Honduras now 'more dangerous than Colombia'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: MorningStar

Honduras now 'more dangerous than Colombia'
Thursday 27 May 2010

Human rights organisations have reported that almost one year after the coup that ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, repression by the security forces had left the country "more dangerous than Colombia."

An Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) delegation confirmed that the murder, harassment and intimidation of opposition supporters, journalists and peasant and worker organisers had continued "with impunity" since the coup regime handed power to current President Porfirio Lobo.

"The commission expresses its deep concern at the continuing human rights violations following the coup that occurred in Honduras on June 28 2009," IACHR President Felipe Gonzalez stated in the capital Tegucigalpa.

The IACHR found that teachers, union organisers and peasant workers occupying unused land owned by members of the country's wealthy elite - plus at least seven journalists - had been assassinated since Mr Lobo had assumed power, making Honduras "more dangerous than Colombia for this profession."

Read more: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/90863

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[New Dawn]

2. And this was another US-backed coup. The blood of each victim is on Washington's hands

[SharonAnn]

3. Such a beautiful country, and destroyed by U.S. foreign policy.

One of the original "banana republics" and now governed (again) by right-wing U.S. puppets.

I lived there in the early 80's in the last days of the military junta and there was real hope. Now, not so much.

[IndianaGreen]

4. It is Obama's regime!

Obama instigated the coup against democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, and Obama is the one that engineered a rightwing government in Honduras.

Notice that SOA is still cranking out torturers and murderers at SOA/WHINSEC Fort Benning.

[Hydra]

5. *laughs*

We do such good work, don't we?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Lobo Reverses Stance on Honduran Coup

Posted: May 30, 2010 07:42 AM
Lobo Reverses Stance on Honduran Coup

Last week, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa publicly acknowledged that the expulsion of President Manuel Zelaya from the country on June 28, 2009, constituted a coup. This was a startling admission from a man who won last year's presidential election in a climate rife with fear, repression and censorship. Lobo's belated recognition of the coup suggests that the pressure to normalize relations with the international community may be getting to him. He has now reversed his earlier position, and in doing so, risked putting himself at odds with allies throughout the Honduran political establishment.

Porfirio Lobo had walked a veritable tightrope on his way to assuming the presidency in January. He was the front-runner well before the June 2009 coup, and the fissure within the Partido Liberal that culminated in the coup all but assured him and his Partido Nacional an electoral victory. There was never any question that Lobo would participate in the elections. But Lobo did not want to appear too close to Roberto Micheletti, the de facto president at the time, for fear of alienating the many Hondurans opposed to Micheletti or the international community that he would have to engage as president.

Days after Zelaya's expulsion, Lobo explicitly denied that a coup had taken place. Lobo then resorted to dodging the question, blaming Zelaya for provoking the crisis while offering mild critiques of the Micheletti government. By never taking a position against Zelaya's illegal ouster and Micheletti's installation as president, Lobo continued to effectively condone the coup. Once in power, Lobo declared amnesty for those involved and rewarded coup supporters. Most notably, General Romeo Vásquez, head of the armed forces that expelled Zelaya, became the head of Hondutel, the national telephone company.

But what are the consequences of Lobo's public recognition that the events of June 28, 2009, were in fact a coup? If nothing else, it will likely raise concern among the leaders of both dominant parties, the Supreme Court, the armed forces, and the various other state institutions and political players who defended Zelaya's ouster as a "constitutional succession." And, with the recent launch of the controversial Truth Commission, those responsible for the coup may fear that Lobo's pronouncement will pave the way for a more critical and threatening report.

Thus, uttering the simple words "it was a coup," Lobo has risked alienating domestic political allies and sparking further attacks from the Honduran Right against the Truth Commission.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-altschuler/lobo-reverses-stance-on-h_b_594717.html

[Judi Lynn]

7. Behind the camera lens in Honduras

Behind the camera lens in Honduras
Two filmmakers spent months filming the turmoil in Honduras.
By Joseph Huff-Hannon — Special to GlobalPost
Published: June 2, 2010 07:17 ET in The Americas

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Katia Lara and Carlos del Valle grabbed their cameras last June and started shooting: protesters gathered on the Tegucigalpa streets, soldiers firing live rounds into crowds.

They filmed for five months, starting the day the Honduran military kidnapped then-President Manuel Zelaya and kicked him out of the country. They captured shocking images of soldiers beating up journalists and arresting children.

“We found out about the coup from CNN, since the local news stations were all playing cartoons or soccer games,” Valle said.

The police stole their cameras twice, and a number of the people in the film were killed. And so, in December, Lara fled the country for Buenos Aires. Valle followed a month later.

Here in this southern megalopolis, the two have been editing their feature documentary film, "Quien Dijo Miedo: Honduras de un golpe" (rough English translation: "No Fear Here: Inside the Coup in Honduras").

The central narrative thread of the film is of a young Honduran anti-coup activist, who eventually seeks exile in Spain after a bomb is placed under his girlfriend’s car.

Lara and Valle shot hundreds of hours of footage all over the country, and hope their film will help reveal the violence unleashed by the coup, and the illegitimacy of the post-coup elections — in which more than 60 percent of the electorate abstained from voting.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/100527/movie-honduras-coup

That old news blackout, concealing reality from the public to protect the coup sounds very familiar by now, doesn't it?