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| Share this action alert on your Facebook page or your Twitter account! The Murder of Tomas Garcia by the Honduran Military  Tomas Garcia was a father of seven who would have turned 50 this December. He was a husband, father, brother, and community leader, serving as an auxiliar and on his community’s Indigenous Council. On Monday, July 15, his life was brutally taken away by the Honduran militarywhen a soldier shot and killed him at close range in broad daylight in front of 200-300 people. He did not have a gun, he did not hurt anyone. His crime? Opposing the construction of a hydroelectric dam being illegally constructed in his Indigenous Lenca community's territory against their will. Why Tomas? He was one of the first to arrive, leading the delegation that had come to deliver a message to the companies constructing the dam at their installations in Rio Blanco. A soldier fired at him not once, not twice, at least three times from only 6 or so feet away, according to eyewitnesses.Take action: Call for an end to US military aid to Honduras -- especially that no US aid go to the military unit that killed Tomas -- and on the Honduran authorities to respect the rights of the Indigenous Lenca people of Rio Blanco.  Tomas had gone to the day's activities with his 17-year old son who was also shot several times (in photo at right) receiving serious injuries in his back, chest, and arm, requiring hospitalization. Two others were also injured by the army's bullets. According to eyewitnesses, a member of the SOA-graduate commanded First Battalion of Engineers who had been firing into the air as the Lenca people were approaching lowered his M-16 and fired multiple shots directly at Tomas. As one woman from the community explained, “We didn’t even have a conversation with them, they didn’t say anything to us. They didn’t even wait for us to say why we there, they didn’t wait for us to say what we had to say. We saw Tomas fall, he fell from shots, including to his head.”The murder of Tomas Garcia by the Honduran armed forces is only the latest escalation in a systemic campaign of repression against the Rio Blanco Indigenous Lenca people to try to force them into accepting a hydroelectric dam being illegally constructed in their territory. Since April 1, the communities in the area, organized in the Indigenous Lenca organization COPINH, have been blocking the access road to the dam site. The access road, like the dam, is in their ancestral territory, surrounded by their fields of corn, beans, bananas, yucca, and lush forests that they have carefully stewarded for hundreds of years. From the start, personnel of the companies building the dam threatened COPINH leaders. Community members, including children, received death threats from employees of the company and armed men appeared at the site of the roadblock and lurked around in the dark of night. Read more about the Rio Blanco community's struggle here.  When the death threats didn't stop the community's resistence, soldiers from the First Battalion of Engineers, commanded by SOA graduate Col. Milton Amaya, were deployed to the area. The soldiers serve the dam companies, eating and sleeping at company headquarters and even driving company machinery to try to get it past the roadblock. Soldiers have repeatedly intimidated those who oppose the dam: they have harassed them, told them they were criminals, came into their yards, held an M-16 up to one of them, threatened women and children, and fired shots when community leaders walked by. Furthermore, the First Battalion of Engineers is part of anintense criminalization campaign against COPINH, seemingly fabricating charges against the General Coordinator of COPINH to try to put her in prison. Following the murder of Tomas, SOA grad Col. Milton Amaya falsely accused COPINH and the Lenca people of being violent in the Honduran press to try to justify the murder and continued militarization.Despite a long list of human rights abuses by the Honduran military, the US continues sending millions and millions in military aid in Honduras. Some of this aid probably found its way to the unit that used one of its M-16s to murder Tomas and terrorize the Lenca people for standing up for their rights. It is no accident that the military enforces the turning over of Honduras’ natural resources to corporations; this is part of the extreme neoliberal agenda. US aid includes training, whether at the School of the Americas or by the US military on Honduran soil. SOA graduate Milton Amaya, Commander of the First Battalion of Engineers, seems to have learned well the lesson of using military might to protect corporate interests. Second Lt. Gonzalez, who was in charge of the soldiers stationed in Rio Blanco when Tomas was murdered, reported he was trained in Special Operations by US military instructors. After Tomas' death, SOA graduate General Rene Osorio Canales, the Commander of the Honduran Armed Forces, publicly justified the military’s murder of Tomas Garcia. Despite the military's murder of Tomas and their brazen justification of it, US aid continues to flow. Click here to send an e-mail to US officials urging them to end all US aid to the Honduran military and especially ensure no aid goes to the First Battalion of Engineers, which continues to operate in Rio Blanco. Click here to view a photo essay about Tomas Garcia and the Lenca people's struggle in Rio Blanco Read the full article about Tomas Garcia and the struggle for Rio Blanco November 22-24, 2013 at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia Mobilize your community for the November Vigil Year after year, Honduras continues sending more and more soldiers to be trained at the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) in Fort Benning, Georgia.  As the ongoing repression by Honduran military forces against the Honduran people show, it is more important than ever to close the SOA/ WHINSEC and demand a change in US foreign policy. Click here for more information about the organizing for the November Vigil at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia!If you would like to invite SOA Watch Honduras activante Brigitte Gynther to visit and to speak to your community in the lead up to the November Vigil, please contact her atbrigitte@soaw.org! |
