Honduras: Repression of peasants, Vallecito/Colón

32 members of the “Vallecito Peasant Movement”, situated in Sinaloa, Tocoa municipality, Department of Colón, became victims of severe violence on October 6, 2006. Two peasants were wounded by bullets, and the others were beaten up by police agents. The victims belong to 88 peasant families of the Movement who were settled by INA (the National Agrarian Institute) on land in this region. At this moment the peasant families live in precarious conditions in a refugee camp of INA without adequate food or housing.    

It is very important to ask the Government of Honduras to investigate the circumstances of this police repression, and to search for a solution of the agrarian conflict. Please send a letter to the President of Honduras in which you express your concern about this case and demand that the President adopts appropriate measures to investigate these acts of violence and solve the conflict in compliance with the peasants’ right to food. Please send a copy of your letter to the Minister for External Affairs and to the solicitor of the peasants.