Update June 06, 2019
by Janet Spring, mother-in-law of Honduran political prisoner Edwin Espinal
Day #491 – Edwin Espinal, political prisoner illegally jailed in max-security Honduran military prison. Edwin is married to Karen Spring, Canadian human rights defender and director of Honduras Solidarity Network. Since January 19, 2018, Edwin has been illegally held in a max-security military jail, facing trumped up charges filed by the corrupt, repressive U.S. and Canadian-backed Honduran regime.
Ashamed to be Canadian: Corruption, Fear, Humiliation, and Militarization in Honduras
By Janet Spring (mother-in-law of Edwin Espinal, political prisoner in Honduras), May 26, 2019
I am writing this article as I sit by the Caribbean Sea in the evening of May 26 in Trujillo Bay, Honduras. Trujillo is a Garifuna community that is in a land struggle against the Honduran government and Canadian tourism businesses that are trying to or have already stolen Garifuna land for economic gain.
As I visit this community, I am embarrassed and ashamed to be Canadian as corrupt Canadian investors have given Canada a bad name.
I am traveling with 16 people – 4 Canadians from the broader Simcoe County area (Ontario), and 12 US citizens – on a delegation sponsored by the Honduras Solidarity Network and Cross Border Network, based in Kansas City, Missouri. The delegation is focusing on the ‘Roots of Migration,’ which is taking us along the north coast of Honduras to La Ceiba and Trujillo.
“Little Canada” tourism corruption and violence
The cruise ship docks are located here; tourists disembark and enter these communities, and most do not know that they are on disputed indigenous Garifuna territory and that tensions are high. Little do they know that corruption abounds here and that it is perpetuated by Canadian business interests supported by the corrupt narco-trafficking illegal government of Juan Orlando Hernandez.
The delegation began on May 25th with our first stop in El Progeso. Here we participated in a march in support of political prisoners and walked through the streets with the leaders of the movement that demand Hernandez resign. We also met with a member of the El Progreso community who provides support to families who choose to join migrant caravans to the US.
The presenter explained how the deep-seated corruption, extortion, drug cartels, lack of employment, fear, and marginalization forces the Honduran people to leave their country. He remarked that 48% of 5th and 6th grade students wish to leave the country due to the lack of hope perpetuated by the corrupt oligarchy families and drug-trafficking government that control the population.
Our group left with a greater understanding of why people leave the country that they love and the desperation migrant families feel for their children’s future.
This coming week, our group leaves the north coast and travels back to El Progreso, the site of the 1952 banana plantation struggles, to La Esperanza, home of Berta Caceres (assassinated March 2, 2016), and finally to the capital of Tegucigalpa. We will meet with the US Embassy staff and have also requested a meeting with the Canadian Embassy. The group will participate in a dialogue with a very well respected former presidential candidate – Carlos Reyes – who will provide a perspective of the current political situation, listen to the struggles that Hondurans face through corruption at all levels of the Hernandez government, and about gang violence and drug trafficking.
Later in the week, our group will travel to La Tolva prison, hoping to get in to see my son-in-law Edwin Espinal and another political prisoner Raul Alvarez. We have sent in all documentation required for this visit but as the government does not follow their own laws, we may be denied entry.
My visit to La Tolva military prison
This past week before the delegation began, I went to La Tolva prison to visit Edwin. When I traveled to La Tolva for my first scheduled visit on a ‘visitor pass,’ the visit was horrendous on many levels. Firstly, it took two trips to La Tolva to present my documentation that I received from the National Penitentiary Institute (NPI). Each time I travel to Honduras, I must go through this process. We handed the documentation to the prison both on Friday the 17th and then when the guards at the gate asked for further documentation – my flight information, something that was never requested by the prison – Karen drove the extra documents to La Tolva on Saturday the 18th.
When we arrived (Karen was the driver), the officers at the gate said that no papers had been submitted. The director of the prison finally came out and the papers were eventually found. But this took over an hour and a half, minimizing my visitation time. I was expected to get 4 hours. (We got there at 1 p.m. because if you go any earlier, they will not process anyone after 11 am due to upcoming lunch break, and any earlier they just make visitors wait anyway until 1 p.m.)
This kind of delay tactic is a prime example of how the prison officials humiliate visitors in an attempt to discourage them from returning.
In a discussion that Karen had with the officials at the NPI the next day, they advised her that the guards and the director of La Tolva do not have the authority to question any documentation after the permission is granted by the NPI. The permission is signed by the director of the NPI so it must be accepted. They are not supposed to request any further documentation after it has been processed yet more and more this documentation is questioned. Yet the guards do not follow the rules and make their own rules up as they please.
The visit got worse after I finally cleared the front gate. Because I could not speak Spanish, the guards laughed and made fun of me and were very disrespectful to me. The guards at the third checkpoint where the body scanner area is located, refused to accept my doctor’s note because it did not have a doctor’s stamp on it. After repeatedly telling them that our Canadian doctors do not use ‘stamps’, the guard in charge said that I could not enter without the scan.
When I got upset, they mocked me further. This was a very humiliating experience. I therefore had no choice … they had already picked and poked through the food that I had made for Edwin, cut the fruit open with a dirty prison knife, pawed the bread, and even disallowed one of the items that is on the list of ‘approved foodstuffs’ to bring in. I went through the scanner against the recommendation of my family doctor.
After I went through the body scanner, which my doctor deems is very detrimental to my health condition, I had to wait another hour before I could see Edwin. Edwin finally came out at 3:30 so my visit only lasted for 30 minutes. The ridiculing and laughing behind my back continued throughout the whole visit, even when I was leaving the front gate.
Not only were my rights violated according to Honduran ‘law,’ Edwin was very depressed; he has lost more weight, has a constant buzzing in his ear where hearing loss has occurred due to lack of medical treatment, and the water had been shut off for two days. Edwin explained that there was NO drinking water, no water to flush the cell toilets, and no water to properly prepare food. He said that this situation was desperate.
Due to this inhumane, horrific, and degrading treatment I endured as a Canadian citizen by the FNCCP (a new special prison task force recently implemented by the Hernandez government), the military police and the military (three forces in La Tolva which participated in that day’s humiliation), which is excessive only to terrorize and harass, I sent this information to the Canadian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, and requested that someone from the Embassy accompany me on my next prison visit. I did not feel safe and felt very vulnerable, and frightened that during the next visit, the taunting and humiliation would escalate.
Canadian government support for illegal, illegitimate government of Honduras
The Canadian government supports this illegal and illegitimate government of Honduras and its agencies, as well as funds programs related to the prison situations throughout the country through CONAPREV, so I requested this accompaniment. Yet my request was denied. In a second letter, I apprised the Canadian Embassy of the dire water situation in La Tolva prison. I have not yet received a reply.
Edwin and Raul’s appeal cases are in limbo, shuffled from court to court only for the sole purpose of delaying them. Yet if their cases do come to trial and the appeals are heard and accepted, we must be prepared to pay for their bail, which may cost up to $20,000 USD.
Fund-raising campaign
A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched to raise these needed funds. So far to date, one quarter of the money has been raised in less than four days. If you wish to donate to Edwin and Raul’s campaign or find further information on the cause, please refer to the following: www.gofundme.com/politicalprisonershn
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor and the Spring family thank all of those who support our cause and send their best wishes. We hope for success in Edwin and Raul’s case soon.
From Honduras,
Janet Spring and the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor
jspring2@lakeheadu.ca
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‘Roots of Migration’ delegation update
From: Janet Spring [jspring2@lakeheadu.ca]
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2019
Our delegation has been going smoothly with some amazing stops. We have met very courageous resistance workers and human rights activist groups that support the resignation of Juan Orlando Hernandez. Actually everyone we have met is tired of the corruption and human rights violations that are occurring in all sectors of the country. The ‘Fuera JOH’ song is sung everywhere, and the slogan is seen countless times through the streets of the country.
As you have probably heard, the country is in a state of crisis right now with national strikes. Yesterday and today all medical workers and teachers are out on strike and the transportation sector has cooperated as well.
Today we had a meeting with the Canadian Embassy at 10:30 but had a hard time getting there due to the protests where people have blocked all of the major intersections and roads going in and out of the city. Then we went to the US embassy; the meeting there was cut short due to the action that set the embassy front entrance on fire. Our group was in lock down for a while.
Now we are at our hotel in Tegucigalpa and are waiting to see if we can carry on with our plans this evening where we are meeting with Carlos Reyes, the president of the bottlers’ union. We hope that we can negotiate the roads later. But the protesters are doing an important job – trying to bring the government down, which is their only recourse to impunity, lack of fair judicial process, drug trafficking, an illegal corrupt president … etc.
U.S. and Canadian government rhetoric
The embassy staff in both offices gave us the same rhetoric. Actually the US embassy was the worst, as the acting Charge d’Affairs, Dana Derree (a male) – didn’t want to hear our questions but just spouted off diplomatic BS and refused to acknowledge the corruption and insecurities in the country. It was ironic because his ‘speech’ was cut short with the attack on the embassy.
When we were walking to the Canadian embassy, the tear gas smell was very strong, strong enough to burn your nose. Military were firing teargas at the protesters a few blocks away. Karen said that it is the strongest she has ever smelled from such a big distance.
The Canadian embassy meeting was civil, unlike the US meeting; we met with Abebech Assifa, Linda Ehrichs, and Kyle Sundstrom on video conference from Costa Rica. Same rhetoric was spewed but at least they acknowledge the corruption and impunity of the JOH government.
Group visit to La Tolva
Yesterday, the whole group was successful in entering La Tolva and meeting with Edwin and Raul. It was sad and very depressing as many didn’t realize what conditions they are living in. We were allowed almost 2 hours so we had a good chance to talk to them both and get their perspectives on the gang violence and control in the prison modules, and the day-to-day living in the prison.
Edwin and Raul realize I think that the only thing that is going to release them is the fall of the government, as their cases are both being passed from court to court and now are stalled while the judge overseeing their appeal case is on ‘sick leave.’
“Little Canada” tourism corruption and violence
We have had some amazing meetings with indigenous Garifuna leaders from the Trujillo Bay area where all of the Canadian tourist projects are popping up and the older ones expanding. I am sending you a photo of the “NJOI” tourism compound entrance. They have two huge complexes of houses for sale and condominium time shares (I think they are time shares) all of which are on stolen Garifuna land.
It is very sad to hear about the struggles from the people who have lost this land as it had been in their possession since the late 1800s. Some of the Garifuna are reclaiming their land by coming in in groups to an area that has been fenced off (but not yet developed), carrying machetes and cutting down the fences. They then build small dwellings on these reclaimed areas and keep someone from the community there at all times to defend it.
So discouraging to see how corrupt these Canadian investors are. We actually had a discussion with the Canadian embassy about these nasty folks and they say they will follow up further.
We went to visit a wonderful children’s community project in Rivera Hernandez, one of the worst barrios in San Pedro Sula (actually it is listed as the worst in the world for gang violence). Gang violence and extortion go hand in hand. I found a sad article about a man’s experience trying to fight extortion: https://www.insightcrime.org/investigations/gang-history-rivera-hernandez-honduras/
The delegation has also gone to other areas and met leaders of the social movement, university students, and others. We also went to La Esperanza, Berta Caceres’ home, met with her daughter and had a tour of the COPINH welcome centre – Utopia – and some of our delegates were interviewed on the community radio. An amazing experience!
I arrive home on June 6th as long as travel isn’t interrupted. The protesters closed down the airport in Tegucigalpa yesterday and also vandalized many multinational fast food restaurants close to the airport (McDonalds, Popeye, Burger King, and more. All of the owners of these franchises do not have to pay any taxes so they are always targets during the protests; they are owned by the richest oligarchy families in Honduras).
Feel free to re-publish any of this in an article and if you wish further information I can be reached on Whatsapp – Janet Spring – and it is linked to my cell number: 705-734-4238.
It has taken me almost a week to sit down and write this email. We have been on the move so much that by the time we stop for the night, I am so tired, I head to bed.
Thanks and take care
Janet
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MORE INFORMATION
- “Honduran Presidents linked to drug-trafficking & money laundering, since U.S. & Canadian-backed coup ousted Honduras’ last democratic government”,https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/honduran-presidents-linked-to-drug-trafficking-money-laundering
- “Whistleblowers, politicians & journalists needed in Ottawa: End 10 years of Canadian support for corrupt, repressive, anti-democratic regimes in Honduras”, by Rights Action, https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/whistleblowers-politicians-journalists-needed-in-ottawa
- “Karen Spring strip-searched while visiting husband Edwin Espinal, a political prisoner in Honduras: Letter to PM Trudeau & Minister Freeland”,https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/karen-spring-strip-searched-while-visiting-husband-edwin-espinal-a-political-prisoner-in-honduras
- “Request meeting between Spring family, PM Trudeau & Minister Freeland”,https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/request-for-meeting-between-spring-family-prime-minister-trudeau-minister-chrystia-freeland
CONTACT
- Janet Spring, Simcoe County Honduran Rights Monitor, jspring2@lakeheadu.ca
- Karen Spring, Honduras Solidarity Network, spring.kj@gmail.com
TAKE ACTION
Write to Canadian PM Trudeau and Minister Freeland, with copies to your MP, media and networks, expressing outrage at Canadian policies and actions that are ‘legitimizing’, enabling and empowering 10 years of corrupt, repressive, “pro-business” governments in Honduras.
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TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS TO RIGHTS ACTION
Your donations and grants will help Rights Action continue to fund community and human rights defenders groups in Honduras and Guatemala at the forefront of land, environmental, human rights and justice struggles, including work to free political prisoners and ‘criminalized’ community defenders. Make check payable to “Rights Action” and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
Donations of stock? Write to: info@rightsaction.org
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Anishinabekwe Vicki Monague of Chimnissing presents water from Site 41 in Ontario, the cleanest water tested to date, to Lenca Grandmother Maria Luisa in Reitoca, Honduras, where the indigenous people are fighting a hydro-electric dam on the Petacón River. -Morgan Goertz photo
By Vicki Monague – Roots to Migration Delegation
On June 1st, 2019, the Cross Border Network Delegation visited the Lenca Peoples of Reitoca, which is comprised of 9 indigenous Lenca communities. The Cross Border Network and the Simcoe County Honduran Rights Monitor, as a 17 member delegation of Canadian and United States citizens, visited Honduras to investigate the Roots of Migration of Hondurans to the US-Mexico Border.
In 2009, the Anishinabe women of Beausoleil First Nation (An Ojibwe Indigenous community located in Lake Huron, Ontario), with the support of local area farmers and residents, led a movement to protect a pristine underground water source from the development of a landfill.
Through a blockade and injunction, criminal charges and division, the people banded together and won. The Site 41 water, from the artesian wells of the Alliston Aquifer in the Anishinabe lands of Simcoe County, have been tested to be cleaner than the cleanest layers of arctic glacial ice by Dr. William Shotyk. This pristine water has been sent all over the world in solidarity with Indigenous peoples who are defending their rights to life and protecting land and water.
Indigenous peoples globally are facing extreme levels of exploitation and neglect of basic human rights. There is a global trend of State Governments not honoring Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous peoples in favor of corporate projects, which often is a symptom of environmental racism.
The Site 41 water was taken as part of the Cross Border Network delegation. Prior to leaving, it was prayed for in Ceremony at the Forest County Pottawatomi Community in Wisconsin, which included the water from Pottawatomi territory. Then a ceremony at Site 41 in Tiny Township. Finally, the water was a part of a Simcoe County children’s water walk in which nearly 900 children participated, it was carried by 10-year old Beausoleil First Nation member Arielle.
Upon arrival to Honduras, the sacred water was given to an unnamed (for the protection of the individual) Life Defender in Honduras and was carried in the Torch Light March in the city of El Progresso, Honduras on May 25, 2019.
The water was also taken to Garifuna lands and territories at Trujillo in solidarity with their on-going land reclamation projects. Garifuna lands are currently under threat by Canadian tourism projects, which are illegally obtaining Indigenous lands and are affecting the primary water source of the community. On May 30, 2019, the water travelled to La Tolva Maximum Security Prison, where political prisoners Edwin Espinal and Raul Alvarez are being held for protesting electoral fraud.
The water made its final destination to the Lenca Community of Reitoca, given to local Grandmother Maria Luisa. The Lenca people of Reitoca are currently fighting a hydro-electric dam on the Petacón River. They have set up a camp where the Dam is being built and have successfully stopped some of the heavy machinery from going in. In April 2019, members of the community were heavily repressed by security officials of the hydro-electric dam proponent, Promotora de Energia Limpia S.A. (PROGELSA). Three of their community members were shot standing up for the river since the resistance to the project began in 2017.
As per United Nations Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), which Honduras ratified on March 28, 1995, the Honduran Government is required to consult the Lenca communities of Reitoca. The Lenca people of Reitoca have legal land title to the area where the project is located and they have not been consulted on the project.
They have vowed to protect the river, even if it means their life.
The Lenca people have occupied these lands since time immemorial. Protecting the river from the hydro-electric dam is asserting their inherent rights & sovereignty. Grandmother Maria Luisa, along with her community members, will take the sacred water to the Petacón River, which is the site of the hydro-electric dam.
It is believed that the water holds the memory of the Earth and is one of the world’s most precious resources. Anishinabe people, who are Ojibwe, Odawa and Pottawatomi, believe that Water is Life. It is through the memory of the water, that we send our intentions of love and our prayers all over the world for the liberation of Indigenous peoples, protection of lands and waters and the healing of humanity. The Site 41 Water has been sent to 9 countries globally in the past 10 years.
For more information, please contact Vicki M. R. Monague, mzhakdokwe (at) gmail.com.
Bail Money to Free Honduran Political Prisoners!
Hello, my name is Karen Spring and I am a human rights activist and the Honduras-based Coordinador for the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN). I need your solidarity and help to free my husband and political prisoner Edwin Espinal and political prisoner Raúl Álvarez in Honduras.
Edwin Espinal and Raúl Álvarez are two Honduran political prisoners jailed in the maximum-security, military-run, ‘La Tolva’ prison for over 16 months. Edwin and Raúl have been targeted for protesting the 2017 electoral fraud in Honduras.
Amnesty International Canada wrote about Edwin and Rául’s detention: “This injustice happened during a brutal crack-down as thousands of Hondurans took to the streets to protest alleged electoral fraud by the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez. Security forces shot at and beat protestors. Dozens were killed or badly injured. Others, like Edwin and Raul, were detained and denied their rights to due process. The crackdown was documented by Amnesty International in our report Protest Prohibited .”
In Edwin’s case, political repression is not new. Since the 2009 military coup d’état in Honduras, Edwin has been targeted and persecuted because of his vocal opposition to the human rights abuses committed by the state against him, his community members, the Honduran social movement, and us, his family.
The conditions inside La Tolva prison where Edwin & Raul are being held are horrendous:
** 2 hours of sunlight a month;
** 3 hours of access to running water;
** no communication with the outside world other than one day of restricted family visits per week
** no books, paper, notes, or pens
** Jailed with members of dangerous organized criminal groups
** No access to urgent medical attention.
** Jailed with individuals with untreated, active tuberculosis (TB)
I myself, have been strip searched going into the prison despite passing through an airport-style body scan and having a physical pat down. Women that visit the prison are treated like criminals as a way to deter them and other family members from coming to visit. I call the La Tolva prison a torture center for the inmates, family members, and lawyers that visit the prison.
Caption: Edwin (left) & Raul (right) were brought to the hospital in Tegucigalpa; they are awaiting testing for TB outside the facility. Both have lost a considerable amount of weight and suffer from emotional, psychological, and physical stress as a result of the inhumane conditions of their imprisonment.
We need to get them out of there! This is how you can help
In the next month or two, Edwin and Raul will have a bail hearing and we need to raise $20,000 USD to finance bail for them. Because they are being wrongfully and unjustly tried like they are members of an organized criminal group, their attorneys must offer a higher-than-usual bail, approximately $7,000 USD each. In addition, Raul Alvarez has another charge against him, which also requires further bail money of approximately $2,000 USD. The rest of the funds will be used to cover legal costs for experts to testify in their trial and finance lawyers’ weekly trips to the jail to ensure that Edwin and Raul are still alive, and if they have any medical needs or safety concerns. Sending visitors to the jail is the only way we know they are alive and ok.
Your support can make the difference!
If bail is not granted when the bail hearing comes up over the next two months, bail funds will be saved and presented again in 3 months. According to Honduran law, a bail hearing can be requested every 3 months but since August 2017, the Honduran government has maneuvered and stalled the case to prevent us from doing this. It is yet another example of the lack of due process and the on-going criminalization in Edwin and Raul’s case. The chance in the next month or two to request bail is a big and important one and we must to be ready with the money.
Once Edwin and Raul appear for trial, the bail money will be returned. When returned to the campaign, the money will be used for scholarships for Edwin, Raul and the 21 Honduran political prisoners, most of whom were conditionally released last year. Funds will be used in order to help them get their lives back in order, whether to support their families or re-open small businesses that they were forced to close as their families could not keep them up when they were sent to jail. The long-term economic, legal, and family impacts of criminalization and legal persecution continue to affect most of them.
Why is it important to support Edwin and Raúl?
Since the 2009 coup, Edwin Espinal has become an important organizer within the Honduran social movement. From his neighborhood in Tegucigalpa to the student movement or his solidarity with Berta Cáceres and COPINH, Edwin’s vision and commitment has focused on the liberation of his people and Honduras. Edwin has put his own life on the light to fight for the right of all Honduras to live with dignity and peace. Raúl has joined Edwin in this task and now you have the opportunity to stand in solidarity with them and by the side of those who resist day to day.
Caption: Edwin with kids from Rio Blanco, the site of Berta Cáceres and COPINH’s struggle to stop the construction of the Agua Zarca dam. Edwin was there that day to support Berta, COPINH and Rio Blanco communities during a site visit of the Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples.
Your support not will only help Edwin and Raúl be conditionally released from prison. Their imprisonment has been used to generate fear and set an example for those that protest in Honduras. Supporting Edwin and Raúl is also standing in resistance and solidarity with their families and loved ones. Together, we are stronger. Their communities, their families, and the solidarity movement with Honduras need Edwin and Raúl to be freed.
Caption: Edwin and I in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Honduras is going through one of the worst political crises in its recent history. Hondurans are fleeing in migrant caravans, teachers and medical workers are protesting in the streets trying to stop the privatization of healthcare and education, and land defenders are being criminalized for protecting their rivers and forests. The same system that keeps Edwin and Raul in prison is the same one that threatens, criminalizes, and murders social leaders, journalists, lawyers and land and environmental defenders. The system that seeks to silence dissent is the same one that has pushed hundreds of thousand of people to flee their country in order to save their lives. Supporting Edwin and Raúl is to support one part of the Honduran movement for liberation and for life.
Other than donating to this fund, there are so many ways people can help demand the release of political prisoners in Honduras:
** Post a picture of yourself, your group or members of your community with a sign demanding freedom for political prisoners;
** Send a letter to your elected official raising concern about their case and demanding that charges be dropped and all political prisoners released; and
** Visit Free Edwin Espinal Libertad website, Facebook: Free Edwin Espinal and Twitter: @EdwinLibertad for more information, updates, and campaigns to continue demanding their release.
Thank you for your support! Please spread the word!
Update on judicial case
Please take action to support request for meeting between the Spring family (of Elmvale, Ontario) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister Chrystia Freeland
Letters written by students at Innisdale Collegiate, Barrie, advocating for release of Honduran political prisoner Edwin Espinal (member of the Spring family of Elmvale, Ontario), were delivered by Member of Parliament John Brassard, to Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Misleading Response by Chrystia Freeland to Parliamentary E-Petition Initiated by Janet Spring, Mother-in-Law of Edwin Espinal, a Political Prisoner in Honduras
April 11, 2019
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland has responded misleadingly, and even deceptively – in the assessment of the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor, Rights Action and Honduras Solidarity Network, to a Parliamentary e-petition on the human rights situation in Honduras, the illegal detention of political prisoner Edwin Espinal, and Canada’s role in the on-going human rights crisis.
The petition (https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-1868) was initiated October 10, 2018, by Janet Spring, mother-in-law of Edwin Espinal who has been illegally detained as a political prisoner in a maximum-security military-run jail since January 19, 2018. Edwin is married to Janet’s daughter Karen Spring, a human rights expert and activist living in Honduras since the 2009 military coup ousted Honduras’ last democratically elected government.
- Minister Freeland’s full response:http://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/ePetitions/Responses/421/e-1868/421-03231_GAC_E.pdf
“Canada is a strong supporter of the rights of people of Hondurans. The promotion and protection of human rights, fighting corruption and improving the lives of vulnerable populations are at the core of Canada’s engagement in Honduras.”
Canada’s “engagement” in Honduras can only be assessed by actual policies and actions since the 2009 military coup, not by the repetition of pro-human rights statements littered throughout the Minister’s response to the petition.
“Canada has contributed $3 million to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in order to support the office’s human rights monitoring capacity on an ongoing basis. In addition, Canada provided over $5 million to the Organization of American States Mission to Support the Fight Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (OAS-MACCIH).”
The merits of these two “aid” programs are debatable in terms of whether these are the most effective ways to promote human rights and the rule of law in Honduras. The MACCIH has had very limited success at holding high-level government officials accountable for corruption and the pillage of tens of millions of dollars from public institutions. Over 30 Honduran Members of Congress have been indicted on corruption charges, and none has seen the inside of a jail cell.
Compare that to political prisoners Edwin Espinal and Raul Alvarez, who have spent 15 months inside a maximum-security military prison on trumped up charges related to protesting the 2017 fraudulently stolen elections and government killings and repression!
Furthermore, despite MACCIH’s criminal indictments against dozens of Honduran officials, Canadian officials continue to do business with family members of these indicted officials.
Why do Canadian authorities do business and pose for photos ops with the Honduran political and economic elites deeply embedded in corruption?
* * *
More importantly, the two mentioned “aid” programs have nothing to do with the consistently negative impact of Canadian policies in Honduras over the past 10 years. Since the U.S. and Canadian-backed June 28, 2009 military coup violently ousted Honduras’ last democratically elected government, Canada has:
- Endorsed three sets of fraudulent, violent and undemocratic elections (2009, 2013, 2017);
- Pushed for and signed the Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement with these same post-coup governments. Arguably, this agreement should be considered null and void, having been ratified by an undemocratic, illegitimate government;
- Promoted the continuing expansion of Canadian business and investor interests in mining, sweatshops, tourism, and “clean” energy projects.
- Levels of government and death-squad repression have risen to levels similar to the years of the U.S.-backed military regimes of the early 1980s;
- Levels of poverty, extreme poverty and inequality have increased to their highest levels in recent history;
- Honduras has become the murder capital of the world and one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, human rights lawyer, land and human rights defender, and environmentalists;
- Organized crime (including drug traffickers) have infiltrated all branches of the government and State, including the President’s office;
- More Hondurans are forced to flee their homes and countries in ‘caravans’ or individually, year after year, than at any time since the early 1980s.
“Canada also advocates for democracy in Honduras. Canada helped fund the Organization of American States’ Electoral Observation Mission in Honduras during the last Presidential election in November 2017, and supports the mission’s findings and recommendations.”
“Following the elections, Canada publicly called for an inclusive and legitimate dialogue in order to resolve issues stemming from the electoral process, …”
This statement borders on being false. The OAS’s electoral observation mission in 2017 wrote in their preliminary report: “the abundance of irregularities and deficiencies is such as to preclude full certainty regarding the outcome.” Despite the OAS recognizing wide-spread deficiencies and calling for new elections, and despite the fact that Juan Orlando Hernandez ran illegally for re-election, the Canadian government recognized the electoral results on December 22, 2017.
Canada –along with the U.S.– are the only two governments in the world to recognize as “legitimate” the three sets (2009, 2013, 2017) of fraudulent, violent and undemocratic elections that have served to keep in power repressive, corrupt governments since the 2009 coup.
In our view, it is insulting to the Honduran people that Canada –along with the U.S.– called for ‘dialogue’ after Canada and the U.S. openly supported the President and government that had fraudulently and violently stolen the elections!
Furthermore, the National Dialogue process that did start in August 2018 and ended in December 2018, failed completely. No agreements or consensus were reached on several issues during the so-called “dialogue” and none of the major points discussed have been acknowledged or approved by the Honduran Congress.
One of the major points of conflict during the dialogue process was an amnesty for all political prisoners -including Edwin Espinal- that was agreed upon by all parties, except the Honduran government.
“… and has publicly called upon the Honduran government to investigate human rights abuses reported following the elections. We continue to monitor the situation closely and support a genuine and inclusive dialogue between the government and opposition.”
Here again, Canada’s calls for “inclusive dialogue” ring hollow, given that Canada openly recognized the president and political party that corrupted the electoral process and fraudulently and violently stole the elections, and then continued to use military and police repression, across the country, against the Honduran people –including Edwin Espinal– who were protesting the stolen elections.
“The Minister of Foreign Affairs has publicly called on the government of Honduras to reinstate constitutional rights and guarantees without delay and to uphold democratic principles, human rights, and the rule of law.”
At this point, Freeland’s response is simply piling more pro-human rights statements on top of previous ones. In the case of Edwin Espinal, his entire legal process – from the initial illegal detention, based on trumped up charges, to now 15 months of illegal detention in abusive conditions in a max-security military jail – has been characterized by constant violations of due process.
Endlessly repeating calls to respect the rule of law ignores the fact that the Honduran government is, in Edwin’s case and in the case of many others, using the legal and penitentiary systems as tools of repression.
“With respect to Hondurans who have been arrested and detained during the post-electoral protests, Canada continues to call for the application of due process and respect for human rights, although the ability of Canada to provide direct assistance to Honduran nationals such as Mr. Edwin Espinal is limited. Embassy of Canada officials have visited various prisons to see detention conditions, and senior Canadian Officials have met with the Honduran Attorney General, the Vice-Minister of Human Rights, the President of the Supreme Court, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to raise our concerns regarding the application of due process.”
Minister Freeland’s final statement – related to the illegal detention of Janet Spring’s son-in-law Edwin Espinal (held as a political prisoner in a maximum-security military jail since January 19, 2018, on trumped up charges related to protesting the stolen elections) – is also false. One need only consider political, military and/or economic measures the Canadian government has taken (invariably together with the U.S., Britain and a number of G7 club members) against other governments that Canada opposes or has differences with.
The only difference in this situation is that Canada recognizes Honduras as a “democratic ally” and chooses to maintain full diplomatic, aid, economic and “security” (police and military) relations with the regime.
If Canadian officials met with the above offices, as stated – When did they meet with them? Who did they meet with? What demands did Canada make? What commitments did they secure from them? Have they followed up and continued to push for the release of Edwin, and all political prisoners, and the dropping of all the trumped up charges?
Given that absolutely nothing has changed for Edwin Espinal and other political prisoners in Honduras, we highly doubt Canada has made human rights and Edwin Espinal’s case a priority in their engagement with Honduras.
We call on Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Freeland to meet with the Spring family, and a few supporters, to discuss the urgent matter of the on-going and abusive detention of their family member, Edwin Espinal.
Respectfully,
Janet Spring, mother-in-law of Edwin Espinal
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor,jspring2@lakeheadu.ca
Karen Spring, partner-spouse of Edwin Espinal
Honduras Solidarity Network, spring.kj@gmail.com
Grahame Russell
Rights Action, grahame@rightsaction.org
*******
What to do?
Please write to Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Freeland, with copies to your MP and the MPs listed below, urging them to support this face-to-face meeting with the Spring family.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland
chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca
chrystia.freeland.c1d@parl.gc.ca
chrystia.freeland@international.gc.ca
MP Erin O’Toole, Conservative Member of Parliament for Durham (Ontario), Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice-Chair Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development
Erin.OToole.A1@parl.gc.ca
MP Guy Caron, NDP Member of Parliament Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, Critic for Foreign Affairs
Guy.Caron@parl.gc.ca
MP Elizabeth May, Green Party of Canada
elizabeth.may@parl.gc.ca
*******
Soon to be launched a House of Commons paper petition sponsored by MP Elizabeth May.
From AWARE-Simcoe
Article by Janet Spring :
Where are the Liberals…?
Letter from MP Cheryl Hardcastle NDP to Minister Freeland.
RE: SUPPORT FOR THE HONDURAS RIGHTS MONITOR
At its regular meeting of the March 6, 2019, Council of the Corporation of the Township of Springwater passed the following resolution.
C092-2019
Moved by: Allen
Seconded by: Ritchie
Whereas no response or action to the Springwater Township Council Resolution of April 23, 2018 has come forward from the Canadian Government, specifically the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, and Canadian Ambassador to Honduras, James Hill; and,
Whereas Edwin Espinal, a Spring family member that resides in Springwater Township, remains unjustly incarcerated in La Tolva National Penitentiary prison in Honduras, now for a period of 14 months; and,
Whereas a recent Honduran Tribunal Court has ruled that Edwin Espinal’s legal case has been sent to the wrong jurisdiction court; and,
Whereas this a violation of Edwin Espinal’s constitutional rights; and,
Whereas almost one thousand Canadian citizens have endorsed the Parliamentary E-Petition #1868 which advocates for Edwin Espinal’s release from prison, and was presented in the House Chamber by Member of Parliament Alex Nuttall of Barrie – Springwater – Oro – Medonte on February 20, 2019; and,
That the health, safety and overall well-being of Edwin Espinal and other political prisoners has deteriorated significantly; and,
Therefore, Springwater Township Council calls upon Canada’s Federal Government:
To stand by its stated position in support of human rights and the rule of law in Honduras; and
Impress upon the Honduran Government of Juan Orlando Hernandez to release Edwin Espinal immediately and drop all charges.
And that a copy of this resolution be sent to:
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor Committee
Simcoecountyhondurasrightsmonitor.wordpress.com
MP Alex Nuttall
MP Bruce Stanton
Ambassador James Hill, Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras
James.hill@international.gc.ca tglpa@international.gc.ca
Minister Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada
Her Excellency Sofia Lastenia Cerrato Rodriguez
Ambassador Embassy of the Republic of Honduras
County of Simcoe Clerk
Carried
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor Committee
MP Alex Nuttall
MP Bruce Stanton
Ambassador James Hill, Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua
Minister Chrystia Freeland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada
Her Excellency Sofia Lastenia Cerrato Rodriguez Ambassador Embassy of the Republic of Honduras County of Simcoe
Honduran political prisoners -A tiny step forward.
MP Nuttall presents House of Commons Petition
Report on Honduras Prison Torture Centers by Karen Spring
Report from Elmvale: Canadian government urged to act on Espinal case
by Kate Harries
The wife of a political prisoner detained in Honduras, speaking by Skype to a meeting in her home town in rural Ontario, today has called on the Canadian government for help in her efforts to free her husband.
It’s been a year since Karen Spring’s husband Edwin Espinal, a human rights activist, was arrested on trumped-up charges in the wake of protests against the fraudulent 2017 elections that kept President Juan Orlando Hernandez in power.
With her image projected on a wall of the Elmvale community hall, Spring told of the harsh conditions under which Espinal is being held in a military prison two hours from her home in Tegulcigalpa, how a painful ear infection left untreated for a month has caused him to lose the hearing in one ear, and how she has had to fight to get to visit him, which is the only way she can find out anything about him as communication by phone or letter or through prison authorities is not allowed.
“Since we were married on October 18 last year, I’ve been only able to see him for six hours,” she said.
Spring said she is working with lawyers as there may be an announcement next week of a hearing to be held in her husband’s case. It will determine whether the case will be thrown out or go forward. “We are basically preparing for a show trial,” she said, because of the politicized nature of the Honduran court system.
“Today is important, not only because you’re there,” she told the January 27 gathering of about 90 people, adding that she draws strength from their support. “It’s the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of the president and Hondurans all over the country are taking to the streets today in protest.”
It’s time the Canadian government stop backing the Hernandez regime, she said.
Karen’s mother Janet, just returned from a trip to Honduras, decried ‘horrific” conditions in the LaTolva jail – so horrific that the Canadian embassy representative who visited Espinal there last week fainted after coming out of the module where he is being held. “Prisoners are not being treated as human beings,” Janet Spring said.
“Our Canadian government is complicit in this because they have not called out the Hernandez regime for these violations of human rights,” she said. The Canadian embassy has made two token visits to the prison, she said, but has not spoken out against Espinal’s treatment.
Janet Spring added: “We all expect our Canadian government to support us and our family members, to rally for us when there are problems, to uphold human rights and take a stand when we need help, but the Canadian government has done none of this.”
John Spring –Karen’s father – referred to a recent international intervention by Canada, the safe haven offered to 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, who has no Canadian connection.
“Why do you think that a Saudi girl gets the attention of our prime minister, our foreign affair minister but yet Jan has been down to Ottawa six times in the past year and the best we’ve been able to do is get to one of (Chrystia) Freeland’s top aides?” Spring asked.
He directed the question to Progressive Conservative MPP Doug Downey, one of the invited speakers. Freeland’s actions were “odd on several levels,” Downey replied. “I don’t have a straight answer for you.”
Downey said he has an understanding of the family’s case through the work of Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton, and he intends to do what he can to help if intervention at the provincial level is possible.
Stanton was unable to attend and sent a statement that was read out. MP Alex Nuttall, who has sponsored a House of Commons petition, did not make the meeting either. He has sponsored an e-petition https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-1868 that people are urged to sign before it closes Feb. 7 2019.
Those speakers that did attend despite snow squalls that reduced visibility and made driving a challenge were:
– Grahame Russell of Rights Action, also recently returned from Honduras. He warned that Espinal, who has been placed in a military jail to be made an example of to deter others from opposing the government, is at serious risk of being attacked or killed. The government could decide that it’s had enough of the attention being paid to him, there would be “another riot in the jail like there was already, then all a sudden it will come out in the news that someone like Edwin was caught in the crossfire of a riot between prisoners and we couldn’t do anything about it.”
The Canadian government’s support for the corrupt and repressive Hernandez regime is rooted in economic interests, Russell said – backing the activities of Canadian mining, tourism and manufacturing companies that take advantage of rich land vacated by forced evictions, permissive environmental laws and cheap labour.
He added that the Canadian media never writes about Canada’s role in Central America – with one shining exception: “There’s this young journalist publishing in Collingwood Today that is the best media in Canada about what’s going on in Honduras. That’s a problem. That’s not just a ‘oops, we missed the story,’ that’s a problem, and our media is playing a certain role in promoting and not critically looking at Canadian foreign policy.”
– Springwater Mayor Don Allen said that last year, after Springwater council voted to support the Spring family’s efforts to free Espinal, he made contact with the Honduran ambassador “and tried to have a constructive dialogue. But there was no meaningful response.” Allen conveyed support from Simcoe County Warden George Cornell and promised that the new Springwater council as well as county council will revisit the matter.
– Springwater Councillor Perry Ritchie called on all to get involved. “This year is a federal election,” he said. “This is your chance to speak.”
30
Successful meeting held in Elmvale . Freedom for Edwin Espinal and all political prisoners in Honduras!
journey of edwin espinal 2018 from the meeting provides a summary of the work in 2018.
Honduras Political Prisoners- A Year in Review
January 20 – 27th in Honduras Protests Demanding Freedom for Political Prisoners
Two weeks left. Sign the petition
House of Commons e-petition
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor Committee urges you to read, sign and share the House of Commons e-petition on the Political Prisoners in Honduras .
petition e-1868 was initiated by Janet Spring, sponsored by Alexander Nuttall, Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte and will be open for signature for 120 days, until February 7, 2019. You will find the e-petition webpage by clicking here.
Collingwood Today : Simcoe County family fights for son living in inhumane Honduran Prison
One Year Later
By Karen Spring
The Day Edwin was Arrested
(@RightsAction)
2019-01-19, 10:46 PM
Day #365 – Anniversary of illegal detention of Edwin Espinal, political prisoner, in Honduran military jail
By Grahame Russell, Rights Action, January 19, 2019
(Please share and re-post this article)
Join us Sunday January 27!
MP Bruce Stanton (PC – Simcoe North) speaks at Honduras community meeting in April 2018
Espinal case in Honduras an ‘affront,’ MP says
By AWARE Simcoe
In Council Watch
Jan 10th, 201
By Kate Harries Springwater News January 10 2010
At any given time there are about 100 cases of Canadians or their relatives imprisoned in foreign countries, MP Bruce Stanton says, but none that he has been involved with has been as difficult as Edwin Espinal’s.
Espinal, the husband of Karen Spring of Elmvale, is a human rights activist in Honduras who worked closely with, among others, Berta Caceres, the indigenous leader who was assassinated in 2016. He has been held on trumped-up charges in a military prison for almost a year in starkly inhumane conditions with insufficient water, food and medical attention.
“We want to see a proper course of justice followed here,” the MP for Simcoe North said in an interview Monday. People who are accused should get due process and their day in court, and not be held “in such terrible 19thcentury like conditions,” he said.
“Against all of that, you have this wonderful family, standing up for what’s right,” he added. Stanton praised the Springs – Karen, who stays in Honduras despite the danger to herself (“Honduras is no picnic,” he noted) as well as her family, particularly her parents Janet and John Spring.
His office is “trying to help them in every way we can, we’re equally frustrated.”
He said his frustration is directed not so much at the Canadian government as at the Honduran government, “the officials in Honduras who have a great opportunity here to be a much better citizen on the world stage and for any number of reasons, they’re just not seeing the way to do that.”
Stanton said the development aid that Canada sends to Honduras doesn’t go to the government, but to civil society groups that are working to improve governance and legal systems there. But “that’s a long-term situation,” he said, “it just doesn’t turn around overnight. Anyway you cut this, it is terrible.”
He noted that the caravan of refugees fleeing Honduras demonstrates how awful life there has become – under an oppressive state and “militia-like” army and police. “So much corruption and political influence, it’s just a terrible scenario on just about every measure.”
Asked whether there’s a point at which a country’s treatment of its citizens puts it beyond the pale, and whether Honduras is a country with which Canada should not be having good relations, Stanton agreed.
“You’re right about that,” he said. “Canada needs to be honest and forthright in saying so when they have the opportunity to do so. I think that has been the message conveyed through our diplomats that are on the ground there.”
He said he believes Canadian diplomats have expressed the view that “the actions of the Honduran government in this case is really an affront to all the things that we’re working together on to make the judicial system more independent.”
He’s not clear on how that view is conveyed. “I’m told that that is basically what Canada does. Have they done so in public way? Not yet.”
It is up to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her officials to decide when and if to go public with criticism – but the decision is a difficult one, as Espinal could face retaliation, Stanton said.
He emphasized that the Spring family has Freeland’s attention (even though they have not discussed their concerns directly with her).
The fact that when Janet Spring was in Ottawa earlier this month, she was able to meet with Foreign Affairs officials on a couple of days’ notice, is evidence of that, he said.
What to do now?
“Much as it seems like tilting at windmills at times, the continued attention and pressure, the emails, the letters, the petition – all of these things actually help keep a certain amount of tension from the public upon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said. “I think one has to continue with that… Keeping this thing at the front burner as far as the ministry is concerned is probably the single best approach you can take.”
The more pressure is brought to bear by the public, the more effective Canadian diplomats can be, he said.
As is detailed elsewhere in this newspaper, Janet Spring left for Honduras on Tuesday. Hopes for Espinal to be released as part of an amnesty for political prisoners, one of the recommendations that came out of a dialogue process mediated by the United Nations, were dashed in December when the Honduran government refused to put the recommendations through congress.
Spring will address a meeting to update the community on Sunday January 27 2019, from 2 to 5 pm at the Elmvale Community Hall.
An online petition to the House of Commons sponsored by Barrie–Springwater–Oro- Medonte MP Alex Nuttall is available to be signed until February 7 2019. https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-1868
Nuttall could not be reached for comment for this article.
Politics, Corruption, and Human Rights in Honduras
Where does the Canadian Government Stand?
Since January 19, 2018, the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor has been working non-stop to advocate for political prisoners’ release in Honduras. This fight has been an eye-opener, a task that we once thought was straightforward. Yet after 11 months we now understand the situation to be multi-layered and multi-faceted, one that is steeped in back-room politics, corruption, and the lack of regard for human rights across the board.
We have made some progress due to public outcry; 18 political prisoners have been freed, yet 4 original political prisoners remain and there have been other arrests. Journalists have been targeted; they have been harassed, murdered, missing, or expelled from Honduras. Protests have been marred with violence. The corrupt political situation, gang violence, lack of rule of law, poverty, and unemployment has forced Honduran individuals and families to flee the county in mass exodus toward the United States to seek asylum.
Here are the things we have uncovered:
We researched the illegal election of Juan Orlando Hernandez of November 26, 2017 and found that it was indeed an illegal election, and any person protesting or speaking out against it was imprisoned, teargassed, murdered, disappeared, or terrorized. This election was condemned by the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty Canada, and other international organizations around the world. Some demanded that a second election take place and produced documents outlining the facts. Other than Minister Freeland’s statement in December 2017 acknowledging the contested election and mentioning that human rights of the Honduran people be upheld, no firm statement from Canada condemning these conditions and this illegal election was made.
We found evidence that Edwin’s and others’ cases were fraught with irregularities that we do not condone in Canada. The arrests were improperly carried out, (no rights were read upon arrest; they were snatched away and taken to a military base and later prison, despite being civilians). The Canadian government has not taken a stand and has continued business as usual.
Political prisoners were detained with lack of evidence (to this day so-called evidence for all arrests have not been handed over). In Canada, Crown prosecutors must hand over evidence to lawyers. Canada remains silent.
The judicial procedure was carried out with lack of due process. Judge Claudio Aguilar who presided over Edwin and Raul’s cases (they were arrested at the same time and sent to La Tolva prison) refused to recuse himself; Aguilar had ordered an illegal raid on Edwin’s family home previously and under Honduran law (and Canadian law) a judge cannot preside over a case involving an individual twice. In Canada, the cases would be thrown out of court.
Charges were trumped up; detainees had a laundry list against them. There were and still are no lawyer-client privileges awarded; lawyers are only allowed a few minutes with their clients and under heavy surveillance. Still no evidence was produced. Again, in Canada, the cases would be thrown out of court.
Edwin and other political prisoners are held in pre-trial detention, a period that can last up to 2.5 years. We found that in Honduran prisons, over 60% of the prison population is being held in pre-trial detention. Canada remains silent.
Political prisoners are held in newly built US owned-maximum security prisons which do not allow for family visits unless permits are purchased at ($150 US) for each family. Those few who can afford the passes are harassed and often denied visits. The prisons are in rural areas far from urban centers, making family visits difficult and expensive. Prisoners are denied medication if ill, food and water is of very poor quality and scant, and prisoners are sunlight deprived. This treatment violates international law and human rights. Canada remains silent.
The Hernandez government is wrought with corruption; it has been labeled as a narco-trafficking government. The brother of President Juan Orlando Hernandez – Antonio Hernandez – was arrested in Miami on November 23, 2018 for drug trafficking. Further arrests are pending in cases known as the ‘Pandora Case.’ The Canadian government funds social and judicial projects in Honduras and has done so for years. Canadian fiscal support continues despite lack of success in reforms and this blatant corruption. Is Canada complicit?
THEREFORE
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor and its supporters want to know the answer to these questions.
1. Where does Canada stand on human rights in Honduras?
2. Why does Canada remain silent on corruption and human rights violations in Honduras?
3. Whose interests is the Canadian government serving?
As Canadians, we will not remain silent.
Video Honduras Delegation December 2018
Day 319
Couple says I do in military prison.
House of Commons e-petition
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor Committee urges you to read, sign and share the House of Commons e-petition on the Political Prisoners in Honduras .
petition e-1868 was initiated by Janet Spring, sponsored by Alexander Nuttall, Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte and will be open for signature for 120 days, until February 7, 2019. You will find the e-petition webpage by clicking here.
TWO DEAD IN LA TOLVA PRISON, HONDURAS
BUT HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS STILL HOPE for AMNESTY for POLITICAL PRISONERS THROUGH A DIALOGUE PROCESS
By Janet Spring
My son-in-law Edwin Espinal and fellow political prisoner Raul Alvarez have been incarcerated in La Tolva maximum-security prison in Honduras for over eight months for speaking against the Hernandez government.
On Sunday September 30, there was a large uprising in one of the prison modules in La Tolva (a module holds 100 men). Notifications came out on Twitter late in the evening reporting that two men were dead, seven seriously injured.
In these instances, the families of prisoners are not notified; they must await media coverage or travel to the prison to inquire as to the state of their loved ones. Like other family members, we spent the night in dread, thinking the worst might have happened to Edwin. It was only through a chance encounter at the Tegucigalpa hospital to which the injured had been taken that my daughter Karen was reassured that Edwin had not been killed or harmed.
The horrific conditions and neglect of all prisoners by the Honduran authorities are the cause of these serious and deadly outbreaks. Prisoners are desperate. They are starving, ill, deprived of sunlight, fresh water, they have limited family visits and no contact with the outside world; no phone or written communication is allowed. They have no reading materials; they sit in overcrowded modules and at night in their cells with no hope for change. Tempers mount, desperation sets in and serious conflicts begin with deadly consequences.
All prisoners in La Tolva live in dire conditions. Edwin and Raul have each lost over 35 pounds as have many others. Their weight loss is so significant that pressure from an international human rights organization forced prison authorities to send both men to a nutritionist.
Due to their lack of a proper diet, which is less than 2000 calories per day and based on starch and very little protein, the nutritionist reluctantly prescribed additional nutrients to be added to their diet. Edwin’s family members were given a prescription to purchase oatmeal and fresh fruit. But in Honduras, extra food ordered by a doctor for prisoners must be found, purchased, and delivered to the prison by a family member.
However, the family has no way of determining if the extra food is actually given to their family member or if the amounts are sufficient. Other prisoners whose families either do not have the funds or ability to advocate for their loved ones continue to languish in La Tolva without proper nutrition.
There is no change in the water shortage and water quality at the prison. All prisoners are drinking a limited water supply that is brought in by truck, pumped out of the local river. Their living accommodations are deplorable; they sleep on very think pieces of foam; fights break out due to the high stress level of prisoners.
Throughout September a dialogue process to deal with the unrest occurring throughout Honduras and the political prisoner situation, has been underway. It is facilitated by the United Nations. One of the mandates of the dialogue is to give amnesty to all political prisoners arrested during and after the illegal election of Hernandez. We fear the amnesty will not include the dropping of all trumped-up charges. We also are concerned that some prisoners will not be granted amnesty due to the seriousness of the false charges levied against them.
This dialogue is a flawed process for it only includes representatives from certain political parties that are vying for power. There is no representation from the people or the human rights or social movement groups who understand the poor conditions that the people of Honduras are living in. Over 60% of the population lives in poverty. Much of the male population is unemployed.
A recent report by the human rights organization @fosdeh states that in 2017, the Hernandez government spent over 120 million lempiras (5 million USD) on teargas, grenades, gun cartridges and projectile weapons. These weapons were deployed in the streets to suppress any human rights workers like Edwin and Raul who speak out and take a stand against the violence of the government and recently the illegal election of Juan Orlando Hernandez.
The Hernandez government officials have also been accused of money laundering, drug trafficking, and theft of monies that fund the hospitals and social security. Yet political prisoners like Edwin and Raul are wrongly incarcerated and have no hope that the corrupt justice system or the dialogue process 4 rule in their favour. There is no rule of law. Corrupt officials are free. The situation is horrendous.
Free EDWIN ESPINAL Libertad
Update #11 – October 15
There are now a total of 15(now 14) political prisoners in Honduras – five including Edwin Espinal, Raúl Álvarez, Edy Gonzalo, Gustavo Cáceres and (Jose Godínez)–(freed November 14) arrested between December 2017 and February 2018 and an additional ten political prisoners that were recently arrested in August and September 2018.
The ten newest political prisoners were arrested in relation to protests against electoral fraud in the municipality of Las Vegas, Santa Barbara. Many have a long trajectory of involvement in the Honduran social movement, defense of natural resources, and human rights work. All 10 are being held in the military-run, maximum-security ‘El Pozo’ prison in Ilama, Santa Barbara, which is also where political prisoner Edy Gonzalo (arrested in February 2018) is imprisoned. To date, the family members of the prisoners from Las Vegas have not been able to visit or communicate with them.
For five of the original political prisoners arrested during the months after the November 2017 elections, it has been between almost 9 to 10 months since their detentions.
No judicial way out: Violations of due process continue in Edwin and Raul’s case
On August 30, Edwin and Raul’s attorneys were notified that the Appeals court in Tegucigalpa had denied their appeal. The Appeals court like the entire judiciary in Honduras is highly politicized and for years since the 2009 coup, its independence has been questioned.
In the ruling, the Appeals court confirmed all decisions made by the lower level judge, Claudio Aguilar, ignoring serious violations of due process – the malicious delay of justice (taking seven months to send the appeal to the Appeals court); the lack of impartiality of Judge Aguilar; the harshness of and unjustified pre-trial detention in a maximum security prison; and the lack of jurisdiction of the lower court.
In addition, the Appeals court also violated due process by acting outside of its mandate by adding an argument that neither the previous judge or Public Prosecutor’s Office had argued in the lower court. It is not the mandate of the Appeals court to make additional arguments but instead mediate between the prosecutors and the defense and rule on the presented arguments.
Given that the national jurisdiction court system cannot legally justify hearing Edwin and Raul’s case, the Appeals court added the argument that Edwin and Raul are part of an “organized criminal group.” No evidence demonstrating Edwin and Raul’s involvement and membership in such a criminal group was ever presented nor did the Public Prosecutor’s office make this argument in the case. By adding this argument, the Appeals court has not made it impossible for the case to be removed from the prejudiced national jurisdiction court presided by judge Claudio Aguilar to the regular Honduran court system.
This month and as part of next steps in the case, Edwin’s attorneys from the Honduran organization, Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) will present an injunction (or ‘amparo’ in Spanish) that will argue how Edwin’s constitutional rights have been violated since his arrest on January 19, 2018.
Continued support….
Rabble Podcast -Support Surprising Places
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor committee has contacted all Simcoe County candidates for mayor and deputy mayor to inform them of this urgent matter and will be calling on the councils in the remaining 16 municipality councils to pass the following resolution passed by Springwater Council:
Springwater Council Letter to the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor Committee
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor & Spring family, Elmvale thank local family owned company Datamax for donating this billboard in support of release of family member and human rights defender Edwin Espinal, spouse of Karen Spring, imprisoned in Honduras!
Billboard located on County Road 90 in Barrie Ontario, Canada.
31d3c938-5f7c-409f-a8af-63377a3b328f.JPG [SHARED]
August 10, 2018
Political prisoners Edwin and Raúl send messages from jail!
Honduran political prisoners Edwin Espinal and Raúl Alvarez, criminalized on trumped up charges related to protests against election fraud, have been in jail for nearly seven months. This week, from inside the La Tolva maximum security prison, they wrote open letters with messages of hope, thanks, and commitment to the struggle.
Here are their messages:
In this video below , Dr. Janet Spring of the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor, presents the case for the immediate release of the political prisoners in Honduras.
“If Canada makes a statement regarding the release of a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia, it must do so for Edwin Espinal in Honduras, who is a very loved member of the Spring family of Elmvale, Ontario.” (Janet Spring, mother-in-law of Edwin Espinal, political prisoner in a Honduran maximum-security military jail)
Free Edwin Espinal Now
Press Release: For immediate release
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, August 10, 2018
Contact: Dr. Janet Spring at: janet.spring@utoronto.ca or +504 9637-6056
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor is calling on the Canadian government to apply the same standards and expectations to human rights violations in Honduras as it is does regarding Saudi Arabia. “It has been six months since we first urgently appealed to Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau to help our family member Edwin Espinal and other political prisoners incarcerated in atrocious conditions in Honduras,” said Janet Spring of Elmvale Ontario, in a statement today from Tegucigalpa.
“We consider it hypocrisy for Canada to ignore the desperate pleas coming from our family and from our rural community, for whose unwavering support we are so grateful. It’s time for Mr. Trudeau and Ms. Freeland to make clear that Canada will cease political and financial support for the corrupt Hernandez government, until prisoners are allowed basic human rights in the legal process and their treatment meets basic civilized norms. Those prisoners like Edwin who have been arrested for political reasons must be released and all charges dropped.”
Edwin has been incarcerated for over six months and has suffered greatly. Edwin and Raul have lost at least 35 pound due to lack of proper nutrition. The sanitation standards in the maximum-security prison are deplorable due to the lack of clean and sufficient water. Prisoners have access to water for only 5 minutes per day. Unflushed toilets, lack of fresh air, and insect infestation exacerbate sanitation levels as documented by the Canadian Ambassador to Honduras’ office staff after they visited Edwin in July.
Prime Minister Trudeau recently remarked on Canada’s stand on human rights abuses, “Canadians have always expected our government to speak strongly, firmly, clearly and politely about the need to respect human rights at home and around the world. We will continue to do that, we will continue to stand up for Canadian values and indeed for universal values and human rights at any occasion.”
Spring said she is confident Espinal would be released if Canada took a firm stand and demanded his freedom. “If Canada makes a statement regarding the release of a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia, it must do so for Edwin Espinal in Honduras, who is a very loved member of the Spring family of Elmvale, Ontario.”
Open Letter to the Canadian Government Officials by the Canadian Union of Public Employees
“Every person I speak to is appalled to learn of the blind eye that Canada has turned to [Honduras’] terrifying repression”
Keep pressure on U.S. and Canadian governments: Edwin Espinal –and all political prisoners in Honduras- must be released
Letter by Kevin Skerrett (CUPE, Canadian Union of Public Employees) to the Canadian government.
From: Kevin Skerrett, 2018 3:59 PM
To: james.hill@international.gc.ca
Cc: catherine.mckenna@parl.gc.ca; Isabelle.SolonHelal@international.gc.ca; Kyle.Sundstrom@international.gc.ca; Bertrand-Xavier.Asselin@international.gc.ca; ioanna.sahasmartin@international.gc.ca; michael.roy@international.gc.ca; chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca; chrystia.freeland.c1d@parl.gc.ca; chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca
Subject: Urgent message re political prisoners in Honduras
Monday, June 4, 2018
Ambassador James Hill
Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua
Dear Ambassador Hill,
I write today to join my voice to those of hundreds of others demanding the immediate release of Edwin Espinal from a Honduran prison, either with conditions pending trial, or (more fairly) with the immediate dropping of all charges.
The Canadian government must openly advocate for his immediate release if it is to continue to claim to be a defender of human and democratic rights.
From the information that has come to my attention, it is clear:
• that Edwin Espinal has been a target of regime repression and harassment, on multiple occasions, going back to 2009
• that the Honduran legal system has been used against him on numerous occasions as a tool of repression
• that Edwin’s jail living conditions, right now, are harmful and abusive, and a violation of multiple legal and human rights; and
• that his current punitive (and illegal) jailing is being used by the regime to send a message to other human rights and democracy defenders in the country.
I agree strongly with the concerns already communicated to you by the organization Rights Action. The Government of Canada’s policies and actions in Honduras are contradictory: on the one hand, Canada legitimized the 2009 military coup / regime change, and then – against all evidence – rubber-stamped three sets of fraudulent, violent elections since the coup, while turning a blind eye to the increasing rates of human rights violations, corruption and repression committed by the regime since then; on the other hand, Canada funds human rights organizations that are, sometimes, trying to address the violations and suffering caused by the regime.
I work as a Senior Research Officer for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, based in Ottawa. I am discussing the detention of Edwin Espinal and other political prisoners in Honduras with my colleagues at the CUPE National Office and across the labour movement. Every single person that I speak to about this issue is appalled to learn of the blind eye that Canada has turned to this terrifying repression. The information about this case, and about Canada’s role in Honduras, is growing by the week. It is urgent that these concerns and issues be immediately addressed.
I ask that you do everything in your power to secure Edwin’s immediate release and to keep us informed of your actions. Further, I urge that the Government of Canada withdraw all support for and recognition of the fraudulent election processes carried out since 2009, and to initiate a thoroughgoing review of Canada’s relationship with the current de facto government in Tegucigalpa.
Kevin Skerrett
Ottawa
Cc:
Minister Chrystia Freeland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada,
Catherine McKenna, Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, MP for Ottawa-Centre
*******
*******
Keep on writing
There is NO EXCUSE for the U.S. and Canada not to be advocating directly and relentlessly for the release of Edwin, and all political prisoners. Since the 2009 military coup, the U.S. and Canada’s unwavering support for the undemocratic, repressive and corrupt post-coup regimes continues to be part of the problem.
United States
Contact directly your elected Senators (https://whoismyrepresentative.com/) and Congress members (https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative) and make your demands known to them.
Canada
Directly contact your Member of Parliament and make your demands known to them (https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members) and ask them to write directly to:
Ambassador James Hill, Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua, James.Hill@international.gc.ca,
tglpa@international.gc.ca
Minister Chrystia Freeland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada, chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca
chrystia.freeland.c1d@parl.gc.ca
chrystia.freeland@international.gc.ca
Demands – short term
The U.S. and Canadian governments must:
• Do an about face and rescind their “legitimization” of the Nov. 26, 2017 elections
• Condemn the multiple acts of electoral fraud carried out by government of Juan Orlando Hernandez
• Condemn the repression including the killing of over 40 pro-democracy protesters, and the illegal detentions of dozens of political prisoners, including Edwin Espinal
• Suspend all economic, military and political relations with the government of Honduras, until the political / electoral crisis has been resolved and impartial justice processes are proceeded against the intellectual and material authors of the electoral fraud and stolen elections, and the endemic repression
Demands – medium term
There must be legislative inquiries in the U.S. and Canada into the causes of Honduras’ now endemic repression and exploitation, corruption and impunity, with specific focus on the role played by the U.S. and Canadian governments:
• In support of the 2009 military coup
• In support and legitimization of fraudulent and violent elections in 2009, 2013 and 2017
• In support (in the case of Canada) of the promoting and signing of the potentially illegitimate “Free Trade Agreement” with the government of Honduras; In support of the expansion of corporate investments in Honduras (mining, garment “sweatshop” industry, bananas, hydro-electric dams, tourism, African palm, etc.), while turning a blind eye to and – in effect – benefitting from repression, fraud, corruption and impunity.
*******
,
*******
from Springwater News…Edition 526 July 26, 2018
Six-month Anniversary of Edwin Espinal’s Unjust Incarceration:
Simcoe County Honduras Right Monitor Continues to Fight for His Freedom
On July 19, 2018, Edwin Espinal reached the six-month mark of his unjust incarceration in La Tolva maximum-security prison in Honduras. He was arrested for his peaceful opposition to the repressive government of Honduras, exercising his right to speak with a pro-democratic voice against the corrupt and illegal election of Juan Orlando Hernandez. This election occurred in November, 2017. Edwin has been a target of the Honduran regime due to his human rights work in his community in Tegucigalpa since 2009.
Edwin’s illegal incarceration has resulted in his health being compromised. The problems of the lack of water and food, and filthy, fly infested, unsanitary living conditions continue, despite voiced concerns from our community of Elmvale, demands to the Honduran government by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and an e-petition sponsored and circulated by Amnesty International Canada demanding Edwin’s release from prison. To date, the Canadian government has not issued a public statement to demand his release, despite our appeals for this to occur.
We appreciate concerned citizens of Canada to phone the Honduran Ambassador to Canada – Sofia Cerrato Rodriguez – to voice opposition to Edwin’s illegal incarceration and the Honduran government’s suppression of human rights. To date, Ms. Rodriguez has been unresponsive to emails, and has been indifferent to phone calls that she has received from concerned citizens. She has minimized the circumstances of Edwin’s incarceration, she has deflected the facts of the case by claiming ignorance, she has been indifferent. But it is important that we keep pressuring Honduran authorities, also Global Affairs Canada – Minister Chrystia Freeland and Prime Minister Trudeau – to seek a successful resolution to not only Edwin’s case but to all remaining political prisoners’ cases. They are suffering along with Edwin. We continue to demand a public statement from Minister Freeland, Global Affair, Canada.
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor moves forward with further action to demand Edwin’s release and trumped up charges be dropped. We thank Adam Zimmerman, owner and operator of Datamax Outdoor Advertising, Canada, for assisting us in our campaign and being a champion of human rights in Honduras. Mr. Zimmerman has donated a Datamax highway billboard of our choice to assist our community in our advocacy for Edwin’s release and he has offered to help in any way he can. The billboard will be erected in the very near future. We greatly appreciate this opportunity to spread the word regarding the human rights abuses that are occurring in Honduras, an issue that has touched our Spring family member of Elmvale.
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor committee and the Spring family thank our federal politicians – MP Bruce Stanton and MP Alex Nuttall – and our local Springwater politicians who continue to be extremely supportive of our cause. We thank our community members who have banned together to advocate for Edwin’s release and to call for the upholding of human rights in Honduras. Many have made phone calls, sent emails and letters to government authorities.
We appeal to the community to continue to contact those in the Canadian and Honduran governments to act on Edwin’s behalf. Edwin must be released. He was arrested without warrant, without due legal process, on false charges, his lawyers denied full legal files, yet he still awaits release from La Tolva prison after 6 months of inhumane treatment in deplorable living conditions.
We thank you all for your continued support. We will fight until we are achieve positive results.
Honduran Ambassador to Canada: Sofia Cerrato Rodriguez:
Telephone: 613-233-8900
Email: ambassador@embassyhonduras.hn
Minister Chrystia Freeland
Telephone: 613-992-5234
Email: Chrystia.freeland@international.gc.ca
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Telephone: 613-9924211
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
from Springwater News…Edition 525 July 12, 2018
MOUNTING CONCERNS REGARDING EDWIN ESPINAL IN HONDURAS
APPEAL TO THE SPRINGWATER COMMUNITY
I am writing to the very supportive community members of Springwater Township to express my mounting concerns regarding Edwin Espinal and to ask for your help in contacting the Government of Canada through Minister Freeland’s office.
We urge Minister Freeland’s office to make a public statement to demand Edwin Espinal’s release and to drop all charges. Our family is very worried about Edwin’s safety as well as his physical and mental state. We have been in contact with Minister Freeland’s office for this request, yet no action has occurred from the government of Canada to date.
Family members and friends have also tried to contact the Honduran Ambassador to Canada, Sofia Cerrato Rodriguez, yet she does not respond to emails and rarely answers her phone calls.
For two weeks, we had not received any word regarding Edwin, which concerned us. Was he ill? Was he alive? Had he been transferred to another prison without our knowledge? His three lawyers working on his case were denied access to him; they had traveled to La Tolva Prison three times and were told by the guards and the director himself that they had come on the “wrong day,” even though they had arrived to visit him on the days scheduled for legal visits. This made us very worried. Finally, Edwin’s lawyer was granted entry last Thursday, but was not allowed to bring any legal documents in with her. She is never able to meet with him alone to discuss his ‘case.’ There are no lawyer/client privileges.
In Honduras, the legal system is wrought with corruption. The judicial system fails the innocent yet protects the corrupt members of the Hernandez regime. Government officials act with impunity. They are above the law. Most of the prisoners in La Tolva maximum-security prison have been denied due legal process, held without evidence, and often without proper legal counsel, awaiting ‘trial’ for a period of 2.5 years. When that time is up, they will not get a fair trial.
Prison authorities are able to impose new ‘rules’ on a whim. Families have no legal rights or recourse to question the broken system that bans them from visiting family members. They are bullied. They are terrorized. They are scared to question the ‘rules’ and restrictions and to speak out.
Another grave concern is that the phone system is still off in the prison; prisoners have not been able to have phone contact with families since April 4th. Families must physically travel to the prison and are unable to visit loved ones unless they have purchased visitor permits and have received them. Some members of Edwin’s family are still waiting for their permits. Then families must make that horrible trip to La Tolva, which is at least a 2-hour drive each way from Tegucigalpa, as it is in the middle of nowhere. Their visits are at the whim of the prison officials. Many times, they are turned away. This is totally unacceptable and breaks all international human rights laws on visitation rights.
On top of the deplorable political prisoner situation in Honduras, I am totally horrified and dismayed at the continual reporting of the great number of money laundering, drug trafficking, and legal scandals that the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez has been involved in – his court appointees, his Ministers, and himself, since he illegally took office back in 2014. I feel that Hondurans have been totally robbed of any chance for a decent life in their country, which accounts for the very upsetting migration and separation of families at the US border, further sparked by the aftermath of the disgusting, illegal ‘zero tolerance law’ brought in by the Trump administration. It seems that Honduran jails need to be emptied to make room for corrupt government officials who are breaking the law both in the US and Honduras. I truly feel there is not enough space in these maximum-security prisons to house them all.
I am becoming more frustrated and disgusted as time moves on and can only imagine how devastated the Honduran population is regarding this government corruption in the country. I can’t imagine the upset and despair of those who have emigrated from Honduras (the very fortunate ones) to move for a better life elsewhere as they listen to how the state of affairs in their home country is worsening and impacting family members who may still live there.
I would greatly appreciate you making a call to Minister Freeland’s office or emailing her staff to DEMAND THAT CANADA MAKE A PUBLIC STATEMENT TO FREE EDWIN ESPINAL AND OTHERS AND TO DROP ALL CHARGES. I ask you to also call or email SOFIA CERRATO RODRIGUEZ – HONDURAN AMBASSADOR TO CANADA to make the same demand for their freedom.
Amnesty Canada has published an e-action to demand Edwin Espinal’s freedom and the dropping of all charges. Please help us and sign this e-petition and pass it to others. This may be retrieved at: http://www.amnesty.ca/SpeakUpForEdwin
We are fretting about Edwin’s safety. Furthermore, Edwin and Raul Alvarez (also in La Tolva on the same charges) should not even be in this maximum-security military prison. Their rights have been completely violated; their detention is illegal, charges are trumped-up, breaking all international human rights and legal rights standards.
We need Canada to make a stand to demand their freedom now. Please help!
Minister Chrystia Freeland: Chrystia.freeland@international.gc.ca
1-613-992-5234
Ambassador Sofia Cerrato Rodriguez: ambassador@embassyhonduras.hn
1-613-233-8900
I thank you for your continued support and for all the comforting words you have given our family.
Janet Spring
Read: Courage, Protest and a man named Edwin
Amnesty International and Amnesty International Canada announcements.
Sign the call for immediate release of Edwin Espinal and all political prisoners.
Signup at link below. Support signing sent to Attorney General Honduras and to Chrystia Freeland.
Sunday June 24 5 pm Potluck/Information Meeting
Update – Simcoe County delegates return from Honduras, demand political prisoners’ release
The Fight to Get Karen Spring into Honduran Prison
by Rabble
Click on TAKE ACTION for information on how you can help.
TAKE ACTION
Report on the Simcoe County Honduras Right Monitor Delegation to Honduras
Ben Prowess-Honduras Delegation Day 6: The conclusion.
Today the members of the official delegation departed for Canada and the United States. Last night, reflecting upon our work, we felt that we had actually accomplished a lot for such a short trip.
We had meetings with the Canadian and US embassies, with the UN, and with different Honduran government officials. More importantly, with the help of local lawyers, media, and activists, we were able to gain access to visit the jail where political prisoner Edwin Espinal is being held – despite heavy resistance from the government. We also got to meet with the family of Berta Caceres, who urged us on in our work.
And we know that the work will not stop. Karen and I are staying in the country longer. We will be attempting to organize meetings in DC and Ottawa. We will keep trying to get Edwin out of jail, and charges dropped for all political prisoners. And we will be back.
Ben Powless-Honduras Delegation – Day 5. (Day 4 was spent just meeting with embassies and the UN) We travelled the night before to La Esperanza, hometown of murdered Indigenous leader Berta Caceres.
There we met with her mother and brother, who told us about her life, the long history of fighting that her family came from, as well as their friendship and support of the fight to free political prisoners including Edwin Espinal.
We carried on to the home that Berta was living in while she was murdered, and took the opportunity to visit her grave and pay respects. Today was the last day of the official delegation, but I will be staying in the country for a few days longer.
Honduras Delegation Day 3
Update – Simcoe County delegates return from Honduras, demand political prisoners’ release
Honduras Delegation, Day 2: “Today we had a meeting in the morning with the sub-prosecutor general for Honduras about the situation of political prisoners.
This was followed by a press conference with Janet Spring, mother of Karen Spring, and mother-in-law to political prisoner Edwin Espinal, as well as members of the Committee for the Liberation of Political Prisoners.
Finally, we made an initial visit to La Tolva military-run prison, where the last two political prisoners there not freed on bail are being held. We were not allowed in but will return tomorrow with media.”
AWARE-Simcoe Report on Canada-Honduras Delegation
Canada/US Delegation to Honduras
The Struggle for Honduran Political Prisoner Freedom is Making Progress
freeedwinespinallibertad
From Rural Ontario to Central America; Longtime Canadian Activist…
By KAREN SPRING, MAY 9, 2018
From Elmvale to Ottawa and Support Actions
Visits with most Members of Parliament and policy advisors were helpful, with ideas put forward to assist in the fight to free the Honduran political prisoners and Justice for Berta. A press conference was organized by MP Bruce Stanton and a successful rally followed. Press Release here: Rural Groups Rally to Press Canada to Demand Release of Political Prisoners in Honduras and slideshow photos depicting these events.
Upcoming Delegation to Honduras
Simcoe County Fact-Finding Delegation: Political Prisoners in Honduras
Dates: Tuesday, May 22 (arrival day) to Sunday, May 27 (departure day)
Cost: $700 Canadian + round-trip flight to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Delegation fee covers food, hotel, translation, in-country transportation & small stipends to some groups we meet with. No groups will make money from this trip and we aim to break even.
Host group: Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor
Led by: Janet Spring, Karen Spring, and Grahame Russell (from Canada and US-based organization, Rights Action). Both Karen and Grahame have extensive experience coordinating and leading delegations in Honduras and Guatemala.
Description:
The delegation is part of the on-going work of the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor that is demanding the release of Edwin Espinal and the additional 21 political prisoners arrested in the context of the post-electoral crisis in Honduras. The purpose of the delegation is to continue the pressure on Honduran and Canadian authorities as part of efforts to demand that charges be dropped and all political prisoners be released.
This delegation is a full four-day fact-finding mission that will meet with relevant institutions involved in the issue of the political prisoners including Honduran and international human rights groups and organizations, families of the political prisoners, (at least one and maybe two visits to military-run jails where political prisoners are being detained), and Canadian and Honduran authorities in Tegucigalpa.
Before each meeting, the delegation will establish a clear strategy and talking points and conduct the relevant follow-up afterwards. The delegation may participate in a press conference at the end of the trip to discuss their findings, visits and meetings. Following the delegation, some delegates will be asked to attend meetings arranged in Ottawa to share findings with Canadian government authorities.
This delegation is for people that:
· Are comfortable with sitting through long meetings, being on a tight schedule or ‘hurrying up and waiting’ and if necessary,
· Understand that the Honduran climate is hot,
· Are comfortable with inexpensive, but adequate lodging and open to experiencing different and limited types of food options. We can accommodate vegetarians and people with mild food allergies.
· Are ready to learn a lot about Canada’s role in Honduras, work to free political prisoners, and end Canada’s support for the Honduran regime until the political prisoners are free.
For further information and/or to register, contact:
Janet Spring: janet.spring@utoronto.ca
Cell: 705-734-4238
May 1 in the evening a public event took place.
Canada’s Hand in Honduras: Political Prisoners and the Investigation of the murder of Berta Cáceres. We heard over telephone the daughter of Berta speak on the demands for Justice, the need to arrest state actors and the demand on May Day that this corrupt and military rule in Honduras be brought down! Canada must stop support for this government.
![Honduras_Print_Poster_9[2]](https://simcoecountyhondurasrightsmonitor.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/honduras_print_poster_92.jpg)
STAND WITH HONDURAS: FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS
– Edwin Espinal and 20 other political prisoners are being held in horrific conditions in maximum security prisons on trumped up charges for speaking out against a corrupt government that has been consolidating control since the 2009 military backed coup.
– Honduran armed forces violently attacked hundreds of protests after elections in November 2017 in which over 30 people were killed; the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recognized that at least 16 were shot to death by security forces
– The investigation into the brutal murder of world-renowned Indigenous environment defender Berta Cáceres in 2016 has fallen short of arresting and prosecuting all material and intellectual authors, particularly suspects with links to the government, while members of her organization COPINH continue to be persecuted
– The Honduran government gains its sense of legitimacy from the international support of Canada, the U.S. and other foreign governments, which enables it to repress people with impunity, denying people their rights, raiding government coffers and crushing pro-democratic voices.
– Members of the rural community of Elmvale and the Township Council of Springwater Ontario are standing by the Spring family in their fight to free son-in-law Edwin and all political prisoners.
We call on Canadians everywhere to ask the Trudeau Government to:
– Use all means at its disposal to pressure Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez to end human rights violations in the country:
– Suspend all Canadian government support to Honduras until political prisoners are free without charge, the rule of law is upheld, and
On Tuesday May 1st,
Join us together with:
Berta Zuniga Cáceres, daughter of Berta Cáceres,
Karen Spring, Honduras Solidarity Network,
members of the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor and others to demonstrate your support for justice and the freedom of political prisoners.
10-11am: Solidarity Demo for Justice & Freedom of Political Prisoners
Parliament Hill
7:30-9:30pm: Public Event
“Canada’s Hand in Honduras: Political Prisoners & the Investigation of Berta Cáceres’ Murder”
PSAC Building, 233 Gilmour St
Web: https://simcoecountyhondurasrightsmonitor.wordpress.com/
#FreeEdwinEspinal
#Justice4Berta
#hondurasresist
Supported by Honduras Solidarity Network, Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor, Education in Action, Solidarity Ottawa, MiningWatch Canada, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, ALBA Social Movements, Honduras-Canada Solidarity Community and more to come…
Janet Spring, Karen Spring ( Honduras Solidarity Network) Springwater Deputy Mayor, Don Allen.
For immediate release
Springwater Township calls on Freeland to intervene in Honduras
‘Not dealing with a normal bunch down there’ – Councillor Perry Ritchie
ELMVALE – April 22 2018 – Springwater Township Council has unanimously voted to call on the federal government to uphold human rights and the rule of law in Honduras and to urgently intervene to help free Edwin Espinal and other political prisoners in that country.
Deputy Mayor Don Allen put forward a motion at the request of the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor, started by the Springs, a well-known local farm family.
“My family and the families of all political prisoners are deeply grateful for the support from Springwater,” Karen Spring said after the meeting. “This resolution is a demonstration of the stance of local residents in relation to human rights issues that affect us all, one way or another.”
“Thank you to Springwater Township for the support and for insisting that Minister Freeland’s office demand the immediate release of Edwin and all political prisoners.”
Spring has been based in Honduras for nine years as the coordinator of the Honduras Solidarity Network which comprises more than 30 organizations from Canada and the United States. She and her mother Janet appeared before council April 18 2018.
Spring told council it’s been three months since her husband Edwin was detained by Honduran security forces. “I haven’t been able to speak with him for two weeks because phone communication has been turned off inside the prison as punishment for a protest that was carried out by other inmates.”
The conditions in the prison are unbearable, she told council. Prisoners have access to water for only 5 to 10 minutes a day, for drinking and washing, they are allowed two hours of sunlight a month, Espinal has not seen his family, with the exception of five visits from Spring before she left the country, he is given little food and has lost 10-15 pounds, and he has respiratory problems that may be related to widespread untreated tuberculosis among inmates.
Espinal’s arrest was part of a crackdown following public protests over an election November 26, 2017 that opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla had appeared to be winning with a mathematically insurmountable lead. But late on election day, the count was suspended. When it resumed, President Juan Orlando Hernández was found to be receiving the majority of votes. The election has been widely condemned by international observers.
Some members of council expressed reservations about some of the wording of the resolution. The mayor put forward a series of amendments that eliminated some of the stronger language in the original motion with the aim, he explained, of making the message more effective with higher levels of government.
“The objective to free Edwin is the only purpose that we have here – and those other prisoners, I’m not suggesting we’re not going to take care of them, because they’re all caught up in the same net,” French said.
Deleted from the Springwater motion:
- that Opposition Alliance presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla was “fraudulently robbed of victory”
- that Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland “regrettably followed the United States lead in recognizing the Hernandez regime”
- that Espinal was arrested on “trumped up charges.”
Spring said she was willing to accept the changes but nevertheless defended the deleted wording. “There’s no rule of law in Honduras and there’s widespread corruption,” she added, explaining that the charges against Espinal and other political prisoners were “randomly ticked off” by prosecutors.
However, she argued, that reference to “inhumane conditions” inside the prison should remain. “It’s a very strong message to the Honduran government that they’re not meeting international standards,” because James Hill, the Canadian ambassador to Honduras, has also raised concern about these horrific conditions.
French agreed that reference to inhumane conditions should remain.
Janet Spring pointed out that much of the wording in the resolution is taken from the findings of international bodies like the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Organization of American States.
“Let’s not water it down too much here,” urged Councillor Perry Ritchie. He referred to information conveyed at a well-attended information meeting in Elmvale earlier this month. “These are people that walked out, grabbed the president and took off!” he said, referring to the kidnapping of President Manuel Zelaya in 2009.
“And then they’ve instilled a curfew that at 6 o’clock at night to 6 o’clock the next morning, if you’re caught outside, they automatically shoot you,” Ritchie said.
“So to water this down, turn the other cheek, be nice about it, I don’t think it’s going to get anywhere. So I liked the way it was. But whatever it takes to get this passed, let’s do it and help these people – because we’re not dealing with a normal bunch down there.”
The majority of council voted for the mayor’s amendments. They then voted unanimously in favour of the deputy mayor’s resolution.
Link to the Springwater Council discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AwvRVn8gkM
(start 54:08 end 1:37)
For immediate release
Small rural community takes on repressive Honduras dictatorship
ELMVALE ON – APRIL 8, 2018 – How does a small rural community take on a repressive Central American dictatorship?
With determination – as demonstrated by some 150 people who packed the Elmvale community hall on Sunday afternoon in response to an appeal by a local farm family to help secure the release of political prisoners in Honduras.
Pressure from Elmvale has made a huge difference, said Janet Spring, who has been working on behalf of Honduran human rights worker Edwin Espinal, being held along with 21 other political prisoners under “horrific” conditions in military style jails.
Espinal is the husband of Janet’s daughter Karen, also a human rights worker based in Honduras. Karen choked back tears as she thanked people for coming out in support of her family. “It means a lot to see so many people from the community where I grew up,” she told the crowd.
Janet Spring said the pressure has been felt in Ottawa, where officials in Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office have acknowledged that they have heard from the community. And, she added, it’s been felt in Central America, as Canadian Ambassador James Hill told her in a telephone conversation. “He did mention the fact that we have had an awful lot of support from our Elmvale community.”
A full complement of local dignitaries joined the Springs at the head table, headed by local Conservative MPs Bruce Stanton (Simcoe North) and Alex Nuttall (Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte), along with Springwater Mayor Bill French and Deputy Mayor Don Allen. Among those in the audience were Simcoe County Warden Gerry Marshall and Tiny Township Mayor George Cornell, as well as Springwater Councillor Perry Ritchie.
Stanton paid tribute to the courage of human rights workers who “are on the front lines of taking personal harm… to stand up for ordinary folks that just want a fighting chance to build their lives in their own country.”
“The world needs more Karen Springs,” he said, to applause. “And Edwin Espinals sas well,” he added, to more applause.
The November 26 2017 Honduran election has been widely recognized as having fraudulently robbed Opposition Alliance presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla of victory.
Millions protested the seizing of power by Juan Orlando Hernandez, who ran for a second term despite being constitutionally ineligible. The protests resulted in more than 30 deaths that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has characterized as extra-judicial killings by security forces. Espinal was among 22 pro-democracy supporters arrested on trumped-up charges.
Despite these clear abuses, the United States recognized the Hernandez government in December, and Canada followed suit a day later.
Stanton urged those present to “stand with the Spring family, with Karen and Edwin and the other political prisoners in Honduras and do everything we can to put pressure on the Canadian government.”
He said that Freeland does have “a listening ear” on the issue. However, Canada’s voice needs to be stronger, he said.
Nuttall pointed to $37 million in aid that Canada provides to Honduras. “Why are we spending S37 million a year propping up a government that is hurting its own people?” He urged that Canada announce it will cut back until Honduras respect the rights of its citizens.”
“Follow the money,” echoed Springwater’s Bill French.
Tyler Shipley, author of Ottawa and Empire – Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras, stressed that Canada has played a major role in the country’s descent into state-sanctioned terror. It started in 2009, when the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped by the military and flown out of the country. Canada recognized the government that seized power back then. Since then there have been three flawed elections, the last one in November having been “irrevocably fraudulent.”
In each case, as people were being arbitrarily arrested and being shot in the streets, “the surprising bit is that Canada throughout this process has taken the side of the Honduran military,” Shipley said.
But perhaps, he said, it’s less surprising when one considers that a lot of Canadian capital is invested in Honduras, in the mining sector, in manufacturing, in the tourism industry.
“Unfortunately the Canadian government decided it was more important to support those interests,” Shipley said, a stance that has held across political lines in Canada, involving decisions by both the Harper and Trudeau governments, but has been uniformly harmful to Hondurans.
Questions from some in the audience indicated a level of understanding of Canada’s financial complicity. There was a request for a list of Canadian companies that invest in the country, and Karen Spring promised that would be posted on the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor.
Members of the audience were invited to sign letters to the Canadian government and a petition in Spanish. The Springs have appointments next week in Ottawa with Global Affairs Canada, and with Sofia Cerrato Rodriguez, the Honduran Ambassador to Canada, and plan to take the messages from the Elmvale meeting to those officials.
Head Table
MC James Nugent, Mayor Bill French, MP Bruce Stanton, Dr. Tyler Shipley- Guest Speaker, Karen Spring, Janet Spring, Mayor Don Allen, MP Alex Nuttall
Mining Companies Goldcorp, Aura Minerals, Glenn Eagle Resources Co., Lundin Mining
Tourism Companies, NJOI, Life Vision Developments, Caravida
Textiles-Gildan
fromORILLIAMATTERS.COM
On April 5th, Ottawa residents joined protesters worldwide who have been denouncing the fraudulent Honduran elections and arrests of political prisoners, and calling on the Canadian government to act.
Two Weeks With No Communication from the La Tolva Prison
Update #8 – April 19, 2018 – Day 89
Sunday April 8: Free Honduras political prisoners – meeting in Elmvale
Edwin Espinal, in November 2015 with young friends in Rio Blanco where he had gone to support Berta Cáceres, just months before her assassination. -Karen Spring photo
From Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor
The Spring family of Elmvale is hosting a meeting on the extreme danger faced by their daughter Karen, a human rights worker in Honduras, and the inhumane treatment of Karen’s spouse Edwin Espinal, jailed for almost three months on trumped-up charges.
When: Sunday April 8, 2018
Where: Elmvale Community Hall, 33 Queen Street West
Speakers
—Jeff Monague is a member of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island and currently resides in Coldwater Ont. Presently, he is the Manager at Springwater Provincial Park. He has been an instructor of the Ojibwe Language and has taught at every level, from junior kindergarten to post-secondary at Georgian College.He is a former Chief and Councillor of his community on Christian Island and has been the Treaty Research Coordinator for the Anishinaabek Nation. He is also a Canadian Military Veteran.
—Dr. Tyler Shipley, PhD, York University, International Studies, Humber College, School of Liberal Arts & Sciences , scholar and author specializing in Honduran issues. His recent book is called “book “Ottawa and Empire: Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras”
–Karen Spring, the Honduras-based Coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN), a network of over 30 orgs from Canada and the US. She has lived and worked in Honduras for nine years supporting Honduran human rights organizations, indigenous groups and social movements in the country. Karen works extensively with the families of the political prisoners and human rights groups demanding their release.
—Representatives speaking from the Government of Canada – our local MPs – Bruce Stanton, and Alex Nuttall, and Springwater Township Mayor Bill French, and Deputy Mayor Don Allen.
Canada’s direct role
With direct US and Canadian involvement in economic interests in the country, and their continued fiscal and military support of this corrupt regime, the Honduran people have been increasingly vulnerable to repression, murder, disappearances, and terrorization as the Honduran government of Hernandez operates freely on the ‘good will’ of our governments. Without Canadian and US support, the Hernandez government would ‘fall;’ repression and violence against the millions of pro-democracy supporters like Edwin Espinal would end.
The Spring family is demanding that the Canadian government intervene in Edwin’s case and force the Hernandez government to release him and the 30+ prisoners that are held in the inhumane military prisons throughout Honduras. The military prisons lack proper water facilities, washroom visits are restricted, small cells house nine men, lack of beds, food is very scarce, medical attention is often denied as is Edwin’s case now, contact with family members, human rights organizations, and legal representatives is minimal or forbidden.
These human rights violations, and degradation of human dignity must be stopped. Janet, her family, friends, and communities in Simcoe County and beyond will not stop their demands until Edwin is free.
BACKGROUND
Who is Karen Spring?
Karen Spring was born in 1984 and raised on her family’s dairy farm in Elmvale, Ontario. She is the second of five children of Janet Spring, music educator, and John Spring, dairy, chicken, and cash crop farmer. She attended elementary and secondary school in the village of Elmvale.
She studied human biology and world issues at the University of Toronto, graduating in 2008 and moving to Guatamala on a scholarship to research the health effects of Canadian mining practices in that country. In 2009, she began work in Honduras for Toronto-based Rights Action, and later as coordinator of the Honduran Solidarity Network.
Today her base is Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. She works with human rights organizations that investigate health abuses related to Canadian and US mining practices, monitor and advocate for better working conditions of women employed in the Canadian and US sweatshop industries of Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, and Jockey. They investigate the illegal detention of and eviction of campesinos (farmers) and indigenous Garifuna peoples from their lands in the Northern part of Honduras and provide them with legal, emotional, financial, and housing support.
In this Caribbean coastal area, the Canadian tourism companies of NJOI, Life Visions, and Caravida Villas are developing land that has been labelled as ‘Little Canada,’ where indigenous peoples have been evicted, murdered, imprisoned, and disappeared for protesting their evictions from the deeded lands their families have owned and lived on for centuries. Karen has been invited to speak on these issues to the House Committee on Human Rights in 2013 and 2014 in Ottawa. She has presented her work to many university groups and human rights organizations throughout North America.
In 2009, Karen met Edwin Espinal, a pro-democracy, human rights worker. They have been together since then. On January 19, 2018, Edwin was arrested by armed, masked military police as he was returning home from a pro-democracy rally.
On March 1, Edwin became ill. Karen was denied visitation three times. She has since been allowed limited access and is now not only fighting for his release, but for immediate medical attention. She has been in contact with James Hill – Ambassador to Honduras and Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office, yet with little progress. She is thankful for the support that she and Edwin are receiving from the community of Elmvale, Springwater Township, and local MPs Bruce Stanton and Alex Nuttall. She also thanks the many human rights and faith-based organizations that are working to free Edwin and other political prisoners.
Who is Edwin Espinal?
Edwin Espinal, age 42, is a long-time human rights worker and activist who lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. In 1999, he went to the United States for work to help support his siblings after Hurricane Mitch devastated the country. His brother’s death in 2008 prompted Edwin to leave the US to return home and care for his family. During this time, stability was returning to Honduras following the election of president Manuel Zelaya in 2006. In 2009, Zelaya was ousted by a US-backed coup d’état, creating a serious political and human rights crisis. Juan Orlando Hernandez came to power in 2013.
Edwin met Karen in late 2009. The two have worked together since then, through organizations affiliated with the Honduran Solidarity Network. Edwin has worked extensively with COFADEH, an indigenous organization formed by Berta Caceres who was murdered in 2016, Edwin assisted the Lenca peoples and Berta their leader, in the Rio Blanco district as they worked to stop the building of a dam on the Gualcarque River.
Edwin has been a target of the military regime of Honduras since 2009. He is highly regarded by his human rights peers and always ready to stand up for what is just for the people. He has never lost hope for change in Honduras. Yet the military regime continues to harass him. Since 2009, Edwin has been detained more than a dozen times, and has been beaten and tortured by security forces.
On January 19, 2018, Edwin was returning home from a pro-democracy rally when he was seized by masked military police and arrested on a laundry list of false charges. Since then he and 30+ political prisoners have been held in La Tolva Military Prison, south of Tegucigalpa, without due legal process. They are being held in horrific conditions that are hazardous to their health. Edwin is now very ill.
Site last updated March 22, 2018
On March 21 Global Day of Action…
Human rights organizations and relatives of people jailed on protest-related charges are currently giving a press conference outside the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. 
Serving Time in Honduras
March 19, 2018
Edwin Espinal, posing in November 2015 with young friends in Rio Blanco, where he had gone to support Berta Cáceres, just months before her assassination. (Photo by Karen Spring.)
I first met Edwin Robelo Espinal on July 1, 2010, three weeks before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted him precautionary measures due to the repeated torture and persecution he had suffered at the hands of Honduran police over the course of the previous year. I had arrived at the Tegucigalpa offices of the Honduran human rights organization Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) at 8:30 that morning to meet with Bertha Oliva, the organization’s director. Bertha, it turned out, was not at the office but at Flor del Campo police station demanding Edwin’s release after he had been arbitrarily detained the night before. She and Edwin returned to COFADEH about an hour and a half later. His eyes swollen shut and in evident pain, he nonetheless immediately agreed to an interview.
He told me that the police in the impoverished neighborhood where he lived, Flor del Campo, had threatened and attacked him on numerous occasions because they knew he was part of the resistance movement, and was actively organizing with it. The previous night, he had been sitting in his car when the neighborhood police ambushed him, dragging him out of the car by force without providing any explanation. They had punched him, he told me, and violently forced him into the patrol car, which they drove to an undisclosed location and continued to beat him. They sprayed pepper spray directly into his eyes, forcing him also to inhale large quantities of it. “It was all in my lungs, and all over my face,” he said. “My whole body hurt terribly.” After the initial torture, Edwin was taken to the neighborhood police station where he was detained overnight. There, he said, “they laughed at me when I said I was in pain and needed help. They shocked me using a Taser gun on my back and on my stomach, and then they set off the Taser in my ears to intimidate me—the sound is terrifying. I was suffocating.” They refused him medical assistance.
Already a well-recognized member of the National People’s Resistance Front (FNRP) motorcycle squad, Edwin had become famous following the September 26, 2009 death of his girlfriend Wendy Elizabeth Ávila from tear-gas inhalation during the violent repression by U.S.-trained Honduran state security forces of a vigil outside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capital. Fluent in English from his years working in construction in the United States, Edwin passionately denounced Ávila’s murder in national and international media, illustrating through his own loss the suffering of a nation following the June 28, 2009 U.S.-supported military coup.
A protest in Honduras in 2006. (flickr/ Claudia A. De La Garza)
Since our first meeting, I have come to admire Edwin and to consider him a dear friend. I have been teargassed with him and Berta Cáceres outside the U.S. army base that played a central role in the 2009 coup against Manuel Zelaya. I have accompanied him and his longtime partner Karen Spring to the funeral of one of his many friends murdered by death squads run through the Honduran military and police. I stood with him, journalists, human rights defenders, and a large group of his indignant neighbors as a group of around 60 heavily-armed members of the military police—in an attempt to plant evidence implicating him in drug trafficking—broke into Edwin’s home in the lead-up to the 2013 presidential elections. I have shared his outrage at the pain he and his family endured during the premature death of his mother due to medical abuse and neglect at the hands of the Honduran Institute of Social Security after the ruling National Party stole from its coffers to pay for their electoral campaigns and personal enrichment. Researchers have estimated, based on Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social (IHSS) mortality statistics, that between 2012 and 2014 nearly 3,000 people died as a direct result of the theft of IHSS funds. Edwin has babysat for my daughter, who adores him. His kindness, sense of humor, soft spot for kittens, and bad taste in music (like me, he has an embarrassing fondness for 1980s soft rock ballads) merge seamlessly with his tireless solidarity work, which—I have come to realize over the years—is borne of pure love.
Edwin has spent two months of an indefinite pre-trial detention in the La Tolva prison, one of the two military-run maximum-security facilities opened in the last two years along with El Pozo prison, ostensibly to house the country’s most dangerous violent criminals—high-level drug traffickers and gang leaders. He was arrested on January 19, following an anonymous social media campaign circulated by supporters of President Juan Orlando Hernández and government officials accusing Edwin along with numerous other opposition leaders, human rights defenders, and journalists—including renowned Jesuit priest and scholar Ismael “Padre Melo” Moreno—of having ties to criminal organizations and drug cartels and calling for and/or participating in violent and terrorist acts. While not all the targets of this campaign have been arrested, the general understanding among the opposition is that the accusations double as death threats (and indeed, in most cases, the latter have accompanied the former). At his pre-trial hearing, Edwin was accused of a litany of charges (including terrorism) related to suspicious damages to the Tegucigalpa Marriott Hotel, adjacent to the presidential palace, that occurred during a January 12 anti-Hernández protest this year in Tegucigalpa. The government “evidence” presented against him included the same blurry photographs that were used in the fliers used to criminalize him. Even before the government regime began openly accusing specific opposition leaders of property damage, its members had pointed out concerns about the pro-government media coverage of the damage incurred to the Marriott’s damaged ground-floor windows. They pointed to the unprecedented, seemingly intentional absence of police and soldiers guarding the hotel during the march, testimony of hotel guests who were cleared from the first floors of the building well in advance of the arrival of the marchers, and clear photographic and eyewitness evidence of National Party infiltrators throwing Molotov cocktails.
The broader context of this heightened criminalization of opposition leaders and journalists, two years after the internationally-denounced murder of Edwin’s close friend Berta Cáceres, is the blatant fraud carried out by President Hérnandez and his allies in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal following the November 26, 2017 presidential election, and enforced through brutal state repression of widespread protests against the electoral coup. While both of the other presidential elections that followed the 2009 U.S.-supported military coup were riddled with fraud and state violence, on this occasion the fraud was so obvious that not a single foreign dignitary attended Hernández’s inauguration. In an absurd attempt to invert the widespread public rejection of Hernández’s claim to victory and criminalize the opposition, the National Party Central Committee publicly accused Opposition Alliance candidate Salvador Nasralla and general coordinator and former president, Mel Zelaya, ousted in the 2009 coup, of joining with gang members to “steal” the election from Hernández.
At the time of Edwin’s arrest, COFADEH’s confirmed count of police and military murders of protestors since the elections stood at 32, and numerous regime opponents had already been jailed on trumped-up charges. Today those numbers continue to grow, with COFADEH’s most recent tally a month ago at 38 confirmed murders. Last week the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a dramatic report condemning 23 murders in the context of post-electoral protests, affirming that at least 16 of those resulted from state security forces shooting directly into crowds. Against this backdrop, the Honduran government’s prosecutorial priorities are striking: while not a single person has been investigated or charged for any of the extrajudicial assassinations carried out since the November elections, the Honduran state brought in five regime-supporting forensic experts to testify against Edwin at his January 22 initial military-court hearing.
At least 25 other political prisoners have been jailed in high-security facilities since the elections.At least 25 other political prisoners have been jailed in high-security facilities since the elections. The majority of them—like Edwin—are strategically accused of non-political criminal activity, including property damage, arson, criminal association, theft, and use of homemade explosive charges. In Pimienta, in the department of Cortés, the TIGRES, U.S.-trained and supported special forces agents illegally raided community members’ homes at night after residents took part in anti-fraud protests exposed and humiliated police infiltrators. TIGRES forces rounded up and arresting 11 adults in Pimienta, 10 of whom are currently housed in El Pozo prison. Five opposition members from the city of Choloma, in the same department, are also imprisoned at El Pozo, having been charged with criminal association in relation to their participation in protests against police who have been terrorizing local citizens through carrying out forced disappearances and murdering protestors. The United Nations Human Rights Council report confirms that community-police relations are particularly tense in Cortes, where police have murdered protestors at much higher rates than elsewhere in the country. According to the National Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, many political prisoners were targeted in relation to their vocal criticism of police violence.
Upon entering La Tolva, Edwin was forced to spend 15 days in solitary confinement and allowed out of his cell only two hours per day; Raúl Eduardo Álvarez, the other political prisoner at La Tolva, was kept in solitary for 20 days. Prisoners at La Tolva are denied the right to receive books or music, and the prison library has just ten books. The exorbitant cost of phone calls, monitored by a for-profit U.S.-based prison corporation, makes communication with family members exceedingly difficult. Edwin alone among the growing list of political prisoners has been allowed visits from his partner, a Canadian citizen. None have been granted permission to receive visits from Honduran relatives.
Maximum-security prisons in the style of El Pozo and La Tolva have been developing in Honduras since before the U.S.-supported June 28, 2009 coup that ousted former president José Manuel Zelaya. From the start, the strongest proponents of these jails were among the same national and international players who most fervently backed the coup—understandable given the underlying logics of neoliberal privatization involved in both endeavors. Both prison privatization and the ongoing coup itself rely on the deeply flawed argument that the greatest danger to Hondurans is Hondurans themselves—specifically poor Hondurans (many poor Hondurans, of course, would beg to differ). The solutions posed by coup proponents since the early 2000s to the alleged criminality of poor Hondurans have been based in increasingly “tough on crime” legal and extrajudicial social cleansing strategies, accompanied by a discourse arguing that public institutions of social uplift upon which the criminalized poor rely (e.g., education, healthcare, public utilities) are failing, and must be privatized for the ostensible benefit of all. While criminalization of the poor—including the “street cleansing” campaign that I have elsewhere argued amounted to invisible genocide—was in full swing during the 2002-2006 Maduro presidency, it wasn’t until the 2009 coup that the full-scale privatization of Honduran public sector—including its prisons—could be implemented.
Prisons in Honduras have been home to numerous massacres since the early 2000s, many involving the ruling National Party and state security involvement—often attributed in mainstream media to gangs in order to justify tough-on-crime crackdowns—including at supermax facilities.Prisons in Honduras have been home to numerous massacres since the early 2000s, many involving the ruling National Party and state security involvement—often attributed in mainstream media to gangs in order to justify tough-on-crime crackdowns—including at supermax facilities. One such massacre was the Valentine’s Day 2012 Comayagua prison fire, in which nearly 400 prisoners were killed when guards refused to release them from their burning cells, instead shooting directly into cells to prevent prisoners, most of whom were in pre-trial detention, from surviving. There has been international interest in the development of such facilities, particulary from both Israel and the United States. U.S. government advisors have played a clear role in their construction and development. But public-private funding mechanisms and post-coup secrecy laws governing the management of security tax (Tasa de Seguridad) funds used for prison construction have effectively shielded information about both supermax donors and private contractors from the public.
Edwin reports via his lawyer and Spring that prisoners at La Tolva are in a constant state of hunger. On numerous days over the past month in La Tolva, prisoners have been allowed non-purified water for only five minutes a day—five minutes to drink, use and flush toilets, bathe, brush their teeth, and fill small prison-issued bottles to survive the rest of the day. In late February, a serious virus hit the prison. Many inmates, including Edwin and Raúl, suffered severe headaches, sore throat, nasal discharge, chest congestion, facial pain, respiratory problems, and diarrhea, and were denied access to medical care. On March 4, after their water was shut off, prisoners in the section of La Tolva in which Edwin and Raúl are held began a spontaneous protest and were promptly heavily teargassed by the security police and military police who guard the prison. That same week, a tuberculosis outbreak was reported in El Pozo, with the government organization CONAPREV reporting 34 new cases, but family members alleging at least 80.
The treatment of political prisoners contrasts markedly with the relatively luxurious accommodations provided to the few high-profile powerful Hondurans who have been imprisoned in recent years for very serious crimes. Lena Gutierrez, one of the masterminds behind the defunding of the IHSS, which, as noted above, has cost thousands of Honduran lives, is officially on house arrest but is regularly photographed enjoying coffee at Tegucigalpa malls. And Roberto David Castillo, the executive who was arrested for his role in Berta Cáceres’s murder two years after the fact en lieu of holding the crime’s more powerful intellectual authors accountable, has avoided detention in a maximum security facility, and has not been charged for a wide range of other crimes in which he is implicated. In an editorial on COFADEH’s website published earlier this month, Olivia Zúñiga, daughter of Berta Cáceres and newly-elected Congresswoman with the opposition Libre party wrote: “If the public prosecutor’s office had acted months before Berta’s assassination, when she denounced death threats and sexual harassment to which she was subjected by David Castillo BERTA WOULD NOT BE DEAD…This is why we must fight for the liberation of Edwin Espinal and all the political prisoners.”
She continued, “They, our compañeros who face isolation and state violence with dignity and courage in the most terrifying prisons deserve to be free. And it won’t be the Attorney General…fighting for justice for them and their families; it will have to be all of us as a nation who take up the fight for their freedom in a country where impunity reigns, where terrorists are treated as honorable citizens and defenders of the rights of the people are treated as terrorists.”
Organizations around the world are participating today in a Global Day of Action to free Honduran political prisoners like Edwin Espinal. The Honduran justice system is borne of multiple coups—most recently, the 2009 presidential coup, the 2012 “technical coup” in which Hernández (then President of Congress) illegally deposed four members of the Supreme Court, replacing them with judges loyal to him, and the recent electoral coup. As Zúñiga notes, the deeply corrupt judiciary is vested in illegally criminalizing political prisoners, and cannot be relied upon to bring them justice. As family members and friends of Honduran political prisoners lead the way in fighting for their freedom, it is incumbent upon the international community, whose governments have tacitly or overtly rubber-stamped the increasingly brutal dictatorship, to join their struggle.
Adrienne Pine is Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University, currently on leave in Oakland, CA collaborating with National Nurses United and teaching anthropology at UC Berkeley. Her book Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras (UC Press) explores the violent, embodied impacts of neoliberal imperialism in Honduras. Prior to and following the June 2009 military coup in Honduras, she has collaborated with numerous organizations and individuals to bring international attention to the Honduran struggle to halt U.S. government-supported state violence (in its multiple forms).
Edwin Espinal on day of arrest, January 19 2018
From Alliance for Global Justice
Go to this link for a two-step process, to contact Honduran authorities and US and Canadian representatives.
26 political prisoners in Honduras remain detained in the context of the 2017 electoral crisis and the pro-democracy protests to denounce the electoral fraud. The pre-trial detentions are in horrific conditions in maximum security, military-run prisons. All could spend up to 2.5 years in jail before being sentenced by a judge. Alliance for Global Justice demands that Honduran authorities immediately release all of the political prisoners and drop all charges against them!
For recognizing, supporting, and financing the current Juan Orlando Hernandez regime, US and Canadian authorities must also be held accountable, particularly for their involvement in supporting a regime that systematically violates basic human rights and the rule of law. Canada and the US are part of the problem. With your support we can achieve freedom for long-time activist Edwin Espinal and all the other political prisoners, and ensure that the voice of resistance of the Honduran people is not silenced! Add your voice to the global day of action and demand freedom for the political prisoners in Honduras!
Above notice with thanks from AWARE Simcoe
above posting from AWARE Simcoe
Honduras election protests met with excessive and lethal force – UN report
Janet Spring Interview on 97.7 The Beach morning show .
“Honduras update…Not a good scene last night and this morning at La Tolva Prison, Honduras where Edwin Espinal and other political prisoners are demanding a physician as they are facing serious illness. This morning the prison shut the water off after 5 minutes. Prisoners banged on the walls to make as much noise possible so they shot tear gas at them. Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor learned of this at 6:45 AM today. We fight for clean water and aboriginal rights in Simcoe County today in Wyebridge, to stop this worldwide downward pressure on rights.
Click here to download flier April 8 2018 Community Meeting-Final
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor was formed to support Karen Spring and her partner Edwin Robelo Espinal in their struggle for justice and human rights in Honduras. As Simcoe County residents, as Canadians, we are asking for the immediate release of Edwin, and all political prisoners from maximum security prison and a guarantee of their safety.
URGENT ACTION! Honduras Prison Sickness
Day 43: Conditions in Honduran Prisons
URGENT ACTION – Honduran Political Prisoner Edwin Espinal is Refusing Food, Demanding to See a Doctor
![Urgent Action-Prison sickness March 4[13542]](https://simcoecountyhondurasrightsmonitor.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/urgent-action-prison-sickness-march-413542-e1520213762798.png)
Karen Spring and Edwin Espinal
Janet and John Spring to Simcoe County Residents
The Spring family in Honduras
Contacting your Member of Parliament. Please refer to this link to find your MP information:
Locate your MP here
The following is a sample letter: 
Letter in Support of the Release of Edwin Espinal, Political Prisoner[11751]
Feb. 20, 2018
U.S.-TRAINED POLICE ARE HUNTING DOWN AND ARRESTING PROTESTERS AMID POST-ELECTION CRISIS IN HONDURAS – article by Sandra Cuffe
February 13, Dr Janet Spring, presented the Free Edwin Espinal and all political prisoners in Honduras campaign to Midland Ontario Peaceworks organization. Peaceworks for over 10 years has promoted human rights and social justice at home and abroad.
Canada’s Role in the Honduran Crisis featuring Karen Spring
Taken from Feb. 15, 2018 Webinar. The full session can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/raul.burbano.1/videos/10155109035901671/
Thank you for your support
Springwater News!
March 8, 2018 Download pdf here
Page 10– LOCAL ORO-MEDONTE ARTIST MARY ANN TULLY CELEBRATES THE WORK OF BERTA CACERES – HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST, HONDURAS,
Page 24 – THE SPRING FAMILY INVITES YOU TO A COMMUNITY MEETING
Sunday April 8, 2018 2:00pm
Elmvale Community Hall 33 Queen Street
page 28– INHUMANE AND DANGEROUS CONDITIONS: EDWIN ESPINAL USE OF TEARGAS, WATER SHORTAGE, NO DOCTOR ALLOWED FOR THE SICK
LOCAL ORO-MEDONTE ARTIST MARY ANN TULLY CELEBRATES THE WORK OF BERTA CACERES – HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST, HONDURAS
LOCAL ORO-MEDONTE ARTIST MARY ANN TULLY CELEBRATES THE WORK OF BERTA CACERES – HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST, HONDURAS
Feb. 22, 2018 Issue
Pro-democracy workers are detained and sent to US style military run prisons like La Tolva, where Edwin is being held.
Feb. 8, 2018 Issue
Jailed in Honduras – Please Help!
Feb. 21, 2018 Event in Selkirk BC, ” Breaking Canada’s Silence About Honduras
Hosted by Nelson Amnesty International Chapter and Mir Centre for Peace at Selkirk College
In attendance NDP MP Wayne Stetski Kootenay-Columbia BC
Feb. 21, 2018 Take Action: Canada “Engaging” to Death in Honduras
Update Feb 13, Karen Spring in Honduras
January 31, 2018
To Chrystia Freeland Minister of Foreign Affairs
Canadian Embassy update Feb. 2, 2018
The following correspondence has been sent to Ambassador James Hill, Embassy of Canada in Honduras.It is the Canadian government’s duty to ensure that the government of Honduras protect human rights and ensure those responsible for violations are held responsible.
To Ambassador James Hill, Embassy of Canada in Honduras
Response from Ambassador James Hill
Feb. 19, 2018 Response From Ambassador Hill
note: As of March 7, 2018, Janet and John Spring have not heard back from Minister Freeland.
The following links provide updated information on situation in Honduras, letters and articles from supporters.
A look at long-time Honduran activist Edwin Robelo Espinal
Demand the immediate release of EDWIN ESPINAL, and of all political prisoners in Honduras
List of political prisoners of Honduras
March 2, 2018 Press Release-2nd anniversary of the Honduran murder of the celebrated Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner Berta Cáceres
March 3m 2018Berta Caceres: Honduras executive held over dam activist’s murder
Day#32 of Edwin Espinal”s arbitrary detention
Rights Action Feb. 1 2018 statement
A recently published article by a Canadian activist, Jackie McVicar about human rights situation, Edwin’s case and Canada’s role.
Simcoe County speaks out…
March 19 Day of Action to Free Honduran Political Prisoners
edwin-espinal-on-hunger-strike-
Elmvale family working for release of daughters partner jailed in Honduras
Kairos- Canadian Churches working together for Justice and Peace speak out.
KAIROS letter to Minister Freeland re human rights crisis in Honduras and the case of Edwin Espinal[11548]
KAIROS is gravely concerned about the political and human rights crisis currently unfolding in Honduras
from Twitter @CHardcastleNDP
“My most recent communiqué to Minister Freeland on Honduras, calling on her to use every available means to ensure the release of Honduran human rights activist Edwin Robelo Espinal” MP Hardcastle
February 1 2018-NDP Hardcastle to Min Foreign Affairs Freeland Honduras Edwin Espinal
MP Alex Nuttall Honduras[11563]
MP Bruce Stanton Simcoe North
February 5 2018 CTVNews Coverage
Elmvale Family Says Loved One Wrongfully Imprisoned in Honduras
TML Weekly Information Project
Demand Immediate Release of Edwin Espinal and All Political Prisoners – Honduras Solidarity Network –
Amnesty International Dec 2017 Honduras Statement
Canada’s Deadly Diplomacy and the Plight of Political Prisoners in Honduras
View past W5 coverage of Karen Spring and other Canadian youth advocates in Guatemala.
“Apr 17, 2010 –Karen Spring and Jackie McVicar from Ontario, and Francois Guindon from Quebec have all stayed in Guatemala longer than they ever planned and have become vocal activists because they are worried about the “damage” they believe mining companies are doing to the people, the land, the Guatemalan…”
Karen Spring with Canadian Youth in Guatemala
Read Karen Spring’s 2013 Testimonial on the human rights situation in Honduras presented to the Canadian House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
International Development.
Ms. Karen Spring (Coordinator, Central America, Rights Action)
A special report from Honduras on the ongoing steal of the presidential election there. Will also feature a report back on the imprisonment of Honduran-based longtime peoples activist, Edwin Espinal, now being held on a military base.
Listen here https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=278293
A report on the conditions in the The Honduran Prisons
https://www.prison-insider.com/en/testimonials/video-honduras-la-prison-supermax-de-moroceli
The Guardian
Families fear no justice for victims as 31 die in Honduras post-election violence
“They can cut all the flowers, but they can’t stop the spring…”
― Pablo Neruda
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor 
Speaking at Peaceworks Apr. 16th about The Spring Family meeting with PM Justin Trudeau and Minister Chrystia Freeland
a.s.a.p.
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Thanks Pat
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