Honduras

In reaction to Israel’s announcement to sending surplus vaccines to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Honduras, and Guatemala, Oxfam in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Acting Country Director Dina Jibril said: Israel’s deal to exchange surplus vaccines for UN votes and embassies, while the vast majority of almost 5 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are left to wait for the potentially life-saving vaccine is shameful and shortsighted. 

In November 2018, a Honduran court convicted seven people for the murder of indigenous leader and human rights defender Berta Cáceres. 38 months after the unfortunate event, her family and members from the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH, for its acronym in Spanish), still demand that the Honduran authorities also investigate, prosecute and convict the masterminds of this crime.

Three years after the murder of Honduran rights activist Berta Caceres for her leadership in the campaign against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, indigenous people are still being excluded from any consultative process in the extractives industry.

Oxfam has expressed its concern for the vulnerable situation faced by the over 5,000 migrants who at this moment are walking in caravan through Central America towards the border with the United States.

Oxfam has confirmed that Voith and Siemens will no longer supply components of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project in Honduras. The project has been fiercely opposed by the local communities, including the Indigenous rights defender Berta Caceres who was murdered for her protests in March last year.

The number of murders, attacks, and acts of repression against human rights activists in Latin America has reached historic levels, according to a report published today by Oxfam.

The Agua Zarca hydroelectric project in Honduras began construction without the approval of the Indigenous community affected by the work, according to a new independent report commissioned by one of the backers.

Lesbia is the third Honduran activist killed in less than six months. Honduran authorities need to end impunity, end the killings of women, and to guarantee the safety of all human rights defenders.

Oxfam strongly condemns the assassination of Nelson García, the second indigenous rights activist to be killed in Honduras in less than two weeks. The ongoing violence against this community is shocking, inexcusable, and must end.