New Blog Address

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Berta Cáceres

Berta was assassinated between 11 pm and 12 am on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 when at least two individuals broke into the back door of her house in the town of La Esperanza, in western Honduras. They shot her at least twice. She died a few moments later. A long-time compañero and fellow activist of Berta's, Gustavo Castro from Mexico was the sole witness to her murder.

Berta lives in us and among us. Very sad news for Honduras. Berta will be deeply missed.

Delegation to Honduras in January 2016: Photographs and Stories from Duck Head Photography

In January 2016, I led and coordinated an educational delegation to Honduras organized by the Marin County Task Force on the America (MITF) and Cross Border Network for Justice and Solidarity. We focused on three important topics (that are linked): the drug war, land grabs, and the neoliberal global tourist industry.

One delegate, Rodney Mahaffey of Duck Head Photography is an amazing photographer. With his own photos, Rod has been putting together some amazing photo essays and short descriptions of various encounters during the delegation. Below are some of my favorite. More to come later.

THE AGUAN

“In the Aguán region, a fertile alluvial valley just south of the northern coast, large landowners have taken advantage of the current political climate to intensify attacks on peasant movements and expand plantations of African oil palm, a high value export crop with a growing global market for edible oil, processed foods, chemical and biodiesel fuels. Between September 2009 and August 2012, 53 recorded murders of Aguán peasants are attributed to guards and mercenaries hired by large oil palm growers, often acting in concert with state and military forces…In addition, the US military presence and military aid—heightened in recent years in the name of combating drug trafficking—have bolstered the Honduran security forces’ capacity for repression. The revival of 1980s-style counter-insurgency tactics against a non-violent resistance movement has led to mounting human rights atrocities felt most acutely in the countryside. This push also comes up against a movement of increasingly organized peasant communities who, after more than a century of displacement by capitalist agriculture, have nowhere left to go.
-Tanya M. Kerssen, “Grabbing Power: the New Struggles for Land, Food and Democracy in Northern Honduras”

In the campesino community of La Lempira, our delegation met with representatives from the United Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA), the Authentic Peasant Revindicative Movement of Aguán (MARCA), the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) and the Agrarian Platform of the Aguán.

Although the emphasis changed from speaker to speaker, the story was always the same:
• We are now living under a new form of dictatorship. The president is selling Honduras, creating a new form of slavery. We are worried we will be left without a country. Militarization is a threat to all Hondurans.
• We are living in crisis.
• The 2010 agreement promised us 11,000 hectares of land. Now there are 3000 families living on 4000 hectares.
• We are suffocating.
• To receive support we had to agree to plant African palm. The price of palm has fallen 54.3% since 2014. Families and members are living on less than $1 a day.
• Since the business plan there have been over 120 murders. That illegal process sold our own land back to us from people who aren’t even Honduran. Now the government wants to remove us from our land.
• We have demanded a revision of the 2010 agreement that promised education and health and housing…none of that has happened. A commission was formed, led by the vice-president of Congress. Every meeting has been cancelled and re-scheduled.
• We realized that they are bullshitting us (as we say in Honduras). We need help to apply pressure to negotiate a new plan.
• The is a long history of campesino struggle. So many comrades have been killed in this process. All we are asking as MARCA and MCA is to fulfill the promises of the agreement.
• They take advantage of hunger and poverty to overprice the land.
• North America…the Pentagon...Intelligence…the World Bank have reduced budgets and economic support to create a crisis. Honduras, after the conflicts in Central America, became a permanent military base. Now the whole country is militarized.
• They assassinate leaders and infiltrate the movements. Only 18 cooperatives have survived. (Note: there were 40 campesino cooperatives at the time of the coup in 2009.)

The meeting had to end because several of the people were going to the courthouse in Trujillo where a hearing was being held regarding the case of four campesinos who have been in jail for two years on bogus land, ammunition and gun charges. This would be their first hearing. (Someone seems to have a ready supply of guns and ammunition to plant as evidence. Ammunition and gun charges are common.) We were asked to “accompany” them to the hearing.

Accompaniment is widely practiced in Honduras. Local community members or organizations utilize individuals or groups (like us) partially as a shield against violence and also to demonstrate that there is international interest and support for issues and problems inside Honduras. The world is watching. Our presence for the hearing also potentially help protect the lawyer as well. More lawyers are murdered in Honduras than in any other country in the world. 22 legal professionals were victims of targeted killings in 2015. (Source: Peace Brigades International).

The hearing wasn’t heard while we waited. (The clock in the office at the courthouse had stopped at 10:05 and there was a 2014 calendar hanging on the wall. Justice grinds exceedingly slow down here.)

Later we learned that after listening to the defense arguments, the court decided that here were insufficient grounds for a hearing and the four campesinos remain in jail.

Campesinos, La Lempira.

CAYOS COCHINOS

Chachahuate is the largest Garifuna community within Cayos Cochinos. The island…shrank considerably as a result of hurricane Mitch in 1998 to around 150m by 50m depending on the tide. The sporadic layout of huts remarkably manages to fit forty houses into the crescent shaped island…during the time of the research (July 7th-August 20th, 2004(, the average sample population fluctuated around ninety-three people. The village seems overcrowded yet cozy with the vast expanse of water all around. The beach is covered with Cayucos (small boats), signifying fishing as the primary livelihood of the Garifuna of Cayos Cochinos. Chachahuate is far from sustainable. Their water supply is from a well, which is limited, and all the food and merchandise is brought in from the mainland. The island of Chachahuate is in every sense of the word, a desert island.”
-Alistair Russell, “Examining the Impact of Changing livelihood Strategies upon Garifuna Cultural Identity: a Case Study of Cayos Cochinos” (2005)

In the first photograph you have a boat’s-eye-view of almost the entire length of the island. There is another house and a Cayucos or two on the right.

Approaching Chachahuate.

BIRDS IN TRUJILLO

There are 914 species of birds found in North America (north of the Mexican border). Honduras (about the size and shape of Kentucky) has 722 bird species. Three species of vultures can be seen: Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures and Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures. The population of Honduras (2012) is 7,621, 000. 90% of that number is identified as Mestizo. There are six Amerindian groups (Lenca, Miskito, Ch’orti’, Toulpan, Pech or Paya and Sumo or Tawahka); two Afro-Honduran groups (Garifuna and Creaoles) and a smaller population of Palestinians (sometimes called “Turcos") and Chinese.

I thought of this first photograph (of Black Vultures with some Willets wading in the background) as an allegory of Honduras: the shorebirds would stand for the peoples of Honduras; the vultures would betoken the various entities scavenging and gorging themselves. (Fun vulture facts: a group of feeding vultures is called a wake; vultures vomit to lighten their stomach load to escape from predators; New World vultures urinate straight down their legs…the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses. Vultures are the perfect proxy for the Honduran bad guys.) But a strict allegory would also require 10 or so more species of shorebirds to represent the diverse ethnic peoples of Honduras. Plenty of shorebird species can be found in Honduras. No problema. However, there also would need to be many, many more species of vultures to align one-to-one with their human/corporate/government/military counterparts. Counting both Old World Vultures (16 species) and New World Vultures (7 species) there are only 23 species; not nearly enough.

Bummer. That would have been a tight little allegory. And an awesome bird photo.

Black Vultures and Willets, Trujillo Bay.

A Reminder of the Importance of U.S. Approval On "Sovereign" Honduran Issues

This was the front page of El Heraldo, one of Honduras' largest, nationally-distributed newspapers on Wednesday, January 27, 2016. It is headlines like this that bring the issue of U.S. imperialism to the front and center of my thoughts. Often, I have debates with solidarity activists about how active the role of the U.S. (and Canada) government is in determining how processes like the election of the Supreme Court magistrates, military coups, and promotions within the Honduran military and police, really is. I continue to believe quite strongly what many Honduran activists and human rights defenders say, "The embassy is in charge here" [La embajada gringa manda aqui].

Front page reads "the nominated 45 get green light from Embassy" and the text, "Jorge Machado, ex-member of the Nomination Board, says that they received a congratulatory letter for the work conducted in the selection of the 45 candidates for the Supreme Court. [The Embassy] clarified that that none of the people on the list of 45 candidates are identified [as being involved in illicit activities or not accepted] by the U.S. The justification for PAC [anti-corruption party] to vote against [the process] was that people that had been veto-ed appeared [on the list]"

Note that the headline isn't about the Japanese, German, or Canadian embassy? And notice that all they have to write is the "Embassy" in the headline and everyone assumes which country they are referring to? Now think about a similar headline appearing in a U.S. newspaper? Imagine "The nominated U.S. Supreme Court magistrates get green light from Honduran embassy".

Four Months of Manipulation: Electing the Honduran Supreme Court Magistrates

Last night, the Honduran National Congress was unable to secure the 86 votes necessary to approve the final 15 proposed Supreme Court magistrate candidates for the 2016-2023 period. Congress will try again this evening by secret vote, a strategy that the opposition claims will hide the identities of congressional representatives that have sold their vote to the National Party. The political opposition and Honduran social movement have been critical of the election processes that narrowed the candidate pool in approximately four months, as stated by law, from 200 to 97 to 45 to 15 final contestants.

In the center of the militarized perimeter surrounding the National Congress, the opposition voted against the 15 proposed magistrates - 13 from the Anti-Corruption party (PAC), 31 reps from LIBRE party (two abstained due to their position in the Multi-partisan Commission), 1 from the Innovation and Unity Party (PINU), and surprisingly 1 congressional representative from the traditional Liberal party. In total, 82 voted in favor, 44 against, falling 4 votes short of the 86-vote majority that is needed.

Source: Pasos de Animal Grande

In the midst of corruption and irregularities, its difficult to pay attention to a process that is indeed very important on an institutional level, but that is so unsurprisingly flawed and representative of the decades-old status quo in Honduras: the exclusion of the political opposition and social movement and their lack of real institutional power; corruption at every level of the process; the manipulation of the Judiciary by the Executive and Legislative branches of government; and the on-going bipartisan power and domination of the National and Liberal party that represent the ten to twelve families of the Honduran political and economic elite (the oligarquía).

Throughout the four-month process, frequent acts of manipulation and corruption were reported by the independent media, the political opposition, and the diverse Honduran social movement. Below is a list of some of the reported irregularities. A full description of the nomination process in Spanish can be found here.

The election process and role of the Nominating Board (Junta Nominadora):

The Board is responsible for narrowing the list of 200 candidates to 45 and presenting their nominations to the National Congress. By law, the Junta consists of seven individuals that are nominated by each of the seven organizations/groups including the Supreme Court; Assembly of the National Bar Association; National Human Rights Commissioner; The National Council for Private Enterprise (COHEP); Assembly of Legal Scholars from Law Faculties or Schools; Civil Society Organizations; and Assembly of the Labor Federations.

Irregularities:

** The Coalition Against Impunity that is formed by more than 20 organizations of civil society raised concerns about the manipulation by the Evangelical Brotherhood to impose a candidate on behalf of Civil Society Organization, that defends and represent the interests of the government.

** According to the Coalition Against Impunity, the selection of 45 candidates were made based on individual and political preferences of the seven representatives of the Nomination Board instead of on merit, ability, and professional preparation.

** The Board requested information from the U.S. Embassy regarding the candidates. The U.S. Embassy responded with names of 27 candidates that the U.S. believes have been involved in “professional and personal activities that have been on the fringes of the law.”


Transparency and disclosure of information about Supreme Court magistrate candidates:

Irregularities:

** The Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP) sanctioned the Nomination Board for not disclosing the results of poly-graph tests, investigations of economic status of candidates (used to detect financial irregularities, drug trafficking, corruption, etc), and psychological analysis of each of the 200 nominees.

** Of the 15 final candidates, 8 are affiliated with the National Party and 7 with the Liberal Party. There are no candidates belonging or affiliated with any of the opposition parties.

** Some of the candidates, including those that made it to the final 15 have questionable backgrounds linked to human rights abuses and/or strong political/economic interests:

- Three candidates accepted by the Nomination Board were involved in the arbitrary firing of four judges following the June 2009 coup. The judges’ behaviours were scrutinized by the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights in the Case López Lone y otros Vs. Honduras

- Miriam Suyapa Barahona Rodriguez (Liberal party candidate): One of four magistrates involved in banning Julio Ernesto Alvarado from working as a journalist in Honduras, as a result of a charge against him for criminal defamation. Ernesto Alvardo worked for the opposition TV channel, TV Globo

- Karla Patricia Garcia Arita (National party candidate): Involved in opening charges against overthrown President Manuel Zelaya, and declared a constitutional challenge to tax increases approved in 2013 on the tail of the IMF agreement, inadmissible.

Canada’s Aura Minerals Terrorizing Honduran Communities For Protecting Their Cemetery

Photo caption: Standing at the edge of the sharp cut in the mountain, less than 100 meters from the edge of the community cemetery

In the evening on Monday, November 23, ten leaders from the mining-affected communities of Azacualpa and San Andres Minas were stopped at a police checkpoint as they left Santa Rosa de Copan in western Honduras. Three of the leaders – Miguel Lopez, Genaro Rodriguez and Orlando Rodriguez – all part of the Azacualpa Environmental Committee were held overnight at the police station on charges of usurpation. Lopez, Rodriguez, and Rodriguez are expected to appear before a judge for a hearing scheduled for December 17th.

Upon returning to Azacualpa after their release, dozens of residents from the community greeted the three leaders at the entrance with a caravan and setting off firecrackers in celebration. The community also reaffirmed its support to maintain a blockade that they started on November 9th, located at the base of a steep cut in the side of Cemetery Mountain (Cerro Cementerio). Without access to the mountainside, Aura cannot continue to encroach on the perimeters of the community cemetery, now located less than 100 meters from the steep slice in the side of the mountain.
The recent detentions and provocation are part of a criminalization and repression campaign against the communities and the Azacualpa Environmental Committee. Tired of Aura’s broken promises and failure to fulfill a 2012 agreement with mining-affected communities in the municipality of La Unión, residents of Azacualpa and San Andres Minas have decided to protect what is left of the two mountain tops – Cerro Cementerio and Cerro Los Hornillos – closest to their communities, both of which are in Aura Mineral’s expansion plans.

Using Corruption and Impunity To Force The Closure of Community Cemetery

At the service of the Canadian mining company, Honduran institutions including the Permanent Contingency Commission (COPECO) and the Ministry of Public Health have recently attempted to declare the cemetery unfit citing that it is dangerous, susceptible to land slides, unsanitary, and fails to meet public health standards. Their sudden interests in the conditions of the cemetery coincide with Aura Minerals’ interests in expansion.

Community members argue that the mining operations in close proximity to the cemetery, against the wishes of the local residents, have created some of the conditions being used to justify its destruction. Other justifications are just flat-out inventions. They argue that the corrupt Honduran state – security forces, public prosecutors’ offices, and other state institutions – are simply protecting and acting on the interests of the mining monster in their backyard.
In an effort to stop the expansion of the mine, in April 2014 local residents blocked a public road outside one of the entrances of the San Andres mine. It was violently evicted by military and police and charges were pressed against nineteen community members, who are still required to appear before a judge every month. In January 2015, residents of Azacualpa held a community consultation (cabildo abierto) in coordination with the mayor’s office. Azacualpa declared that they were against the closure and relocation of their cemetery and demand that Aura Minerals respect their wishes. The consultation is another effort by the community to demand respect for their gravesites where local communities bury their loved ones.

Photo caption: Standing at the base of the mountainside at the location of the community-led blockade to prevent expansion of mining operation

Photo caption: Community cemetery

Drones, Military Intelligence and Shady Business Contacts: Aura Mineral’s Tactics in Honduras

Immediately following the release of the three leaders of the Azacualpa Environmental Committee early this week, affected communities denounced the presence of a drone hovering over the location of the blockade. They believe that the drone is being utilized by Aura Minerals and its’ private security company, Servicios Especiales de Seguridad (SESER) to provoke the community and to take pictures of and identify individuals participating in the blockade.

Contributing to the fear and tension, the local communities are aware of Aura Mineral’s business relationships in the region. Its private security company, SESER is owned by Angel Rene Romero, a former military commander and congressional candidate for the National Party in the Department of Copan. Rene Romero was part of the infamous military Battalion 3-16 in the 1980s, an intelligence unit inside the Honduran military responsible for political assassinations and torture of state opponents.

Another contract that Aura Minerals holds at its’ San Andres gold mine, is with a Honduran transportation company called INCOBE. The contract involves various machinery and dump trucks that move crushed rock to the location of the mine’s leaching pads. Owned and operated by the Benitez family based in Santa Rosa de Copan, INCOBE holds the concession for the iron ore mine in El Nispero, Santa Barbara, Honduras, where anti-mining and community leader Rigoberto Lopez Hernandez was brutally murdered in May 2014. Lopez Hernandez’s throat had been slit, his tongue cut out, and his murdered body publicly displayed as a clear message to environmentalists around the country in resistance to mining operations.

Canada’s Complicity in Aura Minerals’ Tactics and Operations in Honduras

Aura Minerals was one of few mining companies that operated through the violent and repressive aftermath of the June 28, 2009 military coup in Honduras. Eight months after the coup in February 2010, and in clear support of the post-coup Honduran regime and its economic interests, then President of Aura Minerals, Patrick Downey visited Honduras accompanied by mining and corporate investors and the Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder. The visit was centered on encouraging the Honduran government to approve a new mining law that would lift the 2006 moratorium that prevented new concessions from being granted.

Years later on January 23, 2013, the Honduran Congress passed and ratified a new mining law without any consultation with mining-affected communities, environmental and human rights groups. Mining Watch Canada publicly denounced that the development of the new Honduran mining law received assistance from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), thus reaffirming the strong support that the Canadian mining industry receives from the Canadian government.

With no respect for community consultations, local discontent, and the protection of a community cemetery, Aura Minerals, supported by the Canadian government is generating more violence in Honduras – one of the most violent countries in the world. As drones snap pictures of the faces of local residents protecting their community cemetery, and former military intelligence commanders protect the interests of foreign investment, Honduran communities are placed in increasingly vulnerable circumstances to the benefit and profit of the Canadian mining industry.

Photo caption: Approximately 120 houses built by Aura Minerals as part of an agreement with the community of Azacualpa. Aura agreed to build three different housing styles and 396 houses in total. Both the number, the styles, and additional community projects as part of the relocation process were violated by the mining company.

Photo caption: Climbing up to the community blockade, La Unión, Copan.

Two Educational Videos: ZEDEs & Tourism Projects on Garifuna Land

ZEDES: NEOCOLONIALISM AND LAND GRABBING IN HONDURAS

A new film about ZEDEs has been released on YouTube titled, “ZEDEs: neocolonialism and land grabbing in Honduras.” The 20-minute film was produced by members of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) with filmmaker Lazar Konforti and HSN Honduras Coordinator Karen Spring. The film highlights the personal struggles and the legal battles that are beginning to materialize now that ZEDE projects are being planned and developed in Honduras. Please disseminate this film to your contacts, social media, and add it to your organization's website or newsletter. There is no need to obtain permission for screenings. The Spanish version is available here. For further information, see the NLG International Committee website at nlginternational.org.



CANADIAN PORN KING ON TRIAL FOR TOURISM PROJECTS IN HONDURAS

On November 13th, 2015, Canadian tourism developer Randy Jorgensen, aka “The Porn King”, appeared in court on charges of illegally appropriating ancestral Garifuna lands. The court ruled partially in Jorgensen’s favour, choosing not to go to a full trial for the time being, but local communities smell corruption and vow to appeal this ruling in Honduran courts and keep on fighting all the way to international tribunals, meaning that Jorgensen’s and others’ investments remain in legal limbo and could still be in jeopardy.



Check out the website Los Despojados for more great work by filmmaker Lazar Konforti

Canadian Tourism and Real Estate Developer Appears Before Honduran Judge

On November 13, 2015, Canadian tourist and real estate investor, Randy Jorgensen appeared before a judge in Trujillo, Honduras. Jorgensen is being accused of illegal possession of approximately 81 manzanas of land where his company Life Vision Developments has developed the gated-community of Campa Vista. The lots inside Campa Vista are being sold to North Americans seeking vacation homes on the beautiful Caribbean coast of Honduras. Jorgensen illegally obtained the land through fraudulent sales of land inside the ancestral land title of the Garifuna community of Rio Negro and Cristales.

The Honduran judge overseeing the hearing ruled 'sobreseimiento provisional' or a provisional stay which means that there is insufficient evidence to proceed to trial but that the Honduran state representing the Garifuna community has five years to present further evidence. Given the serious accusations against Jorgensen and the threat that the gated-community Campa Vista presents to the cultural integrity and land rights of the Garifuna in Trujillo Bay, the community of Rio Negro and Cristales intend to appeal the decision. The Garifuna communities were not entirely surprised by the judge's decision on the case. Corruption and impunity is rampant in the Honduran judicial system and more likely than not to sway the ruling in favour of a foreign investor with strong political connections.

Over 150 Garifuna gathered outside of the courthouse as the hearing was underway. Marching first from the Cristales neighbourhood, we arrived to the courthouse shortly after the hearing begun. Drumming, singing, holding signs declaring their indigenous rights under the International Labour Organization (ILO) 169 convention, and a banner that read "Randy Roy Jorgensen out of Garifuna territory", the Garifuna communities showed their determination to defend their ancestral rights.


Photo caption: Banner reads "Randy Roy Jorgensen out of Garifuna territory." All photos by Karen Spring


Photo caption: Marching from the Garifuna neighbourhood of Cristales in Trujillo to the courthouse


Photo caption: Protesting outside of the courthouse




Photo caption: Canadian "Porn King" Randy Jorgensen charged with illegal possession of land arrives to the courthouse in Trujillo, Honduras.


Photo caption: Randy Jorgensen (left) waving obnoxiously to the Garifuna community waiting outside the courthouse to hear the results. Hernan Batres (middle), the General Manager of the cruise ship terminal constructed by Jorgensen's second company in Trujillo, Banana Coast, accompanied Jorgensen to the hearing.

Speech to Lenca Communities in Rio Blanco, Honduras by the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

National Day of Protest 4/11

On Wednesday, November 4th, social movements and organizations around the country organized protests, blocked off roads, and occupied public universities. Below is a communique (first in English and then Spanish) signed by 52 organizations that outlines why the National Day of Protest was organized and what the movements are demanding. Throughout the communique, I have posted pictures of the protests.

Photo caption: San Pedro Sula. Photo by: Radio Progreso

POLITICAL POSITIONING: MOVEMENTS OF RESISTANCE AND POPULAR INDIGNATION

NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST 4/11

In light of the deep political, economic, and social crisis affecting the country due to the grim neoliberal, pro-imperialist, Zionist policies applied by Juan Orlando Hernandez, exacerbated by the monstrous cases of corruption with participation by a government that has hijacked the institutionality of the state in collusion with powerful groups with links to drug trafficking and organized crime.
The immediate, occurring effect is a panorama of hunger and death for Honduran society and in particular, the most impoverished sectors. However, the economic and social policies of JOH are based on privatization, the sacrifice of the people, the indebtedness and use of public funds to buy the conscience of the population in greatest need; coupled with the trafficking of influences in the quest for re-election at any cost, thus generating an environment of uncertainty and of State violence. However, for JOH, everything is going wrong, the chaos that he has created in the country not only expels thousands of countrymen and women to forced migration but discredits the country at the international level placing it not only as the most violent in the world but with the largest inequality gap.

Photo caption: Comayagua, Honduras. Photo by: COPINH
The agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come to increase the ranks of the unemployed and the violations of rights, tax increases, and budget reductions for the most basic services that has generated a situation of social pressure that will explode with more force at any time. This is why the Movements of Resistance and Popular Indignation, after various months of permanent struggle to free ourselves from the cancer of corruption and of the person in charge of this crisis that has reached unimaginable levels, we have found ourselves organizing this November 4th, a national day of protest on the way to a National Strike, protest actions as the only way to remove this murderous, corrupt government and enemy of the people, transgressor of the most elementary rights and, that has as its only intention to extend its term in power through political party supporters and political favoritism to the detriment of all male and female workers.

Photo caption: El Progreso. Photo by: Unknown
Our struggle is also for self-determination and, we condemn imperialist intervention either through the Organization of American States (OAS), or the U.S. government, an expert in making all of our people slaves, and to fill our families with mourning in the name of the supposed fight against drug trafficking that they themselves promote. This by no means signifies that we support any drug trafficker, we denounce the lies of the empire, since its only interest is to recolonize then to plunder our common goods of nature, using any advantage to manipulate through its government foot soldiers and historical executioners.

Photo caption: Tela area. Photo by: Unknown
From this space of national articulation, we do not recognize any dialogue initiated by the Organization of American States (OAS), from now on we question the legitimacy of any decision that any indignant movement or, from the poorly named civil society that claim, for personal interests to be representatives before these organizations and other subsidiaries and servants of the Empire. In this regard, we do not recognize institutions that are instrumentalized that assign themselves representation in the name of the people that have not been delegated to do so and that do not represent us. To all the workers of Continental Group, we give our solidarity and we ask that you not trust in the government’s demagogy. The only way to defend your rights is to struggle in the streets, while we consider you part of all the demands from the popular movement.

Photo caption: Students occupy the public National Autonomous University, Tegucigalpa. Photo by: Karen Spring

THIS 4/11 WE PROTEST FOR:

- The immediate departure of Juan Orlando Hernandez and his cabinet, for their proven acts of corruption that links them as one of the main architects of the plunder of the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS); above all, we are protesting for an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist and anti-patriarchal political system.
- The prompt installation of the International Commission Against Impunity (CICIH) – without the interference of the United States – a CICIH as an external and independent body that exposes to the world the decomposition of Honduran institutions.
- The installation of an original, popular and refounding National Constituent Assembly that brings together all social, popular, political and diverse sectors for a true social pact that directs us to a true and one-of-a-kind independence.
- The abolition of the new Social Security Law, a law which puts a price on a right acquired by its affiliates and that passes the consequences of the embezzlement of that institution to the workers with the same indifference that they treated the relatives of the 3,000 compatriots who died as a result of this barbaric act and injustice.
- For territorial defense and care for life, the right of indigenous and Garifuna peoples to defend their culture, water, land, their seeds, and self-determination as native peoples: for a Honduras free of mining concessions, hydroelectric dams, and the Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs)
- Stop the criminalization of social protest and the persecution and prosecution of campesino leaders, indigenous peoples, students, women, etc. that struggle in legitimate defense of their rights: in defense of the rest of the population that survives before the disastrous, repressive policies of JOH.
- Respect for the freedom of expression and freedom of the press, the right for free emission of thoughts of journalists and media, that have brought to public light all of the corruption scandals that connect to the government, not only with acts of corruption but with money laundering and narco-politics. Contrary to what the crooked media does, whose work is to hide the crimes of their masters and commanders of communication.
- We denounce the imposition of the will of Juan Orlando Hernandez in the election of the new Supreme Court of Justice, violating the independence of powers and due process, which from now on we condemn and denounce the same process as a media circus, a farce, an abuse of power that should be paid with jail time.
- For the defense of public education; secular, humanistic, and of quality, which has life and the person at its center and no the interests of capital and its forms of domination and exploitation.
For a reform of the electoral system with principles of independence, transparency, and autonomy from the government and any other power, a more participatory, collegial, and trustworthy system, which proceeds through a new Electoral Law, a new Supreme Electoral Tribunal, applying electronic voting and the strict control of the origin of campaign funds of each party.

MOVEMENTS OF RESISTANCE AND POPULAR INDIGNATION

HONDURAS, 4/11 – 2015

SIGNED BY:

Coalición de Movimientos de indignación
Plataforma de indignados
Mesas Nacionales de indignación
Indignados de Comayaguela
Indignados Unidos por Honduras
Honduras Indignados somos todos
Indignados Comayagua
Indignados Intibucá
Indignados Danlí
Indignados El Paraíso
Indignados Jesús de Otoro
Indignados Puerto Cortés
Indignados Santa Rita
Mesa amplia de estudiantes indignados
Indignados Somos Todos, sector maquila
Plataforma de Movimientos sociales y populares
Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras, OFRANEH
Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Bebida y similares, STIBYS
Movimiento Amplio por la Dignidad y la Justicia, MADJ
Concejo de Organizaciones populares e Indígenas de Honduras, COPINH
Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores, PST
Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, FNRP
CUTH – FNRP Progreso
Coordinadora Indígena de Poder Popular de Honduras, CIPH
Instituto ecuménico de servicios a la comunidad, INEHSCO
Equipo de Reflexión, investigación y comunicación, ERIC
Red COMAL
Movimiento 5 de Julio
Vía Campesina
CIPRODEH
Observatorio ecuménico internacional
Iglesia cristiana AGAPE
Movimiento Morazán Vive
Movimiento Amplio Universitario
Partido Libertad y Refundación, LIBRE
Resistencia Colectiva Las Mercedes
Taller Pedagógico “Paulo Freire”
SITRASANAAYS
Movimiento País
Red de Jóvenes Morazanistas
Colectiva Bacteria
STYBIS Seccional #3 La Ceiba
Juventud Casa del Pueblo
Unión Revolucionaria del Pueblo, URP
ADROH
COLPEDAGOS
CASA DEL PUEBLO, S.P.S.
Escuela de formación política para Movimientos Sociales
Plataforma Sindical Olancho
Colectivos de Barrios y Colonias
Central Nacional de Trabajadoras del Campo, Progreso CNTC
UNAH-VS
(Translated by Karen Spring)

POSICIONAMIENTO POLITICO: Movimientos de Resistencia e Indignación Popular

JORNADA NACIONAL DE PROTESTA 4/11

Ante la profunda crisis política, económica y social que atraviesa el país debido a la nefasta política neoliberal, pro-imperialista y sionista que aplica Juan Orlando Hernández, la cual se agudiza con los monstruosos casos de corrupción en los que participa un gobierno que ha capturado la institucionalidad del Estado en componenda con grupos de poder vinculados al narcotráfico y al crimen organizado.

El efecto inmediato que se presenta es un panorama de hambre y muerte para la sociedad hondureña y de las capas más empobrecidas en particular. No obstante, la política económica y social de JOH está basada en la privatización, el sacrificio del pueblo, el endeudamiento y el uso del erario público para comprar la conciencia de la población más necesitada; aunado a lo antes expuesto se suma el tráfico de influencias para la búsqueda de la reelección a como dé lugar, generando un ambiente de incertidumbre y de violencia de Estado. Sin embargo, a JOH todo le va saliendo mal, el caos que ha creado en el país no solo expulsa a miles de compatriotas a una migración forzada sino que descalifica al país a nivel internacional ubicándolo no solo como el país más violento del mundo sino con las mayores brechas de desigualdad.

El efecto inmediato que se presenta es un panorama de hambre y muerte para la sociedad hondureña y de las capas más empobrecidas en particular. No obstante, la política económica y social de JOH está basada en la privatización, el sacrificio del pueblo, el endeudamiento y el uso del erario público para comprar la conciencia de la población más necesitada; aunado a lo antes expuesto se suma el tráfico de influencias para la búsqueda de la reelección a como dé lugar, generando un ambiente de incertidumbre y de violencia de Estado. Sin embargo, a JOH todo le va saliendo mal, el caos que ha creado en el país no solo expulsa a miles de compatriotas a una migración forzada sino que descalifica al país a nivel internacional ubicándolo no solo como el país más violento del mundo sino con las mayores brechas de desigualdad.

El acuerdo con el FMI solo ha venido a incrementar las filas de desempleados y las violaciones a los derechos, el aumento de los impuestos y la reducción del presupuesto para los servicios más básicos han generando una situación de presión social que estallará con más fuerza en cualquier momento. Es por eso que: Los Movimientos de Resistencia e Indignación Popular, después de varios meses de lucha permanente por librarnos del cáncer de la corrupción y del responsable de que ésta crisis haya alcanzado niveles impensables, nos hemos encontrado para hacer de éste 04 de Noviembre una jornada Nacional de Protesta de camino a un Gran Paro Nacional, acciones de protesta como la única vía para sacar del poder a este gobierno asesino, corrupto y enemigo del pueblo, transgresor de los derechos más elementales y, que tiene como único propósito prolongarse en el poder desde la política partidaria y clientelar en perjuicio de todos los trabajadores y trabajadoras.

Nuestra lucha es también por la autodeterminación y, condenamos la intervención imperialista ya sea por medio de la OEA, o del propio gobierno norteamericano experto en volver esclavos a todos nuestros pueblos y, llenar de luto a nuestras familias en nombre del supuesto combate al narcotráfico que ellos mismos promueven. Esto, de ninguna manera significa que respaldemos a ningún narcotraficante, solo denunciamos la falsedad del imperio, ya que su único interés es recolonizar para luego saquear nuestros bienes comunes de la naturaleza, usando cualquier ventaja para manipular a través de sus peones gobiernistas y verdugos históricos del pueblo.

Desde este espacio de articulación nacional no reconocemos ningún dialogo iniciado por la OEA, desde ya deslegitimamos cualquier decisión que algún movimiento de indignación ó, de la mal llamada sociedad civil pretendan, por intereses particulares ser interlocutores ante estos organismos y otras subsidiarias y mandaderas del imperio. En tal sentido, no reconocemos organizaciones instrumentalizadas, que se atribuyen una representación en nombre de un pueblo que no les ha delgado y que tampoco representan.
A todos los trabajadores del Grupo Continental les damos nuestra solidaridad y les pedimos no confiar en la demagogia del gobierno, la única forma de defender sus derechos es en la lucha en las calles, al tiempo que los consideramos parte de todas las demandas del movimiento popular.

ESTE 04/11 NOS MOVILIZAMOS POR:

La salida inmediata de Juan Orlando Hernández y su gabinete, por sus comprobados actos de corrupción que lo vinculan como uno de los principales artífices del saqueo al Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social, IHSS; nos movilizamos sobretodo, por un cambio de sistema político, anti imperialista, anti capitalista, anti racista y anti patriarcal.

La pronta instalación de la Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad, CICIH -sin la injerencia de EEUU-, una CICIH como instancia externa e independiente que ponga al descubierto ante el mundo la descomposición de la institucionalidad hondureña.

La instalación de una Asamblea Nacional Constituyente originaria, popular y refundacional que auto convoque a todos los sectores sociales, populares, políticos y diversos para un verdadero pacto social que nos encamine a la verdadera y única independencia.

La derogación de la Nueva Ley Marco del Seguro Social, ley que pone precio a un derecho adquirido por las y los afiliados y que, traslada a las y los trabajadores las consecuencias del desfalco de dicha institución con la misma frialdad que tratan a los parientes de las y los tres mil compatriotas fallecidos a causa de este acto de barbarie e injusticia.

Por la defensa de los territorios y el cuidado de la vida, el derecho de los pueblos indígenas y pueblo Garífuna a defender su cultura, el agua, la tierra, sus semillas y su autodeterminación como pueblos originarios; por una Honduras liberada de concesiones mineras, hidroeléctricas y de Zonas de empleo y desarrollo económico, ZEDE.

Un alto a la criminalización de la protesta social y a la persecución y procesamiento de dirigentes campesinos, indígenas, estudiantiles, mujeres, etc. que luchan en legítima defensa de sus derechos; en defensa del resto de la población que sobrevive ante la nefasta política represiva de JOH.

Por el respeto a la libertad de expresión y libertad de prensa, el derecho a la libre emisión del pensamiento de las y los periodistas y medios que han sacado a la luz pública todos los escándalos de corrupción que vinculan al gobierno no solo con actos de corrupción sino con el lavado de activos y la narco-política. Contrario a lo que hacen los medios tarifados, cuya labor es esconder los crímenes de sus amos y caudillos de la comunicación.

Denunciamos la imposición de la voluntad de Juan Orlando Hernández en la elección de la nueva Corte Suprema de Justicia, violando la independencia de poderes y el debido proceso, por lo que desde ya condenamos y denunciamos el proceso mismo como un circo mediático, una farsa y un abuso de poder que debe ser pagado con cárcel.

Por la defensa de la educación pública; laica, humanística y de calidad, que tenga como centro la vida, la persona y no los intereses del capital y sus formas de dominación y explotación.

Por una reforma al sistema electoral con principios de independencia, transparencia y autonomía del gobierno y de cualquier otro poder, un sistema más participativo, colegiado y confiable, lo cual pasa por una nueva Ley Electoral, un nuevo Tribunal Supremo Electoral, aplicando el voto electrónico y el estricto control de la proveniencia de los fondos de campañas de cada partido.

MOVIMIENTOS DE RESISTENCIA EINDIGNACIÓN POPULAR

HONDURAS 04/11 – 2015

SUSCRIBIMOS EL PRESENTE POSICIONAMIENTO

Photo caption: Students facing the Police water tank. Photo by: Karen Spring

Randy Jorgensen, the Canadian “Porn King”, To Appear in Honduran Courts for Illegal Possession of Garifuna Lands for Tourist Projects

Randy Jorgensen will appear in Honduran courts under charges of usurpation, related to the illegal possession of Afro-indigenous, Garifuna lands in Trujillo, Honduras. Jorgensen, also known as the Canadian Porn King, is a major investor in various tourist projects in the Trujillo Bay area along Honduras’ northern Caribbean coast, including the ‘Banana Coast’ cruise ship terminal, and various gated-community projects. Charges against Jorgensen involve the illegal purchase and on-going use of land within a community land title belonging to the Garifuna communities of Cristales and Rio Negro, located in Trujillo Bay.

Photo caption: The Banana Coast cruise ship terminal, in the Rio Negro neighborhood in Trujillo. Local residents no longer have free access to the beach.

The legal hearing will take place on November 13 and the charges come after years of investigation of the illegal land sales. In June of this year, an arrest warrant for Jorgensen was issued by the Honduran Attorney General’s office. The majority of the alleged “land sales” in Rio Negro were made under threat of expropriation and repression, given the tense political environment following the June 2009 military coup in Honduras.

The Garifuna are an Afro-indigenous people that have lived for over 200 years along the Caribbean coast of Honduras, on lands now threatened by the foreign and national tourism industry. In the Trujillo region, Garifuna communities are also being evicted from their ancestral lands amid the possible construction of an Economic Development and Employment Zone (ZEDE) or Model City. Jorgensen’s investments are seen as the seed of a future ZEDE or parts of what could grow into a free trade, special development zone in the region.

Slow Tourism-Related Ethnocide

The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH by its Spanish acronym) has been publicly condemning tourism-related repression and illegal land sales for years. In December 2011, Rio Negro and Cristales, accompanied by OFRANEH, “filed a lawsuit demanding absolute nullity of several fraudulent land sales made in favor of Randy Roy Jorgensen. … Jorgensen, in the midst of the Honduran political tragedy in 2009, managed to suddenly obtain environmental licenses to build in an area declared a buffer zone of the Capiro and Calentura National Park.” Regarding the recent charges, OFRANEH released a statement that can be found here.

Photo caption: The ruins of a house in Rio Negro, with one of the last houses standing in the backdrop at the location where the Banana Coast cruise ship terminal is now located. Picture taken in 2011.

The piece of land that Jorgensen is illegally occupying consists of over 76 manzanas [approximately 132 acres] within the Rio Negro land title dating back to 1901. Upon obtaining the land, Jorgensen has since built the ‘Banana Coast’ cruise ship terminal that received over 50 international cruise ships last season. The Garifuna community of Rio Negro has largely been ‘disappeared’ by the project and the few houses remaining are regularly affected by severe flooding caused by the design and construction of the cruise ship terminal adjacent to their houses. Residents of Rio Negro and surrounding Garifuna communities have also lost access to the beach, a lifeline for the Garifuna that rely on fishing for local consumption.

Tourism, Dispossession and Repression

In her excellent article about Canadian tourism interests in Trujillo, journalist Dawn Paley reports that Jorgensen was nicknamed the ‘Canadian Porn King’ in a 1993 publication of MacLean’s magazine in Canada. The nickname is a play on how Jorgensen earned his fortune by distributing and selling pornographic films in ‘Adults Only Video’ (AOV) stores across Canada and online. Upon moving to Honduras in 2007, the Porn King has since become the major promoter and investor of a Cancun-style tourism economy in Trujillo Bay. Besides Banana Coast, Jorgensen owns another company, Life Vision Developments that is selling small lots of land to North Americans through various real estate firms based in Canada, and a money-making scheme known as Fast Track Group based in Alberta, Canada. These lots – many of which were illegally purchased by Life Vision Developments and are inside Garifuna land titles – are located within gated-communities Campa Vista, Coroz Alta, Alta Vista, and New Palm Beach.

Photo caption: The entrance of NJOI Trujillo.

Other North American projects have since begun construction and land sales in the last few years, following in Jorgensen’s footsteps. NJOI Trujillo and NJOI Santa Fe, owned and managed by Canadians Gino and Cristina Santarossa, and Paul and Lucio Todos, are real estate, resort-style projects for sale. Canadian journalist Sandra Cuffe writes about NJOI’s projects built illegally inside land owned communally by the Garifuna community of Guadalupe.

It is likely that many, if not all of these tourism-related investments are in serious risk, given that most, if not all recent tourism investment projects, going back to before the 2009 military coup, and particularly since the coup, are being constructed on Garifuna lands and territories that have been illegally acquired, in one fashion or another. Garifuna community and human rights defenders believe, and hope, that the usurpation charges against Randy Jorgensen are only the first of many legal challenges to come.

Jorgensen’s Legal Problems, Past and Present

The current charges against the Porn King are not Jorgensen’s first run-in with the Honduran legal system. In 2001, Jorgensen and his father, Roy Jorgensen, fought charges of proxenetismo de menores or prostitution of minors, all the way to the Honduran Supreme Court. There are concerns of corruption related to how the charges were ultimately dropped. Then in 2011, Jorgensen reported to the Honduran press that Honduran banks had closed his accounts for “unknown reasons”. Locals in Trujillo Bay also report that Jorgensen has strong ties to the Lobo family that have been accused of drug trafficking. Fabio Lobo, the son of former Honduran President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo, was arrested in May of this year by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency on drug trafficking charges in connection to the drug cartel operating in the Trujillo area, known as “Los Cachiros.” Lobo was extradited to stand trial in the U.S.

The most recent usurpation charges against Randy Jorgensen come as a surprise given the high levels of corruption and impunity in the Honduran judicial system. Although the recent charges seem hopeful, many are skeptical that the charges will proceed, if at all, in Honduran courts.

Photo caption: Randy Jorgensen (left) with Ramon Lobo (center) and former President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo (right). Photo from Life Vision Development.

What's going on with the Rosenthals?

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) indicted three members of the Rosenthal family - Jaime Rolando Rosenthal, Yankel Antonio Rosenthal, Yani Bejamin Rosenthal - for money laundering related to illicit activities and international drug trafficking. Jaime Rosenthal and family have since published two communiques denying the charges and declaring their innocence. The news of the Rosenthal bust hit the press yesterday when the DEA prevented Yankel Rosenthal from boarding a flight from Miami destined for Tegucigalpa. The sanctions against the Rosenthals are a very surprising move by the U.S. as the Rosenthal family is one of the wealthiest and most prominent of the Honduran elite with strong ties to the Liberal Party, one of the two traditional political parties that have controlled and dominated the Honduran Congress for decades.

Jaime Rolando Rosenthal is a former Vice President of Honduras, and a major, if not THE major player, in the Liberal Party of Honduras. He owns Banco Continental, a large, national bank in Honduras, and the center-right newspaper, El Tiempo, which he founded in 1970 after a conflict as a founding investor in the national newspaper La Prensa, owned by Jorge Larach. The extent of the Rosenthals' investments managed under their company, Continental Group (Grupo Continental) are vast and include businesses in the coffee, banana, cacao, sugar industry, live stock, various residential and real estate companies, amongst many others. The Rosenthal family is a media magnate owning the El Tiempo newspaper, Canal 11 (together with Gilberto Goldstein), and Cable Color. According to Honduran journalist Manuel Torres Calderon, "through his Jaimista Movement, Rosenthal has been considered - in the liberal governments - as an "owner" of a quota of power in the National Congress, Supreme Court of Justice, ministries and key dependents of public administration, among them the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL)."

His son, Yani Rosenthal, also sanctioned by the U.S. OFAC for "money laundering and drug trafficking activities" is a former Presidential candidate for the Liberal Party, and heavily involved in his family's businesses. His cousin, Yankel Rosenthal stopped in Miami by the DEA, is married to the daughter of another very prominent and wealthy business man, Gilberto Goldstein. Yankel is President of the Rosenthal's soccer club, Club Marathon, based in San Pedro Sula. When he appeared in court yesterday with his wrists handcuffed to a chain at his waist, Hondura's Channel 6 reported that he "could not stop his tears when seeing his daughter in the Miami court."

An interesting commentary about Yankel breaking down in court, is circulating around social media was made by former public prosecutor and lawyer representing the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ by its Spanish acronym), Victor Fernandez:

"I have seen so many poor people crying when their family member is sent to prison (or subject to police or miitary force), but the poor have always been closer to jail and all of its respective abuses. I imagine that this family (Rosenthal), with so much power and money in this country, will feel that the world is falling in on them, and now, will live what many Honduras live day to day. But the biggest impact that this news should generate, is the confirmation (because we all knew it) that Honduras, for years, has been governed by gangs."

The sanctioning of the three Rosenthals raises tons of questions and lots of speculation. I've outlined a few theories that have been circulating in the social media:

1. Banco Continental may have been involved in the narco activities and money laundering schemes of the Los Cachiros drug cartel. The Rivera Maradiaga brothers handed themselves over the U.S. authorities in the Bahamas and its possible that as part of the negotiations of their arrest, that they would hand over information that incriminated individuals in the Honduran government and prominent businesses, including Honduran banks involved in laundering. Its possible that Banco Continental was connected somehow to Los Cachiros.

Other points to consider: Various Honduran banks are thought to be involved in narco and money laundering activities, although none other than Banco Continental are being touched by U.S. authorities. A recent complaint was filed in Panama against Camilo Atala, owner of the largest Honduran bank, Banco FICOHSA for alleged money laundering and conspiracy to commit a crime. Banco FICOHSA was also flagged and now under investigation by the International Financial Corporation, the private-arm of the World Bank, for its involvement in loaning money to Dinant Corporation linked to hundreds of campesino killings and human rights abuses in the Aguan Valley.

From what has been reported, the complain against FICOHSA in Panama seems not to have anything to do with the U.S. government or respective U.S. investigations. Banco FICOHSA recently bought out City Bank Honduras, and in general it is suspected that under the new loan signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Honduran banking system is becoming increasingly integrated into the global market, including strong, parent ties to big U.S. banks. As the 2013 HSBC scandal has taught us, U.S. banks themselves aren't innocent in money laundering activities related to Latin American drug cartels either.

2. The Rosenthal bust is simply a blow against Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez's political enemies and critics. Since Jaime and Yani Rosenthal were both prominent politicians and actors in the Liberal Party of Honduras, some say that the Rosenthal family is being targeted because of its open criticisms of the Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) government and the National Party via their newspaper, El Tiempo. With major Liberal Party actors out of the picture, the U.S. move will further strengthen the JOH government as decommissioned property or assets will be in the hands of the party that controls the Honduran state, the National Party.

Other points to consider: Although Jaime and Yani Rosenthal are both big time Liberal Party politicians and supporters, Yankel had just ended his relationship with the Liberals and joined the National Party ranks. In 2013, Yankel publicly threw his support behind JOH's Presidential candidacy and in February 2014 until June 2015 was the Ministry of Investment Promotion. A brief video interview circulating on social media, shows Yankel stating that "we" [and its unclear who "we" is] support him [JOH] in his conviction, economically, and we are going to support him with a vote as well." So although Jaime Rosenthal is the definitely the big name in the family and the Liberal Party, at least one of the three Rosenthals accused by the U.S. is sympathetic to JOH.

Photo caption: Yankel Rosenthal (left) with Ana Garcia Hernandez and current Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Something else to consider when examining the argument that going after the Rosenthals is in short, strenghening JOH's regime, is that the National Party has suffered some drug busts as well. For example, the Valle Valle family, thats members have been captured and extradited to the U.S. as well, were major financiers of JOH's campaign, and Los Cachiros have strong links to the National Party. Fabio Lobo, the son of former National Party President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo was allegedly captured in Haiti by the DEA on charges of drug trafficking linked to Los Cachiros. Some people in Honduras believe that Lobo was actually arrested in Honduras and then taken to Haiti and 'officially' captured in order to lower the political impact of the charges.

In short, there is lots of speculation about the recent arrests and accusations against the Rosenthals. Time will tell how it will play out. Regarding the U.S. government's role in the last few years of money laundering scandals and arrests related to drug trafficking, are a few points that are clear to me:

** The U.S. are cherry-picking criminals - going after some while not touching others that are just as bad if not worse than the Rosenthals.

** Who gets extradited, how, and where they are captured or handed over to the U.S. is clearly being negotiated between the U.S. government and some institution(s) or group(s) in Honduras behind closed doors. The U.S. seems to be calling the shots and dragging Honduran investigative bodies and institutions along for the ride.

** The U.S. continues its obsession over cracking down on (some) drug trafficking and illicit activities in the name of the War on Drugs, that is inherent to the neoliberal political and economic system in Honduras. The drug war is used as a justification to militarize and terrorize Honduran society while homicide rates and insecurity remain alarmingly high. If you ask Hondurans from the social movement if they are surprised about the U.S. naming the Rosenthals as criminals, they will likely tell you that everyone knows the Honduran elite are involved in illicit activities of some sort, but that they are surprised that the U.S. is taking out one of its historically important allies - a prominent and wealthy Honduran family.

** The long-term support by the U.S. for the Honduran oligarchy has assisted in generating and expanding the power and influence of a handful of Honduran political and economic elite. The U.S. support for the June 2009 military coup being the most recent example. The coup led to skyrocketing homicide rates and insecurity, and allowed for drug traffickers and criminals to operate in almost a complete state of impunity. It is this state of impunity that has generated more drug trafficking, higher levels of insecurity, and mass corruption including the multi-million dollar Social Security scandal (IHSS) that has had a tremendous impact on Honduran society as well.

Photo caption: JOH "I have a little gift for you, a trip to Miami with you whole family, everything paid," Ricardo Alvarez [JOH's alleged political rival within the National Party] "No thanks, its better to give it to Callejas [former Honduran President accused of multiple acts of corruption], I'm busy reading 'Never Enter Miami' [a book written by Honduran writer Roberto Quesada]."

Great Posts This Week on Honduras Resiste

Vicki Cervantes, from La Voz de los de Abajo in Chicago and also the U.S.-based Coordinator of the Honduras Solidarity Network is in Honduras and blogging daily about her travels around the country.

La Voz has worked for over a decade in Honduras supporting campesino and human rights struggles around the country. Read their posts including yesterday's piece about the violent eviction in Villanueva on September 23 and the killing of a young 16-year old boy by the police and military.

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/

Indignados march tonight in Tegucigalpa

Photo caption: "UNAH [national public university], I want (love) you public, autonomous and democratic" 

Photo caption: "get out JOH [president Juan Orlando hernandez], if the corrupt national party continues stealing, I will continue yelling 'what is the plan?', get rid of that son of a bitch. Get out JOH"

Marginalized Urban Community Meets with Congressman James McGovern

The Flor del Campo Collective discussing issues of migration and insecurity in their neighbourhood with Congressman James McGovern (MA) and two representatives from WOLA. September 20, 2015

Employees of U.S.-Owned Sweatshop Companies Protest Corruption and Privatization of Social Security Institute

Photo caption: Protest outside of ZIP Bufalo by sweatshop workers, September 2, 2015. Photo by Radio Progreso

In the early morning on Wednesday, maquila workers set up a roadblock in front of Import Processing Zone (ZIP) Bufalo in the city of Villanueva, just outside of San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second largest city and industrial center. Over 2000 sweatshop workers maintained the blockade for approximately three hours before the Honduran police and Military Police moved in to violently evict them.

ZIP Bufalo is one of many free trade havens that flourished under CAFTA and the location of many foreign-owned and operated sweatshops. It houses factories owned or leased by U.S. companies Fruit of the Loom (Confecciones Dos Caminos), Jockey International, and Petralex (automobile parts), amongst others.

Radio Progreso reports that state forces tear-gassed, beat up and repressed protesters for over four hours. The sweatshop employees were demanding the annulment of the new Social Protection Law and an end to government corruption. The approval and implementation of the law that the protesters are rejecting, was a central demand of the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustments under a loan signed with Honduras in December 2014.

The new law comes into effect today (September 4) and replaces the Social Security law that manages healthcare and pension funds for public and private sector employees under the Social Security Institute (IHSS). The law will have tremendous impacts on maquila workers’ health and safety as it essentially privatizes the public institute accessed by over 600,000 public and private sector employees.

Photo caption: Protest outside of ZIP Bufalo, September 2, 2015. Photo by Radio Progreso

For many sweatshop workers, the IHSS acted as a mediator of health and safety concerns of employees (the majority of which are women in the garment industry) and large Canadian and U.S. owned companies with horrific track records of abiding by health and labor standards. Workers paid monthly contributions to the IHSS that allowed them access to medical specialists inside the public institute, particularly important in an industry where workers are at high risk for industrial accidents and repetitive strain injuries.

The new law will likely force sweatshop workers to become more dependent on employer-run and administered healthcare services inside factories that are often understaffed, bias, inefficient, and lacking in specialists, or make co-payments and seek medical attention from private healthcare providers. Although the IHSS services were not always perfect or efficient, it was a much better option for sweatshop workers to receive the best, most economically viable treatment for their healthcare needs. The IHSS was almost forced to bankruptcy when government officials linked to the current party in power, the National Party, stole over $300 million from the Institute between 2012 and 2015.

The blockade in Villanueva was one of many blockades organized around the country as part of the indignados [indignant] movement against corruption, the looting of the IHSS, and demanding the installation of an International Commission Against Impunity (CICIH). The indignados movement began taking to the streets in early May when evidence was published about the gradual and well-planned scheme to steal millions of dollars from the IHSS. On Tuesday, maquila workers from ZIP El Porvenir in El Progreso also occupied the road outside the sweatshop complex where other foreign-owned companies are located and were violently evicted by Honduran police and military as well.