[HNA] Fwd: Honduras Human Rights Letter

[Simon Rios]

Dear Friends,

Our committee has finalized a letter condemning the human rights abuses of
the military regime in Honduras. We currently have the support of over 10
solidarity orgs in the country, & it is our hope that your organization will
sign on. Also, if you feel inclined to pass this note onto other
organizations, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Please see text, attached & pasted:


Condemnation the Human Rights Abuses in Post-Coup Honduras



We, the undersigned workers, artists, & intellectuals, strongly condemn the
widespread human rights atrocities against the Honduran people, beginning
with the military coup on June 28th of 2009. Reports from human rights
organizations emerge every day detailing state repression, from rape to
assassination, of members of the non-violent resistance, whose aim is to
restore constitutional order to their country and foster the creation of a
more just society.



These abuses by the Honduran state violate nearly every article of the
American Convention on Human Rights, to which Honduras is a signatory,
beginning with the rupture of constitutional order and resulting in
thousands of rights violations. As recognized by the Interamerican
Commission on Human Rights, and documented extensively by COFADEH, Honduras’
leading human rights organization, the coup regime has demonstrated a
premeditated pattern of tactics with which it aims to quell the resistance
to the coup:



•       Mass detentions in subhuman prison facilities

•       The repression of assembly and mobility by means of force

•       The establishment of curfews and the suspension of constitutional
guarantees

•       Rape and gang rape

•       Targeted assassinations

•       The censorship of media by means of threatening and killing
journalists, employing blackouts, confiscating equipment, & the outright
closure of anti-coup TV and Radio stations

•       Torture

•       Disappearance and kidnapping

•       Psychological warfare

•       Impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes



Though these acts have been carried out by the police and the armed forces,
there has been an alarming increase in the use of paramilitary personnel.
The United Nations reported that some 40 ex-members of the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia—Latin America’s largest paramilitary outfit,
& terrorist organization as designated by the US State Department—had been
employed by Honduran landowners. An increasing number of assassinations and
abductions have been carried out by unidentified agents.



This repression has disproportionately targeted marginalized, working class
communities, such as indigenous, campesino, & afro-Honduran groups. The LGBT
community, for one, recently lost one of its young leaders, Walter Trochez,
27, gunned down by masked assailants on December 13th. Trochez’ murder is
the sixteenth suffered by the LGBT community since the overthrow of Zelaya.



On December 11th, the body of Santos Corrales Garcia appeared decapitated in
a neighborhood outside of Tegucigalpa. Garcia was a local leader of the
non-violent resistance, and had been detained six days earlier by heavily
armed members of the National Criminal Investigation Division. Garcia’s body
showed signs of torture, indicative of a low-intensity campaign to create
collective fear, according to human rights advocate Andres Pavon.



Violence against women has also escalated greatly. As written in the *Christian
Science Monitor*: “As of August, women’s groups in Honduras have documented
249 cases of violations of women’s human rights, including 23 cases of
beatings and sexual assault and seven gang rapes by police explicitly trying
to “punish” women for their involvement in demonstrations. The number of
femicides – the violent murder of women because they are women – has tripled
since the coup, with 51 cases reported during the month of July alone.”



In the face of all this, the regime held elections on November 29th,
resulting in the “victory” of Pepe Lobo of the National Party. The sharp
rise in brutality in the aftermath of the elections indicates that this may
have been the worst thing for the human rights situation in Honduras, as
powerful governments in the hemisphere—namely the United States, Canada, and
Colombia—have used the elections as an opportunity to whitewash the coup. An
ardent supporter of the overthrow of Zelaya, Lobo is already pursuing a
general amnesty for its perpetrators.



For those governments that deal with Honduras, particularly the United
States, this must be considered unacceptable and dealt with according to
national and international law. The unwillingness to condemn the military
regime for its thousands of human rights abuses demonstrates a capitulation
to the coup, its repressive tactics, and its impact on Honduran democracy
and civil society. To remain silent here is to condone the use of military
repression against unarmed populations, and to encourage its use in future
instances.



It is the moral imperative of the international community to demand the
immediate end of the brutality in Honduras, and that the human rights of all
citizens, particularly those involved in political activity, be respected
without conditions.



Signed,



National Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran People



-- 
Simon Rios
(603) 233-1922



-- 
Simon Rios
(603) 233-1922



-- 
Simon Rios
(603) 233-1922
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