Honduras This Week
Monday, October 18, 1999 (Online Edition 179)
March of Honduran Indians and Blacks met with bullets
By WENDY GRIFFIN
TEGUCIGALPA -- As has become a custom since 1992, Honduran indigenous
groups and Blacks organized a protest march for Oct. 12, Columbus Day.
This year's march was called "Marcha de los Excluidos" (March of those who
are Excluded), and populist Ladino organizations from southern and northern
Honduras joined in.
Each group brought its own protests. The march date was not kept a secret,
but was rather well publicized through the media. Juan Laboriel, a Garifuna
residing in the United States who came for the march, said marchers were
surprised when they were met by the police when they were yet a long way
from town. Celeo Alvarez, president of the Garifuna organization ODECO, said
indigenous leaders were meeting with the government when a zafarrancho or
skirmish began, with the police shooting real bullets and the crowd
answering back with rocks.
The indigenous people and other marchers whose numbers may have reached
several thousand were eventually able to explain their demands at the
Supreme Court and at the Congressional building. It was when they approached
the Presidential Palace that the shooting occurred, even though President
Flores had already given his permission to march, said Alvarez.
Some of the Garifuna marchers felt that the reason for the clash was that
the denouncements they wished to make were serious and involved people high
up in the Liberal Party during the administrations of Reina and Flores.
Besides their basic protest about the proposed reform of Article 107 of the
Constitution that would permit foreigners to buy land on the coast and in
the islands, the Garifunas came to protest recent actions in Limon.
During a previous march on Tegucigalpa, a high level inter-ministerial
committee had been formed to ensure that the Reina administration kept the
promises the president signed with the ethnic groups. As a result of
agreements between all Garifuna organizations (a very difficult task) and
the National Agrarian Institute (INA), supported by this inter-ministerial
task force, the agricultural cooperatives of Garifunas from Limon were given
title deeds to land in Vallecito near Limon, culminating a nine-year
struggle.
In spite of this, the Garifunas of Limon have been unable to use about 80
acres of land, because a man there says he is "taking care of this land for
Miguel Facusse," reports an organizer of the March. Facusse is a wealthy
Honduran businessman with African palms planted in the area, as well as a
resort near Limon. The Garifunas of Limon went to court to have their title
to the land recognized and this person removed. Facusse submitted a request
for injunction in the courts of La Ceiba to stop the Garifunas from removing
this person. The Garifunas have denounced this case to the Fiscalia de las
Etnias (Special Prosecutor for Ethnic
Affairs).
The leaders of the protest in Limon have received threats against their
lives and there is reportedly a contract paid to a Ladino named Osvaldo to
kill Lombardo Lacayo, the former mayor of Limon. Lacayo reports that four
attempts have been made against his life. The most serious was on Sept. 26
when an object was thrown on the palm thatch roof of his house. The roof
burst into flames, with his wife and his four children in the house. While
he was rescuing the children, someone shot four shots into the house. All
the people got out alive, but the house, all their possessions, a car, and
Hurricane Mitch donations for Limon were lost in the flames.
The Garifunas were joined in their protest by Ladinos from Tocoa, who felt
that Carlos Escaleras was also murdered by contract for his stand against
the construction of an African palm processing plant near Tocoa.
Because coverage of the march switched to the confrontation with police,
Honduran Spanish-language papers gave little attention to the issues. Many
of those who were wounded were Lencas who had come to protest activities by
sawmill owners like Juan de la Cruz Avelar, one of the vice presidents in
the Reina administration, who is active in the area of the Montecillos park
where nine Lenca communities are located. La Tribuna reported that the
Lencas also thought that current Vice President Billy Handal was responsible
for deforestation in the area of San Isidro.
Deforestation was also on the minds of the Tawahkas who marched to protest
the deforestation of the Rio Platano Biosphere. A Congressional commission
found that the Tawahka complaints of illegal airfields next to saw mills,
excessive logging in the Biosphere and the burning of forest for cattle
ranching and agricultural activities were all true.
As a result of the march, the proposal to change Article 107 of the
Constitution will not even be discussed in the Congress. If people are
almost killed for agricultural lands given with legal titles supported by
the highest authorities of the land, what would not happen with lands less
well protected? Alvarez also said the ethnic groups will meet with human
rights commissions at the national and Central American levels. "Today's
activities will have a high political cost," he said.
Copyright (c) 1999 Marrder Omnimedia in association with Galaxy
Multimedia. All Rights Reserved.
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