SUMMARY OF HONDURAN DELEGATION Press Conf./ Mtg. in DC July 15

[magbana]

Folks -- rough notes. magbana

SUMMARY OF EVENTS INVOLVING HONDURAN ANTI-COUP DELEGATION IN WASH, DC
JULY 15, 2009 ( Press conference at 12:30 PM and Meeting at 6:00 PM)

THE PRESS CONFERENCE – July 15, 2009

At 12:30 pm, delegation members held a press conference at the National Press Club. Members of the delegation are as follows:


Marvin Ponce Sauceda is a representative in the Honduran National
Congress from the Democratic Union Party. Elected to Congress in 2006,
he is a rural development expert and former advisor to the Honduran
small farmers' association, COCOCH. Mr. Ponce will share his
perspectives regarding the proceedings in the Honduran Congress leading
up to the coup.

Jari Dixon Herrera Hernández, a lawyer with the Honduran Attorney
General's office, is the vice president of the Prosecutors' Association
of Honduras. He is well known for his efforts to expose corruption
within the Honduran justice system. He will present an analysis of the
legal justifications regarding the events leading up to June 28th.

Dr. Juan Almendares Bonilla is a widely recognized environmentalist who
was candidate for president for the Democratic Union party in the 2005
elections. He is director of the Madre Tierra environmental association.
He will speak about violations of fundamental human rights, civil
liberties and the constitution of Honduras, including violation of the
freedom of the press.
On Tuesday afternoon Jari Dixon gave an interview to CNN Espanol in which he denounced the military coup. Later, on Tuesday evening, police attacked his family. Here is the report put out by SOA Watch:

Honduran prosecutor's family attacked after he denounces military coup on
CNN

The family of Honduran public prosecutor Jari Dixon Herrera was
attacked by police on Tuesday shortly after he made statements to CNN en
Español and other international media in Washington denouncing the
recent military coup in Honduras. Dixon's mother's house, located in the
town of Talanga, was first shot at repeatedly by police agents with
automatic weapons. The agents then broke the door of the house down and
entered the residence, beat Dixon's mother and arrested and took away
his brother. Jari Dixon is currently in Washington, DC, as part of a
delegation of Hondurans that has been meeting with members of Congress,
representatives of the World Bank, the State Department and human rights
organizations to discuss the rights abuses committed by the Honduran de
facto authorities.

The attack against Jari Dixon's family comes in the wake of the killing
of two leaders of the United Democrat Party. On Saturday evening, hooded
armed men stormed the house of Roger Bados of San Pedro Sula and shot
and killed him in front of his family. That same night, Ramon Garcia was
ambushed and killed in the street close to his home in Santa Barbara.

These violent acts, that have gone largely unreported in the US media,
strongly resemble the selective repression that occurred under the
previous military dictatorship in Honduras, when paramilitary death
squads killed or kidnapped key dissidents to maintain a climate of
terror in the population. Human rights activists in Honduras have been
speaking out against this development under the new coup regime, which
comes on the heels of two weeks of violent repression of peaceful
demonstrations, the closure of radio and TV outlets and intimidation of
journalists who have criticized the coup and hundreds of arbitrary
arrests of nonviolent protesters.



Mark Weisbrot, Director of the Center for Economics and Policy Research (CEPR) joined the Hondurans at the press conference and provided an introduction. This was very helpful as Mark is a well-known and respected person in DC with exceptional expertise on Latin American issues. Weisbrot's points were essentially those in his article”Who's in Charge of Obama's Foreign Policy,” July 15, 2009 that Judi Lynn has posted to our DU list.

The US public relations campaign has been very effective in convincing people that zelaya was seeking a second term and that he violated the constitution in trying to do that.
In addition, the PR campaign has been successful in making Hugo Chavez the issue. No focus on the average Honduran.

Weisbrot had to run to another press conference.

Dr. Juan Almendares (many of you may have heard him on Democracy Now recently):
His points were:

-this is absolutely a military coup
-there are massive human rights violations
-large demonstrations continue in spite of repression
-deep concern about the number of “private security” personnel, hired by private businesses; estimates that the number of private security personnel is greater than the army and police. (!!!)
-repression has gone up a notch with the killing of the two activists the other day
-Oscar Arias, with his Nobel Peace Prize, needs to say SOMETHING about human rights violations

Jari Dixon spoke about the legal (perhaps illegal) aspects of the coup:

-the Supreme Court's order to the Honduran military to arrest zelaya was not legal
-if opposition had a problem with zelaya they should have worked out a procedure to discuss
-the ONLY question that remains is to determine when and how zelaya returns.
-his experience is that with years of coups in Honduras, a coup is very difficult to overturn
-the only important thing is the vote of the people which put zelaya in office and he should be able to finish his term



Marvin Ponce

-denounced the fact that US State Department won't proclaim the coup a “military coup”
-every step of the process after the coup has been purposely dragged out to allow the de facto government to become more entrenched
-the press, both Honduran and foreign, are working very closely with the de facto government
-people in Honduras against the coup are well aware that this coup is meant to SPREAD beyond Honduras and there is a lot of organizing going on in surrounding countries.
-there is great evidence that this will be a bloodbath if not resolved soon.

In the Q&A, the delegation members emphasized the following:

-first, foremost, and above everything else, the solidarity of the people of the world is critical and particularly of those in the US
-silence is complicity and this is what makes them particularly concerned about President Obama's lack of comment. They want more pressure applied to Obama
-Arias' involvement has been timid and seen as another way to delay process
-business interests in both the US and Honduras are being promoted by the de facto government
-those in the religious oligarchy are golpistas and they support the golpe for economic reasons


MEETING WITH HONDURAN DELEGATION AT THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES, JULY 15, 2009, 6PM

The delegation was joined by the Honduran ambassador to the US (zelaya's appointment) Eduardo Reina. In addition, the meeting was attended by about 40 Latin American activists and several Honduran activists.

Main points of discussion

-General strike in Honduras today (July 16)
-A lot of connection between those advising the golpistas and the desire for privatization of Telecoms, an issued watched closely by zelaya's folks
-Great concern for activists in the minority communities – Garifuna. Etc.
-Repression will continue even when zelaya is returned because the Honduran military is so entrenched in the methods of repression, it will be hard to get them in control
-most importantly, the solidarity of those in the US is critical because “you have access to much better info than we do.
-Amb. Reina wants to work more closely with activists in DC especially to counter media claims that support the golpe.

[Downwinder]

1. Good Job! Thanks