Peace House is proud to celebrate and be a part of the recent electoral success story of Xiomara Castro in Honduras. We are especially pleased to have Jim Phillips and Lucy Edwards as citizen ambassadors from our Peace House – Rogue Valley community. The success represents enormous dedication and sacrifice on the part of Honduran human rights workers as well as many international groups who have helped to sustain the struggle. As Dr. Jim Philips writes:
“President-elect Xiomara Castro issued a 30-point plan for her first period in office. This includes the rescinding of laws that facilitated official corruption and impunity, and laws that criminalized peaceful popular protest and the defense of human rights and local resources. She also intends to bring back the international anti-corruption unit that the Hernandez government and the outgoing Congress had undermined and forced out.”
The election of Xiomara Castro to the presidency in Honduras is a tremendous tour de force which aims to heal a violent country from twelve years of corruption, international extractive resource give-aways, repression, violations of civil rights and impunity. The election is a ultimately result of people who refuse to be ruled by the fear and intimidation of the Orlando Hernandez presidency over the last twelve years, despite false accusations, murders, disappearances and human rights violations showed to those who dared to challenge Hernandez’s effective dictatorship. Many sacrifices have been made, including lives lost to the internal repression and resistance of a system that has not served the interests of the Honduran people. The murder of Berta Caceres, an internationally recognized environmental and human rights activist, is only one example of attempts to fragment and break people seeking a peaceful society.
Peace House has played a smaller, more distant role in supporting the work of human rights and justice in Honduras, especially publicizing articles on the troubling issues as well as the U.S. involvement in financing the past regime. Members of our Rogue Valley community have also traveled to Honduras to telegraph concern over the regime and to offer solidarity to nonviolent activists on the front lines, including organizations such as COFADEH – the Committee for Families of the Disappeared in Honduras – and Radio Progresso, a progressive, ecumenical radio station that reports on the issues.
After so much damage to Honduras, to see this transition offers much hope, some redemption, and an example of how justice can begin to evolve, in that country guided by nonviolent resistance and communities of faith. The message is that the ultimate price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Elizabeth Hallett, Director, Peace House
