By Hélène Roux, Le Monde Diplomatique, December 2010.
November 15, 2010, the Lower Aguán in Honduras has been the scene of a massacre
again, five farmers committed against members
of the peasant organization Movimiento Campesino del Aguán (MCA).
The incident occurred at dawn on November 15, when two hundred
armed guards on the payroll of Mr. Miguel Facussé Barjum (1) tycoon
Honduran African palm, fired with heavy weapons
class on a group of peasants who came to present the papers
sending legitimate owners of the finca (property) El
Tumbador (municipality of Trujillo).
These killings are a new episode in the conflict that opposes agrarian
long MCA great entrepreneurs and owners
land area: Mr. Facussé Barjum - President
society Dinant and uncle of the former Liberal president Carlos Flores
Facussé (1998-2002) - Mr. Rene Morales Carazo - Industrial and brother of Vice President
of the Republic of Nicaragua, Jaime Morales Carazo
- Reynaldo Canales - too big boss - and Mr. Oscar Najera
- Liberal Party MP (right).
Unlike other Latin American countries where the cultivation of African palm
is growing very new - linked to the development
of agro-fuels - it is present in Honduras since the
1970. At that time, land reforms have indeed been promoted -
often by military governments, such as Peru and Honduras
- to reduce the pressure on large estates (large
properties) and control the peasant movement. The cultivation of palm
is therefore an important economic issue, which explains the one hand
strength and capacity of farmer cooperatives, and secondly the
greed of large landowners and entrepreneurs in industry
processing precious plant.
In early 1990, under the chairmanship of Mr. Leonardo Callejas
(National Party [NP], right), gets up the modernization law
and agricultural development (2), which amends the 1962
on Agrarian Reform. Following the same trend as in the rest of
Latin American countries, the new law favors "security
property" through individual land tenure and the incursion
growing private sector in financing the
agricultural production. The method - developed and promoted by the Bank
World - also known as the misleading "
assisted agrarian reform by the market."
The majority of farmers' organizations in Honduras
agrees on the fact that this legislation marks the beginning of an acceleration of private
reclaiming land formerly granted to
cooperatives in the agrarian reform in the 1960s.
Considering this monopolization to be illegal, farmers leave the land reclamation
. It is within this context that the MCA was born,
early May 2000, occupying the lands of the Regional Centre
Military Training (CREM), several thousands of hectares
used during the 1980s by the instructors of the Army
U.S. fighters to train the Nicaraguan Contras.
For MCA, the goal is to push for the implementation
legal provisions establishing the social use of land and agrarian
limiting concentration.
At first, the tension between peasants and landowners
is so strong that the president
(businessman Ricardo Maduro, PN) has no
choice to intervene in person. On October 12, 2000, 1124 hectares are
tenure on behalf of cooperatives of the MCA, however, that the National Agrarian Institute
(INA) take steps to cancel
title wrongly attributed to large landowners.
However the victory was short-lived, for years, the situation remains volatile and
constant harassment.
June 12, 2009, an agreement was signed between President yet
Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, and peasant organizations of the
Aguán. Determine that expulsion can be achieve before
the legality of land titles and land sales
has been established by competent authorities. But the coup of June 28, 2009
concludes this brief respite. MCA, which, like many
popular organizations, joined the National Front of Resistance against
golpe (3), finds himself once again in the crosshairs
.
resume attacks with greater force in early 2010,
with the inauguration of the de facto government of Mr. Porfirio Lobo
, came to power in elections held in the shade
the military coup in November 2009. Faced with paralysis
tenure process, movement (4), which now lists more than 3
500 families organized into hundreds of cooperatives, has indeed decided to resume
, December 9, 2009, land occupations.
January 8, the first violent evictions of land newly occupied
held 27 people, including ten women, were detained.
13 January, three leaders of MCA were arrested, bringing to 18 the number of
MCA members imprisoned since the inception of the movement.
In a statement, the organization denounced for the presence of armed men threatening
around land cooperatives
and accuses a colonel in the army of "render services" to
entrepreneurs of African palms.
Mid-February 2010, paramilitary groups in the pay of large landowners
, backed by the army and police attacked the encampments
MCA and several are injured. Facts
occur even though a delegation of MCA
negotiates the ratification of agreements signed before the coup of 2009, with the current Minister of Agrarian Reform
, Cesar Ham. The latter, un ancien député du parti de
gauche Union démocratique (UD), s’est à la fois opposé au coup d’Etat…
et l’a légitimé en acceptant d’entrer au gouvernement de M. Lobo.
Depuis cette « position », il prétend jouer le rôle de « courroie de
transmission » des revendications populaires auprès du gouvernement.
Début mars 2010, de nouvelles négociations s’ouvrent entre le
gouvernement et les paysans du MCA alors que la région est totalement
militarisée et subit une intense répression. Quarante personnes ont
été détenues pendant le processus de dialogue,
including the regional head of the INA, Mr. Coronado Avila Mendoza.
MCA leader, Rudy Hernandez, described the situation: "The region of low
Aguán was flooded with soldiers, 28 cooperatives were being
recovery (of land) and for this reason that the
13 April, after a meeting of more than fifteen hours with
government, who did we concede that 6000 acres, we've got 11
000. We signed because we were under the threat of guns and
we could not endanger the lives of our fellow
. Nevertheless, the struggle was not only for this
amount of land but for the land assigned to the agrarian reform
(5). "The
April 13, 2010 both parties" agree "then:
3000 hectares of land used for African palm
immediately be tenured for 28 cooperatives and after voluntary evacuation
fields occupied (by farmers) the same surfaces
(idle) will be awarded their within three months and a
another location. Finally, within a year, farmers will receive
1000 hectares cultivated palm in 4000 hectares
not cultivated. The de facto president himself went there and is doing
guarantor of the agreements.
But appeasement might have been expected from the signing of agreements
does not occur. Instead, the area is experiencing a
Aguán the heightened tension. Indeed, the tycoon palm, Mr. Facussé gives
measure of how little he makes of the law. He announces that he will
appeal decisions to the courts.
Going to meet his wishes, April 20, the army tightened its noose around the community
Guadalupe Carney (based on land occupied
CREM), who finds himself completely surrounded by over a hundred
staffing Cobras commandos and soldiers. The
pretext: the arrest of members of the MCA. Moreover, the union workers
INA (Sindicato de Trabajadores del INA
[SITRAIN]) in the region condemned the threats and intimidation against its members
.
April 23, while the MCA reported the imminent invasion of Guadalupe Carney
community by the army, he announced that he Facussé
refuses to negotiate if only one hectare earth. The standoff
engaged with the MCA extends to the INA and its director, whose owner claims
openly head. This reflects the
duplicity of the government, on one side, pretending to play the
conciliation through the INA, and the other takes the guise of tension
to militarize the region.
few days later, on April 28, the community radio
Zacate Grande (a community located in the Gulf of Fonseca,
peaceful region, 150 km from the capital) is attacked and destroyed by armed men
in the pay of Mr. Facussé.
May 25, the daily La Prensa published an interview with Mr.
Facussé in which it stated that "the problem of Aguán
destroy the economy", thereby implying that the "climate
of insurgency "in the region was
foreign investors away (6). In June 2010, announcing the layoff of 500 employees
Miguel Facussé companies in the region is a maneuver
more to stir up dissension among the peasants.
June 21, a joint operation of the battalions and Cobras
Vigils of the security company Orion (recruited by Mr.
Facussé), conducted in order to arrest two members of the cooperative
La Aurora, causes the death of a 17 year old. The autopsy reveals
twelve bullet holes (7). The statement stresses that the MCA
Finca La Aurora was assigned to the cooperative by the INA.
August 17, three members of the MCA (including a boy of 14 years) are
murdered. A few days later, a confrontation takes place between Great Zacate
occupants of reclaimed land and the inhabitants of nearby villages
, Mr. Facussé who gave the "title deeds"
and dangled the construction of a school for their children.
list of intimidation and arbitrary arrests
increasing every day, but the international financial institutions do not bat an eye
. In a letter (8) 17 November 2010 addressed to
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, the Canadian NGO Rights Action
accuses it of being jointly responsible for the atrocities committed in the
Aguán. Termination based on the fact that on 5 November 2009
, Dinant had received from the Finance Corporation
International Finance Corporation (IFC) - responsible for attention to the private sector in
the World Bank - Loan No. 27,250, up 30 million dollars
.
Rumors, regularly reported by the press, citing
the existence of armed groups within the MCA have been strengthened in recent days
. Some media even believing that the foundations
drive the guerrillas in Nicaragua (9) ...
irony of fate lands originally occupied by the MCA, had,
them, indeed the basis for the troops Contra, whose goal
was precisely to attack neighboring Nicaragua
... The massacre of 15 November gave a new pretext for sending
the army in the region. But against all odds, instead of taking them to armed militias
entrepreneurs in the palm, it is
INA offices - even those which are stored files
land regularization of the MCA - which have been militarized. On December 6
farmers resumed roadblocks to demand that justice be done
. On 7 December, a statement of MUCA
warns that the community Guadalupe Carney is again surrounded by the army.
On 15 December, 600 soldiers took up positions on hills around
and helicopters flying over the area.
Note:
(1) Giorgio Trucchi, "Masacre en el Bajo y barbarism Aguán"
Latin American Regional Secretariat (Rel-IUF), November 16, 2010.
(2) "Ley para la Modernización y Desarrollo del Sector Agrícola
(LMDSA), National Agrarian Institute (INA), March 5, 1992.
(3) Today the National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP).
(4) Who is this also sous le sigle MUCA (uni Mouvement des paysans de l'Aguán
).
(5) German Reyes, "Failure of government in the minds Chaldean
Aguán" Revistazo, 18 novembre 2010.
(6) "Problem Aguán destroy the economy", La Prensa, 25 mai 2010.
(7) Giorgio Trucchi, "Murder MUCA young wild"
Rel-IUF, 22 juin 2010.
(8) "Letter to the World Bank", Rights Action, 17 novembre 2010.
(9) "Hondurans would be training in Nicaragua to destabilize
legal order and democracy," Process, 24 novembre 2010.
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