Aguán News Alert | April/May 2024
Image Description: Campesinos mobilize to demand the immediate installation of the Tripartite Commission. | Photo Credits: Plataforma Agraria.
International Workers’ Day
Tocoa, Colón. – During the month of April, representatives from the Agrarian Platform and Coordinator of Popular Organizations of Aguan (COPA) along with other popular, campesino, and Indigenous organizations mobilized across the country, demanding respect for agrarian land rights and the international conventions that Honduras has signed.
In the Bajo Aguán region, organizations particularly demanded the installation of the Tripartite Commission with guarantees for a solution, the publication of the Decree 18-2024 that reverts the reduction of Carlos Escaleras National Park, NO to approval of the thermal power plant that aims to be installed region, among other demands.
Additionally, the organizations denounced the injustice that campesino and Indigenous people live, the lack of significant advances in the agricultural sector, and the absence of structural changes under this government.
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Resurveying Cooperatives: The topography team from the National Agrarian Institute (INA in Spanish) and the Property Institute (IP in Spanish) carried out surveying work in the campesino Cooperatives Remolino, Camarones, Brisas del Aguán, El Plantel, and Los Laureles to obtain accurate measurements of the land belonging to the cooperatives.
UN Visit: The Resident Coordinator for the UN in Honduras, Alice Shackelford, carried out a visit with various cooperating agencies for social, economic, and human development in the Bajo Aguán region. The visit had the objective of better understanding the challenges facing organized campesino families that are in the process of reasserting the right to land belonging to the Brisas del Aguán Cooperative.
OFRANEH Accompaniment: On April 12, the Agrarian Platform accompanied a march organized by OFRANEH in the capital city to demand respect for the rights of the Garífuna people, in commemoration of the 227th anniversary of the arrival of the Garífuna in Honduras.
Detention of Lilian Borjas: At the end of April, Lilian Borjas, the regional secretary of the National Center of Rural Workers (CNTC), was detained by the National Police. The Agrarian Platform and COPA denounced her arbitrary detention as part of the judicial persecution of campesino leaders, and demanded her immediate release and protection of her physical and psychological health. She was released later that same day.
International Workers’ Day: On May 1st, the Agrarian Platform, COPA, the Committee on the Common and Public Goods, the Network Against Anti-Union Violence, and FOMH Colón organized a mobilization in Tocoa to demand that the government of Xiomara Castro fulfill the promises of the Refoundation Plan and to urge the organized sectors to unite in struggle for the rights of workers and the environment. 8 hours of work, 8 hours of education, 8 hours of rest!
Mobilization in Tegucigalpa: On May 7th, the Agrarian Platform, COPA, and the
Committee on the Common and Public Goods traveled to the Casa Presidencial (Presidential House) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Honduras to demand the installation of the Tripartite Commission, compliance with the February 22 Agreement, and a meeting with the President to listen to their demands.
Detention of Gloria Enamorado: On May 8th, Gloria Marina Enamorado Melgar, a former member of the Gregorio Chávez campesino Cooperative, was detained by the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI in Spanish). She was falsely accused of land usurpation by the Dinant Corporation.
Approval of an Environmental Criminal Court: On May 28th, The Supreme Court of Justice approved the creation of a national criminal court for the review of environmental claims, focused on departments where the Executive Branch has found to be experiencing a climate emergency, such as Atlántida, Gracias a Dios, Olancho and others.
Accompaniment of Gloria Enamorado: On May 30th, the Agrarian Platform and COPA organized a mobilization to accompany the detained Gloria Marina Enamorado Melgar and demand her immediate release. After being denied the right to appear before a judge for more than 20 days, Gloria was represented by the Law Firm ‘Studies for Dignity and Justice’ at the initial hearing. She was later released.
Campesino cooperative member from Remolino is still missing
Abel Lopéz is still missing, after he was kidnapped on January 30, 2024. Popular organizations in the Aguan ask the government to execute a Search Plan to find him alive.
Historical Context
In the 1990’s, World Bank-led structural adjustment measures transformed the Bajo Aguán region of north-east Honduras from one of the nation’s primary sources of fruits, vegetables and basic grains into an African palm oil monoculture destined for export to insatiable Global North markets. Over the course of this process, thousands of campesinos were dispossessed of their farms to make way for massive palm plantations, owned by a handful of Honduran elite.
Since then, campesino cooperatives have engaged in a multi-decade struggle to recover their land, suffering violent repression by corporate and state entities as a result. The immediate post-coup period was especially brutal, taking the lives of approximately 150 small farmers by 2014. In recent years, many more have been murdered, disappeared, and criminalized. The vast majority of these crimes remain in impunity.