From elektrodread at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 06:17:35 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 09:17:35 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Petition a Miceletti Message-ID: <1d602de70908020617q7ce12b85hf47bb06d3db143c9@mail.gmail.com> Campa?a Internacional contra el Golpe de Estado en Honduras. ?S? a la democracia! ?No a la violencia! Solicitamos a nuestras organizaciones afiliadas y a la comunidad internacional en general que participe en esta campa?a, enviando su mensaje solidario con el pueblo hondure?o y de condena a los golpistas, ingresando a la siguiente direcci?n. http://www.rel-uita.org/campanias/honduras/formulario.shtml Rel-UITA Secretar?a Regional Latinoamericana Uni?n Internacional de Trabajadores de la Alimentaci?n, la Agricultura, Hoteles, Restaurantes, Tabaco y Afines. www.rel-uita.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 07:49:16 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 10:49:16 -0400 Subject: [HNA] New England United Motion In Support of Honduras Message-ID: Hi Companeros, I just wanted to update that yesterday Tito and I went to a meeting of New England United per David's invitation. About 25 in attendance at the meeting (including our friend Shaun from Rhode Island), there was a motion proposed and adopted based on the letter we already have, with a slight wording change (in blue see below), the motion passed with 23 votes yes, and 2 abstentions. They will continue to have a dialogue about how this fits in with the work they are doing. We call upon President Obama to: 1.Restore Manuel Zelaya to the presidency of Honduras. 2. Halt the widespread violation of human rights, restore constitutional guarantees, and guarantee the safety of members of social organizations, unions, political parties, and all other groups and individuals who oppose the coup. Until these demands are met, we urge the US administration to undertake the following actions: 1. Freeze US bank accounts of coup-leaders, both in the private and public sectors. 2. Prohibit the importation of goods produced in the factories and plantations of these coup-leaders. 3. Revoke Visa Status & Prohibit entry into the US of those Honduran citizens directly involved in the coup. 4.Withdraw the US ambassador to Honduras. -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 09:01:20 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 12:01:20 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Minutes/ Notes from previous meeting Message-ID: I hope everyone the last meeting is on this list. If not, we should add them to the list! paz Kaveri ----------------------------- Notes: Meeting 31 July 1. Intro People present: Sergio (Boston Mayday Committee), Matthew (STWC, CISPES), Julie, Praveen, Michelle Fuentes (Proyecto Hondureno, SIM, ... more), Tito (Proyecto Hondureno), Simon, Kaveri (STWC, Mayday, South Asian orgs), Juan Carlos (? didn't catch affiliation), Jorge Marin (Bolivarian Circle), David Keil (STWC, NEU, National Assembly), David Grosser (CISPES), Dario Zapata (Colombia Vive?). 2. Update on Honduras: - Simon: On 30 July, Attack on road block in Honduras, 1 teacher shot through the head; Carlos Reyes from Bloque Popular, an independent candidate, his arm and ear were wounded; Juan Baraona from the Bloque also injured. - Sergio: rare coverage in English newspapers. Michelletti says he will not discuss return in Zelaya because the business people have told him it's not viable. - Matthew: Is there a united resistance in Honduras? - Tito: There's a Bloque Popular, also the UD, Unidas Democraticas is a left party that came out of hiding in the mountains to participate in the resistance; also the liberal party are contributing. - Juan Carlos: Forces getting organized are mostly peasants, some unions (not all because some are government run). Shootings are happening where the people come up against barriers of soldiers at the border with Nicaragua. Latest news is that some people are trying to take up arms, but the movement is kind of scattered. - Julie has two question: Is there a strike on going? What are living conditions like in terms of electricity water - have they changed with the coup? - Tito: 3 federations are striking, one teacher's union, one public/municipal workers' union. They called off a strike but might resume; the strikers are facing lost pay, lost benefits and jail. There's a curfew from 6 am to 6 pm. People aren't able to refridgerate food. - Juan Carlos: It's the universal struggle of the haves vs. have-nots. The media played a very important rule, and are privately owned by four rich families who have business deals with all the former governments. When Zelaya distanced himself from these families, the daily attacks began. These families who also own the largest publications, La Prensa, used to get no-bid contracts to supply public medicines, and arms to the Honduran army. When Zelaya contested the no bid contracts in favor of cheap generic medicines from Cuba, the attacks in the media upon him commenced. - Kaveri: Worrying that Michelletti argued that the business interests are the ones preventing Zelaya's return, and that not only the coup-making government has a right to negotiate Zelaya's return, but also the business interests should be separately negotiated with. The US has revoked visas, but... - David Keil: Is the Frente Contra el Golpe an authoritative source of information? - Tito: Negroponte, one of the advisors of Hilary Clinton, has had a very destructive influence in the history of Latin America. Hugo Llorens played a role in the coup of 2002 of Venezuela. - Jorge: Sammy Davis, consul for Clinton, is hired by the coup to do PR in DC. - Simon: wrote to his representative, Paul Hodes, and Paul Hodes' response was that Zelaya was trying to increase his term limits, which is the standard lie. - Jorge: This is a lie, he was only trying for a non-binding referendum whose results would not affect his presidency. - Juan Carlos: The same lies were attempted by the right in Ecuador and Venezuela - Kaveri: Difference between Bloque Popular and Frente Contra el Golpe. Frente has all the groups, unions, and political parties - Jorge: Venezuela's embassador was asked to leave, but Venezuela doesn't recognize that government's right to kick them out. People from Honduras are protecting the embassy. - Tito: people are also taking turns protecting Radio Globo, a progressive radio source, and Venezuelan embassy. - David Keil: How is the US' stance viewed in Honduras? - Tito: The golpistas aren't sure of the changes in Obama's policy, but the people hoped Obama would do more. People doubt him because of the new developments of negotiations in Costa Rica which went nowhere. Golpistas are getting really aggressive, violent. This is weakening them now. - juan Carlos: Honduras viewed the country government as slaves or puppets of the US. US is playing an unsatisfactory role as far as the people are concerned, and being two-faced. When Honduras joined ALBA, the US got very upset. - Simon: the Canadian government has condemned the coup, but has been supportive of the coup in other ways. - David Grosser: things happening in other parts of the US? - Tito: There's an active group holding demos and press conferences in Washington DC. CISPES and the Bolivarian Circles and School of Americas Watch are active also. 3. Delegation Centro Presente and Proyecto Hondureno are bringing a delegation led by Dr. Juan Almendares, also Oscar Chackon, and a person from UD will be there. They have a good analysis of what is going on in Honduras. They are going to Washington, New York, Boston. Here there will be a visit to Boston Globe, visit to Kerry who's the head of the foreign affair relations committee, community meeting in Chelsea on the night of Aug 5, a talk at 10 am in Tufts University on Thursday, and then they will speak to a Latino Radio Station, 1600 AM, all day they should be broadcast at different times, including on a show supporting the golpe. 111 from Haymarket and 117 from Maverick will reach the location in Chelsea on the night of August 5. - David Grosser: What are the goals of the tour? - Tito: To bring awareness to the US. - Sergio: We have to inject more goals, we have to build solidarity, formalize the committee, open the committee to all who can join, and work on the many solidarity tasks, together with this group. We should have a sign-up sheet at each event. 4. -Julie: Who are we in solidarity with? Or a particular statement? -Sergio: We should express in the name of the committee, Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras. -David Keil: He's organizing the NEU meeting tomorrow, and he'll go in with a motion to call for the breaking of all US ties with the coup makers. He thinks the support of the resistance would be hard motion to make - David Grosser: Thinks this is an amazing opportunity to have people who are in the movement, we should really bring everyone to an event. - Michelle: We should just make sure we don't alienate anyone. - Kaveri: Proposal: A sign up sheet at the event should be enough. - Jorge: suggests taking a proposal to NEU that is in solidarity with our committee, but focusses on US actions. - David Keil: Can try that - Dario: Uribe in Colombia is the only Latin American president to support the coup. There's a group in Boston organizing with the people of Colombia against its government and in support of the Hondurans. 5. Name of group: agreed on Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras. 6. - Simon: This space is available for a future event the next two weekends, if we want to decide this now. - Jorge: It would be good to decide now to publicize then. - Julie: Perhaps do the event the week after this delegation - Simon: Friday 14th August. Here at 1 pm, there will be an anti war meeting. - Jorge: we could do a flyer. - Michelle: she can modify the old flyer - Sergio: We could perhaps add to the postcard, to update its demands. - Tito: Work on a subcommittee. with Sergio, Simon, David Keil, Kaveri - Simon: Webpage: Could put up a daily update on the webpage or email the list-serve. - Sergio: Hired a domain called Honduras Resists.org. Anyone can contribute, if they create a username and password. We need to discuss whether or how to restrict access, perhaps by just restricting knowledge of the username and password to the group.We need to decide on a definite look for the next meeting, even if we go with the current look for now. - Tito: Another demonstration at City Hall? - Juan Carlos: Wants to stress the sense of urgency. - Julie: which organization needs money? Is this for humanitarian resistance? Will the orgs there be responsible for transparency? - Tito: Bloque Popular and UD are orgs he is close to. We should also ask Prof. Almendares. Perhaps we can fundraise at the Chelsea event. Does the group agree to try? - Kaveri: Should we sell food? - Tito: Perhaps not, just pass the hat, because there's a group in the building that usually sells food. - Sergio: Next meeting: - Tito: subcommittee on structure, webpage: david Keil, Michelle, Tito, Sergio, Simon, Kaveri. 5pm Subcommittee, Friday Aug 7. 6 pm general meeting. e5. - Tito: Should discuss an event at City Hall that Dario proposed, at next meeting. - Michelle: Perhaps time this along with the visit to - Kaveri: sell shirts? Non sweatshop plain shirts @ $6 a shirt, to which artists will contribute effort for free, to make shirts we sell for $15? Group agrees. - Tito: The US is building up a presence in Colombia. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 09:02:36 2009 From: lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com (Miguel Luna) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 12:02:36 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Petition a Miceletti In-Reply-To: <1d602de70908020617q7ce12b85hf47bb06d3db143c9@mail.gmail.com> References: <1d602de70908020617q7ce12b85hf47bb06d3db143c9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi Simon! I just unsubscribe to Hondurasresists.org BY MISTAKE! Please ignore it! I just click on the wrong place. Thanks!! 2009/8/2 Simon Rios > Campa?a Internacional contra el Golpe de Estado en Honduras. > > ?S? a la democracia! ?No a la violencia! > > Solicitamos a nuestras organizaciones afiliadas y a la comunidad > internacional en general que participe en esta campa?a, enviando su mensaje > solidario con el pueblo hondure?o y de condena a los golpistas, ingresando a > la siguiente direcci?n. > > http://www.rel-uita.org/campanias/honduras/formulario.shtml > > Rel-UITA > Secretar?a Regional Latinoamericana > > Uni?n Internacional de Trabajadores de la Alimentaci?n, la Agricultura, > Hoteles, Restaurantes, Tabaco y Afines. > www.rel-uita.org > > _______________________________________________ > Announce mailing list > Announce at hondurasresists.org > http://hondurasresists.org/mailman/listinfo/announce_hondurasresists.org > > -- New email: lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com Nuevo email: "If you can read this, wake up, there is still time!" M.Luna "Si puedes leer esto, despiertate que todavia hay tiempo!" M. Luna -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sun Aug 2 09:06:35 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 09:06:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] 8/5 & 8/6 - Delegation of Honduran leaders in Boston Message-ID: <402233.8466.qm@web38902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> [Espa?ol a continuacion] Delegation of Honduran Leaders in Boston Led by Dr. Juan Almendares A night in solidarity with the Honduran people in defense of human rights and democracy Wed., August 5 ? 6PM 101 Park Street, Chelsea, MA (Bus 111 desde Haymarket o bus 117 desde Maverick) Also, Thursday, August 6 ? 10AM ? At Tufts University, 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA For more information contact: Tito Meza: 617-610-3784 o Patricia Montes 617-959-3108 Sponsored by: NALACC, Honduran Project, Centro Presente, AFSC-Project Voice Endorsed by: Mass. Global Action, Bolivarian Circle of Boston, Chelsea Uniting Against the War, Boston May Day Committee, CISPES, Consulate of Venezuela in Boston, Jobs With Justice, Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance -------------------- Delegaci?n de dirigentes Hondure?os en Boston Encabezada por el Dr. Juan Almendares Noche de solidaridad con el pueblo de Honduras en defensa de los derechos humanos y la democracia. Mi?rcoles, 5 de Agosto ? 6PM 101 Parker Street, Chelsea, MA (Bus 111 desde Haymarket o bus 117 desde Maverick) Tambi?n, Jueves 6 de Agosto ? 10AM ? At Tufts University, 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA Para m?s informaci?n: Tito Meza: 617-610-3784 o Patricia Montes 617-959-3108 Auspician: NALACC, Proyecto Hondure?o, Centro Presente, AFSC-Proyecto Voz Apoyan: Acci?n Global de Mass., C?rculo Bolivariano de Boston, Chelsea Uni?ndose Contra la Guerra, Comit? Primero de Mayo de Boston, CISPES, Consulado de Venezuela, Trabajos con Justicia, Comit? en Solidaridad con la Resistencia Hondure?a --------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- www.hondurasresists.org From andyk at gis.net Sun Aug 2 09:16:44 2009 From: andyk at gis.net (Andy Klatt) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 09:16:44 -0700 Subject: [HNA] Minutes/ Notes from previous meeting In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <124922980601@mx05.gis.net> Please provide details for community meeting in Chelsea on the night of Aug 5. Thanks. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 09:45:13 2009 From: lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com (Miguel Luna) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 12:45:13 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Petition a Miceletti In-Reply-To: <1d602de70908020617q7ce12b85hf47bb06d3db143c9@mail.gmail.com> References: <1d602de70908020617q7ce12b85hf47bb06d3db143c9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Ya firme! Mandare este email a otros grupos. 2009/8/2 Simon Rios > Campa?a Internacional contra el Golpe de Estado en Honduras. > > ?S? a la democracia! ?No a la violencia! > > Solicitamos a nuestras organizaciones afiliadas y a la comunidad > internacional en general que participe en esta campa?a, enviando su mensaje > solidario con el pueblo hondure?o y de condena a los golpistas, ingresando a > la siguiente direcci?n. > > http://www.rel-uita.org/campanias/honduras/formulario.shtml > > Rel-UITA > Secretar?a Regional Latinoamericana > > Uni?n Internacional de Trabajadores de la Alimentaci?n, la Agricultura, > Hoteles, Restaurantes, Tabaco y Afines. > www.rel-uita.org > > _______________________________________________ > Announce mailing list > Announce at hondurasresists.org > http://hondurasresists.org/mailman/listinfo/announce_hondurasresists.org > > -- New email: lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com Nuevo email: "If you can read this, wake up, there is still time!" M.Luna "Si puedes leer esto, despiertate que todavia hay tiempo!" M. Luna -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 09:48:55 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 12:48:55 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Details of upcoming events with Delegation from Honduras Message-ID: Delegation of Honduran Leaders in Boston Led by Dr. Juan Almendares A night in solidarity with the Honduran people in defense of human rights and democracy Wed., August 5 ? 6PM 101 Park Street, Chelsea, MA (Bus 111 desde Haymarket o bus 117 desde Maverick) Also, Thursday, August 6 ? 10AM ? At Tufts University, 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA For more information contact: Tito Meza: 617-610-3784 o Patricia Montes 617-959-3108 Sponsored by: NALACC, Honduran Project, Centro Presente, AFSC-Project Voice Endorsed by: Mass. Global Action, Bolivarian Circle of Boston, Chelsea Uniting Against the War, Boston May Day Committee, CISPES, Consulate of Venezuela in Boston, Jobs With Justice, Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance -------------------- Delegaci?n de dirigentes Hondure?os en Boston Encabezada por el Dr. Juan Almendares Noche de solidaridad con el pueblo de Honduras en defensa de los derechos humanos y la democracia. Mi?rcoles, 5 de Agosto ? 6PM 101 Parker Street, Chelsea, MA (Bus 111 desde Haymarket o bus 117 desde Maverick) Tambi?n, Jueves 6 de Agosto ? 10AM ? At Tufts University, 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA Para m?s informaci?n: Tito Meza: 617-610-3784 o Patricia Montes 617-959-3108 Auspician: NALACC, Proyecto Hondure?o, Centro Presente, AFSC-Proyecto Voz Apoyan: Acci?n Global de Mass., C?rculo Bolivariano de Boston, Chelsea Uni?ndose Contra la Guerra, Comit? Primero de Mayo de Boston, CISPES, Consulado de Venezuela, Trabajos con Justicia, Comit? en Solidaridad con la Resistencia Hondure?a On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Andy Klatt wrote: > Please provide details for community meeting in Chelsea on the night of > Aug 5. > > > > Thanks. > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 10:15:44 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 13:15:44 -0400 Subject: [HNA] delegacion de Honduras Message-ID: <1d602de70908021015y6f1b68b5ka692afcc8e089160@mail.gmail.com> [Espa?ol a continuacion] Delegation of Honduran Leaders in Boston Led by Dr. Juan Almendares A night in solidarity with the Honduran people in defense of human rights and democracy Wed., August 5 ? 6PM 101 Park Street, Chelsea, MA (Bus 111 desde Haymarket o bus 117 desde Maverick) Also, Thursday, August 6 ? 10AM ? At Tufts University, 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA For more information contact: Tito Meza: 617-610-3784 o Patricia Montes 617-959-3108 Sponsored by: NALACC, Honduran Project, Centro Presente, AFSC-Project Voice Endorsed by: Mass. Global Action, Bolivarian Circle of Boston, Chelsea Uniting Against the War, Boston May Day Committee, CISPES, Consulate of Venezuela in Boston, Jobs With Justice, Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance -------------------- Delegaci?n de dirigentes Hondure?os en Boston Encabezada por el Dr. Juan Almendares Noche de solidaridad con el pueblo de Honduras en defensa de los derechos humanos y la democracia. Mi?rcoles, 5 de Agosto ? 6PM 101 Parker Street, Chelsea, MA (Bus 111 desde Haymarket o bus 117 desde Maverick) Tambi?n, Jueves 6 de Agosto ? 10AM ? At Tufts University, 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA Para m?s informaci?n: Tito Meza: 617-610-3784 o Patricia Montes 617-959-3108 Auspician: NALACC, Proyecto Hondure?o, Centro Presente, AFSC-Proyecto Voz Apoyan: Acci?n Global de Mass., C?rculo Bolivariano de Boston, Chelsea Uni?ndose Contra la Guerra, Comit? Primero de Mayo de Boston, CISPES, Consulado de Venezuela, Trabajos con Justicia, Comit? en Solidaridad con la Resistencia Hondure?a -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sun Aug 2 13:49:50 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 13:49:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Honduras Solidarity Committee Work & Letter to Pres. Obama Message-ID: <47917.21568.qm@web38906.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear compas, The newly formed Committee in Solidarity with the?Honduran Resistance is circulating a card to be sent to President Obama, demanding action against the military-business dictatorship in Honduras. The text of the letter is below and you can use it as a model and send it to the president. Also please be aware that the Committee is now officially formed and functioning and you are welcome to join in its work in support of the democratic resistance in Honduras. The frist event of the Committee?took place?on July 24 at Salem State College, with the participation of Prof. Aviva Chomsky, the Consul General of Venezuela, Omar Sierra, and reporters Simon Rios and Rene Funes. The?local reporters?spent?a week in Honduras interviewing people?active in the resistance to the dictatorship.?If you would like to attend our meetings send an email to info at hondurasresists.org We have also established an announcement listserv. If you would like to be informed about events, solidarity and news about Honduras please go to the link below to join the listserv: http://hondurasresists.org/mailman/listinfo/announce_hondurasresists.org Finally, please visit our new website http://www.hondurasresists.org for English and Spanish information, analysis, resources?and news about the situation in Honduras. In the struggle, Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA [Date] President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama: I call upon you and your administration to increase pressure on the de facto regime of Honduras that the regime immediately undertakes the following actions: 1.Restore Manuel Zelaya to the presidency of Honduras. 2. Halt the widespread violation of human rights, restore constitutional guarantees, and guarantee the safety of members of social organizations, unions, political parties, and all other groups and individuals who oppose the coup. If these demands are not met, we urge the U.S. administration to undertake the following actions: 1. Freeze U.S. bank accounts of coup-leaders, both in the private and public sectors. 2 Prohibit the importation of goods produced in the factories and plantations of these coup-leaders. 3. Revoke visa status and prohibit entry into the US of those Honduran citizens directly involved in the coup 4. Withdraw the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras With respect for the people of Honduras and their right to determine their own fate. Sincerely, [Your name] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Sun Aug 2 20:03:43 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 23:03:43 -0400 Subject: [HNA] 5 day Resistance March Message-ID: TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) -- Supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya plan to begin a five-day march on the country's two main cities starting Wednesday, organizers said. "There will be two marches with people from all over the country. One will go to San Pedro Sula and another to Tegucigalpa," Juan Barahona of a group called the National Resistance Against the Honduran Coup told AFP. -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Mon Aug 3 10:15:26 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 13:15:26 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Centro Presente and Proyecto Hondureno invite you to a Panel Discussion on current events in Honduras Message-ID: Centro Presente and Proyecto Hondureno invite you to a Panel Discussion on current events in Honduras with representatives of Honduran Civil Society and Immigrant Leaders in the U.S. When: Thursday, 6 August 2009, 10:00 am Where: 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, Tufts University 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA For more information contact: Patricia Montes- Centro Presente, Boston, MA- (617) 959 - 3108 Tito Meza - Honduran Project, Chelsea, MA - (617) 610 - 3784 Isabel Lopez - Honduran Project, Chelsea, MA - (617) 306 - 1365 Panelists will include: Dr. Juan Almendares is an internationally known Honduran medical doctor, human rights activist, environmental leader and alternative medicine practitioner. He has received recognition for his outstanding and courageous work with victims of torture in Honduras. He is the internationally chosen recipient of the 2001 Barbara Chester Award for his groundbreaking efforts with prisoners, victims of torture, the poor, and indigenous populations. A torture survivor himself, Dr. Almendares has been targeted by death squads on several occasions. Oscar Chac?n serves currently as Executive Director of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC). Until December, 2006, Mr. Chac?n served as director of Enlaces Am?rica, a project of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. Mr. Chac?n served for most of the 1990's as executive director of Centro Presente, Inc, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Chac?n served for many years as president of the Salvadoran American National Network (SANN). Mr. Chac?n is a frequent lecturer in national and international conferences, as well as a media spokesperson on Latino immigrant issues in the U.S. Abencio Fern?ndez Pineda is the coordinator of the non-governmental organization Center for the Investigation and Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CIPRODEH, by its Spanish initials) for the western region of Honduras. Mr. Pineda was previously an attorney for the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CODEH) and the Committee of the Relatives of Disappeared Detainees of Honduras (COFADEH). Maria Luisa Jimenez, a former police officer in Honduras, denounced the widespread corruption in the police force and is now an activist for transparency in government and women's rights. She is currently a candidate for Honduran Congress with the Democratic Union party (UD). Dr. Luther Castillo. Dr. Castillo is a young Garifuna medical doctor and community organizer who directs the Luaga Hatuadi Waduhe?u Foundation ("For the Health of our People" in Garifuna), dedicated to bringing vital health services to isolated indigenous coastal communities. After his 2005 graduation from the Latin American Medical School in Havana, Dr. Castillo returned to the Honduran coast, where he led the Foundation's construction of Honduras' first Garifuna Rural Hospital, now serving some 20,000 in the surrounding communities. The hospital opened in December 2007, a few months after Dr. Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by Rotary International's Tegucigalpa chapter. Gerardo Torres Gerardo Torres is a young Honduran journalist who is part of the social organization Bloque Popular, in which he is part of the national coordination. Torres is part of the Politic Commission of the Organization Los Necios that works permanently in the political formation of workers, peasants, student federations, feminist organizations, and that have the responsibility of the coordination of the communication and propaganda matters of the Honduran Popular Movement. He is an active member of the National Front Against the Coup de Etat in Honduras. *Join Our Mailing List! * *Centro Presente* 17 Inner Belt Road Somerville, Massachusetts 02143 Forward email [image: Safe Unsubscribe] This email was sent to michelle.fuentes at gmail.com by pmontes at cpresente.org. Update Profile/Email Address| Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe? | Privacy Policy . Email Marketing by Centro Presente | 17 Inner Belt Road | Somerville | MA | 02143 -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Mon Aug 3 10:47:04 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 13:47:04 -0400 Subject: [HNA] updates Message-ID: <1d602de70908031047h58eb96dcj9ab30d4009561428@mail.gmail.com> Day 36: Mart?n Florencio Rivera, 45, a school-teacher in Tegucigalpa, was stabbed 27 times, to his death, upon attending the funeral of compa?ero Jorge Abraham Vallejo, also killed by golpista soldiers. The Front Against the Golpe has announced a seven day march, beginning on Wednesday, to converge on the two biggest cities, San Pedro Sula & Tegucigalpa. Nike, Adidas, Gap y Knights Apparel, who have maquiladoras in Honduras, have written to Secretary Hillary Clinton requesting the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya, invoking the importance of siding with the consensus of the EU, the OAS, the UN, and the US president. The signatories of the letter account for the employment of some 60,000 maquila workers in Central America. This group of transnational companies has threatened to cut contracts with the maquilas whom, union leaders claim, are compelling the workers to support the golpe & attend demonstrations in favor. The letter to Clinton signifies a blow to maquiladora owners, who have contracted lobbyists in Washington to represent the interest of the golpistas. The dictator Micheletti has stated that the golpistas will ?resist with pride? the isolation of Honduras by the international community, demonstrating the aristocratic arrogance of the political, military, & empresarial cupolas of power in Honduras. Due to road blocks, strikes, and the suspension of various aid & loans by the EU and the USA, the Honduran economy has lost over $100 million, compounded by a fierce decline in the tourism industry. The wealthy rulers of Honduras?particularly the ten families who financed the coup?insist they will be able to withstand the political & economic pressure of the international community, a claim made believable in light of the tacit support of the United States, Canada, and ultra-right business interests throughout Latin America. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Tue Aug 4 11:24:44 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 14:24:44 -0400 Subject: [HNA] 42 Wounded 19 detained Message-ID: 4 hours ago.... Around 42 were wounded as the result of an onslaught of new military and police repression in San Pedro Sula Honduras, against a peaceful demonstration on Monday in favor of the legitimate president Manuel Zelaya, the de facto authorities deny the incidents. For his part, Speaker of the National Police, Orlin Cerrato, denied the violence in that town, but said "there are 42 injured individuals:one shot and the rest have contusions from blows administered by the police, there are 19 detainees. " According to Ponce, the police launched tear gas from helicopters against Zelaya's followers who were at the protest,"there were three thousand people." Demonstrations demanding the return of the legitimate president are occuring on a continuous basis since last June 28, when military forces carried out the coup d'etat against his administration. So far the military crackdown has caused four deaths (the last one, a teacher made by a gunshot to the head last Thursday) and dozens wounded. -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Wed Aug 5 06:11:25 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 09:11:25 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Don't miss the Panel Discussion on current events in Honduras! In-Reply-To: <1102660849171.1101579169087.1297.1.180900FF@scheduler> References: <1102660849171.1101579169087.1297.1.180900FF@scheduler> Message-ID: <1d602de70908050611j7d8672cex7eb69935bc2c6d9c@mail.gmail.com> Centro Presente and the Honduran Project invite you to a Panel Discussion on current events in Honduras with representatives of Honduran Civil Society and Immigrant Leaders in the U.S. When: Thursday, 6 August 2009, 10:00 am Where: 206 Cabot Hall,The Fletcher School, Tufts University 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA For more information contact: Patricia Montes- Centro Presente, Boston, MA- (617) 959 - 3108 Tito Meza - Honduran Project, Chelsea, MA - (617) 610 - 3784 Isabel Lopez - Honduran Project, Chelsea, MA - (617) 306 - 1365 Panelists will include: Dr. Juan Almendares is an internationally known Honduran medical doctor, human rights activist, environmental leader and alternative medicine practitioner. He has received recognition for his outstanding and courageous work with victims of torture in Honduras. He is the internationally chosen recipient of the 2001 Barbara Chester Award for his groundbreaking efforts with prisoners, victims of torture, the poor, and indigenous populations. A torture survivor himself, Dr. Almendares has been targeted by death squads on several occasions. Oscar Chac?n serves currently as Executive Director of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC). Until December, 2006, Mr. Chac?n served as director of Enlaces Am?rica, a project of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. Mr. Chac?n served for most of the 1990's as executive director of Centro Presente, Inc, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Chac?n served for many years as president of the Salvadoran American National Network (SANN). Mr. Chac?n is a frequent lecturer in national and international conferences, as well as a media spokesperson on Latino immigrant issues in the U.S. Abencio Fern?ndez Pineda is the coordinator of the non-governmental organization Center for the Investigation and Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CIPRODEH, by its Spanish initials) for the western region of Honduras. Mr. Pineda was previously an attorney for the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CODEH) and the Committee of the Relatives of Disappeared Detainees of Honduras (COFADEH). Maria Luisa Jimenez, a former police officer in Honduras, denounced the widespread corruption in the police force and is now an activist for transparency in government and women's rights. She is currently a candidate for Honduran Congress with the Democratic Union party (UD). Dr. Luther Castillo. Dr. Castillo is a young Garifuna medical doctor and community organizer who directs the Luaga Hatuadi Waduhe?u Foundation ("For the Health of our People" in Garifuna), dedicated to bringing vital health services to isolated indigenous coastal communities. After his 2005 graduation from the Latin American Medical School in Havana, Dr. Castillo returned to the Honduran coast, where he led the Foundation's construction of Honduras' first Garifuna Rural Hospital, now serving some 20,000 in the surrounding communities. The hospital opened in December 2007, a few months after Dr. Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by Rotary International's Tegucigalpa chapter. Gerardo Torres Gerardo Torres is a young Honduran journalist who is part of the social organization Bloque Popular, in which he is part of the national coordination. Torres is part of the Politic Commission of the Organization Los Necios that works permanently in the political formation of workers, peasants, student federations, feminist organizations, and that have the responsibility of the coordination of the communication and propaganda matters of the Honduran Popular Movement. He is an active member of the National Front Against the Coup de Etat in Honduras. *Join Our Mailing List! * *Centro Presente* 17 Inner Belt Road Somerville, Massachusetts 02143 Forward email [image: Safe Unsubscribe] This email was sent to elektrodread at gmail.com by pmontes at cpresente.org. Update Profile/Email Address| Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe? | Privacy Policy . Email Marketing by Centro Presente | 17 Inner Belt Road | Somerville | MA | 02143 -- Simon Rios (603)882-7894 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Wed Aug 5 08:50:49 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:50:49 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Rhode Island Council Member Luna Going to Honduras with Shaun Joseph antiwar Activist Message-ID: Why we're going to Honduras August 5, 2009 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On August 8, Providence City Council member *Miguel Luna* and antiwar activist *Shaun Joseph* will travel to Honduras as part of a week-long International Mission for Solidarity, Accompaniment and Observation. The U.S.-based part of the delegation is being organized by Quest for Peace[1], a project of the Quixote Center. Since the June 28 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras has been shaken by continuous popular mobilizations demanding his reinstatement. The coup government has responded with harsh repression. The Honduran human rights organization CODEH estimates that there were 62 murders in the capital of Tegucigalpa in the first 28 days of the coup--many of the victims shot with bullets of the same type used by the police and armed forces. On July 27, a bomb exploded in the offices of STIBYS, the beverage workers' union. The International Mission has been organized to bring international attention to bear on these human rights abuses. Here, Miguel and Shaun explain why they're taking part. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *Miguel* THE COUP in Honduras brought back bad memories of my childhood in the Dominican Republic. I grew up under the dictatorship of Joaqu?n Balaguer. Balaguer's government was considered "democratic" by the elites of the United States, but for us, it was very repressive. I have seen and experienced the barbarities committed by this type of government. At the age of 10, as I was sitting in front of my friend's house, a policeman asked us what we were doing. My friend said, "Nothing." I was looking at the policeman's rifle, so he said to me, "Now that you see it, do you want to taste it?" And he put his rifle inside my mouth. I did not move, and he left. At the age of 15, I had an experience with the death squads. At the age of 21, a drunk Navy lieutenant put a .45 on my head. My friends told me that I was on a "death list," even though I wasn't involved in politics at the time. Your life was always in danger--in your own country! In the U.S., we tend to take our freedom for granted. What we have enjoyed for many years in our country, many countries in Latin America are just beginning to experience. We can't go back to "democratic" dictatorships and the dark ages, when troglodytes ran our countries. The *golpistas* want to set back Latin America 100 years. It doesn't matter where coups happen. We need to support the people's struggle throughout the world. When I go to Honduras, I will bring the resolution we passed in the Providence City Council declaring our opposition to the coup. Everyone in Honduras--the working people and the oligarchs alike--should know that the world is watching. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *Shaun* ONE OF the first left-wing political books I read was *Killing Hope*, William Blum's devastating account of U.S. military and CIA interventions in the postwar era--many of which were, of course, directed against the people of Latin America. I recall my strong feelings of anger and shame as I discovered the true, sordid historical record. I suppose the shame has receded, as I have long since ceased to regard the American state as having anything to do with me. The anger remains. Or actually, the anger has increased; it's the same anger we felt when Proposition 8 was upheld in California. Suddenly, you're thrown back, against the grain of history, into something vicious and stupid that you thought was played out long ago. So the Honduran army spirits away the nation's president because Chiquita and Dole don't like that he raised the minimum wage. Really? The people of Latin America are supposed to accept that, not only after their "lost decade," but just as a new path seems to be opening? "Sorry folks: reopen your veins!" The Obama administration exudes a certain cool confidence that it can transcend all conflicts in politics with rhetoric, invocations, inspirations, "beer summits" on the White House lawn, and so forth. Mass mobilization, combined with Zelaya's attempt to return to Honduras, seems to have thrown a wrench in that strategy. The U.S. corporate media has, obligingly, kept mostly quiet; they like to embarrass Obama on inanities, not the life-or-death questions. But everyone seems to know that who wins in Honduras is somehow going to be decisive to the future development of Latin America. So we're going; it seems like a rudimentary act of internationalism. Hopefully, the presence of international observers will put some check on the madness of the coup makers. We'll also report on what we see, hear and experience: Miguel and I will be sending dispatches to SocialistWorker.org as often as we can, and you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 8 15:35:27 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 15:35:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Tue. 8/11 -- Park St. Info Picket in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Message-ID: <273972.32904.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> TUE. 8/11 - 4:30pm - 6pm PARK ST., INFORMATIONAL PICKET IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE HONDURAN RESISTANCE International Day of Action Called by the Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance, Proyecto Hondureno, CISPES-Boston, Boston May Day Committee (Please send a note to info at hondurasresists.org to endorse and to participate) www.hondurasresists.org August 11, 2009: Global Action Day for Honduras by Via Campesina To the sisters and brothers of all the regions of Via Campesina To the sisters and brothers of all social movements To all the people of the world Since the military coup -- after more than 38 days of untiring efforts by thousands of farmers, women, indigenous people, teachers, students, unionists, and ordinary citizens of the cities and the countryside to reverse it and to recover democracy and dignity -- the repression by the coup participants has not notched the fighting spirit of the heroic Honduran people. This struggle has now entered a crucial phase as the farmers movement and the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'Etat have summoned the social, union, and democratic movements to a National March that begins on the 5th of August and will culminate on the 11th of August in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. In support of this National March and our sister and brother farmers and all the Honduran people, Via Campesina calls on you to participate in a "Global Day of Action for Honduras," which will take place on the 11th of August of this year. We seek to mount strong solidarity efforts carrying out political and cultural mobilization, concrete actions, and political pressure and lobbying, as well as any and all possible activities that help advance the Honduran popular resistance in defeating this military coup. We ask you to inform us about your plans of action and work for the "Day of Global Action for Honduras" as soon as possible. GLOBALIZE THE HOPE! GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE! Write to Via Campesina Honduras: Wendy Cruz: wendycruzsanchez at yahoo.ca Mabel Marquez: mabelmarquez07 at gmail.com Henry Saragih International Coordinator of Via Campesina From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Sat Aug 8 20:03:21 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 23:03:21 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Lorens Postura Official de US- en reunion con Frente Popular Hoy 8 de agosto 2009 Message-ID: Lorens Postura Official de US- en reunion con Frente Popular Hoy 8 de agosto 2009 1. Declaro Lorens contundentemente que para E.E. U. U. lo que ocurrio en Honduras es un golpe de estado. 2. E.E. U. U. considera un fracaso de politica Hondurena -elites y empresas -dijo, "Ellos no pensaron en nosotros, nosotros ahora no vamos a pensar en ellos, Ellos han tocado los intereses de economicos de Estados Unidos." 3. $17,000,000 en ayuda militar suspendida 4. Re-iteran que no reconocen a Micheleti como gobierno oficial 5. El mantiene su posicion- por apoyar el dialogo con varios sectores para dialago y para firma acuerdo de San Jose Sara Elisa Rosales Frente Popular Contra el Golpe Militar *Radio Globo* Adicionalmete: Micheleti esta Convocando a los reservistas y armando a los reservistas. ANAMET Declara que estan usando personas no calificadas para dar informes en las torres de aeropuertos. -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 8 21:34:20 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 21:34:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Prof. Aviva Chomsky on the U.S. and the Honduran Coup Message-ID: <68368.21178.qm@web38901.mail.mud.yahoo.com> The presentation by Prof. Aviva Chomsky at the first event of the Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras on July 24, 2009?has been published in our website: www.hondurasresists.org, in the English section. Please promote this article as it contains important clues to the present behavior of the Obama administration about the coup in Honduras. Honduras: A Twenty-first Century Coup? By Aviva Chomsky 07-24-2009.- We?ve heard a lot of talk about the coup in Honduras is a ?twenty-first century coup,? with the implication that things are different now from the way they were in the twentieth century. Especially, people seem to think that things are different now that Obama is president of the United States. Obviously, this coup did take place in the twenty-first century. But we should look closely at what has changed, and what remains the same, between the coups of the twentieth century and the current coup in Honduras. Let?s begin by looking at two of the main actors in the coups of the twentieth century: the United Fruit Company and the U.S. military. [ + ] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Sat Aug 8 23:04:05 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 02:04:05 -0400 Subject: [HNA] August 11, 2009 International Action Day In-Reply-To: <1102665085895.1102624420411.3.9.150130FF@scheduler> References: <1102665085895.1102624420411.3.9.150130FF@scheduler> Message-ID: INTERNATIONAL DAY of ACTION IN SOLIDARITY HONDURAS [image: resiste][image: pueblo][image: Gente][image: Gente][image: Honduras Resists] INFORMATIONAL PICKET Tuesday August 11, 2009 PARK STREET Boston, MA 4:30 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. [image: Honduras Resists][image: Honduras Resists] For more information contact:Simon Rios 603-882-7894 or elektrodread at gmail.com Tito Meza- 617-610-3784 or honduproject at yahoo.com Called for by: The Committee in Solidarity With The Honduran Resistance, Proyecto Hondureno, CISPES-Boston, Boston May Day Committee (Please send a note to info at hondurasresists.org to endorse and to participate) *Join Our Mailing List!* Committee in Solidarity with The Honduran Resistance on The Web Forward email [image: Safe Unsubscribe] This email was sent to michelle.fuentes at gmail.com by olancho46 at gmail.com. Update Profile/Email Address| Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe? | Privacy Policy . Email Marketing by Proyecto de Hondurenos | 248 Broadway | Chelsea | MA | 02150 -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Mon Aug 10 08:44:33 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:44:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Gobierno de Facto Viola Derechos Humanos en Honduras Message-ID: <676875.42161.qm@web38903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Gobierno de Facto Viola Derechos Humanos en Honduras ? [Lea el texto completo de este extenso reporte en http://www.hondurasresists.org] ? 08/07/2009 - Tras el golpe del golpe de estado del 28 de junio de 2009 que alter? dr?sticamente el orden constitucional del pa?s, en Honduras se presenta una grave situaci?n de derechos humanos y de restricciones a las libertades democr?ticas, son evidentes las dificultades y obst?culos para el acceso a la justicia y se limita dr?sticamente la libertad de prensa. En el presente informe se realiza una descripci?n de los resultados de la Misi?n internacional de observaci?n sobre la situaci?n de los derechos humanos que permaneci? en Honduras desde el 17 hasta el 26 de julio. Una Misi?n Internacional de Derechos Humanos compuesta por quince profesionales independientes (juristas, periodistas, antrop?logos, polit?logos, soci?logos y expertos en derechos humanos) procedentes de Alemania, Argentina, Austria, B?lgica, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dinamarca, El Salvador, Espa?a, Nicaragua, Per?, Suecia y Uruguay se constituy? en Honduras el 17 de julio pasado para verificar las violaciones a los derechos humanos ocurridas en Honduras durante y despu?s del golpe de Estado del pasado 28 de junio, a fin de presentar observaciones y recomendaciones al respecto a la OEA, la ONU, la Uni?n Europea, sus Estados miembros y otros actores internacionales. ---------------------------------------------- Sign the on-line petitions demanding that the U.S. sign the UN Convention on Migrant Workers Rights http://www.bostonmayday.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Mon Aug 10 12:46:15 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:46:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Witness for Peace - Tomorrow: Honduras Action Day Message-ID: <26486.21696.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> FYI --- On Mon, 8/10/09, Ben Beachy, Witness for Peace wrote: From: Ben Beachy, Witness for Peace Subject: Tomorrow: Honduras Action Day To: info at bostonmayday.org Date: Monday, August 10, 2009, 3:00 PM #yiv1120688546 th, #yiv1120688546 td, #yiv1120688546 p{font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;color:#000000;} #yiv1120688546 .title {text-align:left;font-size:18px;font-weight:bold;color:#000000;margin:0px;padding:0px;} #yiv1120688546 .footer {text-align:left;font-size:11px;color:#999999;} #yiv1120688546 .image_text {text-align:center;font-size:11px;color:#cccccc;} Tomorrow:? Global Day of Action for Honduras ?? Dispel the myths, expose the truth:? Send a quick letter to the editor. ?? Join a unique WFP delegation to Honduras: September 5-12. ?? Tell your representative to stand with Hondurans and condemn the coup. ? Watch a WFP on-the-ground slideshow of repression and resistance in Honduras. ? Read WFP's letter to Secretary of State Clinton on Honduras.? ?? Tomorrow: Global Day of Action for Honduras ? Dispel the Myths, Expose the Truth ? Come with us to Honduras ? ? Dear Supporter, ? The coup regime in Honduras has now clung to power for six weeks.? Meanwhile, the U.S. response has remained sluggish and two-faced.? Late last month, the State Department finally revoked the diplomatic visas of four coup-plotters.? But just last week the same State Department sent a letter to the Senate that incredibly names President Zelaya, not the coup-plotters, as responsible for his own ouster.? The U.S. response to the coup should not be a matter of supporting or rejecting the prior actions of Manuel Zelaya; it's a matter of supporting or rejecting the flagrant usurpation of Hondurans' right to exercise their democratic will.? The illegitimate coup regime merits clear, consistent condemnation from the U.S., not the schizophrenic response seen thus far.? ? While the U.S. delays and equivocates, Hondurans are suffering a level of repression not seen since the death squads of the 1980's.? One week after the coup, the military fired 160 rounds of live ammo into a nonviolent crowd, killing a teenager.? Since then, the coup regime has overseen nine politically-motivated murders, countless military attacks on peaceful protesters, the arbitrary arrest of over 1,300 people, and the systematic military occupation and shutdown of most independent media outlets.? (Has this been reported in your local papers?? Send a quick letter to the editor today.)? ? Yet, such repression has failed to silence Honduran social movements.? Indeed, those movements are actually gaining strength, according to on-the-ground sources.? Currently thousands of Hondurans from across the country are marching towards Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula (the country's two biggest cities) as part of a nationwide march organized by The National Front of Resistance Against the Coup, a large coalition of Honduras's diverse social movements.? To coincide with the march's culmination tomorrow, the National Front has declared Tuesday a "Global Day of Action for Honduras."? Honduras's social movements are calling on us to act tomorrow in solidarity with their efforts to restore democracy and dignity to their country.? ? How can you demonstrate your solidarity?? Here are three ways: Send a letter to the editor that exposes the violations in Honduras and dispels myths about the coup.? Mainstream media coverage of the coup has been laden with misinformation, while human rights violations have gone largely unreported.? Get the truth out in your community by submitting a quick letter to the editor.? Click here to review our sample letter and easily send it to your local papers.? ? Join us on a delegation to Honduras.? From September 5-12, we will go to Honduras to bear witness to the alarming human rights situation, show international solidarity with the Honduran social movements, and push the U.S. government to fully revoke support for the coup-plotters.? A few spots are still open for this unique delegation.? To sign up or get more information, please contact Ken Crowley: ken at witnessforpeace.org, 773-564-9535, 202-423-3402. ? Ask your representative to condemn the coup.? House Resolution 630, currently with 44 cosponsors, echoes the resounding demands of thousands of Hondurans, the international community, and organizations like Witness for Peace: that President Zelaya be immediately reinstated as Honduras's legitimate leader.? Ask your rep to cosponsor this resolution--click here for more info and a suggestion of what to say when you call your representative.? Thanks in advance for acting at this critical moment to support Hondurans' demands for democracy.? ? Adelante, Ben Beachy National Grassroots Organizer Witness for Peace 3628 12th Street NE. 1st Fl., Washington, DC 20017 202.547.6112 - 202.536.4708 witness at witnessforpeace.org If this was forwarded to you, visit http://www.witnessforpeace.org/subscribe to subscribe. Visit http://www.witnessforpeace.org/unsubscribe to unsubscribe. To update your preferences or contact information, go to: http://www.witnessforpeace.org/profile -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Tue Aug 11 21:03:25 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:03:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Boston Informational Picket in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Message-ID: <433081.31091.qm@web38906.mail.mud.yahoo.com> [ Para leer articulo en espa?ol visite http://www.hondurasresists.org ] ? Boston Informational Picket in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance 8/11/2009.- Nearly 60 people gathered at 4:30pm on the Park Street Station entrance to speak out in solidarity with the Honduran resistance. A diverse group of people held signs that read, ?Micheletti fuera / out!?, ?Bring democracy back to Honduras?, ?Action to remove the coup from Honduras, now!?, ?Honduras resists, democracy now!?. The action featured an open microphone to those who wanted to say their message to the people on the streets of Boston and to the people resisting in Honduras. A common theme throughout the messages was the fact that the Obama administration is not doing enough to restore democracy in Honduras. While President Obama has declared that the only Honduran president the U.S. recognizes is Manuel Zelaya, Hilary Clinton forced President Zelaya into a process of mediation with the de facto ruler of Honduras Roberto Micheletti. With this move the U.S. has placed both men at the same level, legitimizing the coup makers. The event was organized by the Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras and Proyecto Hondureno, with the support of many individuals and organizations, among them Centro Presente, AFSC Project Voice, Mass. Global Action, the Boston May Day Committee, the Bolivarian Circle of Boston, CISPES, and others. 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URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Wed Aug 12 20:23:36 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:23:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Marcha masiva desde toda Honduras hacia Tegucigalpa Message-ID: <433138.52159.qm@web38908.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Marcha masiva desde toda Honduras hacia Tegucigalpa Por Roberto Becerra Lanza * HONDURAS 8-12-2009.- El d?a de ayer 11 de agosto una masiva marcha se dirigi? a Tegucigalpa, Honduras desde todos los puntos cardinales del pa?s en apoyo el presidente constitucional Manuel Zelaya Rosales y la primera dama Xiomara castro de Zelaya que ha llevado desde el inicio un papel protag?nico en estas concentraciones demostrando su valor y capacidad de di?logo y discurso pol?tico y social, la marcha masiva que se desarrollo tanto en Tegucigalpa como en San Pedro Sula Capital Industrial fue masiva y participaron hondure?os de todos los estratos sociales y educativos, demostrando que el pueblo en su conjunto repudia el golpe de estado en nuestro pa?s, y que d?a a d?a este repudio en vez de reducirse se est? expandiendo. Lea art?culo completo en http://hondurasresists.org ? ---------------------------------------------- Sign the on-line petitions demanding that the U.S. sign the UN Convention on Migrant Workers Rights http://www.bostonmayday.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Wed Aug 12 21:46:38 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:46:38 -0400 Subject: [HNA] SUMMARY OF THE VIOLATIONS TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONDURAS FROM JUNE 28TH 2009 Message-ID: *SUMMARY OF THE VIOLATIONS TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONDURAS FROM JUNE 28TH 2009* Honduran Embassy in Washington MURDERS: 1.Vicky Hern?ndez Castillo (registered at birth as Sonny Emerson Hern?ndez). Transvestite and sex worker who was murdered during curfew between the 29th and 30th of June, at a time when only police officers and military squadrons were able to patrol the streets. 2.Gabriel Fino Noriega. Journalist murdered on July 3rd while leaving his workplace in a local Radio Station (Radio Estelar) in the Department of Atl?ntida. Died from seven gunshot wounds. 3.Alexis Fernando Amador. Dressed in a t-shirt supporting the ?fourth ballot box? (Cuarta Urna), he was found dead with signs of torture on July 3rd in the sector of Agua Blanca in the capital. 4.Isis Obed Murillo Menc?as. Shot and killed by the military on July 5th in a demonstration in front of the airport of Tegucigalpa MDC. 5.Roger Iv?n Bados. A former union leader of the Unified Confederation of Workers of Honduras (Confederacion Unitaria de Trabajadores de Honduras, CUTH), member of the Democratic Unification Party (UD) and the Popular Block (Bloque Popular), he was removed by force from his house in San Pedro Sula, on July 11th and later killed by firearm. 6.Ram?n Garcia. 40 years, leader of the Democratic Unification Party (UD) who was forced to get off a public bus in Santa Barbara while returning from a demonstration, and was shot and killed. 7.Pedro Magdiel Mu?oz Salvador. He was put under arrest by the authorities of a military squad on July 24th in the city of El Paraiso, while trying to reach the border between Honduras and Nicaragua to attend a march called by the president-in-exile Manuel Zelaya. His body appeared on the 25th with signs of torture and 42 stabs wounds. 8.Roger Abraham Vallejo Soriano. Died August 1, shot in the head during a police and military repression of a peaceful march on the outskirts of the capital on July 30. 9.Martin Florencio Rivera Barrientos. Murdered on the early morning of August 2 with firearms, while returning to his house after attending the wake of Vallejo Soriano. 10.Pedro Hern?ndez. A peasant murdered close to El Paraiso on August 3 when soldiers opened fire on the vehicle in which he was traveling with other people. 11.Juan Gabriel Figueroa Tome. A worker, had participated actively in demonstrations against the coup. He was murdered, shot in the nape of the neck in the city of San Pedro Sula on August 8th. *THREATENED POLITICAL LEADERS:* 1.Silvia Ayala. Congressional representative of the department of Cortez. Her house has been constantly monitored by security forces and anonymous and unknown people have threatened the life of her children. 2.Mar?a Margarita Zelaya. Congressional representative and candidate for vice presidency of the liberal party. Her house was leveled by soldiers twice. 3.Rodrigo Tr?chez. Congressional representative of the department of Santa Barbara. His son was attacked with firearms on July 24th soon after the representative denounced in Washington DC what happened in Honduras was to coup d? etat. 4.Carolina Echeverr?a. Sources of the district attorney? s office notified the congresswoman from the department of Gracias a Dios that they had ?received instructions from their superiors? to make up crimes and evidence that would affect her husband. 5.Adan Funez. Mayor of Tocoa. His house was stormed by military forces on June 30th. He has also received death threats periodically as well as warnings that he will be prevented from running for reelection in the November 29th elections. 6.Adelmo Rivera. Mayor of Sonaguera. The army tried to capture him on July 2nd, and the municipal building was militarized. 7.Clemente Cardona. Mayor of Bonito Oriental. His municipal building was militarized as well. Pro-coup representatives have notified him that they will not be transferring economic resources that by law correspond to his municipality because of his anti-coup stance. 8.Amable of Jesus Hern?ndez. Mayor of Colinas, Santa Barbara. His wife received death threats via cell phone immediately after he participated in a press conference in Washington DC denouncing the coup d? etat. 9.Filim?n Flores. Candidate for Congressional representative of the Liberal Party in the department of Colon, has received death threats. 10.Eduardo Flores. Candidate for Congressional representative of the Democratic Unification Party (UD) in the Department of Colon has received death threats. 11.Carlos H. Reyes. Presidential Candidate, was attacked by police officers. His arm was broken, requiring extensive surgery. 12. Marvin Ponce, a current a member of a congress was assaulted in a pacific manifestation in Honduras. *COMMUNITY AND POPULAR LEADERS WHO HAVE RECEIVED DEATH THREATS* ?Elsy Banegas, Mario L?pez y Eduardo Flores, leaders of the Union of Workers of the National Agrarian Institute (SITRAINA). ?Manuel Flores. Union of Workers of the National Electric Energy Company (STENEE). ?Wilfredo Paz. Federation of Teachers Organizations of Honduras (FOMH) from the Department of Col?n ?H?ctor Starling y Juan Cruz of the Teachers Union of Tocoa, Col?n. ?Gladys Lanza, threatened by people with ties to torturer Billy Joya. ?Juan Barahona, who was also arrested for participating in street protests against the coup. ?Erasto Calle, union leader. ?Walter Trochez, leader from the LGBT community in Honduras who was also arrested, beaten and harassed on account of his sexual orientation after participating in a march against the coup. *THREATS AGAINST ENTIRE COMMUNITIES* The Guadalupe Carney community of Col?n, with more than 600 families making up 45 cooperative peasant organizations, is in an ongoing state of siege, continuously threatened and attacked by the army and paramilitary forces in the northeast Department of Col?n. *ARBITRARY DETENTIONS* 1,275 people arrested between June 29 and July 21 for protesting against the coup d?etat. Arbitrary application of the curfew, converting entire regions of the country into concentration camps, as occurred in the Department of El Para?so where some 5,000 people were trapped without food or water from July 24-26. *JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS BEING CARRIED OUT AGAINST ANTI-COUP PROTESTERS* ?Marcelino Mart?nez ?Carlos Josu? Bueso ?Joel Armando Mart?nez ?Gerson Adolfo Fajardo ?Junio Ant?nez ?Martha Ileana Hern?ndez *ATTACKS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION* Militarization and temporary closures of Radio Globo, Radio Progreso, Maya Tv and Canal 36 during the first days of the coup. Machine-gunning of the studio of Radio Tegucigalpa. Signals for these channels blocked, and electricity cuts specifically targeting media outlets. ?Death threats and intimidation against journalists, including: ?Johny Lagos (El Libertador) ?Luis Galdames (host of the radio program ?Going after the truth?/?Tras la verdad?) ?Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno (Radio Progreso) ?Romell G?mez (Radio Progreso) ?Reflection and Communication Team/ERIC (Radio Progreso) ?Jorge Orlando Anderson (television program ?La Cumbre? on Bonito Oriental) ?Nah?m Palacios (Televisora del Agu?n, Canal 5) ?Wilfredo Paz (Centro de Noticias de Col?n) Temporary arrests of independent journalists for their opposition to the coup, including: ?Romell G?mez (Radio Progreso) Shutting down of the program ?Voices against oblivion/forgetting? of the Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) which had been transmitting uninterrupted for 20 years. *XENOPHOBIC CAMPAIGN* More than 100 Nicaraguan citizens arbitrarily detained for long periods of time without charge, subjected to abusive treatment, denied the right to contact their consular representatives and jailed with common criminals under the argument that they represented an ?external threat,? despite the fact that the de facto government presented no evidence against them. -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cwelch at tecschange.org Thu Aug 13 05:42:08 2009 From: cwelch at tecschange.org (Charlie Welch) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:42:08 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Honduran Coup Government Continues Attack on the Poor with Plan to Seize Indigenous Hospital Message-ID: <4A840A20.8020704@tecschange.org> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Thu Aug 13 08:22:23 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:22:23 -0400 Subject: [HNA] MEDICC: Action Alert: Takeover of Indigenous Garifuna Community Hospital Message-ID: Here is the alert from Dr. Luther Castillo, who was part of the delegation who recently visited us. His Garifuna community hospital has come under attack and they need us to take action... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: MEDICC Atlanta Date: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 9:07 AM Subject: Takeover of Indigenous Garifuna Community Hospital To: krajaram at fas.harvard.edu * * *Takeover of Indigenous Garifuna Community Hospital* * [image: Before and After -hospital] August 11 *- Despite objections by local Garifuna communities, Honduras' defacto government is moving to take over the first and only Garifuna-managed hospital in the country, ousting its current staff. The facility-built by Dr. Luther Castillo, other Garifuna doctors, local architects, and the communities themselves-is located in the remote coastal municipality of Iriona. Last week, says Dr. Castillo, the defacto ministry of health notified hospital staff that the facility was being downgraded to a health center "under new management". "They told us that the Garifuna staff-both doctors and locally-trained nurses aides-will be fired," he told MEDICC. "These measures would condemn to death many of our old and seriously ill people, and stop all outreach and prevention services." However, he said the staff is staying put, and vows to continue working, even without the small stipend the government had provided in the past and with no guarantee of medicines or vital supplies. *"We will not abandon our people," said Dr. Castillo. "These are the poorest of the poor, the invisible poor. They are the real victims of the coup*," he told MEDICC."And they are the reason so many of our young people decided to become doctors in the first place." Some 300 representatives of local Garifuna governments gathered last week to support the hospital and its staff, and have declared they will not recognize the defacto government's takeover move. The Garifuna hospital officially opened in December 2007, under an agreement with the government of President Manuel Zelaya, and in accordance with an International Labor Organization covenant that supports locally-managed health services for indigenous and tribal peoples. Since then, according to Dr. Castillo, the ten Garifuna doctors staffing the hospital have treated over 175,000 cases. The physicians-all graduates of the Latin American Medical School in Havana-attend patients at outlying clinics and on regular home visits. The original government agreement permitted this medically underserved region to rely on hospital services, including birthing, surgeries, hospitalization, dental care and laboratory tests. *TAKE ACTION NOW! * *MEDICC is joining other U.S. organizations such as Global Links ( www.globallinks.org) to stand with the staff and over 30,000 patients of the only Garifuna Community Hospital in Honduras.* Here's what you can do: *1) DONATE to keep the hospital alive. * Your donation to Honduras' First Garifuna Hospital will help pay small stipends to physicians and nurses' aides, and help stock the hospital with essential medicines and supplies. *( **Donate Here* *) * *2) SPEAK UP! *Take this message to your city council, labor union, student or professional organization, asking them to pass a resolution in support of the Garifuna Indigenous Hospital in Honduras. Send these resolutions to us, and publicize them in your local media and on the web. *3) GET READY TO GO* on a delegation to Honduras as a "Witness for Health" to help guarantee the safety and rights of the Garifuna hospital staff. More information coming soon. *4) Urge the US government to act:* Contact the White House, the State Department and your Congressional representatives. Press them to use the US government's influence to guarantee respect for the lives of Dr. Castillo, his colleagues and all those protesting the coup. State Department: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339. White House: Comments: 202-456-1111, Switchboard: 202-456-1414 *Contact your Senators here: www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm * * * *Contact your Congresspeople here: ** https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml * *5) Keep Honduras in the public eye:* Circulate this alert widely. GO ON THE WEB: use your blogs, listservs and networks to get the word out. *More Background *Since 1999, Luther Castillo has directed the Luaga Hatuadi Waduhe?u Foundation ("For the Health of our People" in Garifuna), dedicated to bringing vital health services to isolated indigenous coastal communities. After his 2005 graduation from the Latin American Medical School in Havana, Dr. Castillo returned to the Honduran coast, where he led construction of Honduras' first Garifuna Rural Hospital, now serving some 30,000 in the surrounding communities. The hospital opened in December 2007, just months after Dr. Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by Rotary International's Tegucigalpa chapter. "Thank you for inspiring me," said California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, speaking at the hospital's opening ceremony. [image: Dr. Castillo] *The hospital and its community health outreach are supported by a number of U.S. and other international organizations*, including the Sacramento, California Central Labor Council, Global Links, The Birthing Project, and MEDICC. Several US medical schools also have cooperative arrangements with the Garifuna hospital, including Johns Hopkins, Emory, Charles Drew and University of California (SF). Eight Cuban physicians and nurses also provide specialized services and academic training at the hospital. A few weeks before the coup, Dr. Castillo was named director of International Cooperation in the Honduran Foreign Ministry. Since July 3rd, he has been included on a list of persons whose lives and safety were declared "at risk" by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Dr. Castillo is featured in *?Salud!* (www.saludthefilm.net), a documentary film that received the Council on Foundations Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media (USA). MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba), www.medicc.org, is a US non-governmental organization working to enhance cooperation among the U.S., Cuban and global health communities aimed at better health outcomes. Forward email [image: Safe Unsubscribe] This email was sent to krajaram at fas.harvard.edu by admin1 at mediccglobal.org. Update Profile/Email Address| Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe? | Privacy Policy . Email Marketingby MEDICC | 1814 Franklin Street | Suite 500 | Oakland | CA | 94612 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Thu Aug 13 11:16:45 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:16:45 +0000 Subject: [HNA] =?windows-1252?q?Invitation=3A_Night_in_Solidarity_with_the?= =?windows-1252?q?_Honduran_Resistance_=40_Fri_Aug_14_7pm_=96_Sat_A?= =?windows-1252?q?ug_15=2C_2009_12am_=28announce=40hondurasresists?= =?windows-1252?q?=2Eorg=29?= Message-ID: <0016e6409b3437b7c6047109f003@google.com> announce at hondurasresists.org, you are invited to Title: Night in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Time: Fri Aug 14 7pm ? Sat Aug 15, 2009 12am (Timezone: Eastern Time) Where: Encuentro 5, 22 Harrison Ave. Boston (Chinatown) Calendar: announce at hondurasresists.org Owner/Creator: elektrodread at gmail.com Description: Friday, August 14, 2009, 7:00 p.m., encuentro 533 Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111 see http://www.encuentro5.org for directions Cultural Night in Solidarity with the Honduran ResistanceMusic: Ernesto Arroyo, Lady Enchantress, Sergio Reyes, Simon Rios, Rafael Medina Featuring: Honduras photo slideshow, dancing, food PRESENTED BY: Proyecto Hondure?o/ Committee in solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Endorsed by: American Friends Service Comittee- Project Voice, Centro Presente, Boston May Day Committee, Bolivarian Circle Martin Luther King, Massachussets Global Action, Chelsea United Against the War, CISPES For more information contact: Tito Meza at 617-610-3784 proyectohondureno at gmail.com Simon Rios at 603-882-7894 elektrodread at gmail.com Flyer in English (pdf) Flyer in Spanish (pdf) For upcoming events and the latest information please visit us at: http://hondurasresists.org _______________________________________________ update mailing list update at massglobalaction.org http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/update_massglobalaction.org TO UNSUBSCRIBE PLEASE VISIT: http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/update_massglobalaction.org _______________________________________________ committee mailing list committee at hondurasresists.org http://hondurasresists.org/mailman/listinfo/committee_hondurasresists.org -- Simon Rios(603)882-7894 You can view this event at http://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=dDJ1NGUzZm9hcWhtdjVsa3IzNDk2dGEycG8gYW5ub3VuY2VAaG9uZHVyYXNyZXNpc3RzLm9yZw&tok=MjIjZWxla3Ryb2RyZWFkQGdtYWlsLmNvbWQ5ZWJlOWQ0MGI5ODI0ZTA1ODU2MjIyYzg4OGFlZjQ1YTRmZGNjZGU&ctz=America%2FNew_York&hl=en You are receiving this courtesy email at the account announce at hondurasresists.org because you are an attendee of this event. To stop receiving future notifications for this event, decline this event. Alternatively you can sign up for a Google account at http://www.google.com/calendar/ and control your notification settings for your entire calendar. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/calendar Size: 3965 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: invite.ics Type: application/ics Size: 4032 bytes Desc: not available URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Thu Aug 13 11:16:46 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:16:46 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Reminder: Cultural Night in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Message-ID: <1d602de70908131116h16d6fe80ybf3b66c911202859@mail.gmail.com> Friday, August 14, 2009, 7:00 p.m., encuentro 533 Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02111 see http://www.encuentro5.org for directions Cultural Night in Solidarity with the Honduran ResistanceMusic: Ernesto Arroyo, Lady Enchantress, Sergio Reyes, Simon Rios, Rafael Medina Featuring: Honduras photo slideshow, dancing, food PRESENTED BY: Proyecto Hondure?o/ Committee in solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Endorsed by: American Friends Service Comittee- Project Voice, Centro Presente, Boston May Day Committee, Bolivarian Circle Martin Luther King, Massachussets Global Action, Chelsea United Against the War, CISPES For more information contact: Tito Meza at 617-610-3784 proyectohondureno at gmail.com Simon Rios at 603-882-7894 elektrodread at gmail.com Flyer in English (pdf) Flyer in Spanish (pdf) For upcoming events and the latest information please visit us at: http://hondurasresists.org _______________________________________________ update mailing list update at massglobalaction.org http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/update_massglobalaction.org TO UNSUBSCRIBE PLEASE VISIT: http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/update_massglobalaction.org _______________________________________________ committee mailing list committee at hondurasresists.org http://hondurasresists.org/mailman/listinfo/committee_hondurasresists.org -- Simon Rios (603)882-7894 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: invite20090814T190000.ics Type: application/ics Size: 3857 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Fri Aug 14 14:53:29 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:53:29 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Fwd: Demand Fair Reporting on Honduras In-Reply-To: <1106343174.-2136394965@org.orgDB.mail.democracyinaction.org> References: <1106343174.-2136394965@org.orgDB.mail.democracyinaction.org> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Just Foreign Policy Date: Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 5:38 PM Subject: Demand Fair Reporting on Honduras To: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com [image: Just Foreign Policy] Dear Kaveri, Thank you for all that you have done so far to increase U.S. pressure on the coup regime in Honduras. While the Obama administration's previous round of targeted sanctions demonstrated great promise in helping to reverse the coup, the administration has since appeared to back down from its position of active support for the reinstatement of President Zelaya. [1] This may be at least in part due to the outspoken opinions of a few Senators and Congressmen who wish to allow the coup to stand. [2] One reason there hasn't been more public pressure on the Obama Administration to help Latin America reverse the coup in Honduras is that repression in Honduras and opposition in the U.S. Congress have been under-reported in the U.S. press. Will you help us ask the Miami Herald and McClatchy News to report on repression in Honduras since the coup and opposition to the coup in Congress? http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/herald Human rights observers and international media have documented the killings of at least ten people - mostly of supporters of ousted president Manuel Zelaya, and all apparently politically motivated - since the coup. [3] This week, Rep. Raul Grijalva and 15 other Congressmen wrote to President Obama, asking him to speak up about the repression in Honduras, and to cancel U.S. visas and freeze U.S. bank accounts of leaders of the coup regime. [4] But while the Miami Herald - a very influential newspaper in its reporting on U.S. policy in Latin America - and McClatchy News, the Herald's parent company, have reported on Congressional support for the coup, they haven't reported either of these key facts. Could you urge the Miami Herald to report on repression in Honduras since the coup and calls in Congress for the Obama Administration to take further measures against the coup regime? http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/herald Thank you for all you do for a just foreign policy, Megan Iorio, Chelsea Mozen, Sarah Burns and Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy *Help us build for a Just Foreign Policy* Your financial contributions to Just Foreign Policy help us create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html References: 1) "In Honduras, Simon Says End Your Coup," Robert Naiman, Huffington Post, July 31, 2009 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/in-honduras-simon-says-en_b_248813.html 2) "U.S. cools its support for reinstating Honduras' Manuel Zelaya," Tyler Bridges, Miami Herald, August 7, 2009 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1175216.html?storylink=pd 3) "Obama Administration Should Demand an End to Coup Regime's Killings in Honduras, CEPR Co-Director Urges," Center for Economic and Policy Research, August 13, 2009 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/obama-administration-should-demand-an-end-to-coup-regimes-killings/ 4) "Grijalva, Members of Congress call on President Obama to take further measures against Honduran coup regime," Tuesday August 11, 2009 http://grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=13§iontree=5,13&itemid=413 ? 2009 Just Foreign Policy Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Fri Aug 14 21:04:35 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:04:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?Fiscal=EDa_=28de_facto=29_acusa_de_sedici=F3?= =?iso-8859-1?q?n_y_da=F1os_a_zelayistas?= Message-ID: <950494.87388.qm@web38906.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Fiscal?a acusa de sedici?n y da?os a zelayistas 14.Agosto.09 - Actualizado: 14.08.09 03:56pm - AP y Redacci?n: redaccion at laprensa.hn San Pedro Sula, Honduras La Fiscal?a acus? hoy de "sedici?n y da?os" a dos docenas de partidarios del presidente derrocado Manuel Zelaya arrestados tras protestas para exigir la restituci?n de su l?der, medida considerada como "represi?n judicial" por el movimiento que rechaza al gobierno. La fiscal?a de Delitos Comunes encaus? por robo, sedici?n, da?os a la propiedad privada y manifestaciones il?citas contra la seguridad del Estado a 24 personas, de las cuales 13 quedaron en libertad condicionada la madrugada del viernes pero siguen con los cargos vigentes. Los otros 11 permanecen detenidos en la Penitenciaria Nacional, inform? Melvin Duarte, vocero del Ministerio P?blico. Otras cuatro personas arrestadas el martes fueron acusadas de "incendio agravado y terrorismo" por los disturbios del martes, cuando un autob?s y un restaurante de comida r?pida fueron incendiados. Tambi?n quedaron en libertad condicional. El Ej?rcito y Polic?a Nacional desalojaron a zelayistas que manten?an palizado el tr?nsito en la carretera de San Pedro Sula a Puerto Cort?s a la altura de Choloma. Eulogio Ch?vez uno de los l?deres del llamado Frente de Resistencia contra rechaz? las acusaciones hacia los manifestantes y se?al? que el gobierno "se est? aprovechando de que tiene los tribunales en sus manos". El fiscal general adjunto, Roy Urtecho, defendi? la objetividad con que se adelantan las investigaciones. Durante los 48 d?as de manifestaciones, su despacho "ha tenido una relaci?n estrecha con la Polic?a Nacional para decirle por medio de la fiscal?a de Derechos Humanos que toda acci?n que ellos realicen debe estar enmarcados en ley", asegur?. El Frente denunci? en la v?spera en la fiscal?a de derechos humanos una serie de violaciones de las que responsabilizan a las fuerzas de seguridad. "Nosotros debemos buscar la transparencia y la objetividad en los casos y velar por los derechos humanos tantos de los que se manifestan pac?ficamente como los que se manifiestan violentamente", se?al?. Micheletti asegur? en la v?spera que no permitir? nuevos disturbios. La polic?a ha asegurado que las detenciones cumplen con el debido proceso y las leyes. La activista Bertha Oliva y coordinadora del Comit? de Familiares de Desaparecidos acus? a las fuerzas de seguridad de violar las garant?as procesales de los detenidos y de manifestantes que han resultaron golpeados y heridos durante las protestas. Oliva sostuvo que si se les acusa del delito de "sedici?n" implica que son "presos pol?ticos". La condena por ese delito es entre cinco y diez a?os de prisi?n. El Frente, integrado por educadores, campesinos y una facci?n del Partido Liberal al que pertenecen Zelaya y Micheletti, asegur? que las manifestaciones son pac?fica y los disturbios lo originan paramilitares infiltrados. "No quemamos el edificio de comida r?pida, el mismo due?o del bus dice que el Frente no es responsable, conocimos que cuatro personas que se bajaron de un busito (microb?s)" provocaron el incendio, asegur? Ch?vez. Para el lunes llegar? a Tegucigalpa una misi?n de la Comisi?n Interamericana de Derechos Humanos para evaluar el cumplimiento de los derechos humanos despu?s del derrocamiento de Zelaya, el 28 de junio. El Frente, la organizaci?n que desde el golpe de estado del 28 de junio protesta sistem?ticamente contra el gobierno de facto instaurado en el pa?s y exige la restituci?n de Zelaya, realiz? el viernes una nueva marcha en la capital hondure?a. Una misi?n enviada por Micheletti hace tres d?as a Washington retorn? a Tegucigalpa el viernes, luego de reunirse con senadores, congresistas, funcionarios estadounidenses y el secretario general de la Organizaci?n de los Estados Americanos (OEA), Jos? Miguel Insulza. "A todos les explicamos detalladamente lo ocurrido en Honduras antes, durante y despu?s del 28 de junio... venimos muy optimistas", dijo en el aeropuerto internacional uno de los emisarios, Mauricio Villeda. A?n no definen la fecha en que llegar? a Tegucigalpa una comitiva de cancilleres regionales enviados por la OEA a impulsar el Acuerdo de San Jos?, propuesto por el presidente de Costa Rica Oscar Arias, quien actu? como mediador, como una salida a la crisis del pa?s. From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 15 12:47:47 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:47:47 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Against the Coup in Honduras (song) Message-ID: <986867.64412.qm@web38901.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Against the military coup... (song) Music/Lyrics by Sergio Reyes Dedicated to the popular resistance in Honduras. Again the boot steps on the people the boots of the Honduran gorilas again they kill their own people to defend their masters privileges. But we have a popular saying "there is no evil that doesn't bring some good" now our people are marching on and nobody will stop them. To listen to the song click here. ? To read full lyrics and chord indications go to http://hondurasresists.org ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sun Aug 16 12:39:07 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:39:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Petras: las bases en Colombia y la resistencia en Honduras Message-ID: <469927.81625.qm@web38902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Petras: las bases en Colombia y la resistencia en Honduras 8/12/2009.- Contrario al discurso oficial del r?gimen colombiano, que presenta las bases militares gringas como la continuaci?n de viejos acuerdos militares, donde el gobierno nacional tendr? control sobre lo que ocurra en las mismas. La realidad, es que esas bases ser?n parte de la extensi?n de la influencia estadounidense en AL , en ellas se suspender? la soberan?a nacional y los soldados colombianos terminar?n limpi?ndole las botas a los marines gringos. Sobre todo el contenido pol?tico-estrat?gico de ese acuerdo militar en Colombia y en AL, le presentamos en Anncol (Agencia Nacional de Noticias de Colombia) una entrevista exclusiva, con el profesor estadounidense James Petras, realizada por la investigadora Sara Leukos. [ + ] ? Lea el art?culo completo en www.hondurasresists.org ? ---------------------------------------------- Sign the on-line petitions demanding that the U.S. sign the UN Convention on Migrant Workers Rights http://www.bostonmayday.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michelle.fuentes at gmail.com Wed Aug 19 09:19:08 2009 From: michelle.fuentes at gmail.com (Michelle Fuentes) Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:19:08 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Amesty International Report on Human Rights Violations Honduras Message-ID: Honduras: human rights crisis threatens as repression increasesAmnesty International Report 8/19/2009 ?*We were demonstrating peacefully. Suddenly, the police came towards us, and I started running. They grabbed me and shouted ?why do you (all) support Zelaya?s government? Whether it?s by choice or by force, you have to be with this government?. They beat me. I have not yet been informed as to why I am here detained.?* [?Fernando?, 52 year-old teacher, at a police station in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 30 July 2009] A delegation from Amnesty International visited Honduras from 28 July ? 1 August 2009 to investigate reports of human rights violations following the military-backed *coup d?etat* on 28 June. The delegation held meetings with representatives from across a wide range of civil society and visited persons in detention and several people receiving medical treatment in hospitals. Where requested, the identity of those interviewed has been withheld for their own safety. Amnesty International is concerned that those wishing to participate in peaceful protests against the *de facto* government risk being physically attacked or being arbitrarily detained. Amnesty International is also concerned that female protestors are particularly vulnerable and that some women and girls taking part in the demonstrations are reportedly suffering gender based violence and abuse at the hands of police officers. Amnesty International is further concerned at the threats and physical attacks carried out by police and military personnel against media workers who are legitimately carrying out their important work covering events in Honduras. Intimidation of human rights defenders, increased restrictions on the ability of human rights defenders to move freely around the country and the erratic imposition of curfews are frustrating the capacity of civil society to monitor human rights violations across the country and limiting the essential and legitimate work of human rights defenders. Police and military commanding officers must immediately implement processes to prevent violence, abuse and use of excessive force. The attorney general?s office has an obligation to actively investigate all reports of abuse, ill-treatment and torture and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. Amnesty International urges the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights to pursue such complaints and calls on the police and military authorities to cooperate fully with the investigations. *Amnesty International strongly urges the international community to intensify efforts to find a solution to the political crisis in order to prevent the spiral into a human rights emergency in Honduras.* -- -Michelle Fuentes "Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." Kahlil Gibran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Honduras Amnesty International.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 423284 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Wed Aug 19 17:56:55 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:56:55 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Action Alert: Honduras Testimonies Show Extent of Police Violence Message-ID: *Action Alert: **Urge the Miami Herald and McClatchy to Report on Amnesty's Charges* No word yet from the Miami Herald or McClatchy on the Amnesty International report, although it has been reported by CNN, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and AP. Send the Herald and McClatchy a note. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/herald * Amnesty International: Honduras Testimonies Show Extent of Police Violence* There has been very little attention in the U.S. press to repression in Honduras under the coup regime. Hopefully, that will now change: Amnesty International issued a report today documenting "serious ill-treatment by police and military of peaceful protesters" in Honduras, warning that "beatings and mass arrests are being used as a way of punishing people for voicing their opposition" to the coup. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/298 *Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy* Your financial contributions to Just Foreign Policy help us create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html *Summary:* *U.S./Top News <#12334ff62dd1ba89_August1909w1>* 1) Amnesty International says in the seven weeks since the coup in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, CNN reports. "Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent," said Amnesty's Central America researcher. 2) A Washington Post-ABC News poll says a majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, the Washington Post reports. Majorities of liberals and Democrats solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troops. Nearly two-thirds of liberals stand against a troop increase, as do about six in 10 Democrats. Women have shifted against the war more sharply than men and are far more apt to say troop levels should be decreased (51 percent) than are men (38 percent). Nearly six in 10 women say the war was not worth fighting. 3) U.S. envoy Holbrooke met with Liaqat Baloch, a leader of Pakistan's "anti-American" Jamaat-i-Islami party, the Los Angeles Times reports. Jamaat-i-Islami is one of the most influential Pakistani Islamist parties, and its anti-American views are widely shared, U.S. officials say. A US official described the conversation as a major outreach effort. Baloch told Holbrooke he welcomed Obama's declarations that he wants a better relationship with the Muslim world. But he insisted that, with American drone strikes in Pakistan and troops in Afghanistan, "there still is no change in the practice." 4) The Obama administration and Syria agreed to establish a committee with Iraq to monitor the Syrian-Iraqi border as the U.S. draws down troops from Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reports. In June, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said there had been a significant decrease in foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria. "The Baathists have been coming under a lot of pressure in the last few months," said one diplomat. "Some have been kicked out, some have been told to shut up." Syria's moves seem to be a response to Obama's active outreach efforts, the Journal says. The administration has announced the return of a U.S ambassador to Damascus and eased U.S. sanctions. 5) A State Department report says Mexico's fight against drug traffickers generated a sixfold increase in human rights complaints against the Mexican military between 2006 and 2008, and it is unclear any of those complaints resulted in prosecutions, the New York Times reports. Senator Leahy said the report failed to adequately address the concerns about impunity within the Mexican military that led him to threaten to hold up millions of dollars in U.S. assistance. A spokeswoman for the Miguel August?n Pro Ju?rez Human Rights Center called on the U.S. to withhold the funds. 6) The US said it had complained to Israel about restrictions on the travel of US citizens of Palestinian origin, calling the measures "unacceptable," AFP reports. Israel has been issuing entry stamps for some travelers, mostly those of Arab ancestry, stating that they are only allowed in the Palestinian Authority and cannot transit through Israel. "We have made it quite known to the Israeli government ... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin," the State Department said. * Israel/Palestine <#12334ff62dd1ba89_August1909w2>* 7) Israel's housing minister said his government had not given final approval for any new housing projects in the West Bank since it took office, the New York Times reports. Peace Now said more than 1,000 Israeli housing units are currently under construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The group noted that Israel has not issued invitations for new bids since November 2008, but that government-sponsored construction accounts for only about 40 percent of building in the settlements while private building initiated by settler groups continues. 8) Israel has declared the shooting of unarmed American demonstrator Tristan Anderson in the West Bank to be an "act of war," the Palestine Media Center reports. Anderson was critically injured in March when Israeli soldiers shot him in the forehead with a high velocity tear gas canister. He remains unconscious in Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer Hospital. Attorney Leah Tsemel said the "act of war" designation releases the government from paying compensation, and that Israel makes this designation "all the time," in cases involving Palestinian victims. * Cuba <#12334ff62dd1ba89_August1909w3>* 9) A delegation of U.S. Catholic leaders urged the Obama administration to seize what they called a rare political opportunity to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, AP reports. Bishop Thomas Wenski said the delegation came away from a meeting with U.S. officials with the impression that U.S. policy toward Cuba is under review and that "their approach seems to be piece by piece." He urged a quicker pace after "50 years of lack of confidence on both sides." Cuba has pushed for release of the "Cuban Five," men convicted of being unregistered foreign agents by a Miami court. Cuba says the men were trying to avoid terrorist attacks on the island. *Peru <#12334ff62dd1ba89_August1909w4>* 10) Some experts say Peru could displace Colombia in 2011 as the world's biggest producer of coca, the raw material of cocaine, EFE reports, citing La Republica. Peru, like Bolivia, allows cultivation of coca in small quantities for use in teas, folk remedies and Andean religious rites. *Contents: U.S./Top News* 1) Police brutality rampant in Honduras, amnesty report says CNN, August 19, 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/08/19/honduras.amnesty.report/index.html In the seven weeks since the military-backed bloodless coup ["bloodless"?! - JFP] in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, a new Amnesty International report says. The report, released Wednesday, said the beatings were meant to punish those who opposed the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in June. It includes testimony from, and photographs of, several people who were baton-whipped and detained by police officers who sometimes wore no visible identification and hid their faces behind bandanas as they broke up demonstrations. "They beat us if we raised our heads; they beat us when they were getting us into the police cars," said a student whom Amnesty International interviewed in late July at the police station where he was being detained. "They said, 'Cry and we'll stop.'" Multiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered. The government has said in the past that the demonstrators were arrested for engaging in violence and provoking authorities. [...] Among several examples, the Amnesty report quotes F.M., a 52-year-old teacher, who said he was demonstrating peacefully when police descended on the rally. "They grabbed me and shouted, 'Why do you (all) support Zelaya's government?' They beat me. I have not been informed as to why I am detained." He showed deep-red imprints on his back, which he said were from a beating with a baton. "Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing," said Esther Major, Amnesty's Central America researcher. 2) Majority in Post-ABC Poll Say Afghan War Not Worth Fighting Few Express Confidence in Lasting Results From Thursday's Election Jennifer Agiesta and Jon Cohen, Washington Post, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 4:58 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/19/AR2009081903066.html A majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. ... The new poll comes amid widespread speculation that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, will request more troops for his stepped-up effort to root the Taliban from Afghan towns and villages. That is a position that gets the backing of 24 percent of those polled, while nearly twice as many, 45 percent, want to decrease the number of military forces there. (Most of the remainder say to keep the level about the same.) In January, before President Obama authorized sending an additional 17,000 troops to the country, public sentiment tilted more strongly toward a troop increase. Should President Obama embrace his general's call for even more U.S. military forces, he risks alienating some of his staunchest supporters While 60 percent of all Americans approve of how Obama has handled the situation in Afghanistan, his ratings among liberals have slipped and majorities of liberals and Democrats alike now, for the first time, solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troops. Overall, seven in 10 Democrats say the war has not been worth its costs, and fewer than one in five support an increase in troop levels. Nearly two-thirds of the most committed Democrats now feel "strongly" that the war was not worth fighting. Among moderate and conservative Democrats, a slim majority say the United States is losing in Afghanistan. [...] Among all adults, 51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting, up six points since last month and four points above the previous high, reached in February. Less than half, 47 percent, say the war is worth its costs. Those strongly opposed (41 percent) outweigh strong proponents (31 percent). [...] Among liberals, his rating on handling the war, which he calls one of "necessity," has fallen swiftly, with strong approval cratering by 20 points. Nearly two-thirds of liberals stand against a troop increase, as do about six in 10 Democrats. [...] Beyond ideological and partisan divisions on the war, women have shifted against the war more sharply than men and are far more apt to say troop levels should be decreased (51 percent) than are men (38 percent). Nearly six in 10 women say the war was not worth fighting, up from just under half last month. 3) U.S. envoy has 'useful dialogue' with anti-American Pakistani leader The Islamist politician speaks warmly to Richard Holbrooke, then drives off to a demonstration against the U.S. presence in the region. The talks illustrate the Obama approach to foreign policy. Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2009 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-holbrooke19-2009aug19,0,6301902.story Islamabad, Pakistan - Obama administration officials have pledged to talk to world leaders no matter their views. On Tuesday, they showed that the offer extends to Islamists who spend the day denouncing America from the street corners. U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke met with Liaqat Baloch, a leader of Pakistan's Jamaat-i-Islami party. About an hour later, as the bearded scholar prepared to depart for an anti-American rally across town, the veteran diplomat said that despite their disagreements, the meeting had begun "a very useful dialogue." Pakistan is eager for U.S. aid, but many people are wary of U.S. intentions. Jamaat-i-Islami has limited leverage in the government, but it is one of the most influential Pakistani Islamist parties, and its anti-American views are widely shared, U.S. officials say. One of Holbrooke's aides described the conversation as a major outreach effort for the United States, roughly equivalent to talking to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian Islamist party that Washington shuns. [...] Baloch pressed Holbrooke on one of the most passionate issues of the moment, suspicions that a planned expansion of the U.S. Embassy is aimed at turning the compound into a military base. Baloch has charged that the United States has a secret plan to build a military "cantonment" as a prelude to trying to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Suspicions about such a base have generated dozens of news stories recently, despite diplomats' insistence that they are adding 16 acres only to accommodate staff members needed to help implement the U.S. aid program, which is to grow fourfold in the next 18 months. A Pakistani journalist challenged Holbrooke in a group interview Monday to explain why the United States wanted to build "a fortress in the middle of the capital." Holbrooke invited Baloch to come to the embassy to examine the blueprints. "We have no secrets on this," he said. Baloch told Holbrooke that he welcomed Obama's declarations that he wants a better relationship with the Muslim world. But he insisted that, with American drone strikes in Pakistan and troops in Afghanistan, "there still is no change in the practice." Holbrooke contended that the new administration had changed policy from the Bush days in "dozens" of respects. He said the administration had halted the effort to eradicate Afghan poppy crops, tightened rules on Afghan military strikes to avoid civilian casualties, and was increasing economic aid to Pakistan. But Holbrooke insisted that he wouldn't support a withdrawal from Afghanistan, as Baloch wanted, until the country was no longer at risk of descending into turmoil. [...] 4) Damascus Agrees To Help Monitor Iraqi Border Syria Plans to Join Baghdad and the U.S. In Bid to Boost Security in the Region Jay Solomon and Julien Barnes-Dacey, Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2009 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125063522892541469.html The Obama administration and Damascus tentatively agreed to establish a tripartite committee, with Baghdad, to better monitor the Syrian-Iraqi border as the Pentagon draws down American troops from Iraq in coming months, said senior U.S. officials. The proposed three-way border-control assessments could boost Iraqi security and patch one of the region's most volatile fault lines. The initiative was made by a team of U.S. Central Command officers and their Syrian counterparts last week in Damascus. The pact awaits the green light from Baghdad, which expressed frustration at being excluded from the U.S.-Syrian talks, saying they violated Iraqi sovereignty on security matters. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Tuesday. A statement issued late in the day by the Iraqi prime minister's office in Baghdad said only that the two sides "discussed the expansion of the Iraqi and Syrian cooperation" in border control. "Both governments are working seriously and practically to deal with all the issues," added Alaa al-Jawadi, the Iraqi ambassador in Damascus. "The Syrians have been positive with us." [...] The Pentagon regularly accused Syria of facilitating the flow of foreign fighters and al Qaeda militants into Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. In June, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said there had been a significant decrease in the number of foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria. But U.S. officials also say there are issues to resolve. "We're still a little bit concerned with Syria's role in this," Gen. Odierno told reporters in Baghdad on Monday. "I think our bilateral discussions with them are important." Syria says it has detained more than 1,700 militants, blocked potential combatants from passing through the country en route to Iraq and imposed stricter border policing. Syria also appears to have cracked down on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime who fled to Damascus after the Iraqi invasion. "The Baathists have been coming under a lot of pressure in the last few months," said one senior Western diplomat. "Some have been kicked out, some have been told to shut up." Syria's moves seem to be a response to President Barack Obama's increasingly active outreach efforts. The administration has announced the return of a U.S ambassador to Damascus and recently eased U.S. sanctions in an apparent bid to draw Syria away from its alliance with Iran. [...] 5) Mexico Drug Fight Fuels Complaints Ginger Thompson and Marc Lacey, New York Times, August 19, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/americas/19mexico.html Washington - Mexico's fight against drug traffickers generated a sixfold increase in human rights complaints against the Mexican military between 2006 and 2008, and it is unclear that any of those complaints resulted in prosecutions, according to a State Department report on the effort. The 17-page report was delivered to Congress last week as part of a joint counternarcotics program known as the Merida Initiative. The $1.4 billion initiative, passed by Congress last year, provides equipment and training to Mexican security forces. But it also calls for 15 percent of the money to be withheld until the State Department verifies that the government is meeting four human rights requirements, including the prosecution of police officers and soldiers responsible for abuses. While the State Department cited several examples of progress, it was hardly a glowing endorsement. And a key Democratic senator said the report failed to adequately address the concerns about impunity within the Mexican military that led him to threaten to hold up millions of dollars in United States assistance. "It is well known that the military justice system is manifestly ineffective," said a statement issued Tuesday by Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, which must approve disbursement of the Merida assistance. "And it is apparent that neither the Mexican government nor the State Department has treated human rights abuses by the military, which is engaging in an internal police function it is ill suited for, as a priority." [...] But as the troops' presence on the streets has increased, the State Department reported, so have the number of complaints against them. Between 2006 and 2008, they rose to 1,230, from 182, the report said. In all, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has received some 2,050 complaints against soldiers since Mr. Calder?n took office at the end of 2006. Based on those complaints, the human rights commission - which is financed by the Mexican government - issued 26 recommendations for follow-up to the Defense Ministry. The ministry agreed to consider 25 of them. And since soldiers accused of abuses are generally prosecuted in closed military tribunals, it was impossible to tell whether any complaints had resulted in punishments. "The information received from the Mexican government regarding these cases," the report said, "and the opaqueness of the military court system makes it difficult to analyze the nature and the type of complaints filed, the status of the cases against members of the military alleged to have violated human rights, or the results of the military prosecution." The State Department report says the head of a newly established military human rights directorate had announced that military courts had convicted 12 soldiers since 2006 and were investigating an additional 52 officers in connection with offenses including homicide, torture, kidnapping and extortion. However, the State Department acknowledged that little was known about these cases. [...] Human Rights Watch, which has been documenting abuses in Mexico, responded hours later with two cases, both from Mr. Calder?n's home state of Michoac?n, in which soldiers accused of torture two years ago have not been prosecuted. In an interview on Tuesday, Madeleine Penman, a spokeswoman for the Miguel August?n Pro Ju?rez Human Rights Center, called on the United States to withhold the funds. "There is very little evidence of action on human rights by the Mexican government," she said. "We do not think that simply backing up Felipe Calder?n's fight against organized crime helps at all with rule of law in Mexico." 6) US complains to Israel on Palestinian-American entry rules AFP, August 19, 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090819/pl_afp/mideastisraelpalestinianusimmigrationdiplomacy_20090819201903 The United States said Wednesday it had complained to Israel about restrictions on the travel of US citizens of Palestinian origin, calling the measures "unacceptable." The State Department said that Israel has been issuing entry stamps for some travelers, mostly those of Arab ancestry, stating that they are only allowed in the Palestinian Authority and cannot transit through Israel. "We have made it quite known to the Israeli government ... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "These kinds of restrictions we consider unacceptable," Kelly told reporters. "We will continue to protest." The State Department, in a recent travel advisory, warned that Israeli immigration authorities may write a Palestinian Authority identification number in a passport, regardless of whether the traveler has US citizenship or even held Palestinian documentation previously. Such travelers are then required to carry Palestinian travel documents and may be refused use of Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, the country's main international gateway. Instead, the travelers must transit through the Allenby Bridge connecting the West Bank and Jordan. Due to Israeli checkpoints, this means they effectively cannot go to Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities recently started to stamp in visitors' passports whether they are heading to Israel or the Palestinian territories, potentially preventing them from travelling to both. Israel's tourism ministry on Monday denounced the restrictions introduced by the interior ministry, warning they would damage Israel's reputation and impede some of the millions of pilgrims who flock each year to religious sites across the region. In some cases, Israeli immigration has given such "Palestinian Authority only" stamps even to travelers with no apparent Palestinian origin, according to the State Department. * Israel/Palestine* 7) Settlement Building Is in 'Waiting Period,' Israel's Housing Minister Says Isabel Kershner, New York Times, August 19, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.html Jerusalem - Israel's housing minister said Tuesday that his government had not given final approval for any new housing projects in the West Bank since it took office in late March, in a sign that the Israelis may be trying to lower tensions with the United States over the settlements issue. But the minister, Ariel Atias, and other officials emphasized that the hiatus in issuing government invitations for bids for new housing projects did not constitute a formal settlement freeze. [...] In an interview with Israel Radio, Mr. Atias described this as a "waiting period," but said "there is no freeze." The prime minister was "acting wisely," Mr. Atias said, by "not trying to be a hero toward the Americans and clash with them." [...] Peace Now, an Israeli leftist advocacy group that opposes Jewish settlement in territory the Palestinians want for a state, said Tuesday that more than 1,000 Israeli housing units are currently under construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The group noted that Israel has not issued invitations for new bids since November 2008, but that government-sponsored construction accounts for only about 40 percent of building in the settlements while private building initiated by settler groups continues. [...] 8) Israel Declares Shooting Of American An "Act Of War" To Avoid Compensation Palestine Media Center, 19/08/2009 http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=2844 Israel has declared the shooting of unarmed American demonstrator Tristan Anderson in the West Bank to be an "act of war" in a bid to avoid compensating his family. The Israeli Army Ministry sent a letter containing this declaration to the Anderson family's lawyers, according to attorney Leah Tsemel who is perusing a civil suit against the Israeli government. Anderson was critically injured on 13 March 2009 when Israeli soldiers shot him in the forehead with a high velocity tear gas canister during a demonstration against the separation wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. He remains unconscious in Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer Hospital, where he recently underwent another surgery to reattach part of his skull that was removed during life-saving surgery five months ago. Prospects for his recovery remain unclear. Tsemel, the civil suit attorney told Ma'an that the "act of war" designation automatically releases the government from paying compensation under a recently-amended tort law. Israel makes this designation "all the time," in tort cases involving Palestinian victims, she said. She also said the Andersons' lawyers would "exhaust all possibilities in Israeli courts," and in international courts if necessary, to hold the government accountable. A court date has not yet been set. Tsemel also reiterated that overwhelming evidence shows that Anderson was not a combatant and presented no threat to the Israeli soldiers. In an eventual court proceeding, she said, Anderson's lawyers would present eyewitnesses, videotape, a medical report, and even the Israeli soldier's own reports to prove this. "If a process by which unarmed civilian demonstration is classified by Israel as an 'act of war,' then clearly Israel admits that it is at war with civilians," said Attorney Michael Sfard, who is handling the criminal side of the Anderson case, in a statement circulated by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Anderson was shot at a distance of 60 meters while standing with a group of Palestinians and international activists, hours after the demonstration had been dispersed from the construction site of the Wall. * Cuba* 9) US church leaders urge Obama to end Cuba embargo James Anderson, Associated Press, Tuesday, August 18, 2009 4:54 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081802682.html Havana - A delegation of U.S. Roman Catholic Church leaders urged Barack Obama's administration Tuesday to seize what they called a rare political opportunity to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba's communist government. Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida, said the U.S. church welcomed a recent move by Washington to relax travel restrictions on Cuban Americans with family in Cuba as well on the remittances they can send to those families. But he said there is much more to be done. Wenski said at a news conference that the U.S. church hopes "both sides listen to their better angels" and move to normalize ties. The U.S. church long has urged an end to the embargo, imposed by Washington in 1962 to weaken Cuba's communist government. Opponents argue that easing or lifting the sanctions will only sustain a government that doesn't tolerate dissent. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston said Obama's election presents a rare opportunity to bridge an "immense psychological distance" that has marred relations and end an economic policy the church says punishes Cuban citizens. "There were other opportunities that were lost," Wenski said. "And it's important we do not lose the opportunity this time." [...] Wenski said the delegation came away from the Interests Section meeting with the impression that U.S. policy toward Cuba is under review and that "their approach seems to be piece by piece." He urged a quicker pace after "50 years of lack of confidence on both sides." "That's a lot of history to overcome," Wenski added. "We would hope that both sides listen to their better angels." [...] Cuba insists that any dialogue have no preconditions - but it also has pushed for the release of the "Cuban Five," men convicted of being unregistered foreign agents by a Miami court in 2001. Three also were convicted of conspiracy to obtain military secrets from the U.S. Southern Command. Cuba says that the men were trying to avoid terrorist attacks on the island and that anti-Castro sentiment in South Florida kept them from getting a fair trial. Wenski said Tuesday that the Cuban church has enjoyed more freedom since a 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II and that the country, which is suffering a severe economic crisis, "has reasons for hope. I believe this visit is a reason for that kind of hope." *Peru* 10) Peru Will Be No. 1 Coca Producer by 2011, Experts Say EFE, August 17, 2009 http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=341600&CategoryId=14095 Lima - Peru could displace Colombia in 2011 as the world's biggest producer of coca, the raw material of cocaine, according to experts quoted Monday by La Republica newspaper. In "2011 or 2012 Peru very probably should come to be the No. 1 producer of cocaine in the world, as occurred in the 1980s," analyst Jaime Garcia Diaz told the paper. In that decade, the amount of territory in Peru on which coca leaf was being grown was about 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres). In 2005, about 48,200 hectares were used to grow coca and in 2008 56,100 hectares, and at present the country is the world's second largest producer of coca, according to the United Nations. If the rising trend of the past few years is maintained, with coca production increasing by about 4 or 5 percent annually, coca leaf cropland in Peru will total 75,000 hectares in 2011, despite the government's efforts to eradicate about 10,000 hectares of the illegal crop each year. In contrast, in Colombia, the land area on which coca leaf was being grown, by 2008, had fallen by 18 percent to about 80,953 hectares, according to U.N. figures cited by La Republica. Garcia Diaz and drug trafficking expert Jaime Antezana, both of whom are with ConsultAndes, agree that the aggressive campaign to eradicate coca plots being pursued in Colombia could cause drug traffickers to shift their production to Peru. [...] Peru, like neighboring Bolivia, allows cultivation of coca in small quantities for use in teas, folk remedies and Andean religious rites. [...] - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans. ------------ Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tmeza at SomervilleCDC.org Thu Aug 20 13:12:02 2009 From: tmeza at SomervilleCDC.org (Tito Meza) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:12:02 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Action Alert: Honduras Testimonies Show Extent of PoliceViolence In-Reply-To: Message-ID: El gobierno de Estados Unidos contradice la voluntad del pueblo de Honduras M?s resistencia, m?s solidaridad Ayer, el Frente Nacional contra el Golpe de Estado garantiz?, en su 22? comunicado, la decisi?n de mantener las manifestaciones. Tambi?n inform? sobre su inter?s en convocar a una Asamblea Constituyente para la elaboraci?n de una nueva Carta Magna para el pa?s. Su contenido deber?a traer mejoras para las mayor?as empobrecidas y una democracia realmente participativa. Las mujeres feministas del continente desarrollar?n movilizaciones frente a las oficinas de Naciones Unidas en todos los pa?ses del continente y entregar?n en Ginebra, una carta dirigida al Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos en la que le solicitan que instale una oficina permanente de esa instancia internacional en Honduras. Se realizar? un mega concierto de arte, m?sica y cultura el Domingo 23 de Agosto del 2009, donde participar?n artistas hondure?os y grupos art?sticos de otros pa?ses hermanos entre los que se destaca el reconocido grupo los Guaraguao. Es preciso mantener la presencia de delegaciones internacionales en Honduras y desarrollar campa?as de recolecci?n de fondos que permitan sostener la resistencia popular. La Alianza Social Continental est? preparando algunas herramientas para facilitar esta tarea en todo el mundo. Actualmente se encuentra en Tegucigalpa, con el respaldo de la ASC, una delegaci?n de religiosas y religiosos estadounidenses, que est?n acompa?ando al pueblo de Honduras y expresando la solidaridad internacional. Carlos Eduardo Reina, coordinador general de la Coordinadora de Liberales en Contra el Golpe del Estado, en entrevista concedida a Jennifer Moore (ALAI y FEDAEPS) el pasado 18 de agosto inform? que "En este momento, siete de cada diez hondure?os apoya la resistencia. Dos de cada diez no opinan y solo uno de cada diez apoya el r?gimen golpista. Las Fuerzas Armadas, en este momento, internamente tienen serios problemas. Tienen cerca de 200 entre soldados y oficiales presos dentro de los batallones, porque ellos no han aceptado y no han acatado los ?rdenes de ir a reprimir. Hay una crisis interna." Tambi?n expres? que el proceso electoral, en el contexto actual, carece de legitimidad. La Comisi?n Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en Honduras. La Comisi?n Interamericana de Derechos Humanos -CIDH- adelanta una visita en Honduras desde el 17 al 21 de agosto para recaudar in situ pruebas sobre la situaci?n de los derechos humanos en el contexto del golpe de Estado que se fragu? el 28 de junio en ese pa?s. Integran la delegaci?n de derechos humanos, la presidenta de la CIDH, Luz Patricia Mej?a (Venezuela) , el vicepresidente, V?ctor Abramovich (Argentina), el segundo vicepresidente y relator para Honduras, Felipe Gonz?les (Chile), el Comisionado Pablo Carozza (Chile) y el Director Ejecutivo de la CIDH, Santiago Cant?n (Argentina). Hasta el momento, la CIDH tambi?n se reuni? con funcionarios del r?gimen de facto. Las cinco delegaciones internacionales que hasta el momento han visitado a Honduras han testimoniado c?mo a medida que pasa el tiempo, las t?cticas de la represi?n se tornan cada vez m?s crueles y violentas y que la libertad de expresi?n sigue restringida, as? como otros derechos y garant?as individuales. Algunos lugares de reuni?n utilizados por el Frente Nacional contra el Golpe de Estado tambi?n han sido objeto de vigilancia, ocupaci?n y agresi?n, como el edificio del Sindicato de Trabajadores de Bebidas (STIBYS), las oficinas de V?a Campesina y la Universidad Pedag?gica. Reacciones en Am?rica Latina El gobierno de Costa Rica anunci? este martes que desconocer? a la embajadora de Honduras en ese pa?s, Koritza Suazo, por estar a favor del golpe de Estado. Por su parte, el gobierno argentino ha expresado que no reconoce la medida de expulsi?n tomada por la dictadura hacia los diplom?ticos argentinos y la ruptura de relaciones con ese pa?s, luego de que Buenos Aires desconociera a la embajadora hondure?a, Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams, por apoyar al gobierno ileg?timo de Roberto Micheletti. El Presidente Manuel Zelaya atendi? el mi?rcoles la invitaci?n del Presidente Al?n Garc?a de Per? a sostener con ?l una reuni?n de trabajo en Lima. Aunque Per? es uno de los pocos pa?ses que no retir? su embajada en Tegucigalpa y ha expresado su respaldo al Plan Arias. Los cancilleres de Argentina, Jorge Taiana y de M?xico, Patricia Espinosa, se pronunciaron en contra de que en Honduras se realicen elecciones bajo el r?gimen golpista de Roberto Micheletti Reacciones en Europa El Partido de la Refundaci?n Comunista - Izquierda Europea (PRC-IE) expres? mediante un comunicado que "exige al gobierno italiano, a la Uni?n Europea y sus Estados miembros la suspensi?n de todas las negociaciones sobre el Acuerdo de Asociaci?n UE-Centro Am?rica, as? como la suspensi?n del Sistema Preferencial de aranceles Generales (SPG plus) con Honduras (que permiten un acceso preferencial al mercado comunitario para los productos procedentes de "Pa?ses en desarrollo" que respetan las normas internacionales en tema de derechos humanos y derechos laborales) que no puede aplicarse a pa?ses que son responsables de graves y sistem?ticas violaciones a estos derechos como viene sucediendo desde hace mas de un mes en Honduras." La bendici?n estadounidense Seg?n informaci?n aparecida en la p?gina web http://www.elheraldo.hn, "El gobierno estadounidense acept? este martes reunirse con una delegaci?n de los golpistas como parte del plan Arias de restauraci?n de la democracia, dijo ayer el portavoz del Departamento de Estado, Ian Kelly. La agenda incluye una reuni?n con el secretario de Estado adjunto en funciones, Craig Kelly. La condescendencia, por decir lo menos, del gobierno estadounidense con los responsables del golpe de Estado en Honduras, constituye una oposici?n clara a la voluntad del pueblo de Honduras y a las decisiones de la comunidad internacional que exigieron el restablecimiento inmediato e incondicional del gobierno de Zelaya. Por todo lo anterior, la Alianza Social Continental expresa que: * Espera que la visita de la CIDH y el informe que presente a la OEA, brinde elementos que faciliten la presi?n internacional hacia la recuperaci?n del orden constitucional en Honduras y el regreso del Presidente Manuel Zelaya al ejercicio de su cargo. * Exige a los gobiernos de la comunidad internacional abstenerse de reconocer cualquier legitimidad al r?gimen golpista en cabeza de Roberto Michelleti. * Llama a los movimientos, organizaciones y redes sociales de todo el mundo, a fortalecer la solidaridad con la resistencia del pueblo hondure?o a trav?s de delegaciones que vayan a Honduras para alentar y dar testimonio de la resistencia, y tambi?n a desarrollar acciones eficaces y prontas de recaudaci?n de fondos. * Reafirma su compromiso y voluntad de respaldar y acompa?ar la resistencia de los movimientos sociales en Honduras, en defensa de la democracia, la dignidad y la soberan?a de Nuestra Am?rica. Angel Tito Meza Community Organizer Somerville Community Corporation 337 Somerville, Ave. Somerville, MA Tel. (617) 776-5931E231 Fax: 776-0724 -----Original Message----- From: announce-bounces at hondurasresists.org [mailto:announce-bounces at hondurasresists.org] On Behalf Of Kaveri Rajaraman Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:57 PM To: announce at hondurasresists.org Subject: [HNA] Action Alert: Honduras Testimonies Show Extent of PoliceViolence Action Alert: Urge the Miami Herald and McClatchy to Report on Amnesty's Charges No word yet from the Miami Herald or McClatchy on the Amnesty International report, although it has been reported by CNN, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and AP. Send the Herald and McClatchy a note. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/herald Amnesty International: Honduras Testimonies Show Extent of Police Violence There has been very little attention in the U.S. press to repression in Honduras under the coup regime. Hopefully, that will now change: Amnesty International issued a report today documenting "serious ill-treatment by police and military of peaceful protesters" in Honduras, warning that "beatings and mass arrests are being used as a way of punishing people for voicing their opposition" to the coup. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/298 Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy Your financial contributions to Just Foreign Policy help us create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html Summary: U.S./Top News 1) Amnesty International says in the seven weeks since the coup in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, CNN reports. "Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent," said Amnesty's Central America researcher. 2) A Washington Post-ABC News poll says a majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, the Washington Post reports. Majorities of liberals and Democrats solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troops. Nearly two-thirds of liberals stand against a troop increase, as do about six in 10 Democrats. Women have shifted against the war more sharply than men and are far more apt to say troop levels should be decreased (51 percent) than are men (38 percent). Nearly six in 10 women say the war was not worth fighting. 3) U.S. envoy Holbrooke met with Liaqat Baloch, a leader of Pakistan's "anti-American" Jamaat-i-Islami party, the Los Angeles Times reports. Jamaat-i-Islami is one of the most influential Pakistani Islamist parties, and its anti-American views are widely shared, U.S. officials say. A US official described the conversation as a major outreach effort. Baloch told Holbrooke he welcomed Obama's declarations that he wants a better relationship with the Muslim world. But he insisted that, with American drone strikes in Pakistan and troops in Afghanistan, "there still is no change in the practice." 4) The Obama administration and Syria agreed to establish a committee with Iraq to monitor the Syrian-Iraqi border as the U.S. draws down troops from Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reports. In June, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said there had been a significant decrease in foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria. "The Baathists have been coming under a lot of pressure in the last few months," said one diplomat. "Some have been kicked out, some have been told to shut up." Syria's moves seem to be a response to Obama's active outreach efforts, the Journal says. The administration has announced the return of a U.S ambassador to Damascus and eased U.S. sanctions. 5) A State Department report says Mexico's fight against drug traffickers generated a sixfold increase in human rights complaints against the Mexican military between 2006 and 2008, and it is unclear any of those complaints resulted in prosecutions, the New York Times reports. Senator Leahy said the report failed to adequately address the concerns about impunity within the Mexican military that led him to threaten to hold up millions of dollars in U.S. assistance. A spokeswoman for the Miguel August?n Pro Ju?rez Human Rights Center called on the U.S. to withhold the funds. 6) The US said it had complained to Israel about restrictions on the travel of US citizens of Palestinian origin, calling the measures "unacceptable," AFP reports. Israel has been issuing entry stamps for some travelers, mostly those of Arab ancestry, stating that they are only allowed in the Palestinian Authority and cannot transit through Israel. "We have made it quite known to the Israeli government ... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin," the State Department said. Israel/Palestine 7) Israel's housing minister said his government had not given final approval for any new housing projects in the West Bank since it took office, the New York Times reports. Peace Now said more than 1,000 Israeli housing units are currently under construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The group noted that Israel has not issued invitations for new bids since November 2008, but that government-sponsored construction accounts for only about 40 percent of building in the settlements while private building initiated by settler groups continues. 8) Israel has declared the shooting of unarmed American demonstrator Tristan Anderson in the West Bank to be an "act of war," the Palestine Media Center reports. Anderson was critically injured in March when Israeli soldiers shot him in the forehead with a high velocity tear gas canister. He remains unconscious in Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer Hospital. Attorney Leah Tsemel said the "act of war" designation releases the government from paying compensation, and that Israel makes this designation "all the time," in cases involving Palestinian victims. Cuba 9) A delegation of U.S. Catholic leaders urged the Obama administration to seize what they called a rare political opportunity to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, AP reports. Bishop Thomas Wenski said the delegation came away from a meeting with U.S. officials with the impression that U.S. policy toward Cuba is under review and that "their approach seems to be piece by piece." He urged a quicker pace after "50 years of lack of confidence on both sides." Cuba has pushed for release of the "Cuban Five," men convicted of being unregistered foreign agents by a Miami court. Cuba says the men were trying to avoid terrorist attacks on the island. Peru 10) Some experts say Peru could displace Colombia in 2011 as the world's biggest producer of coca, the raw material of cocaine, EFE reports, citing La Republica. Peru, like Bolivia, allows cultivation of coca in small quantities for use in teas, folk remedies and Andean religious rites. Contents: U.S./Top News 1) Police brutality rampant in Honduras, amnesty report says CNN, August 19, 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/08/19/honduras.amnesty.report/index.html In the seven weeks since the military-backed bloodless coup ["bloodless"?! - JFP] in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, a new Amnesty International report says. The report, released Wednesday, said the beatings were meant to punish those who opposed the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in June. It includes testimony from, and photographs of, several people who were baton-whipped and detained by police officers who sometimes wore no visible identification and hid their faces behind bandanas as they broke up demonstrations. "They beat us if we raised our heads; they beat us when they were getting us into the police cars," said a student whom Amnesty International interviewed in late July at the police station where he was being detained. "They said, 'Cry and we'll stop.'" Multiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered. The government has said in the past that the demonstrators were arrested for engaging in violence and provoking authorities. [...] Among several examples, the Amnesty report quotes F.M., a 52-year-old teacher, who said he was demonstrating peacefully when police descended on the rally. "They grabbed me and shouted, 'Why do you (all) support Zelaya's government?' They beat me. I have not been informed as to why I am detained." He showed deep-red imprints on his back, which he said were from a beating with a baton. "Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing," said Esther Major, Amnesty's Central America researcher. 2) Majority in Post-ABC Poll Say Afghan War Not Worth Fighting Few Express Confidence in Lasting Results From Thursday's Election Jennifer Agiesta and Jon Cohen, Washington Post, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 4:58 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/19/AR2009081903066.html A majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. ... The new poll comes amid widespread speculation that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, will request more troops for his stepped-up effort to root the Taliban from Afghan towns and villages. That is a position that gets the backing of 24 percent of those polled, while nearly twice as many, 45 percent, want to decrease the number of military forces there. (Most of the remainder say to keep the level about the same.) In January, before President Obama authorized sending an additional 17,000 troops to the country, public sentiment tilted more strongly toward a troop increase. Should President Obama embrace his general's call for even more U.S. military forces, he risks alienating some of his staunchest supporters While 60 percent of all Americans approve of how Obama has handled the situation in Afghanistan, his ratings among liberals have slipped and majorities of liberals and Democrats alike now, for the first time, solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troops. Overall, seven in 10 Democrats say the war has not been worth its costs, and fewer than one in five support an increase in troop levels. Nearly two-thirds of the most committed Democrats now feel "strongly" that the war was not worth fighting. Among moderate and conservative Democrats, a slim majority say the United States is losing in Afghanistan. [...] Among all adults, 51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting, up six points since last month and four points above the previous high, reached in February. Less than half, 47 percent, say the war is worth its costs. Those strongly opposed (41 percent) outweigh strong proponents (31 percent). [...] Among liberals, his rating on handling the war, which he calls one of "necessity," has fallen swiftly, with strong approval cratering by 20 points. Nearly two-thirds of liberals stand against a troop increase, as do about six in 10 Democrats. [...] Beyond ideological and partisan divisions on the war, women have shifted against the war more sharply than men and are far more apt to say troop levels should be decreased (51 percent) than are men (38 percent). Nearly six in 10 women say the war was not worth fighting, up from just under half last month. 3) U.S. envoy has 'useful dialogue' with anti-American Pakistani leader The Islamist politician speaks warmly to Richard Holbrooke, then drives off to a demonstration against the U.S. presence in the region. The talks illustrate the Obama approach to foreign policy. Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2009 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-holbrooke19-2009aug19,0,6301902.story Islamabad, Pakistan - Obama administration officials have pledged to talk to world leaders no matter their views. On Tuesday, they showed that the offer extends to Islamists who spend the day denouncing America from the street corners. U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke met with Liaqat Baloch, a leader of Pakistan's Jamaat-i-Islami party. About an hour later, as the bearded scholar prepared to depart for an anti-American rally across town, the veteran diplomat said that despite their disagreements, the meeting had begun "a very useful dialogue." Pakistan is eager for U.S. aid, but many people are wary of U.S. intentions. Jamaat-i-Islami has limited leverage in the government, but it is one of the most influential Pakistani Islamist parties, and its anti-American views are widely shared, U.S. officials say. One of Holbrooke's aides described the conversation as a major outreach effort for the United States, roughly equivalent to talking to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian Islamist party that Washington shuns. [...] Baloch pressed Holbrooke on one of the most passionate issues of the moment, suspicions that a planned expansion of the U.S. Embassy is aimed at turning the compound into a military base. Baloch has charged that the United States has a secret plan to build a military "cantonment" as a prelude to trying to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Suspicions about such a base have generated dozens of news stories recently, despite diplomats' insistence that they are adding 16 acres only to accommodate staff members needed to help implement the U.S. aid program, which is to grow fourfold in the next 18 months. A Pakistani journalist challenged Holbrooke in a group interview Monday to explain why the United States wanted to build "a fortress in the middle of the capital." Holbrooke invited Baloch to come to the embassy to examine the blueprints. "We have no secrets on this," he said. Baloch told Holbrooke that he welcomed Obama's declarations that he wants a better relationship with the Muslim world. But he insisted that, with American drone strikes in Pakistan and troops in Afghanistan, "there still is no change in the practice." Holbrooke contended that the new administration had changed policy from the Bush days in "dozens" of respects. He said the administration had halted the effort to eradicate Afghan poppy crops, tightened rules on Afghan military strikes to avoid civilian casualties, and was increasing economic aid to Pakistan. But Holbrooke insisted that he wouldn't support a withdrawal from Afghanistan, as Baloch wanted, until the country was no longer at risk of descending into turmoil. [...] 4) Damascus Agrees To Help Monitor Iraqi Border Syria Plans to Join Baghdad and the U.S. In Bid to Boost Security in the Region Jay Solomon and Julien Barnes-Dacey, Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2009 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125063522892541469.html The Obama administration and Damascus tentatively agreed to establish a tripartite committee, with Baghdad, to better monitor the Syrian-Iraqi border as the Pentagon draws down American troops from Iraq in coming months, said senior U.S. officials. The proposed three-way border-control assessments could boost Iraqi security and patch one of the region's most volatile fault lines. The initiative was made by a team of U.S. Central Command officers and their Syrian counterparts last week in Damascus. The pact awaits the green light from Baghdad, which expressed frustration at being excluded from the U.S.-Syrian talks, saying they violated Iraqi sovereignty on security matters. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Tuesday. A statement issued late in the day by the Iraqi prime minister's office in Baghdad said only that the two sides "discussed the expansion of the Iraqi and Syrian cooperation" in border control. "Both governments are working seriously and practically to deal with all the issues," added Alaa al-Jawadi, the Iraqi ambassador in Damascus. "The Syrians have been positive with us." [...] The Pentagon regularly accused Syria of facilitating the flow of foreign fighters and al Qaeda militants into Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. In June, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said there had been a significant decrease in the number of foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria. But U.S. officials also say there are issues to resolve. "We're still a little bit concerned with Syria's role in this," Gen. Odierno told reporters in Baghdad on Monday. "I think our bilateral discussions with them are important." Syria says it has detained more than 1,700 militants, blocked potential combatants from passing through the country en route to Iraq and imposed stricter border policing. Syria also appears to have cracked down on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime who fled to Damascus after the Iraqi invasion. "The Baathists have been coming under a lot of pressure in the last few months," said one senior Western diplomat. "Some have been kicked out, some have been told to shut up." Syria's moves seem to be a response to President Barack Obama's increasingly active outreach efforts. The administration has announced the return of a U.S ambassador to Damascus and recently eased U.S. sanctions in an apparent bid to draw Syria away from its alliance with Iran. [...] 5) Mexico Drug Fight Fuels Complaints Ginger Thompson and Marc Lacey, New York Times, August 19, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/americas/19mexico.html Washington - Mexico's fight against drug traffickers generated a sixfold increase in human rights complaints against the Mexican military between 2006 and 2008, and it is unclear that any of those complaints resulted in prosecutions, according to a State Department report on the effort. The 17-page report was delivered to Congress last week as part of a joint counternarcotics program known as the Merida Initiative. The $1.4 billion initiative, passed by Congress last year, provides equipment and training to Mexican security forces. But it also calls for 15 percent of the money to be withheld until the State Department verifies that the government is meeting four human rights requirements, including the prosecution of police officers and soldiers responsible for abuses. While the State Department cited several examples of progress, it was hardly a glowing endorsement. And a key Democratic senator said the report failed to adequately address the concerns about impunity within the Mexican military that led him to threaten to hold up millions of dollars in United States assistance. "It is well known that the military justice system is manifestly ineffective," said a statement issued Tuesday by Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, which must approve disbursement of the Merida assistance. "And it is apparent that neither the Mexican government nor the State Department has treated human rights abuses by the military, which is engaging in an internal police function it is ill suited for, as a priority." [...] But as the troops' presence on the streets has increased, the State Department reported, so have the number of complaints against them. Between 2006 and 2008, they rose to 1,230, from 182, the report said. In all, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has received some 2,050 complaints against soldiers since Mr. Calder?n took office at the end of 2006. Based on those complaints, the human rights commission - which is financed by the Mexican government - issued 26 recommendations for follow-up to the Defense Ministry. The ministry agreed to consider 25 of them. And since soldiers accused of abuses are generally prosecuted in closed military tribunals, it was impossible to tell whether any complaints had resulted in punishments. "The information received from the Mexican government regarding these cases," the report said, "and the opaqueness of the military court system makes it difficult to analyze the nature and the type of complaints filed, the status of the cases against members of the military alleged to have violated human rights, or the results of the military prosecution." The State Department report says the head of a newly established military human rights directorate had announced that military courts had convicted 12 soldiers since 2006 and were investigating an additional 52 officers in connection with offenses including homicide, torture, kidnapping and extortion. However, the State Department acknowledged that little was known about these cases. [...] Human Rights Watch, which has been documenting abuses in Mexico, responded hours later with two cases, both from Mr. Calder?n's home state of Michoac?n, in which soldiers accused of torture two years ago have not been prosecuted. In an interview on Tuesday, Madeleine Penman, a spokeswoman for the Miguel August?n Pro Ju?rez Human Rights Center, called on the United States to withhold the funds. "There is very little evidence of action on human rights by the Mexican government," she said. "We do not think that simply backing up Felipe Calder?n's fight against organized crime helps at all with rule of law in Mexico." 6) US complains to Israel on Palestinian-American entry rules AFP, August 19, 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090819/pl_afp/mideastisraelpalestinianusimmigrationdiplomacy_20090819201903 The United States said Wednesday it had complained to Israel about restrictions on the travel of US citizens of Palestinian origin, calling the measures "unacceptable." The State Department said that Israel has been issuing entry stamps for some travelers, mostly those of Arab ancestry, stating that they are only allowed in the Palestinian Authority and cannot transit through Israel. "We have made it quite known to the Israeli government ... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "These kinds of restrictions we consider unacceptable," Kelly told reporters. "We will continue to protest." The State Department, in a recent travel advisory, warned that Israeli immigration authorities may write a Palestinian Authority identification number in a passport, regardless of whether the traveler has US citizenship or even held Palestinian documentation previously. Such travelers are then required to carry Palestinian travel documents and may be refused use of Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, the country's main international gateway. Instead, the travelers must transit through the Allenby Bridge connecting the West Bank and Jordan. Due to Israeli checkpoints, this means they effectively cannot go to Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities recently started to stamp in visitors' passports whether they are heading to Israel or the Palestinian territories, potentially preventing them from travelling to both. Israel's tourism ministry on Monday denounced the restrictions introduced by the interior ministry, warning they would damage Israel's reputation and impede some of the millions of pilgrims who flock each year to religious sites across the region. In some cases, Israeli immigration has given such "Palestinian Authority only" stamps even to travelers with no apparent Palestinian origin, according to the State Department. Israel/Palestine 7) Settlement Building Is in 'Waiting Period,' Israel's Housing Minister Says Isabel Kershner, New York Times, August 19, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.html Jerusalem - Israel's housing minister said Tuesday that his government had not given final approval for any new housing projects in the West Bank since it took office in late March, in a sign that the Israelis may be trying to lower tensions with the United States over the settlements issue. But the minister, Ariel Atias, and other officials emphasized that the hiatus in issuing government invitations for bids for new housing projects did not constitute a formal settlement freeze. [...] In an interview with Israel Radio, Mr. Atias described this as a "waiting period," but said "there is no freeze." The prime minister was "acting wisely," Mr. Atias said, by "not trying to be a hero toward the Americans and clash with them." [...] Peace Now, an Israeli leftist advocacy group that opposes Jewish settlement in territory the Palestinians want for a state, said Tuesday that more than 1,000 Israeli housing units are currently under construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The group noted that Israel has not issued invitations for new bids since November 2008, but that government-sponsored construction accounts for only about 40 percent of building in the settlements while private building initiated by settler groups continues. [...] 8) Israel Declares Shooting Of American An "Act Of War" To Avoid Compensation Palestine Media Center, 19/08/2009 http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=2844 Israel has declared the shooting of unarmed American demonstrator Tristan Anderson in the West Bank to be an "act of war" in a bid to avoid compensating his family. The Israeli Army Ministry sent a letter containing this declaration to the Anderson family's lawyers, according to attorney Leah Tsemel who is perusing a civil suit against the Israeli government. Anderson was critically injured on 13 March 2009 when Israeli soldiers shot him in the forehead with a high velocity tear gas canister during a demonstration against the separation wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. He remains unconscious in Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer Hospital, where he recently underwent another surgery to reattach part of his skull that was removed during life-saving surgery five months ago. Prospects for his recovery remain unclear. Tsemel, the civil suit attorney told Ma'an that the "act of war" designation automatically releases the government from paying compensation under a recently-amended tort law. Israel makes this designation "all the time," in tort cases involving Palestinian victims, she said. She also said the Andersons' lawyers would "exhaust all possibilities in Israeli courts," and in international courts if necessary, to hold the government accountable. A court date has not yet been set. Tsemel also reiterated that overwhelming evidence shows that Anderson was not a combatant and presented no threat to the Israeli soldiers. In an eventual court proceeding, she said, Anderson's lawyers would present eyewitnesses, videotape, a medical report, and even the Israeli soldier's own reports to prove this. "If a process by which unarmed civilian demonstration is classified by Israel as an 'act of war,' then clearly Israel admits that it is at war with civilians," said Attorney Michael Sfard, who is handling the criminal side of the Anderson case, in a statement circulated by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Anderson was shot at a distance of 60 meters while standing with a group of Palestinians and international activists, hours after the demonstration had been dispersed from the construction site of the Wall. Cuba 9) US church leaders urge Obama to end Cuba embargo James Anderson, Associated Press, Tuesday, August 18, 2009 4:54 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081802682.html Havana - A delegation of U.S. Roman Catholic Church leaders urged Barack Obama's administration Tuesday to seize what they called a rare political opportunity to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba's communist government. Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida, said the U.S. church welcomed a recent move by Washington to relax travel restrictions on Cuban Americans with family in Cuba as well on the remittances they can send to those families. But he said there is much more to be done. Wenski said at a news conference that the U.S. church hopes "both sides listen to their better angels" and move to normalize ties. The U.S. church long has urged an end to the embargo, imposed by Washington in 1962 to weaken Cuba's communist government. Opponents argue that easing or lifting the sanctions will only sustain a government that doesn't tolerate dissent. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston said Obama's election presents a rare opportunity to bridge an "immense psychological distance" that has marred relations and end an economic policy the church says punishes Cuban citizens. "There were other opportunities that were lost," Wenski said. "And it's important we do not lose the opportunity this time." [...] Wenski said the delegation came away from the Interests Section meeting with the impression that U.S. policy toward Cuba is under review and that "their approach seems to be piece by piece." He urged a quicker pace after "50 years of lack of confidence on both sides." "That's a lot of history to overcome," Wenski added. "We would hope that both sides listen to their better angels." [...] Cuba insists that any dialogue have no preconditions - but it also has pushed for the release of the "Cuban Five," men convicted of being unregistered foreign agents by a Miami court in 2001. Three also were convicted of conspiracy to obtain military secrets from the U.S. Southern Command. Cuba says that the men were trying to avoid terrorist attacks on the island and that anti-Castro sentiment in South Florida kept them from getting a fair trial. Wenski said Tuesday that the Cuban church has enjoyed more freedom since a 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II and that the country, which is suffering a severe economic crisis, "has reasons for hope. I believe this visit is a reason for that kind of hope." Peru 10) Peru Will Be No. 1 Coca Producer by 2011, Experts Say EFE, August 17, 2009 http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=341600&CategoryId=14095 Lima - Peru could displace Colombia in 2011 as the world's biggest producer of coca, the raw material of cocaine, according to experts quoted Monday by La Republica newspaper. In "2011 or 2012 Peru very probably should come to be the No. 1 producer of cocaine in the world, as occurred in the 1980s," analyst Jaime Garcia Diaz told the paper. In that decade, the amount of territory in Peru on which coca leaf was being grown was about 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres). In 2005, about 48,200 hectares were used to grow coca and in 2008 56,100 hectares, and at present the country is the world's second largest producer of coca, according to the United Nations. If the rising trend of the past few years is maintained, with coca production increasing by about 4 or 5 percent annually, coca leaf cropland in Peru will total 75,000 hectares in 2011, despite the government's efforts to eradicate about 10,000 hectares of the illegal crop each year. In contrast, in Colombia, the land area on which coca leaf was being grown, by 2008, had fallen by 18 percent to about 80,953 hectares, according to U.N. figures cited by La Republica. Garcia Diaz and drug trafficking expert Jaime Antezana, both of whom are with ConsultAndes, agree that the aggressive campaign to eradicate coca plots being pursued in Colombia could cause drug traffickers to shift their production to Peru. [...] Peru, like neighboring Bolivia, allows cultivation of coca in small quantities for use in teas, folk remedies and Andean religious rites. [...] - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans. ------------ Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Fri Aug 21 11:50:19 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:50:19 -0400 Subject: [HNA] viaje a NYC & other updates Message-ID: <1d602de70908211150n499ce37m4d23c8f8d2ae035e@mail.gmail.com> Compa?er at s! I'm happy to inform you that we have decided to take a trip from Boston to New York City to demonstrate in front of the United Nations headquarters in celebration of the resistance in Honduras. The demo will occur on Friday, the 28th of August, though the exact details are pending. At least four of the compas from the solidarity committee will be attending, and if anyone else is willing to attend we should coordinate carpools/buses/etc ASAP. At our last event we succeeded in raising some $1,600 dollars for the resistance, and there is much energy to continue with events like this. Thank you to Sam Adams & to Isabel for the contribution of 11 cases of fine ale & lager (I, for one, will continue drinking this beverage with a renewed vigor) and to the Venezuelan consulate for contributing plentiful amounts of delicous empanadas! The event was a tremendous success & I think it's safe to say everyone had a great time. Further, a comrade in Honduras has informed us that there will be a large-scale fast commencing in early september. There are calls for international solidarity in all its expressions. More to come on that... Lastly, I just got off the phone with Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine. He's busy recording an album now, but is very eager to participate with us in the coming months. Our vision is to organize a concert/benefit for the Frente Contra el Golpe de Estado. We hope more folks can come to the next meeting of the Committee, which will be announced shortly. In solidarity, simon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com Fri Aug 21 12:33:44 2009 From: lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com (Miguel Luna) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:33:44 -0400 Subject: [HNA] viaje a NYC & other updates In-Reply-To: <1d602de70908211150n499ce37m4d23c8f8d2ae035e@mail.gmail.com> References: <1d602de70908211150n499ce37m4d23c8f8d2ae035e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Companero Simon, I would like to go to NY and I think we may be able to get at least 3 or 4 other people to go from RI. Is there a way that we can carpool with you guys? On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Simon Rios wrote: > Compa?er at s! > > I'm happy to inform you that we have decided to take a trip from Boston to > New York City to demonstrate in front of the United Nations headquarters in > celebration of the resistance in Honduras. The demo will occur on Friday, > the 28th of August, though the exact details are pending. At least four of > the compas from the solidarity committee will be attending, and if anyone > else is willing to attend we should coordinate carpools/buses/etc ASAP. > > At our last event we succeeded in raising some $1,600 dollars for the > resistance, and there is much energy to continue with events like this. > Thank you to Sam Adams & to Isabel for the contribution of 11 cases of fine > ale & lager (I, for one, will continue drinking this beverage with a renewed > vigor) and to the Venezuelan consulate for contributing plentiful amounts of > delicous empanadas! The event was a tremendous success & I think it's safe > to say everyone had a great time. > > Further, a comrade in Honduras has informed us that there will be a > large-scale fast commencing in early september. There are calls for > international solidarity in all its expressions. More to come on that... > > Lastly, I just got off the phone with Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against > the Machine. He's busy recording an album now, but is very eager to > participate with us in the coming months. Our vision is to organize a > concert/benefit for the Frente Contra el Golpe de Estado. > > We hope more folks can come to the next meeting of the Committee, which > will be announced shortly. > > In solidarity, > simon > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > announce mailing list > announce at hondurasresists.org > http://hondurasresists.org/mailman/listinfo/announce_hondurasresists.org > > -- New email: lunamiguel2002 at gmail.com Nuevo email: "If you can read this, wake up, there is still time!" M.Luna "Si puedes leer esto, despiertate que todavia hay tiempo!" M. Luna -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Fri Aug 21 17:54:04 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:54:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?Espa=F1a_expulsa_a_embajador_pro-golpe_de_Ho?= =?iso-8859-1?q?nduras?= Message-ID: <988938.64712.qm@web38903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Mel cesa a agregado a militar; Espa?a expulsa a embajador Managua/Washington. AFP/T?lam. | agosto 21, 2009 El presidente de Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, ces? de sus funciones al agregado militar hondure?o, coronel Wilfredo Calder?n, por apoyar al r?gimen de facto que encabeza Roberto Micheletti, inform? este viernes una diplom?tica hondure?a. Tambi?n fue suspendida como agregada diplom?tica en funciones consulares en Chinandega (oeste de Nicaragua) Martha Idalia Castillo, dijo a la AFP la portavoz de la embajada de Honduras en Nicaragua, Elizabeth Sierra. El retiro de ambos funcionarios le fue notificada el jueves a la canciller?a de Nicaragua para que proceda a cancelar sus credenciales, dijo Sierra. La notificaci?n fue realizada por la canciller de Zelaya, Patricia Rodas, agreg? la funcionaria. Zelaya tambi?n destituy? al embajador hondure?o en Managua, Jorge Milla, el 12 de julio y nombr? a Victoria Rodas como encargada de negocios, dijo el lunes el canciller nicarag?ense Samuel Santos. La destituci?n de Milla se hizo p?blica semanas despu?s, luego de que ?ste acompa?ar? al diputado nicarag?ense Francisco Aguirre a una visita a Micheletti a finales de julio. Victoria Rodas dijo a la prensa que Milla, al acompa?ar a Aguirre, "usurp?" un puesto del que hab?a sido cesado, por lo que se hizo p?blico que ya no ejerc?a como embajador. Espa?a expulsa embajador Espa?a expuls? al embajador de Honduras en Madrid, Jos? Eduardo Martell, por su adhesi?n al gobierno de facto surgido tras el golpe de Estado que derroc? al presidente Manuel Zelaya, anunci? este viernes la Organizaci?n de Estados Americanos (OEA). Seg?n una carta oficial remitida al secretario general de la OEA, Jos? Miguel Insulza, la decisi?n fue tomada despu?s de que el 5 de agosto Zelaya anunciara a las autoridades espa?olas la destituci?n de Martell como embajador ante Madrid y su reemplazo por un encargado de negocios, inform? la agencia alemana DPA. El Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Espa?a convoc? el 19 de agosto a Martell para informarle del t?rmino de su acreditaci?n como embajador e instrucciones para abandonar el pa?s en breve, en una decisi?n "coherente con el compromiso de la comunidad internacional de mantener la interlocuci?n oficial con el gobierno constitucional de Honduras", dice la misiva enviada a la OEA. En ?sta, el gobierno de Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero reiter? adem?s su "posici?n de firmeza (...) clara y sin reservas" frente al golpe de Estado hondure?o. From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 22 10:49:47 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:49:47 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?utf-8?q?Noam_Chomsky_y_92_acad=C3=A9micos_piden_a_Obama_?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=9Cmedidas=E2=80=9D_contra_los_golpistas?= Message-ID: <430233.19771.qm@web38903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Noam Chomsky y 92 acad?micos piden a Obama ?medidas? contra los golpistas 8/21/2009.- La movilizaci?n popular en Honduras, que hoy sum? 55 d?as de protestas callejeras casi ininterrumpidas, fue el tema central de una carta firmada por el ling?ista Noam Chomsky y 92 acad?micos de universidades estadunidenses, que se declararon ?profundamente preocupados? por el silencio de la organizaci?n Human Rights Watch (HRW) en torno a los ?sistem?ticos abusos de los derechos humanos cometidos por el r?gimen golpista en las ?ltimas seis semanas?. Es ?decepcionante? que HRW s?lo haya emitido un comunicado sobre la situaci?n en Honduras desde el 8 de julio ?10 d?as despu?s del golpe de Estado? y no haya dado la se?al de alarma ?sobre los asesinatos extrajudiciales, detenciones arbitrarias, asaltos f?sicos y ataques a la prensa?. ------------------------------------------------------ To read the full article go to http://hondurasresists.org Para leer el art?culo completo vaya a http://hondurasresists.org ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 22 13:05:04 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:05:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Urgent: No to a meeting by Hillary Clinton with the Honduran coup-makers in Washington! Message-ID: <600378.8204.qm@web38905.mail.mud.yahoo.com> No to a meeting by Hillary Clinton with the Honduran coup-makers in Washington! Call the State Department (202-647-4000) Monday 8/24/09; ask ten friends to call! According to State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly, an official delegation of the regime installed by military coup in Honduras is invited to Washington to meet with U.S. "officials". The meeting will be to work "toward restoration of democratic and constitutional power in Honduras." The dictatorial regime has used violence for two months, including the murders of union members by gunfire. It is an illegal regime. The Organization of American States has said so, with the U.S. voting to that effect. Argentina and other countries have expelled the Honduran coup regime's diplomats. Welcoming an official delegation to Washington would obstruct restoration of democratic constitutional power in Honduras and would legitimize the illegal regime. We ask everyone who cares about the right of the Hondurans to be free from a military-installed dictatorship to call the State Department Monday, at 202-647-4000, to ask for cancellation of any meeting in Washington with the dictator or his representatives and supporters. Each of us will be personally requesting for ten friends/family-members to make this call, and we urge you to do the same. Please inform the Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance to the Coup in Honduras that you have made a call. We will make available information afterward about how many calls are made and about any public statements we receive protesting this planned meeting. Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance to the Coup in Honduras Web: http://www.hondurasresists.org Email: info at hondurasresists.org Phone: 617-610-3784 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 22 20:03:20 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:03:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] TVCucu TVCaca (Cancion - Honduras) Message-ID: <516474.78236.qm@web38901.mail.mud.yahoo.com> TVCucu TVCaca Nelson Pav?n (Honduras) No es extra?o, no es extra?o ver tanta gente enga?ada Si por a?os y por a?os mentiras nos han mandado No es extra?o, no es extra?o ver tanta gente tarada Si por a?os y por a?os novelas nos han mandado TVCucu TVCaca no te dejes enga?ar solo cambia de canal TVCucu TVCaca no te dejes enga?ar solo cambia de canal Para escuchar o bajar pinchar aqu?. [ + ] ? http://hondurasresists.org ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Sat Aug 22 22:21:59 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:21:59 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Honduras: Nat'l March Against the Coup 8/28 In-Reply-To: <576828.76876.qm@web34402.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <576828.76876.qm@web34402.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: *NATIONAL SOLIDARITY MARCH AGAINST THE COUP D?ETAT IN HONDURAS! FRI., AUG. 28 4-7pm Rally assembles at: Times Square (42nd St. & 7th Avenue) - New York, NY March to & ending rally at: 48th St & 1st Avenue (Honduran Embassy)* We demand: - Stop the killings & repression of the Honduran people - No to human rights violations in Honduras - Support the non-violent resistance of the Honduran People and the National Front for Resistance Against the Coup d??tat - Immediate return of Constitutional law and restore Constitutional President Jos? Manuel Zelaya Rosales - No to an electoral process as product of the de facto regime - No to the militarization of Honduras, or U.S. military bases in Honduras Events in the following cities: Boston MA, Chicago IL, Cleveland OH, Detroit MI, Houston TX, Hudson County NJ, Los Angeles CA, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA Contacts for more information: 917.841.3643 celcas2000 at gmail.com, 212.633.6646 iacenter at action-mail.org Initiating and Endorsing Organizations: National IAC, May 1st, NALACC/NY (Acci?n Comunitaria La Aurora, Movimiento de Inmigrantes Guatemaltecos (MIGUA), Comite Honduras Resistencia USA, CENTRO HISPANO ?Cuzcatl?n?, Desfile Hondure?o/ Centroamericano, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Red por la Paz y el Desarrollo de Guatemala, Salvadoran American National Network (SANN), Casa Mary Johana, Raices de Mis Ancestros), Acci?n comunitaria Aurora, New York Immigration Coalition, Red de Organizaciones Afro-Centroamericanas-USA, Comit? en Uni?n de Salvadore?os -CEUS-, Comit? Guatemalteco Tecun Um?n, Latino Commission on AIDS, La Pe?a del Bronx, Trabajadoras por la Paz, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, Troops Out Now Coalition, Bail Out the People Movement, Frente Farabundo Mart? para la Liberaci?n Nacional ? FMLN, Red de Comunidades Salvadore?as en el Exterior, Empresarios por el Cambio, Centro de Derechos Laborales, Ramsey Clark, Manhattan Local Green Party, NYC; Rev. Luis Barrios; IFCO/Pastors for Peace, Iglesia San Romero de las Americas-UCC, Bayan USA; Artists & Activists United for Peace, Peruvians in Action; Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center; Millions 4 Mumia; International League for Peoples Struggle; Comit? Dominicano de Solidaridad con los Pueblos, Take Bake Our Union, Picture the Homeless,Harlem Tenants Council, Harlem Anti-War Coalition, Network of Afro-Central American Organization, Al Awda NY, Palestine Right to Return Coalition Jersey City Peace Movement, NJ Action 21, Colectivo Rebel-Diaz, Taller Experimental de Arte, Comit? HondurasUSAresisitencia, Comite Dominicano ,de Solidaridad con los Pueblos. *MARCHA NACIONAL SOLIDARIA CONTRA EL GOLPE DE ESTADO EN HONDURAS VIE., 28 de AGO. de 4-7pm Rally Salida de: Times Square (Calle 42 y 7? avenida) ? New York, NY Trayecto y finalidad: Calle 42 hasta la calle 48 y 1ra Ave. **(Embajadora Hondure?a)* - Alto a la los asesinatos y la represi?n del Pueblo Hondure?o - Alto a las violaciones a los derechos humanos en Honduras - Apoyamos a la resistencia pac?fica del Pueblo Hondure?o a trav?s del Frente Nacional de Resistencia Contra el Golpe de Estado - Retorno inmediato a la institucionalidad y la restituci?n del Presidente Constitucional Jos? Manuel Zelaya Rosales - No al proceso electoral como producto de un r?gimen de facto - Alto a la militarizaci?n en Honduras, Fuera de Honduras bases militares EEUU Eventos alredor del pais: Boston MA, Chicago IL, Cleveland OH, Detroit MI, Houston TX, Hudson County NJ, Los Angeles CA, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA Para m?s informaci?n, comun?quese al: 917.841.3643 celcas2000 at gmail.com, 212.633.6646 iacenter at action-mail.org Organizadores: National IAC, May 1st, NALACC/NY (Acci?n Comunitaria La Aurora, Movimiento de Inmigrantes Guatemaltecos (MIGUA), Comite Honduras Resistencia USA, CENTRO HISPANO ?Cuzcatl?n?, Desfile Hondure?o/ Centroamericano, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Red por la Paz y el Desarrollo de Guatemala, Salvadoran American National Network (SANN), Casa Mary Johana, Raices de Mis Ancestros), Acci?n comunitaria Aurora, New York Immigration Coalition, Red de Organizaciones Afro-Centroamericanas-USA, Comit? en Uni?n de Salvadore?os -CEUS-, Comit? Guatemalteco Tecun Um?n, Latino Commission on AIDS, La Pe?a del Bronx, Trabajadoras por la Paz, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, Troops Out Now Coalition, Bail Out the People Movement, Frente Farabundo Mart? para la Liberaci?n Nacional ? FMLN, Red de Comunidades Salvadore?as en el Exterior, Empresarios por el Cambio, Centro de Derechos Laborales, Ramsey Clark, Manhattan Local Green Party, NYC; Rev. Luis Barrios; IFCO/Pastors for Peace, Iglesia San Romero de las Americas-UCC, Bayan USA; Artists & Activists United for Peace, Peruvians in Action; Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center; Millions 4 Mumia; International League for Peoples Struggle; Comit? Dominicano de Solidaridad con los Pueblos, Take Back Our Union, Picture the Homeless,Harlem Tenants Council, Harlem Anti-War Coalition, Network of Afro-Central American Organization, Al Awda NY, Palestine Right to Return Coalition Jersey City Peace Movement, NJ Action 21, Colectivo Rebel-Diaz, Taller Experimental de Arte, Comit? HondurasUSAresisitencia, Comite Dominicano ,de Solidaridad con los Pueblos. Trabajo de solidaridad donado por organizadores comunitarios -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From achomsky at salemstate.edu Sun Aug 23 07:43:55 2009 From: achomsky at salemstate.edu (Avi Chomsky) Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:43:55 -0400 Subject: [HNA] =?windows-1252?q?Dar=EDo_Euraque_illegally_dismissed_by_Cou?= =?windows-1252?q?p_Government_in_Honduras?= Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Coleman, Kevin Patrick To: Coleman, Kevin Patrick Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:25 PM Subject: Dar?o Euraque illegally dismissed by Coup Government in Honduras Dear Latin Americanist Friends, I apologize for sending a mass email but I think this situation is serious enough that you might forgive me. Many of you know Professor Dar?o A. Euraque of Trinity College. His seminal work, Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870?1972, transformed the historiography of Honduras. Since January 2006, Professor Euraque has served as the Director of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), a government agency tasked with overseeing all of Honduras?s cultural patrimony, including the national archives, archeological sites, and public museums. Under his leadership, the IHAH has thrived, offering multiple in-depth workshops for local historians from around the country, greatly increasing the quantity, quality, and plurality of its publications, and significantly expanding the number of historical and archaeological sites protected by the national government. Yesterday, Ms. Myna Castro, the new Minister of Culture appointed by the coup government, added to the long list of constitutional breaches committed by the de facto regime. Violating the laws in place for discharging political appointees, she skipped over the IHAH?s Board of Directors, who would have to vote on a resolution to dismiss Professor Euraque, and simply sent him a letter of dismissal. Rather than go quietly, he has decided to contest it. This comes on the heels of an attempt by the Reserve Forces of the Honduran Military to occupy the National Archives in Tegucigalpa. When Professor Euraque?s office received a letter from the Reservists of Honduras, the IHAH immediately issued a clarification, noting that the building itself and the archives it houses are Honduran cultural patrimony and, as such, protected by the Law for the Protection of the Cultural Patrimony of the Nation (Decree 220-97). As a community of researchers, perhaps we can solicit a statement of support for Professor Euraque from our professional organizations. We might start by asking the AHA?s Conference of Latin American History to issue a statement. In this statement, we as a community of scholars could: ? condemn the coup and the systematic human rights violations that have followed in its wake ? offer our solidarity to Professor Euraque and the tens of thousands of Hondurans who are bravely risking their lives to restore democratic rule in their country ? call for the U.S. to increase pressure to reestablish constitutionality in Honduras If you have any ideas on how we might coordinate a response so that the coup government knows that people are watching them violate the Honduran constitution and the Inter-American Charter, please feel free to push forward on your own with your contacts or to write to me so that I might pursue it. Wishing you all the best, Kevin Coleman Doctoral Candidate in Latin American History Indiana University, Bloomington -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: Esfuerzo Ilegal por Despedir al Dr. Euraque en Gerencia del IHAH.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 446974 bytes Desc: not available URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sun Aug 23 19:51:33 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:51:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?Comenzar=E1_en_Honduras_foro_sobre_derecho_p?= =?iso-8859-1?q?enal_internacional?= Message-ID: <16213.8603.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Comenzar? en Honduras foro sobre derecho penal internacional Escrito por Raimundo L?pez domingo, 23 de agosto de 2009, 16:51 Tegucigalpa, 23 ago (PL) Un foro p?blico sobre la evoluci?n del derecho penal internacional frente a cr?menes de lesa humanidad y graves violaciones a los derechos humanos comenzar? ma?ana en esta capital. En la conferencia, que se prolongar? hasta el martes pr?ximo, participar?n el juez espa?ol Baltasar Garz?n y expertos de la Corte Penal Internacional (CPI) como Montserrat Carboni, confirmaron a Prensa Latina organizadores de la cita. El prop?sito central -precisaron- es el de enviar un mensaje preventivo para que no se sigan cometiendo violaciones a los derechos humanos en Honduras y, en particular, cr?menes de lesa humanidad. En un comunicado indican que el foro se recordar? "a los operadores judiciales hondure?os su deber de investigar y sancionar a los violadores de derechos humanos". De igual manera se requiere documentar los hechos que podr?an ser constitutivos del crimen de persecuci?n pol?tica de competencia de la CPI), para solicitar la acci?n preventiva del Fiscal General de esta, agrega. Apunta tambi?n que se dar? a conocer por expertos de primer orden las consecuencias frente al derecho penal internacional de eventuales cr?menes de lesa humanidad, tanto en la pr?ctica de la jurisdicci?n universal como de la CPI. Seg?n el programa adelantado a Prensa Latina, en un primer panel, Garz?n expondr? el tema Posibilidades y l?mites de la jurisdicci?n universal en Espa?a frente a cr?menes de lesa humanidad. Manuel Oll?, presidente de la Asociaci?n Pro Derechos Humanos de Espa?a, presentar? el tema Experiencia de la jurisdicci?n universal en el caso contra el ex-dictador R?os Montt por cr?menes de lesa humanidad en Guatemala. Almudena Bernabeu, experta en derecho penal internacional, abordar? El caso de los seis sacerdotes jesuitas asesinados en El Salvador, en ejercicio de la jurisdicci?n universal en Espa?a. En el segundo panel, las cortes Penal Internacional y a la Impunidad de cr?menes de lesa humanidad, intervendr? la delegada de la CPI Montserrat Carboni y Luis Guillermo P?rez Casas, secretario general de la Federaci?n Internacional de Derechos Humanos. El tercer panel abordar? la administraci? n de justicia en Honduras frente a graves violaciones de los derechos humanos, indica el programa. ocs/rl -- ---------------------------------------------- Sign the on-line petitions demanding that the U.S. sign the UN Convention on Migrant Workers Rights http://www.bostonmayday.org From achomsky at salemstate.edu Mon Aug 24 08:59:45 2009 From: achomsky at salemstate.edu (Avi Chomsky) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:59:45 -0400 Subject: [HNA] =?windows-1252?q?Petition_of_Support_for_Dar=EDo_Euraque=3A?= =?windows-1252?q?_Illegally_dismissed_by_Coup_Government_in_Hondur?= =?windows-1252?q?as?= Message-ID: Hi All, Please distribute as widely and as quickly as possible to our professional organizations and universities. Please send all signatures, with affiliation, to Kevin Coleman (kecolema at indiana.edu) by 10 AM on Tuesday, June 25th. By noon Tuesday, I will submit the signed petition to the American Historical Association?s Conference of Latin American History: Jeffrey Lesser and Mary Kay Vaughn. I will send to U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Also, I will distrubute a translated version of our petition to Honduran media. Thanks. Kevin Petition of Support for Dar?o Euraque: Illegally dismissed by Coup Government in Honduras The undersigned, researchers, university faculty, administrators, and students, from a wide range of universities and institutions, condemn the illegal dismissal of Professor Dar?o A. Euraque by the coup government in Honduras. We urge the international community and, in particular, the United States to use its leverage to restore constitutional rule in Honduras. Professor Euraque?s seminal work, Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870?1972, transformed the historiography of Honduras. In it, he demonstrated that the relative liberalism on Honduran elites could be traced to a tension between North Coast industrialists of Middle Eastern descent and the conservative criollo (descendants of Spanish colonists) oligarchy of the country?s interior. In subsequent studies, he has offered some of the most innovative and original interpretations of Honduran history. His investigations into nationalism, ethnic identity, and sexuality have opened new paths of investigation for other researchers in Central America. Since June 2006, Professor Euraque has served as the Director of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), a government agency tasked with overseeing all of Honduras?s cultural patrimony, including the national archives, archeological sites, and public museums. Under his leadership, the IHAH has thrived, offering multiple in-depth workshops for local historians from around the country, greatly increasing the quantity, quality, and plurality of its publications, and significantly expanding the number of historical and archaeological sites protected by the national government. On Friday, August 21st, Ms. Myrna Castro, the new Minister of Culture appointed by the coup government, added to the long list of constitutional breaches committed by the de facto regime. Violating the laws in place for discharging political appointees, she skipped over the IHAH?s Board of Directors, who would have to vote on a resolution to dismiss Professor Euraque, and simply sent him a letter of dismissal. Rather than go quietly, he has decided to contest it. This comes on the heels of an attempt by the Reserve Forces of the Honduran Military to occupy the National Archives in Tegucigalpa. When Professor Euraque?s office received a letter from the Reservists of Honduras, the IHAH immediately issued a clarification, noting that the building itself and the archives it houses are Honduran cultural patrimony and, as such, protected by the Law for the Protection of the Cultural Patrimony of the Nation (Decree 220-97). Even in the case of a situation of national emergency or a legally declared State of War, this National Monument, and any other National Monument inventoried as Cultural Patrimony of Honduras, is under the protection of the Convention of the Hague of 1954, "Convention for the Protection of Cultural Properties in case of Armed Conflict.? As a community of researchers, we offer our solidarity to Professor Euraque and the tens of thousands of Hondurans who are bravely risking their lives to restore democratic rule in their country. Furthermore, we condemn the coup and the systematic human rights violations that have followed in its wake. We call upon the U.S. government to increase pressure, perhaps by freezing the personal bank accounts of the coup leaders or the funds allocated to Honduras through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, until constitutionality is reestablished in Honduras. Kevin Coleman Doctoral Candidate in Latin American History Indiana University, Bloomington -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Mon Aug 24 18:19:45 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:19:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Paramilitares golpistas sacan del aire radio Globo y Canal 36 Message-ID: <987266.22544.qm@web38902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Paramilitares golpistas sacan del aire radio Globo y Canal 36 Tegucigalpa. AFP. | 24 agosto del 2009 Hombres encapuchados sacaron del aire la radio Globo y el Canal 36, partidarios del presidente hondure?o, Manuel Zelaya, da?ando los transmisores, informaron este lunes fuentes period?sticas a la AFP. "Unos ocho hombres encapuchados llegaron a la radio, amenazaron a los dos guardias y se fueron directo a los transmisores, les echaron unos l?quidos y los fundieron. Lo mismito hicieron al Canal 36", relat? el periodista de Globo, David Romero. Seg?n el periodista, los encapuchados "sab?an d?nde estaban los transmisores, no necesitaron preguntar a nadie". Los desconocidos se conduc?an en varios veh?culos sin distintivos de las autoridades policiales y militares, seg?n la fuente. El incidente se registr? Domingo hacia las 20H00 locales (02H00 GMT del lunes) mientras la radio transmit?a un concierto promovido por el Frente Nacional de Resistencia contra el Golpe. La radio se oye ahora s?lo en ciertos sectores de la capital con un peque?o transmisor de alcance muy limitado mientras que el Canal 36 estaba fuera del aire totalmente. Romero record? que la estatal Empresa Hondure?a de Telecomunicaciones (Hondutel) ha amenazado judicialmente con suspender la frecuencia a la radio. Globo y Canal 36 son dos de los pocos medios de comunicaci?n de Honduras que se han identificado con Zelaya, ya que los dem?s orientan las informaciones a favor del gobierno de facto de Roberto Micheletti. -- From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Mon Aug 24 18:27:32 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:27:32 -0400 Subject: [HNA] JFP News 8/24: Coup Protestor Gang-Raped by Honduran Police In-Reply-To: References: <1113958621.1132629588@org.orgDB.mail.democracyinaction.org> Message-ID: We have heard of this in many ways before, but this is a documented case that we should publicize widely. I am outraged over this and other rapes being used as a weapon of intimidation by these golpistas. En solidaridad, por justicia, Kaveri *Coup Protestor Gang-Raped by Honduran Police* On Friday, Latin America scholars sent an urgent letter to Human Rights Watch, urging HRW to speak out on violations of human rights under the coup regime in Honduras and to conduct its own investigation. One of the things Human Rights Watch should investigate is allegations by Honduran feminists and human rights groups that Honduran police are using rape and other sexual violence as weapons of intimidation against Hondurans nonviolently protesting the coup regime. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/304 *Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy* Your financial contributions to Just Foreign Policy help us create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html *Summary:* *U.S./Top News <#1234f2a0ccc0027b_1234f1d14516a9c8_August2409m1>* 1) Sen. Feingold called on President Obama to announce a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, ABC News reports. "After eight years, I am not convinced that pouring more and more troops into Afghanistan is a well thought out policy," said Feingold. "I think it is time we start discussing a flexible timetable so that people around the world can see when we are going to bring our troops out," said Feingold. "Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do," he added. 2) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the OAS, published "preliminary observations" on its visit to Honduras. The Commission confirmed a pattern of disproportionate use of force by authorities, arbitrary detentions, and the control of information aimed at limiting political participation. The Commission confirmed the use of repression against demonstrations through the placement of military roadblocks; the arbitrary enforcement of curfews; the detentions of thousands of people; cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; and poor detention conditions. 3) The US promised the military forces it will deploy in Colombia will be far from the borders with neighboring countries and that their intervention in other nations would only be possible if these were to make a request, the Buenos Aires Herald reports. The US Ambassador in Colombia, William Brownfield, defined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group as the principal objective of the joint military action. [This assertion undermines the claim that the basing agreement merely reassigns the purported counter-narcotics functions of the base in Ecuador which is closing - JFP.] 4) U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan say they don't have enough troops to carry out their assigned mission, the New York Times reports. Admiral Mullen described the situation in Afghanistan as "serious" and "deteriorating." 5) There were widespread accounts of ballot-box stuffing, a lack of impartiality among election workers and voters casting ballots for others in the Afghan election, Carlotta Gall reports in the New York Times. Preliminary results were not expected until Tuesday. * Honduras <#1234f2a0ccc0027b_1234f1d14516a9c8_August2409m2>* 6) The group Feministas de Honduras en Resistencia said it has documented 19 instances of rape by police officers since the coup, EFE reports. The activists say that women taking part in the resistance to the coup are being targeted. *Iraq <#1234f2a0ccc0027b_1234f1d14516a9c8_August2409m4>* 7) Now that the Maliki government has taken concrete steps to put a referendum in place on the security agreement with the U.S., the US should stop trying to undermine the referendum, write Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway in the Financial Times. Instead, the US should make clear that it respects the decision and prepare for the contingency that, if the referendum is defeated, the US might have to withdraw from Iraq on a timeline earlier than that advocated by Bush, though still not as early as Obama and Biden advocated before the US election. *Brazil <#1234f2a0ccc0027b_1234f1d14516a9c8_August2409m5>* 8) President Lula asked Obama to meet with the leaders of the Union of South American Nations to address their concerns about Washington's basing agreement with Colombia, EFE reports. Lula told Obama of the need for "formal, legally valid guarantees that the equipment and personnel won't be used outside the strict declared purpose." Lula urged the Obama to increase pressure on the coup regime in Tegucigalpa to accept the return of President Zelaya, something the Brazilian leader views as "indispensable" for democracy in Honduras and the wider region. *Haiti <#1234f2a0ccc0027b_1234f1d14516a9c8_August2409m6>* 9) Government authorities in Haiti face recent criticism over allegations that they continue to jail political dissidents, Inter Press Service reports. Amnesty International called for the release of Ronald Dauphin, a Haitian political prisoner. Dauphin is an activist with the Fanmi Lavalas movement of former President Aristide. He was seized by armed paramilitaries on Mar. 1, 2004 - the day after Aristide's government was ousted in a coup. In May, Rep. Maxine Waters wrote to Haitian Prime Minister Pierre-Louis and Secretary of State Clinton, warning that the failure to provide adequate medical treatment to Dauphin could "cause the injustice [of illegal imprisonment] to become a death sentence." *Contents: U.S./Top News* 1) Feingold to Obama: Announce Withdrawal Timetable from Afghanistan David Chalian, ABC News, August 24, 2009 2:27 PM http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/08/feingold-to-obama-announce-withdrawal-timetable-from-afghanistan.html The Obama administration has been keenly aware of discontent among many in its liberal base with regard to its Afghanistan policy and an expected request for additional troops following General McChrystal's upcoming assessment of the situation there. That liberal base just got a high-profile voice to lead its charge. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, called on President Obama to announce a timetable for withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. "This is a strategy that is not likely to succeed," Sen. Feingold said about the troop buildup in Afghanistan. "After eight years, I am not convinced that pouring more and more troops into Afghanistan is a well thought out policy," said Feingold. The liberal Democrat said he has expressed his reservations with President Obama, Admiral Mullen, and others inside the administration and he says he has "never been convinced they have a good answer." "I think it is time we start discussing a flexible timetable so that people around the world can see when we are going to bring our troops out," said Feingold. "Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do," he added. Sen. Feingold didn't offer up a specific timetable for when he would like to see American troops out of Afghanistan. The senator opposed the war in Iraq and eventually became a leading voice among Democrats in pushing the Bush administration to adopt a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. In an interview with the editorial board of The Post-Crescent in Appleton, WI this afternoon, Sen. Feingold highlighted that the three top terrorist targets originally in Afghanistan - Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and Mullah Omar - are now in Pakistan. "Aren't we helping to drive more extremists into Pakistan?," Feingold asked. He went on to call Pakistan the home of the "witch's brew of every kind of nightmare." Sen. Feingold pointed to Af-Pak Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's recent comments when asked about what success will look like in Afghanistan. "We'll know it when we see it," said Holbrooke. "That's not good enough for me," Feingold responded. Feingold said that he believes the United States needs to maintain its ability to go after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and continue operations there to "make sure we can do the most we can in the remaining time." The Wisconsin Democrat is starting to be a bit of a liberal thorn in the President's (left) side and has some Democrats wondering if he may be plotting a 2012 primary challenge to Obama. [...] 2) IACHR Presents Preliminary Observations on Its Visit to Honduras Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, August 21, 2009 http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2009/60-09eng.Preliminary.Observations.htm Tegucigalpa, Honduras - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) today concluded its on-site visit to Honduras, which began on August 17, 2009. The purpose of the visit was to observe the human rights situation in the context of the coup d'?tat of June 28, 2009. The delegation was composed of the IACHR President, Luz Patricia Mej?a; the First Vice President, V?ctor Abramovich; the Second Vice President and Rapporteur for Honduras, Felipe Gonz?lez; Commissioner Paolo Carozza; and Executive Secretary Santiago A. Canton. The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalina Botero, was also part of the delegation. The IACHR requested the visit on June 30, 2009, received consent from the State on July 13, 2009, and came to an agreement with the President of the Supreme Court of Justice to conduct the visit. The preliminary observations presented today are based on information received before and during the visit. The Commission will prepare a final report that it will publish in the near future. [...] Along with the loss of institutional legitimacy brought about by the coup d'?tat, which affects the regular functioning of democratic institutions, during its visit the Commission confirmed a pattern of disproportionate use of public force, arbitrary detentions, and the control of information aimed at limiting political participation by a sector of the citizenry. The Commission confirmed the use of repression against demonstrations through the placement of military roadblocks; the arbitrary enforcement of curfews; the detentions of thousands of people; cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; and poor detention conditions. The control of information has been implemented through the temporary shutdown of some media outlets; a ban on the transmission of signals of certain cable television stations that were reporting on the coup d'?tat; the selective use of power outages to affect the transmission by audiovisual media reporting on the coup; and attacks and threats against journalists from media outlets with editorial positions opposed to the coup d'?tat. [...] The Commission learned that in demonstrations that were suppressed throughout the country-including Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Choloma, Comayagua, and the town of El Para?so-there was a pattern of excessive use of public force. In fact, several of the demonstrations held since June 28, 2009, were broken up by public security forces, both police and military, resulting in deaths, cases of torture and mistreatment, hundreds of injured, and thousands of arbitrary detentions. [...] The IACHR received testimony from more than 100 people verifying that the repression of public demonstrations was characterized by a disproportionate use of force. In fact, in the various departments to which it traveled, the Commission received testimony about individuals wounded by lead bullets or injured by blows with police truncheons and other blunt objects made of rubber, iron, and wood, and about the indiscriminate use of tear gas, as customary methods used to deter demonstrations. The Commission received testimony from dozens of people with serious injuries to the head as a result of the repression exercised both by police and military personnel. The IACHR verified that men, women, and elderly people showed bruises on various parts of their body, and it heard various accounts of people who were subject to humiliation and torture. In San Pedro Sula, in particular, the Commission was told that during the acts of repression, police officers raped a woman, and several persons received blows to the abdomen and the genitals, and pepper gas was sprayed in their eyes. [...] The IACHR has received information about situations that have arisen since the coup d'?tat that constitute serious violations of the right to freedom of expression. During the visit, it was confirmed that on June 28, 2009, various media outlets-in particular, television channels and radio stations-were forced, by military occupations of their facilities, to suspend their broadcasts. In some cases, they were subject to technical restrictions such as power outages and takeovers of broadcast repeaters and transmitters, which made it impossible for them to report on what was happening. It was also verified that several cable channels were taken off the air and that TV programs that took a critical view of the coup were suspended. Other mechanisms for controlling information have included calls from various public officials, especially members of the public forces, about the inadvisability of transmitting information or opinions against the de facto government. There have also been detentions, attacks, and the destruction of equipment that reporters use to do their jobs, as well as violent attacks and death threats by private individuals against the media. [...] 3) Conflict over US military bases in S. America Buenos Aires Herald, Monday, August 24, 2009 US promises to stay away from borders http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/9573 The United States promised that the military forces it will deploy in Colombia will be far from the borders with neighbouring countries and that their intervention in other nations would only be possible if these were to make a request. The US Ambassador in Colombia, William Brownfield, assured that the operations that his country's military forces undertake "won't be close to the borders without specific authorizations from all the governments involved," in reference to the fears in Caracas and Quito. Similarly, Colombian President ?lvaro Uribe said he believed "our agreement with the US should progressively expand to include all the countries in the region. This has to be efficient and practical, it cannot assume theoretic positions." Brownfield, speaking before the governments in opposition to the agreement with Colombia, said that Washington is willing to give explanations "at the correct time," although he did not specify when that would be. Also, he defined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group as the principal objective of the joint military action between the north and south American nations. 4) U.S. Military Says Its Force In Afghanistan Is Insufficient Helene Cooper, New York Times, August 24, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24military.html Bagram, Afghanistan - American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama's chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders. The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies. The possibility that more troops will be needed in Afghanistan presents the Obama administration with another problem in dealing with a nearly eight-year war that has lost popularity at home, compounded by new questions over the credibility of the Afghan government, which has just held an as-yet inconclusive presidential election beset by complaints of fraud. The assessments come as the top American commander in the country, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has been working to complete a major war strategy review, and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, described a worsening situation in Afghanistan despite the recent addition of 17,000 American troops ordered by the Obama administration and the extra security efforts surrounding the presidential election. "I think it is serious and it is deteriorating," Admiral Mullen said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "The Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated, in their tactics." He added that General McChrystal was still completing his review and had not yet requested additional troops on top of the those added by Obama. [...] 5) Intimidation And Fraud Observed In Afghan Election Carlotta Gall, New York Times, August 23, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/world/asia/23afghan.html Kabul, Afghanistan - Reports of fraud and intimidation in Afghanistan's presidential election continued to mount Saturday, with anecdotal but widespread accounts of ballot-box stuffing, a lack of impartiality among election workers and voters casting ballots for others. A particular concern was the notably low turnout of women, who election observer organizations said were disproportionately affected by the violence and intimidation. Election officials said that all the reports needed to be investigated, and that it was too early to draw broad conclusions about the overall validity of the vote. The reports by election observers came as officials were still counting ballots from Afghanistan's second nationwide election in the nearly eight years since an American-led invasion ousted the Taliban. More than 30 candidates ran for president, and while preliminary results were not expected until Tuesday, the prospect of a runoff election appeared likely, with the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai, facing a stiff challenge from his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah. The reported problems also included voter intimidation, by the Taliban and also by some powerful candidates, in particular local candidates running for provincial council seats. Voter turnout appeared to be low, especially in the volatile south where the Taliban is strongest. [...] * Honduras* 6) Group Says Honduran Cops on Rape Spree Since Coup EFE, August 21, 2009 http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=341851&CategoryId=23558 Tegucigalpa - The group Feministas de Honduras en Resistencia said Thursday that is has documented 19 instances of rape by police officers since the June 28 coup that ousted President Mel Zelaya. There have been many other cases of rape, but the women have not reported them out of fear of reprisals, Gilda Rivera, the executive coordinator of the Honduran Center for Women's Rights and head of Feministas, told Efe. The activists say that women taking part in the resistance to the coup are being targeted. "We've obtained testimonials from women who've been sexually abused, beaten with cudgels on different parts of their bodies, especially the breasts and buttocks," adds the report presented Thursday at a press conference in Tegucigalpa. Others have been verbally attacked in a systematic way with phrases like "Whores, go home," Rivera added. She also said that some of the women who have had their rights violated "have had to hide and live apart from their children and families to protect their children and avoid raids at their homes." The charges from the Feministas coalition come as a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is visiting Honduras to appraise the state of human rights since the army ousted Zelaya and erstwhile Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti was installed as "interim" president. At least a half-dozen Zelaya partisans have been killed in the wake of the putsch. [...] *Iraq* 7) America needs to prepare for early Iraq pullout Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway, Financial Times, August 23 2009 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/30169c54-900d-11de-bc59-00144feabdc0.html [The writers are professors of law at Yale.] America's legal relationship with Iraq is falling apart. Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, has announced a referendum next January on the agreement that governs US military operations. If voters say No, as most expect, Iraq will withdraw from the accord. Under the terms of the agreement, American troops will then have to leave the country in January 2011, nearly a year earlier than planned. [...] The referendum would follow through on a pledge Mr Maliki made last December. Back then, he followed Iraq's constitution and submitted the accord to parliament for its consent. The assembly agreed, but only on condition that the Iraqi people were given a chance to reverse course at the polls. In pushing ahead with the referendum, Mr Maliki is taking his promise to parliament - and Iraq's constitution - seriously. [...] Indeed, Mr Obama and Mr Biden campaigned for a more rapid withdrawal than Mr Bush was contemplating. They set the summer of 2010, not the winter of 2011, as their deadline. [...] With General Ray Odierno focused on the December 2011 withdrawal date, American officials have been lobbying the Maliki government to renege on its commitment to a referendum. But now that Mr Maliki has taken concrete steps to put it in place, Mr Obama should call a halt to these efforts to undermine the referendum. It was one thing for Mr Obama and his team to forget their protests against Mr Bush's unilateral actions. It is quite another to encourage Mr Maliki to run roughshod over his own constitution. At the earliest opportunity, Mr Obama or Mrs Clinton, as secretary of state, should make it clear that they respect Mr Maliki's decision and that the US military should start work on a contingency plan for expedited withdrawal. If the Iraqi people vote No in January, America must honour their decision. It is far better to leave early than to continue fighting in defiance of the constitutions of both Iraq and the US. *Brazil* 8) Brazil's Lula Talks Regional Concerns with Obama EFE, August 22, 2009 http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=342079&CategoryId=14090 Brasilia - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva telephoned President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss regional issues such as the possible stationing of U.S. troops in Colombia and the recent coup in Honduras, the Brazilian foreign minister said. Lula asked Obama to meet with the leaders of the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, to address their concerns about Washington's prospective basing agreement with Bogota, Celso Amorim told reporters in Brasilia. The U.S. president told his Brazilian counterpart that he would consider the idea, Amorim said. He said Lula tried to convey to Obama that "there is a sensitivity in the region" about the possibility of an expanded U.S. military presence, news of which has brought angry reactions from leftist-governed Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. Amorim also noted Brazil's own concerns about the proposed accord that would allow the U.S. military to operate from up to seven bases in Colombia. Lula, according to the minister, told Obama of the need for "formal, legally valid guarantees that the (U.S.) equipment and personnel won't be used outside the strict declared purpose, which is the fight against drug trafficking, the FARC (Colombia's main rebel group) and terrorism." Unasur heads of state are due to meet next Friday in Bariloche, Argentina, for a special summit focusing entirely on the issue of U.S. basing rights in Colombia. [...] Another topic addressed in Lula's 30-minute phone call to Obama was the situation in Honduras, Amorim said He said Lula urged the U.S. president to increase pressure on the coup regime in Tegucigalpa to accept the return of ousted head of state Mel Zelaya, something the Brazilian leader views as "indispensable" for democracy in Honduras and the wider region. No nation has recognized the coup regime, the OAS has suspended Honduras and Washington has revoked the U.S. visas of Micheletti and several of his associates. [Actually the U.S. has only revoked "diplomatic" visas - all of the coup leaders are still free to travel to the United States - JFP.] But the Obama administration has signaled that it doesn't plan any sanctions to force the coup regime to step down. *Haiti* 9) Calls Mount to Free Lavalas Activist Wadner Pierre and Jeb Sprague, Inter Press Service, Aug 20 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48159 Port-Au-Prince - Government authorities in Haiti face recent criticism over allegations that they continue to jail political dissidents. On Aug. 7, Amnesty International called for the release of Ronald Dauphin, a Haitian political prisoner. Dauphin is an activist with the Fanmi Lavalas movement of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was seized by armed paramilitaries on Mar. 1, 2004 - the day after Aristide's government was ousted in a coup d'?tat. According to Amnesty, "the delay in bringing Ronald Dauphin to trial is unjustifiable and is politically motivated". The organisation "opposes Ronald Dauphin's continued detention without trial, which is in violation of his rights, and urges the Haitian authorities to release him pending trial." Amnesty noted that Dauphin's health has deteriorated severely in Haiti's National Penitentiary, which is notorious for the appalling conditions to which it subjects inmates. One of Dauphin's co-defendants, Wantales Lormejuste, died in prison from untreated tuberculosis in April 2007. In May 2009, doctors examined Dauphin and called on the authorities to immediately transfer him to a hospital. But today, nearly five and half years since his original arrest, he has not seen his day in court and remains locked up. Demonstrations in downtown Port-au-Prince, with hundreds of supporters, occur here on a weekly basis, calling for the release of political prisoners. They are organised by local grassroots groups such as the Kolektif Fanmiy Prizonye Politk Yo, Fondasyon 30 Septanm, Organizasyon AbaSatan, and the Group Defans Prizonye Politik Yo. At one protest, Rospide P?tion a former political prisoner and Lavalas supporter, told IPS, "It is unjust to keep Dauphin in prison while criminals are on the street working without prosecution. We ask for justice for Ronald and all the unknown political prisoners from the slums." Last year, the Inter American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ordered the Haitian government to immediately improve prison conditions. [...] Ronald Dauphin is the last of 16 Fanmi Lavalas members and supporters imprisoned based on allegations made by the organisation R?seau National de D?fense des Droits Humains (RNDDH), as well as some relatives of the victims, that a massacre was perpetrated between Feb. 9 and 11, 2004 in St. Marc, 100 kms north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. RNDDH received funding from the Canadian government for the prosecution of the supposed perpetrators of the massacre. However, U.N. investigators - despite U.N. hostility to Fanmi Lavalas and support for the coup-installed government that ruled Haiti until 2006 - have not backed the accusations made by RNDDH. In 2005, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's independent expert on human rights in Haiti, Louis Joinet, concluded that what happened at St. Marc was that armed groups -supporters and opponents of the Aristide government - clashed and that there were casualties on both sides. In 2006, Thierry Fagart, head of the Human Rights department of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, rebuked RNDDH for never substantiating its allegations by even providing a list of the names of the victims. Amnesty International's appeal on behalf of Ronald Dauphin also called for an impartial and thorough investigation into the events that took place in St. Marc, and it observed that "The investigating magistrate has only focused on the alleged crimes committed by the group supporting former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and failed to identify the victims among the former president supporters and their alleged perpetrators." [...] Brian Concannon of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) agreed that the shortcomings of Haiti's legal and prison system punish the innocent and guilty alike. However, Concannon noted that the coup-installed government of 2004-2006 "arrested hundreds of political opponents, some at the insistence of RNDDH. Over five years after the arrests began, not a single political prisoner has been convicted of any crime." [...] Others argue this is part of a pattern, part of a concerted campaign to silence Haiti's poor that continues today with the blocking by the government's Conseil ?lectoral provisoire (CEP) of Fanmi Lavalas from taking party in recent elections. Speaking last Wednesday on Free Speech Radio News, Pierre LaBossiere, a founding member of a North American-Haiti solidarity organisation, the Haiti Action Committee, said, "We have petitions to President Ren? Pr?val to free the political prisoners. People shouldn't be in jail because of their political beliefs." "Because of their strong feelings that President Aristide is the true spokesman for their aspirations they were put in jail on trumped up charges, never a day in court and they are sitting there for years," he said. In May, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters wrote to Haitian Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warning that the failure to provide adequate medical treatment to Dauphin could "cause the injustice [of illegal imprisonment] to become a death sentence." [...] Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans. ------------ Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Mon Aug 24 19:30:40 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:30:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?La_responsabilidad_de_la_Escuelas_de_las_Am?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=E9ricas_en_el_golpe_hondure=F1o?= Message-ID: <360149.24648.qm@web38903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> La responsabilidad de la Escuelas de las Am?ricas en el golpe hondure?o Esta es una entrevista de Sofia Jarrin a Lisa Sullivan, Coordinadora para Latinoam?rica de Vigilancia de las Escuelas de las Am?ricas (www.soaw.org) en Venezuela. Aqu? se habla sobre cu?ntos oficiales que partiparon en el golpe militar en Honduras fueron entrenados en las Escuela de las Am?ricas, que ahora se conoce como el Instituto para la Seguridad y la Cooperaci?n del Hemisferio Occidental (sigla inglesa WHINSEC). Por m?s de 59 a?os, el WHINSEC ha entrenado a m?s de 60,000 soldados latinoamericanos en estrategias de contrainsurgencia. Mucho de ellos han llegado a ser conocidos dictadores y l?deres de escuadrones de la muerte. Esta entrevista fue originalmente publicada en ALER (www.aler.org) el 28 de julio de 2009. Para escuchar el programa (12 mins.) pinchar aqu?. ? Mas informaci?n sobre la resistencia y la solidaridad en http://hondurasresists.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Tue Aug 25 10:13:53 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:13:53 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Legislative Action Alert, Call your Senator today to close the SOA/WHINSEC Message-ID: Closing the SOA/Whinsec would go a long way toward preventing future golpes de estado... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Pam Bowman, SOA Watch Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 12:32 PM Subject: Legislative Action Alert, Call your Senator today To: krajaram at fas.harvard.edu Kaveri, we write to you today to bring you an urgent update on our efforts to close the SOA/ WHINSEC. Congress is close to making a decision about whether to make the names of SOA/ WHINSEC graduates and instructors transparent and available to the public. This information is crucial to our research and legislative efforts to close the school. Kaveri, you are receiving this email because YOUR Senator is a key player in determining whether we win a vote in Congress, and we ask that you take a very important action step to make sure we claim victory this fall! Your Senator was selected to serve on the joint House-Senate conference committee that will make the decision about whether the McGovern - Sestak - Bishop - Lewis amendment language will be included in the final version of the FY 2010 Defense Authorization bill. Lucky you! You have a DIRECT opportunity to influence the position they take in the conference committee negotiations that will take place in September! Here is the list of Senators on the conference committee: Levin (Michigan), Kennedy (Massachusetts), Byrd (West Virginia), Lieberman (Connecticut), Reed (Rhode Island), Akaka (Hawaii), Nelson (Florida), Nelson (Nebraska), Bayh (Indiana), Webb (Virginia), McCaskill (Missouri), Udall (Colorado), Hagan (North Carolina), Begich (Alaska), Burris (Illinois), McCain (Arizona), Inhofe (Oklahoma), Sessions (Alabama), Chambliss (Georgia), Graham (South Carolina), Thune (South Dakota), Martinez (Florida), Wicker (Mississippi), Burr (North Carolina), Vitter (Louisiana), and Collins (Maine) *PLEASE call your Senator(s) from the list above and express your strong support for the McGovern - Sestak - Bishop - Lewis amendment language to be included in the final version of the FY 2010 Defense Authorization bill.* You can contact the DC office of your Senator by calling the Capitol Hill Switchboard toll free at 1-800-473-6711, (or 202-224-3121). Ask to be transferred to your Senator's office, and when you are connected, ask to speak with the military/defense legislative assistant to relay your message. Finally, please forward this information about the Senate conferees far and wide and encourage everyone to contact their Senators from this list requesting they support the inclusion of the amendment language. You can read more about the amendment language and the June 25 vote in Congress on the SOA Watch Legislative Action Index, or contact our Legislative Coordinator, Pam Bowman at pbowman at soaw.org if you have further questions. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Tue Aug 25 12:12:15 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:12:15 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Invitation to join meeting of Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras Message-ID: Dear compas, The Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras will be holding a meeting to decide future actions in solidarity with the Honduran resistance, which is mounting daily, and experiencing increasing repression from the police and military in response to their protests, strikes, and other mobilizations. So far we have held fundraisers, informational pickets, and panel discussions on the issue to raise funds for and awareness about the resistance. Urgent action is needed, and we need all the help we can get. Please join us for our planning meeting on Thursday August 27 at 5:30 pm at the AFSC office in 2161 Massachusetts Avenue. You can walk from Porter Square, which is a long-ish walk, or take the #77 bus from Harvard Square or Porter to find a spot closer to 2161 Mass Ave. Please pass on this information to your listserves. In solidarity Kaveri -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tmeza at SomervilleCDC.org Tue Aug 25 13:38:39 2009 From: tmeza at SomervilleCDC.org (Tito Meza) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:38:39 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Invitation to join meeting of Committee in Solidarity withthe Resistance in Honduras In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Friends, have a conversation with Sergio and I agree if we do something it make more sense to have the action at the train n station. Particularly, Government Center! Angel Tito Meza Community Organizer Somerville Community Corporation 337 Somerville, Ave. Somerville, MA Tel. (617) 776-5931E231 Fax: 776-0724 -----Original Message----- From: announce-bounces at hondurasresists.org [mailto:announce-bounces at hondurasresists.org] On Behalf Of Kaveri Rajaraman Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 3:12 PM To: announce at hondurasresists.org Subject: [HNA] Invitation to join meeting of Committee in Solidarity withthe Resistance in Honduras Dear compas, The Committee in Solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras will be holding a meeting to decide future actions in solidarity with the Honduran resistance, which is mounting daily, and experiencing increasing repression from the police and military in response to their protests, strikes, and other mobilizations. So far we have held fundraisers, informational pickets, and panel discussions on the issue to raise funds for and awareness about the resistance. Urgent action is needed, and we need all the help we can get. Please join us for our planning meeting on Thursday August 27 at 5:30 pm at the AFSC office in 2161 Massachusetts Avenue. You can walk from Porter Square, which is a long-ish walk, or take the #77 bus from Harvard Square or Porter to find a spot closer to 2161 Mass Ave. Please pass on this information to your listserves. In solidarity Kaveri -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Tue Aug 25 15:39:54 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:39:54 -0400 Subject: [HNA] JFP News 8/25: U.S. suspends visas to Honduras; Human Rights Watch urges U.S. pressure In-Reply-To: <1115527045.-381854519@org.orgDB.mail.democracyinaction.org> References: <1115527045.-381854519@org.orgDB.mail.democracyinaction.org> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Just Foreign Policy Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 6:37 PM Subject: JFP News 8/25: U.S. suspends visas to Honduras; Human Rights Watch urges U.S. pressure To: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com *Just Foreign Policy News August 25, 2009* *Just Foreign Policy News on the Web: * http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/307 [To receive just the Summary and a link to the web version, send a note with subject: "subscribe JFP News short summary" to naiman at justforeignpolicy.org .] *Feingold, Breaking Beltway Taboo, Calls for Afghanistan Withdrawal Timetable* Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin broke a Washington taboo. He called for a "timetable" for withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. Now we need to help Senator Feingold bring other Senators along. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/306 *Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy *Your financial contributions to Just Foreign Policy help us create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a just foreign policy. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html *Summary:* *U.S./Top News <#12353b4e9a045c8a_August2509t1> *1) The U.S. said Tuesday it was suspending most visa service in Honduras in a bid to put pressure on the nation's coup leaders to accept a plan to restore democracy, AFP reports. The State Department said it would stop granting visas Wednesday at its embassy in Honduras except to applicants seeking to immigrate to the U.S. or who have a personal emergency. The move came as a seven-nation mission visits Honduras to press the coup regime to accept the San Jose Accord that would reinstate President Zelaya. [With respect to visas, this is actually a broader sanction than Representative Grijalva and Just Foreign Policy advocated: we urged the State Department to cancel visas of coup leaders - JFP.] 2) The finding by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of widespread abuses in Honduras should compel the international community to take firm action, such as targeted sanctions, to resolve the country's ongoing crisis, Human Rights Watch said today. "Given the ongoing abuses documented by the Commission and the lack of effective legal protection, it is urgent that the international community exert concerted and effective pressure to restore democratic government in Honduras," said Jos? Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. [The letter sent by Latin America scholars asked Human Rights Watch to put out a statement and to conduct its own investigation, so this represents a partial fulfillment of the ask. The Human Rights Watch statement is very strong, including its call for targeted U.S. sanctions and its highlighting of sexual violence allegations against the coup regime. Kudos to Human Rights Watch - JFP.] 3) The U.S. continues to provide the coup regime in Honduras with tens of millions of dollars in aid money through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), despite having cut off MCC assistance to Mauritania and Madagascar following coups in those countries, the Center for Economic and Policy Research reports. 4) Senator Feingold says the U.S. should craft a "flexible timetable" for its withdrawal from Afghanistan, AFP reports. 5) Four U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday when their vehicle struck an IED in Afghanistan, making the 2009 death toll for foreign forces in Afghanistan the highest since the war began nearly eight years ago, the New York Times reports. The latest casualties bring to 63 the number of foreign soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this month, and to 295 the death toll since January. The death toll for foreign forces has risen steadily over the course of the war, from 12 in 2001 to 294 in 2008, which up until now had been the deadliest year. 6) The first preliminary results in the Afghan presidential election released Tuesday showed that President Karzai had a slender lead over his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, but not a majority, with 10 percent of the votes counted, the New York Times reports. Election officials cautioned against extrapolating from the preliminary results. Final, certified results will not be made public until mid- or late September. 7) South American presidents are expected to slam a US plan to use military bases in Colombia when they gather for a summit in Argentina at the end of the week specifically to discuss the issue, AFP reports. US officials say that while the deal on the bases was finalized this month, the agreement has not yet been signed. Secretary of State Clinton said she expected to ink the accord soon. *Iran <#12353b4e9a045c8a_August2509t2> *8) Diplomats say Iran's output of enriched uranium has stagnated for months, even though Iran has continued to install machines that carry out the process, George Jahn reports for AP. The diplomats tell AP that could indicate that Iran is running out of the material it needs to enrich. *Israel/Palestine <#12353b4e9a045c8a_August2509t3> *9) Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad unveiled a government program on Tuesday to build the apparatus of a Palestinian state within two years, regardless of progress in the stalled peace negotiations with Israel, the New York Times reports. Israeli officials criticized what they characterized as unilateral action, but the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem expressed approval for the plan. *Iraq <#12353b4e9a045c8a_August2509t4> *10) Major Shiite parties with close links to Iran announced a new coalition Monday that excludes Prime Minister Maliki, the Washington Post reports. If the new coalition remains intact and secures a majority of parliamentary seats in the Jan. 16 vote, Iraq's next government probably will be run by leaders with deep ties to Iran, which would considerably curb U.S. influence here as U.S. troops continue to withdraw, the Post says. *Contents:* *U.S./Top News *1) US to halt visas to pressure coup-hit Honduras AFP, August 25, 2009 http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090825/usa/us_honduras_politics_diplomacy_visa_1 Washington - The United States said Tuesday it was suspending most visa service in Honduras in a bid to put pressure on the nation's coup leaders to accept a plan to restore democracy. The State Department said it would stop granting visas Wednesday at its embassy in Honduras except to applicants seeking to immigrate to the United States or who have a personal emergency. The move came as a seven-nation mission visits Tegucigalpa to press the interim government to accept the so-called San Jose Accord that would reinstall deposed President Manuel Zelaya. "In support of this mission and as a consequence of the de facto regime's reluctance to sign the San Jose Accord, the US Department of State is conducting a full review of our visa policy in Honduras," department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "We firmly believe a negotiated solution is the appropriate way forward and the San Jose Accord is the best solution," Kelly said in a statement. The head of the Organization of American States and the foreign ministers of seven nations - Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico and Panama - flew Monday to Tegucigalpa to press interim leader Roberto Micheletti to accept the deal. [...] 2) Honduras: Rights Report Shows Need for Increased International Pressure Widespread and Continuing Abuses Documented by Inter-American Commission Human Rights Watch, August 25, 2009 http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/25/honduras-rights-report-shows-need-increased-international-pressure Washington, D.C. - The finding by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of widespread abuses in Honduras should compel the international community to take firm action, such as targeted sanctions, to resolve the country's ongoing crisis, Human Rights Watch said today. The Commission released a report on August 21, 2009, showing a pattern of serious violations under the de facto government, including excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, and attacks on the media, as well as several confirmed deaths and possible "disappearances." The Commission also documented an absence of effective legal protections from abuse. "Given the ongoing abuses documented by the Commission and the lack of effective legal protection, it is urgent that the international community exert concerted and effective pressure to restore democratic government in Honduras," said Jos? Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. In the aftermath of the June 28 coup d'?tat, Human Rights Watch and other local and international advocacy groups urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to address serious human rights abuses being committed in Honduras under the de facto government. Given the scope of alleged abuses, and the region's history of bloody coups leading to massive violations, human rights advocates believed the situation warranted the direct intervention of the region's most authoritative human rights investigative body, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Commission conducted an extensive fact-finding mission from August 17 to 21. It met with representatives of the de facto government and representatives of various sectors of civil society, and received complaints, testimony, and information from more than 100 individuals. [...] In its preliminary findings, the Commission found "a pattern of disproportionate use of public force" by the military and police, which has resulted in the deaths of at least four people, dozens of wounded, and thousands of arbitrary detentions. It also found that the de facto government has abused its emergency powers, using the military to limit freedom of assembly and expression. The Commission confirmed that women had suffered sexual violence, and that threats, detentions, and beatings of journalists had created an atmosphere of intimidation among critical media outlets. While the Commission reported some serious acts of violence and vandalism by protesters, it noted that the majority of demonstrations were peaceful. The Commission documented four deaths resulting from the use of excessive force under the de facto government. Isis Obed Murillo Menc?as died after being shot in the head while participating in a demonstration outside Tegucigalpa's Toncontin Airport on July 5. The body of Pedro Magdiel Mu?oz, which bore signs of torture, was found on July 25 in the department of El Para?so. Witnesses told the Commission that Mu?oz had participated in a rally in front of military roadblocks that day and had been arrested by the military. Roger Vallejos Soriano, a teacher, was shot in the head during a protest in Comayag?ela on July 30. Pedro Pablo Hern?ndez was shot in the head by a soldier at a military roadblock in the valley of Jamastran on August 2, according to testimony collected by the Commission. The Commission also reported that, despite four requests for information, the state has been unable to account for two individuals. One was last seen at a protest on July 12, and the other was seized at home on July 26. The Commission found "a pattern of disproportionate use of public force" by the military and police. More than 100 people verified that a disproportionate use of force was used in repressing demonstrations. The excessive use of force characterized the security forces' suppression of demonstrations in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Choloma, Comayagua, and the town of El Para?so-and resulted in deaths, cases of torture and mistreatment, and hundreds of wounded. According to the report: "In the various departments to which it traveled, the Commission received testimony about individuals wounded by lead bullets or injured by blows with police truncheons and other blunt objects made of rubber, iron, and wood, and about the indiscriminate use of tear gas, as customary methods used to deter demonstrations. The Commission received testimony from dozens of people with serious injuries to the head as a result of the repression exercised both by police and military personnel." [...] The Commission found that "women were especially subject to acts of violence and humiliation because of their gender." The Commission heard the testimony about two incidents that reportedly took place in San Pedro Sula, one in which a woman said she had been raped by police officers and another in which a woman said she was stripped from the waist down and beaten with batons. The Commission confirmed that the police and army groped the breasts and genitals of women in detention. And women denounced security officers for forcibly spreading the women's legs and touching their genitals with police batons. [...] The Commission found that attacks on the media have intensified in recent weeks, generating "an atmosphere of intimidation that inhibits the free exercise of freedom of expression." Among other tactics, it reported that the de facto government, military and police had suspended or closed TV channels and radio stations; threatened, detained, and beaten members of the media; and attacked the offices of critical news outlets. [...] An OAS delegation arrived in Honduras on August 24 to meet with various public and private actors with the goal of promoting the signing of the San Jose Accord, a plan that would return Zelaya to power until elections are held by the end of November. The delegation includes the foreign ministers of Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic, as well as by OAS Secretary General Jos? Miguel Insulza. "If the OAS delegation is unable this week to persuade Honduras's de facto government to allow Zelaya's return to the presidency, the only option left will be for the international community to ratchet up the pressure," said Vivanco. "The US government in particular could play a key role through the use of carefully targeted sanctions." The United States has condemned the coup and suspended about US$18 million in mostly military and development aid to the de facto government. However, the Obama administration has so far resisted imposing more far-reaching sanctions, citing the detrimental impact they could have on the Honduras's struggling economy. Human Rights Watch has previously urged the Obama administration to consider using carefully tailored sanctions that would directly target officials in the de facto government without affecting the broader population. These might include cancelling their travel visas, denying them access to the US banking system, and targeting their private sources of income. 3) U.S. Continues to Provide Honduran Regime With MCC Aid Money, Despite Having Cut Off Other Countries Following Coups Center for Economic and Policy Research, August 25, 2009 http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/mcc-sanctions-2009-08.pdf The U.S. continues to provide the coup regime in Honduras with tens of millions of dollars in aid money through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), despite having cut off MCC assistance to Mauritania and Madagascar following coups d'etat in those countries, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) describes in a new issue brief. The brief notes that while the U.S. suspended MCC money within days following coups in both Mauritania and Madagascar, MCC commitments in Honduras, worth more than $190 million, have not been put on hold after over 57 days following the coup. The U.S. also cut MCC aid to Nicaragua this year following what the U.S. alleged were electoral irregularities in municipal elections. "There appears to be a double standard regarding MCC assistance following coups," CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot said. "It is unclear why the U.S. has not cut MCC funds to Honduras, considering its stated opposition to the ouster of President Zelaya and its stated intentions to pressure the coup leaders." There has been growing pressure on the Obama administration to enact further sanctions on the regime. On August 7, 16 Democratic members of Congress wrote President Obama urging him to freeze the assets of coup leaders and deny them entry into the U.S. The administration has not responded to the letter, nor has it made a legal determination as to whether a coup d'etat took place in Honduras, almost two months after Honduran military forces broke into President Manuel Zelaya's home and rousted him from his bed at gunpoint before flying him out of the country. A legal determination that these events did constitute a coup would trigger a suspension of aid under the Foreign Assistance Act. "This has been a violent coup, with a wave of repression including assassinations of Zelaya supporters, beatings and physical assaults, mass detentions, and attacks on media outlets critical of the coup," Weisbrot said. "The U.S. government could quickly end the coup with serious economic pressure, but it hasn't even frozen the coup leaders' assets." The MCC is a U.S. government-run corporation created in 2004 and tasked with managing the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a fund whose mission is to provide development assistance to low-income developing countries. A country's eligibility to receive assistance from the MCC is based on a series of "selection indicators" related to "Ruling Justly", "Investing in People" and "Economic Freedom". Its board of directors is chaired by the U.S. Secretary of State and includes cabinet officials such as the Treasury Secretary and the U.S. Trade Representative, who oversee stewardship of the MCA. The brief notes that the MCC froze all assistance to Nicaragua following alleged irregularities in its November 9, 2008 elections. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then announced in June that the MCC would terminate all but one of the Nicaragua programs, costing Nicaragua $62 million. 4) US Senator calls for Afghan withdrawal plan AFP, Mon Aug 24, 5:25 pm ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090824/pl_afp/usafghanistanpoliticsobamafeingold_20090824212607 Washington - The United States should craft a "flexible timetable" for its withdrawal from Afghanistan even though President Barack Obama may be considering plans to ramp up US forces there, a US Senator urged Monday. "It is time we ought to start discussing a flexible timetable, when people in America and Afghanistan and around the world can see where we intend and when we intend to bring our troops out," Democratic Senator Russell Feingold. "I think showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it's time to leave is going to be one of the best things we can do to succeed in Afghanistan. People in that country have to take ownership of it, everybody says that," he added. Feingold, who was the first US senator to call for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, was speaking to a newspaper in his home state of Wisconsin amid a growing US debate about troop levels in Afghanistan. [...] 5) With 4 U.S. Deaths, Grim Milestone in Afghan War Sharon Otterman, New York Times, August 26, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/world/asia/26troops.html Four American soldiers were killed Tuesday when their patrol vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan, NATO said, making the 2009 death toll for foreign forces in Afghanistan the highest since the war began nearly eight years ago. The milestone came as Afghans awaited the results in a presidential election marred by accounts of intimidation and fraud, and as high-level American commanders say that more troops are required to defeat the insurgency by Taliban militants. [...] The latest casualties bring to 63 the number of foreign soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this month, and to 295 the death toll since January, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which tracks reports of deaths. The death toll for foreign forces has risen steadily over the course of the war, from 12 in 2001 to 294 in 2008, which up until now had been the deadliest year. American forces, who make up the largest contingent of the NATO force in Afghanistan, have also suffered the largest share of deaths, with 172 killed this year, surpassing the previous high of 155 killed in 2008. A total of 802 American troops have died since the war began. British forces have suffered the second highest number of deaths, with 206 killed since 2001. [...] 6) No Clear Winner in Early Afghan Results Carlotta Gall, New York Times, August 26, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/world/asia/26afghan.html Kabul, Afghanistan - The first preliminary results in the Afghan presidential election released Tuesday showed that President Hamid Karzai had a slender lead over his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, but not a majority, with 10 percent of the votes counted. The inconclusive results, reported by the Independent Election Commission, were sharply at odds with claims by aides to President Karzai on Monday that he had won an overwhelming majority in the voting last Thursday. If no candidate receives a majority, a runoff election would be required. Early results from the election, which was held under heavy security as American-led forces in Afghanistan have battled Taliban insurgents in the nearly eight-year-old war, are receiving extraordinary scrutiny as a test of the fairness of the vote. Karzai's opponents have claimed numerous instances of fraud and irregularities. The special American representative to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, said it was premature to interpret the first results. "Ten percent of the vote is in. Imagine an American election with 10 percent in. You don't call it with 10 percent," Holbrooke told reporters during a visit to Turkey. "Anyone who extrapolates at this point is less than accurate." The Afghan election commission said the first results tallied show Karzai had 40.6 percent of the vote, and Abdullah 38.7 percent. The commission said it planned to release partial results each day for the next several days. Final, certified results will not be made public until mid- or late September. [...] 7) South America to Slam US-Colombia Base Deal AFP, Tuesday, August 25 http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090825/twl-colombia-us-military-latam-7e07afd.html Sao Paulo - South American presidents are expected to slam a US plan to use military bases in Colombia when they gather for a summit in Argentina at the end of the week specifically to discuss the issue. The anti-US leaders [sic] of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have already vociferously criticized the announcement that Washington wanted to expand its military presence in Colombia to access seven bases. The more moderate presidents heading up Brazil, Chile and Argentina have likewise expressed concern at the decision, first announced last month by Bogota. The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit in the Argentine ski resort of Bariloche on Friday is to examine claims by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez that the increased US deployment could be used to invade his country. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is to attend, after having snubbed the previous Unasur meeting in Ecuador early this month because of regional friction over the deal. Ahead of that last meeting, Uribe embarked on a tour of South America to speak to leaders one-on-one about the bases deal, but failed to win any support except from Peruvian President Alan Garcia. US officials say that, while the deal on the bases was finalized this month, the agreement with Colombia has [not] yet been signed. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she expected to ink the accord soon. [...] *Iran** *8) Diplomats: Iran's enrichment program stagnates George Jahn, AP, August 25, 2009 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRqjZV1Meppj40hTs8IBOv4DdsQwD9A9T8600 Vienna - Diplomats say Iran's output of enriched uranium has stagnated for months, even though Tehran has continued to install machines that carry out the process. The diplomats tell The Associated Press that could indicate that Iran is running out of the material it needs to enrich - a process that can produce both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of nuclear warheads. [...] *Israel/Palestine *9) Palestinian Leader Maps Out Building of a State Isabel Kershner, New York Times, August 26, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/world/middleeast/26mideast.html Jerusalem - The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, unveiled a government program on Tuesday to build the apparatus of a Palestinian state within two years, regardless of progress in the stalled peace negotiations with Israel. The plan, the first of its kind from the Palestinian Authority, sets out national goals and priorities and operational instructions for ministries and official bodies. Fayyad said it was meant to hasten the end of the Israeli occupation and pave the way to independent statehood, which he said "can and must happen within the next two years." There was no immediate official Israeli comment, with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, traveling for talks in Europe. But two Israeli officials reacted with consternation over what they saw as unilateral action. The United States consul general in Jerusalem expressed approval for the plan. Fayyad, an American-educated economist and a political independent who has gained the confidence of the West and is largely respected in Israel, made the announcement in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He said the goal of the plan was "to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years." The Western-backed Palestinian leadership has recently been accused of passivity in its approach to peace-making and pursuit of independence. Fayyad said the new program represented a proactive effort to form the foundation of the state. His announcement came on a day when Netanyahu met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London. On Wednesday, he is to meet there with George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration's Middle East envoy. Jacob Walles, the American consul general, spoke of the plan in an interview here on Monday, in advance of Fayyad's announcement. He said that it was the first time he had seen the Palestinians come up with such a "concrete plan" and that they were working in a practical way toward their goal. [...] Fayyad's plan lays out a broad national outline for a democratic Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The plan states, for example, that "shelter, education and health insurance are basic rights which will be preserved and protected by the state," which also has "an enduring obligation to care and provide for the martyrs, prisoners, orphans and all those harmed in the Palestinian struggle for independence." It adds: "Natural resources, archaeological remains, and historical and heritage sites in the state of Palestine are the property of the Palestinian people." Aspirations for the economy include ridding it of outside hegemony and reversing its dependence on Israel. Goals for the Finance Ministry include reducing reliance on international aid by controlling spending and increasing domestic revenues. The government is to offer tax incentives to local and foreign investors. The Palestinian Authority has instructed its Ministry of Transport to help develop legislation and plans for modern seaports, crossing points, and airports, including construction of an international airport in the Jordan Valley. The government plan calls on the Palestinians - whose loyalties are currently divided between the two largest political groups, Fatah and Hamas - to unite in building their state. *Iraq *10) Major Shiite Political Parties Exclude Maliki In Forming Coalition Move by Iran-Allied Groups Could Push Iraqi Premier to Partner With Sunnis Ernesto Londo?o and K.I. Ibrahim, Washington Post, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082400647.html Samarra, Iraq, Aug. 24 - Major Shiite parties with close links to Iran announced a new coalition Monday that excludes Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a development that appears to make him the underdog in the coming national elections. If the new coalition remains intact and secures a majority of parliamentary seats in the Jan. 16 vote, Iraq's next government probably will be run by leaders with deep ties to Iran, which would considerably curb U.S. influence here as American troops continue to withdraw. The new alliance and the likelihood that Maliki will be forced have to partner with Sunnis suggest that Iraqi politicians are increasingly willing to cross sectarian lines in the pursuit of power. Maliki's exclusion from the alliance was not entirely surprising. Despite his considerable popularity, the prime minister has become a divisive figure, and a recent surge in violence has triggered criticism from Iraqis who view his administration as cocky and incompetent. Because of the volatile nature of Iraqi politics and the fickleness of alliances, analysts cautioned that the political groupings are likely to change between now and the time the ballots are printed. Alliances could even be redrawn after the votes are tallied. "All possibilities are open," said Shiite lawmaker Jaber Habib Jaber, who is part of the new coalition. "Negotiations are still ongoing with Maliki's camp." The new Shiite coalition will be led by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a conservative party that is among Iran's closest allies in Iraq. It also includes the movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr; the Fadhila Party; former Pentagon ally Ahmed Chalabi; and former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jafari. Alliance leaders said they invited Maliki to join but refused to guarantee that he would keep his job if the alliance obtained a majority of seats. [...] Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans. ------------ Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com Wed Aug 26 09:16:31 2009 From: kaveri.rajaraman at gmail.com (Kaveri Rajaraman) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:16:31 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Boston Action -- Friday August 28, 2009 - Commemorating two months of Honduran Resistance Message-ID: As a commemoration of two months Honduran Resistance against the coup. We will have an INFORMATIONAL PICKET flyering, chants, music, signs, Friday August 28, 2009 4:30 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. Government Center Boston, MA For more information contact:Simon Rios 603-882-7894 or elektrodread at gmail.com Tito Meza- 617-610-3784 or honduproject at yahoo.com Called for by: The Committee in Solidarity With The Honduran Resistance, Proyecto Hondureno, CISPES-Boston, International Action Center, Boston May Day Committee (Please send a note to info at hondurasresists.org to endorse and to participate) *Join Our Mailing List!* Committee in Solidarity with The Honduran Resistance on The Web < http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102665085895&s=3&e=001L3ky4tlzwteT5vyYJ-eykQg73Jq-G9W1mEdFWpgkGzz3pVQ88gMqG0jchwoVaxC_zgRMcu57QtxXZJdX2GMlBpB9ZO1QAWru7Wr1CKcNUb9fEtelbc4cWA==> Safe Unsubscribe < http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?v=0013yYWxIr3lUG3e_VbCy5CDawNiJgBwo8bY8plmuAkPsueNmmJ4Gphfw%3D%3D&p=un> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Wed Aug 26 15:58:28 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:58:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] First Military Coup of 21st Century Reverses Honduran Women's Gains in Human Rights Message-ID: <252055.4207.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> First Military Coup of 21st Century Reverses Honduran Women's Gains in Human Rights By Margaret Thompson FIRE ? Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Radio Internacional Feminista August 24, 2009 - Tegucigalpa, Honduras ? The military coup d??tat in Honduras on June 28th has seriously eroded democratic institutions and hard-fought gains in women?s human rights and human rights in general. Setbacks include the takeover and militarization of the National Institute of Women (INAM) by the defacto coup administration, the suspension of 25 people including 18 women from their jobs at INAM, and violent repression by security forces of feminists who were protesting in front of the ministry, ordered by the defacto appointed Minister of Women. ? Read the whole article: http://hondurasresists.org ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From achomsky at salemstate.edu Thu Aug 27 09:59:18 2009 From: achomsky at salemstate.edu (Avi Chomsky) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:59:18 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Salem News Letter on Honduras Coup Message-ID: The Salem News published my letter to the editor protesting the coup government's removal of historian Dar?o Euraque from the IHAH. Anti-Zelaya commenters are already posting responses-- please read and post some comments to balance the right-wingers! Avi http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_239001022.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elektrodread at gmail.com Fri Aug 28 04:47:36 2009 From: elektrodread at gmail.com (Simon Rios) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:47:36 -0400 Subject: [HNA] Will US suspend aid today? Message-ID: <1d602de70908280447l475d0e21q69cae7ed1c31dad2@mail.gmail.com> U.S. moves toward formal cutoff of aid to Honduras Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:38pm EDT * U.S. State Dept toughens line on Honduras, aid at risk * Dominican Republic suggests suspension from CAFTA pact * Central America says won't recognize November election (Adds Central America won't recognize election, Rodas quote) By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. State Department staff have recommended that the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya be declared a "military coup," a U.S. official said on Thursday, a step that could cut off tens of millions of dollars in U.S. funding to the impoverished Central American nation. The official, who spoke on condition he not be named, said State Department staff had made such a recommendation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was expected to make a decision on the matter soon. Washington already suspended about $18 million in aid to Honduras after the June 28 coup and that would be formally cut if the determination is made because of a U.S. law barring aid "to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree." The president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, called for Honduras to be suspended from the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States as a means of putting pressure on the de facto government. CAFTA offers its members preferential commercial terms. Despite worldwide opposition over the past two months to the ouster of Zelaya, who was whisked to exile in an army plane, the interim government of former Congress head Roberto Micheletti says it will not be pressured into stepping down. Central American foreign ministers meeting in Costa Rica on Thursday agreed not to recognize the result of a presidential election set for November unless Zelaya is first restored to power. Zelaya's foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, said after the talks that the push in Washington to employ the term "military coup" meant the coup leaders "have lost their patrons." The State Department official said $215 million in grant funding from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation to Honduras would also have to end should Clinton make the determination a military coup took place. According to the MCC, just over $80 million of that has already been disbursed. A second U.S. official said this implied the remaining roughly $135 million could not be given to Honduras should the determination be made. MCC officials could not immediately say exactly how much of the MCC funds for Honduras, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, were in jeopardy. INFALLIBLE FORMULA Diplomats said the United States had held off making the formal determination to give diplomacy a chance to yield a negotiated compromise that might allow for Zelaya's return. Such efforts appear, however, to have failed for now and the United States is taking steps -- including a decision to stop issuing some visas at its embassy in Tegucigalpa -- to raise pressure on the de facto government. The U.S. official said State Department staff were recommending Clinton sign the military coup determination. He said that was a response to the de facto government's rejection of proposals put forward by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, whose mediation effort has stalled over the government's refusal to allow Zelaya to return. The San Jose accord proposed by the Nobel Peace Prize winner would have let Zelaya back into power before the November election. "I can propose an infallible formula for returning President Zelaya to power -- suspending Honduras from CAFTA," the Dominican Republic's Fernandez said at an event late on Wednesday in Santo Domingo. "Just do that and I'm telling you Zelaya will be back in two or three weeks," Fernandez said. The State Department said on Tuesday it would only provide visa services to potential immigrants and emergency cases at its embassy in Tegucigalpa. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters the visa decision was "a signal of how seriously we are watching the situation" and said Washington was considering other steps, although it was premature to disclose them. (Additional reporting by Manuel Jimenez in Santo Domingo and John McPhaul in San Jose; Editing by Peter Cooney) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Fri Aug 28 07:57:27 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:57:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Reminder: Info picket on Honduras today 4:30pm Message-ID: <794478.47302.qm@web38908.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Boston Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance 8/28/09 4:30PM As a commemoration of two months of Honduran Resistance against the coup and in solidarity with the mobilization in Honduras on the 28th. We will have an INFORMATIONAL PICKET Flyering, chants, music, signs, Friday August 28, 2009 4:30 p.m.- 6:00 p.m. Government Center Boston, MA For more information contact: Simon Rios 603-882-7894 - elektrodread at gmail.com Tito Meza 617-610-3784 - honduproject at yahoo.com Called for by: The Committee in Solidarity With The Honduran Resistance, Proyecto Hondureno, CISPES-Boston, International Action Center, Boston May Day Committee, International Action Center (Please send a note to info at hondurasresists.org to endorse and to participate) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 29 05:24:33 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:24:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?Proclama_de_Siguatepeque_a_los_60_D=EDas_de_?= =?iso-8859-1?q?Resistencia_Pac=EDfica?= Message-ID: <359620.58129.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Proclama de Siguatepeque a los 60 D?as de Resistencia Pac?fica ? Nosotros Ciudadanos y Ciudadanas de Siguatepeque, Comayagua, Honduras, ante el pueblo hondure?o y el mundo PROCLAMAMOS: 1. Que los sucesos acontecidos en esta tierra de Lempira y Moraz?n el 28 de junio 2009 y los d?as subsiguientes hasta la fecha, solo pueden y deben calificarse como GOLPE DE ESTADO y la instauraci?n de una DICTADURA POLITICO MILITAR, represiva y violadora de los derechos humanos del pueblo hondure?o en general y de la poblaci?n en resistencia, en particular. 2. Que son il?gicos e inaceptables todos los argumentos jur?dicos y pol?ticos con que la DICTADURA justifica el golpe de estado contra un gobierno democr?ticamente electo por el pueblo hondure?o. [...] Para leer declaraci?n completa visite http://hondurasresists.org ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sat Aug 29 20:05:23 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:05:23 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?M=E9dicos_de_Honduras_denuncian_intento_de_c?= =?iso-8859-1?q?errar_hospital_comunitario?= Message-ID: <267179.81563.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> M?dicos de Honduras denuncian intento de cerrar hospital comunitario Por: Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN) Fecha de publicaci?n: 29/08/09 http://aporrea. org/tiburon/ n141430.html Tegucigalpa, 29 Ago. ABN.- M?dicos hondure?os denunciaron este s?bado la intenci?n del gobierno de facto de cerrar un hospital de las comunidades de la costa caribe?a, construido con el esfuerzo voluntario de la poblaci?n. El doctor Luther Castillo inform? a Prensa Latina que desde el pasado d?a 1 de agosto las autoridades surgidas con el golpe militar del 28 de junio les cortaron la asignaci?n presupuestaria entregada por el gobierno derrocado. Explic? que cambiaron los par?metros del anterior convenio, mediante el cual recib?an los salarios para cuatro m?dicos, fondos que eran repartidos solidariamente entre todo el personal de la instalaci?n. En el centro se aplica una nueva concepci?n de atenci?n de salud, m?s all? de la puramente asistencial, totalmente gratuita, que resalt? las deficiencias del modelo sanitario de la naci?n, a?adi?. Dijo: 'En nuestro hospital rige una filosof?a de valores humanos, con un alto nivel cient?fico, que excluye por completo la visi?n de la medicina como un negocio', rese?a Prensa Latina. El hospital fue construido por iniciativa de Castillo, graduado en la Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina, de Cuba, mediante el esfuerzo y donaciones de la poblaci?n y fue inaugurado en diciembre de 2007 en su primera etapa. El centro m?dico se ubica en la aislada comunidad de Ciriboya, municipio Iriona, en el caribe?o departamento de Col?n, donde la mayor?a de la poblaci?n es de la etnia garifuna, poblaci?n negra entre las m?s excluidas del pa?s. En la zona no existen servicios de electricidad y para poder funcionar las 24 horas, dependen de paneles solares, indic? Castillo. Se?al? que desde su creaci?n ha brindado 236 mil consultas gratuitas y 152 mil en brigadas que recorren zonas de dif?cil acceso, es el ?nico hospital en la zona. Hemos rechazado el nuevo convenio propuesto por los golpistas, que intenta reducir el hospital a un centro de salud, con salario s?lo para dos m?dicos, e iniciado una campa?a nacional e internacional para recuperarlo, afirm?. El psic?logo Alfonso Lacayo, de origen gar?funa y uno de los coordinadores de la brigada m?dica del Frente Nacional contra el golpe de Estado, apunt? que est? en marcha un movimiento para rescatar el hospital. Precis? que las organizaciones del Frente emprendieron un esfuerzo para recolectar donaciones de medicamentos, otros recursos y fondos para mantener en funcionamiento el hospital. From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sun Aug 30 11:01:16 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:01:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Another good song on Honduras: Goriletti, the Thug Message-ID: <776857.72410.qm@web38905.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Te metiste (?d?nde?) - en Honduras ni pataleando te salvar?s Goriletti, mat?n del pueblo donde te escondas te ir? a buscar You are messing with (with what?) with Honduras now no matter what you do you cannot escape Goriletti, you big thug wherever you hide I will find you Hear and see the YouTube presentation at http://www.hondurasresists.org in the Art section Vea y escuche la presentacion de YouTube en http://www.hondurasresists.org en la secci?n Arte From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Sun Aug 30 15:51:49 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:51:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Informational Picket for Honduras in Government Center, Boston Message-ID: <100145.18453.qm@web38904.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Informational Picket for Honduras in Government Center, Boston The Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance (CSHR) and the International Action Center of Boston carried out a successful informational picket outside the Government Center T Station in Boston on August 28. Also present in the picket were members of the ANSWER organization. This was in solidarity with events worldwide marking the 60 days of uninterrupted resistance to the illegal government of Micheletti in Honduras. Three hundred brochures giving information about the coup d??tat in Honduras and its consequences were distributed to passerbys. Another group from CSHR participated in a rally in solidarity with Honduras in New York City. ? For more info: http://hondurasresists.org ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Mon Aug 31 10:33:32 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:33:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] Official statement on visas to Honduras Message-ID: <718057.97128.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ? Temporary Suspension of Non-Immigrant Visa Services in Honduras Statement by Ian Kelly, Spokesman August 25, 2009 WASHINGTON, DC - The OAS Foreign Ministers mission is in Honduras seeking support for the San Jose Accord, which would restore the democratic and constitutional order and resolve the political crisis in Honduras.? In support of this mission and as a consequence of the de facto regime?s reluctance to sign the San Jose Accord, the U.S. Department of State is conducting a full review of our visa policy in Honduras.? As part of that review, we are suspending non-emergency, non-immigrant visa services in the consular section of our embassy in Honduras, effective August 26.? We firmly believe a negotiated solution is the appropriate way forward and the San Jose Accord is the best solution. ? ? ? Suspensi?n temporal de servicio de Visas de No Inmigrante en Honduras Declaraci?n del Portavoz del Departamento de Estado Ian Kelly 25 de agosto de 2009 WASHINGTON, DC - Una misi?n de Ministros de Relaciones Exteriores de la OEA se encuentra en Honduras gestionando apoyo para el Acuerdo de San Jos?, el cual restaurar?a el orden democr?tico y constitucional, y resolver?a la crisis pol?tica en Honduras.? En apoyo a esta misi?n y como consecuencia de la renuencia del r?gimen de facto a firmar el Acuerdo de San Jos?, el Departamento de Estado de los EE.UU. est? realizando una revisi?n comprensiva de nuestra pol?tica de visas en Honduras.? Como parte de esta revisi?n, estamos suspendiendo los servicios de visas de no inmigrante no relacionados con situaciones de emergencia en el consulado de nuestra Embajada en Honduras, efectivo a partir del 26 de agosto.? Creemos firmemente que una soluci?n negociada es la alternativa apropiada para continuar adelante y el Acuerdo de San Jos? es la mejor soluci?n. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sreyes1 at yahoo.com Mon Aug 31 12:22:04 2009 From: sreyes1 at yahoo.com (Sergio Reyes) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:22:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [HNA] =?iso-8859-1?q?Golpistas_racistas=3A_cierre_del_Hospital_Co?= =?iso-8859-1?q?munitario_gar=EDfuna_de_Ciriboya?= Message-ID: <158237.84069.qm@web38907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Golpistas racistas: cierre del Hospital Comunitario gar?funa de Ciriboya ? Honduras, 8-31-2009.- En los ?tlimos d?as se viene haciendo efectiva la amenaza de la conversi?n del Hospital Comunitario de Ciriboya en un simple centro de salud, descalificando la enorme labor de apoyo efectuada por los m?dicos gar?funas graduado en la ELAM y las brigadas cubanas. Las razones que motivan al r?gimen de facto a tomar la determinaci?n de destruir el trabajo efectuado por el Hospital Comunitario de Ciriboya, radica en el racismo de los funcionarios estatales que se han incorporado a la pesadilla orquestada por Micheletti, y al desprecio por la visi?n social de los m?dicos educados en Cuba, versus a la mentalidad capitalista de la mayor?a de los m?dicos egresados de las escuelas locales. Vea declaracion completa de la Organizaci?n Fraternal Negra Hondure?a, OFRANEH en http://hondurasresists.org ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: