April 17th - International Day of Campesino Struggle From Honduras to Chicago - Fighting for land, food and justice.

On April 17th campesino and all kinds of rural as well as urban land and water rights groups participate  in the International Day of Farmer and Peasant Struggle.  The April 17th date was chosen by the international organization Via Campesina in 1996 to commemorate the massacre of 19 Brazilian peasants organized in the MST (Movement of Landless Workers) in Eldorado dos Carajas , Brazil at the same time as the Via Campesina’s international assembly. This year once again there were activities around the globe including both Honduras and Chicago. A representative from La Voz de los de Abajo attended some of the events in Chicago. 
Article by V. Cervantes

Campesinos in Honduras  - Agrarian Reform Now and Stop Criminalizing Campesinos!

April 17,Tegucigalpa - foto L. Rivera, OnNoticias

In Honduras the campesino organizations that belong to Via Campesina, including the CNTC (National Center for Rural Workers), held a march and a one day occupation of the plaza at the Honduran Congress on April 17th. They are demanding agrarian reform and an end to the criminalization of the campesino movement.  For Honduran campesino and indigenous communities the fight for land, food, and water continues to be framed by violence, evictions, and displacement of their communities. Since the military coup of June 2009 more than 200 campesinos and campesinas have been murdered because of their participation in land struggles.  6,000 campesinos and campesinas have some type of criminal charges against them and are on probation, awaiting trials or in jail related to their activism. The protest condemned the fact that a week earlier, near the northern town of Las Lomitas, 5 members of an organized campesino community that has been on the land for 10 years were arrested and were still in jail as of April 17th. Campesino leaders are emphatic in their analysis that the only solution to violence in the countryside and the repression against the campesinos, as well as a way forward out of poverty in the countryside and food dependency, is an integral, equitable land reform that puts land and meaningful agrarian assistance in the hands of the campesinos. Three years ago the campesino movement in Honduras wrote a real land reform law and got it introduced into the Congress but it was then tabled and has disappeared from sight.   

Also on April 17th, Honduran government authorities accompanied by police arrived for “an inspection” of the embattled CNTC campesino community “9th de Julio” in the province of La Paz. This inspection was supposed to be a surprise and the authorities expected to find only a small number of campesinos on the land at that time. However, the CNTC discovered the inspection plan and the community was accompanied by a large number of other campesinos and supporters in La Paz. CNTC leaders stated that the inspection was part of ongoing intimidation and part of the strategy to displace the campesinos. Fabricio Velásquez, one of the leaders of the community was  interviewed by  Defensores En Linea and stated that the authorities were visibly startled to find so many campesinos and, although the campesinos did nothing to deter the inspection, the officials and police only stayed perhaps 15 minutes. The “9th of July” community is emblematic of the organized campesino struggle in Honduras — they have been evicted more than 26 times in 7 years, 3 times in just the past 12 months. Each time their houses and crops are destroyed, but they return to rebuild and replant, despite the fact that all of the leaders have  criminal charges made against them. La Voz de los de Abajo has visited “9 de Julio”  a number of times and there are several articles in Honduras Resists with more information about CNTC land recuperations. 

April 17th In Chicago: Farmers, Environmental Justice and International Solidarity 

April 17, Chicago, foto Family Farm Defenders

In Chicago, Via Campesina supporters and food sovereignty activists from Family Farm Defenders, Friends of the MST, and Food and Water Watch also held actions and educational forums on April 17th. There were actions at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange during the day to protest that institution's price setting that is driving small dairy farmers out of existence and another action at the offices of TIAA Financial Services against land grabbing pension fund speculation that hurts both small farmers and pensioners.

In the evening a representative from La Voz de los de Abajo attended the educational forums. Joel Greeno (Family Farm Defenders), Jessica Fujian (Food and Water Watch) and Amy Mall (Family Farm Defenders) spoke on food sovereignty and environmental justice, and Jeff Frank of the Friends of the Brazilian MST reported on the International Land Reform Conference held in Brazil in 2016.  He also gave an update on the wave of repression and criminalization of the MST since the 2016 coup against President Dilma Rousseff. Two MST members have been arrested, the MST school was attacked by the police and fighting for land reform is being treated as a criminal conspiracy. 

The speakers drew many connections between the farmers and peasant struggles in South America and Central America with the struggles in the United States including supporting the Native people’s fight to defend water and territories in the US and the No DAPL movement, and the struggles of urban and rural communities for environmental justice and healthy food.

They were familiar with the campesino and indigenous movements in Honduras through groups like Grassroots International and Agricultural Missions that along with La Voz de los de Abajo are members of the Honduras Solidarity Network, and they invited La Voz to given an update on the situation for the campesinos in Honduras and the campaign for support for justice for Berta Caceres, indigenous leader assassinated in 2016.

March 1, Tegucigalpa
foto V. Cervantes

This is one more example of the importance and the possibilities of building more mutual solidarity to confront the attacks on the peoples' movements in the world today. 

For More Information

www.viacampesina.org

www.defensoresenlinea.com

www.mstbrazil.org

www.foodandwaterwatch.org

www.familyfarmdefenders.org

www.foodandwaterwatch.org

Declaration - Declaración La Voz de los de Abajo March/Marzo 2017

English follows the Spanish

Declaración de La Voz de los de Abajo ChicagoTierra y Territorios: Campesinos y Pueblos Indígenas en Honduras siguen bajo ataque

     Del 26 de febrero al 11 de marzo de 2017, La Voz de los de Abajo organización con sede en Chicago, coordinó una delegación a Honduras de miembros y dirigentes de organizaciones de derechos humanos, de justicia ambiental, de jóvenes y estudiantes, religiosas, sindicales y solidarias, para la conmemoración del aniversario del asesinato de Berta Cáceres Flores.Nuestra delegación se reunió con defensores hondureños de derechos humanos y con organizaciones y comunidades que defienden los derechos a la tierra y a los territorios, entre ellas COPINH, la CNTC y OFRANEH.     El propósito de esta declaración es destacar y denunciar ejemplos específicos de violaciones a los derechos humanos y las amenazas, violencia y acciones contra las organizaciones mencionadas y contra los defensores hondureños que los acompañan. También reafirmamos enfáticamente nuestra oposición al financiamiento por el gobierno de Estados Unidos que contribuye a la militarización y al clima de inseguridad y violencia en el país. Destacamos también que la investigación sobre el asesinato de Berta debe incluir la investigación de posibles vínculos con el ejército estadounidense de algunos de los acusados de su muerte. Los testimonios que recibimos durante esta delegación confirman los informes de otras organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos de que existe una colusión preocupante entre las élites locales y nacionales, los proyectos hídricos y mineros, el crimen organizado y el aparato estatal.

COPINH y la comunidad de Río Blanco, Intibucá     Un año después del asesinato de Berta Cáceres, su familia y su organización continúan exigiendo una investigación seria, independiente del gobierno hondureño, sobre quién ordenó, planificó y llevó a cabo el asesinato. Los líderes y miembros del COPINH (Consejo Cívico de los Pueblos Indígenas de Honduras) informan que continúan recibiendo amenazas de daño físico, atentados contra sus vidas y amenazas de criminalización contra la organización. Visitamos la comunidad de Río Blanco donde se encuentra el proyecto hidroeléctrico DESA. Los miembros de la comunidad relataron sus experiencias de ser atacados físicamente, amenazados y acosados por empleados de DESA y por fuerzas policiales y militares debido a su oposición al proyecto DESA Agua Zarca. Expresaron su temor de nuevos ataques. Nuestro grupo también asistió a una conferencia de prensa en Tegucigalpa el 1 de marzo de 2017 para Suyapa Martínez del Centro de Estudios de la Mujer en Honduras (CEM-H). La Sra. Martínez es una defensora de derechos humanos acusada de difamación por la empresa constructora DESA en relación con el asesinato de Berta Cáceres. Cabe señalar que es ampliamente difundido, declarado públicamente e publicado en Honduras que algunos representantes del DESA en sus más altos niveles amenazaron directamente a Berta y deben ser investigados. Algunos empleados de DESA de nivel inferior están entre los arrestados en el caso de Berta. Aunque un juez rechazó recientemente los cargos de difamación, el caso de la señora Martinez es considerado como un ejemplo más de intentos de intimidar y silenciar a los defensores de derechos humanos, abogados y periodistas. También se considera parte de un intento descarado de silenciar el llamado a una investigación independiente del asesinato de Berta Caceres.

La CNTC y la comunidad "9 de Julio" en La Paz.     Nuestro grupo visitó la comunidad de la CNTC (Centro Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo) en Tutule llamada "9 de Julio". Esta comunidad ha sido desalojada 26 veces, al menos 3 veces con violencia, incluyendo la más reciente el 13 de enero de 2017. Los miembros de La Voz también visitaron la comunidad después de un desalojo violento previo en mayo de 2016. Estos desalojos se caracterizaron por asaltos masivos con gases lacrimógenos y con policías y unidades militares disparando munición real a los campesinos. El 13 de enero, Víctor Vázquez, presidente del Consejo Indígena de Simpinula, La Paz, y líder de la organización Lenca MILPAH en La Paz, recibió un disparo en la rodilla mientras observaba y grababa video del desalojo. Al mismo tiempo, un miembro del grupo campesino sufrió una seria lesión en la mano por un proyectil de gas lacrimógeno disparado directamente contra los campesinos y una mujer de la comunidad sufrió un aborto involuntario. 
     En el desalojo en mayo de 2016, dos miembros de la comunidad CNTC sufrieron heridas de bala. Este reciente desalojo ocurrió antes de que se recibiera una decisión judicial por un recurso presentado a principios de enero por el Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (COFADEH) y otros representantes legales de los campesinos. La tierra estaba abandonada y en barbecho hasta que el grupo campesino, formado por familias jóvenes sin tierra, comenzara a trabajarla. Ellos construyeron un sistema de agua, sembraron cultivos de hortalizas para desarrollar la producción agrícola sostenible y construyeron pequeñas casas con jardines de flores. Fue entonces cuando una de las élites locales, Carlos Arriaga, empezó a reclamar la tierra. Arriaga es un pariente del alcalde de la ciudad de Tutule, Will Guevara, quien ha estado presente en varios desalojos.      Tras el desalojo del 13 de enero, Arriaga apareció en la televisión nacional denunciando a las familias campesinas y pidiendo al gobierno hondureño que lo ayudara a deshacerse de ellas. Han habido algunas negociaciones con Arriaga pero él ha insistido en que los campesinos tendrían que comprarle la tierra a precios exorbitantes por acre para reembolsarle por "mejoras". Sin embargo, la tierra es "ejidal" o tierra pública elegible para la distribución a los sin tierra. Los campesinos han hecho mejoras significativas en la tierra, ademas de que han tenido que reconstruir sus casas y replantar cultivos en numerosas ocasiones. Este caso es emblemático de la situación del campo para los campesinos, sobre todo en las regiones indígenas del país donde los miembros de la élite económica y política están vinculados al poder político y están interesados en los ingresos que pueden recibir de los mega-proyectos mineros y hidroeléctricos.        Organizaciones campesinas como la CNTC piden que se ponga fin a la criminalización de los campesinos (hay miles en el sistema de justicia penal por "delitos de tierra") y hay necesidad de una nueva reforma agraria integral para resolver la urgente necesidad de miles de campesinos pobres y sin tierra  para para cultivar. Sin tal reforma y un fin a la represión hay poca esperanza de lograr una seguridad en términos de alimentación o de la integridad física de los que viven en el campo.

OFRANEH y la comunidad de Barra Vieja     La comunidad Garífuna de Barra Vieja, cerca de Tela, Atlántida, ha existido por más de 100 años como una de las 48 comunidades garífunas localizadas en la costa norte de Honduras. La comunidad mantiene su lengua materna y su cultura económica y social. A partir de 2007 las elites económicas y políticas comenzaron a tratar de desplazar a la comunidad de 127 personas para desarrollar proyectos de mega-turismo en las playas prístinas del área de Tela. Líderes de la comunidad dijeron a nuestra delegación que a partir de 2013 estos intentos se hicieron más agresivos ya que el exclusivo Indura Beach Resort y Golf Club (ahora conectado a la cadena Hilton) fue construido en tierra que también formaba parte de Barra Vieja y otras comunidades cercanas. Vimos la estación de guardia con guardias armados y una cerca que corre hasta el borde del agua y evita que los aldeanos puedan acceder a la playa o las palmeras (manaca) que necesitan para renovar sus casas. Los y las estudiantes jóvenes de Barra Vieja no pueden caminar la distancia más corta a lo largo de la playa para llegar a su escuela en la aldea siguiente y tienen que conseguir el transporte o caminar una distancia larga y desprotegida para llegar a la escuela.       En 2014 se emitieron órdenes de desalojo contra la comunidad. La policía intentó desalojar a la comunidad en abril de 2014 sin éxito y en septiembre de 2014 un gran contingente de policías y militares fuertemente armados entró en la comunidad obligando a los residentes a salir de su casa. Varios residentes ancianos murieron en los días después del desalojo, mientras muchos residentes volvieron otra vez para recuperar sus hogares y la tierra. OFRANEH expuso el hecho de que la propia orden de desalojo no cumplía con los requisitos legales y también que es un hecho que el artículo 169 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, que protege los derechos de las comunidades indígenas, se aplica a los garífunas de Honduras. Los cargos de robo de tierras contra los líderes y residentes de Barra VIeja fueron anulados en la corte, pero los funcionarios y promotores no han renunciado a los esfuerzos legales y extrajudiciales para desplazar a la comunidad; Muchos de los aldeanos han abandonado temporalmente sus hogares debido a las constantes amenazas y acoso. 

      Consideramos que estos tres casos son indicativos de las crisis de derechos humanos en curso en Honduras que se apoyan en la impunidad y la intimidación. Hay otros casos serios que no podemos tratar hoy en esta declaración.  Hemos visto la declaración del vicepresidente estadounidense Pence después de la visita del presidente Hernández a Estados Unidos el 23 de marzo de 2017. Nuestra experiencia y la experiencia de las personas y organizaciones hondureñas que conocemos, contradicen la afirmación del Sr. Pence de que ha habido "importantes avances que ha hecho Honduras en los últimos dos años" en el fortalecimiento de la seguridad ciudadana, y en contra de la corrupción, y seguiremos trabajando para detener la ayuda militar y de seguridad de Estados Unidos que compra balas y gases lacrimógenos para su uso en contra el pueblo hondureño.

La Voz de los de Abajo Chicago27 de marzo de 2017
Chicago, Il EUA

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Declaration by La Voz de los de Abajo Chicago
Land and Territories: Campesino and Indigenous Peoples in Honduras Are Still Under Attack

     From February 26 - March 11, 2017,  the Chicago based organization La Voz de los de Abajo coordinated a delegation to Honduras of Chicago student/youth,community environmental justice, religious, human rights, union and solidarity organizations for the one year commemoration of the assassination of Berta Caceres Flores.      Our delegation met with Honduran human rights defenders and with organizations and communities defending land and territory rights including COPINH, the CNTC and OFRANEH. 

     The purpose of this statement is to highlight and denounce specific examples of violations of human rights and the threats, violence and actions against the organizations mentioned and the Honduran human rights defenders who accompany them. We also emphatically reaffirm our opposition to U.S. government funding which contributes to militarization and the climate of insecurity and violence in the country. We wish to emphasize as well that the investigation into Berta’s murder must include the investigation of possible ties to the US military of some of those accused of her death. The testimony we received during this delegation affirms the reports of other international human rights organizations that there is a disturbing collusion of forces between local and national elites, water and mining projects, organized crime and the state apparatus. 

COPINH and the community of Rio Blanco, Intibucá     One year after Berta Caceres’ murder, her family and organization continue to demand a serious investigation independent from the Honduran government into who ordered, planned and carried out the assassination. COPINH (Indigenous Peoples Civic Council of Honduras) leaders and members report that they continue to receive threats of physical harm, attempts against their lives, and threats of criminalization against the organization. We visited the Rio Blanco community where the DESA hydroelectric project is located. Community members related their experiences of being physically attacked, threatened and harassed by DESA employees, police and military forces because of their opposition to the DESA Agua Zarca project. They expressed their fears of further attacks. 
     Our group also attended a press conference in Tegucigalpa on March 1, 2017 for Suyapa Martinez of the Center for Women’s Studies in Honduras (CEM-H). Ms. Martinez is a human rights defender accused of defamation by the DESA construction company related to the murder of Berta Caceres.  It should be noted that it is widely held, stated publicly and printed in Honduras that DESA representatives at its highest levels directly threatened Berta and should be investigated. Some lower level DESA employees are among those arrested in Berta’s case. Although a judge recently rejected the charges, Ms. Martinez’s case is considered to be one more example of attempts to intimidate and silence human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists. It is also considered to be part of a blatant attempt to silence the call for an independent investigation of Berta Caceres’ murder. 

The CNTC and the “9 de Julio” community in La Paz.     Our group visited the CNTC (National Center for Farm Workers) community in Tutule called “9 de Julio”. This community has been evicted 26 times, at least 3 times with violence including most recently on January 13, 2017.  Members of La Voz also visited the community after previous violent eviction in May, 2016. These evictions were characterized by massive tear gas assaults and police and military units firing live ammunition at the campesinos. 
     On January 13, Victor Vazquez the President of the Indigenous Council of Simpinula, La Paz and leader of the Lenca organization MILPAH in La Paz was shot in the knee as he observed and video taped the eviction. At the same time a member of the campesino group suffered a serious hand injury from a tear gas projectile fired directly at the campesinos, and a woman from the community suffered a miscarriage. 
     In the eviction in May 2016 two members of the CNTC community suffered gunshot wounds. This recent eviction occurred before any  court decision was received for an appeal submitted in early January by the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared Detainees (COFADEH) and other legal representatives of the campesinos.  The land was abandoned and fallow before the campesino group, made up of young families with no land, began working. They built  a water system, planted vegetable crops to develop sustainable agriculture production and built small homes with flower gardens. That is when one of the local elite, Carlos Arriaga, began pressing a claim to the land. Arriaga is a relative of the mayor of the town of Tutule, Will Guevara, who has been present at several evictions. After the January 13th eviction, Arriaga appeared on national television denouncing the campesino families and calling on the Honduran government to help him get rid of them. There have been some negotiations with Arriaga but he has insisted that the campesinos would have to buy the land from him at exorbitant prices per acre to reimburse him for “improvements”.  However, the land is ‘ejidal” or public land eligible for distribution to the landless.  The campesinos have made significant improvements to the land, as well as having had to rebuild their homes and replant crops numerous times. 
     This case is emblematic of the situation in the countryside for the campesinos, especially in the indigenous regions of the country where members of the economic and political elite are is tied to political power and economic gain from mining and hydroelectric mega-projects. 
     Campesino organizations such as the CNTC call for a stop to the criminalization of the campesinos (there are thousands in the criminal justice system for “land crimes”) and for the passing of a new, integral agrarian reform to resolve the urgent need of thousands of landless and poor small farmers for land to cultivate. Without such a reform and end to the repression there is little hope for food and physical security in the countryside. 

OFRANEH and the community of Barra Vieja       The Garifuna community of Barra Vieja near Tela, Atlantida has existed for more than 100 years as one of some 48 Garifuna communities located on the northern coast of Honduras.  The community maintains its native language and economic and social culture.  Beginning in 2007 the economic and political elites began trying to displace the 127 person community in order to develop mega-tourism projects on the pristine beaches of the Tela area. Community leaders told our delegation that beginning in 2013 these attempts became more aggressive as the exclusive Indura Beach Resort and Golf Club (now connected to Hilton) was built on land that was also part of Barra Vieja and other nearby communities. We saw the guard station with armed guards and a fence that runs all the way to the water’s edge and keeps the villagers from being able to access the beach or the palms (manaca) that they need to refurbish their homes. School children from Barra Vieja cannot walk the shorter distance along the beach to their school in the next village but have to get transportation or walk a long, unprotected distance to get to school.  
     In 2014 eviction orders were issued against the community. Police tried to evict the community in April of 2014 without success and in September 2014 a large contingent of heavily armed police and military entered the community forcing the residents out of their home. Several elderly residents died in the days after the eviction, while many residents returned again to recuperate their homes and land. OFRANEH exposed the fact that the eviction order itself did not meet the legal requirements and the fact that the International Labor Organization Article 169 protecting the rights of indigenous communities applies to the Garifuna in Honduras.  Charges of land theft against Barra Vieja leaders and residents were overturned in court, but the officials and developers have not given up either legal and extra-judicial efforts to displace the community; many of the villagers have temporarily left their homes due to the constant threats and harassment. 


     We believe that these three cases are indicative of the ongoing human rights crises in Honduras that rests on impunity and intimidation. There are other serious cases that we are unable to develop in this declaration today. We have seen the statement by the US Vice President Pence after the March 23, 2017 visit by President Hernandez to the US. Our experience and the experience of the Honduran individuals and organizations we know contradicts Mr. Pence’s assertion that there has been “important progress that Honduras has made over the past two years” in strengthening citizen security and fighting corruption, and we will continue to work to stop US military and security aid that buys bullets and tear gas to be used against the Honduran people. 

La Voz de los de Abajo
March 27, 2017
Chicago, Il USA

“Made in the U.S.A”: Take Action for Honduran Campesinos

From February 28 - March 8, 2017, a La Voz de los de Abajo delegation was in Honduras for the commemoration of Berta Caceres' murder a year ago. We also visited campesino communities. This is an article by a delegation participant from our Chicago partners in solidarity with Honduras, CRLN. 

“Made in the U.S.A”: CNTC Land Recuperation Efforts Hurt by U.S. “Security” Aid

Reflections by Sharon Hunter-Smith, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Tegucigalpa and La Paz, Honduras; March 6, 2017

Our group from Chicago stood staring at the rough wooden table, which held 2-dozen or so spent tear gas canisters plus a couple of bullet shells, collected by the 9th of July community from the area immediately surrounding the place where we stood. The largest one, designed to be fired from a rifle, was stamped “Made in U.S.A.” The connection between U.S. military and police aid to Honduras and the violent persecution of impoverished Honduran farmers was crystal clear in the objects before us.

The original rural community of 28 families has been tear gassed and evicted from their simple hand-built dwellings and cultivated land 26 times by the Honduran military or police. In the last surprise eviction on January 13, 2017, the police followed the fleeing people, even women and children, across the valley, shooting all the way. One man was shot in the leg and a pregnant woman miscarried after running away, panicked, from the “security” forces. They also tore down and burned houses, stole or burned possessions and tools left in and around the houses, and cut down some of the fruit trees and crops. Since then, the women and children, have moved to a nearby community while the men have re-occupied the land.

“Thanks be to God that we continue to live on this land,” said one man. After each violent eviction, the community’s commitment is to return and resettle on the land within 24 hours of being pushed off, rebuilding houses and restoring crops as they are able. The bravery and endurance that this strategy demands is fed by their hope of land ownership. They experience other threats in the form of arrest warrants against them and death threats from the national or military police. “Every time we receive a group of international people who are in solidarity with us, it gives us the strength to keep going on with our struggle,” said another.

The irony is that if this were a pioneer story under a different government, these people would be heroes. This community of formerly landless people, organized by the Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC--National Center of Rural Workers), settled this abandoned and desert-like land in 2010. They dug trenches and bought plastic pipes to carry water for irrigation and drinking water from a spring 3 kilometers away. They planted fruit trees and other crops to feed their families. A dry hillside turned green and provided a way to make a living. The CNTC which was founded in 1985 currently works with 203 other communities, like 9th of July, who are reclaiming land and putting it to good use in 14 of the 18 Honduran departments (what in the U.S. would be called states).

The National Agrarian Reform Law of 1962 provided that idle land fit for farming could be expropriated and awarded to indigent and landless persons by the government, and land was redistributed under this Law. However, the 1993 neoliberal Law of Agrarian Modernization gutted the agrarian reform,increasing inequality among landowners and increasing the desperation of the rural poor. To force the issue and obtain the land essential for rural people to support themselves and their families, the CNTC works with landless people to settle and plant on unused, undeveloped or abandoned land. The occupants then file for title with the Honduran National Agrarian Institute (INA) after some years of living on and working the land. 

The 9th of July community is the most persecuted of all the CNTC communities, but others usually are evicted at least several times in their struggle to obtain land. How long do they have to be on the land before they are granted a title? “We don’t know with this administration. They are not on our side,” answered one man. Some of the CNTC communities have lived and worked on their land for 15-20 years and still do not have title. Others have succeeded in their efforts.

Putting this into an even larger context for us, CNTC General Secretary Franklin Almendares explained that 64% of Honduran people are rural, impoverished, and displaced or facing displacement from their land for lack of a title to it. 46% live in extreme poverty. “We are not poor—our land is rich—but we are impoverished, because they throw us off the land on which we live and farm. They want to annihilate those who speak out, who protest, who object to and challenge this system.” At the same time, Almendares pointed out, when large corporate landowners take land without having title to it, the government is complicit with their actions and grant them titles.

Visiting a second land recuperation project, CNTC organizers led us to a piece of land on a plantation that had been abandoned for decades, its owner living in Tegucigalpa.14 young men and boys, most in their teens and early twenties, had arrived on the land 11 days earlier at night.They had made pup tents from pieces of plastic and canvas held up by sticks for shelter, and had begun clearing trees so that they could begin to create fields to plant. The youngest among them appeared to be around 11 years old. They seemed wary and shy,  vulnerable and scared. Most did not talk to us, letting the CNTC organizers and the elected head of their group explain to us their situation.

All wanted to acquire some land to work on and have something to hope for. They eventually wanted to start a family and needed a way to support them. Without land, they had no hope, and without hope, they had nothing to live for.

The CNTC organizers  told us that after arriving, the group did not sleep for three nights, worried that the police would find them and evict them. They also had not slept outside before with insects and snakes in the area, and they were getting used to that. With encouraging words, the CNTC organizers told the group that eviction is just a passing misfortune on the way to acquiring land and homes and community. Every group had experienced this, and many had eventually earned their titles. They must work and have hope that they, too, will be successful one day, because this path is the only one that offers them any hope.

What can those of us in the U.S. do to stop the persecution of communities working with the CNTC? Call your Congressional Representative’s office, ask to speak with or leave a message for the staff responsible for foreign policy, and request that they co-sponsor H.R. 2199, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act. This would suspend all U.S. security aid to Honduras, including equipment and training, until they cease their human rights violations. We must stop U.S. funding that enables the Honduran government to use violence against its own people, people who only want a chance to support their families and contribute to the life of their communities.

La Paz - Resisting Criminalization

June 24-25th La Paz

V. Cervantes

We left Progreso early on Friday and took a bus to San Jose, La Paz.  Walking down the road towards the regional center I could see their new radio antenna tower rising up behind the building. La Voz de los de Abajo and Chicago’s Radios Populares have worked with the campesino radio project with the CNTC in La Paz for more than 8 years and we always check in with the local communities in La Paz. 

When we arrived a workshop was in progress with a lawyer from Via Campesina on the topic of the “law and the campesino movement”.  This is a timely topic for the campesinos and campesinas in La Paz where the criminalization of the campesinos is ferocious.  There are 18 local CNTC campesinos with arrest warrants currently, including the regional General Secretary,  and many more on probation — all for their participation in the agrarian movement to recuperate land for the small landless farmers. 8 members of one La Paz CNTC campesino group named after Honduran human rights defender Juan Almendares, spent three months in prison last year under very difficult conditions that affected their health. This included 3 members of the regional leadership committee of the organization. Nationally, the CNTC has 5 members in jail now and  thousands more who have been charged. 

When we sat down and talked to the campesinos and campesinas they told us that the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez is not only arresting more campesinos but also charging them with more serious crimes. A few years ago they would be charged with usurpation of land or theft and now for the same actions of recuperating land, they are being charged with terrorism, weapons charges (for having work tools like machetes) also,  the penalties for things like deforestation (for cutting down one tree) used to be minor but now can mean 4-7 years imprisonment.  

In early May of this year I accompanied a recently evicted La Paz campesino group called “9th de Julio” whose members had their houses destroyed and their crops burnt out, and two of their members wounded when police opened fire against them.  On Saturday we were invited by the regional CNTC to visit the “9th de Julio” again. We found that the campesino families have rebuilt all their houses and replanted some of their crops despite being under threat of another eviction and despite the existence of  arrest warrants against their members. The men and women in the community explained that they had taken land that was fallow and turned it into land that provided food, not only for their families, but enough to take to the local markets and sell. The community has more than 20 children and the families talked about the trauma for the children of having seen police and military come into their homes, destroying everything and firing weapons. They explained that they have to teach their children the importance and necessity of what they are doing and why they are organized. The president of the coop told us that they know that this struggle for the land is necessary for their survival; if they loose the land and homes they have worked so hard for they will have absolutely nothing and will be living on the side of the road. 

In the evening on Saturday we joined two of the compañeros who were on the air on Radio Suyuguare (a Lenca indigenous word that means land of hills and valleys). The communities in La Paz are overwhelmingly Lencan and the CNTC region embraces their cultural and traditions. The radio project has applied for a community radio license and broadcasts 7 days a week from 1 to 9pm. There is a team of mostly young campesinos and campesinas who take turns broadcasting and they have shows that talk about indigenous rights, the campesino movement, news, environmental issues and also play music and take dedications. It was impressive to see and hear all the calls and messages coming in during the broadcast, showing us that they have a strong audience in the region. Samuel and Orlando explained to us the importance of the radio project for their work in organizing and educating the communities, for making alliances with other community members who are not in the campesino movement and finally for them as young campesinos as an activity that has opened up new knowledge and opportunities to participate in national and regional networks and events. 

Environmental issues are extremely important in La Paz. The ruling party leader and Vice President of the National Congress is from La Paz: Gladys Aurora  and her husband are strong supporters and business partners with many of the big hydroelectric and mining projects already begun in the beautiful mountainous region. In fact there are projects named Aurora 1, Aurora 2, Aurora 3. The campesino communities strongly oppose the destruction of the indigenous territories and of the agricultural land that these projects bring but they told us that the government in partnership with the construction companies and international companies are waging a war against the opposition with bribery, false promises to bring positive development to the poor communities, threats and finally with assassinations like that of indigenous leader Berta Caceres of COPINH in the nearby province of Intibuca. 

On Sunday we will head to La Esperanza, Intíbuca to express our solidarity with COPINH and to  talk to COPINH and to Berta Caceres’ family about their struggle for justice. 

Violent evictions today and campaign against international observers

May 11

The Human Rights Observation Mission spent most of the day traveling from the Aguan Valley back to Tegucigalpa where there will be a public forum on Thursday to discuss the Mission’s finding but we received news of more repression and new government attacks on human rights defenders and journalists.  

This morning, in Tutule, La Paz two campesinos from the campesino group 9th of July (9 de Julio) community were wounded when 12 police vehicles and 80 soldiers carried out a violent eviction, using bulldozers to destroy houses, crops  of fifty families who have lived and worked on the land for 7 years. The security forces fired live ammunition wounding Johnny Alfredo Mejia Torres and Edwin Murillo. At the same time  5 patrol cars arrived at the home of Wilman Chávez, General Secretary of the La Paz region of the Central Nacional de los Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC) to arrest him. 

Franklin Almendares
photo from conexihon

The National General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendares reported to the media that the men, women and children of the community were forced to run and attempt to hide in the mountains from the troops. He also reported that this eviction is to benefit a local political power, Carlos Arriaga. In a phone interview with Franklin Almendares  this evening he said that the two wounded men received treatment and will recover and that there is a court hearing tomorrow morning for those who were arrested. He called for human rights organizations both national and international to accompany the community and their organization. 

In Tegucigalpa, the General Secretary for the Administration of the Government, Jorge Ramón Hernández Alcerro held a press conference where he condemned international observers and press for “inciting violence” referring to the protests this week by COPINH that were repressed by the police. He said that he was instructing the Honduran immigration service to identify foreigners who are participating in the protests or inciting violence. At least one international observer, Giulia Fellin who has been accompanying COPINH was harassed and interfered with as she tried to go to her embassy today. Another National Party politician claimed that foreign journalists are inciting violence, creating images and causing problems for the government. With this the government continues the campaign of defamation against human rights defenders, journalists and international solidarity and opens the door to more repression against those groups as well as inciting violence against them. 

Honduran Peoples' Movements Assembly

V. Cervantes October 12, 2015

Social movements; movements and communities in permanent resistance, and organizations with a vision of popular power built from below, met in a national assembly in early October in El Progreso. The  Social and Popular Movements Platform was formed two years ago with the goal of building unity among these movements to “retake the strategic political initiative” for a “national transformation”. 

The October 2015 assembly had representatives from more than 20 organizations, somewhat smaller than at their founding assembly. The meeting discussed the challenges they face from the new dictatorship represented by President Juan Orlando Hernandez, the general economic-political crises in the country, repression and criminalization of social protest, and the urgent need for unity by the social movements and groups that want fundamental change.  The assembly agreed on a communique that summarizes their goals, demands and their solidarity with others under attack by the current regime and power groups. The gathering also ratified the Platform’s commitment to “continue building popular power based on a citizens’ mobilization and a proposal to create the structural change that Honduran society wants; to build popular power  with a people’s communication media… and to continue working in an ethical, honest, respectful and fraternal manner to advance unity…..at the national and international level.”  

photo V. Cervantes

Social movements in Latin America refer to movements that represent certain sectors of society,  for example, campesinos, labor, indigenous peoples, or women. The social movement organizations and other groups active in the Platform include the organizations that formed the “Refoundational” trend in the FNRP and were opposed to the FNRP’s move into electoral politics with LIBRE, for example, COPINH, OFRANEH, and the Movimiento Amplio para Dignidad y Justicia (MADJ), as well as the Jesuit human rights, social research and communication group, ERIC-SJ/Radio Progreso.  The assembly also had the participation of important campesino organizations from the Bajo Aguan and regional centers of the CNTC that participate in LIBRE and the FNRP,  but also represent the campesino sector as a social movement. 

The campesino organizations spoke eloquently about the need for unity if they are to have a chance to survive the current attacks against them and win any space for their communities with an agrarian reform. The coordinator of OFRANEH, Mirian Mirando and of COPINH, Berta Caceres, spoke strongly about the attacks and challenges to their peoples’ continued existence as peoples and the difficult situation for their movements. Also participating in the meeting were human rights defenders, environmentalist community organizations, activists from poor people's movements (pobladores), the indignant (indignados) movement, unions, and popular movements from the Aguan. 

October 1
Photo Honduras Tierra Libre

There was thoughtful discussion at the assembly about the last two years and the challenges brought to the social movements by the rise of the Indignados (Indignant) movement.  There was an acknowledgement that as the Platform they had difficulty in developing a program or relationship related to the indignados. The indignado movement rose massively in the Spring of 2015, against corruption and impunity, and demanding an international, independent investigative commission (CICIH), after the blatant corruption of President Hernandez’s government and National Party in robbing more than 350 million dollars from the public health system was uncovered. However, there were several different orientations in that movement including people and groups from the resistance movement against the coup, people who were opposed to the coup but stayed outside the FNRP,  as well as people and groups that supported the coup in 2009 but were outraged by the corruption. The indignados movement as a mass response was analyzed to be fading out; it was noted that turn out for a national day of action on October 1st by the indignados closest to the FNRP and youth organization was very small numerically compared to earlier mobilizations and was boycotted by the more conservative sectors of the indignados. Despite being much smaller than before, there were highway takeovers and other actions in many parts of the country and in multiple neighborhoods of Tegucigalpa, all of which were repressed by military and police forces.  The assembly discussed concern on how to build unity with the people and groups that were activated by this indignation and who share the desire for structural change in Honduras. 

Repression - October 1
photo Honduras Tierra Libre

Another point of discussion was concern by many of the participants in the assembly was that once the electoral season opens again (next year), it will be even more difficult to mobilize for action in support of the social movements’ ongoing and permanent resistance because of the “electoral fever” generated by the media and the political parties. 

The PMSP reiterated its support and participation in the campaigns in defense of the defenders of the right to public education, the right to land, common-good resources, freedom of expression and women’s rights; called for justice for all the assassinated activists, condemned criminalization and repression against protest and social movements and declared the struggles of the Garifuna people as well as indigenous peoples in general to be the struggle of all the movements. 

Original Spanish PSMP Communicado

War on Drugs? War on Campesinos

The country is buzzing about the arrest of Yankel Rosenthal in Miami for money laundering and the indictment  of Jaime and Yani Rosenthal from one of the most powerful families in Honduras. Karen Spring, the Honduras Coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network has a very thoughtful piece in her Aquí Abajo blog that that lays out both background and things to think about in this "war on drugs" run by Washington DC.  Talking about wars, I am publishing below an article from my visit on Wednesday with the campesino leaders in Progreso from the CNTC.


Conversation with Magdalena Morales & CNTC regional leaders - Progreso
Campesino Movement Still Fighting for Justice and Survival

Wednesday October 7th .
V. Cervantes

Magdalena 

The National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC) in the province of Yoro has 42 organized communities, each with several cooperative projects (campesino empresas).  Magdalena Morales is the general secretary and we were joined by Francisco, Julian and Bernabe, the other members of the regional secretariat. I was eager to get an update on one of their communities in Sulaco that, on August 18th,  was violently evicted from its land after 15 years. The community is named Hernando Figueroa and has been home to two former national General Secretaries of the CNTC.

Sulaco eviction

At least 200 police and military, accompanied by the government Human Rights Commission, arrived at the community with 12 patrol cars, an ambulance, firemen and armored vehicle. No eviction order was shown, but the troops destroyed 20 homes, an evangelical church and about 350 acres of beans, corn and other food crops which represented all the community's cultivation.  Only the intervention by phone of a regional official from the government's Agrarian Institute stopped the violence before the Catholic church and preschool and water purification system were destroyed.

Magdalena said that the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez seems to have new protocols for violence in evictions: using quantities of tear gas, sending in ambulances, firemen and armored vehicles with larger numbers of both military and police troops---as if they were going to war. The group talked about the recent attacks on settlements in Choluteca and Villanueva as examples of how far the government is willing to go in making poor people homeless. Those attacks were documented by social and traditional media so that the whole country could see them, most evictions are not shown on television.

The group also talked about the ongoing intimidations against campesino leaders. In Progreso there was an intense campaign against the CNTC, especially Magdalena during the recuperation of land claimed by the ASUNOSA corporation (part of SAB Miller's operations). Magdalena was criminally charged and all the leadership was threatened. The case against Magdalena was finally negotiated but there remain threats and intimidations, such as surveillance of the leaders' movements. The group felt, in general, that the Hernandez government has unleashed a new campaign against campesino organizations and communities with threats, evictions and the criminalization of the campesino social movement. They said that one of the key fights for the agrarian movement is to fight this criminalization and intimidation.

Julian, Francisco, Bernabe

Francisco explained that his community, 6 de April,  is also under threat of eviction after more than 11 years on their land. They were being titled under President Zelaya's decree (18-2008), which was aimed at resolving hundreds of long-standing agrarian conflicts in favor of the campesinos living and working on recuperated land. After the coup, the decree was annulled and, in the case of 6 de April, a big landowner claimed the land, first demanding payment from the Agrarian Institute and when that was denied moving to the courts to claim title to the land. The campesinos have now been told by the Agrarian Institute that they need to get a lawyer to defend their title, but they do not have the resources to hire private representation. Juan Orlando Hernandez has slashed the budget and and functions of the Agrarian Institute in the past few years so that it no longer provides the same legal and advisory services to the campesinos that it once did.

Magdalena with poster
for Credi-Mujer Law

In the middle of this discussion a reporter and cameraman from the television station, TV Progreso arrived to interview Magdalena about a recent success for the campesino movement, the passage of the Credi-Mujer law in Congress. This law is aimed at increasing gender equity so that poor women and campesinas in the rural areas can get access to credit and other economic assistance. Magdalena talked about the importance of this access in a country with a high percentage of women headed households and single mothers who are struggling to survive. After the reporter left she told me that there are some people who don't feel this small victory is important but that she and other women leaders believe that it will not only help women directly but indirectly will increase access to other services and assistance for poor women in the countryside.

Magdalena began talking about the determination of the organized campesino movement to begin the fight again for Congress to pass their project, the Law for Integral Agrarian Reform with Gender Equity.  She said that they had not been able to win in Congress over the past two years but are gearing up to fight again because only with a just agrarian reform will it be possible to begin to address the extreme poverty and the agrarian conflicts and violence against communities  in the countryside.

Margarita Murillo

Another important campaign that Magdalena said they want to take up is an independent investigation of the assassination of Margarita Murillo, a campesina leader and member of the resistance, killed on August 26, 2014, in nearby Villanueva while working on her parcel of land.

Margarita was a founding member of an early campesino organization, the FENACAMH (National Unity Campesino Front) and of the CNTC. She was kidnaped and tortured during the repressive period of the 1980's and had to go into hiding. She returned and after the coup became active in the resistance. At the time of her murder she had protective measures ordered by the Interamerican Human Rights Commission but, as is usual,  the Honduran government had not complied with requirements to provide protection. Magdalena said that there is a real need for an independent investigation to find out the facts because otherwise there will not be a serious attempt to know what happened.

!Todos Somos Indignados - We Are All Indignant!

On July 31st, Honduran indignad@s which included members of the political opposition, indigenous activists, human rights defenders, students ended their hunger strike which was begun in June to protest the massive corruption and attacks on the political and economic well-being of the Honduran people (see the Honduras Solidarity Network statement below). The massive torchlight marches of thousands of Hondurans are continuing and the people continue to demand President Juan Orlando Hernandez's resignation and prosecution of all those responsible for the corruption. The marches also continue to denounce the attacks on the students, campesinos, indigenous and working people in general and the political repression. This is a time when the movement is re-accessing their tactics and possibilities for winning change. We will be publishing more analysis and information in upcoming posts. 

On July 27th the campesino movement supported by human rights defenders, social movements and LIBRE blocked highways around the country demanding agrarian reform (see article by Charity Crouse below). 

Chabelo and his mother leaving
 the prison in Ceiba
Photo via Dunia Aracely Pérez

On July 24th campesino political prisoner, Jose Isabel "Chabelo" Morales Lopez was released from prison pending another re-trial after his conviction was overturned. He has served almost 7 years in prison. His trial (the third trial!) ia currently scheduled for September 28 and La Voz de los de Abajo joins in the call for support for his permanent freedom. Pressure from international and Honduran human rights and social justice movements was crucial in winning his freedom and will be crucial for his definitive liberty. 

Please sign the petition HEREHere

More information Here

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Which Direction for Honduras

By Charity Crouse

Photo by Duñia Montoya via Bartolo Fuentes

On July 27, 2015 Hondurans Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC),  Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP), organizations comprising Via Campesino, and maquila workers from the village near Progreso blocked the highway between  Tela and San Pedro Sula for four hours to compel the Honduran National Congress to address the myriad issues confronting campesino communities. These issues include the recent revelation of corruption by former Congress leader and current president Juan Orlando Hernandez of siphoning off millions of dollars from the Instituto Hondureno de Seguridad Social (IHSS) to fund his presidential campaign. This action corresponds to those for the last eight weeks by the movement which calls itself Indignados but it also includes long-standing policies of criminalizing land reform activists and targeting communities that tend the land. Currently, more than 5,000 face charges related to the land struggle while many more fight for recognition of land titles awarded since 2008. Farmers and their families are routinely evicted, imprisoned and have even been murdered as land rights are destroyed by the imposition of mining and other resource acquisition interests. Additionally, many of those with corporate and monied oligarchical family ties collude to dispossess entire communities of families of their sovereignty and their means of survival.

In 1962, sweeping land reform measures were passed in Honduras as part of the movement of farmers (campesinos) and indigenous people that united with workers throughout Latin America. These reforms enable communities that work land that was not specifically privately owned to be legally turned over to campesinos for future development. Little land was privately owned at the time and campesino communities and organizations grew throughout Honduras. The Instituto Nacional de Agricultura (INA) was established as an administrative body to coordinate land use practices and designations.

Throughout the 1980s, campesino communities and other leftist activists experienced extensive repression by right-wing governments dominated by an oligarchy who were the primary private landowners in the country and who controlled the private industry along with international companies like Standard Fruit. The U.S. military intervention in Central America in the 1980s basically occupied Honduras and supported the local oligarchy by training and supporting the Honduran troops and death squads that often tortured, disappeared and assassinated resistance leaders and members at their behest. Many of those oligarchs thrived by concentrating wealth and land usage through the proliferation of neoliberal free trade agreements like North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While the development of industry offered job opportunities to many poor Hondurans, the agricultural and cultural base of the nation was dramatically altered as social movements that fought for human rights and economic and social justice were further repressed. Hundreds of human and environmental rights activists were assassinated. 

For those working for the rights of the land and those who sustained it, this repression was codified in law with the passage of the Law of the Modernization of Agriculture in 1993. The Law of Modernization expanded the entrenchment and entitlement of private landowners and industrialists. In addition, the role of INA in mediating land usage issues was turned over to a newly-formed Council of Land and Property, which now regulates land registries and titles. 

The impact has been debilitating for campesino communities. The proliferation of mining and hydroelectric interests that are often owned by foreign companies and officially incorporated and registered on property claimed by the oligarchy has increased to now encompass 35 percent of the public land of Honduras. That means that 35 percent of land once guaranteed to campesino communities has now been absorbed into the nexus of private landowner/corporate control. These concessions along with consolidation of agro and other business interests often operating under similar circumstances as the mines and dams, have corresponded with the increased militarization and expansion of the private security apparatus that forces campesino communities off their lands. Further militarization and security encroachments are often justified under the guise of fighting the War on Drugs, even as the government is implicated in collusion with the proliferation of the narco-traffickers, as revealed in a cable from the former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras leaked by Wikileaks. In practice, though, this security regime functions to safeguard private interests at the expense of entire communities. One more publicized and notable example is the ongoing struggle of the communities in the Aguan Valley that were violently repressed by the now-deceased Miguel Facusse.

Proceedings for campesino communities to assert their land rights are expensive, cumbersome, time-consuming and fraught with bureaucratic fraud. The arrests and prosecutions of campesinos takes time and resources away from the mostly impoverished communities.

CNTC campesinos detained in La Paz July 2015
Photo Franklin Almendares

Photo Franklin Almendares

In April of 2014, the CNTC and other land reform activists proposed the Law of Integrated Agrarian Reform. The law seeks to dismantle the regressive provisions of the Law of Modernization and restore autonomy and legal security to the campesino communities of Honduras. Unfortunately, while the National Congress and its leaders were busy defrauding the Honduran people and dismantling their public systems, the bill languished in the Committee for Agricultural and Rural Development without being read. The status quo of mismanagement, bureaucratic corruption, collusion between the oligarchy and predatory foreign interests, and the divestment of Honduran wealth and resources that characterizes the current imbroglio over the IHSS has also played out in the land and agricultural policies. Not only has the health of the Honduran people been devastated by this disaster, but so too has the earth that provides the economic system that sustains the entirety of the nation.

As such, Hondurans together put their bodies on the line to stop not only the police and government, but also the whole system that divests Honduras of its health and wealth. As the momentum continues to build, let us take inspiration to act as we see communities merge into Honduras’ future direction, a direction that holds great lessons and promise for the future of the world. 

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 El español sigue el ingles

July 30 2015
Statement from the Honduras Solidarity Network  of North America

Honduran people demand an end to corruption,  impunity, and militarization

www. hondurassolidarity.org  

As members of The Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) of North America, we declare our solidarity with the many thousands of Hondurans who have been protesting for months with vigils, marches with torches, and an ongoing hunger strike. We support their demands for the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez; the installation of an international independent commission (CICIH), to investigate the government corruption after the massive theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS) by the ruling National Party; and a thorough investigation into the more than 3000 deaths in the health system during this crisis. This is a peoples’ movement in which the political opposition, the social movements, and the majority of the society are confronting obstacles to a better future for their country. 

We recognize that this outrageous and extraordinary corruption is one more example of actions outside the law, and against all the democratic principles committed by the Honduran political and economic elite, supported by the US government, which began with the 2009 military coup, and has continued with the subsequent coup governments. The most recent corruption scandal comes after 6 years of attacks against human rights defenders, agrarian and indigenous activists, and the entire political and social opposition movement. It comes as part of an attempt to consolidate illegitimate power that includes the removal of more independent Supreme Court justices in 2012 when the current president was the head of Congress and the subsequent decision, after Hernandez came to power in 2014, by the new court to declare null and void the anti-reelection clause of the Honduran constitution.

We strongly condemn the fact that the US Government’s support for the regime in Honduras continues. In fact as corruption was devastating the public health system, creating conditions in which thousands of people died; as the Honduran people and a diverse political opposition united their voices demanding President Hernandez’s resignation, the US Ambassador announced, “Our relationship (with the Honduran government) has never been better”. We are deeply concerned that the very few statements/actions by the US government about impunity and corruption, such as the agreement brokered between Transparency International, Association for a More Just Society, and the Honduran government,  are aimed at  whitewashing the crimes of the Honduran regime with token investigations and the possible prosecution of a handful of officials in order to gain support in the US for the so called “Alliance for Prosperity” — the $1-billion dollar package proposed for the countries of the Northern Triangle under the Biden Plan in the U.S. Congress. The rise of the recent movement against corruption is a demonstration of the failure of the existing agreement.  

We reject the common agenda the United States government  shares with international corporations, the IMF and the Honduran oligarchy represented by Juan Orlando Hernandez.   That agenda is an aggressive neoliberal program to privatize education, health care, and infrastructure while putting the country’s land and resources in the hands of foreign mining companies, hydroelectric, and mega-touristic projects, and powerful agribusiness interests.  This agenda is backed up by the US economic and military power. As if to make clear its support for the regime the US recently sent another group of 300 Marines to Honduras and conducted military helicopter exercises even as the corruption scandal was being revealed. 

We stand in solidarity also with the call from the indigenous, campesino, and trade union organizations, and other social sectors for solutions to the labor, agrarian, and territorial crises that affect their vulnerable members and communities. We are outraged and concerned about the criminalization of their movements and the ongoing violence against them which is the responsibility of the Honduran State. 

We are profoundly concerned with the continuing attacks on, and obstruction of the work of human rights defenders and journalists, without whom the population is totally defenseless against impunity and corruption. 

We support the demands of the Honduran people and we demand that the US government stop supporting militarization and impunity in Honduras now: 

1. That President Obama and the US Congress immediately stop military and police training, and military aid to Honduras!

2. That the US Congress not pass or fund the Alliance for Prosperity or other taxpayer-funded schemes that further militarize governments and increase human rights violations. 

3. That the US Embassy stop lending verbal and material support to the illegitimate government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez and instead demand of his administration an end to impunity and criminalization of human rights defenders and social movement leaders.   

4. We continue to demand an investigation for all of the assassinations committed in Honduras since the military coup of 2009, and punishment for the both the intellectual and material authors of those crimes.

July 30, 2015

Honduras Solidarity Network USA/Canada

D19/FNRP-Partido, LIBRE—EE.UU-Canadá

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Declaración de la Red de Solidaridad de Honduras EEUU/Canada

30 de Julio 2015

La declaración que sigue fue presentada a funcionarios en la embajada norteamericana en Tegucigalpa el dia 31 de Julio por una delegación de la HSN dirigida por Alliance for Global Justice. El proposito era de expresar bien nuestra posición en solidaridad con el pueblo de Honduras y nuestra inconformidad con la política de los EEUU en Honduras. 

El Pueblo hondureño exige un alto a la corrupción, a la impunidad, y a la militarización

30 de Julio, 2015

Reconocemos que esta intolerable y como miembros de la Red de Solidaridad norteamericana con Honduras (HSN por sus siglas en inglés), nosotros declaramos nuestra solidaridad con los muchos miles de hondureños que han estado protestando por varios meses con vigilias, marchas con antorchas, y con una huelga de hambre indefinida. Apoyamos las exigencias de la renuncia del Presidente Juan Orlando Hernández por parte del pueblo; y la creación de una Comisión Internacional Independiente que investigue la corrupción gubernamental después del masivo y descarado robo de cientos de millones de dólares de los fondos del Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social (IHSS) que fueron usados para financiar la campaña presidencial del Partido Nacional actualmente en el poder; y también una profunda investigación de los casos de más de 3000 personas beneficiarias de este sistema de salud que murieron durante esta crisis. Este es un movimiento del pueblo en el cual los grupos de la oposición política, los movimientos populares y la mayoría de la sociedad hondureña está enfrentando muchos obstáculos para lograr un futuro mejor para su país.

carada corrupción es un ejemplo más de las acciones fuera de la ley, y contra los principios democráticos encabezados por la élite política y económica de Honduras, apoyada por el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos que se inició con el golpe militar del 2009, y ha continuado con los subsecuentes gobiernos golpistas. El escándalo más reciente de corrupción se da después de 6 años de ataques permanentes contra los defensores de los derechos humanos, contra los indígenas y trabajadores del campo, y contra todo el movimiento politico y social de oposición. Todo esto surge como parte del intento de consolidarse como un poder ilegítimo quebrantando la actual Constitución para lograr la reelección.  Este proceso se inició con el despido injustificado de varios magistrados independientes de la Corte Suprema de Justicia en el 2012 cuando el actual presidente era el líder del Congreso Nacional, y la subsecuente decisión, después que Hernández por medio de un fraude electoral se convirtiera en el presidente de Honduras en el 2014. La actual corte suprema de justicia  actuando fuera de la ley, invalidó y declaró nula la cláusula de la anti-reelección de la constitución hondureña.

Con mucha firmeza condenamos el hecho de que el apoyo al régimen de Honduras por parte del gobierno de los Estados Unidos continúa. Es más, mientras la corrupción devastaba el sistema público de salud, lo que creó las condiciones por las que muchos miles de personas murieron; mientras el pueblo hondureño y una diversidad política de oposición unían sus voces exigiendo la renuncia del Presidente Juan Orlando Hernández, el embajador de Estados Unidos anunció: “Nuestra relación con el gobierno de Honduras nunca ha estado mejor”

Estamos profundamente preocupados por las declaraciones/acciones por parte del gobierno de los Estados Unidos acerca de la impunidad y la corrupción, como el caso de la ruptura del tratado entre Transparencia Internacional, la Asociación por una Sociedad más justa, y el gobierno de Honduras, están dirigidos a encubrir los crímenes del régimen hondureño con investigaciones de fachada y el posible juzgamiento de unos pocos oficiales para ganar apoyo en los Estados Unidos para el programa denominado “Alianza para la Prosperidad” - El paquete de un billón de dólares propuesto para apoyar los Países del Triángulo Norte como parte del Plan presentado por el  vicepresidente Biden ante el Congreso de los Estados Unidos. El incremento del movimiento de protesta contra la corrupción es una muestra de que la existencia del presente acuerdo ha fallado.

Repudiamos la agenda común que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos comparte con corporaciones internacionales como el Fondo Monetario Internacional y la oligarquía hondureña representada por Juan Orlando Hernández. Esa agenda obedece a un programa neoliberal agresivo que busca privatizar la educación, la salud y la infraestructura mientras ponen la tierra del país y los recursos naturales en manos de compañías mineras extranjeras, así como los proyectos hidroeléctricos y los proyectos Mega-Turísticos y los poderosos intereses de la agro industria. Esta agenda es respaldada por la economía estadounidense y el poder militar. Para demostrar su apoyo al régimen de Juan Orlando, el gobierno de los Estados Unidos recientemente envió 300 Marines más a Honduras y han realizado maniobras militares usando helicópteros incluso, a pesar de que el escándalo de la corrupción ya había sido revelado.

Estamos en solidaridad también con el llamado de la población indígena, los campesinos, las organizaciones obreras y sindicales, y con otros sectores sociales que buscan soluciones sindicales, agrarias, y a la crisis territorial que afecta a los miembros y comunidades más vulnerables. Estamos muy indignados y preocupados acerca de la criminalización contra sus organizaciones y la continua violencia contra ellos con la responsabilidad directa del Estado Hondureño.

Estamos profundamente preocupados por los contínuos ataques a y la obstrucción del trabajo que realizan los defensores de derechos humanos y los periodistas, sin el trabajo de estos organismos la población estaría totalmente desprotegida contra la impunidad y la corrupción.

Apoyamos las exigencias del pueblo hondureño, y demandamos que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos suspenda la ayuda militar y la impunidad ahora! Exigimos que:

1. Que el Presidente Obama y el Congreso de los Estados Unidos suspendan inmediatamente los entrenamientos militares y policía, así como la ayuda militar a Honduras!

2. Que el Congreso de los Estados Unidos no apruebe el Fondo de la Alianza para la prosperidad u otros planes o proyectos financiados con nuestros impuestos, y que sólo sirven para militarizar más a los gobiernos y el aumento de las violaciones a los derechos humanos.

3. Que la Embajada de los Estados Unidos no siga brindando apoyo verbal y material al gobierno ilegítimo de Juan Orlando Hernández y que en cambio se le exija que ponga término a la impunidad y la criminalización contra los defensores de los derechos humanos y de los líderes del movimiento social.

4. Continuamos exigiendo una investigación exhaustiva de todos los asesinatos cometidos en Honduras desde el golpe de estado del 2009, y exigimos castigo para los autores materiales e intelectuales de estos crímenes.

30 de Julio

Honduras Solidarity Network USA/Canada 

Red de Solidaridad con Honduras, EEUU/Canada