“We are all constantly threatened. We are all criminalized and targeted; but for us, love for our struggle is love for life and that’s what keeps us going.”
As Marleny Reyes, an organizer with the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), addressed around 30 members of the Caravan at COPINH’s headquarters, a wave of empathetic nods swept across the room.
Sitting in a circle of school desks were victims of the drug war, relatives of victims of human rights abuses, students, journalists and activists from different social movements and civil society organizations representing six countries and demanding an end to the war on drugs.
After four days on the road, starting in Tegucigalpa on March 28 and traveling through la Ceiba and Progreso before arriving to La Esperanza, the Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice was warmly welcomed by COPINH, an indigenous Lenca organization founded in 1993 with the mission of fighting for the recognition of economic, social, political and environmental rights of indigenous groups in Honduras. With more than 200 communities under its wing, COPINH has become a powerful voice standing up to the devastating effects the drug war has had in the region.
“COPINH is part of all emancipatory struggles in the continent since our mission is to transcend not only imposed borders, but also militarization policies brought by the war on drugs,” said Laura Zúñiga Cáceres, daughter of prominent indigenous Lenca activist Berta Cáceres who was murdered four weeks ago. “Our fight against the drug war has always been present because its policies directly affect our communities by using drugs as an excuse to displace our people, criminalize youths and fuel human rights violations and violence against women.”
Since the 2009 coup, Honduras has experienced a surge in violence and human rights abuses following an escalation in militarization spearheaded by U.S. intervention efforts in the region. More than half of the $750 million 2017 U.S. assistance budget for Central America is being allocated to boost police and military forces despite much evidence that these tactics have not been successful in addressing institutional impunity and the drug trade over the past years.
Moreover, in a country where murder rates are as high as 142 per 100,000 and less than 4% of cases result in conviction, engaging in social justice activism is severely limited by thousands of street gangs that have spread across the country, infiltrating governmental institutions and engaging in extortion, kidnapping and drug trafficking. Meanwhile, the drug war has been used to justify militarization efforts resulting in rampant human rights abuses and an overburdened prison system controlled by gangs.
“One of the fundamental issues Honduras faces today is the military’s involvement in civil society, which had a comeback after the 2009 coup,” says human rights defender and Coordinator of Iniciativa Periodismo y Democracia (Initiative for Journalism and Democracy) Dina Meza. “With current drug policies backed by U.S. interventionist efforts, we have a society incapable of defending itself against a militarized police force that repetitively engages in sexual violence against women, civil rights abuses and murders of young people. In this sense, having Honduras participate in the Caravan is particularly emblematic since drug policy is a topic that brings up a lot of fear in our communities.”
The Caravan for Peace, Life, and Justice aims to highlight the failure of global prohibitionist drug policies while strengthening relationships among communities most affected by the drug war. After starting in Honduras, the Caravan will travel through El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States with the goal of reaching New York City on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs beginning on April 19.
Laura Krasovitzky is the Drug Policy Alliance representative for the caravan.
Author: Laura Krasovitzky
Date Published: April 7, 2016
Published by Drug Policy Alliance