Operation Xatruch Continues Reprimanding Peasants in Bajo Aguan
Members of Operation Xatruch III led by Colonel German Alfaro Escalante and the preventive police, evicted 98 peasant families this July 16th 2013 at 7:30 A.M. as well as beating and arresting five peasants of the Empresa Asociativa Campesina 28 de Mayo, in the San Martin community of Trujillo, Colon.
The peasants arrested are: Armando Sagastume (Age 60), Jose Angel Sagastume (Age 54), Derian Galindo (Age 17 and minor), Rony Javier Artica Avila (Age 18), and Orlando Andino Munoz, who were taken to the National Headquarters of Criminal Investigation in Trujillo Colon and after 12 hours of being arrested they were finally let free.
Thejoint task force chief Xatruch, Alfaro Escalante, accompanied by 180 members of the police and army arrived on site at 7:30a.m. and evicted and repressed the peasant families in possession of these lands with tear gas grenades.
The members of the police and army threw on various occasions tear gas grenades causing 5 children (between 2 and 5 years old) asphyxia, and who later received aid from their parents and community members.
The 98 peasant families started the process of retrieving the 1000 manzanas of land on May 28th 2005, and have maintained a constant struggle for the land, that as Hondurans, belongs to them. As a product of this struggle for land, they have been evicted 7 times with violence being used on them and various comrades being processed for struggling for their right to access land.