The Deadly Results of a DEA Backed Raid in Honduras
by Alexander Main – Annie Bird
It was a dark, moonless night. A small passenger boat had nearly reached the end of its six-hour journey upriver when helicopters appeared overhead and another boat came into view. Shots were fired, hitting several passengers. As terrified men, women and children leapt into the water, they were fired on again by a machine-gunner perched in a helicopter. Four people were killed, two of them women, another a 14-year-old boy. Several more were injured.
It could have been another tragic scene of carnage from Syria, South Sudan or some other war-torn place. But this grisly incident occurred in the otherwise peaceful Miskito indigenous community of Ahuas, Honduras, during a May 2012 counternarcotics mission involving agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, a United States-vetted Honduran police unit and machine-gun-equipped State Department helicopters.
READ MORE HERE ...
It was a dark, moonless night. A small passenger boat had nearly reached the end of its six-hour journey upriver when helicopters appeared overhead and another boat came into view. Shots were fired, hitting several passengers. As terrified men, women and children leapt into the water, they were fired on again by a machine-gunner perched in a helicopter. Four people were killed, two of them women, another a 14-year-old boy. Several more were injured.
It could have been another tragic scene of carnage from Syria, South Sudan or some other war-torn place. But this grisly incident occurred in the otherwise peaceful Miskito indigenous community of Ahuas, Honduras, during a May 2012 counternarcotics mission involving agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, a United States-vetted Honduran police unit and machine-gun-equipped State Department helicopters.
READ MORE HERE ...
Periódico digital Presencia Universitaria de la UNAH trastocó video para recriminalizar a estudiantes
Con un video editado donde se saca de escena a la guardia de seguridad de la Universidad Nacional , UNAH, el periódico digital presenciauniversitaria de este centro educativo procedió a recriminalizar a los estudiantes Henry Rodriguez; Armando Velásquez y Jorge Velásquez, a quienes señaló que están en los listados de los jóvenes que fueron favorecidos con los acuerdos de 2016.
Con esta publicación de este medio de comunicación de las autoridades de la UNAH se visualiza más focalización hacia los estudiantes antes mencionados al igual que ha pasado con Cesario Padilla, Moisés Cáceres y Sergio Ulloa que enfrentan en la actualidad un juicio oral y público por un proceso de 2015. Estas mismas estrategias del uso del derecho penal para contener las protestas estudiantiles y sembrar el silencio, se estarían usando para ellos también.
La CIDH ha señalado que “el problema es que existen muchos delitos que se utilizan o podrían ser utilizados , para reprimir la protesta social, muchos de estos tipos penales, a su vez son de dudosa compatibilidad con el sistema interamericano de derechos humanos, algunos son imprecisos, o no protegen bienes jurídicos relevantes o concretos, o tienen un ámbito de prohibición demasiado amplio. A esto hay que agregarle la propia naturaleza del sistema penal, que no opera ante todos los casos, sino que es selectivo… en algunos países queda en evidencia la discrecionalidad con que actúan los operadores jurídicos para perseguir las manifestaciones sociales”.
CONTINUE READING HERE!
Con esta publicación de este medio de comunicación de las autoridades de la UNAH se visualiza más focalización hacia los estudiantes antes mencionados al igual que ha pasado con Cesario Padilla, Moisés Cáceres y Sergio Ulloa que enfrentan en la actualidad un juicio oral y público por un proceso de 2015. Estas mismas estrategias del uso del derecho penal para contener las protestas estudiantiles y sembrar el silencio, se estarían usando para ellos también.
La CIDH ha señalado que “el problema es que existen muchos delitos que se utilizan o podrían ser utilizados , para reprimir la protesta social, muchos de estos tipos penales, a su vez son de dudosa compatibilidad con el sistema interamericano de derechos humanos, algunos son imprecisos, o no protegen bienes jurídicos relevantes o concretos, o tienen un ámbito de prohibición demasiado amplio. A esto hay que agregarle la propia naturaleza del sistema penal, que no opera ante todos los casos, sino que es selectivo… en algunos países queda en evidencia la discrecionalidad con que actúan los operadores jurídicos para perseguir las manifestaciones sociales”.
CONTINUE READING HERE!
Policías retuvieron y amenazaron a Coordinadora de OFRANEH junto a tres de sus compañeros garífunas
Pasos de Animal Grande
January 11, 2017
Miranda narró que como a eso de las diez de la mañana viajaba hacia la ciudad de La Ceiba junto a Luís Gutiérrez, Oscar Gaboa y Luís Miranda, cuando en el retén que se encuentra yendo para el muelle de Cabotaje, le pidieron los papeles al motorista y éste se los entregó al uniformado.
"El policía de una manera muy agresiva preguntó que de dónde vengo yo y para donde voy, yo le contesté que no tenía qué decirle, porque soy ciudadana hondureña y vivo aquí”, relató la defensora de los derechos humanos.
La coordinadora de OFRANEH añadió que inmediatamente el jefe del operativo se acercó a ellos, “nos pidieron que nos bajáramos del carro y hasta quisieron golpear a uno de los compañeros y que nos iban a llevar detenidos porque estabámos faltándole el respeto a la autoridad”.
La acción fue considerada por Miranda como una violación a sus derechos humanos porque “una no tiene qué decirle a la policía para dónde va, todavía de manera agresiva, si hubiéramos andado sin papeles tampoco se justifica como ellos tratan a los ciudadanos”.
En el momento que otro de los miembros de OFRANEH protestó por la manera en que los estaban tratando el policía le dijo “mirá cállate que te voy a toletear”, Miranda adujo que en otras ocasiones les piden los papeles en retenes, pero que es la primera vez que los tratan con ese tipo de violencia por lo que “responsabilizamos a los policías por cualquier atentado, violación o agresión que podamos sufrir a partir de ahora” , advirtió.
Lastimosamente los miembros de OFRANEH no pudieron saber los nombres de los policías que los agredieron, pero describió que en el instante que observaron que ella hizo algunas llamadas para dar la alerta, ellos desistieron de la detención.
La denunciante goza de medidas cautelares otorgadas por la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, CIDH, el 16 de septiembre de 2011.
La solicitud de medida cautelar alega que Miriam Miranda ha sido objeto de amenazas y hostigamientos en razón de su labor en defensa de los derechos de las comunidades garífunas en el país.
La CIDH solicitó al Estado adoptar las medidas necesarias para garantizar la vida y la integridad de Miriam Miranda, concertar las medidas a adoptarse con la beneficiaria y sus representantes e informar sobre las acciones adoptadas a fin de investigar los hechos que dieron lugar a la adopción de esta medida cautelar.
Represión sistemática
El 29 de marzo, 2011, cuando lideraba una manifestación en Triunfo de la Cruz, tras recibir el impacto de una bomba lacrimógena que le causó quemaduras en el abdomen, Miranda fue detenida por la policía bajo el cargo de sedición. Los golpes fueron tan graves que debieron internarla en un hospital.
En las horas de la mañana del 17 de Julio 2014 un grupo de hombres fuertemente armados secuestraron a Miriam Miranda junto a otros cinco garífunas. Se trató de sectores del crimen organizado que estaban rehabilitando una pista de aterrizaje clandestina para narcoavionetas que operan en la zona de Vallecito, según lo explicó la dirigente garífuna a Opera Mundi, después del secuestro.
Derechos violentados
Cabe señalar que los elementos de la Policía Nacional violentaron el derecho a la libre locomoción y movilidad de las personas antes mencionadas, derecho garantizado en el artículo 81 constitucional que cita: “toda persona tiene derecho a circular libremente, salir, entrar y permanecer en el territorio nacional”.
“Ellos no tienen que estar deteniendo a la ciudadanía como sospechosos, siempre estamos siendo agredidos, deben tener su forma de tratar con las personas y no tienen que andar preguntándome para donde voy” , finalizó la defensora.
"El policía de una manera muy agresiva preguntó que de dónde vengo yo y para donde voy, yo le contesté que no tenía qué decirle, porque soy ciudadana hondureña y vivo aquí”, relató la defensora de los derechos humanos.
La coordinadora de OFRANEH añadió que inmediatamente el jefe del operativo se acercó a ellos, “nos pidieron que nos bajáramos del carro y hasta quisieron golpear a uno de los compañeros y que nos iban a llevar detenidos porque estabámos faltándole el respeto a la autoridad”.
La acción fue considerada por Miranda como una violación a sus derechos humanos porque “una no tiene qué decirle a la policía para dónde va, todavía de manera agresiva, si hubiéramos andado sin papeles tampoco se justifica como ellos tratan a los ciudadanos”.
En el momento que otro de los miembros de OFRANEH protestó por la manera en que los estaban tratando el policía le dijo “mirá cállate que te voy a toletear”, Miranda adujo que en otras ocasiones les piden los papeles en retenes, pero que es la primera vez que los tratan con ese tipo de violencia por lo que “responsabilizamos a los policías por cualquier atentado, violación o agresión que podamos sufrir a partir de ahora” , advirtió.
Lastimosamente los miembros de OFRANEH no pudieron saber los nombres de los policías que los agredieron, pero describió que en el instante que observaron que ella hizo algunas llamadas para dar la alerta, ellos desistieron de la detención.
La denunciante goza de medidas cautelares otorgadas por la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, CIDH, el 16 de septiembre de 2011.
La solicitud de medida cautelar alega que Miriam Miranda ha sido objeto de amenazas y hostigamientos en razón de su labor en defensa de los derechos de las comunidades garífunas en el país.
La CIDH solicitó al Estado adoptar las medidas necesarias para garantizar la vida y la integridad de Miriam Miranda, concertar las medidas a adoptarse con la beneficiaria y sus representantes e informar sobre las acciones adoptadas a fin de investigar los hechos que dieron lugar a la adopción de esta medida cautelar.
Represión sistemática
El 29 de marzo, 2011, cuando lideraba una manifestación en Triunfo de la Cruz, tras recibir el impacto de una bomba lacrimógena que le causó quemaduras en el abdomen, Miranda fue detenida por la policía bajo el cargo de sedición. Los golpes fueron tan graves que debieron internarla en un hospital.
En las horas de la mañana del 17 de Julio 2014 un grupo de hombres fuertemente armados secuestraron a Miriam Miranda junto a otros cinco garífunas. Se trató de sectores del crimen organizado que estaban rehabilitando una pista de aterrizaje clandestina para narcoavionetas que operan en la zona de Vallecito, según lo explicó la dirigente garífuna a Opera Mundi, después del secuestro.
Derechos violentados
Cabe señalar que los elementos de la Policía Nacional violentaron el derecho a la libre locomoción y movilidad de las personas antes mencionadas, derecho garantizado en el artículo 81 constitucional que cita: “toda persona tiene derecho a circular libremente, salir, entrar y permanecer en el territorio nacional”.
“Ellos no tienen que estar deteniendo a la ciudadanía como sospechosos, siempre estamos siendo agredidos, deben tener su forma de tratar con las personas y no tienen que andar preguntándome para donde voy” , finalizó la defensora.
Home Sweet Home? Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador’s role in a deepening refugee crisis
Amnesty International, October 13, 2016
Governments in Central America are fuelling a deepening refugee crisis by failing to tackle rampant violence and sky-high homicide rates in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras which are forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, Amnesty International said in a new report today.
Home Sweet Home? Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador’s role in a deepening refugee crisis explores how the three countries are failing to protect people from violence, and also failing to set up a comprehensive protection plan for deportees forced by countries such as Mexico and the USA to return to life-threatening situations.
“El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have become virtual war zones where lives seem to be expendable and millions live in constant terror at what gang members or public security forces can do to them or their loved ones. These millions are now the protagonists in one of the world’s least visible refugee crises,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General at Amnesty International.
“Although countries like Mexico and the USA are utterly failing to protect Central American asylum seekers and refugees, it is high time for authorities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to own up to their role in this crisis and take steps to tackle the problems that force these people to leave home in the first place.”
“Millions of Central Americans are falling through the cracks, victims of countries that do not fulfil their responsibility to provide the international protection they need, and of their own governments’ utter inability and unwillingness to keep them safe from the most tragic end.”
Amnesty International USA has asked President Obama to designate Guatemala for Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and re-designate El Salvador and Honduras for Temporary Protected Status because of the devastating increase in violence that has led to an acute humanitarian emergency in these countries. This will grant protection to people from those countries who have fled the violence of these emergency situations and are already present in the United States.
“We can no longer turn our backs on the refugee crisis in our own backyard by sending desperate people back to certain danger,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “Rather than treating refugees and asylum-seekers as criminals, we must offer protection to those who pose no threat and who have done nothing other than seek safety for themselves and their loved ones.”
Record-breaking violence
Homicide rates in El Salvador have escalated dramatically in the past three years as people are increasingly caught up in ruthless fights between rival gangs trying to assert control over territories.
Murder rates in Guatemala and Honduras are also among the highest on earth.
The United Nations has ranked El Salvador as one of the deadliest countries on earth outside of a war zone, with more than 108 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015.
In Honduras the rate was 63.75 and in Guatemala it was 34.99 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Young people are the hardest hit by violence, with more than half of those killed in the three countries in 2015 under 30 years of age.
Young boys often join the gangs under duress, while girls are forced to become gangsters’ “girlfriends” and are often sexually abused.
Shop owners and bus drivers are routinely extorted and forced to pay “taxes” to the gangs controlling their area. Those who fail to follow the strict unwritten rules of conduct are often abused or killed.
Many young children across the three countries told Amnesty International they had quit school for fear of gang members and now have to spend all day at home.
The Salvadoran Ministry of Education has been reported as saying that 39,000 students left school due to harassment or threats by gangs in 2015 – three times the figure in 2014 (13,000). The teachers’ union said they believed the real number could be more than 100,000.
In some cases, teenagers are harassed and attacked by the security forces, accused of being part of a gang.
CONTINUE READING HERE ...
Home Sweet Home? Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador’s role in a deepening refugee crisis explores how the three countries are failing to protect people from violence, and also failing to set up a comprehensive protection plan for deportees forced by countries such as Mexico and the USA to return to life-threatening situations.
“El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have become virtual war zones where lives seem to be expendable and millions live in constant terror at what gang members or public security forces can do to them or their loved ones. These millions are now the protagonists in one of the world’s least visible refugee crises,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General at Amnesty International.
“Although countries like Mexico and the USA are utterly failing to protect Central American asylum seekers and refugees, it is high time for authorities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to own up to their role in this crisis and take steps to tackle the problems that force these people to leave home in the first place.”
“Millions of Central Americans are falling through the cracks, victims of countries that do not fulfil their responsibility to provide the international protection they need, and of their own governments’ utter inability and unwillingness to keep them safe from the most tragic end.”
Amnesty International USA has asked President Obama to designate Guatemala for Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and re-designate El Salvador and Honduras for Temporary Protected Status because of the devastating increase in violence that has led to an acute humanitarian emergency in these countries. This will grant protection to people from those countries who have fled the violence of these emergency situations and are already present in the United States.
“We can no longer turn our backs on the refugee crisis in our own backyard by sending desperate people back to certain danger,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “Rather than treating refugees and asylum-seekers as criminals, we must offer protection to those who pose no threat and who have done nothing other than seek safety for themselves and their loved ones.”
Record-breaking violence
Homicide rates in El Salvador have escalated dramatically in the past three years as people are increasingly caught up in ruthless fights between rival gangs trying to assert control over territories.
Murder rates in Guatemala and Honduras are also among the highest on earth.
The United Nations has ranked El Salvador as one of the deadliest countries on earth outside of a war zone, with more than 108 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015.
In Honduras the rate was 63.75 and in Guatemala it was 34.99 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Young people are the hardest hit by violence, with more than half of those killed in the three countries in 2015 under 30 years of age.
Young boys often join the gangs under duress, while girls are forced to become gangsters’ “girlfriends” and are often sexually abused.
Shop owners and bus drivers are routinely extorted and forced to pay “taxes” to the gangs controlling their area. Those who fail to follow the strict unwritten rules of conduct are often abused or killed.
Many young children across the three countries told Amnesty International they had quit school for fear of gang members and now have to spend all day at home.
The Salvadoran Ministry of Education has been reported as saying that 39,000 students left school due to harassment or threats by gangs in 2015 – three times the figure in 2014 (13,000). The teachers’ union said they believed the real number could be more than 100,000.
In some cases, teenagers are harassed and attacked by the security forces, accused of being part of a gang.
CONTINUE READING HERE ...
Free Mega Projects Communities
TeleSUR
On July 10th, 2016 the community of Santa Elena of La Paz in Honduras, held a communitarian referendum and decided to stop a hydroelectric project that would affect their river and environment. the referendum and decision was made following the International Labor Organization Convention, No. 169 which guarantees the right of indigenous people to be consulted before any construction in their territories. Now other communities are trying to do the same.
Six Months Without Berta, Six Months Without Justice
by Laura Carlsen - Counterpunch
September 14, 2016
Six months after the murder of Berta Caceres, far from forgetting, people throughout the world demanded justice and vowed to continue her organizing work in defense of land and territory locally, regionally and internationally.
Berta’s work focused on the defense of the Gualcarque River against the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric plant in indigenous Lenca territory. Her battle combined resistance with the active challenge of imagining and building alternatives. She also worked to link communities and peoples fighting to protect natural resources in Honduras, in Central America and around the world.
We often remember Berta as an environmentalist—winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize–, a feminist and a human rights defender. But she was also an internationalist, firm believer that even the smallest local effort to the save land and territory has international relevance. She constantly emphasized this in her organizing, and traveled throughout the world to global forums and to meet and exchange experiences with people in foreign countries without ever losing her roots.
From La Esperanza, Honduras, she guided the construction of networks between people across America. We met through these networks as together hundreds of us worked to weave a continent-wide analysis that covered the many realities of each country, but acknowledged the common threats. U.S. foreign policies of drug war militarization under the Merida Initiative, the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) and Plan Colombia; the Patriot Act-style anti-terrorism laws that violated the right to protest; and free trade agreements were at the center of this global analysis. In this context, we faced increasing land and resource grabs and defenders of land and territory became targets for repression.
Berta’s assassination reflects the face of the international system she fought against. She opposed the Agua Zarca project to eventually build 17 dams on her beloved river and others in the area. A new legal framework adopted immediately following the 2009 military coup d’état in the country, which was ultimately supported by the U.S. government, facilitated the project and many others like it.
The General Water Act of 2009 allows the government to grant giant private-sector concessions to the country’s water resources. At various stages, the project has received funding from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, which granted a loan to the Honduran company Energy Developments SA de CV(DESA), and capital from a Chinese company, a German company and several European development financing funds. Berta’s tragic story reveals the dynamic that exists throughout the region–to dismantle protection of the commons, allowing the entry of corporations that plunder natural resources, foment conflict with indigenous and rural peoples defending their resources and ancestral ways of life, and criminalize defenders.
Gustavo Castro, a Mexican colleague wounded in the attack by gunmen that killed Berta, puts her murder in this international context in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Diario six months after they were shot:
“What basically explains this is that governments are opening their borders to investment under the mechanisms of free trade. Large companies are vying for the land.”
Castro goes on to say, “The free trade agreements require governments to change laws to facilitate investment. If they do not, the company can sue. This analysis is not seen. One only sees the defender who comes in, is beaten up, murdered and nobody knows why. ”
Berta knew. She knew the danger she was in and why. On June 21, the newspaper The Guardian published an investigative report in which a former Honduran soldier revealed that several army units received a hit list of “objectives to eliminate” with Berta Caceres’ name on it, among others. There was much talk of the existence of such lists and death squads before this article, but no proof on the international level.
The article reported that army units specifically trained by the United States received these lists. When journalists directly asked the spokesman for the State Department, he said he had “no credible evidence” of the existence of such lists, ignoring the first-hand testimony discovered by The Guardian and refusing to assume any commitment to investigate serious allegations that have implications under the laws of the US foreign aid. Of the four people arrested in Berta’s assassination, one is an active military officer, another is former military and one is from the company DESA. Missing are the masterminds of the crime.
As journalists insisted on an explanation, John Kirby, the State Department spokesperson, went to the absurd extreme of denying that they had any evidence of serious human rights violations by the Honduran security forces at all. Numerous international news articles and reports including the United Nationsand a report of the State Department itself, document violations by the Honduran army, police and military police.
That the U.S. government continue to aid and train Honduran security forces is strategically important for some very powerful interests. First, by all accounts Special Forces are being used to confront and attack communities that oppose large-scale energy, agribusiness and tourism projects on their lands. Second, the funding increases U.S. presence in a country that has become (again) the beachhead for launching new systems of resource exploitation and social control, such as the “model cities” that grant access to public resources and self-government to corporations, and forms of selective repression against opposition. Finally, funding for Honduran police and armed forces means juicy contracts for U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, private security companies, and arms and equipment manufacturers, which consequently lobby for furthering the aid.
This has led to a fierce debate in Washington. Honduran organizations, including the nearly 50 human rights groups that make up the Coalition Against Impunity, demand an immediate halt to U.S. aid to corrupt and abusive Honduran security forces. U.S. human rights and solidarity organizations in the Mesoamerican Working Group, of which we form part, have joined the Hondurans in pressing Congress for suspension of aid.
More than 30 congressional representatives recently introduced the “Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” demanding the suspension of all funding to Honduran security forces until Berta Caceres’ murder and other crimes and violations committed by security forces are investigated and prosecuted, the Honduran military withdraws from domestic policing as stipulated in the constitution, real steps to end impunity are taken and lands rights and other human rights defenders are protected.
At the same time, NGOs, defense companies and other members of Congress—some directly linked to those receiving contracts—are pressing to increase aid to the government of Juan Orlando Hernández, whom they recently received in Washington with accolades as he strives to improve his image. They claim that the presence of the United States supports strengthening institutions and respect for human rights, despite evidence to the contrary. But none of the major human rights organizations in the country agrees. Instead they view continued support for the Honduran government as perpetuating the current situation of abuse and impunity.
Berta understood that she was taking on international forces in her fight to protect the sacred river of the Lenca people, and that the only way to succeed would be to form a global resistance. The worldwide recognition she gained reflected her painstaking work to build international solidarity with Honduras, but also to recognize the links between the issues–against militarization, against land grabs, for indigenous rights and for the rights of women—in all parts of the world.
In this sense, Berta was not a symbol. She was, and remains in absentia, an effective grassroots leader, a flesh-and-blood woman, of laughter and tears. She is also not a martyr. She did not choose to die; she wanted to live. But she couldn’t live her life without defending the earth and her place on it.
Now, after six months of feeling her physical absence, the linking of issues and organizations she promoted is finally taking place in the newly formed Social and Popular Movement Platform of Honduras and the Berta Caceres Honduran People’s Coalition, both promoted by her organization: the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). On the six-month anniversary if her death, the hundreds of demonstrations and international solidarity events are the fruits of her work in life. The demonstrations united in demanding cancellation of the Agua Zarca project, a full and independent investigation into Berta’s murder and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples in defense of their land and territory.
Even truth and justice cannot revive Berta Caceres. However, to fight for them is the only fitting tribute we can give her. Those of us who learned from her, who were inspired by her, and who fought alongside her—in Honduras or abroad—owe this, at least, to her memory and her legacy.
Berta’s work focused on the defense of the Gualcarque River against the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric plant in indigenous Lenca territory. Her battle combined resistance with the active challenge of imagining and building alternatives. She also worked to link communities and peoples fighting to protect natural resources in Honduras, in Central America and around the world.
We often remember Berta as an environmentalist—winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize–, a feminist and a human rights defender. But she was also an internationalist, firm believer that even the smallest local effort to the save land and territory has international relevance. She constantly emphasized this in her organizing, and traveled throughout the world to global forums and to meet and exchange experiences with people in foreign countries without ever losing her roots.
From La Esperanza, Honduras, she guided the construction of networks between people across America. We met through these networks as together hundreds of us worked to weave a continent-wide analysis that covered the many realities of each country, but acknowledged the common threats. U.S. foreign policies of drug war militarization under the Merida Initiative, the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) and Plan Colombia; the Patriot Act-style anti-terrorism laws that violated the right to protest; and free trade agreements were at the center of this global analysis. In this context, we faced increasing land and resource grabs and defenders of land and territory became targets for repression.
Berta’s assassination reflects the face of the international system she fought against. She opposed the Agua Zarca project to eventually build 17 dams on her beloved river and others in the area. A new legal framework adopted immediately following the 2009 military coup d’état in the country, which was ultimately supported by the U.S. government, facilitated the project and many others like it.
The General Water Act of 2009 allows the government to grant giant private-sector concessions to the country’s water resources. At various stages, the project has received funding from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, which granted a loan to the Honduran company Energy Developments SA de CV(DESA), and capital from a Chinese company, a German company and several European development financing funds. Berta’s tragic story reveals the dynamic that exists throughout the region–to dismantle protection of the commons, allowing the entry of corporations that plunder natural resources, foment conflict with indigenous and rural peoples defending their resources and ancestral ways of life, and criminalize defenders.
Gustavo Castro, a Mexican colleague wounded in the attack by gunmen that killed Berta, puts her murder in this international context in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Diario six months after they were shot:
“What basically explains this is that governments are opening their borders to investment under the mechanisms of free trade. Large companies are vying for the land.”
Castro goes on to say, “The free trade agreements require governments to change laws to facilitate investment. If they do not, the company can sue. This analysis is not seen. One only sees the defender who comes in, is beaten up, murdered and nobody knows why. ”
Berta knew. She knew the danger she was in and why. On June 21, the newspaper The Guardian published an investigative report in which a former Honduran soldier revealed that several army units received a hit list of “objectives to eliminate” with Berta Caceres’ name on it, among others. There was much talk of the existence of such lists and death squads before this article, but no proof on the international level.
The article reported that army units specifically trained by the United States received these lists. When journalists directly asked the spokesman for the State Department, he said he had “no credible evidence” of the existence of such lists, ignoring the first-hand testimony discovered by The Guardian and refusing to assume any commitment to investigate serious allegations that have implications under the laws of the US foreign aid. Of the four people arrested in Berta’s assassination, one is an active military officer, another is former military and one is from the company DESA. Missing are the masterminds of the crime.
As journalists insisted on an explanation, John Kirby, the State Department spokesperson, went to the absurd extreme of denying that they had any evidence of serious human rights violations by the Honduran security forces at all. Numerous international news articles and reports including the United Nationsand a report of the State Department itself, document violations by the Honduran army, police and military police.
That the U.S. government continue to aid and train Honduran security forces is strategically important for some very powerful interests. First, by all accounts Special Forces are being used to confront and attack communities that oppose large-scale energy, agribusiness and tourism projects on their lands. Second, the funding increases U.S. presence in a country that has become (again) the beachhead for launching new systems of resource exploitation and social control, such as the “model cities” that grant access to public resources and self-government to corporations, and forms of selective repression against opposition. Finally, funding for Honduran police and armed forces means juicy contracts for U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, private security companies, and arms and equipment manufacturers, which consequently lobby for furthering the aid.
This has led to a fierce debate in Washington. Honduran organizations, including the nearly 50 human rights groups that make up the Coalition Against Impunity, demand an immediate halt to U.S. aid to corrupt and abusive Honduran security forces. U.S. human rights and solidarity organizations in the Mesoamerican Working Group, of which we form part, have joined the Hondurans in pressing Congress for suspension of aid.
More than 30 congressional representatives recently introduced the “Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” demanding the suspension of all funding to Honduran security forces until Berta Caceres’ murder and other crimes and violations committed by security forces are investigated and prosecuted, the Honduran military withdraws from domestic policing as stipulated in the constitution, real steps to end impunity are taken and lands rights and other human rights defenders are protected.
At the same time, NGOs, defense companies and other members of Congress—some directly linked to those receiving contracts—are pressing to increase aid to the government of Juan Orlando Hernández, whom they recently received in Washington with accolades as he strives to improve his image. They claim that the presence of the United States supports strengthening institutions and respect for human rights, despite evidence to the contrary. But none of the major human rights organizations in the country agrees. Instead they view continued support for the Honduran government as perpetuating the current situation of abuse and impunity.
Berta understood that she was taking on international forces in her fight to protect the sacred river of the Lenca people, and that the only way to succeed would be to form a global resistance. The worldwide recognition she gained reflected her painstaking work to build international solidarity with Honduras, but also to recognize the links between the issues–against militarization, against land grabs, for indigenous rights and for the rights of women—in all parts of the world.
In this sense, Berta was not a symbol. She was, and remains in absentia, an effective grassroots leader, a flesh-and-blood woman, of laughter and tears. She is also not a martyr. She did not choose to die; she wanted to live. But she couldn’t live her life without defending the earth and her place on it.
Now, after six months of feeling her physical absence, the linking of issues and organizations she promoted is finally taking place in the newly formed Social and Popular Movement Platform of Honduras and the Berta Caceres Honduran People’s Coalition, both promoted by her organization: the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). On the six-month anniversary if her death, the hundreds of demonstrations and international solidarity events are the fruits of her work in life. The demonstrations united in demanding cancellation of the Agua Zarca project, a full and independent investigation into Berta’s murder and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples in defense of their land and territory.
Even truth and justice cannot revive Berta Caceres. However, to fight for them is the only fitting tribute we can give her. Those of us who learned from her, who were inspired by her, and who fought alongside her—in Honduras or abroad—owe this, at least, to her memory and her legacy.
Concluyó “Foro por la Unidad Popular por la tierra, territorios y contra la criminalización Social” con gran movilización del pueblo, y se reclamó justicia para las compañeras
Berta Cáceres y Margarita Murillo
Cloc-LA VÍA CAMPESINA HONDURAS/ Resumen Latinoamericano
17 DE AGOSTO DEL 2016
EN EL MARCO DEL FORO POR LA UNIDAD POPULAR: LUCHA POR LA TIERRA, EL TERRITORIO Y CONTRA LA CRIMINALIZACIÓN SOCIAL, REALIZADO EN LA PLAZA COLPROSUMAH, EN LA CIUDAD DE TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, LOS DÍAS 16 Y 17 DE AGOSTO DEL PRESENTE AÑO, CON EL ESPÍRITU REVOLUCIONARIO DE NUESTRAS ANCESTRAS BERTA CÁCERES, MARGARITA MURILLO Y MAGDALENA MORALES, CON LA PARTICIPACIÓN DEL MOVIMIENTO CAMPESINO, OBRERO, MAGISTERIAL E INDÍGENA HONDUREÑO, CENTROAMERICANO Y DE AMÉRICA LATINA REPRESENTADO POR LA CLOC – VÍA CAMPESINA Y REPRESENTACIONES DEL CINPH, MILPA, CUTH, ORGANIZACIONES MAGISTERIALES COLPEDAGOGOSH, COPEMH Y COPRUMH, BLOCOPAH, ARCO MAS Y FRENTE NACIONAL DE RESISTENCIA POPULAR (FNRP), SE REALIZÓ ESTA MAÑANA MASIVA MOVILIZACIÓN HASTA EL MINISTERIO PÚBLICO.
CON UN LLAMADO A LA UNIDAD DE TODOS LOS SECTORES SOCIALES HONDUREÑOS: OBREROS, CAMPESINOS, ESTUDIANTES, INDÍGENAS Y MAGISTERIALES CONCLUYO EL FORO POR LA UNIDAD POPULAR.
LA MOVILIZACIÓN SALIÓ ALREDEDOR DE LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA DESDE PLAZA COLPROSUMAH, PASANDO POR CASA DE GOBIERNO Y CULMINANDO EN EL MINISTERIO PÚBLICO, DONDE SE EXIGIÓ EL PRONTO ESCLARECIMIENTO DEL ASESINATO DE NUESTRAS COMPAÑERAS BERTA CÁCERES Y MARGARITA MURILLO, LA LIBERACIÓN DE LOS PRESOS POLÍTICOS POR LA TIERRA Y LA DESPENALIZACIÓN DE LA LUCHA.
EN EL MINISTERIO PÚBLICO, LA COMISIÓN INTEGRADA POR LA DIRIGENCIA CAMPESINA NO FUE ATENDIDA, LAS Y LOS CAMPESINOS REGRESARON ESTA TARDE HACIA SUS LUGARES DE PROCEDENCIA, EL DÍA DE HOY FUE OTRO DÍA DE LUCHA POSITIVA.
CON UN LLAMADO A LA UNIDAD DE TODOS LOS SECTORES SOCIALES HONDUREÑOS: OBREROS, CAMPESINOS, ESTUDIANTES, INDÍGENAS Y MAGISTERIALES CONCLUYO EL FORO POR LA UNIDAD POPULAR.
LA MOVILIZACIÓN SALIÓ ALREDEDOR DE LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA DESDE PLAZA COLPROSUMAH, PASANDO POR CASA DE GOBIERNO Y CULMINANDO EN EL MINISTERIO PÚBLICO, DONDE SE EXIGIÓ EL PRONTO ESCLARECIMIENTO DEL ASESINATO DE NUESTRAS COMPAÑERAS BERTA CÁCERES Y MARGARITA MURILLO, LA LIBERACIÓN DE LOS PRESOS POLÍTICOS POR LA TIERRA Y LA DESPENALIZACIÓN DE LA LUCHA.
EN EL MINISTERIO PÚBLICO, LA COMISIÓN INTEGRADA POR LA DIRIGENCIA CAMPESINA NO FUE ATENDIDA, LAS Y LOS CAMPESINOS REGRESARON ESTA TARDE HACIA SUS LUGARES DE PROCEDENCIA, EL DÍA DE HOY FUE OTRO DÍA DE LUCHA POSITIVA.
Clinton Emails Show US Warned OAS Head Not to Support Ousted Honduran President
TeleSur - July 29, 2016
Leaked WikiLeaks emails provide a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations between the State Department, OAS representatives and Honduran coup regime.
Leaked email exchanges between U.S. State Department officials in the days after the 2009 Honduran coup show that U.S. diplomatic staff pressured the head of the Organization of American States, OAS, against actions in support of the country's ousted president, and even entertained proposals by coup leaders to dialogue without the OAS head or countries that had opposed the ouster.
In a June 5, 2009 email, sent by then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Craig Kelly, he stated he had been in contact with former Honduran president and coup supporter, Roberto Flores, who had a proposal for U.S. diplomats on behalf of the head of the de facto coup government which toppled President Manuel Zelaya.
Zelaya, a left-leaning politician who had initiated some moderate reforms, was forcibly put on a plane by Honduran military leaders and sent to Costa Rica on June 26, 2009. The move came after the country's predominantly conservative political leaders declared his attempts to hold a non-binding referendum on the country's constitution as "illegal" and moved to have him removed from office.
"Flores just called me," Kelly wrote. "Roberto said he has spoken to (Assistant Secretary-General of the OAS Albert) Ramdin to pass along a proposal from (de facto president of Honduras after the coup, Roberto) Micheletti."
Kelly, who would later be rejected as U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela and is now Senior Director for the Americas for ExxonMobil, briefly outlined the proposal whereby the Honduran Supreme Court and Legislature—both of which had helped orchestrate the coup againt Zelaya—would "dialogue" with the OAS, on the condition that the bloc's General-Secretary Jorge Insulza not be included.
"(The) OAS reps should be working level (i.e. not Insulza) and include reps of willing member states," Kelly added. "(Micheletti) wondered if (the) U.S. would participate."
In a reply to Kelly's email, U.S. permanent representative to the OAS, Hector Morales, outlined that leftist presidents from the region including Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, then Paraguayan leader Fernando Lugo, and Ecuador's Rafael Correa were assembling in neighboring El Salvador in order to support Zelaya's efforts to return to the country.
"(Zelaya) ... will attempt to go to Tegu(cigalpa) and when unsuccessful will then meet the others in San Salvador," the senior diplomat wrote.
A week after the coup, with violence and repression by the military escalating, U.S. diplomats were pushing against the return of Zelaya to the country, and were concerned about Insulza's perceived support for the elected president.
On the same day the OAS voted to condemn the coup, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon reported about "Strong push by key countries, including Mexico and Costa Rica, to try to convince Zelaya not to return today." However Shannon acknowledged that "Zelaya seems intent on returning," and that "Insulza feels under an obligation to accompany (Zelaya)" on the planned return flight.
"I told Insulza that he should not go and that neither the (OAS General Assembly) nor (the Permanent Council) gave him the mandate for this trip," Morales wrote in a separate email string that Shannon was also on.
Despite internal council to take hard measures against the coup regime, Hillary Clinton's State Department pushed for a negotiation with the "de facto" leaders—with critics arguing Clinton worked to legitimize the coup. These negotiations helped solidify a deal in October between Honduras’ constitutional government and the coup regime.
“Throughout the crisis we we worked closely with the OAS and friends in the region,” Kelly wrote in an email dated Oct. 30, 2009.
After extensive U.S. lobbying to get other OAS states on board, the final agreement helped orchestrate elections that were widely seen as a farce, including a lack of monitors from international institutions, a media blackout and targeted assassinations of anti-coup leaders ahead of the polls.
A few weeks later, in an email dated Nov. 18, 2009, sent by former United States Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens, it was revealed that in a private conversation held between Llorens, Kelly and Michelliti, Kelly had confessed to the de facto president that “the Honduran crisis had exposed the U.S. and complicated our Latin America policy.”
The leaked emails were posted by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks last March as part of an online database that includes over 30,000 emails and email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was Secretary of State.
TWO VIDEOS HERE .....
Leaked email exchanges between U.S. State Department officials in the days after the 2009 Honduran coup show that U.S. diplomatic staff pressured the head of the Organization of American States, OAS, against actions in support of the country's ousted president, and even entertained proposals by coup leaders to dialogue without the OAS head or countries that had opposed the ouster.
In a June 5, 2009 email, sent by then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Craig Kelly, he stated he had been in contact with former Honduran president and coup supporter, Roberto Flores, who had a proposal for U.S. diplomats on behalf of the head of the de facto coup government which toppled President Manuel Zelaya.
Zelaya, a left-leaning politician who had initiated some moderate reforms, was forcibly put on a plane by Honduran military leaders and sent to Costa Rica on June 26, 2009. The move came after the country's predominantly conservative political leaders declared his attempts to hold a non-binding referendum on the country's constitution as "illegal" and moved to have him removed from office.
"Flores just called me," Kelly wrote. "Roberto said he has spoken to (Assistant Secretary-General of the OAS Albert) Ramdin to pass along a proposal from (de facto president of Honduras after the coup, Roberto) Micheletti."
Kelly, who would later be rejected as U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela and is now Senior Director for the Americas for ExxonMobil, briefly outlined the proposal whereby the Honduran Supreme Court and Legislature—both of which had helped orchestrate the coup againt Zelaya—would "dialogue" with the OAS, on the condition that the bloc's General-Secretary Jorge Insulza not be included.
"(The) OAS reps should be working level (i.e. not Insulza) and include reps of willing member states," Kelly added. "(Micheletti) wondered if (the) U.S. would participate."
In a reply to Kelly's email, U.S. permanent representative to the OAS, Hector Morales, outlined that leftist presidents from the region including Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, then Paraguayan leader Fernando Lugo, and Ecuador's Rafael Correa were assembling in neighboring El Salvador in order to support Zelaya's efforts to return to the country.
"(Zelaya) ... will attempt to go to Tegu(cigalpa) and when unsuccessful will then meet the others in San Salvador," the senior diplomat wrote.
A week after the coup, with violence and repression by the military escalating, U.S. diplomats were pushing against the return of Zelaya to the country, and were concerned about Insulza's perceived support for the elected president.
On the same day the OAS voted to condemn the coup, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon reported about "Strong push by key countries, including Mexico and Costa Rica, to try to convince Zelaya not to return today." However Shannon acknowledged that "Zelaya seems intent on returning," and that "Insulza feels under an obligation to accompany (Zelaya)" on the planned return flight.
"I told Insulza that he should not go and that neither the (OAS General Assembly) nor (the Permanent Council) gave him the mandate for this trip," Morales wrote in a separate email string that Shannon was also on.
Despite internal council to take hard measures against the coup regime, Hillary Clinton's State Department pushed for a negotiation with the "de facto" leaders—with critics arguing Clinton worked to legitimize the coup. These negotiations helped solidify a deal in October between Honduras’ constitutional government and the coup regime.
“Throughout the crisis we we worked closely with the OAS and friends in the region,” Kelly wrote in an email dated Oct. 30, 2009.
After extensive U.S. lobbying to get other OAS states on board, the final agreement helped orchestrate elections that were widely seen as a farce, including a lack of monitors from international institutions, a media blackout and targeted assassinations of anti-coup leaders ahead of the polls.
A few weeks later, in an email dated Nov. 18, 2009, sent by former United States Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens, it was revealed that in a private conversation held between Llorens, Kelly and Michelliti, Kelly had confessed to the de facto president that “the Honduran crisis had exposed the U.S. and complicated our Latin America policy.”
The leaked emails were posted by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks last March as part of an online database that includes over 30,000 emails and email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was Secretary of State.
TWO VIDEOS HERE .....
In the the Aftermath of the Murder of Berta Cáceres: Squashing Indigenous Resistance and Discrediting International Observers in Honduras
James Phillips - Counterpunch
July 12, 2016
People who work for human rights, the rights of Indigenous communities, protection of our global environment, and social justice, are demanding justice after the murder of Berta Cáceres. She was killed in early March when gunmen broke into her house and shot her. It is abundantly clear to many Hondurans and international supporters and observers that her killing was political. Cáceres was the charismatic leader of COPINH, an organization begun in 1993 by Lenca communities in Honduras to promote their rights and protect their traditional lands, and to work with other Indigenous and popular organizations.
In the three years before her murder, Cáceres led COPINH in actively opposing construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam across the sacred Gualcarque River that runs through traditional Lenca lands in western Honduras. For her work she was awarded the international Goldman Prize in 2015 for Indigenous environmental activism. Cáceres helped to bring the Lenca struggle into global awareness, delivering an impassioned acceptance speech upon receiving the award in San Francisco. In Honduras, the Lenca and other Indigenous communities are widely seen as the front line of defense of the environment and the nation’s natural resources.
But Cáceres’ work also roused the fear and concern of those who wanted the dam as part of a larger economic development plan for Honduras that promoted foreign investment and large-scale resource extraction (mining, lumber, tourism, agribusiness) at the expense of hundreds of indigenous and peasant rural communities. These interests included the Honduran government and its powerful supporters, as well as U.S., Canadian, Chinese and other foreign interests. The Honduran company Desarollos Energéticos (DESA), with government support, held the contract for the Agua Zarca dam.
The dam builders cleared a dirt road to the construction site through traditional Lenca land without asking Lenca permission. Honduras is bound by national and international laws and treaties, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labor Organization Convention 169 that prohibit taking or using indigenous lands or resources without “full, prior, and informed consent” of the affected communities. The Lenca claimed they were never consulted about the dam or the road. The company, DESA, also ordered them to stop using the river that had been central to their lives for many generations. In addition to private company security guards, a unit of Honduran military guarded the company’s construction compound, as if to emphasize the government’s interest in completion of the dam.Beginning in April, 2013 and for more than four months, COPINH and the Lenca continued peaceful protest, sometimes leading processions or protest walks along the road, attracting Hondurans from other areas as well as international observers from the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. During one of these protests a Honduran soldier in the military unit guarding the dam construction compound shot and killed Lenca protester Tomás Garcia and seriously injured his teenage son, Alan.
Blaming the victim or innocent third parties is a common strategy of oppression and control. Authorities accused Cáceres and two other COPINH leaders–Tomás Gómez and Auriliano Molina–of fomenting violence, and claimed to have found a gun in Cåceres’ vehicle. DESA officials accused the three of causing economic damage by delaying the dam’s construction. After a court hearing at which more than one hundred Lenca and others gathered in support of Cáceres, she was ordered to stay away from the area of the dam protests and from any other protest activities. She was later forced into hiding for a time as authorities briefly sought her arrest, and for months before her assassination she continued to receive death threats. She reported at least thirty-three to the authorities, she said, but they did nothing, even though the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (an arm of the Organization of American States) had mandated the Honduran government to extend protective measures to Cáceres and other COPINH activists.
In the days after the murder of Cáceres, Honduran police held and interrogated COPINH leaders Gómez and Molina and Mexican citizen Gustavo Castro, director of Mexico’s Friends of the Earth. Castro was visiting Cáceres when she was killed. He was shot but survived and was given refuge in the Mexican Embassy when Honduran authorities refused to allow him to leave the country. The police later released Gomez and Molina, but only after a hint of suspicion had been planted against them. In response, COPINH’s lawyer Victor Fernandez said, “Blaming people close to Berta is part of the crime. Leaders are murdered to terrorize communities, contaminate organizations, and squash resistance movements. This is the pattern.”
After two months of widespread popular demonstrations and protests in Latin America, the U.S., and Europe, the Honduran judicial prosecutor’s office announced charges against four men in Cåceres’ death. The identity of the four is revealing of the forces arrayed against the Lenca. Government and news sources reported that three of the four were active or retired military officers, and two are or have been DESA personnel. Sergio Rodriguez served as engineer for the Agua Zarca dam.
Douglas Bustillo is a retired military officer and former head of security for DESA. Mariano Chavez is an active member of the Honduran military, and Edison Duarte is a former military officer. Before her death, Cáceres reportedly identified at least one of these men among those who had threatened her. In addition to these arrests, there are calls for the investigation and arrest of the intellectual authors of the crime, since many believe the murder was ordered, or at least condoned by higher authorities in Honduras. DESA officials have denied any responsibility.
In Honduras it is rare that prominent or powerful individuals are charged with crimes. A culture of official impunity allows the powerful literally to get away with murder. Impunity is the linchpin of the whole system of control and oppression. Some observers believe that because of the widespread and continuing concern and protests after Cáceres’ murder–concern that also aroused members of the U.S. Congress–the Honduran government was forced to show that it was treating this particular murder seriously and to bring credible charges.
Since the killing of Cáceres, COPINH members have been subjected to ongoing threats and attacks. On July 6, 2016, the body of Lesbia Janeth Uruquía, 49, was found stabbed to death near the municipal dump in Marcala, western Honduras. Like Cáceres, Uruquía was the mother of several children. She was a COPINH member and a leader in the effort to stop construction of a private hydroelectric dam on the Chinacla River. This construction project was headed by Gladys Lopez, president of the ruling National Party and vice-president of the National Congress that had authorized the project. As of this writing, no one had been charged in Uruquía’s murder.
Cáceres saw the conflict over the Agua Zarca and other such projects in the context of the support shown by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2009 coup against the government of Manual Zelaya. The coup is widely blamed for ushering in the current era of rampant resource extraction, violence, and repression in Honduras. In Hard Choices, Clinton writes that she advocated swift recognition of the coup and the post-coup government as an exercise in “clear-eyed pragmatism,” even as most of the hemisphere’s governments withheld recognition and demanded the restoration of the elected Zelaya government.
There is a history behind this. In the early 1980s, the Reagan Administration sent the Honduran government a blueprint for economic development (popularly known as Reaganomics for Honduras) that emphasized turning Honduras into a country wide open to foreign investment and resource extraction. Honduran government plans almost exactly mirrored this, until the Zelaya government seemed to deviate from the plan by listening to the voices of the country’s rural, peasant, and Indigenous people. The 2009 coup ended that challenge by removing Zelaya. It appeared that rhetoric about democracy and human rights clashed with the model of economic development the U.S. needed in Honduras.
Both the Agua Zarca project and the Chinacla River project are part of the larger national development plan that includes as an integral component the construction of hydroelectric dams across many of the country’s major rivers, including the Patuca (one of the largest Honduran rivers) that runs through the lands of at least three Indigenous peoples—Miskito, Pech, and Tawahka—in eastern Honduras. The electricity to be generated by these dams is intended, at least in part, to serve the needs of major mining operations in various parts of Honduras—mining projects (Honduran and foreign) that displace Indigenous and peasant communities without ever seeking their “free, prior, and informed consent.” Since the 2009 coup against Zelaya, the post-coup governments have granted a flurry of such mining concessions to U.S., Canadian, Chinese, and other foreign interests.
Murder and community displacement are two costs of such “development” projects. Another is the inequitable appropriation and use of essential resources that local communities need. Geology and hydrology experts estimate that a medium-sized mining project such as some of those proposed for Honduras can consume as much water in a few hours as a rural Honduran family would consume in a year.
Many Hondurans have long criticized this model of development. In 1980, Honduran Central Bank economist Edmundo Valladares referred to “the misery financing the model of development.” By contrast, World Bank president Jim Kim recently (April 2016) responded to the murder of Berta Cáceres in an address at Union Theological Seminary by expressing regret at her murder, then adding, “You cannot do the kind of work we are trying to do and not have some of these incidents happen. We just have to be honest when it happens, admit it, and then try to face it as best we can.” Was he implying that the killings of Indigenous and other leaders were an acceptable price for constructing the model of development? The World Bank has denied any involvement in the Agua Zarca dam project.
With its charismatic director eliminated and ongoing threats to those that remain, COPINH relies more than ever on the support of the international community. Lenca often express gratitude for the interest and support of foreign individuals and the global community. Observers from the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe have been present at Lenca and COPINH events. Recently, however, several international observers were public denounced by government officials and in media with questions such as, “Why is this foreigner present at a COPINH event?” In at least one case, an Italian human rights observer was deported after a campaign to discredit her.
At the same time, Honduran authorities have taken much uncharacteristic and seeming friendly interest in COPINH. Critics call this “mobbing,” a tactic of killing with kindness. The new attention is designed to confuse and co-opt COPINH’s remaining leaders and the Lenca people. But as human rights activist Ismael Moreno, SJ (Padre Melo) said several years ago after a long protest walk led by COPINH and the Garifuna organization OFRANEH, “The Indigenous peoples were highly disciplined and resistant…They were the most firm on the journey. They have resources that the rest do not have: their long history of resistance.”
Foreigners can help the Lenca and other Indigenous people of Honduras by becoming aware of the corporate and government interests and investments that their own countries have in Honduras. This extends also to foreign development and security aid and the conditions and accountability in which this aid is used. Some members of the U.S. Congress are beginning to demand this of their own government.
In the three years before her murder, Cáceres led COPINH in actively opposing construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam across the sacred Gualcarque River that runs through traditional Lenca lands in western Honduras. For her work she was awarded the international Goldman Prize in 2015 for Indigenous environmental activism. Cáceres helped to bring the Lenca struggle into global awareness, delivering an impassioned acceptance speech upon receiving the award in San Francisco. In Honduras, the Lenca and other Indigenous communities are widely seen as the front line of defense of the environment and the nation’s natural resources.
But Cáceres’ work also roused the fear and concern of those who wanted the dam as part of a larger economic development plan for Honduras that promoted foreign investment and large-scale resource extraction (mining, lumber, tourism, agribusiness) at the expense of hundreds of indigenous and peasant rural communities. These interests included the Honduran government and its powerful supporters, as well as U.S., Canadian, Chinese and other foreign interests. The Honduran company Desarollos Energéticos (DESA), with government support, held the contract for the Agua Zarca dam.
The dam builders cleared a dirt road to the construction site through traditional Lenca land without asking Lenca permission. Honduras is bound by national and international laws and treaties, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labor Organization Convention 169 that prohibit taking or using indigenous lands or resources without “full, prior, and informed consent” of the affected communities. The Lenca claimed they were never consulted about the dam or the road. The company, DESA, also ordered them to stop using the river that had been central to their lives for many generations. In addition to private company security guards, a unit of Honduran military guarded the company’s construction compound, as if to emphasize the government’s interest in completion of the dam.Beginning in April, 2013 and for more than four months, COPINH and the Lenca continued peaceful protest, sometimes leading processions or protest walks along the road, attracting Hondurans from other areas as well as international observers from the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. During one of these protests a Honduran soldier in the military unit guarding the dam construction compound shot and killed Lenca protester Tomás Garcia and seriously injured his teenage son, Alan.
Blaming the victim or innocent third parties is a common strategy of oppression and control. Authorities accused Cáceres and two other COPINH leaders–Tomás Gómez and Auriliano Molina–of fomenting violence, and claimed to have found a gun in Cåceres’ vehicle. DESA officials accused the three of causing economic damage by delaying the dam’s construction. After a court hearing at which more than one hundred Lenca and others gathered in support of Cáceres, she was ordered to stay away from the area of the dam protests and from any other protest activities. She was later forced into hiding for a time as authorities briefly sought her arrest, and for months before her assassination she continued to receive death threats. She reported at least thirty-three to the authorities, she said, but they did nothing, even though the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (an arm of the Organization of American States) had mandated the Honduran government to extend protective measures to Cáceres and other COPINH activists.
In the days after the murder of Cáceres, Honduran police held and interrogated COPINH leaders Gómez and Molina and Mexican citizen Gustavo Castro, director of Mexico’s Friends of the Earth. Castro was visiting Cáceres when she was killed. He was shot but survived and was given refuge in the Mexican Embassy when Honduran authorities refused to allow him to leave the country. The police later released Gomez and Molina, but only after a hint of suspicion had been planted against them. In response, COPINH’s lawyer Victor Fernandez said, “Blaming people close to Berta is part of the crime. Leaders are murdered to terrorize communities, contaminate organizations, and squash resistance movements. This is the pattern.”
After two months of widespread popular demonstrations and protests in Latin America, the U.S., and Europe, the Honduran judicial prosecutor’s office announced charges against four men in Cåceres’ death. The identity of the four is revealing of the forces arrayed against the Lenca. Government and news sources reported that three of the four were active or retired military officers, and two are or have been DESA personnel. Sergio Rodriguez served as engineer for the Agua Zarca dam.
Douglas Bustillo is a retired military officer and former head of security for DESA. Mariano Chavez is an active member of the Honduran military, and Edison Duarte is a former military officer. Before her death, Cáceres reportedly identified at least one of these men among those who had threatened her. In addition to these arrests, there are calls for the investigation and arrest of the intellectual authors of the crime, since many believe the murder was ordered, or at least condoned by higher authorities in Honduras. DESA officials have denied any responsibility.
In Honduras it is rare that prominent or powerful individuals are charged with crimes. A culture of official impunity allows the powerful literally to get away with murder. Impunity is the linchpin of the whole system of control and oppression. Some observers believe that because of the widespread and continuing concern and protests after Cáceres’ murder–concern that also aroused members of the U.S. Congress–the Honduran government was forced to show that it was treating this particular murder seriously and to bring credible charges.
Since the killing of Cáceres, COPINH members have been subjected to ongoing threats and attacks. On July 6, 2016, the body of Lesbia Janeth Uruquía, 49, was found stabbed to death near the municipal dump in Marcala, western Honduras. Like Cáceres, Uruquía was the mother of several children. She was a COPINH member and a leader in the effort to stop construction of a private hydroelectric dam on the Chinacla River. This construction project was headed by Gladys Lopez, president of the ruling National Party and vice-president of the National Congress that had authorized the project. As of this writing, no one had been charged in Uruquía’s murder.
Cáceres saw the conflict over the Agua Zarca and other such projects in the context of the support shown by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2009 coup against the government of Manual Zelaya. The coup is widely blamed for ushering in the current era of rampant resource extraction, violence, and repression in Honduras. In Hard Choices, Clinton writes that she advocated swift recognition of the coup and the post-coup government as an exercise in “clear-eyed pragmatism,” even as most of the hemisphere’s governments withheld recognition and demanded the restoration of the elected Zelaya government.
There is a history behind this. In the early 1980s, the Reagan Administration sent the Honduran government a blueprint for economic development (popularly known as Reaganomics for Honduras) that emphasized turning Honduras into a country wide open to foreign investment and resource extraction. Honduran government plans almost exactly mirrored this, until the Zelaya government seemed to deviate from the plan by listening to the voices of the country’s rural, peasant, and Indigenous people. The 2009 coup ended that challenge by removing Zelaya. It appeared that rhetoric about democracy and human rights clashed with the model of economic development the U.S. needed in Honduras.
Both the Agua Zarca project and the Chinacla River project are part of the larger national development plan that includes as an integral component the construction of hydroelectric dams across many of the country’s major rivers, including the Patuca (one of the largest Honduran rivers) that runs through the lands of at least three Indigenous peoples—Miskito, Pech, and Tawahka—in eastern Honduras. The electricity to be generated by these dams is intended, at least in part, to serve the needs of major mining operations in various parts of Honduras—mining projects (Honduran and foreign) that displace Indigenous and peasant communities without ever seeking their “free, prior, and informed consent.” Since the 2009 coup against Zelaya, the post-coup governments have granted a flurry of such mining concessions to U.S., Canadian, Chinese, and other foreign interests.
Murder and community displacement are two costs of such “development” projects. Another is the inequitable appropriation and use of essential resources that local communities need. Geology and hydrology experts estimate that a medium-sized mining project such as some of those proposed for Honduras can consume as much water in a few hours as a rural Honduran family would consume in a year.
Many Hondurans have long criticized this model of development. In 1980, Honduran Central Bank economist Edmundo Valladares referred to “the misery financing the model of development.” By contrast, World Bank president Jim Kim recently (April 2016) responded to the murder of Berta Cáceres in an address at Union Theological Seminary by expressing regret at her murder, then adding, “You cannot do the kind of work we are trying to do and not have some of these incidents happen. We just have to be honest when it happens, admit it, and then try to face it as best we can.” Was he implying that the killings of Indigenous and other leaders were an acceptable price for constructing the model of development? The World Bank has denied any involvement in the Agua Zarca dam project.
With its charismatic director eliminated and ongoing threats to those that remain, COPINH relies more than ever on the support of the international community. Lenca often express gratitude for the interest and support of foreign individuals and the global community. Observers from the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe have been present at Lenca and COPINH events. Recently, however, several international observers were public denounced by government officials and in media with questions such as, “Why is this foreigner present at a COPINH event?” In at least one case, an Italian human rights observer was deported after a campaign to discredit her.
At the same time, Honduran authorities have taken much uncharacteristic and seeming friendly interest in COPINH. Critics call this “mobbing,” a tactic of killing with kindness. The new attention is designed to confuse and co-opt COPINH’s remaining leaders and the Lenca people. But as human rights activist Ismael Moreno, SJ (Padre Melo) said several years ago after a long protest walk led by COPINH and the Garifuna organization OFRANEH, “The Indigenous peoples were highly disciplined and resistant…They were the most firm on the journey. They have resources that the rest do not have: their long history of resistance.”
Foreigners can help the Lenca and other Indigenous people of Honduras by becoming aware of the corporate and government interests and investments that their own countries have in Honduras. This extends also to foreign development and security aid and the conditions and accountability in which this aid is used. Some members of the U.S. Congress are beginning to demand this of their own government.
Frente al asesinato de Lesbia Janeth Urquía Urquía, del COPINH, las feministas integrantes de los movimientos sociales del ALBA gritamos con Berta Cáceres: ¡Despertémonos, humanidad!
Desde el Frente Feminista de los Movimientos Sociales del Alba expresamos nuestro dolor e indignación ante el femicidio de la hermana del COPINH (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras) Lesbia Janeth Urquia Urquia, quien fue brutalmente asesinada el martes 5 de julio en el Municipio de Marcala, La Paz.Nos resulta intolerable que se siga matando a las defensoras de la vida, a las mujeres del pueblo, a quienes han puesto sus esfuerzos para hacer más habitable nuestro mundo.
Janett era una luchadora contra las represas y en defensa de la vida; una destacada dirigente comunitaria, y cuidadora de los bienes comunes y de los derechos indígenas.
Tenía 49 años, y era madre de dos hijas y un hijo, a quienes les hacemos llegar nuestro abrazo y toda nuestra solidaridad. Sepan que su mamá, Janeth, seguirá presente en todas nuestras luchas en el continente.
En estos meses su lucha junto a la de la comunidad, tenía como objetivo defender los ríos, evitar su concesionamiento y privatización, y especialmente frenar la construcción de la represa Aurora 1 del Muncipio de San José, proyecto en el cual tiene vinculación directa la presidenta del Partido Nacional y vicepresidenta del Congreso Nacional Gladys Aurora López.
Este hecho se produjo, además, en el marco de una jornada de “consulta” que se realizó en Marcala, por parte del gobierno asesino de Honduras, sobre el proyecto de ley de aprobación del mecanismo de la consulta previa, libre e informada a las comunidades indígenas, y cuando se preparaba una nueva consulta, a realizarse este domingo en Santa Elena, La Paz, sobre la construcción de otra represa, promovida por el pueblo lenca.
El asesinato de Janeth, es un nuevo golpe a las defensoras de los ríos y territorios de Nuestra América. En este año hemos sufrido el asesinato de la compañera Nilce de Souce del MAB (Movimiento de Afectados por las Represas) de Brasil, y hace 4 meses el asesinato de Berta Caceres, coordinadora general del COPINH, así como también de otros/as defensores y defensoras de los derechos de nuestros pueblos asesinados por este sistema capitalista patriarcal y colonial, que pretende detener la lucha de las mujeres y de los pueblos, desparramando el terror y la muerte. Con el femicidio a defensoras, se pretende atemorizar a las mujeres, para que no participemos en la defensa de la vida, limitando nuestro ejercicio de autonomía y participación.
Las feministas del continente nuestroamericano decimos que no nos van a detener. Que nuestra lucha es por la vida, y por ello seguiremos andando, cada vez más juntas, cada vez más firmes.
Denunciamos al gobierno de Honduras por este nuevo femicidio.
Exigimos que cese la persecución y los asesinatos a las compañeras y compañeros del COPINH.
Llamamos a las mujeres de nuestros pueblos a movilizarnos para exigir justicia verdadera, y para que se termine con esta impunidad.
Hacemos nuestras las palabras de nuestra querida hermana, Berta Cáceres: Despertémonos humanidad.
Frente Feminista de los Movimientos Sociales del ALBA
Lista completa de organizaciones aqui!
Janett era una luchadora contra las represas y en defensa de la vida; una destacada dirigente comunitaria, y cuidadora de los bienes comunes y de los derechos indígenas.
Tenía 49 años, y era madre de dos hijas y un hijo, a quienes les hacemos llegar nuestro abrazo y toda nuestra solidaridad. Sepan que su mamá, Janeth, seguirá presente en todas nuestras luchas en el continente.
En estos meses su lucha junto a la de la comunidad, tenía como objetivo defender los ríos, evitar su concesionamiento y privatización, y especialmente frenar la construcción de la represa Aurora 1 del Muncipio de San José, proyecto en el cual tiene vinculación directa la presidenta del Partido Nacional y vicepresidenta del Congreso Nacional Gladys Aurora López.
Este hecho se produjo, además, en el marco de una jornada de “consulta” que se realizó en Marcala, por parte del gobierno asesino de Honduras, sobre el proyecto de ley de aprobación del mecanismo de la consulta previa, libre e informada a las comunidades indígenas, y cuando se preparaba una nueva consulta, a realizarse este domingo en Santa Elena, La Paz, sobre la construcción de otra represa, promovida por el pueblo lenca.
El asesinato de Janeth, es un nuevo golpe a las defensoras de los ríos y territorios de Nuestra América. En este año hemos sufrido el asesinato de la compañera Nilce de Souce del MAB (Movimiento de Afectados por las Represas) de Brasil, y hace 4 meses el asesinato de Berta Caceres, coordinadora general del COPINH, así como también de otros/as defensores y defensoras de los derechos de nuestros pueblos asesinados por este sistema capitalista patriarcal y colonial, que pretende detener la lucha de las mujeres y de los pueblos, desparramando el terror y la muerte. Con el femicidio a defensoras, se pretende atemorizar a las mujeres, para que no participemos en la defensa de la vida, limitando nuestro ejercicio de autonomía y participación.
Las feministas del continente nuestroamericano decimos que no nos van a detener. Que nuestra lucha es por la vida, y por ello seguiremos andando, cada vez más juntas, cada vez más firmes.
Denunciamos al gobierno de Honduras por este nuevo femicidio.
Exigimos que cese la persecución y los asesinatos a las compañeras y compañeros del COPINH.
Llamamos a las mujeres de nuestros pueblos a movilizarnos para exigir justicia verdadera, y para que se termine con esta impunidad.
Hacemos nuestras las palabras de nuestra querida hermana, Berta Cáceres: Despertémonos humanidad.
Frente Feminista de los Movimientos Sociales del ALBA
Lista completa de organizaciones aqui!
Lesbia Janeth Urquia, Environmental leader,
killed in Honduras
TeleSur / The Dawn News
July 7, 2016
The activist, part of the group founded by Berta Caceres, was found dead near a garbage dump.Another Indigenous activist has been murdered in Honduras, with local activists reporting Wednesday night that a woman identified as Yaneth Urquia Urquia was found dead near a garbage dump with severe head trauma.
Urquia was a member of The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH, the group founded by Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in March. According to La Voz Lenca, the communications arm of COPINH, Urquia was an active member of the activist group and fought against the building of hydroelectric power plants on Indigenous land.
“The comrade was killed with a knife,” the group said on its Facebook page, adding that she had been “abducted by unknown persons.”
Urquia’s body was found Wednesday near the municipal garbage dump in Marcala, in the western department of La Paz, according to Via Campesina Honduras, a local social movement. Her body has been sent to the Forensic Medical unit of the Public Ministry for an autopsy, it said.
The news comes four months after Berta Caceres, the founder of COPINH, was assassinated in her home. Caceres, an environmental activist, had been leading protests against the building of hydroelectric dams on Indigenous land. Four people have been arrested in connection with her murder, including both former and active members of the Honduras military.
Another leader of COPINH, Tomas Garcia, was shot dead at a peaceful protest in 2013.
Honduras has been wracked by violence since the 2009 U.S.-backed coup against its elected center-left government, experiencing one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Urquia was a member of The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH, the group founded by Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in March. According to La Voz Lenca, the communications arm of COPINH, Urquia was an active member of the activist group and fought against the building of hydroelectric power plants on Indigenous land.
“The comrade was killed with a knife,” the group said on its Facebook page, adding that she had been “abducted by unknown persons.”
Urquia’s body was found Wednesday near the municipal garbage dump in Marcala, in the western department of La Paz, according to Via Campesina Honduras, a local social movement. Her body has been sent to the Forensic Medical unit of the Public Ministry for an autopsy, it said.
The news comes four months after Berta Caceres, the founder of COPINH, was assassinated in her home. Caceres, an environmental activist, had been leading protests against the building of hydroelectric dams on Indigenous land. Four people have been arrested in connection with her murder, including both former and active members of the Honduras military.
Another leader of COPINH, Tomas Garcia, was shot dead at a peaceful protest in 2013.
Honduras has been wracked by violence since the 2009 U.S.-backed coup against its elected center-left government, experiencing one of the highest murder rates in the world.
A coup that still hurts after seven years
By: Gerardo Szalkowicz / Source: marcha.org / The Dawn News
June 28, 2016
José Manuel Zelaya took office in Honduras in January 2006 as part of the Liberal Party, one of the two traditional parties, but he eventually took a couple of steps to the left. He decreed the granting of land to peasants, increased the minimum wage by 64% and promoted, in 2008, the entry of Honduras in the Petrocaribe and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).
In mid-2009, he proposed a referendum to decide on whether to place a fourth ballot in the elections scheduled for November. That fourth ballot would be destined to vote in favor or against the installation of a Constituent Assembly. The referendum, scheduled for June 28, was the spark that ignited the conspiracy. In the early hours that Sunday, Zelaya was kidnapped by the military, transported to the Toncontin airport in his pajamas, and flown to Costa Rica.
The coup, supported by the legislative and judicial powers, had been planned out in the US military base of Palmerola (70 km north of Tegucigalpa),a base installed in the ’80s as a platform to attack the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and the Central American revolutionary movements.
The de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, who had until then been President of Congress, began. As a counterpart, also bloomed an unprecedented process of popular mobilization that gave birth to the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), the largest social and political force in recent Honduran history. The response was a ruthless policy of persecution and repression against the “Resistance” that did not stop under the presidency of Porfirio Lobo —promoted by the controversial elections in November of that year, in which 70% of the voters abstained— nor in this current period ruled by Juan Orlando Hernández.
Bloodbath
It’s been estimated that, in these seven years, more than 300 militants who fought against the de facto regime and its successors Lobos and Hernandez have been murdered. More than 100 of the victims are peasants. That is because the main focus of resistance occurs in regions with vast production of African palm, where the rural and indigenous organizations are waging a tough battle to defend the territory and natural property from the landowners and transnational mega-projects.
The murder of Berta Cáceres, perpetrated by a group of gunmen last March 3, is not an isolated case. But it goes to prove the degree of impunity in the country and the complicity of all the elements of the state, which prepared the ground for the attack against the life of one of the main symbols of the Honduran Resistance, an environmental, indigenous and feminist leader with international status.
Another preferred target of the coup leaders are journalists: since 2009, more than 50 murders of journalists were reported, making Honduras the second most dangerous country for journalists in Latin America (after Mexico). A report named “Situation of Human Rights in Honduras”, published last February by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), confirms that, before the fragile Honduran democracy was altered, there were no mass killings of journalists nor the high rates of homicide that are now prevailing in the country.
These figures are also explained by the high degree of impunity. The government itself has admitted that only 20% of the crimes are investigated. Another significant element is that Honduras became a major drug trafficking route to the world’s biggest consumer: the United States. The employment situation in the country is also worrisome, due to the increase in insecurity and unemployment.
Seven years later, the Honduran people are still paying dearly for the consequences of the coup: the country became the most violent in the region and one of the poorest (with about 70% under the line of poverty), two million people have been driven out of the country by violence and misery, and 35 thousand children were thrown into the human trafficking networks and child prostitution. Seven years later, Honduras remains drowned by high levels of corruption, a broken economy and a systematic process of persecution and criminalization of social protests.
In mid-2009, he proposed a referendum to decide on whether to place a fourth ballot in the elections scheduled for November. That fourth ballot would be destined to vote in favor or against the installation of a Constituent Assembly. The referendum, scheduled for June 28, was the spark that ignited the conspiracy. In the early hours that Sunday, Zelaya was kidnapped by the military, transported to the Toncontin airport in his pajamas, and flown to Costa Rica.
The coup, supported by the legislative and judicial powers, had been planned out in the US military base of Palmerola (70 km north of Tegucigalpa),a base installed in the ’80s as a platform to attack the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and the Central American revolutionary movements.
The de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, who had until then been President of Congress, began. As a counterpart, also bloomed an unprecedented process of popular mobilization that gave birth to the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), the largest social and political force in recent Honduran history. The response was a ruthless policy of persecution and repression against the “Resistance” that did not stop under the presidency of Porfirio Lobo —promoted by the controversial elections in November of that year, in which 70% of the voters abstained— nor in this current period ruled by Juan Orlando Hernández.
Bloodbath
It’s been estimated that, in these seven years, more than 300 militants who fought against the de facto regime and its successors Lobos and Hernandez have been murdered. More than 100 of the victims are peasants. That is because the main focus of resistance occurs in regions with vast production of African palm, where the rural and indigenous organizations are waging a tough battle to defend the territory and natural property from the landowners and transnational mega-projects.
The murder of Berta Cáceres, perpetrated by a group of gunmen last March 3, is not an isolated case. But it goes to prove the degree of impunity in the country and the complicity of all the elements of the state, which prepared the ground for the attack against the life of one of the main symbols of the Honduran Resistance, an environmental, indigenous and feminist leader with international status.
Another preferred target of the coup leaders are journalists: since 2009, more than 50 murders of journalists were reported, making Honduras the second most dangerous country for journalists in Latin America (after Mexico). A report named “Situation of Human Rights in Honduras”, published last February by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), confirms that, before the fragile Honduran democracy was altered, there were no mass killings of journalists nor the high rates of homicide that are now prevailing in the country.
These figures are also explained by the high degree of impunity. The government itself has admitted that only 20% of the crimes are investigated. Another significant element is that Honduras became a major drug trafficking route to the world’s biggest consumer: the United States. The employment situation in the country is also worrisome, due to the increase in insecurity and unemployment.
Seven years later, the Honduran people are still paying dearly for the consequences of the coup: the country became the most violent in the region and one of the poorest (with about 70% under the line of poverty), two million people have been driven out of the country by violence and misery, and 35 thousand children were thrown into the human trafficking networks and child prostitution. Seven years later, Honduras remains drowned by high levels of corruption, a broken economy and a systematic process of persecution and criminalization of social protests.
Berta Cáceres' name was on Honduran military hitlist, says former soldier
By Nina Lakhani in Mexico City - ICH
June 21, 2016
A unit trained by US special forces was ordered to kill the environmental activist who was slain in March, according to an ex-member who now fears for his life
Berta Cáceres, the murdered environmental campaigner, appeared on a hitlist distributed to US-trained special forces units of the Honduran military months before her death, a former soldier has claimed.Lists featuring the names and photographs of dozens of social and environmental activists were given to two elite units, with orders to eliminate each target, according to First Sergeant Rodrigo Cruz, 20.
Cruz’s unit commander, a 24-year-old lieutenant, deserted rather than comply with the order. Cruz – who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for fear of reprisal – followed suit, and fled to a neighbouring country. Several other members of the unit have disappeared and are feared dead.
“If I went home, they’d kill me. Ten of my former colleagues are missing. I’m 100% certain that Berta Cáceres was killed by the army,” Cruz told the Guardian.
Cáceres, an indigenous Lenca leader who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for a campaign against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam, was shot dead in her home in March. Before her murder, she had reported 33 death threats linked to the campaign and had warned international human rights delegates that her name was on a hitlist.
According to Cruz, Cáceres’s name appeared on a list given to a military police unit in the Inter-institutional Security Force (Fusina), which last summer received training from 300 US marines and FBI agents.
Five men have been arrested for her murder, including Maj Mariano Díaz Chávez, an active-duty major in the Honduran army. Díaz had previously participated in joint US-Honduran military operations in Iraq, and is reported by local media to be a graduate of the elite Tesón special operations course which is partly taught by US special forces. Diaz was a military police instructor when arrested, but has since been given a dishonourable discharge.
Annie Bird, director of the group Rights and Ecology which documents human rights abuses in Honduras, said: “Cruz’s testimony suggests death squads are targeting political opposition, but the justice system is so broken, and directly controlled by figures implicated in corruption, that there is no one [in Honduras] who can credibly investigate.”
The Guardian interviewed Cruz several times by telephone and video call, and spoke with several people – academics, community leaders and activists – who have interviewed Cruz and confirmed his identity and military background.
Cruz enlisted in the army in December 2014, and after three months of basic training, was transferred to the 7th Battalion of the military police, which was created in 2013 to replace a civilian police force mired in allegations of corruption and abuse.
He completed two gruelling specialist training camps, including the Tesón course, where he received instruction from foreign military advisers including Americans, Colombians and instructors who spoke a foreign language which Cruz could not identify. Last year, the Tesón course became the subject of intense controversy when footage emerged showing a trainee being forced to eat the head of a dog.
During his training, Cruz was hospitalized twice with dehydration, but he completed the course and in October last year, Cruz and 15 other men from his battalion were picked to serve in the Xatruch taskforce – one of two multi-agency forces in Honduras deployed on specialist counter-narcotics and anti-gang operations.
The Xatruch force covers the Caribbean coast, which has become an important way station for drug cartels smuggling cocaine from South America to the US. The second taskforce, Fusina, operates nationwide.
In mid-December, Cruz’s commander gathered his subordinates after a Tuesday evening football match and showed them several sheets of paper with names, photographs, addresses and phone numbers of each target. One list was assigned to their unit; the second to a similar unit in Fusina.
“The lieutenant said he wasn’t willing to go through with the order as the targets were decent people, fighting for their communities. He said the order came from the joint chiefs of staff [and] he was under pressure from the Xatruch commander to comply,” Cruz said.
A few days later, the lieutenant left the base and has not been seen since.
Berta Cáceres, the murdered environmental campaigner, appeared on a hitlist distributed to US-trained special forces units of the Honduran military months before her death, a former soldier has claimed.Lists featuring the names and photographs of dozens of social and environmental activists were given to two elite units, with orders to eliminate each target, according to First Sergeant Rodrigo Cruz, 20.
Cruz’s unit commander, a 24-year-old lieutenant, deserted rather than comply with the order. Cruz – who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for fear of reprisal – followed suit, and fled to a neighbouring country. Several other members of the unit have disappeared and are feared dead.
“If I went home, they’d kill me. Ten of my former colleagues are missing. I’m 100% certain that Berta Cáceres was killed by the army,” Cruz told the Guardian.
Cáceres, an indigenous Lenca leader who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for a campaign against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam, was shot dead in her home in March. Before her murder, she had reported 33 death threats linked to the campaign and had warned international human rights delegates that her name was on a hitlist.
According to Cruz, Cáceres’s name appeared on a list given to a military police unit in the Inter-institutional Security Force (Fusina), which last summer received training from 300 US marines and FBI agents.
Five men have been arrested for her murder, including Maj Mariano Díaz Chávez, an active-duty major in the Honduran army. Díaz had previously participated in joint US-Honduran military operations in Iraq, and is reported by local media to be a graduate of the elite Tesón special operations course which is partly taught by US special forces. Diaz was a military police instructor when arrested, but has since been given a dishonourable discharge.
Annie Bird, director of the group Rights and Ecology which documents human rights abuses in Honduras, said: “Cruz’s testimony suggests death squads are targeting political opposition, but the justice system is so broken, and directly controlled by figures implicated in corruption, that there is no one [in Honduras] who can credibly investigate.”
The Guardian interviewed Cruz several times by telephone and video call, and spoke with several people – academics, community leaders and activists – who have interviewed Cruz and confirmed his identity and military background.
Cruz enlisted in the army in December 2014, and after three months of basic training, was transferred to the 7th Battalion of the military police, which was created in 2013 to replace a civilian police force mired in allegations of corruption and abuse.
He completed two gruelling specialist training camps, including the Tesón course, where he received instruction from foreign military advisers including Americans, Colombians and instructors who spoke a foreign language which Cruz could not identify. Last year, the Tesón course became the subject of intense controversy when footage emerged showing a trainee being forced to eat the head of a dog.
During his training, Cruz was hospitalized twice with dehydration, but he completed the course and in October last year, Cruz and 15 other men from his battalion were picked to serve in the Xatruch taskforce – one of two multi-agency forces in Honduras deployed on specialist counter-narcotics and anti-gang operations.
The Xatruch force covers the Caribbean coast, which has become an important way station for drug cartels smuggling cocaine from South America to the US. The second taskforce, Fusina, operates nationwide.
In mid-December, Cruz’s commander gathered his subordinates after a Tuesday evening football match and showed them several sheets of paper with names, photographs, addresses and phone numbers of each target. One list was assigned to their unit; the second to a similar unit in Fusina.
“The lieutenant said he wasn’t willing to go through with the order as the targets were decent people, fighting for their communities. He said the order came from the joint chiefs of staff [and] he was under pressure from the Xatruch commander to comply,” Cruz said.
A few days later, the lieutenant left the base and has not been seen since.
GLOBAL ACTION FOR JUSTICE
FOR BERTA CÁCERES
Obama Urged to Stop Funding Honduran Military as Questions Grow over US Role in Berta Cáceres' Death
Democracy Now
May 24, 2916
As Hillary Clinton Defends Her Role in 2009 Coup, Is U.S. Aid to Honduras Adding "Fuel to the Fire"? Interview with ANNIE BIRD director of Rights & Ecology, a project of the Center for Political Ecology.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has returned from a visit to Tegucigalpa, where he met with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to discuss migration and security.
Johnson’s visit comes as a growing number of activists in Honduras and in the United States are calling on the United States to stop funding the Honduran military, over accusations that state security forces have been involved in human rights violations, extrajudicial killings—and the murder of internationally renown environmentalist Berta Cáceres.
Before her death, Berta and her organization COPINH was long the target of repression by elite Honduran security forces and paramilitary organizations. Earlier this month, four people were arrested in connection with her murder, including Army Major Mariano Díaz Chávez and Edilson Duarte Meza, who is reportedly a retired captain. Press accounts report Díaz Chávez graduated from the prestigious U.S. Ranger-supported Honduran special forces course TESON, raising questions about whether U.S.-trained troops were involved in carrying out Berta’s murder.
We speak to Annie Bird, director of Rights & Ecology, a project of the Center for Political Ecology.
Watch video and read Transcript here!!!
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has returned from a visit to Tegucigalpa, where he met with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to discuss migration and security.
Johnson’s visit comes as a growing number of activists in Honduras and in the United States are calling on the United States to stop funding the Honduran military, over accusations that state security forces have been involved in human rights violations, extrajudicial killings—and the murder of internationally renown environmentalist Berta Cáceres.
Before her death, Berta and her organization COPINH was long the target of repression by elite Honduran security forces and paramilitary organizations. Earlier this month, four people were arrested in connection with her murder, including Army Major Mariano Díaz Chávez and Edilson Duarte Meza, who is reportedly a retired captain. Press accounts report Díaz Chávez graduated from the prestigious U.S. Ranger-supported Honduran special forces course TESON, raising questions about whether U.S.-trained troops were involved in carrying out Berta’s murder.
We speak to Annie Bird, director of Rights & Ecology, a project of the Center for Political Ecology.
Watch video and read Transcript here!!!
Attack on the International "Berta Cáceres Lives" Gathering
Letter written by Brigitte Gynther, SOA Watch
April 22, 2016
Last Friday, I stood near the Lenca people's sacred Gualcarque River with Tomas Gomez, who has assumed the coordination of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), following last month's assassination of Berta Cáceres. We tried to figure out how to get everybody in the Gualcarque River to safety amidst a violent attack occurring just up the hill above us. Armed men affiliated with DESA, the company building the Agua Zarca Project, were swinging machetes, throwing rocks, and punching COPINH leaders and attendees of the International Encuentro “Berta Cáceres Lives” as they peacefully walked back to their buses following an Indigenous ceremony on the edge of the Gualcarque River remembering Berta and her struggle.
The violent men were searching for Tomas, yelling “we must attack him, he's the one who's left.” They also made references to having murdered Berta Caceres and that the people there were all that were left. COPINH leaders Sotero Chaverria, Jose Asencion Martinez, and Marleny Reyes Castillo were all attacked and injured. A TeleSur journalist was hit and threatened and Vitalino Alvarez, long-time leader of the Bajo Aguan campesino movement, was punched in the face so badly he could barely open his mouth. An international accompanier was punched and knocked down. Several other Encuentro attendees were also injured.
Notably, the US-funded and supported Honduran National Police in the area did not disarm the men nor stop the violence. In fact, earlier in the day, they refused to disarm the men as they threatened the Encuentro participants who arrived to walk down to the river. After intense pressure from COPINH leaders, the police assisted those still down at the Gualcarque River to get past the group of armed men, but released them not far from the armed men, who started coming after them. The police refused to disarm those swinging machetes and punching the Encuentro attendees. The Honduran military was also in the region, but they were deployed at entrances to DESA's installations, showing once again their role is to protect corporate interests.
Among the DESA-affiliated men identified by local residents was a known hitman with a murder in his police record who had previously threatened to kill 10 COPINH members, including Berta. Just two weeks before her death, Berta had denounced that this man was working for DESA and had been released from police custody despite having a murder in his file after DESA's head of security moved money around. Other men are reported to be paid by DESA or the local government to intimidate COPINH and provoke violence.
This attack is just the latest in a long line of violence against COPINH members who defend the Gualcarque River. They have been attacked with machetes, murdered, hospitalized, criminalized, threatened with death, and shot at since they started blocking construction of the dam in April 2013. The Honduran military murdered Tomas Garcia, shooting him multiple times at close range at a protest against the dam. With the second attempt to build the dam in 2015-2016, the threats and violence have increased. On March 2, 2016, Berta Cáceres was assassinated after years of threats. 24 hours after Berta's death, 4 men with high-caliber weapons appeared just before midnight near the home of Berta's close colleague, Tomas Gomez. Francisco Javier Sanchez, President of the Indigenous Council of Rio Blanco, the Lenca community opposing the dam, has been followed, and the National Police took away the bus the Rio Blanco residents were traveling as they tried to go to the protest demanding justice for Berta. Mysterious people have appeared taking pictures near COPINH's installations.
The US has a direct responsibility for the repression occurring in Honduras. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she legitimized the 2009 SOA-graduate led military coup. Clinton refused to call it a military coup, meaning US aid could continue, and instead of demanding the coup regime allow the return of the democratically elected President, she sought to bring about elections carried out by those who had just seized power and which of course simply gave them a hold on power. The coup and subsequent regimes unleashed intense repression against social movements, human rights organizations, lawyers, journalists, LGBTQ persons, and anyone who speaks out. The $750 million approved by the US Congress for the “Alliance for Prosperity,” known as the Plan Colombia for Central America, will only make things worse, providing a huge influx of funding to the repressive Honduran regime with a lethal combination of support for the security forces and exactly the type of privatization and corporate projects that social movements are being murdered for opposing.
A year before her assassination, Berta Cáceres met with US Congresspeople and asked them not to fund the Alliance for Prosperity and to cut off all military and security aid to Honduras. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The powers at be tried to silence Berta's voice by assassinating her but her call has been taken up by people across Honduras and the world. Before more amazing leaders are killed, we must take action and demand the US cease its devastating role in the repression occurring in Honduras and cut the Alliance for Prosperity and all security funding to Honduras. Click here to send a message to your Member of Congress.
In peace and solidarity,
Brigitte Gynther
SOA Watch
P.S. The violent conditions in Honduras are forcing people to flee and to risk the dangerous trip to the United States, where they are confronted by a highly militarized border, more violence and racist immigration laws. From October 7-10, 2016, just before the November elections, SOA Watch is calling for a Border Convergence, to demand justice for all those impacted by US policies and to end the US militarization of the Americas. Mobilize your community and take a stand for justice for the people of the Americas: http://SOAW.org/border
SOA Watch
The violent men were searching for Tomas, yelling “we must attack him, he's the one who's left.” They also made references to having murdered Berta Caceres and that the people there were all that were left. COPINH leaders Sotero Chaverria, Jose Asencion Martinez, and Marleny Reyes Castillo were all attacked and injured. A TeleSur journalist was hit and threatened and Vitalino Alvarez, long-time leader of the Bajo Aguan campesino movement, was punched in the face so badly he could barely open his mouth. An international accompanier was punched and knocked down. Several other Encuentro attendees were also injured.
Notably, the US-funded and supported Honduran National Police in the area did not disarm the men nor stop the violence. In fact, earlier in the day, they refused to disarm the men as they threatened the Encuentro participants who arrived to walk down to the river. After intense pressure from COPINH leaders, the police assisted those still down at the Gualcarque River to get past the group of armed men, but released them not far from the armed men, who started coming after them. The police refused to disarm those swinging machetes and punching the Encuentro attendees. The Honduran military was also in the region, but they were deployed at entrances to DESA's installations, showing once again their role is to protect corporate interests.
Among the DESA-affiliated men identified by local residents was a known hitman with a murder in his police record who had previously threatened to kill 10 COPINH members, including Berta. Just two weeks before her death, Berta had denounced that this man was working for DESA and had been released from police custody despite having a murder in his file after DESA's head of security moved money around. Other men are reported to be paid by DESA or the local government to intimidate COPINH and provoke violence.
This attack is just the latest in a long line of violence against COPINH members who defend the Gualcarque River. They have been attacked with machetes, murdered, hospitalized, criminalized, threatened with death, and shot at since they started blocking construction of the dam in April 2013. The Honduran military murdered Tomas Garcia, shooting him multiple times at close range at a protest against the dam. With the second attempt to build the dam in 2015-2016, the threats and violence have increased. On March 2, 2016, Berta Cáceres was assassinated after years of threats. 24 hours after Berta's death, 4 men with high-caliber weapons appeared just before midnight near the home of Berta's close colleague, Tomas Gomez. Francisco Javier Sanchez, President of the Indigenous Council of Rio Blanco, the Lenca community opposing the dam, has been followed, and the National Police took away the bus the Rio Blanco residents were traveling as they tried to go to the protest demanding justice for Berta. Mysterious people have appeared taking pictures near COPINH's installations.
The US has a direct responsibility for the repression occurring in Honduras. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she legitimized the 2009 SOA-graduate led military coup. Clinton refused to call it a military coup, meaning US aid could continue, and instead of demanding the coup regime allow the return of the democratically elected President, she sought to bring about elections carried out by those who had just seized power and which of course simply gave them a hold on power. The coup and subsequent regimes unleashed intense repression against social movements, human rights organizations, lawyers, journalists, LGBTQ persons, and anyone who speaks out. The $750 million approved by the US Congress for the “Alliance for Prosperity,” known as the Plan Colombia for Central America, will only make things worse, providing a huge influx of funding to the repressive Honduran regime with a lethal combination of support for the security forces and exactly the type of privatization and corporate projects that social movements are being murdered for opposing.
A year before her assassination, Berta Cáceres met with US Congresspeople and asked them not to fund the Alliance for Prosperity and to cut off all military and security aid to Honduras. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The powers at be tried to silence Berta's voice by assassinating her but her call has been taken up by people across Honduras and the world. Before more amazing leaders are killed, we must take action and demand the US cease its devastating role in the repression occurring in Honduras and cut the Alliance for Prosperity and all security funding to Honduras. Click here to send a message to your Member of Congress.
In peace and solidarity,
Brigitte Gynther
SOA Watch
P.S. The violent conditions in Honduras are forcing people to flee and to risk the dangerous trip to the United States, where they are confronted by a highly militarized border, more violence and racist immigration laws. From October 7-10, 2016, just before the November elections, SOA Watch is calling for a Border Convergence, to demand justice for all those impacted by US policies and to end the US militarization of the Americas. Mobilize your community and take a stand for justice for the people of the Americas: http://SOAW.org/border
SOA Watch
“The Honduran Government Wants to Incriminate Us”: The Criminalization of COPINH and Misdirection Plague Investigation into Lenca Leader’s Assassination
By: Witness for Peace / Source: Other Worlds / The Dawn
March 25, 2015
Family members of Berta Cáceres, General Coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), and the leadership of the organization, accompanied by national and international human rights defenders, held a press conference Wednesday, March 9 in Tegucigalpa expressing their growing concerns over the Honduran government-led investigation of Cáceres’ assassination.
Internationally recognized Honduran human rights leader Cáceres was assassinated on March 3, 2016 in her home in La Esperanza. Since then, Cáceres’ family members and COPINH have denounced the government’s failure to guarantee an international and independent investigation into her assassination. COPINH has demanded that the Honduran government sign an agreement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for an independent and impartial investigation led by an international team of experts. “The same government that criminalized Berta Cáceres, […] the same government that persecuted her, threatened her, and is responsible for her murder cannot possibly investigate itself,” the organization stated.
“[Honduran authorities] are losing precious hours and days in this investigation,” exclaimed Marcia Aguiluz, representative of the Justice Center, CONTINUE LEYENDO AQUI ....
Internationally recognized Honduran human rights leader Cáceres was assassinated on March 3, 2016 in her home in La Esperanza. Since then, Cáceres’ family members and COPINH have denounced the government’s failure to guarantee an international and independent investigation into her assassination. COPINH has demanded that the Honduran government sign an agreement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for an independent and impartial investigation led by an international team of experts. “The same government that criminalized Berta Cáceres, […] the same government that persecuted her, threatened her, and is responsible for her murder cannot possibly investigate itself,” the organization stated.
“[Honduran authorities] are losing precious hours and days in this investigation,” exclaimed Marcia Aguiluz, representative of the Justice Center, CONTINUE LEYENDO AQUI ....
¡Exigimos el fin de la escalada represiva en Honduras!!
Resumen Latinoamericano
16 de Marzo de 2016
Repudiamos los asesinatos de Berta Cáceres y Nelson Noé García y el intento de asesinato de Christian Mauricio Alegría, integrantes de COPINH y La Vía Campesina.
La Alianza por la Biodiversidad, integrada por organizaciones latinoamericanas que trabajan con los movimientos sociales, comunidades y pueblos del continente que se encuentran en pie de lucha en defensa de sus territorios, sus vidas y su dignidad, repudia enérgicamente la represión desatada contra el movimiento popular y sus líderes en Honduras.
Esta escalada represiva, que intenta amedrentar a los luchadores sociales y criminalizar sus luchas, se ha cobrado hace doce días la vida de Berta Cáceres, líder de la comunidad indígena lenca y movimientos campesinos, defensora de los derechos humanos, e integrante fundadora del COPINH. Hoy nos golpea la noticia del asesinato en Honduras de otro integrante del COPINH, Nelson Noé García, en la comunidad Río Chiquito, departamento de Cortés, durante un desalojo.
A este brutal asesinato se suma también hoy el intento de asesinato de Christian Mauricio Alegría, integrante de La Vía Campesina Honduras, que sobrevivió a disparos de armas de fuego frente a las instalaciones de la oficina de ese movimiento campesino internacional en la colonia Alameda de Tegucigalpa.
Por último hacemos un enérgico llamado al Gobierno de Honduras para que garantice la vida y la integridad de Gustavo Castro Soto, mexicano e integrante de la Organización Otros Mundos Chiapas/Amigos de La Tierra México, la Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Minería (REMA) y el Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo Extractivo Minero (M4), y sobreviviente del asesinato de Berta Cáceres.
¡Basta de criminalizar y asesinar a los luchadores populares!
¡Fuera las corporaciones y sus proyectos extractivos de muerte de América Latina!
Exigimos al Gobierno de Honduras el castigo a los culpables materiales y políticos de estos crímenes, y lo hacemos responsable por la vida y la integridad de Gustavo Castro Soto.
Solicitamos con urgencia al Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre la situación de las y los defensores de derechos humanos, Michel Forst, y al Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, una inminente visita especial a Honduras, ante los gravísimos atentados contra los DDHH.
¡No pasarán! Nos declaramos en alerta permanente, y manifestamos nuestra solidaridad y apoyo incondicional al pueblo de Honduras y sus organizaciones.
Alianza por la Biodiversidad
REDES – Amigos de la Tierra – Uruguay,
ETC Group – México,
GRAIN – Argentina – Chile – México,
Acción Ecológica – Ecuador,
Grupo Semillas – Colombia,
Sobrevivencia – Paraguay,
Acción por la Biodiversidad – Argentina,
Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad – Costa Rica,
Centro Ecológico – Brasil,
Campaña de Semillas de Vía Campesina – CLOC – Chile,
CLOC – Vía Campesina América Latina
16 de marzo de 2016
La Alianza por la Biodiversidad, integrada por organizaciones latinoamericanas que trabajan con los movimientos sociales, comunidades y pueblos del continente que se encuentran en pie de lucha en defensa de sus territorios, sus vidas y su dignidad, repudia enérgicamente la represión desatada contra el movimiento popular y sus líderes en Honduras.
Esta escalada represiva, que intenta amedrentar a los luchadores sociales y criminalizar sus luchas, se ha cobrado hace doce días la vida de Berta Cáceres, líder de la comunidad indígena lenca y movimientos campesinos, defensora de los derechos humanos, e integrante fundadora del COPINH. Hoy nos golpea la noticia del asesinato en Honduras de otro integrante del COPINH, Nelson Noé García, en la comunidad Río Chiquito, departamento de Cortés, durante un desalojo.
A este brutal asesinato se suma también hoy el intento de asesinato de Christian Mauricio Alegría, integrante de La Vía Campesina Honduras, que sobrevivió a disparos de armas de fuego frente a las instalaciones de la oficina de ese movimiento campesino internacional en la colonia Alameda de Tegucigalpa.
Por último hacemos un enérgico llamado al Gobierno de Honduras para que garantice la vida y la integridad de Gustavo Castro Soto, mexicano e integrante de la Organización Otros Mundos Chiapas/Amigos de La Tierra México, la Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Minería (REMA) y el Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo Extractivo Minero (M4), y sobreviviente del asesinato de Berta Cáceres.
¡Basta de criminalizar y asesinar a los luchadores populares!
¡Fuera las corporaciones y sus proyectos extractivos de muerte de América Latina!
Exigimos al Gobierno de Honduras el castigo a los culpables materiales y políticos de estos crímenes, y lo hacemos responsable por la vida y la integridad de Gustavo Castro Soto.
Solicitamos con urgencia al Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre la situación de las y los defensores de derechos humanos, Michel Forst, y al Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, una inminente visita especial a Honduras, ante los gravísimos atentados contra los DDHH.
¡No pasarán! Nos declaramos en alerta permanente, y manifestamos nuestra solidaridad y apoyo incondicional al pueblo de Honduras y sus organizaciones.
Alianza por la Biodiversidad
REDES – Amigos de la Tierra – Uruguay,
ETC Group – México,
GRAIN – Argentina – Chile – México,
Acción Ecológica – Ecuador,
Grupo Semillas – Colombia,
Sobrevivencia – Paraguay,
Acción por la Biodiversidad – Argentina,
Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad – Costa Rica,
Centro Ecológico – Brasil,
Campaña de Semillas de Vía Campesina – CLOC – Chile,
CLOC – Vía Campesina América Latina
16 de marzo de 2016
Assassination of Berta Caceres
sparks outrage
Toronto, March 3, 2016
(Video below)
We condemn the assassination of Berta Cáceres, general coordinator and co-founder of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras. Berta was assassinated in La Esperanza, Intibuca after several individuals broke into the house where she was staying and shot and killed her.
An Indigenous Lenca women and community leader, Berta waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam. Just last month, COPINH issued an alert noting that repression and violence against the Rio Blanco community, including Berta Cáceres had escalated as they carried out peaceful actions to protect the River Gualcarque against the construction of a hydroelectric dam by the internationally-financed Honduran company DESA. Due to the violence against her she was granted precautionary measures by the InterAmerican Commission for Human Rights.
Berta Cáceres was recognized nationally and internationally as an environmentalist who fought for Indigenous rights. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the highest international recognition for environmental activists. As part of her recognition speech she spoke of the repression she faced, “they follow me, they threaten to kill me and kidnap my family, this is what we face”.
Berta was also instrumental in leading protests against the 2009 coup that overthrew the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup the human rights situation in Honduras has deteriorated as human rights defenders and social movement leaders are routinely killed and systematically criminalized.
On October 1, 2014, Canada implemented a Free Trade Agreement with Honduras despite opposition from civil society and labour organizations. The deal provided diplomatic and economic backing to an undemocratic government responsible for widespread human rights abuses, political violence that has generated massive inequality.
We call on the government of Canada to condemn the murder, and to call on the Honduran government to support an independent, international investigation into the murder.
ALBA capitulo Canada
Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network
British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union
British Columbia Teachers' Federation
Bolivarian Circle Louis Riel
Canada-El Salvador Cooperation for Development
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Canadian Union of Public Employees
CoDevelopment Canada
Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance
Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine
Common Frontiers
Confédération des syndicats nationaux
Confederation of Canadian Unions
Council of Canadians
Idle No More
Inter Pares
Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network
Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association
Maquila Solidarity Network
Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network
MiningWatch Canada
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network
Movimiento Farabundista
Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation
Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Sierra Club Canada Foundation
United Church of Canada
United for Mining Justice
United Steelworkers
Unifor
For more information or to sign on contact:
Raul Burbano - Common Frontiers, 416 522 8615, [email protected]
Amelia Orellana - CDHAL - 514 257 8710 poste 334, [email protected]
An Indigenous Lenca women and community leader, Berta waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam. Just last month, COPINH issued an alert noting that repression and violence against the Rio Blanco community, including Berta Cáceres had escalated as they carried out peaceful actions to protect the River Gualcarque against the construction of a hydroelectric dam by the internationally-financed Honduran company DESA. Due to the violence against her she was granted precautionary measures by the InterAmerican Commission for Human Rights.
Berta Cáceres was recognized nationally and internationally as an environmentalist who fought for Indigenous rights. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the highest international recognition for environmental activists. As part of her recognition speech she spoke of the repression she faced, “they follow me, they threaten to kill me and kidnap my family, this is what we face”.
Berta was also instrumental in leading protests against the 2009 coup that overthrew the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup the human rights situation in Honduras has deteriorated as human rights defenders and social movement leaders are routinely killed and systematically criminalized.
On October 1, 2014, Canada implemented a Free Trade Agreement with Honduras despite opposition from civil society and labour organizations. The deal provided diplomatic and economic backing to an undemocratic government responsible for widespread human rights abuses, political violence that has generated massive inequality.
We call on the government of Canada to condemn the murder, and to call on the Honduran government to support an independent, international investigation into the murder.
ALBA capitulo Canada
Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network
British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union
British Columbia Teachers' Federation
Bolivarian Circle Louis Riel
Canada-El Salvador Cooperation for Development
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Canadian Union of Public Employees
CoDevelopment Canada
Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance
Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine
Common Frontiers
Confédération des syndicats nationaux
Confederation of Canadian Unions
Council of Canadians
Idle No More
Inter Pares
Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network
Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association
Maquila Solidarity Network
Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network
MiningWatch Canada
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network
Movimiento Farabundista
Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation
Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Sierra Club Canada Foundation
United Church of Canada
United for Mining Justice
United Steelworkers
Unifor
For more information or to sign on contact:
Raul Burbano - Common Frontiers, 416 522 8615, [email protected]
Amelia Orellana - CDHAL - 514 257 8710 poste 334, [email protected]
El COPINH denuncia que la empresa Desa-Agua Zarca reimpresa proyecto hidroeléctrico ilegal contra
el pueblo indígena lenca
Resumen Latinoamericano
Feb. 20, 2016
El Gobierno de Honduras sigue permitiendo y siendo cómplice de la violación de derechos humanos del Pueblo Lenca de Río Blanco y del Norte de Intibucá al respaldar el segundo intento de DESA para construir el Proyecto Hidroeléctrico “Agua Zarca” sobre el mismo Río Gualcarque, patrimonio natural, cultural, económico y hábitat funcional del Pueblo Lenca.
Este nuevo intento de DESA-Agua Zarca está basado en la misma concesión ilegal que ha violado el Derecho de Consulta y Consentimiento Previo, Libre e Informado del Pueblo Lenca, así como el Convenio 169 de la OIT, la Declaración de la ONU sobre Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, por lo que desde su origen es ilegítimo e illegal.
Sigue leyendo aqui ....
Este nuevo intento de DESA-Agua Zarca está basado en la misma concesión ilegal que ha violado el Derecho de Consulta y Consentimiento Previo, Libre e Informado del Pueblo Lenca, así como el Convenio 169 de la OIT, la Declaración de la ONU sobre Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, por lo que desde su origen es ilegítimo e illegal.
Sigue leyendo aqui ....
Canadian mega tourism projects displacing Garifuna Communities in Honduras
Common Frontiers
Nov. 12, 2015
The Garifuna in Honduras are an indigenous people who have lived off the land for over two centuries along the Caribbean coast. Since 2007 Garifuna communities along the Trujillo region have been displaced from their ancestral lands through illegal expropriation and repression in order to make way for mega tourism projects. The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH by its Spanish acronym) has denounced Canadian investor, Randy Jorgensen’s two companies; Life Vision Developments (gated community projects) and Banana Coast (owns cruise ship terminal) tourism-related projects accused of illegal land purchases belonging to Garífuna communities.
Members of the communities of Rio Negro and Cristales, accompanied by OFRANEH, filed a lawsuit demanding absolute nullity of several fraudulent land sales made in favor of Jorgensen, also known as the Canadian “Porn King”. In June of this year, an arrest warrant was issued for him by the Honduran Attorney General’s office. Charges against Jorgensen involve the illegal purchase and on-going use of land within a community land title belonging to the Garifuna communities of Cristales and Rio Negro, located in Trujillo Bay with a court hearing to take place on November 13 2015.
In a recently released statement OFRANEH said “many years have passed before it was possible for the porn king to be prosecuted for the crime of usurping land. Now it remains to be seen whether the justice system in Trujillo works or just adheres to the tsunami of corruption that is drowning the country”.
His investments in the region are seen as the seed for future and controversial Economic Development and Employment Zone (ZEDE) or Model Cities or parts of what could grow into a free trade, special development zone in the region.
Jorgensen Randy is selling these illegally-owned lands to Canadians interested in more economically viable vacation homes. Canadians should be aware that these projects are highly controversial and are not welcomed by the Garifuna communities that are losing their land and cultural integrity as a result.
Common Frontiers welcomes the recent legal developments in favour of the Garifuna community to recuperate their ancestral lands. However, given the rampant corruption and high levels of impunity in Honduras we remain vigilant to ensure justice will be served.
For additional information on the case see the following article from Karen Spring or video interview with Alfredo Lopez, Garifuna leader.
More Info In Honduras:
Karen Spring, Honduras Solidarity Network,
[504] 9507-3835, [email protected]
More Info In Canada/U.S.:
Raul Burbano, Program Director, Common Frontiers [416] 522 8615, [email protected]
Grahame Russell, Rights Action,
416-807-4436, [email protected]
Members of the communities of Rio Negro and Cristales, accompanied by OFRANEH, filed a lawsuit demanding absolute nullity of several fraudulent land sales made in favor of Jorgensen, also known as the Canadian “Porn King”. In June of this year, an arrest warrant was issued for him by the Honduran Attorney General’s office. Charges against Jorgensen involve the illegal purchase and on-going use of land within a community land title belonging to the Garifuna communities of Cristales and Rio Negro, located in Trujillo Bay with a court hearing to take place on November 13 2015.
In a recently released statement OFRANEH said “many years have passed before it was possible for the porn king to be prosecuted for the crime of usurping land. Now it remains to be seen whether the justice system in Trujillo works or just adheres to the tsunami of corruption that is drowning the country”.
His investments in the region are seen as the seed for future and controversial Economic Development and Employment Zone (ZEDE) or Model Cities or parts of what could grow into a free trade, special development zone in the region.
Jorgensen Randy is selling these illegally-owned lands to Canadians interested in more economically viable vacation homes. Canadians should be aware that these projects are highly controversial and are not welcomed by the Garifuna communities that are losing their land and cultural integrity as a result.
Common Frontiers welcomes the recent legal developments in favour of the Garifuna community to recuperate their ancestral lands. However, given the rampant corruption and high levels of impunity in Honduras we remain vigilant to ensure justice will be served.
For additional information on the case see the following article from Karen Spring or video interview with Alfredo Lopez, Garifuna leader.
More Info In Honduras:
Karen Spring, Honduras Solidarity Network,
[504] 9507-3835, [email protected]
More Info In Canada/U.S.:
Raul Burbano, Program Director, Common Frontiers [416] 522 8615, [email protected]
Grahame Russell, Rights Action,
416-807-4436, [email protected]
Toronto Film Premiere: Resistencia – The Fight for the Aguan Valley in Honduras
June 28th 2009, the first coup d'état in a generation in Central America overthrows the elected president of Honduras. A nationwide movement is born, the National Resistance Front, which takes inspiration from the daring act of the farmers of the Aguan Valley to take over 10,000 acres of palm oil plantations claimed by the country's largest landowner, and a key player in the coup. Filmed over four years beginning with the coup itself, 'Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley' follows three key members of the farmers' resistance as they convert the plantations into a workers co-op and agitate for a more democratic state, all while trying to survive the violent reaction of the landlord and the coup regime.
After screening at festivals around the world and being broadcast across Latin America on teleSUR, this is the first time Resistencia will be shown in Toronto. Filmmaker Jesse Freeston will be in attendence for a post-film discussion.
Sponsored by: Common Frontiers, Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), and the Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN).
Facebook Event Page
After screening at festivals around the world and being broadcast across Latin America on teleSUR, this is the first time Resistencia will be shown in Toronto. Filmmaker Jesse Freeston will be in attendence for a post-film discussion.
Sponsored by: Common Frontiers, Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), and the Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN).
Facebook Event Page
Honduran 'Indignados' demand president's resignation
The Star, July 26, 2015
Thousands of Honduran demonstrators known as “indignados” -- the indignant ones -- marched Friday to demand the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez for alleged massive corruption.
VOpen vOpen video here ...
VOpen vOpen video here ...
The #RenunciaYa movement sweeping through Central America
finds support in Canada!!
Friday, July 10th, 2015 @ St. James Park, Toronto
Mass Protests Shake Honduras
by Lizabeth Paulat - August 2, 2015
The tiny Central American nation of Honduras rarely makes world news. However, a series of protests in the past few months, combined with a social media movement to end corruption, has shaken the region and some are wondering if it will lead to a systematic change in government.
It started back in May when one of the largest corruption scandals in Honduran history rocked the nation. It involved around $200 million dollars being allegedly taken and redistributed to bureaucrats by the Institute of Social Security. Many in Honduran society believe this was done by systematically overcharging citizens for basic healthcare services.
At first the protesters were calling for an independent investigation into the scandal. But now it seems they are calling for the removal of the president.
Read more .....
It started back in May when one of the largest corruption scandals in Honduran history rocked the nation. It involved around $200 million dollars being allegedly taken and redistributed to bureaucrats by the Institute of Social Security. Many in Honduran society believe this was done by systematically overcharging citizens for basic healthcare services.
At first the protesters were calling for an independent investigation into the scandal. But now it seems they are calling for the removal of the president.
Read more .....
INDÍGENAS TOLUPANES SE UNEN A LA
HUELGA DE HAMBRE DE INDIGNADOS EN TEGUCIGALPA
COMUNICADO PUBLICO DE MOVIMIENTO AMPLIO DIGNIDAD JUSTICIA
June 30, 2015
Nosotros miembros y miembras de la Tribu de san Francisco de Locomapa nos declaramos en HUELGA DE HAMBRE INDEFINIDA, haciendo nuestra la lucha de los indignados e indignadas hartos de tanta corrupción que se vuelve más evidente y ofensiva con el saqueo del seguro Social. Muy molestos además por tanta corrupción en el departamento de Yoro, que sólo puede detenerse con la destitución y enjuiciamiento de los funcionarios involucrados en los más grandes y vergonzosos actos delictivos y criminales contra los bienes públicos y los bienes comunes del pueblo tolupan en el departamento de Yoro.
LEA COMUNICADO AQUI!
MORE INFO IN FACEBOOK AND PHOTOS!
LEA COMUNICADO AQUI!
MORE INFO IN FACEBOOK AND PHOTOS!
HOW MANY MORE?
APRIL 20, 2015
New report shows killings of environmental activists are
increasing, with indigenous communities hardest hit. We shine a spotlight on
Honduras - the most dangerous country to be an environmental defender.
Each week at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction. Some are shot by police during protests, others gunned down by hired assassins. As companies go in search of new land to exploit, increasingly people are paying the ultimate price for standing in their way.
We found that at least 116 environmental activists were murdered in 2014 - that's almost double the number of journalists killed in the same period. A shocking 40 % of victims were indigenous, with most people dying amid disputes over hydropower, mining and agri-business. Nearly three-quarters of the deaths we found information on were in Central and South America.
read more here.....
Each week at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction. Some are shot by police during protests, others gunned down by hired assassins. As companies go in search of new land to exploit, increasingly people are paying the ultimate price for standing in their way.
We found that at least 116 environmental activists were murdered in 2014 - that's almost double the number of journalists killed in the same period. A shocking 40 % of victims were indigenous, with most people dying amid disputes over hydropower, mining and agri-business. Nearly three-quarters of the deaths we found information on were in Central and South America.
read more here.....
Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en
Honduras -COFADEH
PRESS RELEASE - Statement on Death Threats to Rafael Alegría
The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of
Honduras (COFADEH), the Union of Beverage and Related Industry Workers (STIBYS), the National Federation of Rural Workers (CNTC), the United Federation of Honduran Workers (FUTH), the National Association of Honduran Campesinos (ANACH), the National Front of Campesino, Indigenous, and Afro-descendent Youth of Honduras (FRENAJUC), and Vía Campesina express the following to national public opinion and the international community:
The Coordinator of Vía Campesina International, campesino leader, and member of Via Campesina’s World Coordination, Pedro Rafael Alegría Moncada was officially informed by Minister of Security Pompeyo Bonilla of the existence of a plot to kill him. Once notified, we requested an urgent meeting with the Commission on Police Reform, presided over by Victor Meza, to inform them of these facts and similarly with President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who confirmed to us that he possesses similar information and added that threat also
includes two of his ministers.
We are concerned about this information from the government
about threats to human life and liberty, especially that of Rafael Alegría, defender of campesino rights, principally the right to land. For this reason we are filing a formal complaint with the institutions in charge of the investigation and with international authorities.
There have been a series of prior events that strengthen the thesis that there is a plot to kill Rafael Alegria. On July 25, 2009, he was
detained in the municipality of Danlí, El Paraíso along with 45 others during a peaceful blockade in the community of Alauca on the highway to the border town of Las Manos. On this occasion, he was illegally detained for 6 hours. Inspector Molina, Chief of Police in the municipality of Danlí, affirmed that they detained him for violating the curfew.
On July 2, 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided to amplify Precautionary Measure PM 196-09 in order to protect the lives and safety of several people in Honduras, including Rafael Alegría. The IACHR asked the state of Honduras to adopt the measures necessary to ensure the life and safety of those included in this precautionary measure. To date, the government has not adopted specific measures to safeguard the rights of the coordinator of Vía
Campesina, Rafael Alegría, who finds himself completely unprotected and thus forced to change his way of life. In the 21st century, to have to go into hiding after living a public life, is torture.
At midnight on August 11, 2009, the Honduran offices of Via Campesina, located between Third and Fourth Avenues in Colonia Alameda, Tegucigalpa, were the subject of a criminal attack when two individuals in a grey private vehicle with a double cab, with license plate PCA 1981, shot at the facility three times with high-caliber weapons. Several people who were temporarily staying in the office were inside at the time. This occurred during the de facto government declared curfew, which was in effect from 10:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. In the days following, an unknown person carrying a firearm tried to enter the office during a meeting of the campesino leadership.
On February 8, 2011, Rafael Alegría was confidentially informed
that plans were being made in Miami for his kidnapping and torture. These plans were said to also include Juan Barahona, the Deputy Coordinator of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP), and were supposedly motivated by Rafael and Juan’s participation in the forth ballot box, the term used to describe the popular consultation that President Zelaya promoted during the first semester of
2009 prior to the coup d’etat.
The September 24, 2012 murder of human rights prosecutor Manuel
Eduardo Díaz Mazariegos in Choluteca and the September 22, 2012 murder of Antonio Trejo, the lawyer for several campesino communities of the Authentic Claimant Campesino Movement of Aguan (MARCA), reflect the vulnerable situation in which human rights defenders operate in Honduras.
Given the history related to Rafael Alegría’s work combined with
the recent violent deaths of human rights defenders that were carried out with complete impunity in September, there is no doubt that we are dealing with armed groups that operate outside the law. The organizations listed on this press release urge the current regime to conduct in depth investigations in order to neutralize any plan that seeks to end the life of social movement leader Rafael Alegría.
The aforementioned organizations request the acceleration of
protection mechanisms for human rights defenders, the investigation of reports by victims of persecution and threats, and the identification and trial of the intellectual and material authors of these acts.
We emphasize that COFADEH has made the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and other international organizations aware of the current situation faced by Rafael Alegria, the Coordinator of Via Campesina, and urgently calls on the international community to urge the Porfirio Lobo Sosa
regime to put an end to the anxiety, intimidation, and threats against human rights defenders in Honduras.
We exhort the Honduran people to stand in full solidarity with
all fellow Hondurans who are currently living in a climate that is hostile to security and liberty, and to not give in to intimidation, as we have
demonstrated throughout this process of social resistance.
Tegucigalpa M.D.C., Monday, October 8, 2012
The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of
Honduras (COFADEH), the Union of Beverage and Related Industry Workers (STIBYS), the National Federation of Rural Workers (CNTC), the United Federation of Honduran Workers (FUTH), the National Association of Honduran Campesinos (ANACH), the National Front of Campesino, Indigenous, and Afro-descendent Youth of Honduras (FRENAJUC), and Vía Campesina express the following to national public opinion and the international community:
The Coordinator of Vía Campesina International, campesino leader, and member of Via Campesina’s World Coordination, Pedro Rafael Alegría Moncada was officially informed by Minister of Security Pompeyo Bonilla of the existence of a plot to kill him. Once notified, we requested an urgent meeting with the Commission on Police Reform, presided over by Victor Meza, to inform them of these facts and similarly with President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who confirmed to us that he possesses similar information and added that threat also
includes two of his ministers.
We are concerned about this information from the government
about threats to human life and liberty, especially that of Rafael Alegría, defender of campesino rights, principally the right to land. For this reason we are filing a formal complaint with the institutions in charge of the investigation and with international authorities.
There have been a series of prior events that strengthen the thesis that there is a plot to kill Rafael Alegria. On July 25, 2009, he was
detained in the municipality of Danlí, El Paraíso along with 45 others during a peaceful blockade in the community of Alauca on the highway to the border town of Las Manos. On this occasion, he was illegally detained for 6 hours. Inspector Molina, Chief of Police in the municipality of Danlí, affirmed that they detained him for violating the curfew.
On July 2, 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided to amplify Precautionary Measure PM 196-09 in order to protect the lives and safety of several people in Honduras, including Rafael Alegría. The IACHR asked the state of Honduras to adopt the measures necessary to ensure the life and safety of those included in this precautionary measure. To date, the government has not adopted specific measures to safeguard the rights of the coordinator of Vía
Campesina, Rafael Alegría, who finds himself completely unprotected and thus forced to change his way of life. In the 21st century, to have to go into hiding after living a public life, is torture.
At midnight on August 11, 2009, the Honduran offices of Via Campesina, located between Third and Fourth Avenues in Colonia Alameda, Tegucigalpa, were the subject of a criminal attack when two individuals in a grey private vehicle with a double cab, with license plate PCA 1981, shot at the facility three times with high-caliber weapons. Several people who were temporarily staying in the office were inside at the time. This occurred during the de facto government declared curfew, which was in effect from 10:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. In the days following, an unknown person carrying a firearm tried to enter the office during a meeting of the campesino leadership.
On February 8, 2011, Rafael Alegría was confidentially informed
that plans were being made in Miami for his kidnapping and torture. These plans were said to also include Juan Barahona, the Deputy Coordinator of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP), and were supposedly motivated by Rafael and Juan’s participation in the forth ballot box, the term used to describe the popular consultation that President Zelaya promoted during the first semester of
2009 prior to the coup d’etat.
The September 24, 2012 murder of human rights prosecutor Manuel
Eduardo Díaz Mazariegos in Choluteca and the September 22, 2012 murder of Antonio Trejo, the lawyer for several campesino communities of the Authentic Claimant Campesino Movement of Aguan (MARCA), reflect the vulnerable situation in which human rights defenders operate in Honduras.
Given the history related to Rafael Alegría’s work combined with
the recent violent deaths of human rights defenders that were carried out with complete impunity in September, there is no doubt that we are dealing with armed groups that operate outside the law. The organizations listed on this press release urge the current regime to conduct in depth investigations in order to neutralize any plan that seeks to end the life of social movement leader Rafael Alegría.
The aforementioned organizations request the acceleration of
protection mechanisms for human rights defenders, the investigation of reports by victims of persecution and threats, and the identification and trial of the intellectual and material authors of these acts.
We emphasize that COFADEH has made the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and other international organizations aware of the current situation faced by Rafael Alegria, the Coordinator of Via Campesina, and urgently calls on the international community to urge the Porfirio Lobo Sosa
regime to put an end to the anxiety, intimidation, and threats against human rights defenders in Honduras.
We exhort the Honduran people to stand in full solidarity with
all fellow Hondurans who are currently living in a climate that is hostile to security and liberty, and to not give in to intimidation, as we have
demonstrated throughout this process of social resistance.
Tegucigalpa M.D.C., Monday, October 8, 2012
Coups, free trade & human rights
The changing face of Canadian foreign policy in Latin America & the Caribbean
FRIDAY, November 18 @ 7:00 – 9:00pm
Beit Zatoun House , 612 Markham Street, Toronto
Public Forum / Free Admission
Guest speakers:
BETTY MATAMOROS: A Honduran based social activist and representative of the Central American coordination of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, specifically as part of their campaign "Foreign Military Bases out of Latin America - We are a Region of Peace." She has been organizing with social movements regionally on trade and militarization issues for decades and has been key in building international solidarity with the non-violent resistance movement in Honduras that emerged following the coup d'état in June of 2009. She is the former international relations coordinator of the Honduras National Resistance Front, FNRP. She has traveled throughout the Americas and Europe speaking about the situation in Honduras since the coup with respect to human rights, political developments, trade, and militarization.
KEVIN EDMONDS: Is a U of T PhD student and freelance journalist who has also traveled to and reported on Haiti – including serving as a volunteer observer in Haiti’s last election with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He co-authored recently released report on the UN in Haiti called “MINUSTAH: Keeping the peace, or conspiring against it?” Published through the Harvard School of Public Health and is a review of the human rights record on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti from 2010-2011.
VIDEO - The Deadliest Place in the World for a Journalist - Mini-documentary on the Honduran journalists that have watched 15 colleagues assassinated in 19 months ~ by Jesse Freeston
Organized by: Common Frontiers, Toronto Haiti Action Committee and Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network
Comite de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras
Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61728045/Honduras-Summary-Overview" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;">Honduras Summary Overview
Human Rights are not subject to political negotiation
The Committee of the Families of the Detained-Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) celebrates the signing of the Cartegena de Indias Accord which permits the return of ex Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya Rosales to our country.
At the same time, COFADEH condemns the language of the oligarchy aligned with the coup in the text of the Accord which refers to human rights as a political instrument of“reconciliation,” evidence of their old practice of negotiation.
“While admitting that during the political crisis there have been people who consider that their human rights were violated, the Government of Honduras, through the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, commits to attend these denunciations in order to contribute to the reconciliation of Honduran society within a framework of verifiable guarantees (…)and awaits support from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights” reads the official, signed text.
The terms utilized reflect doubts, ironies, intentions and evasions on the part of the same political–military elite that attempted to bury the memory of the forced disappearances during the 1980’s and sell a manipulative discourse regarding human rights violations to the international community.
At the beginning of the decade of the 90’s the same ex Presidents - Rafael Callejas, Ricardo Maduro and Carlos Flores, who audited the text of the Cartegena Accord –repeated the need to leave the past behind and to end the “dark night of disappearances”.
This was their way to escape their own responsibilities, some of them as participants in the Alliance for Progress in Honduras (APROH) that inspired and financed the repression against political and ideological dissidence at that time and which continues to hold us in grief.
We have no doubt that ex President Zelaya signed the Cartagena Accord in absolute good faith regarding the urgency of investigating human rights violations that have resulted since the coup d’état to the present, to repair damage caused to the victims and to punish those responsible.
However, we have nothing but doubts regarding those who support the coup, control the repressive forces and sustain a fragile state that fails to overthrow the enormous monster of impunity with legality and
justice.
Our doubts are underscored by the fact that with this Accord, the regime imposes recognition of the“Ministry of Justice and Human Rights as the entity that will permit the national capacity to promote and protect human rights in Honduras.”
This Committee does not observe habits, practices or policies that indicate that this institution makes even the most minimal difference within the State regarding the government Human Rights Commission which is delegitimized as a result of its partiality regarding institutional violence against the population.
Nearby, five teachers sustain an indefinite hunger strike due to violations of their social and economic rights; hundreds of campesino families in the zone of Aguán surrounded by legal and clandestine forces acting against their lives and lands; and an average of 16 violent deaths each day throughout the country, in total impunity.
Therefore, we exhort the population to continue to use services worthy of your trust and respect, to access justice at all levels, local and international, as the people of Honduras rebuild institutionality and the rule of law that has been lost.
For the crimes and those who commit them
Neither forgetting, nor forgiveness
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 23 de mayo de 2011
COFADEH
LACSN Honduras working group video on the grave Human Rights situation in Honduras since the coup, and why we need to say no the Canada/Honduran free trade agreement currently under negotiation.
http://vimeo.com/25778964
Respect Human Rights and Stop Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
We call on your support to help if you can each, in your own right or that
of your organization as well through any networks you have to call on the
Canadian Government to take immediate steps to demand the Honduran
government to protect the rights of civil society in Honduras, to request to
cease current negotiations with Honduras towards the Free Trade Agreement until an environment of full human rights protection has been effectively implemented, and acknowledged by credible international human rights organizations.
URGENT ACTION BACKGROUNDER document of the recent situation in Honduras
http://www.cupe.on.ca/aux_file.php?aux_file_id=3618
SAMPLE LETTER TO CANADIAN GOVERNMENT that you can copy/modify/sign to send to key contacts mentioned below. We ask that you Copy and Paste the attached letter and the following e-mail addresses on your TO and CC fields of your email message (at the end of this email you will find Names and Titles of these contacts).
We request that you send this letter as soon as possible.
http://www.cupe.on.ca/aux_file.php?aux_file_id=3617
*TO:*
[email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]
*CC: *
[email protected]; [email protected]
Should you require more information or have any questions, please do not
hesitate to contact us at your convenience.
[email protected]
VEA EL DOCUMENTAL AQUI
NOS VEMOS EN LAS CALLES ESTE 27 DE ENERO 2011
Las calles están tan militarizadas, las paredes tan limpias, los oligarcas tan perfumaditos, los muertos tan muertos, los sueños tan vivos, los aerosoles tan llenos, las pañoletas tan rojas, los chepos tan armados, los decretos tan aprobados, la Constitución tan violada, Mel tan lejos, Llorens tan taimado, Romeo Vásquez tan premiado, los campesinos tan desterrados, los maestros tan vulnerados, Pepe ta cagao, Óscar Álvarez ta coqueado,los campecinos encachimbaos, Zacate Grande y Faluma Bimetu tan amordazadas, Morazán ta desvelado, Honduras ta golpeada...y mañana ¡TAMOS EN LAS CALLES!
Tiliptáka
www.fnrp.cpm-hn.com
Although the international spot light has long gone from Honduras, the horrible violence unleashed upon el pueblo Catracha after the Coup of June 2009 continues to grow at an alarming rate. However, the people continue to resist and refuse to be silent.
VIVA LA RESISTENCIA
POPULAR EN HONDURAS!
LLAMADO A LA RESISTENCIA 27 DE ENERO 2011
TODOS A LAS CALLES!
Interview with Juan Ramón - Kidnapped Victim of the Honduran Resistance
By Giorgio Trucchi - Rel-UITA*
After escaping from his captors, still physically and psychologically exhausted from the experience endured over the last 48 hours, the peasant leader of the Unified Peasant Movement of the Aguan (MUCA)and the National Popular Resistance Front (FRNP), Juan Ramón Chinchilla, agreed to an interview from an undisclosed location in Honduras .
Can you describe your kidnapping?
On the afternoon of Saturday, January 8th I went to visit friends at a shopping center. I left on my motorcycle heading for the community of La Concepción and noticed that I was being followed. Just before La Concepción, there was a car across the road and at that moment I realized that there were people in the palms, pointing guns at me.
Then what happened?
I stopped and let the motorcycle fall to the ground. Several hooded men grabbed me, fired on the motorcycle and put me into a vehicle, covering my face so that I could not see where we were going. There were a lot of them. Almost all of them wore uniforms of the military, police and the private guards of Miguel Facussé. They drove approximately 40 minutes towards Trujillo . We came to an isolated place. They put me into a storage room and began to question me.
What did they want to know?
If we have arms. Where did the information come from that is on the internet and how many peasants are organized? They had a lot of photographs of me and other people. They were well organized. The operation had been carefully prepared.
When were you beaten?
On the afternoon of Sunday the 9th. They got me up and showed me a table with torture instruments on it. They began talking among themselves. They said, “What are we going to do first? Are we going to pull out a fingernail or burn him? Then they began to strike me in the face. They burnt my hair. They told me they were going to pour gasoline on my head and burn me. They beat me on the back with a club. There were several foreigners. Some spoke English and another spoke a language that I was not able to understand.
How were you able to escape?
On Sunday night they took me out of the storage room and we began walking in the darkness. I heard them say that for the moment the order was not to kill me. That encouraged me. We climbed a hill and I was not tied up. Taking advantage of the darkness, I started running and ran into the woods nearby. The men pursued me firing but I escaped. I ran and walked for a long time until I could find someone to help me and then I was able to communicate with my compañeros.
Why do you believe you were kidnapped?
We are in a struggle with the landowners. We know that our enemies are Miguel Facussé, René Morales and Reinaldo Canales, and that the government is on their side – not the side of the people. The department has been militarized twice and we know that they are going to do all they can to finish off our struggle. They had photos and a lot of information about our organizations and members. They want to intimidate us.
Your kidnapping generated a strong current of solidarity and denunciation at the national and international level. Do you feel that this contributed in any way to restrain the murderous hand of your captors?
They were concerned about the national and international pressure. They were monitoring the news on the internet and radio. That is why they decided to move me to another location on Sunday. I believe that all of this pressure helped so that something worse did not happen. I am infinitely grateful to all of the people and organizations – national and international – that mobilized; and also the media that denounced my kidnapping. The struggle will continue. They will not stop me; on the contrary, we have to continue with more strength. We must stay united because it is the only way to move our country forward. We do not accept the coup and we never will accept it, even though they kill us. I will never leave the struggle; better to die than to betray it.
Interview with Juan Ramón Chinchilla, MUCA
By Giorgio Trucchi - Rel-UITA* http://www.facebook.com/l/f4f91k-rcHQW9BTOPytOjBpVsLg;www.rel-uita.org/agricultura/palma_africana/con_juan_ramon_chinchilla.htm
translated by the Friendship Office
http://www.facebook.com/l/f4f91hOHHkPR68XwctWxxbKvVYg;
hondurasresists.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-juan-ramon-chinchilla.html
honduras_fact_sheet_june_2010.pdf | |
File Size: | 383 kb |
File Type: |
Document tabled by Bertha Oliva in advance of the Standing Committee Hearing: COFADEH, Report on the Human Right Situation in Honduras
(January 2010 to January 2011) (COFADEH, March 2011)
Bertha Oliva