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IFCO / Pastors for Peace

 

 

Fact-Finding Delegation to Honduras

June 14th – 19th 2010

IFCO/Pastors for Peace is organizing a fact-finding delegation to Honduras in response to the increasing levels of repression and human rights violations in the country since the military coup of June 28th, 2009. The delegation will investigate the reality for communities and grassroots organizations after the coup and their ongoing struggles for peace with justice. We will also learn about the role that U.S. foreign policy has played in the history of Honduras and its continued negative impact today.

The delegation will be a demonstration of a people-to-people foreign policy in support of self-determination and sustainable development. This delegation will serve as an example to our own government, which historically has supported policies that actively suppress grassroots movements for progressive social change in Central America. We hope that with this act of solidarity we can encourage the Obama administration that a change in our foreign policy towards the people of Central America into one of mutual respect and cooperation on equal terms is just and necessary. As part of our program we will request a meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Honduras to share and inform of the findings of our delegations.

We will spend 6 days in Honduras in fellowship with our poor, indigenous and Afro-descendant brothers and sisters. The program will include visits to different communities and grassroots organizations, meeting and learning from them at different levels about the problems caused by U.S. foreign policy and the ways they have creatively responded with innovative projects which make health, culture, decent jobs, food and other basic human rights more accessible.

Upon our return from Honduras the delegation will bear witness to our experiences by holding report-backs and forums in our communities. This is an essential part of our work as it involves educating, mobilizing and organizing here in the US to not only change U.S. foreign policy but also to continue supporting the movements for social change on the ground.

 

Fees and Logistics

The delegation fee is $1200, which includes airfare from New York City, ground transportation, accommodations, and at least 2 meals a day.

It does not include exit fees, or baggage charges. Housing and meals will be provided by the communities and organizations we visit.

For more information on the delegation and how to participate contact IFCO/Pastors for Peace: ifco (at) igc.org 212-926-5757

 

Below is an introduction to some of the organizations that our delegation will have the opportunity to meet and to talk with. Many of them have played key roles in the National Front of People’s Resistance which has led the struggle against the military coup and its succesors.

Dr. Luther Castillo and the First Garifuna Hospital in Honduras.: Dr. Castillo is a Garifuna physician, 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 has served over 20,000 people. Since the coup in June, Dr. Castillo’s life has been threatened and the coup government has repeatedly tried to shut down the hospital.

The National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC) 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 Committee of the Families of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) 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 the 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.

The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) 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.

The General Worker’s Central (CGT) is one of the union centrals in Honduras. It was formed in 1970 and has around 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 repression against the working class and the other diverse organized sectors of the people.

LOS NECIOS (OPLN) is a political organization of youth 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 Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) 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 it’s founding, in the movements for social justice in Honduras; it has also been a target for repression throughout its history.