COPINH
Berta CáceresCausa Berta CáceresEnglish

PUBLIC STATEMENT: FMO withdraws financing to FICOHSA bank.

COPINH

AQUI EN ESPAÑOL

FICOHSA is responsible for violence that led to the crime against Berta Cáceres.

Position of Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras COPINH on the news of the that Dutch bank FMO will not be granting a new loan from the to FICOHSA bank in Honduras due to claims of involvement in acts of corruption as well as serious violations of Human Rights.

  1. We welcome the decision of the FMO bank not to grant the 60 million dollar loan to Mr. Camilo Atala’s FICOHSA Honduras bank. Listening to the voices of the communities and organizations that have suffered from colonialism, poverty, corruption and inequality in Honduras at the hands of the economic elites is the right path to take.
  2. Despite repeated denials by Ficohsa, the chats and communications interceptions presented during the trial of David Castillo for the murder of Berta Cáceres prove the existence of financing and involvement of the FICOHSA Bank in the Agua Zarca project and its responsibility with acts of violence that led to the murder of Berta Cáceres.
  3. We demand that the responsibilities of FICOHSA, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and the FMO be clarified in relation to acts of violence suffered by the Lenca indigenous community of Río Blanco and the assassination of Berta Cáceres.
  4. We demand that the banks investing in these projects heed the call of affected communities and immediately stop investments that affect the rights to water and territory, before more people are murdered, criminalized and displaced for claiming their legitimate rights.
  5. We recognize the work of affected communities and organizations to stop the investment of development banks in other illegal and illegitimate projects in the country, such as the Jilamito project in Atlántida
  6. We exhort the national and international community to combat the functioning of the international financial system responsible for the impoverishment, corruption and violation of the rights of the Honduran communities and people.

Given on the 21st day of the month of May, 2021 in the city of Tegucigalpa.

“With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica, we rise our voices full of life, justice, freedom, dignity and peace “.