PBI-Honduras accompanies the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) as it visits with evicted Rio Indio 2 community

On March 1, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“#PBI accompanies the @CntcTegucigalpa [National Union of Rural Workers] in the Río Indio 2 community, evicted on February 15. The community was waiting for a commission from INA [the National Agrarian Institute] to carry out a land survey, but this did not take place.”

It adds: “PBI Honduras is concerned about the security situation in the community of Río Indio 2. We recall the importance of being able to achieve a dignified life and to live in a safe and healthy space, as fundamental rights of every human being.”

Contra Corriente has also explained:

“According to the leaders of Río Indio, they arrived 18 years ago, after the National Agrarian Institute (INA) gave them permission to settle in the area and cultivate the land.

Melvin Orellana, leader of the Central de Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC), who was also evicted, said that many years ago these lands were owned by a rancher who, after he died, passed into the hands of the State.

These lands are now claimed as property by the Ustariz Investment Society, owned by the Ustariz family, which has accused the peasants of land usurpation, according to the eviction order presented by the executing judge of the Sectional Court of First Instance of Puerto Cortés, Daylan Martinez.

100 campesina families [lived on this land and] were dedicated to planting basic grains, cassava and plantain for their consumption and to sell in other communities.

The eviction came without warning. A large group of police forced the peasants to leave the land, who, having nowhere to take refuge, had to sleep outdoors on the edge of the CA13 highway, which connects the municipality of Omoa with Puerto Cortés, about three hundred meters from where they were taken out by the police.

[Then] using backhoes … some 40 houses where some 60 families used to live [were demolished].”

The full article can be read at Campesinos en el olvido.

PBI-Honduras has accompanied the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) since May 2018.