Welcome to the New Honduras, Where Right-Wing Death Squads Proliferate

[Judi Lynn]

By Kari Lydersen
Welcome to the New Honduras, Where Right-Wing Death Squads Proliferate
The new regime in Honduras is assassinating union leaders, teachers and journalists. Why does the U.S. support it?
April 27, 2010 |

Things are back to normal in Honduras.

At least that's the message of right-wing president Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa and much of the international community. Several U.S. and international agencies are in the process of restoring aid to Honduras. U.S. biofuels, mining and other businesses are ramping up for increased investment in the impoverished Central American country. The massive repression of public protests, curfews and censorship that followed last summer's coup d'etat have abated.

But this image ignores a new reality in Honduras: the emergence of what many are calling death squads carrying out targeted assassinations, brutal attacks and threats. They have created an extreme climate of fear for the campesinos (peasants), teachers, union members, journalists and other community leaders involved in the resistance movement that continues to oppose the coup and Lobo's election.

Dozens were killed in street violence between the June 28 coup and the November 29 election, with the deaths largely attributed to police, military forces and other coup supporters. Lobo has tried to distance himself from the coup regime, but since the election, at least a dozen people have been killed and others beaten or raped in attacks with clear political hallmarks. The victims include a teacher shot in front of his students; a young union leader whose body was found with signs of torture after she disappeared; the daughter of a prominent anti-coup TV reporter shot in her home; five journalists killed in March alone; and a TV reporter killed April 21. In December, well-known gay rights activist Walter Trochez was kidnapped in Tegucigalpa and interrogated about the resistance while being pistol-whipped in the face. He escaped, but was murdered a week later. In February, a woman who was raped after a post-coup protest was kidnapped and terrorized by men including the rapist, who said "Pepe says hi," a clear allusion to the president.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/146608/welcome_to_the_new_honduras%2C_where_right-wing_death_squads_proliferate/

[RandomThoughts]

1. Buisness as usual, terrible. I hope the people of Honduras get out from under that boot.

And remember the US tax payer dollars trained many of them at the School of Americas. Which is a terrible thing. And that school is still open, also terrible.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Obama commends Honduran president in his first months in office -- White House

Obama commends Honduran president in his first months in office -- White House
Politics 4/27/2010 9:08:00 AM

WASHINGTON, April 27 (KUNA) -- U.S. President spoke today "for the first time" with Honduran President Porfirio Pepe Lobo, the White House announced here late Monday.

White House said in a statement that Obama commended President Lobo for his leadership in his first months in office in promoting national reconciliation and restoring democratic and constitutional order in Honduras.

"The President took particular note of the Truth Commission agreed to as part of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord and championed by President Lobo that is set to begin its work in the coming days," the statement added.

Obama also "expressed his concern with the human rights situation in Honduras, particularly the recent suspicious killings of a number of journalists and civic activists," according to the statement.

More:
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2078834&Language=en

[Greyhound]

3. Says it all right there.

:kick: & R

[Judi Lynn]

4. Journalists' murders in Honduras draw criticism from rights advocates

Journalists' murders in Honduras draw criticism from rights advocates

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, April 25, 2010
Anne-Marie O'Connor, The Washington Post

Honduran television reporter Jorge Alberto "Georgino" Orellana had just left the station where he hosted his own show when a man stepped from the shadows, shot him dead and vanished.

On Tuesday, Orellana became the seventh Honduran broadcaster to be gunned down since March 1 in a country where complaints about human rights abuses have increased since a military-led coup in June.

Most of the victims had reported on organized crime in the northern coastal region of Honduras, a key transshipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine.

Reporters Without Borders recently declared Honduras "the world's deadliest country for the media."

"This is unprecedented," said Carlos Laurma of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "Journalists are being targeted, and the state is almost absent. It's a green light for these people."

Laurma said the killings appeared to be "the work of hit men, very professional."

José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch said the government of President Porfirio Lobo has shown little willingness to solve a pattern of threats, harassment and attacks on grass-roots leaders, unionists and priests since the coup.

More:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-honduras_25int.ART.State.Edition1.4d3d100.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. New wave of repression targets opponents of Honduran coup

New wave of repression targets opponents of Honduran coup
April 27, 2010

Both the Canadian and US governments have praised the January 27 elections in Honduras as a major step forward toward a return to democracy and national reconciliation. Yet the reality on the ground under the newly elected government of Porfirio Lobo is one of continuing repression and selective assassinations of those who dared to oppose the June 28, 2009 military coup.

Murder of activists

According to the Committee for the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), at least 40 anti-coup activists have been murdered since the coup. Some of the atrocities that have been committed since the election include the following:

•On February 3, 29-year-old Vanessa Zepeda Alonzo, an active member of the Resistance and member of the Social Security Employees Union, was found dead in Tegucigalpa. According to eyewitnesses, her body was thrown out of a car.

•On February 15, Julio Funez Benitez, another member of the Resistance and active member of SITRASANAA, the water and sewage workers union, was shot outside his home in Olancho by unknown gunmen traveling on a motorcycle.

•On March 17, Francisco Castillo was assassinated. He was a colleague of Father Andres Tamayo, a well known Catholic priest, environmental activist and outspoken member of the Resistance. Castillo had previously worked for prominent Honduran businessman and coup supporter Miguel Facusse before resigning from his position after the coup.

•On March 23, social science teacher Jose Manuel Flores was shot by armed men wearing ski masks at the high school where he taught and in front of his students. Flores was also a prominent member of the Resistance.

Murder of the children of activists

Many of those killed had previously reported being harassed and threatened because of their work in the Resistance. Furthermore, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has noted a disturbing trend in which "it appears that sons and daughters of leaders of the Resistance Front are being killed, kidnapped, attacked, and threatened as a strategy to silence the activists."

Two examples cited are:

•On February 17, seventeen year old Dara Gudiel was found hanged in the city of Danlí, Paraíso. Dara Gudiel was the daughter of journalist Enrique Gudiel, who runs a radio program called Siempre al Frente con el Frente (Always Outfront with the Front), which broadcasts information about the Resistance. Days before her death, Dara Gudiel had been released from a kidnapping.

•On February 24, 2010, Claudia Maritza Brizuela, thirty six years old, was killed in her home in San Pedro Sula. She was the daughter of union and community leader Pedro Brizuela, who participates actively in the Resistance. Two unknown individuals shot her on her doorstep in front of her children, ages two and eight.

Murder of journalists

Human rights groups have also condemned the murder and threats to journalists, with five reporters killed in the first three months of the year making Honduras "one of the riskiest countries in the entire region in which to practice journalism" according to the IACHR.

According to Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas Director at Human Rights Watch, these attacks are "generating a climate of fear that is likely to have a chilling effect on the Honduran media." Examples include:

•On March 14, Nahún Palacios was shot repeatedly while driving his car. Palacios was news director for Aguan Television, Channel 5, and had covered the resistance protests extensively, as well as other politically sensitive issues such as the ongoing agrarian conflict in the Aguan. His house had been raided and his equipment seized by the military. He had also had precautionary measures granted for him by the IAHRC which ordered the State of Honduras to protect him, though he continued to report receiving threats up until his death.

•Radio Progreso, a community radio in El Progreso and one of the few uncensored, independent sources of information in Honduras since the coup, has complained of numerous threats made against its staff for their role in disseminating the work of the Resistance. Father Ismael "Melo" Moreno, a Jesuit Priest and Director of the Reflection, Research and Communication Team (ERIC, by its Spanish acronym) which houses Radio Progreso, has had to go into hiding after receiving death threats related to his involvement in the case of a women who was sexually assaulted by police during an anti-coup demonstration in August.

More:
http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/node/935