Agua Zarca in Honduras: The Banks' Trap  

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Since 2013, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has demanded the withdrawal of the banks—FMO (Netherlands), Finn Fund (Finland) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE)—from the "Agua Zarca" project on the sacred Gaulcarque River, due to the project's connection to eviction and death in the Río Blanco community. To date, none of the three banks has withdrawn from the project, despite the fact that FMO and Finn Fund have been announcing they will do so since May 2016. COPINH denounces that the lack of the bank's withdrawal means prolonging the aggressions and intimidations against the community. FMO and Finn Fund have spent their efforts on avoiding responsibility for the murders and human rights violations the project has caused. They have promoted a spurious narrative that ignores the role of the DESA company in the violence and repression, seeking to blame the communities as a way to clean up their international image. Read COPINH's press release in Spanish here:

https://www.copinh.org/article/copinh-la-trampa-de-los-bancos/