Following four days of protests at the construction site for the Patuca III dam, police and military personnel forcibly evicted residents yesterday to prepare for the first phases of dam construction. Residents of Olancho whose land would be flooded by the dam have not been reimbursed for their land nor provided any kind of reparations, according to Congressman Lucas Aguilera. The Patuca III dam is the first in what is expected to be a series of dams built and financed by the Chinese company, SinoHydro. The project was inaugurated in by President Lobo in May of this year without any form of consultation or consent from the populations that will be affected, including Indigenous Tawahka, Miskitu, Pech, and Garifuna. Among other broken promises, the project has yet to employ Honduran workers, despite a contract guaranteeing that 70 percent of jobs be given to nationals.
See an article from Honduras' La Prensa here in Spanish.
Global Response Program launched a campaign in May to stop the Patuca III dam. See our Action Alert here.
