World Bank facing renewed pressure over loan to Honduran palm oil firm

World Bank facing renewed pressure over loan to Honduran palm oil firm

Campaigners want support for company accused of links to murder, kidnapping and forced evictions to be withheld

John Vidal
theguardian.com, Wednesday 12 March 2014 10.17 EDT

World Bank directors will be urged by Honduran peasant leaders and civil society groups to withdraw support for a major palm oil company accused of links to killings, kidnapping and the forced eviction of small farmers.

The bank's European directors, meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, will be handed a report by Human Rights Watch, published last month, that suggests the Honduran government and police have failed to investigate 29 murders and kidnappings in the Bajo Aguán region since 2009. Human Rights Watch said evidence suggested the involvement of private security guards working for palm oil companies in 13 of the killings and one case of abduction.

The region of northern Honduras has been the setting for long-running, violent land disputes for nearly 10 years, with large tracts of farmland contested between campesino groups and agro-industrial businesses growing palm oil. A total of 92 people have been killed since 2009. The majority of the victims have been campesinos, but security guards employed by private firms have also been killed.

The alleged involvement of guards working for Dinant – a company that makes palm oil and has received $15m (£9.03m) to develop its plantations from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private lending arm, with the promise of a further $15m – prompted an investigation last year by the bank's internal watchdog, the Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO).

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/mar/12/world-bank-honduras-loan-palm-oil-company-dinant

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From an earlier thread:

WikiLeaks Honduras: US Linked to Brutal Businessman

Miguel Facussé, a biofuels magnate entangled with the drug trade, is waging a bloody war against campesinos—with American support.

Dana Frank October 21, 2011

Since 2009, beneath the radar of the international media, the coup government ruling Honduras has been collaborating with wealthy landowners in a violent crackdown on small farmers struggling for land rights in the Aguán Valley in the northeastern region of the country. More than forty-six campesinos have been killed or disappeared. Human rights groups charge that many of the killings have been perpetrated by the private army of security guards employed by Miguel Facussé, a biofuels magnate. Facussé’s guards work closely with the Honduran military and police, which receive generous funding from the United States to fight the war on drugs in the region.

New Wikileaks cables now reveal that the US embassy in Honduras—and therefore the State Department—has known since 2004 that Miguel Facussé is a cocaine importer. US “drug war” funds and training, in other words, are being used to support a known drug trafficker’s war against campesinos.

Miguel Facussé Barjum, in the embassy’s words, is “the wealthiest, most powerful businessman in the country,” one of the country’s “political heavyweights.” The New York Times recently described him as “the octogenarian patriarch of one of the handful of families controlling much of Honduras’ economy.” Facussé’s nephew, Carlos Flores Facussé, served as president of Honduras from 1998 to 2002. Miguel Facussé’s Dinant corporation is a major producer of palm oil, snack foods, and other agricultural products. He was one of the key supporters of the military coup that deposed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009.

Miguel Facussé’s power base lies in the lower Aguán Valley, where campesinos originally settled in the 1970s as part of an agrarian reform strategy by the Honduran government, which encouraged hundreds of successful campesino cooperatives and collectives in the region. Beginning in 1992, though, new neoliberal governments began promoting the transfer of their lands to wealthy elites, who were quick to take advantage of state support to intimidate and coerce campesinos into selling, and in some cases to acquire land through outright fraud. Facussé, the biggest beneficiary by far of these state policies, now claims at least 22,000 acres in the lower Aguán, at least one-fifth of the entire area, much of which he has planted in African palms for an expanding biofuel empire.

Honduras: Indigenous Tolupanes Return to Their Territory With IACHR Orders of Protection

Honduras: Indigenous Tolupanes Return to Their Territory With IACHR Orders of Protection
Wednesday, 12 March 2014 11:35
By Greg McCain, Upside Down World | News

A caravan makes it's way up the dusty winding road into the mountains of the department of Yoro. It is heading toward San Francisco de Locomapa, one of the territories of the Tolupane people, an indigenous tribe that has been in existence for over 5,000 years. San Francisco is also the site of a massacre that occurred on August 25, 2013. Armando Fúnez Medina (46), Ricardo Soto Fúnez (40), and Maria Enriqueta Matute (71) were murdered by Selvin Matute and Carlos Matute (no relation to Enriqueta). The latter two are hired guns for the Bella Vista Mining Company, which has been extracting antimony from the surrounding mountains without the consent of the community and with a mining concession that is in dispute. The two men also hire themselves out to illegal loggers that deforest the mountainsides. The three victims were members of the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ, in its Spanish acronym), which has been protesting the mining and illegal logging and the installation of a hydroelectric dam on Tolupane territory. The community had begun a roadblock on August 12, 2013 stopping trucks that were loaded with illegal timber and antimony and then reporting it to the local police who essentially let the illegal trucks and their cargo go.

The caravan carries members of MADJ, as well as representatives of: the Women's Forum of Life of San Pedro Sula; ERIC-SJ/Radio Progreso from El Progreso; Counsel of Grassroots Organizations of the Aguán (COPA); the Permanent Observatory of Human Rights of the Aguán; members of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH); the Women's rights group Academic Feminists; the Coalition Against Impunity, and International Human Rights Observers from PROAH; and the Honduran Solidarity Network. They are all there to accompany six returning MADJ members of the San Francisco community who, along with twelve others, fled the territory six months ago after the massacre.

It is a bittersweet reunion. The tears of the joyous reunion are mixed with those of grief for the three that were gunned down. MADJ has convened this convocation to both honor the martyrs and to formally have official representatives of the Republic of Honduras sign the Act of Implementation of Protective Measures that were ordered on December 19, 2013 by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR). The District Attorney from the Public Ministry of Yoro is present as is a representative of the National Commission of Human Rights, the Sub-Commander of the National Police of Yoro and The Department of Human Rights of the Inspector General. Indeed, after decades of indifference to the plight of the Tolupanes it was not until the IACHR intervened that anyone from the Honduran government paid any attention. This new attention is a testament to the dedication of MADJ and the members of the community that have maintained the struggle to defend their natural resources. Some 38 members of the community are protected by this act, but it is a hollow gesture if the representatives of the government don't abide by it, which has historically been the case in Honduras.

~snip~

Numerous indigenous activists have been killed with impunity by gunmen evidently in the pay of large landowners—at least 43 in the last five years alone, according to indigenous and Honduran rights organizations—and in a number of cases there has been evidence of involvement of military and police personnel. Murdered activists have come from a number of different indigenous groups, including the Lenca, Maya-Chortí, Tolupán, Xicaque, and Garífuna.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22424-honduras-indigenous-tolupanes-return-to-their-territory-with-iachr-orders-of-protection

UPDATE: Brother of Slain Honduran Journalist Threatened After Demanding Justice

UPDATE: Brother of Slain Honduran Journalist Threatened After Demanding Justice
By Larry Ladutke
March 10, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Back in December, Amnesty activists responded to an Urgent Action on the murder of Honduran journalist Juan Carlos Argeña. Not only has there not been any progress in this case, Amnesty has had to issue a new Urgent Action on behalf of Mario Argeñal, Juan Carlos’ brother.

Unidentified men have threatened and intimidated Mario in response to his public statements about the killing of his brother and his calls for justice in the case.

At the opening of the latest session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 3, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated, “No one should have to risk their life for standing up and speaking out on violations of human rights.”

Remind the Honduran authorities of their obligation to protect Mario Argeñal and others who speak out for justice, as well as their obligation to identify and prosecute those responsible for the murder of human rights defenders such as Juan Carlos Argeña.

Unfortunately, the Argeñal brothers are not the only Hondurans suffering human rights violations. In February, Amnesty International issued a written statement to the 25th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council calling for “urgent measures” to address the “deteriorating human rights situation in Honduras“.

More:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/americas/update-brother-of-slain-honduran-journalist-threatened-after-demanding/

El Salvador presidential runner-up wants vote annulled

El Salvador presidential runner-up wants vote annulled
By Noe Torres
SAN SALVADOR Wed Mar 12, 2014 4:14am EDT


(Reuters) - The runner-up in El Salvador's presidential election asked the electoral tribunal on Tuesday to annul the tight contest and threatened to go to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Norman Quijano of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) trailed Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the ruling leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in Sunday's vote by 0.22 percentage points, or fewer than 7,000 votes.

On Tuesday, about 2,000 Quijano supporters waving red, white and blue Arena party flags marched to barricades in streets around the hotel where the tribunal is counting the votes.

"We cannot allow such a blatant fraud," said Prudencia Aparicio, a 25-year-old owner of a cake shop.

The tribunal is checking that records from polling stations match electronic tallies from a preliminary count on Sunday night, but not recounting individual votes.

More:'http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/us-elsalvador-election-idUSBREA2B03O20140312?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

Uribe should testify over DAS wiretapping scandal: state attorney

Uribe should testify over DAS wiretapping scandal: state attorney
Mar 12, 2014 posted by Andrew Wight

The lawyers defending former Presidential Chief of Staff Bernardo Moreno on charges relating to illegal wiretapping are insisting former President Alvaro Uribe give testimony.

The scandal in question broke in 2009, when it was revealed that the now-defunct DAS intelligence agency had been carrying out a campaign of warrantless wiretaps and surveillance targeting political opponents, Supreme Court justices, human rights organizations and journalists.

MORE: DAS wiretapping scandal

“It is important, useful, and adds meaningful value to the defense. It is necessary to be able to listen to Uribe, who at the crucial time, was serving as president of the republic,” defender Jaime Granados said.

MORE: Moreno vows to face justice over wiretap scandal

The scandal, dubbed the Colombian Watergate, implicated numerous high-ranking officials, including Moreno and Uribe. Moreno has been on trial for going on two years now. The former president, though, under ongoing investigation by Congress for his role in the scandal, has never been formally charged with any crime.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/uribe-testify-das-wiretapping-scandal-state-attorney/

Just like Pinochet, he appears to think he's entitled to protection he plans to get by hiding from justice in the country's Senate. Simply pathetic.

Venezuela massacre victims likely killed by Colombian neo-paramilitaries: Official

Venezuela massacre victims likely killed by Colombian neo-paramilitaries: Official
Mar 11, 2014 posted by Luke Horswell

The murder of five Colombians in Venezuela over the weekend is likely the work of the Colombian neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” said Colombia’s Medical Examiner’s Office Tuesday.

The institute’s director Carlos Valdes told Semana magazine that ” the cause of death corresponds, in all five cases, to a bullet passing through the skull,” a modus operandi commonly associated with Los Urabeños, who control most of Colombia’s drug trade along the Caribbean coast into the neighboring country.

Valdes added that the bodies “were in a high state of decomposition…and heavily contamination with sand and earth” so distance of the shootings and gun type were still undetermined.

The bodies of the victims were discovered on Sunday on the banks of the Tachira river near the Venezuelan town of Ureña but had been missing 48 hours previous from their home town of Cucuta on the Colombian side of the border.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/5-venezuela-murders-attributed-colombian-gang/

For anyone interested in earlier information, please see:

5 Colombians murdered in Venezuela
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110827613

Could have crossed across the border "over my dead body!"

As we have learned from events in the past, an example appearing in this article:

‘Paramilitaries dump murder victims’ bodies in Venezuela’
Apr 21, 2010 posted by Alex Hocking

Paramilitaries are commiting murders in Colombia and then dumping the bodies in Venezuela to impede the investigation, according to a report by investigative website Verdad Abierta.

The website estimates that since the year 2000 more than 200 people have been murdered in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department and surrounding areas before being dumped in the Venezuelan state of Tachira, making it difficult for Colombian authorities to recover the bodies or investigate the deaths. The victims include peasants, smugglers, social leaders, business owners and the mentally ill. The practice continues today, even after the paramilitary groups have been formally disbanded, according to the report.

Fear of reprisal from the criminal groups, the lack of organization of Venezuelan authorities, and the political tensions between Colombia and Venezuela all contribute to making the recovery of bodies and the investigative process more difficult.

The township of Juan Frio, in Norte de Santander, is a major focal point for violence. Situated on the Colombian side of the border from Tachira, it was a major stronghold for the Frente Fronteras, an urban paramilitary group that formed part of the Catatumbo Bloc of the AUC paramilitary coalition. After the group’s official dissolution in 2004, a number of splinter groups emerged that have continued the violence in the region, including dumping bodies over the border.

Cuban cultural exchange in Key West draws ire from some exiles

Posted on Saturday, 03.08.14
Cuban cultural exchange in Key West draws ire from some exiles
By Cammy Clark
cclark@MiamiHerald.com

Renowned contemporary Cuban artist Roberto Fabelo gazed at his painting of a large rooster with two nude women riding it like a horse.

“The rooster has the splendor, color, vitality and a certain amount of machismo, but here are the two women controlling it,” he said, laughing. “It represents the fabulous part of life.”

The work, Fantastic Voyage Key West, is one of three major pieces Fabelo brought to Key West as part of the two-country exhibit “Una Raza/One Race.” Curators from Cuba and the United States tout it as groundbreaking, the first cultural exchange between art institutions of the two politically hostile neighbors in the 55 years since Fidel Castro took power.

But while most of Key West has welcomed the contingent — including host sites The Studios of Key West, the Hemingway Home & Museum, the Oldest House & Garden Museum, The Florida Council of the Arts and the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum — a strong minority voice has criticized the exchange from the start.

And notably not participating in the exhibit is the San Carlos Institute, a heritage center founded in 1871 by Cuban exiles who came to Key West to plan the campaign for Cuba’s independence from Spain.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/08/3976232/cuban-cultural-exchange-in-key.html#storylink=cpy

[center]

(Jose Marti, Cuba's most famous poet, in the center)













[/center]

El Salvador's ex-guerrilla poised to win presidency in runoff election

Source: Associated Press

El Salvador's ex-guerrilla poised to win presidency in runoff election
By Marcos Aleman, The Associated Press March 8, 2014 1:24 AM

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - A former Marxist guerrilla who has promised to continue the government's popular social programs is poised to win El Salvador's presidential election runoff on Sunday, giving the ruling party a second consecutive term.

Most polls show Salvador Sanchez Ceren, 69, of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, with a lead that ranges from 10 to 18 percentage points ahead of San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano, the candidate of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as ARENA.

Quijano, 67, campaigned with Cold War references to the country's 12-year civil war, in which the United States backed the Salvadoran government against the FMLN to stop the spread of communism in Latin America. Quijano said Sanchez Ceren, one of the top rebel commanders, would take the Central American country down a communist path and invoked images of Venezuela's late socialist president Hugo Chavez.

"The FMLN proposals are based in giving the country's sovereignty to Venezuela," he said during the campaign.
But analysts say the strategy backfired in the country of 6 million people more concerned with gang violence and a sluggish economy than ghosts of the past.


Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Salvadors+exguerrilla+poised+presidency+runoff+election/9594344/story.html

Interesting news from Panama, involving a US consulting firm, FTI Consulting,

mentioned in the O.P. in reference to the "Strategic Venezuelan Plan" concocted by Alvaro Uribe, through his "Democratic Internationalism Foundation", US firm "FTI Consulting", and the " First Colombia Think Tank."

The O.P. article says:

The plan was developed during a meeting between representatives from these three organizations, leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, an expert in psychological operations J.J. Rendon and the Director of the US Agency for International Development for Latin America, Mark Feierstein.

Leaked doc – Is Venezuela turmoil plotted from Panama?
By Okke Ornstein - March, 4th 2014


[font size=1]
Left to right: Matias Mora Simoes, Frank Holder and Jack
Dunn at the opening party of FTI Consulting in Panama.[/font]

Now that eight foreign “terrorists” have been arrested in Caracas and evidence appeared on the web that the fascist wing of the Cuban exile community is plotting and scheming in Miami to end the Bolivarian project in Venezuela, why not look at Panama for a moment to see where our little isthmus fits in?

After all, we’ve had plenty of allegations coming from Venezuela that Panama is a center for anti-democracy planning as well, and our former narco-ambassador at the OAS, Guillermo Cochez, has been yelling and twittering his ass off against everything Chavez, Maduro and evil socialism in general, including a failed ploy to “prove” that Maduro wasn’t really a Venezuelan citizen.

Ah, but in November last year, lawyer Eva Golinger – author of the best seller The Chavez Code – wrote on her blog about damning documents. A cabal of US consultants, Colombia’s former paramilitary narco-president Alvaro Uribe and loyalists had supposedly drafted a document on how to overthrow the Chavistas. Wrote Golinger:

The document, titled “Strategic Venezuelan Plan”, was prepared by the Democratic Internationalism Foundation (http://fidauv.org), headed by ex Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, together with the First Colombia Think Tank (http://www.pensamientocolombia.org) and the US Consulting firm, FTI Consulting (http://www.fticonsulting.com). Dated June 13, 2013, the plan was developed during a meeting between representatives from these three organizations, leaders of the Venezuelan opposicion, including Maria Corina Machado, Julio Borges and Ramon Guillermo Avelado, expert in psychological operations J.J. Rendon and the Director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for Latin America, Mark Feierstein.

The strategic plan to destabilize Venezuela has the primary goal of debilitating the government before the December 8 municipal elections, as revealed in the document: “The objectives put forth in the present plan are essentially geared towards the municipal elections set for December 8, while at the same time including the accelerated deterioration of the government, facilitating an opposition victory for this event…” Though the text states further, “…but if it could be done beforehand, that would be even better”.

The document also details the strategy to sabotage the electrical system in Venezuela, with the objective of blaming the government for a weak infrastructure and therefore projecting an image of crisis in Venezuela on an international level. As part of the plan, the authors propose, “To maintain and increase the sabotages that affect public services, particularly the electrical system, that will enable responsibility to be placed on the government for supposed inefficiencies and negligence”. For the past few months, blackouts and other electrical shortages have affected different regions throughout Venezuela, causing general discontent and reflecting negatively on the government. Just weeks ago, Venezuelan authorities detained various individuals involved in sabotaging the electrical system and at the end of September, President Maduro expelled three US diplomats from the US Embassy in Caracas for their alleged role in destabilization plans against the state.

In the section labeled “Actions”, the authors of the document detail their next steps to undermine the Venezuelan government. In addition to “Perfecting the confrontational discourse of Henrique Capriles”, the opposition candidate who lost to Maduro in April’s presidential elections, they also talk of “Generating emotion with short messages that reach the largest quantity of people and emphasize social problems, provoking social discontent. Increase problems with supply of basic consumer products".

Plan Estratégico Venezuela
13 de junio de 2013

Democracy in Latin America has suffered a setback and is kidnapped by populist governments that prohibit, violate and intimidated the liberal thinking, freedom of expression and human rights in the region.

El Centro de Pensamiento Primero Colombia (The Center of Thought First Colombia) supports free and open discussion of the liberal thought in Latin America to disarm the expanded threat in the region with the violation of Human Rights and of the Popular Will.

By such facts in conjunction with the FTI Consulting and with the Fundacion Internacionalismo Democratico (Foundation Democratic Internationalism), we work to restore democracy in Latin America that has been aggrieved by the pseudo-progressive regimes led by Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Strategic Plan, agreed with worthy representatives of the opposition to the government of Nicolas Maduro, and is geared toward these objectives with the strong and constant support of several leading personalities in work to return Venezuela to true democracy and independence that has been held hostage by more than 14 years.

Time

We have 185 days to reach the goals set for Venezuelan Strategic Plan and to execute the action designed to achieve the objective.

Scope

In the entire territory of the Republic of Venezuela, to all the sectors of Venezuelan citizenship and to all the government and administrative institutions of the country.

Actions

• To refine the confrontational speech and complainant, Henrique Capriles. That is more fresh and attractive but at the same time to show resolution and consistency in its lines. Clearly establish the motto "We are a better alternative."To generate excitement with short messages but ones that reach greater numbers of people, returning to the social problems, causing social discontent. To increase the problems with shortages of basic products of the food basket.
  
  
• To maintain and increase the sabotage that affect services to the population particularly to the electrical system, that allows for blaming the government for alleged inefficiencies and negligence.
  
  
• To support the normalization of US-Venezuelan relations. This, will dilute the campaign of the government on the interference of the United States and justify the direct contact between our related forces.
  
  
• To create crisis situations in the streets to facilitate the intervention by the United States and NATO forces, with the support of the government of Colombia. When possible, the violence must cause deaths and injuries. Encourage hunger strikes of several days, mass mobilizations, problems in universities and other sectors of society already identified as governmental institutions.
  
  
• To move all available forces to compile a dossier of disrepute and weakening of the government that will give greater credibility to the opposition. With the support of the United States government, manipulate the involvement of the government and senior officials with drug trafficking and money laundering.
  
  
• To enhance the actions of lobbying governments in Latin America, mainly in those countries that may be more sensitive to the pressures of our allies, namely Colombia, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Honduras. At the same time depressing the governments of countries allied to the regime, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua generating discredit in both regions.To increase the supply of financial funds that Venezuelan opposition receives, aiming to reach at least 55% of the mayors in the municipal elections.
  
  
• To maintain and increase the campaign against Cuban interference; to affect the main social missions and diminish popular support for the government. To especially treat the presence of Cuban soldiers in the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
  
  
• To prepare and disseminate printed and audiovisual materials that expand the matrices of opinion in our interest, with the slogan, "We are a better alternative." In addition to identify and reattribute identified problems that point to the opposition.
  
  
• Hire journalists and reporters from 9 international media: CNN, The New York Times, The New York Post, Reuters, AP, EFE, The Miami Herald, Time, BBC, and Venezuela’s Clarín, ABC, among others. To these ends make the necessary contacts with the Foreign Press Association in Caracas.
  
  
• To promote the pronouncements of opinon leaders and personalities around the world who identify with the feeling of our plans and actions in favor of Venezuela.
  
  
• To extend the image of a severe crisis in Venezuela to more external media and possible countries as a means of managing international public opinion.

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_66152.shtml