By Jim Phillips  — please also act by clicking here: CALLS NEEDED: Call or write your legislator to support the Berta Cáceres Human Rights Act. HR 1945

The Honduran government is sending a delegation to Washington DC for a meeting (the 7th annual meeting) of the Bilateral US/Honduras Working Group on Human Rights in Honduras on Wednesday, May 15th. This will likely  be part of an ongoing public relations campaign by both governments to paint a rosy picture of how human rights are improving in Honduras with the support of the U.S. government. This “public relations” campaign has been ongoing for some years, meant to deflect criticism and Congressional action about U.S. support for repression in Honduras.

But that rosy picture is a phantom, according to Honduran and international human rights organizations. A few recent examples of the ongoing disregard and violation of human rights by the Honduran government and security forces:

• Honduras continues to have the highest rate in the world of murders of women (femicide) and is considered among the most dangerous countries for human rights leaders, environmental activists, and journalists.  

• There has recently been an escalation of repression against protests, in particular the increasing use of live ammunition by security forces during large protests.  For example, on April 30 an armed plainclothes security operative fired on protesting teachers, health workers and students in the streets of Tegucigalpa. A teacher was wounded seriously.

• Another example on April 11, 2019, 17 year old Wilfredo de Jesus Moncada was killed when he was shot  in the head by uniformed police during a protest in Choluteca, Honduras. The police attacked and tear gassed his funeral march two days later. The Honduran security forces receive aid from the U.S. which has been used in such ongoing incidents of repression.

• Indigenous environmentalists continue to be targeted for threats and assassination, including members of COPINH the Lenca Indigenous organization whose leader, Berta Cáceres. was murdered by military and construction company employees for leading the defense of a sacred river against dam construction. This is of particular concern also because of the impunity involved, since her killers still have not been fully brought to justice and their cases continue without final conclusion. Cáceres was an internationally recognized Indigenous environmental activist.

• There have been recent death threats and violence against Rosalina Dominguez of the indigenous Lenca organization COPINH. Since April 29 Rosalina and other members of COPINH have been repeatedly threatened and attacked by men armed with guns, and machetes because COPINH has demanded that there be an investigation and action to protect their members (those demands have gone unanswered).

• There has been ongoing judicial harassment, threats, multiple detentions, of Miriam Miranda, leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH). This escalated again in March 2019. She and OFRANEH have been trying to defend the lands and communities of the Garifuna Indigenous people in northern Honduras against foreign tourist developments and large agricultural enterprises that want the area and are trying to evict the people through threats and attempts to criminalize defenders like Miranda.

• And so on. These are not isolated incidents but a small part of a widespread and ongoing repression of people trying to protect their most basic rights.

In the coming days, the aftermath of the government-to-government meetings in Washington, will be a good opportunity to contact our Senators and Representatives to demand that they:

( 1) look beyond the official narrative and pay attention to voices from the victims and human rights defenders, and

2) support HR 1945, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act now in the U.S., House of Representatives (chief sponsor Rep. Hank Johnson D-GA).