Human Rights Violation In Honduras

The definition of crisis in the urban dictionary includes words such as emergency, disaster, catastrophe, mess, trouble, and difficulty. The people of Honduras understand crisis not by definition but by experience. Human rights and protection of the environment have taken a back seat in the Honduras and Latin America since Columbus first led the Spanish to the region. The indigenous people were overrun by armies with superior numbers, weapons and disease, and those left have been treated as a lower class for almost five hundred years. Recently, the people have started to find a stronger voice and are gaining international support, but they still fight a dangerous battle for the environment and individual rights. This battle has led to living …show more content…
The region was populated by a variety of indigenous people with the majority being Mayan (Honduras: Introduction). The human rights violations can be traced to this time as the Spanish quickly conquered the region and enslaved the indigenous people while treating them as a lower race of people. The discovery of gold and silver in the 1530’s led to an increase in the demand for indigenous slave labor (Honduras). The Honduran natives resisted the Spanish and an uprising in 1537 was led by the Lenca chief Lempira, but he was assassinated at peace talks arranged with the Spanish in 1538, and the native uprising ended. The Spanish followed this period with repression and brutality that wiped out the native population (Honduras). The gold rush was followed by the discovery that the soil and climate of the region is ideal for bananas and other fruit. This led to a close relationship between Honduras and the United States, where there is a large market for fruit. Today, the primary products in the region are fruit, sugar, and coffee and production of these products along with the generation of power has long taken priority over the environment and land rights of the people (Cleghorn). The international companies work the people at very low wages and the worker’s had limited rights and protection. The Spanish lust for gold followed by the …show more content…
Recently Berta Caceres, a Honduran activist was shot and killed in her La Esperanza home (Blitzer). She was a vocal activist and the founder of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras or COPINH. She had been fighting the government and the Honduran company Desarrollos Energeticos S.A. or DESA for years over the plan to build four dams together known as Agua Zarca Dam. The dams are along the Gualcarque River in territory inhabited by the indigenous Lenca people (Blitzer). The dams would destroy the surrounding habitat, the lifestyle of the indigenous and their