The tribes of the Indigenous Tolupán people in Honduras face structural challenges that include: illegal cutting of their forests, lack of recognition of ancestral titles, and lack of access to basic rights such as health, food and education. Their tribal leaders face intimidation, harassment, and threats to themselves and their families. Benedicto Hernández, coordinator of the Tolupán de Luquigüe tribe in Yoro Department, is a recent victim. Two weeks ago, the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) issued an alert: “recently, two men with high-caliber weapons set up surveillance around his house with the intention of harming him. They also make calls to his cell phone warning him that they are outside his house and that he should come out.” The threats against Benedicto Hernández have led to acts of intimidation against members of his family and other members of the (MADJ) who reside in the area. We call on authorities to investigate these threats and hold accountable those responsible.
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Honduras: News & Updates
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.
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We wrote to the attorney general of Honduras, urging that the Public Ministry drop criminal investigations against Garífuna community leaders Miriam Miranda (General Coordinator of OFRANEH, the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras), Dr. Luther Castillo (an OFRANEH member who is the current government’s Minister of Science and Technology), and Edy Tábora (a lawyer for OFRANEH and board member of SUNLA, the Committee for the Search and Investigation of the Disappeared of Triunfo de la Cruz).
On August 9 (Indigenous Peoples’ Day), members of OFRANEH and other Indigenous, territorial, and human rights organizations held a peaceful protest inside and outside the offices of the Public Ministry in Tegucigalpa. They demanded that the Public Ministry hear their legitimate concerns about the lack of prompt and effective justice in the case of the July 2022 forced disappearance of four young Garífuna men in the community of Triunfo de la Cruz, Atlántida Department. Instead of investigating, prosecuting and punishing those responsible for the forced disappearance of the four men, it appears that the Public Ministry is abusing its authority by ordering criminal investigations of OFRANEH leaders.
source: Cross Border Network
article by Judy Ancel
Construction workers say that B.L. Harbert Construction, an Alabama-based favorite of the State Department for many overseas projects, has repeatedly broken Honduran labor law by pushing illegal temporary contracts on the workers and failing to provide medical care or compensation to injured workers or to discipline racist supervisors.
We wrote to the director of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations at the US State Department because its US-based contractor working in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is routinely violating labor rights of construction workers at the new US Embassy. We urge Overseas Buildings Operations to intervene. We expect the US government to uphold the same labor standards in foreign construction as required to be upheld domestically.
About two-thirds of the 1100 construction workers employed by Alabama-based B.L. Harbert International have been on strike intermittently since early July. Workers report that the temporary contracts imposed on them by the company cover some but not all of the legally mandated benefits, such as protections against and medical coverage for on-the-job injuries. Workplace accidents, including severed fingers, have occurred. Some injured workers have been fired. If workers miss a day of work, they are routinely fired. These conditions, in addition to frequent racist comments from supervisors, have poisoned any trust the workers had in B.L. Harbert or the U.S. government.
Since the Biden administration restarted the Central American Minors Refugee and Parole Program (CAM program), initionaly initiated by the Obama administration and later withdrawn by Trump, not much has happened.
Underfunding and personal shortage at the nine national resettlement agencies led to the inability to handle the mass of applications.
Due to this bottleneck only a few hundred cases filed before the Trump administration ended the program have been completed since March 2021.
For many children this slow processing of applications means waiting times of over a year and no information on how long it will take until they are reunited with their familes.
Organizations are now calling for the support of consuls to help the children with their application interviews and pass case information on to the waiting parents or guardians.
On September 17, the New York Times published an article by Anatoly Kurmanaev and Jody García including misinformation and false claims about the US government's efforts to support democracy in Central America.
The article claims that the Biden administration is working to end corruption and impunity in Guatemala, while being inactive as the military backed government “methodically dismantled the last vestiges of independent institutions." The US is supporting this illegitimate government, referring to the Guatemalan ruling class as "democratic allies."
Besides this, Biden lied about stopping the sanctions against Nicaragua, which the U.S. and many "western" countries have been using since the 1980's to squeeze its economy and cause political change.
The article also states that the U.S. aided the return to democracy in Honduras. In fact, the U.S. has always held mutually beneficial relations to the Honduran government which came to power by an U.S. backed coup.
Even though the LGBITQ+ community of Honduras is seen as equal on paper, the reality is often a different one.
Radical conservatives and many religious leaders are trying to stigmatize the LGBTIQ+ community, which makes up for roughly 7-10% of the population. Misinformation and hate speech is used to keep LGBTIQ+ interests out of everyday lives of the Honduran population.
This article summarizes the struggles LGBTIQ+ citizens and organizations are confronted with, trying to claim their rights.
In the struggle for environmental human rights, Honduran activists demand their government to sign and adhere to the Escazú Agreement. The Escazú Agreement, the first environmental treaty of Latin America and the Caribbean, was passed by a resolution of the UN General Assembly on July 28, 2022. For the first time ever, the United Nations recognized that the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment requires the full implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements under the principles of international environmental law. It also recognized that the exercise of human rights, including the rights to seek, receive and impart information, to participate effectively in the conduct of government and public affairs and to an effective remedy, is vital to the protection of a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Even though Honduras took part in the negotiations for the long overdue agreement, which represents a legal instrument that provides States with sufficient tools to defend human rights in the face of the great challenges of the extractive model and climate change, it never signed it.
With the new government in office activists now hope that the agreement will be implemented, but still face massive backlash.
For the second consecutive day, workers at the textile maquila Gildan, in the Nance River Sector, Choloma, department of Cortés, are on strike demanding their labor rights and other agreements, especially a salary readjustment. The workers are also demanding the right to establish a workers' union that truly represents them. Members of the National Police went to Gildan's facilities in Choloma to talk with the protesters, who continue with the gates closed and say that they will not let the loaded trucks enter.
For water and for life, no to mining!" was the demand of the leaders of five municipalities in northeastern Honduras who arrived at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Mines (Serna) in Tegucigalpa to demand a halt to open-pit mining and the protection of the Carlos Escaleras National Park, Montaña de Botaderos.
