[HNA] COFADEH Alert - Police and Military repress peasants in Trujillo and Tocoa

[Simon Rios]

Radio Globo is reporting now that there are at least 10 detained, shots have
been fired, there are wounded and likely some deaths.

There are over 500 families in these two settlements.



*COFADEH Urgent Alert:  Police and military repress peasants in Trujillo and
Tocoa*

Dec. 8, 2009 - A heavy contingent of military and police began to violently
remove peasant families occupying land in Trujillo and Tocoa in the
department of Colón. This marks an avalanche against this social movement on
the part of a justice system that colludes with elite power groups and
underscores the need to re-found the country according to Bertha Oliva,
Coordinator of the Committee of Families of Detained and Disappeared in
Honduras, COFADEH.

Since December, the peasant families have occupied over 600 thousand
hectares of state land claimed by large landowners Miguel Facussé, René
Morales and Reynaldo although they do not possess title to the property.  As
of last, the communities were informed that military and police were
preparing to launch a surprise operation.

Oliva added that what is happening to the peasants in Colón is another
example of how the elite power groups are utilizing the judicial system
which they themselves have rigged, with devastating impacts on the human
rights of the population.

The removal began this morning at 7am.  Seven buses full of military and
police forcibly removed families without presenting a legal order against
the peasants who are occupying the lands of the large landowner René
Morales, also where three peasant cooperatives including San Esteban and
Guanchías are located.

Since last night peasant families were on red alert and held vigil through
the night according to Adelina Castro, coordinator of the Frente Nacional de
Resistencia in Tocoa, Colón.

Acts of repression against peasant leaders includes criminal changes for
usurpation of lands to actions that threaten their lives.  Men in civilian
clothing took photographs of the leaders with the intention of creating
profiles that can later be used to kill them as has happened to others who
participate in the resistance movement, according to Castro.

On December 16th, four hooded men kidnapped Osman Alexis Ulloa Flores and
Mario René Ayala Hernández of the Unifed Peasant Movement of Aguán,
MUCA.  Members
of the peasant associations live in a constant state of anxiety due to the
high level of risk involved in working the land that they depend on to
confront the poverty in which they are submerged.

The pressure on these communities is directly related to the power of large
landowners in the zone such as Miguel Facussé, a powerful businessman with
landholdings throughout Honduras but is unsatiated in his desire to
accumulate more territory.


The coordinador del Frente Nacional de Resistencia in Colón reports that
shots have been heard in the area and the military has entered lands along
the Río Aguán where the cooperatives are located.  A potential massacre is
feared.

COFADEH makes an urgent call to international human rights organizations to
take actions of solidarity with those affected by this action which occurs
in the context of the cout de tat and a justice system which is compromised
by powerufl elite groups that sponsor and participate in the violation of
institutional order in the country.

*Committee of Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, COFADEH *

Translated by the Quixote Center




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-- 
Simon Rios
(603) 233-1922
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