HONDURAS REPRESSION
AGAINST GARIFUNA PEOPLE
Submitted by Godsman Ellis to: http://www.SeineBight.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "RightsAction" <info@rightsaction.org>
To: <info@rightsaction.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 2:23 PM
Subject: HONDURAS: REPRESSION AGAINST
GARIFUNA PEOPLE
HONDURAS: REPRESSION AGAINST GARIFUNA
PEOPLE
Below, you will find an urgent action
from OFRANEH, a partner group of
Rights Action in Honduras. In the
near future, we will report more fully
on their situation.
Along with OFRANEH, Rights Action fears
that repression against Garifuna
communities will increase, under
pressure from the international tourism
industry increase to get control of
their lands on Honduras' north shore.
March 28, 2005
PERSECUTION OF GARIFUNAS
The OFRANEH (Honduran Black People's
Fraternal Organization) denounces the
raid of the home of Miriam
Miranda. This is a clear case of persecution
of
the defenders of the ancestral lands of indigenous and black peoples.
The break-in took place on Friday March
25 (Good Friday), between two and
three in the afternoon. Eight
officers of the DGIC (Criminal
Investigative Division), some of whom were wearing hoods, broke into Miranda's
home, with orders to search for stolen articles and weapons.
Miriam Miranda has a long history of involvement in the struggle for the
defense of the rights of indigenous and
black peoples, especially the
rights
of the Garífuna people and the defense of their land and culture.
We
therefore presume that this raid was a
form of pressure to intimidate
Miranda and tie the hands of OFRANEH,
so that it becomes nothing more than
one more NGO carrying out projects,
like other NGOs involved with World
Bank
projects.
OFRANEH believes we are living in a
very important historical period. The
ratification of the Free Trade
Agreement with the United States will speed
up the process of economic
globalization and lead to increased poverty,
given the enormous gap that exists
between our country and the North
American Empire. As well, the
traditional agricultural economies of our
country will be undermined and there
will be a huge increase in the number
of campesinos who have no choice but
join the migration to the North.
The raid of Miranda's home does not
augur well, given that Miranda was not
involved in any of the alleged
activities named by the authorities. On
the
contrary, she has been recognized both nationally and internationally
for
her hard work and dedication to the defense of the rights of indigenous
and black peoples.
Law enforcement in Honduras is
suffering a regression. In fact, it has
turned into a witch-hunt, much like it
was in the eighties. With open
warfare against the so-called maras
(gangs) -- the children of
neoliberalism --, we are very close to
returning to the persecution of the
popular movement that we saw in the
past.
The Empire's attempt at economic
globalization is a total failure and the
situation will only get worse with the implementation of projects such as
the Free Trade Agreement with the
United States, the Plan Puebla Panamá,
the
Mesoamerican Biological Corredor and the PATH (Land Administration
Project
of Honduras), all of which directly
effect the future of the lands of our
peoples.
Financial institutions such as the
World Bank and the InterAmerican
Development Bank are attempting to
implement these projects. At the same
time, where ever possible, they try to
sow seeds of division in popular
movements and buy their leaders.
The break-in at Miranda's home happens
at a time when there is an attempt
to
divide our organization, financed by the office of the Nuestras Raíces
Programme, which comes under the FHIS
(Fondo Hondureno de Inversion
Social) which in turn, is financed by the World Bank. In 2002, the
programme was
given the task of dividing the CONPAH
(Confederation of the Native People
of
Honduras) and financing the now defunct CINH, also administered by the
Nuestras Raices Programme.
At the same time, the state of
Honduras, along with the PATH, have begun
to
put pressure on the Garifuna communities, through a project whose aim is
to
break up ancestral lands. Teresa Reyes, of Triunfo de la Cruz, was
sentenced to preventative custody for
the crime of defending a piece of
land
that has belonged to her family for years.
We hereby alert the public to the
direct and indirect pressure to which
the
members of our organization are being subjected. We also denounce
the
deliberate attempt to divide us by a
state organ financed by the World
Bank.
This division could destroy our
peoples' resistance movement and lead to
the
break-up and loss of our ancestral
communities.
Issued in La Ceiba (Honduras), March
28, 2005.
Gregoria Flores
OFRANEH
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
UBCIC's Protecting Knowledge Conference
site:
http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/protect.htm
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this information.
For more information about the Garifuna
people and OFRANEH:
info@rightsaction.org.
Address: P.O. Box 54
San Ignacio
Cayo District
Belize
Tel: (501) 804 2032/4264
Fax: (501) 824 2685
