[HNA] Darío Euraque illegally dismissed by Coup Government in Honduras

[Avi Chomsky]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Coleman, Kevin Patrick 
To: Coleman, Kevin Patrick 
Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:25 PM
Subject: Darío 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 Darío 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
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