Solidarity with Tesla

The following is is a letter from Tesla...

I, Tesla Ventura, part of the Lenca ethnic group, mother of five children, community member of of Santa Elena Muncipality in the department of la Paz, Honduras; I wish to present myself to the national and international community for consideration of an act of injustice and racism which authorities empty of love and filled with hate against the humble women of our community.

Since the 1980s I have been acting in solidarity and in defense of the rights of indigenous and rural women and men of Honduras. I began my involvement in human rights when I worked proudly defending the rights of the Lencan culture with the organization COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras). Later I got involved with the environmental justice organization Madre Tierra (Mother Earth a sister organization of Friends of the Earth International) and as a volunteer I worked with the Human Rights organization C.P.T.R.T., Centro de Prevención Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las Victimas de la Tortura y sus Familiares (The Center for Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and their families).

Due to my involvement with human rights and in social movements I have been the victim of four incidents of torture, political and military brutality from previous governments who held power. I have also been reprimanded for denouncing the assassination of strong social leader: Cándido Amador Recinos. In the same manner my comrade Eduardo Jerónimo Gómez was the object of persecution, death threats and horrors from powerful parts of this country.

´

My solidarity and humanitarian activities have been centered around alternative holistic health and well being and the defense of the environment, to help our brothers and sisters of the recovery zone of Nahuanterique which has been ravaged by the effects of war [*note: the "recovery zone" is the on the border of El Savaldor and Honduras and the location of the war between the two countries*]. As a part of Madre Tierra I am working to promote and defend the sovereignty of food stuffs and against programs promoting or producing genetically modified foods. In addition, I am opposing the mining industry for the disasters it has incited our country.

The fourth of May, 2005 during the time when the previous government was in power, the students of the Centro Basico [high school] 15th of September of the Lenca community Santa Elena took over the Center in in protest for the corrupt acts of their teachers who had not completing their duties to teach English or Spanish. There were a number of teachers who were continuing to receive salaries without teaching classes. Alumni and students of the school contested they had written exams without receiving prepatory classes.

Two Hundred parents of families rose in solidarity that the teachers comply to the demands of the students rights. Disregarding the large support base there were seven individuals singled out (two of which were Eduardo and myself) of the two hundred who were active in fightring corruption in the school system. They offered that the seven of us could go free if signed testimonies proclaiming our guilt. As this offer seemed unjust forcing us to declare something we had not done my comrade Eduardo and myself declined the offer.

Since the year 2005 I have been obliged to present myself every Friday of every week in Marcala to sign the court register; the consequence of disobeying and not signing the attendance is to be put into jail. To add to the affects of this offense on my dignity, the discrimination my children have suffered in school that I was forced to send them to a school far away to complete their studies (which I was able to do thanks to the solidarity and support of some key individuals). These instances caused my mother great pain and the stress was said to have accelerated her death.

The message I received on Christmas Eve 2007 was that the Tribunal of Comayagua had declared me guilty of a crime I had not committed. My errors lie in defending the rights of students and fighting corruption. The final decision is now in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras waiting upon a verdict in January of 2008.

The old story of impunity in Honduras repeats itself, the powerful and the violators of human rights continue to torture the indigenous, rural and humble. In spite of receiving the heartless and humiliating verdict of the Court and the judges; living in the poverty and facing discrimination against women, I feel the deepest moral responsibility that I defend my rights, and those of Eduardo and my children, and to continue defending the environment and the rights of the poor.

I am appealing to the highest powers of the State so to protect life, dignity of myself and of my family. Also I must thank the national solidarity of three hundred families from my community of Santa Elena and Nahuanterique and the support of COPINH, Madre Tierra and other organizations and groups in the United States, Canada, and Europe and Latin America.

Santa Elena La Paz, January 7th, 2007