By La Tinta

Bertha Zuñiga Cáceres, General coordinator
of COPINH

On January 27th of this year, Xiomara Castro assumed the presidency of Honduras. Working with a coalition of parties, organizations and social movements, the president faces a seemingly unmanageable number of challenges. Among them, the plundering of national resources, and the fulfillment of demands that the indigenous peoples and peasants of Honduras have voiced for decades.

President Castro also faces a far-right opposition that, together with the Armed Forces and the United States, were the architects of the overthrow of her husband, Manuel Zelaya, who served as president between 2006 and 2009.

Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and daughter of Berta Cáceres, the assassinated Lenca leader and environmental defender, was recently interviewed, six years after her mother’s death in 2016.

-From COPINH, what are the expectations of the government of Xiomara Castro?  We understand the difficulties faced by a government that must, among its challenges, overcome – or lay the foundations to overcome – 12 years of coup and post-coup. The government has some goodwill and popular slogans; however, there are going to be many challenges to bring those proposals to reality. There is still a complex configuration of power. The Judicial Power is still controlled by the most reactionary sector, which laid the groundwork for impunity in Honduras. In the National Congress there is a power struggle, as we have seen, and this has partially eroded the formal will needed to get things done. In addition, the de facto power continues to be disputed and controlled by, above all, economic groups which, in turn, control the power of the State.

We remember very well the counsel of our comrade Berta Cáceres, who always said that just being president does not give you power. Remember the case of Mel Zelaya! We see how the real power brokers are manifesting themselves to continue controlling the institutional framework. Our expectations are to lay some foundations to solve structural problems, especially on issues of territory and rights of indigenous peoples. It is going to be a complex and difficult path, but we social organizations must maintain our fierceness and our willingness to struggle.

-What are COPINH’s main proposals and demands to the new government?  Within the transition commission, created by the government as a way to talk with the social movements, we raised some very important issues. For one, the issue of territory: that the State should recognize the historical possession of the indigenous peoples and that it should do so formally. It should issue the necessary community titles through the National Agrarian Institute, for the communities that are litigating for land, not only the Lenca people but also other indigenous peoples who have similar situations.

We have also proposed declaring fraudulent the concessions for hydroelectric dams, mining and other energy exploitations, given behind closed doors soon after the 2009 coup d’état and in violation of the right to a free, prior, and informed consultation.

Also, we proposed the creation of a law for the protection of life, in which the well-being of communities that are being threatened would always be prioritized over economic, political or other interests. This would apply not only for indigenous communities but also to peasant communities. 

Xiomara made justice for Berta Cáceres a part of her campaign. We proposed the creation of high-level round table talks between State institutions and international organizations that can help in the investigation and which the victims and COPINH can be part of, in order to prosecute the intellectual authors related to the murder of Berta Cáceres and investigate the crimes of corruption, money laundering and other crimes which paved the way towards violence and the violation of the rights of indigenous communities.

-In the first weeks of the new government, what position did the opposition sector take?  The opposition sector, the National Party, which is the most conservative sector in Honduras, is quietly crouched, silent and humiliated, because its defeat is due to the accumulation of social unrest in the Honduran people. Above all it was due to the many corruption scandals. We are in the midst of the extradition process of (former president) Juan Orlando Hernandez, which is a very important development for the people of Honduras.

These political sectors operate in criminal structures; that is more than proven. They continue working to guarantee their own impunity and the economic benefit they get from state concessions. Furthermore, they have representation within this government. This is a government born from a pact in which several parties participate, which created an opposition alliance….They continue to operate actively to guarantee their own impunity and to make excessive profits.

-How do you think the Armed Forces will behave before the new administration?  The government has been clear that the Armed Forces, which participated in the coup d’état against Manuel Zelaya Rosales, is an institution that has been serving interests that do not coincide with those of the majority. Even simply considering investigating drug trafficking would be a blow to the leadership of the Armed Forces. Appointments have been made, such as the Secretaries of Defense and Security, attempting to have some kind of control over the Armed Forces…..The Armed Forces do not represent reliability. We are now in a transition in which they are settling in, so we will see how they operate.

-How is the legal case for the murder of Berta Cáceres proceeding?  We are just a few days away from commemorating six years since the vile crime of our colleague Berta Cáceres. Despite the efforts and some very minimal but important victories, we continue to demand that the State pay its debt to justice and prosecute the mastermind. We demand the dismantling of the criminal structure that led to the murder of Berta Cáceres. This involves the private business sectors, international banking, the Armed Forces, and members of the judiciary — which all led to the prosecution and criminalization of Berta Cáceres. In addition, we call for the dismantling of private security companies that participated in actions and attacks against social activists, especially those who defend their territories. And we continue to warn of the dangers that the communities of Rio Blanco face today– the danger that their lands will be privatized.

All this highlights the importance of remaining fierce in the fight for justice. Perhaps…with independence, professionalism and political will, we can reach those most responsible and indeed all those who were involved in this crime.

                                                                                         Source: RESUMEN 3/4/22

                                  Open-pit Mining Banned in Honduras

The new government of Honduras has announced that it will ban open-pit mining. The government of President Xiomara Castro, sworn in last month, said that it would cancel environmental permits for open pit mining operations across the country. It is not clear if the cancellation will apply only to new projects or also to those already operating. Areas of high ecological value would also be preserved. 

In making the announcement, the Honduran Ministry of Mining described “extractive exploitation” as “harmful to the state of Honduras” and argued that mining threatened natural resources and public health as well as limiting access to water. Environmental and indigenous activists in Honduras have been warning for years of the damage caused to nature and communities in their ancestral lands by large-scale mining, both legal and illegal.

Honduras is not the first country in Central America to place limits on mining. In 2002, Costa Rica banned all new open-pit mining projects. El Salvador banned mining for metals in 2017.

                                                                                                        Source: BBC, 3/1/22

                                   Ex-Honduran Police Chief Arrested

After two years in hiding, the feared former Honduran police chief General Juan Carlos “El Tigre’ Bonilla Valladares has been captured, official sources confirmed. General Bonilla, arrested by Honduran police at a toll booth near the country’s international airport, could be a key witness in the case against former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is facing extradition to the US on drug trafficking charges. He is expected to be extradited to the US, where he is named as a co-conspirator in the  drug trafficking indictment that also includes former president Hernández.

Bonilla, 62, was charged in April 2020 by US prosecutors in New York with allegedly abusing his official position to protect multi-ton cocaine shipments on behalf of Hernández and his brother Tony Hernández, a former congressman who was sentenced last year by a federal judge in New York to life in prison.  

US Sen. Patrick Leahy, a long-time critic of the US government’s dealings with Bonilla, said in a statement that he had urged successive US administrations to cut ties with Bonilla.  “Instead, they treated him like a legitimate partner, even though he was deeply involved in the corruption and brutality of drug trafficking.”

                                                                                                Source: Univision, 3/9/22

Guapinol Water Defenders Freed

In February, the Constitutional Supreme Court of Honduras overturned a lower court and threw out the conviction of six environmental defenders from the community of Guapinol. Two days later they were free, after nearly two-and-a-half years in pre-trial detention for their part in protesting a mine they say polluted the river that provides water for their community.

“While this is a significant victory for the water defenders and their families,” the Honduras Solidarity Network said in a statement, “the entire process that led to this outcome highlights the injustices imposed on civil liberties under Honduras’s authoritarian post-2009 coup governments and deepened during Juan Orlando Hernández narco-dictatorship. Moreover, the blatant criminalization of the Guapinol environmental defenders demonstrates that the people of Honduras pay a high price for unfettered private investment by US corporations…..They disrespect the people. They disregard the environment. They cozy up to corrupt oligarchs who run the country…..They collude with police and judicial authorities to criminalize human and environmental defenders. And they leave a trail of physical, environmental, and emotional destruction with the ‘development’ of their megaprojects.”

                                                                                    Source: Maryknoll NewsNotes, March 2022

Extradition: Juan Orlando Hernandez

A Honduran judge has approved ex-President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s extradition to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking and weapons charges. Hernández, who left office in January after eight years in power, is one step closer to being at the mercy of the US federal courts, where he is charged as part of a vast drug trafficking conspiracy. As expected, Hernandez’s defense team had appealed the extradition.  The Plenary of the Supreme Court has now rejected that appeal.  

The last legal resource for JOH has vanished and his extradition is imminent.

                                                                                        Source: Presente-Honduras, 03/19/22