The Final Declaration of Copán Galel of the Self-Organized Constituent Assembly of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran women denounced the “violence, repression and domination of women operating through capitalism, patriarchy and racism,” said Berta Caceres, coordinator the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), in an interview with Escribana.
“We don’t aspire to win the election because the left in Guatemala has been hit hard. This is about taking one step forward in articulating resistance to the new alliance between the old paramilitary/oligarchy alliances and the more recent economy based on criminal activity,” explains Mario Godínez, university professor and member of the MNR (New Republic Movement).
“The historical, political and cultural significance of the Constitutional Assembly of Indigenous and Afro Honduran women recently held in Copan Ruinas includes its critical role in confronting the roots of the crisis that has besieged the country since the military coup in June, 2009,” said Miriam Miranda, a Garifuna leader and coordinator of the Fraternal Organization of Black Hondurans (OFRANEH).
While the capability of Central American institutions to safeguard human rights is open to interpretation, activists in the region have raised serious concerns about the governments’ interest and will in doing so. They fear the hundreds of millions of dollars ear-marked for law enforcement and security will be used by the deeply corrupt–at times violent–governments of the Northern Triangle to support ongoing human rights abuses.
Guatemalans from all sectors of society expressed their outrage over the murder of Argentinean protest singer Facundo Cabral. Mr. Cabral was gunned down in Guatemala City on Saturday, July 9th, after performing two concerts in the country.
Proposals to radically re-formulate the constitution of Honduras need to incorporate the experiences and perspectives of indigenous and Afro-Honduran women, declared Berta Cáceres, a longtime feminist indigenous activist and an organizer of the Constitutional Assembly Self-Organized by Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Women.
The body of murdered fourth-year university student and active member of the environmental movement in the area of Ilobasco, Cabanas, Juan Francisco Duran Ayala, has finally been returned to his family in San Salvador. Juan is the fourth person active in the anti-mining movement in the department of Cabanas to be murdered in the past two years.
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Impunity reigns in post-Cartagena Honduras. “We are living in a state,” Bertha Oliva of COFADEH reminded us, “in which the security forces can torture, and nothing will happen, where they can detain people without cause, and nothing will happen…they can persecute and assassinate their political opponents and nothing will happen. They can drive into political exile whatever quantity of people they desire, and nothing will happen.”
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