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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://quixote.org/">http://quixote.org/</a><br>
<br>
<h2 class="PostHeaderIcon-wrapper with-tabs">QC Delegation - Emergency
Alert for Community of Guadalupe Carney </h2>
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<div class="PostHeaderIcons metadata-icons"> Sat, 11/28/2009 -
10:48pm | </div>
<div>We just received a call from members of the Popular Resistance
Front in Tocoa, in the department of Colon who are reporting mass
millitary and police presence in a community called GUADALUPE CARNEY.
This is a community that experienced repression in August, an organized
campesino, peasant community that have been threatened since the police
arrived to have their homes raided. This is just one of several raids
that have occured today, among the homes of youth and students and a
campesino organization that were raided, all earlier tody, on the eve
of the so-called Honduran elections.<br>
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<h2 class="PostHeaderIcon-wrapper with-tabs">Police and Military Raid
COMAL – alternative marketing network of peasant, women’s organizations.</h2>
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<div class="PostHeaderIcons metadata-icons"> Sat, 11/28/2009 -
10:32pm | </div>
<div><span>At
1:40pm today heavily armed members of the national police and military
raided COMAL (Alternative Community Marketing Network) in Siguatepeque,
in Comayagua. COMAL is a newtork of 42 small-scale peasant and women's
organizations from throughout Honduras. <i>QC delegation members
arrived at COMAL while the raid was still underway – PHOTOS coming
soon. </i></span><span><br>
<br>
Security forces broke down the doors of COMAL with their guns and
ransacked the main office in Siguatepeque. The military seized 4
computers, digital cameras, banners, documents, files, human rights
reports that COMAL presented to the Inter American Human Rights
Commission, accounting records and literature about the current
political crisis and the non-violent resistance movement. </span></div>
<p></p>
<div><span>Military and police also raided COMAL’s training center, the
School for Economic Solidarity, breaking down doors and handcuffing the
guard who was threatened with 10 years in jail if he did not confirm
that seditious acts were being committed on site. Computers, the
internet system and furniture was destroyed in the search for
“subversive material.” The raid continued until after 5:30 pm. <br>
<br>
According to Miguel Alonzo de Red Comal, a Public Ministry official
arrived two hours after the raid to present a warrant, stating that the
electoral law prohibited the dissemination of the materials that had
been seized from the offices of COMAL. <br>
<br>
</span></div>
<p></p>
<div><span> Quixote Center delegation members arrived at COMAL with
human rights defenders from COFADEH while the raid was still in
progress. Photos will be posted asap. COMAL is preparing a full report
on the raid for human rights organizations,<br>
<br>
<b><br>
</b></span><font color="#000000" face="Tahoma" size="2"><span
style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); word-spacing: 0px;"
class="Apple-style-span"><b>Quioxte Center Delegation of Honduras
Human Rights Observers</b>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Day 3--November 27
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">By Larry Kuehn</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">We arrived in Tocoa
after a 10-hour bus trip from Tegucigalpa. Tocoa is the end of the bus
line. Beyond here is the Mosquito Coast, an area of the country
without road connections to the rest of Honduras.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">We were met at the
bus station by Amelia Castro. She had arranged our hotel and a ride
with a taxi driver who is a supporter of the resistance. The daily
radio show from the resistance was playing as he drove us to the hotel.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">When we gathered
after checking in, Amelia said she would like to know more about us.
She had been called at the last minute by a friend who was supposed to
meet with us. However, the woman had left town, going to ground
because of fears of what was going to happen to her. This became a
theme for everyone from the resistance we talked with after that.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">After we told her
about ourselves, Amelia seemed much more comfortable with us. She told
us that this area is the least peaceful place in Honduras and that it
was necessary to be cautious.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">This region is far
from the media and things can happen without them every being reported.
It is important to have the word of the situation spread both to the
national and international media and she hoped that we would be able to
do that.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">She told us that
security is a problem all the time. It is a drug traffic corridor
because of the sea being close. It is a transfer place from Colombia
and has also made drugs very available to create users here. Some of
the politicians are financed by drug dealers, she is convinced.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">The focus of the
resistance here has been on the "fourth ballot." This is shorthand for
wanting a constituent assembly to produce a new constitution. It is
the fourth ballot because currently the system has three ballots--for
president, for deputy and for the city mayor. Ballots go in the
appropriate box for that office. This demand would have another ballot
that would be, in essence, a referendum on whether there should be a
new constitution.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">The resistance in
this area is very strong in seeing that this the objective, and that it
will continue as the key objective whatever the outcome of the election
or what happens with President Zelaya. </div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">The mayors in this
region had been outspoken in support of the resistance. However, when a
decision was made that candidates supporting the resistance should drop
out, that did not happen. Elsewhere in the country, candidates from
many parties are withdrawing, but the mayor of Tocoa decided to stay in
the race.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Mayor Adam Fundes has
been one of the national coordinators of the resistance. Now he has
gone to the Liberal party asking to be taken back and apologized for
supporting the resistance. Amelia said this was big news, being
reported in the national press and CCN Espanol, claiming that this was
a significant break of the resistance.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">She told us that this
has not discouraged the resistance, but has ruined his reputation. He
had political influence beyond the region and a possible national
position. The only good thing to come from this, she said, was taking
the blinders off to see where people really stand.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Amelia described the
local area as diverse both in population and organizations. A portion
of the population are African-Hondurans, descended from Africans being
brought over to be slaves on the Caribbean islands, but whose ships
were destroyed and they landed on the east coast of Central America. A
significant black population lives on the coast of Nicaragua and Costa
Rica, as well as Honduras. Several indigenous groups live here, as
well as those from Spanish background. The campesinos in the rural
areas are particularly well organized and that is the most likely place
for violent repression.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">A climate of fear has
been created. The military are showing up at the homes of activists in
the resistance and sometimes searching the house. They believe that
there are undercover people infiltrating. Across from the bus station
where we arrived, she pointed out satellite equipment that had not been
there before.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Amelia said that
people had been watching her house and that a number of vehicles have
shown up in town without license plates. The speculation is they may be
paramilitary mercenaries who have been brought in from Colombia--people
with experience in killing and disappearances.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">In addition to
possible repression of resistance supporters, the partisan competition
between the National Party and the Liberal Party, the largest political
parties, could set off conflict as well.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Amelia herself was
planning to find someplace to be away from her home on Sunday, as will
many of the activists in the resistance.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">When we asked her why
she was involved in the resistance, she told us that she was acting as
a citizen who believes in a better Honduras.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Before leaving us,
she made arrangements for two resistance leaders to talk to us the next
day and to make decisions about what we would be doing on Sunday. And
she told us where to find places to eat where the people running the
restaurants are sympathetic to the resistance.<br>
<br>
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<h2 class="PostHeaderIcon-wrapper with-tabs">Reflections from QC
Delegation - by Lisa Sullivan/SOAW</h2>
<a href="http://quixote.org/reflections-qc-delegation-lisa-sullivansoa"
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<div class="PostHeaderIcons metadata-icons"> Fri, 11/27/2009 - 11:26pm
</div>
<p>I´m
here with the Quixote Center delegation that has gathered 19 fabulous
folks from around the US and Canada. Yesterday we met with many key
leaders of the resistance movement - their leader Carlos H Reyes,
lawyers, teachers, feminists and journalists. It was a crash course in
what life and resistance for 5 months under a repressive regime looks
like. We squeezed in back-to-back meetings from morning to night,
before the leaders set off for their places of hiding for the upcoming
¨"event" on Sunday, refusing to use the word "elections".<br>
<br>
The face and body of Carlos H. spoke as clearly as his words. The last
time I saw him, just days after the coup, we were marching on the
streets of Tegucigalpa, in the company of thousands. He was vibrant,
energetic, robust and hopeful. Yesterday his face was drawn and his
right hand limp, broken in an encounter with police. But his words were
intact. In spite of the repression, the loss of lives, the months on
the street, the threats, the dismal position of the U.S., he was clear
that this journey that the Honduran people have embarked upon -
towards a Constitutional Assembly, is unstoppable.<br>
<br>
This morning I awoke to a call from Bertha Oliva, who seems to never
sleep. A leader of one of the feminist resistance groups had been
detained last night, and could I please try to find a way to visit her.
A few hours later a sympathetic jail worker whisked me in while the
obstinant police took a break. I made to the back of a crumbing city
jail, past through stench and cold cement walls to the cell that held
Merly Eguigure. She reached out through the bars with a smile that
contrasted with her red eyes. Without knowing me, she held on tightly,
and kept holding on as I told her that the streets were filled with
women from her group who were refusing to budge. Her crime: a can of
spray paint in her car, her charge: damage against government property,
even though the spray paint was yet untouched.<br>
<br>
It seems to be an effort to silence the only space left for the
Honduran people. The walls. Among the hundreds of graffiti that cover
every bare wall in town, yesterday I read this one: "las paredes son
los medios del pueblo". The walls are the media of the people. Given
that the only tv and radio stations who have publically opposed the
coup have been constantly shut down and damaged, a can of spray paint
is a powerful form of expression. <br>
<br>
Yesterday, we gathered with Bertha at the office of COFADEH. The many
meetings I have previously had with Bertha took place upstairs,
surrounded by photos of those who disappeared during the military
dictatorships of the 1980´s. This time we were downstairs, surrounded
by large posters of some of those who had been recently murdered by the
coup regime. Someone in the delegation asked Bertha to describe one of
the victims, what had happened. She told us about Isis Obed Murillo, 19
years old. He was killed when hundreds of thousands of Honduras
gathered at the airport to receive President Zelaya,and the army turned
their guns on the crowd. But Bertha couldn´t stop at the story of
Isis, and went from photo to photo, and story to story, as though it
were a gallery of family photos. She suddenly stopped, and said, almost
to herself:. "You know what´s strange", she said. " We need a whole new
room just to display these photos".<br>
<br>
As she ended her conversation, she turned a moment to the group and
said, "if you really want to help, you can do something. There are
hundreds of resistance leaders who fear for their lives. If each group
took some of their names and made them public and shared their concern
for their lives, maybe, it might prevent another tragedy. <br>
<br>
Less than a week ago I processed with Bertha at the gates of Ft.
Benning. When the name of her disappeared husband Tomás was called out,
she almost crumpled. But just for a moment, and then she continued
forward. I thought about the energy we put into remembering these lost
lives, and wondered for a minute how we could put that energy into
preventing more names to be read out. It´s not an easy question. I
don´t really have the answer.<br>
<br>
Best to all, abrazos, Lisa<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div id="tabs-wrapper" class="clear-block">
<h2 class="PostHeaderIcon-wrapper with-tabs">QC Delegation Report from
Tocoa, Nov. 27, 2009</h2>
<a href="http://quixote.org/qc-delegation-report-tocoa-nov-27-2009"
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<div class="PostHeaderIcons metadata-icons"> Fri, 11/27/2009 -
11:26pm | </div>
<div><span>We
arrived in Tocoa after a 10-hour bus trip from Tegucigalpa. Tocoa is
the end of the bus line. Beyond here is the Mosquito Coast, an area of
the country without road connections to the rest of Honduras.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>We
were met at the bus station by Amelia Castro. She had arranged our
hotel and a ride with a taxi driver who is a supporter of the
resistance. The daily radio show from the resistance was playing as he
drove us to the hotel.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>When
we gathered after checking in, Amelia said she would like to know more
about us. She had been called at the last minute by a friend who was
supposed to meet with us. However, the woman had left town, going to
ground because of fears of what was going to happen to her. This
became a theme for everyone from the resistance we talked with after
that.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>After
we told her about ourselves, Amelia seemed much more comfortable with
us. She told us that this area is the least peaceful place in Honduras
and that it was necessary to be cautious.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>This
region is far from the media and things can happen without them every
being reported. It is important to have the word of the situation
spread both to the national and international media and she hoped that
we would be able to do that.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>She
told us that security is a problem all the time. It is a drug traffic
corridor because of the sea being close. It is a transfer place from
Colombia and has also made drugs very available to create users here.
Some of the politicians are financed by drug dealers, she is convinced.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>The
focus of the resistance here has been on the "fourth ballot." This is
shorthand for wanting a constituent assembly to produce a new
constitution. It is the fourth ballot because currently the system has
three ballots--for president, for deputy and for the city mayor.
Ballots go in the appropriate box for that office. This demand would
have another ballot that would be, in essence, a referendum on whether
there should be a new constitution.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>The
resistance in this area is very strong in seeing that this the
objective, and that it will continue as the key objective whatever the
outcome of the election or what happens with President Zelaya. </span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>The
mayors in this region had been outspoken in support of the resistance.
However, when a decision was made that candidates supporting the
resistance should drop out, that did not happen. Elsewhere in the
country, candidates from many parties are withdrawing, but the mayor of
Tocoa decided to stay in the race.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>Mayor
Adam Fundes has been one of the national coordinators of the
resistance. Now he has gone to the Liberal party asking to be taken
back and apologized for supporting the resistance. Amelia said this was
big news, being reported in the national press and CCN Espanol,
claiming that this was a significant break of the resistance.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>She
told us that this has not discouraged the resistance, but has ruined
his reputation. He had political influence beyond the region and a
possible national position. The only good thing to come from this, she
said, was taking the blinders off to see where people really stand.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>Amelia
described the local area as diverse both in population and
organizations. A portion of the population are African-Hondurans,
descended from Africans being brought over to be slaves on the
Caribbean islands, but whose ships were destroyed and they landed on
the east coast of Central America. A significant black population
lives on the coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as Honduras.
Several indigenous groups live here, as well as those from Spanish
background. The campesinos in the rural areas are particularly well
organized and that is the most likely place for violent repression.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>A
climate of fear has been created. The military are showing up at the
homes of activists in the resistance and sometimes searching the house.
They believe that there are undercover people infiltrating. Across
from the bus station where we arrived, she pointed out satellite
equipment that had not been there before.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>Amelia
said that people had been watching her house and that a number of
vehicles have shown up in town without license plates. The speculation
is they may be paramilitary mercenaries who have been brought in from
Colombia--people with experience in killing and disappearances.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>In
addition to possible repression of resistance supporters, the partisan
competition between the National Party and the Liberal Party, the
largest political parties, could set off conflict as well.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>Amelia
herself was planning to find someplace to be away from her home on
Sunday, as will many of the activists in the resistance.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>When
we asked her why she was involved in the resistance, she told us that
she was acting as a citizen who believes in a better Honduras.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>Before
leaving us, she made arrangements for two resistance leaders to talk to
us the next day and to make decisions about what we would be doing on
Sunday. And she told us where to find places to eat where the people
running the restaurants are sympathetic to the resistance.</span></div>
<br>
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<h2 class="PostHeaderIcon-wrapper with-tabs">QC Election Delegation
reports bomb explosion on bus route</h2>
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<div class="PostHeaderIcons metadata-icons"> Fri, 11/27/2009 -
2:41pm | </div>
<div>Nov.
26, 2009 - A bomb exploded on a Catisa bus route between San Pedro Sula
and La Ceiba at approximately 3:30pm today. The explosion occurred on a
nearly empty bus right in front of the fire department. Fire fighters
were able to respond immediately and report that the explosion was the
result of a small bomb found in the luggage compartment of the
bus. Fire fighters also report that a second bomb was also found in the
luggage compartment that did not explode. One woman is being treated
for injuries in La Ceiba. The coup regime is attributing the explosion
to “delinquents of the resistance.” The resistance movement in Honduras
is an explicitly non-violent movement. There is concern that these
type of actions are being staged by actors interested in creating a
sense of panic and launching false accusations against the non-violent
resistance movement as part of a large pattern of demonization of those
opposed to the coup. <br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</span></font><br>
</div>
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