Honduras police accused of death squad killings

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Honduras police accused of death squad killings
March 14, 2013 11:37 PM
By Alberto Arce

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: The operation was quick and under the cover of night. Armed, masked men arrived in late-model SUVs, getting through the gate into the small neighborhood of humble homes. Without firing a shot, witnesses said, they took Kevin Samraid Carranza Padilla, 28, known in the gang world as "Teiker," and his girlfriend, Cindy Yadira Garcia, 19.

The next morning, Jan. 10, Honduras' major newspaper, El Heraldo, reported that police had captured Carranza, a leader of the 18th Street gang suspected in the shooting death of a police commander months earlier. It also published a photo of a shirtless, tattooed young man lying on the ground, his hands behind his back, his face partially wrapped in blue duct tape, the roll still attached. Carranza's mother, Blanca Alvarado, recognized him from his tattoos.

The photo was distributed to media by a police prosecutor, according to three sources who didn't want to be named for security reasons. Soon after, agents at the national criminal investigations office acknowledged that there was a detention order for Carranza, and he had been brought in.

~snip~
Despite millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Honduras aimed at professionalizing the country's police, accusations persist.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/Mar-14/210137-honduras-police-accused-of-death-squad-killings.ashx#ixzz2NaZ2ug8o

[harmonicon]

1. USA! USA! USA! (nt)

[bitchkitty]

2. Horrifying.

I wonder what SummerMoonDancer has to say about all of this? And our resident right wing propagandists - I wonder when they'll make an appearance in this thread. But of course they won't, disgusting trolls that they are. If they can't blame it on Chavez, you won't hear a peep out of them.

[Judi Lynn]

5. You've got that right. The current torture-happy, death squad-using coup plotters

tried to blame their hatred of the elected President Zelaya on Chavez, too, claiming Zelaya had bent over for him and had sold out the country to "commie" designs from Venezuela's great leader.

SummerMoonDancer took off as soon as it all started going south regarding the coup. What a pile of goo that was. She of course had her supporters here among the troll brigade, ready to jump in to console her when she needed bolstering, as in defending her former death squad husband.

[Coyotl]

3. Who knew this would happen? Everyone on DU did.

We all warned of this over and over again. But, the corrupt politicos had to give the coke lords a safe zone. Gee, I wonder why that is???

[Judi Lynn]

4. Will Congress act to stop US support for Honduras' death squad regime?

Will Congress act to stop US support for Honduras' death squad regime?

In Honduras, Reagan-era atrocities are back as the Obama administration funds a state implicated in murdering opponents

Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 30 March 2013 08.00 EDT

The video (warning: contains graphic images of lethal violence), caught randomly on a warehouse security camera, is chilling.

Five young men walk down a quiet street in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A big black SUV pulls up, followed by a second vehicle. Two masked men with bullet-proof vests jump out of the lead car, with AK-47s raised. The two youths closest to the vehicles see that they have no chance of running, so they freeze and put their hands in the air. The other three break into a sprint, with bullets chasing after them from the assassins' guns. Miraculously, they escape, with one injured – but the two who surrendered are forced to lie face down on the ground. The two students, who were brothers 18- and 20-years-old, are murdered with a burst of bullets, in full view of the camera. Less than 40 seconds after their arrival, the assassins are driving away, never to be found.

The high level of professional training and modus operandi of the assassins have led many observers to conclude that this was a government operation. The video was posted by the newspaper El Heraldo last month; the murder took place in November of last year. There have been no arrests.

Now, the Obama administration is coming under fire for its role in arming and funding murderous Honduran police, in violation of US law. Under the Leahy Law, named after Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the US government is not allowed to fund foreign military units who have commit gross human rights violations with impunity. The director general of Honduras' national police force, Juan Carlos Bonilla, has been investigated in connection with death squad killings; and members of the US Congress have been complaining about it since Bonilla was appointed last May. Thanks to some excellent investigative reporting by the Associated Press in the last couple of weeks – showing that all police units are, in fact, under Bonilla's command – it has become clear that the US is illegally funding the Honduran police.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/30/congress-us-support-honduras-death-squad-regime

[Judi Lynn]

6. Campesino communities in Honduras being devastated, one family at a time

Campesino communities in Honduras being devastated, one family at a time

The struggle to maintain fertile lands continues to decimate Campesino communities in Honduras.

Last Modified: 31 Mar 2013 11:43

Under the hot sun of a mid-March afternoon, I sat on a plastic chair outside the gracious home of Gregorio Chavez's family in the community of La Panama community, located in the Lower Aguan region of Northern Honduras. Trees bearing ripe oranges hung over the driveway swaying gently in the breeze, and children and animals gambolled about.

Gregorio's brother Jose offered us a brief, somber welcome before inviting us to accompany him and Gregorio's children on the path that Gregorio walked to tend to his land on July 2, 2012, the last day he was seen alive by his family.

We passed the lush gardens and paused a few hundred yards down the path, to where Jose, his face grim and eyes downcast, gestured to where Gregorio's machete was found in the grass by those who were alarmed when he did not return for dinner on July 2.

Jose could not bear to recount that along with the machete, the search party found blood and other evidence suggesting that Gregorio had been gravely injured, bound and dragged onto the neighbouring property by security forces in the hire of palm oil magnate Miguel Facusse.

Facusse, reportedly the largest landowner in Honduras, claims to own the Paso Aguan plantation that abuts the community of La Panama, though his right to that land is contested by the campesinos, who had legally received the land through agrarian reform initiatives in the previous decades.

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/201332992852902531.html

[center]



Miguel Facusse[/center]