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February 10, 2025


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Help stop Global Food Industry violence in Bajo Aguan, Honduras
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Rights Action forwards this call for organizations to sign-on letter. Whether your organization signs on or not, please forward this information to your networks as well. This is how our global food systems often operate around the world.
* Call for organizations to sign on letter to DINANT Corporation’s business partners that are making a killing with DINANT’s palm oil production
* Letter: copied below
* Organisations: Send email ASAP to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

DINANT Corporation’s business partners
* Nestle Food Company (Switzerland)
* Mondelez International Inc. snack foods (USA)
* PepsiCo food, snack and beverages (USA)
* Archer Daniels Midland food processing (USA)
* Bunge Global agribusiness and food (Switzerland)
* Cargill Inc. food corp. (USA)
* Flora Food Group BV (Holland)
* Friesland-Campina N.V. dairy (Holland)
* Olenex/Wilmar palm oil (joint venture of ADM and Wilmar Int’l (Singapore)
* Vandemoortele Worcester (England)

From: Dominik Gross, [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Sent: February 4, 2025

As land theft and corporate violence continue unabated in the Agúan region of northern Honduras, and are escalating, we are asking for co-signatures for the urgent appeal, below! If you want to get involved in another way, feel free to contact me.

Best regards, Dominik

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The Honduran Agúan Valley has been in a state of emergency for weeks as a long-standing land theft violence has escalated. Armed groups have been violently attacking smallholders' cooperatives and peasant communities. Since the end of December, more than 150 families have been displaced, at least three people have been killed. The violence continues and there seems to be no end in sight.

The wave of violence has been accompanied by a hate campaign against the campesino organisation Plataforma Agraria and the human rights organisation COPA and their leaders.

The palm oil company Corporación DINANT, owned by the notorious Honduran Facussé family, is behind the escalation. DINANT is known for its violent expansion in the Agúan Valley, and are business partners to the who’s who of the global ag-industry (food for export production) based in the USA, Switzerland, England, Holland, Singapore, etc.,.
* Organisations: Send email ASAP to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

Apparently DINANT wants to 'resolve' the conflict by deliberately escalating the violence and land theft before the tripartite commission announced by the Honduran government, which will include the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, investigates the land conflicts, to try and find a just solution and hold those responsible to account. In recent weeks, various organisations and alliances have been working to bring an end to the violence. First aid is also being organised for those affected by the evictions.

DINANT's international trading partners are also responsible for the escalation. Although there have been repeated public reports of violence going back years, DINANT and its global business partners have taken no real measures to keep their supply chains free of human rights abuses.

DINANT simply denies all allegations and reacts aggressively to criticism. The only thing that will help is maximum economic pressure. Recent enquiries from us show that some of the world's largest agribusiness and food companies are still sourcing palm oil from DINANT.

With this open letter, we call on major international companies to exclude Dinant from their supply chains. The demands are coordinated with the local farmers' organisations in Agúan. Please join us by co-signing this letter.

You can find updates on the Facebook page of the farmers' organisation Plataforma Agraria ([link removed]) .

Further reading on the case:

U.S. court approves historic settlement for Honduran farmers' case against the World Bank’s IFC ([link removed]) , Olson, Mongabay, 2024

#banDinant #JusticiaParaElAguán

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The Letter

Stop the violence in Agúan – protect land and human rights defenders
No more trade with Dinant! #BanDinant #JusticiaParaElAguán

Urgent call to action: Nestlé, Mondelez, Pepsico, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), BUNGE, Cargill, Flora Food, Friesland-Campina, Olenex/Wilmar, Vandemoortele and others buying, selling, trading, or processing palm oil from Corporación DINANT.

Dear Global Food Industry corporations,

We are writing to you today to express our deep concern about the ongoing human rights violations associated with the palm oil production of Corporación DINANT in Honduras. At the same time, we call on you to take action.

The expansion and operation of DINANT's oil palm plantations in the Agúan Valley has always been accompanied by serious human rights violations. For decades, there have been reports of land grabs, the targeted intimidation, persecution and murder of members of peasant and social organisations and the use of violence by security forces and irregular armed groups suspected of having close links to DINANT.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly drawn attention to the serious abuses. In February 2022, the Xiomara Castro government pledged to investigate and resolve land conflicts in Agúan through a tripartite commission. However, this promise remains unfulfilled. Despite the warnings and international attention, the situation on the ground has not improved. On the contrary, violence and repression against smallholders and rural communities are on the rise. The conflict has been escalating massively again since December 2024.

The violence is directed against those who are defending their land against DINANT's oil palm plantations:
* On 24 December 2024, the Los Camarones cooperative was forcibly evicted by heavily armed criminal groups. Since then, 160 families of the Camarones cooperative have found themselves in an extremely precarious humanitarian situation.
* On 2 January 2025, Arnulfo Díaz, a member of the Brisas del Aguán cooperative, was murdered.
* Since 27 January, the Tranvío and El Chile cooperatives have been the subject of further intimidation and attempts of forced evictions. On that day, armed groups attacked both cooperatives, injuring one member and kidnapping another, who was tortured but could be freed later by the police.
* On February 2nd 2025 José Luis Hernandez Lobo and his partner, Suyapa Guillén, were assassinated. Both were active members of the Gregorio Chávez Cooperative and leaders of the campesino movement.

For weeks, a defamation and criminalisation campaign has been intensifying in the media and social networks against the smallholders' and human rights organisations Plataforma Agraria and Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares del Aguán (COPA). Leaders of the organisations are in acute danger.

As global food industry investors and companies, you share responsibility for ensuring that your supply chains are free from violent land theft, human rights violations and environmental degradation.

We call on you to end all direct and indirect business relationships with Corporación DINANT until violence and intimidation cease and the land rights of local cooperatives are respected by the company.

With the suspension, you are sending a strong signal in favour of the protection of human rights and the promotion of sustainable and ethical business practices.

Organisations: Send email ASAP to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

More information
* Honduras Now: www.hondurasnow.org, Honduras Solidarity Network: www.hondurassolidarity.org
* Friendship Office of the Americas: www.friendshipamericas.org

Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)

To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

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Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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