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Justice for Berta Caceres

12/17/2017

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Berta Caceres was a very popular leader of her Lenca indigenous people and of the Honduran Resistance since the 2009 coup. Her assassination shocked the world. Since then the botched investigation by Honduran authorities who let evidence mysteriously “disappear” who arrested the low level perpetrators and stopped looking for the intellectual authors despite deep suspicions that they went to the top of the company whose damn she and her organization were opposing and to the government. As a result human rights defenders in the U.S. and Honduras have sponsored the Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act - HR 1299, and CBN has worked to get our local Congress members to sign on as sponsors. We thank Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver for meeting with us and our Honduran family and becoming a cosponsor. Unfortunately Rep. Kevin Yoder did not meet with us and while his staff showed some concern for the family, Yoder was unwilling to sign on to HR 1299.

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Uplifting Marginalized Voices Internationally

12/17/2017

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CBN reaches out to partner groups and hosts events in the community. In 2017 we brought Honduran writer Melissa Cardoza and singer Karla Lara to Kansas City to perform their work about courageous Honduran women in resistance. We also partnered with Witness for Peace to host Gaspar Sanchez, diversity coordinator from COPINH, to speak in November. CBN presented research about in Honduran maquila workers at the annual meeting of the United Association for Labor Education. We organized a program about what is really going on in Venezuela and hosted a showing of Juan Gonzalez’s Harvest of Empire about the role of US imperialism in the uprooting and immigration of people in Latin America. ​
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We Fight for Workers Across Borders and Who Cross Borders

12/17/2017

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The Cross Border Network develops ties with workers’ organizations to build international solidarity campaigns pressuring employers to respect workers’ rights. As members of Missouri Jobs with Justice we support its campaigns for working people, like opposing Right to Work, supporting the Fight for $15 and a Union, and raising the minimum wage. In 2016 we helped organize a campaign for Lexmark workers in Ciudad Juarez fired for trying to organize an independent union. Our letter from several dozen U.S., Mexican, Canadian and international unions and organizations pushed Lexmark to negotiate a settlement with the workers. In 2017 answered the call of CODEMUH - the Honduran Women’s Collective - for a letter writing campaign on behalf of fired workers at Delta Apparel, a Georgia based company, operating a maquila in Villa Nueva Honduras. Delta fired thirty workers suffering from repetitive strain injuries caused by excessively high production standards. We continue to work with CODEMUH in developing strategies ​
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CBN Denounces Fraudulent Honduran Elections

12/17/2017

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The November 29 election in Honduras was stolen by incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Popular movements all view it as part two of the 2009 coup. Hernandez fired dissidents on the Supreme Court and packed it with cronies to give him permission to run again even though the Constitution bars a President from succeeding himself. Then when he apparently lost the election he shut down the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which is controlled by his party, and rigged the vote to show he won even though a TSE members said that after the first night’s tally which showed him losing by 5% it was statistically impossible for Hernandez to win. The U.S. State Department, at the same time, certified the Honduras had made progress in human rights and fighting corruption. CBN is a member of the Honduras Solidarity Network which coordinates efforts in Washington DC and with members of Congress.
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Anti-Fraud Demonstation in Tegucigalpa December 2017
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CBN President, Judy Ancel, on Project Censored on the Drug War in Honduras

6/13/2016

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Listen to the President of CBN, Judy Ancel, on Project Censored on the Drug War in Honduras. Thank you Maria Robinson of Task Force on the Americas and Karen Spring of Honduras Solidarity Network for doing this interview with her.
See below for more information on Ahuas and the War on Drugs in Honduras 

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The Lethal Arms of the U.S. Drug War in Honduras

4/7/2016

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The Lethal Arms of the U.S. Drug War in Honduras
On December 28, 2015 in the early morning, the Honduran Navy shot and killed two Afro-Indigenous Garifuna men, Jostin Lino Palacios, age 24 and Elvis Garcia, age 19 in Barra de Iriona in the department of Colon, on the northeast coast of Honduras.
Immediately, the Honduran Armed Forces issued a communique stating, “During an anti-drug operation, the occupants of the two cars began firing against the naval patrol which as a result left one civilian dead and one wounded. It happens repeatedly since special operations began, that they fire on Navy patrols upon being discovered moving drugs.” Later they said the victims were caught in a crossfire between the Navy and narco-traffickers.
Still later they had to eat their words. A survivor of the attack, Jefferson Martinez, father of one of the dead said, ““We were heading toward the community of Limon, carrying ice and other products to sell when we got to Iriona and got stuck in a sandbar. We called some compañeros to help get us out. Two cars arrived and they pulled us out when we were attacked.” Arnulfo Mejia, ex-Mayor of Iriona who was driving one of the three cars stuck on the beach said, “The agents came out of a pasture. There were approximately 20. It was a miracle that we’re alive. There were women and children in the cars.”[1]
The incident was followed immediately by a wave of protests by residents in Iriona including the burning of a military vehicle. Then on January 5, the Honduran government filed charges against seven soldiers from the Naval Base in Puerto Castillo, on Trujillo Bay. Then it granted them bail.[2]
While the public outcry over the killings is no doubt why the soldiers were charged, but where are the charges against officers? No doubt there is great skepticism that anyone will be convicted. The Garifuna organization, OFRANEH, commented, “The criminalization of the Garifuna people by government officials and the military is no more than a smoke screen to hide the alliance of mayors, judges and narcos.”
In January, 2016 a delegation from Kansas City’s Cross Border Network and the San Francisco Bay Area’s Task Force on the Americas visited northern Honduras to investigate land grabs by the hotel and palm oil industries and the impact of our 40 yearlong drug war on the people. We were in Trujillo and decided to go talk to the Navy at the Puerto Castillo base. We were welcomed in by Captains Ernesto Avila and Juan Antonio de Jesus.
They told us their principle responsibility is to patrol the coast for drug smugglers from the Nicaragua border to Trujillo Bay. They patrol marine, land and air looking for planes flying in from Colombia and traffickers moving cargo to boats for transportation to the US. Ten months out of the year ten American Marines are there to train Hondurans in tactical operations, physical training, and weapons. Special U.S. Navy units also come there as do 20-30 trainers from Colombia. The U.S. keeps three helicopters at the base.
We asked Capt. de Jesus if he thought they were making progress in the drug war. He said, “In the last two years, drug traffic has been reduced a lot . . . We are making progress in our space, but now they’re going other ways.” He said the drug traffic had moved to the Pacific coast.
As for the two men killed in Iriona, De Jesus readily admitted that it was his men who killed and added only that they were “investigating.”
Some context on the U.S. drug war
The presence of U.S. training teams and proliferation of at least a dozen American bases in Honduras under cover of the drug war has been little noticed at home, but it is the latest phase in a history which began over a century ago with gunboat diplomacy and Honduras as banana republic. At least since 1954 Honduras has served as the fulcrum of U.S. power in Central America and the Caribbean. Our government has leveraged regime changes, engaged in counterinsurgency and low intensity warfare, and narcotics interdiction. In a 2015 article, Fred Alvarado writes,
“Strategically well-located at the center of Latin America and the Caribbean, Honduras has become an important American military platform, operating as a center for advanced tactical training and joint military operations under the Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). From the Honduran coast, foreign military forces are able to control the Caribbean and carry out regional monitoring along maritime borders of Colombia, Mexico, Grand Cayman, Nicaragua, Cuba, Belize, Guatemala and Jamaica.” [3]
In the 1980s, the U.S. staged the Contra War in Nicaragua from Honduras and trained and armed the Honduran military for domestic terrorism. The U.S. financed this illegal war by shipping cocaine in league with Honduran military officers.[4] Since 9/11, as part of the global war on terror, the U.S. has been remilitarizing Mexico and Central America, citing narcotics trafficking as a threat to the security of American citizens. Like Plan Colombia and Mexico’s Merida Initiative, the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI - 2008) has poured in millions of dollars to militarize control of narcotics trafficking while criminalizing campesinos and anyone who dissents.[5]
The latest plan, in response to the surge of refugees from Central America’s Northern Triangle, is more of the same. It’s called the Biden Plan, a $750 million component of the new Alliance for Prosperity, partnering with the Inter-American Development Bank, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. It’s modeled on Plan Colombia. The Biden Plan’s first proposal is security.[6] An analysis of its budget reveals a doubling of money for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement. $349 million is going to CARSI.[7] The rest calls for fighting government, police and military corruption and economic development. The former will necessitate government cooperation – a tall order – and the latter is based on the same neoliberal model that is wiping out worker protections and privatizing vast stretches of the land and economy.
The Ahuas Massacre
Our skepticism about a conviction in the Iriona murders was fueled by our experience on a delegation in May, 2012 when several of us went to the remote village of Ahuas in the Moskitia to investigate the killing of four indigenous Miskito people and wounding of four others at the hands of Honduran police and a U.S. FAST team[8] under command of the DEA’s Honduras chief, Jim Kenney. The dead were all traveling in a pipante, a passenger boat headed for Ahuas. They included two pregnant women, a 14 year-old boy and the boat’s 21 year-old co-pilot. None were drug traffickers. The killers were aboard four helicopters owned by the U.S. State Department. After terrorizing the village, the helicopters flew away, leaving dead and wounded in the water. To date, the U.S. government has failed to complete its investigation or admit its mistake, and the survivors and families of the dead have received neither justice nor compensation.
Our delegation went to the island of Roatán to meet with families of the Ahuas victims. There we met Sabina Lucas, mother of Wilmer Lucas who was fourteen at the time and was shot, Brenly and Yani Trapp, whose mother Candelaria Trapp Nelson was killed, and, Edmor Anthony Brooks Wood whose brother Hasked Brooks Wood was killed.
We met at our hotel, an enchanting beach resort, but the stories we heard were dismaying. Sabina, came to Roatan from Ahuas to work at age 14 after her father died.  Life has been a real struggle. She’s a single mom. Her son Wilmer was going to Ahuas with Hasked, his best friend, and Hasked’s mother Clara to visit his grandmother. Wilmer was shot in the right hand, fracturing several bones. She said, “The hospitals were terrible. They wouldn’t operate on Wilmer until a specialist arrived. We had to wait 32 days.” Sabina had to leave her job in a shrimp factory to care for him. Today, after a second surgery, paid for by a US religious group, and two years of physical therapy, his arm still has limited movement. He can move his fingers but his hand is weak and the muscles are atrophied. She thinks he needs more physical therapy, but there’s no money for doctors. Wilmer is still suffering trauma from the attack. Sabina said Wilmer is changed since the incident. “He angers easily. Two weeks ago he witnessed an accident in the street. He got so upset he almost fainted, his heart beat so rapidly.” She added, “We want justice, but there’s no money for lawyers.”
Edmore Anthony Brooks Wood is 29. He said he was representing his mother, Clara who was away. “It’s difficult to talk about my brother, Hasked. It makes me very sad. My mother goes to the cemetery every day and cries. She is not the same as before.” He said the authorities dug up Hasked’s grave to test the bullets. They couldn’t identify them as having come from the Honduran police guns.
A man came to find Clara and said the gringos wanted her. They took her to Tegucigalpa and gave her a lie detector test. He was an American. She thinks he was a handler for the DEA. Clara said killing Hasked wasn’t enough. They also had to pressure her to lie. She was harassed with calls. She changed her number. She was followed.
Edmore said, “The politicians are running the drugs. We want justice. We want the death penalty for the killers. It would help my mother.”
Candalaria’s son Brenly Trapp is 24. Yani, is 23, the oldest daughter. After their mother was killed at Ahuas, all six brothers and sisters had to come to Roatán because there’s more work there. Candalaria was a single mother. She and Brenly supported all the kids. Brenly said, “What hurts me most is that my mom had worked very hard to keep the kids in school.” Brenly didn’t graduate, and all the kids had to drop out. “I am the only worker. Yani takes care of the kids.” “The work here is only temporary; sometimes one month, sometimes 15 days, or just a week.”
The Trapps have received no compensation, not even scholarships so they could go back to school. Senator Leahy said they had to wait for the investigation, but the DEA has blocked it.
We asked, “What do you want?” He said, “We want support for our people. We want the death penalty, something that stops this. The US government has the power to stop this; to stop our government.”
Brenly and Yani took us to their room in a row of rooms housing several families. It was in a swamp, and water was running across their doorstep. It was so crowded, dark, and fetid, that we could hardly stand to be there.
Yet despite the efforts of Senator Leahy, the investigation has stalled because the DEA refused to turn over evidence to Department of Justice investigators.[9] So after nearly four years there’s no accountability for the killings and maiming at Ahuas, and more and more victims of our war on drugs pile up. Our organizations will work to help all the Ahuas survivors and families stay united and strong until they get justice.
Vallecito: The Power of Solidarity
On the last day of our tour we went to Vallecito. Here the insanity of the drug war meets the firm resistance of the organized Garifuna. They are occupying Vallecito to keep narcotraffickers, palm oil barons, and others interested in resource exploitation from encroaching on their land. It’s a place with a vision for the future of the Garifuna people where they can pass on their amazing culture and language to their children, with space for communities dislocated by the rising sea. We met a traditional healer, Selvyn Lopez, who was boiling herbal medicine in a giant pot. We visited a huge building they’d constructed, destined to become a school to teach agriculture and the Garifuna language and culture. We saw people happy, hard at work, and full of plans. They were about to celebrate their New Year the next day and plan on a big conference of up to a thousand this summer.
In Vallecito we met Miriam Miranda, the General Coordinator of OFRANEH. She gave us a tour to see a landing strip where narcotraffickers landed planes coming from Colombia. The Garifuna hold title to a vast tract of land at Vallecito. They discovered that it was being used as a transit point for drugs and was heavily guarded. They were barred from entering. So in 2011 they began to reclaim their property. In January 2014 they got the government to dynamite the airstrip, blasting six craters that would prevent planes from landing. Despite this, the narcotraffickers came back. In July before Garifuna lived there they saw local campesinos cutting pine trees to fill in the craters. In Vallecito the narcotraffickers control the local authorities, the police and military, and the campesinos. Miriam describes what happened next:
“We came back the next morning and a crater was totally filled with pine trees but no dirt yet and another was half filled. Around 7:30 we walked back to where our car was, and a car with tinted windows approached. Several armed men - sicarios - with bulletproof vests got out. They had nothing covering their faces. We realized they planned to kill us. The chief ordered everyone to gather together. They wanted all our cell phones, but someone was able to make a call. Within minutes the authorities began to get calls and emails demanding our release. There was lots of international pressure, and they released us about 9:30 am. It was very hard. We’re so isolated here and we’re surrounded by Miguel Facusse’s African palm plantations[10]. This is a zone of resistance against African palm. . . This area is important for the government, especially for a Model City and for the extension of African palm into this area. Also, they suspect that there’s oil here. Studies have been done. . When you live in a narco state, it’s dangerous. If you don’t abide by what they want, you put yourself at risk . . . That’s why international solidarity is very important for us, and every time groups visit and learn about our struggle there are more voices to counter the government’s statements that everything is OK.”
What we saw in Honduras, despite the fear, were people protesting, fighting back and struggling for justice. We also saw the ugly international face of our endless War on Drugs. The U.S. plays whack-amole pushing narcotraffic from country-to-country and innocent people die. While there’s plenty of evidence of this war’s failure, it continues because it keeps feeding the interests and profits of politicians, the prison industry and the military-industrial complex. The war on Hondurans is mostly invisible to Americans. We only see the blowback in the thousands of desperate women and children washed up on our borders. So we send more military trainers, more guns and ammo, more helicopters. And, of course, it’s a sham, a cover for maintaining a corrupt government and the U.S. strategic grip on Central America.
Yet, we were inspired by the resistance and hunger for justice that we saw. We will tell their stories, but we know that it’s going to take all of us: Hondurans and Americans to end the drug war. Please help all of us by sharing this, telling your elected officials to end the war on drugs, and by joining the Honduras Solidarity Network and supporting our partners in Honduras.
Judy Ancel
The Cross Border Network
info@crossbordernetwork.org

Works Cited
Fred Alvarado, Honduras: The Process of American Remilitarization and the Failure of the War on Drugs (2015) http://pencanada.ca/blog/el-proceso-de-remilitarizacion-estadounidense-y-el-fracaso-de-la-guerra-contra-las-drogas/.
Joe Biden: A Plan for Central America, New York Times, Jan 29, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/opinion/joe-biden-a-plan-for-central-america.html?_r=0.
Annie Bird and Alexander Main, Collateral Damage of a Drug War The May 11 Killings in Ahuas and the Impact of the U.S. War on Drugs in La Moskitia, Honduras, http://rightsaction.org/sites/default/files//Ahuas_Report_120815.pdf
Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, Experts Say U.S. Aid Package To Central America Is Backfiring Big Time Think Progress 2/4/16 http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/02/04/3745790/us-alliance-for-prosperity-money-central-america/.
Eric Lichtblau, “Tighter Lid on Records Threatens to Weaken Government Watchdogs,” The New York Times, Nov. 27, 2015
Alexander Main, Will Biden's Billion Dollar Plan Help Central America? NACLA 2/27/15 https://nacla.org/news/2015/02/27/will-biden's-billion-dollar-plan-help-central-america
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 2, The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations, (accessed 2-4-16) http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html#3b
Mattathias Schwartz, “A Mission Gone Wrong,” New Yorker, Jan. 6, 2014
U.S. Department of State, CARSI (accessed 2-4-16) http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rt/carsi/

[1] La Prensa, Dec. 28, 2015 – Incendian camión militar en Colón tras muerte de dos garífunas

[2] La Prensa, Jan. 5, 2016 - Confirman prisión para navales por muerte de garífunas

[3] Alvarado, 2015

[4] Alvarado, 2015 and National Security Archive

[5] According to the U.S. Department of State: “The deteriorating security situation in Central America poses serious threats to the safety of its citizens. Traffickers across Central America smuggle drugs to the United States and other nations, while arms and cash flows move south from the United States to sustain these criminal organizations. The continued expansion of national and transnational gangs has created communities of fear, and rampant organized crime and corruption robs citizens of their trust in public officials and their ability to earn a livelihood.” The U.S. has provided $642 million in U.S. CARSI assistance since 2008. State Department, Central America Regional Security Initiative http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rt/carsi/  

[6] Biden, 1/29/15

[7] Main 2015 and Yu-Hsi Lee, 2016

[8] FAST stands for Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team. For more on Ahuas killings, see Schwartz, Mattathias and Bird and Main.

[9] Eric Lichtblau, “Tighter Lid on Records Threatens to Weaken Government Watchdogs,” The New York Times, Nov. 27, 2015.

[10] Facusse, who recently died, was the richest Honduran. His palm oil plantations blanket northern Honduras on land stolen from campesinos. He was one of the leaders of the military coup in 2009 that overthrew popular President Manuel Zelaya.

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Justice for Berta Caceres/Justicia para Berta Caceres

3/20/2016

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Español es después de inglés
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Our organization, which has been active in human rights and solidarity work in Honduras since the 2009 coup, is deeply saddened and outraged by the assassination of Berta Cáceres on March 3rd in La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras. Berta was the General Coordinator of the Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She was awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize last year for her courageous defense of the environment. Her loss is a tragic blow to her indigenous Lenca people, to the Honduran popular resistance movement and to the worldwide movement for the environment and democracy. However, despite her death, Berta’s leadership for justice will have lasting impact.
Berta was an inspiration who led her people to resist the privatization of rivers and force the withdrawal of a Chinese company building the Agua Zarca damn on the Gualcarque River. However dam construction was only stalled temporarily, and when it resumed, so did resistance and numerous death threats against Berta and members of COPINH. Since 2010, more than 100 environmental activists have been killed in Honduras. Global Witness, the worldwide human rights organization, says an average of two people are killed every week defending their land, forests and waterways in Honduras against agriculture, logging or energy projects. 
We express heartfelt condolences to the members of COPINH and to the Honduran people, and also our outrage at the complicity of the U.S. government in the intolerable level of violence and impunity in Honduras. From their support of the 2009 coup to their escalating militarization, the U.S. government has nurtured a regime with astounding levels of corruption, repression, and violations of human rights.
We echo the concerns of COPINH for their own safety and deplore the murder on March 15 of Nelson Garcia, of COPINH by military or paramilitary forces, and we are concerned for the safety of their member Aureliano Molina Villanueva and the Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto. Molina is still being held by the Honduran authorities, and Castro was held for three days and now is not allowed to leave Honduras. We deplore apparent attempts to implicate Molina or other members of COPINH in the assassination of Berta Cáceres. We deplore as well the failure of the Honduran authorities to implement precautionary measures granted by the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States.

We call for the following:
  • That there be an immediate independent investigation of the murder of Berta Cáceres by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that is impartial, transparent and able to investigate with independent authority;
  • Withdrawal of all funding for and construction of the Agua Zarca dam project and suspension of all dam and mining concessions from Lenca territory pending adjudication under ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal People;
  • That DESA stop construction of the Agua Zarca and all other dams on Lenca territory;
  • That the Honduran government withdraw all police, military and para-military from Rio Blanco, including Los Tigres and stop the criminalization of COPINH leaders and members and other Human Rights Defenders;
  • That the all U.S. government aid and training for the Honduran military and security forces be suspended as long as human rights violations and a state of impunity continue to exist.
We join the Honduran and international community in mourning the loss of Berta. In the spirit of her life’s work, we ask that you join us in demanding justice for Berta and COPIHN and take action today. 

​Nuestra organización, que ha estado activa en Derechos Humanos y Trabajo Solidario en Honduras desde el golpe del 2009, está profundamente entristecida e indignada por el asesinato de Berta  Cáceres en la Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras.  Berta fue la Coordinadora General del Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH). El año pasado ella recibió  el prestigioso Premio Goldman por su valiente defensa del medio ambiente. Su pérdida es un trágico golpe al pueblo Lenca, al movimiento popular de resistencia de la gente de Honduras y al movimiento mundial por el medio ambiente y la democracia. Sin embargo, a pesar de esta perdida, su liderazgo para la justicia tendrá un impacto duradero.
Berta fue la inspiración que dirigió a  su gente a resistir la privatización de los ríos y consiguió el retiro de una compañía china para la construcción  de la represa de Agua Zarca en el río Gualcarque, pero la construcción de la represa fue suspendida solo temporalmente. Cuando reanudó, también retornó La Resistencia así como numerosas amenazas en contra de Berta y miembros del COPINH. Desde el 2010, más de cien activistas del ambiente han sido asesinados en Honduras.  Global Witness, la organización mundial de derechos humanos. Declara que un promedio de dos personas son asesinadas cada semana defendiendo sus  tierras, sus bosques y sus vías acuáticas, en contra de la agricultura, tala de bosques o proyectos de energía.
Expresamos nuestras más sentidas condolencias a los miembros del COPINH y al pueblo de Honduras, y también nuestra indignación ante la complicidad del gobierno de los  Estados Unidos y el nivel intolerable de violencia e impunidad en Honduras. Con el apoyo al Golpe del 2009 al aumento de la militarización, el gobierno de los  Estados Unidos ha alimentado un régimen con asombrosos niveles de corrupción, represión y violación de los derechos humanos.
Condenamos el asesinato de Nelson Garcia por fuerzas militares o paramilitares el 15 de Marzo. Hacemos nuestra la preocupación de COPINH por su propia seguridad y la seguridad de sus miembros Aureliano Molina Villanueva y del activista mexicano Gustavo Castro Soto.  Molina todavía está detenido por las autoridades hondureñas, Castro fue detenido por tres días y ahora no se le permite salir de Honduras. Deploramos los aparentes intentos para implicar a Molina y otros miembros de COPINH en el asesinato de Berta Cáceres. Deploramos también la falla de las autoridades de Honduras de implementar medidas de precaución autorizadas por la Comisión de Derechos Humanos (IACHR) de la Organización de Estados Americanos.

Requerimos la implementación de las siguientes medidas:
  • Debe haber inmediatamente una investigación del asesinato de Berta Cáceres por una comisión  interamericana imparcial capaz de investigar con autoridad independiente.
  • El retiro de los fondos para la construcción de la represa de Agua Zarca y la suspensión de las concesiones mineras en el territorio Lenca dependiendo de la adjudicación bajo la Convención ILO 169  acerca de personas indígenas y de tribus.
  • DESA debe parar la construcción de la represa de Agua  Zarca y todas las represas en los territorios de pueblo Lenca, la represa en rio Canjel incluido.
  • El gobierno de Honduras debe retirar toda la policía, militares, paramilitares del Río Blanco, incluyendo Los  Tigres y debe terminar con la incriminación de los miembros de COPINH
  • y otros Defensores de los Derechos Humanos;
  • La ayuda y el entrenamiento del gobierno de los Estados Unidos a las fuerzas militares y de seguridad hondureñas deben ser suspendidas mientras existan las violaciones a los derechos humanos y continúe existiendo el estado de impunidad.
Nos unimos a la comunidad hondureña e internacional en el duelo por la pérdida de Berta. En el espíritu de la labor de su vida, les pedimos que se unan a nosotros y accionen en la demanda por justicia para Berta y COPIHN.

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From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson 

3/1/2015

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Back in the 1960s, Mexico was a developing nation with strong rates of growth and a large and growing middle class. Mexico in the era of corporate-driven globalization, however, has been a society rapidly running in reverse with surging inequality of wealth and opportunity and communities undergoing social dismemberment.

The disappearance of 43 normal school students in the State of Guerrero on September 26, 2014 and the killing of 6 others by police under orders of the Mayor of Iguala and an allied narco gang gave rise to mass expressions of repressed anger and protest by the Mexican people. Distraught in their grief, the parents and fellow students of the disappeared have demonstrated all over Mexico, calling on the government to remove corrupt officials, to end the so-called war on drugs that has cost at least 70,000 lives since it began under the orders of President Felipe Calderon in 2006. And behind all this are the demands of students and their teachers to stop the austerity which impoverishes rural Mexico and gives them an inferior education with only phony education reforms which only lead to greater inequality.

Since the early 1980s Mexico suffered from structural adjustment at the hands of the International Monetary Fund so it could pay its debts to international banks. This began wave upon wave of “reforms” which have culminated in the social chaos that is Mexico today. The IMF and U.S. creditors forced Mexico to open to foreign investment, sell off its public sector, cut spending on education and health and ultimately in 1994 completely bend to the will of foreign and homegrown elites and accept the North American Free Trade Agreement.

As multi-national corporations took over the economy, regular jobs disappeared. In the cities wages declined and in rural areas 2-3 million farmers were displaced from their lands by a flood of U.S. agricultural commodities. The fastest growing industry was narco trafficking, which became a viable career choice for many of the displaced and the youth with no good prospects for their future except emigration to the U.S. The violence and corruption are worse in the poorest rural and largely indigenous parts of the country.

In 2008 just before he left office, President Bush signed the Merida Initiative, otherwise known as Plan Mexico, a “new security cooperation initiative” between Mexico and the U.S. aimed at combatting drug trafficking and organized crime. The Obama administration has continued it with gusto so that by the end of 2013, the U.S. had delivered over $1.2 billion in equipment and training out of $2.3 billion in appropriated funds.  Funds were used to train, arm and advise Mexican police, prison authorities, prosecutors and others in the criminal justice system.  Some are trained at the notorious School of Assassins, formerly called the School of the Americas.  The program contains aircraft including nine UH-60M Blackhawk helicopters, satellite tracking devices, communications equipment and software, upgraded prisons, Culture of Lawfulness programs in junior high schools in 31 states, and, of course, improved border security.

However, as the events surrounding the disappearance of the 43 students make clear, narco trafficking in Mexico has morphed into a narco State. Torture is still widely used to exact false confessions. The close ties between the cartels and public officials at all levels only appear to deepen. It is estimated that 90% of weapons used by drug cartels come from the U.S. Are many of these funded by U.S. taxpayers?

Nor do the billions envisioned in the Merida Initiative address in any significant way the root causes of all this: the economic devolution of Mexico under the regime of debt slavery, global restructuring and free trade. Yet addressing the proliferation of poverty to over half the population is fundamental to solving the problems of drugs, crime and corruption. Mexico’s economic policies continue to center on holding down wages to attract foreign investment, selling off assets, and exporting its people to find jobs in the U.S. and Canada and send  back billions in remittances.

It’s no coincidence that the Ayotzinapa Caravan participants plan to go to Ferguson, Missouri after visiting Kansas City. Just as the U.S. substitutes a viable plan to address poverty and racism with the War on Drugs and the militarization of our police, so too Mexico, uses the War on Drugs and its accompanying militarization of society instead of finding real solutions to poverty and racism against indigenous people.

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The State of the LGBTQIA* Movement in Honduras

11/30/2013

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Human rights delegation finds disturbing evidence of US involvement in killings of Miskito people in Ahuás

5/27/2012

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3 of the 7 organizers of this campaign were CBN representatives (Judy Ancel, Melissa Stiehler, and Alice Kitchen). More information on this campaign can be found at hhrd2012.wordpress.com

Human rights delegation finds disturbing evidence of US involvement in killings of Miskito people in Ahuás

A delegation of academics, human rights and labor activists, Canadian and U.S. citizens, many with extensive experience in Honduras, organized by U.S. and Canadian-based human rights groups Rights Action and Alliance for Global Justice, visited the community of Ahuás in the Department of Gracias a Dios in a region known as La Moskitia located in eastern Honduras on May 22-23, 2012.

On May 11, 2012 four helicopters conducted an apparent drug interdiction near the town of Ahuás. At least one of the helicopters opened fire on a passenger boat killing two pregnant women, a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man, while seriously injuring at least four more. The purpose of the visit was to inquire into this tragedy.

According to press reports, the United States State Department acknowledges that participating helicopters were titled to the State Department but were piloted by Guatemalan military and contractors. The DEA confirms that a DEA Foreign-Deployed Advisory Support Team (FAST) participated in the operation supporting a Honduran National Police Tactical Response Team, while U.S. military’s Southern Command claims that no U.S. military personnel or contractors participated in the action.

Our delegation interviewed local community representatives, injured survivors, family members and eyewitnesses on the scene as well as a Honduran military officer.

Based on our investigation, we are able to confirm that:

Following the massacre the helicopters landed to seize drugs from a boat near the massacre site. All those who exited the helicopter were identified as tall, light-skinned English speakers with limited Spanish proficiency wearing military uniforms, appearing to be U.S. military personnel. They carried out all actions on the ground, appearing to play much more than a support role in the operation.

These security forces identified as Americans aimed guns at, threatened to kill, and handcuffed local residents who were attempting to assist those wounded in the massacre during approximately 2 to 3 hours while military personnel retrieved the drugs by forcing at gunpoint a relative of some of the victims to ferry drugs from a boat to the helicopters. In this way security forces actively prevented emergency medical attention to the victims who lay on the banks of the river and in the water until after helicopters departed. One injured and bleeding victim clung to weeds in the river for as long as three hours before being assisted.

All witnesses stated independently that all shots fired came from overhead from a helicopter.

Neither the U.S. nor the Honduran government has interviewed the eye witnesses or secured evidence at the crime scene which indicates that no serious investigation has been conducted into the massacre that was carried out from one of the U.S.’s own helicopters with participation of U.S. Security Forces.

Since the massacre Ahuás has been occupied by several dozen Honduran troops who patrol the unpaved streets and state they will stay as long as necessary. We received reports that the U.S. military presence in the vicinity of Ahuás is increasing, a center of U.S. military operations has been established in nearby Brus Laguna and a permanent U.S. military base in Caratasca, roughly an hour boat ride from Ahuás.

Our visit to the Moskitia region in Gracias a Dios has raised a number of concerns.

We are extremely concerned by the lack of credible investigation. The U.S. government categorically denies the possibility that its security forces were involved in the killings, or that the United States shares responsibility. Rather, the State Department claims it is ‘cooperating’ with Honduran investigations and is referring all inquiries to the Honduran government officials; this despite the fact that the Honduran public prosecutor’s office, National Police and military are widely reputed to be corrupt.

We are alarmed by the distorted response to the massacre by the Honduran and U.S. governments’ and much of the media coverage. US and Honduran officials have blamed and criminalized the victims, the population in general and local authorities.

We are deeply concerned by the militarization that we observed. U.S. military and civilian security forces in Honduras are applying counterinsurgency tactics to combat drug trafficking and militarizing regions where there are significant natural resources. Thus, today we are witnessing a resurgence of death squads and the remilitarization of Central America such as occurred in the 1980s. We are alarmed by press reports of the recent transfer of counterinsurgency tactics and personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan to Central America. By characterizing the general population and local authorities as drug traffickers, indigenous communities have become the focus of counterinsurgency actions.

Many people we spoke with, including representatives of indigenous organizations, are deeply concerned that militarization and violence generated by the ‘drug war’ is negatively impacting their communities and is focused where there are significant natural resources, rivers with hydroelectric potential, petroleum, gold, and forests. Texas-based Honduras Tejas Oil and Gas Company, a joint venture with concessions in the Moskitia, estimates there are six to eight billion barrels of oil reserves in the Moskitia.

Our group was outraged that this is the role our government is playing and at how our tax dollars are used. We wonder what our country is doing bringing a counterinsurgency model to a country where U.S. backed covert counterinsurgency has caused so much suffering in the past.

What we saw in the Moskitia was dire poverty and an atmosphere of terror being generated in an area where the indigenous people are now losing control of their resources, which are key to the development of their economy.

In light of what we observed on our visit and the concerns raised, we demand:

That the U.S Congress investigate and hold hearings about the U.S. role in the events of May 11, 2012 in La Moskitia.

That serious and independent investigations take place exploring the role and responsibility of agents of the U.S. government in the May 11 massacre in Ahuás, be they DEA agents, private security contractors under the direction or contracted by agencies of the U.S. government or other security forces. This investigation should include identifying criminal responsibility of specific individuals.

That the rights and decisions of indigenous communities and popular movements be respected rather than treated as drug traffickers and insurgents with complete disregard to fundamental human rights.

That the U.S. government speak out publicly against the presence of individuals widely known to have involvement in drug trafficking and death squads within the Honduran justice system today.

That in light of the abuses we documented, the U.S. government must withdraw all U.S. security forces including DEA and private contractors from Honduras, cease military assistance and training, and stop promoting remilitarization in Central America.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

May 27, 2012

Delegación de Observadores de Derechos Humanos encuentra preocupantes evidencias de participación de los Estados Unidos en asesinato de pobladores Miskitos en Ahuás

Una delegación de académicos, activistas de derechos humanos y derechos laborales, ciudadanos de Estados Unidos y Canadá, varios con amplio conocimiento sobre Honduras, organizados por las organizaciones de derechos humanos de Estados Unidos y Canadá Rights Action y Alliance for Global Justice, visitaron la comunidad de Ahuás en el departamento de Gracias a Dios en la región conocida como la Moskitia al este de Honduras del 22 al 23 de Mayo del 2012.

El 11 de Mayo del 2012, cuatro helicópteros llevaron a cabo una aparente interdicción de drogas cerca de la aldea de Ahuás. Al menos uno de los helicópteros abrieron fuego contra un bote de pasajeros matando a dos mujeres embarazadas, un joven de 14 años y a un hombre de 21 años, e hirieron gravemente por lo menos a otros cuatro. El objetivo de la visita fue investigar sobre esta tragedia.

De acuerdo a los reportes de la prensa, el Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos reconoce que los helicópteros participantes fueron titulados al Departamento de Estado pero que fueron piloteados por militares guatemaltecos y contratistas. La DEA confirma que un Equipo de Apoyo Consultivo Enviado al Extranjero de la DEA (FAST, por sus siglas en inglés) participó en la operación apoyando a un Equipo de Respuesta Táctica de la Policía Nacional, mientras que el Comando Sur alega que ningún personal del ejército de los Estados Unidos o contratistas participaron en la acción.

Nuestra delegación entrevistó a los representantes de la comunidad local, sobrevivientes heridos, familiares y testigos en la escena así como a un oficial del ejército de Honduras.

Basándonos en nuestra investigación, fuimos capaces de confirmar que:

1. Luego de la masacre los helicópteros aterrizaron para incautar drogas de un bote cerca del sitio de la masacre. Todos los que salieron de cada helicóptero fueron identificados como hombres angloparlantes, altos, de piel clara con poca habilidad en español, vistiendo uniformes militares, que parecían ser personal militar de los Estados Unidos. Éstos llevaron a cabo todas las acciones en tierra, aparentemente teniendo un rol mucho mayor que de apoyo en la operación.

2. Estas fuerzas de seguridad identificadas como Estadounidenses apuntaron sus armas, amenazaron con asesinar y esposaron a residentes locales que intentaban asistir a los heridos en la masacre durante aproximadamente 2 o 3 horas, mientras el personal militar recuperaba las drogas, forzando a punta de arma a un familiar de una de las víctimas para transportar las drogas de un bote hasta los helicópteros. De esta manera las fuerzas de seguridad impidieron la atención médica de emergencia a las víctimas que permanecían en el margen del río y en el agua hasta que los helicópteros se retiraron. Una víctima herida sangraba mientras se aferraba a las plantas del río por más o menos tres horas antes de ser asistida.

3. Todos los testigos declararon de forma independiente que los disparos provenían de arriba desde un helicóptero.

4. Ni el gobierno de Estados Unidos ni el de Honduras han entrevistado a los testigos oculares o recopilado evidencia en la escena del crimen lo que indica que no se están conduciendo investigaciones serias sobre la masacre que fue llevada a cabo por uno de los helicópteros propiedad de Estados Unidos con la participación de Fuerzas de Seguridad de Estados Unidos.

5. Desde la masacre, Ahuas ha sido ocupada por varias docenas de tropas hondureñas que patrullan las calles de tierra y declaran que permanecerán allí mientras sea necesario. Hemos recibido reporte de que la presencia militar de Estados Unidos en la comunidad cercana de Ahuas incrementa, un centro de operaciones militares ha sido establecido en la comunidad cercana de Brus Laguna así como una base militar estadounidense militar en Caratasca, aproximadamente a una hora en bote desde Ahuas.

Nuesta visita a la región de la Moskitia en Gracias a Dios ha levantado un gran número de preocupaciones.

1. Estamos extremadamente preocupados por la falta de una investigación fidedigna. El gobierno de los Estados Unidos niega categóricamente la posibilidad de que sus fuerzas de seguridad estuvieron involucradas en los asesinatos, o que los Estados Unidos comparten la responsabilidad. En su lugar, el Departamento de Estado alega que está “cooperando” con las investigaciones hondureñas y envía todas las investigaciones a los oficiales del gobierno de Honduras; a pesar del hecho de que la Fiscalía General de la República, la Policía Nacional y el ejército son reconocidos ampliamente como corruptos.

2. Estamos profundamente preocupados por la militarización que observamos. El ejército de los Estados Unidos y las fuerzas de seguridad civil en Honduras están aplicando tácticas de contrainsurgencia para combatir el tráfico de drogas y militarizando las regiones donde hay valiosos recursos naturales. Por lo tanto, hoy estamos presenciando el resurgimiento de los escuadrones de la muerte y la re-militarización de Centroamérica tal y como sucedió en los `80s. Estamos alarmados por los reportes de prensa sobre la reciente transferencia de tácticas de contrainsurgencia y personal de Iraq y Afganistán a Centroamérica. Mediante la caracterización de la población general y las autoridades locales como traficantes de drogas, las comunidades indígenas se han convertido en el enfoque de las acciones contrainsurgencia.

3. Muchas personas con las que hablaron, incluyendo representantes de varias organizaciones indígenas, están profundamente preocupadas porque la militarización y violencia generada por la “guerra contra las drogas” crea un impacto negativo en sus comunidades y porque se enfoca en lugares donde hay recursos naturales importantes, ríos con potencial hidroeléctrico, petróleo y bosques. La compañía tejana Texas Oil and Gas Company, una empresa conjunta con concesiones en la Moskitia, estima que hay de seis a ocho millones de barriles en reservas de petróleo en la Moskitia.

4. Nuestro grupo está indignado al ver que este es el papel que nuestro gobierno juega y cómo nuestros impuestos están siendo utilizados. Nos preguntamos qué hace nuestro país trayendo modelos de contrainsurgencia a un país donde el respaldo estadounidense a acciones cubiertas de contrainsurgencia ha causado tanto sufrimiento en el pasado.

5. Lo que vimos en la Moskitia fue pobreza extrema y una atmósfera de terror siendo generada en el área donde la población indígena ahora está perdiendo el control de sus recursos, que son clave para el desarrollo de su economía.

Ante lo que observamos en nuestra visita y las preocupaciones provocadas, demandamos:

1. Que el Congreso de los Estados Unidos investigue y mantenga audiencias sobre el papel de los Estados Unidos en los eventos del 11 de Mayo del 2012 en la Moskitia.

2. Que investigaciones serias e independientes tomen lugar explorando el rol y responsabilidad de los agentes del gobierno de los Estados Unidos en la masacre del 11 de Mayo en Ahuas, ya sean agentes de la DEA, contratistas de seguridad privada bajo la dirección o contratados por agencias del gobierno de los Estados Unidos u otras fuerzas de seguridad. Esta investigación debe incluir la identificación de la responsabilidad criminal de individuos específicos.

3. Que los derechos y decisiones de las comunidades indígenas y movimientos populares serán respetados en lugar de ser tratados como traficantes de drogas e insurgentes, obviando completamente sus derechos humanos fundamentales.

4. Que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos se pronuncie públicamente contra la presencia de individuos con involucramiento ampliamente reconocido en el tráfico de drogas y escuadrones de la muerte dentro del sistema de justicia de Honduras hoy en día.

5. Que en vista de los abusos que documentamos, el gobierno de Estados Unidos debe retirar todas sus fuerzas de seguridad incluyendo la DEA y contratistas privados de Honduras, así como el cese de toda la asistencia y entrenamiento militar y promoción de la re-militarización en Centroamérica.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

27 de Mayo del 2012

 

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