A delegation from the Chicago solidarity group, La Voz de los de Abajo, visited Honduras in January 2006 to investigate the situation in the countryside along with one of the main peasant unions in that country, the Central Nacional de los Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC). The situation is grim. Since returning from Honduras, La Voz and others have been campaigning on behalf of several specific communities affiliated to the CNTC. At this time we are asking that anyone interested in helping, send letters to President Zelaya to La Voz de los de Abajo (lavozchicago (at) yahoo.com). La Voz will forward the letters to the government of Honduras with copies to the CNTC. You can also contact La Voz to find out about solidarity projects in Honduran campesino communities, including a radio project, library, and potable water projects.

Communities Under Pressure: Write a letter to President Zelaya requesting that these communities be granted legal title to their lands and that harassment and violence against them stop.

Women’s Land Project in the Jardin Clonal in Atlantida,
Since June 2001, women peasant organizations have been cultivating lands that were abandoned by the national and regional university system and declared eligible for land recuperation by the National Agrarian Institute. However, the government has never granted legal title and the university has contested the women’s right to the land. After several years of negotiating the government has failed to resolve the issue. The community was violently evicted once and has been subjected to threats and harassment. More than 100 women and several hundred children depend on this project.

Peasant Enterprise, Reyes Rodriquez in Arevalo, Yoro
These lands were abandoned by the landowner, who resides in the United States, for more than 35 years before the first land recuperation by the peasant community in 2000. The community of 46 families (300 people) has been evicted violently twice and been subjected to detentions, shootings and assaults. The government has refused to apply the land reform statutes and statutes regarding unused land owned by persons residing outside the country. These statutes clearly favor the peasant’s title claim to the land.

Peasant Enterprises in Guanchia, Yoro
62 families live on and cultivate the lands that were abandoned by landlords tied to the banana industry when this industry closed down its banana plantations in the region. Some of the peasants worked on the plantations for 20 - 30 years before losing their jobs. Despite the fact that the National Agrarian Institute of Honduras has declared in support of the peasants’ claims and title was to be turned over to them in 2004, the government has not yet granted title to the peasants.

The situation in these communities is not unique. They are representative of the situation in the countryside in which poor peasants are being driven off the land and into ever deepening poverty. The situation is worsening as CAFTA implementation moves forward. The CNTC and its communities are actively resisting this process and joining in with other Honduran organization to fight back.