VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTG #0477/01 1411829
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 201829Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8146
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCAACC/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//J5// PRIORITY
RUEAHND/CDRJTFB SOTO CANO HO PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J5 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0177
RUMIAAA/USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000477 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OAS PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: TEGUCIGALPA RESPONSE TO UN DRIP FOLLOW-UP AND OAS 
STATE OF PLAY 
 
REF: SECSTATE 4241 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  The Government of Honduras voted in favor 
of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People 
(DRIP) but does not appear to be doing anything to implement 
the provisions of the declaration.  Post is unaware of any 
indigenous groups taking any action under the declaration, 
although the Garifuna are pursuing land rights claims against 
Honduras in the InterAmerican Court on Human Rights.  The 
Departments of State, Defense and USAID all support 
activities supporting indigenous people of Honduras. End 
Summary. 
 
-------------------------- 
NO DRIP ACTION IN HONDURAS 
-------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The GOH voted in favor of the UN DRIP, but has not 
responded to Post's repeated requests about whether they have 
done anything to support the Declaration.  (Note: The Foreign 
Affairs Ministry continues to answer our requests for 
information by talking about the ethnic identity office at 
the Interior Ministry, whose work preceded the DRIP. This 
suggests that nothing new is being done.) Post will report 
any future response by the GOH. 
 
¶3. (U) According to the 2007 Human Rights Country Report for 
Honduras, there are approximately 621,000 persons that are 
members of indigenous or other ethnic groups in Honduras. 
These groups include the Miskitos Tawahkas, Pech, Tolupans, 
Lencas, Chortis, Nahual, Islanders, and Garifunas, who live 
in 362 communities and generally have little or no political 
power to make decisions affecting their lands, cultures, 
traditions, and the allocation of natural resources. 
 
¶4. (U) POLOFF met with Garifuna leaders in La Ceiba and Tela 
on May 5 and 6.  The Garifuna are perhaps the most organized 
of the various ethnic groups and the most likely to pursue 
action under the DRIP.  They are pursuing four cases 
regarding the illegal sale or use of Garifuna lands in the 
InterAmerican Court on Human Rights, however, they had never 
heard of the DRIP and are not planning any action under it at 
this time. 
 
---------------------- 
US DIPLOMATIC OUTREACH 
---------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Post pursues a wide range of outreach activities 
directed towards the indigenous groups of Honduras. 
Department of State Foreign Service Officers meet on a 
regular basis with leaders of Garifuna and other groups.  Two 
indigenous leaders have participated in the International 
Visitor Leadership Program in the last 7 years.  The Public 
Affairs section has conducted a number of programs with 
indigenous people over the last seven years, in particular 
the Afro-Honduran Garifuna community.  For instance, in 2007, 
Post sponsored a US speaker to celebrate "Mes de la Historia 
Africana en Honduras," and sent the President of the Garifuna 
NGO, Organization for the Development of Ethnic Communities 
(ODECO), to participate in the White House Conference on the 
Americas.  In April 2008, the Public Affairs section 
co-sponsored a three-day speaker program with ODECO focused 
on minority health issues, "Advances and Challenges in the 
Fight Against Racism, Actions and Opportunities for the 
Development of Afro-Descendent Communities." 
 
----------------------- 
USG ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS 
----------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The USG provides substantial assistance to indigenous 
groups through several USAID and DOD programs.  The following 
several paragraphs describe this assistance in detail. 
 
¶7. (U) The USAID Integrated Watershed Resources Management 
(MIRA, in Spanish) project provides the Garifuna community of 
Rio Esteban (population: 4,000) with assistance in watershed 
management, disaster preparedness, and tourism promotion.  In 
coordination with the U.S. Forest Service, MIRA also has 
established an alliance with the NGO Green Wood to improve 
the household income of approximately 100 Pech families by 
teaching them how to utilize their natural resources more 
efficiently, linking them to markets, and helping to 
implement sustainable forest management plans. 
 
 
¶8. (U) USAID has trained 37 Lencas and Chortis in trade 
capacity building through its Trade, Environment and 
Agriculture program. 
 
¶9. (U) The USAID Rural Enterprise Development (RED) project 
has assisted approximately 770 Lencas, 80 Chortis, and 20 
Toulapans in strengthening and diversifying their 
agricultural production by focusing on the production of 
high-value crops and value-added products for export and 
regional markets. 
 
¶10. (U) The USAID health program provides assistance to the 
GOH at the central and departmental levels to improve family 
planning, maternal and child services in rural areas of 
Honduras where most indigenous communities are located. 
Through decentralization of health services provision, 17,196 
indigenous people (Lencas and Chortis) have access to a 
defined basic package of services. 
 
¶11. (U) With an HIV prevalence rate of 4.5 percent, the 
Garifuna population is one of the most affected in Honduras. 
The USAID HIV program works with a local NGO on mass media 
HIV prevention activities and voluntary HIV counseling and 
testing. 
 
¶12. (U) The USAID education program has given decentralized 
technical assistance and teacher training, standards, 
curriculum calendars and monthly standardized formative tests 
for all Honduran children in primary school, including in 
indigenous communities. 
 
¶13. (U) The USAID Education for All program includes 7,387 
indigenous participants in 640 centers located in ten of 
Honduras's eighteen departments. 
 
¶14. (U) The USAID Cooperative Association of States for 
Scholarships (CASS) program included eighteen indigenous 
participants who traveled to the United States for training 
in 2007. They include seven Garifunas, two Miskitos, eight 
Lencas, and one Chorti. 
 
¶15. (U) Through the USAID Title II Food for Peace program, an 
estimated 122,158 Lencas and Chortis have received assistance 
through $1.55 million in food commodities to address the 
multiple causes and effects of food insecurity by focusing on 
maternal and child health, agricultural productivity, and 
local capacities development and strengthening. 
 
¶16. (U) Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) centers 
developed through USAID's Rule of Law program are providing 
conciliation services to Garifuna and Lenca communities. 
These ADR centers are contributing to building a culture of 
peace in many communities by resolving conflicts that 
otherwise could lead to violence. 
 
¶17. (U) In the last few years, USAID has constructed water 
systems for several Garifuna communities, as well as a health 
center in a Garifuna community near La Ceiba. 
 
¶18. (U) During the last four years, USAID has been using 
local currency funds to support infrastructure activities in 
several indigenous communities, including funding a rural 
electrification system in a Lenca community, and $1.6 million 
of activities in La Mosquitia.  The investment plan in La 
Mosquitia consists of health centers, schools, an 
electrification system, a water system and the construction 
and repair of several bridges. 
 
¶19. (U) The Department of Defense (DOD) provides 
approximately $4 million in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff funds to support fifteen medical brigades in La Paz, 
Comayagua and the Gracias a Dios departments.  La Paz and 
Comayagua areas are home to many Lenca people and Gracias a 
Dios is predominantly Moskito.  The funds also support five 
schools and one medical clinic in Las Paz and Comayagua. 
 
¶20.  (U) DOD provided over $2 million in Humanitarian 
Assistance Program Funds in Gracias a Dios, building two 
schools, potable water systems, upgrading an orphanage, and 
building a hyperbaric chamber for injured lobster divers. 
 
¶21.  (U) DOD also provides $1 million in Humanitarian and 
Civic Assistance funds to support twelve medical brigades 
working in impoverished areas of Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba, and 
 
San Pedro Sula, serving a number of indigenous and ethnic 
groups that live in and around those areas. 
Williard