PBI-Honduras concerned by arbitrary detention of CNTC El Progreso general secretary Lilian Borjas

Published by Brent Patterson on May 2, 2024May 2, 2024

Photo: Lilian Borjas.

PBI-Honduras has posted: “From PBI, we show concern about the arrest of Lilian Borjas, general secretary of the CNTC in El Progreso. We recommend that the international community speak out in solidarity with her. At PBI, we are very aware of your safety and well-being.”

Criterio.hn reports: “On the morning of Tuesday, April 30, members of the National Police detained human rights defender Lilian Borjas at a police checkpoint in Pico Bonito, La Ceiba, Atlántida, as a result of a criminalization process of which she was a victim in 2013 for her work as an ombudsman, for which she should have been released for four years. In this sense, the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras, denounced the ‘incompetence’ of the judicial system, because the system has not been updated, which has led to revictimization and continuous stigmatization against land defenders.”

That article further explains: “The criminalization campaign against Lilian Borjas began in 2013 because of her struggle in defense of land and territories and for denouncing the actions of agro-industrial companies against peasants, and the acts of corruption and abuses by judges to carry out violent evictions.”

It also notes: “Borjas, because of the defense of land and human rights, has been prosecuted three times, accused of ‘usurpation of land’. Over the past two years, she has faced death threats and other forms of intimidation to stop her activism for access to land and food sovereignty.”

The CNTC, created in 1985, is a small-scale farming and trade union organization, that fights for the distribution of land.

The CNTC is affiliated with the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH) which in turn is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with 150+ labour organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress.

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