Jonathan Leaning, 617-524-1400, jleaning@grassrootsonline.org, Elise Roberts: cell: 920.421.2269, elise@witnessforpeace.org
Honduras: US Rights Groups Condemn Election Result as Not Credible
Call on US to refrain from hasty recognition of results, halt US military aid.
On the heels of the announcement of the election win by Honduras' globally discredited Electoral Tribunal amidst turmoil, violence, and mounting evidence of fraud, US rights and civil society groups called on the US Congress and the State Department to halt military aid to Honduras, and not recognize the announced results until a credible, independent investigation into the election has been conducted which addresses all claims of fraud and political violence. The Organization of American States has even called for fresh elections in Honduras, only hours after President Juan Orlando Hernandez was declared the winner.
"This has been a 'coup against democracy' in Honduras," said Victoria Cervantes of the Honduras Solidarity Network. "The levels of violence against the citizens by the government and the suspension of constitutional rights to defend fraud are the acts of dictatorship. 14 people have been killed. The unprecedentedly slow tabulation of final results by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) was blatantly fraudulent with sudden, inexplicable computer shutdowns, and disappearing and reappearing Actas (vote tally sheets). We are further outraged at the support of the US and Canadian governments for legitimizing a dictatorship in Honduras."
The call for an independent investigation follows on the heels of a call earlier this month for transparency in the Honduran elections by over US 100 human rights, faith and civil society rights groups, many outraged by the as-yet unsolved assassination of world renowned Honduran environment and indigenous leader, Berta Caceres.
"We have seen a massive increase in human rights violations, including threats and violence against journalists, Indigenous communities, and human rights defenders, since the 2009 coup," says Elise Roberts of Witness for Peace. "The assassination of Berta Caceres marked a new level of state violence and impunity, and the reported fraud in the November 26th elections, and the violence and repression since, are a reinforcement of this illegitimate and violent government. Throughout this escalation of state repression and corruption, the US has remained a powerful funder and supporter of the government. It is critical that the US immediately suspend all aid to Honduran security forces and not recognize the presidential election results as valid amidst ongoing fraud, violence, and repression."
"The US must not declare a hasty recognition of today's election announcement. That would be tantamount to legitimizing fraud and repression. We remember too well, how the US support of the 2009 military coup ushered in years of brutal dictatorship," said Jovanna Garcia Soto of Grassroots International. "We cannot be part of bulldozing over legitimate objections of lack of transparency, lack of independent oversight and violence against civilians and social movements. Democracy cannot be squelched -- not in our name."
The current administration of the National Party is led by Juan Orlando Hernandez and is in control of the government, military and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE in Spanish) overseeing the election. Mr. Hernandez originally came to power during the period following the 2009 military coup d'etat supported by the US government.
After the initial release of official results by the TSE showed the opposition candidate leading by approximately 5 percentage points based on more than half the returns, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal did not resume releasing presidential election results for more than a day. For comparison, in the 2013 presidential election, the winner was declared with a similar proportion of the returns in. When the updates resumed, the TSE's numbers began showing that the number of votes for the incumbent, President Hernandez, had passed the opposition candidate, although these results have been widely criticized as not credible. The long delay, and the dramatic shift in the tendency of the vote count reported before and after that delay, raised serious doubts about the integrity of this election.
In addition, international delegations from La Voz de los de Abajo, Code Pink, and Witness for Peace witnessed and heard testimony of violent beatings of civilians, the ongoing intimidation through use of security forces, including US-funded security forces, as well as numerous incidents of fraud and violence at polling places.
On December 1, a presidential decree suspended Constitutional rights, imposed a curfew, and the military has used live ammunition and violence toward civilians, resulting in at least 22 deaths of protesters already, as reported by human rights groups in Honduras.
The coalition is calling on the US Congress and US State Department to:
- Not recognize the announced election outcome due to widespread reports of state involvement in electoral fraud and violence.
- Immediately suspend diplomatic relations with the Honduran government, including recalling our Charge D'Affaires/acting Ambassador, until the rule of law has been re-established, constitutional guarantees are fulfilled, and democratic processes and institutions are actually respected.
- Revoke the State Department's certification that the Honduran government is meeting human rights and anti-corruption conditions.
- End US security aid to Honduras, including police and military aid, and support for Honduran security forces though the so-called "Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle" program; Pass HR 1299, the Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act and its companion bill in the Senate.
- Condemn the Honduran government's violent crackdown of protesters and suspension of Constitutional rights, and demand the the Honduran government immediately cease using live ammunition against civilians and remove the military from the streets;
- Extend Temporary Protected Status for the more than 57,000 Hondurans currently in the United States under its protection; and
- Respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples (including Garifuna communities) and peasant communities organizing to defend and protect ancestral territories, land, water and Mother Earth in the face of militarization and repression by the current Honduran regime.
"I spent 10 days in Honduras with a delegation of human rights and election observes with La Voz de los de Abajo. On the day of the elections we witnessed outright voter intimidation, bribery and fraud by representatives of the National Party, the party of the current President, Juan Orlando Hernandez. The days following the election thousands of Hondurans took to the streets to protest the fact that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE by its Spanish initials) would not announce a winner of the presidential elections. We witnessed first hand repression of protesters. The Honduran military and police fired tear gas and opened water hoses on protestors on the first day of mass protest in Tegucigalpa, Nov. 30th. The following night, after a curfew was announced, the army fired live ammunition at protesters. The death toll since the curfew was announced has risen to 22 people," stated Ana Orozco, Feminisms and Gender Justice Organizer, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Grassroots International, www.grassrootsonline.org 179 Boylston Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA, USA 02130, 617-524-1400
Witness for Peace/Accion Permanente por la Paz, https://witnessforpeace.org/
1115 Massachusetts Ave, NW Washington DC, USA 20005
Honduras Solidarity Network, https://www.hondurassolidarity.org
Grassroots International connects people in the US with global movements solving the root causes of poverty and climate change. We are a trusted link to communities building power to protect their rights to land, food, and water for the well-being of people and the planet.
Climate Movement Sounds Alarm on Trump Picking 'Big Oil Sellout' JD Vance for VP
"JD Vance will sell out to the highest bidder, whether that's Trump or the fossil fuel industry," said one Sunrise Movement campaigner. "That makes him dangerous."
Climate campaigners reacted to former U.S. President Donald Trump's selection of Sen. JD Vance as his running mate Monday by highlighting the Ohio Republican's climate denial and strong support for the fossil fuel industry—one of his top campaign contributors.
"Like Donald Trump, JD Vance has proven that he will make it a top priority to roll back climate protections while answering to the demands of oil and gas CEOs," Sunrise Movement communications director Stevie O'Hanlon said in a statement. "Vance is one of Congress' biggest recipients of donations from oil companies."
"JD Vance not only flip-flopped on supporting Trump, he flip-flopped on climate," she continued. "He went from expressing concern about climate change before running for the Senate, to voting to gut [Environmentl Protection Agency] protections and denying that there even is a climate change crisis."
O'Hanlon added: "JD Vance will sell out to the highest bidder, whether that's Trump or the fossil fuel industry. That makes him dangerous. Donald Trump was the worst president for climate in U.S. history. JD Vance will empower Donald Trump to enact even worse damage on our planet in a second Trump administration."
Some of Trump's key first-term Cabinet appointees—including Rex Tillerson, his first secretary of state, and Ryan Zinke, who headed the Interior Department—were former fossil fuel executives or had track records of supporting the oil, gas, and coal industries.
Trump's White House tenure was also marked by an
aggressive rollback of climate and environmental regulations and protections.
Food & Water Watch Action deputy director Mitch Jones said that "just like Trump himself, JD Vance is a fossil fuel backer and climate change denier that poses a serious risk to public health and our environment."
"Among the countless reasons that Trump and Vance shouldn't be elected to lead our country, the duo represents an existential threat to a livable climate future for all Americans and people around the globe," Jones added.
JL Andrepont of 350 Action asserted that "we are facing a dire need to ward off further climate catastrophe and injustice, so let's be clear: JD Vance is another climate-denying authoritarian who poses massive danger to this country."
"He has praised the horrific Project 2025 plan and said there are 'good ideas in there,'" they continued. "He says he would be totally fine with a federal ban on abortion. And as the effects of climate change accelerate at an alarming pace right in front of our eyes, Vance is a strong supporter of the oil and gas industry who claims that climate change is not a threat."
"We must reject him and all climate deniers at the polls," Andrepont stressed.
Targeting Corporate Landlords, Biden to Unveil National Rent Control Plan
"The rent is too damn high—and rent control is a real fix," one group said, praising the proposal.
As former U.S. President Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination and announced his running mate on Monday, Democratic President Joe Biden prepared to unveil a proposal that would cap annual rent increases at 5% for tenants of major landlords.
After Biden briefly previewed the proposal during a press conference last week, The Washington Postreported on the planned announcement Monday, citing three people familiar with the matter. The Associated Press separately confirmed the plan.
Biden is set to formally introduce the proposal on Tuesday in Nevada, which "has seen among the biggest explosions of housing costs in the country," the Post noted. "Democrats have grown increasingly concerned that Trump could win the state in November."
The president, who is seeking reelection, will propose taking a tax benefit away from landlords who hike rents by more than 5% annually, according to the reporting. The plan would only apply to the existing housing stock of landlords who own more than 50 units and would require congressional approval—so it is not expected to go anywhere unless Biden wins in November and Democrats secure majorities in both chambers of Congress.
As the newspaper detailed:
The Biden administration is also pushing numerous policies to increase housing construction, through incentives to local governments to change their zoning codes and new federal financial incentives for builders.If implemented, they could bring 2 million new units to the market in addition to the 1.6 million already in the pipeline.
"It would make little sense to make this move by itself. But you have to look at it in the context of the moves they propose to make to expand supply," said Jim Parrott, nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute and co-owner of Parrott Ryan Advisors. "The question is: Even if we get all these new units built, what do we do about rising rents in the meantime? Coming up with a relatively targeted bridge to help renters while new supply is coming online makes a fair amount of sense."
While housing industry representatives criticized the reported proposal, Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, told The Associated Press that having it in effect in recent years could have helped renters.
"The recent unprecedented increases in homelessness in communities across the country are the result of those equally unprecedented—and unjustified—rent hikes of a couple years ago," she said. "Had such protections against rent gouging been in place then, many families could have avoided homelessness and stayed stably housed."
Other rent control advocates and progressive officials also welcomed the plan, with Kendra Brooks—the first Working Families Party member ever elected to Philadelphia City Council—declaring that "this is exactly the kind of leadership that working families need!"
Jacobin's Branko Marcetic said that "this is huge," particularly considering that "housing has rapidly climbed as a cost-of-living concern (and is also under 30s' most important issue)."
Multiple campaigners and organizations credited housing advocates for pushing rent control at the national level.
"It's amazing how rapidly the conversation around rent caps has changed," noted Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project. "Tenant organizing has created this change. It's a proposal for Congress which will face serious headwinds but the president just called for rent caps (even if only temporarily)."
The Debt Collective said, "We will say it over and over again: The rent is too damn high—and rent control is a real fix."
"Rent caps wouldn't be a national policy proposal without tenants unions across the country making it possible through organizing," the group added. "On our way to land without landlords, remember that rent control works. The 99%'s need for a roof over our head should not be 1% profits."
Campaigners Demand Global Ban on Deep-Sea Mining
As talks resume, supporters of a moratorium are also calling for the ouster of the International Seabed Authority's leader, who faces an election on July 29.
As talks to establish global policies on deep-sea mining resumed in Jamaica on Monday, Greenpeace International renewed its demand for a moratorium on the practice, the path also backed other civil society and Indigenous groups, at least hundreds of science and policy experts, and 27 countries.
"The science is clear—there can't be deep-sea mining without environmental cost and the only solution is a moratorium. The more we know about deep-sea mining, the harder it is to justify it," said Greenpeace campaigner Louisa Casson, who is attending the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority's (ISA) 29th session in Kingston.
"Governments at the ISA must not dance to the tune of the industry and approve rushed regulations for the benefit of a few over the interests of Pacific communities and the opinion of scientists," Casson argued, as companies and countries see chances to cash in on the clean energy transition by extracting metals including cobalt, copper, and nickel.
"The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change."
The Associated Pressreported Monday that although the ISA has not allowed any extraction during debates, it "has granted 31 mining exploration contracts," and "much of the ongoing exploration is centered in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico."
The Mexican government last year endorsed a moratorium and Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green last week signed a bill banning seabed mining in state waters, citing "environmental risks and constitutional rights to have a clean and healthy environment."
Ahead of the meeting in Jamaica, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition campaign lead Sofia Tsenikli highlighted that "gouging minerals from the seafloor poses an existential threat that goes far beyond the immediate destruction of deep-sea wildlife and habitats."
"The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change," Tsenikli said. "States must now protect the ocean and not allow any more damage."
The ISA was established under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and a related 1994 agreement, and is responsible for waters not under the control of specific nations. As Common Dreamsreported earlier this month, some diplomats have accused British lawyer Michael Lodge, its current secretary-general, of trying to speed up the start of mining.
"The rush to complete the mining code was triggered by the Pacific island state of Nauru, which is expected to submit a mining license application on behalf of Canada's the Metals Company (TMC) later this year, regardless of whether or not regulations are complete," Reutersnoted Monday.
After ISA's 36-member Council negotiates the "Mining Code" over the next two weeks, its full Assembly is scheduled to meet on July 29 to vote on the next secretary-general, with Lodge facing a challenge from Brazil's Leticia Carvalho for the top post.
"It is time for change at the ISA," Casson of Greenpeace declared Monday. "A third term for Michael Lodge would not only put the oceans under threat but also risk further damaging public trust in the regulator. Mining companies are impatient to get started and mounting evidence indicates that Lodge is overstepping his supposedly-neutral role to align with commercial interests."
"The ISA must listen to millions of people and the growing number of governments calling for a halt to deep-sea mining," she added. "It is time to put conservation at the heart of the ISA's work."
In preparation for the talks in Kingston, Environment Oregon Research & Policy Center, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund, and Frontier Group last month released a report showing that not only would deep-sea mining destroy "a vibrant, biodiverse place, teeming with complex ecosystems and thousands, possibly millions of species," but also it isn't necessary.
"Disposable electronic devices are creating a toxic e-waste mess. Now, some mining companies are trying to convince policymakers that we need to wreak havoc on the ocean to source the materials to make more," said Charlie Fisher of the Oregon State PIRG Foundation. "This report shows that we don't need to ruin the deep sea to make the products we need. There is a more sustainable path: Make long-lasting, fixable electronics and recycle them when they no longer work."