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Matriarcado Garífuna: Ancestralidad, Espiritualidad y Lucha - Garífuna Matriarchate: Ancestrality, Spirituality and Struggle  12/19/2019 CAMJOL: "El pueblo garífuna es una cultura ancestral que tiene su origen en la unión de tres culturas; la africana, arawak y caribes. Este nuevo grupo étnico tiene su propia lengua, sistema de creencias, alimentos y practicas ancestrales de la agricultura, danzas y cantos que se unen a su espiritualidad. Actualmente habitan en 48 comunidades hondureñas, desde Masca, departamento de Cortés, hasta Plaplaya, departamento de Gracias a Dios. También se ubican en seis centros urbanos de Belice, en dos comunidades de Nicaragua y en una de Guatemala. Se estima que hay unos 250 mil garífunas en Honduras y más de 100 mil que emigraron hacia Estados Unidos. La cultura garífuna es ancestralmente matrifocal, las mujeres ancianas son herederas de los conocimientos ancestrales espirituales que les permiten comunicarse con las ancestras y ancestros a quienes presentan ofrendas y piden ayuda en sus luchas para conservar sus territorios que para ellos representan la vida, la cultura, la existencia misma del pueblo originario garífuna. Su lucha es tan antigua como su origen, a pesar que son grandes guerreros que han sabido dar batalla a todos los invasores, desde los francés e ingleses que les expulsaron de la Isla San Vicente, hasta el Estado de Honduras que a lo largo de la historia ha buscado la manera de expropiar los territorios que legítimamente les fueron otorgados desde hace más de doscientos años."

Miriam Miranda pide protección para el pueblo Garífuna  11/27/2019 DW: "Usted dice que se trata de un plan selectivo de exterminio, ¿por parte de quien? Hay una gran presencia del crimen organizado. El Estado hondureño lo sabe. Y responsabilizamos al Estado porque no brinda seguridad a nuestras comunidades. El gobierno sabe quienes están alrededor de los territorios del pueblo Garífuna. Nuestras comunidades, por vivir en la costa, desde el 2010 y fuertemente en los últimos años, es el corredor del paso del narcotráfico. Si el Estado no genera protección y seguridad para esos territorios deja a las comunidades en una total indefensión, y por eso es que los líderes y mucha gente está saliendo. Algo que nunca había pasado. Justo antes de venir a Berlín tuvimos que sacar a dos compañeros que están en riesgo y eso jamás creímos que fuera a pasar en nuestras comunidades. Hay un plan de exterminio y el Estado es coresponsable de lo que está pasando."

El territorio libre de Vallecito  11/20/2019 ContraCorriente: "La comunidad de Vallecito, considerada el último santuario garífuna, es también pensada como el primer territorio libre de un pueblo que debe enfrentarse todos los días a las amenazas que implica coexistir en una zona fértil para el monocultivo de palma aceitera y el narcotráfico. Ubicada en el municipio de Limón, este territorio ancestral garífuna fue ocupado durante un tiempo por Reinaldo Villalobos, un terrateniente que había construido la finca «El Dorado» donde una pista de aterrizaje, que según pobladores de la zona, era usada para el narcotráfico. Hoy, esa pista es la plantación de cocos y yuca de la comunidad. Villalobos, —cuenta Miriam Miranda, coordinadora de la Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras (OFRANEH)— murió mientras iba a recoger un cargamento de droga a mar abierto, su embarcación naufragó y del susto murió de un paro cardíaco, y no fue hasta después de su muerte que llegaron los militares a dinamitar la pista del narco."

Violence Against Indigenous Hondurans Shows Us What Fuels Migration  8/28/2019 Common Dreams: "As Grassroots International’s Solidarity Program Officer for Latin America, I have accompanied and supported the Garifuna and OFRANEH in their struggles for years. Vallecito is sacred for the Garifuna. Although a chronic target for attack, it is also a symbol for reclamation and resistance among the ancestral territory that has been stolen from them. This most recent assault has come after a resurgence of narco-traffickers in the area. For years, narcos had used the Garifuna’s tree cover and easy access to the coast to run drugs — including at one point through a clandestine airstrip. Members of OFRANEH believe drug-runners are now trying to steal back the land Garifuna have been able to reclaim. The Honduran government, in bed with narcos and corporate raiders, has a deep apathy and antipathy towards the Garifuna. “Repeatedly the police have told us that they know these people and they are ‘friends with them,’” Miriam Miranda, a leader in OFRANEH, said of the response to the recent assaults."

Violence Against Indigenous Hondurans Shows Us What Fuels Migration  8/28/2019 Common Dreams: "As Grassroots International’s Solidarity Program Officer for Latin America, I have accompanied and supported the Garifuna and OFRANEH in their struggles for years. Vallecito is sacred for the Garifuna. Although a chronic target for attack, it is also a symbol for reclamation and resistance among the ancestral territory that has been stolen from them. This most recent assault has come after a resurgence of narco-traffickers in the area. For years, narcos had used the Garifuna’s tree cover and easy access to the coast to run drugs — including at one point through a clandestine airstrip. Members of OFRANEH believe drug-runners are now trying to steal back the land Garifuna have been able to reclaim."

Destrucción de los viveros de coco en Vallecito  7/8/2019 OFRANEH: "A pesar de los esfuerzo realizados por el pueblo Garífuna para recuperar uno de los alimentos básicos de la gastronomía de nuestro pueblo, parece ser que existe un complot entre los vecinos de Vallecito – entre los que se encuentran los heredero de Miguel Facusse- para destruir las plántulas destinadas a repartirse entre las comunidades, las que así eventualmente tendrán viveros con los cuales se iniciaría la replantación a nivel de la costa Garífuna. El pasado viernes, en horas de la noche, parte del vivero de cocos fue destruido por el ganado de algún mal intencionado “vecino”. Cabe señalar que desde años, grupos aliados al crimen organizado han tratado de apoderarse de nuevo de Vallecito, paraje que hasta el 2014 fue utilizado como pista clandestina."

Asesino de un anciano Garifuna por guardia del Indura Hilton, finanzado por los Cachiros  12/14/2017 Mirian Herrera: "SE VE CLARAMENTE EN LAS FOTOS QUE NO HAY PRESENCIA POLICIAL EN EL LEVANTAMIENTO DEK CADAVER NO HAY CORDÓN POLICIAL SEÑAL DE QUE JAMAS HABRA UNA INVESTIGACION. JUAN ORLANDO , PEPE LOBO Y SU BANDA LO ASSESINARON Y A TODO EL MUNDO LE VALE VERGA SEÑORES."

Randy Jorgensen and friends: how Canadian criminals steal Garifuna lands  8/12/2017 GarifunaWeb 

Honduran government, narcos, and dams: eco-activist mayor Omar Suazo arrested after surviving an assassination attempt  5/14/2017 Garifunaweb: Summary of the Omar Suazo case - "An eco-activist and singer in the Garifuna tradition, Omar "Babakle" Suazo is mayor of Sambo Creek, a largely Garifuna town in Honduras. In the early hours of Monday May 8th, he was assaulted by a group of special agents and thrown to the ground face down while one stabbed him 4 times in the back. The attackers were shouting genocidal slogans, "Death to the Garifuna." An onlooker opened fire, killing the man stabbing Suazo and wounding at least one other. Regular police then arrived and arrested Omar Suazo for murder. He has been in jail ever since, in a private cell which may not shield him from additional attempts on his life."

Atlantic Cartel  11/25/2016 Insight Crime: [covers the areas occupied by Garinagu] "The investigations of the murders of González and Landaverde languished for years, and the cases came to exemplify the extent of criminality and impunity within the Honduran police force. In 2014, recordings surfaced from a police station known as the Casamata, or "Slaughter House," which showed officers discussing plans to execute González. Shortly thereafter, a police officer who had retrieved the recordings, apparently planning to turn them over to investigators, was found dead."

Rechazamos la presencia de militares y narcos en el territorio Garífuna  1/13/2016 OFRANEH: "La criminalización del pueblo Garifuna emprendida por los militares y funcionarios estatales, no es más que una cortina de humo para ocultar la alianza existente entre alcaldes, jueces y narcos. Las Fuerzas de Seguridad poseen suficiente información sobre quiénes son y cómo actúa el crimen organizado en el país. Las comunidades Garífunas se han mantenido al margen del lucrativo y espeluznante negocio. Si bien hay algunos Garífunas involucrados, la gran mayoría de nuestro pueblo se mantiene fuera de la esfera de influencia del narcotráfico, y podemos señalar de forma contundente que ejército y policía conocen bien quienes son los involucrados, pero se abstienen de desmantelar las estructuras criminales."

Honduras’ Garifuna communities resist eviction and theft of land  8/3/2015 Waging Nonviolence: "In August 2012, members of communities across the Honduran Atlantic coast reclaimed the heart of their territory from encroachment by narco-traffickers, mega-tourism projects and the expansion of palm oil. They founded the community of Vallecito in the territory that the Garifuna consider to be their ancestral land, a mile inland from the sea."

The Indigenous Fight for Lands and Cultural Survival in Honduras  12/16/2014 Foreign Policy in Focus: "Narcos, long interested in the strategic characteristics of the land for clandestine drug running — including space for a runway, a hidden creek to the sea, and its remote location — had invaded the legally titled Garifuna lands. In 2012, the community reoccupied its land with drumming and ceremony, despite threats and automatic rifle fire. Since then, however, a portion of the land has been re-invaded. OFRANEH’s strategy to win back Vallecito is to apply strong enough pressure, together with allies around Honduras and the world, that the governmental Agrarian Institute of Honduras will be forced to evict the illegal usurpers. The future of Vallecito is complicated by the Honduran government’s plans for so-called “charter cities.” Know as ciudades modelos in Spanish, these are foreign enclaves shielded from Honduran sovereignty and financed by international investors, with their own security and laws. Vallecito is at the center of a large swath of Garifuna territory the government has in mind for this project. If it is consolidated, dozens of Garifuna communities could be displaced."

Prying Native People from Native Lands: Narco Business in Honduras  2/4/2014 NACLA: "But there is yet more reason to be deeply wary about inferring too much from this epic land ownership transfer: drug trafficking. Honduras is now infamous for its staggering rates of drug-related violence, but links between drug trafficking and Lobo’s resource-grabbing agenda are rarely made. In fact—especially in La Mosquitia—it is narco-traffickers who act as shock troops in the assault on native homelands, ruthlessly dispossessing residents and rapaciously converting forest commons to private pasture primed for sale. And traffickers simply do not care who owns what. If they want it, it’s theirs. Many observers consider most of the Mosquitia—including the newly titled areas—to be effectively controlled by drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs). But the narcos are not in the land-grabbing business for themselves alone; in the Mosquitia region, they represent the thin end of the corporate wedge prying native peoples from native lands. We have observed these dynamics first-hand. On our last visits to the region, the dynamics of narco-dispossession were impossible to ignore. Residents recounted story after story of being coerced—by money or violence—to give up their lands. In the Miskitu town of Brus Laguna (pop. 11,000), for example, few residents plant their fields any more, since most agricultural lands were bought up by a narco [Brus is the home town of Wilter Blanco, then head of the Atlantic Cartel]. If locals wish to fish in the town’s lagoon, they must get traffickers’ permission."

Drug Trafficking in La Ceiba, a Honduran Caribbean City  3/7/2011 CoLab Radio: "The core area of drug trafficking is indeed the Department of Colon and the Mosquito Coast area, east of La Ceiba. There, the landing of Colombian avionetas transporting cocaine is common, as are 4X4s and SUVs."

Declaration of the Afro-Honduran Assembly PDF  7/14/2009 TransAfrica: by ORGANIZATION OF ETHNIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (ODECO)
    

Links/Enlaces

Con lista de comunidades: www.xplorhonduras.com/comunidades-garifunas-de-honduras/

www.facebook.com/Comunidades-Garifunas-De-Honduras-409059922552240/

territorioindigenaygobernanza.com/web/hon_08/

Indigenous Resistance to Criminal Governance: Why Regional Ethnic Autonomy Institutions Protect Communities from Narco Rule in Mexico  4/10/2019 Latin American Research Review: "This article explains why some indigenous communities in Mexico have been able to resist drug cartels’ attempts to take over their local governments, populations, and territories while others have not. While indigenous customary laws and traditions provide communal accountability mechanisms that make it harder for narcos to take control, they are insufficient. Using a paired comparison of two indigenous regions in the highlands of Guerrero and Chihuahua—both ideal zones for drug cultivation and traffic—we show that the communities most able to resist narco conquest are those that have a history of social mobilization, expanding village-level indigenous customary traditions into regional ethnic autonomy regimes. By scaling up local accountability practices regionally and developing translocal networks of cooperation, indigenous movements have been able to construct mechanisms of internal control and external protection that enable communities to deter the narcos from corrupting local authorities, recruiting young men, and establishing criminal governance regimes through force."

In Honduras, a Mess Made in the U.S.  1/26/2012 NYT: "When prominent figures came forward to charge that the police are riddled with death squads and drug traffickers, the most famous accuser was a former police commissioner, Alfredo Landaverde. He was assassinated on Dec. 7. Only now has the government begun to make significant arrests of police officers… Why has the State Department thrown itself behind the Lobo administration despite brutal evidence of the regime’s corruption? In part because it has caved in to the Cuban-American constituency of Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and her allies. They have been ferocious about Honduras as a first domino with which to push back against the line of center-left and leftist governments that have won elections in Latin America in the past 15 years. With its American air base, Honduras is also crucial to the United States’ military strategy in Latin America."

Randy Jorgensen and friends: how the Canadian mafia steals Garifuna lands, 8/2017

www.garifunaheritagefoundation.org/id6.html   list of communities with Garifuna names

beinggarifuna.com/honduras-induraondura  list of communities

Documentos de Honduras

LEY GENERAL DE AGUAS, Congreso Nacional

LEY DE PATRONATOS Y ASOCIACIONES COMUNITARIAS, La Gaceta, Honduras 

Contact

garifunawebmailgmail.com

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