Honduras Solidarity Network denounces repression against striking teachers.

Press Release
August 29, 2010
A coalition of U.S. organizations today denounced the exercise of violent repression by Honduran military and police forces against members of a striking teacher’s union at a university in Tegucigalpa. The Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) declared that “the recent brutal attacks by government forces against non-violent protests show that there has been no reconciliation after last year’s coup d’etat, and the U.S. government’s policy of support for the current government must be changed. We call for an immediate end to the repression and human rights violations against the opposition movement”.

The group referred to military and police attacks against members of the teacher’s union, COPEMH (Colegio de Profesores de Educación Media de Honduras (Association of Secondary Teachers of Honduras)), and their supporters, which took place at The National Pedagogical University Francisco Morazan in Tegucigalpa on August 26 and 27. The union has been on strike since May, and is generally viewed as opposing the regime of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. The HSN based its action on reports received from the human rights group COFADEH and the General Workers’ Central Federation (CGT) labor organization, and corroborated by local news from Radio Globo and eyewitness accounts that report the following:

On Friday the 27th, police and military troops surrounded the National Pedagogical University, responding to thousands of teachers and members of trade unions, peasant organizations and other organizations supportive of the teachers gathered on the university grounds. The police and military forces sprayed tear gas from trucks and beat protesters with truncheons before firing canisters of tear gas into the University grounds. As people were overcome by the gas and tried to leave, they were beaten and many detained. Among the injured were two well-known reporters from Radio Globo, one of the few independent radio stations in the country. Among those seriously affected by the gas were a number of children and pregnant women.

On Thursday, the police and military attacked the same group at a massive protest near the presidential residency in the capital city. Television stations aired video showing soldiers firing their rifles during the repressive action and police beating protesters. Four teachers from the teachers’ union were seriously injured and, according to human rights organizations in Honduras, they were denied medical care at the main public hospital in Tegucigalpa. The teachers’ union then took the men to a private medical facility.

On August 20th, four leaders of the teachers’ union were badly injured when police attacked them during a union march. The men were detained at a police station for 12 hours during which time they were denied medical care and human rights observers were refused entry to the jail to verify their condition.

Throughout the month of August the level of conflict and the human rights crisis in Honduras has deepened. Non-violent protesters in Choloma were beaten, and three members of peasant organizations in Aguan were killed. Another journalist, critical of the regime, was murdered bringing to ten the total of journalists murdered since Lobo took over in January.
Vicki Cervantes, a spokesperson for the Honduras Solidarity Network said, “The United States government continues its support for the oligarchy and Lobo in the form of aid and pressure on other governments in the hemisphere to accept the illegitimate Lobo administration. “

Meanwhile, on the ground in Honduras the opposition of the majority of Hondurans to the coup and the subsequent regimes, including Lobo’s, is growing. For the first time since 1954, Honduran trade union federations have all agreed to prepare for a general strike and nearly a million Honduran eligible voters have signed letters demanding the convocation of a constituent constitutional assembly with the peoples’ participation and leadership.

The Honduras Solidarity Network, a nationwide coalition of non-profit, human rights and educational organizations, calls for:
· an end to police and military repression of the teachers and the protesters at the university;
· the resumption of negotiations between the government and the Teacher’s Union;
· the payment of back wages and an investigation into the violation of the teachers’ human rights.

Furthermore, until the brutal repression of social movements in Honduras ends, the HSN demands that the United States Government:
a) suspend all aid to the Lobo administration
b) stop the U.S. State Department lobbying for recognition of the undemocratic government of Honduras.
c) Recognize the Honduran people’s demand for a Constituent Assembly to establish a functioning, participatory democracy.

ALERT: Increasing Repression in Aguán

REPRESSION INCREASING IN AGUÁN AGAINST PEASANTS

The following article is translated by La Voz and reproduced from El Libertador. For background information on the struggle for land in Aguán see report of recent La Voz de los de Abajo delegation to the region.

Today, coinciding with the arrival of Porfirio Lobo Sosa with various of his Ministers of the Aguán Valley, the peasants are denouncing the strong harassment they are being subjected to by the National Army, the police and the DGIC (criminal investigation unit of the Honduran police).

Since the early hours of yesterday, they report that the "San Esteban Limitada" Cooperative has been surrounded by uniformed men from the police and military of Tocoa and Trujillo.

They anticipate that in the coming hours they will execute a violent eviction of the families in the four cooperatives of MARCA: Trinidad, Despertar, San Isidro and San Esteban. The families are on the verge of despair and are making an anguished call for solidarity. They are not being allowed to work or to get their products out to market, in land where they aren't being allowed to hold up any law or right, with the only aim of economically suffocating them so they can't generate income. The peasants denounce the illegal detention yesterday July 28th of the brother Miguel Angel Canales, whose whereabouts are unknown. The brother was taken away by several unidentified people without uniforms and without Orders of Apprehension when he was in his house with his family. At the time of the capture the individuals who took him away said they were doing it on orders of Jorge Bulnes, the manager of the Agropalma company, owned by Miguel Facussè Barjum. Sources linked to the peasant groups have reported to us that several of our peasant brothers have taken refuge in the mountains since it is known that they are being constantly sought after at their houses by groups of armed individuals in vehicles with closed tinted windows and without plates.

Up till now they haven't produced denunciations of the case nationally and internationally, meaning the people of "MARCA" have lacked the necessary resources to maintain fluid telephone communication, transportation or other means that allows them to be in contact with the different sectors in solidarity with their cause such as the Human Rights organizations, the social organizations and the National Front of Popular Resistance.

In summary, there is a complete state of defenselessness which demands action. We call the attention to all the peoples sectors to lend the solidarity asked for by our peasant brothers and sisters in the face of this wave of repression, persecution, harassment, illegal detention and killings to which they are being subjected by the eternal enemies of the peasants and their repressive groups.

LET'S END THE BARBARITY AND THE IMPUNITY AGAINST OUR PEOPLE!

MARIO DIAZ, "EL LIBERTADOR"

ALERTA: Intensifique hostigamiento contra MUCA en Bajo Aguán

El dìa de hoy, coincidente con la llegada de Porfirio Lobo Sosa, con varios de sus Ministros al Valle del Aguan, los Campesinos denuncian el fuerte hostigamiento de que estàn siendo objeto, por parte del Ejercito Nacional, La Policia y la DGIC.

Desde tempranas horas de ayer, se reporta que la Cooperativa "San Esteban Limitada" ha sido rodeada por elementos uniformados pertenecientes a los destacamentos policiales y militares del Sector de Tocoa y Trujillo.

Se prevee que para las pròximas horas se estarìa ejecutando un violento desalojo de las familias asentadas en las cuatro (4) Cooperativas pertenecientes al "MARCA", "Trinidad", "Despertar", "San Isidro y "San Esteban, Ltda. Las familias se encuentran al borde de la desesperaciòn y hacen un angustioso llamado de solidaridad. No les estàn permitiendo trabajar y tampoco les estàn dejando sacar el producto hacia el comercio, en una tierra donde no se les permite reclamar ni elevar ningùn derecho, con el ùnico fin de asfixiarlos economicamente y que no generen ingresos. Los Campesinos denuncian la detenciòn ilegal el dìa de ayer Mièrcoles 28 de Julio/10 del Compañero "MARCA"MIGUEL ANGEL CANALES, quièn se reporta con paradero desconocido. El Compañero fue llevado por varios elementos no identificados y sin uniforme, sin una Orden de Aprehensiòn, cuando se encontraba een su casa con su familia. Al momento de la captura lo manifestado por los individuos que se lo llevaron es que solo obedecìan ordenes del Gerente de la Empresa propiedad de Miguel Facussè Barjum, "AGROPALMA", S.A. de C. V. , Jorge Bulnes. Fuentes ligadas a los grupos Campesinos, nos reportan que varios de los Compañeros Campesinos se han refugiado en las montañas, ya que se conoce que son buscados constantemente en sus casas de habitaciòn por grupos de individuos armados, en vehìculos polarizados, cerrados y sin placas propios para la zona agreste.

Hasta el momento no se han producido las denuncias del caso en el plano nacional e internacional, por cuanto los Compañeros del "MARCA" han carecido de los recursos necesarios para mantener una comunicaciòn fluìda por telèfono, capacidad de movilizaciòn vehicular, u otro que les permita estar en contacto con los diferentes Sectores solidarios con su causa como las Organizaciones de Derechos humanos, las Organizaciones Sociales y El Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular.

En resumen, un total estado de indefensiòn, Urge, una acciòn al respecto.Llamamos la atenciòn de todos los Sectores populares para brindar la solidaridad que claman los Compañeros Campesinos ante esta ola de represiòn, persecusiòn, hostigamiento, detencion ilegal y asesinatos que estàn siendo objeto por los eternos enemigos del Campo y sus grupos represivos.

!PONGAMOS UN ALTO A LA BARBARIE Y A LA IMPUNIDAD CONTRA NUESTRO PUEBLO!. MARIO DIAZ. "EL LIBERTADOR"

Tell the Organization of American States: NO to re-admission of Honduras's repressive coup-continuing regime

Please send the below letter or one of your own to the following email addresses of the different representatives to the OAS urging them NOT to re-admit Honduras while human rights violations continue:

stevensonad@state.gov, oeawashington@mmrree.gov.ec, embantbar@aol.com, argentin@oas.org, barbados@oas.org, belize@oas.org, Missiondebolivia@gmail.com, boliviaoas@oas.org, erezay@delbrasupa.org, prmoas@international.gc.ca, mail@minrel.gov.cl, colombia@oas.org, costa-rica@oas.org, embdomdc@aol.com, republicadominicana@oas.org, moea@rree.gob.sv, grenada.oas@gmail.com, oea@minex.gob.gt, guatemala@oas.org, guyanaembassydc@verizon.net, haiti@oas.org, jamaica@oas.org, jamaicaoas@earthlink.net, mexico.oea@sre.gob.mx, galbin@sre.gob.mx, nicaragua@oas.org, panama@oas.org, paraguay@oas.org, paraguayoea@comcast.net, peru@oas.org, mail@embsvg.com, esuriname@covad.net, info@ttembwash.com, uruoea@erols.com, missionvene@venezuela-oas.org

Esteemed Representatives to the Organization of American States:

As a member of the international community gravely concerned with the ongoing impunity and human rights violations in Honduras, I urge the Organization of American States NOT to re-instate Honduras's membership to the OAS. Such a decision would affect both the Hondurans who continue to live under a regime of terror and repression as well as the rest of the hemisphere whose peoples will be impacted by the precedents set in Honduras.

Conditions have clearly not improved in Honduras, where repression, persecution and systematic human rights abuses against Resistance leaders, popular movement leaders, journalists, judges, human rights activists, independent media, or anyone critical of the coup, have been documented by several independent and international human rights organizations and the OAS Inter American Human Rights Commission has made it clear through its many reports. During Lobo´s administration, more than 10 journalists have been assassinated, as have many more members of the Resistance.

But the OAS Secretary General has turned a blind eye to this reality and has been pushing, with the help of the U.S. and regional allies, for a rushed readmission of Honduras. Furthermore, on July 20th, 2010 SICA Presidential Summit in San Salvador, the Presidents of Central America, with the exception of President Ortega of Nicaragua, readmitted Honduras to the sub-regional organization (against its own rules, which specify the decision must be unanimous) and cynically praised Mr. Lobo’s success in restoring democracy, the rule of law and safeguarding human rights, even if repression, violence and human rights abuses are still being documented.

Confronted by this imminent and false imposition, that would greatly damage the struggle for democracy in Honduras by whitewashing the coup and strengthening the current regime of impunity, as a member of the international community I support the demands of the National Front of Popular Resistance:

1) That the OAS takes the National Popular Resistance Front and its position into account before readmitting Honduras.

2) That the OAS acknowledges the ongoing human rights abuses and systematic repression and persecution that people are subjected to in Honduras, as reports of IAHC, UN and several other human rights organizations have documented.

3) That the OAS helps to dismantle the coup-monger’s total control of Honduran institutions and acknowledges that Honduras is still controlled by the same people who organized and held the coup.

4) That the OAS acknowledge that the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Ombudsman and the majority of the judicial and executive branches of government are still controlled by the coup-mongers and should be fully reformed.

5) That the OAS ensures that Ex President Zelaya, who has been appointed as Coordinator of the FNRP and is still in exile may return safely and with full rights.

6) That the OAS ensures that persecution against the Resistance members, judges critical of the coup and the former members of Ex President Zelaya’s cabinet stops immediately.

7) That the OAS acknowledges that Mr. Lobo has himself declared that a coup took place on the 28th of June, 2009 and thus the only way to reestablish constitutional democracy in Honduras is through a National Constitutional Assembly.

8) That the OAS supports the return of democracy and safeguards human rights in Honduras, fighting the current state of impunity and absence of justice and holding the coup-mongers accountable for their crimes against the Honduran people.

Sincerely,

Statement of Indigenous organization COPINH against U.S. military intervention in Latin America

Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) - Communiqué

In the face of imperialist invasion, insurrection and defense of our peoples and sovereignties!

Today is a moment of hegemonic reconfiguration of imperialism in our continent, due to its profound crisis, which it tries to resolve at any cost, and in which like a wounded beast it bears its claws invading through its projects of annexation, colonialism and plunder with coup d'etats, military bases, occupation troops, the fourth fleet, Plan Mérida, ASPAN, transnationalization, monopolization, cultural invasion and counter-revolutionary plans.
As people born from the blood of Lempira and in permanent resistance, we raise our voices together with other sisters and brothers who today with just indignation repudiate the occupation of their territories and countries by these forces of death.
In Honduras, also invaded by the U.S. army, where where some of the most important bases of the region are, such as Soto Cano in Palmerola, in May of this year under the current regime, which is the continuity of the coup d'etat, a second military base was inaugurated in the indigenous Miskito community in Barra de Karataska, and as if that wasn't enough they are hurrying to occupy the island of Guanaja, an insular municipality of the Bahía Islands in the Honduran Caribbean, threatening to reactivate ex-military bases that functioned during the "cold war" in the Lenca region and other zones. All of this under the context of the coup d'etat, extention of the "democratic security" that is applied in Colombia, and the systematic repression against the Honduran people.
We energetically condemn this new and old imperialist maneuver, with which they expect to detain the process of emancipation and defense of territories, sovereignty, richness, dignity and life itself that escapes it in our great motherland, America, putting under grave threat our sister people of Costa Rica with an occupation without precedent, which threatens Venezuela, Cuba, Haití, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador and other nations of the Southern Cone.

Today more than ever we express our urgency, necessity and desire to march towards the refoundation of our peoples to halt the objectives of the U.S. that counts on the complacency of oligarchic, coup-making, right-wing, criminal regimes and governments like those of Honduras, Panamá, Costa Rica, Colombia and others.

We are in complete solidarity with those peoples who do not renounce their legitimate right to defend sovereignty, self-determination and life, from America to other places on this planet who today have the nightmare of a bloody Iraq.

We make a call to the world and the Honduran people to redouble our efforts along that path chosen by the heroic Resistance that is committed to the construction of a re-founded motherland, without capitalism, without patriarchy, without racism and discrimination, which violate all the forms of dignified life.

At the doors of another world war, let us build justice to create peace.

We bet on life, not on death, so let's all mobilize to struggle against war, occupation, interventionism and domination.

Solidarity with the Costa Rican people and all other people carrying out the battle to expel the troops of occupation.

With the ancestral strength of Lempira, Icelaca and Etempica we raise our voices full of life, justice, dignity, freedom and peace!

End the U.S. occupation and invasion of the world!

Intibucá, Honduras July 13th, 2010