Honduras: striking teacher dies in police attack

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras: striking teacher dies in police attack
Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 03/22/2011 - 07:04. Honduran teacher Ilse Ivana Velásquez Rodríguez died around noon on March 18 in a Tegucigalpa hospital from injuries she received that day when riot police and the special Comando Cobra unit attacked a demonstration of thousands of teachers in front of the National Institute of Teachers' Social Security (Inprema). Protesters initially said Velásquez was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade and was then run over by a police vehicle. The Spanish wire service EFE later reported that she fell in the confusion when the police attacked and was hit by a vehicle belonging to a local television station; EFE said the driver, Carlos Eduardo Zelaya Ríos, turned himself in to the police that evening.

Deputy National Police Director René Maradiaga Panchamé told the media that the police were investigating the death. Maradiaga Panchamé led a unit in the notorious Battalion 3-16, a death squad active in the 1980s.

Velásquez was the assistant principal at the República de Argentina school and a founding member of the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) human rights organization. Her brother, Manfredo Velásquez Rodríguez, was disappeared in the 1980s; her sister, Zenaida Velásquez Rodríguez, is said to have been COFADEH's first president.

The demonstration come on the third day of a strike by some 60,000 education workers who say 5,000 teachers haven't been paid in 18 months and that the government of President Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa hasn't complied with an agreement Lobo signed on Oct. 1 after a strike over the Inprema pension fund. The teachers also oppose a decentralization plan that they say will lead to the privatization of the public schools. Lobo has threatened to replace the strikers with temporary teachers. (National Popular Resistance Front website, March 18, March 19; Honduras Culture and Politics blog, March 18, March 19; EFE, March 19, via La Tribuna, Tegucigalpa)

http://ww4report.com/node/9676

[Bacchus39]

1. this was posted several days ago, with video showing her getting run over

by a vehicle used by the protesters.

the Honduras "resistence" site said she got hit in the face by a tear gas canister and then moments later was runover by a truck. what horrible luck!!! not true though, she was just runover and the police were blamed.

[Judi Lynn]

2. SELF-DELETED BY MEMBER

This message was self-deleted by Judi Lynn.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Judi Lynn]

5. You should post a link to valid information supporting your claim.

It would be good to know what the situation has been.

Looking forward to seeing it.

[joshcryer]

6. Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x49940

Halfway down the page.

edit: has zero recs as per :shrug:

[Judi Lynn]

7. I'm familiar with this event. I referred in my post to the other poster to his claim:

"violence in Honduras has been high for some time now. under Zelaya it was the highest in the region. the only reason you are paying attention now is because of politics."

Thanks, anyway.

[Bacchus39]

10. easy enough, the spike in violence seems to correspond with Zelaya's term doesn't it??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

[Judi Lynn]

9. Where would anyone have gotten an idea like the Honduran government killing teachers,

or any of the other Latin American governments which have murdered teachers, anyway?

~~~~~
Text Book State Terrorism in Honduras: Death Squad Kills Teacher in Front of Students
Written by Rights Action
Thursday, 25 March 2010 12:36

~snip~
According to a communiqué issued by the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH):

“At 3 p.m. an unknown person was spotted in front of the San Jose del Pedregal High School. The unusual presence of a stranger caused concerns among students and thirty teachers who make up the staff of teachers who work at the school. Among the teachers was Professor of Social Science Jose Manuel Flores, who worked as teacher counselor.

Witnesses on the scene saw two pickups approach the rear of the school premises, apparently 2009 models, one green and white.

Professor Manuel, as his friends called him, was in the back of the facility overseeing pupils, when the assassins found him. They passed the perimeter fence and fired their guns at close range. The teacher was on a balcony from which he fell, and they fired on him again from above. As they fled, the ski mask of one of the attackers became entangled in the razor coil over the fence which they had cut open to look for their victim. The teacher died instantly.”

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2420-text-book-state-terrorism-in-honduras-death-squad-kills-teacher-in-front-of-students

~~~~~
From one year ago:

25.03.10
Honduras: In the Face of the Wave of Selective Assassinations Perpetrated by the Regime
by Vos el Soberano Collective

The Vos el Soberano Collective strongly condemns the wave of selective assassinations perpetrated by the regime, the most recent victims of which are compañeros José Manuel Flores, Francisco Castillo, José Antonio Cardoza, José Carías, and Nahun Palacios murdered over the last ten days.

Added to these are a wave of massacres and crimes, resulting from the regime's policies of "social cleansing" and re-accommodation of its criminal forces.

~snip~
Compañero Francisco Castillo was a militant of the Resistance Front and close collaborator of Father Tamayo. José Antonio Cardoza and José Carías were campesinos who were members of the United Peasant Movement of Aguán. Nahun Palacios was a socially conscious journalist who denounced the oligarchy, especially the Aguán Valley situation and Miguel Facusse's complicities.

More:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/honduras250310.html

[joshcryer]

11. Edited on Wed Mar-23-11 01:03 AM by Judi Lynn

Posted on Tue Mar-22-11 03:55 PM

????

[Judi Lynn]

8. Deputy National Police Director René Maradiaga Panchamé led a death squad unit.

If you'll check the original post, you'll see him quoted in the teachers' strike and the death and injuries of the teachers.

Looks as if Battalion 3-16 leader, Billy Joya, returned to duty by the coup government, isn't the only resurrected death squad scum working in the new government.

He's mentioned in this article, with Billy Joya:

Honduras: The Frontline in the Battle for Democracy
Written by Dick Emanuelsson, Translation: Jessica Shao and Monica Wooters
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 02:46

http://upsidedownworld.org.nyud.net:8090/main/images/stories/August09/billyjoyaasesinolg.jpg
~snip~
The CIA Created a Monster

In August 1980, 25 officials from the Honduran Armed Forces landed on an unpaved runway in the deserts of the southwestern United States. They were received by five CIA agents, one of them called "Mr. Bill." Florencio Caballero, one of the 25 Hondurans that would be turned into an expert on "disappearances" in 3-16, told the Baltimore Sun, "We arrived at a military base; everything was private, no television, only video clips."

Battalion 3-16 was created by recommendation of the CIA in the context of the "Preventative War." It was an independent intelligence paramilitary command that with blind hatred executed anyone who smelled of subversion, progressiveness, or people's movements in Honduras. The inspiration and the "professors" came from the CIA and the Argentine military dictatorship, where their "efficiency" was shocking and resulted in 30,000 disappeared. Two Honduran generals, Gustavo Alvarez Martínez and José Bueso Rosa, confirmed that "the United States offered to create a special forces unit."

"It was their idea to create an intelligence body that reported directly to the highest order of the Armed Forces Command Group," General Bueso told the Baltimore Sun on June 11, 1995. This report also confirmed the role and influence of John Negroponte, who arrived in Honduras in 1981 and initiated an internal war in the country. During his term as ambassador, the military budget increased from $3.6 million in 1981 to $77.8 million in 1985, when his mission was completed—having created the Contras in Nicaragua and protected the El Salvadoran dictatorship.

During the six months in the desert the nucleus of Battalion 3-16 was formed. The CIA manual on psychological warfare and torture literally permeated the brains of these Honduran officials. The Hondurans applied what they learned from their U.S. and Argentine advisers, returning as deadly machines against their own people. Now with Billy Joya in the presidential palace and ruthless assassinations such as that of Pedro Magdiel, the Honduran people find themselves returning to a nightmare period in their history, with an "updated" form of the "3-16."

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2043-honduras-the-frontline-in-the-battle-for-democracy

[rabs]

12. Teacher's brother is a disappeared

His name was Manfredo Velásquez. Ilse Velásquez joined the Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared after he vanished. His case was taken before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The lobo government has not complied to this date in investigating and punishing those responsible.

As for Ilse Velásquez, her death was caused by the drunken police who fired a tear-gas cannister that hit her square in the forehead. I posted a photo that shows blood on her face from the impact. Witnesses who were beaten by police said the cops reeked of aguardiente, a potent alcohol usually made from sugar cane in Honduras.

Posters here who lie that she died because (take your choice) a police van, a TV truck, a pickup or a car struck her are as beliveable as a silly goose.

[Bacchus39]

13. there was a video I posted of her being runover by a pick up

she was standing and then boom run over.

La maestra de 59 años había perdido el conocimiento sobre la calle, después de que una de las bombas lacrimógenas lanzadas por los antimotines le impactara la frente. La nube de humo tóxico que la rodeó, le afecto severamente el sistema respiratorio. Momentos después la señora Velásquez fue atropellada por un vehículo presuntamente policial que le ocasionó graves golpes internos. Aunque fue auxiliada por otros maestros y manifestantes que la llevaron a un hospital cercano, falleció después de ser atendida de emergencia.


http://www.resistenciahonduras.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2359%3Amuere-la-profesora-ilse-velasquez-en-salvaje-represion-policial&catid=60%3Aderechos-humanos&Itemid=244

it says she was hit by a tear gas canister and then moments later runover by truck. what terrible luck. it also said the vehicle was presumably a police vehicle. problem is, it was not, and the guy who ran her over turned himself in. yeah, liars suck.

you can go and look for the video you know???

[rabs]

14. "You know"

Your adored golpistas ran over the teacher with one of these.

[Judi Lynn]

15. From what I've heard, she got off lucky. Sometimes they torture them first,

THEN kill them, and dump their bodies.

They seem particularly attracted to targeting teachers, don't they? Right-wingers hate teachers, which is really bad news for the teachers, obviously.

[Bacchus39]

18. she doesn't seem very lucky to me n/t

s

[Bacchus39]

17. is that from La Resistencia too??? n/t

s

[Judi Lynn]

16. I remember when you posted that photo and another. Sure shot.

How "coincidentally" her brother, who took up the cause of disappeared Hondurans was himself disappeared. Horrid.

[Bacchus39]

19. can you repost that pic, I don't recall seeing it

I assume it was taken before she got run over otherwise one wouldn't be able to discern whether the injury was the result of a tear gas canister or being run over.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Yeah, rabs, while you're up, get me a beer, and throw us couple a' pack of cigs. <burp> n/t

[Bacchus39]

21. yes, I am certain it will be very difficult to find that pic, on the other hand

the video showing her getting run over was quite easy to locate.

[rabs]

24. Coming right up

plus an ottoman so you can relax and chuckle. :-)

That was quite a graphic photo, blood streaming down her face from the impact of the cannister square on her forehead.

Btw, the teacher was buried on Saturday at a small town named Langue, on the border with El Salvador.

Paying homage was Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, who called for the teachers to continue their peaceful struggle against the lobo repression.

One of the changes the loboistas want to make to Honduran education is to allow Catholic priests to teach in schools. The constitution prohibits that, but since when have the loboistas given a crap about the magna carta. (Can you imagine the opportunities for pedophile men in robes?)

[Bacchus39]

25. I can handle it, I doubt its any more graphic than the ones showing her lying on the ground

after being runover. still waiting

[Bacchus39]

22. still waiting for that pic

if you google her name you will see numerous pics of her on the ground after getting run over by the protester's or media truck. no pics of her forehead as she is laying faced down.

http://www.resistenciahonduras.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2367:honduras-police-military-repression-killed-teacher&catid=103:human-rights&Itemid=352
-------------------

the resistencia doesn't have any pics either which I think is odd.

they do make the medical diagnosis that; " The cloud of toxic smoke that surrounded her severely affected the respiratory system. Moments after, Mrs. Velasquez was hit by a car that caused severe internal bruising."

I am no physician but I would characertize her injuries as likely more severe than internal bruising after being runover by a pickup truck.

Its not clear to me what gain there is for the "Resistencia" to fabricate events of this tragedy.

[naaman fletcher]

23. perhaps

a member of batallion 3-16 stole the truck and fired a tear gas can at her a split second before she was run over. Surely nobody here would keep pushing a falsehood when all the evidence against their theory has been posted.