[HNA] FW: Join the IFCO / Pastors for Peace Fact-Finding Delegation to Honduras June 14th – 19th 2010

[Brian O'Connell]

IFCO / Pastors for Peace
Fact-Finding Delegation to Honduras
June 14th – 19th 2010

IFCO/Pastors
for Peace is organizing a fact-finding delegation to Honduras in
response to the increasing levels of repression and human rights
violations in the country since the military coup of June 28th, 2009.
The delegation will investigate the reality for communities and
grassroots organizations after the coup and their ongoing struggles for
peace with justice. We will also learn about the role that U.S. foreign
policy has played in the history of Honduras and its continued negative
impact today.

The delegation will be a demonstration of a
people-to-people foreign policy in support of self-determination and
sustainable development. This delegation will serve as an example to
our own government, which historically has supported policies that
actively suppress grassroots movements for progressive social change in
Central America. We hope that with this act of solidarity we can
encourage the Obama administration that a change in our foreign policy
towards the people of Central America into one of mutual respect and
cooperation on equal terms is just and necessary. As part of our
program we will request a meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Honduras to
share and inform of the findings of our delegations.

We
will spend 6 days in Honduras in fellowship with our indigenous, and
Afro-descendant brothers and sisters. The program will include visits
to different communities and grassroots organizations, meeting and
learning from them at different levels about the problems caused by
U.S. foreign policy and the ways they have creatively responded with
innovative projects which make health, culture, decent jobs, food and
other basic human rights more accessible.

Upon
our return from Honduras the delegation will bear witness to our
experiences by holding report-backs and forums in our communities. This
is an essential part of our work as it involves educating, mobilizing
and organizing here in the US to not only change U.S. foreign policy
but also to continue supporting the movements for social change on the
ground.

Fees and Logistics:

The delegation fee is the airfare plus $700, which includes, ground transportation, accommodations, and at least 2 meals a day.

Housing and meals will be provided by the communities and organizations we visit.

For more information on the delegation and how to participate contact IFCO/Pastors for Peace: ifco at igc.org 212-926-5757

Below
is an introduction to some of the organizations that our delegation
will have the opportunity to meet and to talk with. Many of them have
played key roles in the National Front of People’s Resistance which has
led the struggle against the military coup and its succesors.

Dr. Luther Castillo and the First Garifuna Hospital in Honduras

Dr.
Castillo is a Garifuna physician, community organizer and also the
director of the Luaga Hatuadi Waduheno ("For the Health of Our People”)
Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to bringing health services to
the isolated indigenous communities on the Atlantic Coast. Dr. Castillo
graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba in 2005
and returned to his region to lead the building of the first “Garifuna
hospital” which has served over 20,000 people. Since the coup in June,
Dr. Castillo’s life has been threatened and the coup government has
repeatedly tried to shut down the hospital.

The National Center
for Rural Workers (CNTC) is one of the largest and most active
campesino base organizations in Honduras. It was founded in 1985 when 5
campesino groups joined together to build an organization dedicated to
the struggle for land for the landless and poorest farmers. It
organizes not only for land, but also for access to healthcare,
education, housing and other basic services. The CNTC has affiliated
communities in most of the 18 departments (states) of Honduras. It was
one of the few campesino organizations to publicly oppose U.S.
intervention in Central America during the 1980’s and it has continued
to take progressive positions on international and national social
justice issues. Because of its work in the countryside its communities
and leaders have frequently been targets for governmental and landowner
repression.

The
Committee of the Families of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) was
rounded on November 30, 1982 in Tegucigalpa. COFADEH is a center for
moral and political resistance to the abuses of government and an
organization for the defense and promotion of human rights. Its
objectives are to fight against impunity; to use the law and justice to
end the practice of the politically and ideologically motivated forced
disappearance of persons; to contribute to the protection of the full
application of human rights and to maintain alive the collective memory
of the past.

The
Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) is
an activist indigenous organization in the southwestern region of
Honduras with national reach. It was founded in March of 1993 to fight
for the recognition of and achievement of political, social, cultural
and economic rights for the indigenous peoples in Honduras. It is also
a center for analysis of the regional and national conditions with the
aim of developing actions and proposals on an ongoing basis for the
achievement of its goals.

The General Worker’s Central (CGT) is one of the
union centrals in Honduras. It was formed in 1970 and has around 120
thousand affiliated workers. The CGT is one of the few workers’
organizations to survive through the decade of the 1980’s which saw the
most cruel and bloody repression against the working class and the
other diverse organized sectors of the people.

LOS NECIOS (OPLN)
is a political organization of youth working for radical change in the
dominant and unjust social and economic structures in order to build a
different society. The organization is centered in Tegucigalpa and is
composed of members, mainly youth, from different sectors who are
committed to social transformation. The Necios’ political activity is
organizing in diverse social sectors, political education and ongoing
analysis of the national reality. Much of their work is also in
alternative media.

The Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras
(OFRANEH) was founded in 1979 to defend the Garifuna and other
Afro-Honduran’s rights, lands, and culture and to fight for justice in
all spheres of life for these communities. The Garifuna people are the
largest ethnic minority in Honduras and OFRANEH has struggled for legal
recognition and protection of their lands and territory, and for
bilingual education. OFANEH is an activist organization that has
participated, since it’s founding, in the movements for social justice
in Honduras; it has also been a target for repression throughout its
history.

To sign up contact:
Manolo de los Santos
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
418 W 145th Street
New York, NY, 10031
Tel 212-926-5757  fax 212-926-5842
www.ifconews.org





 		 	   		  
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