U.S. Human rights activists document US participation in massacre of Miskito people

Rights Action and Alliance for Global Justice are members of Honduras Solidarity Network and their delegation to Honduras issued the following press release (Spanish follows the English)

Press Advisory

U.S. Human rights activists document US participation in massacre of Miskito people

Tegucigalpa, Honduras, May 27, 2012                            

Contact: Karen Spring, 9507-3835 (In Honduras)

Annie Bird, 202-680-3002 (in Washington, D.C.)

On May 22 and 23 a delegation of human rights activists from the United States organized by Rights Action and Alliance for Global Justice visited the community of Ahuás in the Moskitia region of Honduras.  The delegation witnessed an atmosphere of terror being generated amongst dire poverty in an area where the indigenous people are now losing control of natural resources which are key to the development of their economy.

The group inquired into the May 11, 2012 massacre of indigenous Miskito people by gunfire from U.S. State Department - titled helicopters that the US government confirms carried U.S. DEA agents and security contractors. The boat and its passengers had almost completed an eight hour trip to Ahuas from the town of Barra Patuca. Four were killed, including two pregnant women, a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man, while at least four more were seriously injured.

Following the massacre at least one helicopter landed and at least ten, tall, light-skinned English speakers with limited Spanish proficiency wearing military type uniforms exited the helicopters to collect cocaine from a boat near the massacre site.  They aimed guns at, threatened to kill, and handcuffed  residents of the town who had come to assist the wounded.  Victims lay on the banks of the river and in the damaged boat until after helicopters departed.  In this way security forces delayed emergency medical assistance two to three hours.

Neither U.S. nor Honduran authorities have interviewed the eye witnesses or secured evidence at the crime scene, indicating that no serious investigation has been conducted into the massacre. Even without conducting a serious investigation U.S. and Honduran officials have accused the victims, the population in general and local authorities of participating in drug trafficking. 

Since the massacre Ahuas has been occupied by several dozen Honduran troops, and it is reported that U.S. military presence in the vicinity of Ahuas is increasing.  U.S. government authorities recognize that counterinsurgency tactics are being used while they identify the indigenous communities as drug traffickers.  Indigenous communities in Central America have once again become the focus of U.S. counterinsurgency actions.

Many people the group spoke with noted that militarization and violence generated by the U.S. drug war is focused where there are significant natural resources, Ahuas is known to hold significant petroleum deposits and Texas-based Honduras Tejas Oil and Gas Company, a joint venture with concessions in the Moskitia, estimates there are six to eight billion barrels of oil reserves in the Moskitia.

The delegation is calling for a serious and credible investigation including a Congressional hearing that identifies criminal responsibility in the massacre, the withdrawal of U.S. security forces from Honduras, and suspension of U.S. military assistance to Central America.

Aviso de Prensa

Delegación de Activistas de Derechos Humanos documenta la participación de los Estados Unidos en la masacre de población Miskita

Tegucigalpa, 27 de Mayo del 2012                            

 El 22 y 23 de Mayo una delegación de activistas de derechos humanos de Estados Unidos organizada por Rights Action y Alliance for Global Justice visitó la comunidad de Ahuás en la región de la Moskitia en Honduras. La delegación presenció una atmósfera de terror siendo generada en medio de la pobreza extrema de la zona donde la población indígena ahora está perdiendo el control de los recursos naturales que son clave para el desarrollo de su economía.

 El grupo investigó sobre la masacre del 11 de Mayo del 2012 de pobladores indígenas miskitos en un tiroteo por parte de helicópteros titulados al Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos que el gobierno estadounidense confirma transportaba agentes de la DEA y contratistas de seguridad. El bote y sus pasajeros casi habían completo un viaje de ocho horas hacia Ahuás desde el pueblo de Barra Patuca. Cuatro fueron asesinados, incluyendo dos mujeres embarazadas, un joven de 14 años y un hombre de 21 años, así mismo cuatro o más fueron heridos gravemente.

 Luego de la masacre al menos un helicóptero aterrizó y por lo menos diez hombres angloparlantes altos de piel clara y poca habilidad para hablar español, vistiendo uniformes militares salieron de los helicópteros para recoger cocaína de un bote cerca del sitio de la masacre. Apuntaron sus armas, amenazaron con matar y esposaron residentes de la aldea quienes llegaron a asistir a los heridos. Las víctimas permanecieron en las márgenes del río y en el bote dañado hasta que los helicópteros se retiraron. De esta manera las fuerzas de seguridad retrasaron la asistencia médica de emergencia por dos o tres horas.

 Ni las autoridades de Estados Unidos ni de Honduras han entrevistado a los testigos oculares o recolectado evidencia en la escena del crimen, indicando que no se ha llevado a cabo una investigación seria luego de la masacre. Aún sin conducir una investigación formal los oficiales de Estados Unidos y Honduras han acusado a las víctimas, a la población en general y a las autoridades locales de participar en el tráfico de drogas.

 Desde la masacre Ahuás ha sido ocupada por varias docenas de tropas hondureñas, y se reporta que la presencia militar estadounidense en las cercanías de Ahuás está aumentando. Las autoridades del gobierno de Estados Unidos reconocen que se están utilizando tácticas de contrainsurgencia a medida que identifican a las comunidades indígenas como narcotraficantes. Las comunidades indígenas en Centroamérica una vez se convierten en el enfoque de acciones contrainsurgentes de los Estados Unidos.

 Muchas personas con las que el grupo habló indicaron que la militarización y violencia creada a raíz de la guerra contra las droga s de los Estados Unidos está enfocada en lugar donde se encuentran valiosos recursos naturales, se sabe que Ahuás tiene importantes depósitos de petróleo y compañía tejana Texas Oil and Gas Company, una empresa conjunta con concesiones en la Moskitia, estima que hay de seis a ocho millones de barriles en reservas de petróleo en la Moskitia.

La delegación exige una investigación formal y fidedigna incluyendo una audiencia del Congreso que identifique la responsabilidad criminal en la masacre, el retiro de las fuerzas de seguridad de Estados Unidos de Honduras, y la suspensión de la asistencia militar de Estados Unidos en Centroamérica. 

Retaliation Against the Campesino Movement!

Thirty-Six Campesinos and Campesinas Detained May 23rd in Different Parts of Honduras


     The landowning oligarchy and Honduran regime are going all out to retaliate against the campesino movement that shook the big landowners with massive land recuperations of agrarian reform land on April 17th of this year.
     Today, 17 members and leaders of the Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan (MUCA) were detained in the province of Yoro as they were returning to their settlements in the Aguan Valley of Colon. The campesinos were taken to the police station in Progreso where lawyers from the Jesuit organization ERIC were working to get them released as of this writing. In the Aguan region three farmers were arrested (in two different incidents), and in the province of La Paz another 16 campesinos, including 2 minors,  were detained as they were on their way to work their fields, three of the detainees are members of the indigenous organization COPINH and others are affiliated to the National Center of Rural Workers (CNTC). One farmer remains in custody this evening. The Permanent International Human Rights Observatory in Aguan also reports that several well known campesino leaders in Aguan, (Vitilino Alvarez, Juan Ramon Chinchilla, Adolfo Castañeda and Ramon Sanchez) have received new death threats from the private guards of oligarch Miguel Facusse claiming that they will lose their lives in the next hours. 
     In a phone interview, Jesus Ponce the General Secretary of the CNTC, strongly denounced the actions today and stated that there has been a war against campesinos for some time but now the big landowners and the government are retaliating for the campesino movement's recuperation of lands on April 17th.  (Note: see the earlier blog entry for April 17th for more details). 
     There are more than 100 arrest orders issued against campesinos across the country related to land recuperation. Ponce stated that besides the detentions today, there have been violent evictions, but the campesinos have returned to the lands again. In San Manuel, Cortes the campesinos just returned to the land this week after their second eviction. The San Manuel sugar cane fields are also claimed by oligarch Jaime Rosenthal who obtained the land even though it was agrarian reform land and should have gone to the campesinos originally. 
      Ponce explained that the government and big land owners are trying all kinds of threats and tricks. Some of Rosenthal's paid employees at the sugar processing operation at San Manuel are currently protesting in Tegucigalpa demanding that all the campesinos in the land recuperation should be arrested - trying to confuse public opinion and incite violence against the campesinos.  
     The campesino organizations at the national level are demanding that the 1993 Law of Modernization of Agriculture (a law which nearly destroyed agrarian reform in Honduras) be abrogated and they have proposed a new  agricultural reform law, but the Congress has gone on a month's recess after tabling the campesinos' proposal previously. He also condemned the blatant threats made by the most powerful agribusiness land owner in the country, Miguel Facusse who is threatening thousands of campesinos in Aguan with violent eviction if they can't immediately come up with the money to pay him for land that was to be titled to the campesinos of MUCA after they signed an agreement with the Lobo government. 
     Today's repression comes at the end of a month that has seen a further escalation of violence and murder of campesinos, journalists, resistance leaders and LGBT activists. There has also been an escalation of militarization fueled by the United States that led to the murder of at least 4 indigenous community members including two pregnant women and the wounding of numerous others when a joint operation of the United States DEA and Honduran military fired from a helicopter at a small boat coming down a river in the Miskitio. Honduran military spokesmen have said it was an error, but the U.S. State Department and DEA have not apologized nor explained what happened. 
      All of this is leading to ever more insistent calls for the United States to cut off aid, especially military and security aid to the Honduran regime. 

NATO, Militarization, (and Honduras): Protests in Chicago

Thousands of protesters organized protests and events in  Chicago from May 12 - 21st to protest the NATO summit being held in the city and attended by heads of state, including Barack Obama, and military and security officials. Events included a Peoples’ Summit, a Counter-Summit and numerous street protests linking NATO and militarization to the wars, economic disparity and austerity programs against working and poor people in the U.S. and around the world. The biggest protest was on May 20th where many thousands of protesters  marched through Chicago streets to the NATO summit site and more than 40 Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) members threw their medals away and renounced the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced U.S. military aggression around the world and conditions inside the U.S. for the 99%. As the closing rally was ending the protest was attacked by the police with more than 40 people arrested and numerous injuries from beatings by police. 

La Voz de los de Abajo presented a workshop at the Peoples’ Summit on US militarization in Honduras during and since the coup and our contingent in the May 20th march demanded an end to US military funding and activity in Honduras. The situation in Honduras becomes more urgent every day with violence against activists, journalists, campesinos and members of the LBGT community increasing (see the news section of this blog for recent events).  The U.S. government's role in Honduras has been and continues to be aimed at increasing militarization and support for the impunity and violence against the Honduran people. 

Resistance Martyrs- May 2012