Report says threat of free trade agreement lawsuits may have impeded action against Los Pinares and Aura Minerals mines in Honduras
On October 3, a 136-page report was released titled The Corporate Assault on Honduras: How mafia-style investments undermine the Honduran people’s struggle for democracy and dignity (available in Spanish here).
The report authored by Luciana Ghiotto, Jen Moore, Aldo Orellana López, Karen Spring and Manuel Pérez-Rocha was published by the Institute for Policy Studies, the Transnational Institute, TerraJusta and the Honduras Solidarity Network.
Just prior to the release of the report, one of its authors, Manuel Pérez-Rocha, wrote in La Jornada (republished in English here) about meeting Guapinol River defender Juan López who was murdered on September 14 in Tocoa, Honduras.
Pérez-Rocha writes: “I met him when he came to Washington, D.C. to receive the Letelier-Moffitt human rights award on behalf of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, along with a large Honduran delegation. …The Honduran group received the Letelier-Moffitt prize for its campaign in defense of the Guapinol river against the wave of extractive industries funded by American, Canadian, and European corporations.”
Photo: Juan López and Juana Zúniga receive the Letelier-Moffitt award, 2019. IPS established the award to honour Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt who were assassinated in 1976 by the Pinochet regime for their work to defend human rights in Chile.
The report notes (on page 113): “After assuming the presidency in early 2022, Xiomara Castro declared that she would no longer issue permits for open-pit mines and that she would favor the protection of water and forests. One month later, on February 28, 2022, the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines (SERNA) issued a communiqué declaring ‘all Honduran territory free of open-pit mining’ and announcing ‘the review, suspension and cancellation of environmental licenses, permits and concessions’. However, as soon as this statement was made, it is likely that mining companies threatened to bring claims, contributing to the government diluting its commitment and delaying its fulfillment.”
The report continues (on page 115): “As for Los Pinares mining company, it is possible that since 2022 the threat of a lawsuit is contributing to delays in halting its open pit iron oxide mine and associated installations.”
The report also notes (on page 51): “Lenir Pérez and his wife Ana Facussé (daughter of Miguel Facussé, who was known as one of the richest men in Honduras), have organized their investments in the mining sector through companies registered in Panama. This is the case of NE Holdings Inc. which has operated from Panama in order to facilitate business with the US steel company Nucor, although its deal with the company was not consolidated due to conflicts in the municipality of Tocoa over the iron ore project in the community of Guapinol.”
The report describes the free trade agreement international arbitration lawsuits against Honduras as “mafia-style” because “most of them are by companies whose investments were made in an irregular manner during the period known as the narco-dictatorship in Honduras, after the 2009 coup d’état.”
The report further comments: “The 2009 coup d’état against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, supported by the governments of the United States and Canada, was marked by the deepening of the unjust global neoliberal economic model in Honduras.”
Photo: Then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces a “free trade” agreement has been reached with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, August 2011.Harper was the first foreign political leader to visit Honduras after the June 28, 2009 coup.
Photo: CEHPRODEC coordinator Pedro Landa visited Ottawa in March 2011 and January 2012 to speak against the free trade agreement and the General Mining Law in Honduras that Canadian officials helped to write.
This past week marks the 10th anniversary of the Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement entering into force on October 1, 2014.
In a specific reference to that agreement, the report notes the case of Aura Minerals.
It states (on pages 113-114): “For years, Aura Minerals’ open pit gold mine in Copán has been the focus of conflict and questioned for the illegal excavation of the cemetery in the community of Azacualpa – including for not complying with orders from SERNA [the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines] and the Supreme Court of Justice to suspend activities. However, Aura Minerals is listed on the Canadian stock exchange and could invoke the Canada-Honduras FTA if it feels its investment is being affected.”
Photo from Resumen Latinoamericano.
As the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project amplified: “From @Cehprodechn [the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development] they warn that if ‘mining concessions lead to territorial conflicts like @guapinolre or #Azacualpa , Honduras would be completely ungovernable’”
PBI-Honduras has also posted:
“After seven years, despite ratification in an Open Council and an injunction in their favour, the struggle of the Azacualpa community continues.
The exploitation of the hill has not stopped, and with it the dispossession of the land, the displacement of its inhabitants, exhumations and environmental pollution.
We at PBI express our concern for the complex situation experienced by the Maya-Chortí people, who in exercising their right to defend their ancestral lands suffer constant threats. We are also concerned about the intimidation and threats against Bufete Estudios para la Dignidad, who have been closely following the case.”
PBI-Honduras has accompanied the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) since May 2014 and Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.
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