Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Delegation to Meet with Social Justice and Human Rights Organizations

Since the June 2009 military coup in Honduras, CRLN members have partnered with local and national organizations to work to restore democracy to Honduras.  Two of those local partners, La Voz de los de Abajo and Casa Morazan, are organizing a weeklong delegation to Honduras, to build ties with Honduran organizations working on behalf of social justice.  Join us - to hear directly from human rights leaders in Honduras so that we are equipped to advocate for just US policies.  

 

The coup in Honduras, led by a graduate of the US's School of the Americas program, has led to the deaths of human rights and social justice leaders in Honduras and called into question the US's commitment to democracy in this hemisphere.  The cost of the delegation is $1,200 including airfare.  Please prayerfully consider joining us on this delegation and working with us upon your return to advocate for policies that will encourage restoring democracy in Honduras.  For more information, call 773-293-2964.

 

Recent CRLN Webstories on Honduras

http://www.crln.org/Condemn_Military_Coup

http://www.crln.org/Honduran_Coup_Tom_Loudon_Report

http://www.crln.org/Honduran_consulate

 

Summary of Delegation from La Voz de los de Abajo and Casa Morazan

For more than 2 months, the Honduran people and their organizations have surprised the world with their sacrifice and bravery in mobilizing daily in resistance to the coup of June 28.  In response to the call from social organizations and the Honduras National Front Against the Coup, La Voz de los de Abajo and Casa Morazan is organizing a week-long delegation to Honduras, with the overall goal of building a solidarity movement supporting the social justice movement in Honduras and strengthening ties between U.S. organizations and activists and our counterparts in Honduras. 

 

There is limited space on the delegation. We are looking for people involved in solidarity work, media, cultural work, trade union and workers' rights, healthcare, immigrant rights and others who are interested in learning directly about the situation in Honduras and willing to help bring information about the Honduran people's movement to the U.S. 

 

The delegation will meet with organizations that are participating in the National Front Against the Coup and with human rights and alternative media organizations. The National Front Against the Coup is the coordinating organization for all the organizations in the country that are resisting the coup. It holds regular general assemblies in which decisions are made for resistance activities. Below is an introduction to some of the organizations that our delegation will have the opportunity to meet and to talk with.

 

The Central Nacional de los Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC) The National Center for Rural Workers is one of the largest and most active campesino base organizations in Honduras. It was founded in 1985 when 5 campesino groups joined together to build an organization dedicated to the struggle for land for the landless and poorest farmers.  It organizes not only for land, but also for access to healthcare, education, housing and other basic services. The CNTC has affiliated communities in most of the 18 departments (states) of Honduras. It was one of the few campesino organizations to publicly oppose U.S. intervention in Central America during the 1980's and it has continued to take progressive positions on international and national social justice issues.  Because of its work in the countryside its communities and leaders have frequently been targets for governmental and landowner repression. The CNTC is a member of the Popular Block, the National Coordinator for Popular Resistance and since the June 28 coup it has been an active participant in the National Front Against the Coup (Frente Natcional en Contral el Golpe).

 

El Comite de Familiares de los Desaparecios en Honduras (COFADEH) The Committee of the Families of the Disappeared in Honduras was rounded on November 30, 1982 in Tegucigalpa. COFADEH is a center for moral and political resistance to the abuses of government and an organization for the defense and promotion of human rights. Its objectives are to fight against impunity; to use the law and justice to end the practice of politically and ideologically motivated forced disappearance of persons; to contribute to the protection of the full application of human rights and to maintain alive the collective memory of the past.

 

El Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH) The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras is an activist indigenous organization in the southwestern region of Honduras with national reach. It was founded in March of 1993 to fight for the recognition of and achievement of political, social, cultural and economic rights for the indigenous peoples in Honduras. It is also a center for analysis of the regional and national conditions with the aim of developing actions and proposals on an ongoing basis for the achievement of its goals. COPINH is an active member of the Popular Block, National Coordinator of Popular Resistance and it is an active member of the National Front Against the Coup.

 

La Central General de Trabajadores. (CGT) The General Workerr' Center is one of the union centersin Honduras. It was formed in 1970 and has aroudn 120 thousand affiliated workers. The CGT is one of the few workers' organizations to survive through the decade of the 1980's which saw the most cruel and bloody refpression against the working class and the other diverse organized sectors of the people. The CGT is one of the largest organizations active in the National Front Against the Coup.

 

The organization LOS NECIOS is a political organization working for radical change in the dominant and unjust social and economic structures in order to build a different society. The organization is centered in Tegucigalpa and is composed of members, mainly youth, from different sectors who are committed to social transformation. The Necios' political activity is organizing in diverse social sectors, political education and ongoing analysis of the national reality. Much of their work is also in alternative media. The Necios organization was a member of the National Coordinator of Popular Resistance prior to the coup.

 

Colegio de Profesores de Educación Media de Honduras (COPEMH) The College of Secondary School Professors of Honduras is the organization of all the high school teachers in the country. Teachers have played an extremely crucial role in Honduran society and COPEMH is the strongest teachers' organization in Honduras with an impressive ability to mobilize and sustain the mobilization of its members and supporters. It is an important participant in the National Front Against the Coup and at least 2 of its members have been killed during the repression since the coup on June 28^th.

 

La Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras (OFRANEH) The Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras was founded in 1979 to defend the Garifuna and other Afro-Honduran's rights, lands, and culture and to fight for justice in all spheres of life for these communities. The Garifuna people are the largest ethnic minority in Honduras and OFRANEH has struggled for legal recognition and protection of their lands and territory, and for bilingual education. OFANEH is an activist organization that has participated, since its founding, in the movements for social justice in Honduras; it has also been a target for repression throughout its history. It is currently an active participant in the National Front Against the Coup.

 

Dr. Luther Castillo and the First Garifuna Hospital in Honduras  Dr. Castillo is a Garifuna physician and outspoken community organizer and also the director of the Luaga Hatuadi Waduheno ("For the Health of Our People" Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to bringing health services to the isolated indigenous communities on the Atlantic Coast. Dr. Castillo graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba in 2005 and returned to his region to lead the building of the first "Garifuna hospital" which serves 20,000 people. He was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by the International Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa in 2007. Since the coup in June of this year, Dr. Castillo has been threatened and the coup government has tried to shut down the hospital. Dr. Castillo was a member of the delegation of Honduran civil society that toured the United States this summer to lecture on the situation in Honduras.

 

Each of these organizations is playing an important role in the struggle to restore the constitutional order in Honduras, beginning with the restitution of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and in the fight for the "4th Urn"  aimed at constitutional reform. The delegation will have the opportunity to visit these organizations and leaders of the National Front Against the Coup in Honduras, including candidates and elected officials from the Democratic Unification Party (UD), independent candidates, Carlos H. Reyes and Berta Caseres, and  anti-coup members of the Liberal Party. The delegation will also have the oppoortunity to meet with representatives of the communication media, that have truely informing the people about what is going on in Honduras and to hear of their experiences and contributions to the resistence. 

 

La Voz de los de Abajo is a Chicago organization that has worked in solidarity with the social justice movements in Honduras for 11 years. Much of our work has been directly with the campesino movement and the National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC). Over the past 11 years we have participated in organizing for the Pastors for Peace caravans to Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua.  We have organized many small delegations that have traveled to campesino and indigenous communities across Honduras and participated in conferences and visits to social organizations in Tegucigalpa.