Dear friends -
Many of you know I spent much of summer 2006 visiting seven countries
in Latin America. Among the highlights of my trip was my time in
Honduras, including a stay with Kurt Ver Beek and his beautiful
family. They live among the poor in Honduras and work with Association
for a More Just Society (AJS). This is a Christian ministry that aims
to promote justice for the poor - a work close to the heart of God.
I just got this email from Kurt:
+++++
Last week we found out in a very personal way just how hard it can be,
just how twisted against God's ideals of justice and mercy the world
sometimes is: Dionisio Díaz, a lawyer from the Association for a More
Just Society (AJS), the organization I serve on the board of, was shot
to death last week Monday morning apparently in retaliation for his
efforts to provide legal services to poor security guards whose labor
rights had been violated. Then on Thursday, less than two days after
we had buried our beloved friend, co-worker, and partner in the
struggle for justice, Carlos Hernández, the president of the board of
AJS, received a death threat.
Since then we have received hundreds of emails from people letting us
know they are praying for Dionisio's family, for AJS, and for justice
to be done in Honduras. Nearly 2,000 people have either sent emails
or signed a petition to Honduran officials demanding that justice be
done. Many AJS supporters have passed on information about Dionisio's
case and the situation at AJS to their friends and family.
The more people who we can get to pray, pressure the Honduran
government to do justice, and support AJS's efforts to continue
providing legal services for the poor while protecting its employees
from suffering a fate similar to Dionisio's, the better.
Thank you, que Dios le bendiga,
Kurt Ver Beek
+++++
Kurt's note really strikes home for me because after I stayed with the
Ver Beeks, I spent part of a day with Carlos Hernandez, visiting the
schools he directs and walking the neighborhood where Carlos and Kurt
and their families live and work among the poor. I also visited the
offices of AJS and met courageous staff who told me that this sort of
thing was the danger they lived with on a daily basis.
Here's what I'd like to ask readers of my website to do:
1. Read the press release below.
2. Pray for AJS and all the families of its workers and board of directors.
3. Visit www.ajshonduras.org/dionisio. From this page you can send
emails to Honduran and US officials and donate to support Dionisio's
family and the ongoing work of promoting labor rights for poor
Hondurans.
4. Tell friends, family, and media about this case.
5. Contact congressional representatives about the case and ask them
to contact the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras and the Honduran Ambassador
to the U.S. about this case.
Thanks. I know that everyone is busy, but just by taking a few
minutes, you can be of help in the struggle against injustice in a
needy part of the world, among people I consider friends.
Gratefully - Brian
+++++
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Abram Huyser Honig, Communications Coordinator
Association for a More Just Society (AJS)
+504 (Honduras' country code) + 239.4418
abram@ajshonduras.org
www.ajshonduras.org
"Lawyer of the Poor" murdered in Honduras; Associates Threatened
Dionisio Diaz's Death Marks the First Murder in Many Years of a Human
Rights Advocate in Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa , Honduras , 12 December 2006. Honduras is in mourning.
Last Monday (December 4) it lost a great ally in the struggle for
social justice and a great defender of the poor: Dionisio Díaz García
was shot to death in his pickup truck while driving to court by two
masked gunmen on a motorcycle. The gunmen shot Díaz in the head and
chest from close range. This murder was the first time in years that a
human rights advocate has been murdered in Tegucigalpa.
Since early 2006 Díaz had served as the primary labor lawyer for the
Association for a More Just Society's Labor Rights for Vulnerable
Populations program, which had been running since 2004.
Díaz had received numerous threats in the months leading up to the
murder. On the morning of Thursday, December 7, Carlos Hernández, who
as well as serving as director of Genesis and El Verbo Christian
School is the president of AJS's board of directors, received a text
mesage on his cell phone threatening: "you are the next."
Díaz was in charge of providing legal defense and representation for
the labor rights of hundreds of security guards employed by 13
different private security companies that routinely violated the legal
rights of their employees. His humble, honest, steadfast dedication to
the impoverished workers he represented earned him the nickname "the
lawyer of the poor." He was known among his coworkers for answering
phone calls from distraught clients at all hours of the night and
routinely skipping lunch and working on holidays to fit in more
meetings with beleaguered workers or more Labor Court audiences on
their behalf.
There are over 200 private security companies in Honduras employing
some 40,000 security guards. They are, for the most part, unregulated.
Security guards are among the worst-paid and worst-treated employees
in the formal sector of the Honduran labor market. Because of illegal
pay deductions and withholdings, they often earn less than Honduras'
minimum wage requirement of approximately US$120 per month.
In the last three months thanks to Díaz's efforts AJS succeeded in
opening dialogs with the owners of several of these companies. But
this was not the case with the companies Delta Security Services and
Service y Seguridad Técnica de Honduras (SETECH).
Both of these companies (which are owned by the same individuals)
refused at all times to accept citations for failing to respect the
law. Instead they responded by undertaking a smear campaign against
Díaz and AJS.
Thanks to Díaz and AJS's insistent efforts to achieve social justice
for security guards, the Honduran Court of Labor placed an embargo on
two vehicles owned by Delta and SETECH in order to guarantee about
$10,000 in benefits these companies owed to a group of current and
former employees, all of them impoverished security guards.
Díaz and inspectors from the Honduran Ministry of Labor also carried
out numerous inspections of the areas in which guards employed by
these companies worked. These inspections revealed that the labor
rights of Delta and SETECH employees were regularly violated.
These violations of Honduran labor law included withholding of
overtime pay and other benefits and forcing employees to sign letters
of resignation—in Honduras, employees receive fewer severance benefits
if they elect to resign than if they are fired by their employers.
As a response to these legal actions taken against them, on September
19, 2006, representatives of Delta and SETECH arrived at and attempted
to forcefully enter AJS's central office in Tegucigalpa.
Among the unusual visitors were Richard Swasey, owner of Delta; one of
his legal representatives, Efrén Aguilar; Robert Fúnez, head of human
resources for Delta; Roger Medina López, head of operations for
SETECH; and three other individuals, including one woman, who claimed
to be lawyers.
Soon after this encounter a Honduran news website ran a paid
advertisement falsely claiming that AJS did not pay social security
for its employees and making other slanderous statements about the
staff of Revistazo.com, AJS's online investigative news journal, which
had run numerous stories about Delta and SETECH's labor violations.
The photo of several AJS staff members published with the story
appeared to have been taken from inside the car Swasey and his
associates arrived in on their visit to AJS's office on September 19.
From this date on, vehicles with tinted windows and no license plates
began appearing frequently outside AJS's office and following AJS
staff members.
Díaz received numerous threatening phone calls, and on Monday,
November 27, 2006, a fellow AJS lawyer received a text message sent
from the internet to his cell phone warning that Díaz's life was in
danger.
AJS also has knowledge that SETECH and Delta hired private
investigators to keep tabs on Díaz and other AJS employees.
And several days ago Donaldo Burke, a former agent of the DGIC
(Honduras' General Bureau for Criminal Investigation—analogous to the
United States' FBI), arrived at AJS's office insisting that he needed
to meet privately and immediately with Díaz, supposedly to give him
information about the location of a seized vehicle that had been put
in Díaz's custody but which had mysteriously disappeared and about
labor violations committed against security guards.
There are many links between Honduras' private security industry and
its police and military forces. A number of security company owners
are current or former army generals and police officials.
In response to being followed and threatened in various ways, and
particularly in response to the robbery of the Delta vehicle that had
been put in his custody, Díaz registered official reports with the
DGIC and with the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Common Crimes.
Government Negligence
The DGIC made no move to act on Díaz's report, but it did act on a
competing report filed by SETECH claiming Díaz himself had stolen the
vehicle.
Similarly, the Office of the Public Prosecutor patently ignored Diaz's
report while proceeding swiftly to take legal action against him in
response to SETECH's report.
For months AJS has been soliciting the Ministry of Security to
undertake an in-depth investigation of the legality of Honduras'
private security firms in order to make sure they fulfill the
requisites established by Honduran law.
AJS has also requested the Office of the Public Prosecutor to
investigate possible links these firms may have with various illicit
activities.
To date, not one of these requests to government agencies has been met
with a positive response, thus strengthening the impunity and
illegality that put Honduras among the most corrupt countries in the
world.
Paradoxically, government agencies continue to sign contracts worth
millions of Lempiras with security companies reported to be routine
violators of Honduran labor law.
AJS confirms that in following God's call to seek social justice all
of its employees are at risk to violence committed against their
persons—as Díaz's murder shows, the enemies of democracy and the
common good have begun a violent attack.
We profoundly lament the fact that in Honduras defending human rights
continues to put one in danger and that the constitution does not
protect those who do right.
AJS expresses its sorrow and condolences for Lourdes Elvir, Díaz's
widow, for his six-year-old son, and for the rest of his family. We
pray that God will pour out his blessings upon them and that he will
give them strength to bear this great loss.
AJS also demands that the appropriate agencies investigate Honduras'
private security companies to guarantee that they operate strictly
within the limits defined by the law.
We call upon the president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya
Rosales; the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Vilma Cecilia
Morales; the president of the National Congress, Roberto Micheletti;
the Human Rights Commissioner, Ramón Custodio López; the Attourney
General, Leonidas Rosa Bautista; and the minister of Security, Alvaro
Romero, to clarify with the greatest speed possible the death of our
beloved and unforgettable coworker and ally of the poor.
The murder of defenders of human rights like Dionisio Díaz García
weakens and constitutes an attack against democracy in Honduras.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD
require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God" —Micah 6:8
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For more information, contact:
info@ajshonduras.org
+504 (Honduras' country code) + 239.4418 (AJS Honduras office phone)
Or visit www.ajshonduras.org
The Association for a More Just Society (AJS) - Honduras is a
Christian nonprofit organization based in Tegucigalpa, Honduras,
dedicated to promoting justice in Honduras, especially for the poorest
and most vulnerable people--motivated by God's call in Micah 6:8 to
"act justly and love mercy." AJS focuses on promoting just legislation
and the just implementation of the law.