Honduras News Archives: human rights

Aguán Dispute Hinders Foreign Relations

The reported killing of 23 Honduran farmers in a dispute with the owners of UN-accredited palm oil plantations in Honduras is forcing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) executive board to reconsider its stakeholder consultation processes.
In Brussels, the Green MEP Bas Eickhout called the alleged human rights abuses “a disgrace”, and told EurActiv he would be pushing the European Commission to bar carbon credits from the plantations from being traded under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Several members of the CDM board have been “personally distressed” by the events in Bajo Aguán, northern Honduras, according to the board’s chairman, Martin Hession, who said they had “caused us great difficulties.”

“Plainly, the events that have been described are deplorable,” he told EurActiv. “There is no excuse for them.”

But because they took place after the CDM’s stakeholder consultations had been held, and fell outside the board’s primary remit to investigate emissions reductions and environmental impacts, it had been powerless to block project registrations.

Another board member told EurActiv that Aguán was a “hot potato,” which struck at the heart of the emissions trading scheme’s integrity. “We all regret the situation extremely,” he said.

READ MORE: (From Euractive.com

President Lobo Condems Murder

The President of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, yesterday condemned the assassination of an India native, who had become a naturalized citizen of Honduras. Mahadeo Roopchand Sadloo was better known as “Emo”, and a prominent figure in the the National Popular Resistance Front (Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular – FNRP), coordinated by former President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

“We have been meeting with the Attorney General, Luis Rubí, the defense minister, Marlon Pascua, Security Minister, Oscar Álvarez, the head of the Joint Chiefs, René Osorio, and the director of the National Police, José Luis Muñoz, and will engage the full force of the State to determine the whereabouts of those responsible for the murder of Emo Sadloo,” the President stated. “What interests us, is that these crimes are solved, because this should not continue going on in Honduras. So, when we find the whereabouts of those responsible, we can tell you if this was political or something else,” he said.

SUSPECT


Security Minister Oscar Álvarez presented a sketch of the alleged murderer, ensuring a 90 percent similarity.

It was recently discovered that Mahadeo Roopchand Sadloo had filed a complaint with the Committee on Human Rights (Comité de Derechos Humanos – CODEH) in July of this year, about receiving threats and harassment from the private security force of former President Manuel Zelaya.

Honduras: Stop Efforts to Discredit Human Rights Prosecutors

PRESS RELEASE FROM HRW:

The Lobo administration needs to ensure that government officials stop attacking the credibility of human rights prosecutors, Human Rights Watch said today. President Porfirio Lobo also should direct security forces to cooperate fully with abuse investigations, Human Rights Watch said.

On May 26, 2011, Deputy Secretary of Security Armando Calidonio publicly criticized Sandra Ponce, the head of the Human Rights Unit in the Attorney General’s Office, for opening an investigation into the deaths of seven alleged youth gang members in Ciudad Planeta, near San Pedro Sula. Press accounts said that there was a confrontation with the police and that the alleged gang members were armed. Since Calidonio’s public statements, Ponce has received a number of intimidating messages.

“It’s bad enough that law enforcement agents have been unwilling to cooperate with ongoing investigations into alleged abuses,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “But open hostility by senior government officials puts human rights prosecutors at risk and is absolutely unacceptable.”

Continue Human Rights Watch Press Release here.