Guatemala: Military men trained by the U.S. go to prison as a result of abducting a minor and raping his sister during the Civil War

Por

6 June, 2018

Translated by Carlos Magin and Alessandro Morosin

After a lengthy process of more than 13 hours that began on Tuesday, May 22 and ended early morning on the following day, the Mayor Riesgo C. court, directed by Guatemalan Judge Pablo Xitumul, convicted 86-year-old retired general Benedicto Lucas Garcia to 35-58 years in prison, as well as four other Guatemalan senior military commanders who participated in counterinsurgency during the civil war of the 1980s until 1996. This war left 200,000 casualties and 50,000 disappeared, out of which 5,000 were minors.

The court’s ruling, presented at 4:30 AM on Wednesday, May 23 (8:30 GMT local time) read as follows: “The military men directly participated in designing the counterinsurgency plan, and ordered the men executing the plan to capture and torture Emma Molina Theissen, who was beaten and raped by soldiers in a torture-like manner for nine days. After she escaped, they illegally preceded to capture and disappear her brother, Marco Antonio”.

Enma Theissen waited 37 years for justice to be served after the disappearance of her 14 year-old-son in 1981, Marco Antonio Molina Theissen, and for the kidnap, torture, and rape of his sister, Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen.

According to the records, it was September 27, 1981, when Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen was detained in a checkpoint conducted by the Army on the road toward the Guatemalan highland. Within her belongings, the military men found propaganda from the Patriotic Labor Youth (Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo) movement, a Marxist-inspired group. For Enma, what happened next was completely different. The military men, dressed as civilians, interrupted the residence located in the Florida colony, zone 19, where her family lived. “Inside our home they pushed the 14-year-old minor and they arrested him. They did not do anything to anybody else in the house. Only him. They took me room by room, they were trying to find weapons, or who knows what they were searching for. When I was able go out to the streets, they were taking him,” said Enma.

That was the last time she saw Marco Antonio. Exactly one day after one of her three daughters, Emma Guadalupe, escaped after being kidnapped for nine days, in which she was tortured and raped repeatedly by several Guatemalan military members.

Counterinsurgency & the United States

Benedicto Lucas Garcia, former Chief of Staff of the Guatemalan Army and brother of former Guatemalan president Romero Lucas Garcia, best known as the “criminal of war” by human rights organizations, was trained by the United States in the torture school known as the School of the Americas (SOA).

The United States’ School of the Americas is a military institution created in Panama during mid-1949. At its inception, the school was named the United States’ Latin American Training Center. In 1997, the CIA’s instruction manuals, used in this school, were declassified. One was titled “Murder Studies”. This manual detailed how to assassinate someone through distinct effective and sharp elements: a fall to a flat surface from a height of 75 feet, weapons, explosives, planned car accidents, among others. In addition, there was another manual titled “KUBARCK, counterintelligence interrogation”, which used methods like torture, beatings and murder.

Lucas Garcia not only received training from this American institution, he also received training in the French Military Academy of Saint Cyr, in Brazil and Chile. Garcia utilized the doctrine of “scorched earth” (tierra arrazada) to defeat the Guatemalan guerrillas, and especially the Guerilla Army of the Poor.

In 2012, forensic anthropologists’ exhumations led to the discovery of at least 550 disappeared victims between 1981 and 1988. This case, and the case of the Theissen family, resulted in the arrest of eighteen former military officials on January 6, 2016 accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. Twelve of these individuals were trained at the School of the Americas.

The Accused

After the Theissen family’s 37-year effort to seek justice, the court sentenced Benedicto Lucas Garcia, Division General Manuel Antonio Callejas and Chief of Staff of the Guatemalan Army Hugo Ramiro Zaldaña, for crimes against duties to humanity (25 years), forced disappearance (25 years), and aggravated rape (8 years). In addition, the court sentenced General Manuel Lizandro Barillas, military zone commander, to 33 years of deprivation of liberty. Francisco Gordillo Martinez was also sentenced to 33 years of deprivation of liberty for crimes against duties to humanity and rape with aggravation of sentence, while Edilberto Letona Linares, the Army’s second in command, was acquitted of all charges based on the court’s conclusion that he had no responsibility in the crimes.

All of them were in prison since January 6, 2016, after they were detained as petitioned by the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office, who requested 112 years in prison for three members of the military.

Mexico: An indigenous language and territory at risk of disappearing

Por

Santiago Navarro F

23 April, 2018

Photo: Santiago Navarro F

Translation: Laura Krasovitzky

In San Lorenzo Azqueltán, a municipality in Villa Guerrero to the north of the state of Jalisco, the indigenous peoples of the Wixarika-Tepehuana autonomous community are engaged in a struggle to reclaim 38 thousand hectares of land from the 94 thousand registered in the 1777 viceregal title, which recognizes them as the legal owners of their territory. These lands have been usurped by narco-ranchers and the region’s political class. On Thursday April 19, around 1 pm, unidentified and armed individuals kidnapped Catarino Aguilar Márquez, one of the community’s agrarian representatives, and Noé Aguilar Rojas, both members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) who have been involved in a continuous struggle for the defense and recognition of their territory.

The indigenous community of Azqueltán is made up of two peoples, the Wixarika and the Tepehuano, who share the same communal territory. "Recently, they have set up roadblocks at the entrance of the village as a response to safety concerns and death threats, which are directly attributed to the municipal government of Villa Guerrero Jalisco and to small landowners, of course, who have usurped indigenous lands", Cristian Chávez, member of the Coordination Commission of the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) and accompanier of the indigenous community of Tepehuana, told Avispa Midia.

On April 23, 1777, the community of San Lorenzo Azqueltán received its Viceregal Title from the Spanish Crown and on December 15, 1954, the Agricultural Department of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform verified the title’s authenticity. Nonetheless, the government never concluded the Confirmation and Titling of Communal Lands so the procedure is currently held up in the Unitary Agrarian Tribunal of the 16th District in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Chávez states that Catarino Aguilar served as the community’s legal representative before the Agrarian Tribunal of the 16th District, which links his kidnapping to municipal authorities. "Catarino had already reported receiving direct threats from municipal authorities. A video even shows Ignacio Reyes Márquez, city councilman, admitting having hired paramilitary groups to attack the community", said the accompanier of the indigenous community of Tepehuana.

Community members of Azqueltán have spent months publicly denouncing the intensifying dynamics they are experiencing regarding their lands due to initiatives implemented by state and federal programs and municipal authorities, who have strengthened and supported settlers on indigenous territory by offering livestock assistance. "This has resulted in a range of attacks, including shootings against fellow community members", Chávez adds.

Enforced Disappearance

Municipal, state and federal authorities hold firsthand information on the current situation in the indigenous community of Azqueltán. "We have experienced complete neglect. Enforced disappearances are what is taking place because when the armed group took our comrades, information quickly appeared about 10 minutes later in social media networks, reporting that the group was heading towards San Martín de Bolaños. Despite the extent of military presence in the region, Jalisco’s special police unit Fuerza Única and municipal police forces, no one stopped the car. There is only one road with no detours so a disappearance like this one cannot be carried out without the complicity of the Mexican State. This is why we are saying it is an enforced disappearance", says Chávez.

María de Jesús Patricio (Marichuy,), spokeswoman for the CIG, reported at an event convened by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) called Conversatorio Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?, that the two indigenous men were taken by unidentified and armed individuals that were traveling in a double cabin gray Toyota Hilux. "Apparently, they were headed towards San Martín de Bolaños, Jalisco", the spokeswoman stated. Minutes later, social media networks flooded with demands for the return of both indigenous men alive.

"We demand the immediate return of our comrades with their lives intact and we hold the municipal government of Villa Guerrero and the Jalisco state government responsible for any attacks against them",
MARICHUY SHARED IN A STATEMENT READ ON BEHALF OF THE CNI.

A language that can disappear

Tepehuán is the name given to two indigenous languages in Mexico: northern Tepehuán and southern Tepehuán. It is a region known as the Great Nayar, which stretches across the southern part of the Sierra Madre Occidental in areas belonging to the states of Durango, Nayarit, Zacatecas and Jalisco.

The southern Tepehuán language has two dialectal variations: the o'dam or southeastern tepehuán and the audam or southwestern tepehuán. The southern tepehuana language is closely related to the language spoken by the tepehuanes up north (ódami) in southern Chihuahua, the Pimas of Sonora (oob no 'ok), the Pápagos (tohono o’odham) of Sonora and Arizona, as well as the Pimas (akimel o'odham) in Arizona, United States. These languages make up a linguistic subfamily called Tepimana and are part of the greater yuto-nahuas language family. Tepehuán means mountain people.

Return of the disappeared

Following an intense wave of pressure through media, social media networks and reports, Catarino Aguilar Márquez and Noé Aguilar Rojas, kidnapped and disappeared on April 19, were able to call from an unknown location on a public street where their abductors had left them beaten up.

"At 14:20 hours today (20), community authorities received a call from Catarino Aguilar, agrarian representative of San Lorenzo Azqueltán and member of the Indigenous Governing Council, reporting that they were well and in a un familiar place. There was no further communication until 15:50 hours when community commissions embarked on search missions, finding their comrades at 16:25 hours at a place known as the crossroads of Patahua in the municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco", the CNI reported in a statement.

"The kidnapping-enforced disappearance of our comrades is a crime that has been widely reported. We hold our governments responsible for being negligent to the desperate calls of our people, who ask: Immediately end the displacement of communal lands that ancestrally belong to our people according to the viceregal title of 1733; Stop the series of harassments, threats and attacks against our authorities who speak on behalf of all our people through assembly gatherings and not just one person; Investigate and condemn all direct threats and those carried out through social media networks that have targeted our authorities,"
READS THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE CNI INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES.

Emma Goldman: Intersectional Before The Word Existed

Por

Avispa

18 April, 2018

By Matthew Gindin

The higher the mental development of a woman, the less possible it is for her to meet a congenial male who will see in her, not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her character.

A party in New York, just before the turn of the century. A young Jewish woman from Russian Lithuania is there, a remarkable person who ran away from home at the age of 16 to escape a forced marriage and made her way to the US. There are many other young radicals and intellectuals present, including others who are, like her, anarchists. She is bespectacled and bohemian looking, with a strong, yet somewhat pixie-ish face and long curly hair held up in a bun. One might say she looked somewhat like a pirate. As the band kicks up a joyous dance number, she joins with abandon. Her happy dancing attracts the attention of a taciturn radical who tells her with a frown “that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway”.

Goldman responded furiously: “If I can’t dance, then I don’t want to be part of your revolution”.

Well, or at least she said something like that. Later, in her 1931 autobiography, Living My Life, she said, “I told him to mind his own business, I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown in my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to behave as a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things”. This telling of the episode was later paraphrased by others in the pithy quote above.

Emma Goldman was born in 1869,in Kovno, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. By that time radical political movements were well underway in Europe, which would soon go to war against the status quo throughout the West and then the East. The intellectuals of the day fiercely debated solutions to the brutal systemic injustices which plague the world, taking sides in a plethora of different ideologies of thought and action. The Jewish youth were impassioned by these ideas; Jewish participation in socialism and communism were so widespread that Jews and communism came to be united in the popular imagination for decades to come.

Goldman, born into a religious family, ran away when her father tried to force her into a marriage she didn’t want. She would literally never stop running from the chains people wanted to catch her in, though along the way she would dedicate her life principally, not to her own freedom, but the freedom of others. By the age of 21, she was a dedicated anarchist and a fiery speaker on a lecture tour, using powers of rhetoric which are still admired a century later.

The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.

In the US, Goldman fell in love with the Anarchist activist Alexander Berkman, who would soon be convicted of the attempted assassination of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, in retaliation for the killing of nine striking steelworkers by Pinkerton detectives (a private security force allied to political and business powers). Goldman was never charged, but for the rest of her life she was harassed by police. Jailed many times, in 1893 she served a year for incitement to riot; she was jailed again in the aftermath of President McKinley’s assassination by an anarchist, imprisoned again for disseminating “obscene” birth control literature in 1916, then again in 1917 for organizing against forced military conscription.

Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations.

For Goldman, anarchism was a protest against unjust hierarchy, oppression, state violence, prejudice, and irrational convention. Her commitment to a human dignity that pre-existed any state or any state-given rights could sometimes lead her into controversial statements, as in her famous quip, “Ask for work. If they don’t give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread”.

In 1919, Goldman was deported back to Russia, where she quickly spotted the totalitarian tendencies of the Bolsheviks and became an early critic. Her experiences in Russia led her to change her belief that the means might sometimes be justified by the ends, one of several changes in her always evolving thought. In the afterword to My Disillusionment in Russia, she wrote: “There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another….” Goldman came to be wary of the use of political violence, although she continued to sympathize with the use of it by those oppressed by dominator hierarchies.

Goldman was an early, and fierce, feminist. In 1897, she wrote:

“I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love and freedom in motherhood”.

Goldman was also an outspoken critic of discrimination and hatred against homosexuals. Her belief that social and legal liberation should include gay men and lesbians was virtually unheard of at the time, even among anarchists. As German-Jewish sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who is often viewed as the father of LGBTQ rights, wrote, “she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public”.

In numerous speeches and letters, she defended the rights of gay men and lesbians. “It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life”, she wrote.

Goldman’s defense of the rights of women, workers, LGBTQ people, and the poor; her defense of free speech and free thought, and her opposition to capitalism, human rights abuses, and warfare make her a great prototype of the intersectional activist. Her life is also, however, a lesson about what are most likely inescapable limits to intersectionality; although Goldman spoke out against racism, she did not give it nearly as much attention as other issues, whether that reflects a feeling on her part that her opposition to racial hierarchies was implicit in everything she said (which I suspect) or arose from a lack of an acute personal attunement to the issue (which may also have been a factor). Although an intersectionality reflected in an equal commitment to all issues of justice remains a worthy ideal, it is unlikely one human being can perfectly attain it.

In her independence of thought, uncompromising honesty and bold, self-endangering action, Goldman has few peers in history. In 1936, after living in Germany, England, France and Canada Goldman went to Spain to enlist with the Loyalists against the Fascists. When Franco’s Fascists won, Goldman returned to Canada, from where she raised money for the victims of the war. She died in Toronto, Canada, on May 14, 1940.

I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck

By Matthew Gindin, in thewisdomdaily

Mexico Rises to 2nd Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists

Por

Sare Frabes

14 April, 2018

Translated by Carlos Magin and Alessandro Morosi

Mexico continues being the most dangerous country in Latin America for journalists, and its levels of violence against journalists are only surpassed by those countries in declared warfare status. The news comes from Organización Artículo 19 de México (Mexico’s Article 19 Organization), presented in their 2017 annual report Democracia Simulada, Nada Que Aplaudir (Simulated Democracy, Nothing to be Proud Of). In 2017, 507 aggressions and 12 assassinations against journalists were reported. Throughout Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidential term, there have been 1,986 documented attacks on journalists. “His six-year presidential term (2012-2018) has been the most violent for Mexico in the 21^st century thus far. His media policies had a clear intention of censorship”, the document argues.

Mexico is the country with the highest number of journalists killed, only after Syria. “We are almost at par with that country at war, meanwhile Mexico presents itself as a republic with institutions and a state of rights, wonderful on paper, but nothing which may coincide with reality”, says Article 19.

The most violent regions for the Mexican press are Mexico City, with 383 registered aggressions, and states like Veracruz with 255, and Oaxaca with 177. States like Guerrero with 163, and Puebla with 111, are also notable when it comes to aggressions against journalists. This makes the central region of the country the most violent for the Mexican press during Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year presidential term.

The report highlights a change in the characteristics of violence towards journalists in Peña Nieto’s presidential period. The violence in Mexico went from being concentrated in some states—mainly those states which had a strong presence of organized crime—to being generalized across the country. Today, there is no oasis left for the Mexican press, the report informs.

“The danger zones for journalists have increased in Mexico because criminal groups, sometimes linked with security forces and other allies within the government, have taken advantage of this impunity to expand their networks. The journalist could be in danger in any part of the country, especially when the topics they cover are broad. This applies not only to those who cover the ‘nota roja’ (“red note” or “red news”) like it has been traditionally thought of. Given the circumstances, many journalists, mainly local media, do not have protection from their companies, and this adds to the unstable situation”, explains Lizbeth Díaz, a Reuters correspondent who left Tijuana in 2011 due to threats. Although the government has officially blamed organized crime again and again for violence against the press, based on Article 19 figures, of the 1,986 attacks that took place in the last five years, 8% have presumably been committed by members of organized crime and 48% by public functionaries.

Number of aggressions against press by six-year presidential term. Vicente Fox Quesada (2000-2006) data unavailable. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012) 1,092 aggressions. Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-Feb. 5, 2018) 1,986 press aggressions.

Zones of Silence

“Zones of Silence” is the name given to regions where there is no longer any sort of publication, by any media, about information of public interest. The news and local newspapers treat themes in a biased, distorted, superficial manner, and in some instances, they do not say anything at all. Initially, it was money which silenced the press, later it was violence and fear, Article 19 declares.

According to the report, newsrooms of main newspapers were infiltrated in the 1940s by government spies. During the Cold War, information was vital for the powerful and local governments. “The big change occurred when the spies put themselves at the service of the organized crime, due to corruption or fear; in some instances for both reasons. Currently, there are newsrooms that receive governor calls, calls from member so-and-so, and calls from the Secretary of State, to halt articles or journalistic investigations, such is the case of Laura Castellanos, who discovered that on January 6, 2015 the federal police committed a massacre in Apatzingán, Michoacán. Newspaper El Universal (The Universal) retained the text for a long time, until Castellanos published it simultaneously in the news magazine Proceso and in Aristegui Noticias”.

The rapid expansion of the zones of silence is due to self-censorship due to fear of local authorities but, above all, fear of organized crime. “The worst scenario is when the authorities are at the service of the organized crime. In the past, there was an equal partner deal between politicians and delinquents, now, in many regions authorities are subordinated to the mafia”, the report says.

In their report Zonas sSilenciadas: rRegiones de Alta Peligrosidad Para Ejercer la Libertad de Expresión (Silenced Zones: Highly Dangerous Regions to Exercise Freedom of Expression), The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, affirms that the Zones of Silence in Mexico, in order of severity, are Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chihuahua.

Multiple Forms of Censorship

According to the report, there are many forms of censoring the press and controlling information. “Some of those mechanisms are structural, like the official publication, concentrating media in few hands, and the ‘Global Gag Rule’; extreme violence is a new ingredient. The question ‘how will we keep journalists quiet?’ depends on the region, how famous he or she is, how vulnerable his or her economic status or his or her political contacts are. The retaliation goes from a lawsuit citing moral damage, to the assassination and dismemberment of the corpse of the individual who delivered the information with the ultimate goal of paralyzing his or her colleagues through fear. Self-censorship based on fear is cheap and effective”.

Independent Journalists: The Least Protected

The most unprotected journalists are the so-called free-lance, independent journalists who have no contract or media credential to whom they offer their reports or images, says the report. “They do not have any benefits (medical insurance, vacations, seniority, retirement pension, etcetera), and they are absolutely helpless. If anybody threatens them or legally sues them because of their job, or they have an accident, the company with which they collaborate generally does not respond for them. The independent journalist is left alone to his fate. Who can demand accountability from the owners of the companies? Who wants to demand accountability from the company owners? There is a need for more co-responsibility”.

Spying on Journalists as if They Were Terrorists

Pegasus is a malware for military use to infiltrate criminal and terrorist communications. It was developed in NSO Group, an Israeli company. According to an investigation conducted by Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity), after operating through a Mexican intermediary, the shell company Balam (which has engaged in corrupt peddling of influence), through its subsidiary Tech-Bull, sold Pegasus to the Mexican security forces, according to Article 19:

“The software costs 148 million dollars and was resold to the Mexican government for 432 million dollars. Tech Bull’s leadership is a small hut in a canyon. The real owner is Rodrigo Ruiz de Teresa (nephew of Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, who is coordinator of the Ports and Navy of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, famous for his participation in Pemex-Gate in the year 2000”.

Pegasus reached institutions which should be responsible for ensuring national security: the Attorney General of Mexico and the Secretariat of National Defense. The software attacked the smartphones of journalists and human right defenders.

Pegasus presents itself as an attachment or a “personalized” message to the victim and the moment one clicks, the malware takes over all files and contacts that are in the device: phone numbers, electronic emails, images, audios, messages, WhatsApp’s content, etcetera. This malware also activates the microphone and camera without the owner’s knowledge.

“Journalists and defenders of human rights in Mexico are viewed as enemies, and for this reason, instead of being given real protection, they are spied on and are treated as criminals or terrorists”, according to the report.

Mexico: Indigenous people who kicked a mine out of their territory celebrate five years of daily struggle

Por

Avispa

5 March, 2018

By Diego Saydel García

Justino García is a youth from Magdalena Teitipac. When a mining company called “Plata Real” (a subsidiary of Sunshine Silver Mining, based in the United States) arrived in his community, he was only five years old. Now he’s 12 and he’s made it his responsibility to defend his territory from mining. He’s part of the community radio station “Teitiradio Lobadani”, which means “Root of the Hill” in Zapotec. This radio station was built as a necessary part of the defense against mining. Today, resistance is an everyday thing.

The boy says that since he was five, he has held onto the memories of when the mining company tried to descend upon his community. “My siblings, my friends, and I were afraid because they arrived on the hills in helicopters. Now, seven years later, we’re not afraid of them anymore, because we don’t want the foreigners to come and exploit our lands”, states the young radio announcer, better known as “el tigrillo” [the little tiger].

Magdalena Teitipac is a Zapotec pueblo located in the Central Valleys region of the state of Oaxaca. This community is organized under its own system of rules, the general assembly being the highest authority. Land ownership in Teitipac is communal; in 1975 this was recognized by presidential resolution as the Communal Property of Magdalena Teitipac. A large portion of the population works in agriculture: “We’re peasants; we depend on the land”, shares Mr. Fernando Martínez, a local from this Zapotec village.

The expulsion of the company

On September 6, 2007, the General Directorate of Mining Regulation granted mining concession number 230489, called “El Doctor,” to Plata Real for exploitation. The company was seeking to extract gold and silver from a surface area of 9,652 hectares [about 24,000 acres] of Magdalena Teitipac’s communal lands. “We were not informed about this decision; we didn’t know that our lands had been handed over”, denounced Martínez.

In the beginning of April, 2009, the Communal Property Commission of Magdalena Teitipac signed an agreement with the Plata Real mining company allowing them to carry out exploratory work, without the consent of the community assembly.

The commission’s actions generated discontent among the population. “In 2009, the commission’s term ended, but they didn’t want to leave. The people were already upset by everything they had done with the mining company without consulting the assembly, so they decided to remove them from their post in October 2010. This situation greatly affected our community organization”, says Fernando.

Celebration and Struggle

Now five years have passed since Magdalena Teitipac kicked the Plata Real mining company out of their territory and declared their lands free of all mining activity. In these five years they have been weaving strategies to keep defending their communal life. “The Territorial Defense Committee was born when the conflict with the mining company broke out. Up through today we continue in our plan of resistance. Our job is to keep defending the territory, and to preserve the indigenous language, because it’s a powerful weapon of resistance for aboriginal peoples”, Don Agustín López, member of the Territorial Defense Committee, tells Avispa Midia.

With the goal of continuing to defend the territory in the face of threats from mining projects in the Central Valleys region of Oaxaca, “On Friday, February 23, we are going to celebrate the five years we’ve been in resistance. In an open town council session, we’re going to confirm our territory as being free of mining, so that the government knows we’re still in struggle, we’re still in resistance here in Teitipac, and at the same time, we want to motivate other communities to weave alliances,” says the Territorial Defense Committee.

On February 23^rd and 24^th, the Agrarian and Municipal Authorities of Magdalena Teitipac, together with the Committee for the Defense of Territorial and Cultural Integrity and the Oaxacan Collective in Defense of Territory, organized the second “Here we say yes to life, no to mining” statewide encounter of pueblos, communities, and organizations.

This event, which was open to the general public, was divided over two days. The first was a celebration of the fifth anniversary of the “struggle against mining and in defense of Magdalena Teitipac’s Mother Earth.” On the second day, February 24, the “forum of pueblos, communities, and organizations to strengthen defense strategies” took place.

The hope was for social organizations and civil society collectives to show up to the event. They also made an open call to free and alternative media.

The forum entitled “Yes to life and No to mining” included other pueblos and communities from different Mexican states. The goal was to share experiences of resistance and struggle, such as the cases of the pueblos in the Guerrero mountains, the family members of the Pasta de Conchos miners, and pueblos in Chiapas who fight against mining. “The encounter is for sharing experience and making bonds between communities and organizations, to unite us under one single goal: defending our territory”, said Agustín López, a member of the Territorial Defense Committee.

The Oaxacan Collective in Defense of Territory, in the words of Neftalí Reyes, told Avispa Midia that this encounter had two pillars: “On the one hand, the anniversary of the struggle of Teitipac, which five years ago began a process of territorial defense, and on the other hand, the second pillar of the event is to reflect on and analyze the strategies that the mining companies are putting into place to exploit the Earth. This will help us, as pueblos from every corner of the state, to strengthen our resistance”.

Total of 38 Assassinations During Protests Against the Electoral Fraud in Honduras

Por

Santiago Navarro F

1 February, 2018

Translated by Ana Zavala and edited by Alessandro Morosin

Blockades took place in the principle cities of Honduras as part of a National Strike in response to the results of the November 26^th election, where it appears Juan Orlando Hernandez is the winner for the second consecutive time. The objective of the protests is to prevent Hernandez from taking office on January 27^th, and requesting for a new election to take place.

At the start of the National Strike, created by the Alianza de Oposición (Alliance of Opposition) against the dictatorship, a total of 38 protestors were killed by the police and military for protest activities over the past two months. On January 20^th, in the city of Saba, Colon, in the northern area of Honduras, the state security forces killed 73-year-old Anselmo Villareal and injured Martir Ramirez.

“We condemn the assassination of Don Anselmo, a person who was simply fired at, going through Saba. This is the undeniable proof that the military is shooting to kill. A president cannot govern at the cost of deaths. Never!” stated the iconic Honduran social activist, Miriam Miranda, coordinator of the Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras (OFRANEH) (Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras).

On the same day, a reporter from the Iranian channel HispanTV, Dassaev Aguilar Moncada, was also seriously injured, resulting in a fracture in his left leg while he was finishing his work on the closing of a public road in Tegucigalpa. A few days prior, Moncada had filed a lawsuit. “On Thursday we joined other reporters and we went to the human rights office to file a lawsuit against the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez for harassment, hate incitement and possible aggressions towards our lives. And today this happens. It was clearly an attack towards me because there were no protestors present,” said Moncada, referring to the moment in which he was fired at.

The strike is programmed to take place the 20^th and 27^th of January, where the general population, various organizations and human rights groups have come together. Even ex-president Manuel Zelaya, who was impeached for a coup d’état in the year 2009, came out to protest. “We call out to all the governments in the world, to the international organizations, to take interest in what is happening in Honduras. The democratic electoral systems are put at risk in all the countries of the world. Do not forget, Honduras is a political laboratory,” Miranda pointed out.

United States

“We congratulate President Juan Orlando Hernandez on his victory on the November 26^th presidential elections, according to the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) (Supreme Electoral Tribunal) of Honduras,” said the U.S. State Department through spokesperson Heather Nauert, long before the political situation of this country was defined.

The TSE declared that Hernandez obtained 42.95 percent while Salvador Nasralla had 41.24 percent of the votes in the Alianza de Oposición, and claimed there was fraud in the elections.

On the other hand, the Fuerza de Seguridad Interinstitucional Nacional (FUSINA) (National Inter-Institutional Security Force), in a talk with the press a day before the start of the strike, argued that they would commit to protecting the Estado de Derecho (State of Law). “It is the responsibility of the people who secure the state, to be active in maintaining order and guaranteeing the people the constitutional rights to free movement and travel throughout the national territory,” announced a member of the navy force, spokesperson for FUSINA.

FUSINA was created by President Hernandez on February 2014. It is an interinstitutional task force made up of members of the police, the military, the Attorney General and intelligent agencies. It is driven by the Honduran military and their mission is to fight against organized crime. “The institution’s job has been consolidating in the development of operations with inter-institutions”, said lieutenant colonel military justice of Honduras Santos Nolasco, spokesperson of FUSINA, in 2017. “Also, in support of these actions a new legislation has been created that will help implement justice more effectively”.

Meanwhile the spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), Elizabeth Throssell, told the press that the Honduran government had been asked to abstain from sending military quotas to the opposition demonstrations. “We ask the Honduran authorities to avoid using the Military Police and armed forces to police demonstrations, functions for which they are neither effectively trained nor equipped,” advised Throssell.

There is a complicit silence on behalf of the United States authorities in regards to the military presence on the streets of this Central American country. The Honduran military not only carries equipment “donated” by the U.S. Government, but has also received U.S. training. Since the year 2016 the US Congress approved US$100 million to provide assistance, antinarcotic military training and border security for the countries of the northern triangle, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. “A portion will also support military and police units engaged in public security, including support from U.S. Special Operations,” said the Washington Office on Latino-American affairs office (WOLA) in 2016.

FUSINA has received military training from the Southern Command of the United States. An example occurred in June 2017 at the center of naval training, located in the bay of Trujillo, where a group of 255 Honduran officials and sub officials received elite training, provided by specialized marine instructors from the U.S., Colombia and Chile.

“The objective of the training, besides elevating the operational readiness and training the personnel of the naval force to fight against drug trafficking and other illicit activities, it is to strengthen and adopt the elements in the marine infantry and the creation of a new and equipped force comparable to the army’s special forces,” declared by spokesperson of the military affairs Dialogo, Naval Captain (DEM) Hector Manuel Tercero Lopez, Chief of the Naval General Staff of Honduras.

It is worth noting that the U.S. installed at least 2 military bases in Honduras, Mosquita and Palmerola or Soto Cano. At the Soto Cano base, located in the valley of Comayagua, they operate with at least 600 United States soldiers that can be rapidly deployed for operations in the rest of Central and South America, controlled by the United States Southern Command. At this base they also receive training for the Fuerzas Especiales Navales (FEN) (Special Naval Forces) of Honduras working together with the Joint Task Force Bravo.

The South Command is one of the nine commands belonging to the United States. It embarks the south area of the American continent, Central America and the Caribbean, with headquarters in Miami, Florida.

State Coup

The coup against president Manual Zelaya occurred early in the morning on June 28^th, 2009, when he was kidnapped by the military dome and transferred from Costa Rica to the military base of Soto Cano. Enrique Reina, Zelaya’s ex-secretary, confirms that the U.S. was aware of the coup the entire time. “The Honduran military doesn’t do anything without the U.S. approval,” said Reina in an investigation published by The Intercept.

The coup was executed over a dispute between the National Congress, the Supreme Electoral Court of Honduras and the Supreme Court of Justice, over the legality of the cuarta urna (Honduran fourth ballot box). Zelaya proposed voting on a referendum and changing the constitution by constituent assembly. Months after the coup, a democratic drama had been created to elect Porfirio Lobo from the National Party, subsequently succeeded by Hernandez, who has always depended on the support of the U.S. government.

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