MAY 14th National Mobilization in Defense of Dignity and Sovereignty

More information coming soon along with actions you can take to support the Honduran movements.

The social movement in Honduras is mobilizing starting May 14th when campesino, indigenous, environmentalist, feminist and more will make a two-day walk from Zambrano, Francisco Morazan to Tegucigalpa where the resistance movement in the capital will join in protests at the Presidential offices (Casa Presidential), the Supreme Court and the National Congress. 

The mobilization has 6 demands:

• Freedom for campesino political prisoner, Isabel “Chabelo” Morales Lopez
• Congressional approval of the Law for the Integral Agrarian Transformation proposed by the campesino movement and derogation of the current “Law of Agricultural Modernization”
• Derogation of the Mining Law 
• Derogation of the Charter Cities Law (Special Zones for Economic Development-ZEDES)
• Cessation of the hydroelectric projects in the indigenous territories
• Investigation and clarification by the government of the femmicides in Honduras.

This mobilization comes a little more than 100 days since Juan Orlando Hernandez from the National Party took power after elections widely condemned as fraudulent. During this first hundred days Honduras has seen an escalation of both militarization and violence and a continuation of impunity and a lack of investigation of the murders of members of the press, environmentalists, and opposition activists including LGBT, campesinos and LIBRE party members. Furthermore the deaths of more than 600 women in 2013 alone continue to be unresolved and largely uninvestigated. The Honduran government has, however, been able to mount prosecutions and harassment against indigenous leaders like Berta Caceres of COPINH and most recently the detention, beating and threatened prosecution  on invented charges of Jose Guadalupe Rueles, director of Casa Alianza which just issued a report critical of

Hernandez and children’s rights and wellbeing. It has also been able to ignore blatant violations of procedure and law to keep a member of the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, Chabelo Morales, imprisoned unjustly. 

Despite this grim situation, the US government continues to praise Hernandez and to provide training, money and support for the National Police and Honduran military. Just this week US Ambassador to Honduras, Lisa Kubiske stated in an interview in El Heraldo on May 11th ,  comparing the new government with previous governments, “The difference in enthusiasm and energy that the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez brings, and it is a positive energy, because he has the idea of government of action to get results…..” 

Well, there is no question that Hernandez is after results, and those results are obviously fulfillment of the neoliberal dream at the expense of the Honduran people.

vcervantes also published today in hondurassolidarity.org