HONDURAS: Indigenous People Seek Political Asylum in Costa Rica

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Jul 28 1997 (IPS) - Around 16 Lenca and Chorti indigenous people sought political asylum in the Costa Rican embassy here Monday, claiming persecution by the State and groups of landowners.

The indigenous people took refuge in the diplomatic headquarters where Ambassador Manuel Carballo is now seeking a diplomatic solution to the request, said members of the Honduran Confederation of Indigenous Peoples (CONPAH).

This is the first time indigenous people in Honduras have called for political asylum, a fact which deals a harsh blow to the Carlos Roberto Reina government.

Eduardo Yanez, one of the CONPAH activists, said 16 indigenous people requesting asylum had been on the receiving end of political persecution from the State security forces and Guatemalan hitmen allegedly contracted by landowners in the west of the country in recent months.

“We are being persecuted and no one will safeguard our security, that’s why our companions took the decision to seek political asylum. They are fearing for their lives and this doesn’t seem to matter to anyone, least of all the government,” said Yanez.

The asylum request “is the last chance we have,” said Yanez, who, along with another group of Honduran indigenous people launched the “Permanent Indigenous Resistence” campaign a week ago, demanding land and the respect for human rights.

The Honduran authorities were taken completely by surprise by the request, classing it as ill-timed and demanding negotiations be reopened, much to the frustration of the asylum seekers.

“We find (their reaction) hard to believe because we have gone to talk with them so many times and all we hear is them pulling our legs again and again, while they openly threaten us with murder in our communities,” said Maria Agripina Vasquez, one of the Lenca contingent inside the Costa Rican embassy.

The indigenous group issued a communique saying their decision had been taken due to the atmosphere of insecurity they were forced to live under and the persecution they received, while the State continually refused to guarantee them the right to life.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Carballo said the government of Costa Rica will be looking into the request and it will be they who decide “whether or not asylum will be offered” in the next few days.

The asylum seekers also called for intermediation from Jesuit priests in dialogue with the government and the Guarantors Commission.

Leo Valladares, of the State Human Rights Commission, asked the indigenous people to keep trying with dialogue, adding that he did not believe direct persecution of the Honduran ethnic groups was taking place.

“The government is obliged to investigate their claims and to thus guarantee freedom in a state of law,” he added.

The Chorti people of the Copan and Ocotepeque departments – the Maya heartland in the western region – are the ethnic groups who have reported most confrontations in their fight for land, and several of their leaders have been killed in the last six years.

Chorti leaders Candido Amador and Ovidio Perez, from the western department of Copan, were both murdered just four months ago.

The seven indigenous groups of Honduras include nearly 500,000 people who began organising themselves three years ago with peaceful marches for their rights, but so far none of their demands has been met despite the agreements signed with the government.

A committee of guarantors appointed to monitor the fulfilment of the agreement between the government and indigenous people, made a declaration on the State’s failure to comply two weeks ago, announcing that both internal and external pressure would be applied in order to get the 16 points of the agreement dealt with.

At one point, the government appointed a commission to grant them more than 11,000 hectares of land, but two weeks ago they announced it would be impossible to go through with the promises due to legal problems, even casting doubt on the existence of Chorti Indians in the zone in question.

Apart from the land claims, these agreements also refer to social action, infrastructure, health and education projects, and the clarification of the alleged killings of indigenous people.