"The World Bank ombudsman issued a stinging critique Friday of the bank’s private-sector arm over a loan to a Honduran palm-oil company engaged in a violent conflict with farm workers over land tenure.
The study concluded that the International Finance Corporation, which lends to companies in developing countries, failed to follow its own requirements when it first approved the 2009 loan to Corporación Dinant, and that its supervision afterward was inadequate.
The lush Bajo Aguán Valley, where a land dispute boiled over after a 2009 coup, and where Dinant is the largest single landowner, is a microcosm of many of the problems facing Honduras, one of the poorest and most violent countries in the hemisphere. The vast gap between rich and poor drives continuing social conflict, and because the rule of law is so weak, impunity flourishes.
Since 2009, almost 100 people had been killed in Bajo Aguán, the country’s human rights commissioner, Ramón Custodio, said in June. Most of them were farm workers, although some Dinant security guards were also among the dead. The killings occurred in a climate of violence “practiced by all parties and tolerated by different authorities,” according to the commissioner’s office."
The study concluded that the International Finance Corporation, which lends to companies in developing countries, failed to follow its own requirements when it first approved the 2009 loan to Corporación Dinant, and that its supervision afterward was inadequate.
The lush Bajo Aguán Valley, where a land dispute boiled over after a 2009 coup, and where Dinant is the largest single landowner, is a microcosm of many of the problems facing Honduras, one of the poorest and most violent countries in the hemisphere. The vast gap between rich and poor drives continuing social conflict, and because the rule of law is so weak, impunity flourishes.
Since 2009, almost 100 people had been killed in Bajo Aguán, the country’s human rights commissioner, Ramón Custodio, said in June. Most of them were farm workers, although some Dinant security guards were also among the dead. The killings occurred in a climate of violence “practiced by all parties and tolerated by different authorities,” according to the commissioner’s office."
