We are deeply
outraged to learn of yet more barbarous acts
against members of the peasant organizations of
Bajo Aguán committed by police forces and
private guards hired by
Miguel Facussé.
On June 5, while
you were in San Salvador celebrating Honduras’
readmission to the OAS and pledging to
ensure respect for the human rights of the
Honduran people, in Bajo Aguán a large
contingent of police, military and private
security forces attacked members of the
Authentic Movement for the Rights of Aguán
Peasants (MARCA) who were in the San
Isidro, San Esteban and La Trinidad estates.
After forcefully
driving the occupants out off San Isidro, the
forces raided the facilities of the National
Agricultural Institute (INA) in Sinaloa,
shooting freely at members of the United
Peasants Movement of Aguán (MUCA), who
have several production projects underway there.
Three people were
wounded in the brutal attack, including
Doris Pérez Vásquez
and Oliver González. Almost
simultaneously to the violent assault in
Sinaloa, three other men, José Recinos
Aguilar, Joel Santamaría and
Genaro Acosta, who were members of both
MARCA and the San Esteban cooperative, were
intercepted by strangers and murdered.
Mr. Porfirio
Lobo, according to reports from leading
national and international human rights
organizations, in the last fifteen months a
total of 30 peasant activists have been
murdered, while many more have been wounded,
kidnapped, tortured or disappeared.
In this critical
situation that is plunging more and more Bajo
Aguán families into mourning, your government is
once again exhibiting a total lack of will to
find a solution to the rural conflict that
affects this region of the country, putting a
stop to the violence wrought by the repressive
bodies of the state and the private squads
commanded by local large landowners, and
honoring the agreements signed with the various
peasant organizations.
The recent public
statements by Miguel Facussé,
disregarding the agreements you entered into
with MUCA in April 2010, and his
threatening to expel peasant families from three
of the six estates under one of these
agreements, clearly reflects the lack of will to
find a peaceful solution to the conflict and
guarantee access to land for the people of the
region.
The arrogance of
this individual knows no limits, as is evidenced
by his bringing court actions against Monsignor
Luis Alfonso Santos Archbishop of the
Diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, and human rights
defender Andrés Pavón, merely for
publicly denouncing his responsibility for the
violence unleashed in Bajo Aguán.
By signing the
Cartagena Agreement and securing Honduras’
reinstatement into the OAS, you undertook
to ensure that human rights would be respected
in the country and to investigate the crimes
perpetrated.
To date, not one
of those crimes has been seriously investigated,
nor have the authorities in charge of
administering justice punished the material and
intellectual perpetrators of such abominable
acts. Instead, hundreds of court actions have
been brought against organized peasants, and the
evictions, threats, harassment and terror
continue, in a region where large landowners and
palm producers appear to have established a
“state within the state.”
Mr. Porfirio
Lobo, the IUF and its 391 affiliates
from 124 countries around the world will not
cease in their efforts to denounce these
deplorable actions in every relevant
international forum.
We urge you to
take the necessary steps to immediately put an
end to the repression, investigate the crimes
committed against the rural population, bring
the perpetrators to justice and honor all the
agreements signed with peasant organizations.
Moreover, we
believe that it is necessary to launch a serious
process of agrarian reform that will give access
to land and an opportunity for a decent life to
thousands of peasant families that are excluded
by the voracity of a handful of unscrupulous
large landowners.
Sincerely yours,
Gerardo Iglesias
IUF Latin American
Regional Secretary
Guatemala, June
14, 2011
