Episode 24: Heading to Trial: Freedom for Edwin and Raul!

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Summary

On Monday, September 13, 2021, political prisoners Edwin Espinal & Raúl Alvarez will stand trial on trumped up charges stemming from the 2017 electoral crisis. Both were released from pre-trial detention in August 2019 but are not fully in the clear. The trial next week will determine whether they will be sent back to prison for 15 to 30 years.

Listen to a summary of the case and hear an interview with Edwin Espinal, the day after he was released from a maximum-security prison in 2019. Edwin describes the conditions inside the prison including how the relatively new maximum-security prisons in Honduras are similar to the US prison model.

To take action in support of Edwin and Raul, go to:

1. bit.ly/edwinyraul – send a message to your Congressional rep
2. bit,ly/edwinyraul2 – send a letter to the Honduran authorities

For more information and updates on the case:

Twitter: @EdwinLibertad

Facebook: Free Edwin Espinal Libertad

Transcript

Karen Spring:

Next Monday, September 13th and 14th, Honduran political prisoners Edwin Espinal and Raul Álvarez will stand trial in Tegucigalpa. Accused of three trumped-up charges, Edwin and Raúl face going back to prison, if they are found guilty, for 15 to 30 years.

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.

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. So we just took a two-month break to chill a little bit. And in that time since the last show, I went to Canada to visit family and I’m now back in Tegucigalpa. So today I’m going to talk about a pretty personal human rights story, which is the upcoming trial of my partner Edwin Espinal and political prisoner Raúl Álvarez. 

As I’m recording this, we are less than one week away from their trial date, which is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday, or September 13th and 14th. Because of Covid, and the backlog of the courts in Honduras, I originally thought the date of their trial would be changed again. But it looks like the court is at least planning for it to move forward and to happen as scheduled. 

Now just the thought that this trial is going to happen and the trials right around the corner makes my stomach roll. I’m nervous and Edwin and Raúl are obviously even more nervous. 

In normal circumstances, I think going to trial for anyone that’s been wrongfully accused of a crime is nerve-racking. And in the current political context in Honduras, and with the lack of judicial independence, it feels even worse. It’s worse because Honduras has another general elections in less than three months. Edwin and Raúl’s case stems from the last elections almost four years ago in 2017. I’m worried because with this context in the country, the Juan Orlando Hernández government may want to send a message to anyone in Honduras thinking about protesting any sort of election-related issues that might come up. They could use Edwin and Raúl’s trial to do that, by finding them guilty and then sending them to prison. This will tell others that protesting will not be tolerated. And if found guilty, Edwin and Raúl face up to 15 to 30 years. 

I think what also makes me really nervous about the upcoming trial is that both Edwin and Raúl have faced years of political persecution. The political persecution indicates that this isn’t just a legal battle. It’s also a very political battle, if not an entirely political battle. Like most people that are criminalized for protesting, Edwin and Raúl have been targets of repression, of criminalization, and violence several times. For years, Edwin and Raúl have been clear priority targets for the military, the police, the public prosecutor’s office, and the judiciary. 

In 2010, Edwin was tortured by the police in his neighborhood. He was arrested, covered in pepper spray, taken to a clandestine location, and tasered for hours before being dropped off at a police station. In 2013, his family’s house was raided by the military police about a month before the 2013 elections. The police justified the raid by saying that Edwin was a gang member and had guns and drugs in his house. They obviously found nothing but left the house totally ransacked and destroyed.

Edwin Espinal (interpreted):

Take a look at my house. What do you notice about that house? There is a flag of the National Front of Popular Resistance, right? After the coup, we declared ourselves to be in total opposition. That is why they raided my house.

Karen Spring:

And despite making formal legal complaints against the judge, and against the prosecutor that allowed and ordered the raid, the prosecutor’s office has done absolutely nothing to investigate it. 

Raúl Álvarez has also suffered attacks as well. Last November, Raúl was stabbed in his neighborhood by a National Party supporter. The profile that Raúl has gained as a political prisoner, and a vocal opponent of the government, has turned him into a target of violence. After the attack, Raúl almost died in the hospital. But, thankfully, he recovered. He lost one eye, full movement of his hand, and feeling in one of his legs. 

Now, like I mentioned, Edwin and Raúl face 15 to 30 years in prison if they’re found guilty of the three crimes they’re accused of. They’re accused of aggravated arson, aggravated property damage, and use of homemade explosives. Originally, when they were first arrested, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also wanted to accuse them of terrorism, criminal association, and attempted murder. But, thank goodness, those charges didn’t stick. 

Many ask me the details about the arrest. Edwin and Raúl were arrested just days after a protest occurred in Tegucigalpa, on January 12, 2018, almost four years ago. Thousands of people participated in those protests, and they were on the streets protesting the stolen 2017 election and the illegal re-election of Juan Orlando Hernández.

[Sounds of protestors chanting, “¡Fuera JOH!” (“JOH” — that is, Juan Orlando Hernández — “must go!”)]

The protests started at the teaching university in Tegucigalpa and marched close to the location of the old presidential palace, located on a major boulevard in the capital city. Now just before reaching the presidential palace, the Honduran military set up a huge blockade and started repressing the protesters. Live rounds were fired, like they had in several locations in protests around the country immediately after the elections. Several buildings in the area around the protests were damaged and vandalized, including the Marriott Hotel building. 

Days after the protest Raúl Álvarez was arrested. Then a few days after Raúl, Edwin was arrested as well. Edwin was arrested on a Friday evening. By Saturday at noon, he was put before a military judge, inside a military base, and then sent directly to La Tolva prison, a maximum security jail located in southeastern Honduras. After spending the weekend in prison, two days later, on the Monday, Edwin and Raúl were taken back to the capital city for their initial hearing, which is kind of like a mini trial. The same judge that sent them to prison heard the arguments of the prosecutor, and then ordered their pretrial detention, and sent them back to La Tolva. 

Now I remember this weekend really, really well. I remember when Edwin was arrested. I remember the panic. And I remember how fast it all happened. Edwin and Raúl’s legal team didn’t even have any time to review the legal files, as they only had two days to prepare for the initial hearing. And both days that they had to prepare were weekend days, when no state institutions or the prosecutor’s office were open. 

They remained in prison in La Tolva for 19 hard and difficult months. And we fought for their release and achieved it in August of 2019. Now those 19 months were really, really hard for Edwin’s family, for myself, and also for Raúl’s family. 

As we are preparing again for another step in this process, we know that this case isn’t just about Edwin and Raúl. It’s not just about the damage to the Marriott Hotel. And it’s not just about protesting the 2017 elections. Edwin and Raúl’s case is just one of many cases of political persecution that’s carried out in Honduras by the Honduran government against vocal opponents. The regime continues to send land and water defenders to prison, and other individuals involved in protests. Currently, there are 11 vocal protesters in prison in different parts of the country. These are cases that are well known by the national and international human rights community. 

The pattern of going after vocal opponents of the government’s policies and their behavior is also part of the same pattern that led to the assassination of Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres. It’s part of the same pattern that makes Honduras one of the most dangerous places to be a human rights and land defender and environmentalist, a lawyer, and a journalist. As the trial date approaches, I’ve been running around doing all these last minute tasks that have to be done before the trial starts. These include finally getting a full copy of the legal file from the court. Now this took several years and basically the pressure that the trial is less than a week away for judicial authorities to find someone to walk the physical copy of the legal file to the photocopier room in the Supreme Court to make a copy. We are also fighting for the court hearing to be broadcasted live on the court’s Facebook or Twitter. Now this might seem kind of odd for folks in North America, but this is how the Honduran court system are making high profile cases available to the public. Some judges aren’t letting observers into their courtrooms because of COVID. So since trials have to be open to the public by law, we are hoping and pushing that the judiciary live-broadcast the trial, because, really, it’ll be the only way that international human rights observers and possibly family members will be able to observe it. If you’re interested in following the trial, the actions planned to support it, or for more background on Edwin and Raúl’s case, head to Honduras Now’s social media accounts. We will also be posting on Free Edwin Espinal Libertad’s, Facebook and Twitter. Now if you want more background information about Edwin and Raúl’s imprisonment, and what it took to free them after 19 months, check out Episode 7, called “A week to remember: Freeing the political prisoners.” 

So for today’s show, I’m going to play an interview with my partner, Edwin Espinal. The interview was conducted the day after Edwin was released from La Tolva and the day after he and Raúl suspended a five day hunger strike inside La Tolva. At the time Edwin and Raúl were imprisoned, two other political prisoners, Gustavo Cáceres and Romell Herrera, were also in prison. Both were thankfully released shortly after Edwin and Raúl got out on August 9, 2019. The interview with Edwin was done by anthropologist Adrienne Pine. Adrienne was here when Edwin and Raúl were released and kindly gave me permission to play this interview.

Adrienne Pine:

And we are so happy to have you out the prison. First of all, if you could just tell me a little bit about what your experience on the inside was like.

Edwin Espinal:

The space inside are horrible, like torture, like emotional torture, physical torture, psychological torture. In my case, because we’re we’re in a legal process. I’ve never been in a jail before. And that’s what makes it harder for us, for political prisoners like Raúl, Rommel, me, Gustavo who is in Progreso. It’s way harder, just the fact that we are mixed with all the rest of the population inside, that just makes it harder.

Adrienne Pine:

So when you first went in, what was your experience like in the prison? So you said, first of all, you weren’t expecting to be in there for a long time, right?

Edwin Espinal:

Yes. I mean, the first experience I had is the most horrible part because they put me in an isolation cell. I spent one month in there. It’s a small cell with only a square window, a little window like this. And the only thing inside was a little mattress like this thick.

Adrienne Pine:

And a toilet? 

Edwin Espinal:

No, no toilet, nothing. It had to be in a plastic bottle. Coming from the court directly to the jail, and the jail puts you right inside an isolation cell. That’s a way of torture. 

Adrienne Pine:

Sounds horrifying. And from there, then what happened?

Edwin Espinal:

After a month, they sent me to the area where the rest of the population is. And that area is also living with people that already condemned, people that are being sentenced for horrible crimes. And that makes it harder too.

Adrienne Pine:

So this is a new style of maximum security prisons that just opened a few years ago, right? 

Edwin Espinal:

Yeah.

Adrienne Pine:

How do you think that changes prison culture? And what are they trying to do with these maximum security prisons in Honduras?

Edwin Espinal:

It’s really sad because they’re supposed to, with those jails, they’re supposed to improve the security compared with the other penitentiary center, because they don’t really have the right conditions to keep a lot of people. So they’re overpopulated. So they built these prisons, supposedly to improve their centers, to have better conditions, in order to rehabilitate. But they only improve the infrastructure, but they haven’t improved the human conditions.

Adrienne Pine:

And can you tell me a little bit about what those conditions were like? So I’m interested for example, in the food you ate, the access to water, the sanitary situation, access to health care?

Edwin Espinal:

Yeah, when we talk about access to health care, there is not conditions at all in there, just like the rest of the country. The opposition is in the streets protesting, defending the public health system, right? It’s exactly the same situation in there. There are no medicines. The medical attention is very, very poor. It takes so long to take you to the doctor, takes so long after you ask. Inside every unit there are coordinators, right? The same prisoners, they coordinate the rest of the population inside the unit. And then the people have to ask the coordinators that they need to go see the doctor. So that means it will take you like four weeks or sometimes six weeks to go to see the doctor, if you’re lucky.

Adrienne Pine:

So it depends on whether the coordinator likes you or not. And they’re also a prisoner. 

Edwin Espinal:

Exactly. 

Adrienne Pine:

Wow. And in terms of the health conditions, I heard that there were tuberculosis outbreaks and other outbreaks that are really particular to prison sanitary conditions in certain ways. Can you speak about health risks that prisoners face in La Tolva?

Edwin Espinal:

Yes, after I spent one month in the isolation cell, and I was sent to that area, and then I found out that there was a huge tuberculosis outbreak spreading in the rest of the population. And not just tuberculosis, also there was virus there. Everybody was sick with like a fever, a cold, sore throat, and people were sick when I got there. But the worst thing was the tuberculosis, and they don’t have like measurements to control that health problem in there. So people that didn’t have tuberculosis yet were mixed with the people that were already sick. And it was so easy, you could see the people that were not sick yet, and then, like a couple of weeks later, they were diagnosed with tuberculosis, and a lot of people got tuberculosis.

Adrienne Pine:

So there were no quarantine measures or anything like that. And what kind of access did you have? What was your food and water situation like? How much water did you get on a daily basis? And was it clean? And what did you get to eat?

Edwin Espinal:

In the first months I spent there, the water situation was like a crisis. We drank from the pipe from the sink and shower with the same water. Yeah, and the water was like a brown color. And then a lot of people got sick, like with diarrhea, sore throat, you know, problems thrive because of the water. We drank and showered with that water, and people got sick easily. 

Adrienne Pine:

What were the bathrooms like?

Edwin Espinal:

The bathroom is only one toilet for nine people in every cell. So there’s no privacy to use the toilet. The toilet is like in the middle of, the end of the cell. There’s no walls, so you just have to sit in there in front of everybody else. Yeah, I mean, they have this modern style of toilets, the same toilets that the prisons in the United States and Canada have, like it’s stainless steal with air pressure. 

Adrienne Pine:

Yeah.

Edwin Espinal:

I think it works. But the thing is, we could only use it like twice a day, once in the morning, once at the end of the afternoon. That was at the beginning. Later, after we protested, we could use it like three times, once in the morning, once at noon, the third time at the end of the afternoon. The conditions were improving very, very slowly. You know, the more that we protested and demanded improvements inside, and then they would give us a little bit.

Adrienne Pine:

So they responded. So they gave you things when you protested. But how did the guards treat you in general, if you did something they didn’t like, if you were protesting and they weren’t happy with it, or they didn’t want to give you what you wanted.

Edwin Espinal:

We barely had contact with the police inside the units. The ones who control security and the different issues inside are the same coordinators.

Adrienne Pine:

So the coordinators and these are prisoners themselves who are in prison for organized crime, other forms of violent crime. What kinds of organizations do they belong to?

Edwin Espinal:

MS13 and the Mara-18. Very, very violent members of those gangs. Some people are sentenced for like more than 50 killings.

Adrienne Pine:

So they worked as hitman or they kill people themselves. 

Edwin Espinal:

Yeah, they were hitmen. Those were the people that controlled the rest of the population inside.

Adrienne Pine:

And how did they treat you as political prisoners? What did they think about you?

Edwin Espinal:

They always saw me as a threat because I was very demanding about the human rights violations inside and they saw me as a threat because I was getting human rights organizations’ attention, and then human rights organization came to visit me or check on me about my situation inside, and then as they started seeing me as a threat, threatening their benefits. Just because they were gangs members and they were the coordinators inside, they got benefits from the people who manage the penitentiary center.

Adrienne Pine:

And so what happened when they started to see you as a threat?

Edwin Espinal:

Well, I received death threats since the beginning.

Adrienne Pine:

From fellow prisoners?

Edwin Espinal:

Yes, from those gang members, I received death threats. And yeah, that makes it harder, because you have to see them all the time. When you need to go to see the doctor, you have to ask them. When you need to get a haircut, you had to ask them. When you need soap to shower, whatever you need, you know? 

Adrienne Pine:

So these are maximum security, military-run prisons, but the gang members still control everything on the inside. So was there ever repression on the part of the security guards inside the prison? Were there ever repressive measures taken against the prisoners?

Edwin Espinal:

Yes, because we were demanding water supply improvement. We were demanding better medical attention. And we were demanding also better food because the food was very poor. We protested inside and every time we protested, the police would come in and throw like a tear gas inside the prison. And that’s very dangerous, because it’s a very close area when they throw that tear gas in there. 

Adrienne Pine:

So that was when you were inside your cells, you would receive the tear gassing. 

Edwin Espinal:

Yeah, when they shoot tear gas, everybody goes inside their cell, because it’s the safest area where you can go. If you stay in a common area, then you get more tear gas.

Adrienne Pine:

Did that happen on numerous occasions? 

Edwin Espinal:

Yes. 

Adrienne Pine:

You mentioned that the toilets were a US make and basically the entire prison is following a US model of maximum security prison. What do you think are the areas in which US corporations might be profiting off of the prison, for example, phone calls, or different contractors, or training, or anything like that?

Edwin Espinal:

Adrienne Pine:

Inside the prison, so it doesn’t sound like there was any education or rehabilitation going on in there.

Edwin Espinal:

Adrienne Pine:

For the whole past week, there’s, as you know, been people fasting in solidarity with a hunger strike that you and your fellow prisoners, Raúl Álvarez and Rommel Herrera were on, and people have been organizing within Honduras and also internationally on a very large scale to fight for your freedom as political prisoners who have been arbitrarily detained in pretrial detention. Do you have any message for the people who were fighting for your freedom?

Edwin Espinal:

And also in Honduras too, there are organizations, amazing people that keep their campaign to support us, and it’s a very strong campaign. We want to thank them. And then hopefully someday we can hug them in person, and give them our thanks for everything they have done. They have done an amazing job. Without their support, we would never be able to leave that jail. 

And also, you know, I am confident and I have witnessed this inside the jail, that they have plans to kill us inside, because this government has gotten a lot of problems with the opposition, right? And so they have plans for us inside. 

But thanks to all the people’s support, I am out now, I can defend myself on free. And I’m also going to keep fighting for my friends Rommel, Raúl Álvarez, and Gustavo Cáceres who is in Progreso. And I hope we can still count on international organizations, on their support, because that’s the only way we can get justice in this country. That’s the only way, with their support. But if we do it by ourselves here, it’s way harder. There’s no way to get justice in this country where the the judicial system is very corrupt.

Adrienne Pine:

Thank you. Okay, so one quick last question. You and the others have been criminalized for protesting against the Juan Orlando Hernández dictatorship, against the privatization of health care and education, against the coup, against all of these interrelated things. Given what you’ve been through, are you going to stop protesting now?

Edwin Espinal:

No, I will never stop protesting as long as there are injustices, there is corruption, bad people that are making decisions for this country. And as long as those people are in power, they are accused of narco trafficking, of organized crime, I can’t stop raising my voice against those people, because it’s not about me, it’s about all the Honduran people.

Karen Spring:

So that was an interview with political prisoner Edwin Espinal and the voice of anthropologist Adrienne Pine, who conducted the interview on August 10 of 2019. 

Like I mentioned, if you’re interested in taking action to support Edwin, Raúl, and, well, myself as well, you can find all the information about the upcoming actions on HondurasNow’s Facebook and Twitter. We’re asking folks to share information on social media, and participate in an online action to contact your congressional reps. And if you want, you can join us outside the Honduran Supreme Court this Monday, September 13, at 8:30 a.m. I will be there, Edwin and Raúl’s family will be there, and the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Honduras will also be there. You can also monitor the trial on Monday and Tuesday with live updates. Just check out the Free Edwin Espinal Libertad Facebook and Twitter. Edwin and Raúl and all their supporters will walk into the trial with our heads held high. We shall see what will happen. 

That’s the show for today. This is your host, Karen Spring, signing off. Wish us luck at the trial, and hasta pronto.