Exhumation in the Aguán: in search of the truth

From April 23- 26 2013, the Honduras Accompaniment Project (PROAH) accompanied members of the Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) to the lower Aguán, where they exhumed a human skeleton that was found by campesinos in the Paso Aguán property, near the Panamá community.

 The COFADEH, at the request of the community and the family of José Antonio Lopez Lara, who disappeared on April 29, 2012 on the Paso Aguán property, asked experts from the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) to conduct the exhumation with the authorization of the judicial authorities of Trujillo, department of Colón, and with the support of the Human Rights Office of Honduras.

The embrace of Doña Elena is strong and warm. Her slender and agile body does not show her 79 years; her direct, sharp gaze is that of a woman who, although she has suffered her whole life, including the greatest pain of losing a child, cannot give up and continues struggling for justice.

 

Doña Elena

The anguish of Doña Elena and her family began a year ago, when José Antonio López Lara, a 46 year old campesino, disappeared on April 29, 2012. He left his house in the Rigores community (Trujillo, Colón) to fish in the Ilanga river, whose waters border the Paso Aguán palm oil estate, then in the hands of landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum. According to Saudi, the oldest daughter of José Antonio, Facussé’s guards had previously threatened to disappear and kill her father for approaching the estate. On the day of his disappearance, “around 10 am, some campesinos from there said that they heard 4 shots”¹. However, nothing was known about José Antonio until April 3, 2013, when a human skeleton was found buried in a clandestine grave on the Paso Aguán property that borders the Panamá community. The discovery of the grave, about 200 meters from the place where Jose Antonio was supposedly fishing, suggested that they might be his remains.

Before José Antonio López Lara, at least three campesinos have been reported disappeared. On May 15, 2011, Francisco Pascual López (37 years old) disappeared while herding cattle. A boy heard shots, but the body was not found. Meanwhile Antonio Gómez (55 years old), a member of the Nueva Vida de Rigores movement and campesino from the Panamá plantation, disappeared in February 2012 and the Panamá plantation guard, Lito Rivera (35 years old) disappeared on his way to work on the afternoon of January 30, 2012.

 The guards and owners of the property always prevented the families and friends of the disappeared from looking for the bodies that would allow them to ascertain the truth. It was after the disappearance of the campesino leader Gregorio Chávez on July 2, 2012, whose lifeless body was found three days later in the Paso Aguán estate and after the retaking of the property by the campesinos that a commission was formed to search for the rest of the victims and, after three false alarms, on April 3, 2013 another body was found².

Although José Antonio López Lara’s family immediately went to the police station to report the illegal grave, suspecting that it might have to do with their relative, the police did not follow up on the report. So while José Antonio was not part of any campesino movements in the area, the Unified Campesino Movement of Aguán (MUCA) and other organizations decided not to ignore the fact and organized for the official exhumation and identification of the remains.

First, they approached the area and decided to take shifts in groups of 10 during the day and 50 men at night so that nobody could erase the traces of one or possibly more of the victims of violent land conflict that is ongoing in the region. After that they began the formal process to be able to proceed with the exhumation. First, the petition was presented to the Trujillo court by the Special Prosecutor of Human Rights, COFADEH, the families of the disappeared in the Lower Aguán and the MUCA. Then the Trujillo court took care of finalizing the process. The exhumation was conducted on April 25^th. The process was carried out by experts from the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), the archeologist Leonel Paíz, and the Anthropologist Alma Vázquez.

 When, at dawn, the experts from Guatemala arrived to the site of the discovery with members of the COFADEH, international observers and journalists, the family of José Antonio was already gathered under a tent: Doña Elena, her sons, grandsons, great grandsons and Rosa, José Antonio’s wife, with their two sons of 3 and 8 years of age. In addition to the family, the place was guarded by dozens of members of the police and the army. On one side, relatives and unarmed human rights defenders, looking for a spark of truth; on the other, armed men trained for war.

Police contingent

 

Xatruch III soldier observing the exhumation

The discovery site was marked by a sugar cane cross. Here, in the shadow of the palm tree, the exhumation process began. Leonel and Alma gave orders to the three campesinos who helped them in the excavation: they measured, marked, took photos, and filtered the dirt.

The experts start the exhumation

We all followed them in silence, almost without breathing, in a surreal atmosphere. Little by little, the area was filling up with people. Dozens of campesinos had slowly approached until they surrounded the premises with a hug of solidarity and their banners protesting the militarization of the area and the repression of their struggle. And there they stayed, standing and quiet, all day.

 

Campesinos observing the exhumation

Around noon, the first signs of the body appeared: the rubber boots and the skull, resting on its right cheek, as if asleep. And then the striped bag and the fishing line that his wife had given him in the morning before he left the house, and the fish, buried with him. “It’s him!” one of his sisters exclaimed. “I knew it. It was a hunch. From the beginning I felt that it was him.” Doña Elena went to the grave and broke down in tears, covering her face with a white handkerchief. At 4 pm the compañeros rolled up their banners and left in silence, as they had arrived. After a powerful funeral ritual and the words of Pastor Rigoberto Ulloa and Priest Juan Colato, the bones were taken to a vehicle of the Office of the Prosecutor of Human Rights to bring them to the Public Prosecutor’s Medical Forensic unit in Tegucigalpa, where the forensic scientists would conduct a morphological analysis of the remains the following day. The certified laboratory of the FAFG would take care of the DNA tests for a complete identification.

Without doubt, once it is officially and scientifically confirmed that the body recovered in the exhumation on April 25^th is that of the disappeared José Antonio López Lara, the campesino movement of the Lower Aguán will obtain an important victory in their struggle to defend the land.

Photos Marvin Palacios : id=2558:imagenes-del-proceso-de-exhumacion-en-el-bajo-aguan&catid=42:seg-y-jus&Itemid=159

1 Interview with Saudi, one of José Antonio López Lara’s daughters:
http://nicaraguaymasespanol.blogspot.com/2013/04/honduras-el-peor-castigo-para-el.html

2 Press Conference with COFADEH to announce the exhumation:
http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2547:exhumaciones-en-el-aguan-en-busqueda-de-la-verdad&catid=42:seg-y-jus&Itemid=159

The attempt on the life of journalist Fidelina Sandoval: a new attack on freedom of expression in Honduras

On 8 April 2013, it was Fidelina Sandoval’s 24th birthday. She had worked for two years at Radio Globo, one of the few stations broadcasting information on the social protests in Honduras since the coup which overthrew President Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

At 8.25 in the morning, Fidelina was just about to cross the Bulevar Morazán, one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, when she noticed a grey pickup truck, with no licence plates, with two men in the front, one of whom was trying to hide. She stated a few hours later, at the press conference organized at the headquarters of COFADEH (Committee of the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras) that her first instinct was to look away and to escape by crossing the road. Seconds later she heard a deafening noise, probably from a gunshot. She thinks that the bullet grazed her left cheek. “I realized that I was unhurt” the journalist told her colleagues. “I looked around and I couldn’t see anyone. I didn’t think I was the intended target until a man came up to me and asked me if I had any enemies because the bullet was for me.”

Fidelina stated that the week before she had received phone calls from strangers who asked her for information under various pretexts. She received these calls after reporting on the clean-up of the police force and the land conflict in the Bajo Aguán. For example, on 4 April, Radio Globo broadcast her interview with Aldo Oliva, the Police Commissioner, on the purge of the organization’s senior ranks. On the Bajo Aguán, she reported on the discovery of a clandestine grave, believed to contain the body of at least one disappeared person (possibly more) who had been involved in the struggle to defend their land. Her report stressed that some people from the armed forces were impeding the investigations.

Press conference in COFADEH on 8 April 2013 

(
http://www.cofadeh.hn/node/172
)

“It’s a means of sowing terror so that nobody says anything any more and to give the impression that everything’s OK here”, Bertha Oliva, COFADEH’s coordinator, said at the press conference. On her work as a journalist, Fidelina Sandoval stated, “I’m not afraid – I’m committed to it and I want to carry on working with integrity and dedication.”

As well as the support provided by COFADEH, Fidelina received international accompaniment from PROAH.

Fidelina Sandoval is the latest victim in an endless succession of threats, harassment, attacks, kidnappings and murders suffered by journalists, a level of persecution which, according to UNESCO, has turned Honduras into the country with the highest murder rate for journalists in the world.¹ CONADEH (the Honduran National Commissioner for Human Rights) has reported that of all the journalists killed in the country in the past decade, 80% – a total of 28 – have been murdered since Porfirio Lobo took office in January 2010.² As a result, many journalists have chosen to go into exile in search of safety for themselves and their families.

Honduras is now one of only four countries in the Americas where the press is classified as “not free” by the US-based organization Freedom House, and of the 197 countries worldwide that it assessed for freedom of the press, it ranked Honduras 142nd,³ primarily because of the killing and intimidation of journalists, combined with the impunity which has reined in the country since the coup.⁴ Similarly, in the Reporters without Borders World Press Freedom Index for 2013, Honduras comes 127th out of the 179 countries studied. The report expresses concern that “There has been no let-up in the persecution of opposition media and community radio stations, or in the criminalization of human rights activists and grass-roots movements that provide information about such sensitive issues as land disputes, police abuses and minority rights.”⁵

Frank de la Rue, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression and opinion, focussed on the issue of the persecution of members of the press when presenting his preliminary observations and recommendations at the end of his official visit to Honduras in August 2012. He stressed its negative implications for democracy and thus the importance of adequate protection for journalists: “Limitations on the press are limitations on citizen participation and an attack on democracy. I therefore believe that violence against journalists should be seen not only as an attack on the rights of an individual but as an attack on the rights of society as a whole to be informed and to seek access to information. That is why I repeat that the State has an obligation to provide special protection for those who work to defend and promote the rights of others, such as human rights defenders and journalists, as this role puts them at risk…”⁶

This call for greater protection of journalists and human rights defenders by the state echoes that made by Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders on her visit to Honduras in 2011  (see blog article) but it is one that still remains to be answered.

1 
http://www.elheraldo.hn/Secciones-Principales/Pais/Honduras-encabeza-asesinatos-de-periodistas
(in Spanish)

2 
http://www.conadeh.hn/index.php/7-conadeh/215-al-cumplirse-un-ano-del-asesinato-del-periodista-alfredo-villatoro
(in Spanish)

3 Freedom House: Global Press Freedom Rankings
http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Global%20and%20Regional%20Press%20Freedom%20Rankings.pdf

4  Freedom House: Freedom of the Press 2012
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2012/honduras

5  Reporters without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2013 http://fr.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/classement_2013_gb-bd.pdf

6 
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12433&LangID=E
(in Spanish only)

For more information on the case of Fidelina Sandoval and journalists in Honduras:

defensoresenlinea.com (in Spanish): Los temas cruciales del acontecer nacional exponen a los periodistas a un peligro creciente

Conexihon (in Spanish): Honduras: Agresiones a periodistas se disparan en marzo, abril, mayo y agosto

IFEX (Latin America and Caribbean) Annual Report on Impunity 2012:

http://ifex.org/americas/2013/03/04/executive%20summary%20-%20march%202013%20-%20english%20.pdf

17 Siria Valley environmentalists free of charges, but their fight continues

On February 20, PROAH accompanied COFADEH’s lawyers and the Committee of Environmentalists of Siria Valley. That morning 17 environmentalists from the Siria Valley filed into the 5^th courtroom of the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice accused of impeding a private deforestation project in their area. The delegation was so large that they couldn’t all fit in the courtroom’s allotted space for defendants. The case is now two years old (link in Spanish). PROAH has reported on the case and accompanied the Committee during that time. On April 7, 2010 approximately 500 community members gathered to protest and defend the trees that protect a watershed in their area that supplies the surrounding communities. Of the hundreds of protesters, 17 were accused of impeding a deforestation plan that the Committee of Environmentalists of the Siria Valley has denounced as illegal due to issues surrounding land tenure. At the end of 2009 they had filed a grievance with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and to this date have received no response.

Before the hearing a letter from international organizations addressed to Honduran authorities and the Canadian ambassador was circulated. The letter expressed “worry for the criminalization of the defense of the environment and human rights in Honduras” and support for the 17 environmentalists. The letter also quoted a Siria Valley community member: “How is it possible that the public prosecutor for the environment can accuse environmental defenders whose only objective is the defense of life and the protection of water?” (This public prosecutor is specifically responsible for prosecuting cases that have to do with the environment.)

The defense was able to prove 5 of the defendants were not even present at the protest on April 7, 2010. The defendants were represented by Kenia Oliva and Karol Cardenas of COFADEH (Comité de Familiares de los Detenidos y Desaparecidos de Honduras). In his testimony, Carlos Amador (General Secretary of the Committee of Environmentalists of Siria Valley) expressed that the case was purely a criminalization of environmental defenders. On Monday, February 25 the presiding judge Mario Díaz read the resolution of the case absolving the accused of all responsibility and leaving them free of all charges (link in Spanish). One of the defendants, Reynaldo Guerra, a former mayor in the Siria Valley region, expressed the Committee’s contentment with the decision and said “we continue to be committed to the protection of the environment, as much mining exploitation as deforestation.”

Carlos Amador, General Secretary of the Environmental Committee of Siria Valley; photo from the Committee’s Facebook page.

A battle was won on February 20, but their fight continues. Carlos commented that it is just a momentary step and that “there are more difficult things coming for environmentalists.” The long-disputed mining law that passed recently in the Honduran Congress presents a whole host of new challenges for environmentalists across the country. Specifically in the Siria Valley Five Star Mining (owned by Gold Lake)  has set its sights on the region to exploit iron, according to Carlos. The company already has a presence in Monte Redondo in northern Honduras. “It’s a double threat with the approval of the new law. Siria Valley is going to become a place for a lot of new businesses to come exploit gold,” said Carlos. He is sure that this will not be the last attempt to delegitimize environmental activism, adding, “Companies will look for any other mechanism to continue criminalizing environmental defenders.”

The Commission of Truth releases its report, “The Voice of Greatest Authority is that of the Victims”

From October 3-5, 2012, the Commission of Truth presented its report, “The Voice of Greatest Authority is that of the Victims,” about human rights violations in Honduras during and following the June 28, 2009 coup d’état. PROAH accompanied the Commissioners when they presented the report in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and Tocoa.

The Commission of Truth was created in June 2010 with the objective of “clarifying the facts of the June 28, 2009 coup d’état to demand justice for the Honduran population affected by the coup d’état and to recommend the adoption of measures necessary to avoid the repetition of this type of event in the future.”ⁱ The Commission was created by human rights organizations as an alternative to the Honduran government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR). According to Bertha Oliva, Coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, the CVR report, which was released in July 2011, “makes the victims invisible and gives a layer of protection to the assassins.” Restoring dignity to the victims was an important part of the mandate and focus of the alternative Commission of Truth.

The Commission of Truth is made up of well-known national and international human rights defenders. Six of the commissioners presented the report, including the President of the Commission, Sr. Elsie Monge, who also presided over the Truth Commission in her country of Ecuador. The two Honduran members of the Commission, writer Helen Umaña and Fr. Fausto Milla, known for his many years of work defending human rights in Honduras, were also present. Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel sent a representative on his behalf, Beverly Keene of Jubilee South. Two Commissioners shared their own experience of family members being disappeared or murdered: Mirna Perla, a former Supreme Court Justice in El Salvador who survived a massacre in 1975 and lost her husband in a political assassination in 1987, and Nora Cortiñas, whose son was Detained-Disappeared in Argentina in 1977, which motivated her to co-found the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Movement.

The Commission carried out extensive investigations to develop its report, receiving a large quantity of testimonies from victims and then carrying out a process to verify the facts and analyze the cases. In total, the Commission of Truth received “1,966 reports from citizens about human rights violations by state agents and armed civilian apparatuses protected by state institutions” between June 2009 and August 2011¨.ⁱⁱ Based on these reports, the Commission analyzed 5,418 human rights violations and categorized 87 forms of aggression.ⁱⁱⁱ

At the first presentation of the report, on October 3 in Tegucigalpa, the Commissioners presented the report to victims of human rights violations, the families of murder victims, members of organizations and social movements, the press, and representatives of the Honduran government and several Embassies. Those who lost their lives in the struggle for justice following the coup d’état were remembered and made present in the memory of all those in attendance through a moving ceremony in which a large photo of each person was carried to the center of the auditorium as their names were read and the audience members responded presente.

The first copy of the report was presented to the parents of Isy Obed Murillo, who, at 19 years old, was the first casualty of the coup d’état. On July 5, 2009, he was shot in the head and killed when the military opened fire on a protest at the Toncontín airport, where President Manuel Zelaya was attempting to return to the Honduras.

At the presentation of the Commission’s report in Tocoa, a city in the Lower Aguan region of Honduras, the commissioners presented a copy of the report to the family of Gregorio Chavez, a small farmer who disappeared on July 2, 2012 and was found dead four days later on the property of businessman and palm oil producer Miguel Facussé. He is one of over 50 people related to or affiliated with campesino organizations in the Lower Aguan region that have been murdered since the coup.

In Tocoa, the commissioners and attendees also took a moment to remember Antonio Trejo, the lawyer for the MARCA campesino movement in the Aguan  who fought tirelessly in court to defend the right to land for campesinos. After receiving several death threats, he was murdered on September 22, 2012. After the presentation of the report, those in attendance also had the opportunity to share with the commissioners about the repression that campesinos and human rights defenders continue to face in the Lower Aguan region.

The Commission of Truth’s report identifies three patterns of human rights violations in the framework of the coup d’état: 1) repression of public protests, excessive use of force during repression by state security agents, and criminalization of public protest; 2) selective or directed repression to the detriment of persons considered by the de facto government to be destabilizing to the regime; and 3) institutional dysfunction according to the needs of the regime imposed by the coup d’état and to the detriment of the population.”^iv

The first two patterns were clearly illustrated during the remembrances of those who had been murdered, kidnapped, and abused during protests or for being journalists or leaders in the movement against the coup. To illustrate the third pattern of institutional dysfunction, particularly the “dysfunction in the justice system,”^v  the commissioners presented the report in San Pedro Sula to Judge Luis Alonso Chevez de la Rocha of the Association of Judges for Democracy, who is one of the judges removed from office for opposing the coup d’état. The Commission of Truth’s report notes that they received “information about the removal, arbitrary transfers and dismissals, and the subjection to disciplinary hearings of an important number of judges who expressed their rejection of the coup d’état.”^vi The commissioners noted that the right to a fair trial requires independent and impartial judges and that the ability of judges to be independent is important in ensuring respect for human rights.

At each of the events, the commissioners shared the report’s 18 recommendations, which include recommendations to “investigate and sanction those intellectually and materially responsible for the coup d’état and the human rights violations that arose from the coup,” and “to remove the civilian and military officials involved in grave violations of fundamental rights, committed since the coup d’état, from their positions in the administration.”

The commissioners remarked that the effects of the coup d’état continue and that political persecutions are likely to intensify in the coming months as the elections near. Commissioner Fr. Fausto Milla added that now there is a “new Commission of Truth, which is the Honduran people, with the mission of demanding that the recommendations of the report be fulfilled.”

i
http://comisiondeverdadhonduras.org/?q=node/30

ii The Commission of Truth’s report, “La voz más autorizada es la de las víctimas,” Page 227

iii Ibíd, Page 228

iv Ibíd, Page 99

v Ibíd, Page 110

vi Ibíd, Page 213

For more information:

The Commission of Truth report (in spanish)

“The Voice of the Victims.” 10-minute video about the Commission of Truth (in spanish)

APUVIMEH Calls for an End to Impunity for the Murders of Walter Tróchez and other members of the LGBTI community in Honduras

On September 13th, PROAH accompanied APUVIMEH (Association for a Better Life for Persons Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS in Honduras) for a walk and demonstration organized to demand justice for the murders of Walter Tróchez and other members of the LGBTI community in Honduras. As José Antonio Zambrano, President of APUVIMEH, explains in the press release for the event:

“Two years and 9 months ago today, our companion Walter Orlando Trochez, Secretary of APUVIMEH, a leader of the LGBTTI community, an HIV activist, and a human rights defender, was murdered. He was a young man whose feelings, aspirations, and right to life was cut short. He struggled side-by-side with his people, a people arbitrarily jailed, beaten, humiliated and ill-treated by members of the police and Army. Through his writings and accompaniment of the public protests following the 2009 coup d’état, Walter offered his life for justice and freedom. Because of this, we are committed to demanding justice and the prosecution of those responsible for his vile murder perpetrated on 13 December 2009, in the center of Tegucigalpa.”

Since 2011, APUVIMEH has held these demonstrations on the 13th of the month, the monthly anniversary of Walter Tróchez’s death. They gather at the statue of ‘Simón Bolívar the Liberator’ in Tegucigalpa and walk from there to the Attorney General’s office (Ministerio Público), where they demand an end to impunity in the murders of the LGBTI community and deliver a communiqué to the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights. As APUVIMEH explains in their August 13th press release:

“Included in the promotion and respect for human rights is the right to life, a dream that has been ended violently for more than 80 members of the Honduran sexual diversity community. One emblematic case is that of our colleague, Walter Trochez… we are asking the investigative unit of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights of the Attorney General’s office for a report on the investigation, its progress and obstacles.”

According to a report by La Red Cattrachasⁱ, the period with the most violent deaths in the LGBTI community in recent years were the last six months of 2009, following the June 28, 2009 coup d’etat. During this time, 23 members of the LGBTI community, including Walter Tróchez, were killed. From 2010 until August 6, 2012, during the current Porfirio Lobo presidency, they report an additional 51 violent deaths in the Honduran LGBTI community.

On August 28, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemned ] one of the most recent homicides in the LGBTI community, that of a 21-year old trans woman who was found dead in San Pedro Sula on August 2, 2012. The Commission’s press release explains her body “was found with a series of bullet wounds to her face and head. Also, her hands showed signs of being tied behind her back. According to the media, her relatives reported that four persons came to their house the day before, announcing they came as officers from the National Agency of Criminal Investigation (Dirección Nacional de Investigación Criminal), and took her, indicating she was arrested.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ press release also speaks to the issue of impunity:

“In addition, the Commission notes that very frequently, problems exist in the investigation of those crimes, which involve, in part, failures to open lines of investigation into whether the crime was committed by reason of the victim’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The ineffectiveness of the state response fosters high rates of impunity, which in turn lead to the chronic repetition of such crimes, leaving the victims and their families defenseless.”

It is in this context that the members of APUVIMEH took to the streets on September 13th, just as they had done on the 13th of the month before, to once again demand an end to impunity for murders in the LGBTI community.

i “Situación de las Muerte Violentas de la Comunidad LGTTBI en Honduras, resumen al 6 de agosto 2012.”

Press Conference about Health Impacts of San Martin mine and Honduras’ Proposed Mining Law

On August 1, 2012, members of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee (Comité Ambientalista del Valle de Siria) traveled to Tegucigalpa for a press conference about the health impacts of the San Martin mine. PROAH accompanies the Siria Valley Environmental Committee, whose members have been criminalized for their efforts to defend the environment, and was present for the press conference, held as part of the Continental Day of Action Against Canadian Mega Resource Extraction. It was led by Dr. Juan Almendares, a medical doctor who has worked extensively with communities affected by the mine in Honduras and the coordinator of the Movimiento Madre Tierra (Mother Earth Movement) of Honduras.

The San Martin mine, owned by Canadian mining company Goldcorp, operated in the Siria Valley from 2000 until 2008. Dr Almendares and community members report that the mine has left behind a legacy of health and environmental problems due to the mine’s contamination of the water in the area with heavy metals. According to Dr. Almendares, when the mine opened in 2000, only 8 out of every 100 people in the area had skin problems. Ten years later, after the operation of the mine, this figure has increased ten-fold, to 80 out of every 100 residents. High levels of heavy metals – lead, arsenic, and mercury – have been found in the blood of both children and adults in the Valley.

A recent photo report by Carlos Amador of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee documents the “serious endemic health crisis [that] continues to unfold” in the Siria Valley. The report includes testimony from community members, such as Juana Aceituno, who explains, “Look at how sick I am. I never had problems like this. It was when the mine came that I got sick. I have a lot of pain and I don’t know what to do about it. This Canadian mine came here and ruined everything.”

Last month, members of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee traveled to Guatemala for the People’s International Health Tribunal to testify about the health effects of the San Martin mine. The Tribunal heard testimony from people affected by Goldcorp mines in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras and in its verdict stated:

“All of the cases that have been presented have the common elements of: (a) contamination and the irreversible loss of water sources, (b) irreversible environmental devastation: disappearance of mountains, ecosystems and changes to the hydrologic cycle, (c) dust that is constantly inhaled and that contains heavy metals and toxic substances that include carcinogenic elements that accumulate in organisms, (d) effects in the chain of life: destruction of crops and soil, illness and death of wild and domestic animals. In the testimonies, we have heard people talk about skin and eye illnesses, hair loss, skin rashes, miscarriages, infertility, premature births, birth defects and death of newborns, joint pains, auditory damage, gastrointestinal problems, nervous system problems, cases of poisoning that have led to death….We heard from ex-workers of Goldcorp whose health has been affected because they suffer from frequent intoxication, leaks, toxic chemical explosions, and workplace accidents due to a lack of equipment and security measures. These accidents have also led to death.”

Pedro Landa, Coordinator of CEHPRODEC (Honduran Center for the Promotion of Community Development) and facilitator of the National Coalition of Environmental and Social Networks of Honduras (Coalición Nacional de Redes Ambientales y Sociales de Honduras) noted at the press conference that 70% of mines in Latin America are owned by Canadian companies or companies with headquarters in Canada and it is no coincidence that the Canadian government sent experts to ‘advise’ on the proposed mining law currently being considered by the Honduran Congress. In a recent article, Jennifer Moore of Mining Watch Canada examines the role of the Canadian government in the proposed mining law in Honduras and finds that “the Canadian government is spending taxpayer dollars to help set up a favourable legal framework for Canadian mining operations against the will of Honduran civil society.”

Numerous Honduran civil society organizations have rejected the proposed mining law that the Honduran Congress is currently considering. This proposed law would end the current moratorium on new mining concessions, paving the way for the 300 mining applications that were stalled by the moratorium to move forward. It allows for open-pit mining — which 91% of Hondurans oppose, according to a survey by the CESPAD (Center for Democracy Studies) and the World Lutheran Federation. The National Coalition of Environmental and Social Networks of Honduras released a statement about the recent ‘socialization’ process in which the Mining Commission of the National Congress and government agencies held briefing sessions about the proposed law. The Coalition notes, “In all these “briefing” sessions, the above-mentioned public officials have tried to deceive the population by telling a series of half-truths which, according to ethical principles and values, are complete lies.”

The first half-truth they cite is the claim that “the new law better protects natural resources,” noting that “the truth of the new law” is that “it makes it possible for buffer zones of protected areas to be subject to mining concessions, it fails to safeguard the human right to water for the population, … removes from municipalities their authority to designate zones as protected, … [and] relaxes the requirements for obtaining an environmental license.” Read the whole statement from the National Coalition of Environmental and Social Networks of Honduras here.

The tragedy in La Moskitia – COFADEH publishes the preliminary report of its fact-finding mission

From 20 to 24 May 2012, a commission organised by COFADEH (the Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras) visited La Ceiba and La Moskitia to document the tragic events of 11 May, when four passengers in a river boat were killed when they were shot from helicopters during a joint antinarcotics operation by the Honduran police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).   During its mission, COFADEH received accompaniment by PROAH, including a representative from Witness for Peace.  COFADEH presented the preliminary report of this mission at a press conference on 6 June.

The passenger boat fired upon by helicopters. The bullet holes can be seen on its side.

There was – and there still is – an urgent need to clarify the facts surrounding the case, not only because of the seriousness of what occurred, but also because of the series of statements by the authorities, US and Honduran, justifying the attack by implying that the victims were involved in the drugs trade[1].  COFADEH’s mission managed to shed light on many of the key facts, as well as giving a face to the innocent victims, and a voice to their relatives and others affected by the attacks.

We travelled to Ahuas, the municipality in La Moskitia where the tragedy occurred, and home to most of the victims and their relatives.  Its name, which means ‘pine’ in the Tawahka language, has a particular resonance for those who remember the militarization of Honduras by the US during the 1980s – Ahuas Tara (‘Big Pine’) was the name of a series of major joint military operations between the US and Honduras in La Moskitia in the context of the Contra War over the border in Nicaragua.

The journey underlined the remoteness and isolation of the region.  We travelled in a small plane (about 20 seats) over the jungle of the western Mosquitia, and then in an even smaller plane (a 4-seater) flying low over the grasslands in the east of the region, which provide easy landing strips for drugs planes.

In a region where there is only one main road, air and water are the usual means of transport for the local people.  When we arrived, we were taken to the ‘landin’, the small river port in Paptalaya, a small community in Ahuas municipality, close to where the tragedy happened, and where the boat was due to dock before it was fired upon by four military helicopters at 2 am on 11 May.  The boat was still there, complete with 20 bullet holes in its sides.  One of the ‘factors’ which made its passengers suspicious in the eyes of US officials was  that they were travelling at night[2].   However, this is normal practice for long river journeys in a region where the strength of the sun during the day is fierce, and looking at the boat – a pipante, essentially a long canoe – it was easy to see that it was so narrow that putting a roof on it would have destabilized it.

The ‘landin’ at Paptalya where the passenger boat was due to dock, and where the helicopters landed.

Information  on the events leading up to the tragedy were provided by the local mayor, Lucio Vaquedano, who has been  praised by COFADEH for his bravery in publicly stating the facts surrounding the case[3], and in contradicting the versions of the Honduran and US authorities who, immediately after the tragedy, claimed that the dead were drug-traffickers.   In an interview with COFADEH, he stated that, according to accounts he had heard, a light aircraft had landed on an illegal runway 3 kilometres away to leave a drugs shipment, which was possibly already tailed by the police and the DEA. The cargo was taken to the dock at Paptalaya where it was transferred to a boat. The employees of the drugs traffickers fled when they realized they were being tracked, abandoning the boat which then drifted down the Patuca River.  The passenger boat, which was travelling upriver, was about 700 meters away from the landing at Paptalaya when it came across the boat carrying the drugs.  Just at that moment, the police and the DEA attacked, opening fire on the passenger boat.  For Mr Vaquedano, it was a mistake that unfortunately took the lives of four innocent people[4].

The dead were Hasked Brooks Wood, 14, a minor travelling with his mother Clara Wood Rivas, and  three adults, all of whom were parents, and two of whom were pregnant women –  Candelaria Pratt Nelson, 48, who was from Brus Laguna, on the coast, and the mother of 6 children, and Juana Jackson Ambrocio, 28, the mother of two young children, who lived in Ahuas.  The other adult, Emerson Martinez Henriquez, 21, was the father of two girls, and had left the army only a month earlier after three years of military service in the 5th Infantry Battalion in Mocorón, Gracias a Dios.

Typical houses in Ahuas.

Further details of the attack came from interviews with the boat’s survivors.  They insist that no warning was given before the helicopters fired upon them, and that no other shots were heard, although as late as 10 June the Honduran authorities were reported as claiming, on the basis of a preliminary investigation, that the agents on the helicopters were justified in firing in self-defence[5].

What is certain is that there was no attempt by the personnel in the helicopters to help the passengers once the attack took place.   Given that they included children who could not swim, it is a miracle that not more people died, as the passengers were forced to jump  in the river to escape the firing, which continued while they were in the water.  Three of the injured, from their hospital beds in La Ceiba and Ahuas, told COFADEH how, despite their injuries, they managed to swim to the river bank.  There, two of them, Wilmer Lucas Walter, 14, with a severe injury to his wrist and Lucio Adan Nelson Queen, 22, shot in the back and elbow, fled into the trees to save themselves when they saw that the attack was continuing.  The third hospitalised victim, the boat owner, Hilda Rosa Lezama Kenreth, 53,  was hit by a high-calibre bullet which left a  groove 4 inches wide and 12 inches long across her thighs.  She was in the river for over two hours, sheltering under a bush from the attack[6].  She was forced to spend so much time in the polluted water that she contracted an infection in the wounds, and at one point there was the risk that both legs would have to be amputated.

What she did not know at the time was that her son had been prevented from rescuing her by agents – reportedly both American and Honduran – from the helicopters, who spread terror among the community after landing at the dock at Paptalaya.   They detained him for an hour and beat him,  forcing him at gunpoint to recover the boat containing the drugs.  This was only one example of a series of reported abuses by the Honduran and American agents, who violently broke into houses, looted fuel, ill-treated the inhabitants and subjected some to death threats.  One of the survivors of the attack, Clara Wood Rivas, and the mother of one of the dead, Hasked Brooks Wood, 14, had arrived distraught at the landing, after swimming ashore, only to be threatened at gunpoint by three agents, who asked her if she wanted to die and told her to get out of the area[7].

This failure to help the passengers of the boat extended to the care of the wounded, both immediately after the incident as well as longer term – all help for the injured was arranged by the people of the community, with no support from the authorities.   In the end, Lucio and Wilmer spent over 20 days in hospital in La Ceiba without being operated on – in the case of Lucio, the operation was cancelled at the last minute a number of times, and it was finally carried out only after UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross intervened at COFADEH’s request.  In the case of Wilmer, his mother, who is single and in a precarious financial position, had to find the money to pay for an ambulance to transport her son to San Pedro Sula for the surgery which would save his hand[8].

At the end of their mission, COFADEH initiated legal cases on the incident by lodging official complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Offices in Puerto Lempira  and La Ceiba[9], as well as later at the Head Office (Ministerio Público) in Tegucigalpa, with the presence of the victims’ relatives.

In their preliminary public report, COFADEH are not only demanding due support for the victims and their relatives, but also that both the US and Honduran authorities conduct investigations into the incident, which has had such a bitter cost in innocent lives[10].

---

[1] See, for example  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/probe-underway-in-remote-area-of-honduras-after-gunfight-involving-us-drug-agents/2012/05/17/gIQA9jzWWU_story.html
;
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/world/americas/deas-agents-join-hondurans-in-drug-firefights.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
and  (in Spanish)
http://proceso.hn/2012/05/11/Caliente/Decomiso.de.droga/51774.html

[2]See, for example
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/probe-underway-in-remote-area-of-honduras-after-gunfight-involving-us-drug-agents/2012/05/17/gIQA9jzWWU_story.html

[3]  See, for example, (in Spanish)
http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2035:las-victimas-siempre-hablaran&catid=42:seg-y-jus&Itemid=159

[4]COFADEH – Preliminary Investigation Report – The Ahuas Case – 11 May 2012 – footnote 4 (P.7).
http://defensoresenlinea.com/cms/documentos/2012_INFORME_Casos_Mosquitia_ingles.pdf

[5]
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/10/world/americas/honduras-us/index.html

[6] COFADEH – Preliminary Investigation Report – The Ahuas Case – 11 May 2012 – P.9 and 10.
http://defensoresenlinea.com/cms/documentos/2012_INFORME_Casos_Mosquitia_ingles.pdf

[7] Ibid. P.10 and 12.

[8]
http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2059:cruz-roja-internacional-y-unicef-intervienen-por-heridos-de-ahuas-ante-indiferencia-del-regimen&catid=42:seg-y-jus&Itemid=159
(in Spanish only)

[9]
http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2030:cofadeh-interpone-denuncia-ante-fiscalia-de-puerto-lempira-por-ataque-militar-perpetrado-en-ahuas&catid=42:seg-y-jus&Itemid=159
 (in Spanish)

[10] COFADEH – Preliminary Investigation Report – The Ahuas Case – 11 May 2012 – P.14.
http://defensoresenlinea.com/cms/documentos/2012_INFORME_Casos_Mosquitia_ingles.pdf

Strong response of the international community to death threats received by PROAH

The response of the international community to death threats received by the PROAH team was immediate, strong and is ongoing.  

We are grateful to U.S. and Canadian networks that issued urgent actions and Letters of Concern (see attached). European Union Ambassadors to Honduras spokeout publicly regarding the escalation of violence and threats against human rights defenders and international accompaniers. Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action on behalf of the PROAH team. It also issued a public letter to the government of Honduras, demanding that there be: “No more killings, attacks or threats against journalists and human rights defenders.” 

This week in Washington D.C, members of the Honduras Working Group, a subgroup of the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), including a representative of PROAH, had a series of Congressional visits to discuss the human rights crisis in Honduras and concerns about the role of U.S. policy in fueling the violence.

Congressman Farr made a statement in the House of Representatives expressing his alarm regarding the steady deterioration of human rights in Honduras. He mentioned the recent attacks on human rights defenders, including the threats received by the PROAH team.

5.2012 CCR Final Statement of Concern Hon HRD_ENG

5.2012 APG Letter threats PROAH

UN Special Rapporteur expresses her concern at the vulnerability of human rights defenders in Honduras

On 14 February, at a very well-attended press conference at the United Nations building in Tegucigalpa, Margaret Sekaggya, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, presented her preliminary findings at the end of her visit, which began on 7 February and included San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba, as well as the capital.  She had met President Lobo Sosa, government officials, representatives of the Honduran Congress and the judiciary, a wide cross-section of civil society, United Nations officials and members of the diplomatic community.  The Honduras Accompaniment Project was present at the event.

 

Ms Sekaggya noted a situation of ‘pervasive impunity’ and the absence of effective investigations into human rights violations.  She also commented that the 2009 coup d’état had aggravated institutional weaknesses, increasing the vulnerability of human rights defenders who suffer extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, death threats, attacks, harassment and stigmatisation.

She identified certain categories of human rights defenders at particular risk.  She highlighted those who are peacefully claiming their right to land, such as Afro-Hondurans, and those seeking to protect the environment, including opponents of mining and hydroelectric schemes, among whom indigenous peoples are particularly affected.  Ms Sekaggya also condemned the stigmatisation and persecution by public officials of human rights defenders working on LGBTI issues, threatened because their work is perceived to defend ‘immoral behaviour’; workers on children and youth issues, particularly those denouncing social cleansing by both public and private actors, and members of women’s organisations, who say that the violations against them as individuals and their work are not taken seriously and, moreover, they suffer intimidation by the authorities, especially the police.  She also described the number of journalists murdered in 2009-2010 as ‘alarming’ which, combined with other acts of persecution against them, represents a serious violation of the right to right to freedom of expression.

In the light of these threats to human rights defenders, the Rapporteur criticised the state’s failure to implement the protection measures issued by the Inter-American Human Rights System.  Currently, only the police has responsibility for providing defenders with protection, but the latter often opt not to use them out of fear, given the involvement of police officers in crimes, including serious human rights violations.  According to Ms Sekaggya, this situation, combined with political interference in the judicial system, has had a negative effect on the administration of justice.

Her recommendations to the Honduran state include the establishment of a policy which recognises the value of the work of human rights defenders, and a sufficiently-resourced protection programme for them.  In addition, reports of threats and attacks against defenders should be given priority, as should the clean-up of the police force.

The final report will be published in 2013.

The full text of the declaration is below.

Statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, on the conclusion of her official visit to Honduras

From the 7 to 14 February 2012, I visited Honduras and travelled to Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba. During my visit, I met with the President; the Minister of Justice and Human Rights; the Minister of the Indigenous and Afro-Honduran people; the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Vice-Minister for Defense; the Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs; the Vice-Minister of Security; the Director of the National Agrarian Institute; the President of the Human Rights Commission within the National Congress; the President of the Supreme Court of Justice; the Special Prosecutor Office for Human Rights, the Human Rights Commissioner. However, I regret not having met the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Security, Defense, Interior and Populations. I met as well with members of the diplomatic community (G16) and the United Nations agencies, including the Resident Coordinator.

Finally, throughout my mission, I met a wide and diverse segment of the civil society.

I thank the Government of Honduras for extending an invitation to me and for its cooperation throughout the mission. I further want to thank all human rights defenders with whom I had meetings. Finally, I want to express my appreciation to the UN Human Rights Advisor and his team for their invaluable support in preparing and undertaking the mission.

I welcome the commitment expressed by the Government, including the President himself, to accept and implement my recommendations, particularly the openness of the President to have a constructive dialogue with civil society. I am encouraged that the Government has issued a standing invitation to Special Procedures and indicated a willingness to engage with different mandate holders.

I note as positive the creation of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Ministry for the Indigenous and Afro-Honduran People. I welcome the establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. I also commend the report prepared by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, particularly the recommendations regarding human rights. I further welcome the engagement of the authorities and civil society during the Universal Periodic Review process and the Government’s acceptance of a significant number of recommendations, including those related to the improvement of the protection of human rights defenders.

Honduras faces serious challenges in combating violence and insecurity. The pervasive impunity and absence of effective investigations of human rights violations undermine the administration of justice and damages the public’s trust in authorities. The 2009 coup d’état aggravated institutional weaknesses, increased the vulnerability of human rights defenders and provoked a major polarisation in society. Due to the exposed nature of their activities, human rights defenders continue to suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, death threats, attacks, harassment and stigmatisation.

I have observed that certain categories of human rights defenders are at particular risk, including journalists, staff of the National Human Rights Commission, lawyers, prosecutors and judges, as well as defenders working on the rights of women, children, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex community, the indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities as well as those working on environmental and land rights issues.

I am concerned that public officials, including high-ranking authorities, have made public statements which stigmatise human rights defenders. In particular, I have received information indicating that human rights defenders working on the protection of the rights of LGBTI have been threatened and persecuted because their work is perceived to defend immoral b_ehaviour. Defenders working on children’s rights have been harassed, particularly those denouncing social cleansing of children and youth at the hands of public and private actors. Women’s organisations raised concerns that, due to pervasive gender discrimination, their complaints of violations against their integrity and work are dismissed and that they suffer intimidation by the authorities, in particular members of the police force.

I received reports of serious violations of and restrictions on the freedom of e_xpression since the coup d’état. An alarming number of journalists were killed in 2009 and 2010. Measures to restrict the media remain in place and have resulted in self-censorship among journalists. Numerous community radio stations were closed shortly after the coup and remain inoperative. This affects in particular the right to access information among indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities.

I met several representatives of organisations who had been threatened as a consequence of their interventions to protect the environment against projects by private companies, in particular relating to dams and mining, where indigenous peoples had not been consulted as required by the International Labour Organization Convention No. 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I am concerned over the levels of violence affecting people who are claiming economic and social rights, including land rights, through peaceful means.

A significant number of human rights defenders have been issued with precautionary protection measures by the Inter-American System and I am disturbed by information that the authorities’ failure to provide effective protective measures has resulted in them being victims of killings, attacks and threats. At the time of the mission, more than 380 persons in Honduras were beneficiaries of precautionary protection measures and I met with significant numbers of them who expressed grave concern for their security.

The absence of a national protection programme for human rights defenders is a principal concern which has been echoed among a majority of stakeholders. Authorities have also shared the same concern. I must underline that the State has an obligation to demonstrate due diligence and take preventive measures to protect persons who are at risk for having defended human rights. The lack of protection for human rights defenders at risk increases their vulnerability, obstructs the ability of authorities to undertake investigations and thereby contributes to the cycle of impunity.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office ability to undertake effective and impartial criminal investigations is seriously undermined by the alleged participation and collusion of police force members in committing crimes, including serious violations of human rights. I received information indicating that police agents, including at senior levels, have impeded and obstructed investigations. The Human Rights Office of the Public Prosecutor is seriously affected by political interference, lack of efficiency and lack of resources, and its staff has been subjected to threats.

I was repeatedly informed by human rights defenders that due to their fear of the police, they abstain from seeking protection as they consider that contact with the police exposes them to increased security risks. The only measures for protection currently available are provided by the police; however it has no specific unit with vetted officers to provide protection. I met several human rights defenders who observed that the police officers assigned to provide their protection were frequently rotated and that not knowing who was assigned to provide protection increased their feeling of insecurity. One human rights defender with precautionary measures commented that the police who were assigned to be providing protection were confused about their task and presumed that the human rights defender was on provisional release. Consequently, the person who was supposed to be receiving protection was treated as a suspect rather than a victim.

I have received disconcerting information indicating a lack of independence and impartiality of the judiciary which undermines both the effectiveness of the administration of justice and the potential role of judges as human rights defenders. As a consequence, protection remedies such as habeas corpus and the writ of amparo become illusionary mechanisms. The absence of an independent body to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and to supervise the appointment, promotion and regulation of the judicial profession has resulted in political interference which jeopardises the legitimacy of the judiciary. I observe that the incertitude over judges’ tenure is detrimental to the exercise of their functions.

I regret that during my mission I received reports indicating that the National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH) is unable to effectively undertake its crucial functions as an independent entity. The creation of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is a positive development to fulfil the State responsibility to monitor and protect human rights. However, I would emphasize that the institutional responsibility for monitoring human rights should also fall within the scope of an independent National Human Rights Institution. The lack of coordination between relevant authorities results in a protection gap and requires clarification. This institutional weakness generates a lack of credibility in the national human rights protection system.

I received information from various stakeholders indicating that the Inter-Institutional Commission for the Protection of Human Rights, headed by the Procurator General (Procuraduría General de la República), fails to provide an effective framework for institutional coordination of human rights issues as its emphasis is on responses to international human rights mechanisms rather than on concrete measures at the national level.

Regarding the legitimate right of human rights defenders to associate, I am concerned that the valuable role of human rights organisations may be affected by the adoption of legislation aimed at restricting the work of civil society organisations, particularly the Decree 32-2011 on the Specialized Law for the Promotion of NGOs for Development, (Ley Especializada de Fomento para las Organizaciones Non-Gubernatales de Desarollo) and the Decree 252-2010 on the Law against Financing Terrorism (Ley contra el Financimento de Terrorismo). I received information indicating that human rights organisations are facing difficulties to gain the legal recognition required to register with authorities and that organisations have been threatened with closure.

Recommendations

To the State

• The Government should establish a clear State policy which recognises the indispensible work of human rights defenders and ensure their protection. The President should promote and lead dialogue between authorities and civil society in order to create a favourable environment for human rights defenders. A holistic approach should be the baseline for establishing a State policy which provides for the effective operation and comprehensive coordination of public institutions. All policies, strategies and programmes should be developed taking into account recommendations by international and regional human rights mechanisms. Anational mechanism to regularly evaluate the degree of implementation of the recommendations should be established in consultation with civil society.

• A National a_ction Plan for human rights should be developed taking into account recommendations by human rights mechanism, including the UPR mechanism, Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies and the Inter-American System, as well as those provided by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. I recommend that the Government seek technical advice from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to this end.

• As a crucial measure to overcome the distrust of authorities among human rights defenders, an adequately resourced protection programme for human rights defenders should be established and implemented as a matter of urgency and an inter-institutional framework developed to assume responsibility for its coordination and regular and transparent review. All measures for the protection of human rights defenders should be planned and agreed upon directly with the concerned individuals. The Special Rapporteur underlines the responsibility of the State in ensuring that human rights defenders are provided with effective protection measures in a prompt manner.

• Given the broad mandate awarded to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, its key priorities should be identified and its role vis-à-vis other authorities clarified in order to avoid overlap. The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights should assume responsibility for the development of human rights policies as well as for the internal coordination of protection strategies for human rights defenders. The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights should demonstrate leadership in the reform of the Inter-Institutional Commission for the Protection of Human Rights in order to coordinate implementation of the State’s human rights protection policy.

• The role and independence of the National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH) should be reinforced.The cases transmitted by CONADEH should be promptly investigated by competent authorities. CONADEH should be consulted in the process of developing human rights protection mechanisms and in particular in the establishment of a protection programme for human rights defenders.

• The national legal framework should be comprehensively revised in order to harmonise it with principles and provisions of international human rights instruments. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders should be incorporated in national legislation and awareness-raising undertaken on the definition and role of human rights defenders.

• The Decree 32-2011 on the Specialized Law for the Promotion of NGOs for Development, (Ley Especializada de Fomento para las Organizaciones Non-Gubernatales de Desarollo) and the Decree 252-2010 on the Law against Financing Terrorism (Ley contra el Financimento de Terrorismo) should be revised in order to create an environment conducive for human rights defenders to be able to carry out their work. Article 13 of the Declaration of Human Rights Defenders provides that everyone has the right to receive and utilise resources for the promotion and protection of human rights.

• A policy for effective criminal investigations should be defined and investigative working methods should be revised. Considerable human resources and technical advice should be provided to strengthen the investigative capacity of the Human Rights Office of the Public Prosecutor. Reports of threats and attacks against human rights defenders should be given priority and investigated ex-officio when required. The witness protection programme of the Public Prosecutor’s Office should be revised and significantly strengthened. Safeguards should be put in place to protect the Human Rights Office of the Public Prosecutor from political interference and to ensure the physical security of prosecutors, particularly when investigating cases involving members of the police force as alleged perpetrators.

• The lustration of the police force should be undertaken as a matter of priority in order to increase the credibility of the institution responsible for law enforcement. A specific unit of vetted and specifically trained police should be established for the protection of human rights defenders.

• The effective operation of the administration of justice is a key benchmark for the protection of human rights defenders. The independence and impartiality of the judiciary are fundamental to ensure the rule of law. While noting the adoption of the Decree 219-2011 on the Law on the Judicial Council and Judicial Career (Ley del Consejo de la Judicatura y la Carrera Judicial), an independent body should be established to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and to supervise the appointment, promotion and regulation of the profession in accordance with international human rights standards. Judges should be ensured tenure in order to exercise their functions in an independent manner.

• The State should promote awareness and disseminate information about the role of human rights defenders. Training of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, the police and other relevant public officials should be undertaken systematically on human rights standards, including on the recourse of habeas corpus in order to improve its effective use.

• The State should ensure that both public and private actors, including transnational companies, respect human rights defenders and instances where non-State actors have committed violations against human rights defenders should be investigated, prosecuted and punished and compensation provided to the victims. Dialogue and mediation between private non-State actors, such as corporations, and civil society should be promoted, particularly with regard to Afro-Honduran communities, indigenous and rural communities. Consultations with indigenous communities should be undertaken in accordance with the ILO Convention No. 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

• Any stigmatisation of human rights defenders, whether by public or private entities such as the media, should be discouraged and sanctioned.

To human rights defenders

• National platforms or networks aimed at protecting defenders and facilitating dialogue should be created or strengthened.

• Defenders should better acquaint themselves with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and promote its dissemination.

• Efforts should be made to continue making full use of United Nations Special Procedures and other international and regional human rights mechanisms when reporting on human rights violations.

To the international community

• Efforts should be intensified in order to empower civil society.
• The UN and the international community should support dialogue and encourage collaboration between the Government and civil society in order to effectively include human rights in institution-building, development and other programmes and take into account the protection of human rights defenders in these programmes.

To all stakeholders

• Efforts should be continued to raise civic awareness among the general public, and foster a spirit of dialogue and cooperation in society.

 

Residents of Zacate Grande reject declarations by the Dinant Corporation in La Tribuna newspaper

Residents of Zacate Grande reject declarations by the Dinant Corporation in La Tribuna newspaper

Last week, members of the Movimiento de Recuperación y Titulación de la Tierra y Liberación de las Playas de Zacate Grande (Movement for the Recovery and Titling of the Land and Liberation of the Beaches of Zacate Grande) were made aware of an article published in the Honduran daily La Tribuna on Sunday, 15 January, 2012. The article stated that the Dinant Corporation had given land titles to various leaders of the movement, who were named in the article. The group rejects these claims in a public statement published here on the blog zacategrande.blogspot.com on 19 January, 2012. The statement reiterates that the leaders mentioned in the Tribuna article have not benefited from said individual land titles, and that, according to them, the Dinant Corporation is not the legitimate owner of the land and therefore not qualified to hand over such titles. The Movement considers the article to be a clear attempt to deepen existing divisions and create additional rifts among the residents of peninsula of Zacate Grande, located in on the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific coast of Honduras, and to sow doubt in the national population with respect to the true nature of the struggle for land on the peninsula.

Communal shrimp farms on Zacate Grande. September, 2011.

The article published 15 January also refers to an “Association of Youth Environmental Reporters” with a website listed as www.somoszacategrande.org [which on the date of this posting, 23 January, 2012, was not yet online]. Youth reporters with the community radio La Voz de Zacate Grande (The Voice of Zacate Grande), who created and manage the radio station as part of the Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Península de Zacate Grande (Association for the Development of the Peninsula of Zacate Grande, ADEPZA) believe that the creation of the parallel organization mentioned in the Tribuna article can be interpreted as an effort to confuse the Honduran population and make them think that the youth at the radio station, and ADEPZA, are in favour of the activities of the Dinant Corporation on Zacate Grande. They stated to PROAH that they are concerned that the formation of this parallel group of young people will serve to try to whitewash the image of the Dinant Corporation and its owner Miguel Facussé in their region, nationally, and internationally.

Reporters with The Voice of Zacate Grande receive ID cards from the Ministry of Security identifying them as recipients of precautionary measures from the IACHR. September, 2011.

Reporters at The Voice of Zacate Grande have been granted precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) due to the insecurity they have experienced as a result of their work as human rights defenders in the region, defending the right to freedom of expression and the right to land. The radio is located on recovered land in the village of Puerto Grande known as Playa Julián (Julián Beach). These lands are referred to in the Tribuna article as the subject of a lotification project to increase the town limits of Puerto Grande. If such a lotification process were to take place where the radio station is located, it would be in violation of the current precautionary measures granted by the IACHR, which cover the physical location of the radio station. Campesinos on the peninsula are afraid that the land conflict could intensify again in the next rainy season. In their experience, during this season, after planting, they have suffered more direct attacks against them as individuals and the lands they have cultivated and consider to be communally owned by all legitimate residents of Zacate Grande.

Residents of Zacate Grande travel to the Island of Amapala, where the local courthouse is located. May, 2011.

ADEPZA was waiting for communal land titles to be granted for their communal lands under decree 18-2008, a law created under the government of Manuel Zelaya that stipulated a process for land expropriation in cases where unused land had been occupied and cultivated by campesinos for a minimum number of years. According to members of ADEPZA, they received notice from the Instituto Nacional Agraria (National Agrarian Institute, INA) days before the coup d’état on 28 June, 2009 that there titles were only missing one official signature. After the coup, however, they were not able to acquire those titles. The decree was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2011 after an appeal was filed by the Federación Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos de Honduras (National Federation of Agriculturalists and Ranchers, FENAGH).

According to its website, the Dinant Corporation was founded in 1957 by businessman Miguel Facussé Barjum. The company has been implicated in various cases of human rights violations by various international human rights organizations, particularly in the lower Aguán Valley in the north of Honduras, but also on the peninsula of Zacate Grande.

PROAH has accompanied the Association for the Development of the Peninsula of Zacate Grande (ADEPZA) since January 2011. All fotos by PROAH.

The statement below was original published in Spanish here.

PUBLIC STATEMENT:

Movimiento de Recuperación y titulación de las Tierras y Liberación de las playas de Zacate Grande (Movement for the Recovery and Titling of the Land and Liberation of the Beaches of Zacate Grande) – Directorate-General of campesino groups

Through the coup-supporting media, Facusse is trying to cover up his campaign of death and dispossession waged against the people of Zacate Grande

http://www.latribuna.hn/2012/01/15/avanza-centro-de-conservacion-de-vida-silvestre-y-la-organizacion-de-jovenes-comunicadores/

To the people of Honduras

To social, indigenous, popular, rights and campesino movements

To alternative and community media

To human rights organisations, national and international

Friends and colleagues. As is public knowledge, the media octopuses continue to legitimise (according to them) attacks on the people, and being used as the big landowners’ intermediaries, as in the case of La Tribuna newspaper and Miguel Facusse Barjum.

On Sunday 15 January, in one of La Tribuna’s many publications, Miguel Facusse made use of his family ties to the newspaper’s owner to publish a flattering article on his wildlife park (which is what the Zacate Grande Peninsula has been converted into, according to the article), thereby covering up the manhunt unleashed against the country’s campesinos, smearing the region’s leaders by stating that in 2010 they were the beneficiaries of the fourth round of granting land title, and threatening through this newspaper a fifth round of granting land titles, which this time would entail subdividing the land in the community of Puerto Grande, in the areas known as El Curil and Playa Julián. Such a move would lead to a confrontation even more intense than the one on 22 August 2010, when employees of Facusse wanted to take possession of the land that we campesinos had sown.

We reject Facusse’s statements as published in the article:

1 – It states that species such as the macaw, iguana, and white-tailed deer are released into the wild by this businessman. This is not true, as he keeps them in captivity to be used as he sees fit.

2 – We reject Facusse’s argument that there would be no wild species if it were not for the breeding centres. The Zacate Grande Peninsula by tradition and by its very nature provides habitats for different kinds of animals and, contrary to what he says, breeding centres have never been necessary. In reality, his son Mauricio Facusse has been the most destructive force that the wild area has known, in practising his favourite sport of hunting white-tailed deer.

3 – We reject the argument that Facusse is creating jobs, particularly as far as women are concerned. As of some years now he has fired the few local people he employed, because he distrusted even his own guards. In reality, no kind of work or source of employment created in his tourist complex benefits the people in the area, as he now imports his workers from other regions.

4 – We reject the statement that leaders Pedro Canales, Antonio Zerón, Benito Pérez, Danilo Corrales, Lolo Chirinos y Mariana Posadas benefited from receiving land titles under the fourth round supposedly granting these deeds.

WE WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY THAT:

In 2005, Facusse took advantage of a period when there were talks between him and Zacate Grande’s campesino leaders to take over the access routes to the top of El Cerro (The Hill), as his lawyers requested a remeasurement of half of El Cerro, and once this had been carried out, he put wire fences across all the lanes and erected signs saying ‘Propiedad privada, prohibido el paso’ (‘Private property – keep out’).

It is true that some title deeds were granted, but the price paid for these documents was:

• The arrest and imprisonment of 12 campesinos on 13 April 2005. They were taken away in the early morning, their houses surrounded by over 150 police officers from the department of Valle, who then transferred them to Nacaome Prison, by order of that municipality’s court.
• The eviction of the Cárcamo family from Playa Las Gaviotas (Seagull Beach) in 2002.
• Eviction of Doña Mariana Posadas’ family in Puerto Grande in 2008.
• Legal proceedings against over 60 campesinos for the crime of land theft, with the result that they are still subject to alternative measures [medidas sustitutivas - that is, alternative to prison] imposed by the court in Amapala.
• The constant persecution of the people of Zacate Grande by Facusse’s guards.

WE CONDEMN Miguel Facusse’s malicious campaign, seeking to monopolise the young people of the Communities of Zacate Grande, with whom he is now forming an Association of Young Environmental Reporters of Zacate Grande (Asociación de Jóvenes Comunicadores Ambientalistas de Zacate Grande) with the sole aim of widening the divisions between the people and discrediting the fight for land.

We are a movement of men and women who are fighting, with many ideas but also with clear and specific objectives – Recovering and Titling the Land and Liberating the Beaches of Zacate Grande. We therefore do not accept any smears targeted at our colleagues, nor Facusse’s dirty publicity campaigns, under which he grants land titles which he does not have, and never has had.

“CAMPESINOS, WITH THEIR STEADFAST RESOLVE TO FIGHT UNTIL THEY WIN OR DIE, ARE REBELS UNTIL DEATH OR FREEDOM COMES” Ernesto Che Guevara.

COMRADES FROM THE COMMUNITIES OF ZACATE GRANDE – COME AND JOIN THE STRUGGLE!!!

BECAUSE THE LAND BELONGS TO THOSE WHO WORK IT AND LOVE IT!!!

BECAUSE THE LAND CAN NOT BE SOLD – IT IS TO BE RECOVERED AND DEFENDED!!!

THROUGH THE SOLIDARITY AND DECLARATIONS OF THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD, WE ARE NOT ALONE!!!

Movimiento de Recuperación y Titulación de la Tierra y Liberación de las Playas de Zacate Grande, 19 January 2012