Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Honduras Bajo Aguan: media disinformation incites slaughter

 


La Prensa endorses massive repressionThe ultra-coup newspaper La Prensa de San Pedro Sula begins to seriously prepare the ground for further brutal repression . The land conflict in  Aguán is a perfect alibi, and the newspaper makes it seem like a strategy of FNRP.
This blog post is an early warning. Without a doubt, it can not be interpreted otherwise.





By OFRANEH (Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras)On 28 February, the newspaper La Prensa, owned by Jorge Canahuati Larach, published an article titled "Guerrilla in the Bajo  Aguan", seeking to demonize the peasant movement residing in Bajo Aguan. The article is supposedly based on data from an "intelligence report", which states that "support for leftist movements, guerrilla training and strategic funding of drug trafficking groups are behind the farmers."
It is not the first time that the newspapers owned by  Canahuati Larach make accusations against the popular movement, with the clear intention of polarizing the political situation regarding the poorest areas of the country.
The failure of agrarian reform, motivated among others by the Agricultural Modernization Law and feudalism prevalent in rural areas nationwide, has served to increase the degree of poverty that exists in the bajo aguan.
The oil palm and its rapid expansion on the north coast of Honduras has served to encourage landlordism, serving the economic interests of a few wealthy that to date are appropriating vast tracts of land for the cultivation of the oilseed detrimenting the  food security of the country.
In recent years, especially after the coup last year, the lords of the palm have increased their harassment attitude toward peasant groups settled in the region, which rightly claim their rights to land ownership , which historically have been denied in our country.
The attitude of the newspaper La Prensa to make public the alleged military intelligence report, involves a charge that can be used to cause and justify a mass slaughter of farm groups, to embolden the landowners and their army of killers to serve the interests of "democracy".
Larach's Newspapers (El Heraldo and La Prensa) for several years have been showing off the power of the distortion of information in generating public opinion. The most recalcitrant in defending the status quo and of course the privileges of the small minority who have looted the country to the detriment of the vast majority have been based onLarach media to denigrate and defame leaders, organizations and processes questioning the dominant  feudalism  in the country.
The masters of  palm, Rene Morales and Miguel Facusse have been identified for years as the sworn enemies of peasant groups, with which it has territorial disputes, to the extent that Facussé accused  the actions of peasant groups of causing international banks ceasing to lend money to their companies   (http://www.latribuna.hn/web2.0/?p=99184).
The agricultural model imposed by  the palm involves  enormous social and environmental degradation , because of  the accelerated destruction of wetlands and the vast amount of agrotoxic used in plantations. Garifuna communities have suffered the tragedy of the voracity of Michael Facussé, who in the name of "development" has appropriated strategic locations without relevant authorities mediating in the matter.
Volatility in Bajo  Aguan accompanied by  the offensive that has been taking place through the media owned by the regime, suggests the path to undertake mass evictions of peasants living in the Aguan, under the pretext of the emergence of an armed is being built .
The "report" goes so far as cannibalizing the Catholic Church, especially the Jesuits, environmental groups and ethnicities. Not the first balloon enjoining the prosecution of individuals and organizations, whose crime is to denounce injustice and lack of application of justice.
Already on  August 24 last year, Larach newspapers echoed an article in the Wall Street Journal newspaper by Rupert Murdoch, which accused the Democratic Unification Party (UD), United Workers Federation Honduras (FUTH), a priest and a leader of black people, as a contact of the FARC(http://www.laprensa.hn/Internacionales/Ediciones/2009/08/24/Noticias/Pruebas-de-nexos de - the-FARC-with-UD-and-FUTH).
The publication of the article hides the sinister intentions on the part of the people who are behind the Honduras coup : The criminalization of resistance transformed from a peace movement to a replica of armed movements were the arguments spread by the disinformation specialists of  United States intelligence agencies.
Of course the new security advisors from Colombia, are involved in using the local media, to stimulate the imagination of the masses, suggesting that the lower Aguan is a war zone. From that point, we expect the implementation of the false positive situation, in which the regime's consultants are experts in, advocating the democracy of the chain saw, Colombian consultants who have come to the country as guests of the current administration.
The case of the peasants of Lower Aguan is an indicator of the huge disparity that exists in Honduras regarding the distribution of wealth, but  to Larach  poverty is not a social trigger. It is simply part of the landscape and a way to maintain privileges, meanwhile continuing to practice journalism just like  Judith Miller of The New York Times (remember: weapons of mass destruction in Iraq). The lesson has been internalized, stimulate the imagination of the media  creating nonexistent enemies, in order to be able later to beat, with the support of public opinion.
 La Ceiba, March 2, 2009 

UPDATE:  Armed Forces denied participation in military intelligence report on the establishment of guerrilla in Bajo Aguán.

by Radio Progreso Honduras

El Progreso, Yoro.
The general coordinator of Via Campesina, Rafael Alegria said that after the publication of newspaper "La Prensa" regarding the Bajo Aguan agrarian conflict, he contacted military authorities, who denied having developed an intelligence report for publication in the newspaper based in  San Pedro Sula.
On Monday, newspaper La Prensa published a 5 pages long report based on an alleged military intelligence report indicating that leftist movements  plan to organize a guerrilla in a peasant farm in Bajo Aguan.
The case report also shows that farmers are arming under instructions from Rafael Alegria.
"The plotters intended to discredit groups and threaten the process of awareness and organization of our people to link us up with kidnappers, drug traffickers and that we are promoting guerrillas" reacted angrily Rafael Alegria.
He added that, after seeking the ruling military authorities in this regard, the spokesman of the Armed Forces of Honduras (Armed Forces), Colonel Ramiro Achiaga denied the existence of that report and announced that they will seek explanations from the written media.
Alegría said the security minister Oscar Alvarez is behind the process of criminalization of the agrarian conflict in Bajo Aguán  to justify armed  repression in the area.

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