"The coup d'état transformed into a dictatorship that cruelly and clearly creates the migrant exodus." -Gathering of Black and Indigenous Women of Honduras

Honduran Women's Manifesto of Rebellion

[Original en español]

In the rebel Garífuna territory of Vallecito, Iriona, Colón, Honduras, surrounded by elements of nature that nourish life and hope, 1,200 women and approximately 350 children gathered and embraced each other with life and words, arriving from Choluteca, El Paraíso, Copan, Olancho, Valle, Francisco Morazán, Gracias a Dios, Colón, Yoro, Cortes, Atlántida, Intibucá, Lempira, La Paz, Comayagua, and Santa Bárbara.

We felt ancestors Margarita Murillo, María Enriqueta Matute, Berta Cáceres, Magdalena Morales and aunt Macucu with us in all of our actions as spirit, as thought and as strength. We felt the energies of our peoples, of the Tolupán, Lenca, Misquito, Garífuna, Pech, Maya Chortí and all other peoples in struggle, coming together after ten years of the coup d’état and the resistance of the Honduran people, of the women of Honduras.

The gathering salutes the strength and rebelliousness of women, those present, those who could not come, and those who are no longer physically with us. Despite the wounds and pains from violence and oppression visited upon our bodies, territories and organizing processes, we have enormous conviction and dedication to continue thinking, creating and acting together.

The strength of the worldview of indigenous peoples was present and manifested through spirituality, wisdom, experiences of resistance and forms of relating to nature and life. Through debate and conversations during meals, breaks, and work, we assembled these words, which we now share.

The coup d'état transformed into a dictatorship and continues to deepen the extractive model that threatens the livelihood of women and indigenous peoples. This is a regime that plunders the common good, identities, bodies, wisdom, spirituality; that is sustained by corruption, impunity, drug trafficking, militarization, persecution, criminalization of our sisters who struggle throughout the territories of Honduras.

We are living through an humanitarian crisis produced by that plunder, which cruelly and clearly creates the migrant exodus by our sisters and brothers, an exodus which empties our territories, with disastrous results for our people and the community social fabric, benefiting the extractive projects that have less and less opposition to confront.

We call upon all of us to respond to the urgent necessity of reclaiming and multiplying autonomous practices and envisioning sovereign alternatives that are anti-patriarchal, anti-racist, inclusive and diverse, due to the evident failure of masculine exercise of power based on the colonial electoral democratic model, which threatens women and indigenous peoples.

The increasing normalization violence against the bodies of women worries us. Our bodies become a territory for the expression of machista and hetero-patriarchal culture and frustration, often perpetrated by men from the social movements and exacerbated by the increase in militarization and religious fundamentalism. The role of women in the struggle has been at once set back and strengthened, with better political clarity, wisdom, ability to mobilize and inspire in diverse struggles where we have been putting forth our thought, voice, bodies and action. No violence will hold us back.

From this gathering, we commit ourselves to continue coming together in collective rebellion, to embody each other’s struggles and to envision a Honduras without dictatorship, with autonomy and sovereignty for the people, for women.

After 10 years of the coup, we continue to struggle together.

For a Honduras without dictatorship.

Vallecito, Iriona, Colón, Honduras, June 29^th, 2019

Attacks on the Lenca and Garifuna Communities

Urgent Action Request 

Murder and Repression Target Lenca Communities in Resistance 

On May 26th  community leader, Irene Meza was killed In San Francisco de Opalaca where election fraud in November installed a ruling party (National Party) mayor who was not accepted by the town; the indigenous council then led a takeover of the municipality. A National Party gunman opened fire on Mr. Meza and also wounded another activist. National Party thugs then attacked the car taking Mr. Meza and the other wounded man to the hospital.

The night of May 24th In Rio Blanco, where the community and its indigenous council have been blocking the construction of a hydroelectric project,community activist William Jacobo Rodríguez was murdered. There were also new incidents of threats, detentions, and beatings by the police of community members.

Below in the previous blog post is the recent communique on both incidents from the Lenca organizations, COPINH with the demands of the communities. 

For more background on Rio Blanco 

For more background on San Francisco de Opalaca

CALLS OR LETTERS ARE NEEDED: The situation in both communities is very insecure and at high risk for more violence against the community members and political opposition. Please contact the US Embassy Human Rights Officer and/or the Attorney General (Fiscal General) of Honduras to express your concern and demand an end to the state sponsored violence, serious investigations of the acts of violence and murders, and an end to the political persecution of COPINH, LIBRE and the indigenous councils in the communities. 

In English:

Amanda Johnson-Miller

Human Rights & Labor Officer

U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa Honduras

Johnson-MillerA@state.gov

(504) 2236-9320 x473

In Spanish

Oscar Fernando Chinchilla          

Fiscal General de la República.

Fax (504) 2221-5667

Tel (504) 2221-5670  2221-3099 

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translation by Marilyn Lorenz

State Violence and eviction in the Garifuna community of Puerto Castilla

Once again the Honduran security forces are using indiscriminate violence against the civilian population, the break-up of a protest demonstration in Puerto Castilla community last Friday May 23 culminated with six children hospitalized in the city of Trujillo.

The use of tear gas as an offensive weapon has become a usual strategy for Honduran security forces, which unfortunately are trained in techniques of aggression rather than deterrence, and have a painful and long history of human rights abuses against the civilian population.

The community of Puerto Castilla is perplexed by the hospitalization of six minors and the evacuation of many of the infants to a ship anchored in front of the community, so as to avoid the poisoning caused by the pepper spray and tear gas bombs. The recent events have given rise to widespread protests among the Garifuna village in the absence of human sensitivity on the part of the repressors and the inability to dialog shown by the Empresa Nacional Portuaria (EPN) and state officials.

The use of chemical weapons for "crowd control¨ 

The use of chemical weapons to dissolve protests and demonstrations has increased in recent years on the planet, especially after the collapse of the world economy of 2008. In Honduras tear gas became part of the usual menu for the Honduran people after the coup.

In Puerto Castilla hundreds of gas bombs CS (clorobenzilideno malononitrilo), which can cause severe lung damage, as well significant damage to the heart and the liver were used indiscriminately. The majority of the bombs of 40 mm were manufactured by ALS Technologies, a company that in its reference sheet on the product indicate that contains a hazardous chemical. In addition to the CS gas, rubber bullets were used by the elements responsible for suppressing in Castilla.

The bombs hit the Garden of Nin@s and insie the community homes, spreading terror among the people before receiving the final onslaught of a disproportionate number of uniformed men.

The civilian dictatorship that Honduras suffers, in addition to the induced failed state, has led to a maze of structural violence, where the claims of the population become a target of criminalization on the part of the State, in addition to a chronic repression.

The community of Puerto Castilla and their historical claims

The Garifuna community of Puerto Castilla received a degree in 1889 from the hands of President Luis Bogran, under the name of "La Puntilla", which included territory12 miles long and three wide. This title was endorsed in 1904 by Manuel Bonilla by awarding the title to the community of Cristales and Rio Negro. Later part of the lands were granted in the year 1921 to the Truxillo Railroad Company and transferred back to the community of Cristales and Rio Negro in 1942. In 1974 General Alvarez Martínez forced the community of Cristales and Rio Negro at gunpoint to lease the land of La Puntilla to the National Port Company (ENP).

Apparently the Garifuna community of Castilla was relocated in 1940 to the south of its original place, for the construction of a US military base, which was returned to Honduras at the end of the war. A number of heliports and moorings (helipuertos y atracaderos) in the US-Honduran military base are currently under construction, part of the metastasis of US military bases on the continent.

The inhabitants of Puerto Castilla face a huge overcrowding, given the absence of available land for the expansion of the community. The village has been demanding for a field of five manzanas, loaned to Mr. Jose Mauricio Weizemblut Olive, representative of Intermares, a Japanese company that tried to establish in Honduras in the 90s. The land in question is apparently for sale by Mr Weizemblut Olive, who has assumed be the purported owner.

Among the commitments cyclically signed by the ENP, is to provide a share of jobs to the inhabitants of Puerto Castilla, point that has never been fulfilled by the company, which has been involved in numerous cases of corruption. There is also an increase in racism toward the Garifuna staff working in the EPN, which in many occasions suffer from harassment, especially those individuals allegedly associated with the community claims.

The dispossession of the Garifuna communities and the territorial claims 

The violent incursion of the security forces in Puerto Castilla are not helping to solve the severe problems faced by their inhabitants . The security policy of the club applied by the current "nationalist" administration resembles more each day the dictatorships of beginnings of the last century, which dilutes the creation of an effective rule of law in Honduras.

In spite of the intensive campaign of the Administration of Juan Hernandez to eradicate the image of a violent country controlled by political narcos, the attack on the civilian population, in particular the fatal assault that led to six juveniles at the hospital as a result of the use of chemical weapons, and the evacuation of a large group of children to a barge to circumvent the effects of pepper spray, increases the image of a failed State where the dialog has been supplanted by the pepper gas, moving away from possible and awaited foreign investment.

Our organization condemns the barbaric actions, and we demand the fulfillment of the accords that have been signed between the National Port Authority (ENP), with the inhabitants of the community of Puerto Castilla, as well as the return of land to the Garifuna community, which by right of ancestral possession belongs to them, which was ratified in the recent hearing held in San Jose Costa Rica before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in relation to the case of Triunfo de la Cruz.

Sambo Creek, 27 de Mayo del 2014

Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña, OFRANEH

Sambo Creek, Atlántida.
Honduras
telefax: 504-24541513 / 504-24490003
email:garifuna@ofraneh.org / ofraneh@yahoo.com
http://www.ofraneh.org /http://www.ofraneh.wordpress.com / Twitter:@ofraneh

URGENT ALERT in Solidarity with Garifunas in Vallecito, Honduras! Paramilitary groups armed to the teeth threaten Garifuna communities and could perpetuate a massacre.

In the region of Vallecito (Limon in the province of Colon) 6 Garifuna farming cooperatives have launched a land recuperation this week. See the statement below from OFRANEH with urgent actions to be taken right away.

 There is also an ongoing support petition for Garifuna land rights on line. To sign the petition electronically click on this link: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/defend-the-sovereignty-of-honduras-and-the-culture-and.html

From Triunfo de la Cruz to Vallecito and beyond, the Garifuna communities face threats and violence as the developers for mega-tourism projects in Tela Bay and Trujillo and the agri-business oligarchs like Miguel Facusse try to drive them off of their ancestral lands. La Voz de los de Abajo has visited these communities in permanent resistance (see blog entries from our delegations  and supports the self-determination of the Garifuna people.  This is the link to a previous Honduras Resists post on Vallecito  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8955810357788117702#editor/target=post;postID=8294882332289463531 Articulo en español sigue despues del ingles

URGENT ALERT in Solidarity with Garifunas in Vallecito, Honduras!

Paramilitary groups armed to the teeth threaten Garifuna communities and could perpetuate a massacre.

CALL FOR URGENT ACTION!

Six Garifuna cooperatives that have recovered lands, such that they possess titles of full dominion in the community of ICOTEA, Vallecito, Colon department, (Honduras) lands that have been invaded by latinos in collusion with Miguel Facusse,(the largest landholder in Honduras) with the complicity of Cesar Ham, minister of the National Agrarian Institute (INA), are experiencing at this moment the threat of paramilitaries mobilized on motorcycles and 4 x 4 vehicles with heavy weapons of war who could massacre the peaceful Garifuna inhabitants who are resisting the displacement from their ancestral territories of which they have legal ownership title.
We urge the national and international community and in particular organizations that defend human rights to send messages to the Honduran government, to stop what could be a new blood bath.  We ask the national and international media to collaborate in disseminating this urgent news.
We hold the current regime of landlords and military led by Porfirio Lobo Sosa for whatever happens to the Garifuna people organized with OFRANEH.
Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña), OFRANEH
Civic Council of Popular Organizations of Honduras (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares de Honduras) COPINH
Agricultural Missions, Inc (AMI)
****************
Send messages of denunciation of this imminent threat to the following (in English or Spanish):
-Presidente de Honduras, Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa:   pepe@pepelobopresidente.com
-Minister of Ethnicities (Ministro de las Etnias), Sr. Luis Green: luisgreen65@yahoo.es
-Attorney General of the Republic (Fiscalía General de la Republica), Sr. Luis Alberto Rubí: lrubi@mp.hn,  gsuazog@mp.hn
-Minister of the National Agrarian Institute (Ministro del Instituto Nacional Agrario), Sr. Cesar Ham: cham@ina.hn,  hrodriguez@ina.hn
-Minister of Justice and Human Rights (Ministra de Justicia y Derechos Humanos),  Sra. Ana Pineda:  info@sjdh.gob.hn,  i.quintanilla@sjth.gob.hn
-President of the Supreme Court (Presidente de la Corte Suprema), Sr. Jorge Rivera Avilés: presidencia@poderjudicial.gob.hn
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The Garifuna People Reoccupy Lands That Have Been Usurped in Vallecito (Limon)

The Garifuna people have suffered heavy territorial pressure. These pressures are caused by corporations, politicians, and the military who make up the real political power of Honduras and who have been seizing power for decades.
Through 6 Associative Collectives the Garifunas have accomplished the titling of 1600 manzanas (4.3 square miles) of land in Vallecito, Limon, Colon, since the year 1997. Since then the invaders have begun to try to take over that territory. Miguel Facusse planted 100 hectares (0.4 square miles) of African palm in the Ruguma Collective, one of the six associative collectives. By the end of 1999, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in favor of the Garifuna, invalidating the claims of the “palm of death.” Facusse in 1993 took over Punta Farallones, adjacent to and belonging to the community of Limon.
Beginning in 2005, people associated with organized crime have imposed a reign of terror in the corridor of Limon - Punta Piedras, forcing the Garifuna that are located in Vallecito to minimize their presence and activities on the land belonging to the collectives. Subsequently, foreigners appeared who were allotted 900 hectares (3.5 square miles) of the 1600 (6.2 square miles) INA (National Agrarian Institute) recognized as belonging to the Garifuna people.
In July 2010, the OFRANEH signed a written agreement with INA officials to achieve the remediation of the associative collectives. However the invaders refused entry to members of INA and the Public Ministry.
The proposed installation of the Model City in the strip between the Bay of Trujillo and the Sico River, has sparked a resurgence of territorial pressure on the Garifuna communities; The Lobo administration has not consulted the Garifuna people about its pretensions to deliver our territory to investors and foreign companies in order to create an independent state.
Vallecito is for our people a territiorial reserve to build food security, hence the importance of recuperating the land of the associative collectives, where we have dreamed of also building the future Garifuna University.

Today hundreds of Garifuna from different communities called together by Iseri Lidawamari and OFRANEH are creating a presence in Vallecito, Limon, to reoccupy the territory that belonged to us historically, and is legally titled by the INA to the Garifuna people through the 6 Associative Collectives: Ruguma, Saway, Saway Sufritiñu, Walumugu, Satuye, Sinduru Free.
We urge solidarity, both nationally and internationally!
We do not seek violence; we do not want repression
We struggle for life, food sovereignty, cultural identity and national sovereignty.
Baruada, Satuye, Bandiemu, Walumugu, Lombardo Lacayo are present in this struggle.
Vallecito, Limon, Colon, August 26, 2012

OFRANEH
Honduran Black Fraternal Organization
Calle 19, # 130.
Alvarado Neighborhood
La Ceiba, Atlantida,
Honduras
telefax: 504-24432492
email: garifuna@ofraneh.org / ofraneh@yahoo.com
http://www.ofraneh.org
http://www.ofraneh.wordpress.com

Alerta: garífunas  en vallecito amenazados

Alrededor de 200 garífunas reunidos en Vallecito, Limón,  con el
propósito de recuperar tierras ancestrales, que han sido usurpadas en
los últimos  años por foráneos;  se han visto el día de hoy acosados por bandas de hombres portando armas de alto calibre, algunos de ellos provenientes de la comunidad de Icoteas.

Las especulaciones inmobilarias alrededor de la supuesta "ciudad modelo"
sumado a la ingobernabilidad existente en la costa norte de Honduras,han producido un ambiente de violencia, situación que nos hace temer por a vida de los y las garífunas en Vallecito

Exigimos al Estado de Honduras el reconocimiento  del  territorio
titulado a las empresas asociativas garífunas y la integridad física de
las personas que se encuentran en Vallecito.
 Favor enviar notas de solidaridad a:

> Sr. Cesar Ham
> Ministro del INA
> karolrodriguez15@hotmail.com ,
>
> Abogado Luis Rubi
> lrubi@mp.hn , suazog@mp.hn
>
> Fiscal General
>
> Sr. Luis Green
> Ministro de las Etnias
> luisgreen65@yahoo.es
>
> Sra. Ana Pineda
> Minister of Justice
> i.quintanilla@sjth.gob.hn
> , i.quintanilla@hotmail.com
>

 OFRANEH
Organizacion Fraternal Negra Hondureña
Calle 19, #130.
Barrio Alvarado
La Ceiba, Atlantida,
Honduras
telefax: 504-24432492
email:garifuna@ofraneh.org/ ofraneh@yahoo.com
http://www.ofraneh.org
 http://www.ofraneh.wordpress.com