Rights Action Spring 2011 Speaking Tour:
FROM CONQUEST TO COUPS - INDIGENOUS & AFRODESCENDENT PEOPLES IN HONDURAS
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FROM CONQUEST TO COUP - INDIGENOUS & AFRODESCENDENT PEOPLES IN HONDURAS
OFRANEH & COPINH - 519 Years in Resistance to the Conquest, 580 Days (as of January 21, 2011) in Resistance to the Military Coup
Rights Action announces two speaking tours of representatives from Honduran Indigenous and Afro-descendent (Garifuna) organizations - Ofraneh & Copinh.
WHERE: USA
WHEN: March-May, 2011
WHO: Representatives of OFRANEH & COPINH, leading community-based Indigenous & Afrodescendent (Garifuna) organizations in Honduras
CONTACT: Annie Bird, Rights Action (202-783-1123, annie@rightsaction.org) to organize events in your city or town. Rights Action will ask host groups to raise funds to help pay for the costs of the tour and to help fund the work of Copinh & Ofraneh in Honduras
Indigenous & Afrodescendent (Garifuna) peoples have, for generations, resisted illegal & violent encroachment on their lands by national and international economic interests. Today, many who supported and carried out the June 28, 2009 military coup in Honduras are looking to cash in on the coup, by illegally appropriating indigenous and afrodescendent (Garifuna) peoples lands for tourism, development, hydroelectric dams, mining and even carbon credits for "forest management," using violence and repression to force communities into silence.
While the indigenous and Garifuna peoples of Honduras are among the most affected by the repression and impunity the June 2009 coup ushered in, they have also been the strongest expression of resistance. Not only have they unwaveringly participated in marches and protests, their vision of resistance and of a new way of life for Honduras is an important inspiration to the Resistance movement in Honduras.
In October 2010, Honduran's six principal indigenous organizations formed the Indigenous and Black Observatory of Honduras to monitor human rights abuses. The Observatory has convoked an Indigenous and Black Peoples Constituent Assembly to occur the end of February 2011, an important milestone on the road to popular constituent assembly in Honduras, the principal demand of the resistance movement in Honduras.
SPEAKING TOUR #1
March 14 to April 8
Alfredo Lopez of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras - OFRANEH
A former political prisoner, who spent seven years illegally detained in prison for his defense of Garifuna territories, Alfredo Lopez will describe the struggle of the Garifuna people (descendents of escaped African slaves and Arawak indigenous peoples), to protect their communities and territories from tourism interests, biofuel producers, Honduras-Texas oil and hydroelectric dams.
SPEAKING TOUR #2
April 30 to May 18
A representative of the Honduran Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations - COPINH
COPINH was formed by Lenca indigenous communities in Western Honduras to protect their forests which, after being protected for decades by the communities, in the early 1990s were being encroached upon by logging interests. Successful in driving out numerous saw mills, COPINH then went on to challenge other threats to Lenca communities, including mining interests, hydroelectric dams, and today pilot projects for the REDD climate change mechanism could expel Lenca communities from the forests they have protected.
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CONTACT: Annie Bird, Rights Action (202-783-1123, annie@rightsaction.org) to organize events in your city or town. Rights Action will ask host groups to raise funds to help pay for the costs of the tour and to help fund the work of Copinh & Ofraneh in Honduras
· Please re-post & re-publish this information