A Conversation with Honduran Land Rights Defender Jaime Cabrera
Human Rights Defender Jaime Cabrera engages with community representatives during the Plataforma Agraria’s outreach efforts
By: Joseph Sotile, Reagan Williams, and Anna Norman
Jaime Adali Cabrera Delcid, a community leader and human rights advocate in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras, has been forced into hiding due to ongoing death threats and criminalization of his advocacy. He is a coordinator of the Plataforma Agraria, which is an umbrella organization of various campesino cooperatives (community substance farming cooperatives). The Plataforma Agraria works closely with the cooperatives to present a coordinated advocacy front. Jaime has received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission based on the threats made to his life. Precautionary Measures are granted by the Inter-American Commission to individuals or communities that are facing grave risk. They require States to take specific, concrete steps to protect a beneficiary’s life and personal security. Jaime’s protection orders have not been adequately implemented by the Honduran government. His life remains in danger.
The campesinos purchased land from the Honduran government in the 1970s and 1980s, in the context of agrarian reform. However, in the subsequent years, large agricultural companies acquired the land through various illegitimate methods, such as duress, fraud, and violence. For thirty years, the campesinos have been engaged in an effort to reclaim their land. More than 160 land and water defenders in the region have been killed since 2010.
Jaime wanted to conduct this interview to draw attention to the harms he and his colleagues face, including death threats from private security forces and criminalization by the local government. He hopes that spotlighting the agrarian conflict in Honduras will bring more attention from the international community. “Whatever happens to me, jail or death, do not keep quiet. . . . We need international solidarity.”
This interview has been translated from Spanish and edited for clarity and length.
Thirty minutes before the Columbia Law School Smith Family Human Rights Clinic team was supposed to meet with Jaime for this interview, he reached out asking if we could postpone. The day before, Santos Hipólito Rivas, a founder of the campesino business Jaime belongs to, was murdered in the Aguán along with his son. This was the fifth human rights defender, and second family member, assassinated in less than two months. “He was my friend. He had received threats from an armed group in that area for years,” Jaime told the Clinic team when he informed them that he had to reschedule because the funeral would be at the same time. “We came to the government year after year, filing complaints, asking for security for Hipólito. The government said it was not possible because of a lack of resources. And now he’s dead. His son, too; a boy that never thought his departure from earth would be like this.” Jaime attended the burial services by video call due to security threats against him. “I cannot express how I would like to be there in person at that burial. This is not easy.”
The Clinic team met with Jaime a few days later to hear his story.
Q: Could you help us to understand the issues your community faces in the Bajo Aguán?
A: The Bajo Aguán is one of the most fertile lands in Honduras–that’s why every agricultural landowner has their eyes set on it. Over the past thirty years, private corporations caught on and began to acquire our land through deceitful practices and intimidation. In my lifetime, we have seen the dispossession of the land our parents owned. The conflict got especially violent in the nineties. Whoever opposed the corporations was murdered. Whoever opposed the proposals the companies made was murdered. Assassinations were common, and many people fled.
In 2009, after President Zelaya was ousted, the violence spiked again, and it has continued to this day. What we have survived, we have survived thanks to God. It has not been easy. Friends are again being persecuted, assassinated, or forced to leave their land because they came out against the interests of the private businesses. Those businesses are the ones who are responsible for this violence, companies like the Dinant Corporation and Agropalma. These companies have put terror in the Aguán.
Q; What risks have you and your community faced in advocating?
A: In Honduras, many of those who fight for our rights, our rights to our lands, to life, to happiness, are punished. In our quest for justice, we are punished. Our crime is defending our land, our rights.
Our lives are constantly in threat. There is non-stop persecution. Cars and motorcycles follow us. My friends, community leaders, and their families have been murdered. Each time, we have informed the authorities. But investigations have not advanced, and the violence continues
Based on the threats we face, the Agrarian Platform leadership team, myself included, was granted protectionary precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, MC-50/14. We have met with Honduran officials charged with fulfilling these measures, the Chief of Police, the Minister of Security, and requested those protections. They tell us, “There are no funds.” But we see police forcefully evicting other campesinos every month. When they want to arrest a human rights defender, there seems to be no limit to the funding. To take care of private companies’ interests, there are unlimited funds. But to protect our lives, their pockets are empty.
I have been charged with fake crimes. One of the charges against me is for conspiracy, which I have never taken part in. Another is for aggravated usurpation, a charge for intentionally occupying another person’s property. On the day that they allege I committed that crime, I was publicly in a meeting in another city visiting representatives from the European Union and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. I couldn’t have done it. But I am on the warrant. I’m charged as if I am a criminal just because I am leading the advocacy efforts.
I’m not going to say that I am afraid. If the system wants to imprison me for being a human rights defender, I will be there. But the biggest harm to me is being isolated from my family. Despite the risks in the past, I have never abandoned them before, never.
You cannot imagine. I have two little boys, they are five years old right now. They are so thin. I spoke with them the other day. My family is destroyed. My children awake in the middle of the night crying, screaming, “They’ve captured Papi! They’ve killed Papi!” The police went to my house a little while ago, and they told my wife that they were going to find me and take me away. The children went crazy. The look in their eyes, you wouldn’t believe the fear and the pain. Our friends are being killed around us.
I just ask that whatever happens to me, jail or death, do not keep quiet. Do not abandon the struggle out of fear that the same will happen to you. Do not let go of the struggle. We must keep up the fight.
Q: What do you view as the ultimate goal of your advocacy, and what is your role in advocating for a resolution?
A: In 2013, I was appointed as the coordinator for the Plataforma Agraria. Our work centers around the respect for basic human rights. The goal of the Agrarian Platform and campesino movements is that the land is returned to its historic owners, to its legitimate owners, who are the campesinos. We want the government to step up and help to return our lands to us. To achieve this, our work has centered around peacefully organizing, demanding respect for our rights, and utilizing the legal process. We don’t have weapons, we don’t use violence. We have documents, our titles. We will use them to win this struggle.
A new government took office in 2021, and we negotiated an agreement with them in February 2022. Government officials came to the Aguán and negotiated with us back and forth until we reached an agreement. A landmark part of this was the creation of a legal commission to investigate the origin of the conflict and work to resolve it. Initially, we agreed to have representatives from the private companies, the campesinos, and the government, but the companies are no longer cooperating because they do not want their role in starting the conflict to be investigated. Regardless, this commission still has the power to independently bring the truth to light.
From our side, we are certain that the cooperatives are 100% the rightful owners, so we welcome the investigation. The businesses should do the same if they are confident in their rights. But no, the corporations know that they are losing the advantage as the campesinos gain ground. They feel like they have no choice but to assassinate and imprison the leaders at the forefront. But with the Plataforma Agraria, when one falls, a thousand rise.
The ultimate vision of the campesinos is that they can survive off of their land. They are no longer forced to flee. No more assassinations, no more human rights violations. We hope that with the support, first of all from God, and from many organizations that share solidarity with us, we are going to achieve our objective. How many of us are going to fall? I do not know. But we are going to win, we are going to win.
Q: What should the Honduran government be doing to support your cause?
A: Our wish is for the government to resolve what gave rise to this conflict because if it is not resolved, none of the abuses–the assassinations, threats, intimidation–will end.
Two things the government can commit to are implementing the February 2022 agreement and abiding by the Inter-American Commission’s precautionary measures.
On July 22, 2022, we mobilized more than 2,000 people to go to the presidential house to remind them of the agreement. We asked for just five minutes with the President to hear our plea. But she refused to meet with us. However, she always meets with the private companies, listens to them, and discusses the issues. But for us, there is no time.
Q: How are international actors able to help and ensure your safety?
A: We need international organizations, governments, and advocates to join together to give support to the campesinos. They can ask for justice. Ask that the assassinations be investigated. The U.S. government has a lot of influence in Honduras, and it could encourage the Honduran government to pay attention to the campesinos and respect our life and human rights.
We need international solidarity. The other day, I was talking to an international advocate, and I said to her, “Compañera, are you all willing to continue speaking on my behalf? You know the risks, you know the trumped up charges I have been accused of. If you do continue, do it with the guarantee that I have never failed my organization by committing the crimes they are accusing me of.” I don’t want to put anyone in harm's way. This is a hard fight to be a part of. I could never ask for someone to put their life, their family’s lives, at risk. But unity across the globe shows us that we are not alone. It is so important to our fight.
Q: What keeps you motivated?
A: What motivates me is the thought of leaving the land to my children, to leave them a place better than I had, so that they do not have to live the life that we lived.
What gives us a lot of strength in the midst of everything is knowing that the blood in Aguán has drained into the earth, so we cannot abandon it. It is a great honor to be defending the rights of many people who today own their land. They have spent many years renting a room or a house or living as squatters. Today they are the landowners. Children who were on the streets because their father did not have the means to feed them, now they own the property they were raised on. You should see their faces. That happiness, that pride fills us with passion and drives us to continue defending this right.
And international solidarity also drives us. That gives us courage because we know that we are not alone. To know that there is someone who takes the time to tell us, “Compa, we are with you.” That gives us fortitude because we are not alone. We are in this struggle together.
The interview is part of the work of the Smith Family Human Rights Clinic’s Extractive Industries and Social Movements Project, which works with Indigenous, campesino, and Black social movements in extractive enclaves in Latin America to document human rights violations, promote accountability, and improve community safety and wellbeing. This year, the project team includes clinic students Reagan Williams (2L), Anna Norman (3L), and Joseph Sotile (2L) working with Supervising Staff Attorney Kelsey Jost-Creegan.