"Nobody can silence us" - Garífuna radio station under attack again

La Voz de los de Abajo has just begun an 8-day human rights delegation to Honduras, our fourth since the coup d'etat of June 28th, 2009. Our delegation started out with a visit to Triunfo de la Cruz, a Garífuna community that is home to the first Garífuna people's radio station, which has been under constant threat and attack since the coup d'etat. The situation of the radio has taken a turn for the worse and the community leaders urge international attention and denunciation.

"Nobody can silence us" - Garífuna radio station and community leader threatened

A year ago the first Garífuna community radio station Faluma Bimetu in Triunfo de la Cruz, known for its its tireless work giving voice to the community struggles of the Garífuna and the rest of the resistance in Honduras, was burnt down. One month later, the community had rebuilt it and put in a transmitter with twice the power it had before that attack. Now it has been off the air again because of threats against it and its director, Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) leader Alfredo Lopez.

Lopez, who has been threatened many times, was maliciously accused of making threats against other people in an attempt to silence him and the radio station. The situation became so dangerous that the radio station closed out of concerns for the security of its equipment and staff. But Lopez and the other activists announced at our meeting that the radio station will begin broadcasting again on Monday, January 24th.

"They can't silence us. If they haven't been able to get rid of us in two hundred years they won't be able to get rid of us now," says Alfredo. Triunfo de la Cruz has a long history of struggle stemming back to the forceful displacement of the Garífuna community from Tela in the 1800s. In recent decades Triunfo de la Cruz, like Garífuna communities all along the north coast of Honduras, has been in a battle for survival in the midst of threats from tourist mega-projects, large land owners seeking more land to cultivate African Palm, transnational companies and narco-traffickers.

Before he was kidnapped by the army and flown out of the country by the army, President Mel Zelaya had signed several agreements with the Garífuna communities to begin resolving some of their land claims. Though there had been an ongoing struggle to see the accords come to fruition, the coup dramatically worsened the situation. Recognizing that the coup was carried out by the same oligarchs that the community had been struggling against for generations, the Garífuna communities were amongst the first to pour into the streets to join and give energy to the resistance movement. Radio stations like Faluma Bimetu, which is now one of four Garífuna radio stations supported by OFRANEH along the north coast, played a fundamental role in spreading news of what was really taking place in the midst of a media blackout throughout the country.

The programming, which includes news, commentary, music and more, was so important to the surrounding communities that they quickly and energetically launched a successful campaign to get it back on the air when it was burned down last January. But the re-launching of the radio with even more coverage than before has further angered the powerful interests that wish to silence the Garífuna resistance and take over their lands. Taking advantage of the post-coup political climate, narco-traffickers have gained tremendous influence in the local municipality and bought off several community members to create a parallel community council to rubber stamp land concessions and undermine the existing community council that has coordinated resistance for generations. Tension has grown in the build-up to the February elections of the legitimate community council, which the oligarchs and narco-traffickers desperately want to block. To this end, they blamed a recent shooting at the house associated with narco-traffickers on Alfredo López and threatened to burn down the radio station.

Though the charges have been dismissed as lacking any evidence whatsoever by the Honduran courts, the atmosphere remains extremely tense. The radio station team has carried out a survey of the community to assure they are willing to defend the radio station in the build-up to the elections with all the risks that this implies. Because of the overwhelmingly positive response, they intend to open the station in the near future, possibly as soon as Monday the 23rd.

In the meantime, OFRANEH has filed a legal complaint before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the situation and are urgently asking for support to make the gravity of the situation known and demand that the commission take immediate measures to ensure the safety of Alfredo López and the other members of the Faluma Bimetu radio station and the Triunfo de la Cruz community. The contact phone number is 202-458-6002.

Interview with Juan Ramón Chinchilla, MUCA

By Giorgio Trucchi - Rel-UITA*
After escaping from his captors, still physically and psychologically exhausted from the experience endured over the last 48 hours, the peasant leader of the Unified Peasant Movement of the Aguan (MUCA)and the National Popular Resistance Front (FRNP), Juan Ramón Chinchilla, agreed to an interview from an undisclosed location in Honduras .

Can you describe your kidnapping?
On the afternoon of Saturday, January 8th I went to visit friends at a shopping center. I left on my motorcycle heading for the community of La Concepción and noticed that I was being followed. Just before La Concepción, there was a car across the road and at that moment I realized that there were people in the palms, pointing guns at me.

Then what happened?
I stopped and let the motorcycle fall to the ground. Several hooded men grabbed me, fired on the motorcycle and put me into a vehicle, covering my face so that I could not see where we were going. There were a lot of them. Almost all of them wore uniforms of the military, police and the private guards of Miguel Facussé. They drove approximately 40 minutes towards Trujillo . We came to an isolated place. They put me into a storage room and began to question me.

What did they want to know?

If we have arms. Where did the information come from that is on the internet and how many peasants are organized? They had a lot of photographs of me and other people. They were well organized. The operation had been carefully prepared.

When were you beaten?

On the afternoon of Sunday the 9th. They got me up and showed me a table with torture instruments on it. They began talking among themselves. They said, “What are we going to do first? Are we going to pull out a fingernail or burn him? Then they began to strike me in the face. They burnt my hair. They told me they were going to pour gasoline on my head and burn me. They beat me on the back with a club. There were several foreigners. Some spoke English and another spoke a language that I was not able to understand.

How were you able to escape?

On Sunday night they took me out of the storage room and we began walking in the darkness. I heard them say that for the moment the order was not to kill me. That encouraged me. We climbed a hill and I was not tied up. Taking advantage of the darkness, I started running and ran into the woods nearby. The men pursued me firing but I escaped. I ran and walked for a long time until I could find someone to help me and then I was able to communicate with my compañeros.

Why do you believe you were kidnapped?

We are in a struggle with the landowners. We know that our enemies are Miguel Facussé, René Morales and Reinaldo Canales, and that the government is on their side – not the side of the people. The department has been militarized twice and we know that they are going to do all they can to finish off our struggle. They had photos and a lot of information about our organizations and members. They want to intimidate us.

Your kidnapping generated a strong current of solidarity and denunciation at the national and international level. Do you feel that this contributed in any way to restrain the murderous hand of your captors?

They were concerned about the national and international pressure. They were monitoring the news on the internet and radio. That is why they decided to move me to another location on Sunday. I believe that all of this pressure helped so that something worse did not happen. I am infinitely grateful to all of the people and organizations – national and international – that mobilized; and also the media that denounced my kidnapping. The struggle will continue. They will not stop me; on the contrary, we have to continue with more strength. We must stay united because it is the only way to move our country forward. We do not accept the coup and we never will accept it, even though they kill us. I will never leave the struggle; better to die than to betray it.

Interview with Juan Ramón Chinchilla, MUCA
By Giorgio Trucchi - Rel-UITA*http://www.rel-uita.org/agricultura/palma_africana/con_juan_ramon_chinchilla.htm
translated by the Friendship Office

Resistance Leader Survives Kidnapping and Torture

Monday afternoon (January 10, 2011) Juan Chinchilla, a member of the Executive Committee of the FNRP was located having survived a kidnapping and torture for 2 days.

On Saturday, January 8, Chinchilla, a journalist and a representative of Youth In Resistance and the Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan (MUCA) was kidnapped as he rode his motorcycle to his home in the campesino settlement of La Concepcion in the municipality of Tocoa in the Aguan region in northern Honduras. Moments before being kidnapped he made a phone call to denounce the presence of motorcycle and car following him. Gunshots were heard, but when people arrived at the scene they only found his motorcycle with bullet holes.

Immediately human rights organizations, resistance organization, and solidarity groups internationally and nationally responded with urgent actions calling the local police, Honduran government, U.S. Embassy, U.S. State Department and other entities demanding that Chinchilla be “reappeared” alive and well. In Aguan the campesino organizations began a physical search of the rural area where the golpista landowners Miguel Facusse, René Morales and Reinaldo Canales are contesting campesinos’ rights to land. These landowners are responsible along with the de facto regime of Porfirio Lobo for the militarization of the region, the violent attacks on the campesinos and the disappearances and murders of numerous peasant activists.

Chinchilla reappeared and is safe in an undisclosed location. He has burns and bruises from torture.

Information from Los Necios; Red Morazanica; Resistencia, Rights Action

State-led Terrorism Attempts to Stop Landless Peasants' Claims in Honduras

Two week after the most recent massacre of campesinos in Aguan the war against the campesinos continues with military actions on the ground and a media campaign accusing the Nicaraguan government of allowing gun running and guerrilla training by the campesino and resistance movement.

On November 23 the Honduran armed forces seized the regional office of the National Agrarian Institute (INA) under the pretext of searching for weapons. Hundreds of troops were involved, terrorizing the 60 campesino families that have been staying on the property after being displaced by a recent tropical storm, and refusing to allow INA staff entry to their offices. The Lobo regime also announced that it would be evicting campesinos from disputed lands and it began doing so on December 3rd when 130 troops were sent to displace campesinos in El Tumbador, the community that was the victim of the November 15th massacre.

The accusations of gun running and guerrilla training in Nicaragua made by the Lobo regime were answered on November 29th by the head of the Nicaragua military, Julio Cesar Aviles Castillo who stated that with these false accusations that Nicaragua the Honduran regime joins an “international conspiracy” by various countries seeking to “protect expansionist interests” against Nicaragua. The accusations of Costa Rica that the Nicaraguan army invaded its territory, the Lobo regime’s claims of Honduran guerrillas being armed and trained in Nicaragua “are false and part of a strategy Developed in collaboration with Colombia’ Aviles asserted. Commander Aviles also noted that the Honduran media itself shows that the problem in Aguan is a conflict over land between campesinos and private businessmen that has led to deaths from firearms.

In the face of the violence and militarization in the region, the Human Rights Platform and Agrarian Platform convened a press conference on November 29th. In an interview with defensoresenlinea.com, coordinators of the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA), Adolfo Cruz and David Cálix denounced the attacks on the campesino movement in Aguan including the seizure of the offices of the INA.
Adolfo Cruz affirmed that “We are living under terrorism of the State and the paramilitary and its intention is to destroy the process of land recuperation and agrarian reform in Aguan.”





“The massacre on November 15th was one more repression by a new army, made up of reservists trained by high ranking officials with the objective of defending the lands usurped by Miguel Facusse with the complicity of the Lobo regime”, stated Cálix.


At the press conference campesinos presented photocopies of documents that showed that the MCA peasants have legal tenancy to the land. “The National Agrarian Institution has enormous archives of property documents, not only of the MCA but fro the whole region...” David Cálix told defensoresenlinea.com alter the press conference, emphasizing the importance of avoiding the military plunder of the INA office. “The army is trying to intimidate us, letting it be known that they are the repressive force and that, according to them, we have to do what the golpistas say. If the documents of the INA are lost it will be the responsibility of the army that arrived (at the office) looking for weapons when all they found was documents.”

Adolfo Cruz stated that “our philosophy is not for war, the guerrillas were from the last century, our strategy is the recuperation of the land through the non violent, legal path in order to provide food to our families; we need the land to work and to survive; we know that the neoliberal policies in Honduras mean that we the poor are poorer and the golpistas every day have more millions. The lands of the MCA are lands that the government paid for three times for the Agrarian Reform and during the course of the 10 years that the MCA has been planning there the work of the INA (on the case) has not finished. Miguel Facusse ACAPARO some of the land to grow African palm through a loan from the World Bank”.

Asked why the Lobo regime would raid an agency of the government itself, Cruz responded that the government, “ wants to execute its plans with impunity as happened with the events of November 15—the golpistas can massacre our compañeros campesinos in plain sight of the Lobo regime. The golpistas and landowners want to crush the Agrarian Reform in Aguan that we have struggled for with the cooperatives – they want to displace us with paramiliary violence”.

Cruz also noted that the Lobo regime should be worried about poverty, human rights and justice and the activities of the military and Facusse’s paramilitaries, not making false accusations against the campesinos based on misinformation- “It is the government of Honduras that is guilty of the deaths of 20 peasants in Aguan”.





Regarding international politics and the anti-terrorist legislation, Cruz stated that, “we know there is a plan, in the region of Aguan there are foreign persons infiltrated into the army, the police and the paramilitaries. The visit of Alvaro Uribe (former President of Colombia) is part of a well executed plan of Colombia and Honduras to draw attention away from the problems and, at all costs, to eliminate the process of agrarian reform through the use of advisors, Colombian paramilitaries and the media campaign.

When asked about the formal agreement that the MUCA and Lobo government signed and the relationship between MUCA and the MCA, David Cálix responded that the MUCA communities of 3000 campesino families, “were looking for a way to survive and wish that the promises made by Lobo would have been true, but at this point none of the signed agreements have been fulfilled”.

“Among our strategies is mutual accompaniment by the MCA and the MUCA to exhaust all the legal recourses and to recuperate the lands that belong to us. We have always had good relations with MUCA; when they were evicted we gave them refuge in our houses…we have never participated in violent movements, the MCA and MUCA recuperate land in a non-violent way, through marches, blocking the highways and even with strikes to paralyze agricultural production in Aguan until our rights and tenancy on the land is respected.”
Both men emphasized the importance of the human rights organizations, the Human Rights Platform, sending a delegation to Aguan to counter the violence and insecurity in the region caused by the paramilitaries.

Cálix emphasized, “We know that in the governmental ambit there is no one who supports us, we hope for the solidarity of the national and international community”.

Cruz added, “It is sad to go to pick up the cadavers of our compañeros of the MCA who didn’t even have a belt, just a piece of rope, and to see the greed of the landowner Facusse who is obsessed with assassinating the campesinos. We don’t want any more blood baths.”



-----------

This article is condensed from articles by Red Morazanica de Información; defensoresenlinea.com and other news reports.-December 3, 2010.

This article was translated by VC.

Massacre of members of Peasant Movement of Aguán (MCA)

Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA)

Tocoa, Colon Honduras - November 16th, 2010

COMMUNIQUÉ

We regret to announce the terrible assassination of Ignacio Reyes (50), Teodoro Acosta (40), Siriaco Muños (56), Raúl Castillo (45) and José Luis Sauceda (32), members of the Peasant Movement of Aguán (MCA) who were brutally killed in the morning hours Monday November 15th, 2010 in Tumbador, Trujillo by hired assassins of [Honduran oligarch, U.S. ally and coup-financier] Miguel Facusse.

The lands in this sector of Trujillo belong to the Peasant Movement of Aguán, since the State through the National Agrarian Institute (INA) paid Temistocles Ramírez for them, though then Miguel Facussé took them over without legal standing.

Therefor:

1. We condemn the brutal and merciless attack perpetrated by the businessman Miguel Facussé's hit-men and assassins in conspiracy with members of the police and military who had been trained ahead of time for the bloody acts, of which members of the Peasant Movement of Aguán (MCA), located in the municipality of Trujillo, were victims, where 5 innocent people died..

2. We condemn the attitude of the police and military who despite having knowledge of the armed groups of the businessmen Miguel Facusse, René Morales and Reynaldo Canales, don't act, but rather protect them and equip them with their vehicles, fatigues and high-caliber arms (M-16, M-60) to cover their massacres. This confirms to us that the army doesn't defend the interests of the people but rather defends the interests of the powerful in the country.

3. We condemn the attitude of the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of Defense in their mistaken discourse that the act happened because of the invasion of private property and at the same time WE DEMAND the disarming of the army of hit-men commanded by Miguel Facusse with military training by RANGER teams from the United States.

We clarify that struggle will no stop due to this massacre and our people will not continue to be subjected to slavery.