In times of Covid19, stories from Honduras & Guatemala, & how the U.S. & Canadian governments, companies & investors continue to act outside our borders →

Rights Action’s priority work right now is providing emergency support funds to as many partner groups as possible in Guatemala and Honduras, and to send funds to a number of forced migrants/ refugee claimants from Honduras and Guatemala, stuck in terrible limbo in the Mexico and the U.S.
 
This crisis response work is about saving lives. The funds we are sending are drops in a bucket, and they are important.
 
Rights Action’s work is also to contribute to discussion and political activism premised on the basic notion that we are not “all in this together” and there should be no “getting back to normal”.
 
Part of this “normal” is that the U.S. and Canadian governments, our companies and investors, along with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (institutions controlled by a small cabal of rich, powerful “G7” countries) have long maintained beneficial political, economic and military relations with the military-backed, corrupt regimes in Guatemala and Honduras.

"Honduras and Guatemala are countries of historic, “normal” pandemics: The pandemics of exploitation and poverty; of landlessness, hunger and no access to water; of dengue and malnutrition; of government corruption and repression; and, today, of Covid19. All these pandemics are inter-related. Focusing restrictive, even violent actions on one pandemic - Covid19 - without an integral understanding and strategy, can only deepen and reinforce the “normal” pandemics. There will be even more people living with hunger, lack of water and dengue, …”
(Adapted from statement by Dr. Juan Almendares Bonilla)

Below is information from various sources reporting on the current and very real crises throughout Guatemala and Honduras. The realities are not new, and most of them are not caused by COVID-19, but are being exacerbated by it and by the restrictive, narrow responses of the corrupt, military-backed governments.
 
We will continue to share these stories, while encouraging folks to stay informed and support this response work in any way they can.

‘For export’ sugarcane industry in Honduras: Corruption and repression “business as usual”

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In Marcovia, Choluteca, the military regime of Honduras violently evicted 62 impoverished families from their own lands, on behalf of the ‘for-export’ sugarcane industry producing for consumers mainly in the U.S. and Canada. Land and human rights defender Iris Argentina Álvarez was murdered by private security agents of the La Grecia Sugar Company (https://azucar.hn/en/sugarmills/) during the illegal eviction. "Witnesses say police were still in the area when the attackers opened fire on several families with many children. The police did nothing to stop the violence that ended the human rights defender's life and left two other people injured, including a minor."

Dire situation of illegally detained forced migrant / refugee claimants
The U.S. continues to deport illegally detained forced migrants/ refugee claimants who had been forced to flee the “normal pandemics” of exploitation and poverty, violence and corruption of the U.S. and Canadian-backed regimes in Honduras and Guatemala.
 
“Guatemalan deported from US tests positive for Covid19”
Authorities say the 29-year-old man started showing symptoms for the novel coronavirus after being deported last week
By Jeff Abbott, 30 Mar 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/guatemalan-deported-tests-positive-covid-19-official-200330030439882.html?fbclid=IwAR3Z1L1qJZGxZBoKL7-Tldmv-2o-tGIRzwdzZBWVkIatdOhJYSy22cCUuUM
 
2 avril 2020, Sonia Pérez D. @lanegrisgt: Hoy llegó un vuelo con 120 migrantes deportados desde Brownsville, Texas #EEUU, incluidos 66 menores de edad no acompañados. Tres menores con tos severa, dijo el Ministerio de Salud, fueron llevados al Hospital del Parque de Industría para practicarles el examen por Covid19. 

A regional “hospital” in Ixcan, Guatemala

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Jackie McVivcar (www.ghrc-usa.org): “I see folx defending militarization and curfew as a way of dealing with a health crisis. These are not solutions. They only give corrupt governments more power. This hospital is not unlike many in Guatemala, which the state has purposefully collapsed, to make the argument for the need for private health care. In Guatemala, “official” cases of Covid19 are relatively low. But hunger and chronic malnutrition, “atypical” pneumonia, no accessible potable water have always been and will remain high as long as companies run the state.”

Illegal mining in the times of Covid19
Solway Investment Group (a Swiss-Ukranian company) and it’s Guatemalan subsidiary CGN are illegally operating their mine (formerly owned by Canadian companies Hudbay Minerals, Skye Resources, INCO), illegally obliging workers to show up during military-enforced curfews !!, directly putting at further risk of COVID-19 the already exploited, marginalized and discriminated Maya Q’eqchi’ populations of El Estor and Panzos.

Government repression unabated
Honduran human rights organization COFADEH denounces that 10 community leaders and 3 journalists have been arrested by the military-backed regime in the department of Santa Barbara. COFADEH reports that approximately 800 detentions have been carried out around country since the regime’s Covid19 military-enforced lockdown began. The exploited poor simply cannot stay at home and obey the order because they live day-to-day and don’t have the economic means.

“Stay in your homes”. “We are hungry ….”

“Stay in your homes”. “We are hungry ….”

Illegally detained forced migrants & refugee claimants face an amplified threat

Over the past  few years, a disproportionate percentage of people forced to flee their home countries are from Honduras and Guatemala, whose repressive, corrupt governments are supported by the U.S. and Canadian governments, companies and investors.
 
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity: “Last week, fathers, sons, brothers & grandfathers reached out to us from inside Mesa Verde immigration detention center with an urgent plea: Covid19 “will turn our detention into a death sentence.” They have pleaded with ICE to no avail. We created this video to amplify their voices. Now it is up to us.
 
Please view and share, and urge California Governor Gavin Newsom and ICE to take action NOW. #FreeThemAll #FreeThemAllGov #Faith4Liberation

Illegal U.S. aggression against Venezuela
This U.S. military deployment – supported by Democrats and Republicans alike - is one of the largest military operations in the region since the illegal, deadly (thousands of mainly civilians killed) 1989 invasion of Panama to ‘regime change’ the government of Manuel Noriega (formerly a long-time U.S. allie and CIA agent). The U.S. invasion of Panama (called the “just cause” by the Pentagon) was "justified" in part by the laying of trumped up drug trafficking charges against Manuel Noriega.

“Sanctions are terribly cruel during a pandemic”
The U.S. should loosen the economic vise against Iran and Venezuela
By Dan Kovalik and Oliver Stone, New York Daily News, APR 04, 2020
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-sanctions-are-terribly-cruel-during-a-pandemic-20200404-om7zzbw77zgqtdohxra7h7l3pq-story.html

Police in Honduras abusing "pandemic powers"
"The Honduran government has responded to the spread of COVID-19 by imposing exceptional emergency measures, including a police-enforced curfew for the entire country. But in a country where embattled activists and advocates live in near-constant fear for their lives, the recent arrests of two human rights defender have many worried that state and local authorities will use COVID-19 as pretext to stamp out opposition to the country’s scandal-ridden president."

In Honduras, Garífuna communities along the north coast have seen a rise in attacks in recent months, and it continues during Covid19. Attacks have been especially concentrated against the community Masca. Juan Manuel Mena Dolmo was attacked while fumigating cars against Covid19. He is the nephew of Amada Lopez, who had been attacked in December 2019.

“'We're gonna die': migrants in US jail beg for deportation due to Covid-19 exposure”
Ice detainees isolated after one had Covid-19 symptoms tell the Guardian that cries for help and protection have gone ignored
By Sam Levin (@SamTLevin), 4 Apr 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/us-jail-immigrants-coronavirus-deportation?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR1p-1Z9Om_n25bOeauSbXxBFCMvKFFhJ0fGQ-LXdBCcfLCKgtxoCHLbq80

“Cuba’s Coronavirus Response Is Putting Other Countries to Shame”
By Ben Burgis, March 23, 2020, Jacobin Magazine
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/3/cuba-coronavirus-braemar-doctors-health-care?fbclid=IwAR1S7KrtS_VaAUBR5oIs9A2osRO9v2XOjKjCxtKJX1-B9xkC1H-ZkHuMiII

Who has learned of any of this in mainstream Canadian and U.S. privately-owned and government-funded media? Media manipulation of global political, economic and military policies and actions is part of the “normal” we should not go back to.

“U.S. sanctions in a time of coronavirus are morally depraved as well as illegal under international law”
April 6, 2020, by Dan Beeton and Diana Duarte
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-sanctions-in-a-time-of-coronavirus-are-morally-depraved-as-well-as-illegal-under-international-law-2020-04-06?mod=mw_latestnews

In support of the U.S., Canada maintains illegal sanctions as well against Venezuela, Iran, Nicaragua.

Honduran regime using COVID19 as excuse to release assassins of Berta Caceres
COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) denounces the fact that two of the murderers convicted in the assassination of Berta Cáceres will be released from prison due to “Covid19 related health concerns”. Political pressure is being brought to bear so that Sergio Rodríguez Orellana and Douglas Bustillo, employees of the Atala Zablah family, who were sentenced to 30 years in prison for being part of the assassination team (paid for by the Atala Zablah family, amongst others), are released for alleged medical reasons related to Covid19.

Narco-trafficking in times of COVID19, in the Honduran narco-State
En tiempos de COVID, el narco-trafico sigue en el narco-estado de Honduras, cuyo regimen militar mantiene relaciones plenas con USA, Canada, Banco Mundial, Fondo Monetario Internacional, etc.

“Nicaragua and COVID-19”
Another of the mainstream media's best kept secrets
By Jorge Capelán, Managua con Amor, April 6th 2020
http://www.tortillaconsal.com/tortilla/node/9033

Hunger driving people to streets, met by violence of narco-trafficking military regime
April 8, 2020, the Honduras Solidarity Network (@hondurassol) reports on road blockades in northern city of Choloma where many North American sweatshops are located. People are hungry & cannot obey absolute lockdown in Cortés dep’t where high incidence rates of Covid19.

Honduras Solidarity Network reports that more than 6,000 people have been detained during the military-enforced lockdown. It’s very difficult for human rights defenders & lawyers to mobilize and respond to support people which means many abuses will go unknown and undocumented.

“Hedge funds 'raking in billions' during coronavirus crisis”
Managers are pocketing large sums while care workers can barely scrape by
By Rupert Neate and Jasper Jolly, 9 Apr 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/09/hedge-funds-raking-in-billions-during-coronavirus-crisis?fbclid=IwAR1D3twQTKwXO23rwpCyEM5BwlcgJVOr_EFFX1JGItpW10BRULtQP8h3KOU

Jonathan Ruffer, founder of Ruffer Investment, told clients it had made £2.4bn during the global stock market collapse.

Jonathan Ruffer, founder of Ruffer Investment, told clients
it had made £2.4bn during the global stock market collapse.

Fully operating, unregulated (in most important ways) global stock exchanges around the world are the “normal” that rich and powerful nations, and wealthy sectors of nations across the planet are trying to get back to.

“Canada to resume approving military-goods exports to Saudi Arabia”
By Steven Chase, April 9, 2020
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-to-lift-ban-on-export-of-military-goods-to-saudi-arabia/
 
"Getting back to normal" in Canada, helping Canada's economy - armaments industry, investors and pension funds, workers, parts suppliers -, which will contribute directly to more deaths and destruction caused by the military-backed Saudi regime.

Rights Action’s crisis response work is about saving lives. The funds we are sending are drops in a bucket, and they are important
 
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