Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

We wrote to officials in Honduras about the popular opposition to contaminating megaprojects among residents of Tocoa, Colón Department, in the Aguán Valley. Residents flatly rejected projects that are threatening the envirnonment, particularly their drinking water, by the companies Emco Holdings, Inversiones Los Pinares, and Ecotek (all three have interlocking ownership).

We urge that the government of Honduras respect and implement the demands of the popular assembly of more than 2,000 people held on December 9, 2023:

-cancel all permits and concessions to Emco Holdings (petroleum coke thermoelectric plant), Inversiones Los Pinares (iron oxide mining), and Ecotek (pelletizing iron oxide)

-offer protection measures to members of the CMDBCPT (Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa)

-sanction those responsible for the illegalities related to the mining project and the threats and stigmatization campaigns against the CMDBCPT

-independently investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for the 2023 murders of CMDBCPT members Jairo Bonilla, Aly Domínguez and Oqueli Domínguez

-pay for reparation of damages to the core zone of the Carlos Escaleras National Park

The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó is made up of people living in a number of hamlets in the municipality of Apartadó. They maintain their right to not be drawn into Colombia's armed conflict and refuse to take sides with any of the parties to the conflict. They refuse to bear arms or provide information or logistical support to any armed party. In return, the members of the Peace Community demand that the parties to the armed conflict stay out of their communities and respect their decision not to participate in or to collaborate with the warring parties.

Since 2002, IRTF’s RRN has written more than thirty letters to Colombian officials about the human rights violations of the people of the San José Peace Community. Since the Peace Community was established in 1997, more than 200 of its members have been killed or subjected to enforced disappearance, while others have been threatened or sexually assaulted. The continued presence and threats from paramilitaries places members of the Community and other local inhabitants at increasing risk. Some of the threatening actions of the paramilitaries are taking place in areas with a military presence, confirming for residents a routine practice of camouflaging relations between the military and paramilitaries.

Journalists in Honduras carry out their work amid fear and self-censorship, and in a context of high risk and lack of protection by the authorities. While on his way home in Danlí, El Paraíso Department, on the night of December 21, 2023, journalist Francisco Javier Ramírez Amador, age 39, was attacked by armed individuals who also shot a police officer, an armed escort, who was with him. Francisco was killed; the pólice officer suffered two gunshots and was treated at a hospital.

We are urging that authorities in Honduras (1) publish the results of the investigation into the assassination of Francisco Javier Ramírez Amador and bring those responsible to justice, (2) strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists of Honduras by providing more technical support, administrative assistance, funding, and improved processes for risk analysis and evaluation, and (3) ensure that all entities responsible for the implementation of prevention and protection measures work in a coordinated and articulated manner.

Tens of thousands of Salvadorans have been jailed since President Nayib Bukele declared a State of Exception in March 2022, suspending several constitutional rights in the name of getting tough on violent crime. We wrote to the attorney general of El Salvador about the arbitrary detentions of innocent people, representing serious violations of due process. We have read reports of people captured without any proof of their ties to criminal gangs and who in some cases have been recaptured.  Criminal law specialists in El Salvador have criticized these irregularities. They affirm that if a person has been released because it is determined that he or she does not incur criminal responsibility, and is captured on a second occasion for the same crime, that is an illegal detention. 

We are urging that officials in El Salvador work to end the arbitrariness of the system, exhibited by the recapture of Salvadorans who were already released due to lack of evidence connecting them to criminal activity.  Without guarantees of due process, all Salvadorans lose.

We have been following the developments regarding the El Fénix nickel mine in El Estor, Izabal Department, and the resistance to the nickel mine since 2009. The mining operations are damaging the environment in El Estor by contaminating Lake Izabal and other local water sources, threatening fishers’ source of income. Local communities (more than 90% of El Estor’s 82,500 inhabitants are indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’) have become victims of land grabbing, arson, and repression.

We are glad to learn that on December 15, 2023, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the government of Guatemala is responsible for human rights violations against the Indigenous Maya community that opposes the mine. The court found that various acts of aggression and violence have included attacks on life and harassment and threats to members of the community. We wrote to the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Guatemala and requested a statement from the government about their plans to adopt various reparation measures as ordered by the court.

Because of confrontations between armed groups in their territory, the Awá Indigenous community of Telembí in Nariño Department has been victim of confinement over recent months. Armed actors restrict their movement. There is a high risk to residents trying to leave their reservations to seek safety. Anti-personnel mines have been placed on ancestral roads. Authorities are prevented from attending meetings, even those called by state institutions. There is tension, worry, and a sense of danger.

On December 7, 2023, a pamphlet was left at the home of the Awá Indigenous Governor of Telembí, Alberto Nastacuas. The threat declared him a military objective and ordered him to leave the territory.