Dear John, 

The brutal wave of killings, threats, kidnappings, beatings, torture, and disappearances of labor and social movement activists in Honduras continues, directed at Afro-Indigenous women, LGBTQI activists, campesinos, trade unionists, independent journalists, and opposition political activists.

Last Saturday, two men shot and killed Jorge Alberto Acosta in a billiard parlor four blocks from his house in La Lima, Cortes, Honduras. Jorge, 62, was a leader for SITRATERCO, the oldest union in the country, which represents Chiquita banana workers.

Click here to demand the Honduran government fully investigate and prosecute Jorge’s murder and call on the U.S. Embassy in Honduras to publicly denounce this killing.

In early 2018, banana workers held a 77-day strike after Chiquita illegally relocated its medical center — which had provided full healthcare to working families for over 60 years — to a far-off location and replaced it with an expensive, low-grade private medical center. Workers on the picket line were met with live bullets from military police and mass layoffs from Chiquita.

After the strike ended, Jorge and his fellow trade unionists began receiving death threats, and were subject to physical attacks, surveillance, and break-ins. They repeatedly denounced these threats to government officials, who are obliged to investigate and provide adequate protective measures for threatened union leaders — but never did.

The authors of Jorge’s assassination know very well that the government of Honduras was never going to investigate the reported threats or protect the labor leaders, and are counting on the government’s inaction now. That is why it is imperative for the international community to publicly denounce this killing and the recent wave of violence against human rights defenders in Honduras.

Take action to demand the Government of Honduras investigate and prosecute the authors of this crime and provide protection to Jorge’s family and SITRATERCO union leaders, and to call on the U.S. Embassy in Honduras to publicly denounce these killings.

Thank you in advance for your solidarity,

Gabby Rosazza
Campaigns Associate

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