PBI-Honduras accompanies Municipal Committee filing injunction against town hall meeting for thermoelectric plant

Published by Brent Patterson on June 14, 2024June 14, 2024

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted:

“On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed a writ of amparo [injunction] against the open town meeting called for today [June 13].

On repeated occasions, the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods and the affected communities of the area have opposed the installation of the ECOTEK thermoelectric plant.

From PBI, today we are very attentive to the security situation of the people of the community.”

Criterio.hn reports:

 “On Tuesday, June 11, the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa filed an amparo action before the Constitutional Chamber against the third municipal call to open town hall, invoking the protection of the right to a healthy environment, water, health and life.

The letter pointed out that the council was convened by “instructions from the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Serna), Lucky Medina, with the aim of accrediting in the file SLAS-0000076-2020/Ecotek Electric Plant a socialization and community approval of a project for the generation of electricity based on petroleum coke.”

[Despite this, on Thursday June 13, Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez proceeded with a town hall meeting that] allowed the participation only of people related to the interests of the mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek, both of the EMCO Group, chaired by businessman Lenir Pérez.

At the end of the event, which began more than three hours late and lasted less than half an hour, the National Police proceeded to repress the population that complained to Fúnez about the absence of real participation by the communities in a decision that has implications beyond the municipality of Tocoa.

[Following this] Adilia Castro [of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa] demanded that the Supreme Court of Justice immediately rule on the appeal filed on Tuesday, June 11 by the Committee in Defense of Public Goods of Tocoa against the third municipal call to open town hall.”

The full article can be read at Adán Fúnez impone proyecto termoeléctrico en ilegal y arbitrario cabildo (Criterio.hn, June 13, 2024).

About the megaproject

The megaproject appears to include an open-pit iron oxide mine and a petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant to provide the electricity to power a pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted would be processed to convert it into pellets (semi-processed iron) to be exported to the United States.

Criterio.hn notes:

“The petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant is one of the seven components of the controversial mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek [both of the EMCO Group, chaired by businessman Lenir Pérez], installed in the Montaña de Botaderos National Park, Carlos Escaleras Mejía.

Its original purpose was to provide electricity to the pelletizing plant for iron oxide, a mineral extracted from the natural reserve, but now it is justified by the ruling party as the answer to the energy problem that Tocoa is experiencing.”

In October 2022, NCR also explained:

“About a decade ago, Inversiones Los Pinares, formerly the Honduran EMCO Mining Company and based in Tocoa, applied for a concession to build an iron oxide mine in the protected Carlos Escaleras National Park. Then-President Juan Orlando Hernández authorized the request in 2013, a decision locals said was made without following protocol of consulting residents of the area.

The open-pit mining project was upstream of the Río Guapinol, a channel that stems from the larger Río Aguan, a river that flows through tropical mountains from the Atlantic on the northern side of the Central American country.

When the Río Guapinol in 2018 started to turn a chocolate brown, locals took that as a cue to act against Inversiones Los Pinares.”

EMCO Holding Group has also explained:

“In the Steel Division, the group operates the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares, which is responsible for the extraction of iron oxide in Tocoa, Colón, complying with high quality standards, responsible mining and environmentally responsible processes.

Also in the Steel Division, there is a company Inversiones Ecotek that is developing the construction of a modern pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted in Tocoa will be processed to convert it into pellets. This process will allow the export of the material with a great added value. This plant will be unique in Central America. In the Energy Division, the group is developing an important power generation project with the company Puente Alto Energy, located in the community of Puente Alto, in Puerto Cortés, which plans to produce more than 100 megawatts (MW) in its initial stage.”

EMCO has also specified:

“After 8 years of work, Phase 1 of raw iron production as a raw material began in Los Pinares and at the end of 2021 Phase 2 will start to export semi-processed iron to the United States.”

In January 2023, Bloomberg Linea further reported:

“A mining project by the Honduran company Los Inversiones Pinares will produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange.”

We continue to follow this.