Honduran tourist city of Tela joins movement to repeal Development Zones

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The tourist city of Tela, located on the Honduran Caribbean coast, on Thursday (29) joined the movement to repeal the implementation of Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDEs) which the government has been promoting since 2013, arguing that it aims to “curtail national sovereignty”.

“We oppose and reject that actions under the Law of Employment and Economic Development Zones should be implemented in the department of Atlántida, particularly in Tela, inasmuch as it represents a reduction of the national territory, surrender of sovereignty and violates the Constitution, Law of Municipalities, among others,” the city’s residents said in a statement.

The Employment Zones, the statement adds, “violate the universal principles of equality and the universality of the norm, as it creates privileged classes or territories granting them tax exemptions and advantages over the rest of the population.”

The ZEDEs, touted in Honduras as “model cities,” similar to some Asian countries, were passed in 2013 during the government of president Porfirio Lobo, when the head of Parliament was Juan Orlando Hernandez, the country’s current ruler.

The people of Tela lamented that the government “is using as an argument that the ZEDEs will boost the creation of massive and well-paid jobs, outrageous considering the high price of yielding national territory”.

“We feel that they are taking advantage of the economic crisis the country is experiencing and which they themselves have caused to the detriment of the population, which has triggered a massive exodus of Hondurans in recent years,” it stressed.

INALIENABLE OBLIGATION

Tela’s civil society recalled that the State has “an inalienable obligation” to create the conditions for economic and human development, “without ceding its responsibility and obligation to others.”

Furthermore, it rejects that external sectors try to “determine the future of the people, as is currently happening in Roatán (Bay Islands), Choloma (Cortés) and San Marcos de Colón (Choluteca), with the establishment of ZEDEs.”

The population of Tela challenges the attempt to establish this type of project in their territory, as occurred in 2013 with the “unconstitutional” inauguration of the Indura Beach & Resort Golf, a project covering 311.89 hectares, “in violation of Article 107 of the Constitution.”

“We will not allow the continued surrender of important areas of natural, coastal, marine, ecological, scientific, historical, educational, heritage of ancestral peoples and tourism value,” it adds.

Article 107 of the Honduran Constitution establishes that State, joint, communal or privately owned lands located in the area bordering neighboring States, and land on islands, keys, reefs and sandbanks “may only be acquired, owned or held under any legal title by Hondurans by birth, by companies comprised entirely of Honduran partners, and by State institutions, under penalty of annulment of the respective deed or contract.”

Tela’s civil society, including the San Antonio de Padua Parish, “urgently” summoned the population to an open meeting to be held on Friday at the city’s Municipal Council.

“It is imperative that we express our disagreement to the establishment of these harmful projects that threaten national sovereignty and we demand that Tela be declared free of ZEDE as an organized civil society.”