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((Revistazo photo))

[Translation of an article from Revistazo of Tegucigalpa for April 20. See original here  and related articles here, here and here.]

Tegucigalpa – The Ministry of the Interior has announced the issuing of warrants for police, military and civilians involved in human rights violations and the assassinations of more than 50 people in the Bajo Aguán region. The campesino leadership considers it necessary to punish those responsible but has no confidence in any actions the prosecutor may take.

Although he did not disclose the names of those involved, Special Prosecutor for Human Rights Germán Enamorado told the press that the prosecutor’s office has succeeded in gathering the evidence needed to initiate prosecutions, which in the case of public employees will involve charges for abuse of authority, dereliction of duty, personal injury and attempted homicide. (more…)

((ContraPunto photo by Luis Velásquez))

“The president of Honduras is Micheletti”

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto of San Salvador for December 14. See original here and related articles here.]

by Fernando de Dios

San Salvador – Being a defender of human rights in Honduras these days is a job that carries with it the risk of imminent death.

As a member of the Comité de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos de Honduras (CODEH – Committee in Defense of Human Rights in Honduras) who has been denouncing abuses by state security forces in the Bajo Aguán area, where 47 campesinos have been assassinated in the past two years, Alexander Salgado knows this first hand.

Salgado tells how he and others were attacked by soldiers who lay in ambush for them and fired at them with combat rifles in that rural area of the department of Colón, in northern Honduras. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Revistazo of Tegucigalpa for August 16. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

By Germán Reyes

Honduras is experiencing its worst crime wave in history and although crime is spread through every region of the country, Security Minister Óscar Álvarez has announced the launch of a new joint operation by the military and the police in the Aguán region, an area characterized by struggle between campesinos and landowners.

More than 150 campesinos and security guards have died in armed confrontations in the Aguán area. The government, incapable of complying with signed commitments, has announced a militarization through Operation Xatruch II.

The security minister reports the deployment of 600 additional men, to be added to the contingent that has been stationed in the region for several months. (more…)

[Tanslation of an article from Revistazo.com for December 30. See original article here and related article here.]

The latest massacre of five campesinos in the north of the country has once again attracted national and international attention. The bodies of campesinos scattered about and the rifles they embraced awkwardly traveled around the world, revealing the lie and the barbarity in which Honduras survives.

The most grotesque part was that Miguel Faccusé, the landowner implicated in the murders, came out declaring, “Why did they approach my properties knowing that my men were armed?” The central government, in an irresponsible way, immediately alerted the population to the presence of campesino guerrillas trained outside the country. At almost the same time, the National Congress approved the Anti-Terrorist Law to criminalize social movements. In this way, the country’s core problem, which is the immoral monopoly of land by the landowners, is moved to second place. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula for December 2.  See original article here and related article here.]

San Pedro Sula – Campesino leaders in Bajo Aguán charged yesterday that an army of Colombian mercenaries has been organized to assassinate citizens who defend the lands granted to them by the Instituto Nacional Agragio (INA – National Agrarian Institute).

Vitalino Álvarez, Yoselyn Avilez and Adolfo Cruz, members of the Movimiento Unificado Campesino de Aguán (MUCA – United Campesino Movement of Aguán), and José Mario López, general secretary of the Sindicato de Trabajadores del INA del Bajo Aguán (Union of INA Workers of Bajo Aguán), traveled to San Pedro Sula to hold a press conference on Tercera Avenida in the Guamiliti neighborhood, to “denounce the repression and to refute the media campaign” being waged by some newspapers. (more…)

[Translations of two articles, the first from Revistazo.com of Tegucigalpa for November 15, the second from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula for November 16. See original articles here and here. Businessman and landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum, one of the wealthiest men in Honduras, is owner of Grupo Dinant, which produces biodiesel fuel from palm and jatropha oils, among other enterprises. He and other members of his family are widely thought to have been instrumental in the coup d’état that ousted Manuel Zelaya from the presidency on June 28, 2009. César Ham of the leftist Unidad Democrática party is currently director of the Instituto Nacional Agrario, the National Agrarian Institute, in the administration of de facto president Porfirio Lobo Sosa. A supporter of Zelaya and of the drive for a Constituent Assembly, Ham was widely criticized by other leftists for accepting a position in the Lobo administration, which apparently offered it to him in an attempt to co-opt the resistance.]

Four campesinos killed in confrontation with Facussé security guards

by Germán Reyes

The deaths of four campesinos and the injuries and disappearances of several others have been reported as the result of a confrontation between security guards working for landowner Miguel Facussé and members of the Movimiento Campesino de Aguán (MCA – Aguán Campesino Movement). The event took place in the community of El Tumbador, in the jurisdiction of Trujillo, Colón. (more…)