Aguán News Alert | February 2024

Image Description: African palm plantations in the Bajo Aguán Valley. | Photo Credits: CATRA Team.

2nd Anniversary of Campesino Agreements with the Honduran Government

Tocoa, Colón. – During the month of February, we remembered the historic agreement of February 22, 2022 signed between the government of Honduras, the Agrarian Platform and Coordinador of Popular Organizations  of the Aguan (COPA). 

In light of the 2 year anniversary of the Agreement of February 22nd, Yoni Rivas, spokesperson for the Agrarian Platform manifested: “In regards to the compliance of the agreement, we’ve advanced on the Tripartite Commission. On January 17, 2024, we pre-installed the commission. We’ve developed two meetings between January & February to create the necessary mechanisms to compile and organize the necessary documentation from state entities to be able to begin the Tripartite Commission’s work in the investigation of human rights violations in the last 30 years. We’ve also advanced in the development of different types of technical assessments in at least six subcommittees on six aces of work to advance in the Tripartite Commission, which will be installed in the month of April.”

Meeting to discuss the implementation of the Tripartite Commission to investigate the human rights violations in the Bajo Aguán.

Latest News

• Human Rights Organizations Visit the Aguan: International human rights observers with organizations Peace Watch Switzerland and the Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective accompanied the Plataforma Agraria, after the series of violent attacks against campesino leaders in the region during the month of January. During the visit, the organizations confirmed the increased risk that the campesino leaders who lead processes of land recuperation face, a risk that has intensified at the start of the year. Likewise, the international observers were able to verify the urgent necessity to continue investigations to locate the disappeared campesino cooperative member from the Remolinos Cooperative, Abel Lopez Perdomo, who is still missing as of today.

• Advocacy Actions: The Agrarian Platform was present at the Assembly of the Land and Territory Roundtable, which took place at Zacate Grande, south of Honduras, to discuss national advocacy actions by Indigenous and campesina organizations.

• Press Conference: Members of the Agrarian Platform took part in a press conference held in Tegucigalpa as part of the Land and Territory Roundtable in front of the Presidential Building. The objective was to denounce the violent attacks against defenders at a national level in the last weeks.

• Meeting with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS): Members of the Agrarian Platform met with the technical team of the UNOPS to discuss the budget for the operation of the Tripartite Commission.

• Criminalization: The legal representatives through the law firm Bufete por la Dignidad y la Justicia presented power-of-attorney for the criminalized campesino leaders of the Remolino, Chapagua, and Trinidad in the municipality of Trujillo

Analysis

Violence, Corruption & Impunity: In a recent article from Contracorriente, it was documented that the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Funes, is an ally of organized crime, hired hitmen and drug-traffickers. Funes has constantly supported Lenir Perez and the iron-oxide mine that he intended to install  in the region, despite strong community opposition to the project. Likewise, he is known for protecting the interests of the agro-industrial companies, facilitating the violence against campesino families in the Bajo Aguán.

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.

Impunity Watch

On February 12, 2023,  Santos Hipólito Rivas and his son were murdered  by an unidentified individual riding a motorcycle in the community of Ilanga, municipality of Trujillo.

There have been developments in the investigations, but none has materialized in the prosecution of those responsible for killing and masterminding the murder. A year from this double-murder, there have been few advances in the investigation. Hipólito Rivas reported to the Bajo Aguán Violent Murders Unit (UMVIBA) and Prosecutor’s Office a series of threats against his life and that of his family, by an armed group that has been operating at the service of the Dinant Corporation. However, authorities never investigated. 

The campesino leader Hipólito Rivas was an active member of the Gregorio Chávez Campesino Association, and was a beneficiary of the national Protection Mechanism under the Precautionary Measure MC50-15.

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.