ORIGINAL IN SPANISH
March 27, 2017
We the Lenca Indigenous people of Rio Blanco, Intibucá
reject the process that Mr. Juan Dumas seeks to impose in the area of the Agua
Zarca Project. We have not asked for
a process to 'decide' about a hydroelectric project and we reject this process
completely.
The Agua Zarca Project has resulted in murders and
numerous violations of our rights as Lenca people and human beings. We have
clearly demanded for years
that the banks withdraw from
the Agua Zarca Project, and we continue to demand that they leave. But now FMO,
Finn Fund, and BCIE, have hired Juan Dumas to explore 'a dialogue between
communities in the area' to 'decide if a hydroelectric project can play a
role.' We reject this proposal and demand that banks stop financing this process.
We do not need people to come from outside to impose a process. What we need is
an end to impunity. We need justice for
the crimes that have been committed, we need the intellectual authors of
Berta's murder to be brought to trial, we need ILO Convention 169 to be
respected and the concession of Gualcarque River to be cancelled, we need
those responsible for the murders, attacks, and repression we have suffered to be prosecuted and imprisoned.
We have clearly expressed our rejection of a dam on
the sacred Gualcarque River, from the first moment that strangers arrived to
plant cement in our territory without our permission. We have already made our
decision and we completely reject any hydroelectric project on the Gualcarque
River. The State violated our right to free, prior, and informed consultation, but
we, autonomously, in Indigenous Assemblies and meetings since 2010 with the
participation of several communities, have made the decision to reject a
hydroelectric project on the sacred Gualcarque River. We have repeatedly rejected a hydroelectric
project. DESA and the state authorities never
accepted our decision and spent years trying to create division and break our
legitimate resistance. They have offered bribes to buy leaders, they have threatened,
attacked, and murdered leaders and people who speak out against the project, they have paid assassins and people in the area who attack
us and have even have paid people to be in favor of the project. DESA needs to
be prosecuted for promoting corruption and paying bribes.
As a result of the attempts to impose the Agua Zarca
Project, we have lived the repression of the government and DESA. We have lost
companions. We have seen how DESA uses hired assassins and violent people in
the area to threaten and attack. We the signers of this letter risk our lives
to defend the life of the Gualcarque River. We also know many people in other
communities who oppose the Agua Zarca Project, but are afraid to say it. They know
very well that if Berta was murdered, anyone who opposes the hydroelectric Project
can be murdered. They know very well that we have had guns pointed at us, we
have been hit, we have been detained and criminalized, and we have been threatened
with death simply for opposing the Agua Zarca Project on the Gualcarque River. Bribes and violence have been used to try to
impose the Agua Zarca Project and we all know that they will not stop now. To
impose the process that Juan Dumas
proposes, while those who gave the order to assassinate Berta and those who
threaten and attack us are free, is to ask for us to be murdered.
We demand that the banks FMO, Finn Fund, and BCIE
immediately exit the Agua Zarca Project and that they definitively stop pushing
this process. We completely reject the process that the banks are pushing
through Juan Dumas. The banks and their consultant have no legitimacy at all to
decide what we need.
We ask all international organizations and
institutions of any government to not
support this process, which will only result in more violence and repression
against the Lenca people. We demand the cancellation of the Agua
Zarca Project and an independent commission to investigate and prosecute the
intellectual authors of Berta's murder.
We will continue to defend the Gualcarque River for
our children, our grandchildren, and future generations. The spirits of the female
children of the Gualcarque River guide us.
Indigenous Council of Rio Blanco
Elders Council
Signed by more than 150 members of the indigenous Lenca community of Rio
Blanco. (Signatures are not published for
safety reasons.)
