APRIL 27 2020
Edwin Espinal Speaks of Human Rights Violations Amid the COVID Crisis in Honduras
Hunger in the Streets: Handing out Food Packages to Needy Families
Since President Juan Orlando Hernandez shut the country down on March 15, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people in Honduras are suffering from extreme repression, lack of government transparency, hunger, fear of the military, and widespread unemployment. Edwin talked to me on Sunday evening as he was cooking his dinner, a typical Honduran supper of beans, eggs, avocado, and tortillas. He had just returned from two neighbourhoods where he was delivering food to families in need. Monies were donated by the Honduras social movements to purchase these food staples. I asked Edwin these questions:
What is Honduras like now?
Edwin explained that the people are desperate; some are out in the streets protesting the COVID-19 situation as they face an extreme food and water shortage. Edwin answered.
A lot of people want to protest the Honduran government for not dealing with the crisis in a very human way, respecting human rights of the people. People are starving, there is very little water and what little amount available is not for drinking. Food supplies are scarce. It’s very bad here. So, tomorrow [Sunday] there will be a protest in the streets of Tegucigalpa because the people have nowhere else to turn. But the police and military are very violent toward the people who are asking for food. It is very sad. Families line the streets with signs hoping that people passing by in their cars will give them help. Every time people go out into the streets specifically asking for food, the military use sticks to hit them with blunt force. The military killed a very young man. They beat him up because he wasn’t wearing a mask at a check point – beat him up so badly he died. And there was no follow-up. At the military check points, which are all over the country, the military stop people and sometimes arrest them, beat them, or worse, kill them. It is senseless and desperate here.
How are the people experiencing the COVID restrictions?
This government has not been transparent at all regarding the numbers of confirmed cases. The way they are handling it is very inhumane. They don’t let people know of their own COVID-19 test results when they are tested. They just put them in the hospital and let them die. The authorities just bury them and don’t let the families know of the funeral plans. They also don’t let family members know of the results if they died of COVID or some other ailment – so they have no proof of what happened.
The government doesn’t have any credibility. The doctors were talking about the lack of medical supplies and medical facilities at the beginning of the COVID outbreak, but the government came in and fired any doctors who spoke out against the issues in the hospitals. They replace anyone who speaks out if they don’t follow what the president says. The president manages the numbers – the information. This is a pure dictatorship.
What are people’s perspectives on the military in the streets?
There are more police and military in the streets than during the electoral crisis of 2017 and 2018. There are no jobs and the government is not creating these for the people or even allowing them to sell food on the streets at this time. Due to the lack of employment, which is a regular terrible situation here, more young people try to get a job in the military and the police. The excessive number of the armed forces – the local police, military police, and the special task forces in the prisons –keep Juan Orlando Hernandez in power. We need food, jobs, health care, not a disproportionate military presence! The US and Canadian governments also keep JOH in power. If they pulled their support, this government would fail.
The people are so upset with the government that has a campaign to make people stay in their homes, but the government must help the starving people by supplying food so that they can obey the restrictions. The people understand the need to isolate, but the government is not doing anything. The people have no choice now, so they are disobeying the rules because they are starving. When the military arrest the people for being out in the streets looking for food, they detain them and make them work. And they don’t provide them with security measures; they put them all together in one place with no protection. It’s very, very irresponsible, the way this government is handling the COVID-19 crisis. People are desperate and feel that the situation is hopeless.
How do the Honduran people feel about the aid to Honduras the Trump administration and others have provided?
The people hear these groups are sending aid for COVID – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the United States Trump Administration. For example, USAID is sending funds to provide financial help, but the people are not receiving it. The government is using it for themselves; not a penny is getting into the people’s hands or into the programs that are needed. The president stopped all commercial activities and jobs without any warning in March even before there were any COVID cases here. There was no time given for people to prepare for isolation. They had no money (the banks shut down) and they had no extra food at that moment, so not giving any warning was irresponsible, especially with the extra militarization in the streets.
The water supply is very limited – it hasn’t rained for a long time. There are also a lot of forest fires around the city and it’s a strategy from the government to keep us inside. We are not just facing COVID, we also are facing lack of water, the corruption in the government, zero transparency, and the way the government is using the crisis to repress the people further.
People are only allowed once a week to go out for food and supplies. But not everyone has the availability to buy food because they don’t have income, so they beg for food. They have an ID number and each person has a day that is allotted to them. But some are still forced to work in the sweat shops for 12 hours per day. They can’t get out to get food on their day if they are working. So they are in danger if they go out.
The government only favours the people who vote for the National Party (Juan Orlando Hernandez) when it comes to food subsidies. It gives out food bags to only those who support JOH. The ID card provides the government with a number; they have a list of the people who support the National Party. They deliver the food only to the people on the list.
The ability to social distance is difficult. The houses are very close together; many have no glass in their windows and some families often share their homes with relatives. It is very crowded in the neighbourhoods. At the checkpoints, the military beat people up who are in a group. They detain them, they torture them by making them do push-ups until they break. This practice is against human rights decrees.
Many people have been laid off with no assistance at all. Some companies like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, laid off people without any benefits, which is against Honduran law. The law is not enforced. If people are sick, they are still expected to show up for work. If they don’t, they are fired.
Tell me about your experiences handing out food.
Social movement organizations bought the food, split them into portions, and put them in plastic bags. We contacted people in different neighbourhoods to find out who needs food. The resistance movements in each community have a list of the needy. There aren’t many available food packages, so they have to decide who needs them the most.
Raul Alvarez and I, and many others, work in our neighbourhoods to drop off the bags of food. Each bag contains small amounts and weighs about 10 lbs. In each is a small amount of rice, oatmeal, cooking oil, flour, beans, the essential things to make a Honduran meal. A lot of people in different neighbourhood are still selling vegetables and fruit, because that’s the only way they can work; they take chances to go out into the city to buy products so they can sell them in the streets. It is a very important informal business in Honduras for both the small business owners and for those who rely on the availability to buy the products.
But Raul and I are very careful when we deliver food. We are only allowed to go out once a week, so it is very restrictive and dangerous for those who wish to volunteer.
I have to say that the human rights violations are getting worse every day. A lot of people are injured by bullets, tear gas, and beatings. In every town and city across the country, people are starving. It is really sad to see people with signs asking for help. I have never ever seen anything like it in my life. It is very discouraging. It is very upsetting. So much uncertainty, fear, and desperation!
I thank the Simcoe County community for your ongoing interest in our welfare. As many of you know, my spouse, Karen Spring is at home in Canada. She is waiting to travel back to Honduras as she was visiting her family when JOH shut the borders without warning. Karen is returning when the flights to Honduras resume. I worry about her safety when she travels to Honduras.
Edwin Espinal, Janet Spring, and the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Committee
APRIL 13 2020
Reality in Honduras During the Pandemic
Canadian and US Sweatshops’ Unfair Demands on Workers
Wildfires in Tegucigalpa
Edwin Espinal and Raul Alvarez’ Trial Dates
The global pandemic has hit almost every corner of the world. The response by different countries
is dependent on so many factors as is the ability for people to withstand the impacts and effects.
Unfortunately, given the great income inequality in our world, some countries especially nations of the “Global South” are hit much harder. Honduras is definitely one of these countries, but Honduras is still in a different coronavirus epidemic moment than in Canada where the virus and infection rate hit sooner.
As of April 13, 2020, there are reports of 398 cases of COVID19 in Honduras. The Juan Orlando
Hernandez government has reported only 24 deaths but a director of one of the largest public hospitals in the country openly announced there are many more (at least 38 in his hospital alone). Many health care professionals are accusing the government of incorrect reporting. This is fuelling the people’s continued
lack of trust in the government. Many Hondurans, including healthcare workers, continue to call into question the government’s overall legitimacy and ability and will to respond effectively.
An absolute lock-down of the country continues to at least April 12 and many constitutional rights
remain suspended. The border remains closed. Almost every day, Honduras in different parts of the country are going into the streets, defying the lock-down, starting fires in the middle of the roads to demand the government provide them with food and basic supplies. Over 60% of Honduras live in
poverty and almost half in extreme poverty. Since many are unable to work, the general population is going hungry and simply cannot stay in their homes. As virus infection rates grow, a severe life-and-death
situation and crisis is almost inevitable.
Food aid that has been promised by the government is unfortunately being politicized and only being handed out to people on the National Party’s voting roster. This is the equivalent of Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau only providing Covid-19 support to people that vote for the Liberal Party! It most certainly is not an effective way of gaining confidence in the authorities, let alone ensuring that supplies and help are reaching those whose need is the greatest. Many of the protests during the lock-down denounce this
politicization and several respected figures including even a high-level military official – who was lately
fired for making such a statement – have publicly called on the government to stop politicizing food aid.
Sweatshop Workers at Risk: Unfair US and Canadian Workplace Policies
Many North American companies with apparel factories or sweatshops in Honduras including
U.S. company Hanes and Delta Apparel, and automotive parts Empire Electronics, and Canada’s Montreal-based Gildan Activewear are either not abiding by the lock-down or putting their workers in
difficult situations. Some companies including Canada’s Gildan Activewear initially called all their workers to work despite being told by the government that people should remain in their homes. For
workers that wanted and needed to continue working, they had to leave their houses and risk arrest while
passing through military checkpoints en route to their workplaces in the factories. The Honduran media reported last week that over 6,000 people had been arrested for defying curfew – among them, many
North American sweatshop workers.
Most North American sweatshop companies in Honduras are scattered in and around the large, industrial department of Cortes in northern Honduras. Unfortunately, Cortes is the epicentre of the Covid-
19 outbreaks in Honduras where the majority of cases in the country are located. There are reports of least 3 people that work in North American sweatshops have died from COVID-19. One of the deceased was a physician that worked in Gildan’s factory. The death of the medical worker is generating a great amount
of fear as many factories that remain open are infection pools.
Workers that put themselves at risk and go to work complained that the US and Canadian-owned companies are not providing basic protection equipment. Other companies are firing anyone – even those
with permanent work contracts – that do not show up and then replacing them with temporary workers that receive no health benefits. Gildan recently announced that it will be shutting down operations for
months, putting many sweatshop workers – the majority poor single mothers from rural areas that migrate
to the sweatshop cities seeking employment – without any source of income, health benefits, or means to support their families.
In the best of circumstances, sweatshop workers are constantly fighting for these large companies to abide by the law that is constantly violated to the benefit of the wealthy and powerful. It is these types
of companies that seek economic support from our government to “bounce back” from the crisis but
abandon the commitments to their workers when they need support the most.
Wildfires Surround Tegucigalpa
On top of the health crisis in Honduras, the residents of the capital – Tegucigalpa – and those in the countryside watch how the wildfires in the mountains surrounding the city continue to burn and spread to marginalized farming and residential communities. The flames at night light up the sky and by day smoke is in the air. Since it is early summer, normal daily temperatures rise to 35 degrees Celsius.
Fires intensify due to the lack of rain and also an extreme shortage of water that has ravaged many parts of Honduras.
Environmental crises such as the wildfires exacerbate the situation as many are struggling to cope
with health issues related to the lack of healthcare, supplies, food, and unemployment in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Since water is scarce, washing hands is impossible unless water is found, then stored in large metal barrels but standing water encourages mosquitoes, which are carriers of dengue fever. Hand sanitizer, cleaning fluid, bleach, detergent, and disinfect liquids that help control sanitation
levels are difficult to find or non-existent in some remote, poor areas.
Edwin and Raul’s Trial Dates
Edwin and Raul’s trial continues to be scheduled for May 14 and 15th but Honduran courts and the judicial system has been shut down since March 15. We do not know what will happen with the trial
including when the courts will re-open and if all trials that have been missed as a result of the lock-down will be rescheduled.
We are fearful that the crisis could provide cover for the government to justify an unfair decision related to Edwin and Raul’s trial. This may include keeping the original trial date but imposing several
restrictions including refusing to allow human rights observers to attend or even conducting the trial virtually (which is something that is being implemented in Honduras even before the pandemic outbreak).
If Honduras keeps its borders closed, Karen may not be able to get back if the trial date remains as is.
Edwin, Raul, and all other political prisoners that have been conditionally released have not been able to go to the courts to sign on a weekly basis to indicate that they have not fled and remain ready to
appear for their trial. Although we have been told by several Honduran lawyers that they do not need to go to the court to sign the ledger given the exceptional lock-down order, we know the total lack of the
rule of law in Honduras means anything can be justified!
The Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor thanks our supporters who continue to send best wishes, and regular inquiries as to the situation in Honduras. We wish our community at large to be safe
and healthy during this time of crisis!
Janet Spring, Karen Spring, and the Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor Committee
Simcoe County Honduras Rights Monitor 