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Summary:
It’s been 21 days since five men – four Afro-indigenous Garifuna men and another man from Belize – were forcibly disappeared from the community of Triunfo de la Cruz.
The host Karen Spring interviews Cesar Benedict, a community leader in Triunfo de la Cruz and a member of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH). Cesar provides information about the Honduran government’s supposed investigation, the situation in the community, and the on-going demands of the Garifuna people about both their land rights and the forced disappearances of their leaders.
Transcript:
Karen Spring:
Today, I’m going to give you an update on the July 18th forced disappearances of four Garifuna men from Triunfo de la Cruz on the Carribean coast of Honduras.
In Episode 4, I outlined how the disappearances took place and talked about some of the context. For today’s episode, I interviewed an OFRANEH and community leader from Triunfo de la Cruz where the Garifuna men were disappeared from.
So … There have been a few things that have happened over the last two weeks.
Congressional Letter to US Secretary of State About Garifuna Disappearances
The international pressure around the case has grown. Various U.S. Congressional representatives including the Chairman and Vice Chair of the Western Hemisphere Sub-Committee, Rep. Albio Sires and Rep. Gregory Meeks, wrote a public letter to US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and addressed the forced disappearances of the Garifuna men.
A part of it reads: “The Honduran government owes the international community an explanation as to what role state officials had in these egregious violations of human rights against the Garifuna community. It must ensure immediate, independent investigations into this kidnapping and each of the recent murders.
It goes on to read: “We are deeply concerned that rather than pressing the Honduran authorities for accountability, the Trump Administration has been holding public photo-ops with President Hernandez and lauding his assistance in implementing asylum restrictions that rely on an executive order that was struck down in U.S. federal court. The State Department also certified on May 7, 2020 the Central Government of Honduras is “protecting the rights of civil society, opposition political parties, and the independence of the media” despite tremendous evidence to the contrary.”
It’s good to see so many Congressional offices commenting on the disappearances as well as point out the Trump’s administration’s obsession over migration issues while completely ignoring serious human rights issues. This has been an issue for so many years – It’s like what all U.S. administrations have done even as things have continued to worsen since the US and Canadian backed coup in 2009.
I’ll post a link to the whole letter in the show notes. Read the letter here
OFRANEH Communiques About the Disappearances
The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) has also put out two communiques over the last two weeks. I’ll summarize the key points. (Read the first and second communique)
OFRANEH insists that state security forces were involved in the forced disappearances. OFRANEH also denounces a smear campaign against the leaders. There were efforts – pictures and audios – circulating in social media of conversations and photos of weapons that tried to paint the Garifuna men as drug traffickers and as individuals involved in illicit activities.
OFRANEH quickly denounced this – after all, it’s not the first time this exact strategy has been use to criminalize Garifuna leaders and create doubt about the men’s characters and integrity. A former leader of the same community, Triunfo de la Cruz, was sent to prison on trumped up and fake drug charges. The leader, Alfredo Lopez, was ordered to be released by the InterAmerican court.
Another important point of OFRANEH’s communique also mentioned that Snider Centeno, one of the disappeared men, had been investigating a land conflict over a piece of land known as Lot A1. Illegal African palm plantations are being planted on Lot A1 which was a key piece of land mentioned and ruled on by the case brought against the Honduran state by OFRANEH and then ruled on by the InterAmerican court in 2015.
2015 InterAmerican Court Ruling About Garifuna Ancestral Land
So just a quick summary about this 2015 InterAmerican court ruling. In the early 2000s, OFRANEH and the community of Triunfo de la Cruz presented a case against the Honduran state for violating their indigenous and land rights. They first presented the case to the InterAmerican Commission – an international body and sometimes, the last hope for some communities in countries where the impunity rate is so high and justice is NOT a possibility.
The Commission investigated the allegations made by Triunfo and OFRANEH, and then passed the case to the InterAmerican Court. The court reviewed the community’s claims and then on 2015, issued a sentence. They found that the Honduran state had violated the indigenous rights in Triunfo (and another community called Punta Piedra) specifically the right to free, prior, and informed consent, as well as the land titled to the Triunfo de la Cruz community. The court ruled that the Honduran government had to repair the damages and give illegally appropriated land, back to the community.
Now back to the OFRANEH communiques. OFRANEH mentioned Snider Centeno’s work before his disappearance, investigating African palm plantations on this lote. A lot the land issues involved in Lote A1 was mentioned in the InterAmerican court case. The state was supposed to be working to fix the land issue and return the large area back to Triunfo. But they have failed to comply. So Centeno continued to push and investigate the on-going investigations.
Now to be fully transparent, I haven’t read the full court ruling and I am by no means, an expert on the ruling. The court sentence itself is 100 pages long and then there are several other documents published by the InterAmerican court that is doing follow-up to the sentence to push that the state comply.
Also, as a result of the recent disappearances, and killings of other Garifuna leaders in other Garifuna communities that have also received an InterAmerican court ruling, the InterAmerican court of Human Rights notified the Honduran government that they wanted a report from the state about measures adopted to protect the lives and integrity of the disappeared men and the affected Garifuna communities.
Ok so my point in explaining all of this is that at least one of the disappeared men was specifically investigating on-going violations by the state. This is another reason that OFRANEH and many others think the forced disappearances are a targeted state-led effort against individuals demanding the state implement the 2015 court ruling. The state has demonstrated that it is not willing to protect Garifuna land rights, much less, the lives of those that continue to speak out and demand their ancestral and indigenous rights.
I want to share the interview with Cesar Benedict. Cesar is a community leader in Triunfo de la Cruz. He’s a close friend of one of the disappeared leader, Snider Centeno. I interviewed Cesar earlier this week. I asked Cesar to introduce himself and to indicate his positions inside the community of Triunfo de la Cruz.
Interview with Cesar Benedict, an OFRANEH member from Triunfo de la Cruz
Karen Spring: Can you introduce yourself and state your position inside the community and OFRANEH?
Cesar Benedict: I am Cesar Benedict, I’m a member of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), a member of the elected community council (patronato) and the current President of the Committee for the Defense of Land in Triunfo de la Cruz
Karen Spring: What is the mood in the community now that 2 weeks have passed since the disappearances of the Garifuna men in the community?
Cesar Benedict: Well, Karen, the community is still distraught and scared. We live in uneasiness especially the family members, friends, and leaders of this community because this type of incident has never happened where strange people come in and kidnap our leaders, our President, they kidnapped him, and we don’t have any news of them.
Each minute and day that passes is discouraging, especially for the family, friends, and leaders of the community.
Since July 18 to present, Triunfo is almost a totally different community because of the mood here. The sadness is overwhelming and so is the despair of not knowing where are comrades are – if they are alive or dead.
People are scared but as leaders and members of the community, we have asked and been working so that people don’t just wait around. That we don’t just hide from fear, but instead go out and protest so that the people that did this to us, know, that yes, we are scared, but panic and fear will not control us. We are protesting, mourning and monitoring things in our community. But if we just wait around for something to happen or if we keep quiet, something like this will happen again. And for this reason, as leaders we have been working so that this doesn’t happen and so that the community doesn’t feel so uneasy.
But yes, we are scared, just like any human being, after this has happened. But yes, we are struggling so that panic doesn’t take control of us.
Karen Spring: In the Honduran media, there have been reports of an arrested suspect – a 28 year-old american citizen – on July 22, 5 days after the disappearances. Not much was reported about it or the suspect’s link to the forced disappearances. Then 11 days after the disappearances, on July 29th, the Honduran media reported that police had found bodies in the mountains of Tela. It was originally reported that they were the bodies of the disappeared Garifuna men. So what is going on with the alleged investigations and the Honduran media reports about it?
Cesar Benedict: Yes, they arrested a suspect, according to what the police have told us. They say he’s a key element of the crime and that he participated in the forced disappearance of our comrades. But nevertheless, that seems to be where the investigation ended. They do not have any new elements even though new investigative bodies like ATIC [Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation] and the Attorney General’s office got involved.
After arresting the suspect, the investigators started talking about releasing him because there wasn’t enough proof against him. But they are still holding him. They have to – maybe he will provide them with more information about the case.
Also, yes, they found a body in the mountains. It was suspected that they were of the Garifuna leaders but looks like they found only one body that had been there awhile. So, fortunately, it wasn’t our disappeared comrades, it wasn’t their bodies.
The police say they are doing an investigation. And we here in the community, are putting pressure on the police because we know that the Honduran state knows and was involved in the disappearance and we hope to have an immediate response. The police and the media have given a lot of false alarms. But at the end of the day, we still know nothing of our comrades. We don’t know if they are alive or dead.
Karen Spring: 3. What does the attack against the community’s leaders have to do with the InterAmerican Court sentence in 2015?
Cesar Benedict: OFRANEH has mentioned the InterAmerican court on human right’s sentence in 2015. What does this sentence have to do with the attacks against the community and the forced disappearances of the community leaders?
After the sentence in 2015, the community thought there would be positive changes if the government implemented the sentence. But its now 2020 and they haven’t implemented any of it. Absolutely nothing that was established in the ruling by the InterAmerican court of Human Rights.
The sentence involved returning Garifuna lands to the community – the lands that were stolen from us by the state, by African palm and tourism companies, but the state hasn’t advanced with this. They have ignored it. And yes, we think that its possible that the attack against our comrades’ lives could be related to this.
It’s unfortunate because the state is such a liar, like the state says one thing and then does another, and then looks for excuses. They make excuses about not implementing the Court’s sentence.
Like even with this investigation of the forced disappearances, we think the state has circulated audios and pictures trying to tie our disappeared comrades to drug trafficking but for what? So they can wash their hands of the case and stop investigating. We also know that the government could come and plant something and then later, say publicly that they found drugs in our houses. We are worried and disappointed because they are trying to make it seem that our comrades are guilty when really, it’s the state’s responsibility.
Karen Spring: What are OFRANEH and the Garifuna communities demanding in this case and with the investigation?
Cesar Benedict: We want our comrades to turn up alive. We demand that the intellectual authors of the forced disappearances be investigated too. We are demanding that the Honduran government implement the 2015 InterAmerican court sentence and that they take care of the Garifuna leaders from different communities along the north coast.
The Garifuna community has been deeply affected by the murders of various leaders in our communities, where, up until now, there isn’t one case that has resulted in an investigation or a positive response from the government. The community of Triunfo de la Cruz stands in solidarity with other Garifuna communities that have been affected by violence and have seen their leaders be killed. But again, I repeat, we demand a response about our comrades – alive or dead – we want to know where they are. If they are dead, well, we want to at least be able to put their families in peace, and if they are alive, that they be returned to us.
Karen Spring: How does the forced disappearances of the leaders affect the spirituality of the Garifuna in the way that the Garifuna mourn and say good-bye to community members that pass?
Cesar Benedict: Well, in our spirituality right now, they are still alive. I’m not spiritual myself and I have not been with a spiritual leader. But the families of the disappeared have. They have been with our spiritual leaders that say that the men are still alive but they are in another place. But we don’t have access to those places, according to what the spiritual leaders have told us. But when we say this to the authorities in the government, they don’t listen. It’s logical that God doesn’t give if you don’t believe in him, so its logical that the authorities will not collaborate with us in order to find the place where they are.
We have spoken with the families of the disappeared and none believe that their family members are dead because they believe that they are being kept alive and at any moment, can be released. So as members of the community, we have not lost the hope that they are alive.
END OF INTERVIEW
*****
Karen Spring:
Just like the community of Triunfo de la Cruz, I hope that news of the disappeared men is provided soon. It’s very agonizing to be waiting for news from investigators and a state that you cannot trust especially when it’s believed that the government is involved and implicated in the disappearances.
But as I have learned over the years of working on human rights cases, we must keep demanding and pressuring otherwise, the case will remain, like most, in total impunity.
Thank you so much for tuning into the episode.
Support this Podcast and What’s Coming Up
If you’ve been listening to this podcast, please consider leaving a review in Apple podcasts. You can also donate to help support production at hondurasnow.org. I’ll also be posting the show notes there.
When I post the next podcast episode, I will likely be back in Honduras. For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been stuck outside of Honduras since March when the Honduran government closed its borders. I’ve been separated from my partner, Edwin, since then.
I will try and get back since the borders are allegedly being opened over the next two weeks. Oh, and Sunday, August 9th is a special day for Edwin and myself. Its the one year anniversary of Edwin’s release from the maximum-security prison where he was held as a political prisoner for 1.5 years. I’m hoping to share more with you about that – his case and his release – possibly in the next episode.
Thanks so much for listening. Hasta pronto.