IRTF News

A Colombian conservationist who saved a rare species of parrot from extinction, a young feminist activist in Afghanistan, and two poets in Myanmar who used words to protest against the military coup were among 358 human rights defenders murdered in 35 countries last year. As in previous years, most killings took place in the Americas and in the Asia-Pacific region. Colombia, where activists are routinely targeted by armed groups despite the 2016 peace accord, remained the most dangerous country to be a human rights defender, with 138 deaths recorded. The majority of those killed, 59%, worked on land, environmental and indigenous rights, where their activities disrupted the economic interests of corporations and individuals in mining, logging and other extractive industries.

The former President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, or JOH, was arrested last week and will likely soon face charges by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly trafficking roughly 500,000 kilos of cocaine. An Associated Press headline dubbed it a “stunning fall,” but the U.S. government provided him with significant support despite extensive evidence linking him to drug smuggling. Aside from his ties to narcotics, Hernandez was involved in several scandals, including embezzling funds from Honduras’ social security system, stealing from World Bank development programs, credible fraud allegations in his 2017 re-election, and pervasive human rights violations by the police and military. In private conversations, Hernandez bragged about siphoning U.S. aid via phony NGOs. American diplomats looked the other way as Honduras developed into a narco-state. Adding to this hypocrisy, the U.S. provided millions of dollars of aid for counternarcotics that trained/equipped a police and military bureaucracy riddled with corruption. In turn, Honduran security forces have acted viciously against peaceful protest. The reluctance to prosecute JOH had to do with international politics, not legal formalities.

The government, which was sworn in last month, also said that it would cancel environmental permits for mining operations across the country. For decades, indigenous groups have complained of legal and illegal mining in their ancestral lands. Honduras mines gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc but on Monday the Ministry of Mining described "extractive exploitation" as "harmful to the state of Honduras". It argued that mining threatened natural resources and public health as well as limiting access to water.

Please see a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries.  We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, (3) bring human rights criminals to justice. IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.

In a brief and somewhat surprising press release issued by the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines (MiAmbiente), it was declared "the entire Honduran territory free of open-pit mining." It was a promise made by President Xiomara Castro, who during her inaugural speech promised: "No more permits for open mines or exploitation of our minerals, no more concessions in the exploitation of our rivers, hydrographic basins, our national parks and cloud forests." The brief document stated that the approval of extractivist exploitation permits is canceled because they are harmful to the State of Honduras, that they threaten natural resources, public health and that limit access to water as a human right.

The criminalization of human rights defenders, the destruction of water sources, contamination of their environment and the destruction of the community cemetery, is the terrible scenario experienced by the Maya-Chortí community of Azacualpa, La Unión, Copán and that was verified by the Minister of Human Rights, Natalie Roque Sandoval, after making an On-Site visit in the sector where the inhabitants live the constant violations of their fundamental freedoms by the mining company Aura Minerals-MINOSA.

Prosecutors in El Salvador have charged the former president Alfredo Cristiani over the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests that sparked international outrage. Prosecutors also announced charges against a dozen other people, including former military officers, over the massacre. The list of charges will apparently include murder, terrorism and conspiracy. The attorney general, Rodolfo Delgado, wrote on his Twitter account that his office “is determined to go after those accused of ordering this regrettable and tragic event”.

A bombardment carried out by Colombia's armed forces killed 23 FARC dissidents on Thursday as part of a military offensive to seize control of an area in the northeast of the country which sits on the border with Venezuela, the government said. Dissident members of the demobilised Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reject a 2016 peace deal with the government. The dissidents have become a security threat, according to the government, which accuses them of murdering community leaders and civilians.

Honduras has seen the increased presence of U.S. military assets over the decades following the Cold War, and it currently hosts the U.S. military due to the country’s geo-strategic position. The illicit actions of U.S. allies is not something that is unknown within intelligence circles. One problem that contributes to these issues being lost is that there is a breakdown between analysts and the leadership. U.S. support for these administrations and the militarization of the region corrupts the United States’ promotion of democracy in the region, as it justifies the human rights violations in the region while criticizing U.S. rivals for similar actions. The result of this failure is that millions face deteriorating situations due to the rise in influence of drug traffickers and gangs in the governments at every level.