Honduras is a country rich in natural resources, but like most developing countries, only the wealthy and foreign corporations benefit from this wealth, not the poor. In fact, Honduras makes more money exporting its people to work abroad than it does on traditional exports of bananas or coffee. The gross family remittances from Hondurans living abroad (mostly in the United States) rose 27 percent to $700 million in 2002, making family remittances the country's main source of foreign currency.

One of the poorest countries in Latin America, Honduras has a per capita income of US$920 (2002). According to the World Bank, nearly two-thirds of Hondurans (63.3 percent) live in poverty, and close to half (45.2 percent) are extremely poor. In an effort to combat poverty and unemployment, Honduras has opened up its economy to the maquiladora sector (foreign-owned assembly plants for export), which is the third-largest in the world, employing 110,000 Hondurans (out of a total population of 6.5 million). Maquiladoras are foreign-owned assembly plants for the export of goods, and are an integral aspect of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a megadevelopment plan encompassing the expansion of maquiladoras in industrial zones. This is despite the fact that they pay, on average $3.50 a day, allow no union organizing, and predominantly employ only young women who are often forced to work long hours of overtime and face high levels of exploitation and sexual harassment.

In July 2003, two forums on globalization took place in Honduras: the Forum on Biological and Cultural Diversity and the Fourth Mesoamerican Forum Against the Plan Puebla Panama. Both forums dealt with peoples resistance to globalization and industrial development as the major theme. One of Central America's "Banana Republics," the government and wealthy elite of Honduras are placing the country's future in the hands of economic globalization. The Honduran people, however, want a different, more sustainable and positive future, and they are working tirelessly to create this future in which their voices will be heard.

The Civic Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations in Honduras (COPINH) is an organization of indigenous Lenca peoples from the departments of Intibuca, La Paz, Lempira and Santa Barbara, located in western Honduras. Founded in 1993, COPINH is dedicated to legalizing ownership for indigenous peoples of ancestral lands, and promoting community-controlled development and defending their economic, cultural, civil, political and social rights.

COPINH has conducted workshops with 250 indigenous and campesino communities, many of which have been repressed for decades and are largely agrarian, poor, and illiterate. The Lenca people in particular have lost their language and much of their culture has been destroyed. COPINH strives to strengthen community organizing, educate and train local populations on human/indigenous rights, fight land rights violations, and create strategies to protect indigenous society. They also carry out education and advocacy work related to a wide range of issues that negatively impact their communities, especially globalization.

COPINH was the host of the Third Forum on Biological and Cultural Diversity in La Esperanza, Honduras, in July 2003 (they also hosted the 2^nd Forum Against Dams, taking place at the same time). The intent was to address the threat that economic globalization poses to ecosystems and cultures, and to approach the issue from both a regional and global perspective, focusing on shared experiences and resistance strategies. The forum brought 800 people from all Central American countries, representing more than 150 civil society organizations, including campesino, indigenous, youth, and women. Representatives from these organizations, along with local community members, shared stories of repression and discussed struggles against biopiracy, intellectual property rights, food security, privatization of water and energy and a host of other topics.

The groups and individuals gathered at the forum denounced, among other things, the imposition of a homogenous, consumer-oriented, and individualistic culture as expressed through free trade agreements, and the invasion of transnational companies that are privatizing and destroying the commons. Demands included recognition of and respect for traditional medicine, a moratorium on genetically modified products, the ratification of Agreement 169 of the International Labor Organization (which requires nation states to recognize and protect their indigenous peoples), agrarian reform, implementation of public policies that guarantee women have access to land ownership and credit, and rejection of increased militarization and repression.

Struggle over land rights is an issue all indigenous peoples in Honduras are facing, and a topic of concern at the forum. Logging, mining, and tourism are presenting some of the biggest threats, as the Honduran government views PPP-related projects as a fast-track to developing the economy. Currently there is a big push to bring eco-tourism dollars to the country. According to the Honduras Ministry of Tourism, more than 800,000 foreigners visited the country in 2002, generating about $350 million in revenue. The Ministry projects that Honduras will attract more than one million tourists by 2005. This has several implications for indigenous communities.

Several members of the Garifuna community were present at the forum and eager to discuss the threats to their culture and lifestyle. Land was one of the top concerns. Honduran government officials view the land of the Garifuna people as strategic to economic development. Located on the north coast of Honduras, the Garifuna are battling developers who want to turn the beautiful, idyllic coastline into a diving mecca and a string of tourist resorts (in addition to logging and other industrial pursuits). Some of this has already taken place, resulting in loss of land, loss of traditional food sources (i.e., deer, wild hogs), depletion of fish stocks, and destruction of wild herbs used for medicinal purposes. There has also been a lack of water as tourist facilities tap into the water supply and the Garifuna have lost access to their own beaches, as hotels create "private" beaches for their guests. This growth of tourism has in turn resulted in the systematic dispossession of Garifuna lands.

Theoretically, indigenous rights in Honduras are protected. Article 107 of the Honduran constitution protects the land rights of indigenous people. It stipulates that a foreign company cannot own land within 40 kilometers of coastal lands. Article 346 states that it is the duty of the government to create measures to protect the rights and interests of indigenous communities in the country, especially with respect to the land and forests where they are settled. Oftentimes, though, the government has either ignored the law or found ways to get around it, such as by buying out indigenous people or claiming the government is acting on their behalf. In November 1998, shortly after Hurricane Mitch, the Honduras National Congress tried to reform Article 107, which would have severely curtailed the Garifunas land rights. This occurred at a time when many Garifuna and other indigenous peoples were still without electricity and other services. The attempt failed in part due to the peaceful protests of indigenous groups (which was met with government violence) and because of national and international pressure.

Honduras is also a signatory of the International Labor Organization Convention 169, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Peoples Convention. It outlines the basic rights of indigenous peoples and allows for the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to control their own way of life, economic development, land, and natural resources. One way the Honduran government has found to get around this law is to declare indigenous areas to be protected forest preserves in order to take control away from indigenous peoples. The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve in northeast Honduras is home to Miskito, Pech, and Garifuna populations, yet local communities were never consulted about the establishment of the reserve.

Honduras' agrarian reform law was passed in 1962, and in the 1970s much land was redistributed to campesinos. However, changes in land reform over the years (especially the 1992 Law for Agrarian Modernization) has almost completely repealed the original agrarian reform law. The population of Honduras is predominantly rural, and the people have very limited access to land or none at all, and live in extreme poverty. Land reform is essential for their survival. Indigenous movements in Honduras are organizing and working to gain the recognition of indigenous lands; COPINH has helped its member organizations obtain nearly 200 titles for indigenous communal lands.

The state and developers have waged war over land with the indigenous community of Montaña Verde (a member of COPINH) when they began to organize to regain control of their communal land. In the 1950s cattle ranchers entered the region and laid claim to the land, despite the fact that the Montaña Verde community held two communal land titles from the 19^th century. In addition to cattle ranching, the ranchers wanted the land for wood, water, and minerals and eventually they cleared the forests and established sawmills. The land was later declared by the National Agrarian Institute to be a protected area and the Indigenous Communal Council was awarded title to what became known as the Montaña Verde Nature Reserve. This gave them the power to remove ranchers and their lumber mills. The ranchers responded by persecuting the residents of Montaña Verde (with the help of paramilitary and police forces), mainly through beatings, intimidation, and the illegal detention and jailing of community leaders (some who have been tortured and held without trial). Today many community leaders are either in jail or have warrants out for their arrest.

The Fourth Mesoamerican Forum "For Self-Determination and Community Resistance" took place Tegucigalpa in July 2003, with more than 1,600 representatives of social organizations from the Mesoamerican region, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and United States. Participants included indigenous peoples, environmentalists, unionists, human rights defenders, students, religious workers, and women's groups. The general objective of this forum was to strengthen Mesoamerican unity against the PPP. The themes (or mesas in Spanish) covered globalization and hegemony, alternatives for the Americas, privatization (of the commons), military repression, food sovereignty, investment and trade versus labor and environmental rights, rights of indigenous peoples, and other topics.

The Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a megaproject proposed by Mexican President Vicente Fox in 2001 that involves all seven Central American countries and southern Mexico, and would open the region up to private foreign investment. The PPP calls for the industrialization of the region – dry canals, hydroelectric dams, oil pipelines, gas pipelines, industrial corridors, maquiladora zones, superhighways, a regional energy grid, and high-speed rails – that will run North-South and East-West from Puebla to Panama. It is yet another plan that will help foreign businesses and not local communities, as corporations tap into the area's abundant resources, take advantage of cheap labor, and displace indigenous and rural communities. This region has some of the highest levels of poverty in Latin America. Grassroots resistance has been growing, and in the past few years, three regional forums have been held on the PPP, drawing civil and social organizations from throughout Mexico and Central America to discuss opposition and alternatives to the PPP.

The final declaration from the forum included proposals intended to make another Mesoamerica possible. A few of the proposals and positions included:

• rejection of the privatization of public services (which should constitute fundamental human rights);
• the fulfillment of labor rights and the creation of dignified jobs via national employment policies;
• rejection of profit through intellectual property rights which legitimize biopiracy in Mesoamerica;
• rejection of the repression against indigenous and African-descended communities that is taking place through the PPP and other trade agreements;
• creation of an economic solidarity system that meets human needs and that rests on community organization and the empowerment of the people;
• rejection of free trade agreements and pushing for an authentic process of integration of our communities, founded on agreements of energy, technical, cultural, environmental, social and economic cooperation;
• call for the de-militarization of Mesoamerica and the immediate withdrawal of U.S. military bases.

The escalation of violence and threats toward Honduran environmental activists was a major concern at both forums. On July 18, during the forum on Biological and Cultural Diversity, a Honduran environmental activist from the department of Olancho was murdered. This assassination underscored the high costs and threats to resisting the status quo for all attending both of these forums. Carlos Arturo Reyes, part of the Environmental Movement of Olancho/Movimeinto Ambientalista de Olancho (MAO), was one of over a dozen environmental activists and community leaders in the state who had recently received death threats due to their work to protect the natural resources of the region.

The Department of Olancho in northeastern Honduras is the most biologically diverse region in the country, with nearly 500 species of birds and many endangered species. Olancho is also an area of high deforestation, much caused by farming and livestock. But logging, most of it illegal, is also turning once abundant land into desert. At least half of the 2.5 million hectares of Olancho forests have been devastated, according to the governmental Honduran Forest Development Corporation (COHDEFOR), in this country with some 11 million hectares of forests.

The MAO requested that the Honduran government regulate timber exploitation, create a sustainable forest policy for the region, and demanded that logging be banned for a ten year period. In a show of community support, local communities in Olancho organized a "March for Life" this past June. Thousands participated in this peaceful march to the capital city of Tegucigalpa, where it was hoped that the president would receive them and hear their demands (he did not). Due to this lack of response, local residents attempted to prevent the entry of loggers into forest areas. The situation between residents and loggers became tense, as loggers and sawmill owners made threats of intimidation and murder against the environmental activists. This prompted the Committee of Families of People Detained-Disappeared in Honduras to issue a communiqué, stating that "terrorism in Olancho is placing at risk the lives of those defending the environment." The very next day Reyes, mentioned in the communiqué as at risk, was murdered in his own home.

A number of hydroelectric dams are being planned in order to meet the industrial development demands of the PPP. One PPP project in Olancho, the Babilonia Dam, has been the site of another death of an environmental activist. The dam is currently being built by the private Honduran energy company Energisa S.A. Communities affected by the dam fear it will cause damage to the environment, divert water from inhabitants, including farmers, as well as force them off their lands and destroy their livelihoods. In 2001, Carlos Flores, an environmentalist and community leader opposed to the dam's construction, was shot in his front yard; two security guards working for Energisa were eventually arrested. Other community members protesting the dam, including the mayor, had received death threats as well.

Another proposed dam, El Tigre, is a joint project between the governments of Honduras and El Salvador (supported by the Inter-American Development Bank) to provide electricity for El Salvador, and has been strongly opposed by grassroots groups in both countries. The dam would be located near maquiladora zones in El Salvador. Communities have not been consulted or informed about the dam, and very little information has been made public, though plans were drawn up many years ago. The dam would displace 20,000 campesinos and indigenous people who live in the flood zone. The El Tigre project was put on hold in July 2002 when the Salvadoran government balked at including an environmental impact statement, as required by Honduran law.

The Honduran government, like all the PPP governments, justifies such megaprojects on the basis that increased energy production in industrial zones will attract investment to the area and increase economic growth. Other dams being planned in Honduras include the Cangrejal, Ozuzuma, Los Llanitos and Chaparral. Based on past history of such projects, local communities believe they will not benefit from these projects, and will only lose their resources and land.

Forums such as these, involving diverse organizations from many countries, generate hope that resistance is not only growing, but is impacting the system for the better. People came together from all different types of situations to share stories of fighting repression – successes and failures – and to discuss how to use this knowledge to energize the movement for alternatives to economic globalization. Victories can and will be won against large-scale dams, illegal logging, dry canals, and any form of repression. Indeed, each of these forums, and others like them, feed off the slogan that "el pueblo unido, jamás será vencido" (the people united will never be defeated). The international solidarity amongst communities and civil society organizations, the best tool there is in the struggle against globalization, ensures that the people united will never be defeated.

In July 2003 the author participated in a delegation (run by Rising Roots) to Honduras, attending the forums on indigenous peoples and biodiversity and Mesoamerican resistance to the Plan Puebla Panama. The forums were amazing and people were united in their desire to make the world a better place. It is a rejuvenating experience to meet with the people who are directly resisting globalization and have put their lives (and the lives of their families) on the line. In addition to attending the forums, the delegation group also met with women working in shrimp factory plants and maquiladoras, and also had a visit to the jail where two community leaders from Montaña Verde were being held under false charges.

Return to Home Page
Return to Analysis Page