Why We Mobilize with Berta Today - OFRANEH
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Why We Mobilize with Berta Today - OFRANEH
March 17th, 2016 marks the beginning of a massive mobilization spearheaded by indigenous and black
Hondurans and accompanied by the rest of the Honduran social movements
aimed at shutting down Honduras's capital city of Tegucigalpa until
demands are met for justice in the assassination of Berta Cáceres. One
of the primary conveners is the Fraternal Black Organization of
Honduras, OFRANEH, which has led the struggle for years amongst
Honduras's Garífuna population and has worked closely with Berta and
COPINH for many years. The following is their statement on the purpose
of the mobilization and encampment that just began. [Original en español]
Why we mobilize with Berta today
Berta
is not dead. Her spirit lives in all of the rivers of Honduras and the
world that are threatened by a backwards idea of development that favors
the blood-thirsty political and business elite, whose antiquated vision
calls the death of rivers “clean energy.” We have walked alongside
Berta on many paths and the struggle to defend our territories and
cultures in the face of the devastating aggression of neoliberalism has
been one of our most important bonds. They want to convert the natural
resources on indigenous lands into commodities to be auctioned off,
without any consent from our peoples, who they see as just statistics
that can be dismissed.
Honduras since the coup d’état has become a political laboratory, where the ruling elite have used hideous techniques of social containment and control to get rid of us and maintain their fierce grip on power, making use of the intentionally-provoked violence and bloodshed that is embedded in our society. The execution of Berta is a desperate act by a villainous government that has been unable to neutralize her spirit of struggle or defense of the Lenca people’s territory from the bankers and business people who traffic in death.
Berta’s struggle was rooted in the defense of the Lenca territory and culture and the empowerment of women.
The
central axis of her activities revolved around the Right to Prior, Free
and Informed Consultation. It is a right that has been scorned by the
various government administrations, which haven’t thought twice about
their attempts to give away territory and put our cultures up on the
auction block.
The
assassination of Berta has corroborated her own denunciations of the
persecution that the “authorities” and executives of the DESA
Corporation carried out against her for years. Now it seems that her
death is being used as a pretext to intensify the strategy aimed at
destroying COPINH and annihilating its leaders.
We Demand:
- An exhaustive investigation by an independent international panel into the assassination of Berta Cáceres
- The immediate withdrawal of the DESA Corporation from Lenca territory and the cancelling of all concessions for hydroelectric dams, mining projects, extraction of hydrocarbons, and Special Development Regions on indigenous lands
- Demilitarization of indigenous lands
- Unconditional freedom for our brother and compañero Gustavo Castro
- Immediate passage of the Law for Prior, Free and Informed Consultation, created by the Indigenous People’s Observatory with direct collaboration by Berta Cáceres
- Nullification of unilateral decrees regarding extractive and hydroelectric projects in indigenous territories
- Re-working of the Alliance for Prosperity, which is a false solution to the migration conflict
- Recognition of COPINH as the organization responsible for the oversight of its territories.
Berta lives on and the struggle continues.
Sambo Creek, March 17th, 2016
Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras, OFRANEHhttp://hondurasresists.blogspot.mx/2016/03/why-we-mobilize-with-berta-today-ofraneh.html
