Ongoing Issue to Watch 16.9.13 Rio Blanco People Fight Big Corp and Their Own Government in Honduras. This week the leaders of an indigenous Organisation in Honduras (COPINH) had to go to court to answer charges that they caused more than $3m damages to DESA, a hydroelectric dam company that wanted to build a dam on their sacred Gualcarque River. (This river runs through Lenco Indigenous lands.) And, how did COPINH cause this damage? They blockaded the roads and thwarted the dam’s construction for five months. The charges were brought by the government to break indigenous resistance to the mining, damming, logging and drilling that it wishes to expedite so that they (various corporations and the Honduran government) can gather the riches the indigenous lands hold. The only problem is – the government’s actions are illegal because the Honduran Constitution (and International Convention 169) state that all action taken on indigenous lands must first be passed and agreed upon by the indigenous inhabitants of that land. Everywhere in Honduras and the Americas, indigenous territories have a bull’s eye upon them and they are being exploited for their agriculture, water, forests, oil, gas, genetic information, biodiversity. There have also been physical, legal, and political attacks on COPINH members and other indigenous peoples in Honduras. Assassinations, kidnapping, machete slashing, arrests, and threats are weekly events in the communities which are resisting, and yet they continue to fight. “As Lenca people, these are our lands. Our ancestors fought to defend this land for us. We also have children and grandchildren and are going to defend this land for them.” Indigenous Council of Rio Blanco member, Maria Santo Dominguez says. And defend it they did and, when the company’s machines, roads and housing destroyed their fields of corn, beans and coffee the people began their blockade. Community members showed up, day in and day out, in the rain, in the heat, with or without food, to defend their territory. And, despite the arrests, the intimidation, the beatings – they continue to resist. truth-out.org/news/item/18851-defending-indigenous-lands-and-waters-in-honduras-the-case-of-rio-blanco
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 11:07:01 +0000