The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:
“On Wednesday, March 4, we observed the press conference organized by the Peasant, Indigenous, and Popular Alliance of Honduras (#ACAINPH) in front of the National Congress, in which defenders from various organizations and movements defending the land, including #plataformaagraria, @copinh, @cntctegucigalpa, @viacampesina_hn, #copa, #clnph, #acilpazh, and #movimientosintierra, warned of the serious repercussions of the bill “Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-industrial Sector of Honduras,” pointing out that this initiative would not only favor agro-industrial interests but could also violate the rights of peasants, affect access to land, and weaken guarantees for rural communities.
At PBI, we support calls for respect for the peasant way of life, for the self-determination of peoples, and for the human right to access land and produce food.”
#Honduras #humanrights #peasantry #access to land”
As noted above, the organizations present at the press conference included: #plataformaagraria (the Agrarian Platform), @copinh (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), @cntctegucigalpa (the National Union of Rural Workers), @viacampesina_hn (Via Campesina), #copa (the Coordinator of Popular Organizations of Aguán), #cinph (Indigenous coordinator of popular power in Honduras), #acilpazh (the Association of Indigenous Lenca Communities of La Paz, Honduras), and #movimientosintierra (the Movement without Land).
La Via Campesina also posted videos of the press conference on social media and noted: “The Alliance Peasant, Indigenous and Popular of Honduras (ACAINPH), integrated by social and territorial base organizations that claim the human right to the land and the territory, warn about the intention to use the National Agrarian Institute and, in addition, the pretense to approve the project titled “Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-Industrial Sector of Honduras”.
MNTV.hn further explains: “The Peasant, Indigenous and Popular Alliance of Honduras (ACAINPH) denounced that the draft “Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-industrial Sector of Honduras” would represent a risk to agrarian reform and rights of access to land in the country. The organizations pointed out that the initiative, promoted in the National Congress (CN), would grant privileges to agribusiness entrepreneurs and could criminalize protests and peasant demands linked to land conflicts. …The alliance called on social and human rights organizations to monitor the legislative process and defend territorial rights.”
And El Libertador reports: “Various peasant organizations mobilized this Tuesday [March 4] in the basement of the National Congress to reject the draft bill called the Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agroindustrial Sector Honduras, promoted by the National Party, which would allegedly open the door for agricultural lands to pass into the hands of the agroindustrial sector.”
“The demonstrators described the initiative as ‘a violent attack’ against the historical struggles for land and pointed out that it violates the Constitution of the Republic and international human rights treaties signed by the country.”
That article adds: “[Raul Ramirez of ACAINPH] warned that, if the law is approved, the organizations will defend their territories. ‘They may approve it, but it is unfair, illegal and unconstitutional. Our defence will be in the streets and on the land’, he said, assuring that the peasant sector will maintain permanent mobilizations.”
We continue to follow this.
