[HNA] Fwd: [Presente-Honduras] Dear Colleague letter, op ed
Tom Loudon
toml at friendshipamericas.org
Fri Sep 24 15:33:52 PDT 2010
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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