Human Rights report reveals brutal repression in Honduras

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As Zelaya accepts amnesty for coup leaders

Human Rights report reveals brutal repression in Honduras

By Rafael Azul
20 July 2009

The COFADEH report charges that the Honduran coup was the result of a conspiracy by the ruling elite to do away with the constitution drafted in 1982 at the end of a nine-year military dictatorship. The dispute over Zelaya’s attempt to hold a non-binding plebiscite on June 28 on possible changes to the constitution merely provided the pretext.

Under this constitution, the military “continued to hold power behind the scenes throughout the decade of the 1980s, counting on a guarantee of absolute immunity” for the dictatorship’s generals, who had been trained in the US military’s School of the Americas and also in Chile, under the Pinochet regime, COFADEH reports.

During this period, the military strengthened its ties with industrial and financial enterprises and “kept control over key government institutions.” According to the report, “That part of the armed forces that had been carefully held in check made their appearance on June 23-26 in the manner of the 1980s.” This included the reconstitution of death squads.

“We think it is important to point to the militarization of public entities,” the report continues. “This includes the reactivation and placing in public posts of members of the 3-16 death squads, responsible for the forced disappearances that took place during the decade of the 1980s. The result is violations of the sacred principles enshrined in the Declaration of Universal Human Rights.”

The COFADEH report documents the harassment and repression of reporters, both Honduran and foreign. Reporters have been victims of extra-legal home invasions, detentions, expulsions from Honduras and executions. Independent media outlets have been closed by the regime. In each of these cases, due process as provided for in the 1982 constitution, was swept aside.

The assassination of Gabriel Fino Noriega, a reporter employed by several radio and cable TV stations, including Radio Estelar, Radio el Patio, and Radio América was the work of a death squad, the report states.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/hond-j20.shtml