Lencas face torture, intimidation and prison
The Lenca, one of the oldest indigenous groups in Honduras, are one of the most vulnerable groups in the country, facing marginalization, poverty, and the constant struggle for the land they have inhabited for more than 200 years in Lempira, Honduras.
Members
of the community have "come down from the mountain" more than
five times to travel to the Honduran capital demanding government attention
to the problems in their community. They have asked for schools, health
clinics and better roads-things that should be taken care of without
the desperate demands of the community.
Felipe Bejarano and Luis Benítez were imprisoned for more than two years before being found innocent in their April 30 trial in Gracias, Lempira. Two more men, brothers Leonardo and Mercelino Miranda, remain in prison, charged with stealing cattle and injuring police at the time of their arrest, though the community
Marcelino
Miranda
Leonardo
Miranda
Shell
casings found in Montaña Verde
Bullet
hole in Montaña Verde home
Sivestre
Bautista
Felipe Bejarano
Luis Benítez
Victims
The Lencas believe hostility against indigenous communities is growing
with escalating attempts by outsiders to take control of their natural
resources. They point to the constant persecution of COPINH members in
the ongoing land dispute with nearby landowners.
In Montaña Verde, the rising ambitions of nearby ladinos (the majority ethnic group in Honduras and Latin America, also sometimes called mestizos) to take control of the Lenca land with its forests and water sources is making problems worse.
According to COPINH leaders, a group of nearby landowners are claiming ownership of more than 1000 hectares of Lenca land, based on a title issued in 1997, which can be traced back to a title from June 25, 1960. COPINH's lawyer, Marcelino Martínez, say these kinds of situation are common. Many people in the area lay claim to indigenous land based on privately issued titles. (Note that titles rarely resolve land disputes since false and conflicting titles are quite common in the chaotic land registration system in Honduras.)
"This is a hard fight," says indigenous leader Silvestre Bautista. "We are fighting very powerful groups of land owners and politicians, people who wield their power to take over the land.
"These lands belong to us," he says emphatically. "But the landowners will use all the means available to them to take what does not belong to them. They accuse us, persecute us, and send us to prison for crimes we did not commit."
Montaña Verde is a remote, picturesque community, accessibly by a five to eight hour hike from the nearest road. The land is good for growing coffee and other agricultural ventures. About 800 people live in the area, and they have suffered the humiliation of police operations intended to intimidate and capture those who dare "to confront the powerful" by organizing the community in defense of their land.
"We have lived there all our lives," says Leonardo Miranda, one of the two men being held in prison in Gracias, Lempira. "We were born there. Our ancestors were born there. This is our land and that's why we fight. It is our land and our families' land."
Leonardo, 42-years-old, is a farmer and preacher in his church. He is also a COPINH leader in his community. He is accused of shooting a police officer at the time of his arrest with a rifle, a charge he denies.
He and his brother Marcelino were captured in a night raid on January 8. "It was a night of terror," he says. "The police came, throwing tear gas, threatening us, shooting in all directions."
He says he and his brother are innocent of the charges against them. "It's a lie," he says. "We didn't have any guns, so we couldn't have shot at the police."
Free
Two Lenca prisoners, Felipe Bejaran and Luis Benítez, were found
innocent and released on April 30, after being held for two years.
Indigenous leaders greet the news with optimism. But they balance their optimism by pointing to Leonardo and Marcelino Miranda, who are still in prison, and to outstanding orders for the arrests of four other members of the community.
Silvestre Bautista laments, "This is a vicious cycle, there's no end to it. We free two and they arrest four more. It seems there will always be someone in prison to intimidate the community."
"The release is just a part of the cycle of replacement, a change of victims," says defense lawyer Marcelino Martínez.
Martínez says he has been witness to the grave injustices in Honduras in the process of defending Lenca leaders imprisoned on a string of charges. The latest turn of events has seen the joining of forces of economic powers in the area with political and governmental authorities against the poorest residents, the Lencas.
He points to the capture of two of the defendants in a police operation in the middle of the night. "It was a prohibited act. It was unconstitutional," he says.
He says that during the operation, the police never presented the requisite court orders and that the two men were savagely beaten. Medical reports confirm that the Mirandas were badly beaten. The men suffered multiple traumatic injuries, and one of them arrived at the hospital unconscious. The police say the men fell from the car while be transported to Gracias.
Martínez recounts that there have been several attempts to alter the medical reports, and he complains that the local public prosecutor is cooperating with the landowners in the area in their attempts to take the indigenous land.
He accuses public prosecutor Benjamín Lavaire and Virgilio Carías of intentional, premeditated acts against the defendants. They are hiding information and protecting the people who tortured the prisoners, he says. COPINH's leadership is pressing for criminal charges against Lavaire and Carías.
In response to pressure from the Lenca community, the government assigned a commission to investigate the situation in Montaña Verde. The Ministry of Security removed his own representative when he was accused of visiting the prisoners only to intimidate them.
The Lencas live in one of the poorest areas of Honduras. A Human Development report from 2002 declares Lempira, along with the neighboring districts of Santa Bárbara, Ocotepeque, Intibucá and Copán in eastern Honduras as the area of "greatest human deprivation" in the country.
Despite political advances and growing democracy in the last decades, poverty indices have not been reduced in this region, and residents have few opportunities to hope for better living conditions.
Father Lucio Amaya says that the region has grave problems. "Problems of water, of health, of education, of deforestation, of poor sanitation and sewage," he lists. "All the problems," he adds, "the different illnesses, malnutrition. This part of the country has the highest rates of malnutrition and the lack of health care. And the government only looks on."
There are no policies
Father Lucio Amaya said that "the government does not have policies
to attend to problems facing the indigenous population. This area has
always been abandoned. The government never pays attention to it, except
during elections. But afterwards, these people are always forgotten."
He insisted that the Lencas live in very grave circumstances, of abandonment, marginalization, and deception.
"The Lenca area is marginalized.
Lempira is one of the most forgotten and marginalized departments in Honduras,
and the most marginalized community in Lempira is the Lenca tribe,"
he stated.
He explains the problem in Montaña Verde as being rooted in the
fact that "the poor have no rights in this country, unfortunately.
Their rights are not respected."
He considers the landowners to be coordinating with the authorities to take from the indigenous what little they have. "Here is an entire community deserving to be respected, to be listened to, to receive justice that does not favor only the wealthy," he demanded.
Intimidation
COPINH leaders and community members express fear of the continued threat
to their lives. "We cannot live in peace in our communities. We are
afraid they will come to kill us, to capture us," said Bautista.
"We are chased from our homes in the middle of the night, our children are threatened next to their parents and we are all treated like prisoners of war and tortured psychologically," said four women from the community in a petition for political asylum to Costa Rica (which was denied).
"But we do not have anywhere else to go. Today we return to our community, where we were born," said Felipe Bejarano and Luis Benítez when they were released from prison, having been found innocent of all charges.
"This is an example to show that we are not lying, that our fight is real," said Bautista. "We have to stay on our toes, pressing the government and the authorities to respect the rights of indigenous people."
Another perspective
of the problem
Ramón Custodio López, the Human Rights Commissioner, says
that "in the case of Montaña Verde there have been violations
of the law protecting the property of other people and acts against the
authorities during the arrest." The Human Rights Commissioner staff
in Gracias assures him that the Lenca men arrested were not mistreated,
and that the use of force was in response to the injury of a police officer.
"There was an arrest order executed against the fugitives, and fugitive have to submit themselves to the authorities . . . any fugitive can be captured in any place at any time," he added.
For his part, the subdirector of public prosecutors, Eduardo Villanueva, says also that a report from the National Supervisor of Public Ministry concluded that the public prosecutors assigned to the case "acted according to the procedures and norms required by the laws of the country."
Villanueva did not give any details from the report he mentioned, but commented that, in contrast to what Custodio stated, that "an arrest warrant could not be executed at midnight."
The medical reports for the prisoners confirm that the operation in Montaña Verde resulted in abuses against the community and the detainees.
But it will be the justice system, flawed as it is, that will finally decide what happened the night of January 8, 2003 in Montaña Verde. Meanwhile, the two men captured deserve just and timely trials. Leonardo and Marcelino have faith they will be freed, although they realize it will not be easy to counter the charges since evidence against them is fabricated and destroyed regularly.
The first two, Felipe Bejarano and Luis Benítez, have returned to their homes and families. Both men served two years for crimes they did not commit, and upon their release, no one apologized for the wrong done them.
Produced by Revistazo.com