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Despite the
agreements signed between the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (Spanish acronym
MUCA) and the government, the spate of violence in Bajo Aguan does not stop.
Blood has been
spilled again in the lands planted with African oil palm in Northern Honduras.
Yesterday, Tuesday 17, during the day, three members of MUCA, 40,
18 and 14 years old, were brutally killed.
Víctor Manuel Mata, Sergio
Magdiel Amaya and Rodving
Omar Villegas,
members of the San Esteban community, where on a vehicle toward the community of
Paso Aguán, in Tocoa, Colón, when they were intercepted by strangers and shot
dead with large gauge shotguns.
“Two of our brothers died instantly, while the third one was taken to the
hospital, where he died", expressed with dismay
MUCA leader
and member of the National Executive Committee of the National Front for
Popular Resistance(Spanish acronym FNRP), Juan
Chinchilla.
“They were MUCA members
and their lands were included in the agreements we signed with the government.
Throughout Bajo Aguán, we are living in a tense environment and during the days
before this new attack we all witnessed movements of troops and patrols", told
Chinchilla to Sirel.
According to MUCA, the brutal
repression since last year by police forces and security guards working for
landowner and palm producer Miguel
Facussé Barjum, have caused ten casualties among members of this peasant
organization.
“This new violent act against our organization shows the lack of will by
Miguel Facussé to solve the
conflict in Bajo Aguán. We want to honor the agreement signed with the
government, but the conditions become increasingly difficult day after day”,
concluded Chinchilla.
In May 2010 the National Agricultural Institute (Spanish acronym INA) handed
over to MUCA the
first 3 thousand hectares, of the 11 thousand included in the agreement signed
with the government. More
than 2,500 peasant families were relocated in six units.
From then on, the media campaign against MUCA by
corporate media has increased and systematic persecution against its members has
become worse.
Several peasants were detained during the past weeks, and there have been more
than 200 charges submitted with different courts against the members of peasant
organizations.
On 28 July last, the lawyer of the Resistance and advocate of MUCA was
illegally detained in Colón,
added Mario
Portillo.
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