17 November 2010 | Interviews | Human rights
Victims of Facusse
Five more peasants murdered in Honduras
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The national and international rejection to the massacre didn´t take long: on November 15th, around 200 security guards hired by oil palm producer Miguel Facussé attacked members of the Aguan Peasant Movement (MCA) with heavy weapons, resulting in the death of five people.
Ignacio Reyes, Teodoro Acosta, Siriaco Muñoz, Raúl Castillo and José Luis Sauceda were the victims of this conflict over land. The peasants demand the ownership of the fields Facussé uses to grow African oil palm.
The National Front of Popular Resistance, a symbol of the struggle against the coup d´etat in this Central American country, expressed their strong rejection to the massacre in El Temblor community, in Colon department.
They stated that Facussé hired hundreds of killers and is advised by Colombian paramilitary officers to “massacre and evict” peasant communities, the rightful owners of the land.
“Porfirio Lobo´s de facto regime is accomplice of this crime. The authorities took a long time to stop the attacks against the peasants and the Honduran Armed Forces, the Police and the Judicial system tolerate the crimes ordered by Miguel Facussé”, reads a statement issued by the Front.
Hundreds of peasants are participating in the funeral of the victims and are considering the possibility of organizing a march to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of the country, in rejection to the massacre.
Wendy Cruz, member of La Via Campesina International, said to Real World Radio that the struggle for land in Bajo Aguan is increasingly complex, especially due to the impunity of Facusse to attack the organized peasant movement.
