Global Courant
The recently created Commission for Agrarian Security and Access to Land has the enormous challenge of putting an end to an agrarian conflict that has had a direct impact on the national economy.
Data from Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (Cohep) indicate that only in the field of African palm in Bajo Aguán, around 2.4 billion dollars (L60 billion) were lost in the period of one year, that is, from 2021 to 2022 due to invasions.
Olvin Mondragón, official of the Cohep Legal Management, specified that the problem of invasions never stopped, since just in February their records indicated that there were 30,000 invaded manzanas, and on Tuesday, in the report that framed the launch of the Commission, given to be known by President Xiomara Castro, they already quantify it at 36,452 manzanas occupied by alleged peasant groups.
“What we see is an increase from February to date of 6,000 invaded blocks,” said Mondragón. “We know that these problems date back many years, historically, there have been many agrarian policies that have not worked. We hope and have faith and hope that with this commission investments can be stopped and the eviction orders will be executed as soon as possible, which were on the table, well, they were going to be executed”.
Data revealed in the past by Cohep also indicate that as a result of the invasions the country’s sugar sector lost L4 billion.
These forced occupations are located mainly in seven departments: Choluteca, Atlántida, Colón, Yoro, Francisco Morazán, Santa Bárbara and Copán. The productive sectors most affected by land seizures are palm, cattle, corn, sugar, rice and melon crops.
Special treatment
In the case of the Aguán palm invasions, the government will approach the problem differently. In the creation of the commission, a different treatment was established for the peasant groups that signed the agreement between the government and the Agrarian Platform and the Coordinator of Popular Organizations of Aguán (Copa).
The companies covered by the agreement currently occupy 13 African palm farms and there are 28 signatory cooperatives. The agreement was signed on February 22, 2022 and was chaired by the Secretary of Security.
At the moment, there will be no evictions since they are declared temporarily protected and the State, in consensus with the parties, will seek a prompt solution.
Said agreement was consolidated and oriented towards addressing the structural causes of the conflict in Bajo Aguán, in which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (Oacnudh) also participated.
LA PRENSA Premium spoke with leaders of these Aguán groups. Héctor Rolando Murillo from Finca Camarones and part of the Agrarian Platform, said that the agreement should protect them from eventual evictions, since many orders were issued by “judges and prosecutors in collusion with the landowners.”
Eduardo Facussé, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Cortés, considered the creation of the Commission for Agrarian Security and Access to Land “very successful.” He explained that for years they have requested the application of the law, because private property is “the cornerstone of legal security in Honduras.” He regretted that the evictions were not carried out before.
“The lands we occupy belong to us because they belonged to our ancestors, our grandparents, and their parents. They were evicted from the land incorrectly. We demand that the methods used to dispossess the land in Bajo Aguán be investigated,” Murillo said.
He considers that on this problem, President Castro is well informed because what she objectively exposed is what is happening in Bajo Aguán.
“There are several leaders prosecuted. That is why we mistrust those eviction orders because the private company even provided a helicopter to take the judge from Tocoa to Tegucigalpa and to a jurisdiction that is not their responsibility,” he said.
The agreement also stipulated to investigate violations of the peasant sector’s human rights. In order to verify these denunciations, another commission had to be integrated in which the Human Rights commissioner would have direct participation.
While the investigations lasted, the peasants would remain in the hands of the invaded farms and would harvest the fruit under the supervision of the INA and the Secretary of Security.
