agricultura

Blood again in Bajo Aguan

Murder of another member of MUCA

Police squads and private guards of palm producer Miguel Facusse carried out a shooting attack at plantation La Aurora, where thousands of MUCA members are settled according to an agreement signed with the government.

Once again Bajo Aguán is bloodstained.  Thousands of peasant families, organized by the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (Spanish acronym MUCA)  are still fighting for their title to land to be respected and for the agreement signed in April with President Porfirio Lobo  and the National Agricultural Institute  (Spanish acronym INA) to be enforced.

The name of this new victim, seventh since MUCA resumed the land recovery process in December 2009 is Oscar Yovani Ramírez, a 17 year old boy, whose body was found at La Aurora plantation after the violent attack.

“At 8:30 AM. on Sunday 20 June, two police squads with armed people arrived at La Aurora, some of them were cops and some others were security guards of   Miguel Facussé– told Sirel  MUCA leader Yony Rivas–.

They broke into the premises and began shooting. They killed Oscar Yovani Ramírez and arrested five brothers¹, charged with illegal carrying of weapons and illicit association.

They are now arrested in the police station of Tocoa and our lawyer told us that they have been hardly beaten and tortured”, added Rivas.

It is still unclear how the murder occurred.  According to MUCA the young boy was killed before the police operation and his body was abandoned at La Aurora during the shooting, which also left several people wounded.

Flagrant breach of agreement

Under the agreement signed between MUCA and the government of Porfirio Lobo, more than 2,500 peasant families were granted the first 3 thousand hectares planted with African oil palm –out of a total of 11 thousand– and they were relocated in five plantations, one of which is La Aurora.

According to MUCA, this new attack and blood shed are part of a strategy of entrepreneur and palm producer Miguel Facussé, who has repeatedly rejected and tried to publicly delegitimize the agreement signed among 24 member organizations of MUCA and the government.

“We hold Miguel Facussé, President Porfirio Lobo and his Minister of Security, Óscar Álvarez, responsible for what has happened.

As explained by Yony Rivas– this plantation is a part of 3 thousand hectares already delivered and neither the police, nor the security guards are allowed, let alone entering the premises shooting, killing and detaining our brothers and sisters under false charges."

According to this peasant leader, military repression and continuous harassment against MUCA, is also due to Miguel Facussé's ambition to sell approximately 3 thousand hectares to the State of Honduras at a totally disproportionate price.

"He wants to sell land at a price of 13,200 thousand US dollars per hectare, which is absurd because the market price of palm planted land ranges from 4,200 to 4,700 US dollars.

This is why we are carrying out an agricultural and financial study to determine the real value of this land, which we will pay the State for", added Rivas.

Besides, a large part of this land are floodplains, which are abandoned and covered with water, used now for overhead lines and with almost 80 thousand dead plants of African oil palm.

"People are outraged with this new bloodshed. We will denounce this formally with the State Attorney and we have already requested the intervention of the   INA Ministry.

We already have seven casualties, reminded MUCA leader, while in Bajo Aguán our human rights, our right to life and our title to land are still being violated.

The government, the police, the army and landowners still violate our rights. We request the solidarity support of national and international organizations with our struggle and that they report what is happening here and that they also lobby for the enforcement of our agreements.

We will stay here and for no reason will abandon our struggle for the recovery of our land", concluded Yony Rivas.