(ESPAÑOL)
By Roverto Barra
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Civic Council of Popular and
Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), two years after the March 2nd
assassination of Berta Cáceres, the indigenous environmentalist revolutionary
leader of COPINH, we share a text to remember the history of this organization
which, alongside other organizations, helped revolutionize the contemporary
social movement in Honduras.
The beginning of the 1990s was characterized
by the decline of the revolutionary struggles in the Central American region.
This decline did not only mean a change in the political situation of the
region, with the incorporation of guerrilla forces into legal electoral
parties, but also implied the opening of local economies to transnational
capital investment in strategic areas, taking advantage of the neoliberal
privatization of state and natural resources.
For the people’s movements, the demoralization due to the loss of political
and ideological leaders following the fall of the Nicaraguan revolution and the
Eastern European Socialist Bloc meant that coordination and united work were
even harder to achieve. At the same time, there was a strong wave of NGOization
of the models of organization and social struggle, which furthered the
fragmentation of social struggles. The various neoliberal governments in
Central America adeptly took advantage of this.
For Honduras, the recipe was neoliberal but based on a “model of
continuous occupation” that assured that from the 1980s and on, state resources
were plundered while sovereignty was consistently handed over to the North
American empire in exchange for power and impunity for the national elite.
The Resurgence of the Lenca
people
In this regional and national context, Honduran society began to suffer
anti-people attacks with Decree 18/90, which sought to codify into law the
structural changes in the economy and to dismantle public enterprises and
privatize state resources. Thus, the neoliberal government of Rafael Callejas
[1] vigorously implemented [2] a heavy persecution of labor leaders and a
progressive dismantling of the social and agrarian policies that had benefited
the poorest segment of the population.
In 1992 and 1993, the Honduran indigenous peasantry did not even (and
still do not) enter into official statistics. As such, the new neoliberal
agrarian policies did not even consider measures that would respond to the
severe crisis in the countryside; instead, it was just the opposite. In just
three years, more than 50% of the lands allotted in the Agrarian Reform process
of 1964 had gone back into private hands.
Without political or social counterweights, the Callejas government
created an ambitious structural adjustment plan (with the support of the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United States Agency for
International Development - USAID), where the best peasant lands and indigenous
people’s territories were at the center of the economic transformation of the
country. The communal lands in the West of Honduras, historically forgotten but
rich in forests and natural resources became territories under dispute between large
national capital allied with transnationals on one hand, and the rural
communities and organized Lenca people on the other.
Hope was born in La Esperanza
After the end of the war in El Salvador, with the concentration of the
Honduran military battalions in the Western region, especially along the
border, many revolutionary Honduran internationalists began their return to
Honduras with the intention of supporting the social struggle in the country.
This fostered, after various attempts and a slow but steady organizing process,
an alliance between indigenous Lenca leaders and revolutionary ex-combatants,
with the goal of working around the historical demands of the Lenca indigenous
communities and the grassroots organizations of western Honduras.
COPINH was born in La Esperanza in the state of Intibucá in Honduras,
on March 27, 1993 as a fruit of these efforts. Its objective was to “improve
the living conditions of the Lenca people of Honduras and to help fight in our
country, in Central America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the world, to
implement a model of development that is more just, more dignified for human beings
and in harmony with the environment” [3].
The necessity of COPINH’s creation is clear from the number and
relevance of the actions carried out in its first years. Soon after its inception,
the organization was able to stop an industrial logger in the state of
Intibucá. At least 16 logging projects were cancelled because COPINH’s actions and
mobilizations. In July 1994, tens of thousands of indigenous Lenca people came
down from the North Yamaranguila mountains and from the state of Lempira to
join the first and historic Indigenous
and Black Pilgrimage for Life, for Justice and for Liberty. This
mobilization did not only show the urgency of the demands of the indigenous and
black people of Honduras, but also marked a watershed moment for the
organization and the struggle of the people’s movements in Honduras,
resurrecting the marginalized who despite impoverishment and exclusion, raised
their voice and assumed protagonism in Honduras and Central America.
Their demands and their victory were astounding. The Lenca people
achieved legal recognition of the first two indigenous municipalities in the
country: San Francisco de Opalaca (Intibucá) and San Marcos de Caiquin
(Lempira). With that came the signing of more than 50 agreements between COPINH
and the Liberal Government of Carlos Roberto Reyna. Amongst said agreements
were the creation of schools, opening of highways, health centers, etc, in
addition to the promise to review ILO Convention 169, which protects and
guarantees the rights of indigenous peoples. Honduras ratified that convention
on March 28, 1995.
Honduran society since 1994 has been engaged in heavy struggle for
national demilitarization. It is important to remember that the country has suffered
from a dominant military presence in all
areas of life. The model of “Continuous Occupation” implied not only permanent U.S.
military bases in the country, but also the omnipresence of Honduran soldiers
in the operations of state institutions considered key to its security
(Migration, Customs, Telecommunications, Civil Registry, etc.).
In October of this same year, COPINH, indigenous women, students, along
with the black Garífuna community, peasants, and Christian communities -
mobilized around 20,000 people to the capital to demand, amongst other things,
the repeal of obligatory military service, the end of the North American
occupation, and the demilitarization of the country. These and other
mobilizations led to a repeal of the Military Service Law and the withdrawal of
soldiers from state institutions.
Solidarity as the essence of
struggle and camaraderie by the people
The indigenous Zapatista insurrection in Chiapas and the demands for
peace in Guatemala internationalized the struggles of COPINH. In April 1995, a
mobilization was organized to the Honduran capital, which, amongst other
things, expressed solidarity with the indigenous people and their armed
uprising in the state of Chiapas, México, and demanded an end to repression of
the indigenous people in Guatemala. This new organizational push was in line
with the original objectives of COPINH, and, in essence, responded to a
necessity of reciprocal camaraderie in the face of the imperial capitalist
threat, which meant the amplification of domination and plundering in Latin
America through the imposition of the neoliberal model.
For COPINH, solidarity with all the social struggles of Honduras, Latin
America and the world become fundamental, part of their belief that any people’s
struggle is also a struggle of the Lenca people and their organization. This is
reflected in the attempt to coordinate with organizations of workers, peasants
and indigenous people in Honduras and other parts of the continent to build a
mass platform for struggle against the serious threat from the United States through
its imposition of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
This strategic vision to constantly advocate unity, coordination and
solidarity amongst people’s struggles made it possible for the workers,
peasants and indigenous peoples of Honduras to create common spaces of struggle
in the face of these threats and the serious economic crisis that affected
them. It is important to remember that in 1998 Hurricane Mitch severely hit the
community-based economy. The loss of productive infrastructure and of harvests
of basic grains and coffee [4] meant that many producers were ruined, creating an
opportunity for the government of Carlos Flores Facussé to impose, consistent with
neoliberal logic, a Master Plan of Reconstruction and National Transformation
(PMRTN). This plan prioritized the expansion of structural adjustment policies
and the reduction of state benefits, labor and social rights, all to favor
investment and loans for big business owners.
The threat of unemployment, salary freezes and the loss of benefits for
public sector workers brought labor federations such as FUTH and FECESITLIH and
other working class sectors together to create the Bloque Popular (People’s Block) in 2000. This was the first attempt
to coordinate workers and other dispossessed sectors after the grave
organizational crisis of the nineties, permitting the organizations that were
fighting to defeat the neoliberal model in the country to come together. These were
the first steps towards an alignment of COPINH and the organized workers’
movement.
In 2001, Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP),
which later came to be known as the Mesoamerica Integration and Development
Project, was proposed. This was an enormous infrastructure project that would
facilitate the pillaging and exploitation of natural resources to favor big
business.
This provoked a response from workers, community, peasant, indigenous
and urban organizations, who came together to struggle against the plan. COPINH
immediately joined in the work of coordinating spaces for debate and
organization via the Mesoamerican People’s Forum, which formed in opposition to
this plan. The struggles of the sectors most affected by the implementation of
neoliberal policies were also included in these efforts, as was the case with
the education workers with whom COPINH was especially close. The teaching
sector was the worst affected during the government of Ricardo Maduro, and it
was COPINH that would march and support their assemblies and highway occupations
in different parts of the western region.
With the convergence of agrarian crisis, teachers’ resistance, and struggle
against the FTAA and PPP, worker, indigenous and black resistance gained
momentum. In 2003, with the visionary and strategic leadership of different
national leaders including COPINH, these forces all come together under a
common platorm through the formation of the National Coordinator of People’s
Resistance – CNRP [4] in 2003, marking a unique and historic moment of unity in
the Honduran people’s movements.
All of the organizations agreed on and supported the proposal of
“rotating coordination,” prioritizing the protagonism of the various regions of
the country. It was also agreed upon to deliberate in assembly and spaces of
dialogue to plan local and national actions in order to reach consensus before making
decisions. The first relevant action came in August 2003 with the March of Dignity, when thousands of
people from across the country gathered in Tegucigalpa to demand the end of
repression of teachers and an end to the neoliberal policies of the government
of Ricardo Maduro.
COPINH’s contribution to different moments of unity and coordination on
national and regional levels was evident. On the national level, it contributed
by promoting new forms of coordination like the CNRP, which prioritized
dialogue over imposition and consensus-based democracy. It was a big advance
for the Honduran people’s movements as it enabled them to create links of
solidarity between diverse actors, with respect for a diversity of visions,
opinions and forms of struggle. The contribution of COPINH to the national
struggles led to recognition of the role of the indigenous people in the
construction of a new society. The indigenous people began to be respected and
recognized as fundamental actors for change. The ability of COPINH to mobilize
showed that the Lenca people were already fundamental actors envisioning and
struggling for change.
The struggle for women’s liberation
In the midst
of these fights for rights on a national level, the women of COPINH begin a
long journey of rising up and fighting for their rights. One of the first
important struggles was the awareness brought to discrimination and violence
within the organization. Several abusers of women were kicked out of the
organization, thanks to the courage and tireless struggle of leaders like Doña
Pascualita and Berta Cáceres. It was no easy feat to launch, for example, the
first COPINH Women’s Assembly. At the time people thought that it would divide
the organization. Instead, the opposite happened. It resulted in the
institutionalization of the statutes of the organization.
For Berta it
was not possible to advance in the anti-patriarchal and anti-racist struggle without
fighting against violence against women in all of its forms within the
organization itself. They worked for the permanent incorporation of women in
the structures of the organization, as well as engaging female comrades in
political education in all areas of the struggle so that they would be part of all
of COPINH’s organizational and community work.
Berta said
that “the anti-patriarchal struggle is a vision that is expressed in all areas
of COPINH’s work from its inception. (...) This anti-patriarchal idea
intersects with all the areas of organization because we want the machista culture to be changed, we want
to achieve equal rights and have participation in and to benefit from the
organization. Considering that we as women are different people and with
different stories but not with unequal rights, and with this struggle we defend
the valuing of women’s decisions and thoughts in the family, in the economy, in
politics, and in the organizational development of the country and the world.”
For Berta the
protection of women and children who were victims of violence was also a
permanent need. Her dream was to have a safe space for female comrades who were
abused or attacked. Years later this dream began to take shape with the
proposal to build a Refuge House for Women. In 2015 the house was finally
inaugurated, the House of Healing and Justice of the Women of COPINH. There
were many other struggles and efforts as well. For example, COPINH promoted the
Women’s Courts, a space to denounce violence and share resistance strategies,
alongside other women’s organizations. There were also gathering spaces amongst
indigenous women.
Accompanied
by Berta Cáceres, the women of COPINH brought forth important struggles for the
defense of the land. An important example was the resistance of the women in
the community of San Antonio to stop the El Tigre dam, along the Lempa River on
the border with El Salvador. Thousands of women, along with Berta and COPINH,
marched innumerable times between 2006 and 2007 through the community with
their faces covered and machetes in hand, carrying their children and demanding
the end of the hydroelectric project, which was later suspended.
United People’s Struggles and National Re-foundation
In 2006
Manuel Zelaya was elected President of Honduras. His relationship with people’s
organizations had never been good, and this changed only after the last Civic
Strike in 2008 organized by the CNRP. In these years there was a clear shift of
the government towards the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the
People of Our America - ALBA.
COPINH,
which always had good communication with representatives of Venezuela and Cuba,
was able to recognize the importance of the changing position of the Honduran government
and the urgency to support the brave position of the Zelaya government in this
new political context, as it began to confront the powerful elite.
In this
process of reconciliation of the people’s movements through the CNRP they
proposed the “independent people’s platform candidates” with Carlos H. Reyes,
workers representative; Berta Cáceres, indigenous leader; Maribel Hernández, a
teachers’ union leader, and Carlos Amaya, member and leader of the Honduran
left. With a program based on 12 points [5] created by the agreements that were
reached in the First Encounter of the
Workers, Peasants, Teachers, Communal and People’s Organizations in 2008.
The election
of Berta as a candidate not only showed the political maturity of the movement,
but also the recognition of her as an indigenous leader and of the leadership of
COPINH itself. It was through this process of more profound reconciliation that
the organization organized the First Encounter
for the Re-founding of Honduras, in La Esperanza.
From there
they tried to put forth a true Constitutional Assembly, to empower the people
and re-found the country with a new indigenous Constitution, for the people. In
this context of struggle for change the 2009 coup d’etat takes place. On the
date of the elections, the slate of candidates (in a gesture of revolutionary integrity)
withdraws and calls for resistance and struggle in the streets against the
dictatorship.
The coup and the struggle of COPINH
COPINH was
accompanying the initiative of the government to consult the people, which is
why it was dramatically affected by the military repression. However, it
understood from the first moment that the struggle would be waged essentially
in the capital. Thousands of members of COPINH went to Tegucigalpa where, in
addition to mobilizing and accompanying the struggle for more than six months,
they constituted a unit that was sent to defend and protect the perimeter of
the Venezuelan Embassy for more than three months.
Reconstituted people’s power and the
community-based struggle
Once the government
of Porfirio Lobo was elected, COPINH multiplied its efforts of solidarity to
accompany the struggle of the peasants of Aguán, who were being massacred for
demanding respect for their right to land.
There was
also a rupture within the recently created National Front of People’s
Resistance -FNRP. This rupture came from the polarization of the positions
between those who supported the focus on electoral politics and those who
called for the overthrow of the dictatorship through the people’s insurrection.
The electoral line was defended by those close to the Bloque Popular and the political cohort of Manuel Zelaya; and the line of insurrection supported by
so-called “re-foundationists”, was led by COPINH, organizations of the left and
organizations with territorial struggles.
The division
in the people’s movements already existed, as did the deepening electoral
contradictions. The electoral fraud of 2013 brought to light the differences
and the ruptures between social leaders who advocated the electoral line, with the
re-foundationist line being led by Berta and Miriam Miranda (from the Fraternal
Black Organization of Honduras). Both leaders encouraged a new dynamic of
struggle based in the territories, from the communities and for the defense of
the common goods of nature, in response to the onslaught of extractivism from
the Lobo government.
The struggle
for land and territory became one of the principal necessities of the “re-foundationist”
organizations. In 2013 the Platform of Social and People’s Movements of
Honduras is created and Berta and Miriam are the leaders that organize and lead
it. It is in the context of the struggle for the defense of the territory that
the government unleash a witch hunt criminalizing social movement leaders. The
struggle for Río Blanco and the Gualcarque River led to the subsequent
assassination of Berta in 2016, one death amongst many others who gave their lives
in various communities defending nature’s common good.
In this
stage, despite having been severely attacked by State and corporate repression,
COPINH continues a fierce struggle against the hundreds of extractive projects
that threaten Lenca communities and territories.
This is the
current challenge of COPINH: to sustain the struggle. This is why it is
rebuilding its power from the indigenous communities and from its historical
struggle and resistance. This struggle is not only for COPINH but for all
struggles, in any part of the world. As Berta said, for mother nature, for
humanity, because time is running out.
Notes:
1- Currently being prosecuted in the
United States for the infamous Fifagate case, where bribery and corruption was
discovered on the inside of the International Football Federation -FIFA-.
Before this, Callejas was prosecuted in Honduras for different crimes of
corruption.
2- Labor reforms and trade union action
in Central America;
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/fesamcentral/07612.pdf :
3- Constitutive document of the Civic
Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras.
4- Coffee in Honduras is produced by
hundreds of thousands of poor families who depend on their small harvests for a
basic annual income. Small producers are exploited by the export companies and
intermediaries who set miserable prices when buying their harvests. In 1999 the
price of coffee collapsed in the international markets, which meant one of the
worst disasters for the local community-based economy in the country. The Lenca
area in the West of Honduras is one of the regions with greatest coffee production.
5- http://www.sobhonduras.org/index.php/documentos/historia-teoria/59-memoria-historica/192-demanda-de-12-puntos-de-la-cnrp-al-gobierno
