Honduras Resists :: Honduras RESISTE

URGENT ACTION: Journalist in danger – Repeated Threats and Persecution (COFADEH)

2012-01-30T13:42:00.002-06:00

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (Cofadeh) expresses its concern for the security of Gilda Carolina Silvestrucchi, independent journalist for 16 years and Director of the radio program “In the Plaza” who is the victim of serious threats against her life and against the lives of her children.

On January 3, 2012 while on her way to work at the radio program she was followed by a red Honda Civic for several minutes, until the driver of the vehicle transporting her was able to lose the car that was following them.

On January 20, 2012, her mother received a phone call from a male voice requesting information regarding the routine of Gilda Carolina Silvestrucchi including what time she arrived home, where she was during the day and where he could find her. The unknown caller questioned the mother under the pretense of knowing the exact time when she could be found at home.

Today, January 23, 2012 at 9:30 a.m. she received approximately five calls on her cell phone from the number 94 83 42 03. The first question from the unknown caller was if she was the owner of the cell phone. The movment of vehicles could be heard on the line and the caller than said “We know that you have three children, that the oldest is 15 years old, that you are on the street with your 7 year old child, and that the oldest is in your home caring for the one year old. We are going to kill you.”

When the call ended, Gilda called her younger daughter who informed her that an unknown person had called asking for Gilda stating that he had to deliver some papers to her. The subject then called Gilda’s daughter two more times.
On that day, Gilda Silvestrucchi had hosted Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos and Pedro Landa on her program as guests to speak about problems related to mining in the Siria Valley and the maneuvers of members of Congress to approve the new Mining Law.

The right to freedom of expression and the right of society to be informed, enshrined in the Constitution and international human rights law, are currently being violated through, intimidation and threats from public authorities and illegitimate powers. Crimes against journalists and violence against the freedom of expression throughout Honduras have reached intolerable levels, never before seen in the history of Honduras. Since 2009, 18 journalists have been murdered, 25 have received death threats, 14 have suffered illegal detentions, 4 have been kidnapped and tortured, and 37 other attacks and aggressions against journalists have been recorded.

On December 14, 2011 journalists held a protest which was repressed by the military assigned to the Presidential palace. The protest was convened by the collective, “Journalists for Life and the Freedom of Expression” of which Gilda is an active member.

In Honduras, there are structures and threats which restrict freedom of expression in large areas of the country including political censure and organized crime, resulting in self-censorship as way to protect the safety of journalists given the lack of State action to impose exemplary sanctions for crimes against journalists and guarantees of freedom of expression.

Cofadeh requests the National and International Community:
    •    Publicly condemn the intimidation of journalists and demand that the state of Honduras commit to the protection of members of this profession;
    •    Request immediate action to provide all protection necessary for Gilda Carolina Silvestrucci and her family, particularly her young children in the manner that she requests;
    •    Request an urgent, exhaustive and impartial investigation into the acts that place the life of Gilda Silvestrucchi at risk and that the murders of 18 journalists be investigated as well as threats against other journalists. The results of these investigations should be made public and those responsible should be tried.
    •    Demand that protective orders issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for JOURNALISTS AT RISK be applied.

Please send calls, expression of concern and demands to:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés
President of the Supreme Court
Tel (504) 2269-3000 2269-3069
Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí
Attorney General
Fax (504) 2221-5667
Tel (504) 2221-5670 2221-3099
Mail: lrubi@mp.hn
          gsuazog@mp.hn

With copies to:
Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela , Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax:+504 2220 1528 (call and ask for “tono de fax, por favor”)
Mail: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

Also send copies to the diplomatic representation for Honduras accredited in your country.

Communique and Action in Support of Campesino Activist Prisoner: Chavelo Morales

2012-01-10T14:09:00.004-06:00

La Voz de los de Abajo has signed on to the action in support of compañero Chavelo - for interviews and more information about Chavelo see our past blog posts. At the end of the following communique from Honduras are the addresses and phone numbers where you can take action.

To the Appeals Court in La Ceiba

To the Honduran Government

To the Honduran People and to International Solidarity

The people and organizations that support this communique believe in the necessity for the impartiality of justice and its fulfillment for all human society and for Honduran society in particular. We consider that it is part of our struggle to denounce situations of human rights violations and aggression against the liberty of people and of national organizations. For this reason we are speaking on the case of our compañero José Isabel Morales López of the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA), a prisoner for more than three years in the prison of El Porvenir in La Ceiba.

In 2008 as a result of the struggle for land in the zone of Aguan compañero Morales Löpez was detained and accused of ten assassinations, attempted murder, a homicide, aggravated robbery and aggravated arson. Finally he was condemned for a homicide, but to date and despite the fact that the final verdict was given on June 25, 2010, his sentencing has still not occurred. During the court proceeding irregularities were apparent among others the fact that the witnesses against him had contradictions in their stories and changed their testimony from previous versions.

On the other hand the illegality of preventative imprisonment is evident, according to the regulations established by the Penal Process Code, it can only last, at a maximum, for two years;if no sentence has been given in that period of time, imprisonment must be replaced by other measures (medidas cautelares) And, as we have reiterated, the fact that as of this moment no sentence has been given is shameful and alarming.

Based on these circumstances the defense lawyers of compañero Morales López have on three occasions solicited the substituion of preventative imprisonment from the sentencing Tribunal and on three occasions it has been denied. They also filed a habeas corpus to the Constitutional Court (Sala de lo Constitucional) for it to declare the illegality of deprivation of liberty, given that the limits established by the law have already been exceeded. This (habeas corpus) was declared to be without standing seven months after the filing.

During his incarceration he was denied permission to attend the funerals of his daughter and his father, who died at different times. His health during his imprisonment has been damaged by an accident that caused the loss of an eye, and his state of emotional health is gravely affected by the series of events and conditions described above.

Due to all of this and more, we are completely in solidarity with José Isabel Morales López, compañero Chavelo, a fighter for the land for the rights of the Honduran campesinos.

We denounce the Court of Appeals in which the appeals are held, the same appeals that have not been resolved due to one of the appeals having been presented during the trial and it is precisely its lack of resolution that has impeded the sentencing.

We hold the judicial apparatus of the country responsibly for the violations of human rights and the denial of access to justice for José Isabel Morales López.

We demand immediate freedom for José Isabel Morales López

MOVIMIENTO CAMPESINO DEL AGUA, MCA
CONSEJO CÍVICO DE ORGANIZACIONES POPULARES E INDÍGENAS DE HONDURAS, COPINH
ORGANIZACIÓN FRATERNAL NEGRA HONDUREÑA, OFRANEH
COLECTIVO ITALIA-CENTRO AMÉRICA, CICA
INSURRECTAS AUTÓNOMAS
EQUIPO DE REFLEXIÓN, INVESTIGACIÓN Y COMUNICACIÓN – COMPAÑÍA DE JESUS, ERIC-SJ
COMITÉ DE FAMILIARES DE DETENIDOS DESAPARECIDOS EN HONDURAS, COFADEH
MOVIMIENTO AMPLIO POR LA DIGNIDAD Y LA JUSTICA, MADJ

If your organization wants to sign on to this communique contact: Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras, COPINH

copinh@copinh.org

Calls and Messages calling for Chavelo’s immediate release should go to:

Abogado(Lawyer) Celino Aristides Aguilera Amador
(President of the Appeals Court in La Ceiba)

Presidente de la Corte de Apelaciones de La Ceiba Sala #1

Telefono (00504) 2441-4172 ext. 1064
Marlene Suyapa Perez Valle , (Judge) Magistrada Propietaria Ext. 1054
Carlos Eduardo Castelar (Judge) Magistrado Propietario Ext. 1061
Dianey Cruz Recarte (Judge) Magistrado Integrante Ext. 1053

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés, Presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia

Telefono: (504) 2269-3000 2269-3069 Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa, Presidente de la República (President of the Republic of Honduras)

Casa Presidencial,

Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo, Palacio José Cecilio del Valle

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Correo: pepe@pepelobopresidente.com

Fax: + 504 2239 3298

Luis Alberto Rubí

(Attorney General) Fiscal General de la República.

Fax (504) 2221-5667

Tel (504) 2221-5670 2221-3099

Mail: lrubi@mp.hn

suazog@mp.hn

Sra. Ana Pineda

(Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Human Rights)

Secretaría de Justicia y Derechos Humanos

Col. Lomas del Mayab, Ave. República de Costa Rica

Correo: anapinedah@hotmail.com

Fax: +504 22358379

Please send copies to:

Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras, COPINH

copinh@copinh.org

URGENT ACTION - COFADEH

2012-01-06T19:56:00.002-06:00

Honduran State Is Failing to Guarantee the Security of its Citizens

Police Attack on Father Marco Lorenzo

The Committee for Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) wishes to express its total condemnation and deep concern regarding the police of the State of Honduras and their systematic practice of attacking its citizens.

On 26 December Marco Aurelio Lorenzo, the Catholic parish priest for Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara, was travelling in a car with two of his brothers, at about 8.15 at night along the turn-off leading to El Rosario farm, at kilometre 24 on the road linking San Miguelito with Yamaranguila in the department of Intibucá.

At that point he decided to rest at the side of the road, after having driven several kilometres from the Department of Santa Bárbara into Intibucá. The priest had been conducted a range of religious services (masses, christenings, weddings) non-stop since 19 December, and as a result was exhausted.

As the ground was uneven, one of the passengers got out of the car to put a rock under the wheel to prevent the car from sliding. While he was doing this a police patrol car turned up carrying eight officers, who without a word and without demanding his documents, began hitting him.

Seeing the attack, Father Lorenzo got out of the car to find out what was happening, and suffered the same fate. The priest was handcuffed and he was severely beaten. He was thrown to the ground and one of the policeman stood on his body while the other kicked him with his regulation boots.

They then stripped the priest and his travelling companions of their personal belongings, food which they had taken to share with their family and money, and forced them to get back into the car, removed the rock, and pushed the car down a slope. The car came to rest in a ditch.

The police then removed the car and handcuffed the victims to the bars of the patrol vehicle. They took the injured to hospital in La Esperanza, in Intibucá, and left the car and the documents at the police station. There the priest’s sister was given his wallet with the documents and his mobile phone, with the SIM card and battery missing. As a result of his injuries, the priest lost consciousness and needed 16 stitches in his head.

Background

Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo is a staunch defender of natural resources, as a result of which he has been the victim of attacks and illegal detention.

For example, on 17 July 2007, he was arrested together with Reginaldo García, another priest, on the orders of Silvio Edmundo Inestroza, an officer with the Policía Preventiva (Preventive Police), during a peaceful protest against open-cast mining. While the demonstration was being dispersed, in Seis de Mayo district, the police insulted and hit Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo with their batons and pushed him onto the pavement. The priest was detained for over six hours in a police station in the area.

On the night of 13 August 2004, Father Lorenzo was returning from the community of San Antonio Chiquila when he was intercepted by a Toyota car without number plates. Three armed hooded men made him get out of his car and severely beat him on his back, abdomen, chest, legs and hip, causing internal injuries, as a result of which the priest had to be hospitalised.

COFADEH asks the national and international community to demand that the State of Honduras adopts the necessary measures and effective mechanisms to guarantee the life, physical integrity and access to justice for Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo and his two brothers, and to suspend any reprisals against them.

Please direct letters, calls and faxes to Honduran justice officials:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés

President of the Supreme Court

Tel (504) 269-3000 269-3069

Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí

Director of Public Prosecutions

Fax (504) 221-5667

Tel (504) 221-5670 221-3099

Mail: lrubi@mp.hn

suazog@mp.hn

With a copy to:

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)

Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301

Apartado Postal 1243

Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS

Fax:+504 220 5280 (request: "tono de fax")

Mail: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

DE LOS HECHOS Y LOS HECHORES, NI OLVIDO, NI PERDÓN

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, COFADEH

Tegucigalpa M.D.C. 04 de enero de 2012

Declaration on the Founding of the Human Rights Observatory in Aguan

2011-11-14T21:13:00.008-06:00

(Excerpts from the declaration of November 11, 2011)

We, members of the Honduran Social Movement, the Campesino Organizations of the Aguán, the National Front of Popular Resistance of the Department of Colón and international Human Rights organizations who attended the opening of this Observatory of Human Rights, before the National and International Community declare:

That protected by the fundamental charter of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in international treaties that uphold the fundamental rights of peoples, especially indigenous populations under threat, in the introduction of the Constitution of the Republic and in the Articles 59, 60 and 61 which literally state: that the Constitution guarantees to Hondurans and foreigners residing in the country the right to the inviolability of life, personal security, liberty, equality before the law, and property; the Article 64 also states that the right to life is inviolable; the Article 66 which prohibits the death penalty, and all the other articles relating to claims, rights and individual rights protected by the principle of self-determination and the exercise of popular sovereignty, in the context of permanent violation of human rights of the people of the Department of Colón and the Atlantic Coast of Honduras, especially the climate of terror, murder, persecution of peasant groups in the region and the constant danger that face human rights defenders in front of Court officials, businesspeople and landowners such as Miguel Facussé, Reynaldo Canales and Rene Morales, who are using an army of security guards and murderers to do the work of hired killers.

These landowners, acting under the politic approval of the National Agrarian Institute headed by the Minister Cesar Ham, of the President of the Republic Porfirio Lobo Sosa and his Minister of Security and Defence, are organizing this third militarization of the Lower Aguán, called "Xatruch II ", using conventional war weapons on land as well as helicopters and aircraft armed with destructive weapons that are ready to be used.

In recent months, police, Honduran national army troops, security guards and hired assassins which usually cover their faces with ski masks, carried out drills of massive raids twice on the settlement of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA), established with the approval of the State and the actual Government in the settlement of Los Marañones, and twice in the settlements of the MUCA of the right bank of the river Aguán, La Confianza, La Aurora and La Lempira; Colonel Espinal, who serves as Commander of Operation "Xatruch II" declared that all the settlements would be intervened to succeed general disarmament.

Against this background which places the human rights of the Aguán population and especially the rural population in a precarious and extremely risky situation, we have decided:

1. To defend the right to life as a fundamental right, to defend human rights of men, women and children living in constant harassment, repression and insecurity.

2. To be present during evictions, raids and military interventions within the framework of the defense of peoples' human rights and of the agrarian conflict.

3. To provide protection of populations and individuals facing threats, suffering persecution and who are permanently the targets of repression.

4. Accompaniment in legal advocacy, medical and legal proceedings related to land conflict.

5. To denounce nationally and internationally the violation of human rights in the region, creating forums and urgent response mechanisms.

6. To bring to trail before national and international legal bodies, those who violate human rights in this region of Honduras.

7. We call upon human rights organizations, the national social movements in Latin America and the world, leading personalities in the defense of human rights and in promoting peace through social and human development, to attend the international gathering of human rights defenders, an event that will take place in this region of Aguán from February 17^th to 21^st, 2012.

For the right to life, stop the killings of campesinos in Honduras and the Aguán!

Stop human rights violation in the Aguán!

Tocoa, Colón, 11/11/2011.

Signatories:

MCA, MARCA, MUCA MARGEN IZQUIERDA, MUCA MARGEN DERECHA, MOVIMIENTO CAMPESINO RIGORES, EMPRESA CAMPESINA BUENOS AIRES, EMPRESA CAMPESINA ORICA, CENTRO JUVENIL HORIZONTES DE ESPERANZA, COPA, COPINH, OFRANEH, POPOL NAH TUN, FUNDACION SAN ALONSO RODRIGUEZ, ASOCIACION DE ABOGADOS POR LA JUSTICIA, COORDINACION FNRP-COLON, FIAN INTERNACIONAL, FIAN HONDURAS, DERECHOS EN ACCION, CICA

http://www.muca-mi.blogspot.com/

http://www.movimientocampesinodelaguan.blogspot.com/

http://www.movimientomuca.blogspot.com/

Isis Murillo's Family Files Human Rights Case Against Micheletti

2011-11-03T21:26:00.005-05:00

November 3, 2011, Houston, TX and New York, NY – Last night, in a human rights case against Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti Baín, attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed papers emphasizing that the case is one of the few opportunities for accountability for the wave human rights abuses committed during and in the aftermath of the coup. Micheletti is the former head of the de facto government immediately following the June 28, 2009 military coup that led to systemic attacks on and extrajudicial killings of members of the opposition movement and journalists that continue today. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the suit on behalf of David Murillo and Silvia Mencías, seeking justice for their son, 19-year-old Isis Obed Murillo, who was shot and killed by Honduran military forces during a peaceful demonstration against the coup.

In last night’s filing, CCR provided extensive documentation illustrating the culture of impunity in Honduras that blocks justice for the violations and that has permitted the attacks to continue under the current government of Porfirio Lobo. An expert report submitted by a Human Rights Watch researcher emphasized that no one has been held criminally liable for the scores of politically motivated killings and other human rights violations that took place under Micheletti and that little to no progress has been made in investigating the violence that has taken place under Lobo since he assumed the role of President in January 2010 after a post-coup election that was widely criticized as illegitimate.

In a statement included in Micheletti’s motion to dismiss the case, the office of the Prosecutor of Honduras asserts that Honduras does not hold Micheletti responsible for Murillo’s death, despite the lack of a full, credible investigation. Yet, even the Honduran Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), the independence and impartiality of which has been questioned by experts and advocates, found that Micheletti bore responsibility for the killing of Isis Obed Murillo and others. In particular, the CVR found that Micheletti wielded command responsibility and implemented policies and practices that were the driving force behind the excessive use of force by the military and resulting human rights violations. Furthermore, CCR attorneys say the prosecutor’s statement strengthens the Murillo’s claims that the case must be tried in the U.S., because justice is not possible in Honduras given the absolute impunity there for the coup and post-coup abuses.

“Isis was the first victim in what became a systematic and widespread attack on dissent that continues today,” said Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney Pamela Spees. “The Honduran government’s explicit refusal to hold Micheletti accountable for Murillo’s death – effectively clearing the coup leader’s name without any genuine investigation – highlights the importance of this lawsuit. It is one of very few avenues of accountability left.”

Subsequent to Isis’ killing, the plaintiff and his family were subjected to surveillance and harassment by police and other authorities. This harassment took place in the context of what lawyers describe as intense repression and political persecution that began under Michiletti’s regime that targeted the National Front of Popular Resistance, which formed in opposition to the coup, as well as journalists and other groups standing in opposition.

The filings also make public for the first time a September 11, 2009 U.S. Embassy letter included in an attachment to Micheletti’s motion to dismiss the case that states his visa was revoked due to “the continued resistance of the de facto government to accept the San Jose Agreement and the continuous failure to restore the democratic and constitutional government of Honduras.” Yet the U.S. has since successfully lobbied the Organization of American States to recognize the new government and is reportedly considering reinstating visas for Micheletti and other coup leaders despite any accountability for their illegal actions and the mass repression they presided over. The U.S. also provides funding to the Honduran military and police, who have been implicated in numerous grave human rights abuses, including assassinations, the burning down and bulldozing of nearly the entire town of Rigores, firing live ammunition and other brutal attacks on peaceful protests, and disappearances.

The case was brought under the Alien Tort Statute and is before the Houston Division of Southern District of Texas. To view the motions and for more information on the lawsuit, visit: http://ccrjustice.org/honduras-coup.

press@ccrjustice.org

2011-10-05T20:46:00.004-05:00

From September 8 - 19, 2011 a delegation of nine people from five states and 7 organizations participated in a human rights accompaniment delegation to Honduras coordinated by Witness for Peace Southwest; La Voz de los de Abajo-Chicago and Task Force on the Americas; all members of the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) a national network formed in the U.S. after the June 28, 2009 coup d’état in Honduras. Below is an article by Vicki Cervantes of La Voz de los de Abajo focusing on the situation in the campesino communities the delegation visited.

Three Days in Aguan
Our delegation was in the Lower Aguan River Valley , on the northern coast in the province of Colon , from September 11 - September 14. We visited four campesino communities and in each community we spoke with community members, families of assassinated campesinos, survivors of the violence and with community leaders. We interviewed soldier s and police in the communities, at the road blocks and at the Battalion Headquarters and National Police headquarters in the region about their mission in Aguan. We also visited 3 campesino prisoners being held in the region.

The region of Aguan has long been a center of conflict between organized landless or poor farmers and some of the most powerful wealthy landowners (and coup-plotters) in the country such as the bio-fuel magnate, Miguel Facusse. Since the coup in 2009, there has been an alarming escalation of violence against the campesinos with more than fifty persons murdered in two years. We found communities traumatized by the constant violence and pressure from the land owners’ private armed guards, the national police and the military. The communities are terrorized but also angry at what they call, “open season on campesinos” and frustrated by the continued impunity for violence against their leaders and community members with a complete lack of police investigations or follow-up on any of the deaths of campesinos.

The other theme that dominates discussion is that of the increasing militarization bringing more violence and instability to the region. At the end of our visit to Honduras , the situation was taking an even more ugly turn. On September 16th a soldier and policeman died in what was reported to be an accident with a grenade inside a police vehicle, although the military and police command along with the most conservative pro-coup press prefer the explanation that, “foreign guerrillas have infiltrated the campesino movement and ambushed the military”. While the details of the event remain unpublished, the response of the government has been to suspend constitutional guarantees, give more power to the military and unleash an even bigger military response against civilian agricultural communities in the Aguan.

Aguan Day One - Police Threats
Our first full day in Aguan, we visited the community of Guadalupe Carney but at about 4:30 pm we got an urgent phone call reporting that the national police were threatening the MUCA (Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan) Left Bank community of Los Marañones and asking that the delegation go to that community. {Note: There are two MUCA organizations, one on the left bank of the Aguan River and one on the right bank}. We rushed there and, after an hour’s trip on dirt roads, we arrived at nightfall. The police were gone but community members told us that numerous patrol trucks with soldiers and police in them had arrived at the community gate, threatening to enter. Many families had hidden themselves in the surrounding fields and hills, most had returned when we arrived, but some of the leaders - who are under constant death threats - had gone deeper into hiding. We waited for some time for them to arrive so that we could confirm they were alright. We returned the next day to talk some more and community members explained that the agreement they signed in 2010 with the Lobo government that was to turn over 11,000 hectares of land to the campesinos has never been fulfilled. They have only been given around 3, 000 hectares while Miguel Facusse’s private guards, the national police and the army continually threaten them. According to MUCA members we spoke with there are at least 20 open arrest orders for leaders of MUCA, thy receive constant death threats and the assassinations continue. On August 23, Pedro Delgado, the Vice President of MUCA-Left Bank and his wife were gunned down and then decapitated in their home and on September 2 the body of MUCA member Olvin David Gonzalez Godoy, 24 years old, married and father of an 8-month-old girl was found on the road to Marañones. Since January 2010, 20 or more MUCA members have been killed.* Because of this situation, the MUCA-Left Bank members are very skeptical of the newest negotiations the government is carrying out with the other MUCA-Right Bank communities and another organization, MARCA. The MUCA-Left Bank members told the delegation that the original agreement should be fulfilled by the government and agri-business landowners. The community continues to work to improve the lands that they are on and we saw that the campesinos are building a new cinder block school building for their children despite the threat of further evictions and raids. We were able to spend only a short time with MARCA members; we spoke to the widow and family of the most recent victim of assasinations in Aguan, Secundino Ruiz. Ruiz who was president of one of the MARCA cooperatives, was gunned down in Tocoa while he and the coop’s Treasurer were riding in a car on coop business. The family said that although there were witnesses they were unaware of any follow-up on the case after the initial police interviews.

Guadalupe Carney
Guadalupe Carney is the most established of the communities under attack in Aguan. Their organization the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) has gained legal title to large amount of the land they recuperated in March of 2000 on what used to be the Regional Military Training Center (CREM) but they are still fighting to receive title to the rest of the lands that belong to them. Their longevity and incontrovertible legal claims have not kept them from being attacked by the government’s repressive forces and the private hired guns of the big landowners.

At Guadalupe Carney we met with members of the widow’s group (families of the murdered MCA members). This group includes the widows of the victims of the massacre by Miguel Facusse’s guards on November 15, 2010 which left 5 MCA members dead on their land at a plantation called El Tumbador. We also spoke with survivors of that massacre. The widows, one of whom has 5 small children, receive help from other members of the MCA and the community and do things like cook food to sell in order to survive. The widows and the survivors of the attack told us that the campesinos have returned to work part of the land that belongs to them but that Miguel Facusse has stationed even more private guards on the land that he has taken and that it is very dangerous for the campesinos. They thought that it was so dangerous that they didn’t feel that they could take the delegation to the area. One of the survivors of the massacre, who was shot in the face, told us that the guards opened fire directly at them that day, and as he and some others fled the area they saw as many as 80 more armed gunmen coming down the road towards El Tumbador. The victims said there had not been any serious police investigation and no arrests of any of Facusse’s men for the murders.

We visited the community radio station, Radio Orquedia where a team of mostly young campesinos do their own programming and daily broadcasting. After the Tumbador massacre the first large scale military operation into Aguan, “Operation Xantruch I” brought hundreds of combined military and national police troops into the area. The radio team told us that the troops entered Guadalupe Carney and threatened to destroy the radio station, but the radio was on the air broadcasting the alarm and hundreds of community members came to the station - and the troops withdrew. The army has set up a continuous encampment of soldiers (4-6 at a time) right across from the elementary school in the community. When we asked one of the soldiers why the army was there he told us that it was to protect the community from crime, when he was asked if there was a problem with crime in Guadalupe Carney, he said “no”. At the Battalion Headquarters we were told that the continuous presence at Guadalupe Carney is to “avoid the occurrence of conflicts and to prevent crime”. Community members told us that they don’t believe the soldiers are there to protect the community from anything but see it as an ongoing military occupation. While we were there, soldiers began conducting a class in marching for the older elementary school students getting ready for the official Independence Day school parades. Some of the community members objected and began a heated debate with the school director.

There are close to 30 open arrest orders for members of the MCA and there are currently 3 members being held in jail on spurious charges. During the delegation we met with all three campesino prisoners. While we were at the community we met with the prisoners’ families who asked for continued pressure from human rights groups on the cases for which the police and prosecutors have not been able to present any evidence that can stand up in court. One of the prisoners, Isabel “Chavelo” Morales has been held almost three years without having been convicted of any crime - Honduran law states that two years is the maximum time a person can be held without going to trial. The other two prisoners are young campesinos, Deny Israel Castro (20) and Lelis Lemus Martinez (17) arrested on August 15 - the same day that there were attacks on a nearby community in Los Rigores and a few days after solidarity delegation of women from Guadalupe Carney visited another cooperative in Los Rigores. MCA leaders told us that they feel that the open arrest orders and the arrests are more forms of pressure against the whole community to try to get them to give up and give in to the big landowners.

Los Rigores - Bulldozers, Fire and Helicopters

On June 23 this year the National Police and Army violently evicted 100 families from land they were living on for 10 years, bulldozing and burning homes and churches. Twenty campesinos were detained and released and 13 arrest orders issued and left open. When we arrived in Rigores on September 13th many community members were back on the land and had already begun rebuilding their homes and other buildings. School classes are being held in the part of the school left standing after it was bulldozed in June. Honduran flag bunting was hung around the classroom for Honduran Independence Day decorations on Sept. 15th. Besides the homes, churches and the school, the eviction in June also destroyed most access to potable water. We were shown some small pools of water that the community is using for drinking water to which they have added some “purification powder” that was donated to them. People explained to us that their community and organization, the Campesino Movement of Rigores (MCR), were recognized as having a right to the land under Honduran land law and that the National Agrarian Institute negotiated terms with the family of a now deceased land owner who contested ownership, but that suddenly the man’s heirs want a bigger amount of money. They worry that larger interests are involved.

On September 16th, as the delegation was leaving the Aguan on the way to Tegucigalpa , we received a phone call reporting that a violent raid by troops from Operation Xantruch II was going on in Rigores. The police and army were reported to be smashing belongings, damaging houses and beating the community members. By the end of the evening 21 campesinos were detained at the main police station in Tocoa. Our delegation together with human rights groups in and outside of Honduras began sending out appeals for urgent actions to protect the detainees and making calls to the police station about the safety of the detainees. The campesinos were held for twenty four hours; they were beaten, threatened and told by police that they are going to kill the human rights people “so there is no one to help you”. All 21 were finally released with no charges filed against any of them.

Then, on September 19th, while we were visiting the offices of the Honduran human rights organization, the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared Detainees (COFADEH) a call came in reporting that a helicopter was flying low over Rigores and soldiers were taking pictures. A few hours later, the calls started reporting that police and army troops were attacking the settlement.

I spoke with one of the leaders from Rigores on the phone who described what was going on, “there is a big helicopter with soldiers with heavy caliber rifles hanging out of it; it seems to be landing or trying to land but then it stops and goes up and then comes back down again and again. The soldiers and police came in and took kids and other people and are beating them, dragging them into the palm field s; we don’t know what is happening to them.” Meanwhile the President of the MCR, Rodolfo Cruz reported on another call to a human rights defender that his 16 year son had been grabbed by the soldiers and dragged into the palm fields and when he tried to follow the troops fired their weapons; he didn’t know if his son was being detained or being disappeared.

Later in the evening, human rights representatives arrived at the jail in the town of Tocoa and confirmed that the boy was being held - after hours of pressure, with phone calls coming into the station from international and Honduran human rights groups, he was released at midnight. The next evening he and his father were interviewed on Radio Globo in Tegucigalpa and he confirmed that he had been beaten, tortured, had gasoline thrown on him and been threatened with being set on fire.

As our delegation was ending, the pro-coup newspapers the daily La Prensa (September 17, 20) and La Tribuna (September 20,21,23, 25) had articles with quotes from the Security and Defense Ministries, military command and national police command talking about “armed campesinos”, “foreign guerrillas infiltrating the campesinos” and calling for the suspension of constitutional guarantees for the residents in Aguan, and for a possible extension of judicial powers to the military in the region to issue warrants and court orders to raid communities. The papers tied it to the deaths of the policeman and soldier on the 16^th, but there are plenty of indications that a plan an extensive military occupation of Aguan on behalf of the agri-business oligarchy has little to do with that incident. Indeed, when our delegation interviewed a first sergeant who seemed to be in charge of security at the 15^th Battalion headquarters and the Officer in charge of the command at the National Police in Aguan, many days prior to the 16^th, they spoke of the problem in Aguan being caused by the campesinos, armed groups of campesinos and/or foreigners. Another of the proposals from the government is to use the immigration service to better control foreigners entering the region. This seems more likely to be aimed at human rights observers, international press and accompaniment delegations than at any “armed guerrillas from Nicaragua ”. The need for more accompaniment, delegations and observers is growing as the violence continues - two more campesinos (a woman from COAPALMA in Prieta and a young man from MUCA-Right Bank) were murdered this week and the husband of the woman was seriously wounded -

An important issue is the role of the U.S. government and military in Honduras and specifically in the Aguan. When we talked to Honduran special forces soldiers in the Aguan who are a part of the joint military/police Operation Xantuch II they told us that they are receiving training from the U.S. in Honduras . It has also been confirmed that the U.S. has provided vehicles to the Honduran National Police and Military that have been used in raids against campesino communities. U.S. training and aid to the military and police in the name of “security” is being used against civilian communities on behalf of the landed oligarchy who are themselves implicated in narcotics trade (Wikileaks August 30, 2011 release of 2004 cable from U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa regarding Miguel Facusse’s links to narcotics trafficking ).

The situation in Aguan has its own history and dynamic but is part of the national politics as well. As the FNRP continues to organize and mobilize resistance and the majority of the Frente organizations are moving forward with the formation of a political party for the elections in 2013, the targeted assassinations, threats and legal persecution are being applied in the cities and in the countryside by a desperate oligarchy, supported by U.S. State Department policy.

2011-09-04T23:42:00.004-05:00

The following was translated from an original statement in Spanish by COFADEH (below). An article in Spanish on COFADEH's human rights journalism website can be found here.

http://friendshipamericas.org/cofadeh-once-again-forced-disappearance-being-implemented-honduras

 Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras

COFADEH

ONCE AGAIN FORCED DISAPPEARANCE IS BEING IMPLEMENTED IN HONDURAS

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), with great concern, would like to inform the international community, and the Honduran population in particular, that the practice of forced disappearance is once again being systematically implemented in Honduras, as demonstrated by the following cases.

1. Osmin Obando Cáceres (age 22), son of Eliodoro Cáceres, Coordinator of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) in Tela, department of Atlántida, has been disappeared since Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 4:30 PM when he was driving his taxi and told his family that he couldn't speak to them by phone because he was surrounded by police.

The taxi appeared abandoned that same day around 6:30PM in the community of Los Cedros, in the jurisdiction of Tela.

After his disappearance, the family received false calls, one caller claiming that Osmin was in the hospital in Tela and another that claimed that he was dead in the community of Las Palmas. Relatives went to verify each of the calls and neither was true.

2. Denis Alexander Russel (age 19) was captured in an operation of the Special Anti-Kidnapping Taskforce (GEAS) on July 13, 2010. The operation was commanded by Vice Minister of Security Armando Calidonio and police spokesperson Juan Rochez.

His mother, Carlota Anariva, denounced that the day he was taken away he had been with her buying groceries, and when they returned to the house she left him to park the car and suddenly the neighbours came to tell her that her son had been taken away. He was a student in the Instituto de la Patria in La Lima, Department of Cortés.

3. Luís Alexander Torres Casaleno, detained on July 20, 2010 by police agents while driving his motorcycle, after having passed a police checkpoint on the Corocito highway towards Tocoa, Colón. A few kilometers passed the checkpoint he was detained by four agents of the Preventative Police who were riding in a white unmarked double-cab pick-up truck and crossed in front of him on the highway. Two agents in uniform got out of the truck and put him into the vehicle, leaving his motorcycle behind. The motorcycle was retrieved by the Corocito police shortly afterwards. A habeas corpus was filed in his name and there has been no response to date.

4. Vilmar Edmundo Talavera Avilez, a police officer, was detained by the Border Police (Policía de Frontera y Análisis) on July 15, 2010 when he was riding a bus. He was detained after presenting his identification documents. Before his disappearance he was reportedly threatened by a police officer by the name of Tercero.

5. Samuel Josué Pastrana Molina was kidnapped on February 7, 2011 at 2:30 when armed men with ski masks entered the place he was in the department of El Paraíso, ordered those who were with him to place themselves on the ground and close there eyes, and they took him away.

6. Francisco Pascual López of the Rigores agricultural cooperative in Tocoa, Colón, is disappeared since May 15, 2011.

7. Kelvin Omar Andrade Hernández (age 18), son of political exile Dagoberto Andrade, mysteriously disappeared on June 11, 2011 when he went out to ride his motorcycle in the neighbourhood of Bella Vista in Catacamas, department of Olancho. He has not appeared since.

8. Mauricio Joel Urbino Castro (34), who worked as a taxi driver of taxi number 248 in the city of Ceiba in the department of Atlántida. He was having a problem with the electrical system of the car on August 2, 2011 and at approximately 4:30PM he arrived at a garage that specialized in electrical repairs in the San José neighbourhood of Ceiba to repair the vehicle. At about the same time four men whose faces were covered with ski masks, of large and muscular build, who were carrying long and short barrelled weapons, identified themselves as police and immediately ordered all present inside the garage to get on the ground, shouting “we're the police – hit the floor!” while they kicked the garage owner.

They then proceeded to beat Mauricio Joel Urbina Castro, fastened his hands behind him, and violently removed him from the garage, forcing him into a grey double-cab pick-up truck with heavily tinted windows and without liscence plate which was waiting in the street. He has not been seen since and his cellphone has never been answered since.

9. Oscar Elías López Muñoz (49) was kidnapped by masked men around 5:00 AM on Sunday August 21^st in the Suyapa neighbourhood of Chamelecón in the North of Honduras. The men arrived in three cars and broke down the doors of his home, where López Muños was with his wife and ten year-old daughter. They said they were agents of the National Department of Criminal Investigation (DNIC). They were wearing hoods and ski masks.

10. José Reynaldo Cruz Palma, president of the Community Council (Patronato) of Planeta Neighbourhood in San Pedro Sula. According to his family members he was kidnapped on August 30, 2011 by agents of the DNIC and Preventative Police when he was travelling by public transport along with his wife Nubia Carvajal between La Lima, Cortés and their home in the neighbourhood of Planeta.

The bus he was riding in was intercepted by various agents of both police forces who were driving in two vehicles, one was a grey Mazda double-cab pick-up truck with the partial licence plate BP50 and the other was a patrol vehicle of the Preventative Police. The uniformed agents got on the bus, said to his wife that the problem was not with her but with her partner, and took him by force.

In light of these facts COFADEH has filed the corresponding denunciations but to date the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and state investigative bodies have maintained a conspiratorial silence and have not taken any action in any of these cases.

COFADEH is accompanying these new families who are regrettably suffering this torturous journey and hold the State of Honduras responsible for the re-implementation of this despicable practice, which is a crime against humanity and was carried out in the 1980s against our relatives, who we are still looking for. The people responsible for these crimes continue to benefit from impunity and many are still part of the failed institutions of this country. 

WE SHALL NOT FORGIVE OR FORGET

THE CRIMES OR THE PERPETRATORS

Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras

COFADEH

Militarization and Murder in Aguan

2011-08-24T22:03:00.003-05:00

TAKE ACTION NOW: In the United States -

Call and write to the Department of State: Call Benjamin Gedan, Honduras Desk Officer, at (202) 647-3482, or email him at: GedanBN@state.gov

Tell him that it is a violation of US law for US-supplied weapons to be used to repress civilian populations and that you demand that the US cut off all military and police aid and training to Honduras’ security forces.

Send a copy of the HSN Statement to your Representative and two Senators and tell them you support the demand to cut off military and police aid and training.

CONGRESS:http://www.house.gov/ to contact your member of Congress

SENATE: http://www.senate.gov/ to contact your Senators, or Call: 202-224-3121 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honduras Solidarity Network

Condemns the Militarization and Murder in the Aguan Region of Honduras

August 22, 2011

The latest wave of violence and death in the region of Aguan in Honduras underscores the fact that justice and reconciliation in Honduras are not on the agenda of the Lobo regime, the Honduran oligarchy or the U.S. government. Instead the plan in the countryside is for more militarization and violence and more power to the powerful agricultural oligarchy and agro-corporations, and for the destruction of the campesino movement.

Just this week 11 people were killed and numerous others wounded in the lower Aguan River Valley on the northern coast of Honduras. The Lobo government is now sending more than 600 troops to the already militarized region and threatening to send as many as 1,000 which would bring the military force in the region to at least 1500. The new troops include members of the battalions trained by the U.S. and which participated in the invasion of Iraq. While the Honduran army and government officials accuse the campesinos of being part of guerrilla groups and blaming them for the violence, the pattern of death and violence in Aguan clearly shows that the campesino communities are the targets of an official campaign of repression and extermination.

Since the coup d’état on June 28, 2009 more than 44 campesinos and activists have been murdered in the Aguan region by military, police and private security forces. Campesino cooperatives have been attacked, forcibly evicted, homes and co-ops destroyed and their members harassed and arrested. Campesino leaders have received death threats, and have been kidnapped and tortured as well as murdered.

On August 14th a campesino cooperative was attempting to occupy lands on the Paso Aguan estate that they believe qualify for land reform distribution under Honduran law but that are currently occupied by the Dinant Corporation palm oil plantation. Witnesses report that 40 private Dinant security and 120 soldiers from the 15th Army Battalion quickly arrived (army troops are using trucks donated to the military by the U.S. government in 2010) . They surrounded the campesinos and opened fire leaving one 17 year old campesino and 5 private security guards dead. Witnesses also say that all the victims were killed by the same military issued rifles. The campesinos are members of the Campesino Movement Los Rigores. A long time established community of the Los Rigores movement was attacked by the state police and private security guards for the palm oil industry on June 23, 2011. More than 100 homes were burned to the ground, crops and animals were destroyed and close to 100 families were left as landless refugees.

On August 15th a pick-up truck full of people leaving the Institute for Agrarian Reform drove past the Dinant Corporation processing plant gates and were fired on, leaving 5 people dead. The INA offices are most often kept busy by campesinos coming and going in pursuit of land conflict resolutions and there are numbers of campesino families who are living their after being illegally evicted, but the murdered people were actually working to distribute Pepsi promotional materials. The Dinant guards were seen at the plant gates immediately prior to the armed attack on the truck.

On August 17th, guards reported to be employees of the owner of Dinant, Miguel Facusse, opened fire on campesinos working on the Salama Cooperative, seriously wounding 3 of the peasants.

The Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) condemns the violence against the campesino communities in Honduras and the latest and ongoing militarization of the region of Aguan.

We are deeply concerned about the campaign against the campesino organizations including the media campaign by Honduran officials accusing well known leaders of the Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan (MUCA) and another organization, MARCA of being responsible for the violence on August 14th (although that land recuperation was not even affiliated to the MUCA or MARCA). This media campaign also accuses the MUCA, MARCA and other established and well known organizations such as the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) of being armed guerrillas. We understand that land conflicts in the region can never be resolved without meaningful land reform and economic justice. We understand that the purpose of the Honduran government's accusations is to justify increasing violence against the poor campesinos and their organizations and to support the idea that the United States and other countries should continue and even increase military and security aide to Honduras.

The United States government is one of the principal supporters of the continuation of the coup through the regime of Porfirio Lobo and the principal supplier of military and security equipment, money and training to the Honduran military, national police and other security forces. From the tear gas canisters fired at teachers and students in the cities to the trucks, training programs and even weaponry our tax dollars are being used to violate human rights and perpetuate violence.

Take Action Now!

Member organizations of the HSN

8th Day Center for Justice (Chicago, Illinois)

Agricultural Missions

Alliance for Global Justice

Center for Constitutional Rights

Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America – CRLN (Chicago, Illinois)

Collectivo Graciela Garcia (Los Angeles, California)

Comite de Solidaridad Seattle-Honduras (Seattle, Washington)

Friends of Honduras (Seattle, Washington)

Friendship Office of the Americas

Hands off Honduras (Minneapoli/St Paul, Minnesota)

Honduras Accompaniment Project – Friendship Office of the Americas

Hondureños por la Democracia

(Washington, D.C.)

Interfaith Committee on Latin America (St. Louis, Missouri)

International Action Center

International Socialist Organization

La Voz de los de Abajo (Chicago, Illinois)

Latin America Grassroots International

Latin America Solidarity Organization - LASO

Madre Tierra (Florida)

Task Force on the Americas (California)

Milwaukee Latin America Friendship Committee (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

National Lawyers Guild Task Force on the Americas

Portland Central America Solidarity Committee – PCASC (Portland, Oregon)

Proyecto Hondureño (Boston, Massachusetts)

Rhode Island Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation – RIMC (Rhode Island)

Rights Action

School of Americas Watch– SOAW (various regions)

Sister Cities U.S. - El Salvador

(various cities)

SOA Watch South Florida

Tonatierra (Phoenix, Arizona)

US Peace Council

USA Hondureños en Resistencia (New York, New York)

Witness for Peace (various regions

Another Campesino Murdered: Two more in police custody

2011-08-14T17:52:00.002-05:00

Early this morning, Sunday August 14, campesinos from the Movimiento Campesino Colonia Nueva Vida de Rigores, occupied the Empresa Palmera Panama, ten minutes from the community Rigores in Trujillo, Colon. Shortly afterwards palm company security forces and the military launched an attack, opening fire on the campesinos, killing 17 year old Javier Melgar. Authorities in Colon have refused to recover the body and the palm company security forces refuse to allow Melgar's family to recover the body. On Saturday, August 13, palm security forces and military, believed to be the same forces responsible for today's attack, opened fire in the Rigores community. The same day in the nearby community of Guadalupe Carney, home to the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, seventeen year old Lenikin Lemos Martinez and eighteen year old Denis Israel Castro were beaten by police, arrested and charged with murder in what their neighbors claim are false, politically motivated charges. On Tuesday, August 9 the MCA had visited Rigores with a women's brigade from the Via Campesina. The community of Rigores was violently evicted and over 100 homes burned on June 24 by police and irregular security forces that also work for palm plantations. On July 1 the same forces again attacked the community, burning homes that families were attempting to rebuild, but the presence of an international observation delegation deterred further violence. Again, on August 2, police and private security forces perpetrated an armed attack on the community wounding a man from a neighboring community, Ariel Lara. Since the year 2005 Rivera has requested eviction orders but all had been suspended by courts. On May 15, 2011 Francisco Pascual Lopez, a farmer from the neighboring community of Rigores was tending his cattle when, according to an eye witness, security guards working for Miguel Facuse shot Pascual in his land, and then dragged him alive into the Finca Panama. The witness ran for help, and even though community members found a trail of blood police refused to enter the Finca Panama to locate the injured man. The Finca Panama belongs to Honduran palm oil businessman Miguel Facuse who over the past twenty years has acquired enormous extensions of land in the Aguan often through fraudulent, illegal and violent means. Campesino organizations in the region had been immersed for decades in legal and political processes for the recognition of their land rights. Following the June 28, 2009 military coup the political and legal processes hit the wall of impunity created as part of the coup, and communities began occupying lands. From a report by Annie Bird, Co-Director of Rights Action. www.rightsaction.org

Declaration by COPINH:Impunity and Human Rights Violations Reign in Honduras

2011-07-19T22:10:00.005-05:00

Versión original en español

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) makes the following declaration in view of the sistematic repression and human rights violations which have been manifested recently through the following condemnable acts:

1. The assasination of Nery Orellana, community broadcaster, manager of Joconguera Community Radio and correspondent with Radio Progreso, who was killed by multiple bullet wounds on Thursday, July 14th in the municipality of Cadelaria in the department of Lempira.

2. The assasination of our Luis Alonso Ortiz, president of the Marañones peasent cooperative, and Constantino Morales, director of the Isla I peasent cooperative. Both were leaders of the “Left Bank” (Margen Izquierda) of the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguan (MUCA), and these assasinations bring the total number of murders by hired criminals believed to be connected with business magnate Miguel Facusse and other large landowners in the region to 45.

3. Faced with constant death threats, citizens connected with the popular resistance movem

ent for the refoundation of Honduras continue to leave the country. This list now includes Father Fausto Milla and his assistant Denia Mejía.

4. The detention of Enrique Flores Lanza, former Minister of the Presidency under the constitutional government led by Manuel Zelaya Rosales, member of the Political Commission of the National Front of Popular Resistence (FNRP), and party to the Cartegena de Indias Accords. This is no less than “judicial work for hire” that reflects the political persecution carried out by t

hose behind the coup, who continue to control the powers of the state.

5. The detention of Carlos Amador, environmentalist and leader of the Siria Valley, who was freed, but along with many other leaders in the region who also oppose mining giant Entre Mares, has charges pending against him for opposing forestry exploitation that will further d

evastate life in that region of Honduras.

6. Impunity and injustice against Edwin Róbelo Espinal, victim of numerous detentions, threats and torture carried out by repressive state forces. Edwin remains in a state of defencelessness before the justice system along with its other victims.

7. New threats of community evictions and legal proceedings against dozens of peasents on the peninsula of Zacate Grande who are struggling to preserve the lands where they were born and continue to live.

8. The repeated deportation of catholic priest Andrés Tamayo, who has struggled for the defense of community forests in the department of Olancho and against the coup d’état.

9. The murder, under suspicious circumstances, of singer and popular movement activist Daniel González, better known as Jeronimo.

10. Concessions of natural resources of various indigenous communities in Honduras in the interest of the construction of hydroelectric dams, mineral exploitation, tourism investments, charter cities, forestry exploitation, privatization of forests for carbon capture (REDD) and the sale of oxygen, and other

capitalist projects. All this has been done without consultation, and with or without decree work is being carried out towards these ends, all in clear violation of Convention 169 of the ILO, the historic rights and autonomy of Indigenous Peoples, and various community and municipal agreements that express the clear rejection of these projects of domination and looting. We denounce that the responses of the community when faced with this have bee

n met with militarization, threats, arbitrary detentions and other persecution.

While the human rights violations and repression persist, those responsible for the coup d’état continue to calmly occupy their positions of power and enjoy the privileges of private security for themselves and their families, security which costs the state of Honduras millions of lempiras and includes designing strategies of persecution against victims.

COPINH denounces these acts and warns that the situation in Honduras is getting worse and there exists very real possibilities for it to culminate in further crimes – the political crisis is already at the point in which the President is denouncing death threats.

COPINH urges the international community to remain alert to the events in Honduras and to demand an end to the repression and human rights violations.

COPINH expresses its solidarity with all brothers and sisters who suffer repression as a result of their struggles and makes a call to the international community to strengthen its solidarity with the Honduran people.

COPINH holds the Organization of American States (OAS) responsible as an accomplice in human rights violations since the state of Honduras was reincorporated into its membership, despite not having demonstrated any advances in the defence of and respect for human rights and, on the contrary, continuing policies of repression.

Finally, COPINH makes a call for unity in the struggle of the Honduran people, so that we do not remain defenseless in the face of brutal repression and human rights violations.

Declared in La Esperanza, Intibucá on the 18th of July, 2011.

¡With the ancestral strength of Lempira, Iselaca, Mota and Etempic

a we raise our voices full of life, justice, liberty, dignity and Peace!

¡Lempira is not just a name, Lempira is an entire people!

Lempira lives and is with us until the end.

COPINH

Update and Action for the Campesinos of Rigores, Aguan

2011-07-13T21:49:00.005-05:00

Below is an update and action issued by Amnesty International in Canada for the community of Rigores in Agua (see earlier posts for more information). For readers in the U.S. we ask that you also contact your congressional representatives and protest the ongoing violent violation of human rights against the poor campesino communities in Honduras and ask that U.S. aid be cut off to Honduras because it is being used to committ violence against the people. In May of this year 87 members of Congress signed a letter calling for the cut off of military and police aid if human rights violations continue.

From Amnesty International - Canada

Police have forcibly evicted 114 families, including young children, from a community in northern Honduras. Around 80 people are now living in a nearby community centre in unsanitary conditions that pose a risk to their health.

Police forcibly evicted a community in the town of Rigores, in Colon department, on 24 June. An eviction order had been issued by a local judge. The community has lived on the land for many years, but a local landowner claims that he is the rightful owner of the land, and wants the community evicted. Local people say the police arrived with tractors and destroyed houses belonging to community members, as well as seven classrooms that form part of the local school and kindergarten and two churches. Some 493 people were made homeless.

The eviction order was issued on 23 May, but the community was not informed. The police arrived in Rigores at 10am on 24 June and told community members that they had two hours to pack up and leave. At around 2pm, the police began to destroy communal buildings, people's homes and their belongings. Nobody was offered alternative housing, resettlement or access to productive land, or compensation, either in advance of or since the eviction. Nor was anyone guaranteed safe access to tend their crops, many of which were destroyed during the eviction.

Around 80 people, mainly women and children, have taken shelter in the Rigores Community Centre, about 3 km away. The centre is not designed for people to live in. The building is overcrowded, and lets in rainwater, leaving half the building constantly wet. The centre has very few toilets and washing facilities. The community members, particularly young children, are at risk of disease. The community depends on the land from which they were evicted in Rigores for their survival. Honduras is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which obliges it to ensure that evictions do "not result in individuals being rendered homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights."

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY.

* Urge the authorities to do everything necessary to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the families whose homes and crops were destroyed and who were evicted from their land in Rigores on 24 June.

* Urge them to uphold these people's right to adequate housing, and provide them with suitable and safe accommodation until the land dispute is resolved, as well as food, water, access to medical attention and education.

* Demand that no further evictions take place without due process, adequate notice and consultation, and without the provision of adequate compensation.

* Urge the authorities to investigate fully the actions of those who carried out and ordered the forced eviction on 24 June, publish the results and bring those responsible to justice.

DIRECT YOUR APPEALS TO

Director of the National Agrarian Institute:

Lic. Cesar David Adolfo Ham Peña

Ministro Director del Instituto Nacional Agrário

Colonia La Alameda, 4ta Avenida entre 10ma. y 11va calles, No. 1009

Tegugicalpa, Honduras

Fax: 011 504 2239 7398

Salutation: Dear Minister Director / Estimado Ministro Director

with copies to:

Minister for Justice and Human Rights:

Ana Pineda

Ministra de Justicia y Derechos Humanos

Casa Presidencial

Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo

Palacio José Cecilio del Valle

Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., Honduras

Fax: 011 504 2290 5129

Attorney General:

Sr. Luis Alberto Rubí

Fiscal General de la República

Lomas del Guijarro

Avenida República Dominicana, Edificio Lomas Plaza II

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Fax: 011 504 2221 5667

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Honduras is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which obliges it to ensure that "Where those affected are unable to provide for themselves, the State party must take all appropriate measures, to the maximum of its available resources, to ensure that adequate alternative housing, resettlement or access to productive land, as the case may be, is available."

Under the ICESCR, Honduras is obliged to guarantee respect for "the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food". The Honduran state also has an obligation to consult with those affected by forced evictions and to provide "adequate and reasonable notice for all affected persons prior to the scheduled date of eviction".

The Rigores peasant movement suffers violent eviction

2011-07-02T22:34:00.006-05:00

Sábado 02 de Julio de 2011 10:59 Red Morazanica de Informacion

"The soldiers came with an eviction order saying we had weapons"

Saturday July 2, 2011. On Friday June 24 the judge of letters from the city of Tocoa, Josue Mejia Pagoada issued an eviction order addressed for Rigores Peasant Movement in Lower Aguan. When it took place hours later, 114 houses were demolished (valued at 14,000 Lempiras each). The security forces that implemented the eviction also destroyed six school classrooms, three churches, three broiler projects, a community center as well as several other productive facilities for the next harvest crops, all with backhoe. A tractor was confiscated. The children will lose another school year due to the destruction of schools and the trauma that an eviction means to them.

Twelve groups members were taken to Tocoa and later released, while several women aborted during the evacuation, which lasted between 12 noon to 9 pm. There are 13 other farmers with arrest warrants, while solidarity networks announce that on Friday July 1st two members were arrested. Carlos Sandoval is still detained and the authorities give no information on why this is happening “At 7pm, Rigores was attacked with firearms by police forces, and 2 more campesinos were forcibly disappeared” said Chuck Kaufman.

The land was recuperated by Rigores Peasant Group in 2001, around 500 people lives in the place, who are now sleeping in friends' homes and survive with the help of the community as representatives of the group reported.

The military and the police arrived, "heavily armed, threatening and intimidating the dignity of campesinos" said a group member.

The group has suffered 5 evictions over 11 years, the latter performed by Judge Ever Isael Lopez Oseguera in a demand caused by Erick Rivera, who alleges ownership of the land that while "uncultivated" were recuperated by the group according to the Honduran law.

In a Communiqué the farmers, mostly members of the CNTC, called for national and international community to speak out in solidarity.
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This alert (below) was issued on Thursday, June 30 by a delegation from Alliance for Global Justice and Rights Action that is traveling in Aguan as human rights observers. As of the evening of July 2nd, the campesino, Carlos Sandoval from Los Rigores remains detained and the two disappeared have not been located.
EMERGENCY ALERT: SPANISH SPEAKERS' CALLS NEEDED
>>>> Today around 11am Mountain Time, 2 campesinos in the Aguan were detained without charge from the community of Rigores, which has been increasingly under attack by large landowners in the region since the 2009 coup. At 7pm, Rigores was attacked with firearms by police forces, and 2 more campesinos were forcibly disappeared. The Alliance for Global Justice received news that a violent eviction is to take place at 6am tomorrow Friday, and will be on site to observe and accompany the campesinos of Rigores. While one of the detainees has been released, Spanish-speaker callers are urgently needed on behalf of the remaining detainee, Carlos Sandoval. Please call the Tocoa Police Station to demand assurance of his personal safety and inquire about the location and identities of the 2 disappeared persons.
Please call both numbers immediately:
Tocoa Police Station: 011 504 2444 3105
Investigation Office: 011 504 2444 2490

Urgent Action From COFADEH

2011-06-16T21:11:00.006-05:00

URGENT ACTION
The Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) and the Velásquez Rodríguez family speak out to the national and international community to denounce the actions of the Public Ministry related to investigations initiated in the case of the violent death of teacher Ilse Ivania Velásquez Rodríguez on March 18, 2011.

As you will remember, on March 18, 2011, Ilse Ivania Velásquez Rodríguez, together with her children and son-in-law, also a teacher, participated in the teachers protest held in front of the INPREMA[1] headquarters, Boulevard Centroamérica in Tegucigalpa. Teachers were peacefully protesting peacefully the institutional crisis in Honduras which has impacted the teaching sector. Suddenly, repressive forces began launching dozens of tear gas bombs from different angles, creating a state of confusion. The quantity of smoke generated and the concentration of gas impeded visibility, provoked asphyxiation and confusion among the people and blocked the forced evacuation. The Velásquez family ran in different directions. Ilse was hit in the head by a tear gas bomb. The impact of the bomb knocked her to the ground, falling face down onto the pavement of the Boulevard Francia. While lying unconscious on the pavement, her body was subsequently hit by a vehicle[2].

We know that the Public Ministry’s Special Prosecutor for Human Rights has begun a process of closing the case of the teacher, Ilse Ivania Velásquez Rodríguez, arguing that she died due to a traffic accident. According to the Forensic Medical Report, dated May 2, 2011, the impact from the car to her hip made her fall to the ground. The impact of the fall would be the cause of death. This version is contradicted by testimonies of people present at the protest and demonstrates the lack of thorough forensic analysis.

The Special Prosecutor for Human Rights of the Public Ministry has not investigated the use of force on the part of state agents on that day. According to witnesses, newspaper reports and videos, the protest which was totally peaceful – with protestors raising their arms in the sign of peace – was heavily repressed by the police and military. Indiscriminate and disproportionate force was used against protestors exercising their legitimate right to assemble peacefully which is clearly guaranteed under the law and international human rights treaties to which Honduras is a signatory [3].

Because a person was killed under circumstances in which state agents are implicated, the Public Ministry has the obligation to thoroughly investigate the events described and begin a judicial process to determine those responsible according to the law.

On April 7, 2011, COFADEH and the Velásquez Rodríguez family presented a complaint to the Public Ministry against Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who exercises the Executive power, Oscar Arturo Álvarez Guerrero Security Minister and Marlon Pascua, Secretary of Defense. Despite the complaint, the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights has not only failed to initiate an impartial and exhaustive investigative process but intends to close the case, resulting in impunity in this case, denying the family of the victim the right to truth and to justice.

COFADEH and the Velásquez Rodríguez family request the national and international community to demand that the State of Honduras conduct an exhaustive investigation into the circumstances that caused the death of teacher Ilse Velásquez Rodríguez. We request that the actions of state agents be investigated in the context of protests during the month of March 2011; in other words, the abuse of authority and indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force on the part of the Honduran police and military. Those responsible should be punished according to the law and the State of Honduras must guarantee the right of the people of Honduras to peaceful assembly as recognized by Honduran and international law.

Please make calls to the following authorities:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés
Presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia
Tel (504) 2269-3000 2269-3069
Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí
Fiscal General de la República.
Fax (504) 2221-5667
Tel (504) 2221-5670 2221-3099
Mail: lrubi@mp.hn
suazog@mp.hn

Send copies to:

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax:+504 2220 5280 (solicite: "tono de fax")
Mail: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

If you speak Spanish there are numbers to call and you can send a note to the COFADEH email to let them know that you called. If you do not speak Spanish you can write in English to the email addresses of the government officials listed and send a copy to COFADEH.

Please also send copies to Honduran diplomatic representatives accredited in your countries.

Instituto Nacional de Previsión del Magisterio.
Denuncia presentada al MP el 07 de abril de 2011.
Artículo 78 y 79 de la Constitución de la República; Artículo 20 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; Artículo 21 del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos; Artículo 15 de la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos; Artículo 21 de la Declaración Americana de los Derechos y Deberes del Hombre.

[1] Instituto Nacional de Previsión del Magisterio.

[2] Denuncia presentada al MP el 07 de abril de 2011.

[3] Artículo 78 y 79 de la Constitución de la República; Artículo 20 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; Artículo 21 del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos; Artículo 15 de la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos; Artículo 21 de la Declaración Americana de los Derechos y Deberes del Hombre.

U.S. Congress To Hear From Roberto Micheletti, Under False Premises

2011-06-11T15:34:00.004-05:00

Originally posted by Rights Action June 10, 2011

The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs is to hear from the “Honorable Roberto Micheletti Baín (Invited)”, who is, they say, the “Former President of Honduras”.

Micheletti was a key leader of the June 2009 military coup in Honduras, and was a ‘de facto’ leader of the military-backed regime that carried out widespread repression against the Honduran people.

It is false to say Micheletti is a “Former President” of Honduras. The so-called swearing in process by the pro-coup Honduran Congress, one day after the illegal military coup, was based on a forged resignation letter of President Zelaya.

The ‘dishonorable’ Micheletti should be tried in court in Honduras for his role in the coup, not received by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs as “former President” of Honduras.

WHERE & WHEN

HEARING NOTICE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515-0128

Connie Mack (R-FL), Chairman

June 7, 2011

You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building (and available live, via the WEBCAST link on the Committee website at http://www.hcfa.house.gov):

DATE: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

TIME: 3:00 p.m.

SUBJECT: Holding Honduras Hostage: Revoked Visas and U.S. Policy

WITNESSES:

The Honorable [sic] Roberto Micheletti Baín (Invited), Former President [sic] of Honduras

Mrs. Sandra Martínez de Midence, President, Central Bank of Honduras

Mr. Leonardo Villeda Bermudez, Former Executive Secretary, National Convergence Forum (FONAC)

*NOTE: Further witnesses may be added.

By Direction of the Chairman

The Committee on Foreign Affairs seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202/225-5021 at least four business days in advance of the event, whenever practicable. Questions with regard to special accommodations in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats and assistive listening devices) may be directed to the Committee.

WHAT TO DO

Write to your own Member of Congress, and other government officials, demanding that Micheletti – a dishonorable military coup plotter and leader – NOT be invited to speak at this hearing.

Here is the list of Committee members, which may be helpful to people calling or writing:

Call the Capitol Switchboard – (202) 224-3121 to speak with these key congressional offices

House of Representatives Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs

Howard Berman, California, 28th District

Eliot Engle, Bronx, NY, 17th District

Albio Sires, New Jersey, 13th District

Eni Faleomavaega, American Samoa

Donald Payne, New Jersey, 10th District

Iliana Ros-Lehtenan, Florida,

Connie Mack, Florida, 14th District

Michael McCaul, Texas, 10th District

Christopher Smith, New Jersey, 4th District

Dan Burton, Indiana, 5th District

Elton Gallegly, California, 24th district

Ron Paul, Texas, 14th District

Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska, 1st District

Gus Bilirakis, Florida, 9th District

Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs

Richard Lugar - Indiana

John Kerry - Massachusettes

Bob Menendez – New Jersey

Barbara Boxer - California

Jim Webb – Virginia

Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire

Tom Udall, New Mexico

Marco Rubio – Florida

Mike Lee – Utah

Jim DeMint – South Carlina

Johnny Isakson – Georgia

John Barrasso – Wyoming

Brutal repression continues in Honduras

2011-06-06T12:29:00.004-05:00

Bloody Sunday in Aguán

Versión original en español

José Recinos Aguilar, Joel Santamaría y Genaro Cuesta, all members of the San Esteban peasant cooperative were murdered [on Sunday, June 5th] while driving a Nissan vehicle a few meters from the settlement. There are still no details of how the attack occurred, according to a statement by FIAN-Honduras.

The report said the military, police, and security guards were guarding the place where the corpses lay preventing their fellow peasants from reaching them. The bodies will be transferred to La Ceiba for autopsies, according to reports by the district attorney’s office in Trujillo.

Almost simultaneously, peasants who had occupied San Isidro farm were evicted by Miguel Facussé’s security guards. They then entered the premises of the National Agrarian Institute (INA) in Sinaloa, in what is known as “golden house”, and opened fire on farmers who had taken refuge there since last winter. Peasant Doris Pérez Vásquez was hit in the abdomen and seriously injured, and had to be rushed to a hospital in the city of La Ceiba.

All those interviewed by FIAN Honduras about the violence in the Lower Aguán region agree that the repression has never been this bad, suffered presently by those who make up peasant organizations standing up for their rights. No one trusts the authorities and all are afraid for their lives.

Peasants are disappointed by the failure of the agreement between the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA) and the regime, and the oversight of promises made to the Authentic Peasant Reclamation Movement of Aguán (MARCA) and the Peasant Movement of Aguán (MCA) by the INA. The reasons for the agrarian conflict have been the same since April 13th, 2010, with the situation worsening now that there are more deaths, injuries and victims of other violations.

The feeling among peasants is that of total defenselessness. FIAN Honduras has reiterated that until the agrarian dispute is settled, violence will continue in the region and that the police, often along with the army, only serve to scare people and obtain preliminary information on the violence without making public their investigation results as required.

Hondurans mobilize in San Salvador to denounce the reincorporation of Honduras into the Organization of American States

2011-06-05T11:14:00.007-05:00

MANIFESTO AGAINST IMPUNITY - MANIFESTO FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIGNITY OF THE HONDURAN PEOPLE

Versión original en español

We the members of popular and indigenous organizations of Honduras, mobilizing in San Salvador, historic si

te where the remains of General Francisco Morazán rest, supported by the solidarity of the Salvadoran people and other peoples of the world, on the occasion of the meeting of the Organization of American States for its Ordinary General Assembly manifest:

1. When the OAS revoked the suspension of the Honduran state and readmitted it to the body it ended up legalizing coup d'etats and contributing to the same people remaining in impunity, not just in Honduras but in all the countries of the Americas.

2. The arbitrary decision of the Organization of American States - backed by Washington - to recognize a regime that rose from elections not recognized by the international community which were carried out under intense militarization and repression and in which the majority of the Honduran population did not participate, contradicts its own Charter. Additionally it undermines the declaration of Human Rights since they pretend not to know that the regime that continues the coup d'etat in Honduras systematically and ser

iously violates human rights and is made up of the junta of high-ranking commanders who executed the coup d'etat of June 29th, 2009, examples of which include General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, minister of [Honduran national telecommunications company] HONDUTEL, General Venancio Cervantes Director of the Migration Department, in addition to other politicians like Vilma Morales, Arturo Corrales, Carlos López Contreras and the General Prosecutor of the Republic Luis Alberto Rubí. We could also include magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and congressmen amongst the oligarchy's military coup plotters, who continue enjoying impunity.

3. The OAS mocks the Honduran people and the people of the world by recognizing the regime that continues the coup d'etat, given that they aren't ignorant that Roberto Micheletti enjoys a lavish retirement, security guards paid by the Honduran state and an illegal amnesty that has prevented justice for crimes that have been committed against the Hondurans struggling for democracy's return.

4. The OAS should know that it is an accomplice to more than 200 killings, many of which were against the LGBTI community, to the kidnappings that have led to the disappearance of peasants like Olbin Gallegos and Secundino Gómez, to the tortures suffered by men and women who marched in the enormous national mobilizations of the people in Resistance, to the closing of media, ruthless violence to which the youth are subjected, to the long curfews and states of emergency that the Honduran people have suffered. The OAS makes itself an accomplice to the climate of complete impunity being lived through in Honduras which is responsible for the fact that since January of this year there have been more than 115 women killed by acts of femicide.

5. The OAS becomes responsible for the regime that continues the coup d'etat's criminalization of the social organizations that struggle in defense of the water, mining, the forest, and all of the goods of mother earth, opening them up to repression at shameful events like "Honduras is open for business" where the regime's police showed off by violently attacking activists and TV cameramen.

6. The OAS makes clear that it is a useless instrument for the interests of the people and it is useful for the empire of death and greed that imposes coup d'etats and then legalizes them afterwards. It shows us that they are two-faced and that they never intended to revert the coup d'etat and actually favored the coup-makers.

7. We hold the OAS and all the states that have supported the recognition of the coup d'etat in Honduras reponsible for the repression, the impunity, the complete defenselessness and the crimes that don't let up in our country.

8. As social movements we salute the consistent decision of the republic of Ecuador to not support the Honduran return [to the OAS] with which it shows moral force, dignity and a truly democratic orientation.

9. We thank the peoples of the world and we call

on them to deepen the solidarity with the Honduran people that today continue living under a coup d'etat with the difference that now it has been legalized.

Under no historical circumstance do the people renounce the memory of the struggles and the injustices. We reject reconciliation that is based on the practice of forgetting and only favors impunity. We reject the reconciliation that backs up the hypocritical discourse of a democracy that does not exist in Honduras. We raise our fervent condemnation against the OAS for its reincorporation of the regime and for this attempt to humiliate the dignity of the daughters and sons of Lempira and Morazán.

From San Salvador, June 4th, 2011

Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras COPINH

Together We Will Win Association of Aguán

Peasant Movement of Aguán MCA

Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán MUCA

Popular Morazanist Youth JPM

Autonomous Insurrection Collective

Association of Residents of the Peninsula of Zacate Grande

*In this moment more organizations from Honduras are joining, including as of tomorrow the Departmental Resistance Fronts from Ocotopeque, Copán, Lempira and other organizations of the Resistance.

Various Commentaries on the Return of Zelaya; Continued Pressure to Address Human Rights Violation

2011-06-02T22:04:00.005-05:00

original article from Los Necios:

JESSE FREESTON, TRNN: On Saturday, Manuel Zelaya, Honduras's last elected president, will return to his country to live for the first time since his overthrow by the military 23 months ago. His return is the result of an agreement sponsored by the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia and agreed to by Zelaya and Honduras's post-coup regime leader, Pepe Lobo. People have braved relentless rain arriving around the country to welcome back the popular president, who was overthrown on the day he was to poll the Honduran people on whether or not they wanted to rewrite the country's constitution through a participatory assembly representing all sectors of society. It would replace the current constitution, which was written under a US-backed military dictatorship in the early '80s. Saturday will be a day of celebration.

But many who opposed the coup are urging outsiders not to confuse the return of Zelaya and other political exiles with the return of democracy. Up to today, Hondurans opposed to the coup have witnessed constant oppression and violence from the regime that took power that day. As Zelaya returns to Honduras, he will find the military still mobilized throughout the country, 11 of the country's most critical journalists assassinated, hate killings against gays, lesbians, bi, and transsexual people skyrocketing, the country's Garifuna people fighting to defend their land from expanding tourism projects. He will find an almost civil war-like atmosphere in the Aguan valley, where death squads have assassinated almost 40 members of the region's organized farmers, farmers who want to plant basic grains to eat, pitted in a land conflict against a handful of wealthy plantation owners who produce palm oil for snack foods and biofuels. Junior Orlando Gomez is a member of the organization MARCA, which is currently occupying land in the area.

JUNIOR ORLANDO GOMEZ, SMALL FARMER OCCUPYING LAND (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): On Saturday, we were repressed on the land we're standing on now by members of the army, the police, and hitmen hired by the plantation owners Rene Morales Carazo, Reynaldo Canales, and Miguel Facusse. During the attack, our comrade Henry Roney Diaz was killed. He was 26. Died from a series of bullet wounds. Our need is great, and sometimes necessity can force you to risk your own life.

FREESTON: Zelaya will also return to find a teachers movement that recently suffered weeks of repression for opposing the stealing of their pensions, the suspension of 300 of their members for political activity, the proposed privatization of their education system, amongst other moves by the regime. Some of these teachers are now in front of the National Congress, and Saturday will mark their 22nd day on hunger strike. Teacher Yanina Parada helped organize the action.

YANINA PARADA, SUSPENDED TEACHER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): The first day we set up here, at midnight, we were removed by the military and police. They dragged us out on our mattresses, other teachers carried out by two cops at a time. The women were verbally abused. We were told if we didn't leave immediately, we would be leaving pregnant.

FREESTON: Zelaya will also return to a leadership role within the National People's Resistance Front that has seen over 100 of its members assassinated since the coup, with more bodies showing up every week and little to no sign of criminal investigation. In the Cartagena Accord itself, the current Lobo regime even refuses to outright recognize the repression, pledging to cure the complaints of those who "believe" their rights have been violated following the coup. For distinguished human rights defender Bertha Oliva, cofounder of Honduras's Committee for the Families of the Disappeared, this wording should raise alarms.

BERTHA OLIVA, HONDURAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): As long as they don't admit that they've committed crimes and that those crimes are called human rights violations, until they admit that, we will never see progress in this area, because they always try to justify their crimes, which run from hate crimes to political persecution. And I don't think we can forget the 100-plus political assassinations that have happened.

FREESTON: She also points out that mere hours after signing the agreement, the regime attacked a group of striking high school students in the capital.

OLIVA: The high school students were demanding that their suspended teachers be allowed to return to class. The police and army use live bullets to disperse the protest, along with tear gas.

FREESTON: The Cartagena Accord will likely see Honduras reinstated in the Organization of American States and thus gain access to the last of the international aid packages that were cut off after the coup. Only one country, Ecuador, has said that it will vote against Honduras's reinstatement until such time as those responsible for the coup are punished. It's unlikely that will happen in Honduras, given that all the judges that opposed the coup were summarily fired under the Lobo regime, including Judge Guillermo Lopez.

GUILLERMO LOPEZ (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We were fired for criticizing the coup. We condemned it both as citizens and as judges. We found the breach of the Constitution to be unacceptable, which brought us political persecution and, eventually, our firing. Ecuador's position is very coherent: to oppose Honduras's return to the OAS until such time as human rights violations are investigated, and most importantly, until those responsible for the June 2009 coup are punished. In our country, the opposite has happened: they've been rewarded with important positions in the government.

FREESTON: Nobody has been punished for carrying out the coup d'etat, and the most visible leaders have been given high positions in the current regime. Military coup leader Romeo Vasquez Velasquez is now in charge of the state phone company, and political coup leader Roberto Micheletti was named a congressman for life. Despite all this bad news for Zelaya and the Resistance Front, Saturday will be a day of celebration for a movement that is becoming more and more organized by the day and for the first time in its two-year history will have its most recognizable member, Mel Zelaya, active and in the country. With that obstacle out of the way, the resistance can focus on its other major goal, the re-founding of the country through a constitutional assembly.

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87 US Democratic Representatives in a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton push for the US Government to end aid going to military bases and polices forces "until mechanisms are in place to ensure security forces are held accountable for abuses. See Honduras: Human Rights Blog for more on the human rights situation.

!Bienvenidos - Welcome!

2011-05-28T10:40:00.014-05:00

Today, many hundreds of thousands of Hondurans will meet their returning exiles, including President Zelaya as they arrive at the international airport in Tegucigalpa. There will be celebrations, mobilizations and events across the country. A new phase of sturggle is opening in Honduras but the issues remain the same: the refounding of the country with a participatory Constitutional Assembly, an end to human rights violations and impunity and a resolution of the just demands of the campesinos, indigenous peoples, pobladores, trade union members and all the Honduran people on the path to a new Honduras.

For a variety of comments and viewpoints from the Honduran Resistance please go to the links provided for the FNRP, COPINH, OFRANEH, Artistas en Resistencia, and others

La Voz de los de Abajo, Chicago, May 28, 2011

Human Rights are not subject to political negotiation

2011-05-24T22:12:00.000-05:00

The Committee of the Families of the Detained-Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) celebrates the signing of the Cartegena de Indias Accord which permits the return of ex Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya Rosales to our country.

At the same time, COFADEH condemns the language of the oligarchy aligned with the coup in the text of the Accord which refers to human rights as a political instrument of “reconciliation,” evidence of their old practice of negotiation.

“While admitting that during the political crisis there have been people who consider that their human rights were violated, the Government of Honduras, through the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, commits to attend these denunciations in order to contribute to the reconciliation of Honduran society within a framework of verifiable guarantees (…) and awaits support from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights” reads the official, signed text.

The terms utilized reflect doubts, ironies, intentions and evasions on the part of the same political–military elite that attempted to bury the memory of the forced disappearances during the 1980’s and sell a manipulative discourse regarding human rights violations to the international community.

At the beginning of the decade of the 90’s the same ex Presidents - Rafael Callejas, Ricardo Maduro and Carlos Flores, who audited the text of the Cartegena Accord – repeated the need to leave the past behind and to end the “dark night of disappearances”.

This was their way to escape their own responsibilities, some of them as participants in the Alliance for Progress in Honduras (APROH) that inspired and financed the repression against political and ideological dissidence at that time and which continues to hold us in grief.

We have no doubt that ex President Zelaya signed the Cartagena Accord in absolute good faith regarding the urgency of investigating human rights violations that have resulted since the coup d’état to the present, to repair damage caused to the victims and to punish those responsible.

However, we have nothing but doubts regarding those who support the coup, control the repressive forces and sustain a fragile state that fails to overthrow the enormous monster of impunity with legality and justice.

Our doubts are underscored by the fact that with this Accord, the regime imposes recognition of the “Ministry of Justice and Human Rights as the entity that will permit the national capacity to promote and protect human rights in Honduras.”

This Committee does not observe habits, practices or policies that indicate that this institution makes even the most minimal difference within the State regarding the government Human Rights Commission which is delegitimized as a result of its partiality regarding institutional violence against the population.

Nearby, five teachers sustain an indefinite hunger strike due to violations of their social and economic rights; hundreds of campesino families in the zone of Aguán are surrounded by legal and clandestine forces acting against their lives and lands; and an average of 16 violent deaths occur each day throughout the country, in total impunity.

Therefore, we exhort the population to continue to use services worthy of your trust and respect, to access justice at all levels, local and international, as the people of Honduras rebuild institutionality and the rule of law that has been lost.

For the crimes and those who commit them

Neither forgetting, nor forgiveness

Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 23 de mayo de 2011

COFADEH

War Against the Campesinos and Pressure to Readmit Honduras to OAS

2011-05-18T22:28:00.003-05:00

War declared against the Campesinos in Lower Aguan

No end to the wave of assassinations, torture and disappeared in Honduras

By Giorgio Trucchi – REL-UITA

uita.org/agricultura/palma_africana/guerra_declarada_contra_el_campesinado.htm

translation by La Voz de los de Abajo - original Spanish below

While North American diplomacy increases pressure to normalize the situation of Honduras at the international level and reinsert it into the OAS, the organized campesinos in Lower Aguan continue to fall to the murderous bullets of the paramilitary groups that enjoy total impunity and in the face of the complicit silence of the authorities of a failed State.

This morning, May 18^th, Sixto Ramos, a member of the Nueva Suyapa Cooperative of the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) was assassinated. Sixto was 45 years old. According to the initial reconstruction of the events, Ramos was driving his vehicle to work when it was intercepted by unknown persons in another car and they attacked with gunfire, ending his life.

“In the Lower Aguan the repression continues against us, people who are supporting the process of struggle for access to the land”, José Santos Cruz, member of the MCA and of the International Mission that in March, 2011 investigated the human rights situation in Lower Aguan, told Sirel.

“Sixto Ramos was a partner of the Nueva Suyapa cooperative and has always supported the process of struggle of the MCA. We feel that this new assassination is directly linked with the conflict that our organization has with the big land owners and palm oil producers in the zone”, said Cruz.

War Bulletin

Last week campesinos José Paulino Lemus Cruz and Henry Roney Díaz, members of the MCA and of MARCA respectively were brutally murdered.

On May 10^th, Alejandro Gomez, a member of the cooperative La Trinidad of MARCA was kidnapped by private guards employed by the big land owners in the zone, savagely interrogated and tortures for almost three days and finally set free. He is currently in hiding for fear of being assassinated.

On May 15^th, the campesino Francisco Pascual Lopez, 38 years old was disappeared. According to the information that is available, some people who were walking with him heard gunfire. When they arrived at the spot, Francisco Pascual had disappeared.

With the violent death of Sixto Ramos the number of members of campesino organization assassinated in the last 15 months rises to 28. None-the-less at the international level the pressure to reinstate Honduras into the Organization of American States is growing.

“They have not been able to defeat us with the massive militarization of the Army and the Police and now they are attacking us in a selective manner. They want to diminish our ranks by assassinating us one by one. For the MCA, we are meeting to take the necessary measures because we are not going to just continue denouncing the crimes.

The government trys to present a false image of Honduras. The country is not pacified and the people continue to die. It would be lamentable to ignore so many cadavers and human rights violations. The conditions for Honduras to return to the OAS do not exist”, concluded Cruz.

-----------------------

Guerra declarada contra el campesinado en el Bajo Aguán

No para la ola de asesinatos, torturas y desapariciones en Honduras

Por Giorgio Trucchi - Rel-UITA

http://www.rel-uita.org/agricultura/palma_africana/guerra_declarada_contra_el_campesinado.htm

Mientras la diplomacia norteamericana arrecia su presión para normalizar la situación de Honduras a nivel internacional y reinsertarla al seno de la OEA, los campesinos organizados del Bajo Aguán siguen cayendo bajo las balas asesinas de grupos paramilitares que gozan de total impunidad, y ante el silencio cómplice de las autoridades de un Estado fallido.

En la mañana de hoy, 18 de mayo, fue asesinado Sixto Ramos, miembro de la empresa Nueva Suyapa del Movimiento Campesino del Aguán (MCA). Sixto tenía 45 años. Según una primera reconstrucción de los hechos, Ramos se dirigía en su vehículo al trabajo cuando fue interceptado por desconocidos que se movilizaban en otro coche, y que lo atacaron a tiros acabando con su vida.

“En el Bajo Aguán continúa la represión contra las personas que estamos apoyando el proceso de lucha para el acceso a la tierra -dijo a Sirel, José Santos Cruz, miembro del MCA e integrante de la Misión Internacional que en marzo 2011 investigó la situación de los derechos humanos en el Bajo Aguán-.

Sixto Ramos era un compañero socio de la empresa Nueva Suyapa y siempre ha apoyado el proceso de lucha del MCA. Sentimos que ese nuevo asesinato está directamente vinculado con el conflicto que nuestra organización tiene con los terratenientes y productores palmeros de la zona”, senaló Cruz.

Boletín de guerra

La semana pasada fueron brutalmente asesinados los campesinos José Paulino Lemus Cruz y Henry Roney Díaz, miembros del MCA y del Movimiento Auténtico Reivindicador de Campesinos del Aguán (MARCA), respectivamente.

El 10 de mayo, Alejandro Gómez, miembro de la finca La Trinidad del MARCA, fue secuestrado por guardias privadas de los terratenientes de la zona, interrogado y salvajemente torturado por casi tres días y finalmente liberado. Actualmente se encuentra escondido por temor a ser asesinado.

El 15 de mayo, fue desaparecido el campesino Francisco Pascual López, de 38 años. De acuerdo a la información disponible, algunas personas que andaban con él escucharon disparos. Cuando llegaron al lugar Francisco Pascual había desaparecido.

Con la muerte violenta de Sixto Ramos suben a 28 los integrantes de organizaciones campesinas asesinados en los últimos 15 meses. Sin embargo, a nivel internacional crece la presión para que Honduras sea reinsertada al seno de la OEA.

“No han podido derrotarnos con la militarización masiva del Ejército y la Policía y ahora están atacándonos de forma selectiva. Quieren diezmarnos, asesinándonos uno por uno. Como MCA vamos a reunirnos para tomar las medidas necesarias, porque no podemos solamente seguir denunciando los crímenes.

El régimen pretende presentar una imagen falsa de Honduras. El país no está pacificado y la gente sigue muriendo. Sería lamentable pasar por encima de tantos cadáveres y violaciones a los derechos humanos. No existen las condiciones para que Honduras regrese a la OEA”, concluyó Cruz.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tawahka and Garífuna people to Honduran regime: Don't Dam the Patuca River!

2011-05-13T23:31:00.006-05:00

CULTURAL SURVIVAL/GLOBAL RESPONSE ACTION ALERT

Honduras: Don’t Dam the Patuca River!

Chinese Project Threatens Indigenous Cultures and Biodiversity

(Versión original en español)

Don't Dam the Patuca! from Danielle DeLuca on Vimeo.

The Moskitia (mos-KEE-tya): it’s the largest, most magnificent expanse of tropical wilderness north of the Amazon – and the Indigenous Peoples who live there are determined to keep it that way.

For 3,000 years, Indigenous people have plied their dugout canoes up and down the Patuca River, the central artery of Honduras’ vast Moskitia lowland rainforest. On its rich floodplain they grow cocoa, oranges, rice, beans, cassava, and other crops for subsistence and sale, and its fish provide their main source of protein. “The river is our life,” says Lorenzo Tinglas, president of the Tawahka people’s governing council. “Any threat to the Patuca is a threat to four Indigenous Peoples—the Tawahka, Pech, Miskito, and Garifuna—and we will fight to the death to protect it.”

The fight is on. In January, the Honduran congress approved a contract with a Chinese company to build the first of three dams on the Patuca River. In February, the four Indigenous groups and Afro-Hondurans who share the Moskitia formed a united movement to save the river, their livelihoods, and their unique cultures. The Moskitia is a world-class treasure, and it will take international pressure to stop this project. Please write letters today. Gracias!

What difference would dams on the Patuca River make? For Miskito leader Norvin Goff, the answer is stark and clear: “Dams on the Patuca River mean ecocide and homicide.”

Why ecocide? Dams in the Moskitia tropical rainforest would decimate this richly diverse ecosystem both directly and indirectly. In the river, fish species that migrate upstream from the

ocean during part of their life cycle would be blocked by the dams

, threatening local extinctions. [Paula, I made this change on the assumption that the fish in question are not species found only in this river, in which case, an unqualified “extinction” is the wrong word. If they are in fact solely endemic to this river, and extinction is really the case, then we ought to make more of this in the text.] Downstream from the dam, the river’s volume, flow, and temperature would change, altering the habitats of shellfish, amphibians, plants, and bird species. Upstream, the reservoirs would submerge rainforest vegetation, soils, and organic matter, which would emit greenhouse gases as they rot. Reservoirs in the tropics produce high amounts of methane and carbon dioxide, accelerating global warming. The reservoirs and a network of roads would obstruct the migration patterns of hundreds of rainforest species. In the Moskitia, this includes endangered species like jaguars and tapirs, whose survival depends on large territories.

Why homicide? Indigenous villagers who live along the Patuca’s banks depend on the river for their lives and livelihoods. It is their only means of transportation and communication through the vast, roadless Moskitia. Dams would obstruct commerce and trade for thousands of people. On stretches of river between the dams, the flows, currents, and channels would be altered; people whose knowledge of the Patuca has sustained them for centuries would no longer master the river. Fish would disappear. Flood cycles that regularly wash nutrients over their agricultural lands would be changed. And road construction would open their forests to an unstoppable invasion of loggers, poachers, ranchers, and drug smugglers. The government even plans to build a military base to protect the construction project. “These impacts will be fatal for the survival of the Tawahka as a unique people,” says their elected leader, Lorenzo Tinglas.

As an endorser of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, Honduras officially recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent for projects that would affect them. But the Indigenou

s Peoples of the Moskitia have not been consulted and they have not consented to dam construction on the Patuca River. An international outcry is needed to defend their rights and to prevent destruction of a world-renowned tropical rainforest.

Please answer the call of the united Indigenous Peoples of the Moskitia : tell the Honduran government you stand with them against construction of Patuca III.

YOU CAN HELP
Write a Letter for this Campaign!

The Tawahka and Miskito organizations, FITH and MASTA, and the Black People’s Fraternal Organization, OFRANEH, ask us to write to Honduras’ president and send copies to the officials listed below.

A model letter is posted at http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/honduras/2/model-letter
Send emails from the Cultural Survival website at http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/honduras/2/send-email

In your letter, please:

Commend Honduras for endorsing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, which recognize Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent for projects that would affect them.
Tell the president that the Patuca III dam project is a test of Honduras’ commitment to Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and that his government must not approve construction unless they obtain the free, prior, and informed consent of the Tawahka, Pech, Miskito, and Garifuna peoples.

Express deep concern that damming the Patuca River will accelerate the impacts of global warming, threaten food security and the cultural survival of the Tawahka people, disrupt transportation and commerce for all the peoples of the Moskitia, alter a vital river ecosystem, and put at risk the invaluable biological diversity of Patuca National Park, the Tawahka Asangni Biosphere Reserve, and the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve.

Please send letters to:

Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Presidente de la República de Honduras
Edif. José Cecilio del Valle
Boulevard Juan Pablo II
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Email: info@presidencia.gob.hn and daysi_2005hn@yahoo.com

Send copies of your letter to:

Juan Orlando Hernández, Presidente
Congreso Nacional
Barrio La Hoya,
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Email: angasaor@gmail.com

Dr. Santiago Cantón, Executive SecretaryInter-American Commission on Human Rights
17th St. & Constitution Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006 USA
Email: cidhoea@oas.org

José Miguel Insulza
Secretary General
Organization of American States.
Address: 1889 F Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20006, USA
Email: oasweb@oas.org

Miguel Manzi
Inter-American Development Bank, Honduras
Apartado Postal No. 3180
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Email: BIDHonduras@iadb.org

Ramón Custodio López
Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos
Colonia Florencia Norte
Boulevar Suyapa, Tegucigalp
Honduras, C.A.
E-mail: custodiolopez@conadeh.hn

Luis Alberto Moreno, President
Inter-American Development Bank
1300 New York Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20577 USA
lamoreno@iadb.org

Sr. Li Changhua
Embajador de la República Popular China
Apartado Postal 1518-1200
San Jose
Costa Rica
Email: embchina_costarica@yahoo.com.cn

Tips:
US Postage to Honduras is 98 cents.
A model letter is available at www.cs.org
Personal, mailed letters have highest impact!
For more information, please see:
www.cs.org

Thank you for joining in this campaign!
“Kaparcawa, Tinki Pali, Seremei, Gracias!”

Members of COPINH detained in protest in San Pedro Sula

2011-05-09T00:00:00.004-05:00

COPINH: "Enough colonialism." We mobilize in San Pedro Sula

Versión original en español.

The following members of COPINH were detained in San Pedro Sula along with others during recent protests for the re-foundation of Honduras and against the coup regime's "Honduras is Open for Business" conference:

1.-José Alexis Gomez (17 years old)

2.- Maria Leocadia Hernandez (40 years old)

3.-Yovana Isidora Cabrera (23 years old)

They report that other members of COPINH saw the police beat these three members of COPINH. Latest reports indicate at least the two women have been released.

CIVIL COUNCIL OF POPULAR AND INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS OF HONDURAS (COPINH)

Down with the regime!!
Down with colonialism and modern day slavery!

We continue on our feet in struggle!

Enough colonialism!
Enough selling off of Honduras!

URGENT PRESS RELEASE.

In the face of the continual sale of our country and all of its natural goods like water, metal and mining resources, the land, territories, the beaches, the oxygen, the forests, native millenarian seeds, the intellectual property of the indigenous, black and general population of Honduras, a disastrous occurrence reimposed in the nefarious event called "Honduras open for business," we emit the following communiqué:

1.- We condemn the regime continuing the coup d'etat that systematically and in flagrant violation of Covenant 169 of the ILO, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People the Declaration of Human Rights and other national and international legal instruments, imposes projects of privatization of the rivers, such is the case of the hydroelectric complex on the sacred Patuca River with an irreversible impact destroying the existence of the Tawahaka People and other peoples and their Biospheres, the construction of more than 40 private hydroelectric dams that are accelerating the militarization and the violence in indigenous, black and peasant communities in Honduras, wind power projects with a terrible environmental impact, such as the project Hula HIll, concessions for mining, tourist and oil exploitation and others.

2.- We denounce that the event "Honduras Open for Business" is nothing more than the consolidation of colonialism and capitalist plunder, worse even than the signed Free Trade Agreements, with which the regime tries to accelerate even more the hand-over of the country to foreign corporations for the leasing and exploitation of natural resources, creating in addition a fiscal paradise in which narco-trafficking has a privileged position.

3.- We warn the local oligarchy and the transnationals that we will deepen our historic resistance in defense of life and mother earth and that in our vision of development a fundamental spiritual value is life in harmony with nature, which is to say respect of mother earth, which means no matter what we will now allow the promotion of avarice, destruction and death.

4.- We mobilize today in San Pedro Sula together with other social organizations to unite our voices, thoughts and actions against these acts with which the regime offers Honduras up for sale.

With the ancestral force of Iselaca, Lempira, Mota and Etempica we raise our voices filled with life, justice, freedom, dignity and peace!

San Pedro Sula, Cortes

May 5th, 2011

Public Proclamation from the Community Guadalupe Carney, Trujillo, Colon, May 4, 2011 Trujillo, Colon, May 4, 2011

2011-05-05T23:34:00.004-05:00

The Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) located where the Regional Center for Military Training (CREM) once functioned, due to the slow functioning of the appeals court in acting on the legal case of the compañero Jose Isabel Morales Lopez, make the following proclamation:

1. That the compañero has been imprisoned in the penitentiary of La Ceiba, Atlantida since October 17 of 2008 due to an arrest order based on false accusation from the prosecutor for the Public Ministry of Trujillo.

2. That his rights have been violated since the first day of his detention to the present, leaving a family without the right to food, education and health.

3. As part of this campesino movement we are denouncing that in recent days the compañero Jose Isabel Morales Lopez is being permanently harassed and threatened with death by four individuals imprisoned in the same cell, we are withholding their names as a precaution for the security of the compañero. Because of this we are asking for immediate action on the legal proceeding of his case for an immediate hearing. At the same time we are demanding real security for the compañero Jose Isabel Morales Lopez.

For the points mentioned above in this proclamation, if this call is not heeded, all of the Campesino Organizations and social organizations will take strong measures, and in the case of any attempt against our compañero, we will hold responsible the Appeals Court, the Prosecutor of the Public Ministry, the Criminal Court, and the official in charge of the penitentiary of La Ceiba, Atlantida and the Commissioner of the Penal Centers.

We call on the Special Attorney for Human Rights, the lawyer Sandra Ponce and on the Minister of Human Rights, lawyer Ana Pieda, on COFADEH and on the Human Rights Platform, to demand a rapid advancement of the legal process for our compañero, as soon as possible and we demand real physical security for him, if these calls are not attended to we will go to other national and international organizations because our rights belong to us, today, tomorrow and always.

Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA)

The organizations:

Augustin Calix, Jose Feliciano Vasquez, Carlos Cruz Urrutia

CNTC ANACH ACAN

Attempted Violent Eviction of Campesinos From the Plantation of La Trinidad in Lower Aguan

2011-05-03T19:15:00.005-05:00

Authentic Movement for the Revindication of the Campesinos of Aguan(MARCA) were victims of violent actions by the police, army and security guards in an attmept to evict them from the La Trinidad plantation.

As of now the takeover (by the campesinos -translation note) is being maintained. THe opposition of the campesinos impeded the eviction that was tried last night on lands in the possession of Rene Morales; however, we have learned from some communication media and from testimonies we have collected directly from the campesino leaders of this organization that the repressive organs persist in their attempts at displacement by force using heavy caliber weapons (M-60) among others) that have been used in other similar interventions.

The campesinos that initiated the takeover at 7pm on Saturday have been surrounded by the repressive organs of the State and by security guards. The situation is calamatous for the campesinos who denounce that they do not have access to food and water; and they are afraid about what has happened to 9 of their colleagues (8 men and one woman) who at the present are considered to be disappeared.

It is unknown if there is a legal order of eviction and, the most serious thing is once again there is the participation of the military and civilian guards with the the authorization of the police, the only institution (with standing) to intervent in these affairs.

Given the facts it is easy to infer that all the actions of the regimen have the aim of demobilizing the campesino organizations and submitting them to permanently using up all their forces (resources).

There is no information on the part of the INA (National Agraria Institute) about the legal situation of the lands in conflict (any investigation of the successive tract is not known), the legality of claims to the land, and the possession of lands in the hands of a foreigner such as Rene Morales, who according to the Constitution of the Republic cannot own lands less than 40 kilometers from the country's borders or sea coasts that surround us.

A note from the directors of the cooperative of La Trinidad to the Colonel of the 15th Battalion, the Police Commissioner and the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation says that " As you known we have been struggling with legal suits in the courts and tribunals of the country since 1994 against the businessman Rene Morales (Oleoplamas de Centroamerica S.A. de C.V.) who in an illegal and unjust manner dispossessed us of our properties".

That "we have taken possession of our lands but due to the corruption that exists in the tribunals of justice we have been evicted with legal orders that were obtained through prevaricate decision by prosecutors and judges "and that "ultimately you, as police, carry out (15th Battalion), DGIC have lent yourselves to the commission of grave crimes such as the abuse of authority, since without a judicial order you have come to evict us in an illegal manner".

-- From FIAN, International Honduras Section we reiterate that the agrarian conflict will persist as long as the regimen does not make political decisions to resolve the litigation and with that avoid that again the conflict produces the loss of human lives.

Tegucigalpa, May 2, 2011

Translation by VC
------
(version original en espanol por FIAN haga clic)

Director of Radio Uno Survives Assassination Attempt

2011-04-28T19:08:00.003-05:00

DIRECTOR OF RADIO UNO SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

(Versión original en español, haga clic aqui)

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH by its Spanish initials), urgently denounces that at 11:30pm on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011, around ten armed men wearing ski masks attempted to assassinate Arnulfo Aguilar, the Director of Radio Uno in the city of San Pedro Sula, in front of his house.

Aguilar told COFADEH that he succeeded in locking himself into his home while the men surrounded the house trying to jump over the wall. He reports that he called the local Police Division #1 where he was told they would move immediately, however it was a full hour before, in a very indifferent manner, officers of Patrol #123 did no more than escort Aguilar to the central boulevard and left him there.

The General Coordinator of COFADEH, Bertha Oliva, attempted a series of calls to high-ranking officials of the police, even with the very Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, where she was told that their mobile phones were turned off and that the minister has left orders to not call him after 10 pm.

Arnulfo Aguilar has protective measures granted by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights resulting from the series of attacks that he and his team at Radio Uno have suffered. The attacks include death threats, harassment and attacks against the radio equipment itself, all taking place since Aguilar and the entire radio collective assumed a position of opposition to the coup d'etat of June 28th, 2009.

Aguilar denounced that in the last few months, various members of the collective have been victims of kidnappings and attempted kidnappings.

Aguilar told COFADEH that, “tensions have risen since April 26th when we began tackling the subject of the Armed Forces involvement in supplying weapons to the drug cartels.”

According to a US Defense Intelligence Agency report leaked by WikiLeaks entitled “Honduras: Military Weaponry Feeding the Black Weapon Market”, serial numbers found on anti-tank weaponry discovered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and San Andrés Island, Colombia, match the serial numbers of weapons that had been sold to Honduras. Beyond the weapons, the US authorities confiscated a series of M433 grenades from criminal organizations in Mexico, which can also be traced back to the Honduran military.

For COFADEH this latest attack against Arnulfo Aguilar is very worrying and, once again, places the State of Honduras in a delicate position given that it has done nothing to protect the lives of Aguilar or the Radio Uno collective. We have already seen the serious consequences that come when the state doesn't urgently implement these measures. Such as the case of the journalist Nahum Palacios, who also received protective measures from the IACHR and yet was assassinated by numerous masked men armed with AK-47s, shot dead while heading to his home in Tocoa, Colon on the night of March 14th, 2010.

For all the reasons described above, we demand immediate actions to protect Aguilar, who succeeded in saving his life, but he has told COFADEH that he has concerns further actions could be carried out against him,

FOR THE FACTS AND THE CULPRITS

NO FORGETTING, NO FORGIVING

Committee of the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras

COFADEH

Tegucigalpa, April 27th, 2011

--originally posted by the Friendship Office of the Americas

New Bloodshed in Aguan

2011-04-23T13:49:00.002-05:00

No end to the violence and repression against the campesino organizations

By Gilberto Rios –FIAN Honduras (Communique)

The lifeless bodies of Tarin Daniel Garcia Enamorado, 26 years old and three children, found decapitated – and his father-in-law, Mr. Carlos Alberto Acosta Canales, five children, with his hands tied, both campesinos members of the Movimiento Autentico Campesino del Aguan (MUCA), were found in Ocotes Altos, on the left bank of the Aguan River in the municipality of Trujillo.

Tarin Daniel was a member of the cooperative, Productores de Colon, one of the four that make up the settlement La Concepcion.

According to the spouse of one of the victims, they had left to go fishing on Thursday, April 14th at 3 pm with the promose to return the next day. Since they did not return on the agreed upon day, their families and friends opted to communicate with the police in Tocoa, Trujillo and in La Ceiba to find information, but it wasn’t until yesterday, April 19th that they found their cadavers.

There are reports from neighbors in the locale that say the victims had been captured by security guards of Reynaldo Canales and Rene Morales precisely at the place where the lands of these businessmen meet the Aguan River.

Poor residents and campesinos that belong to the campesino cooperatives in the region express that they are living in a state of permanent terror, fearing for the loss of their lives, because so many dead and mutilated people are produced; a precise count can’t be made because some of these acts are not even reported by the communication media.

Today, the campesinos of the cooperative La Confianza denounce that they have been followed when they took money out of a bank, by three cars, all Toyota 3.0, one white, one cream, and one grey. Mario Mejia, a campesino from another settlement was followed on the 14th of this month when he withdrew money, by three carrs of cimilar colors, from which they fired guns and one of the bullets hit him in one of his ankles.

The people dennouncing the events do not believe that these actions are the result of common delinquency, but rather are actions of intimidation by the big land owners with whom they are in conflict.

Fian International, Honduran Section, expresses its indignation for the impunity that prevails in all of the country and is especially dramatic in the Lower Aguan since the initiation of the agrarian conflicts that are publically known both nationally and internationally.

Translated by VC from FIAN Communiqué from here.

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

2011-04-18T16:40:00.010-05:00

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

COPINH chases out coup regime from San Francisco Lempira: "We won't allow the privatization of public education"

2011-04-11T12:04:00.017-05:00

COPINH: Action in Santa Rosita and San Francisco Lempira against the traitors

ACTION IN SANTA ROSITA AND THE CENTER OF THE MUNICIPALITY SAN FRANCISCO LEMPIRA AGAINST THE TRAITORS TO PUBLIC EDUCATION AND THE HONDURAN PEOPLE.

(versión original en español)

Yesterday, Saturday April 9th before 9 a.m. an advanced delegation and some journalists in 10 luxury cars with heavily armed men arrived in the center of the community San Francisco Lempira to accompany Juan Orlando Hernández, president of the congress of traitors and coup-makers and Rosa Bonilla wife of Porfirio Lobo Sosa.The supposed purpose of the visit of these people was to manipulate people with the so-called 10,000 voucher and give crumbs to people from these communities.

The group waited in the soccer field where the helicopter was supposed to land. Facing this threat people from the communities including teachers from the Resistance and members of COPINH mobilized to that field and demanded that the Mayor communicate to the delegation that they had to leave immediately and would not be allowed to promote the privatization of education and that otherwise they would be removed as an exercise in the right to autonomy.

That Mayor is Noel Molina, an enemy of public and community education who is part of those who accuse us of burning schools. Given the firm rejection they found themselves forced to leave towards the community of Santa Rosita, where they would improvise an "act," but five minutes after they got there a group from COPINH and the Resistance showed up indignant and despite the fact that they were at work they did it quickly carrying their farming tools.

Because of this it took less than 10 minutes before the entire "advance delegation" and the Mayor fled.Meanwhile in the center of the municipality of San Francisco Lempira more teachers, parents and militants from COPINH and the Resistance gathered and it turned into an important demonstration.

…Juan Orlando later told the Mayor that the helicopter didn't show up because it had "broken down."

With this the communities have carried out a concrete action of expulsion of the coup-makers and traitors who threaten the human right to public education and it is one more example of solidarity and of joining forces with the teacher's struggle.

La Esperanza, Intibucá, April 10th, 2011.

General Coordination of COPINH

Members of COPINH from San Francisco Lempira.

ALERT: Eviction in the Garífuna community of Punta Gorda, Roatan

2011-04-08T16:45:00.004-05:00

ALERT: Eviction in the Garifuna community of Punta Gorda, Roatan.
(Español sigue abajo)

At the request of the Military Social Security Institute [Instituto de Prevision Militar, IPM, which owns several businesses], agents from the Ministry of Security are right now carrying out an eviction in the island community of Punta Gorda, Roatan.
The more than 40 families that are being violently evicted live in the neighbourhood known as Punta Gorda, located in the community of the same name. It is outrageous that that while the State of Honduras boasts about a policy of inclusion and makes an ostentatious show of its celebration of the International Year of Afro-Descendants, the armed forces order the Ministry of Security to carry out an eviction.

As Garifuna, we find ourselves suffering a second expulsion from the Caribbean. In just a few days, on April 12th, the arrival of our People to Honduras will be commemorated, specifically marking our arrival to the island of Roatan, after our forced displacement by the British from the island of Saint Vincent in 1797.
The pressures on our territory that our People suffer are rooted in the speculation by the tourism industry. Projects such as Banana Coast, Laguna de Micos, and in a not-so-distant future the so-called Model City have precipitated an onslaught of evictions in Punta Gorda and in the majority of coastal communities, which are the aim of businesspeople, politicians and armed forces, taking advantage of the vast judicial void that exists in Honduras.

Since the coup d'etat in 2009, the pressures on Garifuna territory have intensified. The eviction in Punta Gorda is part of the "Christian humanism" of the current administration, which uses violence in an attempt to impose its vision of a "democracy" of the few associated with the party in power.

The Garifuna of Punta Gorda lack a land deed for their territory, despite dancing to the tune of numerous governmental administrations over the years - administrations that tend to celebrate the anniversary of our arrival to Honduras in Punta Gorda with rituals of power.

How will the State of Honduras and its kindred organizations explain this eviction at the Afro-Descendant summit they plan to hold this August? Basta Ya - enough! -

of the expulsion of the Garifuna People of Honduras.

La Ceiba, April 7, 2011.
OFRANEH - National Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras

Alerta: Desalojo en la comunidad garífuna de Punta Gorda, Roatán.

Efectivos del Ministerio de de Seguridad, a petición del Instituto de Prevención Militar (IPM), están en este momento efectuando un desalojo en la comunidad insular de Punta Gorda, Roatán.

Las más de 40 familias que son violentamente desalojados, habitan en el b

arrio conocido como Punta Gorda, ubicado en la comunidad del mismo nombre.

Es inaudito que mientras el Estado de Honduras se jacta de una política de inclusión y celebra con boato el Año Internacional de los Afrodescendientes, los militares ordenen al Ministerio de Seguridad una orden de desalojo.

Los garífunas nos encontramos padeciendo una segunda expulsión en el caribe. Precisamente en pocos días se conmemora, el 12 de abril, la llegada a nuestro pueblo a Honduras, específicamente a la Isla de Roatán, después de haber sido expulsados por los Británicos de la isla de San Vicente en el año de 1797.

Las presiones territoriales que padece nuestro pueblo, se originan en la especulación causada por la industria turística. Proyectos como Banana Coast, Laguna de Micos, y en futuro no muy lejano la supuesta Ciudad Modelo, han instigado una arremetida para desalojar en Punta Gorda y en la mayoría de las comunidades de tierra firme, que son objetivos para empresarios, políticos y militares los cuales aprovechan el enorme vacío jurídico existente en Honduras.

A partir del golpe de estado del año 2009, se han intensificado las presiones territoriales sobre el pueblo garífuna. El desalojo en Punta Gorda es parte del "humanimo cristiano" de la actual administración, la que a garrote pretende imponer su visión de una "democracia" de las minorías asociadas al partido en el poder.

Los garífunas de Punta Gorda, carecen de un titulo de su territorio, a pesar de haber bailado para las administraciones gubernamentales de turno, que suelen celebrar en Punta Gorda con rituales de poder los aniversarios de nuestra llegada a Honduras.

Cómo explicará el Estado de Honduras y las organizaciones afines este desalojo en la cumbre que piensan efectuar de Afrodescendietenes en el mes de agosto de este año.

Basta Ya de la expulsión del pueblo garífuna de Honduras.

La Ceiba 7 de abril de 2011

OFRANEH

Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña, OFRANEH
Teléfono (504) 4420618, (504) 4500058
Av 14 julio, calle 19, Contiguo Vivero Flor Tropical, Barrio Alvarado, La Ceiba, Honduras
email:garifuna@ofraneh.org, ofraneh@yahoo.com

March of the Drums: There is nothing to celebrate

2011-04-02T14:21:00.012-05:00

The following statement was released during a mass march of black and indigenous peoples in Tegucigalpa on April 1st, 2011 commemorating 214 years since the arrival of the Garífuna people in Honduras.

March of the Drums: Position of the organizations that make up the 2-14 Alliance

THERE IS NOTHING TO CELEBRATE!

In the glorious Month of African Heritage we commemorate one more year in which this land was blessed. Blessed because more than two centuries ago the African plant set foot on it bringing with it the richness that decorates it today.

Today after 214 años, our own drums, symbols of resistance, powerful arms of struggle, urgently call us to deeply reflect on our historical reality.

In the midst of the commemoration of the Month of African Heritage in Honduras, we want to emphasize the term commemoration. We commemorate, we do not celebrate. Because we cannot celebrate the infamous inhumane and genocidal exile that our ancesters suffered from San Vicente, a flagrant violation of the most elemental human rights that even today the aggressor powers refuse to repair.

To celebrate would be an affront to the memory of our ancestors, mutilated brutally in the crossing from Africa to St. Vincent, from St. Vincent to Balliceu and from Balliceu to Port Royal, Honduras. The memory of the more than 3,000 Garífuna brothers martyred in Balliceu, plus those who gave their lives in the battle for dignity against the English army and the millions who were murdered in the crossing from Africa plunging into the depths of the ocean invite us to reflect about this term. Let us remember today that occasion that left an un-erasable impression on the historic destiny of our people.

Today as we did also 214 years ago we have had to once again embark on the crossing not of the Caribbean sea but of the battered paths and roads of fifth class that lead to and from our communities throughout our Honduras, from Plaplaya in the department of Gracias a Dios and Masca in the department of Cortes, we have come early in the morning to find ourselves here in Tegucigalpa the capital of the country, here where they decide our future and our destiny, in most cases without taking us into account, without consulting us, or believing that with one telephone call or one text message sent from the private telephones of mercenaries, infamous traffickers of the ignorance and misery of our people, this action is more than sufficient to decide if we continue living or die.

Because of this all of the organizations and sectors that make up the 2-14 Alliance and to the sound of the ringing of the drums, the maracas and the Garífuna conch say with one voice... de los tambores, las maracas y el caracol garífuna planteamos y decimos a una sola voz…There is nothing to celebrate...

There is nothing to celebrate..

Because the spirit of our ancesters orders us today to reorient the steering of the destiny of our people, to re-take the true leadership of Satuyé and Barauda. A leadership able to differentiate talk from practice, inescapably linked to the people, for the people and by the people. And not the remote control pseudo-leadership exercised from the comfort of the big cities, completely disconnected from the daily reality of a community that is bleeding and agonizing through the systematic loss of its ancestral richness.

There is nothing to celebrate

Because Satuyé and Barauda left us an orphan leadership of small-minded interests and personal ambitions, crustacean culture perpetuated by a sys

tem that divides us with crumbs and then with shameless audacity demands of us and calls us to unity. Today our people is victim of pseudo-leadership imported from western models, converted into instruments of destruction, division, effervescence of small conflicts, directed at weakening the harmony, the peace and the co-existence of solidarity inherited from Satuyé, Barauda and Wamulugu.

There is nothing to celebrate

If our Garífuna people is victim to torture. We cite the recent brutal and repressive breaking up of the peaceful march at the community Triunfo de la Cruz, when our sister Miriam Miranda, president of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras was captured, tortured and illegally jailed, as a result of a state policy of racial intolerance that replaces dialogue with the baton and the tear-gas bomb.

There is nothing to celebrate

When our beaches after the death of coconut are devoured by coastal erosion and there is no concrete strategy for mitigation and adaption to climate change, leaving our communities in absolute vulnerability.

There is nothing to celebrate

Because due to the stubbornness of the current regime in maintaining a model as exclusive as the neoliberal one, more than 200,000 brothers and sisters have had to emigrate from our communities risking their lives to go in search of an uncertain destiny, leaving behind parents, children, grand-children and other loved ones, when our youth find themselves forced to emigrate due to the absence of opportunities and the blackmail that says if we don't give up out territory it is because we are opposed to "development."