Photo: PBI-Honduras and PBI-Canada stand beside the Guapinol River threatened by the Los Pinares megaproject, October 30.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27

PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson arrives at Palmerola International Airport in Comayagua, a city located approximately 86 kilometres from Tegucigalpa.

Photo: Palmerola airport.

Contra Corriente has reported: “This concession was awarded in December 2015 to the company Inversiones EMCO S.A. de C.V., that constituted the Special Purpose Mercantile Company called Palmerola International Airport for the execution of the concession contract. Both companies are related to Lenir Pérez, a Honduran businessman and son-in-law of the late Miguel Facussé, a very influential businessman in Honduras.”

The airport was built at the facilities of the Soto Cano Air Base, the largest military base in Central America. The airbase was built by the United States between 1984 and 1985 and permanently houses some 1,800 US military personnel.

MONDAY OCTOBER 28

Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC)

The Tegucigalpa-based CEHPRODEC says its mission is: “To direct all resources to carry out actions that promote the respect for human rights, guaranteeing the food sovereignty of the populations, within the framework of the defense of common goods and territory through democratic processes.”

Among its partners is the Montreal, Quebec-based Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, an organization that says: “We believe those who have been impoverished by unjust systems are powerful actors for social change.”

We met with Donald Hernández.

Photo: PBI meets with Hernández.

The Dublin-based Front Line Defenders has previously noted: “Donald Hernández Palma is a Honduran lawyer and human rights defender. He specialises in criminal and environmental law, with a particular focus on mining in Latin America. He is a member of the Latin American Lawyers’ Network, a network that works against the negative impacts of transnational extractive companies in Latin America.”

Hernández is also the facilitator of the National Coalition of Environmental Organizations and Networks (CONROA), an organization that represents more than 40 environmental organizations in Honduras.

Key points

Among the issues that Hernández shared with us during our meeting:

-The impact of the military coup of June 28, 2009, that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and sent him to exile in Costa Rica. By November 2009, a controversial election brought Porfirio Pepe Lobo, a wealthy conservative landowner, to power.

-The Mining Law that came after the coup. MiningWatch Canada has commented: “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

-The concern that “state actors” have developed a narrative that CEHPRODEC are “enemies of development”. Verifico recently highlighted in Colombia that: “Unanimously, environmental defenders respond that the main reason why they are stigmatized is because they are supposed opponents of development.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying CEHPRODEC since May 2014.

Contra Corriente

That afternoon, we met with Fernando Silva, an investigative journalist whose work includes “covering issues of corruption, power structures, extractivism, forced displacement and migration.” Notably, Silva is also a graduate of the Investigative Journalism Course at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

The Contra Corriente website says: “We are a digital media outlet of in-depth journalism that tells the reality of Honduras and the region. It is committed to transmedia communication to come up with new content that helps us change reality by telling it, analyzing it and making those in power uncomfortable.”

Photo: Fernando Silva.

We talked about the recent investigative report by Contra Corriente headlined: The commercial connection between the transnational Nucor and the Los Pinares mine in Honduras was maintained at least until 2023 (by Fernando Silva and Danielle Mackey, with reporting by Jennifer Ávila; Contra Corriente and Drilled, October 8, 2024).

We have previously noted that the US-based Nucor has offices in Canada, that its investors have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and that the Vanguard Group, the largest shareholder in Nucor, has an office in Toronto.

We also talked with Silva about the risks faced by journalists in Honduras for reporting on stories like this one. The Committee to Protect Journalists has noted: “Since 1992, at least eight journalists in Honduras have been murdered in connection with their work.” This includes journalists Francisco Ramírez (December 21, 2023) and Luis Alonso Teruel (January 28, 2024). Many more have been threatened.

Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH)

The PBI-Honduras website notes: “ARCAH is a space for community articulation and an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, anti-colonialist and anti-classist social movement that seeks to defend territories and common goods from any project that threatens the peace and cosmovision of communities.”

Photo: Christopher Castillo of ARCAH.

This description adds: “Since its founding in 2017, members of ARCAH have fought against the Jiniguare dam [being built by the transnational Hidalgo & Hidalgo], the El Cortijo poultry company, the Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs) and other projects in Francisco Morazán, Comayagua, Cortés and Olancho, always through resistance and permanent communication with planet earth.”

We met with Christopher Castillo, the General Coordinator of ARCAH.

Front Line Defenders has previously noted: “Since January 2020, Christopher Castillo has been a beneficiary of Security Measures from the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders in Honduras, due to previous attempts on his life and repeated death threats he has received.” Despite this, his security situation remains serious.

Key points

Among the concerns Castillo shared with us:

-The pollution of the air and the Choluteca River from the El Cortijo chicken plant. Criterio.hn has previously reported: “[ARCAH says] this disrespect for nature has caused destruction, death of animals, producing foul odors from the discharges of toxic waste. [The company] continues to destroy the Choluteca River under the cloak of impunity, because so far no one has taken action to stop this damage to the environment and its living beings.”

-81 municipalities in Honduras have had their water privatized, the national water company SANAA has lost 60 per cent of their coverage, and water prices have risen 600 per cent. This is a process supported by the World Bank. The privatization of water services also benefits the Atala family, who as the Latin America Bureau has reported, are: “well known as one of the country’s wealthiest conglomerates. It is a shareholder of financial institutions, football teams, real estate, and other companies.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying ARCAH since September 2022.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 29

On this day we drove almost 350 kilometres north-east to the city of Tocoa, which is situated about 9 kilometres from the community of Guapinol.

This visit came in the context of the death of Guapinol River defender Juan López, who was shot to death as he left church on the evening of September 14.

Photo: A poster of Juan López in Tocoa.

Contra Corriente has reported: “Juan Lopez was a community leader, a religious leader of the Catholic Church, and an environmental advocate. [Just prior to his assassination] López requested the resignation of Mayor Adán Fúnez, whom he had been denouncing for his alleged links to organized crime in the area.”

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) has stated: “As a leader with UUSC partner Fundación San Alonso Rodriguez (FSAR), [Juan López] campaigned against corrupt officials and mining interests destroying the resources of his community.”

The San Alonso Rodríguez Foundation (FSAR)

The San Alonso Rodriguez Foundation website notes: “FSAR is a non-profit non-governmental organization, which was born in 1999, our main actions were post-Mitch reconstruction. …We also accompany the communities in defense of natural resources related to territories, water, forest, coastal areas of communities threatened by extractive industry, agribusiness, monocultures and tourism projects.”

Photo: Limbor Velásquez.

We met with Limbor Velásquez, a forestry engineer and member of the San Alonso Rodríguez Foundation.

Key points

Velásquez shared with us a presentation of technical maps and an explanation of the environmental impacts of the Los Pinares megaproject, including the destruction of terrain by the mining road, deforestation, a large rock pile from the initial exaction of the ASP mining concession, and the pollution of the surrounding rivers, including the San Pedro and Guapinol rivers. He also highlighted that beyond the arrests so far of the alleged material perpetrators of the killing of Juan Lopez, it is vital to arrest the intellectual authors.

The Los Pinares megaproject has seven components including: the ASP and ASP2 concessions to dig for iron oxide, a thermoelectric plant that would burn petroleum coke (pet coke) to power the operations, an iron oxide pelletizing plant that could produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange, and the Guapinol River and Ceibita stream concessions that would extract one hundred gallons of water per minute for the pelletizing plant.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30

Agrarian Platform

Avispa Midia has explained: “The Agrarian Platform of Aguán is made up of 25 cooperatives seeking to recuperate their lands in the valley. In addition, there are associate campesino companies, which total 43 organizations, that seek through different forms of struggle to recuperate the lands that were taken from them.”

We met with several representatives of the Agrarian Platform including Yoni Rivas, Raul Ramirez and Wendy Castro.

Photo: Meeting with Rivas (left) and Ramirez (right) of the Agrarian Platform in front of a poster of Carlos Escaleras Mejía, an environmental defender who was killed on October 18, 1997.

Key points

The Agrarian Platform shared with us the context of the campesino struggle for land, the impact of the massive palm oil plantations in the area, the impacts of the Los Pinares megaproject on water (both in terms of pollution and water takings), and numerous serious security incidents. Significantly, the Honduras National Protection Mechanism has assessed their risk level as high (84 per cent).

Dialogue Earth has explained: “The Honduran government started promoting oil palm cultivation during the 1960s [but] it was really in the late 1990s that production skyrocketed [and by July 2023, when the article was published] the country has roughly 200,000 hectares of oil palm yielding close to 600,000 metric tonnes of oil a year.”

That article adds: “Of the total national production, 61% comes from just three companies – Corporación Dinant, Grupo Jaremar and Aceydesa – and their plantations are located where the highest levels of violence have been recorded.”

The Guardian further notes: “In Honduras, [palm oil exports are] mostly going to the Netherlands, the US, Italy and Switzerland, with a value of $334m in 2021. Six large companies control the production, and two claim more than half of all exports.”

That afternoon, we spent visiting the Guapinol River, seeing the pelletizing plant associated with the Los Pinares megaproject, walking in the community, and meeting with community members to hear about the current situation.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 31

The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH)

The OFRANEH website explains: “The Garifuna people arrived in Honduras 218 years ago after being expelled from the island of St. Vincent 220 years ago, after having fought two consecutive battles against the British Empire. To date we convert the culture of our Arawak, Carib and African ancestors.”

It further notes: “OFRANEH emerged in 1978 as the Federation of the Garifuna people of Honduras, immersing itself in the defense of their cultural and territorial rights, with the purpose of achieving survival as a differentiated culture.”

We visited the community of Nueva Armenia.

Photo: Mabel Robledo.

Photo: PBI with Mabel Robledo.

There we might with Garifuna defender Mabel Robledo, the president of the board of trustees of the community of Nueva Armenia and a member of OFRANEH.

Avispa Midia has reported: “At the stroke of midnight on Sunday (October 6), elements of the Honduran National Police (HNP), Intelligence Troop and Special Security Response Groups (Tigres), as well as armed civilians, entered a recovery of Garifuna ancestral territory – carried out on the morning of that same day in the community of Nueva Armenia, Caribbean coast – and shot at those present leaving two recuperators seriously injured.”

That article adds: “OFRANEH – which accompanies the community in the actions that claim the ancestral property of the Garifuna community over these lands, in the municipality of Jutiapa, department of Atlántida – denounces the Palmas de Atlántida company, owned by heirs of the oil palm magnate, Reynaldo Canales, of illegally occupying territories of Nueva Armenia for the planting of this monoculture.”

Photo by Avispa Midia.

Criterio.hn further notes: “Rony Castillo, a member of OFRANEH, denounced that two more people from the community are being persecuted and threatened, including the president of the board of trustees of Nueva Armenia, Mabel Robledo.”

Castillo told Criterio.hn: “There are eight hooded men there in Nueva Armenia, it seems that they are looking for Mabel, [but] we have not had any answer [from Honduran authorities about this]. Rather, the authorities are asking us for a report instead of them giving us the report.”

We continue to follow this situation.

Among the other issues we learned about was the archipelago that is a marine protected area. Robledo says while the Cayos Cochinos Foundation supposedly preserves it, in reality “it exploits and militarizes it”. More can be read about this at Garifuna fishermen denounce threats from Telecinco’s reality show Supervivientes (El Salto, September 1, 2024).

We also take note that César Joani Fernández from the Santa Fe community says land has been recovered from a Canadian company “that has monopolized 90% of the land” of his community.  

El Salto reports: “Near Sante Fe stands a hotel building known as the model city of the Canadians. They explain that it was raised by Randy Jorgensen, who in Canada is called the king of porn. In the Bay of Trujillo, he bought Garifuna communal lands during the narco-dictatorship of former President Juan Orlando Hernández.”

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1

Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras

In the afternoon we met with Arcoíris and the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls. It was an accompaniment of their 16th anniversary gathering.

Criterio.hn has noted: “The Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls [Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris] was founded in 2008, with the aim of claiming and strengthening the human rights of the trans woman population in Honduras.”

Photo: Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris.

In January 2020, PBI-Honduras noted that they are “extremely concerned over the high number of attacks against trans women and individuals who defend trans rights, as well as the impunity that has continued in these cases.”

They added: “We are particularly concerned by the security situation of the members of the Muñecas Trans Women’s Collective of Arcoiris LGBT Association, which has experienced an increase in attacks and assaults over the last six months.”

Human Rights Watch has previously documented: “LGBT people in Honduras continue to suffer high levels of violence and discrimination in all areas of life, pushing some to flee the country. In May 2022, President Castro committed to implement a 2021 Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling finding Honduras responsible for the killing of Vicky Hernández, a transgender woman, during the 2009 military coup. Among other measures, the ruling ordered the creation of a simple and accessible procedure through which trans people can change their name and gender on official documents to reflect their gender identity. As of October 2022, it had not been established.”

Photo: We appreciate the time given to us by Jlo Córdoba and Donny Reyes for a conversation, and the hospitality of the Arcoiris community. Afterwards, it was nice to watch together a couple episodes of The Secret of the River (a TV series now on Netflix).

PBI-Honduras began accompanying Arcoíris in July 2015.

Thank you PBI-Honduras

PBI-Canada thanks PBI-Honduras for welcoming us, arranging meetings with defenders, taking us to communities, and providing crucial context to these accompaniments.

To follow PBI-Honduras on social media, go to Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter.

Future research interests

Given the visibility of Dole transport trucks during our travels in Atlántida, this is also an emerging area of research interest for us.

Britannica has noted: “Two U.S. corporations—Chiquita (formerly United Fruit Company and United Brands) and Dole (formerly Standard Fruit and Steamship Company and Castle & Cooke)—hold a disproportionate amount of the country’s agricultural land and produce a substantial part of the national income by growing the majority of the country’s banana crop.”

Britannica adds: “Standard Fruit de Honduras, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Dole Food Company, which operates large banana, citrus fruit, and coconut plantations in the hinterland, is centred in the city [of La Ceiba].”

On December 11, 2023, Contra Corriente reported: “Despite promises made by the Castro administration to the campesinos in Bajo Aguán, State security forces continue to violently evict communities and spill blood in order to protect the interests of large agriculture companies, both national and transnational. The most recent developments took place on November 24, when 100 families from EACI were evicted, an action for which a court order was issued. Approximately 900 police officers and members of the Cobra special forces carried out the eviction. Denunciations by campesino organizations of fraud and irregularities in the acquisition of that land by Empresa Agrícola Santa Inés, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company, have not been addressed.”

In 2022, Honduras exported $34.2 million in bananas to Canada, making it the second largest destination for Honduran bananas after the United States. In 2023, Honduras exported $36.9 million in bananas to Canada.

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The Peace Brigades International-Canada team has one staffperson and eleven volunteer Board members who support the accompaniment of frontline defenders through articles, social media, webinars, advocacy tours, delegations and research. To enable this work to continue, please donate here.