Human Rights in Central America
Since 1982, Peace House has lent its support for communities impacted by militarism and extractive industries in Central America. This includes those seeking asylum and human rights workers in Honduras. We now provide advocacy sponsorship for human rights accompaniment in Honduras with Committee for Families of the Detained, Disappeared in Honduras (CODEFAH).
History
In the 1980s, as the United States waged proxy war against the revolutionary government of Nicaragua and supported repressive governments in Guatemala and El Salvador, Honduras became the platform for U.S. militarism in the region. U.S. military presence in Honduras grew rapidly and included training and joint maneuvers with the Honduran military in the Reagan Administration’s efforts to control all of Central America.
The result was a decade of war throughout the region, tens of thousands of deaths of innocent people, and imposition of a “national security state” complete with death squads, the systematic violation of basic human rights, and the disappearance of many human rights activists and others. In response, new human rights leaders and organizations arose.
This included the formation of the Committee of Families of the Detained, Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), coordinated by Bertha Oliva whose husband had been disappeared. Radio Progreso, directed by Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno, became one of the few media outlets to provide a voice for popular organizations and denunciation of the violence. Both leaders and their organizations soon began receiving serious death threats.
Peace House Supports Central Americans
The militarization of the region and the misery and violence it caused promoted an influx of migration from Central America to the United States. Many folks in southern Oregon were among those across the U.S. to provide solidarity and offer sanctuary to fleeing Central Americans. Peace House members participated in this solidarity. Opposing the twin evils of militarism and violation of human rights was and remains a core mission of Peace House. Offering support to the arriving immigrants and asylum seekers was a form of accompaniment: an affirmation of common humanity and the protection of human rights for all. This was combined with a serious critique in opposition to the U.S. expansion of militarism in Central America.
Accompaniment for Human Rights Defenders
To defend Honduran human rights defenders, the Honduran Accompaniment Project (PROAH) was formed in the United States to provide international volunteers who would accompany endangered human rights leaders in Honduras. Accompaniment means that the volunteer travels and remains with the Honduran human rights leader to assess dangers and provide a (hopefully deterrent) witness. It is the hope that such international accompaniment and witness helps the endangered human rights leader to remain in Honduras to continue working rather than be forced to seek asylum elsewhere. Accompaniment also involves work to educate US citizens and policy makers about the human rights impact of US policy and to advocate for polices of respect and peace.
How We Got Here
In April, 2010, PROAH received a request to provide short-term accompaniment for Padre Melo at Radio Progreso. Ashland residents Lucy Edwards and Reverend Pamela Shepherd (then pastor of Ashland Congregational United Church of Christ, UCC) volunteered. Edwards has continued her work of accompaniment in Honduras a few weeks or a month at a time, first accompanying Padre Melo, and for the past several years accompanying Bertha Oliva of COFADEH.
In her first few years of accompaniment with PROAH, Lucy was sponsored by the local Ashland UCC. Since 2015, Peace House has been the sponsor as her as her local constituency. In addition, PROAH coordinates with partners in the US including the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas on education and advocacy efforts.
Accompaniment sponsors such as Peace House do not provide material support, but can work to activate local and international awareness and pressure to protect the volunteer and those she accompanies in case of an imminent threat or incident. Local sponsors also support education and advocacy efforts.
Thus, Peace House accompanies Lucy Edwards from afar. For Peace House, this accompaniment is an integral part of a larger context of rights, demilitarization, and a more human resolution of the immigration crisis.
We are pleased that after 12 years of Peace House support for rights in Honduras, a democratically elected president now presides over Honduras. [Jim, can you please edit this?]
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