“Strike in Controversial FMO Loan to Honduran Bank”, 19 May 2021

...The Dutch development bank FMO will not grant a loan to the Ficohsa bank from Honduras after all...This marks a remarkable turn in an extremely sensitive dossier for the Hague-based development bank. FMO has been doing business with Ficohsa for many years and was, at least until recently, also a shareholder...The decision follows a long history of criticism by Dutch and Honduran environmental and human rights organizations of the ties between FMO and Ficohsa...FMO does not want to answer the question of whether there is a link between the criticism and the halt of the negotiations. Honduran bank Ficohsa says in a response to FD that no agreement with FMO on the loan terms was possible, attributing that to “changed market conditions” since last summer...According to the NGOs…[,]...Ficohsa was involved in financing DESA, a Honduran company that wanted to build a hydroelectric plant that was also financed by FMO. During the local people’s opposition to the construction of that power plant, the prominent activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in 2016...The NGOs claim to have evidence of Ficohsa’s financial involvement with DESA…Ficohsa strongly denies having anything to do with DESA financing. In a reaction, the bank states that FMO itself has also found no evidence that Ficohsa was involved in improper practices…