[HNA] Open Letter on MLK Day About Human Rights Violations in Honduras

[Sergio Reyes]

Committee in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance

33 Harrison Ave.
Boston, MA 02111 – info at hondurasresists.org
– www.hondurasresists.org

(617) 491-2876

 

 

January 18, 2010 – Martin Luther King Day

 

We,
the undersigned organizations of workers, artists, intellectuals, veterans,
activists, lawyers, clergy, and community organizers, 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 violent 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 excessive 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 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 decapitated body of Santos Corrales Garcia appeared 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 Porfirio 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,









8th Day Center for Justice

Alliance for Global Justice

Americans Who Tell the Truth

Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network

Binghamton, New York-El Charcon Sister City Project

Boston
Democratic Socialists of America

Boston Liberation Health Group

Boston May Day Coalition

British Columbia Teachers’
Federation

Brooklyn For Peace

Cambridge, MA-El Salvador Sister City Project

Campaign for Labor Rights

Centro
Presente

Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities

Davis
Religious Community for Sanctuary

Democratic Socialists of
Central Ohio

Doctors for Global Health

Fredericton
Peace Coalition

Friends of Chilama- a US-El Salvador Sister City

Georgia
Peace & Justice Coalition/Atlanta

Grassroots International

Greater Boston Stop the Wars
Coalition

Hondurans for Democracy

InterReligious Task Force
on Central America

La Voz de los de Abajo

Latin America Solidarity
Committee Aotearoa New Zealand

Latin
American Solidarity Organization

 

Maine Organic Farmers' and
Gardeners' Association

Maryknoll Office for Global
Concerns

Mass Global Action

National Committee in
Solidarity with the Honduran People

National Lawyers
Guild

Native Forest Network/Gulf
of Maine

Nicaragua Network

Nonviolence International

NYU Law Students For Economic
Justice

Office of the
Americas

Other Worlds

Polo Democratico
Alternativo-NYC

Proyecto Hondureño

Rights Action

School of the Americas Watch

Social Justice Committee of
the U.U. Church of Nashua, NH

Somerville/Medford
United for Justice with Peace

SweatFree Communities

The Americas Program

The Network of US-El Salvador Sister Cities

The Quixote Center

Trade Justice New York Metro

U.S.
Labor Education in the Americas Program

United for Justice with
Peace, the Greater Boston coalition

US Peace Council

Venezuela Solidarity
Campaign

Veterans For Peace, Chapter
9, Smedley Butler Brigade

Wellington Zapatista
Solidarity Committe, New Zealand







This statement was also signed by Prof. Noam Chomsky,
Prof. Aviva Chomsky, and Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, in addition
to hundreds of concerned individuals.

 

 






      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://hondurasresists.org/pipermail/announce_hondurasresists.org/attachments/20100118/2df6a74b/attachment.html>