Honduras: three Tolupans murdered by miner mafias

Three persons of the Tolupa nation were murdered by hitmen at the service of illegal miners, foresters and constructors on August 25th at Locomapa (Yoro).

Ricardo Soto Fúnez, María Enriqueta Matute y Armando Fúnez Medina took part in a road blockade in defense of their ancestral territory.

Already in June the Tolupas denounced forester industrial Kenton Landa Úcles for the introduction of heavy machinery in the Tolupa forest.

In a similar incident, considering the total subservience of the state institutions to capitalist expoliation, soldiers murdered the member of the Lenca nation Tomas García on July 15th. 

Source: LINyM[es].

Honduras: Native Lenca murdered by the army

Tomás García, member of COPINH (Native American association) was murdered by live fire from soldiers yesterday at Río Blanco. His son, Alan García Domínguez was injured also with bullets and has been hospitalized in critical state.

The state crimes were perpetrated while the Lenca community protested against hydroelectric projects.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Honduras: kidnapped journalist found dead

Aníbal Barrow (pictured), who was kidnapped weeks ago, was found dead in a shallow tomb not far from where his clothes were located, near San Pedro Sula.

Before Barrow at least 27 journalists have been murdered in Honduras since the 2009 coup:

1. Nicolás Asfura: 17-Feb-2010.
2. Josep Hernández: 1-Mar-2010.
3. David Meza Matamoros: 11-Mar-2010
4. Nahúm Palacios: 14-Mar-2010.
5. Manuel de Jesús Juárez: 26-Mar-2010
6. Bayardo Ramírez: 26-Mar-2010.
7. Luis Chévez: 11-Apr-2010
8. Georgino Orellana: 20-Apr-2010.
9. Carlos Salinas: 8-May-2010.
10. Luis Mondragón: 14-Jun-2010
11. Israel Zelaya: 24-Aug-2010.
12. Henry Suazo: 28-Dec-2010.
13. Luis Ernesto Mendoza: 19-Mar-2011.
14 Erick Martínez Ávila: 7-May-2012.
15. Héctor Medina: 11-May-2011
16. Adán Benítez: 5-Jul-2011.
17. Nery Jeremías Orellana: 13-Jul-2011.
18. Medardo Flores: 8-Sep-2011.
19. Luz Marina Paz: 6-Dec-2011.
20. Saira Fabiola Almendárez: 1-Mar-2012
21. Fausto Elio Hernández: 11-Mar-2012
22. Noel Valladares Escoto: 23-Apr-2012.
23. Alfredo Villatoro: 15-May-2012
24. Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutiérrez: 8-Jul-2012
25. José Noel Canales Lagos: 10-Aug-2012
26. Julio César Cassaleno: 28-Aug-2012
27. Angel Edgardo López Fiallos: 11-Nov-2012

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Honduras: SAB-Miller illegally evicts again farmers from their lands

It is the fourth time in a row that seems endless. AZUNOSA, subsidiary of SAB-Miller has again evicted, with full state complicity, the farmers occupying lands attributed to them by the National Agrarian Institute (INA). 

It happened on June 29th in Aguablanca Sur (Progreso, department of Yoro) and, in spite of the blatant illegality, some 300 members of the police took part in the eviction. Heavy machinery also was used to demolish the homes of the farmers and destroy 420 Ha of maize plantations, as well as 280 Ha of yucca, banana, beans and vegetables.

Afterwards they began working the land to sow sugarcane.  

The farmers have been left with nothing but are reorganizing themselves.

Farmer occupation in Santa Barbara

600 farmer families took part in the recovery of lands in Canaan community (Naco, department of Santa Bárbara). They have already begun to work the land for food in what they describe as a process for food sovereignty. The occupied lands were assigned to agrarian reform in the 1970s. 

Source: LINyM[es] (link 1, link 2).

Honduras: large demonstrations in the 4th anniversary of the coup - many murdered this week

The FNRP marched in large numbers through the streets of the Central American country in repulse of the coup staged four years ago against President Zelaya with obvious support of the USA and the "libertarian" (fascist ultra-capitalist) mafias of The Empire. 

The party sponsored by the FNRP, LIBRE, is set to win the announced November elections if there is no vote rigging, followed by the maverick "Anti-Corruption Party" of S. Nasralla. The coup-sponsoring "traditional" parties ("National" and "Liberal") are set to become third and fourth forces respectively.

Source: LINyM[es] (includes many more images).


At least 8 murdered on Wednesday alone

Three members of LIBRE were shot dead in Juticapa, Olancho, (Silvia Aguiriano, Teresa Matute and an unnamed bodyguard). The attack was blamed on the narco mafia gang of Lucio Rivera by Aguriano's husband.

Denis del Cid Oliva, a trader from Francisco Morazán, was also shot dead earlier in the day.

Early in the day, in San Pedro Sula, a van was found with four corpses inside, apparently all them young people who were tied and put in plastic bags.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Costa Rica: massive protests and strikes take over the country

Not everything is alright in Costa Rica anymore, especially since the government began privatizing everything and making outlandish concessions to multinational corporations. 

Schools, harbors and health services have been paralyzed in total or partial manner. 

In the capital, San José, thousands marched peacefully but shouting out their anger: "We are not sheep", "no more chorizos [thieves]", "death to the sell out by the government", "no to suppression of the right to strike". 

There were also large marches in all the other provinces of the small country, as well as road blockades and worker strikes. 

In the main port, Limón, workers closed the docks altogether and blocked the only road access to the harbor.

President Chinchilla has made some very unpopular decisions in the last months, selling out the country's wealth and utilities to the private sector, while also falling to many corruption scandals. 

One of these highly controversial decisions is the concession to a Dutch company (ATM) of a new harbor in Limón, which would ruin the publicly-owned current one. Another is the preparation of a law that would severely restrict the right of strike. The corruption scandals are so widespread that the opposition talks of "looting the country".

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Honduras: fear for kidnapped journalist

A bullet shot, a cap, a dental prosthesis and blood stains were found in the van of  journalist Aníbal Barrow, 58, who was kidnapped yesterday in San Pedro Sula.

It seems that the shot was fired from inside the vehicle.

Barrow was kidnapped by four men, according to other people present (co-worker and relatives of the victim). The kidnappers drove a white car without plates.

Source: LINyM[es].

Honduras: brutal eviction of farmers

A huge police and military deployment attacked the farmers who were occupying the land in process of expropriation to the powerful Compañía Azucarera Hondureña (CAHSA).

At least four live shots were produced but, luckily, this time they caused no injuries. Water cannons, tear gas and all the usual police armory was used against the farmers. Workers of CAHSA, riding vehicles without plates, took photos and provided the police forces with food and drinks.

The eviction was illegal because the conflict is in court, but in Honduras today the oligarchy is the only real power, directly commanding police and military and many private militias.

The Farmer Movement of San Manuel (MOCSAM) has been fighting for three years to have those lands returned to the rightful owners.

Source: LINyM[es].

El Salvador: pregnant woman denied the right to abortion in de facto sentence of death

Beatriz, 22, suffering of lupus and severe renal problems, requested the Supreme Court of El Salvador to be allowed to abort, being an extreme case in which the child will no doubt die anyhow (suffers anencephalia: has not developed the brain) and, if the mother manages to survive at all, she will bear further severe complications in her illness.

However the high court rejected her plea because abortion is absolutely forbidden in the Central American country, no matter what. 

Beatriz, mother of a 18 months old toddler, explains that the hospital team did not dare to perform the abortion because, under the fundamentalist law, they would be judged for "murder" and punished with up to 12 years of prison. The aborting mother would be punished with as much as 50 years.

Even if she would manage to travel outside the country and be intervened in another state where abortion is legal, she would still be liable for murder upon her return to El Salvador. 

Beatriz is pleading to President Mauricio Funes (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) to intervene on the matter urgently somehow. 

The dramatic situation caused by Christian Fundamentalist intolerance, which attacks women's freedoms as much as other kinds of religious fanaticism, reminds the recent similar case in the Republic of Ireland (another Christian Fundamentalist regime) where a woman was let to die in a very similar extreme case, not being allowed abortion under any circumstance. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Update (Jun 4): the intervention of President Funes permitted that Beatriz was performed a "premature birth" intervention through cesarean, which resulted in the brainless fetus dying in minutes. She is now in intensive care. (→ Naiz Info[es]).

Guatemala: farmers shot by sugar cane multinational

Five farmers were injured as private guards of the Nicaraguan sugar cane multinational Grupo Pellas violently attempted to expand their holdings in the Central American state at the expense of small farmers.

On May 25, a hundred of mercenary personnel of the Grupo Pellas (heavily armed security guards and other workers) attacked the land of some 90 families of the Q’eqchi’ people shooting indiscriminately, injuring five, one of them severely.

The five victims of Capitalist terrorism are Arturo Chun, Santiago Ical, José Ical, Marvin Mendoza and Héctor Pop.

On February 13, the same corporation destroyed several hectares of rice, beans, squash and banana. Prior to the sale to Grupo Pellas, the former owners of the aggressive ranch Ingenio Chabil Utzaj, managed to evict some 14 Q’eqchi’ communities (more than 4000 people).

None of these terrorist actions have been persecuted by the Guatemalan authorities. 

If you want to show your discontent you can boycott any of the many business that the terrorist businessman Carlos Pellas Chamorro owns or has alliance to: Flor de Caña rum (best known produce of SER Holding, chairman), BAC Florida Bank (chairman), GBM Inc. electronic produce (chairman), IBM (associated to GBM Holding), real state by the Pellas Development Group (chairman), Toyota, Hino, Suzuki, and Yamaha (all of which are associated with this terrorist) or oranges by FRUTAN (chairman).

Guatemala: Ríos Montt sentence reversed

The Constitutional Court reversed by 2-1 votes reversing the recent veredict of guilt against genocidal dictator Ríos Montt, on the technical grounds that a claim against to two of the magistrates was disdained because it was an obvious attempt to delay the trial again, denying justice to the victims. 

This shows again that the bourgeois justice system only works in favor of the oligarchs, tyrants and other high ranking criminals, and that only popular trials are guarantee of true Justice. 

Source: LINyM[es].

Honduras: three murdered, two critically injured in the struggle for the land

Security guards of the sugar company CAHSA murdered three farmers and injured two in Cowle, some 200 km from Tegucigalpa. 

All the victims belong to the Farmer Movement of San Manuel Cortés (MOCSAM): Valentín Alvelar, 66, was killed on the spot, while Adolfo Melgar and another farmer by the name of Celedonio died of their injuries at hospital. Santos Melgar and Celso Ruiz are struggling between life and death in a hospital of San Pedro Sula.

The multiple murder took place as security guards attacked the farmers who were working in the lands expropriated to the sugar company by the National Agrarian Institute (INA) in March 2012 but only reoccupied by the farmers on May 17th.

Police tried to retrieve the corpse of Valentín Alvelar, to what the citizens opposed as they feared that they only intended to hide the evidence.

Source: LINyM[es].

Guatemala: Ríos Montt sentenced to 80 years of prison

Ríos Montt in court

The mass murderer ex-dictator has been finally officially designed as criminal against Humankind and put behind bars.

The First Tribunal A of Greatest Risk declared retired general José Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of the crime of genocide (50 years) and crimes against Humankind (30 years) for the massacres committed against the Ixil People. 

However José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, former commander of military intelligence accused of the same crimes, was acquitted, on the grounds of lacking evidence that he had any influence on the operations area.

Judge Jazmín Barrios declared:

We the judges consider that the behavior of the accused Ríos Montt fits within the crime of genocide in quality of author, therefore the corresponding penalty must apply. We the judges are completely persuaded of the intention of physical destruction of the Ixil area. 

Edgar Pérez, of Justice and Reconciliation Association (AJR), explained that:

Under the rule of Ríos Montt part of the Ixil people was displaced towards the mountains, another part was relocated under concentration camp conditions in the so-called "model villages" and a third part was massacred.

The extermination campaign killed 33.61% of the Ixil ethnicity, what demonstrates that there was clear intention of destroying this ethnic group.

After the sentence was read, Judge Barrios decreed that Ríos Montt be interned in prison with immediate effect, removing all benefits of restricted freedom that the dictator enjoyed until yesterday.

Guatemala: military attacks against the People resisting Canadian mine

The state of exception (= military rule) in four municipalities opposing the silver mining project at San Rafael district, Jalapa, Guatemala, by the Canadian corporation Tahoe Resources.

A month ago the same measure was taken against Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetanango, whose citizens are fighting against a hydroelectric project by Spanish multinational ENDESA.

In all cases the authorities have used the pretext of alleged criminal and narco business as excuse to declare the state of exception. Armored and assault vehicles were displayed at the towns affected, causing fear.

The government of Guatemala is in the hands of General Otto Pérez Molina, accused in the process for Crimes Against Humankind against General Efraín Ríos Montt, who led the fascist repression in the 1980s.

Source: LINyM[es].

Honduras: month-long road blockade against hydro project

For more than 30 days, the popular resistance to the hydroelectric project Agua Zarca, financed by the World Bank, in the river Gualcarque, sacred for the Lenca people.

Gathered Around their mayor, Orlando Hernández Bautista, who has been persecuted at court by DESA and SINOHYDRO (an imperialist Chinese corporation), the People of Zacapa has risen against the capitalist imposition, in defense of water and environment and in solidarity with their Lenca brothers and sisters, taking over the lands assigned for the construction of the destructive energy project. 

Sources[es]: LINyM, COPINH.

May Day: Guatemala, Honduras

In spite of the reactionary governments of these countries, the peoples of Guatemala and Honduras brought their class cry to the streets yesterday, International Day of the Working Class.

Ciudad de Guatemala

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

In Honduras especially, there was strong condemnation of the corporate ("libertarian") intervention of the USA by means of private paramilitary forces, directly owned by the capitalists, local or foreign, inside the borders of a ghost state that almost does not exist anymore. 

Source[es]: LINYM (link 1, link 2).