President Jim Yong Kim

Honduras, Mayo 27, 2016

President Jim Yong Kim

World Bank Group

1818 H Street NW

Washington, DC 20009

President Jim Yong Kim,

We are outraged by the statements made in connection with the murder of our beloved Berta Caceres, General Coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), a crime committed on March 2, 2016.

In a speech you delivered in New York City on April 6, 2016, after expressing condolences, you defended the need to displace communities in Honduras to make way for energy projects, and stated that it is not possible to "do the job we're trying to do and that such incidents do not occur."

It was not clear if you referred to the dispossession of communities or the murder of our colleague; we have lost hundreds of colleagues for the same reasons. Yet this point is irrelevant as your statements, in either case, justify serious violations and demonstrate a fundamental contradiction with the World Bank mandate, eliminating poverty and promoting shared prosperity. The reality is the opposite, it is not possible to do the work you are mandated to do when crimes like this happen.

We, like Berta, wake up every day with the awareness that our lives are at risk for this reason. You went on to state that when such "incidents" happen the World Bank has to "be honest about when it happens, admit it and then try to find the best solution we can." We now ask do just that.

As we explained to World Bank Vice President Jorge Familiar at a meeting on April 7, indigenous and small farming communities throughout Honduras are under violent attack, there are many community defenders who have been murdered as Berta was, which pushes us towards higher levels of poverty. Given these conditions the World Bank should suspend financing to Honduras, both in the public and private sectors, until there are minimally just and realistic conditions for indigenous and small farming communities to defend their rights and, above all, that these ancient peoples can freely decide about their territories. In addition, there should be an independent review of policies and projects promoted by the World Bank that have contributed to this terrible reality.

In Honduras the justice system is not functional and does not protect the fundamental rights of the population, particularly the poor. Equitable development, capable of eliminating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, which is the mandate of the World Bank, cannot occur when the state is permeated by corruption, through which justice operators and security forces arbitrarily defend the investment interests of economically powerful sectors. Impunity and malicious prosecution of community advocates in the justice system facilitate extreme levels of violence and dispossession. In this context, racism becomes a structural, political- economic phenomenon, which causes higher levels of poverty and deprivation of rights of indigenous communities.

The World Bank has promoted the restructuring of land administration in Honduras[i], a continuous process from 1990 to date, this process has contributed to the illegal dispossession of indigenous and small farming communities of their lands on a massive scale. The new administrative programs facilitate registration of land illegally, depriving indigenous and small farming communities of their land, frequently facilitated by acts of violence and fraud.

This problem of the extension of voidable titles was identified by the Inspection Panel in relation to the Garifuna communities.[ii] However, the World Bank did not carry out any action to investigate illegal land holdings by third parties identified in the Inspection Panel report, even in the case of the Garifuna communities, much less in relation to indigenous and small farmers lands throughout the country.

International and private investment promoted by the World Bank superimposed on this context has generated violations of human rights, lack of access to justice, violence, corruption and impunity.

There is now a race to promote investment in energy production, hydroelectric, wind, solar, biofuels, mining, lumbering backed by investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), both through direct investments such as loans often through financial intermediaries.

Dozens of concessions for these activities were granted concessions in 2009, during a de facto regime product of the coup d’état, which was not recognized by the international community. National and international laws concerning environmental impacts and consultation with affected communities have been systematically violated.

In addition, neighboring communities do not receive even the slightest benefit from the projects, which are monopolized by non-local investors; the only thing the neighbors receive are damages.

It is a paradox that large amounts of money from USAID and others have been invested in Honduras, yet the justice system is increasingly precarious.[iii] At the same time, Honduras has refused to cooperate with international bodies of law, such as decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,[iv] or the requests for the participation of groups of experts sponsored by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in criminal investigations into the murder of Berta Caceres and the crimes in the Bajo Aguan region. The Government of Honduras has also failed to implement protective measures ordered by the Commission, in the Tolupan Locomapa community, in the case of Berta Caceres, and many more.

While the government of Honduras every day commits injustices, refuses to accept the necessary international assistance, refusing to apply the binding decisions of international legal bodies, it is not possible that the World Bank continues to finance investments that lead to the militarization of the country, destruction the environment, disenfranchisement, displacement, violence, poverty and death in the most vulnerable communities.

How can it be explained that the IFC is unaware of where their money is being channeled, how it’s resources are used and who are truly the beneficiaries? This fact is well documented in internal studies by the World Bank; it became clear in relation to the people of Honduras by the response to the complaint against 49 concessions for energy production and mining filed by Berta Caceres as General Coordinator COPINH a year ago. From the perspective of communities in Honduras we know this financing has deepened poverty and strengthened a small group of businessmen and unscrupulous and violent politicians.

We demand therefore, the World Bank immediately suspend both the disbursement of funding already approved and approval of new funding to State and for private investment in Honduras.

Sincerely,

Tomas Gómez

General Coordinator

Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras [COPINH]

Miriam Miranda

General Coordinator

Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH)

Martin Fernández

Coordinador General

Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ)

Jaime Cabrera

General Secretary

Regional Agrarian Platform of the Bajo Aguan

[i] The World Bank loans most relevant to promoting this human disaster are: Structural Adjustment Loan II (3257-HO); Agricultural Structural Adjustment Credit (Credit 2540-HO); Rural Land Administration Program (IDA-29400, 29401 IDA PPFO-p9360); and the Program for Land Administration of Honduras (PATH) (3858-HO); In addition, the Municipal Development Pilot Project (Loan 2583-HO) promoted the new Municipalities Law of 1990.

[ii] In response to the negative impacts of the PATH Program in Garifuna communities, in 2006 the Garifuna federation OFRANEH filed a complaint with the World Bank’s Inspection Panel. The Inspection Panel found merit in the complaint, identifying that the project could contribute to the disappearance of the tenure and claims to collective lands held by indigenous peoples and illegal land by outsiders, and that the project could not protect the cultural integrity or the economic base of some of the poorest communities.

[iii] Small farmers land rights movements in the Bajo Aguán region since September 2014 have asked the government of Honduras to sign an agreement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) to establish an international group of experts to investigate more than 150 murders in Bajo Aguan in the context of land rights disputes, and a similar group of experts to review the legality of the transfer of title that gave rise to the conflict. COPINH and the family of Berta Caceres also requested that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights establish a group of independent international experts to investigate Berta’s murder. The government has refused to accept the offer of the IACHR to provide such support.

[iv] In October 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Government of Honduras to restore lands taken illegally from the Garifuna communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra through programs promoted by the World Bank. More than eight months have passed since the sentence was issued, and the government has not made any communication with communities to comply with the resolution.