The Dominion - Honduras

Laboratory, Honduras

dawn — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:46:44 +0000

Dueling truth commissions, ongoing repression, and Canada’s role in the new Honduras

TORONTO—Just over one year ago, renowned Garifuna leader Miriam Miranda was brutally assaulted and illegally detained by police. “I have a scar on my stomach from a burn caused by a tear gas canister fired at me at point blank,” said Miranda, in an interview with The Dominion. It was a peaceful roadblock in Triunfo de la Cruz—a Garífuna community on the north coast of Honduras—when Miranda was hit with the canister, beaten, assailed with racial slurs and jailed without explanation.

Miranda was the only person detained that day. As coordinator of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), she had clearly been targeted by police. She was detained more than two hours without receiving medical attention, only to learn later that she would be accused of sedition.

The roadblock where Miranda was arrested was part of protests across the country that were an expression of solidarity with the public school teachers’ union and their fight against privatization and repression. The Garífuna community was also calling for recognition and respect of their ancestral territories.

Miranda’s assault came more than 18 months after the 2009 coup d’état which deposed President Mel Zelaya and sparked sweeping civil unrest throughout the country.

A revived neoliberal economic agenda supported by Canada and the U.S., combined with brutal social repression, has plagued Honduran communities ever since. “With the 2009 coup d’etat, Honduras became a laboratory of political, social, and economic imperialism,” said Miranda.

Indeed, from signing a free trade deal to watchdogging the military and police, Canada has played a significant role in this neoliberal experiment, tinkering in legislative, industry, and security reforms that are defining the post-coup Honduras.

Early in the morning of June 28, 2009, Honduran soldiers forced a pajama-clad Zelaya onto a plane to Costa Rica. Congress Speaker Roberto Micheletti stepped in as interim President, though his appointment went unrecognized by the Organization of American States(OAS), who quickly suspended Honduras’ membership.

Micheletti’s tenuous reign was short-lived, however, as the November 29th elections ushered in the presidency of Porfirio Lobo, who was inaugurated on January 27, 2010. Despite the refusal of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) and many national and international organizations to recognize the elections, they were supported by numerous states, including Canada. Honduras was readmitted to the OAS on June 1, 2010.

Zelaya’s critics in the National Congress and military defended the coup as a preemptive measure to thwart an upcoming public poll on whether to convene a constituent assembly, framing it as an illegal attempt to open up the constitution to allow successive terms in office.

Many Hondurans saw the coup as “made in the USA,” as Miranda put it, engineered in North America in collusion with the local oligarchy, whose patience with the left-turning Zelaya had grown thin.

Zelaya had stirred up talk of agrarian reform, minimum wage increases, stiffer regulations on foreign industries, and, with the support of Congress, had recently signed Honduras on to ALBA—Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s “Bolivarian” alternative for Latin America.

“It’s clear that the US saw Honduras as kind of the weakest link in the ALBA block,” said Tom Loudon, Executive Secretary to Honduras’ alternative truth commission, in a phone interview from Tegucigalpa, calling the coup “a strike at Chavez’s block.”

The coup sparked widespread mobilization within Honduras, where daily demonstrations ensued for more than three months, drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country. This incited extraordinary repression perpetrated by the military, police and vigilante forces, including 4,234 human rights violations in the first 100 days following the coup.

Berta Cáceres, Director of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), describes “assassinations of Indigenous people, assassinations of people in the Honduran resistance, of journalists [and] lawyers, and all this in a state of impunity.”

Indeed, the Committee for Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) documented 54 political assassinations during Micheletti’s short rule, while The Center for Economic and Policy Research reports another 120 since Lobo’s inauguration. Cáceres situates this criminalization of social movements, social struggles, women leaders and social leaders of the country as part of a broader economic, political, and military strategy.

In response to rampant repression and violence, an "official" Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established under the auspices of the OAS as part of a 12-point resolution know as the San José Accord.

Though the Accord was meant to be diplomatic, mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the TRC was established under decree of de facto President Lobo, who also hand-picked the five representatives to lead it, including Canadian diplomat Michael Kergin.

Human rights organizations have criticized the TRC for failing to comply with international standards. Under the banner of the Plataforma de Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Platform), these organizations launched an alternative commission, the “Comisión de Verdad,” on June 28, 2010; the one year anniversary of the coup.

Despite the constraints of a much smaller budget (estimated at about one sixth the official TRC’s rumoured $5 million), the alternative commission took its cues from a broader segment of society.

“Our goal has been primarily, from the very beginning, to give voice to the victims,” said Loudon, a long-time affiliate with the Friendship Office of the Americas.

The commission has been guided by of a team of nine human rights defenders—two Honduran and seven international—including Toronto-based lawyer, Craig Scott, who was elected as an NDP Member of Parliament (Toronto-Danforth) this past March.

Under their counsel, the commission sent two teams to collect testimonies across the country and opened offices in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. “We have a much more robust —evidentially, and just in terms of our method—approach to the human rights situation than the government commission,” said Scott in an interview with The Dominion. Scott has stepped down as commissioner since his election as MP.

In addition to financial barriers, security hurdles have also stalled the Alternative Commission’s work.

“The stress-levels of our staff—especially the Honduran staff—were through the roof,” explained Scott. “Our only two Honduran commissioners had to flee the country.” After receiving anonymous threats, Commissioner Padre Fausto Milla left for several months, and Commissioner Helen Umaña left in August 2011, with no plans to return.

Further, one of the staff suffered an attempted kidnapping, in which he was hauled from a taxi by police officers and pistol-whipped, before struggling free and escaping. “We’re sure if it had been successful, they would have killed him,” said Loudon. “As he was fleeing, they were shooting at him.”

The commission is planning to release their final report by the end of June. It will appear in the form of three volumes: cases, patterns, and an executive summary.

The first volume profiles twenty-four of the most emblematic human rights cases in chronological order. These include assassinations, the dismissal of four publicly anti-coup Supreme Court judges, and the ransacking of the offices of COMAL—a fair trade organization based in Siguatepeque, a small city in a lush agricultural region northwest of Tegucigalpa.

The second volume identifies patterns, including the massive repression of demonstrations, such as the mass arrest of 400 protesters near the Nicaraguan border on June 30, 2009, two days after the coup. Other patterns include the persecution of vulnerable social groups, and violations related to land and natural resources.

The executive summary is likely to be the only volume translated into English.

In August 2011, Prime Minister Harper became the first foreign leader to visit Honduras since it was readmitted to the OAS. It was during this visit that Harper and Lobo finalized a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Canada had begun free trade negotiations with the “C4 countries” (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador) in 2001. But by the end of 2010, despite the post-coup climate of repression and human rights abuses, Canada decided to shed the collective and go bilateral.

“The idea of a Free Trade Agreement in that kind of context, was frankly almost obscene,” said Scott. “[Harper] probably sent as strong a signal as you could that the whole philosophy was one of economic trade and growth as the completely dominant paradigm for how a country like Honduras moves forward.”

A negotiating document acquired from the Honduran Secretary of Industry and Trade through an Access to Information request notes that over the course of 2010, Canada’s imports from Honduras had eclipsed exports by $20.9 million. Overall bilateral trade increased after the coup, showing a 9.3 per cent increase from 2009 to 2010, and a 22 per cent increase to $235 million in 2011.

Leading up to the FTA, Canadian companies already held 90 per cent of investment in Honduras’ mining sector, amounting to $146 million in total assets employed by Canadian firms by 2009. During a meeting with de facto President Lobo in April 2010, Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder suggested that with the FTA this number would balloon to $700 million.

As the FTA was inked, ten of the most prominent Honduran human rights organizations released a document rejecting the agreement. The “Pronouncement Rejecting the Extractive Policy of the Government of Canada and the Bilateral Trade Deal between Canada and Honduras” describes the detrimental impacts that Canadian investments have already had on the environment, health, and self-determination of communities and rejects the FTA for facilitating further exploitation.

“The Free Trade Agreement with Canada has opened more doors for Canadian transnational mining companies...Leading to the violation of labour rights,” said Cáceres, whose organization signed the pronouncement. “And still, even at the international level, there is a lack of justice against these Canadian transnationals.”

The coup was carried out less than three weeks prior to the final reading of a proposed mining law that would have demanded community consent, raised taxes, prohibited open-pit mining, and banned the use of cyanide in new concessions. It has since been substituted with a new law on mining and hydrocarbons currently before Congress, which would slacken regulations and leave the county vulnerable to even more extractive development.

An April 23 communiqué put out by the Honduran National Coalition of Environmental and Social Networks against Open-Pit Mining and the Siria Valley Environmental Committee, denounced Congress for avoiding consultation with Honduran organizations on the new law, instead shopping it around to Canadian mining corporations and government officials.

The communiqué notes that Rigoberto Cuellar, Minister of Natural Resources (SERNA), and Aldo Santos, director of the Directorate for the Promotion of Mining (DEFOMIN), traveled to Canada to promote the proposed law at the annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in March. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade sent two government representatives to attend, including International Trade Minister Ed Fast, who met with the Hondurans.

The proposed mining law represents just one of Canada’s efforts towards increased involvement in internal Honduran affairs.

Canada has provided one of two foreign advisors to a new, independent police monitoring body, known as the Commission for the Reform of Public Security. With an express focus on rural security, this body has also been acting as a key advisor to the proposed mining law. In November 2011, Honduran police took part in a training workshop on Military-Police Cooperation run by Canada’s Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Canada has also participated in anti-narcotics operations in the region, including Op Martillo.

With continued impunity for both local human rights violators and foreign perpetrators, hope is hard to muster.

“The train has left the station in so many ways; the government has been barreling ahead with its neoliberal and oppressive agenda,” says Scott. According to Scott, the test will be whether or not the Alternative Commission is found to be useful as a way for new political forces and social actors to try to take back their country.

Regardless, the Alternative Commission's report is sure have local significance. “The report of the truth commission will be very important because it will verify situations that strip perpetrators of responsibility for their crimes,” says Cáceres.

Meanwhile, the movement presses on. In April, thousands of landless Honduran farmers occupied 30,000 acres of land across the country. Elections are on the horizon for November 2013, when the resistance movement will run candidates under the recently founded Liberation and Re-foundation Party (PLR).

Ongoing repression does not mean that the Honduran people stop fighting, says Cáceres. "Instead, we strengthen our struggles.”

Emma Feltes is a writer, researcher, and rights advocate based in Toronto and sometimes elsewhere. Her work centres on Indigenous-State relations in Canada and Latin America, land rights, cultural heritage, and urban issues.

Mel's Return

Canada Deepens Ties with Deadly Regime

Tim McSorley — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:58:53 +0000

Honduran journalist visits Montreal, reaffirms strength of resistance movements

MONTREAL—In June 2009, Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped by soldiers and taken to Costa Rica in a military airplane. The Honduran army took control of the streets.

Nearly three years later, a popular resistance movement continues to organize against and oppose the coup. Meanwhile, the Canadian government and Canadian companies continue to deepen their ties with the controversial post-Zelaya regime.

The coup in Honduras was more than the kidnapping of a popular, progressive president. The day of the coup, Zelaya was scheduled to oversee a non-binding, nationwide survey on whether people were in favor of holding a binding referendum on re-writing the Honduran constitution. For the first time in history, the opinion of regular Hondurans would have had the potential to dramatically change the future of their country.

Had the June 2009 survey passed, it would have meant serious momentum toward a long-term goal of the Honduran social movement, the writing of a new constitution by way a people's assembly, inviting representatives from every sector and municipality to join in the re-founding of Honduras.

The coup, a joint operation by the military, supreme court, congress, and business elite, put a stop to all of this. It meant that the current Honduran constitution, written under a US-backed military dictatorship in the early 1980s, would continue to benefit a small elite.

But the coup also gave rise to the creation of the National People's Resistance Front, which now has local chapters in each of Honduras' 298 municipalities. The resistance movement is dedicated to bringing about a new constitution, at whatever cost.

In 2011, Honduras became the deadliest country in the world, for those countries which the UN has been able to gather statistics. "Our country of just 8 million people is suffering more than 20 murders per day," said Felix Molina, a Honduran journalist who recently spoke in Montreal during a Canadian tour. “Among the victims are around 20 journalists and 424 women. On top of murders, there are death threats, forced disappearances, exile for some and a general criminalization of the social resistance movement.”

Molina is the host, producer and founder of the radio show Resistencia. The show airs on the station Radio Globo, which has supported resistance and pro-democracy movements since the coup.

In the November 2009 Honduran general elections, Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo was elected president in a vote took place under what some considered a state of siege.

In the five months between Zelaya's kidnapping and the vote, more than 4,000 anti-coup activists were arbitrarily detained. Anti-coup media outlets were repeatedly shut down by the military. More than 100 community organizers were assassinated. Meanwhile, Zelaya, the president in exile, made his way back to Honduras and hid out in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa surrounded by the military.

As a result of the deteriorating security conditions under the interim coup regime headed by Roberto Micheletti and the military's offensive against the resistance, all international election observation bodies refused to send observers.

Regardless, the United States and Canada applauded Lobo's election, and put pressure on other countries to do the same.

The Harper administration has shown it is especially eager to work with Honduran officials since the coup, and Canada's corporate interests in the country continue to grow. In August 2011, Stephen Harper traveled to Honduras and signed a free trade agreement with Honduras. The announcement was unexpected, and took many by surprise.

”The Honduran population was never informed about this [agreement],” said Molina. “As with many of the most important decisions in Honduras, they learned about it after it was taken.”

Honduran congress is considering a new mining law, which critics say prioritizes corporate interests over human rights. This mining law, they say, is designed to benefit mining companies by, among other things, failing to protect access to water and limiting both access to information about mining activities and the ability to have mines closed.

Canadian mining company Goldcorp has faced criticism of its San Martin gold mine, which operated from 2000 to 2008 in central Honduras.

Goldcorp consistently denied that its operations had anything to do with a variety of health problems among locals, including miscarriages and skin diseases, as well as the death of livestock. In 2011, results of tests conducted in 2007 were finally released, showing heavy metal poisoning among 62 residents of the area near the mine.

The National People's Resistance Front recently voted to form a political party as another way to confront these corporate interests. Some groups within the wider resistance movement believe there are other ways to continue the struggle, such as establishing autonomous popular zones and small-scale municipal powers.

“The discussion is far from being over,” Molina said during his talk in Montreal. “In the meantime, we have to make sure that the popular movement keeps existing and to reinforce the capacities of the National Resistance Front.”

Stéfanie is part of the Montreal Media Co-op and is currently interning at CKUT 90.3FM's community news department.

Jesse Freeston is a media co-op sustainer and maker of the upcoming film Resistencia about the ongoing farmer occupation of Honduras' Aguan Valley, www.resistenciathefilm.com.

This article was produced by the Montreal Media Co-op.

Questions? Comments? Drop us a line: info@mediacoop.ca.

Felix Molina

Honduras: The People vs. Pepe Lobo

dawn — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:44:23 +0000

aeropuerto_resistencia_despide_mel.jpg

The inauguration of Pepe Lobo in Honduras Wednesday marked the consolidation of the June 28 coup d'état in the Central American country.

Undeterred, thousands of Hondurans gathered for a parallel inauguration ceremony, the presidential sash handed off to members of the popular resistance movement.

According to Dina Meza, a reporter from the streets of resistance, Pepe Lobo "took possession of the government, with a small presence of international dignitaries, and a minimal participation of Hondurans. Hundreds of military and police almost equaled the number of civilians in the area."

The morning of the inauguration there were early morning police raids and at least 41 people were detained, a worrying sign that repression and killings of social activists will continue under this new regime.

Canada, Honduras and the Coup d’Etat

dawn — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:01:39 +0000

A look at Canadian diplomacy, aid, and trade in Honduras

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras—Last summer's coup in Honduras put the small, Central American country perhaps best known as the original banana republic, back on the map.

In the months since President Mel Zelaya was removed from his home by the military and flown from the Honduran capital to Costa Rica on June 28, much has been made of the crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans have protested the coup, denouncing the military, the local oligarchy and the US as the main perpetrators of Zelaya's removal.

Zelaya’s critics, which include the most powerful sectors in Honduras, say he was removed from office because a non-binding referendum on opening up the process of a Constitutional Assembly was illegal.

Reports of US involvement emerged immediately: the plane that flew Zelaya out of the country stopped to fuel up at Palmerola, a joint US-Honduras air base less than 100km from Tegucigalpa. Shortly after the coup, powerful pro-coup Hondurans sent a delegation to the US and hired lobbyists in Washington, DC. US trade and commercial interests with the small Central American country abound.

But the extent to which countries like Italy, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada, all of which have significant trade and investment links with Honduras are connected to the coup has remained largely unexplored.

In Canada, with the exception of a few editorials in the mainstream media, little attention has been paid to what is certainly one of the most important events in the hemisphere over the last decade. While Canada’s links to Central America are much less significant than those of the US, they are still worth exploring.

Far from calling for the return of Zelaya to power and condemning the military’s actions, Canada’s good-neighbour ambiguity has ignored the violence unleashed by the coup regime, and the position of organizations such as the UN General Assembly, whose members demanded that Zelaya be allowed to return to the presidency.

Canada also declined to condemn the military and the coup government after massive peaceful resistance marches across Honduras were violently repressed by the coup regime, which also moved to temporarily shut down radio and TV stations critical of the coup. Detentions, torture, disappearances, beatings and murders of anti-coup activists have continued unabated since the coup.

On November 29, the de facto government presided over the country's regularly scheduled presidential elections. Dr. Juan Almendares, former presidential candidate and ex-rector of the Autonomous University of Honduras, calls the November elections a "second coup."

"We are faced with a situation that’s very delicate, where there was a military coup, where a president is named, and then there is a second coup, which was the election, the fraudulent election," he said in an interview at his clinic in Tegucigalpa.

Almendares points out that the same soldiers that have beaten, tortured and killed Hondurans were responsible for guarding the ballot boxes on November 29.

"There is no doubt that there was fraud, because they were illegitimate elections," said Almendares.

Regardless, Canada’s Junior Foreign Minister Peter Kent’s praise for the country's controversial elections was glowing.

“While Sunday’s elections were not monitored by international organizations such as the Organization of American States, we are encouraged by reports from civil society organizations that there was a strong turnout for the elections, that they appear to have been run freely and fairly and that there was no major violence,” said Kent.

Laudatory press releases aside, Canada has yet to formally recognize the elections, which it will not be required to do until January 27, inauguration day for President-Elect Porifio Lobo. Honduran media report that Kent continues to pressure Lobo to find a way to remove de facto President Roberto Micheletti from office before that date.

Honduras is one of the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA) target countries, and the top recipient of Canadian development funds in Central America. In 2007-2008, CIDA disbursed $17.9 million in government-to-government aid to Honduras.

According to the CIDA website, the organization has given funds for use in education, sanitation and governance, through which its partners have “trained civil society groups in social auditing and improved the transparency of government spending.”

Among CIDA’s previous activities in Honduras is a three- million-dollar “trade readiness” program, which included a component focused on “addressing issues related to [...] consensus-building around international trade agreements.”

In addition, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade disburses part of their Counter- Terrorism Capacity Building Fund, destined for police training, to Honduras, and the Department of National Defence runs a Military Training Program that includes the participation of Honduran soldiers.

On the financial front, it is possible that Canadian companies active in Honduras will see an improved investment climate stemming from the political crisis.

The corporate sector in Honduras, which includes national and foreign businesses with operations in the country, supported the coup, as did the military establishment and religious institutions.

A leaked June 26 memo from the Chamber of Commerce in Tegucigalpa asked members to donate amounts upwards of $1,000 “in defence of democracy and social and economic liberties” two days before the military removed Zelaya to Costa Rica.

The Honduran National Business Council (COHEP) sent out a press release the day after the coup, stating, “What occurred today [sic] was not the changing of one president for another; today, framed in national unity, the respect for the Constitution, national laws and institutionalism was achieved.”

Canadian corporations such as Montreal-based Gildan Activewear and Scarborough-based label maker Mayfair Canada are members of the Honduran Manufacturing Association (AHM), which itself is a member of COHEP. They are joined by Calgary's Merendon, a jewelry company whose directors are charged with defrauding shareholders in what the RCMP have called one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in Canadian history.

Following the coup, the AHM sent out a press release, stating, “Notwithstanding the political crisis that Honduras is experiencing, we recognize that our Constitution is in effect, that the three branches of the government have not ceased to exist and perform their functions, that the economic, financial labour and social activities are being performed as usual without violation from the government of Honduras.”

Canadian investments in Honduras are not limited to the manufacturing sector. Mining corporations Yamana Gold, Breakwater Resources and Goldcorp all have investments in the country, and all three companies are members of a national metal mining association, ANAMIMH, which is also affiliated with COHEP. The coup came before the final reading of a new mining law before congress, which would have restricted mining in the country and banned the use of cyanide in Honduras.

“The [mining] law was proposed to favour communities, but the mining companies have turned it around,” said environmentalist Carlos Amador in an interview at his home in El Porvenir. He expects the law that will be passed in 2010 by Lobo’s government to be the opposite of the proposal, and encourage more large-scale, transnational mining in Honduras.

“It’s like in 1998 when [Hurricane] Mitch hit Honduras: they’re saying that the only way to improve the Honduran economy is to open the doors to investment in mining,” said Amador.

IN FOCUS: Canada-Honduras economic ties

Canadian exports to Honduras in 2008 were worth $86,850,495, and imports from Honduras $151,574,812, amounts that have grown steadily over the last 60 years.

Honduras was the last country in Latin America with which Canada reached a “most-favoured-nation” agreement, which was signed in Tegucigalpa 1956 by Canada’s then-ambassador to Cuba. Most-favoured-nation deals were predecessors of modern-day free trade agreements, designed to reduce tariffs and eliminate trade barriers.

At that time, Canada was exporting about half a million dollars a year in goods to Honduras, mostly in leather, flour, tires and powdered milk. A full 90 per cent of Honduran exports to Canada were bananas, worth closer to a million dollars annually.

By 1975, Canadian exports to Honduras were worth $8.1 million, climbing to $24.2 million by 1980.

Negotiations for a free trade agreement between Canada and four countries of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador) began in 2001. Negotiators last met in February 2009, but according to Foreign Affairs Canada there are no more rounds of negotiation planned at this time.

Dawn Paley is a journalist based in Vancouver.

Hondurans demonstrate against the Coup

Honduras: Two Detained and Fear of Evictions by Coup Security Forces in Land Recuperations in Colon

Sandra — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:02:53 +0000

IMG_4380.JPG

Honduras: Two Detained and Fear of Evictions by Coup Security Forces in Land Recuperations in Colón

by Sandra Cuffe
December 17, 2009

Two active members of the Aguan Farmworkers Unification Movement (MUCA) were detained at approximately 11am yesterday, December 16th when they left a land recuperation in the department of Colon, in northeastern Honduras.

Osman Alexis Ulloa Flores and Mario René Ayala were taken to the police station in Tocoa and remain in detention in the city. Local police authorities refused to comment via telephone on the arrest or charges. However, the local district attorney was able to confirm that the men have been charged with land usurpation, while resistance lawyers in the region confirmed that the accusing party is the Cressida Corporation owned by powerful businessman and landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum.

One week prior to the detentions, approximately one thousand families belonging to MUCA staged two simultaneous recuperations of contested lands in Colon. Claimed by Miguel Facussé, the La Confianza Cooperative in the municipality of Tocoa includes a producing African palm plantation. The San Esteban Cooperative in the municipality of Trujillo, meanwhile, is claimed by Nicaraguan landowner René Morales. Prior to the mid-1990s, a period commonly referred to as the 'agrarian counter-reform' of Honduras, the lands in question belonged to agricultural cooperatives co-owned by many of the very same farmworkers now involved in the MUCA actions.

Reading La Prensa in Honduras

dawn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:50:16 +0000

Picture 4.png

Since I've been in Honduras, I've been hearing a constant refrain about the "medios golpistas," which is to say the pro-coup media. I avoided the papers for a while, preferring to listen to the radio, read online, and talk to Hondurans about the situation in the country (I generally do the same at home anyways).

That said, I caved and bought the paper today, and even though I was planning to spend the day transcribing, I feel compelled to write a post about flipping through La Prensa this morning over coffee.

"Government proposes break with ALBA" screams the headline on A1, with another story below on the assassination of the daughter of a pro-coup journalist.

The next three pages of the paper are dedicated to "The Keys of 2009," an ongoing series of unsigned opinion pieces presented as factual, objective reporting on the events that defined 2009.

Second of today's 12 "Keys" is a blurb titled "External aid pulled, commerce closed because of political crisis." I'm going to translate part of it here in an effort to get across the editorial perspective (again, masquerading as fact) in the paper.

The substitution of José Manuel Zelaya Rosales was like a bucket of icy water for the depressed national economy... The Internaional Monetary Fund - with who Zelaya had broken relations and had negated to sign a new memorandum of understanding with, was one of the first to distance itself from Honduras after June 28.

Not only is this a Non Sequitur, it's not true.

Honduran LGBTT activist and coup resistor Walter Tróchez killed

dawn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:34:56 +0000

12.15.09.funeral_Walter_1.jpg

Prominant LGBTT activist Walter Tróchez was assassinated by gunmen in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, marking the 10th murder of a gay or trans activist since the June 28 military coup.

According to journalist Dina Meza, police did not visit the scene of the killing until more than 12 hours after Tróchez was killed. Meza wrote that his murder is "being managed with all the negligence possible by police investigators."

Tróchez was kidnapped and beaten on December 4, but managed to escape. According to sources close to Tróchez, police did not investigate the kidnapping.

From a letter Tróchez wrote less than a month before his death:

Mel Zelaya Steadfast in Honduras

dawn — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:44:45 +0000

Reposting from the Media Co-op.

Mel Zelaya, the elected president of Honduras who was deposed in a military coup on June 28, is not leaving the country, as is being reported in the corporate media.

The first reports that he was to leave the embassy tonight came from the corporate media in Honduras, who have been active supporters of the military coup. Zelaya has been in hiding in the Brazilian embassy since 21 September.

Tele Noticias quoted an anonymous source within the defacto governement, who explained that Zelaya may be planning to leave the country this evening.

By 7:15pm, the corporate media had already gathered outside the Brazilian embassy, where there was a heavy police presence, but no sign of Zelaya’s supporters.

Andrés Thomas Conteris, a journalist inside the embassy, confirmed that Zelaya had no intention of leaving, in fact, he was preparing to have dinner.

The police erected a crowd control fence as supporters of Zelaya began to arrive and vocally demonstrate their support for the deposed president.

Small crowds yelled at corporate journalists, and news anchor was pushed to the ground. A scuffle ensued as heavily armed police pushed supporters into a parking lot across the street from the Brazilian embassy.

The police brought in reinforcements including an armored personnel carrier, and positioned sharpshooters in balaclavas behind their lines.

Anger against the coup regime is running high, and many Hondurans blame the corporate media for aiding the coup regime.

Honduran election fraud exposed

Van Ferrier — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:36:17 +0000

Honduran coup regime's claims about 60 percent turnout at free and fair elections is revealed as fraud. Also implicated in the video are the wide array of media outlets and governments that have unquestioningly accepted the electoral data of a regime that overthrew the last elected president.

Honduran election fraud exposed

Van Ferrier — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:36:17 +0000

Popular Resistance in Honduras tells the World: Support us in Self Defense

dawn — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:35:04 +0000

Picture 6.png

The US-backed deal meant to restore a "government of national unity" in Honduras is dead. How dead depends on your taste for dictators.

Totally Dead, if you ask ousted president Manuel Zelaya, who is still holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

"No, it's not dead, but maybe sleeping for the time being," if you doubted the US State Department's position on the deal.

Popular organizations around Honduras, after expressing an initial support for the reinstatement of Zelaya, have since denounced the deal.

"Once again, history has shown us that the United States is not anyone's friend; we were once again betrayed when we endorsed an agreement full of gaps and capricious interpretations," Indigenous activist Salvador Zúñiga told IPS.

The Civil Council of Popular and Inidigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) released a statement denouncing the coup and the negotiations on November 4.

In their statement, they "urge the National Front of Popular Resistance to raise an initiative of dialogue and negotiation towards more dignified agreements," call for a popular constituent assembly, and give the following message to international supporters:

Honduras: "After 125 Days of Struggle, Nobody Gives Up"

dawn — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:49:21 +0000

16362_1190203248175_1621175942_495623_1154761_n.jpg

The AP is reporting that Honduran legislators have the final say over a US backed deal that would see the restoration of Manuel Zelaya to power in Honduras.

However, Bloomberg reports that "opposition lawmakers could filibuster Zelaya’s return until after the elections, Antonio Rivera, the second highest ranking lawmaker for the National Party, said in an interview."

According to AP, which posted their most recent update at 0:00 PDT on October 31, the negotiations "drew praise from figures as diverse as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez." TeleSUR noted that while supportive, Chavez has not yet seen the agreement.

The negotiated solution comes as Zelaya and his supporters exhausted the last remaining poses for photographers in the Brazilian embassy. (Just kidding).

Seriously though, the negotiated solutions go along with what was laid out in the San José Accord back in July.

During a United Nations session in September, Zelaya expressed his disagreement with the San José Accord.

Peter Kent Self Deprecates (all over Honduras)

dawn — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:35:14 +0000

8827_167321010394_637935394_4200207_809460_n.jpg

News out of Honduras today is that the ~~interim government~~ military dictatorship is to impose a 45 day state of emergency, during which time unauthorized meetings, freedom of expression, and travel will be restricted. The decree also legalizes the ongoing, arbitrary detentions happening around the country.

Forty five days of emergency measures will allow the military dictatorship to continue doing as they please with the folks resisting the coup until November 11. Elections are scheduled for November 29.

The military regime, led by Roberto Micheletti, also blocked the arrival of a delegation from the Organization of American States over the weekend.

Canada has refused to condemn the coup, instead joining the US in allowing it to continue unabated by promoting dialogue and negotiation.

In the run up to the current disaster, junior foreign minister Peter Kent had the gall to send a congratulatory message to Hondurans on their independence day (September 15).

"Although these are trying times, we value our relationship with Honduras, which has grown stronger through our cooperation in many areas of common interest," said Kent in a press release. Maybe he thought pretending the military coup didn't happen would make it disappear.

Kent, who's billed as a "Journalist, Late-Life Politician & Self-Deprecating Commentator" by a booking firm that represents him, refused to support President Zelaya's return last week.

Honduras Coup Regime Forces 26 Hour Curfew, Zelaya Remains in Tegucigalpa

dawn — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:12:11 +0000

10334_1236728359148_1257404712_30711996_4287627_n.jpg

"They are sending a message of peace, but they're repressing the Honduran people."

Thousands of people have surrounded the Brazilian Embassy, where it is confirmed that President Manuel Zelaya is located. They are violating a curfew imposed by the military government, originally set from 4pm to 7am, which, according to Radio Globo, was just extended from 4pm today until 6pm tomorrow.

Those traveling towards Tegucigalpa from various routes are being detained by the police and army.

This is the latest on Radio Globo, one of the few radio stations in Tegucigalpa that has not lost all power. Radio Globo is using a generator to power the radio station, and can't receive calls or emails from the outside.

"Honduras is isolated from the rest of the world, because of the coup regime," said a radio host, calling on the world to intervene in Honduras in support of democracy and the restoration of Manuel Zelaya.

"They have converted the entire country into a jail, where there is no free movement, a curfew in the whole country," according to one radio commentator on Radio Globo. He explained that this curfew and the resulting detentions has made Hondurans from other places scared to come to the capital and take the capital.

UPDATE 19:39 PDT: Micheletti coup regime has canceled all flights tomorrow. Zelaya live on Radio Globo orders army back to barracks, says the people lead in Honduras. UN, OAS expected tomorrow. Zelaya calling on Hondurans to converge in Tegucigalpa.

Alternative URL for Radio Globo: http://96.9.147.21:8213

Elites execute plan in Honduras, first world activists stymied

dawn — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:21:42 +0000

Picture 14.png

As the coup regime in Honduras mocks the "rule of law" behind a veil of tear gas, automatic weapons and riot shields, it's business as usual for Canada's junior foreign minister, Peter Kent.

Kent refuses to call for sanctions or to demand the return of President Manuel Zelaya, who was removed after a military coup on June 28, 2009.

I'd like to point readers to a July 5 letter by Colombian doctor and activist Manuel Rozental.

This is how Rozental predicted things would shake down on the day Zelaya was blocked from landing at the airport in Tegucigalpa:

Today Zelaya returns and it would be useful to inform people as there will likely be a staged performance from the media that will go something like:

"There are 2 governments and two Presidents. Both have solid reasons behind them. This is a deadlock that will lead to or has lead to bloodshed. The US and the 'international community' are in a difficult position to intervene. Most countries and governments support Zelaya. The US promotes dialogue."

As we've seen in the months since, Rozental's letter was accurate, to a T. The plan of the transnational elites is being executed.

Rozental's question, "How can we today, invite the defence of social movements?" Is a much more difficult one, which remains to be answered in a meaningful way by activists in North America.