PBI-Honduras accompanies National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) as it requests file awarding land to the October 18 campesina organization
PBI-Honduras has posted on social media: “We accompany the CNTC [National Union of Rural Workers] Tegucigalpa to the National Agrarian Institute with the aim of requesting the file that accredits the awarding of land in the case of the peasant organization October 18 (Suyatal Cedro, Francisco Morazán). From PBI, we highlight the importance of respecting ancestral titles of communities and show concern for the criminalization processes faced by people who defend the land and territory in Honduras.”
According to the INA website: “The National Agrarian Institute (INA) is a Semi-Autonomous entity of the State, whose purpose is to carry out the process of agrarian reform in compliance with the national agricultural policy promoted by the Government, with the purpose of achieving the transformation of the agrarian structure of the country and incorporating the rural population into the integral development of the Nation.”
But as PBI-Honduras has previously noted: “As is common to almost all of Latin America, the question of unequal land ownership is an historic and persistent problem in the Republic of Honduras. Approximately 80% of land held in private hands does not have a corresponding or accurate land title. Legal uncertainty in land tenure, property rights, and land use; private land titles granted over ancestral lands; and authorities’ limited capacity to prevent and resolve land conflicts and guarantee peasant and indigenous communities’ rights to land and territory are some of the most alarming aspects of this issue.”
They have further explained: “Within this context [of land inequality], various peasant and indigenous movements have emerged over the years to fight for access to land and the defence of territory, leading to severe tensions with national landlords, private security companies, and state security forces.”
Accompaniment
The CNTC, created in 1985, is a small-scale farming and trade union organization that fights for the distribution of land.
PBI-Honduras has highlighted: “The lack of land titles remains a systemic issue that characterises these processes. Of the 404 communities that form the CNTC, just 20 per cent have titles to their lands. Many others have worked and lived on their lands for three or four decades, and have spent 15 years awaiting the official recognition of their rights that never seems to arrive.”
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.
Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the CNTC since May 2018.
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