Aguán News Alert | January 2024
Image Description: Campesinos protest the Pinares-ECOTEK mining project with a banner reading “No more environmental contamination. Get out Inversiones Pinares.” | Photo Credits: Plataforma Agraria.
Renewed Persecution Against Campesino Leaders in the Aguán
Tocoa, Colón. - We are starting the new year with an upsurge of violence against land rights defenders in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras. In January, the wave of violence culminated in assassination attempts against two campesino leaders and the kidnapping of a campesino cooperative member.
The Plataforma Agraria notes that the horrifying persecution of Bajo Aguan land defenders occurs as campesino leaders work with the government and international experts to install the Tripartite Commission, a working group that will be tasked with investigating over forty years of illegal land dispossession and human rights abuses in the Aguan Valley in order to bring to justice the over 100 murders of land defenders in the region. For decades, campesino families defending their right to agrarian reform land have been persecuted, killed, and criminalized by organized crime groups with connections to state security forces and large agro-industrial companies like the Dinant Corporation, Inversiones Ceibeña, and Oleopalma who fear that this commission will finally achieve justice
Image Description: Popular organizations of the Bajo Aguán hold a demonstration to protest Lenir Pérez’s illegal thermoelectric and mining megaproject. Organizations also call on the government to find kidnapped campesino leader, Abel López. | Photo Credits: Plataforma Agraria.
Latest News
Assassination Attempts Against Campesino Leaders: On January 27th, members of the Brisas del Aguan Cooperative were violently attacked and robbed of L.300,000 lempiras (over $12,000) by four unidentified masked men. Later that day, the President of the Camarones Cooperative, Franklin Izaguirre received 3 gunshot wounds, after a masked man fired at least 12 bullets at Izaguirre and his vehicle. Izaguirre was able to get help and was sent to a medical center where he underwent surgery.
Disappearance of Cooperative Member: On January 30, Abel López Perdomo, member of the Remolino Cooperative, was kidnaped by two armed, masked men and has not been seen since. Lopez Perdomo is also facing criminalization charges brought by palm oil company Inversiones Ceibeña.
Pre-Installation of the Tripartite Commission: The Plataforma Agraria, Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares (COPA), various governmental institutions, and the UN met to pre-install the Tripartite Commission. The UN will donate $600 million dollars for the initial operation of the commission.
Continued Criminalization: On January 26, well-known land and human rights defender, Leonel George, was arbitrarily detained by the National Police, which have reactivated a harassment and criminalization campaign against those who oppose EMCO Group’s illegal megaproject. On January 31, Elsy Banegas, Coordinator of COPA, denounced a criminalization campaign and threats in the last few days. Both defenders Leonel George and Esly Banegas are beneficiaries of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Abuse of Power in Guapinol: Adan Funes, mayor of Tocoa, called for an open town hall meeting, or a cabildo abierto to discuss the installation of a thermoelectric plant by the EMCO Group, property of Lenir Perez. By calling for a new town hall meeting, the Tocoa mayor is disavowing the will of the people, who in a December voted against the thermoelectric plant in a town hall meeting that the same mayor cancelled at the last minute.
The campesino leader is still missing after he was kidnapped on January 30, 2024. The police claim that they are not going to risk their lives to look for the campesino leader. Popular organizations of Aguán ask the government to implement a Search Plan to find him promptly.
Image Description: Celebrations commemorating the first anniversary of the recuperation of the lands of the El Chile Cooperative. | Photo Credits: Plataforma Agraria.
Good News
In January 2024, the El Chile Cooperative commemorated its I Anniversary of occupying and recuperating the campesino land located in Quebrada de Arena, in the municipality of Trujillo. The cooperative celebrated their struggle and resistance by allotting plots of land to 228 campesino families belonging to the cooperative.
Impunity Watch
Omar Cruz, then-President of the Laureles Cooperative, and a family member were killed on January 18, 2023. In 2023, eleven land defenders and their family members were murdered.
There have been no advances in the investigation of these murders or the countless attacks, threats, and criminalizations that occurred last year and in the decades before that. On January 19th, Estudios para la Dignidad law firm reported that the Public Ministry (MP) of Tocoa, led by Suyapa Rivera, has not carried out any investigations to confirm or rule out the participation of the main suspect, Miguel Mauricio Facusse, owner of the Dinant Corporation, in the murder of Omar Cruz, who days prior to his assassination had denounced Facusse and Dinant’s head of security as linked to a criminal organization that had been threatening him. The victims note that the MP has hindered the participation of the family and their lawyers in the investigation processes.
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