Case History: Marlen Cruz Licona
On 10 March 2014, human rights defender and lawyer Ms Marlen Cruz Licona was brought before the court of San Pedro Sula in southern Honduras and accused of participating in the occupation of land and of instructing a group of campesinos to attack a group of agents from the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DGIC). She was ordered to sign on every 15 days and not to approach the plantations where the alleged crimes took place.
Marlen Cruz Licona is a human rights lawyer with a particular focus on cases of campesino oppression. She has also worked in the legal department of the Comité para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos - CODEH (Committee for the Defence of Human Rights).
On 10 March 2014, human rights defender and lawyer Ms Marlen Cruz Licona was brought before the court of San Pedro Sula in southern Honduras and accused of participating in the occupation of land and of instructing a group of campesinos to attack a group of agents from the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DGIC).
She was ordered to sign on every 15 days and not to approach the plantations where the alleged crimes took place. The final hearing is set for April.
Marlen Cruz Licona is a human rights lawyer with a particular focus on cases of campesino oppression. She has also worked in the legal department of the Comité para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos - CODEH (Committee for the Defence of Human Rights). Her colleague, the lawyer Antonio Trejo Cabrero, was killed on 22 September 2012.
On 8 March 2014, Marlen Cruz Licona was arrested for the alleged crime of "usurpation" at La Posta de la Pavana, near Choluteca in southern Honduras, from where she was transferred to San Pedro Sula. On 10 March 2014 she was transferred to the court handcuffed in the open boot of a vehicle; an act which was filmed by some media personnel who were in the area. Marlen Cruz Licona's arrest took place without clarification of what the alleged infringement was or against whom the alleged offence was committed.
The human rights defender has been involved in the land rights struggles against the eviction of campesino communities in the north of the country by the Sugar Plant of the North Ltd (AZUNOSA) and the Honduran Sugar Company Ltd (CAHSA). The Movimiento Campesino de San Manuel Cortés - MOCSAN (Campesino Movement of San Manuel Cortés) asserts that the land at the centre of this dispute is not owned by the companies, since the National Agrarian Institute (INA) seized it from them in 2012. The above-mentioned state agents of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DGIC) were carrying out intelligence work in the area where MOCSAN were occupying lands.
There is now concern that the arrest of Marlen Cruz Licona is indicative of an increase in stringent measures against human rights defenders, especially women human rights defenders and those working on environmental issues. On 7 March 2014, the government published, in the governmental publication La Gaceta, a list of 5,429 non-governmental organizations who are to have their legal status cancelled due to non-provision of the required legal documents. Six of these NGOs are part of the Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras (National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras). The cancellation of legal personality signifies their liquidation with remaining assets to be transferred to other civil society organisations with "like purposes". Honduras remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world to belong to a human rights organisation or be a human rights defender.
Front Line Defenders is concerned that the arrest, detention and bail conditions against Marlen Cruz Licona are directly connected to her human rights work, and is particularly concerned that her legitimate right to offer legal assistance to displaced communities is being denied thanks to complicity between Honduran sugar companies, state agents and the judiciary.
