- On June 28, 2009, a coordinated State Department-Pentagon
project allied with Honduran military commanders and top opposition figures
ousted President Manuel Zelaya, establishing the current fascist dictatorship,
supported, armed, and funded by Washington.
-
- In fact, all Honduran officers from captains on up are
trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC),
formerly the School of the Americas (SOA), popularly known as the "School
of Assassins."
-
- Established in 1946, SOA Watch calls it "a combat
training school," teaching soldiers how to torture, repress, exterminate
poor and indigenous people, overthrow democratically elected governments,
assassinate targeted leaders, and suppress popular resistance when it erupts.
-
- As a result, its graduates have "left a trail of
blood and suffering in every country," sending recruits to learn the
latest ways to brutalize, disappear, and massacre their people back home,
including in Honduras.
-
- On March 31, Rights Action contributor Karen Spring headlined,
"Honduras Is Burning - Endless Repression by Military-Backed Regime,"
saying:
-
- After two weeks of brutal repression, anger over 18 political
prisoners on trial for illegally protesting and sedition, and attempts
by the fascist government to privatize public education, public school
teachers and the National Front of Popular Resistance (NFPR) called a nationwide
strike.
-
- On March 30, NFPR reported widespread protests, shutting
down many highways. "Live rounds (were) fired at protesters at some
of the take-over" locations, injuring many people. "Severe repression
(was reported) in Nacaome, Planes, Tegucigalpa, Potrerillos, Santa Cruz
de Yojoa, Santa Rosa de Copan and San Pedro Sula, as well as in other communities
and neighborhoods throughout the country.
-
- On April 1, March of the Drums celebrants, commemorating
214 years since the Garifuna people arrived in Honduras, released a statement
declaring "nothing to celebrate," saying:
-
- "We commemorate, we do not celebrate. Because we
cannot celebrate the infamous inhumane and genocidal exile" suffered
by our ancestors....a flagrant violation of the most elemental human rights
that even today the aggressor powers refuse to repair." Its "pseudo-leadership
(is) completely disconnected from the daily reality of a community that
is bleeding and agonizing through the systematic loss of its ancestral
richness," compounded by more suffering from police state neoliberal
repression.
-
- On March 30, occupying major roads, bridges, universities,
and other locations, police attacked protesters and gatherings with tear
gas, water canons, batons, and live fire, unconfirmed reports saying at
least four dozens were arrested, many others injured, and at least one
killed.
-
- Police illegally swept through the National Autonomous
University (UNAH), accosting non-participating students. They resisted.
Several were seriously hurt. Teachers were also attacked. Outside, they
beat, tear-gassed and arrested anyone they encountered.
-
- On March 25, students' parents demonstrated against daily
violence. Police confronted them with tear gas and batons. On March 26,
teachers and NFPR members organized a motor vehicle caravan through Tegucigalpa
streets. A nurses' group also announced plans to protest.
-
- Those arrested were held in a military building basement,
despite constitutional prohibitions against using "special installations"
for incarceration. On March 21, police assaulted 13 reporters covering
a demonstration, destroying their equipment.
-
- In the past 18 months, 10 reporters were killed. Also
targeted are human rights workers, other activists, unionists, campesinos,
and anyone promoting democratic change.
-
- On March 27, the government said teachers not returning
to classes would be suspended for a year without pay. On March 30, Human
Rights Watch (HRW) headlined, "Honduras: Probe Charges of Police Brutality,"
saying:
-
- Since mid-March, police have assaulted teachers and other
protesters violently, "firing teargas canisters indiscriminately and
beating people with batons. HRW Americas director, Jose Miguel Vivanco,
said they're obligated "to respect the basic rights of demonstrators."
-
- Sandra Ponce, head of human rights at the Attorney General's
Office, said her unit "verified a pattern of excessive" police
force. In addition, national human rights ombudsman Ramon Custodio and
human rights minister Ana Pineda also questioned indiscriminate police
violence against peaceful protesters.
-
- On April 3, the Committee of Relatives of Detained and
Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) headlined, "Honduras: the Human
Rights Emergency Continues," saying:
-
- Under the militantly backed fascist regime, "the
citizenry suffered from the worst period of violations of their human rights."
Since the June 2009 coup, it's used disproportionate terror against civil
society. As a result, a National Civic Strike was called for change, a
notice announcing it saying: "Pardon the inconvenience. We are fighting
to build a new country!"
-
- On March 18, Ilse Velazquez Rodriguez, a teacher and
human rights activist was struck on the head by a tear gas canister and
killed. The same day, union leader Adalid Romero was beaten and severely
injured. On March 28, human rights activist Mirian Miranda was beaten and
locked in the trunk of a police car for hours.
-
- In San Pedro Sula, capital of Cortes province, a former
Party of Democratic Unification (UD) member's daughter, Silvia Ayala, was
wounded during violent clashes at the University Center of the Valley of
Sula where dozens of students and professors were detained. Josue Rodriguez,
a student, was struck by a tear gas canister on his head and badly hurt.
-
- The Regional University Center was surrounded by police
and soldiers, attacking students and professors with tear gas canisters
fired directly at them. Fainting and vomiting resulted. In several municipalities,
dozens were arrested, beaten, and injured, some severely.
-
- At the highway turn-off to La Flores, Santa Cruz, in
Cortes, violent repression and 17 arrests were made. Six protesters were
wounded by live fire. Riot police punctured tires of more than 30 vehicles,
using firearms and knives, then assaulted owners with tear gas and gunfire.
In numerous towns, locations, and neighborhoods, police assaulted, beat,
tear-gassed, injured, and arrested others. A dozen or more were wounded
by live fire.
-
- In offices of the College of Professors of Middle Education
(COPRMH), police planted evidence against the organization to strip its
legal status, telling the Public Ministry that a box of molotov cocktails
was found close to the center.
-
- In Comayagua province, police and soldiers (accompanied
by a judge) violently evicted 500 families that occupied a land area rightfully
seven years ago, naming their community Colonia 25 de October. Homes, the
community school, and a church were destroyed. Five arrests were made.
-
- In Nacaome, de Valle provincial capital, police and soldiers
assaulted residents in their homes with tear gas, especially harming children.
In the La Flor community of Amapala, De Valle, police intimidated residents
to learn if they participated in strike demonstrations.
-
- Since mid-March, police and soldiers unleashed violent
repression throughout the country, using infiltrators to provoke demonstrators
into confrontations to justify what may result in massacres. This is how
police state barbarism works, crushing resistance oppressively.
-
- As a result, COFADEH calls it urgent for the world to
monitor Honduras "now; tomorrow may be too late. For the deeds and
the perpetrators, neither forget nor forgive."
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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