No More Violence!
Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa Urges an End to Violence!
For Immediate Release
The Municipality of Tocoa continues to mourn, grieve, and express indignation at the violent environment that the government has imposed on this territory. On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, at about 8pm, Arnold Joaquin Morazán Erazo was murdered in the community of Guapinol. He was one of 32 people who were facing a judicial process in two indictments that the Public Prosecutor imposed in September 2018 when the community of Guapinol raised its voice to protest in defense of the Guapinol River in the face of the impacts of the Inversiones los Pinares mining company in April of the same year.
This spiral of violence in our municipality is the result of corruption in the National Congress in 2013, then, in the INHGEOMIN, in the National Conservation and Forest Development Institute (ICF) and the Ministry of the Environment (MIAMBIENTE). The people of Guapinol in Tocoa are suffering from state violence as they implement and legalize extractive projects in protected territory. The arrival of Inversiones los Pinares in collusion with state institutions and militarization marks the arrival of this environment of violence against communities and the people in this municipal territory.
When are the central and municipal governments going to respect the sovereign decision of Tocoa in an open town hall on November 29, 2019 that fully rejected mining?
The Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa deeply regrets these violent acts against human life. Likewise, it demands an objective, impartial and transparent investigation, with unrestricted adherence to the standards of criminal investigation. The Committee demands that the Public Prosecutor's Office be held transparently responsible for the investigation, given that it has shown little professionalism in previous events and has focused on the prosecution of crimes against citizens who defend life and peace in the interests of the mining company.
No to Violence! No to Corruption! No to Mining!
NO TO INVERSIONES LOS PINARES/ECOTECK!
Tocoa Colon, October 14, 2020 020
Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa
Press release in PDF
Comunicado de prensa PDF
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