Sister Cities
Honduras 04/11 Action Letter
April 2011
Dear Member of Congress:
I am writing to express my profound concern for both the deteriorating human rights situation in Honduras and the current U.S. policy towards the ongoing crisis taking place in that country.
Since March 17th, when the teachers of Honduras initiated a strike and peaceful demonstrations, there have been daily reports of brutal police attacks against and illegal arrests of demonstrators throughout the country. The firing of hundreds of tear gas canisters and clubbing of demonstrators has sent teachers, students, journalists and bystanders including young children to the hospital. Riot police, the military and armed (sometimes masked) men in civilian clothing driving cars without license plates have attacked peaceful protests in the major cities and towns of the country.
In the wake of this intense repression against the strikers, attacks have been carried out against other sectors, including human rights defenders, indigenous leaders and students, on a scale not witnessed since the dramatic months that followed Honduras’ June 28, 2009 coup d'état.
Since Pepe Lobo took power in January 2010, through undemocratic elections that were not recognized by most foreign governments, human rights group have documented 34 political murders, including teachers, peasants, anti-coup resistance groups, union leaders, former government officials, journalists, and members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community. Human Rights organizations also report 309 suspicious deaths (participation of state security forces considered highly probable) and 34 murders over land disputes.
Attached you will find a documented list of human rights violations committed under the Lobo regime over the last few weeks, many of which are directly attributable to the government's security forces. This escalation began shortly before President Obama’s visit to Central America and yet, sadly, the President made no mention of the situation and, to date, the administration has made no public statement in any way addressing the abuses taking place.
Honduras is a country of extremely unequal wealth distribution where a few families and the military have controlled the economic and political levers of power throughout the country’s history. Historically, the United States has worked closely with the elite families and the military, when, for example, Honduras served as the base of the counterinsurgency wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s.
In recent years, the Honduran people have called for increased democracy, political participation and the promotion of the social, economic and political rights of all Hondurans. Protesters are unarmed and are part of a broad popular movement calling for wider civic participation in their local, departmental and national governments. The response from the country’s elite to these popular demands was first the 2009 coup against the government of Manuel Zelaya, later the fraudulent elections that brought Porfirio Lobo to power and, since the coup, violence directed at groups demanding increased democracy.
The US government and Embassy have claimed that the Lobo government is working towards reconciliation, democracy and the protection of human rights and continues to provide substantial diplomatic, political, military and economic aid to the regime.
The recent wave of repression, however, provides further evidence that Porfirio Lobo’s government has no interest in reconciliation or democracy. Rather, it is intent on beating the Honduran people into submission.
Why, when the United States is contemplating massive budget cuts to fundamental programs that serve our most vulnerable citizens, is our government continuing to send aid to a regime that violates human rights and basic democratic principles?
It is time for the United States to acknowledge the grave human rights situation in Honduras and take the necessary measures to help reverse this pattern of abuse. For that reason, as your constituent who supports a just U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, I respectfully request that you:
1- Call for the immediate cutoff of military and economic assistance to the Porfirio Lobo regime until human rights and democracy are respected in Honduras
2- Contact Ambassador Hugo Llorens at the US Embassy and ask the Ambassador to immediately condemn – both privately and publicly – the human rights abuses taking place and call for an end to these abuses.
3- Call for emergency hearings on the human rights situation in Honduras, the role of US military, economic, political and diplomatic support for the regime and the def facto government’s responsibility for the violations occurring on the ground.
4- Contact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and insist that the State Department oppose the reinstatement of Honduras to the Organization of American States until human rights are respected and democracy is fully and genuinely re-established in Honduras.
I thank you in advance for your immediate attention to this deplorable, life and death situation. I would appreciate if you could keep in touch with me regarding the steps you have taken and I look forward to following up with your office via phone and/or in person soon.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
Cc:
Ambassador Hugo Llorens – LlorensH@state.gov
Deputy Chief of Mission Simon Henshaw – HenshawS@state.gov
