On Saturday afternoon July 27th in Trujillo, the Honduran police illegally arrested four members of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras: Carmen Isabel Alvarez, Kalton Douglas Reyes, Charlie Alvarez and Leonard Edy Brown. The arrest of the first three took place when they went to the Trujillo police station in solidarity with Leonard Edy Brown, who had been illegally arrested previously during the recovery of Wabato lands. As demonstrated to the authorities, Edy is complying with the alternative judicial measures decreed against him within the criminalization process he is facing.
As has repeatedly occurred, these arrests happened on the basis of already dismissed cases, as in the case of defender Carmen Alvarez. Despite legal proof of their rights, the defender and her companions were deprived of their freedom until July 29th, when Kalton Douglas and Carmen Alvarez were released.Meanwhile, Leonard Edy Brown and Charlie Alvarez continued in detention until August 1, when the judge released them after ruling that the charges against them had been temporarily dismissed. The police ordered the elimination of audiovisual evidence recorded during these violent arbitrary arrests.
These acts of harassment and judicial persecution, arbitrary arrests, and delay in bureaucratic procedures and justice administration are part of a systematic campaign of harassment and besiegement against Garifuna communities and OFRANEH. On the same morning of July 27th, this organization had denounced a similar act of persecution in the community of San Juan, Tela.
OFRANEH and surrounding communities are engaged in the arduous task of obliging the Honduran government to comply with the sentences of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in recognition of the Garifuna territory. Despite their work, it seems that some State bodies, in support of the private interests that seek to usurp and take control of the communities, insist on pursuing, criminalizing, and prosecuting all who defend ancestral Garifuna lands.
We of the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras and IM-Defensoras condemn these acts and demand an end to the persecution and harassment of OFRANEH and the plunder of the Garifuna communities.
We also call on the international community to stand in solidarity with the Garifuna people of Honduras and OFRANEH and to demand compliance with the sentences of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and an end to the racist persecution encountered by the people.