Carbon Blood Money in Honduras
Published on Saturday, March 10, 2012 by Foreign Policy in Focus
Carbon Blood Money in Honduras
by Rosie Wong
With its muddy roads, humble huts, and constant military patrols, Bajo Aguán, Honduras feels a long way away from the slick polish of the recurring UN climate negotiations in the worlds capital cities. Yet the bloody struggle going on there strikes at the heart of global climate politics, illustrating how market schemes designed to offset carbon emissions play out when they encounter the complicated reality on the ground.
Small farmers in this region have increasingly fallen under the thumb of large landholders like palm oil magnate Miguel Facussé, who has been accused by human rights groups of responsibility for the murder of numerous campesinos in Bajo Aguán since the 2009 coup. Yet Facussés company has been approved to receive international funds for carbon mitigation under the UNs Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
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The Coup and Its Aftermath
In June 2009, a military coup in Honduras deposed the government of Manuel Zelaya, stymieing the governments progressive social reforms and experiments with participatory democracy. "It was not only to expel President Zelaya, says Juan Almendarez, a prominent Honduran environmental and humanitarian advocate. The coup happened because the powerful people in Honduras were acting in response to the peoples struggles in Honduras.
The result has been social decay and political repression. The homicide rate in Honduras has skyrocketed under the Porfirio Lobo regime, registering as the worlds highest in 2010. Human rights groups highlight the ongoing political assassinations of regime opponents. In this small country of 8 million people, 17 journalists have been killed since the coup. LGBTI organizers, indigenous rights activists, unionists, teachers, youth organizers, womens advocates, and opposition politicians have also received death threats or been killed. Those responsible are rarely punished by the justice system, which instead devotes its energies to prosecuting social and human rights activists. Protests are often met with teargas canisters and live ammunition.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/10-5