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CRLN - Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

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CRLN - Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

We ally with and connect organizations in the U.S.

and Latin America to participate in transnational social movements to build sustainable economies, just relationships and human dignity.

09/24/2026

🎉 LA PEÑA + EXHIBIT CLOSING

Join us Sunday, September 27 at 4PM, as we close out a month of art, culture, language, music, and resistance with La Peña — an afternoon to gather, share, enjoy art and music, support local vendors, and celebrate community.

Featuring music by Ramón Marino, Alma de Izote, and special guests.

We’ll also celebrate the closing of Gráficas de Resistencia: Salvadoran Posters of Rebellion and Resistance, our month-long exhibition exploring the art and history of Salvadoran resistance.

Come spend the afternoon with us, see the exhibition one last time, and celebrate with community.

ESPAÑOL

🎉 LA PEÑA + CIERRE DE LA EXPOSICIÓN

Acompáñanos el domingo, 27 de septiembre a las 4PM a cerrar un mes de arte, cultura, idiomas, música y resistencia con La Peña — una tarde para compartir, convivir, disfrutar del arte y la música, apoyar a vendedores locales y celebrar en comunidad.

Con la participación musical de Ramón Marino, Alma de Izote y artistas invitados.

También celebraremos el cierre de Gráficas de Resistencia: Afiches Salvadoreños de Rebelión y Resistencia, nuestra exposición de un mes sobre el arte y la historia de la resistencia salvadoreña.

Ven a pasar la tarde con nosotros, disfruta la exposición por última vez y celebremos juntxs en comunidad.

09/15/2026

CRLN was proud to join organizations and immigrant rights leaders from across Illinois at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) 2026 People’s Congress yesterday Monday, September 15, 2026.

We are living through escalating attacks on immigrant communities, including ICE raids, abductions, federal funding cuts, and efforts to undermine our rights. Building a stronger movement is essential. We come together to organize, resist, and build collective power for a future where immigrant and refugee communities are protected, valued, and free.

09/09/2026

GRÁFICAS DE RESISTENCIA:
SALVADORAN POSTERS OF REBELLION AND RESISTANCE**

What can art tell us about resistance?

Join us Thursday, September 10 at 6:00 PM for the opening of Gráficas de Resistencia, featuring political posters from the private collection of Salvadoran artist Ramiro E. Ochoa.

Created during decades of political struggle in Central America, these posters are more than art—they are historic memory and traces of movements that came before us.

The evening includes a conversation between Ramiro E. Ochoa and Nicaraguan graphic artist Carlos Barberena, moderated by CRLN Co-Director Jhonathan F. Gómez.

📅 September 10 | 6:00 PM
📍 18th Street Casa de Cultura
2057 W. 18th St., Chicago

Part of ¡Mesoamérica Resiste!, a September series exploring Central American resistance through art, music, language, culture, and social movements.

09/03/2026

¡Mesoamérica Resiste!

This September, CRLN and 18th Street Casa de Cultura are glad to partner with Alma de Izote and CEIBA Colectiva for a series of events that explore Central American resistance.

As we enter the month when Central American independence is celebrated, we invite people to look beyond the traditional narratives of nation-states, independence, and colonial history—and to explore how people across the isthmus have resisted and continue to resist colonialism, neocolonialism, exploitation, and state violence through art, music, language, culture, and the work of social movements.

Throughout the month, we’ll come together for an art exhibit featuring Salvadoran resistance posters, conversations on Central American social movements, a program for children exploring Nawat and Maya K’iche’, a workshop on Indigenous languages and everyday culture, and an evening of music and community gathering.

These events are an opportunity to remember, reflect, and question the official stories of independence and the power of the state, while celebrating the people and communities who continue to fight every day for human rights, dignity, and self-determination.

Join us as we celebrate how the people of Mesoamérica continues to shape their own history.

📍 18th Street Casa de Cultura
2057 W. 18th St., Chicago, IL 60608

¡Mesoamérica Resiste!

08/29/2026

CRLN is glad to attend the Mygration Christian Conference 2026 at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and connect with the interfaith immigrant justice community.

This year’s conference brings together pastors, scholars, organizers, and community leaders to reflect on migration, faith, and what it means for churches and faith communities to respond with courage and solidarity at a time when immigrant communities are facing heightened ICE enforcement.

It was especially good to reconnect with colleagues and friends, including Rev. Paco Amador and Rev. Julian DeShazier.

We’re grateful for the space to continue to build collective action for immigrant justice.

08/21/2026

🇸🇻

Geovanni Aguirre, a youth and union organizer from El Salvador has been unjustly imprisoned for more than four years by the Bukele government. Arrested after organizing in his community and participating in a peaceful May Day protest. He is facing the possibility of years behind bars through a mass trial that denies him adequate legal defense and an individualized judicial review.

Geovanni is a political prisoner and a victim of the Bukele regime’s systematic repression against human rights defenders, unionists, and social movement leaders under the guise of its “war on gangs.”

We demand his immediate freedom.

Learn more and take action: cispes.org/FreeGeovanni

/

Geovanni Aguirre, joven organizador comunitario y sindicalista salvadoreño, ha sido encarcelado injustamente durante más de cuatro años por el gobierno de Bukele. Fue detenido después de organizar en su comunidad y participar en una protesta pacífica del Primero de Mayo. Ahora enfrenta la posibilidad de pasar años en prisión mediante un juicio masivo que le niega una defensa legal adecuada y una revisión judicial individualizada.

Geovanni es un preso político y víctima de la represión sistemática del régimen de Bukele contra defensores de derechos humanos, sindicalistas y líderes de movimientos sociales, bajo el pretexto de su “guerra contra las pandillas”.

Exigimos su libertad inmediata.

06/24/2026

🇨🇴
SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA AFTER THE ELECTIONS
June 24, 2026

CRLN stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Colombia at a critical moment. We stand with communities across Colombia and the diaspora defending life, dignity, peace, and democracy in the face of violence, disinformation, and political intervention.

We stand with Colombia because its democratic future is rooted in the struggles of its people—from Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities to workers, women, youth, and human rights defenders—who have long fought for justice.

Recent gains for peace, democracy, and social justice remain fragile amid threats of renewed militarization, oligarchical control, and political violence.

The defeat of progressive candidate Iván Cepeda, committed to continuing the reform agenda of President Gustavo Petro, marks a setback for progressive forces and reflects a broader regional trend of rising neo-authoritarian, far-right, fascist political currents across Latin America.

The electoral victory of Abelardo De La Espriella must be understood in light of widespread concerns regarding foreign intervention, vote-buying allegations by third actors, and broader irregularities documented by political actors, observers, and civil society organizations. International human rights-based methodologies understand electoral integrity as encompassing not only procedural findings but also the political environment, foreign interference, and conditions under which democratic participation takes place. In this context, questions of legitimacy extend beyond the formal outcome to the conditions under which that outcome was produced.

What happens in Colombia reverberates across the continent.

Read the full statement here:
https://crln.org/post-election-solidarity-statement-with-colombia/

06/20/2026

THE FUTURE OF COLOMBIA BELONGS TO ITS PEOPLE: DENOUNCING U.S. INTERVENTION IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF
June 20, 2026

The Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) stands with Colombia at a critical moment in the country’s democratic history. It is not hyperbole to say that much is at stake for the Latin America continent in these elections. Colombia has made historic advances toward peace, democracy, and social justice under the current government, but those gains remain fragile. The threat of rolling back this progress and returning to a politics of militarization, impunity, and oligarchical rule is very real. What happens in Colombia will resonate across the continent.

CRLN was present in Colombia during the first round of presidential elections on May 21, 2026, accompanying social movements and human rights defenders as part of an international delegation and serving as certified election observers with the Misión de Observación Electoral (MOE).

We are now preparing a second delegation of observers, and will again serve as international election observers during the presidential runoff on June 21, 2026. On election day, CRLN observers will be present at the Colombian Consulate in Chicago.

We reaffirm what we heard directly from Indigenous authorities, Afro-Colombian communities, labor organizers, women’s movements, youth collectives, and human rights defenders: this electoral process is unfolding under intense pressure, including political violence, disinformation campaigns, clientelism, vote-buying by third actors, and coordinated attempts to distort and manipulate public opinion.

While Colombian institutions and the people continue to defend the electoral process, democracy cannot survive if it is undermined both by internal coercion and external interference.

Read the full statement at:
https://crln.org/the-future-of-colombia-belongs-to-its-people-denouncing-u-s-intervention-in-the-presidential-runoff/

06/18/2026

🇨🇺 ✊🏼 🚨 FROM ICE TO BLOCKADES:
ONE STRUGGLE, MANY FRONTS 🚨 ✊🏼 🇨🇺

Please join us as we welcome IFCO/Pastors for Peace for an evening of political education, international solidarity, live music, and fundraising in support of humanitarian aid for Cuba.

As the U.S. government continues to maintain a devastating blockade and economic sanctions against Cuba, we gather to affirm the Cuban people's right to self-determination and to strengthen the connections between struggles against ICE, war, displacement, and economic injustice.

Featuring Rev. Claudia De la Cruz in conversation with Dr. Cristina Perez and Carolina Gaete, moderated by CRLN Co-Director Jhonathan F. Gómez, with live music by Ramón Marino.

Saturday, June 27, 4–6 PM at University Church (5655 S. University Ave., Chicago), followed by a reception with snacks and refreshments. Please scan the QR code to RSVP and donate.

All funds raised will support the urgently needed humanitarian aid to Cuba.

Special thanks to Blocks Together ★ Alma de Izote ★ Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL)

¡Venceremos!

06/13/2026

🇨🇴

We stand in unwavering solidarity with the people of Colombia as they approach the June 21 runoff election. The Colombian people have the right to determine their future and choose their leaders free from foreign interference. We reject efforts by the United States and its allies to impose a neoliberal agenda that undermines the democratic aspirations, social movements, and hard-won advances of the Colombian people. From Chicago, we stand with the Colombian community, the diaspora, and all those struggling for sovereignty, dignity, justice, and self-determination.

Tomorrow, June 14 at 9:00 a.m., we will join members of the Colombian community as they gather peacefully to make their voices heard and defend the democratic process unfolding in Colombia. We say clearly: No to foreign intervention. The future of Colombia belongs to the Colombian people.

/

Nos solidarizamos sin reservas con el pueblo colombiano de cara a la segunda vuelta electoral del 21 de junio. El pueblo de Colombia tiene el derecho de decidir su futuro y elegir a sus líderes sin injerencia extranjera. Rechazamos los intentos de Estados Unidos y sus aliados de imponer una agenda neoliberal que socava las aspiraciones democráticas, los movimientos sociales y los avances conquistados por el pueblo colombiano. Desde Chicago, acompañamos a la comunidad colombiana, a la diáspora y a todas las personas que luchan por la soberanía, la dignidad, la justicia y la autodeterminación.

Mañana, 14 de junio, a las 9:00 a.m., nos uniremos a la comunidad colombiana que se congregará pacíficamente para hacer escuchar su voz y defender el proceso democrático que vive Colombia. Lo decimos con claridad: No a la injerencia extranjera. El futuro de Colombia le pertenece al pueblo colombiano.

Address

5655 South University Avenue Room 23
Chicago, IL
60637

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+17732932964

Website

http://www.crln.org/

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