Declaration of 8th General Assembly of COPINH - "Martyrs of the Resistance"

DECLARATION - 8th General Assembly of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organiations of Honduras - COPINH
“Martyrs of the Resistance Against the Coup”

In these days accompanied by clouds and cool winds we have paid homage to the fighters from amongst our people, we have spoken and agreed in the circle of our 8th General Assembly "Martyrs of the Resistance Against the Coup d'Etat," that we are aware that it is happening during a gloomy reprehensible time, but that it does not take away our hope, our dignity and the illumination given by our ancestors.

Our millenarian people, represented by many communities meeting together declares:

1-The systems of death, oppression and domination are trying to advance with their ideas and machines of death imposing on us economic models that further exploitation, consumerism and advanced plunder not just with decadent capitalism but with other systems of death like patriarchy and racism.

2.-The tragedy of the military, oligarchic and media coup d'etat, orchestrated and financed by U.S. imperialism and the international right-wing, has created a state of general regression of Honduran society, has violated individual, collective, political, economic, environmental, cultural, and social rights, to such a degree that it has completely broken down the Honduran constitutional system, with this coup d'etat they try to guarantee the great oligarchic and transnational interests and deepen the project of domination accompanied by strategies of militarization and brutal repression.

3.- This inheritance of death forms part of the arrival of Mr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa to the "presidency" of Honduras, who will inherit at the same time an enormous un-governability and political and economic crisis.

Because of the above we have decided:

1.- To reaffirm our historic disposition to struggle against death, whether it is called capitalism, patriarchy or racism, as was taught to us by our Man of the Mountain and our people who through 500 years have defended its territories, its autonomies and its culture and has condemned militarization and invasive power. We will struggle against the projects of plunder and privatization of our knowledge, water, land, territory, forest, mineral and metallic resources, public services, cultural richness and life itself.

2.- To reaffirm that we will continue in the struggle against the dictatorship, the coup d'etat and against the coup-backers and that we will intensify the work, the collective construction, the mobilization and organization to, along with the rest of the social movement, achieve the installation of a Popular Democratic National Constitutional Assembly of the people and to push for the re-founding of the Honduran nation.

3.- To condemn the systemic threatening and violation of human rights against members of COPINH communities by the unchecked repressive forces such as the military, the police, the air force, death squads, municipal coup authorities, the public ministry, among others.

4.- To salute the heroic resistance of the Honduran people expressed through the most diverse sectors and multiple and creative forms that teach us about the dignity, ability and commitment of the people.

5- To encourage the social and political movement to carry forth an emancipatory process and to re-found our country so that we can expeditiously deepen the organization, mobilization and consensus that makes us advance towards unity and the creation of a coming together of forces with ability and valor to take a determined and historic step.

With the ancestral force of Lempira, Icelaka and Etempica we raise our voices of live, justice, liberty and peace!

Those who die for life cannot be called dead!

He is coming and he comes with us from the end of the forgotten!

Given in Intibucá, Honduras - Territory in resistance, December 22nd, 2009