Honduras coup gov't attacks the Garifuna people...

[the_future_modernes]

Honduran Garifuna Culture Threatened by Coup

The Honduran de facto coup government under Roberto Micheletti plans to eliminate the Honduran Garifuna people and culture. Micheletti has rescinded the Manuel Zelaya authorization to teach in the Garifuna language in school and to teach the language itself. All scholarships to Garifuna students have been eliminated.

Now, Micheletti, with no opposition from the U.S. State Department, has set Sept. 1, 2009, to take over the Garifuna built and operated hospital and fire its Latin American Medical School (ELAM) trained Garifuna physicians, including Dr. Luther Castillo Harry, its founder.

Dr. Castillo Harry has been targeted for assassination in order to decapitate the Garifuna leadership. The original open assassination strategy has been revised to arrest and imprison Castillo Harry and have him killed in jail as a way of covering his assassination. Dr. Castillo Harry never travels alone; he never sleeps in the same place and keeps his appointments and engagements secret. Targeted assassination of leaders for social change is a strategy to cut off the head of the movement, making it leaderless and more vulnerable to extermination.

The Garifuna doctors were trained at ELAM in Cuba and have served Garifuna and Meskito patients since 2005. Health indicators of these communities have shown considerable improvements since that time and their work is receiving increasing international recognition and support, such as from Project CHIMES under the direction of Bill Camp of the Sacramento Labor Council. The latter group provided funding and other support for the construction of the hospital and is continuing and broadening its support.
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Commentary: Honduras government takes over the only Garifuna hospital in the country

Under the leadership of Doctor Luther Castillo and other Garinagu people who reside in Honduras and the United States, the Garifuna people were able to establish a hospital for themselves to deal with the medical problems their people face daily in Honduras. This hospital was one of the initiatives that were supported by the recently ousted president Manuel Zelaya.


This hospital is located in the Garifuna coastal town of Iriona and the Garifuna people from other parts of Honduras travel all the way there to seek medical treatment. They have dealt with over 176,000 cases so far. This hospital is also getting support from the United States, Cuba, universities, United Nations and other international health agencies. It is staffed with Garifuna doctors and nurses who have studied in Cuba, Honduras, United States and other countries.MORE

If it walks and talks like a coup

The army has ordered the arrest of social leaders like Dr. Luther Castillo, who established a community health centre in the Garifuna region. Other social leaders in Honduras have reported threats and intimidations as well, for which COFADEH has taken account.
Nine radio and television stations have been ordered to stop broadcasting. Two hundred soldiers have surrounded the small community of Guadalupe Carney in Trujillo. They’re not there for good company and conversation, as much as they are to quell any “social unrest” before it spreads to the capital.
Those are the direct actions. What about the indirect ones? Now that the interim government has threatened to take control of Dr. Castillo’s clinic, fire the staff, and cut off incoming supplies, what will become of persons who desperately need medical attention and care? And consider food security? Has the military or the interim government done much to ensure that food and medicines make it to those in need during this time of economic isolation? Nope.
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World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Honduras : Afro-Hondurans

The Garífuna and the Bay Island Creoles are the only Afro-Hondurans regarded as distinct ethnic groups within the country, having preserved an ethnic and cultural difference from the mestizo mainstream. They are also associated with 'traditional ancestral lands'.

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The Garífuna are the largest ethnic minority in Honduras. They are the descendants of African-Carib populations from the Caribbean island of St Vincent who were exiled to the Honduran coast in the eighteenth century.

While there are significant Garífuna populations in the cities, most are located in coastal communities extending from Nicaragua to Belize. Garífuna are distributed in some 43 villages in Honduras mainly in the departments of Cortés and Gracias a Dios. With an estimated 100,000 Garífuna living in the United States, millions of dollars from this group are pumped into the Honduran economy annually through transfer payments to relatives.

Rural Garífuna communities live mainly on subsistence agriculture, fishing and foreign remittances. Unemployment is high, and many men emigrate in search of income reinforcing the traditional matriarchal structure of the Garífuna family.MORE

More about the Garifuna

Due to lack of conveniently located schools and a limited educational program (often schools only go up to third grade), about 70% of Garifunas are illiterate or semi-illiterate. Only 10% of the Garifunas who finish elementary school continue with school. The rest either emigrates to urban areas or the United States (DMEMEC01-03 = 1), or integrates into community life and eventually forgets how to read due to lack of practice. In addition to poverty and lack of education, the Garifuna are subject to poor sanitary conditions throughout most of the area (DMSICK01-03 = 2). There is a lack of clinical establishments, basic infrastructure projects, illness prevention programs, and nutrition programs. In recent years, malnutrition has affected a reported 78% of the children under age twelve (DMFOOD01 = 3). In 2003, there was serious environmental decline because of a quickly spreading disease affecting coconut trees (DMENV03 = 3). This economically crippled the Garifuna community because many make their living on coconut products.

The primary problem facing the Garifuna is the increasing pressure by land developers (DMCOMP03 = 2), especially those in the tourist industry. The Garifuna feel the development of their land for the purpose of tourism would threaten their language and lifestyle. At the same time, they recognize that their way of life is being eroded even without the tourism developers, due to many Garifunas migrating to the cities or other countries in search of work (DEMSTR99 = 4). Nevertheless, the Garifuna do not want the Honduran coastal lands sold to hotel and resort developers (ECOGR501-03 = 1). Furthermore, they do not want to be attacked by organized crime groups that are trying to stop their resistance (CULGR503 = 2); A human rights activist was murdered in 2002 for his investigation into Garifuna complaints of harassment for their opposition to the developers (REP0802 = 1). They also seek: environmental land protection (many want the Meso-American Reef to be protected by sustainable fishing laws to protect the environment and their community for future generations); constitutional guarantees for cultural rights; research on Garifuna communities so that government policy can better address existing social inequalities; and equal status. MORE