Buenos Amigos - Eviction, Detentions and Torture

The Honduras Accompaniment Project reports news that at 4pm today, January 27, three peasants were detained by police during an eviction of one hundred families by police and military in the campamento “Buenos Amigos” in Saba Colón. It is not clear if security forces had an eviction order or arrest warrants. Community members reported that one of the detained men had been tortured. Human rights organizations and the community are very concerned about the welfare of the three detained.

URGENT ACTION FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS
Human Rights partners’ request that Spanish speakers call the police station in Tocoa, Colon: 504- 2444-3106 or 2444-3107 and,
1. express concern for the three detained: José Santos Rios, Santiago Rodriguez and Jorge Santos
2. express concern regarding reports that one of the detained was tortured
3. ask the reason for their arrest

Buenos Amigos Follow-up

Delegation Report -
Yesterday (January 25) we posted an action alert for the campesino community, Buenos Amigos in Elixir, Colon - a community of 100 families at immediate risk of a violent eviction. On January 26, the delegation returned to the community to accompany them further. At the time that we left the community no eviction had occurred but it is still expected at any time.

The community of Buenos Amigos sits on 360 hectares of land, one of several properties owned by landowner Cesar Velasquez, which had been both neglected and foreclosed on, and is now available for agrarian reform.

The community spent three years investigating land that was eligible for reform. Since recuperating the land, the community has begun the process of applying to the National Agrarian Institute (INA) for title to the land. So far, they have not received any response. In fact, the campesinos stated that director of the INA, Cesar Ham, has been particularly unresponsive.



In the two months that they have been on the land, they have faced three evictions (now, four). Blanca Espinoza is a leader in the community who has denounced the violent attempts to remove them. During one of the incidents that Blanca has publicly denounced, they were shot at by unidentified assailants hidden in nearby palm trees. On another day Cesar Velasquez came by with 10 armed men to confiscate large farm equipment in their possession. They demanded to see any official order, but because he could not produce any, they resisted his attempts to enter.

On January 22nd, three vehicles full of heavily armed men arrived to Buenos Amigos and began shooting. They followed a young man of the community and shot at him, fortunately without harming him. They suspect Cesar Velasquez, though they note that they have been confronted by both police and military, as well as by private guards from the Standard Fruit Company (Dole) and other big landowners in the region. Blanca stated that they had to remove their children from the land after this attack because many of them became sick from fear.

The day we went back (January 26), we were informed by Blanca that they had received two calls---one at 9 the night before and the other at 6 in the morning, both threatening immediate eviction. La Voz de los de Abajo attempted to call Cesar Ham, but were only able to leave messages. As of today, he has not returned our call

The residents of Buenos Amigos expressed their gratitude for the presence and support of the delegation, which was the first international delegation to visit the community. They expressed their need for basic elements such as food, money, medicine, and school supplies for their children. They have received support from other campesino communities, but continue to be in danger.

The community of Buenos Amigos remains committed to the land. Though, to them, every eviction signifies death and destruction, Blanca Espinoza said that “If we die in our fight for this land, so be it. I cannot afford fear because I have children, and my compañeros have children. We’re not going to leave this land. If they remove us, we’ll be back in 48 hours.”

Campesinos of the Buenos Amigos Community Under Threat of Immediate Eviction

The La Voz de los de Abajo delegation has been informed by the campesino community of Buenos Amigos located in Saba, Colon that there they are under threat of eviction by government forces as early as tomorrow Wednesday January 26th. The Buenos Amigos Community, affiliated with CNTC (the National Rural Workers Association), is comprised of 100 families. The 360 acres of land is in foreclosure and now owned by the bank.

The community intends to stay despite the threat of eviction and maintain their right to the land through the Agrarian Reform. Community leader, Blanca Espinoza, stated that "If we have to die for the land, we die but we don't intend to leave. If they evict us from the land then we will back within 48 hours."


Please call the National Agrarian Institute at 011-504-239-8401 or 011-504-239-8402 and tell them to respect the community of Buenos Amigos' right to the land and demand that any kind of eviction is immediately called off.

Campesinos of Guadalupe Carney continue resistance despite repression

When the La Voz de los de Abajo delegation arrived at the campesino community of Guadalupe Carney in Aguán, they were preparing for a community informational assembly and also planning participation in a regional act of resistance tomorrow, January 25th.

We met with leaders from the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA), the campesino organization that founded the Guadalupe Carney community through land recuperations on a closed military base in 2000. The community is named after the U.S. priest James (Guadalupe) Carney, who was killed for his work accompanying the campesinos in Honduras in the 1980s.

David Calix and Adolfo Cruz talked to our group about the human rights violations against their community including the massacre of community members on November 15, 2010 that left 5 members of the MCA dead and 4 seriously wounded.

The massacre was the result of an attack by private paramilitary employed by Miguel Facussé, a big landowner in the region and one of the most powerful members of the oligarchy in Honduras. Previously Facussé had taken over land that was land reform land to be granted to the campesinos. On the morning of the massacre, the campesinos were planning a land recuperation but were all on an adjacent land parcel that is legally titled to members of the MCA. Some of them were eating breakfast, when suddenly a large number of Facussé’s private guards armed with high caliber weaponry appeared and began firing on them. Calix and Cruz emphasized to the delegation that the Honduran press and others have lied in saying that the campesinos were on the land that Facussé claims as his own and that it was them who attacked the guards. "That is a distortion and lie begin used to cover up what happened," they explained. All of the murdered campesinos were found on MCA land. One of the murdered man was found on Guadalupe Carney lands at some distance from the disputed land and had obviously been chased down and then shot.

The MCA leaders showed us photos taken at the scene right after the murders and in them it is obvious that some of the campesinos were shot in the back while running away; another was shot at close range in the back of the head. Some of the murdered men had clearly been eating when they were shot as tortillas and bowls were next to their hands. When the bodies were first found, with at least one local reporter present, the campesinos were not armed and only some machetes were present. However when the photos started appearing in the national press there were guns laying under or near the murdered campesinos and the stories all quoted Facusee’s guards as saying that the campesinos were armed and attacked the guards – although there were no injuries among the private paramilitaries, only dead and injured campesinos.

For close to a year, the coup regime has had a unit of soldiers placed in the center of the Guadalupe Carney community across from the community school. Community members denounce this as blatant intimidation without any justification. The soldiers, several armed with AK47s told the delegation that they were jut there to protect the community from delinquents. We asked them where they were when the community members were murdered, one soldier said, “we were over here and they were over there”.

The delegation briefly greeted the community assembly in which a large number of people were discussing the coup government's move to further attack the campesinos’ land rights by annulling Decree 18-2008. The presidential decree 18-2008 was signed by President Zelaya and approved by the Congress in 2008 and aimed to resolve numerous land conflicts in favor of the poor peasants. Across Honduras the campesino organizations and communities are planning mobilizations this week to protest this new attack on the campesinos.

The La Voz delegation to Honduras will be accompanying the regional protest in Planes, Colon tomorrow and reporting on it in this blog.

"We are a threat to the system and a service to our people" - First Garífuna Hospital perserveres despite adversity since coup

The La Voz de los de Abajo delegation met with the leadership of the first Garífuna hospital on Sunday night in Ceiba at the Fundación Luagu Hatuadi Wauhenu - Garífuna for "for the health of our people."

As hospital founder and director Dr. Luther Castillo explained, "The first popular Garífuna hospital of Honduras is a community initiative in defense of the health of our peoples. It's located in the community of Ciriboya, Colón... a zone where there was never adequate health services. Since 2007 we have done almost half a million free health consultations because health is a fundamental human right."

Co-founders Wendy Pérez and Félix Ramirez explained to the group the adversities the hospital has faced since the coup d'etat, including two military invasions and a cut off of assistance from the state. As part of their ongoing struggle to ensure the continued provision of these completely free services, which thousands of people have come to rely on, the hospital will soon be launching a campaign to get donors to sponsor the dedicated doctors and nurses who serve people at the Ciriboya hospital without any salary.

The coup government along with the private health care industry and professional doctors' associations have seen the hospital as a threat. "By instilling the value in our people that health care is a human right, we are a threat to the capitalist system and at the same time a service to our people. We attend to their needs while we demand that the state fulfill the human right to health care," says Dr. Castillo.

La Voz de los de Abajo, which has visited the hospital twice before, will continue to accompany the Garífuna hospital in its effort to fight for the human right to health care for all people. For more background information, see the article from our last delegation: "Garífuna hospital and land reclamation are seeds for a vision of a new Honduras and new world."