HISTORIC AGREEMENT REACHED BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND

THE INDIGENOUS AND BLACK PEOPLES OF HONDURAS

18 MAY, 1997

INTRODUCTION

On May 14, 1997, following ten days of protest by thousands of

indigenous and black people in Tegucigalpa, an agreement was signed

between Honduran President Carlos Roberto Reina and representatives

of five Honduran indigenous and black (Garifona) populations.

Members of these communities arrived in the capital on May 5, 1997,

to protest the recent politically motivated assassinations of two of

their leaders and to demand land for the Chortis people living in the

Departments of Ocotepeque and Copan. On May 12, 1997, at 4:00 a.m.,

five hours before an accord was scheduled to be signed by government

and march leaders, over 2,000 well-armed soldiers and police attacked

the encampment of protesters in front of the Honduran Presidential

Palace. Dozens of people were injured, including a pregnant woman,

children, an international observer (U.S.), and one police officer.

Food was destroyed and personal and communal belongings were

confiscated and looted. Forced to flee, the demonstrators

established a new camp a mile away and received assistance from the

Honduran Red Cross, unions, and popular organizations. Following the

dismissal of the government's lead negotiator, an agreement was

signed between President Reina and the leaders of the autonomous

peoples. The accord calls for a full investigation into the recent

assassinations of Chortis' leaders Candido Amador and Ovidio Perez,

greater respect for the human rights of indigenous and black people

in Honduras and establishes a plan for the distribution of over 9,000

hectares to Chortis peoples in the two westernmost departments of

Honduras. The agreement reached with President Reina also

establishes a Commission of Guarantors to oversee the fulfillment of

government concessions.

BACKGROUND

On May 5, 1997, the "Great Indigenous and Black Mobilization

'Candido Amador Recinos Lives!'" arrived in Tegucigalpa. Organized

by the Confederation of Autonomous Peoples of Honduras (CONPAH),

it's over four thousand participants came from seven Honduran

indigenous and Black groups: Chortis, Lenca, Pech, Tolupan, Misquito,

black English speaking Creoles and Garifuna. The Garifuna are a

black people of mixed African and Caribbean indigenous ancestry, with

their own language and culture. The demands of this latest march,

the fifth in a series of pilgrimages over the last three years

included: 1) the return of ancestral lands to the Chortis people as

called for by the Covenant 169 of the ILO (International Labor

Organization); 2) a thorough investigation into the assassinations of

Candido Amador Recinos, Ovidio Perez and the child, Ismael Leon;

3) compliance with three previously signed agreements between the

Reina administration and indigenous representatives; and,

4) guarantees for the safety of indigenous and black Hondurans.

As indigenous negotiators met with a government special

commission headed by Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, current Minister of

Culture and Arts, an encampment was established in a vacant area in

front of the Presidentia Palace. Conditions in the camp were

extremely difficult, with daytime highs reaching 90 and hard

downpours of rain at night. Food during the initial three days was

scarce. Health care, too, was a problem. The medical school

"Hospital Escuela", the most advanced public facility in the country,

only a mile from the pilgramage, refused to treat over a half dozen

march participants suffering from stress, heat exhaustion, a heart

condition and arthritis. By the fourth day the Honduran Red Cross,

the Ministry of Public Health and private doctors visited the camp

and health care improved. Latrines were dug to directly tap sewage

lines running under the site. While public health risks existed at

the camp, as they do in many Honduran poor communities, there were

no outbreaks of communicable diseases during the encampment.

At the negotiating table, a commission of indigenous

representatives met with government officials. Quick progress was

made during the first two days on the issue of investigating the

recent assassinations. The government agreed to conduct a full

investigation into the assassinations of Amador and Perez, and also

agreed to direct the head of the armed forces to conduct an internal

investigation into the possible involvement of its members in the

assassinations.

However, with most issues regarding demands related to land, the

indigenous committee faced intransigence. Pastor Fasquelle, chief

government negotiator during the initial eight days refused to move

the Honduran government toward compliance with Articles 13 through 19

of Covenant 169 of the ILO. These articles specifically call for the

respect of indigenous cultures and a return of indigenous lands.

The initial demand of indigenous representatives called for the

return of 10,000 hectares to Chortis communities in the Department of

Ocotepeque under the Treaty of San Andres and an additional 10,000

hectares in the neighboring Department of Copan, site of the famous

Mayan ruins of the same name. On May 10th at 10 p.m., and following

six days of negotiations, Mr. Fasquelle presented his "final offer"

directly to the 2,500 pilgrims assembled in the encampment. His

offer: 1,500 hectares to be returned immediately in Ocotepeque

and 500 hectares in Copan, with 2,000 more to follow, for a total of

4,000 hectares. In the two hour long public meeting Mr. Fasquelle

hinted that the protesters could be forcibly evicted if they refused

to sign. This offer was resoundedly rejected in an oral vote. Most

people present felt that the government had offered too little land

and included too few guarantees that it would carry out its promises.

Negotiations resumed the following day between indigenous and

government protesters. Mr. Fasquelle, while not increasing the

amount of land that would be immediately returned, agreed to return

up to 7,000 hectares in the coming months. He also opened up the

possibility that some of the marchers could encamp at another site

within the city where sanitation and other conditions could be

improved. Most importantly, the new offer included a stricter time

table and stronger guarantees of government compliance. On the night

of the May 11th, the pilgrims lead by the Chortis people agreed to

accept the government's offer. A signing of the agreement was

planned for 9 a.m. the following morning.

VIOLENT REMOVAL OF THE PILGRIMS

On the eighth day of the encampment, at 4:00a.m. only five hours

before the planned signing of the agreement, over 1,500 soldiers and

500 police officers armed with riot gear and rifles (including M16s

and M60s, a large tripod-style machine gun) attacked the encampment.

The violent eviction, according to several news accounts, was carried

out without judicial or executive order. Other news accounts stated

that President Reina had directly given the order to dislodge

protesters. Without any further warning than that Mr. Fasquelle had

given thirty-six hours earlier, soldiers charged into the encampment

and used their shields and batons to strike the unarmed men, women

and children.

While some of the young soldiers seemed reticent to attack the

pilgrims who had peacefully assembled in the vacant area in front of

the Presidential Palace, others blindly attacked them. One pregnant

woman was beaten by soldiers, as was another woman who had recently

received a bladder operation. Many children were trampled by police

as their mothers fell during the police charges. Police poured large

pots of cold water on top of protesters and destroyed their tents and

personal belongings. Both marchers trying to comply with police

orders and those that were peacefully seated in defiance were kicked

by police.

Michael Marsh, an international observer at the encampment,

personally witnessed one woman struck directly in the chest by a

baton blow and one man struck on the shoulder. On three occassions

soldiers violently knocked over women with children in their arms.

The children suffered blows against trees and on the rocky ground as

they fell. Several protesters who remained seated were kicked in the

back or chest. Police and soldiers toppled food supplies and

destroyed other personal property. Mr. Marsh was kicked once in the

groin and struck once on the hand by a soldier's baton while trying

to protect children in the areas where the police were most

aggressive. Evidence of injuries following the forced removal

included large welts or 3-6 inch large bruises on shoulders, arms,

chests and backs.

Four people were detained during the action: two indigenous

Lenca organizers, a Spanish priest Carlos Solano and Michael Marsh.

They were held without charges for approximately one and a half

hours and then released. A photogropher documented the attack in

photos published in La Tribuna. No other journalist was present

during the early morning assault since an agreement was to be

signed a few hours later.

The pilgrims established a new encampment a mile away from the

Presidential Palace in a traffic cloverleaf. The new site presented

more danger than the previous, one protester was struck by a fast

moving car during the second day at the site, and there were no

facilities for a latrine hookup. Metropolitan and transit police

who confiscated some of the food and other belongings refused to

return them until the marchers agreed to leave the site for one

located outside of the city. When a commission of marchers finally

procured the release of food, belongings and vehicles, much of the

food had been destroyed and many personal belongings robbed.

As news spread of the violent eviction, support from union,

student, church and popular organizations increased. The indigenous

were greeted by hundreds of student and other marchers from the

capital, who brought food, clothing and other supplies to the new

encampment. Public opinion quickly swung against the military who

dislodged the protesters and the government of President Reina who

presumably had ordered their removal.

THE ACCORD

On May 13th, negotiations formally resumed between the

government and indigenous representatives. Indigenous leaders

demanded the resignation of Pastor Fasquelle from the government's

negotiating commission and he was removed. Following this, quick

progress was made toward resolving the crisis.

Early in the morning on May 14th an agreement was signed

between President Reina and the indigenous delegation representing

the marchers. The agreement includes the following points:

1) The government agrees to conduct a full investigation into the

assassinations of Amador and Perez, and also to direct the head

of the armed forces to conduct an internal investigation into

the possible involvement of its members in the assassinations;

2) The government agrees to return 2,000 hectares in Ocotepeque by

July 14th and 500 hectares in Copan by June 1st. Further, the

government agrees to procure and return an additional 5,000

hectares in Ocotepeque and 1,500 hectares in Copan.

3) The government agrees to provide technical and financial

assistance to the Chortis in the area of agriculture and

cattle raising;

4) The government agrees not to take any reprisals against march

participants, and to insure their security. Human rights

observers will be placed and police forces augmented in Copan

and Ocotepeque where many indigenous people have received

threats or been attacked by wealthy landowners;

5) The government agreed to arrange transportation to return

pilgrims to their communities of origin;

6) The government agrees to continue to fulfill its obligations

under the agreements signed following the marches of July 1994,

July 1995 and July 1996, (the government claims that 70% of all

commitments have been fulfilled, while indigenous groups hold

that the government has only complied with 20% of its past

promises); and

7) The government accepts the nomination of a Commission of

Guarantors to insure the fulfillment of this agreement.

According to several indigenous negotiators, the Commission of

Guarantors was initially opposed by President Reina. This demand by

indigenous representatives offended the Honduran president who

previously served as president of the Inter-American Human Rights

Court. In the end, a list of names was submitted to and accepted by

President Reina. This commission will work with indigenous groups

and government agencies to insure compliance with the agreement.

The agreement was signed by:

Government Representatives: Honduran President, Carlos Roberto

Reina; Secretary of the Interior and Justice, Efrain Moncada Silva;

Secretary of Agriculture, Ricardo Arias Brito; and, Director of the

National Agrarian Institute, Ubodoro Arriaga Iraheta for the

government.

For the indigenous communities: Jorge Arman do Cordova for

CONPAH; Juan Antonio Aquino and Victoriano Perez for the Chortis;

Marco Rosalio Duarte for the Pech; Julian Elias Licona for the

Tolupanes; Guillermo Velasquez for the Garifuna; and Salvador Zuniga,

Jorge Alberto Melghem B., Jose Ramon Reyes and Candido Roberto

Martinez for the Lenca.

For the Commission of Guarantors: Jesuit Pr iest, Father Carlos

Solano; Michael Marsh, San Carlos Foundation; Andres Thomas Conteris,

Christian Commission for Development (CCD); Juan Almendares Bonilla,

Honduran Committee for Peace Action (COHAPAZ); Milton Jimenes and

Narda Melendez, Popular Legal Aid Clinic (CJP); Alvaro Fernandez,

ALFER-HOGAR; Oscar Humberto Mejia, National Committee for Farm

Workers (CNTC); Ramon Custodio, Honduran Human Rights Committee

(CODEH); and, Leo Valladares Lanza, Human Rights Commissioner for the

Government of Honduras.

Submitted by Michael Marsh and Andres Thomas Conteris

For more information write: andres%acceso@sdnhon.org.hn

Please visit the WebPage: www.ibw.com.ni/~cgenica