Video still of press conference/protest. The banner can be read as “Investors Out” and/or “Zionist Investments Out”.
Criterio.hn reports: “Citizens and members of organizations defending access to water held a temporary sit-in in front of the offices of the Mayor’s Office of the Central District, in downtown Tegucigalpa, on Tuesday to reject the approaches of Mayor Juan Diego Zelaya with the Israeli company Mekorot for alleged advice on water issues.”
“On June 23, Zelaya admitted to Radio Progreso that he was holding talks with the Israeli company, after Criterio.hn published the article ‘Mekorot and water diplomacy, the Israeli model that could be expanded in Honduras,’ about the talks that the central government would be carrying out with the company.”
The article continues: “Through a statement, the demonstrators denounced the attempt to privatize the water service and rejected Mekorot’s entry into Honduras. The Israeli company has been accused of cutting off water supplies to the Palestinian population, in the context of what a commission of inquiry of the UN Human Rights Council described as genocide. In addition, he faces accusations for alleged cases of corruption in contracts signed with Latin American governments, they detailed in the statement.”
Video clip from Honduras Times. In this 4-minute video clip from the press conference, the three speakers say:
“We are a collective movement in defence of the right to access water. Different organizations, peoples, movements, neighbourhoods, colonies, and people living in Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela have gathered in the feminist camp Viva Berta around a common goal. The defence of the right to access water for everyone, for the people, for life, not for the industry or for private interest.
With great conviction, we stand up to the complaint against the privatization of water in Honduras, a favourable scenario for the interest of money and power, through force and violence, to cut down the water of the people.
We denounce vigorously what Juan Diego Zelaya expressed on July 23 of this year, where he emphasized approaches between the municipal mayor of the Central District and the Israeli company Mekorot for alleged water-related advice. In the midst of a genocide condemned by the world, as well as the numerous allegations of corruption-involved contracts throughout Latin America.
We warn the Mekorot company that we will not allow its entry into installation in our territory or in our country.
[We demand] the immediate cancellation of any initiative of privatization, concession or commercialization of water [and] the immediate cancellation of any deal and relationship between the municipal mayor of the central district and Mekorot.
Water is not for sale, it is taken care of and defended.”
Photos and images of group statement from Reporteros de Investigación on Facebook.
Accompaniment
Peace Brigades International accompanies ARCAH.
The Criterio.hn article notes: “Christopher Castillo, a member of the Alternative for Community and Environmental Reclamation of Honduras (ARCAH), said that the sit-in was a first warning action in the face of the rapprochement with Mekorot. He warned that, if they continue, the protests will spread to different municipal offices in the capital. He explained that the actions respond to decisions made in citizen assemblies held at the Viva Berta Feminist Camp, in which residents of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, as well as other communities surrounding the Central District, have participated.”
Peace Brigades International has been accompanying ARCAH since September 2022. PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met Castillo in Tegucigalpa on October 28, 2024, then again on March 3, 2026.
Further reading: ARCAH to convene virtual meeting on September 5 on water privatization in Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela by Mekorot (PBI-Canada, September 4, 2026).
