SUMMARY: On the morning of October 6th, eyewitnesses saw 15 armed military police invade the grounds of the first public hospital in a Garifuna (Afro-Honduran) community in Ciriboya, Iriona Department. They later claimed they were searching for illegal drugs, but none were ever found. This was a clear act of intimidation. Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya officially opened the hospital and the founder and director of the hospital, Dr. Luther Castillo, has been outspoken against the June 2009 military coup and its regime and is included on a list of persons whose lives and safety were declared "at risk" by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States). 

We stand in solidarity with Dr. Castillo and the Garifuna community in demanding an end to such intimidation of health workers and patients and an end to the pervasive and institutional racism in Honduras that has increased after the military coup. Despite to a recent lifting of an emergency decree suspending civil liberties, some curbs on protests remain. In its work with the Organization of American States to resolve the Honduran crisis, we urge the U.S. Department of State to take whatever measures necessary to protect the lives of the hospital staff and community members and speak out clearly against the rampant human rights violations being committed by the de facto government.

BACKGROUND:

The Garifuna Peoples of Central America are African descendant and Indigenous Peoples and have existed in Honduras for over 500 years. Since 1999, Dr. Luther Castillo has directed the Luaga Hatuadi Waduheñu Foundation ("For the Health of our People" in Garifuna), dedicated to bringing vital health services to many of the poorest and isolated coastal communities. Since the coup, the de facto government has cancelled the agreement affirming the right of the Garifuna to direct and administer their own health care in the region, eliminated physician stipends, and attempted to downgrade the hospital to health center status.

The Garifuna civil society organization OFRANEH (Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña) released a statement calling the military action "a clear message to the Garifuna people (in response to) their participation in the resistance movement against the coup, and particularly to Dr. Castillo and hospital personnel. For OFRANEH, such a punitive action against the hospital is one more indication of the prevailing racism among the coup leaders and their military." Thus far, the hospital has been able to keep its doors open as a result of community support and health workers who have stayed on the job. The hospital is supported by a number of U.S. and other international organizations, including the Sacramento, California Central Labor Council, Global Links, The Birthing Project, and MEDICC. Several U.S. medical schools also have cooperative arrangements with the Garifuna hospital, including Johns Hopkins, Emory, Charles Drew and University of California (SF).

The hospital is staffed by Garifuna and Cuban doctors who are graduates of the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) in Cuba. Since its inauguration, there have been over 240,000 medical visits for free treatment and it has succeeded in reducing the infant and maternal mortality rate in the Iriona municipality alone. A few weeks before the coup, Dr. Castillo was named director of International Cooperation in the Honduran Foreign Ministry. Dr. Castillo is also featured in ¡Salud! (www.saludthefilm.net), a documentary film that received the Council on Foundations Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media (USA).

"We are not just providing health care to a forgotten people," said Dr. Luther Castillo, "We are creating a new model of free health care, an example for other poor regions in Latin America."  It is worth noting that the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) was founded in 1847, yet it was not until 115 years later when the first Garifuna doctor graduated from the UNAH School of Medicine. Now, only ten years of the foundation of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba (ELAM), there are more Garifuna peoples that are currently studying medicine and that have graduated from the ELAM than UNAH (a century and a half old institution).

The right of indigenous peoples to establish their own health care services is enshrined in an International Labor Organization covenant ratified by the government of Honduras. Fortunately no one was injured during the raid. However, the invasion and repression against the hospital and its staff constitutes an egregious violation of rights.

ACTION:

TransAfrica Forum stands in solidarity with Garifuna community and civil society and recommends you:

• Call your Congressperson at the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to have the State Department publically denounce the extreme and widespread violations of human rights in Honduras (including censorship, intimidation, and the murders of peaceful political organizers) and not recognize elections sponsored by the coup regime.

For more information about the Black Garifuna Peoples and the First Public Garifuna Hospital in Honduras, visit http://www.transafricaforum.org/policy-overview/where-we-work/afro-descendants-lac and http://www.medicc.org/cubahealthreports/chr-article.php?&a=1124

TransAfrica Forum is the leading U.S. advocacy organization for Africa and the African Diaspora in U.S. foreign policy. TransAfrica Forum helped lead the world protest against apartheid in South Africa and today works for human and economic justice for African people on the continent of Africa, in Latin America and in the Caribbean. Contact us:  TransAfrica Forum, 1629 K Street, N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, D.C., 2006, 202-223-1960. www.transafricaforum.org. TAF en Español http://www.transafricaforum.org/taf-en-espa%C3%B1ol

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