The political and moral collapse that has been taking place in Honduras is evident in the midst of the persecution that the State has decreed against the defenders of Mother Earth, who are being annihilated or imprisoned by the current regime.
According to Global Witness, from 2010 to 2017, around 120 murders of Mother Earth defenders occurred in Honduras, adding to countless judicial processes that have led to the imprisonment of hundreds of people linked to the defense of territories and natural resources, which today are the object of mining or forestry exploitation, as well as hydrographic basins given to private investors for the construction of hydroelectric dams.
In the last decade, Honduras has been turned into a kind of juridical hell where the judicial system represents the interests of a power elite associated with the premeditated destruction of mother earth, at the same time that they have dedicated themselves to the transfer of narcotics and other illicit businesses.
Since the 2009 coup d’état, the use of protected areas for the implementation of destruction projects has been forged in the name of a supposed development that will benefit the small power elite.
In the case of Guapinol, the alteration of the boundaries of the Carlos Escaleras National Park allowed the company Pinares to obtain from MIAMBIENTE the necessary licenses to proceed with the destruction of the hydrographic basin within the core zone of the protected area.
The Public Ministry has proceeded against 37 members of the community of Guapinol, the last episode being the imprisonment of 7 members of the Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Natural Heritage of Tocoa, when a judge with national jurisdiction issued a formal indictment with pretrial detention against seven environmentalists from Guapinol last Sunday.
The persecution is unleashed by the Facussé Perez clan, with the endorsement of the mayor of Tocoa, Mr. Adan Funez (who curiously belongs to the LIBRE party), and who has refused to carry out an open town hall meeting as indicated by the current and disputed Mining Law.
For decades the Facussé clan has maintained a state of terror in Bajo Aguan, a situation that since 2010 has resulted in low-intensity warfare, aggravated by the absence of a state of law in the country, and in which the judiciary became controlled by the executive branch as of December 12, 2012.
The detention of Orfirio Sorto Cedillo, José Abelino Cedillo, Kelvin Alejandro Romero, Arnold Javier Alemán, Ever Alexander Cedillo, Orbin Nahún Hernández and Daniel Márquez; is an unequivocal indication of how the operators of justice are now probably under the influence of the Facussé Perez clan.
It is unheard of that while the top of the executive branch and members of the legislature, in addition to suggested forces are pointed out by the U.S. justice system to be linked to drug trafficking, while defenders of water in Honduras are persecuted by the justice system and murdered.
The judiciary in Honduras has the authority to criminalize the defenders of Guapinol, while state officials are pursued by the Southern District Court of New York for having used the structure of the state to commit crimes.
September 4, 2019