The murder of the teacher Garífuna Digna Montero, which took place in the afternoon of October 12 in the community of Cusuna, is related to the defense of the ancestral territory of our people.
The assassins, apparently mestizos from the community of Río Miel, escaped from the scene, driving motorcycles, leaving no time for the community to react to the murder of Digna, which took place in her own house.
The Garífuna communities of Iriona have been subjected to territorial pressure since 1992, when General Castro Kabus armed and financed a group of supposed peasants to seize the lands of the Miel River, which historically have been part of the community of Punta Piedra, which is next to Cusuna.
The expansion of the agrofuel frontier that has been taking place in Honduras since the 1970s was used by a group of soldiers and businessmen, who chose to appropriate the territory between Limón and Punta Piedra, in an episode they called the “seven colonels”.
With the agrarian counter-reform from the “nationalist” government of Leonardo Callejas, at the beginning of the 90’s, peasant groups were displaced towards the Sico River, opening a colonization front, which included the Garífuna territory from Santa Rosa de Aguan to Plaplaya.
The resistance demonstrated by the community of Punta Piedra stopped the expulsion that was forged at that time, which was then restarted by the administration of Pepe Lobo. Since the coup d’état of 2009, when the state offensive against the Garífuna territory intensified, the territory had been the object of a neoliberal titling aimed at excluding the communities’ functional habitat, in addition to recognizing the properties of third parties within the community titles.
In 2003, the community of Punta Piedra, accompanied by OFRANEH, filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the dispossession of the territory of the Miel River. It is by 2015 that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights finally issues a sentence, which to date the state of Honduras has not complied with.
The frictions in relation to the use of the territory between Garífunas and mestizo invaders remain hot, despite the peaceful condition of our people and the usual aggressiveness of the mestizos, most of whom are no longer the invaders of the 1990s.
The aggravating factor of the explosive situation is the drug trafficking that has been “normalized” in the area, especially with the last two governmental administrations, which are currently indicated by the Court of the Southern District of New York as being involved in the transfer of narcotics.
The IACHR communiqué on the reparations pending in compliance with the sentence states that “(1) To guarantee the use and enjoyment, through reparation, of the traditional lands that were titled by the State in favour of the Garifuna Community of Punta Piedra, carrying out said obligation ex officio and with extreme diligence, in the terms and deadlines established in paragraphs 322 to 326 of this judgment”.
To date, the State has demonstrated more than inertia and there is an absence of political will to adhere to the sentence, which also includes “To continue and conclude, within a reasonable period of time, the investigation into the death of Felix Ordóñez Suazo and other complaints filed in the domestic jurisdiction, and if necessary, to punish those responsible, in the terms established in paragraph 353 of the present sentence.
The State of Honduras refused to comply with the sentences issued by the Inter-American Court in favour of the communities of Punta Piedra and Triunfo de la Cruz, resulting in violence in the area, while the murder of the teacher Digna Montero was added to the list of homicides committed against defenders of the Garífuna territory.
La Ceiba,
October 15, 2019