Despite the violence against activists, campaigners say the new rightwing government of Nasry “Tito” Asfura, backed by Donald Trump, has created a legal environment that places campesinos and other land defenders in even more danger. It has passed a series of laws aimed at clamping down on organised crime but which human rights organisations warn place land defenders at severe risk of criminalisation.
The first of these legal changes is a reform to the penal code allowing for criminal groups to be designated as terrorist organisations. The law went against the Honduran supreme court’s advice and has been criticised for its open-ended definition of terrorism.
“Under this law,” says Lucía Vigil, from the Centre for the Study of Democracy (Cespad), “any group exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest can be labelled terrorist.”…
No comments:
Post a Comment