COPINH: Where are the negotiations for a new agreement heading?

Position of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) regarding the negotiations held by Chávez and Santos

versión original en español

In light of the news of negotiations for an accord to reintegrate Honduras into the Organization of American States, we express the following position:

As a part of the Honduran people in Resistance we are surprised by the meeting of President Hugo Chávez with Mr. Juan Manuel Santos and the coup maintainer Porfirio Lobo Sosa in Honduras, a meeting that takes place in a context characterized by heavy repression of the people. Let us not forget occurrences such as the following: the killing of hundreds of people in the struggle against the coup d'etat, elements of the army and police firing live ammunition against protesters from the Bajo Aguán, the killing of the teacher IIlse Velásquez during violent repression of a peaceful protest in defense of public education, repressions that have become a habit of this dictatorship such as the use of toxic gasses, rubber bullets, high-caliber arms and detention of youth, persecution against community radios and those who work in them, such as the case of the sisters and brothers of the community radio station "The Voice of Zacate Grande" who live through judicial persecution, the attempt to burn down the homes of those responsible for the Garífuna community radio station in Triunfo de la Cruz, massive firings of teachers who have protested in defense of public education, an increase in femicides and the brutal death of people of diverse sexualities. All of this plus the growing North American military invasion through the increase in troops in the military bases at Palmerola, Olancho, Karatasca and other territories of Moskita and the construction of the new base in the Island of Guanaja in the department of Islas de la Bahía.

As an organization, we profoundly suspect and do not recognize an agreement promoted by Juan Manuel Santos who has carried out crimes against our sisters and brothers of the social movements of Colombiaas part of the policy of "democratic security." We consider that these negotiations coincide with the strategy of the U.S. State Department just like the negotiations of San José or those that produced the failed agreement of the Guaymuras dialogue.

We warn that no agreement should be validated by the Honduran people in Resistance if it doesn't end the reign of impunity in this country where those responsible for the killings, for the repression and the coup d'etat are those who are in power and keep the Honduran people subjugated to the manipulations of imperialism and the oligarchy.

We call on the Honduran people to reject any manipulation that attempts the reintegration of the Honduran state into the Organization of American States while those who have continued the coup d'etat remain in power, while repression, militarization and impunity continue to reign. Our efforts and actions should be to strengthen the struggle for the Re-foundation of the country.

We urge international solidarity to accompany us in our struggle to end the coup d'etat, the repression and the impunity through an emancipatory process, and we call on you to participate in the campaigns for the coup regime to not be recognized by any democratic country and to not return to the O.A.S. while judicial proceedings have not begun against the human rights violators responsible for the coup and democracy has not been reinstated through the convening of a national democratic and popular constitutional assembly.

There cannot be reconciliation and peace while in the country impunity and persecution continue to reign, and social struggle is criminalized while the oligarchy takes over the natural resources and deepens its exclusive, exploitative and privatizing economic model illegally and illegitimately.

Finally, COPINH, a modest organization integrated amongst the Honduran people in resistance, regrets that these negotiations took place without consultation and without acknowledgment of the agreements of the National Assembly of February 26th and they try to drag the National Front of Popular Resistance into recognizing a criminal regime and participating in an electoral circus in which there will just be more of the same.

COPINH calls on the leadership of the FNRP and its coordinator and sub-coordinator to convene as soon as possible a broad, transparent and democratic Assembly to tackle this subject.

The Honduran people is who will decide its own destiny and as a part of it, we will be in those battles until we achieve the Re-foundation of Honduras.

With the ancestral strength of Lempira, Mota and Etempica we raise our voices filled wtih life, justice, freedom, dignity and peace.

La Esperanza, Intibucá April 17th, 2011