Honduras Resists :: Honduras RESISTE: "The path is more struggle, more organization" - Statement of COPINH's 11th General Assembly

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

"The path is more struggle, more organization" - Statement of COPINH's 11th General Assembly

Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)

Declaration of the 11^th General Assembly of COPINH: Berta Lives.

Facing extractivist death, more organization and struggle is our path

We, gathered here as community delegates of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) this May 26th-29th, 2017 in the Utopía Center for Encounter and Friendship, with representation from the states of Intibucá, Lempira, La Paz and Santa Bárbara, declare the following to the national and international public:

We have gathered in this XI Assembly to discuss and debate the future of our organization, taking into account the tremendous obstacles that present themselves along the way, but with full determination and commitment to the ancestral struggle of the Lenca people, we have made strategic decisions about COPINH’s work in coming years.

We have united our hearts and visions, guided by our leader and ancestor Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores with the strength of her spirit and the legacy of her struggle, who for the first time is not with us physically in this Assembly, he have carried out deep discussions about the communities’ needs and the path that our organization will take in the current moment and our reading of the times ahead.

As a product of these discussions, we re-affirm our struggle in defense of our territories and our resolve to continue building this political project known as COPINH to promote an alternative life, one consistent with the Lenca people’s worldview and in harmony with life, and to confront with more struggle and organization the process of criminalization, persecution and harassment promoted by the economic elite and the corrupt officials who serve the capitalist project of death that invades our territories and violates our sovereignty.

We agree to develop our organizational strength through an intense process of training, grassroots media and struggle against the plunder and destruction of our territories and communities.

In the face of the sleezy political practices in vogue in our country, the Lenca people and COPINH exercises an assembly-based and grassroots political practice that challenges the vices of political practices that yield few possibilities for building the project of life that our territories yearn for. We declare that our organization will continue to struggle aginst the extractivism and pillaging that has been imposed on Honduras no matter what government we face.

Prior to this General Assembly and as part of it we carried out a women’s convening in which we questioned through a libratory process carried out by women our organizational consistency in strongly promoting the rights of women in all structures. As such, in our assembly we made clear that we won’t allow aggression against the sisters of our organization and that the elected general coordination must lead the developingment of anti-patriarchal work within COPINH.

Out assembly has unanimously agreed that one of the principal lines of COPINH’s struggle is the search for justice for our sister and compañera Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores and we declare her to be our permanent General Coordinator, the guardian spirit of our organization and struggle, the political and spiritual guide of our actions in defense of life. We declare that we will not stop and will not rest on this path in search of justice, for the capture of those who plotted and called for the assassination and the deepening of our struggle in her memory.

In defense of our territories, on a path against patriarchy and for education, for grassroots media, natural medicine, food sovereignty, along with our ancestors we cry out that Berta lives on and COPINH is strong!

With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica we raise our voices for life, justice dignity, liberty and peace!

2017-2019 COPINH General Coordination:

1. General Coordinator: Bertha Isabel Zúniga Cáceres

2. Organizational Coordinator: Sotero Chavarría Fúnez.

3. Coordinator of Records: José Asención Martínez.

4. Coordinator for Political Development and Education: Eiby Doris Sánchez.

5. Coordinator of Development and International Relatiions: Julian García.

6. Coordinator of Finances: José Tochez.

7. Accountability Coordinator: Francisco Gámez Gámez.

8. Communications Coordinator: Efraín Sorto.

9. Coordinator of Culture and Acnestral Heritage: María Pascuala Vásquez.

10. Coordinator for Land, Territory and the Environment: Francisco Javier Sánchez.