[HNA] STATEMENT on behalf of US activists on the murder of Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda

[Sergio Reyes]

--- On Mon, 2/15/10, Hcottin at aol.com <Hcottin at aol.com> wrote:

From: Hcottin at aol.com <Hcottin at aol.com>
Subject: [Presente-Honduras] STATEMENT on behalf of US activists on the murder of Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda
To: toml at quixote.org, presente-honduras at lists.mayfirst.org, fian-honduras at googlegroups.com, hondurasusaresistencia at yahoo.com, celcas2000 at gmail.com, sub at sonic.net, lachapel1 at verizon.net
Date: Monday, February 15, 2010, 12:04 AM




Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda, 27 year old union leader, mother and nurse 
assassinated in Honduras 
STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF U.S.  LABOR & PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISTS CONDEMNING THE 
MURDER OF UNION LEADER VANESSA YAMILETH ZEPEDA & THE REPRESSION SWEEPING 
HONDURAS 
The right to organize is a basic human right of every worker. It is 
a right defended by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Honduras, that 
right is being denied on a daily basis. 
Since the 1980s, militarists in Honduras have trained paramilitary forces 
to torture and murder labor unionists and other activists to prevent the people 
from exercising their basic right to resist exploitation and 
oppression. 
 When the U.S.-backed military coup against the legally elected 
President Jose Manuel Zelaya took place last June,  many of the military 
participants were the perpetrators of this travesty. They discharged their 
military, paramilitary and police forces to torture and murder labor union 
leaders, students, LGBT activists and peasants. 
The U.S. government may claim that the election of José "Pepe" Lobo 
was a "triumph of democracy," but that is an out and out lie. The remnants and 
new recruits of the genocidal U.S.- trained Battalion 3-16 are still conducting 
political assassinations in Honduras.   
 Since the coup, our fellow labor activists have been murdered at an 
unprecedented rate, and murdered stealthily in a way that allows the Lobo 
government to claim that these murders were not political. 
 
 But the murder of the  leader of the SITRAIHSS labor union 
(Workers Union for the Honduran Social Security Institute),  Vanessa 
Zepeda,  who was abducted when she was leaving a union meeting, leaves no 
doubt in our minds that this is an OFFICIAL POLICY and OFFICIAL COVER-UP by 
the fraudulently  elected Lobo government. 
 We 
the undersigned members of U.S. labor unions as well as progressive 
organizations, declare our opposition to this official policy of neo- fascist 
repression in Honduras, and call upon our own unions to denounce this 
illegitimate government, and to support our fellow unionists in 
Honduras. 
. . 
Furthermore, we oppose the enabling role the U.S. government 
has played in the election and “legitimizing” of the Lobo regime, which is only 
an attempt to justify and sanitize the criminal coup of June 
2009. 
   
Anne Pruden 
Bryan G. Pfeifer, Staff Organizer, Union of Part-Time Faculty-AFT, Wayne 
State University, Detroit* 
Gavrielle Gemma 
Greg Dunkel, Professional Staff 
Congress-CUNY 
Heather Cottin:  Plainview-Old Bethpage Congress of Teachers: 
Retired, PSC-CUNY 
LeiLani Dowell, Fight Imperialism, Stand 
Together 
Martha Grevatt , Chair, Civil and Human Rights Committee, UAW Local 
122*  
Milt Rosenberg 
Sean P. Schafron, Coraopolis, PA 15108 
Teresa Gutierrez, National IAC Coordinator,  Immigrant and Latin 
American Projects, Co-Coordinator May 1st Coalition 
Berta H. Joubert-Ceci, MD, Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania 
Dave Welsh: Delegate, San Francisco (Calif.) Labor 
Council 
Gloria Rubac, Houston Federation of Teachers, Local 2415, 
Retired  
Joan Marquardt  
Leslie Feinberg: Co-founder Rainbow Solidarity for the Cuban 
5  
Mike Gimbel; DC 37, New York City Labor Council 
Delegate  
Michael Kramer, Jersey City, New Jersey, Vets for 
Peace   
Monica Moorehead, Millions for Mumia  
Shelley Ettinger, member, AFT Local 
3882  
Sue Harris, co-director- Peoples Video 
Network  
Wellington Echegaray, Colombian activist 
Sharon Black, Bail Out the People Movement Union 
Coordinator  
Joe Piette, Mail Handlers Union, 
Philadelphia 
Brenda Stokely, Million Worker March 
Hannah 
Frisch, Chicago 
Mike 
Gimbel, Local 375 AFSCME Chair of Labor/Community Unity 
Committee 
Abayomi 
Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire 
Gregory Butterfield, member, National Organization of Legal Service 
Workers Local 2320, UAW *  
Michelle Gore-Butterfield, member, Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 764, 
IATSE * 
Nayereh Tohidi, Ph.D, Professor,Department of Gender & Women's 
Studies, California State University, Northridge 
Tom 
Paine Cronin 
Chuck 
Kaufman, Alliance for Global Justice 
Andy 
Griggs, L.A. -United Teachers Los Angeles (NEA/AFT)*, Screen Actors Guild*, 
Actor's Equity* For identification purposes only 
Ron Chew, Oak Park, IL 60302 
Maria Urbina Gonzalez 
Diana Canales 
Dale Sorensen, California, USA 
Allan 
Fisher, AFT Local 2121 
Chito 
Quijano, Auditor, International League of Peoples' Struggle & Lead 
Organizer, CNA/National Nurses United 
Panama 
Alba  
Louis 
Barrios  
   
 
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