News Release

CLASA presents Honduras Human Rights Defender, Miriam Miranda

The Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive and African American Studies Program is hosting speaker Miriam Miranda. On Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in Life Sciences room 113 on the McNichols campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Miranda is the general coordinator of the National Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), Vallencita, Honduras. She and her organization have been fighting for the rights of African-descended Garifuna people in Honduras, whose claims to the land they have lived on for generations have been recently threatened by greedy land-grabbers who want to profit from mega-tourism. Miranda has braved detention, tear-gas burns and beatings at the hands of police for the sake of her cause. She has been active with the Assembly of the Peoples of the Land and Sea, who met in February of this year in the community Durugubuti Beibe. There, those gathered demanded the immediate suspension of the construction of the hydroelectric dams in the Patuca river, which would be a death sentence for the Tawahka people and the country.

This is a free event and is open to the public. For more information, please contact CLASA Director Dr. Gail Presbey 313-993-1124 or at presbegm@udmercy.edu.

Release date: October 31, 2011

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