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

Celebrations and Evictions: Honduran Reality

October 6, 2015

article and photos of the community,  V. Cervantes

In honor of the International Monetary Fund congratulating the Honduran government on its economic successes (La Prensa October 6) and Honduras Armed Forces Day on October 3rd, today we visited the community of Regalo de Dios (Gift from God) in Villanueva, Cortes, between Progreso and San Pedro Sula.

 The Regalo de Dios community was evicted from its land on September 23, 2015 by police and military who killed a 16 year old boy during the violent attack against the settlement.

The community had lived on the land for more than 7 years, constructing houses of cinderblock as well as wood, a church, and other buildings. 70 families live there and there were 20 houses under construction at the time of the eviction which started at 6 am on the morning of the 23rd when

police and military under the command of the Commissioner of the National Police in San Pedro Sula arrived. Members of the community told us that at least 32 troops came in and went house by house, beating and shoving around men, women and children while forcing them out of their homes. The people were yelling at the police and soldiers while moving and the police began firing tear gas. At some point many more troops arrived.  Residents from the surrounding neighborhoods began arriving to support the people in Regalo de Dios and the police fired more gas and then began firing live ammunition. 

Tear gas blanketed the area not only of Regalo de Dios but the entire area, made of numerous settlements on both sides of the highway. There was so much gas that it was heavy even at a school in session at least the distance of 3 football fields away from Regalo de Dios. One of the women told us that she and a boy ran from her home and took refuge in another building a little further away from the police but that the gas was so asphyxiating that they felt like they might die, and had to run further away. A nine month old baby was severely affected and had to be rushed to the hospital. The men we talked to told us that not only were the police and soldiers using incredible quantities of gas but they also were firing the canisters directly at the people, not up in the air, so that many people were injured by the canisters. 

The 16 year old boy, Fernando Castro was not even in Regalo de Dios but was with others who either fled or had come from other communities and were outside the land when he was fatally wounded by the gunfire from the police and army. 

The authorities finished by bringing in bulldozers and destroying the homes and community church. (Video  from Facebook via Orlin Martinez Almendares. 

The community leaders told us that this land was originally part of the Tela Company property (the US corporation that became part of Standard Fruit and owned most of the northern coast of Honduras for much of the 20th century. When the Company left it gave the land over to the Honduran government, thus making it eligible for distribution to people for agrarian reform. The landowner claiming the land is Alejandrina Elan Maldonado, the widow of Carlos Israel Martinez — the community leaders say that neither Carlos nor Alejandrina legitimately have title. One man told us that,  “it always happens that the State and all its forces just favor the rich and not poor people like us”. 

Meanwhile the IMF conducted its second review of the Honduran government’s economic program and approved the structural reforms and policies for economic development, predicting that the Honduran economy will grow 3.6% in 2016. Roberto Garcia Saltos, head of the IMF mission to Honduras this month said that, “We congratulate the Honduran government on its macroeconomic success….The mission is pleased to by the positive results achieved thanks to the appropriate political and economic decisions made in the past 22 months.”

These decisions include support for “charter or model” cities, destruction of the public health system and violent evictions and an intensification of the criminalization of the agrarian land movements. It is all too obvious that any growth occurring is not for the country’s poor. 

Photo La Prensa, Honduras

The eviction in Regalo de Dios occurred while Juan Orlando Hernandez was in the area celebrating the inauguration of various government projects and handing out baskets of food in the extremely poor agricultural communities in Yoro which have been devastated by the drought and government policies. 

On October 3rd, the military was celebrated (and by extention, the government's policy of militarization throughout the country) by the government with a massive parade and festival in the national stadium in Tegucigalpa and smaller activities in some other areas. The people of Regalo de Dios are in no mood to celebrate repression; the families there have started returning to the land and rebuilding homes, but they fear what might happen in the future. 

Official government photo

Another chance for Justice - Chabelo Morales

Thirty-two organizations signed a letter of support, demanding freedom for campesino political prisoner, Jose Isabel "Chabelo" Morales Lopez as his third trial on the same charges begins.

 La Voz de los de Abajo will join others in accompanying the trial later this week. On Monday September 28th, organizations from the region including the Jesuit communications organization ERIC-SJ held a press conference with distinguished international jurists who are observing the trial.  Here for Spanish news story
We publish the letter and a report on the first day of the trial from Greg McCain, a human rights observer living in Honduras. 

Chabelo's new trial comes at a time when Honduras continues to reel from the corruption and violence that has increased as the coup governments continue their projects of privatization/impoverishment, militarization and land grabbing. The resistance movement and the newer movement against corruption that is made up of more than one distinct grouping continue to be in the streets in protest. 

La Voz's observer will be in Honduras for two weeks and will be sharing observations and information on this blog.
29 - Sept-2015

 

September 2015

As representatives from the international human rights and solidarity community, we come together to demand justice for José Isabel “Chabelo” Morales during his retrial. In that there are currently over 5000 campesinos with judicial proceedings against them, Chabelo’s case is emblematic of the criminalization of peasant farmers (campesinos) who struggle for access to land.

In light of the persistent violations to human rights in Honduras, we demand:

⦁ That Chabelo’s retrial scheduled for September 28th - October 9th, 2015 be fair and impartial.

Further, we demand unconditional freedom for Chabelo.

⦁ A full investigation into human rights violations and judicial irregularities surrounding all of Chabelo’s judicial hearings.

⦁ A full investigation into the ongoing threats and intimidation against the Morales family and community of Guadalupe Carney.

⦁ A full investigation into the abuse of authority of Colonel Henry Osorto Canales who was recently nominated for advancement from Sub-Commissioner of the National Police to the position of Commissioner.

⦁ A suspension of aid to Honduran police, military and security until the human rights violations perpetrated by these forces ceases; specifically, the continued aid by the United States to the National Police and funding to the Public Prosecutors office (Ministerio Publico) given the ongoing abuses.

José Isabel “Chabelo” Morales López, 39, was in prison for 6 years, 9 months, and 7 days for a crime that he did not commit. He and his family are campesinos in the Aguán Valley in the heart of the African palm-producing region of the northern coast of Honduras. His arrest and imprisonment were aimed at punishing and criminalizing the campesino movement in Honduras as well as being products of the well-documented corruption and impunity that has this country in its grip. Chabelo is recognized as being unjustly imprisoned by numerous human rights and rural advocacy groups including Via Campesina, SOAW, FIAN International, COFADEH and ERIC-SJ.

Chabelo was arrested in October 2008 after heavily armed members of Henry Osorto’s family and private security attacked the campesinos in an attempt to illegally take land that had been legally granted to the campesinos. One campesino was killed by shots from the Osorto house and 11 members of the Osorto group were left dead. In a clear conflict of interest and abuse of authority, Henry Osorto led the investigation which was incomplete, inconsistent, and forensically questionable.

Arrest warrants for 36 residents of Chabelo’s community were issued without evidence that the individuals were involved. Chabelo was one of them, he and one other person were the only ones arrested and charged with 11 counts of murder, arson, and robbery despite there being no concrete evidence of their involvement. At his trial over two years after his detention (a clear violation of the Honduran Penal Code, and notably after the military coup in June 2009) the charges were reduced to one count of homicide. The other person was found not guilty due to contradictions in the testimony of the prosecution witnesses and yet they let these same contradictions stand in the conviction of Chabelo.

The panel of judges found Chabelo guilty despite a lack of evidence and the contradictory stories, but sentencing was delayed for over 2 years. Because of that and many other irregularities, the Honduran Supreme Court annulled his conviction and ordered a new trial which took place in January 2014. The new trial was moved to another department, but was assigned judges from the Aguán, including two who had refused to release Chabelo from prison pending the new trial, a clear violation of the Supreme Court order. The defense asked for the two judges to recuse themselves but lost the decision.

Prosecution witnesses including Henry Osorto perjured themselves once again, radically changing their testimony and contradicting their sworn statements in an attempt to incriminate Chabelo. The judges refused to allow the defense to place those contradictions into the record. The prosecution echoed statements made by Osorto about the small farmers in general being violent terrorists rather than giving evidence as to Chabelo’s involvement. Defense witnesses presented the same testimony as previously, noting that Chabelo was not present at the scene when the confrontation and deaths occurred. The judges found Chabelo guilty and he was sentenced to 17.5 years. Chabelo’s defense lawyers filed an appeal, which was finally reviewed by the Supreme Court. 

The court once again annulled the conviction and sentencing based on procedural inconsistencies on the part of the prosecutor and judges, but once again ordered a retrial. The Defense also solicited the court to free Chabelo pending the retrial based on numerous violations to the penal code. This was the seventh solicitation in five years based on these violations.

The initial hearing of the retrial was held on July 24th, 2015 in La Ceiba. The magistrates quickly ruled in favor of Chabelo’s release based on the violations and scheduled the retrial to be held between September 28th and October 9th in Trujillo.

Based on the clear violations to the human rights of Chabelo Morales, we demand his unconditional freedom. In addition to the demands stated above we further demand protection from retaliation on the part of Colonel Henry Osorto Canales against Chabelo Morales and his family.

Signed,

1) La Voz de los de Abajo, Chicago

2) Alliance for Global Justice

3) Nicaragua Center for Community Action (NICCA), Berkeley, CA

4) International Action Center

5) Michigan Emergency Coalition Against War and Injustice

6) Colectivo Honduras USA Resistencia=libre (D19/New York)

7) Task Force On the Americas

8) San Francisco School of the Americas Watch (SOAWSF)

9) Latin America Solidarity Committee, Milwaukee

10) Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Committee (BALASC)

11) The Cross Border Network, Kansas City, MO

12) Portland Central America Solidarity Committee

13) Hondureños Por La Pachamama

14) Oakland - School of the Americas Watch, USA

15) Hondureños D19 Northern California

16) Radios Populares, Chicago

17) Witness for Peace Southwest

18) Gay Liberation Network, Chicago

19) US El Salvador Sister Cities

20) Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America, St. Louis

21) School of the Americas Watch (SOAW)

22) Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)

23) FIAN Internacional - Sección Honduras

24) Movimiento Ambientalista Santabarbarense (MAS)

25) Foro de Mujeres por la Vida

26) COLLETTIVO ITALIA CENTRO AMERICA, CICA

27) Grassroots International

28) Observatorio Permanente de Derechos Humanos del Aguán

29) Voices for Creative Nonviolence

30) Workers World Party

31) Loretto - Kansas City

32) 8th Day Center for Justice, Chicago

Chabelo with defense team
and supporters 2014

The Trial Begins - September 29, 2015 

Yesterday was the opening session for Chabelo Morales' 2nd retrial. It didn't get started until a little before 2pm. It consisted mostly of the formality of the judges setting the ground rules and listening to opening arguments of each side. The highlight came when the defense team solicited the court to only allow evidence related to the one charge of homicide which Chabelo was convicted of and later anulled and to not put Chabelo in Double (triple?) Jeopardy by having to defend himself against the 13 other charges of which he was found innocent in the previous 2 trials. In a huge victory the judges sided with the defence thus eliminating about 70% of the Prosecutor's evidence. This motion by the judges set this trial in a completely different frame from the previous trial and kinda guaranteed that the trial won't last the entire scheduled 10 days.

On day 2, which began at 9:30 today, and is currently on a lunch break until 2pm, the prosecution witnesses presented their testimonies. Mainly it consisted of them affirming that the signatures on documents from the investigation and a previous trial were theirs and the defence pointing out discrepancies in their testimonies.

The Prosecutor is not the same one from the previous trial and he appears to not be too invested in prosecuting this case. He has not prepared questions for the witnesses and so asks one, maybe two, and when the Defense pressed one of the witnesses regarding his inconsistencies the Prosecutor didn't contest or attempt to counter in any way.

This trial once again, as in the previous trials, underscores the fact that there is no credible case against Chabelo and that these show trials have been a farse since the beginning.

Greg McCain

!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

Honduras - From Campesinos to Congress -

From the mountains of Comayagua -
January 23  -- V. Cervantes

We arrived at the Camino al Futuro (Path to the Future) campesino community after crossing a shallow river and coming to the end of a dirt road near the community of San Antonio de la Cuesta. We were in two pick-up trucks carrying members of the national leadership of the CNTC (National Center for Rural Workers). I was there as an international observer and advocate for campesino rights from La Voz de los de Abajo.  The community is small around 20 adults and not all of them are back in the community yet after a violent attack from masked men burnt them out on December 27th. Camino al Futuro has been working for 7 years on the land and filed a request 7 years ago with the Honduran forestry commission for title to open land in a forest region that is suitable for cultivation of corn, beans and other food crops. Their title has never been granted and recently a local large landowner has tried to intimidate the campesinos into leaving although the land-owner has no legal right to the land.
On December 27th, masked men dressed all in black and armed with assorted weapons including rifles arrived at the community without any eviction order or legal documents and after 8pm when it was dark (Honduran law requires any police actions of evictions to be carried out only in daylight from 6am to 6 pm).

A few days before on Christmas day a young man from the community was attacked by men with machetes. On the 27th this paramilitary force arrived and began shooting into the air and yelling -- the community members fled into the hills above and neighboring areas while the men burnt out their homes, belongings, stored food supplies and knocked down houses, punched holes in the roofing and walls and stole any belongings that weren't destroyed. The community remained hiding all night and the next day in the hills (including with small children and babies) without blankets, coats, food or shelter.
Since there was no eviction order the CNTC denounces this act as a criminal act. For their part the campesinos of Camino al Futuro are determined to rebuild and stay in the struggle.


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January 25th  after a congressional defeat JOH begins a country-wide campaign was  launched in support of the military police for a national plebiscite and Radio Progreso is banned from participating as part of the press corp in the National Congress starting at the beginning of the new session January 24. (See note at end of article)

From Honduras

Tegucigalpa - January 24

V. Cervantes

UPDATE on the Military Police debate in the National Congress: Juan Orlando Hernandez got one of his first big legislative and political defeats when the congress voted 67 to 61 against his proposal to write the Military Police into the Constitution and put them directly under his command. The opposition  alliance held together with only a handful of individual desertions - so that LIBRE, PAC and the Liberal Party were able to embarrass the National Party which had claimed days ago that they had at least 80 votes and would easily get the 86 votes needed to win.  Juan Orlando’s National Party with the help of most of the media waged a campaign against Libre in particular accusing the political opposition of being tied to organized crime and creating a “Non-Governmental” organizations called Hondureños por la Paz y Justicia that put paid ad’s everywhere with pictures of President Zelaya, Xiomara Castro and others saying, “They are against your security”. This caused such a scandal that the National Party had to distance themselves from the “NGO” and some members of congress are calling for an investigation. 

This vote also is a set back for JOH’s other proposal to change the constitution by allowing re-election which is prohibited constitutionally — that proposal has not been brought to the congress for a vote yet.  

On the more sober side, JOH is unlikely to have gone to vote without having a plan B and he began working that plan the day before the final vote when the Nationalist Party introduced a measure to take the same proposal for  the military police to a national plebiscite although the exact wording of the resolution hasn’t been decided. Also, in the debate on the National Party proposal the opposition to the formation in the first place of the Military Police as a measure for increasing militarization was weakened as the Liberal Party joined the National Party in singing the praises of the PMOP and only disagreed on the command structure. January 25th JOH announced that a country-wide campaign was being launched in support of the military police for  the plebiscite. 

It remains to be seen how LIBRE and the smaller opposition groups (Liberals, PAC, PINU)  will negotiate or reject the referendum and to what extent the opposition alliance will continue. Meanwhile there are also resistance members  discussing that there are a number of other issues related to the rights of the opposition (reform of the Electoral Tribunal for example) and important issues for the social movements (Agrarian Reform, privatization, lay-offs of public sector workers, model cities etc.) that need urgent attention from the Congress and LIBRE. 

The success of LIBRE and the opposition in the PMOP vote is being celebrated by the people in resistencia and should raise the morale of the movement and bring it out to participate in the January 27th mobilizations called by the FNRP. 

News Announcement from Radio Progreso 
via Greg Mc Cain

Radio Progreso announced that it's correspondent Eleana Borjas was told by authorities of the National Congress that starting tomorrow when the 2nd Legislature convenes Radio Progreso will no longer be allowed to cover the proceedings inside the Congress even though they have the authorization to do so.

DENUNCIA. Radio Progreso denuncia a las autoridades del Congreso Nacional que han decido y han comunicado hoy a nuestra corresponsal Eleana Borjas, que a partir de la segunda legislatura que se inaugura mañana, no permitirán más la cobertura de Radio Progreso a pesar que contamos con la autorización para hacerlo.