escritores para el cambio | writers for change
artes, ciencias, naturaleza | arts, science, nature
#berlin #gaza #palestine #losangeles #chiapas #cdmx #germany #brasil #honduras #monterrey #portland

escritores para el cambio | writers for change
artes, ciencias, naturaleza | arts, science, nature
#berlin #gaza #palestine #losangeles #chiapas #cdmx #germany #brasil #honduras #monterrey #portland

escritores para el cambio | writers for change
artes, ciencias, naturaleza | arts, science, nature
https://bioconstruyendomx.wordpress.com/

#cdmx #mexico #gaza #palestina #paz #amor #españa #catalunya #colombia #monterrey #chile #argentina #honduras #elsalvador #nicaragua #losangeles #berlin #portland #ontario #quebec #estocolm

#RSN: The Deadly Fight for #EnvironmentalJustice in #Honduras

The assassination of #Honduran #WaterDefender #JuanLópez offers a chilling reminder of the threats local leaders face in the most dangerous region in the world for #EnvironmentalActivists.

by Giada Ferrucci / NACLA
22 October 24

"On September 14, 2023, Juan Antonio López, a prominent environmental defender, anti-corruption activist, and community and faith leader in Tocoa, Honduras, was murdered. He was in his car after attending a religious event at a local Catholic church when an unidentified hitman shot him multiple times. Due to previous death threats and harassment linked to his defense of the Guapinol River, López had received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the same measures that failed to protect fellow environmental defender Berta Cáceres from being killed in 2016.

"López’s assassination has sent shockwaves through the region, a chilling reminder of the violence and impunity that threaten environmental activists across Latin America and globally. His murder also reflects a disturbing pattern of attacks on those who dare to challenge economic and political powers in Honduras, a country that consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous in the world for environmental activists. These risks are especially pronounced in highly militarized areas like the Aguán Valley, where López lived, a resource-rich epicenter of land grabs and conflicts along the north coast. Dozens of Aguán environmental defenders have been systematically targeted, threatened, and murdered for more than a decade.

In 2023, 18 environmental defenders were killed in Honduras, the highest number per capita of any country in the world, according to Global Witness. Among the victims were three fellow Guapinol defenders: Aly Magdaleno Domínguez Ramos, Jairo Bonilla Ayala, and Oquelí Domínguez Ramos. In López’s case, authorities have arrested the alleged hitman and an accomplice.

"The Honduran state’s failure to protect López despite IACHR protective measures speaks to the broader issue of impunity and lack of political will to safeguard those who defend natural resources and human rights in the face of powerful economic interests. His murder also highlights systemic corruption, recently laid bare by scandals involving drug traffickers and high-profile political figures. In short, López’s assassination is part of a wider global crisis of relentless violence and persecution targeting activists who stand up to mining, logging, and other extractive industries."

Read more / support:
https://www.rsn.org/001/the-deadly-fight-for-environmental-justice-in-honduras.html

#ReaderSupportedNews #IACHR #ExtractiveIndustries #Mining #Logging #LandDefenders #WaterIsLife #GuapinolRiver #BertaCáceres #HumanRights #AlyMagdaleno #DomínguezRamos #JairoBonillaAyala #OquelíDomínguezRamo #Capitalism #Greed #Corruption #CorporateColonialism

Blood-flavored bananas

Once upon a time, there was a company called United Fruit Company. It became famous for the fact that it began to import bananas to the U.S. en masse. Back in the mid-19th century, bananas were in America like black caviar - expensive, prestigious, and eaten only by millionaires. But "United Fruit" built a hundred ships with refrigerators, and flooded the entire American market with bananas that cost 2 cents. Behind the scenes of this action there were some pretty cool squabbles, and American buyers didn't know about them. For example, in 1911, the president of Honduras gave United Fruit all the best banana plantations. But competitors from the company "Cuyamel" (also Americans) did not slumber: they overthrew the president, replacing him with their puppet, who gave the banana plantations to them.

In 1928, Colombian banana pickers demanded that United Fruit give them at least one day off a week. The Colombian police, paid for with company money, were brought in to quell the strike, and they killed up to 2,000 people. The rest of them shut up and went quickly to pick bananas. In 1929, United Fruit bought its main competitor, Cuyamel, and began controlling 60% of banana exports to the US. They murdered union leaders in South America, bribed politicians and police, and paid almost no taxes anywhere. In some countries (like Costa Rica or Colombia) it was United Fruit that was the main power, not the local government.

In 1953, Guatemalan President Arbenz turned over United Fruit's unused banana plantations to local impoverished peasants, and offered compensation. The company demanded 25 times as much money; it was sent packing. Then United Fruit simply ordered a coup at a similar price: negotiated a deal with the CIA, and financed a military invasion of Guatemala. The main motivation was that bananas on the shelves for Americans should not rise in price, they have become a favorite treat of millions. CIA mercenaries overthrew Arbenz, and put dictator Armas on the throne. This led to a 36-year civil war and the subsequent deaths of 200,000 people to Guatemala. But bananas didn't go up in price for Americans. It was a successful democratization, one to behold.

Since then, all the presidents of Central and South America were afraid to make a sound, and gave bananas for nothing. "United Fruit paid the banana pickers a pittance and did not give a penny to the budgets of the banana republics. For the slightest dissatisfaction the pickers were killed and the corpses were dumped into the sea. The American public happily bought bananas at a discount. But times have changed. "United Fruit was told it had lost its fucking mind and was bribing officials in Honduras to lower taxes on banana exports. In 1975, the military overthrew the company's protégé in Guatemala, dictator Lopez Arellano. In the same year, the head of the company, Eli Black (the company was by then called United Brands), threw himself out of a skyscraper in New York.

The company was quietly renamed Chiquita. And I still see bananas from this company in our supermarkets. Somehow everything has already been forgotten: how this corporation overthrew presidents, introduced slave labor, and people died by the hundreds of thousands because of it: we owe it the valuable term "banana republic".

They're lucky here: bananas pumped full of blood don't taste like blood.
They are so nice and sweet.
© Zotov
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/8910257.html
#USA #us #America #history #american #anglo-saxons #capitalism #slavery #military #CIA #vassalage #war #civil-war #Guatemala #Honduras #fruits #bananas #Chiquita

All'#ONU si levano voci in difesa di Assange. Per #Assange interviene l'#Honduras, dopo il discorso di #Lula a favore della libera informazione.