When the protests first began in Guapinol, Juana Ramona Zúñiga was in a meeting with the community council. She received a call; they wanted her to join a demonstration in the street - the river was at risk.

“The struggle is contagious. Living alongside people in the struggle… that closeness makes you even more committed”

Juana Zúñiga’s life changed that day when she became a defender of the Guapinol River. As a consequence of her peaceful resistance, Juana was one of the dozens of defenders targeted in the campaigns of threats, defamation, and harassment undertaken by the police and armed forces. These campaigns would eventually lead to the criminalisation of 32 of her comrades in the struggle.

Of the 32 accused, 13 were acquitted on all charges.

Eight were held in pre-trial detention for 914 days.

Montaña de los Botaderos “Carlos Escaleras” National Park

In 2012, The National Congress of Honduras declared Botaderos Mountain, located in the Bajo Aguán region on the northern coast of Honduras, to be a national park.

This declaration followed decades of organisation and activism by local communities seeking to protect the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers that emerge from the mountain, which are relied on by hundreds of communities across Colon and Olancho departments, from the effects of heavy industries.

In celebration of these protections and the community organizers who had prompted their establishment, the park was later named for “Carlos Escaleras” to commemorate the local farmer who dedicated his life to protecting the region’s land and water.

The Park would be extensive, covering the sources of 34 rivers and maintaining an ecologically vibrant section of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. The Park aimed to balance the needs of local communities and ecosystems with industrial development, providing Core Zones free of development, and Buffer Zones where mining, forestry, and dam building was allowed.

Inversiones Los Pinares/EMCO Mining

Despite the congressional protections, the resources of the Park were threatened just months after conception. The Honduran National Institute of Geology and Minerals granted a series of mining exploration concessions in the National Park without consulting local communities. The Core Zones of the Park were reduced to accommodate the construction of Inversiones Los Pinares’ new iron oxide mine.

This project is one in a long line of ecologically-damaging initiatives spearheaded by Latin America’s oligarchs. Honduras is a country of economic extremes, with an ownership class growing steadily richer by exploiting the resources and labour of rural communities. Since the military coup in 2009, impunity for corporate crimes in Honduras has proliferated, and the violence used against those who resist has intensified.

The Inversiones Los Pinares mining company is owned by the same family who threatened the rivers in the 1990s, economically tied to the Honduran National Party and amongst the wealthiest businessmen in all of Honduras.

Defending land in Bajo Aguán

The mining project went ahead despite warnings from State agencies and a lack of environmental licences.

With decades of experience defending the land to draw from, local community organizations and leaders quickly unionized in collective defence of the park and the rivers, forming the Municipal Committee for the Defence of the Common and Public Property of Tocoa and the Guapinol Community Council. The Municipal Committee began filing complaints and concerns with Congress, local officials, and state agencies, re-asserting their rights. The Community Council formed the “For Water and Life” Camp, a peaceful resistance camp that exercised the right of Guapinol to oppose the harmful mining project which would endanger their critical water sources.

Honduras is an exceptionally difficult country for land defenders, and Bajo Aguán is no exception. Over 150 community members were killed or disappeared between 2010 and 2014, with many more facing criminalisation, threats and violence from the Honduran military, local police, and heavily armed private security guards. The situation only intensified after the mining project began and resistance movements activated. With each peaceful resistance and expression of concern came more violence. Organisations supportive of the mine (including organised crime groups) began armed patrols of the area, families were pressured and threatened to sell their land and homes, leaders saw constant threats, arson and attempted kidnapping, and organisations defending the river were targeted in the media,

In September 2018, around 300 members of police, private security and irregular armed groups attempted to evict the resistance camp, meeting hundreds of community members set on protecting the camp. A second eviction occurred in October, with around 1,200-1,500 police and military converging on the camp. Security forces broke up the protest with tear gas and live ammunition, following protesters home. Two military officers were killed in the protest.

The Inversiones Los Pinares company filed criminal charges against the Guapinol community organizers for blocking the road during the September eviction attempt. The Public Ministry accused 31 organizers of illicit organisation with false evidence and without diligent investigation: the Public Ministry accused a man who had died three years before the alleged crimes were committed.

Ultimately, these charges and accusations were attempts to present the popular local movement as an organized criminal group. The accusations against many of the organizers were eventually dismissed but still signalled the Honduran state’s obvious intention to criminalize and punish water defenders and environmentalists defiant of the mining project.

PBI Honduras and the Guapinol Eight

PBI Honduras began working with the Guapinol and Tocoa communities in defence of the organizers’ rights in 2019, accompanying community members when filing complaints and protesting the mine.

We were there when twelve of the Guapinol activists received a dismissal of their charges, and we were there when eight community organisers were formally indicted on charges of aggravated arson and unjust imprisonment. The Guapinol Eight (Daniel Márquez, Kelvin Romero, Arnol Aleman, Abelino Cedillo, Ewer Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto, Orbin Hernández, Jeremias Martínez) were sent to preventative detention, despite not meeting the necessary burden of proof.

In August, PBI Honduras attended a court hearing for these eight defenders in solidarity with the community whose human rights had been threatened in response to their activism. These men, also known as the Protectors of the Guapinol River, were also punished by the National Penitentiary Institute and sent to the maximum-security prison, La Tolva. The water defenders remained in maximum security prison for two months before they were relocated to a penal centre closer to their home in Olanchito. In September 2019, PBI Honduras was present at the Constitutional Chambers when an appeal was filed on behalf of the Protectors of the Guapinol River.

The Protectors of the Guapinol River remained in pre-trial detention for 914 days, finally being declared free on February 25th 2022.

The camp continued in their absence, as did the mining project. Community members report immense pollution of the Guapinol River which is impacting the health of the community and causing skin, stomach, and intestinal issues for many citizens. Despite the peaceful nature of the community resistances, Guapinol has experienced increased militarization since 2015.

Juana shared: “they say that our communities are against development, but that is not the case. We want a development that respects human rights, that does not harm the river and environment. What they have sold to us is a development without a conscience, that only brings family breakdown, harassment, and criminalization.”

The imprisonment of the Guapinol Eight did not stop the resistance. It has only become more vital. When those on the frontline of environmental protection are attacked and imprisoned, we stand little chance of being able to recuperate the damage done and avert the crisis.

We will continue to fight to make sure these people are protected as part of our commitment to the future health of our planet, we hope you’ll join us.