Honduras coup update for March 2013
http://www.sydney-says-no2honduras-coup.net/much-shorter-monthly-summari...
Political persecution in March 2013 ...
In March 2013, two political activists were assassinated. Such assassinations take place every month. This month they are:
Eduardo Mord Rivera (37), the spokesperson for Mocra farmers’ movement and a leader of the Regional Agrarian Platform of Aguan Valley, assassinated by hitmen;
Roberto Weddle Calderón, Choluteca resistance leader and Libre political party activist, who was found dead.
Farmers shot at, killed, gassed, evicted, and under threat ...
On 5/3/13, at 9am, around 400 farmers, organised in Movimiento Campesino Refundacion Gregorio Chavez and stopping the Xatruch Military Operation from building a bridge for the Dinant palm company, were evicted by soldiers, police and security guards. The eviction was carried out with gunshots and teargas bombs. This took place at Paso Aguán, Panamá community, in Trujillo. Xatruch checkpoints with soldiers armed with M16s were installed at exit and entry points waiting for to capture the farmers. This state of terror also meant farmers did not answer their phones, leaving them incomunicado. Six people including three minors needed medical care after the teargas attack.
On 20/3/13, at 6.30am, a contingent of 15 patrols, 2 army commandos, 6 cars with heavily armed men, 3 buses of soldiers and a tank with peppergas illegally evicted 1,500 families of the farmers movements ADCP and CNTC in El Progreso from land they re-occupied on 16/2/13 at Agua Blanca Sur. Farmers left without engaging in a confrontation. The court-ordered eviction was illegal because the land – 3,644 hectares – was officially expropriated from the Azunosa sugar company (of SABmiller, which has a franchise to produce coca cola) for owning above the legal limit. It is state agrarian reform land since the first half of 2012, and there is a protection measure in the courts suspending any evictions. The contingent destroyed 50 makeshift homes and burnt belongings that were not removed in time. At 11am the farmers decided to re-enter and re-occupy when they saw Azunosa machinery that would destroy their corn, beans and vegetable crops move in. After that hundreds of police arrived to unleash repression, saved only by a court order to suspend the eviction. Farmers complain that since the eviction, guards are always around to intimidate, sometimes accompanied by cops, and company representatives take photos of the farmers, sometimes using hidden cameras.
On 21/3/13, Feliz Torres, leader of Renacer 1 de Mayo coop of ACDP received information about plans to kill him. He spoke with his daughter that afternoon who told him that a friend of hers knew of a meeting that took place in Azunosa, and told her to tell him to be careful, because he is amongst the people they want to assassinate. He holds Azunosa responsible for anything that happens to him.
On 23/3/13, on Saturday, Mocra spokesperson and a leader of the Plataforma Agraria Regional del Valle de Aguan, Eduardo Mord Rivera (37), was murdered by heavily armed men in a black van who fired at least 10 shots into his body, when he was moving around Tocoa doing a few errands. He has 3 children.
Community attacked for opposing dam project
The Copinh indigenous communities of La Tejera, Valle de Angeles, La Union and San Bartolo has been under attack – militarisation, harassment, threats, and with ongoing political judicial processes against Tejera community members Felipe Gómez and Domingo Sánchez. This all arose from the imposition of the Agua Zarca hydroelectricity dam project, with approval from the Congress and Environment Department, that the indigenous communities opposed in an open meeting because it violated indigenous rights granted under Convention 169.
Threats and persecution against alternative and community-based journalists
Julio Ernesto Alvarado (60), of anticoup TV and Radio Globo who runs the news programs Mi Nacion and Medianoche, has been subject to increasing and more severe threats this month. On 1/3/13, when Julio was broadcasting videos showing General Juan Carlos Bonilla strategising with others to capture ex president Zelaya back in July 2009, suspicious vehicles with people who looked like hitmen entered the Globo parking lot in an act of intimidation. On 5/3/13, a man went up the building – security guards believe it was to scout the place to plot an attack against Julio. After that a suspicious vehicle parked again in the parking lot as he was transmitting. On the days that followed similar events occurred with suspicious vehicles, some without numberplates, near Globo offices and suspicious individuals who asked where Julio Alvarado was. On 14/3/13, the day he criticised the slowness of the investigation on the Comayagua prison fire – 365 dead on 14/2/12 – his car was broken into but nothing was taken except a micro-filmer. Julio was also followed several times by people on motorcycles. Julio suspended the Medianoche program that is critical of police and army and had run 5 days a week since 2/1/11, because of the escalated threats. Julio has received threats regularly since a year ago. He is also a parliamentary candidate for Central American Parliament (Parlacen) of Partido Libre, and the vice president of Organisation of Iberoamerican Journalists. Threats are likely to be from police, according to Julio.
On 12/3/13, Pedro Canales, journalist of community radio La Voz de Zacate Grande was subject to persecution and death threats because he speaks up about the land conflict and struggle. Miguel Facusse, businessperson and the largest landholder in Honduras, allegedly contracted assassins. There were vehicles with dark windows and no number plates circulating regularly and suspiciously the area.
Threats against a human rights defender and his family
On 24/3/13, in San Pedro Sula, Hugo Ramón Maldonaldo together with his 3 underage children and their grandmother were followed and had their Santa Marta home surrounded by Brigada 105, and at 6.30pm. The army appeared to want to take him out from his home. Their lives are in danger. Hugo is a human rights defender of CODEH, a human rights organisation.
Resistance and political party activist found dead
On 26/3/13, in the afternoon, the coordinator of Choluteca National Popular Resistance Front, and activist of the Libre party since the beginning of 2013, Roberto Weddle Calderón, was found dead with his head beaten, in a putrified state.
Unionist dismissed
On 4/3/13, unionist of Sitraihnfa Juan Angel Nunez Espinal was dismissed from his job by current IHNFA (Families and Children Department) director Felipe Arturo Morales, violating union rights. Juan worked at the Centro de Integracion de Atencion a la Ninez in Nacaome, Valle. There are ongoing appeals that make the dismissal illegal, and he has been under threat for 2 years, for which he had been making complaints. He is an active union member.
Reports of general mililtarisation
On 4/3/13, near the El Chimbo post, 4 armed police went into a bus for Santa Lucia and talked with a youth at the back of the bus and took him away without anyone knowing why.
During this Easter week the roads were militarised, access roads to the capital city were occupied only by military with 30-50mm machine guns.
Snapshot of Solidarity and Resistance in Honduras and beyond ...
The Caminata por la Dignidad y la Soberanía arrived at the Congress in Tegucigalpa on 6 March 2013. It had begun on 25 February 2013 in El Progreso (200kms away) and La Esperanza. The demands were abolishing the mining law and cancelling mine and dam concessions, and abolition of the neocolonial model cities law and freedom for political prisoner José Isabel Morales of Bajo Aguán farmers movement MCA, who is locked up for a murder he did not commit. Those from the walk held a sit-in outside the Congress that afternoon, and occupied and slept there at night in the cold, many with the flu and sore feet. At this point they did not 'win' in terms of their demands, yet the bonds and connections formed are seeds planted for an ongoing struggle.
On 8 March 2013, Friday, the International Women's March in Tegucigalpa was massive. Women met and chanted outside the Teachers College, then arriving at the Congress buildings. Chanting, 'the people, they ask themselves, and these ones who are they? We are feminists, of the revolution!', and other chants were strong and included references to burning the parliament. Women’s day activities were held nationally.
The La Nueva Esperanza community, which participated in the caminata, returned to their community in Atlántida (near but further than El Progreso), and organised to keep watch and respond to intrusions by the mining company La Victoria (and maybe others) that they are fighting to stop. They climbed the mountain en-masse to document and witness the damage the company has done already and where the company is intervening, including points where rivers begin. The community of 200 has normally not seen a police presence. They bravely face constant confrontation, intimidation and harassment by newly installed police placed to protect mining interests.
At Agua Blanca Sur, 1500 families of two farmers movements ACDP and CNTC reoccupied, were evicted, and reoccupied again four hours later. It is a land reclaim movement with strong objectives of food sovereignty, burning company sugar fields and preparing land for corn, beans and vegetables.
In Tegucigalpa, a photographic exhibition was organised called 'Because the resistance continues’, showing images of 25 women fighters who in this historical time of crisis believe deeply in refoundation, as a process of construction, counter-hegemonic, anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, and a process of struggle against political sovereignty.
Save the Forests ran a petition signing campaign against the World Bank for giving a $15 million credit to Dinant in 2009, despite Dinant's implication in the assassinations and violent land conflicts. While the World Bank investigates the case, they are about to give a second credit of the same amount to Dinant. The petition demands that the finance stop. http://www.salvalaselva.org/mailalert/909?ref=nl&mt=1543
Newsflashes from March 2013
Activists including from Copinh warn that the US has plans to open a third US military base in Honduras that could be the biggest in Latin America, but that it is a secret. The first was in the 80s, Palmerola in Comayagua. The second was in 2010, in Mosquitia, installed in the name of fighting against drugs, and its operations have caused deaths in 2012 and have affected the fishing and hunting livelihoods of the indigenous communities, with the noise of helicopters breaking the jungle silence.
A law about communication medias is under discussion. There are debates as to the implications of the bill.
A public apology was made by police head Juan Carlos Bonilla for the accusation he made against the Libre Party, the accusation being that the party doctored the video that shows him strategising with others to capture Zelaya in July 2009 at the beginning of the coup, at the Nicaraguan border.
An audit report showed abnormalities in tax exemptions and mining licences that the Defomin department gave to the mining company Caridad S de RL, of around $2 million. The audit was carried out for the period 2006 to end of 2010, and the tax exemption in question was granted using an article in the mining law that had been abolished. Eyes are on the department, but no mention was made of criminal proceedings against the company for fraud.
Honduran government intends to reform the financial situation by selling government bonds. This plan to sell bonds of $500 million to pay back over a 100 years term, is still to be approved by the Congress, but the basic idea is that the government feels pressured to sell something to pay its bills (internal debt), to medicine suppliers, etc. The interest rate that the government will pay is 12%, which Honduras plans to pay for through the devaluation of currency (something that will increase costs of living of people). This was based on an announcement of Finance Minister Wilfredo Cerrato. The bonds were accepted by a British bank. Cerrato tried to sell the deal as something good because otherwise he says they would need to sell other public assets like pension and insurance funds. But none of these reform measures have good long term outcomes for Hondurans.