1 Background
2 Update: Sept. 5, 2000
3 Update: Sept. 14, 2000
4 Action/Contact info

Update: September 5, 2000

Some of you may have seen my stories of the peaceful indigenous encampment in front of the Presidential Palace in 1997. The indigenous --primarily Lenca and Maya-Chortis-- pressured the government to honor treaties established in the first half of the 1900s, that aimed to protect their native lands.

After a three-week demonstration, that mobilized over 5000 indigenous people (and got me briefly detained by the Honduran soldiers), the government signed a new agreement promising to comply with the ancient "Treaty of San Andres."

Or seen more cynically, they signed an agreement saying that they would abide by their other agreements, which state simply that they will abide by other agreements, etc. Here in Honduras one quickly sees that the government is most ready to sign agreements; abiding by them is another thing!

After promising to respect and give legal title to the land in question, nothing much has happened. Earlier this year, small stretches of land were titled in favor of the indigenous people. This came mostly as a result of the demonstrations last October, in which several indigenous people were shot by soldiers, (which I witnessed with my own eyes).

None of the soldiers or their superiors were ever prosecuted and the government has not paid any compensation to the families victimized by the government violence.

With that history in mind, last week the Lenca and Maya-Chortis people mobilized once again, with four principal demands:

1. that the government turn over the promised lands in Copan and Ocotepeque;
2. that the government suspend activities aimed at building the controversial "El Tigre" dam along the Honduras-El Salvador border, rumoured to be funded by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank;
3. that the government formally recognize the indigenous organizations and give them the legal status that they've been after for eight years now; and
4. that the government reinstate the Special Prosecutor for Indigenous People.

This last call to action was the most prominent. Over a year ago the government made a "mistake" -- the Attorney General appointed a person who actually cared for indigenous people for the position of Special Prosecutor. While his decisions and actions haven't been perfect, he's been a 100% improvement over the past lackeys who have done nothing for indigenous people. He was fired from his job two weeks ago primarily because he did his job trying to protect indigenous people from the frequent attacks of cattle ranchers, etc.

I visited our friends at the strike site for a couple of days last week. The hunger strikers, including the ex-Special Prosecutor himself, are completing nine days of not eating. It was funny to see the Special Prosecutor in his suit, lying next to 75-year-old Dona Pascualita who hasn't owned a pair of shoes in her life. The hunger strike and activities are getting a fair bit of attention nationally.

Yesterday, a group of 600 Maya-Chortis took over the entrance to the archaeological site at Copan Ruins. This is something they did also in 1997, when the latest agreement was signed. The government claims the economy loses a million lempiras a day (about $60,000); an inflated figure though it is, this is a quick way to get the government's attention.

But the most shocking thing that happened yesterday occurred on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa [capital of Honduras]. Three hundred indigenous people in buses attempted to enter the city. Soldiers refused to let them drive into town! Absolutely no law was being broken. They were on their way to a legal demonstration. The soldiers' unconstitutional actions showed, once again, that Honduras has not left its repressive past behind. Oppression and impunity live on in the mentality of the soldiers and their commanders. The civil government, once a target of military repression, has adopted some of the same tactics used notoriously by the military.

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1 Background
2 Update: Sept. 5, 2000
3 Update: Sept. 14, 2000
4 Action/Contact info