PBI-Honduras accompanied COPINH, ARCAH, CNTC and Arcoiris sign statement declaring emergency in the Aguan Valley

Published by Brent Patterson on February 1, 2025February 1, 2025

Organizations accompanied by Peace Brigades International-Honduras – including the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH), the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) and the LGTBI rights group Arcoiris – along with affiliated organizations including the Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, the Agrarian Platform, the San Alonso Rodriguez Foundation and C-Libre – have signed a statement declaring an emergency in the Aguan Valley.”

That statement on the situation in the Aguan Valley (Bajo Aguan) is signed by “social, popular, feminist, human rights, Indigenous, Garifuna, artistic, sexual dissidence, Afro-indigenous, student, social, popular, feminist movements”.

COPINH has tweeted:

“National Declaration of Emergency in Bajo Aguán.

COPINH joins together with various social organizations in Honduras to warn about the serious situation in the cooperatives of Camarones, El Tranvío and El Chile, where armed groups are attacking, displacing and killing peasants (campesinos y campesinas).

Despite denunciations by organizations such as COPA and Plataforma Agraria, the government continues to fail to intervene effectively. The violence is escalating and the deadly risk is imminent.

Read the full statement and join the urgent call to protect their lives.”

EFE reports: “Social, peasant and human rights organizations in Honduras declared an ‘emergency’ on Saturday [February 1] in the Caribbean department of Colon, mainly in what is known as the Aguan Valley, due to the ‘mortal risk’ faced by organized peasants.”

That article continues: “These peasants from the Camarones, Chile and Tranvío cooperatives are victims of ‘armed attacks by hitman groups, supported by guards under the responsibility of the Dinant Corporation (one of the largest producers of African palm in Honduras), who are displacing and murdering’ peasants to ‘evict them from the land for which they have organized’, the organizations said in a statement.”

That article adds: “They regretted that ‘the calls for help and solidarity’ from the organized peasants ‘have not touched’ the government presided over by Xiomara Castro, whom they accuse of being ‘now an accomplice’ of what is happening in Colón, one of the most violent regions of the country due to land problems and drug trafficking that have operated for many years.”

The Dinant Corporation

As noted above, the statement highlights the Dinant corporation.

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.”

Two peasants killed

Another article by EFE also notes: “The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (OHCHR) on Saturday condemned the murder of José Luis Hernández and Suyapa Guillén, members of the Gregorio Chávez peasant cooperative, in an attack that occurred this Friday in the department of Colon, in the country’s Caribbean.”

Image from COPINH tweet.

We continue to follow this situation.

Further reading: Photo-journal of PBI-Canada visit with PBI-Honduras accompanied organizations, defenders and communities (November 1, 2024).