Three CRLN staff and board members traveled to Honduras February 28 – March 8 together with La Voz de los de Abajo, one of CRLN’s partner groups. Below is a reflection by Sharon Hunter-Smith upon visiting two communities engaged in land recuperation as part of the National Center of Rural Workers.

Tegucigalpa and La Paz, Honduras; March 6, 2017

(Español Aqui)


Our group from Chicago stood staring at the rough wooden table, which held 2-dozen or so spent tear gas canisters plus a couple of bullet shells, collected by the 9

^th

of July community from the area immediately surrounding the place where we stood. The largest one, designed to be fired from a rifle, was stamped “Made in U.S.A.” The connection between U.S. military and police aid to Honduras and the violent persecution of impoverished Honduran farmers was crystal clear in the objects before us.

The original rural community of 28 families has been tear gassed and evicted from their simple hand-built dwellings and cultivated land 26 times by the Honduran military or police. In the last surprise eviction on January 13, 2017, the police followed the fleeing people, even women and children, across the valley, shooting all the way. One man was shot in the leg and a pregnant woman miscarried after running away, panicked, from the “security” forces. They also tore down and burned houses, stole or burned possessions and tools left in and around the houses, and cut down some of the fruit trees and crops. Since then, the women and children, have moved to a nearby community while the men have re-occupied the land.

“Thanks be to God that we continue to live on this land,” said one man. After each violent eviction, the community’s commitment is to return and resettle on the land within 24 hours of being pushed off, rebuilding houses and restoring crops as they are able. The bravery and endurance that this strategy demands is fed by their hope of land ownership. They experience other threats in the form of arrest warrants against them and death threats from the national or military police. “Every time we receive a group of international people who are in solidarity with us, it gives us the strength to keep going on with our struggle,” said another.

This community of formerly landless people, organized by the Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC–National Center of Rural Workers), settled this abandoned and desert-like land in 2010. They dug trenches and bought plastic pipes to carry water for irrigation and drinking water from a spring 3 kilometers away. They planted fruit trees and other crops to feed their families. A dry hillside turned green and provided a way to make a living. The CNTC works with 203 other communities, like 9

^th

of July, who are reclaiming land and putting it to good use in 14 of the 18 Honduran departments (what in the U.S. would be called states).

The National Agrarian Reform Law provides that idle land fit for farming can be expropriated and awarded to indigent and landless persons by the government, but this does not happen often. To force the issue and obtain the land essential for rural people to support themselves and their families, the CNTC works with landless people to settle and plant on unused, undeveloped or abandoned land. The occupants then file for title to the land under the Agrarian Reform Law with Honduran National Agrarian Institute (INA).

The 9

^th

of July community is the most persecuted of all the CNTC communities, but others usually are evicted at least several times in their struggle to obtain land. How long do they have to be on the land before they are granted a title? “We don’t know with this administration. They are not on our side,” answered one man. Some of the CNTC communities have lived and worked on their land for 15-20 years and still do not have title.

Putting this into an even larger context for us, CNTC Director Franklin Almendares explained that 64% of Honduran people are rural, impoverished, and displaced or facing displacement from their land for lack of a title to it. 46% live in extreme poverty. “We are not poor—our land is rich—but we are impoverished, because they throw us off the land on which we live and farm. They want to annihilate those who speak out, who protest, who object to and challenge this system.” At the same time, Almendares pointed out, when large corporate landowners take land without having title to it, the government is complicit with their actions and grant them titles.

Visiting a second land recuperation project, CNTC organizers led us to a piece of land on a plantation that had been abandoned for decades, its owner living in Tegucigalpa.14 young men and boys, most in their teens and early twenties, had arrived on the land 11 days earlier at night.They had made pup tents from pieces of plastic and canvas held up by sticks for shelter, and had begun clearing trees so that they could begin to create fields to plant. The youngest among them appeared to be around 11 years old. They seemed wary and shy,  vulnerable and scared. Most did not talk to us, letting the CNTC organizers explain to us their situation.

All wanted to acquire some land to work on and have something to hope for. They eventually wanted to start a family and needed a way to support them. Without land, they had no hope, and without hope, they had no reason to live.

The CNTC organizers used our visit as a training for these young people—how to receive an international group, how to present themselves. They had coached the leader of the group to introduce himself with a brief description of their objectives in occupying this land. He told us that after arriving, they did not sleep for three nights, worried that the police would find them and evict them. They also had not slept outside before with insects and snakes in the area, and they were getting used to that. With encouraging words, the CNTC organizers told the group that eviction is just a passing misfortune on the way to acquiring land and homes and community. Every group had experienced this, and many had eventually earned their titles. They must work and have hope that they, too, will be successful one day, because this path is the only one that offers them any hope.

What can those of us in the U.S. do to stop the persecution of communities working with the CNTC?

Call your Congressional Representative’s office, ask to speak with or leave a message for the staff responsible for foreign policy, and request that they co-sponsor H.R. 2199, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act.

This would suspend all U.S. security aid to Honduras, including equipment and training, until they cease their human rights violations. We must stop U.S. funding that enables Honduras to use violence against its own people, people who only want a chance to support their families and contribute to the life of their communities!

For several months, activists, campesinos, students, and trade unionists—this time joined by middle-class and business people–have engaged in hunger strikes, marches with torches, protests in front of government buildings, and calls for the resignation of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina. Everyone is fed up with official stealing from the public coffers. Hundreds of millions of dollars from the Social Security Institute have been stolen by officials in Honduras crippling the public health system. CICIG, the UN commission charged with uncovering the connections between organized crime and the government, has issued statements that it has hard evidence that the President and Vice President were at the head of a graft scheme that cheated the state out of tax revenue for social programs and funnelled bribes to multiple Guatemalan officials. Political parties have used pilfered public funds and donations from organized crime to fund the majority of their election campaigns.

While these same states also work to privatize social services, police with their militaries and militarize their police, and commit heinous human rights violations against their own people with impunity, the U.S. turns a blind eye to the devastating corruption and continues to send military and police aid to support those in the upper echelons of power in both countries. In addition, in response to the large numbers of unaccompanied Central American children crossing the US-Mexico border last year, the Obama Administration is requesting an additional $1 billion in aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador under the name “Alliance for Prosperity,” ostensibly to bring about improvements in security, governance, and the economies of these three nations.  However, giving vast sums of money to Honduras and Guatemala begs the question of where, exactly, this money would end up.

As regards El Salvador, evidence was recently marshaled in The Nation magazine that suggests the U.S. is supporting a soft coup in El Salvador to oust its democratically elected and left-leaning government. CRLN will be monitoring the situation with our partners in the region and in the U.S.

Here are some recent articles that provide further updates and background for the situations unfolding in these three countries.

• Kelsey Alford-Jones, Executive Director of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission,
  
  places the corruption charges in the light of the upcoming Guatemala national elections Sept. 6 and asks if elections should be delayed until reforms are put in place.
  
  http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Guatemalans-Say-Reforms-Needed-Before-Any-Future-Election-20150823-0017.html
  
• Sybilla Brodzinsky
  
  writes in “The Guardian” about the “Central American Spring” that the indignados (leaders of the torchlight marches in Honduras) hope for.
  
  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/14/honduras-guatemala-protests-             government-corruption
  
• Karen Spring, a member of the Honduras Solidarity Network located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras,
  
  takes issue with the indignados’ analysis as reported above and asks why they don’t recognize that widespread protests have been going on in Honduras since the 2009 coup d’etat, challenging the state structures of injustice and violence in addition to corruption.
  
  http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Interview-Honduras-Indignados-Lacks-Structural-Critique-20150822-0009.html
  
• Hilary Goodfriend
  
  writes in The Nation of U.S. collusion with the right wing-appointed Salvadoran Supreme Court to destabilize the administration of democratically-elected President Salvador Sanchez Ceren.
  
  http://www.thenation.com/article/how-el-salvadors-supreme-court-is-undermining-democracy-with-washingtons-help/
  

Tres miembros del personal y la junta de directores de CRLN viajaron a Honduras del 28 febrero al 8 marzo junto con La Voz de los de Abajo, uno de los grupos asociados de CRLN. A continuación se presenta una reflexión de Sharon Hunter-Smith sobre la visita de dos comunidades dedicadas a la recuperación de tierras como parte del Centro Nacional de Trabajadores Rurales.

Tegucigalpa y La Paz, Honduras; 6 de Marzo del 2017

Nuestro grupo de Chicago se quedó mirando la tosca mesa de madera, en la cual habían dos docenas o más de latas de gas lacrimógeno, además de un par de proyectiles de bala, recogidos por la comunidad del 9 de julio en la zona que rodeaba el lugar donde estábamos. El más grande, diseñado para ser disparado desde un fusil, fue estampado “Hecho en EEUU”. La conexión entre el ejército estadounidense y la ayuda policial a Honduras y la violenta persecución de campesinos empobrecidos hondureños fue clara en los objetos que teníamos ante nosotros.

La comunidad rural original de 28 familias ha sido desgastada por gases lacrimógenos y desalojada de sus sencillas viviendas construidas a mano y tierras cultivadas, 26 veces por el ejército o la policía hondureña. En el último desalojo sorpresivo del 13 de enero de 2017, la policía siguió a los fugitivos, incluso mujeres y niños, a través del valle, disparando hasta el final. Un hombre recibió un disparo en la pierna y una mujer embarazada sufrió un aborto después de salir corriendo, presa del pánico, de las fuerzas de “seguridad”. También derribaron y quemaron casas, robaron o quemaron posesiones y herramientas dejadas en y alrededor de las casas, y cortaron algunos de los árboles frutales y cosechas. Desde entonces, las mujeres y los niños, se han trasladado a una comunidad cercana mientras que los hombres han re-ocupado la tierra.

Esta comunidad, la cual no tenía tierra antes, organizada por el Centro Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC), se instaló esta tierra abandonada y desértica en el 2010. Ellos cavaron trincheras y compraron tubos de plástico para llevar agua para riego y agua potable de una fuente a 3 kilómetros de distancia. Plantaron árboles frutales y otros cultivos para alimentar a sus familias. Una ladera seca se volvió verde y proporcionó una manera de ganarse la vida. La CNTC trabaja con otras 203 comunidades, como la 9 de julio, que reclaman tierras y la aprovechan en 14 de los 18 departamentos hondureños (lo que en los Estados Unidos se llamaría estados).

La Ley Nacional de Reforma Agraria dispone que las tierras desocupadas aptas para la agricultura pueden ser expropiadas y otorgadas a personas indigentes y sin tierra por el gobierno, pero esto no ocurre con frecuencia. Para forzar el tema y obtener la tierra esencial para que la gente rural se mantenga a sí misma y a sus familias, la CNTC trabaja con gente sin tierra para asentarse y plantar en tierras no utilizadas, subdesarrolladas o abandonadas. Los ocupantes se declaran a favor del terreno bajo la Ley de Reforma Agraria con el Instituto Nacional Agrario de Honduras (INA).

La comunidad del 9 de julio es la más perseguida de todas las comunidades de la CNTC, pero otras generalmente son desalojadas por lo menos varias veces en su lucha por obtener tierras. ¿Cuánto tiempo tienen que estar en la tierra antes de que se les conceda un título? “No sabemos con esta administración. No están de nuestro lado “, respondió un hombre. Algunas de las comunidades CNTC han vivido y trabajado en sus tierras durante 15-20 años y aún no tienen título.

El director del CNTC, Franklin Almendares, explicó que el 64% de la población hondureña es rural, empobrecida y desplazada o que se encuentra desplazada de sus tierras por falta de un título. El 46% vive en extrema pobreza. “No somos pobres, nuestra tierra es rica, pero estamos empobrecidos, porque nos echan de la tierra donde vivimos y cultivamos. Al mismo tiempo, señaló Almendares, cuando los grandes terratenientes corporativos toman tierra sin tener título, el gobierno es cómplice de sus acciones y les concede títulos.

Visitando un segundo proyecto de recuperación de tierras, los organizadores de la CNTC nos llevaron a un terreno en una plantación que había sido abandonada por décadas, su dueño viviendo en Tegucigalpa. 14 jóvenes y niños, la mayoría en la adolescencia y principios de los veinte, habían llegado 11 días antes por la noche. Habían hecho tiendas a partir de piezas de plástico y lona sostenidas por palos para refugiarse, y habían comenzado a limpiar los árboles para que pudieran comenzar a crear campos para plantar. Los más jóvenes de ellos parecían tener alrededor de 11 años. Parecían cautelosos y tímidos, vulnerables y asustados. La mayoría no nos habló, dejando que los organizadores de la CNTC nos explicaran su situación.

Todos querían adquirir un terreno para trabajar y tener algo que desear. Eventualmente, querían formar una familia y necesitaban una forma de apoyarlos. Sin tierra, no tenían esperanza, y sin esperanza, no tenían razón para vivir.

Los organizadores de la CNTC utilizaron nuestra visita como una capacitación para estos jóvenes- cómo recibir un grupo internacional, cómo presentarse. Habían entrenado al líder del grupo para presentarse con una breve descripción de sus objetivos en la ocupación de esta tierra. Nos dijo que después de llegar, no durmieron tres noches, preocupados porque la policía los encontraría y los desalojaría. También no habían dormido afuera antes con insectos y serpientes en la zona, y se estaban acostumbrando a eso. Con palabras alentadoras, los organizadores de la CNTC dijeron al grupo que el desalojo es sólo una desgracia pasajera en el camino hacia la adquisición de tierras, hogares y comunidad. Cada grupo había experimentado esto, y muchos habían ganado sus títulos. Deben trabajar y tener esperanza de que ellos también tengan éxito un día, porque este camino es el único que les ofrece alguna esperanza.

¿Qué podemos hacer nosotros los de Estados Unidos para detener la persecución de las comunidades que trabajan con la CNTC? Llame a la oficina de su Representante del Congreso, pida hablar con el personal responsable de la política exterior o deje un mensaje y solicite que co-patrocinen la Res. H. 2199, Ley de Derechos Humanos en Honduras de Berta Cáceres. Esto suspendería toda la ayuda de seguridad de los Estados Unidos a Honduras, incluyendo equipo y entrenamiento, hasta que cesen sus violaciones de derechos humanos. Debemos detener la financiación estadounidense que permita a Honduras usar la violencia contra su propio pueblo, personas que sólo quieren una oportunidad para apoyar a sus familias y contribuir a la vida de sus comunidades.

Rep. Hank Johnson reintroduced the Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act in the 115th Congress as House Resolution 1299 (HR 1299) on March 2, the first anniversary of the slain indigenous rights, feminist, and environomental activist. The bill would suspend all U.S. military and police aid to Honduras, including equipment and training, until basic human rights conditions are met. The Honduran police and military have been implicated in hundreds of human rights violations since the 2009 overthrow of the government, and we should not be supporting them with our tax dollars.

We have an amazing opportunity in the two years of the 115th Congress (2017-18) to generate enough support for this bill to get it passed

. Already, Representatives Schakowsky, Lipinski, Gutierrez, Rush, and Davis from Illinois have signed on to co-sponsor. Here are three good reasons you might give us permission to sign your name on a letter to your Representative in support of this resolution, which CRLN staff will deliver when we are in DC for Ecumenical Advocacy Days:

1. 
   Berta’s family supports this bill
   
   , and we in CRLN believe in supporting the survivors of human rights abuses. Two of the suspects arrested in connection with Berta’s murder worked in military intelligence and were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, and Berta’s family believes the intellectual authors of the crime occupy positions at the highest levels of government. Withdrawing financial support, along with communicating the reasons for doing so, would be a blow to these forces and might weaken their position within Honduras.

2.

The social movements

in Honduras (LGBT, women, Indigenous, Garifuna, labor unions, environmentalists, small farmers), and the          journalists who cover them,

are under constant threat of violence,

and we in CRLN want to do everything in our power to send the message that they have international solidarity in these dangerous times. There have been credible allegations by an army defector of the existence of death squads within the Honduran military who have received U.S. training and who have a hit list of prominent social movement leaders. We need to stop U.S. training that results in assassinations.

3.

The current President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, and his administration and political party are riddled with corruption. He has been named by a drug trafficker leader on trial in New York as receiving bribes from his cartel, with Hernandez’ brother acting as liaison

. His National Party stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the national health insurance system to fund his first campaign. He will run again for President this fall, which violates the Constitution; and he fired four Supreme Court justices who objected and appointed four who were in favor of his re-election bid in order to be able to run again. The U.S. should not reward with funds someone who seems willing to benefit himself at the expense of his country.

For further reading, here are some recent articles on Honduras:

By Berta Caceres’ nephew on the anniversary of her assassination:

“Berta Cáceres court papers show murder suspects’ links to US-trained elite troops”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/28/berta-caceres-honduras-military-intelligence-us-trained-special-forces

By Steven Dudley of InSight Crime on Honduran presidents’ link to gangs:

Another Day, Another Damning Testimony of Elites by Honduras Trafficker

“Protesters in DC confront Honduran president over Berta Cáceres murder”:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/berta-caceres-murder-honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-dc