ALERT: REPRESSION AGAINST COPINH'S PEACEFUL MARCH!

Today, October 20th, 2016 at 1:30pm CST, in response to the mass march led by the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the Honduran police (supported by financing from the United States) unleashed brutal repression including pepper spray, tear gas, water tank and beating with nightclubs. There are many families with children participating in the march and whose health and lives are at risk. The march was called by COPINH to demand justice for its assassinated General Coordinator Berta Caceres, an independent international commission to investigate her assassination, and the immediate cancellation of the concession granted to the DESA corporation to develop the Agua Zarca dam in Rio Blanco, along with all other mining and hydroelectric concessions on Lenca indigenous territory.

Please call:

• The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa at (504) 2236-9320 and ask for the ambassador or his assistant Annie-Marie Lancu or Human Rights officer Jason Smith. Demand they call their Honduran counterparts and ask for an immediate end to the repression.
• Julian Pacheco, Minister of Security - (504) 9456-3699 (or main office (504) 2229-0003, to demand that Honduran forces immediately end the repression.
• Your own senator and congressperson to demand they sign on to the Berta Caceres Law for Human Rights in Honduras to immediately cut off military and police funding to Honduras while the assassinations, repression and impunity continue.

UPDATE: COPINH holding a press conference at 3:30pm MST. Live feed here.