Thank you very much for giving me 10 minutes to speak. I will try to make the best possible use of those 10 minutes. I will tell you what we are concerned about as human rights defenders and about my organization, COFADEH.
I'd like to give you a bit of context about the situation in that respect. For COFADEH, the situation in Honduras is of great concern. There has been a great deterioration of the human rights situation and that is why we're here. The fact that you are listening to us sends a good message that human rights should not just be a matter of words on paper. They must be made a reality. It is also necessary for you to know that, after the coup in 2009, the situation has gotten worse. It is also important for you to know, and I'm sure that you already know this, that democracy cannot be sustained if there is no full support for human rights.
That is why I would like to tell you what we've been doing and why we're concerned. We have been busy and because of greater and greater human rights violations we are obviously becoming more and more alarmed.
State institutions in Honduras exist, but in fact they do not work. There is no institutional sphere. I'm giving you this as part of the context because investors might think that if the institutions in a country are so weak, how can it be possible to invest? How can there be guaranteed returns on investment?
Another essential element to my mind is that in a country like Honduras and with people like you, how can you believe that the human rights situation is not the priority? It has to be the priority. That's what we have to say.
We have data on human rights violations that scare us. In recent times—and when I say times, I mean since last year—more than 600 women have been murdered. That's not just because they're women. It's because women have devoted themselves fully to defending the rights that have been taken away from them. Over 30 journalists have been murdered. That was not the case in our country. We did not suffer from that phenomenon before. This is a clear message that freedom of expression and the right to information are being violated.
Over 400 young people have been recently murdered. Over 120 peasants in the Bajo Aguan region alone have been murdered. The state and the agents of the state are showing absolutely no interest in investigating these murders. When there is no serious, independent, responsible investigation in a country, what you have is impunity.
We are not here to talk about the state of insecurity and the violence in the country, because Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world. We are here to talk about serious human rights violations because violence is generalized. There is even more than what I've given you in the data that I presented, but there is also the fact that work is being done and those who speak out and who try to change things are countered by a culture of fear.
Those who defend human rights face a situation in which we are being paralyzed. In the corporate media those who defend human rights are called destabilizing elements. We help victims. We help the people. We speak out about our concerns and we try to consolidate and strengthen the rule of law in Honduras.
Right now there is a formal rule of law, but it is not there in essence. This worries us. There has been a profound worsening of the human rights situation. We are also concerned about something else. According to the work that we've been doing for years, we thought that we had overcome political intolerance and militarization.
Furthermore, we must deal with poverty. When people are poor, militarization will not solve the problem. Military intervention exists throughout the country. That is a very serious situation and we want to draw attention to that fact. We are worried because we want to strengthen this state. We want to guarantee a country with full enjoyment of human rights for the Honduran people and we have not achieved that yet; we do not see that. We have seen a consolidation of power for the party in power and that makes it impossible for the powers of the Honduran state to be independent. When power is consolidated, the logical result is necessarily harmful for human rights, and that is the situation now. It is striking and I want to draw your attention to it.
Those who want to invest in Honduras must know that the situation does not make it possible to guarantee your investments. The conditions are not there to strengthen the people either—quite the contrary. Communities are trying to put on as much pressure as they can because they are not consulted, and that leads to human rights violations.
I would also like to tell you about the internal displacement of communities, of people from one community to the other, due to the reigning state of terror. Since the elections there have also been murders among the political dissident community. We are not making this up. This is actually happening.
I would also like to draw your attention to the exodus of people from the country, not because they want to leave their country but because they are afraid of being murdered. The exodus of Hondurans continues, be it for political reasons or because they do not agree with what is going on, because when they speak out they are persecuted, threatened, and they face hostility.
Right now there is another worrying phenomenon that is a product of the concentration of state power. Most people are being persecuted through legal means. That makes it impossible for people to exercise their right to disagree with what is going on in Honduras.
I'm not sure whether I've used up my 10 minutes, but I will finish now. If you want to ask questions, I will be pleased to answer them.