Honduras: News & Updates

 Although the Supreme Court of Justice annulled the trial against the Guapinol defenders, the Trujillo Court denied the definitive dismissal of the eight environmentalists who were illegally imprisoned for 914 days, now saying that the release was only provisionally granted. This decision by the Tocoa Court has provoked widespread concern that there is an attempt to reopen or manipulate the case. "We already know that they have been manipulating the process, that our comrades have spent 914 days deprived of liberty and that the company wants to continue to screw them," said Juana Zúniga, a partner of one of the eight defenders.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Pablo Isabel Hernández and Thalía Rodríguez lived far apart from each other in Honduras, and seemingly with nothing in common, yet one aspect of their lives linked them: both were defending human rights in their community. And both were killed in January of this year, along with Melvin Geovany Mejía, an indigenous rights defender who died on his way to the hospital after being shot. Isabel Albaladejo, representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Honduras, believes that three killings in less than a month shows how it has become an increasingly hostile environment for human rights defenders in the country. Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders in Latin America. Yet, activists have some hope that the arrival of a new government, led by the first female president Xiomara Castro, may bring much needed change in Honduras.

In the open meeting, Quimistán was declared free of ZEDES and ratified free of mining and hydroelectric power. Amada Lopez, vice coordinator of ASODEBICOQ, was elected member of the Municipal Transparency Commission.

The country’s Supreme Court of Justice said late Wednesday via Twitter that the judge had decided to grant the U.S. extradition request. Hernández has maintained that statements against him have been made by drug traffickers extradited by his government who wanted to seek revenge against him. He denies having any ties to drug traffickers.

Watch the Recording of our first session of our four-part Honduras Solidarity Webinar Series on March 15, and join us for the remaining three sessions the following Tuesdays!

The night of March 16 in Tegucigalpa, members and sympathizers of the National Party caused riots outside the Supreme Court of Justice and set fire to the Viva Berta Feminist Camp. The camp was set up under the coordination of comrades from the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras, COPINH, and OFRANEH, together with various organizations and communities in struggle. We denounce this attack whose only intention is to attack the actions of justice for women and peoples and we stand in solidarity with the comrades of COPINH, OFRANEH, as well as with the various organizations and communities that make up this space of struggle. 

The deputy of the National Congress for the Libertad y Refundación (Libre) party, Jari Dixon, presented this Thursday a bill so that the lands in possession of the Oficina Administradora de Bienes Incautadas (OABI), become property of peasant groups in Honduras. Dixon Herrera argued that "it would be appropriate" that those lands that have been seized by the OABI and that have received a final sentence become administered by the National Agrarian Institute (INA).

As then-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s term came to a close in January, many Hondurans hoped he would soon be extradited to the United States, following the path of his brother, Tony Hernández, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States on drugs and weapons charges last year. But most people doubted it would actually happen: The now-former Honduran president, notorious for corruption, has remained a close U.S. ally throughout it all. Yet, only two weeks after he left office, the United States formerly requested his extradition. Hernández may seem to be an isolated bad apple in the war on drugs, the series of U.S.-sponsored military initiatives to stop drug trafficking in Latin America. But he’s not the only major political or military official in the region who has allegedly colluded with the very drug kingpins his country has received U.S support to fight. Rather than an aberration, Hernández is a window into the contradictions of the drug war itself, and his fall from grace speaks to deeper dysfunction within U.S.-led efforts to combat drug cartels—not just in Honduras but throughout Latin America.