The year 2022 was a year of change for Honduras: it was the first time in the country’s history that a woman assumed the presidency. For PBI Honduras, 2022 was also a year of change, but above all a year of growth: we began to accompany the organisations SOMOS CDC and ARCAH and we increased the number of activities carried out compared to 2021.
“If I fight for the mountain it is because we are the living river. The river speaks, and our mountain nourishes us. If they destroy it, we will have to leave because we ourselves are a part of nature.” - Dilma Cruz, human rights defender from the Guapinol community.
The arrayán (Southern wax myrtle or bayberry) is a medicinal shrub that has curative properties, including the ability to cleanse the lungs. It is also the name of the village where in 1983 seventeen women created the peasant farmers’ organization Nueva Esperanza (New Hope), in the municipality of Comayagua (Department of Comayagua). The name, chosen for its powerful symbolic meaning, referred to the healing that they intended to bring to the “forgotten and mistreated” state-owned, untitled land* where they had lived for generations.
Forty years after Peace Brigades International was founded and at nine years since we first arrived in Honduras, we are continuing to provide integral accompaniment to organizations and human rights defenders at risk: “International presence is the indigenous communities’ bulletproof vest” (Donald Hernández, coordinator of CEHPRODEC).
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”.
2020 was a year defined not only by the questionable handling of the COVID-19 health emergency, but also by the impacts of hurricanes Eta and Iota. According to Centro de Estudios para la Democracia (CESPAD), these events, “have worsened food insecurity due to the lack of employment in the country, the depletion of food reserves, the increase in food prices, land and envi
“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.