Two days after the Azacualpa Environmental Committee denounced the open-pit, cyanide-leeching mining operation of Aura Minerals and increased risk of spread of Covdi19 …
One day after the Azacualpa Environmental Committee –including Maria Ermita Rodriguez– collaborated with ASONOG to provide Covid19 related emergency food relief to local villagers
Azacualpa villagers / members of the Environmental Committee (Maria Ermita Rodriguez indicated with arrow)
deliver Covid19 related food supplies to community members
… at 8:30am, June 18, 2020, two other women from Azacualpa arrived at the home of Maria Ermita Rodriguez, insulted and threatened her. They told her there would be consequences for her, her son Hector Antonio and all the NGOs supporting the Azacualpa Environmental Committee. The two women ran off when a man came walking along the road in front of the home of Maria Ermita.
The Azacualpa Environmental Committee called the police, but suspect nothing will be done as the police (and military) regularly provide coercive support to Aura Minerals (and MINOSA, its Honduran subsidiary company) to help advance their mining interests.
Honduran post-2009 military coup nightmare continues
Supporting mining harmed communities in Honduras, and supporting a majority of Hondurans suffering under a military-imposed quarantine response to COVID19, continue to be the responsibility of the U.S. and Canada. Since the 2009 military coup, the U.S. and Canada have maintained full economic and military relations with the drug-trafficking, military-backed, ‘open-for-global-business’ regime in Honduras, “a democratic ally” and member of Canada’s ‘Lima Group’.
There will no end to Honduras’ post-2009 military coup nightmare of exploitation and dispossession, pro-business repression and impunity, drug-trafficking and corruption, until U.S. and Canadian citizens bring pressure to bear on the complicity of our governments, companies and investors that are doing profitable business with and empowering the regime.
Rights Action’s Covid19 response fund
Supporting indigenous & campesino communities in Honduras & Guatemala
Updated: June 12, 2020
For more information
Honduras Solidarity Network: www.hondurassolidarity.org;
Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective: www.solidaritycollective.org;
School of Americas Watch: www.soaw.org;
Alliance for Global Justice: www.afgj.org;
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor: https://simcoecountyhondurasrightsmonitor.wordpress.com;
