Honduran Dam Protesters Face Trial in Ongoing Crackdown Against Defenders

by Nina Lakhani / The Guardian

The suspects pray together on a concrete podium opposite the courthouse where they face criminal charges. Their alleged misdemeanour: “land invasion” during a protest against the construction of a dam. A guilty verdict could bring a jail term of up to four years.

If that seems harsh, then it’s because this is Honduras, where hundreds have been jailed and scores killed for environmental activism over the past decade. The accused – a teacher, hardware-store owner, farmers and the newly elected municipal mayor – are opposed to a dam on the Jilamito river in the tropical region of Atlántida. The authorities are hoping a prosecution will enable them to clear a makeshift community blockade in the remote hilly pastures so construction can begin.

Jilamito river supplies several thousand households across the municipality of Arizona, and communities fear the 14MW plant will aggravate water shortages, which the company Ingelsa (Inversiones de Generación Eléctrica SA de CV) denies.

“Holy Father we fight for the rivers and forests you created. We’re not criminal, we’re defenders,” implored the accused amid chants of “the people united, will never be defeated” from the boisterous crowd of supporters.

The “Jilamito Five” are among hundreds of land and environmental defenders caught up in drawn-out legal battles over recent years, a trend advocates blame on collusion between economic elites and state authorities eager to exploit the country’s natural resources for profits.

Honduras is one of the world’s most dangerous countries to defend land and the environment, with at least 130 people killed since the 2009 coup ushered in a pro-business repressive government who unleashed a tsunami of permits for mines, dams, model cities and African palm plantations on mainly rural and indigenous communities.

The death toll includes Carlos Hernández, a young lawyer whose work included representing the mayor, Arnoldo Chacón – elected on an anti-dam platform – in the Jilamito case, shot dead inside his practice less than a month after the hearing. In September 2017 Chacón told police that unknown men had threatened to kill him or those close to him if he continued obstructing the dam project.

“Communities resisting destructive projects, imposed by big money and corrupt acts against their wishes and best interests, are confronted with tear gas, violence, and the selective criminalisation of leaders,” said lawyer Victor Fernandez, co-founder of the collective Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ in Spanish) which represents communities across northern Honduras, including Jilamito.

In contrast, Ingelsa claims its project has overwhelming support from local communities as it has always complied with the law and international standards in the “socialisation process”. The company said they played no role in the criminal charges brought by the state.

“Ingelsa has not filed any claims with the Public Ministry related to the unlawful blockade of the road leading to powerhouse site,” added Gare Smith from US law firm Foley Hoag, who also described the murder as “awful”.

Extractive industries are booming in Honduras with 39 privately owned hydroelectric dams currently in operation, according to the industry-run Association of Renewable Energy (AHER), and dozens more rivers licenced. For mining, there are almost 300 exploration and exploitation licences, with more than a hundred other applications under consideration (Spanish). In addition, a handful of conglomerates have taken possession of thousands of acres of fertile plains to grow crops for biofuels.

With the odds stacked against them, grassroots resistance to projects threatening farm lands, water sources and ancestral territories has surged. In response, defenders say that a range of tactics have been deployed to intimidate and divide communities, weaken opposition, and generate terror.

In the country’s most emblematic case, indigenous Lenca leader Berta Cáceres, a celebrated environmentalist and anti-globalisation campaigner, was gunned down at home in March 2016 after a systematic campaign of harassment, attempted bribes, smear campaigns, and trumped-up criminal charges linked to her opposition to the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river.

“In Honduras, the state and economic elites have been complicit in the systematic killing of land and environmental defenders who threaten business interests at least since the 1980s. Back then defenders were called subversives, now they are criminalised. Either way, they’re considered enemies of the state,” said Eugenio Sosa, a sociologist at the National Autonomous University.

The Public Ministry did not respond.

Atlántida is a lush biodiverse department rich with minerals and waterways, flanked to the north by the Caribbean Sea. Jeanette Kawas, a well-known environmentalist was murdered here in 1995 in a suspected military operation after saving a coastal strip, home to more than 400 flora and fauna species, from developers.

The region is subject to at least 34 mining and hydroelectric dam licences, with scores more applications under consideration, according to data collated by the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (Cehprodec).

Fear of state forces is justified. At least 36 people were killed and hundreds detained during nationwide protests prompted by last November’s general elections which were mired by fraud allegations. A UN investigation found evidence of extrajudicial killings.

Ramon Fiallos, 67, was gassed and shot in the right arm in January at a protest against the looming re-inauguration of Juan Orlando Hernández as president. Fiallos died en route to hospital in what his family believe were suspicious circumstances linked to his longstanding defence of land and water rights.

Fiallos was a founding member of the Jilamito blockade and had been threatened over years for his work organising campesinos against land grabs by African palm conglomerates.

“We believe the protests presented a perfect cover,” said Magdalena Diaz, 40, wiping away tears with a rag. “Killing Señora Berta caused big problems for the government, so now they’re attacking the base.”

Ingelsa said it was “unequivocally opposed to violence” and Fiallos’ death was unrelated to the dam.

On the same night, about 40 miles west in the community of Pajuiles, Geovanny Diaz Carcamo was dragged from his house by eight men in police and SWAT team uniforms and peppered with bullets on the nearby highway, several eye witnesses told the Guardian.

In Pajuiles, a cluster of rural communities are battling to stop construction of a dam which has converted a crystalline river into undrinkable sludge. Here, the year-old blockade has been tear gassed, leaders beaten up, and last year 14 people charged with usurpation and coercion.

A judge dismissed charges against the first four including Wendy Yanery García, who is currently travelling through Mexico to the US with the migrant caravan as a result of the repression. The case against the other 10 has been delayed for months after the initial judge turned out to be sister of the local mayor who authorised construction to company Hidrocep.

Diaz Carcamo, 37, a quiet-mannered campesino, played a discreet role. He passed information to community leaders, gathered while farming in the hills near the proposed dam site where a camera drone monitors the area.

According to sociologist Sosa, the post-election killings served two purposes. “There were random killings to generate fear among the general population, and targeted killings of political activists and environmental defenders with likely participation of the country’s power structures.”

Hidrocep did not respond to the allegations but Elsia Paz, president of the Honduras Association for Renewable Energy, told the Guardian that opposing energy projects was an extortion franchise run by ideological groups bent on violence. “The Pajuiles project has been developed over 10 years and has all the necessary permits. If the government was really helping us, the blockade would have been evicted within 24 hours. There is no criminalisation, this is a country with rule of law.”