Honduras : arrested leader of the Central Nacional de trabajadores del Campo – CNTC
This July 26th at 12:30 pm, the peasant leader Magdalena Morales Canales, 50 years old, was detained in Progreso Yoro, while she was in the office of the peasant organization where she works. Several people, agents of the General Headquarters of Criminal Investigation (DGIC), arrived in a vehicle, and said she was arrested because she had a warrant pending.
Immediately Magdalena was taken directly to jail, and she is now held as a criminal, because according to them, she was arrested for damages against the Azucarera del Norte S.A (AZUNOSA).
The peasant leader is in the process of land reclamation in Agua Blanca Sur of Progreso Yoro. At the beginning of July, the peasant group (more than 1000 families), had been evicted and had their crops destroyed, about 5000 manzanas of land that they were recovering from the sugar company AZUNOSA.
Several lawyers made their way to Progreso Yoro to investigate the case and for the early release of Magdalena Morales. This is part of the persecution that the Honduran peasant leadership is experiencing, as a result of their struggle for land. Therefore, the peasantry requires the prompt release of Magdalena Morales and the cease to so much persecution against peasant leaders.