Alert! Security Situation in Honduras - Message from Los Necios 

Note from Honduras Resists: In the past several weeks a number of events have occurred pointing to a deepening political crises in the country and serious conflicts among the security forces, military and political rulers. The head of the Honduran National Police Force, Juan Carlos Bonilla has been one of the figures at the center of the storm and now has issued threats against LIBRE and its activists. Below is a message from the Political Organization Los Necios. 

March 4, 2010

Chief Police Juan Carlos Bonilla, better known as “El Tigre Bonilla” gave on Thursday last week a press conference saying that sectors involved in LIBRE Party have started a dirty campaign against National Security, by denouncing his crimes. In the link below his declaration:

http://proceso.hn/2013/03/01/Nacionales/E.CEl.Tigre/65053.html

He said he has already identified the groups that are doing this, and it is known he is referring to the Political Organization Los Necios (OPLN). Los Necios have openly and publicly denounce his crimes through all web site resources, given all the criminal linkages and assassinations during this period. The Police has not done anything even though there are videos showing paramilitary personal killing with political purposes.  Also, Gilberto Ríos, General Secretary of Los Necios, who is also candidate for congress, sent “El Tigre Bonilla” a letter in response to these false accusations. You can read it in the link below.

http://losnecios.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227:respuesta-al-comisionado-juan-carlos-bonilla&catid=4:editoriales-necios&Itemid=57

LIBRE Party on their side, also sent a communiqué rejecting the (amenazas) of the Tigre Bonilla:

http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2013/03/hnonduras-comunicado-urgente-de-libre.html

As we all known Tigre Bonilla is recognized for being involved with the death squads in the 80s and for his servility to the private enterprises. The arrival of El Tigre has not reduced the violence rate, instead the decision to militarize to give security has just brought more repression and more corruption by the oligarchy .

Here I send you the links of the videos that the OPLN made in denounce for the situation of Security in Honduras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDixsW0ji8w

Another one made for the anniversary of the fire in Comayagua´s Jail who killed about 300 men without investigation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZUYzqhfphg

Also another video that circulated in which as OPLN have no hand, this video shows Bonilla planning the death of President Zelaya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLpabJf1y7I

We hope that the international community can help us denounce this false accusations and claim for the respect of human rights.

Two campesinos murdered today - Action Request

February 16, 2013 - Two campesinos were murdered in the past few hours today in the Aguan Valley in Honduras. There is an action request for Spanish speakers to call the Tocoa Police Station (011-504) 2444-3105, 3106, 3107. Tell the police that you are from an international human rights group aware of the assassinations and demand a full investigation of the murders. 

At 6:30 this evening Jose Trejo Cabrera, 55,  was assassinated in Tocoa in the neighborhood of San Isidro which is also the name of the cooperative to which he belonged. Jose was a member of the campesino organization MARCA and the brother of Antonio Trejo Cabrera, the lawyer representing MARCA against the most powerful land owner in Honduras, Miguel Facussé. Antonio was assassinated in Tegucigalpa on September 22, 2012. Before his death he publicly stated that if anything should happen to him, Miguel Facussé should be held responsible. 

Earlier in the afternoon today, Santos Jacobo Caregena, 45,  from the San Esteban cooperative of the organization MUCA, was shot to death while waiting for a bus at the entrance to the cooperative La Confianza and the road to Tocoa. Numerous members of MUCA and other campesino organizations have been murdered at that location. 

This violence occurs on the eve of an official visit by the United Nations' working group on the use of mercenaries and their impact on human rights and the the right of peoples to self-determination. 

In the Aguan Valley since the 2009 coup at least 90 people have been murdered, nearly all of the victims have been campesinos or their supporters and in a large number of the cases, witnesses have identified private paramilitary guards in the employ of the big landowners as the perpetrators. In many other cases, "unidentified gunmen" were witnessed committing the murders. 

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS FOR ENGLISH AND SPANISH SPEAKERS:

Send an email to President Porfirio Lobo Sosa at  diseloalpresident@presidencia.gob.hn and to Ana Pineda, Minister of Justice and Human Rights at contact@sjdh.gob.hn in English or Spanish, mention the names of the two men murdered today and demand an end to the violence against campesinos and their supports and an investigation of the murders that includes both the gunmen and those who hire them. 

Information from the Permanent Human Rights Observatory of Aguan; MUCA; G.McCain and other sources

Re-founding Honduras from below: an indigenous perspective from COPINH's Berta Cáceres

Members of re-foundational space prioritizing building of social movement bases

What prompted the Honduran military to break down the doors of the presidential palace on June 28th, 2009 and kidnap President Manuel Zelaya first to the U.S. military base Palmerola and then to exile in Costa Rica was not the right's fear of President Zelaya himself. What the Honduran oligarchy and U.S. State Department truly feared was that Zelaya had opened the doors of the presidential palace to a grassroots social movement with a radical vision for re-founding Honduras from below. The day of the coup Hondurans were to vote on an advisory referendum about convening a constitutional assembly as a first step in "re-founding" Honduras and taking away power from the oligarchy and the transnational corporations who currently run the country. Though the referendum was non-binding, subject to congressional approval and Zelaya's term would be long over before any such constitutional assembly, just the idea of the excluded segments of Honduran society (which, together are the great majority of Honduras) being consulted scared the oligarchy enough for them to carry out a violent military coup d'etat and subsequently unleash three years of brutal repression against the Honduran resistance that continue to the present day.

While many in the resistance are hopeful that their recently formed LIBRE ("Freedom and Re-foundation" in English) party will bring Zelaya's wife Xiomara into the presidency next November and re-open the possibility of a constitutional assembly, a common worry also circulates - will the oligarchy and their military let got at the polls of what they took by force with arms during the coup? 

There is ample reason to worry. Many instances of fraud in last week's primaries have already been exposed, particularly in manipulation of numbers during the transmission of results from polling stations to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (run entirely by coup supporters). Accusations of people being paid to vote have been particularly widespread within the National Party, where there was a hotly contested primary race between two right-wing candidates. Questions are also being raised about the inflation of numbers who supposedly voted for the Liberal party, which, as numerous election observers saw first hand, had an extremely weak showing almost everywhere since a large part of its former base is now in the resistance's LIBRE party. Additionally, there were reports throughout the country of voters being unable to get their ID cards from authorities to vote and several people from the two major parties were caught the day of the elections with large numbers of ID cards. Even more worrying, several dozen LIBRE candidates have already been killed and many more have received death threats. The already severe climate of repression and terror is widely expected to worsen as next year's elections get closer.

Despite this, many people in the resistance are throwing their all into the political process against all odds. There is no doubt that many people are excited to go to the polls next November and see people on the ballot with whom they have been shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets since the coup. In its first appearance on ballots the resistance drew about half a million people to vote in the primaries last week. This despite the fact that there was already unity on the presidential candidacy of Xiomara and that many public and private sector workers were threatened with losing their jobs if seen voting for LIBRE (in the Honduran primaries any observer can see which party you are voting for because voters for each party line up separately outside different rooms). 

But there are also others who are concerned about all the energy going into the electoral process. A group of some of the most marginalized groups in Honduras - indigenous, peasant, Afro-descendant, feminist, artist and other organizations -  form what they call the "re-foundational space" within the Honduran resistance. While opinions vary and some groups in the re-foundational space are still actively working on getting LIBRE elected or have bases that will turn out to vote for LIBRE in the elections, there is a common belief that the growth of the social movement must be the priority in order to build enough power from below to truly re-found Honduras. Those in the re-foundational space believe power must be built from below first and foremost. They are demonstrating their approach by strengthening struggles in their respective sectors and creating spaces to jointly articulate their struggles, including recent gatherings such as the "Summit of Black and Indigenous Women," the "Summit of Fighters," and others.

Berta Cáceres, of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), is one strong voice within the re-foundational space. "We don't believe that democracy and power are just practiced when people go to vote," she explains. She speaks of "building a movement from below to take on patriarchy, racism and capitalism" that must be based on a vision that reflects the realities of Hondurans in all of their diversity - indigenous, Afro-Hondurans, LGBT, feminists, peasants, artists, etc.. In the above video-recorded interview, Berta speaks of the urgent need to continue building the social movements and forging "our projects of life, which are contrary to the project of death and domination."

Prominent groups within the re-foundational space like COPINH and the Fraternal Organization of Black Hondurans (OFRANEH) have gained tremendous respect within the resistance for the energy, vision and large bases they have contributed through the most intense moments of the resistance struggle. Together they made their way all the way to the Nicaraguan border to greet Zelaya when he tried to re-enter the country, facing intense repression and death threats along the way. Coming out of communities that have been in resistance for hundreds of years, they have a long-range view of the struggle that goes well beyond the November elections. 

At the end of the day, both those who are putting all of their energy into the LIBRE party and the 2013 elections and those who are prioritizing building the social movements are committed to the goal of a constitutional assembly as a first step to re-founding Honduras. All of them are dreaming of a Honduras that sets an example for Latin America and the world of what justice and equality can look like. While they may differ on how to get there, one thing is clear. When the military broke down the doors of the presidential palace they got Zelaya out of Honduras, but could never get the dream of re-founding their country out of the hearts of Hondurans.

Family fleeing persecution: "The struggle continues"

Family in hiding after assassination attempt in Aguán speaks out

This family, who requested to remain nameless for their security, like many other Hondurans after the U.S.-backed coup d'etat of June 28th, 2009, has been forced to flee their land. They are from the Aguán region of Honduras, where the richest oligarch in Honduras, Miguel Facussé, a good friend to many U.S. diplomats, politicians and businesspeople, controls most of the land. Thousands of families have taken back part of the land he stole from them in order to work the land and produce for their own survival. 

They were making progress in obtaining title to the land under ousted President Manuel Zelaya but since he was removed by a U.S.-backed coup they have faced a reign of terror from the private guards of Facussé and other large land-owners as well as the police and army. Peasants are being killed regularly and brutally in the Aguán region. This family was forced to flee after the father (who gave this interview alongside his family from an undisclosed location) was shot by an AK-47 numerous times and narrowly escaped death. He still has a bullet inside him and wounds on his body.

There are killings and death threats almost every week in the Aguán valley carried out by large landowners who were the intellectual  authors of the June 28th, 2009 coup d'etat with U.S. backing. The World Bank continues to fund the worst killer amongst these oligarchs, Miguel Facussé and his Dinant Corporation.

Write your congressional representatives and the World Bank and ask them to cut off funds to Miguel Facussé & the Dinant Corporation:

President Jim Yong Kim

The World Bank Group

1818 H Street NW

Washington, DC 20433

Finding each other through the struggle - Feminism and the resistance

Sara Avilés Tomé and Liana Funes from Feminists in Resistance speak out

The 2009 U.S.-backed coup d'etat and resistance movement it has sparked has dramatically impacted the feminist struggle in Honduras. Sara Avilés Tomé and Liana Funes of the Center for Women's studies in Honduras are both members of Feminists in Resistance who outlined for the Honduras Solidarity Network human rights observation delegation the history and current challenges of the feminist struggle in Honduras.

Though women have been present in all struggles throughout Honduran history, a movement of self-identified feminists emerged from the struggle in the 50's for women’s right to vote. The movement has grown throughout the latter part of the 20^th century, taking on an important role in educating people on women’s rights and fighting for protection from violence against women, for sexual and reproductive rights and for representation within state institutions and political offices.

“This earlier liberal conception of what it meant to be feminist was interrupted when we found the government institutions we had achieved for protecting women to be completely useless in the face of the 2009 coup d’etat and the wave of repression that was unleashed, repression which took a particularly harsh toll on the many women who were killed, assaulted, raped and beaten as a result of the coup d’etat,” explains Tomé.

Feminists in the urban areas who had been focusing on battles for representation within the state found themselves in the streets battling an illegitimate state and their conception of feminism began to expand.

“We found ourselves encountering other feminists and other more diverse realities in the streets during the resistance. We began to come together with indigenous feminists, afro-descendant feminists, feminists from the rural areas, to articulate our struggles together. Being together days on end in the streets allowed us to re-think what it means to be a feminist and re-define ourselves, making connections between the struggle against patriarchy and the struggle against capitalism and racism,” says Tomé.

Feminists in Resistance played a key part in getting the National Front of Popular Resistance to take up an explicit anti-patriarchy position, which they have so far been disappointed to see lacking in the LIBRE political party, the resistance’s political arm. While Feminists in Resistance continue to struggle alongside other sectors of the resistance for the re-founding of Honduras, they also continue to struggle internally to defeat patriarchy within the movement and ensure that the gains made within the National Front of Popular Resistance are not sacrificed for the purposes of politics as the resistance enters the electoral arena. They want to see LIBRE and the FNRP active in the struggle against the recent outlawing of emergency contraception and the battle against the dramatic levels of violence and abuse faced by Honduran women.

Feminists in Resistance is part of a sector of the resistance called the “Re-foundational Space,” which believes the resistance’s priority should be to build the social movements and has an understanding of the struggle for power that goes beyond anything achievable just through electoral politics.

These debates in and of themselves show how alive the political imagination is within Honduras right now. The debate is not whether or not to fundamentally change Honduras but how to do so. The dreams that were awoken in the process of resisting the coup, dreams of a country and world based on human rights and satisfaction of social needs rather than privatization, greed and militarization, will be difficult for the Honduran oligarchy, the Latin American right wing and the U.S. government to stamp out, try as they will.