Conflict and Militarization Continues in Colon, Honduras After Massacre of Five Campesinos

Campesino from MCA injured in the attack

By Karen Spring, spring.kj@gmail.com

On Tuesday, November 23 at 7:00 am, between 300-400 military officers and a reported seven military commanders occupied the offices of the National Agrarian Institute (INA) in the department of Colon.

The occupation of the INA office occurs just eight days after the murder of five campesinos and the severe injury of four members of the Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) by private security guards of large African palm producer, Miguel Facusse in Bajo Aguan, Colon. Facusse's African palm company, Dinant Corporation is the recipient of a $30 million dollar loan from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. (For more information, see Annie Bird's article below).

Since the massacre a week ago, the region has been heavily militarized by state forces and various check points have been set up along the major roads to 'guarantee the security of the region.' The military and police forces are accused by various campesinos organizations in the region of acting in favour of the large land owners, arriving hours after the conflicts and deaths occur and not carrying out the proper investigations often solely accusing the campesinos as being at fault.

INA, the state office responsible for titling land and working to resolve land disputes, and its director Caesar Ham have been publicly accused by large land owner Miguel Facusse to be assisting the campesinos in the region in the efforts to recuperate land illegally taken from them. It is speculated that today's occupation of the INA office is an attempt to frame the state institute for providing arms and supporting the campesino struggles in the region.

In an outcry against the killings and in an act of solidarity, campesinos from six departments of Honduras (Atlantida, Colon, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Cortez and Choluteca) began land occupations shortly after the November 15th murders. To pressure the government and demonstrate their force, campesinos will be arriving in Tegucigalpa on Thursday for a gathering outside of the National Congress.

"WE ARE JUST POOR CAMPESINOS FIGHTING FOR OUR CHILDREN": IN THE HOSPITAL AWAITING AN OPERATION

Julian from the community of Guadalupe Carney and one of the four MCA campesinos injured was shot in the head during the confrontation with Facusse's security guards. He remains in the hospital where he is awaiting an operation to reconstruct parts of his face.

A bullet entered in the right side of his face just below his cheek bone, passed through his upper lip area and exited on the left side of his face, fracturing his cheek bone. "The upper part of my mouth is destroyed. I can't eat, just liquids but not other types of good." Almost all of Julian's upper teeth and gums have been destroyed.

FUNDS ARE NEEDED:

The Campesino Movement of Aguan (MCA) and the families of the nine affected campesinos have many medical expenses and funeral costs.

TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
Make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
DONATIONS OF STOCK: info@rightsaction.org

* * *

WORLD BANK-FUNDED BIOFUEL CORPORATION MASSACRES SIX HONDURAN CAMPESINOS

By Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org

MASSACRED WHILE WORKING THEIR FIELDS
Approximately six months ago, campesino farmers in Trujillo, Colon organized in the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, the MCA, were awarded provisional title to a farm which neighbors their community, as part of a long standing negotiation with Dinant Corporation, a biofuel company, whose land claims are illegitimate.

Since that time, the small farmers worked the land. In recent weeks they had noticed incursions into their land by armed security forces employed by the biofuel company, Dinant.

On Monday, November 15, the farmers went to their fields but were then attacked by Dinant security. Six were killed in the massacre and two more are in critical condition.

The massacre occurred the same day that the de facto Honduran president Pepe Lobo had planned to meet with the director of the US government development fund, the Millennium Challenge, in Denver to ask for funding for so called "renewable energy" - in Honduras, principally biofuels and dams.

WORLD BANK AND OTHER "DEVELOPMENT" GROUPS SHARE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MASSACRE
The "renewable energy" plan Lobo is shopping around may be the result of an Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) funded technical support grant (T-1101) to the de facto government ushered in after the June 28 military coup. In November 2009, under a coup government and amidst grave human rights violations, the World Bank's (WB) International Finance Corporation gave Dinant Corporation a $30 million loan for biofuel production, and now shares responsibility in the massacre.

Policies supposedly intended to stop climate change are in reality fueling climate change. The world must invest in a renewable way of life, not destructive "renewable energy". Scientists have analyzed that biofuel industry together with the climate change prevention mechanisms currently promoted could actually result in the destruction of half of the planets forests.

In the same way that massacres cannot be stopped when justice systems are destroyed by military coups, the destruction of our planet cannot be stopped when the systems of governance have been hijacked by corporations who can buy off, or that failing, militarily intervene in nations attempting to build just forms of governance. Human rights and the environment cannot be separated.

US MILITARY BASE BOUGHT FOR AGRARIAN REFORM AND STOLEN FOR AGRIBUSINESS
During the past decade, campesinos in Honduras have challenged a series of illegitimate land titles obtained by agro-businessmen in a massive former US military training center known as the CREM.

On this land, over 5,000 hectares, the US military trained military forces from across Central America, particularly the Contra paramilitary forces attacking the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Once the CREM center's operations ended, the Honduran government bought the land from a US citizen through the Honduran land reform program.

However, instead of being sold to small farmers, as the government was obligated by law to do, the land was illegally divided up between several large landholders as a result of corruption and fraudulent titling processes. A coalition of land rights organizations in Honduras organized in the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, the MCA, to challenge the illegal titles. Little by little the land titles were awarded to groups of campesinos organized in the MCA.

The titling process has been slow and marked by violent attacks by the large landholders who have influence in the government, police and military forces. Among the last of the CREM lands to remain in the hands of agribusiness interests is the farm called El Tumbador, approximately 700 hectares controlled by the Dinant Corporation, property of Honduras' most powerful agro-businessman, Miguel Facusse.

A biofuel businessman with interests in several corporations, Miguel Facusse is infamous for the use of fraudulent methods, including intimidation and violence, to obtain lands throughout the country.

THE WORLD BANK BACKS THE CORRUPT AND VIOLENT DINANT CORPORATION
Since the military coup in June 2009, Honduras has been ruled by illegitimate, repressive regimes.

In November 2009, the WB extended a loan of $30 million to Dinant for its biofuel production in that region, despite a widely documented history of violence and corruption by the biofuel company. The WB failed in its human rights obligations in this case and shares responsibility for this massacre.

Given the conditions in Honduras, the WB must suspend both private and public sector funding to Honduras, and freeze funding of biofuels in the region. The biofuel industry in Central and South America violently displaces small farmers and contributes to global warming.

Another multinational public fund that finances international private investment, the Interamerican Investment Corporation, has also recently funded Dinant.

"GREENWASHING" AND CORPORATE WELFARE - THE HIJACKING OF CLIMATE CHANGE FUNDS
Biofuels are one of the fastest growing industries, a sector that sees high levels of investment from venture capitalists. This massive growth has been stimulated by taxpayer dollars pouring into renewable energy through many funding agencies, but particularly the IADB, the WB, and carbon emissions trading markets.

The trade in carbon credits was created as an element of the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997. It attempts to implement a market based system to curb global warming by levying penalties against heavy polluting industries that produce high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon burning energy generation plants. But those penalties can be paid off, or offset, by the purchase of carbon credits.

Carbon credits are given to industries that undertake activities that reduce emission of gases that generate climate change, and those can then be sold on the market to companies that generate global warming.

The system is riddled with problems, beginning with the fact that the big money to be made in "green" industry creates a big incentive to greenwash, to disguise polluting activities as activities that do not pollute in order to cash in on climate change funds.

This is the case with biofuels.

BIOFUELS COULD DESTROY HALF THE WORLD'S FORESTS
Even as governments pour taxpayer money into biofuels, it is being demonstrated that biofuel production contributes significantly to global warming, through the destruction of wetlands, displacement of small farmers and food production, often to cut forests, direct clear cutting of forests for biofuel production, and even cutting forests to generate wood pellets that make ethanol.

One study published in Science magazine in October 2009 analyzed regulation set up in the Kyoto Accords which promotes the use of biofuels, but finds that these measures could result in the loss of up to half of the world's forests.

As the negative impacts were beginning to be felt, though the extent is only beginning to be understood, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and others committed to market incentives for polluters, set up the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil.

This body certifies palm oil as having been 'sustainably' produced. In May 2010, WWF signed an agreement with Miguel Facusse's Dinant Corporation to begin the process of certifying Dinant palm oil. The WB, in November 2009, shortly after disbursing Dinant's loan, froze palm oil funding while it created its palm oil strategy, expected to be completed in March 2011.

US CORPORATIONS COULD MAKE $27 TRILLION OFF "LESSER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES" CONVERSION TO BIOFUELS
By the time these impacts were being seen, big corporations, with their lobbies, were drooling over the potential profits. The WWF is strongly committed to paying off big business to reduce emissions. A recent WWF study urges taxpayer money be poured into renewable energy in "lesser developed countries" (LDCs) in order to stimulate job growth in the United States.

Governments are committing to insuring that a certain percentage of fuel consumption be converted to biofuel consumption around the world but especially in "LDCs." This will generate a huge market for technology to convert engines and other existing infrastructure, which according to WWF could represent a $27 trillion dollar market for US corporations.

Faced with the powerful corporate lobby corrupting and pressuring governments around the globe, and sometimes promoting military interventions to back their interests, changing policies to really fight climate change as opposed to subsidizing corporations seems a quixotic dream, as was seen in the failed summit on climate change in Copenhagen last year.

At the 16th international summit on climate change in Copenhagan, nations agreed to set up an, as yet, unclear mechanism called the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), which would focus on curbing deforestation. Paradoxically, incentives for forest preservation are still banned, and the potential for biofuel stimulated deforestation of half of the world's forests is still not addressed.

It is important to remember that the WWF and others who believe in and promote environmental market economics have promoted a system of biosphere privatization which allows degrading activities to be carried out by private companies that subsidize non-governmental organizations that manage the biospheres, while ignoring the rights of campesino communities and indigenous peoples.

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD INVEST IN THE POOR, NOT IN THE SUPER RICH
The international community's failure to substantively address climate change is a result the unwillingness to acknowledge and name the economic and political policies and actors that are responsible for climate harm.

The "free" market cannot correct the damage it has done, further investing in the same actors and under the same policy framework that generated climate change cannot reverse it.

To reverse climate change, the wealthiest nations and people of the world must change how they live. Indigenous and campesino communities have more sustainable ways of life, have learned to live in a sustainable way with the resources they produce. But they are being displaced and massacred to usher in the concentration of land and wealth, the genocide of a sustainable way of life.

Rather than subsidizing corporate mass destruction, the nations of the world must invest in a different way of life, and hold accountable those that destroy human life and destroy our only and irreplaceable, planet.

(Annie Bird is co-director of Rights Action, annie@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org. Feel free to re-publish this article, citing author & source)
 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF LAWSUIT AGAINST MAJOR CANADIAN MINING COMPANY RELATING TO MURDER OF MAYAN LEADER IN LATIN AMERICA

Toronto, November 29, 2010: On Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 10:30am, lawyers for the widow of a community leader who was shot and hacked to death in an unprovoked attack by private security forces employed at a Canadian mining project in Latin America will announce a lawsuit brought in Ontario courts against a major Canadian mining company.

The murdered man was an outspoken critic of harms caused by Canadian mining activities in his community. To date, no one has been held accountable for his death.

This press announcement comes one month after Parliament voted against Bill C-300, a bill intended to ensure that Canadian mining companies operating abroad act in accordance with Canada’s commitments to international human rights standards.

Other participants will include:

The Honourable Peter Julian: Member of Parliament and author of Bill C-354: legislation which seeks to protect foreign citizens against serious human rights abuses committed by Canadian corporations operating outside of Canada.

Professor Craig Scott: Director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security, and Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Grahame Russell: Co-director of Rights Action, a non-profit organization that works in close proximity with community groups in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

WHEN:
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
10:30am

WHERE:
Suite 400, 4th Floor “Innovation Lab”
215 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, Ontario

CONTACT:
For details as to time and location only:
Murray Klippenstein, Legal Counsel, 416-937-8634 (mobile)
Silas Polkinghorne, 416-799-5365 (mobile)

For more information see www.chocversushudbay.com, after 10:30 a.m., Dec. 1.

Repression in Honduras Continues, Unabated

In front of occupied National Autonomous University (UNAH, its spanish acronym) by students & supporting members of the national resistance movement. White sign reads 'Maria Otero, go home'

Last Thursday and Friday, police and military violently repressed public school teachers that have taken to the streets for almost 3 weeks to demand, amongst other things, that the Pepe Lobo government return 4 billion lempiras (or 40 million dollars) that were taken from IMPREMA, an institution that manages teacher’s pension funds, after the military coup against President Zelaya on June 28, 2009.

The 6 teachers unions that form under the umbrella organization, Federation of Teacher’s Organizations of Honduras (FOMH by its spanish acronym) that represents 63,000 teachers nation-wide believe that the funds taken from this institution were used to fund the military machine run by the oligarchy, illegal President Micheletti and head of the armed forces, Romeo Vasquez Velasquez to repress and terrorize the pro-democracy movement critical of the coup and it’s perpetrators.

The education system in Honduras has been in crisis for the last 4 months particularly the month of August starting when the university students occupied the National Autonomous University (UNAH, Spanish acronym) demanding the reinstatement of 180 workers fired from their positions and the resignation of university director, Julieta Castrellano. Five fired workers still remain on hunger strike on the university grounds, some now reaching over 126 days without eating.

During the university occupation, police showed up during the occupation and attempted to enter the university where they were then run off university grounds by the protesters. The stand off between the students and police occurred at the time that State Department's Maria Otero was visiting Honduras to investigate the human rights situation, an attempt once again by the United States government to paint the picture that the Lobo government is working hard to better the human rights situation in the country, a necessary condition to having Honduras readmitted into the Organiation of American States (OAS).

Although the university student and the public school teachers have different immediate focuses and demands, they both claim that the form in which the Pepe Lobo’s government is managing the teacher’s struggle and education system in general is one of the many attempts by the oligarchy and the government to privatize the public education system in Honduras.

Recognizing this threat, this massive teachers strike converges and compliments that on-going struggle of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) as well as the preparatory stages of a mass general strike involving the three major umbrella unions (Unitary Confederacy of Workers of Honduras (CUTH, by its Spanish acronym); the Confederacy of Workers of Honduras (CTH, Spanish acronym); the General Head office of Workers (CGT, Spanish acronym) to which all unionized Honduran workers are apart.

3 DAYS OF BARBARIC REPRESSION AGAINST THE TEACHERS

Last Friday, August 27th, teachers were violently evicted twice from the area around the National Pedagogical University first when they had occupied the boulevard and second, when teachers were regrouping and meeting inside the University.

At the University, located close to a major boulevard and across from a business shopping centre, police arrived with 2 water tanks, firing more than a 100 tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the teachers and members of the resistance movement in and outside the university grounds, beating up those they chased and captured without regard for the presence of children and the public in the busy area of the city and the peaceful form in which the teachers were protesting.

August 27, 2010. In front of National Pedological University, police show up firing tear gas to evict teachers.

From a black Toyota four-runner parked on the street in front of the University, a man opened fired at the protesters with a 9-millimeter gun. Although no one was shot, the car was later identified as belonging to the National Congress.

Over 100 people were captured and ‘guarded’ by police against a fence outside the University. They were later released after human rights representatives arrived and negotiated with the police. Many teachers and resistance members, fleeing the tear gas were trapped inside the classrooms in the university where they suffered from severe exposure to tear gas. Over 7 people were injured from the gas and from police beatings including a journalist from Globo TV/Radio Globo.

The day before, on Thursday, after occupying a street close to the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa, police and military violently evicted the teachers. Six teachers were reported injured from the tear gas and wounds inflicted by the police.

These two days last week were the icing on the cake to the violence inflicted against the teachers movement on August 20th, when again, police/military evicted the movement and brutally beat up 3 union leaders and one teacher that all were supposedly identified on the spot to the police by individuals infiltrated in the marches.

Before and particularly since August 20th, the major media outlets owned by the oligarchy continue a media campaign against the teacher’s movement to portray them as instruments of violence with no regard for children’s education and the educational system in Honduras.

At the writing of this article, the teachers are gathered in their daily assembly to discuss an agreement recently negotiated between the Government negotiation team and the leaders of the teacher’s movement. Today, the teachers will announce whether they accept the proposal or not.

Police 'guarding' teachers and individuals they captured during violent eviction.

1st Anniversary of the Military-Oligarchic Coup in Honduras: Repression Continues, Resistance Continues

"I was asking the police for a doctor because I felt like my skin was on fire and I could barely breath but they [the police] just laughed at me. They kept putting the tazer gun to my ear asking if I wanted to feel the shock again. It sent shivers through my entire body thinking about how it would feel." - Edwin Espinal

BELOW:

Illegal detention & torture of Edwin Robelo Espinal

Illegal detention of Berta Caceres, co-leader of COPINH

FOR INTERVIEWS & MORE INFORMATION:

Annie Bird, 1-202-680-3002 (annie@rightsaction.org)

Karen Spring, 011-504-9507-3835 (spring.kj@gmail.com)

WHAT TO DO: see below

* * *

THE 13TH ILLEGAL DETENTION OF EDWIN ESPINAL
By Karen Spring, Rights Action (in Honduras), July 10, 2010

Two days after the one-year anniversary of the resistance movement in Honduras, an active member of the movement, Edwin Robelo Espinal was detained and tortured in his neighbood, Flor del Campo, in Tegucigalpa.

Since the coup on June 28th 2009, Edwin has been in the streets participating in the pro-democracy movement and various activities of the resistance movement. He was accompanied by his partner, Wendy Elizabeth Avila until September 26th of last year when she was killed by tear gas shot at protesters in front of the Brazilian Embassy by police and military forces.

For full story on Wendy's death see the Fault Lines documentary: "100 days of Resistance"

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYY4vj9ROC0

Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upMu_oR2YUU&feature=channel

Since the coup, Edwin has been subject to various forms of psychological and physical intimidation and harassment from the police and military. He has been illegally detained more than 12 times, beaten up, shot at and pulled over by police without reason or cause ... and the intimidation that has continued since then is another instance of him being targeted for his strong participation in the pro-democracy movement.

* * *

"I was asking the police for a doctor because I felt like my skin was on fire and I could barely breath but they [the police] just laughed at me. They kept putting the tazer gun to my ear asking if I wanted to feel the shock again. It sent shivers through my entire body thinking about how it would feel." - Edwin Espinal

* * *

On the night of Wednesday, June 30th, as Edwin was standing on the side of the road next to his car chatting with friends in his neighbourhood, a police patrol with 5 police officers pulled over and began to harass Edwin asking for his license. Having not committed any driving offence (as he was standing on the road), the officers began harassing him telling him they were going to arrest him.

The 5 officers began pushing and hitting Edwin with their batons trying to force him into the back of their pick up truck. When unable to, the head officer named Vargas by the label on his uniform, pulled out pepper spray and holding the spray roughly 10cm from his face, sprayed Edwin all over his face, hands and exposed skin.

Totally blinded, beaten up and choking on the large amount of gas that had entered his mouth, he was forced into the back of the pick up truck and driven for 20 minutes to an unknown location.

The pick up truck was parked and Edwin was left lying in the back. In the 15 minutes the truck was parked, the police continued to harass and torture him. One officer fired the tazer gun close to his ear and asked Edwin if he knew what it was. After responding, no, Edwin was shocked in the stomach. His capturers took various pictures of him and asking him questions like why he was a Zelayista [supporter of overthrown President Zelaya], for how long has he been in the resistance movement, why he's a communist, etc.

Edwin was then taken to the 4th police station in Comeyaguela, still blinded by the gas and unaware of where he was. After entering the police station and unable to breath, see or handle the extreme burning feeling of his face, neck and arms, Edwin begged the officers to get him a doctor. The police laughed at him. He was then shocked again by a tazer gun where he fell to the floor convulsing and shaking.

He was then put into a jail cell and held over night until representatives from COFADEH (Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras) arrived at the police station at 9:00 am to get him released.

* * *

"The first thing that they [the police] did to him [Edwin] was throw gas on him to detain him. This is a form of psychological and physical torture as it was gas that killed his wife, Wendy, months earlier." - Berta Oliva, COFADEH

* * *

Edwin's strong participation in the resistance movement makes him a strong target of repression. "The police in my neighbourhood hate me. They know my truck and they know that I'm in the resistance movement."

Another reason Edwin believes he is targeted by the handful of police that patrol his neighbourhood is because he was the witness of the murder of Francisco Alvarado, a man killed in Edwin's neighbourhood on September 22, 2009 when various residents were on the street protesting after being evicted from the Brazilian Embassy.

"The police in my neighbourhood know that I know that they killed Francisco Alvarado that night. After he was shot, we were trying to take him to the hospital but they wouldn't let us. We were scared that if they [the police] took him that they would kill him on the way to the hospital."

The complexities of Edwin's case do not stop there. The same police that tortured him on June 30th continue to patrol his neighbourhood and he is forced to see them almost everyday close to his home.

Today, July 7, Edwin saw a few of the police officers from his neighbourhood at the grocery store. After leaving the store, one hour later and arriving at his house, 2 police officers, one of them in uniform (the same one he saw at the grocery store) and another in civilian clothes, were waiting at the entrance to the drive way that leads up to his house.

The officer in civilian clothes, Edwin recognized as Vargas, the same officer that had sprayed pepper spray in his face, detained him and participated in torturing him a week earlier. Upon seeing Edwin's car, Vargas waved and smiled at Edwin and then both officers hopped on a motorcycle and drove away.

To Edwin, the message was clear, 'We are watching you.' Both officers had known he would be arriving home shortly, had left the grocery store and had waited for him to arrive at his house.

* * * * * * *

WHAT TO DO

COFADEH has made a formal complaint regarding Edwin's case to the Public Prosecutor's Office and urges the national and international community to contact the individuals below and:

Demand that the Honduran authorities guarantee the safety of Edwin Robelo Espinal to carry out a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the acts of intimidation, illegal arrests and torture that violate fundamental human rights of Edwin Robelo, to make public the results and bring those responsible for these acts to justice.

Ensure the safety of all people exercising their right to association and free expression.

Direct their communications to the following Honduran authorities:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés
Presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia
Tel (504) 269-3000, 269-3069
cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí
Fiscal General de la República.
Fax (504) 221-5667
Tel (504) 221-5670 221-3099
lrubi@mp.hn, suazog@mp.hn

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, COFADEH
Barrio La Plazuela, Ave. Cervantes, Casa No. 1301. Apdo. Postal No. 1243, Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.
Tel/Fax (504) 220-5280 / 220-7147, cofadeh@sdnhon.org.hn, www.cofadeh.org

* * * * * * *

BERTHA CACERES DENOUNCES ABUSE OF AUTHORITY AND ILEGAL DETENTION

COPINH is a human rights organization whose activists have received countless threats and harassment following the 2009 coup in Honduras. The following denunciation is presented within this context:

Román Castro and Bertha Cáceres, members of COPINH were illegally and arbitrarily detained on 27 June 2010. In Bertha's case, the following occurred:

Following a phone call received about the organization of the 28 June activities -- the anniversary of the oligarchic-military coup -- and Mr. Castro's detention, COPINH's General Coordinator Bertha Cáceres was on her way to the Utopía Center. This center is located near the police station on the road from La Esperanza to Siguatepeque. Upon seeing COPINH's car at the station, she stopped.

She got out and introduced herself as a member of the COPINH directorate to the police officer in charge, Inspector Velásquez. When she asked why the car and its occupants had been detained, he responded that surely they had been stealing.

She then responded that it was a very serious accusation he was making and that he could not do that without proof. The inspector responded that he could do whatever he wanted. Bertha told him that this was illegal. She then stated that she had been notified that they had taken away 400 "sovereign declarations" from her companions and demanded their return. She also stated that the Army and the corrupt and repressive Police were going to be abolished with the new Constitution.

Inspector Velásquez became violent and ordered Bertha´s detention. When she responded that there was no reason for this, he again told her that he could do whatever he wanted. At that moment, he attacked Bertha, grabbing her arm and hitting her on the back. Then he told the other police officers, about 15 others were present, that they take her away because otherwise he was going to badly beat her.

The police put her into the patrol car and brought her to the police station. Once there they did not read her rights to her nor did they present any formal accusation against her. She was, however, detained for a few hours. When Commissioner Fuentes arrived, he stated that he was sorry for the action against her and that the best thing would be to sign a legal document (acta). Since there was no reason for this, Bertha refused. They released her. Upon which, she explained that there was another detained companion and solicited his release.

Both were released.

The 400 sovereign declarations were returned. On June 29, 2010 Bertha Cáceres, as COPINH's General Coordinator, presented a denunciation to the before the Attorney General´s Office against Inspector Velásquez and Preventive Police agents for the crime of abuse of authority and illegal detention.

It is very important to mention that the Inter American Commission on Human Rights has granted protective measures to Bertha Cáceres and all the COPINH activists.

Intibucá- Honduras, 29 June 2010

Threats Against Carlos Amador, Member of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee, Which has Opposed Goldcorp Gold Mining in Honduras Since 2000

From May 7-22, Carlos Amador will be on a speaking tour in Ontario, Canada, as lead up to Goldcorp Inc’s Annual Shareholder Meeting, May 19th, in Toronto. Carlos will be speaking along with Javier de Leon, from the Goldcorp Inc affected communities in Guatemala, and Karen Spring of Rights Action.

* * * * * * *

THREATS AGAINST CARLOS AMADOR, MEMBER OF THE SIRIA VALLEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE, WHICH HAS OPPOSED GOLDCORP GOLD MINING IN HONDURAS SINCE 2000
By Annie Bird and Karen Spring, April 29, 2010

On April 13, 2010, 15 armed police arrived at the middle school where Carlos Amador, a teacher and founding member of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee, works. They approached the school with guns raised in attack position.

When they were unable to find Carlos, the police next went to his house which they also approached with raised guns and interrogated his two minor daughters as to his whereabouts.

At his home, the police left a citation calling Carlos to meet with an investigator for the National Office of Criminal Investigation. Upon arriving at the meeting and in contrary to regular legal proceedings, the investigator took Carlos along with a lawyer from COFADEH, a human rights organization, to the district attorney’s office where he was questioned about the Committee’s work in the Siria Valley. These questions included, "who are the leaders of the committee", "where do they live", "when does the committee meet", etc.

These acts of intimidation against Carlos and his family occur at a time when death squad violence and repression by State security forces are being carried out across Honduras against those who have opposed the military coup.

While most members of the Committee support the coup resistance movement, the mining company (Goldcorp Inc’s subsidiary Entre Mares) shipped some workers and other locals on buses – giving them $20 cash each - to staged protests in favor of the June 28, 2009 military coup against the elected government of President Zelaya.

GOLDCORP ALLIES ATTEMPT ILLEGAL LOGGING, RESULTING IN ONE DEATH AND TWO INJURIES

This intimidation against Carlos Amador and Siria Valley Environmental Committee also occurred following a violent confrontation between security guards and five communities in the municipality of El Porvenir, which resulted in one death and two injured people.

On April 7th, armed security guards from a private security company reportedly owned by the Raudales Urrutia family attempted to bring in heavy machinery to conduct logging on a 600 hectare plot of land owned by the communities in El Porvenir.

Community members claim that the Raudales Urrutia family illegally obtained “title” to the land two years prior and, in fact, have no right to the land or the trees. These five communities hold land titles dating from the year 1800, and the communities have been soliciting that the Institute for Environmental Conservation declare the area a protected area. The forested hill sits between the five communities and is the source of drinking water for those communities.

The sub-soil mineral rights below this particular 600 hectare plot were conceded years before by the Honduran government, with no prior consultation with or consent from the local communities, to Goldcorp subsidiary Entre Mares, which has been trying to expand their gold mining operations in Siria Valley despite strong community resistance.

The close relationship the Raudales Urrutia family maintains with Goldcorp leads neighbors to believe the family will permit Goldcorp/ Entre Mares to expand their operations onto the plot.

“FAVOURABLE” CONDITIONS FOR CANADIAN INVESTORS

Just one day before the confrontation in Siria Valley, Canadian ambassador to Honduras, Neil Reeder, along with Patrick Downey (from Canadian mining company Aura Minerals Inc.) and investor David Petroff met with regime leader Pepe Lobo to express interest in increasing Canadian investments in the mining and textile sweatshop industries, amounting – the Canadians claimed - to $700 million in investments.

During their visit, no mention was made of the repressive political situation in Honduras or the illegitimacy of the Lobo government.

Armed aggression by paramilitaries and private security guards at the service of landholders with dubious legal rights over lands have increased dramatically across Honduras, fueled by favorable (and quite brutal) political conditions ushered in by the June 28, 2009 military coup.

These ‘favorable’ conditions continue under the presidency of Pepe Lobo. His regime is comprised almost entirely of the same people who planned and carried out the military coup.

All six military generals who spearheaded the coup were not only exonerated of criminal responsibility in a sham trial in January 2009, but continue to occupy key government positions.

OUSTED HONDURAN PRESIDENT STOOD UP TO MINING INTERESTS

Goldcorp, having completed exploitation of their first tract, the Palo Alto y Tajo la Rosa concession, is apparently anxious to begin exploitation of neighboring concessions, such as the area whose clear cutting spurred the conflict earlier this month.

Goldcorp Inc’s superficial and controversial closure plan was rejected by neighbors as it did not take adequate measures to cleanup the massive use of cyanide nor the dangerous presence of heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead and mercury, among others, which have been demonstrated to exceed internationally established standards in Siria Valley water systems, and in the bodies of the residents.

Goldcorp’s Closure Plan was not accepted by the administration of then President Manuel Zelaya, which in April 2009 created an inter-institutional commission to examine the plan and the impact of Goldcorp’s operations in the region.

On March 18, 2010, Goldcorp announced to the press that the Closure Plan had been approved, although authorization of the plan had not actually yet been obtained. Another hurdle faced by Goldcorp was a moratorium on new mining operations that the militarily ousted government of President Zelaya brought into force.

The moratorium was enacted through a presidential decree issued by the President Zelaya in 2007 which banned the exploitation of new mining concessions using certain techniques. A 2008 ruling by the Supreme Court supported the Presidential Decree, finding sections of the 1998 General Mining Law, that was approved by the corrupted Honduras Congress during a “state of emergency” following Hurricane Mitch, to be unconstitutional.

This highly unpopular 1998 mining law ushered in a fire sale of mining concessions. A new mining law is needed by mining companies to define the procedure they must follow to enter into exploitation of the concessions they hold.

On April 27, 2009 President Manuel Zelaya proposed a mining law that banned open pit mining and the use of certain chemicals, such as cyanide, in the refining process. This law would have made impossible any expansion plans by mining companies, such as Goldcorp.

In February 2010, the post-coup Congress began debating a new mining law.

IMPUNITY FAVORS MINERS WHILE ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE KILLED AND INTIMIDATED

A myriad of legal actions have been presented against mining interests in Honduras, yet only the constitutional challenge has been ruled upon. The Siria Valley Environmental Committee alone has advanced at least 25 legal actions.

In 2000, criminal contamination charges resulted in arrest warrants against a Canadian Simon Ridgeway, legal representative for Entre Mares, the local company that owns the San Martin mine, a company now subsidiary to Goldcorp. The arrest warrant was never carried out, and in a similar way the investigation or prosecution of many other charges has never advanced.

This impunity (the lack of investigation or prosecution of grave crimes) and politically motivated biased and false legal actions carried out to intimidate rights defenders, such as the April 13, 2010 actions against Carlos Amador and his family, are the tools with which the politically and economically influential have been able to sustain illegal land titles or activities.

These illegal actions - within the justice system - are some of the many reasons that a massive movement in Honduras is calling to draft a new constitution.

Past acts of violence that some believe to be associated with the Goldcorp’s San Martin mine also remain covered up by impunity. In 2005, outspoken mine opponent and Committee member Jose Coello was shot while traveling, but not robbed and was not known to be involved in any personal conflicts; his murder has not been clarified.

In 2003, Teodoro Martinez, a Tulupan indigenous community leader who had opposed Entre Mare’s plans to use community water for gold refining, was beheaded. Many blamed the mine for the still unclarified death.

The Grupo Golan security company, in charge of Entre Mares (at the time owned by Glamis Gold) security at the time of Martinez’s killing, was blamed for an atmosphere of terror in the area.

(The Golan security company was also employed by the Glamis Gold, now Goldcorp Inc. subsidiary Montana Exploradora, in Guatemala. In 2005 a Golan security guard shot and killed the son of a mine opponent in Guatemala. In 2007 a neighbor of the Goldcorp mine in Guatemala who opposed that mine was also beheaded in the same manner as Martinez, and some neighbors suspected mine involvement.)

* * *

Beyond harmful mining operations, another example of impunity across Honduras and the region has been the irregular acquisition of land titles by politically influential, wealthy and powerful strongmen. Over the history of Honduras, this has generated tremendous levels of poverty, violence and political instability.

Historically, international military interventions in favor of business interests (originally and most notably in the banana sector), particularly interventions from the United States, have long wreaked havoc on Honduras.

Canadian mining interests are now also clearly lending political support to the June 28, 2009 military coup and the subsequent regime, the latest chapter in the long history of repressive interventions to subvert attempts by Hondurans to build a real democracy and rule of law, to build a just and fair economic-development model, and to defend their fundamental human rights against transnational economic interests.

* * * * * * *

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES & MATERIALS

SPEAKING TOUR, ONTARIO (CANADA), MAY 2010: “Community resistance to harmful mining in Guatemala & Honduras” – with Carlos Amador (Honduras), Javier de Leon (Guatemala) and Karen Spring (Rights Action). To host an event, contact Karen: spring.kj@gmail.com, 416-951-0319

DELEGATION TO HONDURAS, JUNE 26-JULY 4: First anniversary of June 28, 2009 oligarchic-military coup against the elected government (For information, contact Annie: annie@rightsaction.org)