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Tegucigalpa. – Heavy machinery of Aura Minerals (U.S./Canada) and its subsidiary MINOSA (Minerales de Occidente S.A. de C.V.) entered, early this morning, the Maya Chortí de San Andrés cemetery in Azacualpa, La Unión, in the western department of Copán, Honduras, despite court orders to stop exhumations for the exploitation of gold and silver.
Police accompanied the entry of the machinery. This was denounced in a communiqué the Bufete Estudios para la Dignidad and the Movimiento Amplio por la Dignidad y la Justicia (MADJ), together with the Comité de Afectados por Aura Minerals / MINOSA (Committee of People Affected by Aura Minerals / MINOSA).
They warned that the machinery entered the cemetery to drill and dynamite the hill. Also, a group of workers and others paid by Aura Minerals/ MINOSA are in the area to detain and attack people who oppose the destruction of the cemetery hill.
In November 2020, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered a halt to exhumations by Aura Minerals / MINOSA. In February 2022, the Court of Appeals of Santa Rosa de Copán again provisionally halted the exhumations. This means that the company continues to act in an arbitrary manner. To date, no government institution has acted to stop the actions of the company.
Aura / MINOSA’s mining operation is being carried out in a Maya Chortí community. Thus, in addition to disobeying a court order, causing human rights violations, environmental problems, the mining operation is violating the cultural rights of the Maya Chortí people, one of the original peoples settled in the Honduran territory.
Recently, missions from the Human Rights Secretariat and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) visited the cemetery and confirmed the violations of rights, harassment and discrimination against those who defend rights and denounce the mining company.
To carry out the exhumations of the corpses, Aura Minerals / MINOSA has paid significant amounts of money, managing to divide the population due to their economic needs.
DEMANDS TO THE GOVERNMENT
The Bufete Estudios para la Dignidad and MADJ ask in their communiqué for actions and pronouncements from President Xiomara Castro and the Secretariats of Human Rights and Security.
They ask President Castro to fulfill her campaign promise to stop open-pit mining and to order the State Secretariats involved in the issue to intervene to stop the violence carried out by Aura Minerals / MINOSA and to sanction those responsible for the actions.
Meanwhile, they ask the Ministry of Environment to refrain from granting environmental licenses for the company to destroy the cemetery and to immediately stop the company's operations on the cemetery hill due to the corruption, violence and violation of human rights.
And they demand that the Secretary of Security stop the mining operations and investigate the illegal actions carried of police in favor of the mining operations, against the population that opposes mining.
Finally, the complainants hold both the past and current governments responsible for the damages and actions against the inhabitants of the community of Azacualpa who oppose mining operations.
Criterio.hn contacted the government offices mentioned in this article, however, no response was obtained.
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