One of the tragic consequences of the 2009 coup d’état in Honduras was that it brought to power a government that caused serious damage to the environment, failed to protect activists and defenders of indigenous communities and, moreover, in several cases, was accused of having turned a blind eye. ” to the murders of these civilian leaders, providing those responsible with generous impunity.
Manuel Zelaya’s abrupt departure paved the way for large mining, hydroelectric and construction companies to expand across Honduran territory, in collusion with President Juan Orlando Hernández’s national party. Not uncommonly circumventing conservation laws and having to pay taxes to the drug cartels that control the region. In this way, the nefarious action of the agent, who was himself accused of drug trafficking, placed the economic interests of business groups and cartels above the interests of Hondurans.
This expansion diverted rivers and left entire indigenous communities without resources, contaminated lands with mining companies built without security protocols, tragedies that forced entire populations of villages to abandon their homes to find another place to live. Many opted for the difficult crossing trying to cross the US border to the north.
JOH’s right-wing government (as it is known) imposed a hard-line policy on security, not without failing to make pacts with cartel leaders, thus managing to reduce the homicide rates that placed Honduras among the most violent countries of the world. In 2011, this rate was 93.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Today, there are 37 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants.
A figure that only increased, however, was the executions of environmental leaders and defenders of indigenous rights.
If it is no longer one of the most violent countries in the world, it has become one of the most dangerous for environmental protection, according to the United Nations. According to the NGO Global Witness, more than 120 of them have been murdered since 2010.
The most famous case, by Berta Cáceres, in 2016, had enormous international projection. The environmentalist, who was pressing for the construction of hydroelectric plants on the Gualcarque River, which would block access to water for the Lenca Indians, was shot dead inside her house.
Although the case had repercussions across the planet, little or nothing was done to protect other environmentalists who, like Cáceres, had already been receiving threats for some time. So much so that, in 2020, it was the turn of Marvin Damián Castro Molina, who led a group that opposed the installation of a mining company in Choluteca, in a protected area. He was shot dead in July 2020.
The environmentalists are also executed in groups, as happened with the members of Cerro Escondido, a movement of peasants who worked on a recovered sugar plantation that had been handed over to them by the state. In April 2020, security forces entered the site, burned more than 60 homes, and killed four people, including environmental leader Iris Argentina Álvarez.
The list of challenges that the virtual president-elect of Honduras will face is not small. Xiomara Castro, however, has in resolving these conflicts a commitment to the future of Hondurans. It will be necessary to disarm the web of interests that advance through the countryside and stop the violence. Setting up a sustainable development program that does not exhaust the natural resources of peasants and indigenous peoples is a fundamental task. Furthermore, justice for so many crimes with impunity is a necessary remedy so that these tragedies do not happen again.
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