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Eco-Guerrilla 'Poisons' Local
Environmental Movement
Thelma
Mejía*
TEGUCIGALPA, (Tierramérica) - A month
after it appeared in Honduras, mystery
continues to surround an alleged
pro-environment guerrilla group in the
northeastern Honduran department of
Olancho. Local activists say it is an
attempt to discredit their fight to
protect area forests.
Roman Catholic priest Andrés Tamayo
told Tierramérica that the Olancho
Environmentalist Movement (MAO), which
he heads, ”does not have any ties
whatsoever” to the guerrilla group,
which he said is a ”set up”.
On Jul. 28, the Honduran press
published an interview with a
hood-wearing ”Comandante Pepe”,
who said he represents defenders of
the environment who have decided to
”take action” because they are
tired of ”waiting for the government
to respond.”
Comandante Pepe was referring to the
so far unsuccessful yet peaceful
campaign by peasant farmers and
ecologists to halt the logging
operations that are wiping out the
Olancho forests.
With an AK-47 gun in his hands, the
spokesman of the so-called
”eco-guerrilla” asserted that the
people of Olancho ”are one group, a
single bloc.”
But Tamayo responded: ”They want to
discredit us. Powerful groups are
behind this, and we are going to find
out who they are and denounce them. We
are not party to death or violence. We
are fighting for life, which begins by
assuring the natural resources of
Olancho are safe.”
”That group seems to be a strategy
to set us up so that we can be blamed
for any outbreak of violence,” said
the priest.
>From Jun. 20 to Jun. 26, Tamayo
led a peaceful march of thousands of
Olanchanos to Tegucigalpa, but that
action did not convince the government
to ban logging in the Olancho forests.
According to the demonstrators, the
logging trucks continue to make the
trip from Olancho to the sawmills,
while the overexploitation of forest
resources is leading to potable water
shortages as the natural watersheds
are being devastated by deforestation.
At least half of Olancho's 2.5 million
hectares of forests have been
destroyed, according to official
figures. Honduras holds 11 million
hectares of forest.
Expert Julieta Castellanos, professor
at the Autonomous National University
of Honduras, says the existence of a
true guerrilla group in Olancho is
difficult to believe.
”It gives the impression that there
is an attempt to confuse, to
delegitimise Father Tamayo's movement
and to generate fear in the area so
that the people desist from their
efforts to defend the forests,” she
said.
Worse yet, the emergence of the
guerrilla group ”could create
conditions for greater violence and
government crackdowns in the immediate
future,” said Castellanos.
The alleged guerrilla group was
announced just days after unknown
attackers murdered Carlos Reyes, a
Catholic social worker in Olancho.
And one of the first reactions after
the group emerged was the decision of
the Catholic Diocese of Olancho to
suspend indefinitely its social
pastoral programme.
”As long as persecution and
confusion continue -- with people
being killed and harassed -- we will
not expose the lives of our workers
and parishioners,” bishop Mauro
Muldoon told Tierramérica.
The church denies that the members of
Tamayo's MAO are armed or that they
represent a threat to the lumber
companies working in the Olancho
forests.
Bertha Oliva, an activist with the
Honduran human rights group COFADEH,
the news of an alleged eco-guerrilla
group represents an intention to
justify military intervention in
Olancho ”and to generate through
acts of violence a greater crackdown
by authorities in the area.”
This new chapter in the Olancho
dispute puts the Ricardo Maduro
government in a bind, because now not
only does the department's security
need to be ensured, but it must also
control a group that is ”using its
power to stand in the way of any
attempt of support to protect the
forests,” said Oliva.
The authorities have stepped up
patrols in Olancho and have so far
seized 186,000 board feet of wood that
was illegally logged, a dozen
vehicles, as well as chainsaws and
AK-47s.
The local fight against logging has
cost the lives of three
environmentalists: Reyes, in July,
Carlos Flores, in 2000, and Carlos
Luna, in 1998. Their murders remain
unsolved.
The Maduro government maintains that
it will not tolerate the presence of
irregular armed groups and will react
swiftly to put down any outbreak of
violence in Olancho.
In the 1980s, when civil wars were
thrashing several Central American
countries, there were five leftist
guerrilla groups active in Honduras.
But only two -- the Cinchoneros and
the People's Liberation Forces --
gained any notoriety, engaging in only
sporadic actions.
(Thelma Mejía is a Tierramérica
contributor.)
* Originally published Aug. 23 by
Latin American newspapers that are
part of the Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a specialised news
service produced by IPS with the
backing of the United Nations
Development Programme and the United
Nations Environment Programme:
www.tierramerica.net
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