Military and police detain campesinos illegaly for almost an hour
April 13, 2010
by murielsoy
Military forces in Aguan
From the early morning hours, military forces besieged the community, laid a siege on the periphery of the Pan American highway and gradually came closer to the Guadalupe Carney community until they proceeded to enter it, lists in hand and a computer to check the names of those who were being captured to detain the peasant leaders illegally. About 600 families live in the area.
According to reports provided to Defensoresenlinea.com, among those captured and released were: Elías Díaz, Isidoro Hernandez, and eight others. There are fears of overnight house raids.
“As the night progresses the situation could worsen, specially if the military and police decide to enter people’s homes,” said a peasant leader.
Shortly before 11 am, it was reported that Jesus Hernandez was captured from the United Families Cooperative II, who was transporting African palm to June 22 Cooperative, near Corocito, Colon.
The contingent consists of repressive military and police Cobras. It was reported that behind this operation could be the hands of landowner Henry Osorto, who also seeks to take the land where the community is grounded and has attempted several times to evict the families from state-owned property.
The leaders in the region denounced that what the state armed forces are doing is very dangerous and could easily degenerate into bloodshed.
Persecution against COPA
The members of the Coordinating Committee of Popular Organizations of Aguan, COPA, a network that brings together several organizations, are also victims of persecution and surveillance.
They denounced that on Sunday, April 11, at about 2:00 pm, Jose Serrano, Haydee Saravia and Esly Banegas, all of them from the COPA directive, were driving a vehicle of the INA from the center of Tocoa. When they got off the car, half a block from Esly’s home, a taxi owned by the company’s Brisas del Aguán parked with an individual inside who was carrying a radio transmitter and stayed in the same place for about 15 minutes, staring at the house.
Again on Monday, April 12, also at about 2:00 PM, the same group of COPA directors were chased for about three blocks by a 4×4 red Toyota vehicle without license plates and tinted windows, that parked for a while on the same place as the Taxi the previous Sunday, then moved along and disappeared.
Although both Banegas and Saravia are under precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR, since last year, the Honduran State is doing nothing to protect their lives.
All of this is happening hand-in-hand with the statements of presidential appointee María Antonieta Bográn–accompanied by Defense Minister Marlon Pascua and Security Deputy Minister Roberto Romero Luna–saying that the human rights of the peasants of Aguán will be respected.
At the press conference, deputy director of the National Police, René Maradiaga Panchamé, said that the military and police presence is following “specific orders from President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez, as well as the Commissioner of Police, José Luis Muñoz Licona, to maintain order and preserve the rule of law, providing security to all people in the area. “
However, the repressive actions initiated Saturday night are part of a psychological operation meant to destabilize the peasant movement, and meant to generate terror within the population of unarmed civilians.
In this climate of terror, the campaign of disinformation by the media continues on behalf of the landowners, saying that there is an armed movement in Aguán, with the intention of justifying the actions mentioned above which violate human rights standards.
SOURCE: Defensores en linea
RELATED: Violent eviction being prepared for peasants in Aguan (Honduras Resiste),Hostigamiento militar, testimonios y análisis (Red Nacional de Radios Comunitarias)
CODEH: Campesinos in Aguán are open to dialogue
April 11, 2010
by murielsoy
The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), in the face of the current conflict in the Colon Department derived from the land ownership struggle and high levels of violence, declares with a particular focus on the Aguan Valley that:
1 .- That on Friday, April 09 and Saturday April 10, 2010, a commission with our organization headed by the Chairman of the Committee, Andrés Pavón Murillo, visited the agrarian conflict area in the Aguan Valley and met with leading members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan (MUCA) and with officials of the National Agrarian Institute (INA) in a fraternal dialogue.
2 .- We confirmed that there is an asserted interest and willingness from the peasant leadership to reach an agreement that could restore their rights as beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform Law; that they have not renounced to the continuation of a dialogue to reach an agreement that could restore rights that have been historically neglected to them. We bore witness that they have not abandoned their work for a way out the conflict, as in scheduled talks this coming Tuesday 13 with members of the highest levels of the government.
3 .- CODEH talked to government officials about the mobilization of police and military forces in the area and obtained a response that the fundamental purpose of the movement of troops is meant to start a general disarmament scheduled as a result of the high rate of violent deaths in the country. The four years of the last administration left an indicator of 63 violent deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants, and as a result of the political crisis arising from the coup last year (2009), more than 66 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants were registered. The highest index of violence in Latin America was held by Colombia with 81 violent deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants, but is currently logged as an average of 33 violent deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants. The security situation in Honduras is currently critical.
4 .- We were told that there are no plans for evicting farmers who are presently claiming their right to land. The department of Colon is currently one of the most violent departments of Honduras, violence that instilled fear on the people and even journalists who are being killed or threatened. CODEH could verify the mobilization of police and military troops in the area. This action took the general population by surprise but perhaps not the peasant population in the struggle for their land rights, who look with fear at this security operation since they have been warned that this action is oriented towards them.
WHAT WE HOPE FOR:
a. – To not lose sight of the struggle in claiming rights in favor of the families who are currently making such demands under the Agrarian Reform Law, and to reach an agreement that could prevent a conflict in the near future,
b. – That these actions do not disengage the continuation of a dialogue and debate strategy between the farmers and the government. We should focus on achievements that can provide for a continuity in the struggle for other denied rights.
c. – Let us not fall into a trap of deterrence generated by the incorporation of another element of tension into the Aguan crisis. Let us not lose sight of the struggle towards a compliance with the Agrarian Reform Law. If the area´s militarization is not mean to reduce the potential of crime in the area but to attack the peasants who are not guerrilla members, it will mark forever any attempt from this government to implement a human rights policy.
WE VOW TO:
1 .- Make efforts oriented towards opening a regional office of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) in the city of Tocoa, from which we will constantly monitor the compliance of agreements to be reached by the negotiating commission.
2 .- Follow up on the militarization of the area and report on practices contrary to human rights and whether such provisions respond to a state policy aimed at criminalizing poverty, organizing efforts, opinion, and the mobility of a selective population such as the MUCA.
3 .- Support MUCA members in their potential for ownership and particularly in their ability to affect their current political situation which sets them as protagonists of their own history.
4 .- Determine the legitimacy and possible implications of the militarization of the Colon department.
SOURCE: CODEH
Arrests and raids in Aguán
defensoresenlinea.com
With lists in hand, the repressive forces began registering people and captured at least nine farmers from the Community Guadalupe Carney, who were detained for about 40 minutes and then freed them, late at night Monday in Silin, Department of Colon.
Since the early morning the community was besieged, they set a fence that began from the Pan American highway and gradually went closer to the community Guadalupe Carney, when they came up with lists in hand and a computer to check the names of those who were captured, ostensibly to illegally arrest peasant leaders. About 600 families are in the sector.
Defensoresenlinea.com reports that among the captured and then released are, Elias Diaz, Isidoro Hernandez and eight others. An overnight raid in the houses is feared.
"As the night progresses, the situation could worsen if the military and police enter homes," said a peasant leader.
At 11 in the morning, it was denounced that Jesus Hernandez, from the cooperative Familias Unidas II, who was carrying palm towards the cooperative on June 22, was captured, when he was in Corocito near Colon.
The contingent consists of repressive military and Cobra police. It was reported that behind this operation, the tentacles of landlord Henry Osorto could be involved, who also seeks to own the land where the community is settled, and who has maintained constant actions to evict the families in the State- owned land.
Leaders of the area, said it is very dangerous what the armed apparatus of the state is doing, which can degenerate into bloodshed.
Persecution against COPA
The members of the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares Aguan, COPA, a network that brings together several organizations, are being targeted for persecution and surveillance.
They denounced that on Sunday, April 11, at about 2:00 pm, Jose Serrano, Haydee Saravia and Esly Banegas, All the Directors of COPA,driving a vehicle of the INA, from the center of Tocoa to get off of it, half a block from the house of Esly, a taxi parked, owned by the Company's Brisas Aguán, with an individual inside who was carrying a radio communication, staying in the same place about 15 minutes, staring into the house.
Again on Monday April 12, 2010, also at about 2:00 PM the same team of Directors of COPA, was chased for about three blocks by a vehicle 4x4 double cab, red, Toyota, without license plates and tinted windows, which parked for a while at the same place as did the stranger in the Taxi on Sunday, then it went away and disappeared.
Although, both Saravia and Banegas as beneficiaries of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR, since last year, the Honduran State is doing nothing to protect their lives.
All this happens in parallel with the statements of the presidential deputy Marie Antoineta Bográn, who was accompanied by Defence Minister, Marlon Pascua and Security Deputy Minister,Roberto Romero Luna, who said the human rights of the peasants of Aguán would be respected.
In that press conference, the deputy director of the National Police Panchamé Rene Maradiaga said the military and police presence is because they "met specific instructions of the President, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, the Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, and director Commissioner of Police, José Luis Muñoz Licona, to maintain order and preserve the rule of law in the area, providing security to all people in the region. "
However, the repressive actions initiated since Saturday night, are the component of psychological operations to destabilize peasant, actions that result in the generation of terror against unarmed civilians.
Along with this climate, the campaign through media disinformation related to landowners who say that the Aguán is an armed movement, continues, intending to justify past actions that are violations of human rights.
Source: http://nicaraguaymasespanol.blogspot.com/2010/04/honduras-detenciones-y-hallanamientos.html
defensoresenlinea.com
With lists in hand, the repressive forces began registering people and captured at least nine farmers from the Community Guadalupe Carney, who were detained for about 40 minutes and then freed them, late at night Monday in Silin, Department of Colon.
Since the early morning the community was besieged, they set a fence that began from the Pan American highway and gradually went closer to the community Guadalupe Carney, when they came up with lists in hand and a computer to check the names of those who were captured, ostensibly to illegally arrest peasant leaders. About 600 families are in the sector.
Defensoresenlinea.com reports that among the captured and then released are, Elias Diaz, Isidoro Hernandez and eight others. An overnight raid in the houses is feared.
"As the night progresses, the situation could worsen if the military and police enter homes," said a peasant leader.
At 11 in the morning, it was denounced that Jesus Hernandez, from the cooperative Familias Unidas II, who was carrying palm towards the cooperative on June 22, was captured, when he was in Corocito near Colon.
The contingent consists of repressive military and Cobra police. It was reported that behind this operation, the tentacles of landlord Henry Osorto could be involved, who also seeks to own the land where the community is settled, and who has maintained constant actions to evict the families in the State- owned land.
Leaders of the area, said it is very dangerous what the armed apparatus of the state is doing, which can degenerate into bloodshed.
Persecution against COPA
The members of the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares Aguan, COPA, a network that brings together several organizations, are being targeted for persecution and surveillance.
They denounced that on Sunday, April 11, at about 2:00 pm, Jose Serrano, Haydee Saravia and Esly Banegas, All the Directors of COPA,driving a vehicle of the INA, from the center of Tocoa to get off of it, half a block from the house of Esly, a taxi parked, owned by the Company's Brisas Aguán, with an individual inside who was carrying a radio communication, staying in the same place about 15 minutes, staring into the house.
Again on Monday April 12, 2010, also at about 2:00 PM the same team of Directors of COPA, was chased for about three blocks by a vehicle 4x4 double cab, red, Toyota, without license plates and tinted windows, which parked for a while at the same place as did the stranger in the Taxi on Sunday, then it went away and disappeared.
Although, both Saravia and Banegas as beneficiaries of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR, since last year, the Honduran State is doing nothing to protect their lives.
All this happens in parallel with the statements of the presidential deputy Marie Antoineta Bográn, who was accompanied by Defence Minister, Marlon Pascua and Security Deputy Minister,Roberto Romero Luna, who said the human rights of the peasants of Aguán would be respected.
In that press conference, the deputy director of the National Police Panchamé Rene Maradiaga said the military and police presence is because they "met specific instructions of the President, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, the Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, and director Commissioner of Police, José Luis Muñoz Licona, to maintain order and preserve the rule of law in the area, providing security to all people in the region. "
However, the repressive actions initiated since Saturday night, are the component of psychological operations to destabilize peasant, actions that result in the generation of terror against unarmed civilians.
Along with this climate, the campaign through media disinformation related to landowners who say that the Aguán is an armed movement, continues, intending to justify past actions that are violations of human rights.
Source: http://nicaraguaymasespanol.blogspot.com/2010/04/honduras-detenciones-y-hallanamientos.html
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