Honduras did not experience civil war in the 1980s, but its geography (bordering El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua) made it a key location for US military operations: training Salvadoran soldiers, a base for Nicaraguan contras, military exercises for US troops. The notorious Honduran death squad Battalion 316 was created, funded and trained by the US. The state-sponsored terror resulted in the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of approximately 200 people during the 1980s. Many more were abducted and tortured. The 2009 military coup d’etat spawned a resurgence of state repression against the civilian population that continues today. John Carroll alum and Honduran activist Dany Díaz (2011 graduate) will be receiving the Young Alumni Award from the JCU Alumni Association. As part of his visit, Dany will be doing a reading from his recent book of personal essays Chronicles of What We Leave on the Shore about his life in Honduras and elsewhere and answering audience questions, details below. You can attend in person or on Zoom (to get the Zoom link, please click on the Register link below). The event will be at 7 pm in Donahue Auditorium, Dolan Science Center, John Carroll University, University Heights, OH.
https://advancement.jcu.edu/register/author-series-mejia
Honduras is currently facing at least USD 14 billion in claims from foreign and domestic companies. This is equivalent to roughly 40 percent of the country's GDP in 2023 and almost four times its public investment budget in 2024. A new study on this avalanche of claims found that most investors are revolting against Honduran efforts to reverse or renegotiate corrupt deals made under Hernández, which were often damaging to the public interest and local communities.
Juan Orlando Hernández is the Honduras former drug trafficking and corrupt president who was illegally reelected through fraud and with the help of the US.
Now a private toll booth operator - backed by major US banks, including JP Morgan Chase Bank and two Goldman Sachs funds - is suing Honduras in international arbitration. They are demanding 180 million dollars, more than four times what the company has reportedly invested. If these investors are successful, the economic burden on the country will only deepen the displacement crisis that is driving Hondurans north.
Campesino land defenders continue to face great risks in Honduras: from large landholders, agricultural companies, and agents of the government—judges, prosecutors, and security forces like the National Police.
In the early hours of the morning of August 20, private security guards and employees of the sugar company AZUNOSA used excessive force to evict campesino families in La Sarrosa Village, in El Progreso, Yoro Department. They beat, assaulted and seriously injured the families, using stones, machetes and firing firearms indiscriminately. Seriously injured was María Munguía Betancourt, who fell to the ground unconscious after receiving several blows with stones. For two hours, AZUNOSA employees blocked the main road, preventing the local fire department’s emergency medical team from providing assistance.
Campesino organizations are struggling for their legitimate right to land, food and a dignified life free of violence. The state must end its complicity in the harassment, stigmatization, and criminalization of campesino leaders, as well as its participation in violent evictions.
Campesino land defenders continue to face great risks in Honduras. Organizations like the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) hold large agricultural corporations and large landholders—like the infamous Dinant Corporation and its owners in the Facusse family—responsible for human rights crimes. They also decry collusion among those powerful economic interests, state security forces, public prosecutors, and judges who write illegal eviction orders.
As coordinator of the Campesino Movement of Ceibita Way (a local affiliate of the CNTC), Olman García Ortiz was dedicated to promoting access to land and land tenure for small farmers. On the afternoon of August 4, hitmen shot him multiple times while he was riding his motorcycle in the village of Ceibita Way, municipality of Esparta, Atlántida Department. His lifeless body fell to the pavement. The CNTC reports that he had requested protection measures, but the government denied that request.
Honduras was recently ranked by Global Witness as the most dangerous place on the planet for environmental defenders, with the dubious distinction of more environmental defenders assassinated per capita than anywhere else on the planet.
In the community of Guapinol, it was clear that Juan Antonio López’s commitment to environmental stewardship was deeply rooted in his Catholic faith. He was actively involved in the church, serving as coordinator of Social Pastoral Care in the Diocese of Trujillo and co-founding the Integral Ecology Pastoral care in Honduras.
In August 2018, he and other residents of the community of El Guapinol in Tocoa, Colón Department, organized a peaceful encampment to block construction of an iron oxide mine inside the Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park. The extraction project would threaten animal life and contaminate small rivers (water sources for 13 communities) that empty into the Río Aguán, placing 90,000 inhabitants at risk of losing their agricultural crops and homes. In late October 2018, police and 1500 heavily armed members of the Army, Cobras (militarized anti-riot police units) violently broke up the encampment with rifles, shields, clubs and tear gas bomb—beating and detaining the encampment residents. Juan López became one of 32 Guapinol residents criminalized for their protest. Eight of the defenders (the Guapinol 8) were unjustly imprisoned for 914 days.
Tragically, on September 14, 2024, Juan López (a 46-year-old husband and father) joined the list of martyrs in Guapinol who have been assassinated for their environmental defense, a list that includes: Levin Alexander Bonilla (October 27, 2018), Arnold Joaquin Morazán Erazo (Oct 13 2020), Aly Domínguez and Jairo Bonilla (January 7, 2023), and Oquelí Domínguez (June 15, 2023).
Local bishops, the bishops conference of Latin America, and even Pope Francis have publicly decried the assassination of Juan Antonio López and called for justice.
The anti-mining activist Juan Lopez said in an interview three years ago: "If you leave home, you always have in mind that you do not know what might happen, if you are going to return." The reason for that were threats from people whose interests clashed with Juan's activism.
Human rights organisations have been warning for a long time about the dangerous situation for environmental activists in Honduras. Now Juan Lopez was killed and people in charge like President Xiomara Castro now must take a stand.
In this monthly newsletter, please read about : 1) ICE Air: Update on Removal Flight Trends, 2) US Government Policy: Some legislators and DHS trying to do more to offer humanitarian relief to migrants, 3) Migration Impacts on Women, 4) At the Border, 5) Beyond Borders: Health and Safety in the Age of Migration in Mexico, 6) Changing Demographics: Migrants to the US Come from Different Corners of the Globe, 7) Danger in the Darién Gap: Human rights abuses and the need for human pathways to safety, 8) Texas Gets Tough on Migrants, 9) Economic Benefits of Immigration – both documented and undocumented migrants, 10) Biden Can Claim Record Numbers of Removals.
TAKE ACTION NOW
Here is what you can do to take action this week and act in solidarity with migrants and their families. (See details at the bottom of this newsletter.)
A) Join a Solidarity Delegation to Southern Mexico: November 11-16, 2024
B) Stop Criminalizing Migrants Traveling through the Darién Gap
C) Volunteer to Assistant Migrants and Refugees in Cleveland: Catholic Charities
D) Volunteer to Assistant Migrants and Refugees in Cleveland: NEO Friends of Immigrants
E) Get Paid to Assist Migrants and Refugees in Cleveland
F) Act Now for Welcoming, Dignified, and Just Immigration
Read the full IRTF Migrant Justice Newsletter each month at https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog
Klas Lundström’s article in Jacobin discusses the sentencing of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and related charges. Hernández, once a US ally, is now in prison due to a shift in political dynamics that led to his chosen successor losing the 2021 elections. Lundström argues that Hernández's involvement in drug trafficking and corruption is a direct result of US foreign policy and the US-backed coup against left-wing President Manuel Zelaya in 2009.
Hernández’s presidency, marked by widespread violence and corruption, was supported by the US, which turned a blind eye to his illegal activities while he assisted in drug interdiction and migration control. His eventual downfall was accelerated by the electoral loss of the National Party and the subsequent administration’s approval of his extradition to the US.
The article highlights that Hernández’s rise and fall are emblematic of broader US interference in Latin American politics, which has historically favored conservative and pro-US governments. The coup against Zelaya, justified by false accusations and supported by the US, led to increased instability and violence in Honduras. The consequences of this interference continue to plague Honduras, with drug trafficking and corruption deeply embedded in the state’s fabric.
Lundström emphasizes that Hernández’s story reflects the disastrous impact of US policies in Central America, where political and economic turmoil often results from interventions aimed at maintaining US influence.
assassinated: young, gay defender of environmental and human rights Erlin Asbiel Blandin Alvarez
The killing of 34-year-old Erlin Asbiel Blandin Alvarez is a significant loss to the rural community of Los Laureles in Danlí, El Paraíso Department. It highlights the dangers faced by those who stand up for human rights in Honduras. His commitment to his community and his work as a journalism student highlight the importance of protecting those who strive for transparency and justice.
Erlin Asbiel Blandín Álvarez was home for the weekend from Tegucigalpa, where he was enrolled in his final year as a journalism student at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH). Openly gay and well-respected by his neighbors, he was committed to advocating for essential community resources, including management of a water project and bringing awareness to the trafficking of migrants through El Paraíso. So deep was his commitment that he was serving as president of the community board of Los Laureles.
On Sunday morning July 14, when he went outside his home to work on a shed that he was building, assailants arrived on motorcycles and in an ATV. Neighbors and family heard the gunshots and cries for help. They arrived only to see the assassins flee at high speed in their vehicles. Erlin Asbiel Blandín Álvarez died moments later, with gunshot wounds to his chest and shoulder.
Erlin Asbiel Blandin Alvarez, ¡presente!
