Report from Emergency HR Delegation on Criminalization and Political Prisoners

March 26 - April 2, 2019La Voz de los de Abajo with Alliance for Global Justice and CODEPINK, all members of the Honduras Solidarity Network sent an emergency human right delegation to Honduras focused on following up on criminalization and violence since the November 2017 electoral fraud crisis began. 

We visited political prisoners, Edwin Espinal and Raúl Álvarez, indigenous and campesino communities criminalized and attacked for their struggle, human rights organizations, families and supporters of murdered and criminalized journalists. 

LINK TO REPORT IN ENGLISH- El informe en español estará publicado pronto.

Support for political prisoners  and against criminalization of
protest at a vigil in front of the US Embassy

Nacaome REDEHSUR human rights defenders with delegation after a vigil
for assassinated journalist Gabriel Hernandez

Two of the three political prisoners being held pre-trial in prisons
Edwin and Raúl 

7 Years of Dictatorship and Coup

Near dawn on June 28 2009 the Honduran military shot its way into the Presidential residency of Manuel Zelaya and kidnapped the elected president of Honduras, forcing him out of the country and setting Honduras down the path that continues today. 

June 28, 2016 Tegucigalpa

Seven year later on June 28, 2016 and the dictatorship intensifies. The commemorations of its 7th year take place in the midst of intensified criminalization of the social movements, the reappearance of death squads, and threats, disappearances and murder of activists in impunity. Meanwhile Juan Orlando Hernandez consolidates control of not only the Executive branch and ministries but also the Congress, the Supreme Court and other judicial entities, the Electoral Tribunal and all the expanded military and repressive forces in the country. 

Tegucigalpa

The La Voz de los de Abajo fact finding and accompaniment mission, accompanied the mobilization for the coup anniversary in Tegucigalpa; there were other mobilizations around the country.  

La Voz accompanying CNTC on June 28, 2016

We met with Bertha Oliva of the human rights organization COFADEH who reiterated to us her view (also published in El Libertador newspaper on June 28) that Honduras has not recovered from the collapse caused by the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya’s government and that the institutional break down in the country has benefited the cupola of power and those running the country while the crimes against the opposition continue and are unpunished. The leaders and members of the indigenous Lenca organization COPINH and of the campesino organization the CNTC stressed that the big landowners, Congressional powers like the Vice President of the Congress, Gladys Aurora, and the Honduran and multinational corporations have all benefited from the last seven years of land grabbing concessions for mining and hydroelectric power and African palm production. 

Students mobilize June 27 at the University
(Photo from Honduras Tierra Libre)

The students and teachers in the country continue to be threatened, arrested and disappeared for opposing the privatization of education and the destruction of university democracy and autonomy. The government is shutting down oppositional media like TV Globo and journalists continue to be threatened and murdered. 

June 28 Tegucigalpa

On top of this, the population in general, especially the poor - who are a majority of the population are finding it more difficult everyday to put food on the table because of increases in costs and cuts in employment.  One young family man who works as a driver told us that just two months ago his family electricity bill was a little more than 700 Lempira a month ($35) and he had a full 30 days to pay it; the most recent bill was 1200 Lempira ($60) and the time to pay has been reduced to 15 days. We heard from people from Tegucigalpa and many other regions that Juan Orlando and his National Party continue to exploit the very poor very cynically with the “solidarity sacks” (bolsas solidarias); officials hand out small bags of basic food necessities ( a few ounces of salt, a pound of beans and rice) IF the recipient signs a National Party petition saying they favor allowing re-election. The list goes on and on - the number of outrages that we were told during our one week mission would fill many pages. 

June 28, 2016 Tegucigalpa

The resistance movement is debating strategy and tactics. While the social movements, reeling from the violence against them and the assassination of Berta Caceres, look to build regional struggles like the fight against the toll roads and to build national momentum from the grassroots struggles, part of the resistance looks toward a new electoral cycle with the hope of building and strengthening electoral opposition to put the brakes on the out of control and violent neoliberal assault. As well, part of the movement looks to do both.

Press interviews Mel Zelaya
at the march  

Juan Orlando has maneuvered to change the constitutional ban on re-elections for the Presidency and while everyone in the resistance opposes Juan Orlando’s re-election,  part of the LIBRE party is enthusiastic for the possibility of Manuel Zelaya being able to run for election again because they see that would make a real electoral opening for the people possible; others are vocal that the changing of the constitution without popular consultation along with running the risk of Juan Orlando consolidating himself in permanent power is unacceptable.  This controversy was apparent at the June 28th mobilization in Tegucigalpa where there were slogans being spray painted on the walls saying “We need Mel” and “We need Mel for President” at the same time that there were people chanting “No to re-elections”.  Zelaya was one of the speakers at the short rally and concert at the end of the mobilization. 

June 28, 2016 Tegucigalpa 

The mobilization in Tegucigalpa was full of life and spirit although smaller than some previous marches, but there had already been nearly daily protests of the students who are engaged in a fierce struggle with the Rector of the National Autonomous University system Julietta Castellanos and Juan Orlando, and the national teachers’ unions were preparing for an emergency mobilization on June 30th in what looks like renewed vigor in their fight over privatization, lay-offs and repression focused on their demand for a salary increase after the government announced very small increases. 

Nestor Aleman of COPEMH speaks
at Progreso rally

Finally,  with the murder of Berta Careers still so painfully present and the US election spotlighting Hillary Clinton, we found everyone eager to talk about the role of the US in the coup and its continuation and expansion by President Obama’s Secretary of State at the time, Ms.  Clinton and the role of US training and funding of military and police forces implicated in Berta’s murder. The new law introduced in the US Congress - The Berta Careers Human Rights Law- aimed at cutting US aid if human rights conditions are not met by the Honduran government has gotten wide press coverage in Honduras, including an article published in the main pro-government newspaper La Prensa on June 28th (from an EFE news agency article)  pointing at Chicago organizations, La Voz de los de Abajo and Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) for working to get support for cutting the aid. 

http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/974708-410/activistas-piden-a-eua-suspender-ayuda-a-honduras

Honduras Delegation May 2015

May 25th Protest Against Corruption, Tegucigalpa

From May 22- June 2 a delegation from La Voz de los de Abajo, a member of the Honduras Solidarity Network,  traveled in Honduras, participating in events for the International Week Against Forced Disappearances with the Honduran human rights organization COFADEH and visiting other organizations in the resistance movement, human rights defenders, campesino communities under attack and the campesino political prisoner, Chabelo Morales Lopez. We were there as the protest movement against corruption and impunity was just beginning to heat up—— that movement now has grown to massive protests with many thousands of people in the streets in nearly every city in the country on a daily basis for the past three weeks.

Honduras May 2015 International Week Against Forced Disappearances Past and Present — Impunity Remains

Part of the content of this blog post  is from the Delegation Report and Statement to be published soon.

Photos of the "disappeared" at Cofadeh's 
office in Tegucigalpa

COFADEH (Committee of the Families of Disappeared Detainees) was founded in 1982 by families of people who were forcibly disappeared by military and paramilitary forces linked to the Honduran and Salvadoran military, the US supported “Contras” (a counter revolutionary paramilitary fighting against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua), and U.S. covert operations in the region. Honduras was used as a US military base against the Sandinistas and against the insurgency of the FMLN in El Salvador but was not officially at war itself. Nonetheless by the end of the conflict there were more than 200 persons documented to have been disappeared in Honduras.  Among those disappeared are Tomas Nativi - the husband of COFADEH’s coordinator, Bertha Oliva, disappeared in 1982. 

Our delegation was accompanied by COFADEH members in traveling the Ruta (Path of Historic Memory) which began in the city of Tegucigalpa in COFADEH’s office, passes their original office site near a police and Honduran Bureau of Investigation (DNIC) office. One of the COFADEH compañeras described answering the door bell at the original office in the mid-1980’s and finding a DNIC officer who immediately pointed a gun at her head and told her to deliver a message that COFADEH must stop investigating the case of one of the disappeared. She was only 14 at the time and had joined COFADEH after her brother’s disappearance.  

Delegation member at El Reventon

The Ruta de Memoria Historica then leaves the city and goes to the site of a clandestine cemetery (El Reventon) used by the Honduran military to dispose of the bodies of the disappeared. The site was discovered by COFADEH after a witness finally overcame his fear later in the 1990’s and disclosed the location. The Ruta includes two former clandestine detention and military sites (the Casa de Terror/Terror House and the Cuartel de los Contras/ Contra Barracks)  and at the end of the Ruta is the COFADEH Center against Forgetting (El Hogar en Contra el Olvido), a beautiful mountainside center for meditation, retreats and conferences with a garden of trees honoring the disappeared of the 1980s. 

El Hogar en Contra el Olvido - COFADEH

House of Terror
Blood spatters found

The most difficult part of the journey on the Ruta was visiting the “Casa de Terror” (Terror House) located not far from the cemetery on a property that was owned by a military officer and is now abandoned. This location has been visited by survivors of kidnapping and torture who confirmed that they were held there. Blood splatters that were identified by chemical testing are outlined in black marker. On the property there are two odd concrete structures— concrete boxes with concrete lids that have only a very small opening, resembling some kind of detention box. 

Delegation member at "Terror House"

One group of survivors were young high school and university students, kidnapped by masked men thought to be part of the Honduran death squad military Battalion 316. The survivors tell the story of being held for 8 days, tortured with beatings and electricity, starved and terrorized. It is believed that they were eventually released rather than being murdered only because the father of two of the students was a highly placed official in the Honduran government - he was beaten by the death squad members when the students were kidnapped from his home, but the youth were finally released.It is unknown how many people were detained at the site,  tortured and then murdered.  The presence of the disappeared is not only felt from the victims of the 1980’s who have yet to find justice for their loved ones -- new disappearances continue. 

Since the military coup in 2009 the practice of forced disappearances, detentions and torture has returned to Honduras.  On Tuesday, May 26th our delegation participated in a press conference with Bertha Oliva, coordinator of COFADEH and Jaquelin Jimenez, the sister of Donatilo Jimenez who was disappeared from his workplace, during his work shift,  on April 8 and has not been found either alive or dead. Donatilo was a long-time member of the union of employees of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (SITRAUNH) and past president of his local union in La Ceiba. Before his disappearance he told his family of labor conflicts with the university administration regarding security for workers at  the campus where he worked; the presence of organized crime on the university property and  collusion of university security guards with the criminal gangs. Donatilo was also still active in the union and was participating in a slate of workers running for positions in the regional SITRAUNH. The slate had to withdraw after his disappearance. 

Press Conference May 26th
photo by Defensores En Linea

Members of SITRAUNH from Tegucigalpa and the northern La Ceiba region attended the press conference in COFADEH’s office. They talked of the many conflicts with the university administration both regionally and at the national level, especially since the coup. The rector, Julieta Castellanos, is very close to President Juan Orlando Hernandez who recently arranged for a decision to change the government university rules so she could serve another term as rector. 

The family does not know what exactly happened to Donatilo the day he disappeared. At first local university officials claimed that he had left work in his car, although no one identified him,  which was found abandoned; later officials said that he was killed and that they have someone arrested, but with no details and without Donatilo's body.  Donatilo’s sister explained that after Donatilo’s disappearance, the university administration did not issue any statement, show any concern, investigate what happened or call for any investigation into his disappearance. When COFADEH accompanied the family to the site of his disappearance they were first denied access to search for him, then they were told they could enter but with a warning that it was unsafe which caused the team to decide not to search the extensive grounds of the campus. Donatilo's family insist that they want a real investigation that uncovers the intellectual and well as material authors of any crime. The university authorities have not only been uncooperative but the highest level administration of the National Autonomous University has had a lawsuit for “slander and damages” filed against Donatilo’s sister and his wife for their public statements about Donatilo’s concerns before he disappeared.  

Gladys Lanza at C-Libre event

The use of defamation charges is the latest weapon used by the government and oligarchy against human rights defenders, victims of abuses, and journalists. On Wednesday, May 27th, we attended an event held by the organization C-Libre, an advocate for protection of journalists and the freedom of expression, in which they presented their report on attacks against journalists for the year 2014 and also gave awards to human rights defender Gladys Lanza and journalist Gilberto Gálvez. Gladys Lanza is a member of the human rights organization VIsitación Padilla which focuses on women’s rights. She is currently facing time in jail after a prominent head of an NGO  filed a defamation lawsuit against her after her organization took on the case of a woman former employee who accused him of sexual harassment and violation of her rights. Besides Gladys Lanza and the Jimenez family, at least two journalists also are facing these charges and the indigenous and environmental activist, Bertha Caceres of the Lenca indigenous organization COPINH has been threatened with similar legal action after she denounced the murder of a member of COPINH this spring. 

COFADEH documents and maintains the historic memory of the disappeared both past and present and is a constant voice in representing the voices who demand, “they were alive when they were taken, we want them back alive”. 
They have a website  Cofadeh and the electronic press site, Defensores En Linea

More reports from the delegation coming soon
Unless otherwise noted, all photos by V. Cervantes

Victoria Cervantes

for La Voz de los de Abajo

June 11, 2015

Honduras! - Repression and Struggle

Delegation to Honduras - Day I Part I

La Voz de los de Abajo is leading a delegation in Honduras of 9 people from Illinois, Ohio, Arizona, Colorado and Honduras from September 6-16. We will be posting reports as we travel around the country visiting organizations and communities. 

We arrived in Honduras on September 6th and amid news of new campesino evictions and detentions and disappearances we drove from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa. In Tegucigalpa we met with the FNRP International Commission’s Gerardo Torres and then with Bertha Oliva the Coordinator of the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared (COFADEH). Later in the afternoon we visited the offices of Via Campesina and met with Rafael Alegrias (Via Campesina, FNRP, LIBRE campesino movement) Yony RIvas (MUCA) Esau Piero (ADCP Progreso) and other members of MUCA and Via Campesina. We will report in more detail on the meetings with the campesinos as part of our reports on visiting the campesino communities in later posts. 

Both Bertha and Gerardo talked about the ever worsening human rights, political violence and general violence that have made Honduras the most violent country in the world according to the United Nations. Gerardo cited figures from international reports that show Honduras has 87 violent murders for each 100,000 people which is even more than in Iraq or Pakistan.  Bertha made the  point that that there is directly political violence and there is general criminal violence but that the criminal violence has to be seen as a product of the general political crises in the country. 

LIBRE Party and the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP)

Gerardo talked about  the process of entering into the electoral struggle with the new political party formed by the resistance movement, LIBRE. He told us that Honduras had a history of being one of the countries most obedient to and dominated by the United States. “After the coup d’e’tat many thousands of people were in the streets every day for months in protest but many people thought that the U.S., the UN , or the Organization of American States (OAS) was going to help them;  then they realized that it wasn’t going to happen and that they had to do it themselves. “The FNRP is the biggest organization for social demands in the history of the country; we have resistance groups organized all around the country”.  

After almost 2 years of resistance, a debate on whether or not to form an electoral political party took place. At first the decision was made not to form a party. Then negotiations took place in Colombia (brokered by Presidents Chavez and Santos) with Pepe Lobo and President Zelaya that ended with the Cartegena Agreement being signed. This agreement allowed Zelaya and other exiles to return to Honduras and guaranteed the right of the resistance to form a legal political party with the right to participate in elections. The  majority of the members of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) agreed with forming a political electoral movement and keeping the FNRP as a movement of social action and resistance. After fierce debate inside the FNRP the LIBRE Party  was formed. This has left a division in the Front with some organizations and individuals deciding not to participate in the electoral party even though they continue to be in resistance and are organizing for social demands (for example indigenous rights). Because the LIBRE Party itself represents a broad movement of resistance it has five formal factions corresponding to differing viewpoints and ideologies within the resistance movement.  Right now they are preparing for the primary and internal elections on November 18th in which LIBRE supporters will choose the candidates from the slates offered by the different factions. Then the national elections will take place in November of 2013 There are slates of candidates for local, municipal, provincial and national positions. The internal groupings have each proposed their own slate of candidates for congress, municipalities, etc. but all have united around one candidate for the presidency Xiomara Castro Zelaya, the wife of President Zelaya. 

The most recent polls are showing Xiomara with more than 25% of the vote more than any other candidate. Alvarez of the National Party was polled at 18%. This means that if there is no fraud or violence that interferes, LIBRE should win the Presidency in November 2013. Gerardo noted that the government and the oligarchy are selling off everything in the country that they can. More than 30% of the country has been concessioned to mining interests, privatization and privatizing of utilities, pension systems and militarization are taking away everything the people everything they have. Most people in Honduras want a change and “ for the first time in Honduran history there is a left wing party with the possibility of winning” so the oligarchy is unsure of whether they can keep their power in Honduras. There are risks that they won’t allow LIBRE to win. He feels that the Frente is not putting all of its hope in elections, they know that they need to keep the Frente organized as a movement.  He ended by asking the international solidarity and human rights organizations to come to Honduras as international observers, “we need people to be here for the elections”. 

Berta Oliva - Committe of the Families of the Disappeared (COFADEH)

On September 1, COFADEH always sets up a vigil in front of the Congress Building in Tegucigalpa to commemorate the victims of human rights abuses over the past 30 years after commemorated all the disappeared on August 30 with is International Day for the Disappeared. Our delegation visited the vigil and interviewed families of the disappeared who were participating, then we went to the COFADEH office to talk to Berta Oliva. 

 “They are hunting down campesinos; the big landowners are powerful enough to be able to get judges to issue orders of eviction  for land that they don’t even own. We have a situation where there are death squads, assassins and absolute control of the people but it is a hidden war. Everyone who has been with the resistance has a file and they (the government and the powerful) are taking revenge.  For example, at least 7 of the people who stayed with Zelaya while he was in refuge at the Brazilian Embassy have been killed. Now with the elections coming the political elite are so afraid of the LIBRE Party they are killing candidates” (4 candidates have been killed and other LIBRE party activists have also been murdered). The people from LIBRE are getting killed, and it's going to get worse.  The increasing violence is a product of the desperation of the two party system… So they're going to have to step up repression even more before the elections so as to terrorize people from voting”. Berta also worries that the oligarchy and repressive apparatus may not allow LIBRE to take office even if somehow fair elections are held. 

Berta is raising the alarm as well about a new development in which defenders of human rights such as COFADEH have become the targets of human rights violations. “Compañeras working for COFADEH have been threatened, followed and even had their homes placed under electronic surveillance and broken into”. 

One case that COFADEH has been involved in is the case of the  indigenous villagers in Ahuas who were killed and wounded in the DEA-Honduran security forces operation in the Mosquitia. “COFADEH and others had to intervene to obtain medical care for the survivors and continue to be involved in  obtaining the ongoing medical care needed at the same time as they try to pursue the case in the legal, human rights arena. Bertha expressed outrage at the recent report issued by the Honduran government that claims that the two women victims were not pregnant as their families had reported, “ officials did perform an autopsy and then 40 days after the deaths they exhumed the victims without following proper procedures to protect the chain of evidence and right in the cemetery they opened up the bodies and removed organs which they say proved the women were not pregnant.  Witnesses contradict  that claim and at any rate there is no proof because there is no evidence now”

.

The situation has become very critical and Bertha emphasized that COFADEH needs international support and help in meeting the challenges that they are facing, “international solidarity needs to prepare to play a role like it did right after the coup. We also need people who can help us take the testimony from victims to make reports on the situation in all the regions that we're not in. Victims of violations are coming to COFADEH  but under the current situation they are not just coming to file a complaint and don’t just need some support and legal representation; victims are coming to COFADEH in need of emergency relocation and medical and psychological help as well as representation to pursue a complaint.

“I'm not going to paint you a pretty picture, because it's not pretty. It would be irresponsible of me”