[HNA] Fwd: [Presente-Honduras] Dear Colleague letter, op ed

[Tom Loudon]

Folks:

Rep. Sam Farr, from California (my district) just sent out a Dear 
Colleague letter asking for a cutoff of aid to Honduras, and an end to 
pressure on the OAH.  It's great.  We have until Oct. 7 to get as many 
signers-on as possible. Please beat the bushes as much as you can, and 
broaden your list of Congressmembers to contact, so we can get the 
numbers up even more this time.

Also here's a link to an op ed  I just published  on the Huffington 
Post.  Feel free to use it to update people, and summarize the key 
latest developments.

Dana Frank
danafrank at ucsc.edu <mailto:danafrank at ucsc.edu>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-frank/repressions-reward-in-hon_b_738620.html

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*From:* e-Dear Colleague
*Sent:* Friday, September 24, 2010 5:11 PM
*To:* Hanson, Marc
*Subject:* ForeignAffairs: Dear Colleague: Support Democracy in Honduras


  *Support Democracy in Honduras*


    *From: The Honorable Sam Farr
    Sent By: marc.hanson at mail.house.gov
    <mailto:marc.hanson at mail.house.gov?subject=RE:%20Support%20Democracy%20in%20Honduras>
    Date: 9/24/2010*

Ever since the Micheletti coup d’état disrupted Honduran democracy on 
June 28, 2009, freedom of political expression, free speech and human 
rights have been under constant assault.
Please co-sign the below letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 
The letter calls attention to the more atrocious violations of human 
rights and incidents of politically motivated violence.
The letter calls on the Obama Administration to curtail assistance to 
the Lobo government until it protects the rights of all Hondurans, not 
just political supporters, and remove people who participated in the 
coup d’état from the leadership of government corporations.
The letter will close October 7. To sign on, contact 
marc.hanson at mail.house.gov <mailto:marc.hanson at mail.house.gov>.
Sept. X, 2010
Dear Secretary Clinton,
We are encouraged to see that the U.S. government has acknowledged the 
gravity of the political and human rights situation in Honduras.  The 
August 4^th trip by senior State Department official Maria Otero to 
review the state human rights and democratic governance under Honduran 
President Porfirio Lobo demonstrates a new assertiveness by the Obama 
Administration to observe and protect political and human rights in the 
Western Hemisphere.  We believeU.S. assistance should be suspended until 
the government of Porfirio Lobo distances itself from individuals 
involved in the June 28^th  military coup d’etat and adequately 
addresses the ongoing human and political rights violations.
We have received credible reports from Honduran human rights 
organizations that abuses continue with near impunity. Members of the 
human rights community and select political operatives continue to be 
attacked and intimidated.  The Honduran Committee of the Families of the 
Detained and Disappeared (COFADEH), a highly esteem human rights 
organization, reports assassinations, arbitrary arrests, beatings and 
death threats targeting political activists and the human rights workers 
who attempt to protect them.  COFADEH described August as a “black” 
month for human rights and has documented a disturbing number of 
incidents that have taken place in recent weeks.
Since the beginning of August, at least six individuals identified with 
the opposition movement against the Lobo Administration have been 
murdered, including several rural activists, a teacher union leader and 
a journalist.  Several journalists known for their criticism of the coup 
d’etat have been arbitrarily detained or suffered physical attacks. An 
opposition radio station – Radio Uno of San Pedro Sula – was forced off 
the air and its transmission cables were cut. The Honduran authorities 
have failed to investigate and prosecute dozens of other murders and 
violent attacks against pro-democratic political activists since the 
June 28^th,  coup d’etat. The victims and their families have been left 
vulnerable with no access to justice.  There is serious concern that the 
rule of law is directly threatened by members of the Honduran police and 
armed forces.
On the weekend of September 17, a leader in the Social Security labor 
union, Juana Bustillo, was assassinated while riding in a car with the 
union's president Hector Escoto, who was hospitalized.  Earlier in 
September, four peasants were murdered in the Aguan region – home to a 
land conflict where landless peasants are attempting to secure plots to 
build homes. In the first incident, three people were killed, allegedly 
by private security guards of Miguel Facussé Barjóm -- one of Honduras’ 
largest landowners.  In the second incident, Francisco Miranda, a leader 
among landless peasants, was shot several times by unknown men while 
running errands on his bicycle.  The newspaper La Tribuna, owned by 
Facussé's nephew, reported the killing was part of a dispute internal to 
the landless peasants’ organization.
On many occasions, Honduran authorities have summarily dismissed the 
attacks against political activists, human rights defenders and 
journalists as a symptom of criminality linked to drug trafficking and 
organized crime.  Crime is a problem; however, since the June 28^th 
  coup, there has been a distinct pattern of political violence that 
merits a strong U.S. response.
It is our expectation that the Obama Administration will advance justice 
by urging the Lobo Administration to recognize the undeniable political 
character of many of the attacks against activists and journalists.  A 
strong democracy provides security to those who participate peacefully 
in political process; lack of security demonstrates deficiencies in 
Honduran democracy.  Tragically, since the August 4^th  visit of 
Undersecretary of State Maria Otera, Honduras has not advanced human 
rights or political freedoms.  Until the government of Honduras makes 
sustained progress in improving its deplorable human rights record, we 
believe it is inappropriate to provide direct assistance to Honduran 
authorities, particularly the police or military.
We also urge the Obama Administration to refrain from supporting the 
immediate re-entry of Honduras in the Organization of American States. 
The Obama Administration does a great disservice to democracy and human 
rights across the Western Hemisphere by making an exception for 
Honduras, while the Lobo Administration continues to include 
perpetrators of the June 28^th  coup d’etat and fails to prosecute 
politically motivated crimes.
Sincerely,
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