Palm oil, fire pushing protected areas in Honduras to the 'point of no return'

[Judi Lynn]

by Leonardo Guevara, Lesly Frazier on 30 December 2019 | Translated by Sarah Engel

Residents of the community of París de Leán in Honduras say they have been dealing with dirty water for a decade. To demonstrate this, Concepción Aguilera dips a dish into the well that he built outside his house. Instead of fresh water, a rotten yellow liquid fills the container.

Even the public well that was built by the community only provides dirty water. París de Leán residents say they need to transport water into their community from other areas in order to survive.

Surprisingly, París de Leán, which is located in the Atlántida department in northern Honduras, is in a fertile valley with abundant water reserves. However, although water is naturally plentiful around París de Leán, the growth of the oil palm industry in the area has sparked concerns about water scarcity and land use. Aguilera pointed out extensive oil palm crops on land that he said once held a green forest filled with animals. The crops are owned by the Dinant Corporation, a Honduran company founded in 1960 by Miguel Facussé Barjum.

The beginning
About forty years ago, Concepción Aguilera’s father, José Aguilera, heard that northern Honduras had abundant sources of water, which made it easy to grow rice and corn. With high expectations that were mostly fulfilled, their family moved to northern Honduras from the southern part of the country. José Aguilera joined a small cooperative that owned the land. His family had access to housing, work, food, and education.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/palm-oil-fire-pushing-protected-areas-in-honduras-to-the-point-of-no-return/

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Miguel Facussé Barjum.



(Sitting on the right hand of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo)

Honduras: The Impunity and Legacy of Miguel Facussé
Written by Greg McCain
Monday, 24 August 2015 10:20

Ciriaco de Jesús Muñoz, PRESENTE! Ignacio Reyes García, PRESENTE!; Raúl Castillo, PRESENTE!; Teodoro Acosta, PRESENTE!; José Luis Sauceda Pastrana, PRESENTE!.

These are the names of the five campesinos (peasant farmers) who were massacred in November of 2010 at El Tumbador. Francisco Ramirez calls out the names to begin a meeting with a human rights delegation. The group calls out “PRESENTE!” to show that each of the five is still a part of the community of Guadalupe Carney and a member of the Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MCA in its Spanish Acronym).

November 15th 2015 marks the fifth anniversary of the massacre at El Tumbador, the African Palm plantation on Laguna Guaimoreto in Trujillo, Colon. Paramilitary private guards and members of the military ambushed the five, along with several other campesinos from the community, in the early morning hours as they attempted to enter their property. Francisco was among those severely wounded as bullets tore through his face and body. He is left with constant pain that makes it next to impossible for him to work plus the fact that the land he was entitled to cultivate was stolen from him.

November 15 also marks five years of impunity for the Dinant Corporation whose President, Miguel Facussé Barjum, ordered his private security guards and State security forces to open fire on the campesinos and kill as many as possible. Dinant is a Honduran company that grows African Palm and processes the oil in addition to harvesting other crops. It distributes cooking oil, snack food, sugary juices and a variety of other junk food and household products nationally and internationally. It also has a Biofuel processing program that is set up more as a PR scam for receiving Carbon Credits than as a feasible alternative fuel producer.

Facussé died in June of this year. He was considered one of the richest men in Honduras and the 11th richest in Central America. His death ensured his impunity for various crimes. He made his money swindling banks and other companies and used his influence in the government to have agrarian laws changed in order to swindle, intimidate, and usurp land from peasant farmers in various sectors throughout Honduras. One of his largest land holdings were the African Palm plantations in the Northeastern region known as the Bajo Aguán. It was here, since the 1990’s, that he wreaked havoc on the lives of the peasant farmers. Facussé left a legacy of murder, embezzlement, and theft much of it with the full knowledge and tacit approval of the US government.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/5443-honduras-the-impunity-and-legacy-of-miguel-facusse

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March 10, 2017
World Bank-funded Dinant Corporation Implicated In Drug Trafficking .... Again
Honduras is being shaken up by a court case in the New York Southern District Courts against Fabio Porfirio Lobo, the son of ex-Honduran President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo. On Monday, March 6th in New York, a witness called by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Lobo's case, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, implicated various Honduran politicians and elite in the drug trafficking activities of Rivera Maradiaga's drug cartel Los Cachiros. Rivera Maradiaga is one of the leaders of the Los Cachiros cartel that was identified by the United States Treasury in September 2013 as a "drug trafficking organization."

Testifying before a Federal Judge, Rivera Maradiaga criminally implicated former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, his brother Ramon Lobo, his nephew Jorge Lobo, the current Security Minister Julian Pacheco, two Congressmen - Congressman Oscar Nájera for the department of Colon and Congressman Fredy Nájera for the department of Olancho - and the LIBRE mayor of Tocoa, Adán Funes. Rivera Maradiaga also mentioned the well-known Facussé family that owns the Honduran company, Dinant Corporation.

Below is a translation of an article published by UniVision written by Juan Cooper that outlines Rivera Maradiaga's mention of Dinant Corporation and how the World Bank-funded Dinant Corporation has been ONCE AGAIN implicated in drug trafficking activities in Honduras.

Drug Traffickers Used Landing Strip of Honduran Millionaire Businessman According to Witness in US
From UniVision News online

By: Juan Cooper, March 9, 2017 9:03 pm

A confessed Honduran drug traffickers said to have received a metric ton of cocaine on landing strip of the powerful Facussé family.

More:
http://www.aquiabajo.com/blog/2017/3/10/world-bank-funded-dinant-corporation-implicated-in-drug-trafficking-again

[Judi Lynn]

1. THE OXYGEN TRADE: LEAVING HONDURANS GASPING FOR AIR

Rosie Wong
July 25, 2013

The carbon trade doesn’t just fail to address climate change. In countries like Honduras, it funnels cash to notorious human rights abusers and threatens vital resources.

“We’re not selling this oxygen to anybody,” said Vitalino Álvarez, a participant in the Unified Aguán Farmers´ Movement (MUCA) in the boiling hot northern region of Honduras. Like many places around Honduras and the world, Álvarez’s community is a direct victim of international carbon trading programs—or what residents call “selling oxygen.”

. . .

Miguel Facussé, the palm giant accused of mass killings through Dinant in Aguán, is also implicated in Atlántida. Another three CDM dams, are owned by Fredy Nasser’s Grupo Terra. Fredy is a son-in-law of Miguel Facussé. Nasser in fact owns 20 of the 24 dam concessions in Atlántida. Miguel Facussé’s other son-in-law, Lenir Perez, owns the largest mine project in Atlántida. Facussé has already landgrabbed most of Aguán (the most fertile part of Honduras) and Zacate Grande, and now his family is expanding its control over Atlántida.

Atlántida is a few hours by bus from Bajo Aguán. But lives seen as obstacles to oxygen trading are vulnerable in both places, reminding us of the urgency and relevance of this problem around Honduras and the world.

“The Forest Cannot Be A Business”

More:
https://intercontinentalcry.org/the-oxygen-trade-leaving-hondurans-gasping-for-air/




Victoria Martinez mourns over the body of her son, Carlos Martinez, a 23-year old farmworker who was shot to death on October 2 on the La Lempira Cooperative outside Tocoa, Honduras. Martinez and other members of the cooperative are among thousands of Honduran activists who have seized plantations they claim were stolen from them by wealthy Honduras businessmen. The Honduran security forces have militarized the area, and killings of peasant leaders have become common. Many of the cooperatives were started with assistance from Catholic priests and lay pastors in the region, and some Catholic leaders remain close supporters of the peasant movement. A sister of Martinez claimed he was killed by a security guard from a nearby plantation belonging to Miguel Facusse, the wealthiest of Honduran landowners.
COPYRIGHT: Paul Jeffrey

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Honduras: The deadliest country in the world for environmental activism
Author: Global Witness

…More than 120 people have died since 2010, according to Global Witness research. The victims were ordinary people who took a stand against dams, mines, logging or agriculture on their land –murdered by state forces, security guards or hired assassins. Countless others have been threatened, attacked or imprisoned…Following a two-year investigation into who’s behind these murders we can reveal how projects at the heart of conflicts are linked to the country’s rich and powerful elites, among them members of the political class. Our investigation sheds light on the back-door deals, bribes and lawbreaking used to impose projects and silence opposition…Foreign investors and International Financial Institutions should stop any planned investments in the industries causing the violence - mining, dams, logging, tourism and large-scale agricultural projects…

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/honduras-new-report-by-global-witness-exposes-killings-attacks-against-indigenous-and-environmental-defenders-opposing-mining-dams-tourism-logging