[HNA] Jan 1 Report from COFADEH

[Tom Loudon]

/From Military Coup de tat, to illegitimate government of force - 
Entering the year 2010///

This week's kidnapping, disappearance, torture and interrogation of 
journalist Cesar Omar Silva by a street patrol with military training 
confirms the existence of a pattern of systematic violations of human 
rights committed by the same structure that violated the constitutional 
order on June 28, 2009.

This pattern is the responsibility of the "hard hand" of the coup regime 
that imposes state violence on a citizenry that resists through popular, 
non violent insurrection.

The related murders of Walter Tróchez and Edwin Renán Fajardo, editor of 
documentaries and reports produced by the journalist Silva for various 
international media outlets, the sustained kidnappings and attacks on 
the staff of El Libertador and Radio Globo and in recent days against 
journalist Rony Martinez whose tires were slashed and has experienced 
constant persecution by unknown individuals as well as police, confirms 
that a death squad with terrorist infrastructure is operating in the 
country with the knowledge of the Police and the Army.  

In addition, the violent deaths of other members of the National Popular 
Resistance Front carried out in a selective manner by hit men in the 
service of the de facto regime, the pursuit, disappearance, torture and 
interrogation of independent journalists repeats the pattern of the 
decade 1980-1990 which left a tragic legacy of dozens of political 
assassinations and hundreds of forced disappearances.  

As in the "dirty war" years, today the people are organized in 
Committees of Imprisoned and Pursued and Political Exiles, Committees 
for the Defense of Life, Students for Freedom and the broad based 
National Popular Resistance Front which with great determination are 
pushing for the emergence of a new Social Pact that will re-found our 
country. 
http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/images/stories/planton_cofadeh3_enero2010.jpg 

In response to this unstoppable mobilization on the part of the 
population the government of the National Party, which emerged from the 
coup, offers systematic violence as the only alternative for staying in 
power given its enormous social and political illegitimacy.

Today we enter the first hours of 2010 in an atmosphere of terror with 
which the coup regime -- civilian and military, national and 
international -- intend to silence the voices of millions of legitimate 
Honduran citizens who reject the use of violence as a means of coercing 
consent and governing the state.

The Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of 
Honduras (COFADEH), calls on the international community to keep its 
eyes on this Central American country and to declare maximun alert in 
terms of the human rights situation.

The economic, political and diplomatic isolation of the coup regime and 
its successor as of the 29th of November, reduce its ability to maneuver 
in the civilized world although it adds to the vulnerability of the 
population.

It is extremely urgent that multilateral organizations open legations in 
Honduras before the sham transfer of power on January 27^th and after 
this date in order to coordinate efforts to save the lives of social and 
political leaders opposed to those who have seized power.  

Honduras is advancing at an accelerated pace, far from the international 
eye, towards a state of absolute defenselessness and requires 
intervention.  

The selective and systematic bleeding could reach the massive 
proportions which the submissive Honduran Cardinal projected in his 
unfortunate national radio and television program at the service of 
those responsible for the violence.

Today, we share the Plaza of the Disappeared with members of the 
Committee of Imprisoned and Pursued and Political Exiles, their 
families, friends and some of those who are currently pursued by the 
dictator.  For them we demand fair trails and respect for the due 
process of law, freedom for the four political prisoners in the National 
Penitentiary and the return of over one hundred people who have been 
forced to leave Honduras to save their lives.

Without a popular Constituent Assembly, peace and tranquility are not 
possible; without a new Social Pact and minimal political consensus 
governability will not be possible.   

Freedom for political prisoners

Impartial trails for those who are pursued by the dictatorship

Stop political persecution

*FOR THE ACTS AND FOR THOSE RESPONSIBLE*

*NO FORGETTING, NO FORGIVENESS*

Committee of the Families of the Disappeared and Detained of Honduras 

COFADEH, Tegucigalpa, January 1, 2010

 

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