Afro-Indigenous Hondurans in Resistance: How the U.S. Drug War and Development Investment leads to Violent Displacement and Central America Migration

Center for Peacemaking Practice

presents

Afro-Indigenous Hondurans in Resistance: How the U.S. Drug War and Development Investment leads to Violent Displacement and Central America Migration

Presentation by Alfredo López, Vice president of OFRANEH (Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras)

Tuesday, March 28, 2017
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Metropolitan Building, Room 5183
Arlington Campus

Join us to hear Alfredo López’s speak about Afro-Indigenous Hondurans in Resistance. López is the Vice President of the Honduran organization OFRANEH (Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras). OFRANEH accompanies Indigenous Garífuna communities by providing legal assistance, implementing communications projects, and through food sovereignty projects. The organization has special focus on youth and women, and accompanies communities in the defense of their human rights, especially related to collectively-held land. And OFRANEH works to build solidarity with organizations all over the world. López will discuss his people’s struggle against the negative impacts of tourism and other mega-projects, and the role of state security forces in their displacement. He will also describe how U.S.-backed projects and U.S. aid to the military and police contribute to violence and fuel Honduran migration. And he will address these themes in the context of landmark legislation just re-introduced in Congress, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act (H.R. 1299), which would suspend U.S. security aid to Honduras until human rights defenders are protected and the country’s rampant human rights violations are effectively prosecuted.