Land Rights Murders in San Pedro Sula
Breaking News: World Bank Meets with AJS-Supported Justice Workers, Community Leaders
Previous Update: Government Pledges to Address Murders, Land Rights Issues
Ubense Aguilar (pictured, left) was shot to death on the morning of October 14 outside a small business he owns. Elías Murcia (pictured, right) was shot to death in front of his home on the afternoon of October 9. Fredis Osorto Reyes was shot to death near his home on October 2.
Evidence thus far indicates that all three killings were ordered by illegitimate “landowners” who saw their business going down the drain as the land they were illegally selling was being expropriated and titled by the government in response to the advocacy of these community leaders.
Two other community leaders from Cofradía have been killed in recent years in murders apparently motivated by land disputes, and at least four more community leaders from the area with whom the Land Rights Project has worked closely in advocating for the correct implementation of the Property Law currently fear for their lives.
We believe that negligence and undue delays by the Property Institute have greatly contributed to the atmosphere of impunity that emboldens illegitimate landowners to carry out these violent acts. (The Property Institute is the Honduran government institution in charge of implementing the Property Law; it receives major funding from the World Bank.)Ubense Aguilar: Dedicated Community Leader
Aguilar was president of the neighborhood association (patronato - the most local form of elected government in Honduras) of a neighborhood called "Ideal" in the town of Villanueva, an area in the greater San Pedro Sula area that has experienced rapid growth over the last decade due to the opening of many large maquiladoras, or clothing-assembly factories, in the area.
Aguilar was a longtime member of the Confederation of Neighborhood Associations of Honduras (CONAFEPH), and served as the secretary of this group's Land Commission. For many years the impoverished residents of the Ideal neighborhood were constantly threatened and cajoled by various powerful individuals claiming to be the original owners of the land on which the neighborhood has emerged. Because none of these individuals had sufficiently clear legal documentation for their claims, the Honduran government expropriated the neighborhood on November 7, 2005,thus beginning the process that will make titles available to the current residents. (The people who claim to be the landowners can keep fighting it out in court and if any is proved to truly have owned the land, they will receive compensation for the expropriated land.)
Aguilar was an outspoken proponent of the new land titling process being implemented by the Property Institute, and worked alongside AJS-supported lawyers, journalists, and community organizers to educate his neighbors about the law and to pressure the government to implement it correctly. At the time he was killed, his neighborhood was preparing to enter into a stage of the titling process called "Regularization Forums." In this stage, people making claims to property in the neighborhood can present their documentation to the Property Institute; if there are several claims to the the same lot or disputes about borders of lots, the Property Institute negotiates or adjudicates a decision. Thus, this is the last step of the process where impostors trying to hijack the process by presenting false documents or through other means have any chance of doing so.
Elías Murcia: Speaking Out Against Corruption
Murcia was the president of the neighborhood Brisas de Occidente #2, in the town of Cofradía, also in the greater San Pedro Sula area. Like Villanueva, Cofradía has experienced explosive growth over the last decade. The abundance of good, flat land combined with gross lack of government oversight has made Cofradía home to many violent disputes over land and has attracted hundreds of powerful crooks who have claimed large areas of land for themselves and tried to charge the residents of neighborhoods that have emerged on these lands.
Like Aguilar's neighborhood, Brisas de Occidente #2 was expropriated in 2005. But in recent months, officials from the Property Institute, who should be the first to stand up against illegitamte landowners, instead appeared to be in collusion with one of them. As the elected representative of the neighborhood, Murcia was the person Property Institute officials should have gone to in regards to all issues involving the titling process in the neighborhood. But neighbors report that recently a group of Property Institute officials went instead to visit with Randolfo Rodríguez, a "landowner" who claimed to own the whole neighborhood, but whom neighborhood residents say has no legitimate claim to the land. Soon after, a large undeveloped area of the neighborhood that had previously been designated by the Property Institute as public land, and where Elías and others planned to build a public school, a public soccer field, a church, and other public works, was instead designated as all being the property of Randolfo Rodríguez.
On Wednesday, October 6, Murcias was in Tegucigalpa along with several other community leaders from Cofradía. He reported the appropriation of public land by Rodríguez and the apparent complicity of San Pedro Property Institute officials to higher-ranking officials in the capital. The official with whom he spoke immediately called a Property Institute official who neighbors say had met with Rodríguez, to ask what was going on. Fellow community leaders hypothesize that this official must have then called Rodríguez to inform him that Murcia had reported his attempts to distort the titling process.
In any case, on Wednesday evening Murcias returned to Cofradía, and on Thursday afternoon, as he sat outside his home, two young men approached him and shot him nine times in the head, chest, and elsewhere. He died almost instantly. Neighbors called the police immediately, but none showed up until an hour and a half after the shooting.
Fredis Osorto Reyes: Improving His Neighborhood
Osorto was the president of the "Vida Nueva" neighborhood, which borders the Brisas de Occidente #2 neighborhood in Cofradía. Osorto was a strong proponent of the land-titling process in his neighborhood. Always looking for ways to improve his community, he had also achieved improvements in service at the neighborhood's health center and increased distribution of water and electricity services.
On the afternoon of Thursday, October 2, Osorto was going around the neighborhood putting up flyers to support one of Honduras' political parties. While making his rounds, he went to visit his father-in-law at a pool hall that the father-in-law owns. Two men who had been seated at one of the tables immediately stood up and shot Osorto to death when he entered the establishment.
Neighbors who knew Osorto believe that shooting was not politically motivated by rather had to do with Osorto's support for the land-titling process.
Threats Against More Community Leaders; AJS-Supported Justice Workers May Also Be In Danger
Four more community leaders from Cofradía have reported to AJS-supported land rights workers that they fear for their lives:
 | Danilo del Arca is the president of the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Cofradía. He has been at the head of the struggle for land titles in the community for the last two years, and thus is a natural target for any of the over 178 "landowners" who claim, most of them dubiously, to own various parts of the expropriated neighborhoods in Cofradía. He was with Elías Murcia in the office of the Property Institute reporting the irregularities apparently committed by Randolfo Rodríguez the day before Murcia was killed. Del Arca reports receiving numerous ominous phone calls in which the callers hang up as soon as he answers. |
 | Carminda Pérez, a 34-year-old single mother of 5, is president of the Altos de Cofradía neighborhood in Cofradía. She was also with Murcia in the office of the Property Institute the day before he was killed. Altos de Cofradía has not yet been expropriated, and Pérez has spearheaded efforts to convince the Property Institute to expropriate the neighborhood in order to put an end to a series of forced evictions of neighborhood carried out by the police at the behest of a man name Francisco Pineda Tróchez who claims to own the land. Pérez says that an unfamiliar vehicle has frequently been parking outside her home, and that no one gets in or out of the vehicle. She believes the people in the vehicle have been hired to watch and record her movements. There is a rumor in her neighborhood that she will not make it until Christmas. |
 | Gabriel Zambrano is the president of the Brisas de Occidente #3 neighborhood in Cofradía. Along with del Arca and Pérez, has has traveled to Tegucigalpa numerous times to advocate for more timely, effective action by the Property Institute to solve Cofradía's land rights problems. He too has received phone calls where the callers hang up and do not identify themselves. He says that trustworthy people have told him that his life is in danger. |
 | Carlos Murillo, father of 3, is the president of the Lisandro Paz neighborhoof in Cofradía. Since the neighborhood was expropriated in 2005, the Property Institute has not moved ahead with any of the further steps necessary before titles can be issued. Murillo has repeatedely advocated for the Property Institute to continue the process so he and his neighbors can have land titles, and has had to continually deal with threats posed by three different individuals who all claim to own the land the neighborhood is built on: Ana María Paz, Héctor Aviles, and Lisandro Paz. Murillo has received anonymous text message sent to his cell-phone bearing the messages "commend yourself to God" and "may God save you." He has also recieved phone calls from unknown individuals who have insulted him. |
| AJS-supported land rights workers may also be in danger. The AJS-supported Land Rights Project is the only group outside the government that has been involved in a comprehensive way with ensuring that the Property Law is implemented justly and transparently in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula; thus, we fear AJS-supported lawyers, journalists, and community organizers working on land issues may also be targeted. |
ACT NOW!
Please take a moment to pray and speak out for the safety of these champions for justice and for the effectiveness of the land-titling process in Honduras.
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The Association for a More Just Society (AJS) oversees and funds initiatives carried out by Honduran partner organization la Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ). AJS is a US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so all donations to AJS are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.
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