U.S.-Connected News
33 Congressional representatives led by Senator Elizabeth Warren published a letter directed at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, urging the US to ban investor-state dispute provisions in US trade deals. ZEDE Próspera’s suit against Honduras was featured in the letter: “Próspera has repeatedly threatened to initiate ISDS arbitration under CAFTA-DR to bully the Honduran government into allowing them to continue operating under the abolished ZEDE framework.”
New court documents in Juan Orlando Hernandez’s New York drug case outline how JOH paid gang members to “incite & commit acts of violence” during 2017 electoral crisis protests in addition to paying people inside Honduras’ electoral body to manipulate electoral votes & to shut down the vote counting system during the 2013 & 2017 elections. The Pro-Honduras Network has been releasing a lot of information related to the new revelations. JOH will be tried together with former Honduran police official Mauricio Hernandez (JOH’s cousin) and former head of the Honduran National Police, Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla. So far, the court date remains scheduled for September 2023.
Email me at karen@hondurasnow.org if you want a copy of the new document.
On April 28th, the FBI searched the home of Lenir Pérez, Honduran businessman and owner of Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek. According to local US media, a man was seen handcuffed as authorities were present at the Wellington-based stable. Local press also reported that they were carrying out judicial orders. So far, no further information has been made available.
https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/wellington/fbi-pbso-natures-point-lane-search
US Ambassador Laura Dogu did an interview with Radio Progreso commenting on various issues including the Ambassador’s role in promoting U.S. investment in Honduras. Dogu also said that Honduran wages were too high and electricity is too expensive, which may cause companies to invest elsewhere.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=773694040798937
Five Hondurans, including a nine-year-old boy, were massacred in Cleveland, Texas inside their home. In response, Texas Governor Greg Abbott calls the family “illegal migrants” causing an outcry from migrant rights groups and concerned citizens. Honduran authorities called on the US to conduct a thorough investigation and bring those responsible to justice. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities have arrested a suspect.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/5-dead-texas-shooting-suspect-armed-ar-15/story?id=98957271
“It’s time to bury the Monroe Doctrine and foster positive relationships across Latin America and the Caribbean.” CODEPINK organized the forum: “In Search of a New U.S. Policy for a New Latin America: Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine,” on April 29, 2023 in Washington, D.C. For those that missed the forum, you can watch the recordings on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@americaspolicyf/streams
During the last week of April, the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) visited Honduras and conducted over 87 meetings with communities, human rights organizations and bodies, and government officials around the country. They published a document with their preliminary observations mentioning the ongoing structural problems and social, environmental, and agrarian conflicts in the country.
https://www.oas.org/es/cidh/actividades/visitas/2023/04-28-Visita-in-Loco-Honduras.pdf
Free Trade Agreements & Investor-State Dispute Mechanisms (ISDS)
Two additional companies including Scatec and Norfund and Norfund Investments have filed an arbitration suit against the state of Honduras. So far, Honduras has been advised of six or seven arbitration cases against them in the last six or so months. COPINH denounces the recent arbitration suits and the involvement of the companies in projects associated with David Castillo, the co-author of Berta Cáceres’ murder. Both companies were involved in solar energy projects in southern Honduras that were strongly opposed by local communities that were criminalized for their resistance against them.
https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database
Political situation in Honduras
President Castro gave a speech at the 92nd anniversary of the Honduran Armed Forces. At the ceremony, Castro made an interesting statement referring to ISDS claims and the ZEDEs “… we will not submit our sovereign homeland to trade and business codes. The integrity of our territory is not for sale and it’s not a commodity.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvRHUBfdis4 (ZEDE part starts at 6:30 minutes)
President Castro denounces that a “conspiracy against her government” is forming and is led by the same figures involved in the 2009 coup. Castro also denounces that the conservative sectors in Honduras continue to oppose most of the reforms that her government has put forward since taking power. Castro denounces the trust funds that were created during the narco-dictatorship to plunder state finances.
The business sector increases its campaign against the Tax Justice Law proposal that is now being discussed by the National Congress. Meanwhile, government officials including Marlon Ochoa, the head of the Tax Administration Service (SAR, the Honduran equivalent of the IRS) says the law will combat corruption and collect additional taxes to invest in Honduran society. According to Ochoa, “There are 5 companies that have not done anything and received over 1.4 billion Lempiras in tax breaks.” Ochoa and other government officials are working to combat conservative and right-wing misinformation campaigns against the law, and continuing to denounce how the tax breaks approved following the 2009 coup, have benefitted a few wealthy elite.
Given the continued divisions and attacks from all sides against the National Congress and President Castro’s administration, the Honduran National Congress may have significant difficulties passing legislation of all sorts, including ratifying last year’s vote that eliminated the Zones of Economic Development and Employment (ZEDEs).
One of the more conservative, pro-business representatives of President Xiomara’s government resigned on April 24th. Today, Pedro Barquero, the Minister of Economic Development announced he will be leaving his position. Another troubling sign of difficulties for the government and increasing divisions.
Aguán Valley
On May 5th, a judge in Trujillo found campesino Jeremías Cruz guilty of usurpation (illegal possession of land). Cruz is a member of the La Chile cooperative, which has been subject to continued harassment and violence, including having tear gas shot and live rounds fired at them by the Honduran military, police, and Dinant’s private security guards working with SEC security company. Around the time of the trial, Cruz’s family including his spouse and the sub-Coordinator of the Agrarian Platform, Wendy Castro was subject to intimidation by security forces that set up check-points in front of their and Castro’s mother’s house.
On April 17th and to celebrate the International Day of Campesino Struggle, the Agrarian Platform and COPA convened a huge mobilization in Colon and published a press release calling on, among many demands, the government to immediately convene the Tri-Institutional Commission to fulfill the agreement signed by several campesino cooperatives on February 22, 2022.
Heavily armed men, security guards, and members of the Honduran national police occupied and took over land located in the Ocotal community located in Trujillo, Colón. The land belongs to the Quebrada Honda cooperative, which holds a title to the land.
May Day
On May 1st, several Honduran organizations including the Agrarian Platform and the three labor federations published press releases with analyses of the political context of the country. In Tegucigalpa and Colon (at least), members of the social movement, campesinos, workers, and several politicians participated in a May Day march. Once again, there were tensions related to the participation of elected and government officials in the march in Tegucigalpa.
Violence and Impunity
In the past month, there have been six shooting and uprisings inside the Honduran prison system including in the two maximum-security prisons, La Tolva (El Paraiso) and El Pozo (Santa Barbara), and El Porvenir (Francisco Morazan), and others. Many injuries and some deaths have been reported. In response to the first few uprisings, President Xiomara Castro ordered an intervention of the prison system under the Intervention Plan of the National Prison System led by Vice Minister of Security, Julissa Villanueva. Since the plan was implemented, the violence and uprisings have continued. CONAPREV (the quasi-governmental body responsible for overseeing prison and detention centers around Honduras) requested a series of prison reforms including separating convicted from non-convicted prisoners, an interinstitutional response, crime prevention programs, among other recommendations.
https://www.latribuna.hn/2023/05/04/otra-balacera-desatan-en-la-carcel-de-el-pozo-ii/
COPINH denounces that David Castillo’s attorneys have requested an amnesty for their client in relation to the corruption charges in the Fraud on the Gualcarque case
Extractive sector
U.S. and Canadian mining company Aura Minerals (MINOSA) seeks to expand its gold mining operation for 30 more years. Originally, the concession for the San Andres mine was granted in January 1983, but as of January of this year, it has expired. In the meantime, the mine continues its plans to expand, including destroying a more than 200-year-old cemetery and affecting the local Indigenous communities in La Unión, Copan.
https://criterio.hn/minosa-opera-con-concesion-minera-vencida-y-busca-ampliacion-por-30-anos-mas/
OFRANEH denounces that Canadian investors working with CARIVIDA, a Canadian company previously owned by deceased Patrick Forseth, have paid campesinos to occupy a piece of land that Garifuna youth and the community of Guadalupe have been protecting and using for several years. The land in question is also inside Guadalupe’s community land title and the ancestral land title held by Garifuna communities in the Trujillo Bay region.
“Failure to obtain free, prior & informed consent of the island community of Crawfish Rock by ZEDE Prospera in addition to threats of expropriation by Erick Brimen is a violation of IL0169 which indicates the illegality of a political project disguised as an economic one.” #Honduras
OFRANEH writes a series of tweets reminding the Honduran government that the free, prior, informed consent of Indigenous communities that will be affected by petroleum explorations on and around the coasts of La Moskitia and Tela Bay has not been obtained. They also remind President Castro that they called on a moratorium on petroleum exploration and exploitation before Castro took power.
The Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) denounce a violent police attack against the community of Pajuiles that were protesting the lack of electricity for over 30 hours.
https://www.facebook.com/MovAmplioHn/videos/614964093595399/
“Loggers and miners: The Tolupán tragedy: The Tolupanes are located in the department of Yoro in the central north region of Honduras. The department is one of the drug trafficking strongholds in the country. With 5,305 murders between 2010 and 2021, it is one of the epicenters of violence. The U.S. extradition of Arnaldo Urbina Soto, the former mayor of the municipality of Yoro for drug trafficking, is only part of the evidence
Attacks Against Human Rights Defenders and other groups
The Society of Jesus denounce a defamation campaign & threats against Father Ismael Moreno (Padre Melo), in addition to a series of attacks on social networks, media & hacking of Radio Progreso and ERIC’s web pages
According to the Human Rights Ombudsman (CONADEH), 43 members of the LGBTI community were killed in 2022 alone, and only 8 cases against the accused perpetrators went to trial. From 2017 to 2022, 194 individuals of the same community were killed. There is currently a 93% impunity rate for crimes against members of the LGBTI community.