Hundreds of armed men, state forces and guards of large landowner Miguel Facussè took the community of El Paso, Aguán by assault.
The delegation of human rights and social organizations, national and international press on its second day after arriving in Aguán, found the fierce utilization of force of arms and paramilitaries in an attempt to subjugate the land struggle Aguán.
Military and police forces as well as security guards in the employ of landowners and paramilitaries conduct joint operations to subjugate the struggle for land carried out by thousands of peasants who have decided to recuperate their lands which have been usurped by large landowners. At 6:30 am a call to alert was issued denouncing that hundreds of armed state actors and guards of Miguel Facussè had taken the community of El Paso, Aguán where they arrived at dawn with high caliber weapons to displace 70 families who have been there since December of last year.
“We were sleeping when they came into our shelters and said that if we did not leave they would kill us. They told us to lie down on the ground and pointed guns at our heads. We thought they were going to kill us. The screaming of the children was unbearable for us; they shook with fear” said one peasant woman with a newborn baby.
When the delegation arrived, Commissioner Madrid, police officer in charge of public relations, received the representatives and attempted to discredit the presence of journalists who found dozens of vehicles without plates and military and police vehicles as well as men in civilian clothes wearing ski masks with high caliber weapons hiding behind trees to avoid being seen.
The complicity of the police and army with Miguel Facussè who claims to be the owner of the land was evident in that no eviction order was presented, there is no record of one in the Prosecutors Office of Trujillo nor was one presented to the Judge to verify how the eviction was carried out. Everything was illegal according to Victor Fernàndez, of the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice, who went with other lawyers to the Public Ministry to document the fact.