New spate of threats and attacks on journalists: “The coup d’état’s original goals are still being p

[Judi Lynn]

New spate of threats and attacks on journalists: “The coup d’état’s original goals are still being pursued”
Published on Thursday 24 March 2011.

Reporters Without Borders is worried by the alarming increase in threats and violence against journalists in Honduras. There have been seven cases in the space of 10 days and all the media involved are ones that spoke out against the June 2009 coup d’état.

The first in the latest spate of cases was the 13 March shooting of Franklin Meléndez, the head of the community radio station La Voz de Zacate Grande. According to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre), the alleged assailant, Porfirio Medina, publicly threatened one of the station’s correspondents, Ethel Correa, in the hours following the attack, saying she would be “the next to die.”

The complete impunity enjoyed by Meléndez, the presumed perpetrator of a murder attempt, has compounded the repeated harassment of this small radio station and its personnel by the authorities.

The situation is hardly any better for national media. Lidieth Díaz, a reporter with Cholusat - Canal 36, and her husband, David Romero, the head of Radio Globo, were attacked by riot police while covering a protest by teachers in Tegucigalpa on 21 March. Díaz tried to negotiate with the police but they responded by setting off a teargas grenade right in front of her. The incident was filmed.

More:
http://en.rsf.org/honduras-new-spate-of-threats-and-attacks-24-03-2011,39867.html

[EFerrari]

1. I imagine a no fly zone over Honduras is immanent. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Hey, that's US property by now!

Luckily for US military investment in Honduras, that coup came along just in time, as President Zelayz had expressed his intention to ask the US to leave the base so they could turn it over to civilian use, since the big airport they have, Toncontin is one of the most dangerous runways in the entire world, and they had a real crying need to be able to divert a lot of traffic elsewhere in the country.

He still had months left on his term at the time the military shot up his home and kidnapped him at gunpoint in the middle of the night, and he had every chance of realising his plan for Soto Cano.

Now, thanks to that coup, good ol' US American planes are still flying over, and apparently the US imagines they will ALWAYS be able to fly over, into, around, and through Honduras without ever hearing one word of resentment.