IRTF News

On January 31, 2022 family and friends of detained migrant Jauna Alonzo Santizo traveled from San Mateo Ixitán to Guatemala City to present a petition letter to the Mexican Consulate. This letter–signed by 5,135 individuals and 43 organizations–demands the immediate release of Santizo, who has been detained in Tamaulipas, Mexico for seven years for a crime she and her family maintain that she did not commit. In an attempt to migrate to the United States in search of better economic opportunities in 2014, Santizo was kidnapped in Mexico and forced to work for her captors. When police arrived on the scene, they accused Santizo of being a trafficker, but because Santizo–a Maya Chuj woman–did not speak Spanish at the time, she was unable to defend herself. Without legal counsel, consulate support, or even an interpreter, Santizo was forced at gunpoint to sign a document incriminating herself. US Border Patrol and Customs has reported an increased need for interpreters that speak languages like Chuj; the number of migrants that speak only Mayan Indigenous languages apprehended at the US Southern Border doubled from 2020 to 2021.

During the last year, protests were held every 20 hours in Honduras, according to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre). The main reasons for the social uprisings were the Special Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDES), salary payments, fuel cuts and street repairs. Since the military-backed coup d'etat 2009, Honduras has undergone a change in its social, political and economic life, which has made the welfare of the people more precarious, leading to multiple human rights violations, which left Honduras in an atmosphere of violence.

Read the description of James Phillips' new book, called "Extracting Honduras", on the "colonial extractive relationship of Honduras to the United States", and the link to order it. The author provides a detailed account of how the frenzied extraction of natural resources at the core of both the Honduran political economy and its colonial relationship to the United States created massive community displacement, dependency, poverty and vulnerability, and encouraged, over time, growing official corruption and violence, gang recruitment, drug trafficking, militarization of Honduran society, and the systematic repression of all popular protest and resistance.  These were the proximate conditions that now encourage people to flee the country, a decision that is often a matter of survival for the human spirit as well as the body

As the left resumes power with President Xiomara Castro’s inauguration, the official seeks shelter in the United States. Honduran defense minister, Gen. Fredy Díaz, said that he fears being charged with corruption by the newly elected democratic socialist President Xiomara Castro, especially considering the role the Honduran military played in the coup that ousted her husband, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Now the Biden administration is faced with the decision of whether to grant Díaz asylum before possible corruption charges, given that in his role as defense minister, he was at the helm of the Honduran military. The question will serve as a test of how serious the current U.S. government is about respecting the autonomy of governments in the region.

U.S. military training bestows prestige and power on its recipients when they return to their home militaries. After graduating from West Point Military Academy, Roberto David Castillo became an officer in the Honduran military and used his military and government positions to directly benefit his corporate pursuits. When Castillo and the criminal structure he was a part of could not silence environmental activist Berta Cáceres through intimidation, criminal charges, or bribery, he used his military skills to coordinate her murder. The issue is not only what is being taught to the graduates of West Point, but the fact that a prestigious U.S. military education bestows significant power and prestige on elites from Central America and other countries, without any accountability for what they use that power and prestige to do.

The historic election of President Castro, which saw the highest voter turnout in the country’s history, is testament to the steadfast organizing of grassroots social movements who came together in resistance to the 2009 U.S.-backed military coup. President Castro’s LIBRE party was born out of the National Front of Popular Resistance, which brought together a diverse array of Hondurans to strategize and mobilize their resistance efforts. We honor this victory for the social movements of Honduras and recognize that President Castro faces many challenges in her pursuit to transform a system of governance that has long been devastated by the stronghold of the economic elite, stubborn political corruption, and intervening U.S. interests. As Xiomara Castro assumes power, we call on the U.S. to finally respect the autonomy of the Honduran people and their elected officials.

More than a month after being forcibly and unlawfully evicted, campesino landowners in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras regained possession of their lands. This is only the latest in repeated attacks on rightfully held land at the hands of corrupt judicial authorities working in the interests of large agribusiness and mining companies. That the campesino landowners will now be able to return home, is a huge victory. The recent election of Xiomara Castro has given many of our partners and Honduran society reason for hope as a step towards accountability and real democratic change for the first time in the years since the 2009 coup. However, President Castro is already facing significant challenges and political conflict within her own party.

In her inauguration speech as the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Honduras, Xiomara Castro said that among her priorities is an amnesty law for political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and the return of exiles who had to leave Honduras. Among other immediate actions, Castro stated that she will be working towards the dismantling of the controversial Special Economic Development Zones (ZEDEs), the condemnation of the 2009 coup d'état, and the fight against impunity and corruption. She also stressed the urgency for the Guapinol water defenders--who have been held in pretrial detention for more than two years--to be released and for there to be justice for Berta Cáceres, the world-renowned Indigenous environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016. Read her full inauguration speech from January 27, 2022 in this article.

Xiomara Castro has been sworn in as the first female president of Honduras on Thursday, marking the culmination of a remarkable rise to power that began just over 12 years ago when she led a massive protest movement in response to the ousting of her husband, former president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, in a military-backed coup. Activists are optimistic that Castro, of the center-left Libre party, will not only take actions that help improve conditions for women in the immediate, but also accelerate broader changes in the country’s culture. Castro’s inauguration will cap a remarkable rise but she faces daunting challenges around femicide and abortion.