Paramilitary violence in key economic sectors in Honduras: the violent arm of «development»

Abstract

Classified as one of the countries with the highest incidence of homicide and femicide in the world, Honduras has been revealed as a flashpoint for violence perpetrated by the drug cartels and gangs. However, to reduce the problem of violence to simply «criminality» is inexact because it focuses upon the symptoms, to the detriment of the core causes, and which drives increasing involvement in the Armed Forces and the Police, bodies that are responsible for grave violations of human rights. At its core lies a foundation of political violence —that is, the violence and repression against the defenders of the earth, environment, and human rights— those who search for alternatives to agro-industrial, mining and infrastructure projects. Over the past decade, state and non-state actors, such as paramilitaries, have perpetrated violence in the service of capital. Paramilitary violence is functional for the large-scale accumulation of capital in agro-industry, tourism, mining and energy; it also drives the imposition of neoliberal reforms in land management, education and health. Paramilitary violence in the service of local and international corporations has occurred within a militarized context that extends state violence to repress and criminalize social movements. Honduras stands out as one of the four countries in Latin America with the highest levels of violence and criminalization, interrelated phenomena.