Statement of the National Resistance Front - FNRP of Colon Honduras
To the national and international popular movements and organizations and peasant organizations: The National Resistance Front {FNRP in Spanish} in the state of Colon demands urgent solidarity for the peasants, Isabel Morales and Carlos Maradiaga, prisoners since August of 2008, unjustly accused of an enormous quantity of crimes by the misnamed “justice officials” in Honduras.
1. In the early days of August 2008 there was an attack, using high caliber weapons, against the Campesino Movement of Aguan {MCA for its Spanish name} in the recuperated lands under the control of Colonel Henry Osorto. This attack was reported to the municipal police of Trujillo and to the state police of Colon who paid no attention to the report due to an alliance with the police chief in the state of Copan, Henry Osorto. In any case, the peasants struggled to avoid an armed confrontation because they did not have weapons.
2. Sadly, one campesino from the MCA and various family members and employees of Colonel Henry Osorto lost their lives in the confrontation. The confrontation was so confused and in such a tight space that identification of which persons participated In the incident would have been difficult.
3. During the same month of August, community and residential water boards were organized in the community of Guadalupe Karney, located in the town of Silin, municipality of Trujillo, Department of Colon, and leaders from the community, in order to work legally, went to register these organizations at the Department of Community Development In Trujillo. What is strange is that everyone who went to register later appears on the list of 32 campesinos for whom an arrest warrant was issued by the tribunals in Trujillo.
4. At the end of October 2008, while carrying out personal, public errands in Trujillo, Isabel Morales and Carlos Maragiaga were captured in the municipality of Tocoa where they had gone freely- not knowing that they had arrest warrants. For days the entire 15th Battalion of the Infantry along with the Special Forces and the Police were mobilized to Trujillo. Days later the men were transferred by military helicopter to a prison located in the city of Ceiba in the state of Atlantida.
5. In the first hearings an innumerable quantity of crimes and accusations were Initiated using false witnesses, including one person with apparent mental problems. Penalties of 250 years for one campesino and 150 years for the other were requested; these are historically the longest sentences, to date, ever solicited in Honduras.
6. The oral and written court proceedings against these campesinos are from Monday June 14 to Friday June 18 of the current year in the sentencing tribunal in Ceiba, Atlantida. The proceedings should have been held in Trujillo but for the convenience of the prosecution's side were transferred to this jurisdiction.
7. To mount a legal defense in this case requires some 600 thousand lempira {Honduran currency) which we don’t have at this time; the permanent presence of organizations at the tribunal in Ceiba; and the unmasking of the voracity of “Honduran justice” against the most humble people of this county through communiqués and pronouncements in the national and international communication media.
8. We call on the national and international community, on the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, on the Human Rights Platform in Honduras; on the International Court of Justice, and on the National Front of Popular Resistance in all of the country to mobilize ourselves to Ceiba, Atlantida and to offer solidarity now - when it is really needed.
One who remains silent in the face of injustice becomes its accomplice.
We demand liberty for the MCA campesino prisoners!.
National Front of Popular Resistance in Colon, Honduras
CARLOS H. REYES-
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