Powered by RedCircle
Summary:
In December 2020, the 8 imprisoned water defenders from the community of Guapinol and San Pedro sector, were granted an important bail hearing. The Municipal Committee for the Defense of Public and Common Goods and allies gathered outside the courthouse in Tocoa, Colon to demand their immediate freedom.
The Guapinol water conflict has been going on for over 2.5 years. The water defenders have been imprisoned for over 500 days on trumped up charges. They are being held in pre-trial detention for defending their community’s water source.
We hear from one of the criminalized water and human rights defenders and members of the legal team. They describe the interests behind the Guapinol conflict including the US company backing the Honduran companies that are behind the mining operation. This episode describes the origins and background of the conflict and the difficulties of securing the release of the imprisoned water defenders under the dictatorship.
For more information about the Guapinol water conflict: www.guapinolresiste.org or Twitter @guapinolre
Show notes with further links and information posted at: hondurasnow.org
Join us to demand freedom for the 8 imprisoned water defenders!
Transcript:
CORRECTION: The article revealing the connection between Nucor Corporation and Honduran companies Inversiones Pinares and ECOTEK was published in Univision and not The Intercept as was stated in the episode.
Karen Spring:
Relatives, members, and supporters of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods gathered outside the courthouse in the northern city of Tocoa, Colón. They were demanding the freedom of the eight imprisoned water defenders. They called on the judge to be consciente, or mindful, and release the water defenders now.
Welcome to the Honduras Now podcast. This podcast shares human rights stories from Honduras and connects them with global issues and North American policy. I’m your host, Karen Spring, a longtime human rights activist that has lived in Honduras for over a decade. Thanks so much for listening.
The stakes were high. It was roughly a week until Christmas. The families wanted their loved ones home for the holidays. They had been in prison for over a year. And with the COVID-19 pandemic, the families had not been able to visit their loved ones in the Olanchito or La Ceiba prisons since March of 2020.
The decision to keep the eight water defenders or political prisoners in pretrial detention is a political decision. Since there’s no independence of the judiciary, or separation of the three branches of the Honduran government, the decision is totally political. The legal team argues that there’s no legal basis to hold the water defenders in prison. They’re not a threat to society. They will show up for their hearings, and none of the crimes of which they are accused require obligatory pretrial detention. Because Hondurans are living under a dictatorship, the Municipal Committee and their legal team know that such political decisions made by the government must be fought with a strong local, national, and global campaign to demand the immediate freedom of the eight water defenders.
I spoke with Edy Tábora, one of the main lawyers working on the Guapinol case. We were in the car on the way to the Tocoa courthouse where the bail hearing for the eight Guapinol defenders was taking place on December 18 of 2020.
Karen Spring interviews Edy Tábora:
I’m here with Edy Tábora, who’s one of the lead lawyers in this case, who has studied, he’s sitting beside me studying the papers, the file, getting ready. He’s clearly kind of nervous, but I’m going to ask him if he’s nervous.
¿Estrás nervioso, Edy? (Are you nervous, Edy?)
Edy Tábora (interpreted):
Yes, sure, because they are comrades. The decision to release them is being legally determined again, and above all, because there is no judicial security. I mean, we have been right about their case, but their freedom depends on a political decision, not a legal one.
So the uncertainty is complicated to manage, above all because we witness the family members’ pain, also the pain of the comrades. We visited them twice, but since January or February 2020, we haven’t been able to see them again because of the pandemic. Their family members witness how emotionally affected they are, but also the families are experiencing financial difficulties. They live in precarious conditions. The families are often structured in a traditional manner, where the absence of one family member is very financially difficult. In one case, there is one family where the husband of one of the women and her father are imprisoned. So it’s really unfortunate. And this makes the emotional aspect of the case more complex, because we know that we, the legal team, are doing a good job. We have a good legal team, and there are so many people, nationally and internationally, advocating for their release. But at the end of the day, we know that we live in a dictatorship, and this totally takes away any judicial certainty and any certainty of knowing the law will be followed.
Karen Spring:
The Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods was formed to protect land and natural resources in regions in the department of Colón. A large part of the committee’s recent struggles have been focused on supporting the community of Guapinol and the San Pedro Sector to stop an iron ore mine from destroying the Carlos Escaleras National Park.
When powerful economic actors showed interest in iron ore mining inside the protected national park, the boundary lines of the park defined by legislation were quickly changed. This was done in a very questionable and corrupt manner by the Honduran National Congress and several government institutions. And shortly after the park’s boundaries were changed to permit extraction projects, a 200-hectare mining concession was approved to two powerful members of the Honduran economic elite. Honduran businessman Lenir Pérez and his spouse Ana Facussé, the daughter of the deceased large landowner Miguel Facussé, were granted the concession.
Just the name Facussé may ring some bells for some listeners. Miguel Facussé and companies owned by the Facussé family are involved in some of the most bloody land conflicts in the country. Between 2010 and 2012 alone, the Facussé family, through their World Bank financed African palm company called Dinant Corporation, were involved in land conflicts in the Aguan Valley region, which is actually the same region where the community of Guapinol is located. Between just 2010 and 2012, like I mentioned, over 120 small farmers were murdered in the region as they sought to recover land from large landowners like Facussé and others.
But so often in Honduras, the national elite are never acting alone. Lenir Pérez, Ana Facussé, and their two companies linked to the Guapinol mining conflict, called Inversiones Los Pinares, or, in English, Pinares Investments, and Ecotek – both are companies that are backed by powerful global economic actors. In November of 2020, Univision published an article revealing that the powerful U.S.-based steel company called Nucor Corporation entered into several business relationships via Panamanian companies with Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek. Through this business relationship, Nucor Corporation executives began invested in the mining operations that their community of Guapinol are resisting.
I spoke with Carlos Leonel George, a longtime water and human rights defender in the region, and one of the people accused and criminalized because of the Guapinol mining conflict. Leonel already spent several days in prison, but again faces being arrested again as a result of this conflict. At any moment, a Honduran judge could issue an arrest warrant against him and for others. Leonel tells me why he fights to protect his community’s water.
Carlos Leonel George (interpreted):
Well, in the first place, because without water there cannot be life. And in second, because the water belongs to the communities of the Tocoa municipality. The Tocoa municipality has today more than 100,000 residents in that area. And it provides water to approximately 20 communities. And so it is practically the livelihood for these communities. They cannot live without water. We cannot live without water. So that is why it is important. So one thing is the water.
And the other is the fact that it is a protected area that should be stewarded, not destroyed. And from there we see there is not just water, but oxygen. There’s a whole ecological system there. There is a lot of life in this region of these communities, and specifically Guapinol and the San Pedro Sector, which is made up of 13 communities in the high region that rely exclusively on that river and those water sources.
Karen Spring:
Securing foreign investment relationships for mining projects or hydroelectric projects are the dream and business goals of the Honduran elite. Without international backing, it’s relatively difficult for many extractive projects to get off their feet. So when foreign investment partnerships are achieved, the Honduran elite do everything to protect their new investment opportunity. They get ugly, vicious, and do everything to ensure that the projects succeed.
And, of course, the international companies or banks that are financing or involved in these projects mostly prefer that their relationships with these conflicts are not revealed. This partially explains why Nucor Corporation invested in the mining project and Guapinol through Panamanian corporations that are difficult to trace. It also might explain why it took several years since the mining conflict began to uncover the name of the company driving the mining operation from outside the country.
The strong national business and political interests to keep the foreign investment in the Guapinol mining project is likely the best way to understand why over 30 people face charges related to the mining conflict. It also might help explain why keeping water defenders in prison acts as a strong message to others about what happens when communities try and stop or inconvenience foreign investment opportunities for the elite.
[Protestors chant in Spanish.]
Karen Spring:
In the spring of 2018, the Guapinol community and the Municipal Committee noticed the destruction of the Carlos Escaleras National Park. Inversiones Los Pinares, the mining company, began building an access road into the area where they hoped to mine. Since local and national government supported the mine, and ignored the community’s concerns about the project, the Municipal Community got organized to stop the mining operations and to defend their water source.
The damage to the Carlos Escaleras National Park wasn’t just about stopping the destruction of the flora and fauna in order to build an access road that permitted machinery into the park. The Guapinol community also noticed that their tap water was filled with sediment and dirt. Their water supply via the Guapinol River, like the water supply for many other communities in the same region, would be deeply affected by large scale extraction in the national park where their water source originates.
So to protect their water, the community, and the national park, the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Public and Common Goods put up a permanent encampment starting on August 1, 2018. And it lasted to October 27 of the same year. The encampment was set up on the access road through the community of Guapinol that led into the national park.
This was not welcomed by the mining company that was heavily guarded by private security guards with strong ties, not only to the Honduran military and police, but also heavily armed men that were dressed in civilian clothes, believed to be involved in organized crime in the region. These paramilitaries would act in support of the mining company, and were seen as one and the same with the Honduran military police and the uniformed private security company that work to protect the mine site and the mining company’s interests.
It’s worth emphasizing the risk water defenders face for their efforts. Once more we hear from Leonel George, who paints the picture for us of these tense moments. This is Leonel describing the encampment that was set up by the Municipal Committee, the community of Guapinol, and others in 2018. The encampment lasted 88 full days.
Carlos Leonel George (interpreted):
Well, it was a very, very tense atmosphere, and with a lot of fear, because there were about 30 armed men with security guard uniforms. But there was also a suspicious presence of the military and police. But they were further back. I think they were part of the plan. They knew what was going to happen. So they allowed an armed group to hold hostage the residents of that community who had explained that they could only be evicted if there was a judicial order for the eviction, not the company on its own.
And the truth is, what scared the community the most was the armed security forces who were backed up by police and military patrol cars. And they did nothing to mediate or intervene. Instead, they were there backing up the armed group that the company had brought in. So the communities were very scared. And the truth is, we were able to perceive that when we arrived.
They were frantic, because they were surrounded by people that even the police knew were dangerous. We know this because when we were trying to evacuate a family that was in danger, and we asked the police for help, the chief said they did not enter that area, because there were very dangerous people there. And he was talking about the armed group that was in the community of La Ceibita that were among those who had closed off one of the exits. That is what we lived in that moment.
Karen Spring:
The encampment was a brave strategy to stop the mine. Through the 88 days it remained. Several incidents occurred. Extreme militarization, the presence of several armed gangs providing so-called security to the mining company, violent evictions led by the Honduran military and police also occurred, even murder.
And of course later on an incident that would become the source of the accusations against the over 30 people, including the eight imprisoned water defenders. Some people that have absolutely nothing to do with the community resistance or the mine were accused and criminalized and even one man that died years before the actual incident even occurred on September 7, 2018.
Carlos Leonel George (interpreted):
What happened was that the mining company closed off access to the communities that were in the campsite, and those that went to the camp. This happened on a street in the community of La Ceibita, which has access to where the campsite was located. And they also closed the road that the mining company had built, with the aim of denying the provision of food to the comrades at the site, as well as a media campaign to close off access to them. So that it would be no way to reach those who were at the campsite.
And there was a strong campaign that claimed that the company was going to evict the camp. So when that happened early at 6:00 in the morning, they found us and they called us and that at 8:00 a.m. they said that they were in a difficult situation, because access had been closed. And they were being threatened, that there were armed guards, that there were machines cutting off the street, and an excavator breaking up the road, so that there couldn’t be access, and that they were going to be totally isolated.
We arrived and we could verify that they were surrounded. The access road was closed. They let us through, because they knew that we were human rights defenders, and we were able to verify that the community in the camp was very scared. They were very scared, very worried.
What happened was a group of comrades arrived to tell the guards to let them through, that they were bringing food and water, to open the access, and that the company and the guards did not have the right to evict nor to impede the arrival of food and water to the people at the campsite.
Later on, the guards retreated. They retreated because they realized they had been brought there based on a lie. They had been told that they were brought there in order to provide security to a gas station. But upon their arrival, they took them to the campsite. The guards did not want a conflict or a problem, so they started to leave.
Then as they were leaving, there was a person that, according to the comrades, worked for the company. When the guards were leaving, he fired on the group and injured one of the members of the Concepción community. This happened as they were negotiating for the guards to leave. In this case, we don’t really know what the intention was. But when they go in with the aim of evicting and attacking a peaceful camp, in that case, for us, well, they are armed mercenaries. If they are armed, then they have the power. And we knew that the company had control over everything. And the result is that the person injured, the young man who was shot, there isn’t even an investigation by the attorney general’s office.
They know that they enjoy total impunity. They could even murder everyone at the camp, and there would never even be an investigation.
Mr. Santos Correa, allegedly the head of the armed group, was at that moment, trying to light an old car on fire. It was a junk car, but he couldn’t get it lit. And during the commotion, he did manage to get it lit. But then mysteriously, it went out again. We don’t know what happened. He left running. And then the car was on fire once more.
To us, there was a plot prepared precisely to criminalize. They couldn’t find a way to do so. So they crafted this plan to close off, to surround, to bring this old car, and light it on fire, and then leave. Then the accusations would come.
In that moment when the young man was injured, the comrades put him in a car, they took him to a hospital. We went to the hospital to see his condition, to accompany the family so they could file the report. There at the hospital, an officer from the investigative unit arrived. Then the young man’s mother went to the investigative unit to file her report. We accompanied him throughout this process, as is our job as human rights defenders. That is what happened there.
Later, we found out about the burned-out car and the two containers that were also destroyed. To us it was a plot, or there was infiltration, that caused all this. Later we found out there was already an indictment prepared. And that it was at the National Jurisdiction Court that tries organized crime. First, there were two charges at the court, usurpation and damages. Then when we decided to voluntarily present ourselves to face these charges, because we did not believe that we had committed these crimes or that we were guilty of these accusations. When we were at the court in La Ceiba, the judge informs us that there’s another case with four more charges, which were illicit association, aggravated arson, theft, and illegal detention, with regards to the mining company, Pinares Investments, and Mr. Santos Correa. And that’s how the process played out.
Karen Spring:
The Honduran Public Prosecutor’s office pressed charges against over 30 people related to this incident and, in general, the resistance against the mine. The Public Prosecutor’s office has done everything in its power to criminalize the community, generate fear, and divide the families of the prisoners and the community of Guapinol.
This specific case is another example of how powerful the Honduran government is when it wants to be. The prosecutors do everything in their power and beyond to build cases against local leaders, human rights defenders, and environmentalists. The judiciary, or the court system as well, act to further these efforts by sending people to the horrific Honduran prison system, including to maximum security prisons, knowing fully well that they do not belong there.
Carlos Leonel George (interpreted):
The communities and the organization have filed complaints of environmental damage, but there has been no investigation. And even on one occasion, neither the Public Prosecutor’s office, nor the environmental prosecutor, could even enter the area because the company did not allow it. That is, a company takes possession, and then they rule that area. No one else can enter, not even public authorities. So complaints have been filed. But there has been no investigation. Rather, they have claimed that these are political lawsuits, that those who oppose, who are against it, that we are in opposition to the mayor and the government of Juan Orlando. Here, to protest, to demand your rights in these institutions, well, you’re criminalized and put yourself at risk. So that has been the situation that we have experienced in this area and in this conflict.
Karen Spring:
Despite the mobilization by supporters and community members, the judge opted not to release the water defenders. But they refuse to give up hope. The Guapinol struggle is without doubt hard, at times sad, but also pretty inspiring. The intense part of the struggle has been going on for almost two and a half years. But the Municipal Committee, their legal team, the families of the prisoners, and all their allies, national and international, refuse to give up.
The legal and criminalization maneuvers being used by the Honduran state are complex. This means that the so-called legal part of the conflict is hard to follow, understand, and explain. But this is also a strategy, to confuse people, to confuse allies that are following the case, and to obviously give more work to the legal team to keep up with the criminalization process.
But what is important are the main takeaways, and the action that has to be taken to secure their release. First and foremost, the eight imprisoned water defenders from Guapinol, and the San Pedro Sector, and a few other communities in the region must be immediately released.
No more arrests can be carried out in this case.
All charges must be dropped immediately.
The residents of the Municipality of Tocoa, Colón, including the community of Guapinol, have voted and said no to mining in their municipality. This should be respected by the Honduran government, but also by all mining companies, including Inversiones Los Pinares, Ecotek, the U.S.-based steel company Nucor Corporation, and any others with concessions in the municipality.
This struggle for the freedom of the Guapinol political prisoners continues. Their next legal hearing is scheduled for less than two weeks from now, on January 25.
Join us in demanding freedom for the Guapinol political prisoners. Follow the Twitter account @guapinolre or the Honduras Solidarity Network [Twitter, Facebook, web site] for updates. I will link to these two accounts in the show notes that will be posted at HondurasNow.org.
As usual, the music we used today is by the talented Honduran singer Karla Lara.
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, hasta pronto.