Article by PBI-Canada

Update: The trial has been postponed and will be held in April of this year.

On January 13, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on its Facebook page: “We will be very attentive to the oral and public trial of the five people criminalized for the defense of the Jilamito River (Arizona, Atlántida) against the construction of a hydroelectric plant by the INGELSA company.”

“The municipality of Arizona, where three hydroelectric plants already operate, is one of the most impoverished and with the least access to drinking water in the department [of Atlántida].”

PBI-Honduras adds: “The trial will begin next Monday, January 18 in the municipality of Tela. The communities in resistance are accompanied by Movimiento Amplio [Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice/ MADJ].”

US financing of the dam

In August 2020, the WFP Solidarity Collective further reported: “The DFC [Development Finance Corporation] announced that, in conjunction with the Inter-American Development Bank, it will be using U.S. tax dollars to invest in the Jilamito Hydropower Project.”

In this letter to the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation last summer, US Representative Ilhan Omar opposed US financing of this dam noting among other concerns that: “The river that is being dammed is the only source of clean drinking water for the communities in the area.”

The struggle against the dam

In May 2018, The Guardian reported: “The accused – a teacher, hardware-store owner, farmers and the newly elected municipal mayor – are opposed to a dam on the Jilamito river in the tropical region of Atlántida.”

“Their alleged misdemeanour: ‘land invasion’ during a protest against the construction of a dam. A guilty verdict could bring a jail term of up to four years.”

“Jilamito river supplies several thousand households across the municipality of Arizona, and communities fear the 14MW plant will aggravate water shortages, which the company Ingelsa (Inversiones de Generación Eléctrica SA de CV) denies.”

The article by Nina Lakhani in The Guardian also noted: “The authorities are hoping a prosecution will enable them to clear a makeshift community blockade in the remote hilly pastures so construction can begin.”

The Solidarity Collective has also highlighted: “INGELSA illegally pushed [the dam] forward without legally-required free, prior, and informed consent.”

The upcoming trial

PBI-USA will join PBI-Honduras and many others around the world following with great concern what happens in court starting on January 18.