Report from Emergency HR Delegation on Criminalization and Political Prisoners

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tegucigalpa - Forum on Human Rights in Honduras

On May 12th, the International Human Rights Observation Mission organized by COFADEH held a forum in Tegucigalpa to present its key preliminary findings and recommendations. The forum was attended by a large group of social movement rank and file and leaders including campesino organizations, teachers' unions, LGBTI, LIBRE, human rights defenders, journalists, and indigenous rights defenders (see my photos here).  The family of Berta Caceres participated from the podium. Below this introduction I am posting the English translation of journalist Giorgio Trucchi's report on the forum with a link to the original Spanish.

One of the participants in the open discussion at the  forum was Sandra Zambrano of the LGBT HIV education organization, APUVIMEH, who talked about the attacks on the LGBTI community,  well known activists like Victoria Gomez Cruz who was the first transgender woman to run for office in the primary elections for LIBRE in 2013 have had to leave the country due to threats on their lives. She also talked about the constant threats and pressures against organizations and individual defenders of human rights for LGBTI community. She and her brother José have had move two members of their family out of the country. Sadly, after the forum on May 14th came the news that Allan Yoni Banega Godoy, nephew of Sandra and José was kidnapped and later found dead in Tegucigalpa. 

Also participating in the same discussion were members of a parents and family organization "Madres y Padres de Familia" that are organized to support and defend the student movement, especially around the attacks on public education and the very violent response of the JOH government to the protests of the last few weeks. The Madre y Padres reported that in the last 3 weeks alone there have been 5 students murdered after participating in protests. They are mostly high school students and the wave of protests has to do with a new "educational reform" that requires public high school students to find two illiterate adults and teach them to read, also paying the adults their transportation costs, a meal and other expenses. Most of the public high school students come from poor families and absolutely cannot afford to pay these costs. The head of the high school teachers union (COPEMH) Jaime Rodriquez was also at the Thursday forum and he added that teachers are being accused of inciting the students and being threatened also. A week ago the JOH Education Ministry suspended Jaime's teaching license because he has been supporting the students. The suspension of his license means that he will not receive any salary. Jaime also denounced strongly the terrible violence against the youth and noted that earlier deaths of student activists remain in impunity, for example Nicole Soad Bustillo, the 13 year old murdered  a year ago, shortly after she publicly insulted and denounced Juan Orlando at a student protest. On Friday, May 13th there were reports that the student organizations in San Pedro Sula had negotiated some agreements with the Ministry of Education that may end up resolving this most recent conflict, but the struggle to defend public education will continue. The Radio Globo journalist David Romero also spoke from the floor about the criminal defamation cases against him used as a method to try and silence his voice against the government and about the violence and harassment against journalists in general. The precarious position of journalists was further illustrated by the presence of Felix Molina, journalist and community radio organizer who survived two attempts on his life on May 2nd.  -V. Cervantes  

Human Rights Hit Bottom in Honduras

by Giorgio Trucchi, May 16, 2016

Managua, Nicaragua (Conexihon)

G. Trucchi

On May 12th, as part of the International Mission for Human Rights Observation, a Forum on Human Rights in the Aguán was held in Tegucigalpa. During the activities the main findings of the Mission were presented and recommendations made, and the basis was laid for the creation of an analytic space to prevent risks for human rights defenders. 

“We are living in very difficult moments and we must work to avoid a deepening of human rights violations in Honduras,” said Bertha Oliva, Coordinator of the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) during her speech at the opening of the Forum. 

“We are putting forth all of our positive energy and we are ready to gather and transform memory, not in pain, but as a collective proposal,” stated the human rights defender.

Organized by COFADEH and made up of delegates from organizations in Europe, the United States and Latin America, among them REL-UITA(1), the Mission presented its findings to the national and international community and formulated recommendations for the State of Honduras. 

The Extractive Model - Death Projects 

According to members of the Mission, in the Lower Aguán Valley, “threats, attacks and assassination attempts continue” against campesino leaders, human rights defenders, community leaders and defenders of natural resources that are threatened by the extractive projects.”

The acceleration of granting concessions of territories in the upper regions of the Aguán Valley to mining companies, on top of the uncontrollable expansion of African Palm as a mono-crop, is responsible for an interminable wave of assassinations in the framework of an agrarian conflict that originates from the lack of access to land for thousands of campesino families. The effects of mining on water sources will deepen the social conflict and violence. 

The criminalization of the struggle for the defense of the territories and human rights as well as the systematic threats, displacement and forced evictions, exile, torture and dispossession “remain in total and absolute impunity.”, states a press communique from the Mission. 

Criminalization and Repression — Crushing Human Rights

The ever more selective persecution is participated in by “private security forces and death squads protected by the State that has militarized the region with the sponsorship and to the benefit of the regional economic powers.”, states the communique. “Sadly, we note that not only have many of the recommendations made some years ago not been implemented but that the statistics on murders have risen and impunity is absolute”, said Luis Guillermo Pérez, member of the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH). 

There is a perception of a lack of will and an investigative conflagration that was corroborated in a meeting of the Mission with local and regional authorities and that continues to repeat  and deepen the criminalization of the campesino organizations. 

Esly Banegas, from the Coordination of Popular Organization of the Aguan (COPA) explained that of the campesino leaders that signed the agreements of 2010 with the government, the immense majority have been assassinated or had to flee into either internal or external exile. 

“More that 300 colleagues are in judicial processes. They are criminalizing and assassinating us. If we don’t unite they will decimate us until we disappear.”,  said Banega sounding the alarm. 

She also noted that the agreements of 2010 as well as those of 2012 (2) for the purchase of thousands of hectares of land were never fulfilled. 

“The campesino enterprises are confronting a grave economic crisis, the product of the international price for palm oil and the lack of will on the part of the current government to create a consensus for a reduction of the (campesino ) debt. If this problem is not resolved, the situation could return again to an explosive situation”, said the leader of COPA. 

Given this situation, a demand by the Mission was proposed by the Forum: the creation of a grouping to formulate analysis to prevent risk for human rights defenders. 

Justice for Berta - No More Violence Against Copinh

The International Mission for Human Rights Observation also strongly took up the theme of the assassination of the Lenca indigenous leader, Berta Cáceres, calling it a “political crime for which the State is responsible, not only because an army official has been linked to the crime but because the State” was obligated to protect her life and physical integrity. ”

The Mission stated that it joins the call of the family and of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) to create an international investigative commission that is autonomous from the Honduran State, “so that all the material and intellectural authors of the crime are punished”. 

The Mission also condemned the police repression unleashed against Copinh’s protests on May 9th and demanded that the government of Honduras “avoid all forms of criminalization of social protest”. 

Recommendations - The right to truth and justice is primary

Among the main recommendations formulation by the Observation Mission notable is that of the “assurance of an investigation of the crimes committed “as the premise for the guarantee of the right to truth, justice and reparation/restoration for the victims”. 

As well, that the Honduran government assures the fulfillment of the agreements signed with the campesino organizations of the Aguán, that the repression and stigmatization does not continue against those who defend their rights, as well as the guarantee of strict fulfillment of the preventative measures ordered by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC). 

Finally, it recommends the creation of mechanisms for a participatory consultations with the campesino organizations “related to the projects that are implemented in their territories”. 

http://conexihon.hn/site/noticia/derechos-humanos/derechos-humanos/derechos-humanos-en-honduras-est%C3%A1n-por-los-suelos--

No To Impunity! A Call for Solidarity - The Murder of Carlos Mejía

It has been more than three weeks since Carlos Mejía  Orellano from Radio Progreso in Honduras was murdered and despite the outcry both inside and outside of Honduras there is silence from the officials on the progreso of the investigation. Below is the latest statement (April 29, 2014) from Father Ismael “Melo” Moreno Coto, the Jesuit priest who is the director of Radio Progreso and of the social research organization ERIC-SJ. 
THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION FOLLOWS THE ORIGINAL SPANSH. 

Por Ismael Moreno Coto SJ,  29 de Abril

Exigimos resultados de las investigaciones

Ya se cumplen tres semanas del asesinato de nuestro compañero de equipo, Carlos Mejía Orellana, y nadie de entre las autoridades responsables de las investigaciones se ha dignado en dar a conocer los resultados de las mismas. Uno de los investigadores llegó incluso a decirnos que los resultados iban por buen camino porque la Embajada Americana estaba presionando, quizá para dejar el consuelo de esa varita mágica de que si el gobierno de los Estados Unidos estaba detrás, los resultados serían efectivos. Tres semanas después, la varita sigue sin su “mágica” respuesta.

Nada de nada se nos dice, ni a nosotros ni a la familia. Todo va quedando en la penumbra. Y esto es altamente preocupante porque la experiencia en nuestro país nos dice que los crímenes alborotan por unos días a las autoridades, pero todo se va quedando luego en el olvido; los archivos se van empolvando con tan diversos argumentos, desde falta de pruebas hasta las carencias logísticas. Esto se llama impunidad. Y nos aterra que el asesinato de nuestro compañero sea un número más en esa interminable lista de casos perdidos en los archivos de los empolvando órganos responsables de perseguir y contrarrestar el delito.

Entendemos que las investigaciones tienen sus recovecos y que no se trata de llegar a cualquier conclusión con la intención de los investigadores de parecer eficaces ante quienes exigimos justicia. Los llamados investigadores locales decidieron quedarse con la más fácil de las hipótesis de crimen pasional, como en el primer momento lo difundieron algunos medios de comunicación sin duda alguna con la morbosa intención de desviar la atención y alimentar la homofobia extendida en muchos círculos sociales, entorpeciendo así una investigación profunda que conduzca a conocer la verdad, capturar y enjuiciar a los responsables materiales e intelectuales del crimen contra nuestro compañero Carlos Mejía.

Hacemos un vehemente llamado a nuestros amigos y amigas que se han hecho presente con tanta muestra efectiva de solidaridad y cercanía tras el asesinato de nuestro compañero Carlos Mejía. Seguimos necesitando que nos apoyen en esta exigencia de justicia. Sabemos que contamos con ustedes, tanto dentro del país como de muchos organismos internacionales. Pero lo decimos con humildad y franqueza: nos angustia quedarnos solos con nuestro grito, porque la impunidad es factor infalible para más violencia y criminalidad. Tenemos la obligación de luchar porque se conozca la verdad de lo que ocurrió y que se proceda contra los responsables de este crimen. Por la dignidad de nuestro compañero asesinado, por su familia, por nosotros, y porque este crimen no quede en la sombra de la impunidad, ¡¡exigimos prontitud y efectividad sobre los resultados de las investigaciones!!

——————————————-

We demand results in the investigation

It has already been three weeks since the assassination of our colleague, Carlos Mejía Orellana, and no one from the authorities responsible for the investigations have seen fit to make known the results of those investigations.  One of the investigators even came to tell us that the results were going well because of pressure from the the American Embassy, perhaps this was to be the consolation of the magic wand, if the government of the United States is behind it the results will be effective. Three weeks later, the wand continues without  any  “magic” answer. 

Nothing about nothing is told to us, neither to us, nor to the family. Everything remains in the dark. And this is very worrisome because the experience of our country tells us that crimes excite the authorities for a few days but then everything is forgotten; the files get dusty for a variety of reasons, from the lack of proofs to a shortage of resources. This is called impunity. And we fear that the murder of our compañero will be one statistic more in the interminable list of lost cases in the files of the unproductive agencies responsible for pursuing and stopping crime. 

We understand that investigations have their complications and that it is not about coming to just any conclusion with the investigators trying to look effective to those of us who are demanding justice. The so called local investigators decided to stick to the easiest hypothesis, a crime of passion, as they told some of the media in the first moments  with the morbid intention of distracting attention and feeding the homophobia that extends to many social circles, hindering in that way any deeper investigation that would lead to knowing the truth, and to the capture and trial of the material and intellectual authors of the crime agains our colleague Carlos Mejía

We make a vehement call to our friends who have been present with so many effective gestures of solidarity and closeness since the assassination of our compañero Carlos Mejía. We continue to need you to support us in this demand for justice. We know that we can count on you, both those inside the country and those from many international organizations. But we say with humility and frankness: we are anguished to remain alone with our cry, because impunity is an unfailing factor for more violence and criminality. We have the obligation to struggle so that the truth about what happened is known and that those responsible for this crime are prosecuted. For the dignity of our murdered compañero, for his family, for ourselves, and so that this crime doesn’t remain in the shadows of impunity, we demand speed and effectiveness in the results of the investigation!

Duelo y Denuncia - Mourning and Condemnation - Solidarity with Radio Progreso

English follows the Spanish

Carlos Mejía Orellana
foto: Radio Progreso

Nota de duelo y denuncia

La Voz de los de Abajo

Chicago, Illinois EUA

13 de Abril 2014

Con tristeza y consternación recibimos las noticias del asesinato el día 11 de abril del compañero Carlos Mejía Orellana, gerente de mercadeo de Radio Progreso y parte del equipo de ERIC-SJ en el Progreso.

Queremos expresar nuestra solidaridad con todos los compañeros y las compañeras de Radio Progreso y ERIC y con la familia Mejía Orellana.

A la vez expresamos nuestra indignación frente a tal acto violenta en contra de Carlos quien tenia medidas cautelares para proteger su vida de parte de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) y quien, como tantos comunicadores, defensores de los derechos humanos, abogados, y otros comprometidos y dedicados/as a la justicia social, están sistemáticamente asesinados, por los dueños del poder y de las armas, como una clara estrategia de callar las voces que hoy claman Justicia y no mas impunidad en honduras. En casi todos estos casos nunca se han hechos investigaciones verdaderas y los crímenes quedan en impunidad. Desde el golpe de estado de 2009 el índice de violencia por parte del estado y de los señores que ostentan el poder ha crecido de manera alarmante. El sicariato se vuelto una mediada fácil y efectiva para aquellos que con su dinero, compran y arrebatan vidas.

Nos unimos al clamor del pueblo que hoy clama, demanda y exige, NO + Impunidad. Denunciamos y exigimos que el asesinato de Carlos sea esclarecido y que todos los actores tanto materiales como intelectuales - comparezcan y sean castigados.

Reconocemos que el gobierno de Estado Unidos también tiene una cuota de responsabilidad por el baño de sangre ocurriendo en Honduras: por la militarización, por el programa de la llamada seguridad que no proteja al pueblo sino que hace crecer la violencia generalizada, por su constante apoyo a los gobiernos represores y la explotación de los recursos del país. No aceptamos la doble moral que promulga el gobierno de los Estados Unidos y vamos a redoblar nuestras esfuerzas en contra de la ayuda militar, en contra de la

impunidad.

Atentamente

Alexy Javier Lanza

La Voz de los de Abajo Chicago

Dado el 13 de Abril de año 2014 en la ciudad de Chicago

On the assassination of Carlos Mejía Orellana

A note of mourning and condemnation

It is with grief and consternation that we receive the news of the assassination on April 11 of compañero  Carlos Mejía Orellana, director of marketing for Radio Progreso and member of ERIC-SJ in Progreso. 

We want to express our solidarity with all of the compañeros and compañeras at Radio Progreso and ERIC and with the Mejía Orellana family. 

At the same time we declare our indignation at this violent act against Carlos who had protective measures ordered by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) and who, like so many communicators, human rights defenders, lawyers and others committed and dedicated to social justice, are systematically assassinated by the owners of power and armaments in a clear strategy to silence the voices of this who demand justice and an end to impunity in Honduras. In almost all these cases there have never been real investigations and the crimes remain in impunity. Since the coup d e’tat in 2009 the level of violence by the State and the powerful has grown in an alarming manner. Paid assassination has become an easy and effective way for those with the money to buy and do away with lives.

We join in the clamor of the Honduran people who today insist on and demand an end to Impunity. We denounce the assassination of Carlos and we demand that the crime be investigated and that all the material and intellectual authors of the crime, be brought to justice and punished.

We recognize that the government of the United States also has a share of the responsibility for the blood bath in Honduras: for the militarization, for the so called security program that does not protect the people but rather has increased the generalized violence, for the constant support of repressive governments and for the exploitation of the country’s resources. We do not accept the double standard and double talk the U.S. government promulgates and we will redouble our efforts against the military aid and against impunity. 

sincerely, 

Alexy Javier Lanza

La Voz de los de Abajo

April 13, 2014

Chicago, Illinois, USA