Declaration from La Esperanza Against Militarization
We —organizations and individuals from El Salvador, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Honduras, having come together in La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras on this day of commemoration of the two years of struggle by the Honduran resistance against the coup leaders, in response to the call made by MUCA, COFADEH, COPINH, OFRANEH, CEMH, Insurrección Autónoma, Artistas en Resistencia, ERIC and the Campaña América Latina y el Caribe, una Región de Paz: Fuera Bases Militares Extranjeras— issue this Declaration:
We declare our opposition to the militarization of the peoples of the world, particularly of the people of the Americas, which means the installation of military and paramilitary bases and structures, providing financial resources, legal frameworks, and ideological support that together carry out the role of strong arm cops for big business interests that pillage the resources of our people and Mother Earth, resources such as water, land, minerals, forests and the people who live in these territories.
We declare that the criminalization of the people’s movements and social struggles is carried out through repression in the form of torture, beatings, disappearances, killings and sexual violence and that these methods are part of the military strategies of the oligarchy and imperialism. Jails are the places where the children of poor women end up, and this situation is even worse in the case of emigrants in the United States.
We declare our repudiation of the return in many countries, especially in Honduras, of obligatory military service as a form of persecution of young people, who are precisely the ones against whom a large part of the military hate is directed.
We declare that the strategy of militarization while generating enormous wealth for the heads of the war industry generates greater poverty and violence against the people of the world, including the people of the United States. This strategy is the same in all countries and therefore the struggle against it is the same for all the people of the world.
We declare our rejection of imperial war operations against the peoples of the world, operations in which civilians, children and young people are killed and then written off as collateral damage.
We declare our call to the North American social movements to continue the struggle against militarization, with the understanding that it affects all aspects of our lives.
We declare as Hondurans that in this encounter we have suffered together the systematic and vicious aggressions against peasants, women, young people, sexual diversity and indigenous and Black populations, that our strength, organization and mobilization have not been weakened, but rather made stronger in the knowledge that they are afraid of us because we are not afraid.
We declare that the solidarity of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean with Honduras is vital to keeping our resistance strong and moving forward in spite of the death and violence that threaten us.
Finally, we declare the satisfaction of joining with brothers and sisters who are resisting the militarization by opposing it with creativity, hope, spirituality and the unity that is found in all regions of the world, and finding deep strength in the ever present energy of our Honduran martyrs.
As a result of this meeting we intend to:
Strengthen the continental and regional campaigns against military bases and the on-going methods of occupation and criminalization.
Strengthen people’s solidarity using every available mechanism including the involvement of the UNASUR (Union of South American Governments) governments as well as regional fronts and local actions.
Propose to CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) that it prohibit as part of the principles of the organization the presence of foreign military bases.
Maintain and promote June 28th as a day of rejection of military bases.
Energize a campaign against the danger inherent in obligatory military service in Honduras.
Make October 3 a day of celebration for the Honduran people as a whole, not merely for its armed forces.
Conduct alternative community media campaigns centered on the struggles against impunity, for historical memory, for the freedom of the youth, and the rights of women.
Carry out boycotts against items produced by the supporters of the coup and against junk merchandise which are part of the ideological corruption of our people.
Engage people in a revolution of the mind.
Prioritize artistic productions and gatherings as means to empower our struggle and our never-give-up resistance.
Provide support for Human Rights Observer Teams in Honduras –an initiative of CICA (Collettivo Italia Centro America) and COFADEH (The committee of relatives of the disappeared in Honduras)
Our gathering expresses its solidarity with the original peoples of the Honduran Moskitía, the Garífuna and Lencas communities, the El Aguán peasant movement, and the sexual diversity community, all of which have endured systematic aggressive violence.
Our gathering is thankful to our brothers and sisters of the COPINH (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras) for their marvelous effort at organization, logistics, and joint reflection which made it possible for all of us to come together, plan and lay out a path to peace and justice. We salute COPINH’s unwavering spirit of struggle.
We call upon ourselves as a national entity to follow up on the above commitments on October 21, 2011 at El Aguán.
Endorsed at La Esperanza, Intibucá, on June 27th, 2011
