Honduras: News & Updates

What a turnaround. On February 9, six Guapinol water defenders were found guilty, A decision widely denounced and which left them with the, supposedly, only hope in the new amnesty bill. Yesterday morning, they lawyers presented an appeal based on the bill. But then all of this became redundant as the Supreme Court finally resolved the appeals in favor of them. "According to the resolution, by unanimous vote, the Constitutional Chamber ruled in favor of two appeals filed by the defense of the 8 defenders criminalized by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares, for the crimes of deprivation of liberty, aggravated damages and simple damages." This ruling annuls the trial and Wednesday's verdict. OACNUDH welcomed the ruling and called for their immediate release. People in Tocoa took to the streets to celebrate.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) admitted a complaint filed after the 2009 coup d'état by the victims of the systematic violation of human rights, which included deaths, torture, imprisonment, and persecution, among others. The communication was sent in December to the previous government but it was not disclosed. "The issue of human rights is a priority for the government of President Castro, it is an issue that is linked to justice, it is a moral feeling, to recover that image, that dignity that Honduras has," said the foreign minister.

For 8 years, residents of Azacualpa, Honduras, have been fighting the illegal destruction of their 200-year-old Maya-Chorti cemetery by the mining company MINOSA. Now, the cemetery has been destroyed completely, violating a sentence made previously by the supreme court to stop all exhumations and destruction of the cemetery.

2022 started in Honduras with everything in place for a new start. Xiomara Castro won the election with a clear mandate for change and even in Congress, the opposition alliance together with some Liberal Party dissidents could have reached a simple majority. But this in not the story of this month. Last month, several human rights defenders were murdered, the Guapinol water defenders are still in detention, the Congress is splitting in two and on top of everything, the Omicron-wave is hitting Honduras and its public health system. Read Daniel Langmeier's full report on January 2022 in Honduras.

The Guapinol Water Defenders are a group of community members local to the Guapinol and San Pedro Rivers, who protested against the US-backed mining company "Inversiones Los Pinares" and their illegal and environmentally harmful operations in the protected area of the Carlos Escaleras National Park in September of 2018. They have since been accused by the company on false claims and unjustly imprisoned for over two years, waiting for the trial to start as the Honduran state has ignored international calls for their release. Now, finally, after several postponements, their trial is getting close to the end. Here is a summary of what the trial has looked like so far and the most important events from each day.

After analyzing the inauguration of Honduras's new president Xiomara Castro and her inauguration speech, Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno, Director of the Team for Reflection, Research and Communication, Eric-sj, concludes that it will be four years of government in an internal environment complicated by the presence of the surviving forces of the dictatorship. There will be pressure from different sectors interested in weakening President Castro as soon as possible, he says. To face these powerful enemies, Xiomara Castro needs the support of the people and the social movements in Honduras.

As a candidate, President Biden spoke out forcefully against the cruelty, xenophobia, and racism against immigrants and other communities of color stirred by President Trump and other leaders. As president, President Biden from Day One made bold commitments to build an immigration system that is fair, humane, and that “welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and allows people across the country – both newly arrived immigrants and people who have lived here for generations – to more fully contribute to this country.” In this report, the We Are Home campaign assesses Biden’s Year One on immigration by looking at his most high-profile promises and longstanding priorities for the coalition.

During the last year, protests were held every 20 hours in Honduras, according to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre). The main reasons for the social uprisings were the Special Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDES), salary payments, fuel cuts and street repairs. Since the military-backed coup d'etat 2009, Honduras has undergone a change in its social, political and economic life, which has made the welfare of the people more precarious, leading to multiple human rights violations, which left Honduras in an atmosphere of violence.

Read the description of James Phillips' new book, called "Extracting Honduras", on the "colonial extractive relationship of Honduras to the United States", and the link to order it. The author provides a detailed account of how the frenzied extraction of natural resources at the core of both the Honduran political economy and its colonial relationship to the United States created massive community displacement, dependency, poverty and vulnerability, and encouraged, over time, growing official corruption and violence, gang recruitment, drug trafficking, militarization of Honduran society, and the systematic repression of all popular protest and resistance.  These were the proximate conditions that now encourage people to flee the country, a decision that is often a matter of survival for the human spirit as well as the body