PBI-Honduras has posted:
“Yesterday [March 27], we accompanied the June 17 base together with the CNTC [National Union of Rural Workers] El Progreso [a city in the department of Yoro] in the trial for usurpation that was going to take place. However, due to various reasons, the hearing could not be held and was pending rescheduling.
From PBI, we express our deep concern about the criminalization process involving the peasant base advocates. It is critical to ensure the protection of the rights of those in pursuit of social justice and the defense of the land.
On the other hand, we applaud and support the work of the CNTC El Progreso, whose tireless work to ensure access to land, promote agricultural reform and guarantee food sovereignty is essential for the well-being of peasant communities.”
A “campesino” (male) or “campesina” (female) translates as “peasant” or “country person”, coming from the Spanish word “campo” meaning “field” or “country”. The term campesino/campesina refers to a farmer or agricultural workers with a strong cultural connection to the land and community.
A “base campesina” can be understood as a “peasant base” or perhaps as a self-managed agricultural cooperative.
“Usurpation” can be understood as a criminal charge that enables evictions and that criminalizes the occupation/presence of campesinas on land in the context of land ownership inequalities and through the political prism of the prioritization of private property rights and the rights of large landowners and agribusiness.
“La base campesina 17 de junio”
On June 17, 2024, PBI-Honduras visited “la base campesina 17 de junio” and noted their concern “about the criminalization of the peasant population, whose work is fundamental to guarantee food security.”
On March 13, 2023, PBI-Honduras also visited the community “which is in the process of recovering land and developing community projects.” PBI-Honduras added: “For 2 years, the base has been in the process of reclaiming land and is developing community projects, which include the expansion and recovery of crops, collective gardens, fish farms and irrigation systems, among others.”
June 17, 2009
Rebelion has noted: “On 17 June 2009, at a meeting with a thousand peasants from Bajo Aguán [Honduran president Manuel] Zelaya promised to remediate the lands of landowners and hand over any surpluses that were outside the law, along with other idle land, to some 100,000 peasants claiming arable land. Eleven days after that promise, on Sunday 28 June [the president was ousted in a coup].”
Inequality surrounded by millions in profits
Reuters has reported: “Less than 5% of Honduras’ landowners, government figures show, control 60% of the fertile terrain, including many monocultures of palm and other export crops.” And anthropologist Andrés León has noted: “The Aguán is a region of rampant poverty and misery surrounded by a crop that makes millions in profits.”
Peasants criminalized, murdered
In October 2023, Criterio.hn reported:
“Defending the right of access to land for peasants is a deadly task in the fertile – and coveted by agro-industrialists – Valle del Aguán, located between the departments of Colón and Yoro, in northeastern Honduras.
According to estimates by the Agrarian Platform and the Coordinator of Popular Organizations of the Aguán (COPA), since 2009 it has been the scene of more than 200 murders of peasants. The murders are preceded by the criminalization of their leaders as a form of generalized intimidation of those who decide to raise their voices against land grabbing whose destiny was agrarian reform in favor of peasant groups, but ended up in the hands of agro-industrialists and politicians.
The lawyer of the law firm Estudios para la Dignidad, Lestter Castro [warns] that, although criminalization has been the constant figure over time, this does not imply that more violent forms of repression are not applied against peasant groups such as persecution, surveillance, threats and murders carried out by murderous groups and state security forces, in alliance with agro-industrial companies.”
Accompaniment
The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) since May 2018.
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.
Photo: PBI-Honduras with Franklin Almendares, General Secretary, National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC).
