Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network

URGENT ACTION request re. New Proposed Mining Law in Honduras (English & Spanish)

2012-01-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

Please see the Urgent Action request below (and sample letters here) from Pedro Landa of CEHPRODEC, who along with other groups (including the Environmental Committee of the Siria Valley, who has been fighting against the activities of Goldcorp for years and who's leaders have visited Canada a number of times regarding this issue), are closely monitoring and strongly oppose the new proposed Mining Law. Pedro Landa also testified in front of a Parliamentary Committee in Ottawa last March urging the Canadian government to not go ahead with the Honduras-Canada Free Trade Agreement because of the human rights situation in Honduras, particularly as related to practices of mining and other natural resources exploitation.

We are also requesting that Canadians and Canadian organizations sending these letters copy representatives of the Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica, who are responsible for Honduras:

Ambassdor Cameron MacKay: Cameron.MacKay@international.gc.ca
Political Officer Léonard Beaulne: Leonard.Beaulne@international.gc.ca
Office of the Canadian Embassy in Honduras: tglpa@international.gc.ca

The law could be approved at any time - it could be days or weeks, so it is important to begin sending letters as soon as possible. There have been experiences in Honduras in the last year or two of new controversial laws being approved in the middle of the night, in secret votes, without warning.

Thank you for your support!

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Dear colleagues,

As many of you know, the Honduran National Congress is preparing to approve a new mining law in the next few weeks in order to reopen the processes for granting concessions and beginning operations for over 300 mining projects. Despite the efforts on Honduran organizations, the Congress' Mining Commission has closed their doors to citizen participation.

In a meeting with the President of this Commission, he stated they "have great pressure from investors" and that they have incorporated the majorit of the proposals of social organizations into the new law. However, in reviewing the new proposed law, we have found that many of our proposals - the most important ones (such as the requirement for binding consultations, the banning of open pit mining and the use of toxic substances such as cyanide and mercury, and the possibility to expand areas currently off-limits to mining, and the characterization of environmental crimes) - have been left out, and there appears to be no disposition on the part of Congress to create a process to come to an agreement with social organizations.

We are here organizing ourselves and struggling against this process, and it would be of great help to have support from sister organizations such as yours in sending letters to the President of the National Congress (see attached sample letter), with a copy to the caucus leaders of the various political parties in Congress, and a copy to us as well.

The email addresses of the President of the National Congress, Juan Orlando Hernandez, are juanorlandohernandez@yahoo.com y presidencia@congreso.gob.hn

With a copy to caucus leaders at:

Toribio Aguilera: Caucus Leader for the Innovation Party and the Social Democratic Unity Party PINU-SD: joseaguilera@multivision.net
Marvin Ponce: Caucus leader for the Democratic Union Party (UD): poncemarvin@yahoo.es
José Alfredo Saavedra: Caucus leader for the Liberal Party: joseasaavedra@congreso.gob.hn
Celin Discua Elvir: Caucus leader for the National Party: jdiscua@congreso.gob.hn
Augusto Cruz Ascencio: Caucus leader for the Christian Democrat Party: augustocruz@congreso.gob.hn

We thank you in advance for your support.

Pedro Landa
Coordinator, Human Rights and Environment Program
CEHPRODEC

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Estimadas compañeras y estimados compañeros:

Como muchos de ustedes sabrán, el Congreso Nacional de Honduras se esta preparando para aprobar una nueva ley de minería en las próximas semanas para abrir nuevamente los procesos de concesionamiento y operación de mas de 300 proyectos mineros. A pesar de los esfuerzos realizados por las organizaciones hondureñas, la Comisión de Minería del Congreso ha cerrado las puertas a la participación ciudadana.

En una reunión sostenida con el presidente de la Comisión del Congreso, argumento que "tienen grandes presiones de los inversionistas" y que en la nueva ley se han incorporado la mayoría de las propuestas de las organizaciones sociales. Sin embargo al revisar el proyecto de ley encontramos que muchas de nuestras propuestas, las mas importantes (como la obligatoriedad de las consultas y el carácter vinculante, la prohibición de la minería a cielos abiertos, el uso de sustancias toxicas como cianuro y mercurio, la posibilidad de ampliar las zonas de exclusión para la minería y la tipificación de delitos ambientales) han sido dejadas por fuera y no existe la disposición del Congreso para generar un proceso de concertación con las organizaciones sociales.

Aquí estamos organizándonos para dar la pelea y seria de gran ayuda contar con el respaldo de organizaciones hermanas como ustedes, a través del envió de cartas al presidente del Congreso Nacional (ver modelo de carta aquí), con copia los jefes de bancada de los partidos pliticos en el Congreso y una copia para nosotros.

La dirección electrónica del presidente del Congreso es juanorlandohernandez@yahoo.com y presidencia@congreso.gob.hn

Con copia a los jefes de Bancada:

Toribio Aguilera: Jefe de Bancada del Partido Innovación y Unidad Social Demócrata PINU-SD correo electrónico: joseaguilera@multivision.net
Marvin Ponce: Jefe de Bancada del partido Unificación Democrática: poncemarvin@yahoo.es
José Alfredo Saavedra: Jefe de Bancada del Partido Liberal: joseasaavedra@congreso.gob.hn
Celin Discua Elvir: Jefe de bancada del partido nacional: jdiscua@congreso.gob.hn
Augusto Cruz Ascencio: Jefe de Bancada del Partido Demócrata Cristiano: augustocruz@congreso.gob.hn

Agradeciendo de antemano su apoyo,

Pedro Landa
Coordinador del programa de Derechos Humanos y Medioambiente
CEHPRODEC

Urgent Action (Honduras): Attacks by Police on Civilians Continue in Honduras

2012-01-10T13:54:00.000-08:00

Original version in Spanish was posted by COFADEH here on Defensores en línea.

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras
COFADEH

Urgent Action: Attacks by Police on Civilians Continue in Honduras

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) express our concern for repeated abuse committed by the Honduran police against the population. In the last two weeks at least three people have reported assaults and assassination attempts by police officers.

January 7, 2012, around 8:00 p.m., Gonzalo Cruz, 42 years old and resident of the community of San Antonio, in the village of Taragual, municipality of Iguala, department of Lempira, was returning from buying medicine when he was shot by police officers Amado Jovel Díaz and Danilo Jovel Díaz, who were drinking alcoholic beverages at the time. Both officers demanded that Gonzalo Cruz provide them with more drinks, and since Gonzalo did not have any alcohol with him they repeatedly shot at him. According to reports from physicians who attended him at the Santa Rosa Hospital, he suffered 14 wounds in different parts of his body. One of the bullets resulted in severe damage to one of his lungs. The police officers, who were dressed in civilian clothing, abandoned the scene on a motorcycle.

Gonzalo Cruz is an active member of the Comprehensive Coordinating Committee of Taragual (Coordinadora Integral del Taragual) and the Network in Defence of the Right to Common Property (Red en Defensa de los Derechos de los Bienes Comunes), which is currently engaged in a struggle to defend natural resources, particularly against the concession of rivers for hydroelectric projects.

In the first half of the month of December, 2011, these same police officers were taking photographs of the houses of active members in the community, especially those who had been identified as members of the Resistance.

Other Acts of Police Aggression:

On December 26, 2012 at around 8:30pm, Marco Aurelio Lorenzo, parish priest of the catholic church of Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara, was attacked along with two of his brothers by eight members of the Police near the turnoff towards El Rosario, near kilometre 24 on the highway between San Miguelito and Yamaranguila in the department of Intibucá. He lost consciousness due to his injuries and required sixteen stitches in his head. His younger brother suffered a broken rib.

On December 22 at around 9:30pm, members of the police force ordered journalist and correspondent for Colombian television station NTN24, Leonel Espinoza, to get out of his vehicle. They pointed their regulation weapons at him, handcuffed his hands behind his back with so much force that his wrists nearly bled, and began to beat him. He was held by the police for close to an hour. Although he requested the help of high-ranking police officials, the patrol assigned to aid him failed to do so, and instead humiliated him and falsely accused him of public disorder/disturbing the peace. The incident occurred when the journalist was driving his car to the San José de la Peña district in Comayagüela.

Cofadeh is concerned about the systematic pattern of attacks against civil society activists by police officers, and asks the national and international community to demand that the State of Honduras adopts the necessary measures and effective mechanisms to guarantee the life of Gonzalo Cruz. It should also demand a thorough and impartial investigation into the facts surrounding these incidents and appropriate punishment of those responsible.

Please direct letters, calls and faxes to Honduran Justice officials:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés
President of the Supreme Court
Tel (504) 269-3000 269-3069
Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí
Attorney General
Fax (504) 221-5667
Tel (504) 221-5670 221-3099
Mail: lrubi@mp.hn
suazog@mp.hn

And copy to:

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax:+504 220 5280 (call and ask for: "tono de fax")
Email: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

Honduras: "Libertarians" Model Cities and the Resurrection of William Walker

2012-01-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

Written by OFRANEH (Organizacion Fraternal Negra Hondureña) and posted here on January 4, 2012. Translated to English by the Witness For Peace Nicaragua Team and originally posted here on January 6, 2012.

OFRANEH also posted an 11min video on YouTube here, in Spanish, on January 5, with interviews with community leaders and residents sharing their analysis and opinion about Canadian investors moving in on their territory, and national and international plans for a Model City in Trujillo Bay, all without free, prior and informed consent.

Honduras: "Libertarian" Model Cities and the Resurrection of William Walker

This past December 10th, the British magazine, "The Economist" published an article that makes a reference to a memorandum of understanding between the government of Honduras and two United States firms regarding the construction of Model Cities (Charter Cities) in Honduran territory, without notifying the Honduran people up to now of the planned transactions.

The attitude assumed by the current regime to maintain “its business” with utmost secrecy , is part of the disdain held by the power elite of the country toward its subjects, a situation that worsened with the judicial-military coup in 2009 and the subsequent failed state that prevails in Honduras.

The companies Future Cities Development Corporation, known before as Seasteading Institute and Free Cities Group, will apparently be constructing model cities framed by “libertarian” ideology.

The Future Cities Development Corporation, was founded by Patri Friedman, grandson of economist Milton Friedman, known in Latin America as the father of neoliberalism, the economic theory associated with the impoverishment of the majority of the continent’s population and with authoritarian regimes that have offered themselves to boost the accelerated enrichment of the power elite.

Patri Friedman has shown his repudiation for democracy as a form of government in an article published by the extreme-right Cato Institute and sees a great potential in Model Cities under the libertarian regime that he hopes or plans to build in the failed state called Honduras.

Paul Thiel (founder of Paypal), another person involved in the construction of libertarian cities in Honduras, declared in an article written for Cato Unbound, that democracy and liberty are not compatible.

After the coup d’état in 2009, Honduras has suffered at the hands of the current National Congress—composed by a large majority of the same actors that participated in the downfall of democracy—the approval of a series of neoliberal-style laws that completely annihilated the meager social gains obtained in the 20th century. Concepts such as national sovereignty, food security, and human rights have been converted into obsolete terms by Honduran “legislators.”

In fact, the political and social deterioration occurring in this country, converts it into a paradise for economic adventurers and reactionary politicians, whose ideologies are based in individualism and economic Darwinism.

From the American Phalange of the Immortals to the Banana Coast

In the mid-19th century, filibuster William Walker invaded Central America with a band of self-declared “American Phalange of the Immortals,” who succeeded in taking over Nicaragua, where Walker acted as president from 1856-57. In his last incursion he was captured by the British who handed him over to Honduran authorities, who proceeded to execute him with a firing squad in the city of Trujillo in 1860. A New York Times editorial the same year mentions that the filibuster stated that other Walkers would rise from his blood.

Half a century later, Sam Zemurray financed an invasion and a coup d’état in Honduras (1911), perpetrated by Manuel Bonilla, who landed in the country coincidentally in the place where Walker was shot. From this point on, the Banana Republic was reaffirmed, a term coined by the writer, O’Henry, seven years before the felony committed by Bonilla.

Days before the coup d’état, the Canadian investor known as the “porn king,” began a series of illegal land purchases in the Bay of Trujillo, designated to create a tourist empire in an enclave known as the Banana Coast. During the mandate of Big Boss satrap Roberto Micheletti, the porn king consolidated the appropriation of a Garifuna community on the Rio Negro located in the city of Trujillo, demolishing a large part of the community under the pretext of constructing a dock for the Panamex cruise ship.

The Failed State and the Libertarian’s Paradise

According to the Washington Post, Honduras has become the most dangerous country on the planet, in addition to being the epicenter of drug trafficking between South America and the United States. The collapse of institutional pillars such as the Ministry of Security and the judicial apparatus, have converted the country into a true failed state.

It seems that Peter Thiel and his follower Patri Friedman, want to take advantage of the existing failed state of Honduras to recreate the pages of the novel Atlas Shrugged, in which the Russian-American author Ayn Rand, idol of libertarians, creates a science fiction novel that makes clear her philosophy that writer Gore Vidal described as “almost perfect in her immorality.”

Libertarians have converted themselves into a synonym of factions of enormous economic power in the United States that reject the supposed exaggerated intervention of the State, exalting the liberty of individuals over supposed government coercion. Although some anarchists of the 19th century were self-defined libertarians, the current movement in the United States finds itself linked with ultra-right groups like the Tea Party, Cato Institute and the Free State Project, among others.

It just so happens that the first week of December, the National Congress selected the Board of Notables in charge of Model Cities: George Akerlof, Ong Boon Hwee, Harry Strachan, Nancy Birdsall, and of course the artifice of the neo-colonial maneuver Paul Romer. But unfortunately in Honduras the media has opted for a discreet silence on the matter, while its news is dedicated to distill the blood that runs and impunity that rules in the country.

It is to be expected that the libertarian dignitaries and their millions of dollars will be successful in imposing their conditions on the Congress of a failed state. There is nothing strange that in imitating the ideas of the libertarian bible, Atlas Shrugged, they implement the “death ray” a sophisticated torture weapon, from the delirious book, which will probably be used against the undesirable hordes that try to cross the electrified fences of the paradise in the middle of the hell that they have imposed on us.

La Ceiba, Atlántida, January 4, 2012

OFRANEH

Organizacion Fraternal Negra Hondureña

http://www.ofraneh.org

http://www.ofraneh.wordpress.com

Honduras: Garifuna Communities of Trujillo Take Legal Action Against Canadian Porn King

2011-12-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

This was originally posted on the Friendship Office of the Americas website.

Original Spanish version of this statement by the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) can be found on OFRANEH's blog.

Suggested background information:

'Porn King' Developer of Projects in Trujillo, translated from the Honduran newspaper La Prensa (March 7, 2011), with additional background articles by Rights Action
Honduras, Open for Business (by John Perry, London Review of Books blog, May 18, 2011)
A new city on the Mosquito Coast (by John Perry, Open Democracy, August 10, 2011)
Two articles from the December 10, 2011 print edition of The Economist:
- Honduras Shrugged: Two start-ups want to try out libertarian ideas in the country’s new special development regions
- Hong Kong in Honduras: An ambitious development project aims to pull a Central American country out of its economic misery. Can it work?

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Garifuna Communities of Trujillo Take Legal Action Against Canadian Porn King

December 15, 2011

On Monday, December 13th, leaders from the communities of Cristales and Río Negro, part of the Municipality of Trujillo, accompanied by OFRANEH, presented a lawsuit to render null and void various fraudulent contracts for sales of community lands held by Canadian Randy Roy Jorgensen.

The majority of these transactions were carried out under pressure, offering derisible sums of money to victims in exchange for their homes in the neighbourhood known as Río Negro, where the Canadian intends to build a pier for Panamex cruise-ships under the name Banana Coast.

In addition to the fraud carried out against the inhabitants of Río Negro, adjacent lands belonging to the Garífuna community of Cristales, southwest of the City of Trujillo, have also been affected. These lands are known as "Campamento," and were also subject to fraudulent land sales favouring Randy Jorgensen.

Presence of the Garífuna People in Trujillo Bay

Garífuna people arrived to the island of Roatán, Honduras on April 12, 1797 following expulsion from the island of St. Vincent by the British, after having fought two consecutive wars in defense of the island, which was the last bastion of the Carib people (Kalinagu and Garinagu) in the Lesser Antilles.

The city of Trujillo was founded in 1524 and was later uninhabited between 1643 until shortly before the arrival of our people to Honduras. In 1901, then president Manuel Bonilla granted to the "dark" people of the neighbourhoods of Cristales and Río Negro, on the perimeter of the city, five thousand hectares of land southwest of the lands of Cristales and two thousand hectares in the vicinity of the Guaimoreto Laguna.

It was in 2007 that local intermediaries participated in illegal purchases on the part of the Porn King and in this way initiated the expulsion of the Garífuna from Trujillo Bay, a situation that our people have had to face in many areas of the territory we have peacefully and permanently occupied over the last two centuries.

The Porn King also acquired lands in the Garífuna communities of Santa Fe, San Antonio and Gualadulupe, acts that were denounced to the Ministry of the Attorney General before the 2009 coup d'état, without any intervention by the appropriate authorities to halt these illegal acts.

The Porn King and his Banana Coast

In 1904 the US writer O'Henry spent some time in Trujillo, where he wrote his book Cabbages and Kings, which takes place in the fictitious port of Coralio, based on the real port city of Trujillo. In the novel, O'Henry coined the term "banana republic," which he used to describe Honduras.

One century later, the Porn King appeared in Trujillo, appropriating the lands of the Garífuna people in order to build an empire under the name "Banana Coast." His acquisition methods and the current political climate of the country differ little from the colonialist techniques employed by the banana companies and the situation in Honduras at the turn of the twentieth century.

Jorgenson, in the midst of the political tragedy in Honduras in 2009, managed to quickly obtain environmental licenses to build in an area declared as a buffer zone for the Capiro and Calentura National Park (Parque Nacional Capiro y Calentura) and built villas on the iron-bearing hillsides facing the Caribbean Sea.

The Porn King has received a huge amount of support from Mr. Ramón Lobo Soso, the brother of President Porfirio Lobo, which has allowed him to cut through any red tape and avoid the opposition mounted by Garífuna communities against the pressure upon them and dispossession of their lands. On June 21 of this year, Jorgenson received a ‘special award’ from Lobo during a ministerial cabinet session in Trujillo.

The Canadian received financing from the Canadian Shield Fund, the controversial mining company Barrick Gold, and the company Canadian Oil and Gas, which provided funds to Life Vision Properties, the company under which the Porn King hides his name.

From the Banana Coast to Charter Cities

The coup d'état has allowed a series of neoliberal laws to be passed that are serving to reverse the scant progress gained over the last half century: the flexibilization of the labour market, the overprotection of foreign investment, and the most degrading form of neocolonialism: Charter (or Model) Cities.

US economist Paul Romer, preaching his gospel of charter cities, led the Madagascan government, under the now-deposed Ravalomanana, into the abyss at the beginning of 2009, with the announcement that two charter cities would be established on this African island. The Malagasy people revolted, resulting in the overthrow of Ravalomanana. In Honduras the story has played out in reverse. There was a coup d’état to support the neoliberal offensive, culminating in constitutional reform surrendering part of the national territory to foreign capital.

The shrewd Canadian businessman who, at one point, was reported in Honduras for pedophilia, has now, in the climate of powerlessness and lack of justice prevailing in the country, become one of the major promoters of the Charter City. The Lobo administration is withholding the information on the planned location of the charter city, which will include Trujillo for certain, and it will apparently extend along the coast from the Bay of Trujillo to Río Sico, right where the haven of Garífuna culture is located.

The disappearance of the Río Negro community (Trujillo) and the expulsion of the Garífuna people from Honduras
The Canadians seem intent on driving our people out of Honduras, and we have the sad case of Trujillo Bay as an example, only this time it will be right along the coast.

When the Honduran Congress held a special session in the city of Gracias, Lempira, with the aim of passing the statute providing for REDs (Regiones Especiales para el Desarrollo – Special Development Regions, or Charter Cities), the Canadian senator Gerry St Germain was present, along with several potential investors from that country.

The ease with which Jorgenson achieved his objective in Río Negro – a community which has almost entirely disappeared – and the way in which the current administration has sold out to foreign capital, we can safely say are a consequence of the coup d’état as well as of the deterioration in the respect for human rights, an indicator of Honduran failed state.

Unfortunately, the history of our country is plagued with leaders and politicians who have made themselves rich at the expense of national sovereignty. It so happens that it was exactly a century after the invasion of Honduras by Sam Zemurray and his sidekick Manuel Bonilla (January 1911) that the National Congress passed the legislation adopting Charter Cities (January 2011).

The Garífuna authorities of Cristales and Río Negro, in presenting the Porn King and his local henchmen with a lawsuit, are taking a step towards regaining what has been lost. It remains to be seen whether there is justice in Honduras, or whether the only result, as usual, will be the physical disappearance of the plaintiffs.

La Ceiba, Atlantida, 14 December 2011

OFRANEH (Black Fraternal Organisation of Honduras)

OFRANEH
Organizacion Fraternal Negra Hondureña
Calle 19, #130.
Barrio Alvarado
La Ceiba, Atlantida,
Honduras
telefax: +(504) 2443-2492
email: garifuna@ofraneh.org / ofraneh@yahoo.com
http://www.ofraneh.org
http://www.ofraneh.wordpress.com

Betty Matamoros: Canadian Solidarity Tour

2011-12-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

From November 9-19, 2011, the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, along with other Canadian social movements and civil society groups, hosted Betty Matamoros, Honduran human rights defender, longtime social activist, and representative of the Central American coordination of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA).

Betty was welcomed by organizations and communities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, including ARSN, Common Frontiers Canada, the Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation (OSSTF/FEESO), the Toronto Haiti Action Committe (THAC), the Social Justice Committee, and Peace Brigades International - Canada.

Common Frontiers Canada compiled this video from solidarity activities Betty was part of in Toronto, Ontario. Take a few minutes to catch a glimpse of Betty's inspirational visit.

ARSN Gathering 2011

2011-10-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Friends, the annual meeting of the Atlantic Region Solidarity Network (solidarity with Latin America) promises to be an engaging and rewarding experience. It takes place at the Tatamagouche Centre from Friday, Nov. 11 to Sunday, Nov. 13. Given the current Canadian and Latin American political contexts, the organizing committee (Wyanne Sandler, Brian O'Neill, Kathryn Anderson) felt it was important to re-visit the eternally critical theme of human rights. As you will see below, our guests bring provocative perspectives on both civil-political and social-economic rights.

Please complete registration and submit this at your earliest convenience! Registration form here.

Opening the lens on this discussion from the current reality in Honduras will be Betty Matamoros, a highly respected human rights and women's rights leader. She is the Central American Coordinator of the Hemispheric Social Alliance. As many of you realize, in June 2009 the democratic government of Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by brutal military coup, suppported by the traditional oligarchy. An illegal, fraudulent election subsequently took place amidst widespread repression, producing the presidency of Porfirio 'Pepe' Lobo. Even Lobo's supporters have never gone so far as to claim – as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper inexplicably did during his recent visit in August – that the man who was installed as President after a military coup, fraudulent elections and a violent and murderous crackdown on dissent was “a prominent human rights leader in this country.” We're sure that Betty will set the record straight!

Presenting on the Right to Food and Food Sovereignty will be Roberto Perez Rivero. Roberto is a Cuban permaculturalist who has been instrumental in Cuba’s truly Green Revolution, which has resulted in more than 85 percent of that country’s agricultural production becoming organic. He is featured in the documentary “The Power of Communities: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” (2006) and is currently the director of the Environmental Education and Biodiversity Program at the Havana-based Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation for Nature and Humanity.

Also we are extremely fortunate to have Garry Leech, our own resident expert on Colombia. Garry is an independent journalist and author of numerous books including Capitalism: A Structural Genocide (Zed Book, Forthcoming, May 2012); The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond (CBU Press, 2009); and Beyond Bogotá: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia (Beacon Press, 2009). He is also the director of the Centre for International Studies and a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Cape Breton University.

In terms of tapping the veins on labour rights and Canada-Latin America solidarity, we are looking forward to hearing from Louise Casselman, with the Social Justice Fund of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Louise lived for some decades as a solidarity activist in various parts of Latin America and will bring us news that connects the struggles of working people there with the labour movement in Canada.

Finally, Wyanne Sandler, Breaking the Silence Maritimes Coordinator (and one of the organizers of this meeting), will have just returned from Guatemala, immediately after the Presidential Election and will report on the implications of that very serious situation.

Together we will see how we can act in solidarity with our Latin American sisters and brothers, especially in light of the current Canadian and Latina American contexts.

We look forward to being with you. Please register soon!

Wyanne, Brian, Kathryn

Honduran human rights organizations have yet to locate alleged war criminal

2011-08-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Note: This article was translated from the Honduran national daily newspaper El Tiempo print edition for Wednesday, August 10th. We were not able to find the article on the digital edition of El Tiempo at http://www.tiempo.hn. The original title of the article in Spanish is Organismos humanitarios todavía no ubican a supuesto criminal de guerra.

Honduran human rights organizations have yet to locate alleged war criminal

Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tegucigalpa

Francisco Rodríguez

Human rights organizations plan to ask the Government of Canada for detailed information regarding ex-Batallion 3-16 member Cristóbal González Ramírez, an alleged war criminal.

The Canadian Border Services Agency deported González Ramírez, age 44, on August 2nd, but his whereabouts are not known by humanitarian organizations in Honduras.

The coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH), Bertha Oliva, says that González Ramírez's deportation was announced August 2nd in Canada.

"We are going to approach the Canadian government for detailed information regarding why they have him on a list of 30 war criminals," says Oliva.

She indicated that all they know is that the individual was deported, but that they have not been informed of the specific charges against him nor his whereabouts. "He must be here (in Honduras), but we don't know where exactly," she added.

According to reports in the hands of the Canadian Government, approximately eight Honduran ex-military linked to extrajudicial executions in the 1980s are residing as undocumented in Canada.

[The information below was included as a separate insert to the print edition of the article. A reproduction of other names on Canada's list of alleged war criminals was also included in the El Tiempo article.]

Rejected:
In August of 2008, González Ramírez moved from Vancouver to Edmonton, and in January of 2009 he was told that his application for refugee status had been rejected due to suspician that he had participated in crimes against humanity in Honduras.

Harper Trades in Human Rights for Economic Concessions in Honduras

2011-08-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

Versión en español abajo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 9, 2011

Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network
Location: 608 College St. West Toronto, M6G 1A1

Media Contact: Raul Burbano
Tel: +(416) 522-8615, E-mail: rburbano(at)hotmail.com or lacsncanada(at)gmail.com

HARPER TRADES IN HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ECONOMIC CONCESSIONS IN HONDURAS

Investment and trade interests trump Human Rights concerns in Honduras

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has undertaken a tour through Latin America with stops reportedly including Honduras. The goal according to Harper is “expanding and enhancing market access to create jobs, economic growth, and opportunities for Canadians”. Some believe he will take the opportunity to announce a Free Trade Agreement or significant trade deals between both countries, despite repeated and serious concerns highlighted by both Honduran and International Human Rights organizations.

The Harper Government has consistently downplayed and at times even ignored what many believe to be a state organized campaign of intimidation, violence and murder of Human Rights defenders in Honduras since the June 28, 2009 military coup d’état. The coup was painted by its perpetrators as a constitutional succession undertaken by the Supreme Court and National Congress.

One could say the Harper government has gone as far as enlisting the support of coup conspirators here in Canada. It’s no coincidence that this week the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade along with the International Development Research Centre have invited the Attorney General, Luis Alberto Rubí of Honduras to speak as part of a panel on “Confronting Crime and Impunity in Central America”.

According to multiple news, academic and diplomatic sources say Rubí was a key figure in the manipulation of the legal system that helped pave the way for the 2009 military coup d’état. In fact Wikileaks and the El Faro declassified cables reports show Rubí was “directly involved in the decision to remove Zelaya and used the “legal apparatus under his control to stifle dissent and intimidate/persecute members of Zelaya’s team”.

Additional information:

The government of Canada supported a Truth and Reconciliation Commission convened by the current Lobo regime in Honduras that issued it's final report July 7th and Former Canadian Diplomat Michael Kergin (of law firm Bennet Jones - based in Ottawa -) was a member of that Commission.
Honduran Human Rights organizations convened a seperate Commission of Truth, supported by international civil society organizations and some European governments, whose report is due in November 2011, and York University Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Craig Scott is a member of that Commission.

Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN)

------------

COMUNICADO
9 de agosto, 2011

Red de Solidaridad con América Latina y el Caribe (LACSN)
608 College St. West Toronto, M6G 1A1

Contacto: Raul Burbano (español o inglés)
Tél: +416-522-8615 (Toronto, Canadá)
E-mail: rburbano@hotmail.com or lacsncanada@gmail.com

PRIMER MINISTRO CANADIENSE SACRIFICA DERECHOS HUMANOS A CAMBIO DE CONCESIONES ECONÓMICAS EN HONDURAS

Intereses económicos valen mas que el respeto de los derechos humanos en Honduras

El Primer Ministro canadiense Stephen Harper está de gira esta semana en América Latina. Conforme a la página web oficial de su oficina, contempla una parada en Honduras el viernes, 12 de agosto. Según Harper el objetivo del viaje es de "ampliar y mejorar el acceso al mercado para crear empleo, crecimiento económico, y oportunidades para canadienses." Se espera que anuncie la firma de un tratado de libre comercio (TLC) con Honduras u otros acuerdos económicos importantes, a pesar de inquietudes y denuncias destacadas por organizaciones de derechos humanos hondureñas y internacionales.

De manera sistemática, el gobierno de Harper ha minimizado e incluso ignorado una denominada campaña estatal de intimidación, violencia y asesinato a defensores de derechos humanos en Honduras desde el golpe de Estado militar que se dio el 28 de junio de 2009. Los que ejercieron y avalaron el golpe de Estado lo han pintado como sucesión constitucional realizada por la Corte Suprema y el Congreso Nacional.

Se puede decir que el gobierno de Harper ha llegado al punto de reclutar el apoyo de los golpistas aquí en Canadá. No es una coincidencia que también esta semana el Departamento de Asuntos Exteriores y Comercio Internacional, junto con el Centro de Investigación sobre el Desarrollo Internacional (International Development Research Centre) han invitado al Fiscal General de Honduras, Luis Alberto Rubí, para exponer como parte del panel "Enfrentando el Crimen y la Impunidad en América Central."

Según varias fuentes mediáticas, académicas y diplomáticas, Rubí fue una figura clave en la manipulación del sistema legal que facilitó el golpe de estado militar en el 2009. Informes de Wikileaks y El Faro demuestran que Rubí fue directamente involucrado en la decisión de quitar el Presidente Zelaya de su puesto y usó el aparato legal a su alcance para reprimir la oposición y intimidar o perseguir miembros del equipo de Zelaya.

Información adicional:

El gobierno de Harper apoyó oficialmente a la Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación del régimen de Lobo, que emitió su informe el 7 de julio pasado. Ex-diplomático canadiense Michael Kergin (del bufete legal Bennet Jones con base en la capital canadiense) fue miembro de esa Comisión.
Catedrático y jurista canadiense Craig Scott, de la Facultad de Derecho Osgoode Hall de la Universidad de York en Toronto es miembro de la Comisión de Verdad, la comisión convocada por organizaciones de derechos humanos en Honduras y con el apoyo de la sociedad civil internacional que va a entregar su informe en noviembre de 2011.

Red de Solidaridad con América Latina y el Caribe

Urgent Action: Honduran State Continues to Criminalize Human Rights Defenders

2011-07-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is a translation of the Urgent Action released by COFADEH this morning regarding the criminalization of human rights defenders in the case of the Environmental Committee of the Siria Valley. Contacts for US and Canadian Embassies with representation in Honduras have been added to the action. (The original version in Spanish is below.)

Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras
COFADEH

Urgent Action:

Honduran State Continues to Criminalize Human Rights Defenders

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) expresses its repudiation and concern for the Honduran State's systemic practice of qualifying the most basic actions defending of nature and the rights accorded by the Constitution of the Republic as disturbing the peace, sabatoge and terrorism.

Various legal tools and policies are being used to inhibit the work of human rights defenders. In this particular case, defenders of the environment Carlos Danilo Amador and Marlon Hernández were detained by police, with warrants, between 6:30 and 7:00 AM on their way to work on charges of obstructing the excecution of an environmental management plan. Juan Ángel Reconco was detained in the early afternoon on the same charges. All are members of the Environmental Committee of the Siria Valley. Another 15 environmental defenders, also members of the committee, also have warrants out for their arrest on the same charge, and are at risk of arrest.

The charges are related to incidents that occured on April 7, 2010, when 600 residents of the Municipality of El Porvenir prevented logging of trees that protect the mini-watershed of the Guayabo Stream, known as el Tapalito, in the village of El Terrero. This source supplies water for human consumption to six comunities in the municipality, directly affecting 10,000 residents who have been protecting this forest for years. This protection was formalized on December 27, 2007 in an agreement with then AFE-COHDEFOR (State Forestry Administration – Honduran Corporation for Forestry Development), the Municipality of El Porvenir, and the residents.

The Environmental Committee and the affected communities consider that the management plan granted to Hayde Urrutia Mejía by the Honduran State is illegal because it deos not comply with the prerequisites established in the Forestry, Protected Areas and Wildlife Law, which requires an Environmental Impact Assessment including the participation of the population that could be affected by the project or activity under review. They also consider the management plan illegal due to irregularities regarding land tenancy.

The environmentalists in question are facing charges of Obstructing the Execution of a Management Plan, which carries a penaly of 4-6 years in prison according to article 186 of the above mentioned law. In the hearing that took place on July 5, 2011, Judge Ingrid Quiroz Banegas imposed precautionary measures on the defendants, including the requirements that they present themselves and sign-in at the courthouse every 15 days, do not leave the country, do not approach the mini-watershed of Tapalito, and do not approach the person, family, or dwelling of the beneficiary of the Management Plan, Hayde Urrutia Mejia.

In this particular case the justice system has not acted objectively and is instead favoring the executive branches of the state and criminalizing civil protest in the name of national (and international) interests, while the national (and international) interests in question are the precisely the reason for concern and protest on the part of the people and communities of the municipality of El Porvenir and leaders of the Environmental Committee of the Siria Valley.

Cofadeh is requesting the national and international community to demand that: 1) the Honduran State take the necessary measures, including implementation the required mechanisms, to guarantee personal freedom, due process, and the right to defend human rights to Carlos Danilo Amador, Marlon Hernández, Juan Ángel Reconco and all other members of the Siria Valley Environmental Committee; 2) cease all acts of retaliation against them; and 3) guarantee in general the right to defend universally recognized human rights as established in the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, approved in 1998, and similar OAS Resolutions emitted in 1999 and 2000.

Please direct letters, calls and faxes to Honduran Justice officials and diplomatic representatives of your country of residence:

Fax and phone numbers are listed with calling codes from the US or Canada

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés
President of the Supreme Court
Tel (from the US or Canada): 011-504-2269-3000, 011-504-2269-3069
Email: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí
Attorney General
Fax: 011-504-2221-5667
Tel 011-504-2221-5670 or 011-504-2221-3099
E-mail: lrubi@mp.hn
gsuazog@mp.hn

CANADA:

Ambassador Cameron MacKay

Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica (also responsible for Honduras):

Tel: 11-5062242-4400

Email: sjcra@international.gc.ca, Cameron.MacKay@international.gc.ca

Fax: 011-506-2242-4411 – Political Affairs

UNITED STATES:

U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Telephone: 011-504- 2236-9320, 011-504-2238-5114

Fax Number: 011-504-2236-9037

With copies to:
Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011-504-2220-5280 (call by phone and ask for "tono de fax, por favor", then hang up and send the fax to the same number)
E-mail: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, casa 1301, teléfono (504) 2220- 5280,
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
cofadehydefensoresenlinea @gmail.com
www.defensoresenlinea.com
www.cofadeh.org

Honduras: Protest in front of the Palmerola military base June 28, 2011

2011-06-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

The “International Gathering against Militarization, Occupation and Repression in Honduras” (Encuentro Internacional contra la Militarización, Ocupación y Represión en Honduras), which took place June 27-28 in La Esperanza in the department of Intibucá, Honduras, ended with a peaceful protest against foreign military presence in the country on the second anniversary of the coup d'état which took place in Honduras on June 28, 2011. The Gathering was convened by social movements and human rights organizations including MUCA, COFADEH, COPINH, OFRANEH, CEM-H, Insurrección Autónoma, Artistas en Resistencia, ERIC, and the Latin American and Carribbean Campaign for a Region of Peace: Out with Foreign Military Bases,” and hosted participants from El Salvador, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Honduras.

This protest action was conceived as a rejection of foreign military bases in all of Latin America, of foreign military intervention in Honduras, of the criminalization of social movements, and of the law currently being debated in the Honduran Congress with the intention of reactivating obligatory military service.¹ The Gathering took place one week after the United States, Canada, and the European Union committed to continued financial support for state security forces in Honduras, with the stated intention of combating delincuency and narcotrafficking.²

Despite the fact that the over 200 participants in the protest carried out their actions in a non-violent manner, physical altercations between the uniformed National Police and protestors occurred. The protest took place in front of the Soto Cano (Palmerola) military base near the city of Comayagua. When the protestors were approaching the main entry of the base, some young people separated themselves from the crowd and attempted to spraypaint the walls of the base. Uniformed National Police launched tear gas cannisters at the young people and hit them several times with their batons. Uniformed officers also drew their official weapons, chasing after and pointing them at the young people and other demonstrators.

In spite of these excessive show of force against the demonstrators, the national and international participants in the protest resumed their non-violent march and denounced loudly the abuse of power and aggression by the security forces, both military and police.

The Honduras Accompaniment Project (Proyecto de acompañamiento internacional en Honduras - PROAH - in Spanish) observed uniformed National Police, Transit Police and Air Force units taking pictures with digital cameras and Blackberry phones, as well as apparently videotaping, the demonstrators and international accompaniers throughout the protest. Tourism police were also observed as part of the uniformed contingents, as well as uniformed soldiers from the base who carried shields reading “POLICE” in English.

International accompaniers with PROAH who travelled with the participants of the Gathering from La Esperanza to the Soto Cano military base (and later on to Tegucigalpa) also observed at least two police blockades on the highway carried out by uniformed Transit Police who were stopping buses along the highway. The bus that accompaniers were traveling on along with participants from the gathering was stopped just before reaching the intersection near Siguatepeque. All passengers were required to get off the bus and the men were physically searched, presumedly for weapons. No weapons were found on any of the passengers searched on the bus.

1 Declaración de La Esperanza Contra la Militarización (English translation by Fellowship of Reconciliation)

2 Partnering With Central America To Combat Crime

Canada Contributes to Improving Security in the Americas

Photos by Honduras Accompaniment Project

Honduras: the Human Rights Emergency Continues

2011-04-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Below is a summary of the human rights violations that took place on Wednesday, March 30th across Honduras during the day-long national civic strike. The reported violations include illegal detentions, beatings and excessive use of force (including tear gas) by military and police, attempted kidnapping of an employee of the Commission of Truth (Comisión de Verdad), a violent eviction of a community that had been established for seven years, and one death due to live ammunition fired by state forces.

COFADEH is asking international solidarity groups to call for an end to the disproportionate violence, repression and criminalization campaigns that the militarized forces have launched against the civilian population. Please see the Friendship Office's Urgent Action from March 31st for further information.

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The Committee of the Families of the Disappeared Detainees in Honduras
COFADEH

Honduras: the Human Rights Emergency Continues

Before the brief pause today, Thursday, March 31, and apparent stability due to discussions between the National Congress and the leadership of the Federation of Teachers’ Organizations of Honduras (FOMH), the citizenry suffered its worst period of human rights violations; a state of emergency that, without a doubt, implicates the police and army of the defacto regime that rules this country.

The events which occurred in a systematic manner for the past three weeks, with the direct participation of the administrative apparatus of the State and its instruments of violence----the National Police and the Army----have brought again some minor international attention to Honduras.

The attention of the world community to the crisis generated by the coup and coup ideology is still insufficient, but it is key to brewing institutional solutions that create the minimal social and political consensus required to transform the country.

For this reason, the Honduran Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (COFADEH) urgently requests that solidarity groups and intergovernmental political forums publicly communicate political positions calling for an end to the disproportionate violence and repression that the militarized forces have launched against the civilian population – discontented, demanding, and in resistance -- since the coup d’etat of June 2009.

In different geographic regions of Honduras the protests of the general population, in solidarity with the teachers’ resistance defending free public education, were repressed by excessive force that does not meet the requirements of the United Nations for the use of non-lethal weapons.

The National Civic Strike called by the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) has left a tragic balance:

North

In San Pedro Sula, capital of the province of Cortes, the daughter of an ex-congresswoman from the Democratic Unification Party (UD), Silvia Ayala, was wounded during the violent eviction of students from the University Center of the Valley of Sula Campus of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, where dozens of students and professors were also detained.

A young student, Josue Rodriguez (20), was hit on the side of his head by his right ear by a metal tear gas canister fired by the policy into the interior of the university facility.

The installations of the regional University Center were surrounded by lines of police and soldiers impeding the exit of students and professors while they were being attacked by tear gas bombs fired directly at their bodies. Fainting and vomiting were caused by the inhalation of the gases.

In the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Potrerillos, La Lima and Choloma, in the province of Cortes, there were 43 people detained for participating in the Civic Strike; they were not freed from the police station until yesterday, Wednesday, during the night; in some cases they had marks from the beatings they received and gave testimony of insults and discriminatory remarks made to them.

At the highway turn-off to La Flores, Santa Cruz, in Cortes, (Police) Commissioner Rubi, nephew of the current Attorney General, unleashed a violent repression against the protest and ordered the detention of 17 people who were transferred to the First Police Station of San Pedro Sula. Among the detained were: Lidia Arita, Nedi Santos Castillo, Antonio Maradiaga and Glenda Cabrera. There were 6 people wounded by bullets, including Daisy Sabillon and Manuel Miranda, who were taken by private transport to the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula.

In addition, the riot police punctured the tires of more than 30 vehicles using their firearms and knives, then chased the owners with tear gas and gunfire while they sought refuge in the forested area of the locale.

In Potrerillo, a town in the province of Cortes, in the area of the Colonia El Triunfo 5 people were detained: with head wounds (Alejandro Duarte Garcia), blows to the legs (Luciano Barrera Monroy) and lesions on the thighs (Haydee Marquez del Cid; Junior Mejia Murillo and Gloria Marina Perdomo Rodriguez).

Lawyers Evaristo Euceda and Iris Bude, who were carrying out human rights defense work in the police station of Villanueva were verbally and physically assaulted by the police sub-inspector of the locale.

In the community of Tacamiche, a peasant settlement that belongs to the municipality of La Lima, Cortes, the repressive forces entered the settlement to fire toxic gases into the interiors of homes as revenge for the protest blockading the highway to the town of San Manuel and Villaneva, Cortes. The director of the community school, Professor Esmeralda Flores along with teachers, Favricio Sevilla and Pedro Valladares, were taken to the First Police Station of San Pedro Sula.

Colon

During the Civic Strike called for Wednesday, March 30 by the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) one man died in the community of Planes, municipality of Tocoa, in the north of the country, as a consequence of the forced dispersal of protesters by the Police and military who used live ammunition against the populace. The man was a security guard for a poultry distribution business.

In the same town, located near the conflictive zone of the delta of the Aguan River – a scene of frequent disputes over land tenancy – 11 people were wounded by bullets; the wounded allegedly included peasants, educators and police.

Among those wounded by the gunfire were: Waldina Díaz, a teacher from Trujillo; Neptalí Esquivel, of the Nueva San Esteban peasant cooperative; Mauro Rosales of the Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan (MUCA); David Corea, television cameraman in Olanchito; Juan Antonio Vásquez, president of the Bolero peasant cooperative ; Paulino Chávez Rosales and Franklin Hernández of the 4 de marzo peasant cooperative; Víctor Euceda of the 4 de febrero peasant cooperative; Daniel Pérez of the 4 de diciembre peasant cooperative; professors Elías Erazo Hernández and Eduardo Rivera, of the community of Los Leones, in the municipality of Trujillo.

The detention of eight people, transferred to the Police Station in Saba, was also reported.

In the Central Region

In Tegucigalpa, capital city of Honduras, the National Autonomous University of Honduras was again the target of the combined forces of the police and army with hundreds of tear gas bombs launched into the interior of the campus from where students reacted by throwing rocks.

In the military incursión into a peripheral sector of the University there were 6 youth detained, accused of ilicit protest; they are Maynor Lizandro Aguilar (18), Marlon Alexander Rosales Rico (22), Douglas Manuel Flores (18); in addition, Oneyri Oneill Moreno Mejía of the Rainbow Collective (Colectivo Arco Iris), Marlon Nahúm Estrada, a taxi dispatcher at the university; Josué Sevilla and Elwin Meza were beaten with night sticks. All of the detained were freed during the afternoon.

Near the neighborhood of Las Brisas in South Tegucigalpa, three people were taken off a bus and taken to the Police Station of the neighborhood of La Granja, among them were two minors, Emerson Stevez Flores (15), Victor Geovanny Flores (14) and also Wilfredo Flores Aguilar (33), they were freed three hours alter their detention.

Before midday, six heavily armed men dressed in civilian clothes and carrying handcuffs tried to kidnap a young man, Eddy Guifarro, an employee of the Commission of Truth (Comisión de Verdad) when the taxi in which he was traveling stopped apparently due to traffic in the San Jose de la Vega neighborhood. The individuals surrounded the taxi, beating him on his body and head with their weapons, but Eddy was able to escape by running around the vehicles that were crowded around; the individuals followed him and fired 6 times, without giving any thought to the risk of wounding the people in the area. Guifarro suffered a ruptured ear drum and head wounds from the incident.

In the offices of the College of Professors of Middle Education (COPEMH), police intelligence agents attempted to plant evidence against the teachers’ organization resulting in the “discovery” and report to the Ministry of the Attorney General that a box of molotov cocktails was found in the public trash close to the center. The general coordinator of COFADEH classified the action as fabrication of evidence in an attempt to strip the organization of its legal status

In the Municipality of Ajuterique, in the province of Comayagua, 500 families that had taken possession of an area of land seven years ago, naming their community Colonia 25 de October, were violently evicted by elements of the police and army, who were accompanied by a judge. Their houses were destroyed, as well as the community school and the church. Five people were detained, Betuel Guillen (19), Edwin Guillen (18), Pedro Joel Hernández, Selvin Javier Centeno y Osmán Gómez (19).

In the South of the country

In Nacaome, capital of the department of Valle, the police and army also launched a cruel repression firing tear gas into the interior of homes in which there were children who were severely affected. A 2-month-old baby, Cristopher de Jesús Bonilla García, was taken to a medical facility with symptoms of asphyxiation after evading the police who were impeding the parents from getting help, firing tear gas directly at their bodies. The father, a 17 years old young man, had to jump over a wall and give mouth to mouth resuscitation to the inert baby and then place him in the arms of his grandmother, who by motorcycle was able to take him to a doctor who helped him.

In the repression, two minors, Mario de Jesús Sauceda (19) y José Raúl Mendoza Posadas (17) were also pursued and detained, the latter had been sent to to buy groceries by his mother. Human rights defender, Andres Abelino Ortiz Ortega (74) was also detained for several minutes.

In the community of La Flor, municipality of Amapala in the department of Valle, police agents travelling by boat arrived at the community to intimidate the residents, demanding that they tell them if they were a part of the Resistance protest during the Civic Strike.

These are reports of events of a single day, nonetheless, the tendency is that as the protests continue the pattern of aggression against the people and their human rights will continue being the same for those accused of “sedition and illicit demonstrations”.

The preceding days have been characterized by escalating institutional violence, leading to the logical deduction that the coming days will bring, in addition to the combined forces of the police and army, armed civilian infiltrators employed to provoke the demonstrators into confrontations ending in massacres.

It is urgent that the world now turns its eyes again towards Honduras; tomorrow may be too late.

For the deeds and the perpetrators, neither forget nor forgive.

COFADEH

March 31, 2011

Original posting, including COFADEH's message in Spanish

Honduras Update, March 18th 2:00PM: One teacher has died in hospital in Tegucigalpa as a result of injuries following police repression

2011-03-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ilse Ivania Velázquez Rodriquez, a teacher who was allegedly hit in the head with a projectile tear gas canister fired by police then struck by a vehicle, has died in Hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa as a result of her injuries. Ilse Ivania was peacefully participating in a protest including representatives of teachers unions, parents of school-aged children, primary, secondary and post-secondary students, popular organizations and members of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP).

Ilse Ivania was the sister of Angel Manfredo Velásquez Rodríguez, who was disappeared in 1981. She was one of a group of brave and defiant surviving family members, mostly women, who first began the work to find and achieve justice for the forcibly disappeared in Honduras. The Inter-American Human Rights Court found the State of Honduras legally responsible for the disappearance of Angel Manfredo in 1988.

The Honduran Platform for Human Rights reported at a press conference less than an hour ago that there are four individuals detained from the protests in the Kennedy neighbourhood this morning and three individuals remain injured in Hospital Escuela.

The Honduran Platform for Human Rights is preparing a denouncement to the Inter-American Human Right Commission regarding the human rights violations committed by state forces yesterday, March 17th, and today, March 18th, 2011. The Platform is comprised of the Centre for the Rights of Women (CDM), the Centre for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH), the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CODEH), the Honduran Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (COFADEH), the Centre for the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and their Families (CPTRT), and the Foodfirst Information & Action Network (FIAN-Honduras).

Please see below statement from COFADEH below regarding Ilse Ivania Velásquez Rodriguez and attached press release from the Platform (in Spanish).

-Human Rights Accompaniment Project, Tegucigalpa

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras

C O F A D E H

Con profundo pesar, informamos a la comunidad nacional e internacional que ha fallecido la compañera Ilsy Ivania Velásquez Rodríguez, hermana del detenido desaparecido Manfredo Velásquez Rodríguez.

Ilsy fue una luchadora incansable junto a su familia por la vedad y la justicia en las desapariciones forzadas ocurridas en nuestro país en el marco de la doctrina de seguridad nacional en los años ochenta. La desaparición de Manfredo Velásquez fue el primer caso de violaciones a derechos humanos conocido por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, por lo que el Estado de Honduras fue condenado. A la fecha no ha cumplido con la resolución de investigar y sancionar a los responsables.

Los familiares de los desaparecidos, nuevamente nos vemos golpeadas, por la muerte de una de nuestras miembras producto de la política de represión implementada por el régimen actual.

Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., 18 de marzo de 2011.

CDM-CIPRODEH-CODEH-COFADEH-CPTRT-FIAN

COMUNICADO DE PRENSA

La Plataforma de Derechos Humanos de Honduras denuncia ante la comunidad nacional e internacional la brutal represión que policías antimotines, fuertemente armados, han desatado contra las manifestaciones pacíficas que el día de hoy, 17 de marzo, habían sido convocadas para todo el país por los gremios magisteriales, madres y padres de familia, estudiantes de los distintos niveles educativos, organizaciones populares y el Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, para manifestarse contra los proyectos de leyes encaminados a privatizar la educación pública.

Se han recibido denuncias de la brutalidad policial ejercida contra las y los manifestantes desde distintas comunidades del país entre ellas, de Danli; de Comayagua, donde se reportan más de 29 personas detenidas y golpeadas; de Tegucigalpa donde además de lanzar una gran cantidad de bombas lacrimógenas se persiguió a los y las manifestantes pese a que la manifestación ya estaba disuelta. Esta brutal persecución ha dado como resultado más de 8 personas capturadas, tres son mujeres; varias personas desmayadas por los efectos de los gases lacrimógenos, entre ellas una señora embarazada que además sufrió una crisis respiratoria; un manifestante desaparecido hasta el momento junto con una niña de 10 años.

Alumnos y alumnas del Liceo Franco-Hondureño, institución privada, fueron atrapados en su centro educativo; y los y las maestras se vieron en la obligación de encerrarlos en los baños para protegerlos tanto de los efectos de los gases lacrimógenos lanzados en el estacionamiento de ese centro, como, por el temor a que la policía irrumpiera violentamente en sus instalaciones.

Oficinas de los gremios magisteriales y del Instituto de Previsión del Magisterio, IMPREMA, ubicados cerca de la zona en la que estaban los y las manifestantes fueron atacados por las fuerzas policiales. Personal de la Comisión de Verdad que se encontraba en el lugar verificando las violaciones a los derechos humanos fueron testigos y víctimas de la brutal represión.

Defensoras y defensores de derechos humanos, algunos de ellas y ellos de las organizaciones de la Plataforma de Derechos Humanos, han denunciado que su labor ha sido obstaculizada por los cuerpos represivos y por las instancias llamadas a impartir justicia.

Reiteramos nuestro llamado a la comunidad nacional e internacional a denunciar estas graves violaciones a los derechos humanos de las y los hondureñas y a exigir que cese la represión contra el pueblo que está ejerciendo su derecho constitucional a manifestarse en defensa de sus intereses.

Tegucigalpa, M.D.C. 17 de agosto de 2011.

Por el respeto a los derechos humanos y la verdadera democracia

PLATAFORMA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

Honduras Accompaniment Project Update: Police repress protesters across the country

2011-03-18T10:37:00.001-07:00

As this is being written, at 11:00 AM on March 18, 2011, police and military are violently evicting teachers from the National Teacher's Pension Institute (INPREMA), which they have been occupying for two weeks protesting the new General Education Law, which teacher's associations believe to be a legal mechanism to move towards the privatization of all levels of education in Honduras, and demanding the government pay a debt of approximately 1,500 million lempiras (approx. 80 million USD) which it owes the pension fund. The government is threatening to shut down INPREMA for alleged misuse of funds. Please stay on alert for more news.

Soldiers in Comayagua block off access to the police station where 31 teachers were being held, March 17th, approximately 1:00PM

Protests took place across Honduras yesterday in support of public education and teachers associations, and against the rising costs of fuel, and as a result, of the basic food basket. Highways and major intersections were blocked in various regions, including Comayagua, San Pedro Sula, Choluteca, Danli, and Los Planes, Colón, and major streets were taken over in Tegucigalpa.

International human rights accompaniers with the Honduras Accompaniment Project travelled with human rights defenders from COFADEH yesterday who were responding to reports of the detention and mistreatment of over thirty teachers and parents in Comayagua and seven people in Danli. Shortly after accompaniers left Tegucigalpa with teams from COFADEH around 11:00AM, police began to use tear gas and beat and detain protesters who refused to clear the streets of the capital. COFADEH received reports that over 20 people were detained in Tegucigalpa.

In Comayagua, two individuals had been released by the time the human rights defenders arrived at the central police station where the remainder were being held 12:30PM. One man, a parent of a school-aged child who was supporting the teachers, had also been sent to a clinic in nearby Ajuterique, near the highway intersection that protesters had been blocking, due to a bullet wound to the leg and head injuries. Bertha Oliva, the director of COFADEH, was eventually allowed in to verify the well-being of the remaining 31 detained individuals, all teachers.

The detainees were released without charges at approximately 4:00PM after negotiations between the police and representatives of the teachers, where they agreed to pay 2,000 lempiras (approximately 105 USD) to replace a windshield of a police vehicle broken during the protests. The windshield of a vehicle driven by teachers during the protest with loudspeakers voicing there demands had also been smashed. The majority of the detainees and at least 5 individuals waiting outside had been beaten by police officers using batons. Testimonies and photos were taken by COFADEH.

In Danli, the team from COFADEH arrived at the police station were teachers were being held around 12:00PM. Seven people were detained including one woman, and two were examined by a forensic physician, one for a fractured shoulder and another for severe blows to the back. Though they had been charged by police with sedition, they were released by the prosecutor's office without charges around 4:30PM.

In Tegucigalpa, all detainees were eventually released except for one, Edwin Robelo Espinal, who remained detained overnight in the Metropolitana #1 police station in central Tegucigalpa in the Los Dolores neighbourhood. COFADEH requested an international action alert, distributed by Rights Action, and calls to the police station last night to inquire regarding Edwin's physical well-being, which police agents and the prosecutor on duty assured were being protected. Edwin has protective measures from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission due to torture and harassment by members of the national police in his neighbourhood since 2009. Yesterday he was accused by police of illicit protesting and kidnapping of a 10-year-old girl who he rescued from the tear gas at the request of a journalist on the scene who found the girl lost and crying, and who's family gave declarations in favour of Edwin to prosecutors and public defenders last night, negating any justification of charges of kidnapping. He is due to appear in front of a judge today.

There were no reported detainees in Choluteca, San Pedro Sula, or Los Planes.

Supporters gather near of police station in Comayagua where teachers are being detained, March 17, approximately 1:00PM

-Honduras Accompaniment Project, Tegucigalpa

URGENT ACTION HONDURAS: Two Human Rights Defenders Under Threat

2011-03-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

Two Urgent Actions From the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras - COFADEH

Read and Take Action Please!

The contact numbers and emails for the urgent actions are the same for both alerts.

Excerpts from both alerts in English follow.

Please direct letters in Spanish or English to:

Jorge Alberto Rivera Avilés
Presidente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia (President of the Supreme Court)
Tel (504) 269-3000 269-3069
Mail: cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn

Luis Alberto Rubí
Fiscal General de la República (Attorney General of the Republic of Honduras)
Fax (504) 221-5667
Tel (504) 221-5670 221-3099
Mail: lrubi@mp.hn
suazog@mp.hn

With copies to:

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax:+504 220 5280 (ask for "tono de fax, por favor")
Mail: berthacofadeh@yahoo.com

Diplomatic Representatives in Honduras that represent your country of citizenship:
Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica (also responsible for Honduras): sjcra@international.gc.ca or Fax 011-506-2242-4411 – Political Affairs
U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras 011-504- 2236-9320, 011-504-2238-5114 Fax Number: 011-504-2236-9037

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Urgent Action: Jose Trinidad Sanchez
Human Rights Defender Threatened and Given Ultimatum

 The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) expresses its grave concern for the continued attacks against Human Rights Defender Trinidad Sánchez Argueta, Executive Director of the Network for Alternative Community Trade (Red COMAL) based in the city of Siguatepeque in the central department of Comayagua, at 149Km from the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

On the 25th of February, 2011, at 8:13pm, José Trinidad Sánchez received a text message on his cellphone with the following text: "Trinidad WE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE YOU LIVE IN EL PORBENIR your days are limited so enjoy what you have robbed from Comal as of today count down your days you are being watched you dog."

This is not the first act against Trinidad or the members of his family. In August, 2010, his 25-year-old son Jorge Luis, who was studying in the high school "Republic of Cuba" in the department of Santa Bárbara was detained and subject to mistreatment by agents of the Preventative Police who accused him of being Cuban. After hitting his head against a wall, handcuffing him and throwing him against the sidewalk, they expelled him from the department and ordered him not to return. In May 2010, an armed man dressed in black and carrying a number of instruments hiking/mountaineering violently entered Trinidad's home at 2:45am, threatened and removed the family members from their beds, pointed the firearm at them intimidatingly for several minutes, then took a camera and a computer monitor and left.

On November 28, 2009 at 1:40pm, a group of 50 individuals including uniformed police officers, police in civilian clothing, and military personnel violently entered the offices of Red COMAL located in the village of 3 de septiembre in the municipality of Siguatepeque and forced the watchman to open gate to the main building. Once inside, the individuals proceeded to break open the locks on the doors of various offices, including those of the School of Solidarity Economy Training Center.

COFADEH is deeply concerned by the situation faced by TRINIDAD SANCHEZ, especially in light of the pattern of systemic attacks against human rights defenders and social activists, particularly with respect to serious incidents registered in the last few months of home invasions, criminal attacks, and illegal entry into offices of human rights organizations. In the last two months three offices have been attacked and one human rights defender has had to leave the country due to reiterated death threats and continued persecution.

COFADEH requests that the national and international community urge the Honduran State to implement the necessary measures and mechanisms to effectively guarantee and protect the life and integrity of JOSE TRINIDAD SANCHEZ. The State must equally guarantee the Right to Defend Human Rights, as stated and universally recognized by the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, ratified in 1998, and the 1999 and 2000 resolutions in the OAS on human rights defenders in the Americas

URGENT ACTION: Leo Valladares Lanza
Human Rights Defender in Danger

With great concern, the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) informs the national and international community of acts of harassment, persecution, and psychological aggression against Mr. Leo Valladares Lanza, the former Human Rights Commissioner of Honduras and the current director of the Association for Participatory Citizenship (ACI Participa).

The 21 of February, 2011 at 3:15pm, a taxi arrived at a private meeting Mr. Leo Valladares Lanza had with the Special Prosecutor for Children Nora Urbina. This same taxi had for some time been parking outside of Mr. Valladares' home, and followed him to the café where he was meeting with the Special Prosecutor and parked outside, where the driver made several calls on his cellphone. The situation was so alarming that neighbours informed the Valladares family of what was happening, and the Special Prosecutor requested an escort for him to return home.

On March 1st, the same taxi parked outside of the Valladares home, but this time was accompanied by another vehicle. The family called the police, who arrived and summoned the drivers of the vehicles in question. Following their inquiries, the police recommended to the family that they leave for a time and take additional security precautions.

Since the second week of February, unknown individuals have called the Valladares residence numerous times asking for “Rodrigo,” referringg to José Rodrigo Valladares Pineda, Mr. Valladares' young son who was murdered January 25, 2009 and who's death remains in impunity. After asking for him, the caller laughed menacingly. There has also been an unknown motorcycle making rounds near the residence and accelerating its motor in front of the house to such an extent that it activates the house alarm.

The above mentioned events occurred after Mr. Valladares participated as a speaker during a television program regarding the repositioning of the Armed Forces, the resurgence of militarism in post coup d'état Honduras, and the incorporation of the military in the structures of the Executive
Background:In his role as national Human Rights Commissioner, during his first year in office Mr. Leo Valladares Lanza presented a preliminary report on Disappeared Detainees. During the second year of his term, he presented a report on arbitrary and summary executions and another regarding the state of freedom of expression in Honduras. During his final term in office, unknown assailants violently entered his homee, beat his son Rodrigo and his wife Daysi Pineda, and apparently stole a vehicle which was abandoned two blocks from the house.

We request that the national and international community urge the Honduran State to:

• initiate an independent, impartial, and exhaustive investigation into the threats against Mr. Leo Valladares, that they make public the results of the investigation, and that the responsible parties appear in court;
• take immediate measures to provide effective and appropriate protection to Mr. Leo Valladares according to his wishes;
• carry out its responsibility to guarantee human rights defenders their right to carry out their work without unjust restriction and without fear of reprisal, as is established in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders as well as the resolutions of the OAS.

Urgent concern for safety of human rights defenders of San Miguel Ixtahuacán following peaceful protests

2011-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

Feb. 28, 2011

We denounce the human rights violations and abuses committed today against peaceful protesters in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The protest, demanding compliance with precautionary measures ordered by the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights regarding the Marlin mine, took place without incident during the day. In late afternoon, participants returning from the peaceful roadblocks were reportedly confronted and attacked by community development council (COCODE) members and mine workers in San José Ixcaniche.

According to participants in the protest, Miguel Angel Bámaca and Aniseto López were beaten and threatened with lynching; one bus including approximately 40 men and women have been illegally detained and some beaten in the community of San José Ixcaniche. As this alert is being written, they remain detained. We are deeply concerned that the lives of human rights defenders are at risk.

Contact has been established with the local Human Rights Procurator’s (PDH) office, the local Presidential Commission for Defense of Human Rights (COPREDEH) and police, as well as national and international organizations to report these acts.

We ask you to stay alert and be ready to respond when more information and action requests are available from local organizations supporting communities resisting unjust mining in Guatemala.

The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, USA
Collectif Guatemala, France
Breaking the Silence, Canada
Rights Action, Canada/USA

Versión en español

Guatemala 28 de febrero de 2011

Comunicado urgente de preocupación para la seguridad de los defensores y defensoras de San Miguel Ixtahuacan en protesta pacifica

Denunciamos las violaciones de derechos humanos y abusos cometidos hoy en contra de manifestantes pacíficos en San Miguel Ixtahuacán. La manifestación, organizada para exigir el cumplimiento de las medidas cautelares otorgadas por la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en el caso de la mina Marlin, tomó lugar sin incidente durante el día. Según informes, por la tarde, participantes regresando de los bloqueos pacíficos fueron confrontados y agredidos en San José Ixcaniche por miembros del Consejo Comunitario de Desarrollo y trabajadores de la mina.

Según participantes en la manifestación, Miguel Angel Bámaca y Aniseto López fueron golpeados y amenazados con lincharlos; una camioneta con aproximadamente 40 personas fue detenida ilegalmente y algunas personas – hombres y mujeres- fueron golpeadas en la comunidad de San José Ixcaniche. Hasta el momento, la gente que estaba en la camioneta sigue siendo detenida en el salón y la alcaldía comunitaria. Estamos sumamente preocupados de que estén en risego las vidas y la integridad física de esos defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos.

Se ha establecido contacto con la Procuraduría de Derechos Humanos (PDH) y la Comisión Presidencial para los Derechos Humanos (COPREDEH) y la Policía Nacional Civil (PNC), así como con organizaciones nacionales e internacionales, para informar de esos acontecimientos.

Pedimos que estén alertas y listos para reaccionar cuando haya más información y solicitudes para tomar acción por parte de las organizaciones locales apoyando las comunidades en resistencia en contra de la minería injusta en Guatemala.

En solidaridad,

La Red de Solidaridad con el Pueblo de Guatemala (NISGUA), EE.UU.

Collectif Guatemala, Francia

Rompiendo el Silencio, Canada

Derechos en Acción, Canada/EE.UU.

Promising young Honduran forced into suffering of exile

2011-02-12T19:47:00.000-08:00

Original article in Spanish from defensoresenlinea.com

Translated by Political Organization Los Necios

Renan Hector Soto Caballero

This week saw the forced exile of the young Renan Hector Soto Caballero, director of the Civil Society Group, GSC, a promise to Honduras, but continued harassment placed his life in a threatening situation.

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, COFADEH, sent a denouncement to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, which then requested information from the State of Honduras, which to date has been negligent in protecting the integrity of Soto Caballero.

Minutes before leaving his homeland, Hector stated that these are not easy times, "to think differently in this country is dangerous and for some human rights defenders like myself we are being forced to retreat under such circumstances basically to safeguard our physical well being, hoping that the processes that we are promoting continue, we are taking a momentary pause because circumstances are too risky to guarantee one's life in their own country."

Bertha Oliva, coordinator of COFADEH, said goodbye to Hector with his mother and father who were very concerned with the forced journey of his son.

In relation to leaving his family which is a painful situation, “all of us who leave do so with the intention to return as soon as possible, it depends on the political will to respect freedom of speech of citizens who disagree.

To the international community I make an invitation to review its policies of support, especially to the government to whom they are giving a lot of legitimacy, and strong financial support to institutions that have a double standard, a public face of good governance, within the country a lot of repression.

We hope that they take these cases as a clear proof that the situation in the country persists and that a lot of commitment and pressure is needed to change this picture."

I do not understand that those who do so much harm to Honduras walk freely in the streets.

Hector says goodbye to his mother

Doris Caballero, Hector's mother, expressed through tears that is difficult for a mother, "there are no words, for a mother being separated from a child, especially Hector Renan who is a promise for the country, who since a small child has had his principles, is not easy.

"I think about the qualities of my child, the human being that he is and know that there are people who do so much damage to the country and walk the streets freely, I never thought my son would have to go through this."

Likewise for Hermilo Soto, Hector's father, it is not an easy situation, "as a parent I feel very sad and pained because Hector Renan has to leave the country against his will, he always aspired to live here with his family, be a professional and contribute in a healthy and positive manner that will help change things, "he lamented.

With regard to the danger in which his only son has been, Hermilo, accepted that the entire family has lived a lot of stress, severe pain, "my wife spent about 15 days with no sleep, and his sisters cry."

Hermilo added that it has generated a family trauma, "when we realized that he had received death threats, that they were pursuing him, sent him text messages and in state of defenselessness in this country, any phone call generates alarm, with that the family loses peace, work productivity is also lower because you do not finish your work because you lose concentration."

He recalled that when he lived his own risks in the 1980's through his commitment as a trade unionist at the time, maybe he was prepared to take personal risks, but one is never fully prepared to cope with the risks of their children, “I wanted the risks and uncertainties which my generation lived in the 80's not to be lived by my children.”

He also lamented that, like his son, unfortunately many young people who are unhappy and want to help drive change in this country, cannot live here, due to the intolerance of the powerful, the army, the police, "because we have a militarized state, a police state."

With respect to the official discourse of the government, which negates the forced expulsion from Honduras of many people who have gone into exile, it may be because embassies in the country are not pronouncing themselves, or it could be that Hondurans are not formally soliciting their right to exile and have to take the more risky road and leave in whichever manner from the country.

International community continues to give and asks the regime for nothing in return

Soto Hermilo very concerned that the international community are insensitive to the case of Honduras, during the coup the problem of human rights violations was a topic of much discussion, but now in the continuation of the coup they are not a priority.

"We see for example that the European Union is giving around 40 million euros to the Ministry of Security, a police force with high levels of corruption, senior police officers directing delinquent groups and the international community providing assistance without demanding anything in return, not even a real effort to reform the police," he lamented.

For years there has been an effort of the international community to strengthen the judicial system, the investigative systems, and we have a system that does not protect us or is not applied to those who violate it, in fact it has a political bias; is applied to the weak, the vulnerable, and not those who do not transgress it.

A message to his son-in-exile

Hermilo Soto says goodbye to his son, while asking the international community to reconsider its policies concerning Honduras

With much pain and on the point of tears, Hermilo sent a message to his son: "Héctor Renan I suggest you keep your beliefs, I believe that difficulties and challenges strengthen the character of the people; never forget the values of solidarity we instilled in our house and go forward."

Telephone calls from unknowns in recent days to the house of his parents, precipitated the exile. This is in spite of the fact that Hector had handed in a phone number from where he received threatening messages, which has been in the custody of the police for several weeks now.

Since August of year 2010 a denouncement was filed by COFADEH to the Attorney-General, Luis Rubio, but there is no result to date.

To date, since the coup, more than 200 people, including President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, are in exile. Between December 2010 and February 2011 many families have left to exile under the imminent threat to their personal safety.

Honduras: Bajo Aguán: a “special administrative region” for human rights violations

2011-02-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

Peasant and popular organizations denounce a new wave of repression

Giorgio Trucchi - Lista Informativa "Nicaragua y más"

Militarization of the Lower Aguán Valley © (Foto G. Trucchi)

The Aguán Valley, in north-eastern Honduras, continues on red alert. While the government and members of Congress are determined to accelerate the creation of “paradisiacal” special administrative regions, offering a “quality standard of living, first class jobs, services and zero insecurity,” forced evictions, persecution and arbitrary detentions continue in the Aguán region.

On January 27, 2011 over 120 families of the Peasant Movement of Elixir in the Sabá zone were forcibly evicted. Police and army began hunting down 18 members of the movement and its President, Blanca Espinoza, who had to abandon her nine children in order to avoid arrest. All are accused of damaging private property and usurpation of land.

Two people were jailed and the community of Elixir was militarized.

“At the same time, repressive State forces and the private guards of businessman César Velásquez escalated repression. On February 2, they detained and jailed 21 members of the organization including five women and five minors” stated a leader of the teachers union and member of the Executive Committee of the National Resistance Front (FNRP), Wilfredo Paz.

Legal and human rights defenders intervened immediately, obtaining their release. “The intention was to wait for 24 hours, invent a series of charges and then issue arrest warrants to keep them in jail. But they could not get away with it” explained the FNRP leader.

The situation is difficult in the midst of a climate of intimidation and insecurity for thousands of peasant families in the Bajo Aguán.

“The repressive forces have created a monitoring and control system in the entire zone. It is almost impossible to approach the peasant groups in the settlements without being detected and pursued by the guards of the private landowners. They have even gone after international representatives who come to the zone to understand what is happening,” stated Paz.

Harassment and threats against peasant leaders continues as well. Juan Chinchilla, a young leader with the Unified Peasant Movement of the Aguán (MUCA) and the FNRP, was kidnapped on January 7^th. After being interrogated, threatened and tortured, he was able to escape his captors.

One month after his escape and without having committed any offense, Chinchilla continues in hiding in Honduras for fear of being assassinated.

“Compañero Juan Chinchilla remains in hiding because there are enough indications that they continue looking for him. On several occasions, unknown, armed actors have looked for him in the peasant settlement of La Concepción, where his family lives.

In addition - continued Wilfredo Paz – last week, two vehicles were parked for a long time in front of the house where the parents of Juan Chinchilla live. These are clear indications that his life is still at risk” he said.

Despite this situation, the peasant and popular organizations in the zone and the FNRP at the department level, do not renounce their objectives.

“We continue to demand access to land; integral agrarian reform and we denounce the decision to declare Decree 18-2008 unconstitutional. Mobilizations will not cease and we insist on the urgency of installing a permanent observatory for human rights that is national and international in character,” concluded Paz.

Meanwhile, the FRNP in Colón announced that it will soon present the formation of a departmental structure for human rights to safeguard and defend the lives of thousands of families and people who continue to resist.

http://nicaraguaymasespanol.blogspot.com/2011/02/bajo-aguan-una-region-admnistrativa.html

Guatemala: Member of Caja Lúdica Murdered

2011-02-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

From: La Prensa Libre February 4, 2011

Twenty-four year old Victor Aroldo Leiva Borrayo, “The Monkey,” member of the artistic collective, Caja Lúdica (The Tickle Trunk), died yesterday after receiving gunshot wounds to the head.

By CAROLINA GAMAZO Guatemala (Translated by Jackie McVicar)

The attack occurred at 10:30pm on 12 Calle, 4-65 of zone 1, by unknown men who fled the scene.

The wake will be held today and tomorrow he will be buried in the General Cemetery.

"We denounce and condemn this act, we are dismayed; it took us by surprise and it’s painful,” affirmed Samuel Ochoa, member of Caja Lúdica, an artistic organization intended to reconstruct the Guatemalan social fabric through art.

Loving and Playful

"He was a great person, was always a very loving and happy person, outraged by reality, with a great passion to carry out artistic expressions, we remember him as our compañero, happy, full of life and joking,” said Ochoa.
Leiva was known in the Collective as, “The Monkey,” for his acrobatic capacity. He had Garifuna roots as his family was originally from Livingston, Izabal but he had lived his entire life in the capital.

He was founding member of Caja Lúdica, an association that he created together with friends in 2000, with the objective of reconstructing the social fabric through art and culture. “We promote alternatives for youth who, through their creativity with art and culture, stop being victims of the system,” expressed Ochoa.

Leiva used stilts, was a dancer and also participated in art projects in the association.

The investigation is now in the hands of the Public Prosecutor’s office, Ochoa assured, and denied any relationship between Leiva and criminal acts.

http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Asesinan-miembro-Caja-Ludica_0_420558165.html

Honduras: Urgent Action for Spanish Speakers - Please call now!

2011-01-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Partners in Honduras have advised that at 4pm today, January 27, three peasants were detained by police during an eviction of one hundred families by police and military in the campamento “Buenos Amigos” in Saba Colón. It is not clear if security forces had an eviction order or arrest warrants. Community members reported that one of the detained men had been tortured. Human rights organizations and the community are very concerned about the welfare of the three detained.

Human Rights partners’ request that Spanish speakers call the police station in Tocoa, Colon: 504- 2444-3106 or 2444-3107 and,

1. express concern for the three detained: José Santos Rios, Santiago Rodriguez and Jorge Santos

2. express concern regarding reports that one of the detained was tortured

3. ask the reason for their arrest

Thanks very much for taking this action.

From http://friendshipamericas.org/honduras

Thousands march in Honduras today

2011-01-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

Today, January 27^th, marks the one year anniversary of the Lobo government which came to power through elections conducted by the defacto government responsible for the June 2009 coup detat and widely considered to be illegitimate. It also marks the one year anniversary of the forced exile of President Manuel Zelaya.

These anniversaries take place in a context of unreleneting political and human rights crisis in Honduras. The non-violent resistance movement has called for civil protests throughout the country in opposition to the “government that continues the coup.” Since early this week, peasants and teachers have been blocking roads and mobilizing to peacefully protest government policies that negatively impact these sectors. The human rights community in Honduras has requested international attention to be focused on Honduras at this time.

Also today came an announcement that General Rene Osorio has been named the new head of the Armed Forces of Honduras; General Osorio is a graduate of the School of the Americas and is reported to have involved in directing the June 2009 coup d’état.

A broad coalition of Hondurans (teachers, unions, GLBT community, Human rights defenders, young people, ordinary folks, etc.) participated in today's march and demonstration organized by the Frente National de Resistencia Popular (FNRP), the main organizing force against the coup d'etat and the repression that continues.

Yesterday, a demonstration in the capital was attacked by military and people were arrested, so organizers were expecting the same. Today's march was peaceful and the military did not attack as thousands marched to the steps of the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice, a Court which has supported the coup and repressive measures since.

from http://friendshipamericas.org/honduras

Honduras: Human Rights delegation visits teachers jailed after yesterday’s protest

2011-01-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

This morning, members of the Accompaniment delegation, responding to a request for human rights accompaniment, arrived at the police station where four teachers have been detained since yesterday. Other concerned citizens and representatives of the human rights community gathered outside of the police station this morning as well. Police, in riot gear had closed off both ends of the block. Eventually, delegation members were granted access to the jailed teachers as well as their attorney.

Yesterday at noon, the four teachers - Elmer Joel Tejeda Hernández, Darwin Edgardo Funes Irías, Jesús Isidro López and Ansar Alesky Torres Alvarez were arrested in a COPEMH (Association of Secondary Teachers Union) vehicle in a local neighborhood following a large teacher's demonstration. The four were arrested some distance from the protest. Charges against them have been changed several times so it is unclear what they are being charged with.

Hundreds of teachers gathered for an assembly at the Hibueras Institute yesterday from which they planned to conduct a peaceful march to the National Congress protesting efforts to privatize education. However, they were met by police and military with tanks of pepper spray, tear gas, clubs and live bullets according to observers. Helicopters flew overhead and the area surrounding the National Congress was militarized as security forces dispersed the march. One teacher was injured when a tear gas canister was exploded in his face.

Tomorrow another large demonstration is planned and there are concerns that these arrests are an effort to diminish tomorrow's action. Please visit the Friendship Office website for updates and urgent action requests.

From http://friendshipamericas.org/honduras

Human Rights Delegation to Honduras visits Zacate Grande

2011-01-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

"La tierra no se vende, se cuide y se defiende"

"The land is not for sale, it is to be cared for and protected"

On January 24th and 25th, the Friendship Office's Human Rights Accompaniment Delegation visited the communities of la Flor, Puerto Grande and Coyolito on the peninsula of Zacate Grande in the department of Valle, Honduras on the Pacific Coast. The delegation met with representatives of ADEPZA (the Association for the Development of the Peninsula of Zacate Grande) and the community radio station La Voz de Zacate Grande.

Pedro Canales Torres, the director of ADEPZA, told the delegation that at this point there are 92 members of the communities of Zacate Grande who are being processed by the Honduran legal system for charges including land seizure, illegal construction, and disobedience for living and building on the land where their families have been for up to 150 years, and for resisting eviction orders carried out by police, naval officers and private security forces.

According to members of ADEPZA, about 25 or 30 years ago, the entire peninsula, which had been given as an inheritence by a former president of Honduras (Terencio Sierra) to his grandaughter (Carmen Malespín de Lazo) without the knowledge of those who lived there, was sold to private landowners, including Miguel Facussé. Since then, the majority of the 10 communities who have lived on the land have been resisting orders of eviction and violent harassment by authorities and others who they say work for wealthy Hondurans claiming ownership of the land. See COFADEH's human rights journalism site (in Spanish, with pictures) for information regarding the human rights violations against residents of Coyolito who resisted an eviction on December 17th of last year.

Residents stressed that through their organized resistence efforts as well as the Decree 18-2008 passed by Manuel Zelaya when he was president, they were within days of receiving titles to their land when the coup took place on June 28, 2009, all that was missing was the Minister of Agriculture's signature. According to ADEPZA, decree 18-2008 established conditions under which families and communities who had lived and subsisted on lands for a determined amount of time would have the right to titles to the land, and well as the possibility for expropriation of unused private lands for subsistence farming under certain conditions. After over a year and a half of stalling the titling process through both the Micheletti and Lobo regimes, earlier this month the Supreme Court declared Degree 18-2008 to be unconstitutional, to the disappointment, frustration, and outrage of campesino groups and their allies across the country.

La Voz de Zacate Grande community radio station was inaugaurated in April of 2010 and is coordinated by three young people who have received training from more established community radio stations in the country, and about 15 other young people have since participated in additional trainings and are sharing responsibility for programming that runs from 8am to 8pm every day. These young people and the radio station have suffered ongoing harassment by the authorities. See videos posted on the Zacate Grande blog documenting the attempted eviction of the radio station by police about six months ago.

Two correspondents from the radio station, Elba Mejía and Elia Hernandez, were reporting on the December 17th eviction in Coyolito when they were chased, beaten, and apprehended by police and charged with disobedience. Elba, in her early 20s, is one of the three coordinations of the station, and told the delegation that her vision for the radio station is to continue to train young people as informed correspondents who can report on events directly from their communities via cellphone as issues arise, and to use these peer trainings as opportunities to continue building awareness, analysis, and solidarity among the communities of Zacate Grande.

Members of ADEPZA and the radio station expressed to the delegation that they still believe their goals are possible with the support of national and international organizations exerting political pressure on Honduran officials, and asked us to tell their story in our home communities, respond to urgent actions, and continue to build our relationships of international solidarity over time.

from http://friendshipamericas.org/honduras

International Human Rights Accompaniment Delegation arrives in Honduras

2011-01-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

The 10th delegation of the Honduras Accompaniment Project of the Friendship Office of the Americas arrived in Honduras today to provide international human rights observation-accompaniment at this time when national and international actors focus attention on Lobo’s first year in office, the continued forced exile of President Zelaya and the deepening human rights crisis.

Representatives from U.S. and Canadian networks and organizations including the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN) and the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network from Canada, U.S. El Salvador Sister Cities, and a human rights attorney are members of the delegation. The delegation will be visiting communities recently impacted by police and military operations, meeting with members of the human rights community, other national organizations, observing events and issuing a report.

Please visit the Friendship Office website for regular updates from the delegation.

from http://friendshipamericas.org/honduras

Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network Annual Meeting

2010-11-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

The Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN) annual meeting will be held from Friday, December 3^rdat 7pm to Sunday, December 5^th at 1:30pm at the Tatamagouche Centre, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. It will be an opportunity for anyone who's interested in solidarity between Latin America, the Caribbean and Atlantic Canada to gather, share information and insights, demonstrate their solidarity and make action plans.

There will be talks on climate change, threats to the survival of indigenous peoples in Colombia and community efforts to stop the pollution of Boat Harbour, Nova Scotia. Participants will hear about the popular resistance to last year's coup in Honduras and the response to the January 12th earthquake in Haiti. Discussion about the G8/G20 meetings and protests in Huntsville and Toronto and reports on ongoing ARSN activities are also on the agenda.

Friday evening will be all about Climate Change with an overview by Brian O’Neill of Oxfam Halifax, and a first hand account of the Cochabamba World People’s Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights by Roger Hunka, the Intergovernmental Director for the Maritime Aboriginal Peoples Council.

The ARSN meeting is happening during the UN Climate Negotiations in Cancun and Via Campesina has called for a global day of action on December 7^thto support the proposals from the Cochabamba conference, some of which have been incorporated into the negotiating text at Cancun. A few days early, on Saturday, December 4^th, ARSN’s morning will begin with a climate action designed by the participants and possibly video taped to put up on line and send to politicians.

There will then be an opportunity for people to participate in the Kairos “Beat the Drum” campaign to push the Canadian government to live up to commitments required by it’s recent signing of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The following guest speaker will be Flaminio Onogama, the co-ordinator of the human rights programme of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC). He will talk about their campaign “Sweet Words, Breath of Life” to support indigenous peoples who are at risk of extinction in Colombia. On January 26, 2009, the Constitutional Court of Colombia issued a decree that concluded that the indigenous peoples of Colombia “are in danger of becoming physically and culturally extinct” and ordered the Colombian government to guarantee indigenous people’s human rights and assist indigenous peoples in specific ways. ONIC has been working to ensure this happens, but the Colombian government has not complied with the decree.

Next, Ron Kelly, spokesperson for the Pictou County Watershed Coalition will show a video and speak about 43 years of pollution of Boat Harbour by the pulp mill at Abercrombie, Nova Scotia (now owned by Northern Pulp). If possible, he will be joined by residents of Pictou Landing First Nation and the surrounding Pictou Landing area who will tell of their experiences of living very close to this toxic site and the numerous efforts to stop the pollution.

On Saturday afternoon there will be a call via skype (if possible with web-cam images) from Honduras by Honduras Accompaniment Project representative Caitlin Power Hancey and hopefully Gerardo Torres or another representative of the National Front for Popular Resistance in Honduras. They will talk about the June 28, 2009 military coup against the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras and its aftermath. This will be followed by a talk by Lee Ann Ward and Larry Lack who went to Honduras earlier this year to be an international presence in the face of violence against people working in the resistance to the coup.

After a break, the afternoon will continue with a presentation about a country that also suffered a coup against a democratically elected government. In this case the country is Haiti and Canada took part in planning and implementing the coup, which took place in 2004. Haitian Canadian, Ralph Nelson will speak about the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the continuing crisis and Tracy Glynn of the Fredericton Peace Coalition will speak about recent solidarity efforts by the Canada Haiti Action Network.

This is a lot of information to take in, so participants will then gather in small groups to discuss the issues arising from the meeting.

On Saturday evening there will be a showing of clips of the “Shout Out for Global Justice” alternative conference held during G20 meetings and discussion of G20/G8 meetings, protests and police reaction. Then there will be a party.

Sunday morning will include reports of ARSN’s ongoing activities, further reflection on the weekend’s talks and action wrap-up.

Everyone is welcome to take in the whole weekend or any part of it. There is a $20 registration fee for the weekend (which is less for people who only attend part of the meeting) and charges for meals and accommodation at the Tatamagouche Centre. The full package is $160.50. However, to make it more affordable, there is the option of being billeted for free or for a small charge and/or bringing one’s own food. Also, a limited number of bursaries are available. Childcare is also available at no charge. People are driving from various parts of the Maritimes, so there may be carpooling opportunities to help people get to and from Tatamagouche. Anyone who is interested in coming to the meeting can find out more at the blogspot: http://www.arsncanada.blogspot.com/ or by contacting Catherine Hughes at treehuggercate@gmail.com or 902-351-2001.

“Sweet Words, Air of Life” The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia Launches its Campaign in the US to Support the 32 Indigenous Peoples at Risk of Extinction in Colombia

2010-11-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

October 26, 2010

In March of this year, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) launched its campaign "Sweet Words, Air of Life" in support of the indigenous peoples at risk of extinction in Colombia. We will be promoting this campaign throughout 2010 and 2011. The official launch of this campaign in the United States was Monday, October 25 at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), 1666 Connecticut Ave, 4^th floor.

The launch was a success and the participants took part in an open dialogue with ONIC representatives regarding the reality of the 102 indigenous peoples from Colombia, and especially 32 indigenous peoples that are of particular concern for the ONIC as they are at risk of extinction.

Click here to read the English version of the campaign report "Sweet Words, Air of Life" and "Palabras Dulces, Aire de Vida" in Spanish.

The Reason for this Campaign

The ONIC has publicly denounced on various occasions that "all indigenous peoples in Colombia are at risk of disappearing." Of the 102 indigenous peoples that live in the country, there are 32 indigenous peoples that are of particular concern for the organization, due to the fact that they count on a population of less that 500 people, the majority of which are centered in the Amazon and the Orinoquia regions of Colombia. Of these 32 peoples, 18 have a population below 200 people and 10 are composed of at least 100 individuals. This fragile demographic situation is coupled with other complex processes, Colombia's internal armed conflict, poverty, discrimination, and institutional abandonment puts them at great risk of physical and cultural extinction.

In this context, on January 26, 2009, the Constitutional Court of Colombia issued Decree 004 of 2009 behalf of the indigenous peoples, in which it was concluded that the indigenous peoples of Colombia 'are in danger of becoming physically and culturally extinct.' This decree orders the national government to create in six month terms a Program that Guarantees Human Rights for indigenous peoples of Colombia. In addition, it is to formulate and implement 34 Ethnic Safeguard Plans that assist the 34 indigenous peoples with specific actions.

It is of great concern that of the 32 indigenous people with a population of less than 500 individuals, only the Nukak Maku, are being assisted by the Decree ordered by Colombia's Constitutional Court as they develop their Ethnic Safeguard Plan.

From statistics collected by the ONIC and the Constitutional Court, we can conclude that the total number of indigenous peoples at risk of extinction is 64, which is 62.7% of the 102 that exist. Nevertheless, since the Court ruling, many indigenous peoples (not mentioned in either of the two listings) have requested their participation in the Ethnic Safeguard Plans. Informally, the Constitutional Court has expressed that the Decree is not exhaustive as it only includes indigenous peoples for which sufficient information was compiled, which would allow for the ruling.

On many occasions, the ONIC has demanded that the Colombian State construct an Integral Protection Plan using the Life Plans of the indigenous peoples in situations of extreme vulnerability as the base. However, the Colombian Government has not shown the political will to guarantee the fulfillment of the rights of indigenous peoples.

The report of the campaign

The "Sweet Words, Air of Life" campaign report identifies those responsible for the violation of the collective rights of Colombia's indigenous peoples in danger of extinction. It is our intention that the report will contribute and be a tool to direct standards and urgent actions for their protection at a national and international level at all times developed in coordination, consultation and concretization with the ONIC and with the indigenous peoples of this report. Finally, the ONIC presents a series of recommendations and requests that, according to the indigenous peoples, are necessary, pertinent and urgent, in order to halt the risk to physical and cultural extinction of the indigenous peoples of Colombia.

We would like to thank those who have supported the ONIC and the Campaign and we encourage you to continue to support the topic of indigenous peoples at risk of extinction. If you have any questions of if you or your organization would like to receive more information about ways in which you can support the campaign, please contact us by email at: Onic@onic.org.co.

ONIC

International Youth Day Vigil & Protest in Tegucigalpa

2010-10-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

At the end of this post is an English translation of a press release by the Plataforma de Acción en Pro de los Derechos Juveniles de Honduras released yesterday, October 15, 2010. A coalition of youth groups marched silently from the National Theatre to Central Park in Tegucigalpa, where they held a vigil to remember and demand action with respect to the alarming rate of violence against young people in Honduras, especially in the wake of the coup d'état last year and under subsequent political regimes.

There were at least a couple of hundred young people there, from middle school to high-school aged. Some were bussed in from the Amareteca Valley and other colonias outside the city centre, others came on their own, and there was representation various schools and communities, including significant presence from LGBTI youth groups, who have suffered particularly in the increased rates of violence since the coup. There were a handful of adult support-people present, some from youth-focused organizations and others who were family members, but most walked to the side or behind the group, accompanying the young people in their vigil.

Some young street performers on stilts and performing fire tricks helped lead the vigil quietly towards the park. Banners read "Together for a Youth free from violence in 2011," "No more deaths in impunity," "Those who don't punish the evil deeds are the same ones who order them," "No More Violence," and "LGBT Youth: Present in the struggle for our rights and non-violence."

There was no media present, though organizers stated had called major papers and stations. The FNRP radio program on Radio Globo from 8-9 PM announced the event while it was still in progress, commending the youth and reading a part of their media release.

-Honduras Accompaniment Project

----------

PLATFORM FOR ACTION FOR YOUTH RIGHTS IN HONDURAS

October 15, 2010, Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.

DECLARATION

The Platform for Action for Youth Rights in Honduras is a space for youth participation with clear ideological principles; among them the struggle for youth rights in Honduras. On this occasion of International Youth Day it is clear to us that this day, beyond a celebration, is an opportunity to denounce and declare ourselves against the constant human rights violations that young people are subject to.

For these reasons, today, Friday October the 15th, 2010, we are carrying out an activity called TOGETHER FOR A YOUTH FREE FROM VIOLENCE IN 2011.

We declare ourselves with respect to the following:

We denounce the constant human rights violations that we are subject to daily as youth and we are making an urgent call to the appropriate authorities that they take action and stop being passive, because as long as they stand with their arms crossed our youth are being further victimized by the system.

We demand explanations for all extra-judicial murders and declare ourselves against the sensationalist media of our country that every day displays the deaths of young people as deaths within a violent population, leaving the impression that youth are the most violent people in our country.

We strongly condemn student repression, which many of our colleagues from different schools across the country have been the victims of ,just for exercising their right to free association and public protest; a right which is ratified by the constitution of our republic.

We demand that the government respect the lives of young people or we will doubt the possibilities for justice as well as the interest of our government in the serious issues facing youth people and proceed to appeal to international levels of jurisdiction.

We call upon all Honduran youth to refound our beloved Honduras and not to forget that the direction of this country is in our hands, but we must also continue firmly in the struggle and not give in, and make it clear that YOUTH are not the problem; we are the SOLUTION.

Honduras Accompaniment Project Update: Independence and Resistance – September 15, 2010

2010-09-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today, September 15, 2010 marks the 189th anniversary of the formal independence of Central American nations from Spain. Today in Tegucigalpa, as an alternative to a state-sponsored parade comprised of members of the military and certain private schools, the Honduras Accompaniment Project of the Friendship Office of the Americas observed thousands of Honduran citizens participating in a peaceful march organized by the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) demanding a National Constituent Assembly and the refundación (re-foundation) of Honduras. The FNRP considers this call for the constituyente equivalent to a call for a “second” independence—independence from those who currently hold economic and political power in the country[1]. The marchers left the eastern end of Morazán Boulevard shortly after 9am and arrived at the central plaza downtown roughly two hours later, where a rally continued for some time. The crowds were made up of many groups who had banners, t-shirts, or flags to identify themselves: campesino organizations, high school and university student groups and marching bands, teachers’ organizations, various labour unions, the LGBTI community, women’s and feminist organizations, artists’ collectives, neighbourhood associations, youth groups, representatives of political organizations; as well as numerous individuals and families who actively participated yet did not visibly claim membership to a particular organization. In addition to the marching bands, there were dancers, marchers in paper maché masks and colourful costumes, and children and adults carrying dioramas and other artistic representations of the Honduran political situation.

Until midnight tonight, the signed sovereign declarations by Hondurans of voting age are being collected in a well-known union hall in Tegucigalpa, with a press conference planned tomorrow to release the final numbers. The FNRP already proclaimed earlier this week that they had surpassed their goal of 1.25 million signatures[2]. The current Lobo regime claims that 1 million Hondurans voted in last November’s elections, which were held under Roberto Micheletti’s de facto regime, installed after the coup on June 28, 2009. Bodies such as the Organization for American States (OAS) and the Carter Centre, however, decided not to sanction the 2009 elections with official observers due to the conditions under which they occurred, and the voter participation figures are highly contested [3]. FNRP representatives at the march in Tegucigalpa said their collection of sovereign declarations, including individuals’ names, signatures, thumbprints and ID numbers, is proof that more Hondurans support the Constituent Assembly than supported last year’s elections.

Parallel events were also held in Siguatepeque and San Pedro Sula, as well as other areas of the country. In San Pedro Sula, there was violent repression by the police. One elderly individual who was selling lottery tickets in the park is reported to have died as a result of tear-gas poisoning, and at a public forum on of the FNRP “Independence and Resistance” this evening at the COPEMH hall (a national union of high school teachers) it was reported that 31 people are currently detained in San Pedro Sula, and a child was in delicate condition as a result of tear gas poisoning. We were told that police stormed a concert that was taking place in the central plaza of the city after the marchers gathered there, throwing tear gas canisters onto the stage and into the crowd, breaking the musicians instruments and damaging the rented sound equipment. The Honduras Accompaniment Project will stay in close contact with staff of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) as they pursue the case of human rights violations at the San Pedro Sula Independence Day events over the coming weeks.

The march and rally in Tegucigalpa took place without any such incidents reported at the time. Police and military blocked off all exit all exit and entry points to the main boulevard where the march was taking place, and police lined the streets on the blocks leading to the central plaza, but we observed no overt repression and no violent acts by marchers. When marchers found the main road between Boulevard Morazán and the central plaza blocked off by police riot troops, following some verbal statements by some protestors to the police, the crowd continued on, singing and chanting, via an alternate route. The rally included speeches by leaders of the FNRP and updates on the events in San Pedro Sula and other areas of the country. At least three blue and white helicopters were observed circling over marchers as they made their way along Morazán Boulevard, and during the rally at least four fighter jets flew over the central plaza low enough to overpower sound systems and making maneuvers in the air.

Some march participants expressed concern to observers that though there was no overt repression during today’s events in Tegucigalpa, they expected to hear reports of continued targeted attacks against human rights defenders and active FNRP members in the days to come.

Honduras Accompaniment Project – Tegucigalpa
Friendship Office of the Americas

All photos taken by HAP accompanier in Tegucigalpa September 15, 2010

[1] http://www.resistenciahonduras.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1108:a-pesar-de-la-represion-resistencia-reclama-la-segunda-independencia-politica-y-economica-del-pais&catid=95:resistencia&Itemid=334

[2] http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/78248-NN/resistencia-hondurena-supero-meta-de-recoleccion-de-firmas-para-constituyente/

[3] http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/honduras_112509.html

Honduras: I came from Canada because human rights have no borders

2010-07-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

By Ida Garberi
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

This translation was originally posted on the English site of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) and can be found here.

Original interview in Spanish is from defensoresenlinea.com

“The truth should transcend frontiers. I came to support the fight for human rights” said the Craig Scott, member of the True Commission** promoted by the Platform for Human Rights. Scott is a Canadian Professor specialising in public and private international law, with a particular emphasis on human rights.

“Where you have justice you have no crime, and where there is crime, there is no press freedom; where there is crime, they hide it.” Fidel Castro.

“I am very happy to be in the True Commission. I am very optimistic about our work. We are a good group, whether we are the foreign or local commissioners, and I am sure that in spite of the amount and the difficulty of the work we do it to the best of our ability” Craig said to ‘lawyers on line’.

As to the question of how the members of the Commission of inquiry thought they might get to the truth, Craig told us that he is aware of the records compiled by organizations defending human rights in Honduras, the declarations of the OAS (Organisation of American States), the IACHR (Inter-American Commission of Human Rights), and the UN. “There is unfortunately, too much material. Now that we have official status it is up to us to do a lot of hard work.”

“In regard to new cases of human rights violations that are still ongoing today, we have to be on the alert to protect the integrity of the victims, given that in any country in the world in the same situation as Honduras it will be very difficult to give ultimate protection to the witnesses and the living victims” Professor Scott continued.

We asked Professor Scott if he wasn’t concerned for his own safety, given that during the time participants in the True Commission were staying in the Hotel Maya in Tegucigalpa, they were under surveillance by suspicious individuals, as evidenced on a video recording by the security staff of the same hotel.

“I’m not planning to take a lot of risks. My concern is for Hondurans, living in Honduras. I am extremely concerned about the safety of two Honduran members of the True Commission: Helen Humaña and Father Fausto Milla. I am also hoping that international pressures might protect those working with us … maybe I’m too optimistic”, said Craig, smiling.

“In fact, I have noticed subtle threats directed against us, the foreign members of the True Commission, while we were in the hotel, but none of that will stop us.” We, from defensoresenlinea.com (lawyers on the line) thanked the professor for that decision.

It is our opinion, as defenders of human rights, that at this particular point of time we are fighting a real war against the freedoms of the citizens of Honduras. How does it feel to be in the middle of this conflict?

Professor Scott stated that rather than a war he would define this as a struggle in which he is decisively aligned with the defence of human rights. The neutrality of the True Commission will be a guarantee to ensure true justice. He hopes that the results of the work of the True Commission will bring about not just cosmetic changes at the State level. He believes that it would not be enough to attempt to change the way people think, rather that there will be structural changes in Honduras, that ‘hopefully would be constitutional!’.

When asked if they would take into account those victims who had to go into exile because of the ongoing threats, Craig says that it is his dream that the final finding of the True Commission might make a big difference to the condition of the country, to the extent that those in exile would be allowed to live peacefully in the country of their birth.

In conclusion Craig presents a message to the victims and all the Honduran people, asserting that it will the duty of himself and the True Commission to ensure that the world comes to know in detail what is happening in Honduras after the coup, all the terrible human rights violations, “because we can’t allow a return to the terrible years of the 1980s, when Plan Condor killed and kidnapped hundreds and thousands of people with impunity.”

I believe it is important to regard the struggle of the Hondurans as an example to the world, and especially to Latin America.”

*Journalist of ‘defensoresenlinea.com’

** True Comission is the spanish translation of "Comisión de Verdad" opposite to the regime's Truth Comission "Comisión de la Verdad"

Translated by Fry Warwick

Stop the violence: Demand the closure of the Marlin Mine

2010-07-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Take action here.

Canadian Labour Congress on Passage of Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

2010-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Labour Congress is dismayed that despite widespread opposition from trade unions, faith groups and development non-governmental agencies, legislation to implement the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement received royal assent on June 30, 2010. Read more...

The Curse of Coal

2010-07-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Power plants in Canada – including NB Power’s Belledune plant – and elsewhere get coal for their power plants from one Colombian mine, the Cerrejón mine. This video report shows how coal consumption is contributing to negative consequences for the people living in the area.

The Danish NGO – DanWatch – has put pressure on their power plant to investigate and respond.

COFADE denounces the illegal detention of 9 minors signalled as participants in the Honduran resistance movement

2010-07-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) denounces the illegal overnight detention by police of nine minors associated with the resistance movement

Nine males between the ages of 12 and 17 were detained yesterday afternoon and held in jail overnight in a facility unsuitable for minors, without the notification of their parents/guardians or the Honduran Institute for Children and Families (INHFA). They were not charged with any criminal offense and were released at approximately 12:00 noon today after a visit by a COFADEH lawyer who petitioned for their release for several hours. These youth are reported to have participated in at least one march of the resistance movement, as part of a group of young people organizing educational activities encouraging reflection upon the political and social realities currently being experienced in Honduras.

COFADEH is manifesting grave concern to the national and international human rights community in the face of the continued criminalization and repression of young people and members of the Resistance in Honduras by state forces, such as the police, since the coup d’etat on June 28, 2009, repression which has continued in a targeted, violent manner under the government of President Porfirio Lobo in 2010. Their testimony is below.

TESTIMONY

We, the undersigned [names are committed to protect the victims’ identities as minors], who are minors, Honduran, and residents of the Sanai neighborhood of Comayagüela, freely and of our own volition appear before the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) and offer the following testimony.

FIRST: Yesterday the 1st of July between 3:30 and 4:00 PM we were in the Sinaí neighborhood in the house of our friend Jankel Alejandro, where we were having a meeting and celebration related to our school, where various Preventative Police officers arrived in patrol vehicles marked No. 103 and 109 and forced the lock of the house and entered without presenting any kind of warrant. They proceeded to search us even though we weren’t carrying anything illegal, they handcuffed our wrists with our shoelaces and loaded us onto their patrol trucks, taking us in the direction of the 5th precinct which is located in the Granja neighborhood.

SECOND: When we arrived at the above mentioned precinct they ordered us to get down from the trucks, as they watched us get down they proceeded to hit us one by one. We were in that precinct for about 10 minutes then they moved us to the 4th precinct which is in the Belén neighborhood, they took us to the jail cell there where we were detained for approximately eight hours.

THIRD: We hereby authorize COFADEH to carry out any follow-up actions that they consider to be necessary.

For the record, we sign this testimony in the city of Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District, on the 2nd day of July, 2010. [Signatures on the original document]

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras
C O F A D E H

Honduras Delegation Update July 1st 2010

2010-07-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

This update and others are also at http://commonfrontiers.ca and www.quixote.org/honduras.

Witnessing Resistance in Honduras
Quixote Centre Honduras Delegation update July 1st, 2010
Caitlin Power Hancey, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN)
(photos by delegation member Tom Martinez www.witness.printroom.com)

The Honduran resistance movement is real—it is also strong, diverse, and decidedly non-violent.

This is the last day of our international accompaniment and observation delegation to Honduras. For the past week our delegation has been busy accompanying a range of events leading up to the anniversary of the coup on June 28th, or “the anniversary active of popular resistance in Honduras.” We also continued meetings with representatives from various sectors active in the resistance movement—including women’s rights organizations, LGBTI coalitions, youth groups, academics, teacher’s unions, and peace-building organizations.

Over the weekend, we accompanied members of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) as they collected signatures—actually “sovereign declarations”—calling for a National Constituent Assembly in the Tegucigalpa neighbourhood of La Esperanza. Nationally over 800,000 signatures have been collected, and the Front expects to have 1.2 million by September 15th, which is Independence Day in Central America. These signatures will give them the moral authority and political sway, as a coalition of social movements, to convoke the National Assembly and begin the process of creating a constitution representative of the diversity of peoples, regions, sectors and experiences that make up Honduras. The current constitution, for example, does not recognize the existence of any indigenous peoples in Honduras, while it is generally considered that there are nine indigenous groups within its borders. The largest groups are the Lenca in the west and Garífuna along the northern coast.

Members of the National Front for Popular Resistence (FNRP) collect sovereign declarations asking for a National Constituent Assembly

Sunday, on the eve of the anniversary, we accompanied a peaceful candlelight march that began at Francisco Morazán Pedagogical University. It was intended to go north on Miraflores Boulevard, veer right and stop at the presidential palace, then make its way west to the Congress in the centre of the city, where there was a vigil for all of the individuals who have lost their lives to state violence since the coup. When the crowd reached the first road leading to the palace, it was barricaded with cement blocks and chain-link fencing and guarded by soldiers in riot gear with machine guns. By the time the crowd reached Suyapa Boulevard, they had passed another route blocked by military in riot gear (who’s shields read “POLICE,” in English), and the east side of the main intersection was blocked as well. The marchers stayed at the intersection for about 20 minutes, chanting at the soldiers, some marchers asking them what they were afraid of. After the crowd faced the soldiers and sang the national anthem, someone with a megaphone asked for a show of hands to determine where to go next. It was getting late, but most of the group continued on to the Congress. Before moving on, organizers sent pick-up trucks out to the edges of the crowd to try to ensure that those who weren’t continuing with the main crowd had a safe way home and that no one would be travelling alone.

Last Sunday night's candlelight march

About 11:15 that night in our guesthouse, I received a text message from a former colleague in Honduras that Berta Caceres, the leader of the Coordination of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (COPINH) had been detained by the police in the department of La Esperanza and the charges were not being made clear. Within a half-hour I received another message that she was released. I was told the next morning that the police department had received at least a dozen calls from human rights activists in Honduras and the United States and responded to the pressure. This was the night before the anniversary of the coup, when marches were being planned all over the country.

No major incidents were reported to us on Monday, the day of the anniversary. Though the marches in Tegucigalpa and other major centres were not accounted for in mainstream Honduran media, most alternative sources estimate a minimum of 10,000 participants at the Tegucigalpa march. Most people we talked with presumed that the state was aware of the international eyes on Honduras during the anniversary and wouldn’t take overtly repressive action. They believed the violations would continue in a strategic, targeted, and “silent” way, which has been the pattern observed since the Lobo government took power at the end of January. In a country with an average of 15 violent deaths a day, it’s not considered difficult for those who want to pass off political violence—including assassinations—as common delinquency, or to smear the victim by insinuating involvement in criminal activity.

The audience at the inauguration of the True Commission (a people's alternative to the state-sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission) sing the Honduran national anthem.

Our group temporarily left the anniversary march to observe the inauguration of the True Commission (Comisión de Verdad)--the alternative to the government-sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission), and others from the march soon joined. The energy was high in the auditorium, which was full, and international support from across the Americas was present. That afternoon and evening there was a concert on the grounds of the Pedagogical University showcasing Honduran musicians and original resistance music written since the coup.

After the anniversary our delegation had meetings with organizations representing the two groups hardest hit by political assassinations following the coup—the LGBTI community, who have lost 27, and teachers, who have lost 21. When our delegation members asked why each of those groups were so heavily targeted, representatives from ARCOIRIS, an organization that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people, said its in large part because they are considered by those responsible to be some of the most dispensable and disreputable members of the population, and therefore of the resistance. In our meeting with the presidents of five different teachers unions we were told simply that to repress teachers is to repress the next generation of resisters—and the strategy was clear.

Feminists in Resistance (in the purple t-shirts) at Monday's anniversary March

We also met with representatives from Feminists in Resistance, a collective of individuals and women’s organizations that formed after the coup, who outlined the particular, gendered ways that women have been targeted in the resistance—from rape and sexualized beatings perpetrated by soldiers and police during demonstrations and curfews, to references in the mainstream media to “loose” and “irresponsible” women who take to the streets instead of taking care of their families. They also expressed clear determination to regain the ground they lost after the coup in terms of women’s rights, and sincere hope that with the increased organization and rejuvenation of their movement they would get even further. According to these representatives, since Lobo has taken power, the morning-after pill—and any education or advertising referencing it—has been made illegal. A new, inclusive sexual education guide that they had approved under the Zelaya government has been gutted, and the hard-won Institute for Women is being shut down and reportedly replaced with an “Institute for the Family.”

This morning, a couple of hours before delegation members were scheduled to leave for the airport and return home, we received a call that a highly-visible member of the resistance, whose partner was killed as a result of tear gas poisoning during a demonstration last year, had been arrested for an alleged traffic violation. He was reportedly badly burned by pepper spray from the police officers, had been tasered, and also couldn’t open one eye. Some delegates went to the local police station with staff from the Committee of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADE) to inquire about his welfare and ask if they could see him on their way to the airport. Shortly afterwards, we found out that a warrant was now out for the arrest of another outspoken member of the resistance because two years ago workers had cut down trees on her rural property, allegedly violating environmental laws.

A member of the resistance is who has been pepper sprayed and tasered is released from police custody following a visit from the director of COFADEH

On this Canada Day there is no shortage of recent events that encourage me to reflect on our country’s role internationally in support of violent, repressive regimes—such as backing the post-coup regime in Honduras, continuing support for Israel’s war on Gaza and the Palestinian people, and the recent signing of the bi-lateral free trade agreement with Colombia. And with the recent detentions, violence, and violations of civil liberties during the G20 meetings in Toronto, we’ve got several more reasons to doubt our current government’s respect for human rights at home, including the right to dissent.

I want to reiterate that the resistance movement is large, vibrant, multi-faceted, and decidedly present in Honduras. We do not hear about it via mainstream in North America, if we hear about the situation in Honduras at all, and major media in Honduras clearly misrepresents and undermines its existence. All representatives we met with insisted that as international delegates we must counteract the lies and omissions and let people in our countries know that their movement is real. In our meeting with him yesterday, Dr. Juan Almendares Bonilla, the Executive Director of the Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Torture Victims and their Families (CPTRT) and an eminent human rights defender in Honduras, reminded us that international solidarity between peoples—despite the national boundaries and governments that divide us—is the most important and essential power we have, and we need to exercise it, mutually.

For more information about this delegation and additional updates or media releases:
The Quixote Centre: www.quixote.org/honduras
Common Frontiers Canada: http://commonfrontiers.ca

For more information about the recent situation in Honduras and Canada’s role:
Honduras: Democracy Denied
A Report From the CCIC’s Americas Policy Group With Recommendations To The Government Of Canada

Honduras Delegation Update - June 25, 2010

2010-06-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

by Caitlin Power Hancey, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network and Breaking the Silence Network

Which “Truth” will the world support in Honduras?

Today was second day of our international human rights accompaniment and observation delegation in Honduras. Initial meetings were held yesterday with representatives from the International Committee and the leadership of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), and Platform for Human Rights in Honduras, a coalition of human rights organization. They gave a general overview of the events leading up to the coup on June 28 of last year, the human rights situation in Honduras since the coup, and their continued work to reconstruct democracy in Honduras under increasing repression. This violent repression has continued under the government Porfirio Lobo, who was named president following a campaign and election process held under the auspices of the de facto coup government in the last half of 2009.

Today we had further sessions with the Lawyers Front and Lawyers in Resistance, legal experts who meticulously outlined for us the judicial framework under which the coup occurred and explained the legal processes by which popular movements in Honduras are petitioning to eventually rewrite their constitution. The lawyers also clearly established the legality of ousted president Mel Zelaya’s proposed referendum on a National Constituent Assembly, and that in no possible way could this referendum or any steps following it have lead to his reelection. This is important, because those who carried out the coup in Honduras, as well as some of the foreign governments who initially condemned it, such as Canada and the US, still state the “reason” for the coup as Zelaya’s renegade referendum that allegedly violated the constitution, effectively blaming the ousted president as well as those who carried it out and consequently took power (General Romeo Vásquez, former head of the armed forces and Roberto Micheletti, former president of the Congress).

This afternoon, leadership of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADE) spoke bluntly with us about the cycle of violence they have witnessed and worked to transform since the early 1980s, their efforts to achieve justice for the murders and forced disappearances of their loved ones, and their despair and persistence in the face of renewed violent repression since the coup (including direct political assassinations—21 since late January alone when Lobo took power—and the renewed activities of clandestine death squads that were initially active in the 1980s). This is not the information being disseminated about the current situation in the country by mainstream media, either here in Honduras or North America.

All organizations we spoke with made reference to the government sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which despite being elaborated without fulfilling any of the minimum international standards for such Commissions, is being fully endorsed by the Canadian and US governments. This official commission proposes to investigate the events leading to the 2009 coup, as well as the human rights violations that followed. However, victims of these human rights violations have not been included in the formation of the commission, such as the process of appointing individuals to the commission, or deciding how the investigations of the commission will take place. President Porfirio Lobo is responsible for appointments to the commission. It has a mandate of four and a half months, yet according to the organizations we met with, the commission is not committing to releasing results for 10 years. The representatives we met with reiterated that it is an imposed commission—not one that has arisen from dialogue among affected parties seeking a common solution—and asked us, “how can truth and reconciliation be imposed?” They’re convinced the primary motivation behind the commission is the political weight it will carry in allowing them to be formally recognized as a legitimate government, and help them be reintegrated into international bodies such as the Organization of American States (OAS), which Canada and the US are lobbying particularly hard for.

Canadian Michael Kergin, former diplomat and lawyer with Bennett Jones LLP, a law firm that works with Canadian mining companies active in Honduras, has been appointed to the government-sponsored Truth Commission, and Minister of State (Americas) Peter Kent has specifically endorsed on several occasions. Many consider Kergin’s appointment to reflect a clear conflict of interest. Canadian mining and textile companies are very active in Honduras and are reported to have benefited from the 2009 coup, which some argue relieved them from proposed economic, legal and land reforms proposed by the Zelaya administration.

These are some of the reasons why the Platform for Human Rights in Honduras has elaborated an alternative commission, which they call “the True Commission” (la “Comisión de Verdad” in Spanish, vs. the government sponsored “Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación”). According to representatives, they have gone through all the processes required by international law for creating this commission—and they have formally informed the United Nations, the G-16 group of donor countries in Honduras, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). They report that not one of these bodies has discouraged them from moving forward with the True Commission, but each has reiterated the danger and risk they put themselves in as organizations and individuals in Honduras by moving forward with their alternative Commission. This response is taken as further evidence of the oppressive climate of fear and silence perpetuated by the state, which makes it fundamentally unsuitable for overseeing such a commission. Honduran human rights defenders are proposing that the True Commission be entirely independent and autonomous, even from the Platform and the FNRP, and that it have one year to carry out it’s mandate, with the commitment of reporting it’s results in July of 2011.

Canada will also be represented on this alternative commission by York University law professor Craig Scott, who is a full Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University. Other members include legal experts, judges, religious leaders, and human rights advocates from across the Americas.

The True Commission will be inaugurated early next week during the activities surrounding the one-year anniversary of the coup in Tegucigalpa. Our delegation will be present for these activities to give witness to Hondurans’ demands for representative democracy and respect for human rights. We have been asked to speak to our friends and networks at home, to let you know that the majority of Hondurans are committed to seeking the truth—the real truth—and pursuing justice, non-violent resolution, and participatory democracy, but that they need the rest of the world to listen.

For more information see media release below

"Alive you took them, alive we want them"
A banner hung inside the main meeting room of COFADE (Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras)

Bi-national Delegation to Conduct Human Rights Accompaniment and Observation in Lead-Up to the 1-year Anniversary of the Coup d’État in Honduras

2010-06-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release – June 24, 2010

Representatives of Canadian Human Rights Groups available for interviews from Honduras, June 24-July 1

Halifax/Toronto/Vancouver & Tegucigalpa, Honduras – A bi-national delegation of Canadian and US representatives from labour, human rights, and faith-based organizations will be in Honduras from June 24 to July 1, to conduct human rights accompaniment and observation around the one-year anniversary of the coup d’état on June 28. The delegation’s members hope that their presence will mitigate human rights violations by the Honduran military and police, and that they will be able to document any violations that occur.

“By providing witness in Honduras, by being there in the presence of people peacefully demonstrating for human rights and a return to democracy, we hope we can dissuade further repression and violence,” said Tom Loudon, Co-Director of the US based Quixote Center, who will be helping to lead the delegation.

Various international organizations, have documented grave human rights violations that have occurred since the coup on June 28, 2009—particularly against human rights defenders and journalists.[1] These violations have continued since Porfirio Lobo was named President in January 2010, following widely contested elections held in November 2009 under the coup regime. The Committee of Families of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) has documented 710 human rights violations during the first few months of the Lobo regime alone (January 28 through April 10), including 43 confirmed political murders before March 1. The Canadian government, meanwhile, has congratulated the Lobo government on restoring democracy in Honduras and restored full economic and military cooperation.

Minister of State (Americas) Peter Kent recognized last year’s broadly-contested elections as “relatively free and fair”[2]—though held under the auspices of the coup regime without the reinstatement of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya or the implementation of the San José Accords, negotiated by the Organization of American States (OAS), which has still not recognized the current Honduran regime. Some unofficial international observers (the EU and the OAS declined to send observers), on the other hand, noted “low turnout” and a “strong military and police presence” at the polling stations that they visited. The election day was also marked by violence against demonstrators, including in the second-largest city, San Pedro Sula, and raided the offices of various groups opposed to the coup.[3] Amnesty International denounced police detentions under a decree prohibiting gatherings of more than four people.[4]

Canada and the US support the government-sponsored Truth Commission to investigate human rights violations that have taken place. This initiative is strongly criticized by the Honduran Platform for Human Rights, a coalition including representation from each of Honduras’ key human rights organizations. The Platform asserts “conditions for such a commission do not exist,” given that, among other reasons; violations continue to be perpetrated against those who condemn the coup d’état, and state officials implicated in human rights violations continue to hold office and could therefore influence the investigation process.[5]

“With a toothless mandate and suspect commissioners, the legitimacy of the Lobo Truth Commission is questioned both in Hondurans and internationally. In an effort to ensure that the voices of those affected by the ongoing violence will be heard, Honduran human rights organizations will hold the inaugural meeting of the yearlong alternative people's Truth Commission on June 28th in Tegucigalpa. Canada will be well represented on this people's commission by York University law professor Craig Scott,”[6] says Rick Arnold of Common Frontiers Canada.

The international human rights accompaniment delegation will observe this inauguration.[7] While in Honduras, the members of the delegation also plan to meet with various civil society organizations and to observe a public presentation of the results of a National Consultation on the need for a Constituent Assembly, organized by the broad-based National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP).

The following delegation members will be reachable via cell phone in Honduras

from June 24-July 1:

Caitlin Power Hancey, capoha@gmail.com, +504-8814-3553 (cell phone in Honduras)

Caitlin has been a member of the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN) since 2005 and is from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has worked as an international human rights accompanier in Guatemala and has been involved in human rights and community development in Nova Scotia, Guatemala, and Honduras for over 10 years.

Susan Lambert slambert@bctf.ca, +504-8814-3553 (cell phone in Honduras)

President elect of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, representing the 41 000 public school teachers of British Columbia, Canada. The BCTF has worked on international human rights projects in Africa, Central and South America for many years and is committed to international solidarity focused on social justice, equity and civil society issues.

Tom Loudon, toml@quixote.org, +504-9801-5913 (cell phone in Honduras)

Tom is Co-Director of the Quixote Center, based in Maryland, USA Tom has lived in Central America for fifteen of the past twenty years. He worked for two years with Witness for Peace, and subsequently worked in war zones to resettle internally displaced communities. As a regional representative for the American Friends Service Committee, he supported regional and hemispheric-wide initiatives to resist and promote alternatives to neoliberal economic policies in the Americas through the Hemispheric Social Alliance.

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For additional information:

Rick Arnold, Common Frontiers Canada www.commonfrontiers.ca, Toronto, 905-373-8792, from June 24-26

Jenny Atlee, Quixote Centre www.quixote.org, Maryland, USA, 301-699-0042 or 301-614-9549

Emma Feltes, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network http://arsncanada.blogspot.com, Halifax, 902-877-9628

[1] Preliminary Observations Of The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights on its visit to Honduras, May 15 to 18, 2010 http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Honduras10eng/Honduras10TOC.eng.htm;

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the violations of human rights in Honduras since the coup d’état on 28 June 2009. http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/9224379.06265259.html;

[2] Meeting No. 25 FAAE - Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, Thursday, Jun 17, 2010, http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Parlvu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=6447

[3] http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/Honduras/Release_Dec03_09.html

[4] Amnesty International, “Honduras: Authorities must reveal identities and whereabouts of people detained today”, press release. November 30, 2009. http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE200911301429&lang=e

[5] http://quixote.org/sites/quixote.org/files/PLATAFORMA%20press%20release%202.18.10%20English_0.pdf

[6] Craig Scott is a full Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, the Director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University, and a founding editor of "Transnational Legal Theory: A Quarterly Journal".

[7] Canadian Michael Kergin, former diplomat and lawyer with Bennett Jones LLP, a law firm that works with Canadian mining companies active in Honduras, has been appointed to the government-sponsored Truth Commission. Canadian mining and textile companies are very active in Honduras and are reported to have benefited from the 2009 coup, which some argue relieved them from proposed economic, legal and land reforms proposed by the Zelaya administration.

Demand Senate hearings on Canada-Colombia FTA

2010-06-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

ACTION ALERT: Demand Senate hearings on Canada-Colombia free trade deal

Letter from Maude Barlow to Chairs of the Senate Standing Committees on International Trade and Human Rights, regarding Bill C-2, ratification legislation for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. June 15, 2010

VIDEO - Mock burial on Parliament Hill part 1
Gerry Barr, President-CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), speaks about the struggle to stop the CCFTA. June 14, 2010

VIDEO - Mock burial on Parliament Hill pt. 2
Sheila Katz from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) speaks about the struggle to stop the CCFTA. June 14, 2010

Goldcorp Drilled by Shareholders

2010-06-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

Mining company challenged at AGM to respect host communities
by Valerie Croft
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

TORONTO—Shareholders of Canadian mining giant Goldcorp Inc. got a glimpse—albeit brief—into the lives of Central Americans whose land is being exploited by the company for gold. Some even paid attention.

Representatives from communities hosting Goldcorp mines in Central America made their way from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to address the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Toronto on May 19, 2010.

Shareholders learned about the devastating effects Goldcorp’s operations have had on communities in Central America. The presenters told of an increase in health problems, cracked houses, widespread social conflict and the criminalization of protest in their towns and villages. Read more...

Resolution submitted to Goldcorp's shareholders

2010-03-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

Please find below a resolution submitted to Goldcorp shareholders today, March 19, 2010 in Vancouver. The resolution was submitted by members of the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network who are deeply concerned about the situation of the communities affected by the Marlin mine, operated by Goldcorp subsidiary Montana Exploradora, and the rights of indigenous communities throughout Guatemala, in Canada and globally.

WHEREAS:

Through subsidiaries Entre Mares and Montana Exploradora, Goldcorp Inc. owns approximately 27 mining recognition, exploration, and extraction licenses in Guatemala, many on lands owned or occupied by indigenous peoples.

Guatemala suffered a severe internal conflict during 36 years, with over 200,000 citizens killed and over 40,000 forcibly disappeared, most of whom were indigenous Maya.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has asked the Guatemalan government to suspend mining operations that have violated ILO Convention No. 169 (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples), including Goldcorp’s Marlin project in the Western Highlands, until the affected population has been adequately consulted. ILO Convention No. 169 protects the rights of communities to be consulted prior to any developments on their lands.

The United Nation’s Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) protects the right of indigenous communities to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) regarding development projects and other use of their lands. Consent must be obtained from affected populations according to their traditional customs or decision-making processes. A precedent-setting case in the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, Saramaka vs. Suriname, upholds this right.

The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations has found that corporations have the responsibility to respect international human rights.

Environmentalists have been targeted in Guatemala, and elsewhere, where mining has generated conflict. Examples of this include the attempted assassination of the Director of the Center for Environmental and Social Legal Action ,Yuri Melini, in 2008, the murder of teacher and Mayan Qeqchi community leader, Adolfo Ich Chaman on September 27, 2009, and the murder of Walter Mendez, son of Arturo Mendez, the community leader who attended last year’s AGM, only months before his son’s assassination. Additionally, three members of the Front in Defense of Natural Resources and People’s Rights (FRENA) have been assassinated since October of 2009. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights publicly condemned the murders of Guatemalan anti-mining activists on February 25, 2010.

Goldcorp incorporates language of “social license” into its policies but has no policy specifically on the right to FPIC, which leaders in the industry have already adopted.

RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the board create and adopt, by September 1st, 2010, a corporate policy on the right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) for its operations impacting indigenous communities and all communities dependent on natural resources for survival.

PROPONENTS' SUPPORTING STATEMENT

We ask the board to consider the following in creating this policy:

1.To respect the UNDRIP as best practice with regards to FPIC rights.

2.Take specific note of the legal difference between consultation and consent.

3.Implement this policy retroactively to ensure that all our mining licenses were obtained in adherence to this policy.

4.Cease all operations, expansion, and exploration where consent of the affected population has not been obtained by the state.

5.Apply this policy to any license with partial or full Goldcorp ownership.

Groups File Documentation with RCMP on Canadian Mining Company's Involvement in Mexican Corruption Case

2010-03-16T17:27:00.001-07:00

MiningWatch Canada - Common Frontiers - Council of Canadians - United Steelworkers - Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine - Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network - Sierra Club Canada - L'Entraide missionnaire - Social Justice Committee

For Immediate Release - March 10, 2010

(Ottawa and Toronto) A coalition of Canadian non-governmental groups today filed a memo with the RCMP asking it to investigate Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd. and its Mexican subsidiary under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. Blackfire had submitted documentation of its payments to the mayor of Chicomuselo in the state of Chiapas, Mexico to the state Congress in June, 2009. These documents are now in the hands of the RCMP. Bribing a foreign public official is illegal under the rarely-used Act, one of the few Canadian laws that applies internationally. Under this Act any person found guilty could face up to five years in jail.

"There are really no other legal controls on the activities of Canadian companies operating internationally," said MiningWatch Canada spokesperson Jamie Kneen. "We're especially interested to see anything can be done in this particular case because it's so appalling." Rick Arnold, coordinator of Common Frontiers, added, "The company's own documents show that it paid off the local Mayor and another municipal authority. We need to know - and the Mexicans deserve to know - that something can be done about this."

According to a document signed by Mr. Artemio Avila Cervera, a director of Blackfire Canada and Blackfire Mexico's General Manager of Social Responsibility, Blackfire Mexico has made payments totalling at least 204,022.69 Mexican pesos (equivalent to approximately CDN$20,000 at prevailing exchange rates) to Mr. Julio César Velázquez Calderón, the Mayor of the municipality of Chicomuselo in the state of Chiapas, Mexico for unofficial services for the benefit of Blackfire Mexico. The company has also provided the mayor with other benefits including airline tickets for himself, his family and his associates.

As Ken Neumann, Canadian director of the United Steelworkers pointed out, "Companies like Blackfire are the face of Canada abroad. Self-regulation through a 'corporate social responsibility' framework is clearly not working and so it is essential that the RCMP investigate these allegations and hold Blackfire to account for its actions."

Blackfire has been in the news since November 27, 2009, when Mariano Abarca Roblero, a prominent Mexican anti-mining activist, was shot to death in front of his home in Chicomuselo. Mr. Abarca was a leader of the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA, from the Spanish) and one of the most important figures to publicly denounce the negative social and environmental impacts of Blackfire's open-pit barite mine in Chiapas. Three current and former Blackfire employees have been arrested for his murder.

According to a recent report in the Mexican press, Blackfire is also threatening to sue the government of Chiapas for $800 million in compensation under Chapter 11 of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) for the closure of its barite mine by local environmental authorities in December, 2009.

A Canadian non-governmental delegation will visit Chiapas during the week of March 20-27 to review the situation with local organisations and government officials.

The memorandum and associated documentation are available at http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/groups-file-documentation-with-rcmp-canadian-mining-company-s-involvement-mexican-corruption-case.

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For more information please contact:
1. Common Frontiers - Rick Arnold (905) 352-2430 - comfront(at)web.ca
2. Sierra Club Canada - Michael Bernard (613) 241-4611x230 (office) (613) 302-9933 (cell) - michaelb(at)sierraclub.ca
3. MiningWatch Canada - Jamie Kneen (613) 569-3439 (office) (613) 761-2273 (cell) - jamie(at)miningwatch.ca
4. United Steelworkers - Mark Rowlinson (416) 544-5983 - mrowlinson(at)usw.ca
5. Council of Canadians - Dylan Penner (613) 795-8685 - dpenner(at)canadians.org

An Open Letter to David Brooks, New York Times Columnist

2010-01-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

This letter was endorsed by the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network:

Dear Mr. Brooks,

In your January 15, 2010 opinion piece in The New York Times, “The Underlying Tragedy,” you present what you seem to believe is a bold assessment of the situation in Haiti and what you certainly know is a provocative recommendation for Haiti’s future. You also offer some advice to President Obama. In order to successfully keep his promise to the people of Haiti that they “will not be forsaken” nor “forgotten” the President, you say, has to “acknowledge a few difficult truths.”
What follows, however, is so shockingly ignorant of Haitian history and culture and so saturated with the language and ideology of cultural imperialism that no valuable “truths” remain.

Please allow us, therefore, to present you with some more accurate truths.
First, Haiti is not a clear-cut case of the failure of international aid to achieve poverty reduction. For almost its entire existence Haiti has been shouldered with a load of immense international debt. The Haitian people had the audacity to break their chains and declare independence in 1804 but were later forced by France to re-purchase their freedom for 150 million Francs, a burden that the country has had to carry throughout the twentieth century.

What’s more, the “aid” Haiti has received from its powerful neighbor to the North has never been the sort that would help the country reduce poverty or achieve meaningful development.

In the early-twentieth century the principle “aid” Haiti received from the United States came in the form of a brutal military occupation that lasted from 1915 to 1934. After “Papa Doc” Duvalier ascended to power “aid” meant assistance to a ruthless (but conveniently anti-communist) dictator. The U.S. gave Duvalier $40.4 million in his first four years in power, briefly suspended military and economic assistance to the dictator in 1963, but resumed shortly thereafter, restoring full military and economic aid to Duvalier by 1969.

In the early 1970s and 1980s when “Baby Doc” Duvalier was at the helm, the “aid” the United States and other international agencies contributed failed to reduce poverty but did enrich foreign investors in the newly constructed assembly industry.
Economic policies that the U.S. forced upon Haiti decimated its agriculture for the benefit of American farming while driving Haiti’s peasants into Port-au-Prince and other cities where they found few jobs and scarce housing.

Four years after Baby Doc’s departure the Haitian people decided to help themselves by democratically electing a new leader, but the United States aided Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s domestic opponents in the coup of 1991 and did so again in 2004.
It is no wonder then, that that such “aid” from the United States has failed to lift Haiti out of poverty.

Equally unconvincing is your argument about “progress-resistant cultural influences,” which brings us to important truth number two: Haitian culture is not “progress-resistant” as anyone familiar with the examples you yourself provide can attest to. If Vodoun or “the voodoo religion” as you put it, “spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile,” how do the majority of Haitians manage to survive on scant resources and less than two dollars-a-day?

How do so many Haitians manage to travel abroad, find and maintain difficult jobs, and send money back home if not through careful planning and a fierce defense of precious life? How do the nationwide customers of Fonkoze, the Haitian banking operation that teaches literacy and business practices to curbside marketers to whom it makes small loans, achieve such strong records of loan repayment?

In fact, it might be Haitian culture itself (and even Vodoun) which allows Haitians to persist. After all, the Vodou spirit Ogou (St. Jacques) is honored as a clever planner and master of skills.

So was the champion of Haiti’s war of independence, general Toussaint L’Ouverture, a onetime slave who entered history as a military and diplomatic genius.

The third important truth we have to offer (and we hope President Obama is listening as well) is the opposite of your call for “intrusive paternalism” as the solution to Haiti’s woes: Haiti does not need nor does it want the paternalism of the United States. Haiti is literally dying of cultural imperialism.

Whenever America’s leaders and pundits speak of subordinate peoples, the ideology of imperialism shines through. As it does in your words, Mr. Brooks, so it has done for far too many earlier Americans.

President William McKinley, for example, facing the difficult question of how he was to govern the newly-conquered Filipinos worried that left “to themselves they are unfit for self-government-and they would soon have anarchy and misrule . . . there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them.”

Closer to home, those who worried about an earlier form of “progress-resistant cultural influences” decided it was better to remove the children of Native American families than to let them absorb the backwardness of their pagan and uncivilized parents and community. A common refrain by these “reformers” was “kill the Indian, save the man.”

And now, Mr. Brooks, you propose to save the Haitians from themselves by replacing Haitian cultural values and institutions with “middle-class assumptions, an achievement ethos and tough, measurable demands.”

Imperialism, whether economic or military, is the primary reason for the conditions that so worsened the impact of the earthquake on January 12. Haitians need less imperialism, not more.

During the Vietnam War an American officer famously stated that “it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.” Today Haiti is virtually destroyed. The earthquake having done the hard part, Mr. Brooks, you think “intrusive paternalism” will save it. Lacking a foundational understanding of Haitian history and culture, and bearing the familiar colors of American imperialism you and your ilk will do vastly more harm than good.

SIGNERS:
The above was in response to the following column:
January 15, 2010'
THE UNDERLYING TRAGEDY
NYT Op-Ed Columnist, By DAVID BROOKS
On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died.
This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: “You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty. He’s going to have to acknowledge a few difficult truths.
The first of those truths is that we don’t know how to use aid to reduce poverty. Over the past few decades, the world has spent trillions of dollars to generate growth in the developing world. The countries that have not received much aid, like China, have seen tremendous growth and tremendous poverty reductions. The countries that have received aid, like Haiti, have not.
In the recent anthology “What Works in Development?,” a group of economists try to sort out what we’ve learned. The picture is grim. There are no policy levers that consistently correlate to increased growth. There is nearly zero correlation between how a developing economy does one decade and how it does the next. There is no consistently proven way to reduce corruption. Even improving governing institutions doesn’t seem to produce the expected results.
The chastened tone of these essays is captured by the economist Abhijit Banerjee: “It is not clear to us that the best way to get growth is to do growth policy of any form. Perhaps making growth happen is ultimately beyond our control.”
The second hard truth is that micro-aid is vital but insufficient. Given the failures of macrodevelopment, aid organizations often focus on microprojects. More than 10,000 organizations perform missions of this sort in Haiti. By some estimates, Haiti has more nongovernmental organizations per capita than any other place on earth. They are doing the Lord’s work, especially these days, but even a blizzard of these efforts does not seem to add up to comprehensive change.
Third, it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and colonialism. But so does Barbados, and Barbados is doing pretty well. Haiti has endured ruthless dictators, corruption and foreign invasions. But so has the Dominican Republic, and the D.R. is in much better shape. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic environment, yet the border between the two societies offers one of the starkest contrasts on earth — with trees and progress on one side, and deforestation and poverty and early death on the other.
As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.
We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.
Fourth, it’s time to promote locally led paternalism. In this country, we first tried to tackle poverty by throwing money at it, just as we did abroad. Then we tried microcommunity efforts, just as we did abroad. But the programs that really work involve intrusive paternalism.
These programs, like the Harlem Children’s Zone and the No Excuses schools, are led by people who figure they don’t understand all the factors that have contributed to poverty, but they don’t care. They are going to replace parts of the local culture with a highly demanding, highly intensive culture of achievement — involving everything from new child-rearing practices to stricter schools to better job performance.
It’s time to take that approach abroad, too. It’s time to find self-confident local leaders who will create No Excuses countercultures in places like Haiti, surrounding people — maybe just in a neighborhood or a school — with middle-class assumptions, an achievement ethos and tough, measurable demands.
The late political scientist Samuel P. Huntington used to acknowledge that cultural change is hard, but cultures do change after major traumas. This earthquake is certainly a trauma. The only question is whether the outside world continues with the same old, same old.

Salvadoran anti-mining activists murdered and threatened in Cabañas

2010-01-25T17:31:00.000-08:00

The Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network endorsed and sent this letter:

To:

Romeo Barahona, Attorney General

Rodolfo Delgado, Federal Prosecutor

Manuel Melgar, Minister of Public Security

Carlos Antonio Asencio Girón, General Director of the National Civilian Police

Oscar Humberto Luna, Human Rights Ombudsman

Herman Rosa Chávez, Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources

Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena, Honorable President

THE UNDERSIGNED SALVADORAN ORGANIZATIONS IN EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, THE UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEMBERS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZAIONS

GIVEN THAT:

During the last six months there have been four assassinations in the Department of Cabañas, the first in June of Marcelo Rivera, who was kidnapped, tortured and assassinated; the second on December 20 of Ramiro Rivera Gómez and his companion; and the most recent on December 26 of Dora Alicia Sorto, whose husband José Santos is the spokesperson for the Environmental Committee of Cabañas. At the time of her assassination, Mrs. Sorto was in the eighth month of pregnancy and her two year old son was also wounded in the attack.

In addition to these crimes, resulting from systematic violence, death threats against journalists of Radio Victoria, the director of the Economic and Social Development Association of Santa Marta (ADES), and various other leaders of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas continue. There was also a sabotage of the electronic system of Radio Victoria, the attempted kidnapping and death threats against Father Luis Quintanilla, and more than three separate attempted murders of Santos, husband of Mrs.
Sorto.

These acts have occurred within the context of a community struggle against mineral mining in Cabañas, a struggle against the presence, planning and execution of mining projects proposed by U.S. and Canadian corporations and the multi-million dollar lawsuits brought against the Salvadoran government by Pacific Rim, its subsidiaries and Commerce group through ICSID and the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement.

After the assassination of Marcelo Rivera in June, more than one hundred organizations in the U.S. and Canada sent a letter to the Attorney General’s office expressing their serious concern with this violation of human rights. Representative Jim McGovern of the U.S. Congress also expressed the same concern in meetings with Mr. Romeo Barahona, Attorney General, and representatives of President Mauricio Funes’ administration during his recent visit to El Salvador.

WE DECLARE THAT:

We unite our voices in condemning these assassinations and death threats against community organization and leaders who are fighting to conserve and defend the environment in El Salvador and around the world. New criminal threats have been discovered circulating through anonymous letters, which insinuate that these assassinations and threats cannot be attributed to common delinquency.

It alarms us that the Attorney General’s office under the direction of Ástor Escalante judged a priori that some of these crimes were a result of common violence, ignoring the evidence and antecedents that were presented indicating the political nature of the events. The Attorney Generals’s Office, now under the direction of Romero Barahona has the opportunity to put an end to this impunity.

We send out our condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims, to all the people of the communities affected by these assassinations, along with our complete support to the environmental organizations in these communities.

We oppose the existence of armed groups that anonymously claim to be financed to continue with these kinds of crimes. We believe that these armed groups are motivated by the community resistance against the presence of Pacific Rim.

We observe with indignation as Pacific Rim, without reason or legal standing, continues to pressure the communities affected until they give in. Pacific Rim has disrespected the will of these communities and the decision of the government by imposing a multi-million suite against the Salvadoran State, without caring about the fragile financial situation of the country and the economic effects that such a suite could cause on the precarious economy of Salvadoran families.

We adamantly declare ourselves against the inefficiency, disinterest and the negligence demonstrated by Romeo Barahona, the Attorney General of the Republic, to deepen the investigations, clarify the identity of the material and intellectual culprits of these crimes and bring them to justice under the full weight of the law.

We adamantly condemn these acts of violence that ignore and violate human rights, the right to organize and the freedom of expression of the citizens of the communities of Cabañas in their peaceful resistance to defend their quality of life and the environment.

We demand:

* That the Attorney’s General’s office and the National Civilian police designate all necessary resources in order to determine the whereabouts, then arrest, imprison and prosecute the material and intellectual authors of all of these crimes, whomever those responsible may be.

* That the investigations are also directed at the leadership and members of the National Civilian Police in Cabañas. That police force has received many complaints and up until now there has not been a disciplinary file opened about their conduct nor has there been personnel changes. Should any of these officials be involved, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

* That the criminal and civil responsibility of Pacific Rim Mining in these acts be investigated, and if evidence is forthcoming, that they be tried in the appropriate national or international courts.

* That the investigations include public officials, mayors and all persons connected to mining companies that have material and economic resources that could be involved in the protection and financing of hit men or hired assassins.

* That the Attorney General’s Office complies with the recommendations of the Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna to create a special commission with the National Civilian Police (PNC) to investigate the attempted murders and death threats against environmental activists.

* That, due to the fact that the PNC has the responsibility to protect the lives and physical safety of the people in Cabañas who continue to receive death threats and that the current delegation of police in Cabañas has proven itself incapable of this, a delegation of new police agents with clean records be immediately installed in Cabañas for the protection of all those who are receiving death threats. A thorough investigation into the authors of these threats should also be carried out.

* That the Attorney General Romeo Barahona name a new director of the Elite Division of Organized Crime. The current director, Rodolfo Delgado, has proven himself to be incapable of investigating these crimes to the fullest extent and exploring the political motivation behind them. We demand that Barahona name a new and capable director who has a clean record.

* That the Attorney General accepts the petition to provide evidence presented by lawyer Luis Francisco Lopez Guzman in the cases of Mr. Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, Mr. Ramiro Rivera Gómez, and Mrs. Dora Alicia Sorto Rodríguez.

* That the Honorable Mauricio Funes make available all resources and trained personnel to carry out an investigation that guarantees that those responsible are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Allowing these events to remain in impunity would generate a climate of fear and doubt for other community leaders and thus undermine the advances in the process of democratization that El Salvador has achieved. Furthermore, it would send a message to the intellectual authors that they can continue their wave of violence and assassinations with no consequences whatsoever.

In advance, we thank you for your efforts to speed up the investigations and we hope that justice will soon be reached in these cases, as well as that protection to the victims and reparations to the family members of those assassinated will be provided.

Letter against the human rights abuses in post-coup Honduras

2010-01-25T17:29:00.000-08:00

The Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network has endorsed this letter:

We, the undersigned workers, artists, & intellectuals, strongly condemn the widespread human rights atrocities against the Honduran people, beginning with the military coup on June 28th of 2009. Reports from human rights organizations emerge every day detailing state repression, from rape to assassination, of members of the non-violent resistance, whose aim is to restore constitutional order to their country and foster the creation of a more just society.

These abuses by the Honduran state violate nearly every article of the American Convention on Human Rights, to which Honduras is a signatory, beginning with the rupture of constitutional order and resulting in thousands of rights violations.

As recognized by the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, and documented extensively by COFADEH, Honduras’ leading human rights organization, the coup regime has demonstrated a premeditated pattern of violent tactics with which it aims to quell the resistance to the coup:

* Mass detentions in subhuman prison facilities
* The repression of assembly and mobility by means of excessive force
* The establishment of curfews and the suspension of constitutional guarantees
* Rape and gang rape
* Targeted assassinations
* The censorship of media by means of threatening and killing journalists, employing blackouts, confiscating equipment, & the outright closure of anti-coup TV and Radio stations
* Torture
* Disappearance and kidnapping
* Psychological warfare
* Impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes

Though these acts have been carried out by the police and the armed forces, there has been an alarming increase in the use of paramilitary personnel. The United Nations reported that some 40 ex-members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia — Latin America’s largest paramilitary outfit, & terrorist organization as designated by the US State Department — had been employed by Honduran landowners. An increasing number of assassinations and abductions have been carried out by unidentified agents.

This repression has disproportionately targeted marginalized communities, such as indigenous, campesino, & afro-Honduran groups. The LGBT community, for one, recently lost one of its young leaders, Walter Trochez, 27, gunned down by masked assailants on December 13th. Trochez’ murder is the sixteenth suffered by the LGBT community since the overthrow of Zelaya.

On December 11th, the body of Santos Corrales Garcia appeared decapitated in a neighborhood outside of Tegucigalpa. Garcia was a local leader of the non-violent resistance, and had been detained six days earlier by heavily armed members of the National Criminal Investigation Division. Garcia’s body showed signs of torture, indicative of a low-intensity campaign to create collective fear, according to human rights advocate Andres Pavon.

Violence against women has also escalated greatly. As written in the Christian Science Monitor: “As of August, women’s groups in Honduras have documented 249 cases of violations of women’s human rights, including 23 cases of beatings and sexual assault and seven gang rapes by police explicitly trying to “punish” women for their involvement in demonstrations. The number of femicides –the violent murder of women because they are women – has tripled since the coup, with 51 cases reported during the month of July alone.”

In the face of all this, the regime held elections on November 29th, resulting in the “victory” of Pepe Lobo of the National Party. The sharp rise in brutality in the aftermath of the elections indicates that this may have been the worst thing for the human rights situation in Honduras, as powerful governments in the hemisphere — namely the United States, Canada, and Colombia — have used the elections as an opportunity to whitewash the coup. An ardent supporter of the overthrow of Zelaya, Lobo is already pursuing a general amnesty for its perpetrators.

For those governments that deal with Honduras, particularly the United States, this must be considered unacceptable and dealt with according to national and international law. The unwillingness to condemn the military regime for its thousands of human rights abuses demonstrates a capitulation to the coup, its repressive tactics, and its impact on Honduran democracy and civil society. To remain silent here is to condone the use of military repression against unarmed populations, and to encourage its use in future instances.

It is the moral imperative of the international community to demand the immediate end of the brutality in Honduras, and that the human rights of all citizens, particularly those involved in political activity, be respected without conditions.

Signed,

Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics
National Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran People
National Lawyers Guild
School of the Americas Watch
Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History
Hondurans for Democracy
Alliance for Global Justice
Nicaragua Network
Campaign for Labor Rights
Venezuela Solidarity Campaign
La Voz de los de Abajo
Rights Action
Boston May Day Coalition
Proyecto Hondureño
Mass Global Action
Boston Liberation Health Group
United for Justice with Peace, the Greater Boston coalition
Somerville/Medford United for Justice with Peace
Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition
Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network

Urgent Appeal for Haiti

2010-01-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and thousands are feared
dead from the 7.0 earthquake that levelled Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.

From the Canada Haiti Action Network:

On January 12th at 5 pm local time, a powerful magnitude-7 earthquake struck in Haiti . It was centred near the capital city Port-au-Prince and has caused massive destruction. The Canada Haiti Action Network urges Canadians and others around the world to contribute generously to emergency relief.

You can contribute to the Haitian Red Cross through its international partners in the International Red Cross. Contributions are tax deductible. The Canadian Red Cross is at: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=33900&tid=001 . We also encourage
contributions to the following organizations. Remember that you must provide a name and return mailing address in order to receive a tax-deductible receipt:

Zanmi Lasante/ Partners in Health

The Zanmi Lasante medical center is located in the Central Plateau of Haiti and delivers health care through a network of clinics in that region of the country. It also trains Haitians as doctors and health professionals. The health center survived the earthquake and is moving to deliver aid to the disaster zone. Donations in the U.S. are tax
deductible. To donate, go to: http://www.pih.org/home.html

By mail, “Haiti Earthquake Relief” in cheque memo line to:

Partners In Health
P.O. Box 845578
Boston, MA 02284-5578

Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins sans frontières

Doctors Without Borders operates clinics in Port au Prince and surrounding neighbourhoods. It has expertise in disaster relief. Donations in Canada and the U.S. are tax deductible. Go to: http://www.msf.ca/news-media/news/2010/01/haiti-update/

By mail, “Haiti Earthquake” in memo line:

Doctors Without Borders
720 Spadina Ave, Suite 402
Toronto ON M5S 2P9

Sawatzky Family Foundation-SOPUDEP School

SOPUDEP is a pioneering school in Petionville with an enrolment of 600 students from elementary to senior high school grades. The school was not in session when the disaster struck; we do not know if the building survived. The resources of the school and its teachers are being mobilized to assist the neighbouring population. The Sawatzky Family Foundation is a registered charity in Canada and issues tax deductible
receipts. Go to: http://www.sopudep.org/donate .

By mail:

The Sawatzky Family Foundation
PO Box 626, 25 Peter Street North
Orillia , Ontario , Canada L3V 6K5

Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

In association with the Haiti Action Committee in San Francisco/Bay Area, this fund delivers resources directly to grassroots organizations in Haiti. It was founded 04 following the 2004 coup d’etat that forced the elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from office and imposed a two-year regime of human rights violations whose consequence continues today. Go to: http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/HERF.html

By mail:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5106261785076100495#
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund/EBSC
East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
2362 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94704

For more information, including telephone contact, go to the website of
the Canada Haiti Action Network http://canadahaitiaction.ca/ .

Public denunciation of treatment of political prisoner Liliany Obando

2010-01-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

TRASPASA LOS MUROS
CAMPAÑA PERMANENTE DE SOLIDARIDAD CON LAS DETENIDAS Y LOS DETENIDOS POLÍTICOS
libertadpresxspoliticxs@jimdo.com

Beyond the Walls
Permanent Campaign in Solidarity with the Political Prisoners

PUBLIC DENUNCIATION

INPEC continues abuse and persecution against LILIANY PATRICIA OBANDO VILLOTA
The Beyond the Walls Campaign denounces to the national and international community the abuse of authority and the persecution carried out by members of the National Institute of Prison and Penitentiary – INPEC – against human rights defender LILIANY PATRICIA OBANDO VILLOTA, political prisoner in the “El Buen Pastor” Women’s Prison in Bogotá, Colombia.

The facts
1. On December 30, 2009 at approximately 5:30pm in the El Buen Pastor Women’s Prison in Bogotá, guards of INPEC under the command of the distinguished[1] ZOILA, carried out an exhaustive search of the various cells of Wing 6 where there are held the political prisoners, and proceeded without any degree of care in the treatment and preservation of the few goods legally permitted to the detainees.

2. In this arbitrary operation the guards of INPEC confiscated a Discman belonging to political prisoner Liliany Patricia Obando Villota, ignoring the fact that the possession of this item is authorised by the rules and by the authorities responsible for this prison.

3. Subsequently, Liliany demanded the immediate return of the Discman and pointed out to the guards that its confiscation constituted a theft but the reply from them was violent. Liliany was attacked by Mrs Leidy Romero (a trainee of INPEC’ school), who struck the political prisoner forcefully of the chest; this was carried out in the presence of several prisoners and the human rights representative of this wing.

4. As well as being struck, Liliany was subjected to an administrative process during which she continued to protest the violation of her rights, however the guard in charge refused to give her a copy of her complaint, informing her that copy “must be requested by way of a lawyer”; in the same manner the guard informed Liliany that she was referring her to a psychologist because, in her estimation, Liliany’s complaints were consistent with those of someone suffering from delusions of persecution.

5. On December 31 2009, on visiting day, Liliany was compelled to attend an appointment with the psychologist, not only limiting the time available on her visiting day but also using a medical intervention against her will as an excuse to subjugate and diminish Liliany.

Background
Liliany is a sociologist and a postgraduate student at the National University of Colombia, a member of the National Unitarian Federation Agricultural Trade Union (FENSUAGRO), a rural trade union organisation affiliated to the CUT [the main trade union peak council in Colombia] in which she was engaged as a defender of human rights of rural workers and peasants.

Liliany was detained on August 8 2008 as part an exaggerated police and military operation, during which she was living at her residence with her mother who is advanced in years and her two young children. Liliany is the victim of judicial setup within the framework of the penal process initiated by means of illegal evidence against Colombian political opponents with the aim of stigmatising and delegitimizing the social struggle of the people.

Liliany has requested home detention on seven occasions and her petitions have been denied despite the fact that as the sole parent of minors this violates the fundamental rights of the Colombian State such as equality, unity of the family and the rights of children.

Liliany’s family has suffered ongoing violations, surveillance, permanent tracking and threats which they have continued to protest.

For her part, Liliany has not only suffered the removal of her right to freedom but during her 16 months and 27 days in jail at the El Buen Pastor Prison for Women in Bogotá she has been subjected to illegal interrogations, stigmatisation, degrading treatment, abuses of authority; this latest incident being a reprisal for the many complaints the political prisoner has presented against members of INPEC.

We demand

1. Immediate release for human rights defender Liliany Patricia Obando Villota and respect for her human dignity.

2. That the Colombian State ceases the persecution, repression and violations of the fundamental rights it has carried out against Liliany Patricia Obando Villota, including subjecting her to psychological treatment as a form of humiliation and mockery.

3. That INPEC immediately returns the Discman, property of political prisoner Liliany Patricia Obando Villota.

4. That disciplinary investigations commence into the abuse of authority and theft committed by guards Zoila and Leidy Romero, for whom we demand sanction and guarantees that there will be no recurrence of the conduct described.

We are calling on national and international human rights organisations, the academic and university communities to support this denunciation and send messages of support and demands to the following authorities of the Colombian state:

President of the Republic
ÁLVARO URIBE VÉLEZ. PALACIO DE NARIÑO
Carrera 8 No.7-2, Bogotá. Colombia
Fax: +57 1 337 5890 / 342 0592.
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co

Presidential Program on Human Rights
Director Carlos Franco.
E-mail: cefranco@presidencia.gov.co
Advisor Fernando Ibarra.
Tel.: +57.1.336.03.11, FAX: +57.1.337.46.67
E-mail: fibarra@presidencia.gov.co

Colombian Attorney General
Diagonal 22B (Av. Luis Carlos Galán No. 52-01) Bloque C, Piso 4, Bogotá, Colombia.
Fax: + 57 1 570 2000 (extensión 2017).
E-mail: denuncias@fiscalia.gov.co & contacto@fiscalia.gov.co

Director of Public Prosecutions
ALEJANDRO ORDÓÑEZ MALDONADO
Carrera 5 #. 15-80, Bogotá.
Fax: +57.1.342.97.23; +571.284.79.49. Fax: +57.1.342.97.23;
E-mail: cap@procuraduria.gov.co, quejas@procuraduria.gov.co & webmaster@procuraduria.gov.co

Colombian Ombudsman
VOLMAR ANTONIO PÉREZ ORTIZ
Calle 55 # 10-32, Bogotá
Fax: + 57.1.640.04.91
E-mail: secretaria_privada@hotmail.com & agenda@agenda.gov.co

INPEC's National Director
Teresa Moya Suta
Calle 26 No. 27-48 PBX (57) 2347474 / 2347262
E- mail: reclamos@inpec.gov.co & Webmaster@inpec.gov.co

Director of the National Women’s Prison El Buen Pastor
ANA SOFIA IDALGO ALVARADO
Cra 47. No. 84 – 25 Barrio Entre Ríos, Bogotá
Teléfono: 6307724 / 6301649 / 6302037 / 2400676 / 6304946
E-mail: rmbogota@inpec.gov.co

The social struggle is a step towards freedom ...
Release all political prisoners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Visit - libertadpresxspoliticxs@jimdo.com

[1] “Distinguished denotes Prison officers with a minimum service of two years having obtained their “professional qualifications” and met other requirements. Decree 407 of 1994, Article 134
--
Humanitarian Exchange Now!
Political Solution to the armed conflict!
Freedom to all Political Prisoners!

Concern voiced in Canada over flawed election to take place in Haiti

2010-01-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–December 29, 2009

The Canada Haiti Action Network is expressing grave concern over the party registration process that has taken place in Haiti in advance of a national election set for February 28, 2010. Haiti will hold elections on that date for 98 of 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and ten seats of its 30-seat Senate.

Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council issued its list of approved parties and candidates in late November. The Fanmi Lavalas party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ruled off the ballot. Some 12 other, smaller parties were also ruled ineligible.

At a protest rally attending by thousands of Lavalas supporters in the capital city, Port au Prince, on December 16, Dr. Maryse Narcisse of the party’s executive council told the Reuters news network, “There will be no election in February, there will be a selection. What the authorities are planning is really a big farce.” More protests are promised by popular organizations.

In justifying its decision, the electoral council, a body appointed by Haiti’s president, said that a registration mandate sent by Aristide, who lives in exile in South Africa, is not authentic. In fact, the party presented an original mandate authenticated by a Haitian notary that complies with Haitian law. Aristide sent a fax of the mandate directly to the CEP and confirmed its authenticity in a rare and lengthy interview on Port au Prince’s Radio Solidarité.

This is the second time this year that the CEP has barred Fanmi Lavalas from an election. The first banning occurred in the election to eleven of the thirty seats in Haiti’s Senate that was held in two rounds in April and June of 2009.

Fanmi Lavalas is, “still considered the most popular political force in [Haiti]” (Reuters, Nov. 25th, 2009). It was founded in 1997 and won an overwhelming victory in the election of 2000. Aristide and Haiti’s other institutions of elected government were overthrown in February, 2004 by a combined paramilitary coup and foreign military intervention.

The 10,000 member United Nations military and police mission in Haiti has signalled its approval of the election exclusion. So, too, has Haiti’s Prime Minister, Jean Max Bellerive. The latter visited Canada earlier this month and met with at least two federal government ministers. A statement by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada on the meetings made no reference to the upcoming election.

Presently, a human rights investigative delegation is in Haiti for ten days. Participants include San Francisco-based journalist Kevin Pina and two members of the Canada Haiti Action Network.

For the full statement of the Canada Haiti Action Network, see http://canadahaitiaction.ca/?p=988. The Canada Haiti Action Network conducts information and awareness programs concerning Haiti in ten cities across Canada. View the group’s website at: http://canadahaitiaction.ca/. For further information on this news release or for interviews with eyewitnesses in Haiti, phone Roger Annis in Vancouver at 778 858 5179 or Niraj Joshi in Toronto at 416 731 2325.

Opposition to Canada-Colombia free trade continues

2010-01-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

Friday, 11 December 2009
Tracy Glynn, NB Media Co-op

WOLFVILLE, NS—As the controversial Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement proceeds into second reading in the House of Commons, pressure is mounting on the Liberal party, and its international trade critic, to drop its support for the proposed accord.

On Friday, December 4th, over 80 people rallied in front of the Wolfville, NS, office of Scott Brison, MP for Kings-Hants. Brison, the Liberal International Trade Critic, was targeted because of his support of Bill C-23 - an Act to implement the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA). The rally also came only days after the Conservative government cut funding to a well-known NGO critical of Canadian foreign policy.

Free trade critics say the CCFTA, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other free trade agreements, serve the interests of capital. They described free trade agreements as a mechanism that allow soaring profits and reduced labour costs through the super-exploitation of workers in economically and politically oppressed areas. Labour unions, human rights organizations and church groups across Canada have decried the 38 assassinations of trade unionists in Colombia this year as reason enough to oppose the deal.

Brison sits on the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade. Earlier this year, Brison and the committee “called for a full independent human rights impact assessment of the proposed free trade agreement with Colombia,” said Kathryn Anderson of the Church in Action Committee of the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada. “Brison no longer supports this and his uncritical support for the CCFTA today is beyond the pale.”

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Map sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on International Day of Action on Climate Change

2009-12-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

A map sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The post below includes the letter sent to Harper including the text beside the map.

Letter and map sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

2009-12-12T12:31:00.000-08:00

The map shows per capita emissions for most countries in North, South and Central America and The Caribbean. You can click on the photo to make it large enough to read. The part of the page you can’t see in the photo has a letter to Prime Minister Harper on it.

The letter reads:

“To Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

Increasing CO2 levels in Earth's atmosphere caused by human activities threaten Earth's ecosystems.

We must act now to prevent catastrophic changes that will affect all life on Earth.

Canada bears a disproportionately high responsibility for the situation because of our high per capita greenhouse gas emissions.

We want our government to:

Stop getting in the way of a fair, ambitious and binding global agreement on climate change and start working co-operatively with other countries.

Set targets to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 with a global goal of reducing atmospheric CO2 levels down to 350 parts per million or lower.

Plan the transition so that there is:
- less life damaging waste and wastefulness, and
- more economic equality, local control and food and water security.

Contribute our fair share to assist the people around the world who are most affected by climate change.

We do not want Canada to turn to nuclear power or biofuels that are derived from crops that require high fossil fuel inputs or are grown or harvested in a way that exploits people or is environmentally destructive.”

…an email added the following:

“We [the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network] are a network of groups and individuals in the Maritimes working in solidarity with people in Latin America and the Caribbean. We consider climate change to be a solidarity issue because generally the people with the least responsibility for adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will bear the worst effects ~ from melting sea ice, rising sea levels, drought, hurricanes, floods, and acidification of the ocean. Already increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are contributing to food and water scarcity in some areas. The International Panel on Climate Change estimates there will be 150 million climate refugees by 2050 if we do not act to reduce emissions dramatically. We want Canada to stop getting in the way of a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen and start working constructively with other countries so that something substantial comes out of the conference.

Sincerely,

Catherine Hughes on behalf of the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network”

Reflection on the agreement between Cerrejon Coal and the Tabaco Relocation Committee

2009-12-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

by Richard Solly, Colombia Solidarity Campaign (January 1st, 2009)

The signing of an agreement between Cerrejon Coal and the Tabaco Relocation Committee is historic and truly welcome. According to Armando Perez, the Committee's legal adviser, the agreement contains most of what the community has been demanding since the brutal eviction of the inhabitants of Tabaco and the demolition of their village in late 2001 and early 2002. This agreement has been achieved through the dogged determination of the people of Tabaco and the organisational capacity of the Tabaco Relocation Committee. But it has been assisted by alliances with others within and outside Colombia.

The involvement of Mines and Communities member group Yanama was key. It was Yanama's President, Remedios Fajardo, who first brought to international attention the devastation being caused by the Cerrejon mine. Remedios Fajardo and Armando Perez helped to create a network of organisations in the countries where the mine's multinational corporate owners have their headquarters - the USA (where original mine operator Exxon Mobil is based), Australia (BHP Billiton), Switzerland (Xstrata) and the United Kingdom (Anglo American).

Among the elements of the campaign of support for the people of Tabaco have been the following:

- A series of legal cases brought in the Colombian courts, culminating in a legal victory for the people of Tabaco in the Colombian Supreme Court in May 2002 - but this decision has remained scandalously unfulfilled by the Colombian authorities.

- Regular attendance at the London AGMs (annual shareholders' meetings) of Anglo American and BHP Billiton by supporters or representatives of the community and, on two occasions, by Colombian trade union representatives, to insist that Cerrejon coal accept the community's demands for relocation and compensation.

- Campaigns in the USA and Canada to ensure that electricity generating companies buying coal from Cerrejon put pressure on Cerrejon Coal to come to just agreements with communities affected by the mine's operations.

- Support for the community's demands by SINTRACARBON, the mine workers' union at El Cerrejon, and inclusion of community demands in union negotiations with the company

- Numerous speaking tours in North America and Europe by representatives of Yanama, the community and the union, organised by, among others, North Shore Colombia Solidarity (USA), Colombia Solidarity Campaign (UK) and Aktion Schweiz Kolumbien (ASK) (Switzerland), and involving public meetings, meetings with Government officials and members of legislative assemblies.

- Publication of material about the community's struggle on the MAC website and numerous other websites and in printed form, particularly through the work of Professor Avi Chomsky of Salem State University.

- Protests and letter-writing campaigns targeted at the multinational companies
involved.

- The bringing of a complaint against BHP Billiton to the Australian National Contact Point of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for breach of the OECD's voluntary guidelines on involuntary resettlement of communities by BHP Billiton at El Cerrejon, brought by South Australian lawyer Ralph Bleechmore.
- A similar complaint brought by ASK to the OECD's Swiss National Contact Point concerning Xstrata's role at El Cerrejon.

The OECD complaints seem to have been the last straw for Cerrejon Coal's multinational owners, which established in mid-2007 an Independent Panel of Inquiry into the Cerrejon mine's impacts. The Panel, chaired by John Harker,Vice Chancellor of Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, made a number of recommendations about changes in mine management. Cerrejon Coal accepted the recommendations, and the agreement with the Tabaco Relocation Committee is one of the fruits of this.

The agreement has the potential to lead to the reconstruction, on adequate agricultural land, of a new community of Tabaco for those who wish to live there, and the rebuilding of people's livelihoods. But it is essential that supporters of the people of Tabaco continue to monitor implementation of the agreement to ensure that it does not simply gather dust like the Supreme Court decision of May 2002.

Furthermore, other communities - Tamaquitos, Roche, Chancleta and Patilla - still face relocation and need solidarity in their own negotiations with Cerrejon Coal. The company must accept those communities' demands concerning community membership and the quantity and quality of the land to which they are to be moved, and ensure that, in the period before relocation takes place, the livelihoods of all members of those communities are protected.

As well as this, the SINTRACARBON workers are currently (late December 2008) in the midst of negotiations with the company over pay and conditions.

Cerrejon Coal must accept all the demands which the union is making. Prominent among those demands are the conditions of subcontracted workers, who do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as directly employed workers. Prominent also is the issue of worker health. The company continues to resist SINTRACARBON's entirely legitimate demand that work involving prolonged exposure to carcinogenic substances be categorised as hazardous, because this would mean that the company would have to make the increased social security payments required by Colombian law so that workers could retire earlier.

Those of us who have accompanied the Tabaco Relocation Committee in its struggle can rejoice that collective perseverance has at last brought a measure of justice. But, to echo a well-known mid-twentieth century British Prime Minister, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

The struggle continues!