Monday, June 3, 2019

Guadalupe Carnay Community Faces Siege by Honduran Security Forces for Participation in Protests Defending Healthcare and Educaiton against the U.S.-backed Dictatorship



Condemnation and Solidarity in the face of Human Rights Violations
 
The Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common Public Good in Tocoa, given what has happened in the community of Guadalupe Carney, declares:

That today, June 1st, the community of Guadalupe Carney has suffered the gravest of abuses and violations of the rights granted by the constitution of the republic and international law, solely due to the struggle for the human right to healthcare and public education. It is under a siege that even includes helicopters flying over the community.

As a social movement we united with the public denunciation by many solidarity organizations in holding the security forces of the police and military responsible for having entered the community launching teargas on girls, boys, youth, women and elderly people.

We demand justice for 24 year old Jairo Leonel Hernández Ramirez, 19 year old Nerlin Ignacio Hernández Hernández, 58 year old Ezequiel Urrea and minors 15 year old Jorge Soto Portillo and 8 year old William Aron Ruiz Sánchez, all of whom are victims of the regime of Juan Orlando and the police and military forces assigned to the Aguan region.

We denounce the direct persecution by these repressive bodies of the State against peasant leader Adolfo Cruz who, along with his family and neighbors was victimized by teargas launched directly into his house as a clear message of intimidation and aggression, with his family placed at risk by the Honduran state.

We also denounce the attack on human rights defender Obed Ulloa, who had all of the equipment he need to carry out his work as a human rights defender taken by the police. According to the human rights defender about 9 people have been wounded by the police during the community's protests in defense of healthcare and education.

We remind the Honduran state that the community of Guadalupe Carney has been a beneficiary of collective protective measures since the year 2003 and that the public protest it has been engaged in along with the teachers and medical associations in the area is a constitutional right that all communities and people have when fundamental rights like the right to healthcare and education are under attack.

We encourage the rural communities, the teachers unions, the doctors and nurses, the students, the mothers and fathers, the communities fighting for water and the environment and to protect their territory and all social movement organizations to stay firm in the struggle. The truth and human rights are on the side of the people.


We alert the human rights defense organizations nationally and internationally to stay tuned to what is happening in this region of the country and especially to what is happening in the community of Guadalupe Carney.

Tocoa, Colón, June 1st, 2019
Tocoa Municipal Committee in Defense of the Public Common Good