Honduras: News & Updates

More than four months into the government of President Xiomara Castro, it is clear that Honduras is in a process of political transition leading to a new democratic political model with popular features. This transition is based on three key elements that are presented as models under construction, not finished, in a context of reconfiguration of the country's political and popular forces: re-foundation (political model), democratic socialism (model of society) and popular power (political instrument).  However, it is important to mention the agrarian, territorial and environmental issues. In the current situation, the extractivist project, in its different modalities, persists in an aggressive manner and continues to manifest itself as the great social actor, bringing together social and political territorial forces, generating acceptance in different communities, around a business discourse that proposes development and employment. 

Alonso Salgado, Donaldo Rosales, and Marco Tulio Paredes Molina; Ricardo Avila and Carlos Peralta. Three defenders and two social communicators were murdered this month in Honduras. The death toll since the beginning of the year has rise to over 10. And while the case of 19 MILPAH defenders whose criminalizing charges were dropped can be celebrated, it is concerning that May also brought about new cases of criminalized defenders. Looking at the extractive industries, we see a similar mixed picture. Open pit mining has been prohibited, but mining operations continue to expand in Honduras bringing about environmental damage, repression and criminalization. Some hope comes from the visit by a UN exploratory mission on the possible installation of a UN-backed anti-corruption mission as well as from the strengthening of the Honduran anti-corruption body UFERCO. JOH, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty in New York. His trial will continue in September. Welcome to another month in Honduras.

Please see a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries.  We join with civil society groups in Latin America to (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, and (3) bring human rights criminals to justice…..IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.

In July it will be two years since four residents of the El Triunfo de la Cruz community, Tela, Atlántida, were kidnapped by men in military and police clothing. Families in the community continue to wait for news and to be reunited with their loved ones. Garifuna fighter and leader Clara Flores told Radio Progreso that the long wait is extremely painful. She says that every morning when she passes by the community selling bullets, she remembers how Snyder Centeno, one of the disappeared, would buy and they would talk about the community reality. “Remembering that is still painful because we live in constant anxiety, waiting to find out where they are, what has happened to their lives. It doesn't matter what government is, if our rights continue to be violated, we will continue to fight. We demand that the government be able to strengthen our autonomy,” she says.

On Thursday, The Honduran Parliament conferred the National Heroine title to the Indigenous Lenca environmentalist Berta Caceres, who was murdered in March 2016 for defending the rights of her community over the Gualcarque river. "Our decision seeks to recognize and preserve the legacy of Caceres for Honduras," legislators stated and urged the national educational system to include the life of this environmentalist in its programmatical contents.

After decades in which Honduras served as a bridge state along the cocaine highway from South America to the United States, coca plantations are now spreading across the country like an invasive plant whose seeds are carried in the wind. In 2021, authorities eradicated a record amount of coca plants. This year, hardly a week has gone by without the discovery of another plantation, and authorities are already on the verge of shattering last year’s record. Cocaine production in Honduras is still in its infancy and unlikely to ever come close to the levels of the biggest three cocaine producers: Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. But if left unchecked, it could give rise to a new generation of drug traffickers, and refortify clans of old, much like the shifting of drug routes from the Caribbean to Central America did at the turn of the century.

Discussions about the possible installation of an International Commission Against Corruption and Impunity (CICIH) —president Xiomara Castro's campaign promise— has stirred up lobbying to control the Judiciary and the Public Ministry.  There are intense movements in the National Congress to adjust the election processes of the Attorney General and the 15 new magistrates of the CSJ in 2023. To analyze this situation, the experiences of the CICIG in Guatemala and of the CICIES in El Salvador are useful, as they are similar commissions despite being in different contexts.