Salvadoran and International Solidarity Activists Commemorate Honduras Coup

Today, June 28th, 2013 about 125 folks from the Movement of Popular Resistance and solidarity organizations gathered outside the Honduran embassy in San Salvador to commemorate the 4th anniversary of the military coup in Honduras and to demand that the U.S. government cut military aid to Honduras, which has been increasing each year since the 2009 coup. The Salvadoran protesters, who came from departments as far flung as Chalatenango, Santa Ana and San Vicente, also demanded that the Salvadoran government send observers to Honduras to make sure the elections are democratic. In addition to Sister Cities, four other solidarity organizations signed on to the event and press release, including the Share Foundation, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES),  the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) and Voices on the Border. The event was covered by 5 Salvadoran radio and T.V. stations.

Similar events marking the anniversary of the coup were held on June 28th by other Honduras Solidarity Network organizations in San Francisco, New York, Boston and other cities around the U.S. The resistance movement also commemorated the coup in Honduras, remembering the many activists who have been murdered for speaking out against the human rights abuses committed by the coup governments of Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo.

 

Press Release

THE STRUGGLE OF THE HONDURAN PEOPLE IS ALSO OUR STRUGGLE

Four years after the military coup in Honduras against the constitutionally elected President Manuel Zelaya, and almost four years since the fraudulent election of de facto President Porfirio Lobo, the organizations of the Popular Movement of Resistance-October 12th (MPR-12) and the United States Network in Solidarity with Honduras, we declare that:

 

We denounce and condemn:

1.  The systematic and collective assassinations and the constant violation of human rights that have been committed since the coup of June 28th, 2009. At least 6 candidates of the newly formed left-wing LIBRE  party and 206 resistance activists have been killed since the coup for political reasons by the military, police and private security forces of landowners like Miguel Facussé. Among these 206 victims, 104 were peasant leaders in the Lower Aguán region of the department of Colón, and 3 were from the rural community of San Manuel, in the department of Cortés.  59 lawyers, 33 journalists and dozens of trade unionists, teachers and LGBT activists have also been killed. This situation has turned Honduras into the country with the highest murder rate in the world, with 91 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the UN.

Along with this violence, the political persecution of social movement’s leaders also continues. One example of this persecution is the recent arrest of renowned activist and campesino leader, Berta Caceres, general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). Berta was arrested in May 2013 in a military operation, thrown in jail and treated as a dangerous criminal. Eventually she was released, but she remains under police supervision.

 

2.   The judicial system in Honduras remains dysfunctional, and mired in corruption and impunity. According to a report by the Associated Press (AP) in June 2013, almost 40% of police officers have taken bribes, tortured suspects and consumed drugs. Only seven of these corrupt 11,000 police officers have been fired, and most of these 7 have been reinstated. Also, the government admits that it has resolved only 2% of cases of murder of journalists, members of LGBTQ community, lawyers and other opposition activists.

 

3.  The passage of unconstitutional laws, which demonstrate the corruption and weakness of Honduran institutions. For example, in January 2013 the Legislative Assembly passed the Law of Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDE), better known as  the “Model Cities Law”, even after the law had been declared unconstitutional in October 2012. This law concessions off 100 square kilometers of Honduran territory to international capital, and these companies are free to pass their own laws for the territory. The area of intervention will affect the land of 24 indigenous Garifuna communities, territories considered cultural heritage sights,  which is a clear violation of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Convention 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples.

Similarly, we reject the new mining law passed in January 2013, as it opens more than 300 concessions, including concessions of protected environmental areas, and will exacerbate the environmental and social crisis in Honduras.

 

4.    The U.S. organizations in solidarity with El Salvador and Honduras denounce that U.S. government funding for the police and the army of Honduras has increased each year since 2009.  In 2011, the U.S. State Department authorized $ 24 million to expand the military base in Palmerola. Despite alarm about human rights abuses committed by Honduran public security forces expressed by U.S. Congresspeople and by various international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders, the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the U.S. government has authorized more than $95 million for the police and army of Honduras in 2012.

U.S. Congressional Representatives have signed a number of letters demanding that the State Department ensure that U.S. funds were not being used to fund human rights abuse in Honduras. In March of 2012, 94 members of Congress signed a letter to then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton demanding that all police and military aid to Honduras be suspended immediately. Most recently, in June of this year, 21 Senators signed a letter to the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, calling for a thorough review of security aid to Honduras.

 

We demand:

The Salvadoran social movement demands that the government of El Salvador:

·   Require the OAS and SICA perform a thorough investigation of the human rights violations occuring in Honduras.

·  Send monitors to observe the electoral process in Honduras and to contribute to this democratic process, especially in areas where there has been social movement repression, such as the departments of Colón, Cortés, Santa Barbara and Comayagua.

·     Promptly resolve the applications of Honduran refugees who are seeking political asylum in El Salvador.

The U.S. organizations in solidarity with El Salvador and Honduras demand the government of the United States:

·    Cut its economic and military aid to the Honduran military and police.

·    Withdraw U.S. troops and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents from Honduras

·   Does not intervene in the Honduran presidential election to be held on November 24, 2013. For this we demand the prompt issuance of a declaration of neutrality.

 

We stand in solidarity:

We stand in solidarity with the Honduran people and recognize their heroic response to repression and their continuing struggle for democracy, under the banner of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP).

We congratulate the resistance movement for registering their political party, LIBRE. Xiomara Castro is the chosen presidential candidate of LIBRE and she has been leading in all public opinion polls.

Four years after the coup in Honduras, the undersigned organizations reaffirm our internationalist vocation and our support and solidarity with the noble causes of the Honduran people. We re-committ ourselves  to strengthening our solidarity with the heroic people of Honduras.

¡¡¡Unity, Solidarity and Struggle! The Honduran People will Have Victory!

May the military coups promoted by the United States government never be repeated in Honduras or any other country in the Americas.

 

San Salvador, June 28th, 2013