I think Yanina cried not only because her future is in doubt, but so is the future of her country. As a teacher and head of household she now has no income, no job security, and no pension. Meanwhile her country is being sold out from under her by government and business interests which had just completed a 2 day international convention ( that coincided with our visit) called “Honduras is Open for Business.” Our group renamed it “Honduras is Open for Plunder,” as the terms for doing business in the country are a blatant give-away to any investor.
Yanina’s pain reflects the national crisis which is dividing the country since a military coup removed the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28, 2009. Zelaya had begun to win the support of grassroots groups serving workers and the poor, so when he was put on a plane in his pajamas and flown out of the Honduras in a CIA backed maneuver, thousands of people flooded the streets in angry and sustained protest. However, the right-wing Honduran Congress was quick to support the coup and named Roberto Micheletti as interim constitutional president of the country. Thus the lines were drawn which exist til today.
Micheletti negotiated with the United States to arrange for new elections within five months to legitimize the coup, while the people, for the first time in history, organized a political resistance which became the FNRP - the National Front of Popular Resistance. In November 2009 fraudulent elections were held, President Porfirio Lobo was elected and the repression of all opposition started in earnest. For this reason Yanina and other teachers like her, have reason to fear that they might be arrested, disappeared or assassinated - the fate of hundreds of resistance activists.
This scenario formed the backdrop for my visit to Honduras from May 1st to 9th, with a delegation whose mission was to investigate the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Lobo government against anyone who identifies with the Popular Resistance, which rejects the coup, supports Zelaya’s return from exile, and advocates for the rights of campesinos to their land, teachers to their pensions, journalists for an open press, unions for better wages, protection of the environment, etc..
Our delegation was formed by the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) and hosted by COFADEH, the Committee for Families of Detained and Disappeared of Honduras. The SOAW is concerned about the militarization of Latin America and appeals to governments to stop sending their security personnel to be trained in counter-insurgency at the School of the Americas (renamed WHINSEC) in Fort Benning, Georgia. COFADEH is a group of very courageous women who have documented over 2000 cases of abuse, including beatings, assassinations, disappearances and torture since the coup took place.
A visit to the Lower Aguan Valley in northern Honduras took us to a key area of dispute and violence. We had been invited to visit three settlements of campesinos (small farmers) who were living on and cultivating land claimed by a wealthy landowner and business tycoon named Miguel Facusse. The story behind this is long, but its essence is that agrarian reform laws passed in the 70's that gave small plots of land (but no title) to landless peasants, were reversed in the 90's, allowing Facusse and a few others to buy up almost all of these same lands. . Encouraged by community organizers and natural leaders some campesinos have joined into cooperatives, built homes with a basic infrastructure of a store and a meeting place, and taken back their lands.
The Community of Guadalupe Carney, named after an American born Jesuit priest who lived among and took the side of the poorest of Honduras, brought us to meet five women who were recently widowed.. Their husbands had been assassinated last November by Facusse’s private militia as they were working in their fields. During the attack, four other women were assaulted and raped, one with a gun to her mouth, another with a knife at her throat. Another male was shot in the face and is still in treatment, while yet another suffers from loss of memory and balance due to gunshot to his head. One of the widows had four small children and a 10 day old baby when her husband was murdered.
Reinaldo Aguilar began our meeting with a prayer before telling us the history of the community. It was formed after all its members lost their original land in Hurricane Mitch in 2000, and the Catholic church helped them access this land based on the agrarian reform laws. However, their rights were completely disregarded as local government officials sold the same land to established landowners like Facusse. The campesinos have protested to the authorities and refuse to give up the land they believe is theirs, while Facusse uses his wealth and his militia to impose his will.
Said Reinaldo, “We are learning that ‘terrorist’ is anyone who defends the poor.” Meanwhile the terror being visited upon the community is met with silence from the government. In the face of this impunity, the people say that they have with faith in God and a new-found conviction that they deserve a voice in their government.
With our own faith and convictions, the delegation set out to visit a group of 66 campesinos from another settlement, the community of Trinidad, who had been under seige for five days by Facusse’s militia. They had gone to their fields in defiance of the militia and now were trapped there. The community had been sneaking food and water to them during the nights. We drove for 20 minutes down a very rocky, narrow road, guided by three members of the community who squeezed into the front seat of our van with the driver.
We were hoping to talk to the trapped campesinos to ascertain their conditions and what we might do to help their situation. However, as we called the director of COFADEH back in Tegulcigalpa to report on our intentions, we received this advice: “DON’T GO!!! Facusse’s militia are given orders to shoot to kill, and that’s what they will do if you approach them. What’s more, they are using drugs and alcohol. Let us handle this situation from here.” With heavy hearts, we turned back to safety, acutely aware that we had that choice.
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