A State of Siege in Northern Honduras: Land, Palm Oil and Media
Written by Peter Lackowski
Tuesday, 30 November 2010 18:42
Palm oil is a convenient source of biodiesel, and oil palms grow very well in the valley of the Bajo (Lower) Aguan River of northeastern Honduras. This valley is the home of some of the poorest people in one of the poorest countries in the Americas. Their poverty is due, in large part, to the fact that most of the land in the region has been appropriated by powerful corporations controlled by members of the Honduran oligarchy, led by one of the richest and most ruthless of them all, Miguel Facusse.
Facusse owns massive tracts of land throughout the country, much of which he has obtained by fraudulent deals made possible by the corruption of government officials. In the early 1990's, 5000 acres in the Bajo Aguan was awarded to peasants after the closure of a military base on which personnel were trained by the USA in the use of torture and other methods of repression. Facusse bribed "community leaders" to make deals to sign this and other land over to him for bargain prices. He also employs hundreds of heavily armed "security" personnel who are used to intimidate and murder those who stand in his way, so any peasants who objected to this process were "neutralized." (resistenciahonduras.hn November 16)
One of the reasons that President Manuel Zelaya was deposed on June 28, 2009 was the fact that he was actively carrying out a program of land reform, implementing laws that were on the books but never enforced, actively investigating and rectifying cases of fraud and corruption that had deprived campesinos of their land. Miguel Facusse was a prominent supporter of the coup, along with other members of the oligarchy who opposed Zelaya's land reform, his raising of the minimum wage, and various other things he was doing to benefit and empower the popular classes. Zelaya's ouster put an end to these efforts.
With or without the help of president Zelaya, the peasants of the Lower Aguan were living in such extreme poverty that they had no choice but to continue with their struggle for land. Around the beginning of 2010 they began invading the land in question and planting subsistence crops. Facusse's thugs moved in and began killing and beating peasants and destroying their property. But the current president, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, who came to power in an election tainted by repression, censorship, and massive abstention, was faced with the task of obtaining diplomatic recognition for his post-coup de facto government, and this did not look good to international observers. So Lobo began negotiating with Facusse and the campesinos to use public funds to buy him off. Meanwhile, he moved thousands of Honduran troops into the region to set off fears of a massacre that might be carried out under the cover of clearing out "illegal squatters." The clear intention was to motivate the campesinos to accept the terms of whatever deal he struck--or else. Of course the troops were said to be there in the interest of public safety, to prevent acts of "terror" by those lawless, land invading peasants. In April 2010 Lobo announced a deal according to which the campesinos would get a lot less land than they were demanding, with the added requirement that half of that land would have to be used to grow palm oil, and that the palm fruits would have to be sold to Facusse for processing.
More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2800-a-state-of-siege-in-northern-honduras-land-palm-oil-and-mediahttp://www.latribuna.hn.nyud.net:8090/web2.0/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/miguel-facusse.jpg
Miguel Facusse, landowner, etc. Google translation:
Miguel Facusse landlord accused of the murder of 14 peasants
Morazánican Network Information
Tegucigalpa December 10, 2010. The President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras CODEH, Andrés Pavón, Miguel landowner criminally accused Facusse, for the murder of 14 peasants in the Lower Valley area Aguán.
The action was filed with the Public Ministry (MP), the International Day of Human Rights at a time when Honduras is experiencing one of its worst crisis in the protection of civil and political rights, as a direct result of the coup of State.
~snip~
According to Pavon, in the murder of peasants in the Valley have been observed Aguan three special figures, "the murder by hired killers, hate crimes and crimes premeditated or planned massacres."
CODEH is the criterion that the attack on the peasants in the "Hacienda el Tumbador" was made by the landowner under an assassin's thesis that the best defense is attack. "
The organization said that the conflict over land tenure have been no clashes as the police has said, "that there are massacres of peasants", the proof is that it only records a policeman dead.
~snip~
Facusse is a powerful businessman who intends to seize large tracts of land, which the INA National Agrarian Institute, are public lands owned by the State of Honduras, for purposes of agrarian reform after having been purchased from individuals
http://hondurasenlucha.blogspot.com/2010/12/codeh-acusa-al-terrateniente-miguel.html(Graphic photos.)
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