IRTF News

The refoundation of Honduras took two more important steps this month. After the successful electoral win of the opposition in November, the initially divided opposition in Congress came together this month and the US officially requested the extradition of JOH for his drug trafficking ties which led to his arrest. Of course, this does not mean that the old power structures are gone, they are still in place, especially in the Judiciary. But change seems possible. This also included the announcement to demilitarize the prisons as well as the state security forces in general. There were other things to celebrate in February, especially the liberation of the Guapinol defenders after over 900 days illegally imprisoned. But the way to a Honduras respecting human rights is still long and steep. Three members of the LGBTQ+ community were murdered in the first week of February; the Minosa mining company seems to be free to ignore court rulings and go on with the exhumation of a Maya Chortí cemetery in Azacualpa; and the indigenous Lenca Tierras del Padre community faced eviction threats. Welcome to another month in Honduras.

The Confederation of Federations of the Salvadoran Agrarian Reform (CONFRAS) considers that this year there will be a decrease in the national production of basic grains and vegetables, given the increased cost of inputs for agricultural production and little government support. They say that this, in turn, will generate more unemployment, poverty, hunger and greater emigration of the rural population. “The increase in prices of agricultural inputs and gas is generating a drop in productivity and reduction in cultivated areas. If this problem is not solved, there will be an expanded food crisis. With the increase in the cost of living in the country during 2022, poverty rates, which have been increasing since 2020, will skyrocket even more” said Alejandra Góchez, from the CONFRAS board of directors.

The cooperation between States in multiple fields, including the military, is a valid issue as long as the purpose is cooperation in legitimate defense of national sovereignty, supporting the country in emergency situations or cooperating against forms of organized crime whose combat is beyond the capacity of the armed forces of the country, and as long as it is carried out in accordance with international standards and conventions on the subject, and in full respect of the laws and legitimately elected authorities of the country. Unfortunately, this is not the type of external military presence we have seen in Honduras. Throughout the history we have seen the territorial sovereignty of Honduran people sullied continuously by foreign military forces that have penetrated in total disrespect of national regulations and with purposes contrary to the welfare of the country, and the peace of the Central American region. This is particularly true in the case of the military forces of the United States of America, which on repeated occasions during the twentieth century illegitimately and illegally penetrated Honduran territory. Since 1954 the U.S. military has been present continuously, accompanied by intelligence and logistics services, particularly the CIA, under an unconstitutional bilateral agreement, without the various Honduran governments in office have enforced our laws and our dignity as a sovereign nation.

Dear friends,

The times don’t seem very good for making progress on the climate crisis. The Biden administration provided some great rhetoric during the recent COP26 meeting in Glasgow, but then came home and backtracked where it really matters, on policy decisions.

More recently, the terrible news of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine has had the effect, among many bad effects, of distracting attention from the very important new IPCC report, which should have been a serious warning to governments and people alike.

With the inauguration of President Xiomara Castro, hopes of reducing the socio-environmental and agrarian conflict in Honduras resurfaced. In fact, at the national level, various organizations have repeatedly called for the need to intervene in historical conflicts such as the one that occurred in the Valle del Bajo Aguán, department of Colón, which has resulted in the murder of hundreds of peasants, families conflicted and impoverished communities. In this article, a series of strategic challenges for the peasant movement in the current political context are identified, in the effort to move towards a democratic solution to the conflict.

One year after President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at reforming U.S. policy toward Central America and establishing humane migration policy, a new report from the Root Causes Initiative examines the Biden administration’s record of following through on these commitments. Based on publicly available data and the analysis of civil society organizations, the report assesses the Administration’s efforts and issues recommendations across four areas: Rule of Law, Localizing Aid, Inclusive Economic Policy, and Humane Migration Policy. Considering the Administration’s efforts to advance the rule of law, the Initiative notes that the United States has “taken a relatively hard line” against the administration of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, criticizing and taking actions to reign in his anti-democratic actions through sanctions and other measures, while failing to apply the same pressure to the Guatemalan government. 

Ten years ago today, the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya was born in defense of community water, life, and health and against an illegal mine. On March 2, 2012, the communities of San José de Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc united and established a protest camp outside of the entrance of the mine, which had been imposed without their free, prior, and informed consent. For ten long years, the resistance has struggled in the face of threats, intimidation, an attempted assassination, and a violent eviction. Due to the tenacity and determination of the Peace Resistance of La Puya, which included taking the case to the highest court, the mining license of the project was provisionally suspended in 2016, when the Supreme Court ruled that the affected communities were never consulted on the project and directly violated their rights, as established in the International Labor Organization Treaty’s Convention 169.