Sweatshops, Mining, Tourism & "Free" Trade Negotiations: Canada's Involvement in Honduras & Support for the Post-Military Coup Regime

By: Karen Spring, Rights Action

“The Canadian government and mining companies that were granted concessions before the moratorium are waiting for the green light to get the digging started. A new mining law and/or trade agreement would be their green light. The Canadian government is aware of this and by holding out millions of dollars in investments and possibly a trade agreement, it hopes to sway the Honduran government in their favour.”

KAREN SPRING SPEAKING TOUR TO ONTARIO & MANITOBA, February 2011. For more information, or to host a speaking event, contact: Karen (spring.kj@gmail.com).

TO JOIN AN EDUCATIONAL DELEGATION TO HONDURAS (MARCH 19-27 or MAY 14-22), contact: Karen Spring (spring.kj@gmail.com) or Grahame Russell (info@rightsaction.org).

Please re-publish this article, citing author and source


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SWEATSHOPS, MINING, TOURISM & “FREE” TRADE NEGOTIATIONS:
CANADA’S INVOLVEMENT IN HONDURAS & SUPPORT FOR THE POST-MILITARY COUP REGIME
By Karen Spring (spring.kj@gmail.com), January 10, 2011

Canada and the United States are the two most active legitimizers of the June 28, 2009 military coup in Honduras, and, since then, the post-coup regime.

Neighbor to the United States, Canada often escapes critical attention to its unjust global economic and political ventures. However, Canada is making its complicit involvement in post-coup Honduras increasingly obvious through Canada’s sweatshop, mining and tourist interests in the country.

Recently, the Canadian government publicized plans of negotiating a so-called “free” trade agreement with Honduras. (There is nothing “free” about any trade) Branching off from the thus far unsuccessful negotiations of the Canadian-Central American “free” trade agreement (CA4), involving Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, Canada has begun laying out plans for a Canadian-Honduran bi-lateral “free” trade agreement. Honduran officials from the post-military coup regime arrived in Ottawa in early December 2010 and are set to continue negotiations in early 2011.

Canadian business and investment interests in Honduras did not just begin after the June 2009 coup – they simply have continued with business as usual.

In April 2010, Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder arrived in Honduras to meet with Pepe Lobo, leader of the regime that was ‘elected’ in fraudulent and illegitimate elections five months after the coup (see article “A Good Investment Opportunity: Canadian Government & Mining & Sweatshop Business Executives Meet with Honduran Regime”, by Grahame Russell, at www.rightsaction.org, http://rightsaction.org/Alerts/Good_investment_040810.html). With mining and business executives and investors in tow, Ambassador Reeder dangled the hope of $700 million in investments in the Honduran mining and sweatshop industries, clarifying Canada’s future economic ambitions in the country.

As trade agreements and investments are being planned and promised, Canada effectively ‘whitewashes’ the military coup, the illegitimate elections of November 2009, ignores well-documented human rights violations and repression carried out by the Lobo regime and dismisses the existence of the pro-democracy, anti-coup people’s movement that demands major structural changes and the re-foundation of Honduras including the drafting of a new constitution.

(For more on Canada’s position following the coup, see Yves Engler’s article, “Hostility to the Military Coup in Honduras is Increasing. So is the Harper government’s isolation on the Issue”, or Rights Action’s Honduran Alert #41, “In Response to Mr. Peter Kent: Canada’s Increasingly Complicit Role in Honduras.”)

FUNDING & PARTICIPATING IN THE HONDURAN REGIME’s ‘TRUTH COMMISSION’

Honduras was kicked out of the Organization of American States (OAS) shortly after the June 2009 coup and has not been re-admitted. Re-admission would bring many benefits to the Lobo regime including ‘business as usual’ trade, international loans and most importantly, international recognition and the stamp of approval as a Government and Congress that pulled off a military coup.

One condition of OAS re-admission is a ‘reconciliation process’ that includes a Truth Commission to investigate the events leading up to, during and after the coup against President Zelaya’s government.

However, the OAS did not have in mind a Truth Commission set up and controlled by the post-coup regime, which is exactly what is happening. Not only is the Canadian government helping fund the Honduran regime’s “truth” commission, but a former Canadian official, lawyer Michael Kergin, is on the commission.

What is the problem with the regime’s “truth” commission? Not one social or human rights organization that was affected by or spoke out against the military coup is participating or recognizing it. Victims and families of the victims of repression, torture and murder since the coup have not been consulted nor are participating, calling it a ‘Lie Commission’ and an opportunity for the Lobo regime to try and gain international recognition, leaving all crimes committed during and after the coup covered up with in impunity.

As a former Ambassador to the United States, Michael Kergin apparently has strong ties with the Canadian mining industry through his work at the Bennett Jones law firm in Toronto. A coincidence? Not likely. In fact, it seems in line with the promotion of one of Canada’s major interests in Honduras: Mining.

A MINING LAW & TRADE AGREEMENT FAVOURING CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES WILL INCREASE SOCIAL CONFLICT & REPRESSION

The resistance of mining-affected communities and organizations to the environmental and health harms and other human rights violations caused by large-scale mining, and their formation of a national alliance – the Civil Alliance for Democracy – was one reason that President Zelaya’s government enacted a 2008 moratorium on handing out further mining licenses.

Everyone in Honduras’ pro-democracy movement lists the mining moratorium as one of the reasons the Honduran military, oligarchy and Catholic Church conspired to oust his government in the June 28, 2009 coup.

Rights Action has for years reported on the harms and violations caused directly and indirectly by Canada’s Goldcorp’s open-pit, cyanide-leeching operation in the Siria Valley. Rights Action has also denounced Goldcorp and other companies for helping to support and ‘whitewash’ the military coup and the ensuring repression.

Since the enactment of the mining moratorium during President Zelaya’s administration, new mining operations cannot begin in Honduras until the Lobo regime approves a new mining law. Today, the post-coup regime has two options, approve a law that is shaped by the demands of the mining harmed communities, many of which are involved in the pro-democracy people’s movement, or give into the demands of the Honduran oligarchy and global mining companies and investors and approve a law that favours mining companies.

A law favouring mining companies will likely include few or no environmental regulations, will likely permit the continued use of cyanide and low-cost, open pit processes, will likely provide large tax breaks, and will not oblige companies to consult and obtain the free and prior consent of local communities before initiating their mining operations.

The Canadian government and mining companies that were granted concessions before the moratorium are waiting for the green light to get the digging started. A new mining law and/or trade agreement would be their green light. The Canadian government is aware of this and by holding out millions of dollars in investments and possibly a trade agreement, it hopes to sway the Honduran government in their favour.

If a pro-mining law is passed, one thing is clear: ignoring the affected communities and demands of the pro-democracy people’s movement regarding community consultation, inclusion and protection of the environment will result in increased social conflict, repression, extrajudicial killings, death squads, torture and environmental degradation.

HOTELS & CRUISE SHIPS: CANADIAN INTERESTS IN TOURISM

In November 2010, five campesinos were massacred by private security forces hired by land-owner Miguel Facusse in the Aguan region in Northern Honduras. (See Annie Bird’s article, “World Bank funded Biofuel Corporation Massacres 5 Honduran Compesinos”, www.rightsaction.org).

Land conflicts, militarization of the region, threats, disappearances and physical beatings - particularly in the community of Guadalupe Carney – continue in 2011, most recently with the illegal kidnapping and beating-torture of Juan Chinchilla.

No more than 20 minutes from the November 15 massacre site, and while the militarization of the region goes on, Canadian ‘porn king’ Randy Jorgensen hopes to build a $15 million port in the coastal city of Trujillo to receive cruise ships and to build a four-park tourist attraction that includes hotels, a shopping centre, and more.

Jorgensen is involved in various other tourist projects on the north coast of Honduras along with other Canadians who hope to develop retirement communities and tourist attractions. (For more information on the Canadian ‘porn king’, see article by Dawn Paley, “Snowbirds gone wild! Canadian Retirees and Locals Clash in Honduras”).

In November 2009, 5 months after the military coup, Rights Action reported on a letter writing campaign initiated by pro-coup North Americans living on Honduras’ north coast and the Bay Islands – including Roatan -, to pressure the US and Canadian governments to effectively support the coup, by legitimizing the post-coup regime led by Roberto Micheletti. (See Rights Action’s Alert #89 “Pro-Coup North Americans in Honduras”, www.rightsaction.org).

These North Americans were trying to convince their governments that State-sponsored repression was not occurring in Honduras and that tourist and travel advisories should be lifted. Many of the letter writers operate ‘property development’ projects and businesses in the tourist industry.

Often, tourist projects scattered along Honduras north shore are managed and owned by Canadians who are in conflict with local campesino and Garifuna communities. As an industry that can attract foreign investment, the Honduran regime today is more than willing to promote tourism and accommodate the Canadians, generating social and land conflict with local Honduran communities, displacing and threatening the livelihood of the Garifuna communities and contributing to environmental degradation.

INJURED SWEATSHOPS WORKERS: CANADA’S GILDAN REFUSES TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

Based in Montreal, Gildan Activewear is a major producer of clothing apparel and one of the three dominant, low-wage sweatshop companies operating in Honduras. Many Canadian and American universities and colleges have contracts with Gildan that supplies clothing apparel to their athletic departments and sports teams.

Unfortunately, the Canadian company has a rotten history in Honduras. Many women working in Gildan sweatshops in Honduras have reported serious injuries including musculo-skeletal problems caused by the repetitive work in the factories. Some have reported major accidents that have caused permanent damage. Although Gildan has full knowledge of the women that have been injured in their factories, they refuse to accept responsibility and appropriately compensate the injured women. Many of these women cannot afford to feed their families and pay the high medical costs as a result of their injuries.

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Often slipping below the radar next to the United State’s historic economic interests and military interventions in Honduras, Canada is now working hard to help the illegitimate Lobo regime gain international recognition. Why? Because major Canadian business and investment interests are on the line. The Canadian government, businesses and investors are showing they do not care that they are supporting an undemocratic and repressive regime.

(By Karen Spring, Rights Action, spring.kj@gmail.com)

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

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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

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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.

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"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.

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"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.

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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

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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