When the protests first began in Guapinol, Juana Ramona Zúñiga was in a meeting with the community council. She received a call; they wanted her to join a demonstration in the street. “The struggle is contagious.
“Honduras will not be ZEDE-d,” has been the main response of Honduran society in the face of the imminent implementation of Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDEs, as per the abbreviation in Spanish) in different areas throughout the country. These zones are defined by the Honduran Secretary for Economic Development as areas of Honduran national territory, which are subject to a “special regime”, and in which investors control fiscal policy, security, and conflict resolution.
When she discovered that a hydroelectric project was threatening her community’s river, Alba Domínguez, a member of the San José Civil Society, changed her sewing machines for meetings, picket lines, and other acts of protest. “I could only find time to sew at night. Little by little, I lost clients because I did not have the time. In the end, I had to leave my job”.
“In the villages of Colón, we do not want to be part of the migrant caravans”. The Coordination of Popular Organisations of the Bajo Aguán (COPA) explains that several members of the Guapinol community have already been expelled from their homes as a result of the conflict with mining company Pinares Investments. Some of them left under death threats; others left over their fears for the future.
María Felicita López is an indigenous feminist leader from the Department of La Paz, Honduras and works with the Independent Indigenous Movement of La Paz, Honduras (MILPAH). For many years she has fought for human rights, women’s rights, and in defence of the environment in her native Department, La Paz.
“It’s going to keep raining over waterlogged soil. The land can’t handle so much water”. This is how the leader of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) described the situation in Honduras in a tweet on November 231. And she was right. The next morning, La Lima, a city in northern Honduras, flooded for the fourth time in a fortnight.
Andrea Regina Pineda is a Honduran lawyer commited to the defence of land rights and human rights with the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC). In of October, he participated in a virtual tour in which she held meetings with various europenas authorities in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which will examine the human rights situation in Honduras during this month of November.
This December, and continuously, PBI puts human rights defenders at the centre, in the position they deserve given the fundamental role they play in the protection of human rights and the construction of fair and peaceful societies. Human rights defenders continue to provide voices for the voiceless, pushing for social justice. They often risk their lives to stand up for what they believe in, holding states to account and pushing for human rights to be respected, protected and fulfilled.
Today, 20th September 2019, the environment takes centre stage as people across the world join in a Global Climate Strike, urging governments and the private sector to take concrete action in order to avoid further deterioration of our climate and the manifold human rights impacts that this would imply.
Kevin Ramírez’s community is located between the clear waters of rock pools where families bathe and the jungle-covered mountains that mark the border between Honduras and Guatemala.