphold its commitment to restrain Israel.
Baghaei said the… pic.twitter.com/kDDXLg2wZK
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 20, 2026
A ceasefire mediated by the US and Qatar between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on Friday afternoon despite continuing bombardments by Israel earlier in the day that killed 47 people and wounded 97 after Hezbollah killed four Israeli soldiers occupying Lebanese territory.
Within an hour of the agreement taking effect, Israel began carrying out additional attacks across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley that continued through the night and into Saturday. One strike, on a three-story apartment building in the town of Barish in the Tyre district, reportedly killed a mother, father, and their two children, while wounding 12 others and leaving seven trapped beneath rubble.
Israel said its continued attacks were in response to Hezbollah’s firing of projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah said it launched as Israel attempted to further expand its occupation toward the strategically important Ali al-Taher hills “under the cover of the ceasefire.”
JD Vance on Fox & Friends this morning: "One of the things the president has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the straits. That's now happened." (The strait has since been closed lol) pic.twitter.com/iulcWtvUdR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 20, 2026
Israel’s leaders have explicitly stated in recent days that they have no intention of abiding by any ceasefire reached between the US and Iran, leading President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to issue uncommonly blunt criticism of Israel’s tactics.
Quoting a senior Trump adviser on Friday, Zeteo reported that behind the scenes, the president is "madder at the Israelis than the Iranians," believing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag him back into a war that has brought his popularity to new lows and sparked a global economic crisis.
Just as it has for months, Israel’s tried-and-true tactic of raining hell upon Lebanon every time a US-Iran ceasefire appears close seems to be working once again. The wave of attacks earlier this week led peace talks in Switzerland planned for Friday to be postponed.
As Iranian negotiators departed for Switzerland on Saturday, Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said little was likely to happen there unless there was evidence that the US would “fulfill its obligations.”
Those obligations include stopping Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing campaign in southern Lebanon, which has now killed more than 4,000 people, wounded nearly 12,000, and led to the forced expulsion of more than 1.2 million Lebanese civilians by Israeli forces.
"Israel is still trying to sabotage the ceasefire with Iran by continuing to launch attacks in Lebanon," said Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch. "When will Trump impose consequences for this obstructionism?"
Iran’s military says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz over Israel’s attacks on southern Lebanon that have killed at least 32 people since dawn.
Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall joins live from Tehran. pic.twitter.com/bwyOo65QBX
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 20, 2026
The renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz raises the stakes considerably for the Trump administration, which has described opening it and restoring economic normalcy as a core objective, with Trump warning of “bedlam” in a matter of weeks if the deal fails and the critical oil shipping route remains closed.
James Bays, the diplomatic editor for Al Jazeera, explained that as Iranian diplomats prepare to negotiate with the US, they feel that "now is a time of maximum leverage" and that they are "using that weapon now" to try to force the US to restrain Israel.
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"For the MOU to hold and result in a lasting peace, we must restrict aid to Israel immediately and make it clear that we will not defend them should Iran opt to strike in response to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon," he said. "Israel has not responded to our verbal and written demands—that is not going to change, unless we change it by taking action."
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