Communique and Action in Support of Campesino Activist Prisoner: Chavelo Morales

La Voz de los de Abajo has signed on to the action in support of compañero Chavelo - for interviews and more information about Chavelo see our past blog posts. At the end of the following communique from Honduras are the addresses and phone numbers where you can take action.

To the Appeals Court in La Ceiba

To the Honduran Government

To the Honduran People and to International Solidarity

The people and organizations that support this communique believe in the necessity for the impartiality of justice and its fulfillment for all human society and for Honduran society in particular. We consider that it is part of our struggle to denounce situations of human rights violations and aggression against the liberty of people and of national organizations. For this reason we are speaking on the case of our compañero José Isabel Morales López of the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA), a prisoner for more than three years in the prison of El Porvenir in La Ceiba.

In 2008 as a result of the struggle for land in the zone of Aguan compañero Morales Löpez was detained and accused of ten assassinations, attempted murder, a homicide, aggravated robbery and aggravated arson. Finally he was condemned for a homicide, but to date and despite the fact that the final verdict was given on June 25, 2010, his sentencing has still not occurred. During the court proceeding irregularities were apparent among others the fact that the witnesses against him had contradictions in their stories and changed their testimony from previous versions.

On the other hand the illegality of preventative imprisonment is evident, according to the regulations established by the Penal Process Code, it can only last, at a maximum, for two years;if no sentence has been given in that period of time, imprisonment must be replaced by other measures (medidas cautelares) And, as we have reiterated, the fact that as of this moment no sentence has been given is shameful and alarming.

Based on these circumstances the defense lawyers of compañero Morales López have on three occasions solicited the substituion of preventative imprisonment from the sentencing Tribunal and on three occasions it has been denied. They also filed a habeas corpus to the Constitutional Court (Sala de lo Constitucional) for it to declare the illegality of deprivation of liberty, given that the limits established by the law have already been exceeded. This (habeas corpus) was declared to be without standing seven months after the filing.

During his incarceration he was denied permission to attend the funerals of his daughter and his father, who died at different times. His health during his imprisonment has been damaged by an accident that caused the loss of an eye, and his state of emotional health is gravely affected by the series of events and conditions described above.

Due to all of this and more, we are completely in solidarity with José Isabel Morales López, compañero Chavelo, a fighter for the land for the rights of the Honduran campesinos.

We denounce the Court of Appeals in which the appeals are held, the same appeals that have not been resolved due to one of the appeals having been presented during the trial and it is precisely its lack of resolution that has impeded the sentencing.

We hold the judicial apparatus of the country responsibly for the violations of human rights and the denial of access to justice for José Isabel Morales López.

We demand immediate freedom for José Isabel Morales López

• MOVIMIENTO CAMPESINO DEL AGUA, MCA
• CONSEJO CÍVICO DE ORGANIZACIONES POPULARES E INDÍGENAS DE HONDURAS, COPINH
• ORGANIZACIÓN FRATERNAL NEGRA HONDUREÑA, OFRANEH
• COLECTIVO ITALIA-CENTRO AMÉRICA, CICA
• INSURRECTAS AUTÓNOMAS
• EQUIPO DE REFLEXIÓN, INVESTIGACIÓN Y COMUNICACIÓN – COMPAÑÍA DE JESUS, ERIC-SJ
• COMITÉ DE FAMILIARES DE DETENIDOS DESAPARECIDOS EN HONDURAS, COFADEH
• MOVIMIENTO AMPLIO POR LA DIGNIDAD Y LA JUSTICA, MADJ

If your organization wants to sign on to this communique contact: Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras, COPINH

copinh@copinh.org

Calls and Messages calling for Chavelo’s immediate release should go to:

Abogado(Lawyer) Celino Aristides Aguilera Amador
(President of the Appeals Court in La Ceiba)

Presidente de la Corte de Apelaciones de La Ceiba Sala #1

Telefono (00504) 2441-4172 ext. 1064
Marlene Suyapa Perez Valle , (Judge) Magistrada Propietaria Ext. 1054
Carlos Eduardo Castelar (Judge) Magistrado Propietario Ext. 1061
Dianey Cruz Recarte (Judge) Magistrado Integrante Ext. 1053

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés, Presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia

Telefono: (504) 2269-3000 2269-3069 Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa, Presidente de la República (President of the Republic of Honduras)

Casa Presidencial,

Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo, Palacio José Cecilio del Valle

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Correo: pepe@pepelobopresidente.com

Fax: + 504 2239 3298

Luis Alberto Rubí

(Attorney General) Fiscal General de la República.

Fax (504) 2221-5667

Tel (504) 2221-5670 2221-3099

Mail: lrubi@mp.hn

suazog@mp.hn

Sra. Ana Pineda

(Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Human Rights)

Secretaría de Justicia y Derechos Humanos

Col. Lomas del Mayab, Ave. República de Costa Rica

Correo: anapinedah@hotmail.com

Fax: +504 22358379

Please send copies to:

Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras, COPINH

copinh@copinh.org

URGENT ACTION - COFADEH

Honduran State Is Failing to Guarantee the Security of its Citizens

Police Attack on Father Marco Lorenzo

The Committee for Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) wishes to express its total condemnation and deep concern regarding the police of the State of Honduras and their systematic practice of attacking its citizens.

On 26 December Marco Aurelio Lorenzo, the Catholic parish priest for Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara, was travelling in a car with two of his brothers, at about 8.15 at night along the turn-off leading to El Rosario farm, at kilometre 24 on the road linking San Miguelito with Yamaranguila in the department of Intibucá.

At that point he decided to rest at the side of the road, after having driven several kilometres from the Department of Santa Bárbara into Intibucá. The priest had been conducted a range of religious services (masses, christenings, weddings) non-stop since 19 December, and as a result was exhausted.

As the ground was uneven, one of the passengers got out of the car to put a rock under the wheel to prevent the car from sliding. While he was doing this a police patrol car turned up carrying eight officers, who without a word and without demanding his documents, began hitting him.

Seeing the attack, Father Lorenzo got out of the car to find out what was happening, and suffered the same fate. The priest was handcuffed and he was severely beaten. He was thrown to the ground and one of the policeman stood on his body while the other kicked him with his regulation boots.

They then stripped the priest and his travelling companions of their personal belongings, food which they had taken to share with their family and money, and forced them to get back into the car, removed the rock, and pushed the car down a slope. The car came to rest in a ditch.

The police then removed the car and handcuffed the victims to the bars of the patrol vehicle. They took the injured to hospital in La Esperanza, in Intibucá, and left the car and the documents at the police station. There the priest’s sister was given his wallet with the documents and his mobile phone, with the SIM card and battery missing. As a result of his injuries, the priest lost consciousness and needed 16 stitches in his head.

Background

Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo is a staunch defender of natural resources, as a result of which he has been the victim of attacks and illegal detention.

For example, on 17 July 2007, he was arrested together with Reginaldo García, another priest, on the orders of Silvio Edmundo Inestroza, an officer with the Policía Preventiva (Preventive Police), during a peaceful protest against open-cast mining. While the demonstration was being dispersed, in Seis de Mayo district, the police insulted and hit Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo with their batons and pushed him onto the pavement. The priest was detained for over six hours in a police station in the area.

On the night of 13 August 2004, Father Lorenzo was returning from the community of San Antonio Chiquila when he was intercepted by a Toyota car without number plates. Three armed hooded men made him get out of his car and severely beat him on his back, abdomen, chest, legs and hip, causing internal injuries, as a result of which the priest had to be hospitalised.

COFADEH asks the national and international community to demand that the State of Honduras adopts the necessary measures and effective mechanisms to guarantee the life, physical integrity and access to justice for Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo and his two brothers, and to suspend any reprisals against them.

Please direct letters, calls and faxes to Honduran justice officials:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés

President of the Supreme Court

Tel (504) 269-3000 269-3069

Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí

Director of Public Prosecutions

Fax (504) 221-5667

Tel (504) 221-5670 221-3099

Mail: lrubi@mp.hn

suazog@mp.hn

With a copy to:

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)

Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301

Apartado Postal 1243

Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS

Fax:+504 220 5280 (request: "tono de fax")

Mail: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

DE LOS HECHOS Y LOS HECHORES, NI OLVIDO, NI PERDÓN

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, COFADEH

Tegucigalpa M.D.C. 04 de enero de 2012

Declaration on the Founding of the Human Rights Observatory in Aguan

(Excerpts from the declaration of November 11, 2011)

We, members of the Honduran Social Movement, the Campesino Organizations of the Aguán, the National Front of Popular Resistance of the Department of Colón and international Human Rights organizations who attended the opening of this Observatory of Human Rights, before the National and International Community declare:

That protected by the fundamental charter of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in international treaties that uphold the fundamental rights of peoples, especially indigenous populations under threat, in the introduction of the Constitution of the Republic and in the Articles 59, 60 and 61 which literally state: that the Constitution guarantees to Hondurans and foreigners residing in the country the right to the inviolability of life, personal security, liberty, equality before the law, and property; the Article 64 also states that the right to life is inviolable; the Article 66 which prohibits the death penalty, and all the other articles relating to claims, rights and individual rights protected by the principle of self-determination and the exercise of popular sovereignty, in the context of permanent violation of human rights of the people of the Department of Colón and the Atlantic Coast of Honduras, especially the climate of terror, murder, persecution of peasant groups in the region and the constant danger that face human rights defenders in front of Court officials, businesspeople and landowners such as Miguel Facussé, Reynaldo Canales and Rene Morales, who are using an army of security guards and murderers to do the work of hired killers.

These landowners, acting under the politic approval of the National Agrarian Institute headed by the Minister Cesar Ham, of the President of the Republic Porfirio Lobo Sosa and his Minister of Security and Defence, are organizing this third militarization of the Lower Aguán, called "Xatruch II ", using conventional war weapons on land as well as helicopters and aircraft armed with destructive weapons that are ready to be used.

In recent months, police, Honduran national army troops, security guards and hired assassins which usually cover their faces with ski masks, carried out drills of massive raids twice on the settlement of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA), established with the approval of the State and the actual Government in the settlement of Los Marañones, and twice in the settlements of the MUCA of the right bank of the river Aguán, La Confianza, La Aurora and La Lempira; Colonel Espinal, who serves as Commander of Operation "Xatruch II" declared that all the settlements would be intervened to succeed general disarmament.

Against this background which places the human rights of the Aguán population and especially the rural population in a precarious and extremely risky situation, we have decided:

1. To defend the right to life as a fundamental right, to defend human rights of men, women and children living in constant harassment, repression and insecurity.

2. To be present during evictions, raids and military interventions within the framework of the defense of peoples' human rights and of the agrarian conflict.

3. To provide protection of populations and individuals facing threats, suffering persecution and who are permanently the targets of repression.

4. Accompaniment in legal advocacy, medical and legal proceedings related to land conflict.

5. To denounce nationally and internationally the violation of human rights in the region, creating forums and urgent response mechanisms.

6. To bring to trail before national and international legal bodies, those who violate human rights in this region of Honduras.

7. We call upon human rights organizations, the national social movements in Latin America and the world, leading personalities in the defense of human rights and in promoting peace through social and human development, to attend the international gathering of human rights defenders, an event that will take place in this region of Aguán from February 17^th to 21^st, 2012.

For the right to life, stop the killings of campesinos in Honduras and the Aguán!

Stop human rights violation in the Aguán!

Tocoa, Colón, 11/11/2011.

Signatories:

MCA, MARCA, MUCA MARGEN IZQUIERDA, MUCA MARGEN DERECHA, MOVIMIENTO CAMPESINO RIGORES, EMPRESA CAMPESINA BUENOS AIRES, EMPRESA CAMPESINA ORICA, CENTRO JUVENIL HORIZONTES DE ESPERANZA, COPA, COPINH, OFRANEH, POPOL NAH TUN, FUNDACION SAN ALONSO RODRIGUEZ, ASOCIACION DE ABOGADOS POR LA JUSTICIA, COORDINACION FNRP-COLON, FIAN INTERNACIONAL, FIAN HONDURAS, DERECHOS EN ACCION, CICA

http://www.muca-mi.blogspot.com/

http://www.movimientocampesinodelaguan.blogspot.com/

http://www.movimientomuca.blogspot.com/

Isis Murillo's Family Files Human Rights Case Against Micheletti

November 3, 2011, Houston, TX and New York, NY – Last night, in a human rights case against Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti Baín, attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed papers emphasizing that the case is one of the few opportunities for accountability for the wave human rights abuses committed during and in the aftermath of the coup. Micheletti is the former head of the de facto government immediately following the June 28, 2009 military coup that led to systemic attacks on and extrajudicial killings of members of the opposition movement and journalists that continue today. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the suit on behalf of David Murillo and Silvia Mencías, seeking justice for their son, 19-year-old Isis Obed Murillo, who was shot and killed by Honduran military forces during a peaceful demonstration against the coup.

In last night’s filing, CCR provided extensive documentation illustrating the culture of impunity in Honduras that blocks justice for the violations and that has permitted the attacks to continue under the current government of Porfirio Lobo. An expert report submitted by a Human Rights Watch researcher emphasized that no one has been held criminally liable for the scores of politically motivated killings and other human rights violations that took place under Micheletti and that little to no progress has been made in investigating the violence that has taken place under Lobo since he assumed the role of President in January 2010 after a post-coup election that was widely criticized as illegitimate.

In a statement included in Micheletti’s motion to dismiss the case, the office of the Prosecutor of Honduras asserts that Honduras does not hold Micheletti responsible for Murillo’s death, despite the lack of a full, credible investigation. Yet, even the Honduran Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), the independence and impartiality of which has been questioned by experts and advocates, found that Micheletti bore responsibility for the killing of Isis Obed Murillo and others. In particular, the CVR found that Micheletti wielded command responsibility and implemented policies and practices that were the driving force behind the excessive use of force by the military and resulting human rights violations. Furthermore, CCR attorneys say the prosecutor’s statement strengthens the Murillo’s claims that the case must be tried in the U.S., because justice is not possible in Honduras given the absolute impunity there for the coup and post-coup abuses.

“Isis was the first victim in what became a systematic and widespread attack on dissent that continues today,” said Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney Pamela Spees. “The Honduran government’s explicit refusal to hold Micheletti accountable for Murillo’s death – effectively clearing the coup leader’s name without any genuine investigation – highlights the importance of this lawsuit. It is one of very few avenues of accountability left.”

Subsequent to Isis’ killing, the plaintiff and his family were subjected to surveillance and harassment by police and other authorities. This harassment took place in the context of what lawyers describe as intense repression and political persecution that began under Michiletti’s regime that targeted the National Front of Popular Resistance, which formed in opposition to the coup, as well as journalists and other groups standing in opposition.

The filings also make public for the first time a September 11, 2009 U.S. Embassy letter included in an attachment to Micheletti’s motion to dismiss the case that states his visa was revoked due to “the continued resistance of the de facto government to accept the San Jose Agreement and the continuous failure to restore the democratic and constitutional government of Honduras.” Yet the U.S. has since successfully lobbied the Organization of American States to recognize the new government and is reportedly considering reinstating visas for Micheletti and other coup leaders despite any accountability for their illegal actions and the mass repression they presided over. The U.S. also provides funding to the Honduran military and police, who have been implicated in numerous grave human rights abuses, including assassinations, the burning down and bulldozing of nearly the entire town of Rigores, firing live ammunition and other brutal attacks on peaceful protests, and disappearances.

The case was brought under the Alien Tort Statute and is before the Houston Division of Southern District of Texas. To view the motions and for more information on the lawsuit, visit: http://ccrjustice.org/honduras-coup.

press@ccrjustice.org