Tom Loudon, center Marching with COFADEH
The National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP) has established its own True Commission to find out who was behind the military coup of June 28, 2009 and to document the over 2000 complaints of violence against civilians since then. The Commission is so named to differentiate it from the government’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, which has so far not produced any evidence that it is investigating a single case of politically motivated assassination, torture, disappearance or beatings. In fact, it has denied that any have occurred.
Our delegation met with Tom Loudon, the Executive Secretary of the True Commission (CDV in Spanish) who is a North American, living for the last 20 years in Nicaragua. The 9 members of the CDV are from Honduras, Ecuador, Canada, Argentina, Spain, El Salvador and Costa Rica and were chosen with the participation of all sectors of civil society, unlike those of the government Commission who were appointed by the President. As the members travel the country, interviewing hundreds of people to collect the necessary data, they put their lives in danger.
Examples of the abuses being investigated :
-83 assassinations, including eleven journalists, making Honduras the most dangerous country for journalists in the Hemisphere; the 11th journalist shot by three gunmen on May 11, 2011
- six members of the LGBT community, found beheaded, castrated or burned
- between March and October, 2010 26 campesinos killed from six settlements in Lower Aguan Valley -- areas claimed by wealthy, powerful landowner Facusse
- end of April, 2011 - two campesino leaders found beheaded
- May 18, 2011 - organizer with the rural cooperative MUCA, Sixto Ramos, 45, shot in his car, and organizer with the rural cooperative ANACH, Dennis Moises Lara Orellana, 37, shot in his car.
The True Commission is working closely with COFADEH, Committee of Families of the Disappeared and Detained of Honduras, whose members are also at risk. On May Day, our delegation marched in the Tegulcigalpa parade carrying COFADEH’s large banners with images of the disappeared and assassinated. It felt like an honor to be identified with the organization that has done the most to seek justice and to support the families of those who had lost their lives for standing up for freedom and dignity.
It was also an honor to be welcomed into the campesino cooperative settlement of Aurora in the Lower Aguan Valley in northern Honduras. There, under the tall African palm oil trees, we viewed the make-shift shelters in which everyone was living since last November- plastic tarps held up by pieces of wood. These campesinos have “squatted” here to defend their rights to the land that had been given to them under the Agrarian Reform Law. They live in constant fear that wealthy landowner, Miguel Facusee will send his armed goons in to evict them, since he says he bought this land from local authorities after the law was changed to allow sale of agrarian reform land.
One of Aurora’s leaders and a founder of a farming cooperative MUCA (Unified Movement of the Farmers of Aguan), Adolfo Castaneda, spoke to us with great passion about how Facusse’s guards and the army come regularly to surround and harass the community. He believes he will be killed sooner or later. As it is, he dares not leave the community for any reason. “The stress here can make you crazy. In one day I received 26 threatening phone calls on my cell phone. “We are poor, but we have rights, like the rest of the world. We want land. I will die, but with a conscience.”
Meanwhile, the community harvests the palm oil fruits, which we held in our hands, experiencing the extreme oily-ness of the golf-ball sized fruits that grow in big clusters. One of the men demonstrated how, with considerable effort, they cut down the clusters with a curved knife at the end of a long pole. Children gathered round, the boys serious, the girls giggling when I pointed my camera at them. We asked the children if they go to school, “Yes! they shouted in unison.” Would they show us their school? As twilight descended, the children led the way.
On one side of a board under a plastic tarp roof were the handmade benches and tables of grades one and two. On the other side were grades three through six. The children were delighted to show off their school. We asked if they have uniforms. “No,” said a small boy, “ but we can’t come in just our underwear.” That got everyone laughing. Just before we left, Lisa led the kids in a round of “Do the Hokey-pokey” As there is no electricity in the community, we could barely see to say goodbye.
This example of persistence and courage characterizes the Popular Resistance that has swept the country since President Manuel Zelaya was illegally removed from office in June of 2009. Why was he removed? The Honduran oligarchy - wealthy landowners and businessmen, the military and the official Catholic Church, along with the United States’ CIA, felt threatened by Zelaya’s tendency to act independently of their wishes. At his inaugural party in 2005, he was handed a sealed letter by the U.S. ambassador with the instructions to read it later when he was alone. The letter, it turned out, listed all the people he should appoint to his cabinet. He resisted.
A group of Honduran industrialists, in exchange for having contributed to Zelaya’s campaign, demanded control of the northern port city of Cortez and the privatization of the water supply. He questioned the terms, an act that would draw the attention of U.S. investors. The U.S. is Honduras’ main trading partner and accounts for 2/3's of foreign investment in the country. Dole and Chiquita control the majority of flat agricultural land. U.S. military aid makes Honduras the 10th largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world, while remittances from Hondurans living in the U.S. account for 28.2% of the GDP.
Zelaya signed a contract with Petrocaribe, the Venezuelan/Caribbean low-price consortium which is frowned upon by theU.S.. As well, Zelaya signed onto the socially oriented (rather than profit oriented) trade organization of Latin American countries called ALBA, which purposely does not include the United States. He proposed turning the U.S. Airforce base in Palmerola into a civilian airport in order to close the dangerously located Tegulcigalpa airport. Not a U.S. initiative. But the last straw, some say, was when he authorized a 60% increase in the minimum wage, which brought the monthly amount up to $290.00. This affected the profits of U.S. multinationals.
But Zelaya’s action that gave the propagantistic media the fuel it needed to attack Zelaya was his proposal that there be a national referundum to see if the people would like a Constitutional assembly to democratize the constitution. The right wing exclaimed, “He wants to be a dictator,” which evidently convinced a lot of powerful people that they had to act immediately to remove him.
As I wrap up this article, ex-President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya is returning to Honduras under an agreement between him, the Lobo administration and the Presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, with the blessing of the United States. His return is a double edged sword. It is a strategic move by the powerful to win re-admission into the diplomatic/economic fold of the Organization of American States that had kicked the country out for having overthrown a democratic government. And it is a victory for the Popular Resistance that demanded his return and considers him its titular head. Who will he end up serving? And how will the United States and the CIA try to manipulate events and the media to maintain their control in Honduras?
We have learned from the Arab Spring that the future cannot always be predicted based on the past. And so it is with Honduras. The Popular Resistance is courageous and determined and feels its own strength, but it has powerful enemies that hold the economic purse strings in greedy hands. We in North America have to demonstrate that we are watching. Eighty-six U.S. congresspersons just sent a letter to Secretary of State Clinton calling for an end to U.S. aid to Honduras as long as human rights violators are met with impunity. Find out where your congressperson stands. Raise your voice.
PHOTOS BELOW
Adolfo Castaneda, Aurora Cooperative Settlement
Palm oil fruits
The boys - serious
Aurora school 
Kids. Why else?
No comments:
Post a Comment