[en] U.S. State Dept: “we legally can’t determine it to be a military coup”

Welcome to Honduras!!! Smiling civilian government officials greet visitors and tourists traveling across the border into Honduras. Phew! Glad it’s not a military coup! (photo: Sandra Cuffe @ Las Manos border, July 25, 2009.)

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“We have called it a coup. What we have said is that we legally can’t determine it to be a military coup. That review is still ongoing…” – Robert Wood, Department of State Deputy Spokesman

Robert Wood

Deputy Department Spokesman

Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC

August 6, 2009

[Full Briefing: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/aug/126950.htm%5D

excerpt regarding Honduras:

QUESTION: There’s a similar report on Honduras, actually, about it this morning that a assistant secretary has written Senator Lugar to say that the U.S. is softening its stance on the Honduras coup and does not want to place any sort of lasting penalties on the Honduran Government – the interim government. Is that true? Or how would you best characterize the position —
MR. WOOD: The best way I can characterize this, Kirit, is that we are not softening on our position with regard to Zelaya. We have been – as you know, we have been working hard to try to get both parties to take up seriously the San Jose Accords. We think it’s the best way forward for resolving the political situation, political crisis in Honduras. We believe this is the best mechanism for it. And we’re going to continue to try to convince both parties and go from there. But a coup took place in the country, and –
QUESTION: Well, you haven’t officially legally declared it a coup yet.
MR. WOOD: We have called it a coup. What we have said is that we legally can’t determine it to be a military coup. That review is still ongoing.
QUESTION: Why does it take so long to review whether there’s a military coup or not?
MR. WOOD: Well, look, there are a lot of legal issues here that have to be carefully examined before we can make that determination, and it requires information being shared amongst a number of parties. We need to be able to take a look at that information and make our best legal judgment as to whether or not –
QUESTION: It seems to be taking a very long time.
MR. WOOD: Well, things take time when you’re dealing with these kinds of very sensitive legal issues. So we want to make sure that –
QUESTION: Have you made a decision on whether to impose additional sanctions on the de facto government?
MR. WOOD: No decision has been made to do anything right now, other than support the San Jose Accords and the mediation process.
QUESTION: No, I understand. But have you made a determination whether – whether – not to impose sanctions? I mean, this report and this letter to Senator Lugar suggests that you’ve made the decision not to impose sanctions.
MR. WOOD: Look, I’m certainly not going to talk about the details of the correspondence that we have had with a congressperson or senator. I’m not going to do that from here. I can – what I can tell you is that the United States is doing everything it can to try to support the return to constitutional democratic order in the country. And we’re going to do what we think is best to try to move that process forward.
QUESTION: But my question wasn’t about the letter. My question was whether you’ve made the decision not to impose new sanctions on Honduras?
MR. WOOD: And what I’m saying to you is that where we’re focused right now is on supporting that process and trying to get the two parties to come to some sort of a political settlement. But beyond that, I don’t have anything to add on that question.

[en] AlterNet: “People Are in the Streets Every Day”

By Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet. Posted August 7, 2009.

A national march against the coup in Honduras kicked off Wednesday, with demonstrators leaving from every corner of the country and marching up to 15 hours a day to demonstrate their support for the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Organizers with the National Front Against the Coup say participants, including Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and popular Catholic priest Andrés Tamayo, plan to march 15 hours per day, through hills, rain and military checkpoints, converging early next week in either San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa, the country’s two main cities.

The march was planned following a vigil, held Monday, for two teachers and active coup resisters, both of whom died over the weekend. The first, Abraham Vallejo Soriano, 38, who was shot on July 30 during a march in support of the return of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Then, on Saturday, while leaving Vallejo Soriano’s wake, teacher Martin Florencio Rivera Barrientos, 45, was stabbed more than 25 times.

Their deaths bring the total number of people killed for their participation in the resistance to the coup in Honduras to nine, according to an August 3 press release from the International Solidarity, Observation and Accompaniment Mission in Honduras, a delegation comprised of various Latin American and European human rights experts, academics and others.

Among the dead are also two union leaders, an LGBT movement leader, a radio journalist, and several young demonstrators, including Pedro Magdiel Muñoz Salvador, 22, whose body was discovered close to the Nicaragua-Honduras border two days after being taken into police custody, according to a statement released by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States. The release says his body was found with “signs of torture,” which other sources say included at least 40 stab wounds. [Warning: graphic images]

“The Commission calls for an investigation into the killings and punish those responsible,” the IACHR statement reads. “The IACHR also calls for the de facto regime to take all measures to ensure the right to life, integrity and security of all inhabitants of Honduras.”

The International Mission’s July 23 report also cited 1,275 curfew and demonstration-related arrests as of that date. A massive crackdown during a national strike on July 30 is believed to have risen that number by at least a few hundred more.

The report from the International Solidarity, Observation and Accompaniment Mission in Honduras says the legal basis for the arrests comes from Executive Order No. 011-2009, requested by interim President Roberto Micheletti, which temporarily suspended constitutional rights while a curfew was in place. It was never renewed, according to the Mission, making its ongoing enforcement illegal.

In addition, the report says, constitutional rights, according to Honduran law, can only be suspended in the case of a foreign invasion or natural disaster — neither of which is currently the case. Nonetheless, its enforcement continues, leading to widespread militarization, repression and thousands of arbitrary arrests.

According to Abencio Fernández Pineda, former attorney for the non-government organization the Committee of the Relatives of Disappeared Detainees of Honduras, the crackdown on dissent harkens back to the 1980s, a time when the Honduran army, with U.S. support, waged a covert campaign against leftist leaders. According to the National Security Archive, a documentation project of George Washington University that stores information from declassified U.S. government documents, at least 184 people were disappeared during that era. Most are believed to have been kidnapped and executed by secret police units such as the notorious Battalion 316, which was trained and equipped by the CIA to advance U.S. foreign policy in the region.

The current regime enlisted a key figure from Battalion 316 — Billy Fernando Joya Amendola — to serve as Micheletti’s special security adviser.
“We’ve seen at least ten political, extra judicial assassinations of people participating in the marches, threats against political activists and journalists, at least three disappearances, a number of drive-by shootings; the streets are militarized. People are clearly concerned that we are going back to that time,” Fernández Pineda told AlterNet. “And then Billy Joya starts appearing on the television, and in the coup leadership. What are we supposed to think?”

Fernández Pineda is not the only one who is concerned. Human rights groups and the international Mission have also denounced the formation of what they are calling “paramilitary groups,” which they link to narco-traffickers and the business elite, often working in tandem with local police.

The sudden violence isn’t the only similarity to a darker era in Honduran history. Much like the U.S.-backed removal of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán in 1954, the removal of Manuel Zelaya followed a series of moves by his administration that the international business community worried might signal a shift towards a more populist economic platform. In August 2008, for example, Zelaya publicly joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of America (or ALBA, its acronym in Spanish), a regional economic development and equitable trade coalition. Although it has no bearing on the legally binding, U.S.-led Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (commonly referred to as CAFTA), Zelaya’s association with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who started the Alliance in 2004, raised more than a few eyebrows. Then, in December 2008, Zelaya raised the minimum wage in Honduras, one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere, from $157 to $289 dollars a month, except in free trade zones.

Lynda Yanz, Executive Director of the Maquila Solidarity Network, said in a July 28 release that “businesses and business associations — including those in the textile and apparel industries, which account for the majority of Honduras’ exports — have publicly supported the coup, lobbied against trade sanctions, or remained silent and carried on business as usual under the military-imposed regime.”

While there are reports of multinational corporations forcing their workers to attend pro-coup demonstrations, in an official July 27 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Gap, Nike and Addidas, all of whom have extensive operations in Honduras, claimed that the companies do not “support or endorse the position of any party in this internal dispute.”

Yanz applauded that letter, saying it “breaks that silence and calls unequivocally for the restoration of democracy in Honduras.”

“The question that remains is: Where are the other companies that are doing business in Honduras, including the three largest foreign investors in the country’s apparel sector — Fruit of the Loom/Russell Corporation, Hanesbrands and Gildan?”

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has itself been criticized for not taking a firmer stance against the coup regime.

Although in recent weeks the U.S. has reportedly cut off $18.5 million in military aid to Honduras and suspended the visas of select coup leaders, Washington has fallen short of calling the forcible removal of Zelaya a “coup,” thereby leaving untouched a reported $180 million in foreign aid flowing into the coffers of Honduras’ current administration, in violation of the Foreign Appropriations Act, which requires that the U.S. suspend all aid to any country “whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.”

“There are legal issues there that we have chosen not to exercise at this point,” said U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary Philip Crowley at an Aug. 3 press briefing. “But clearly, in every way possible, we have said that what happened in Honduras is a violation of the OAS Charter, which is why we took action against Honduras. It’s a violation of the Inter-American Charter, the Inter-American Democratic Charter. And we continue to work intensively to try to resolve the situation.”
But the resistance movements in Honduras, and their supporters in the U.S., are calling upon the U.S. government to take a stronger stance against the de facto regime, and make a clear distinction between U.S. foreign policy in the 80s and 2009.

Acts of defiance against the coup regime are growing daily. Just this week, students and faculty at the Autonomous University of Honduras closed down the roads around the university in an act of protest, setting off violent clashes with police. After about 20 demonstrators were injured, including the dean of the university, Julieta Castellanos, who later threatened to sue the police.

Meanwhile, community members have been keeping 24-hour watch over Radio Globo, a progressive radio station providing one of the only sources of reporting on the repression in Honduras. The de facto government has taken multiple steps, including a judge’s order, military force and public threats, to attempt to shut down the station, but have been blocked by throngs of demonstrators that have risen to the station’s defense. According to Dr. Luther Castillo, press secretary for the National Front against the Coup in Honduras, as many as 50 volunteers occupying the station in shifts, to provide security for Radio Globo staff.

Castillo told AlterNet that human rights violations, including threats and violence against the media, drive-by shootings to intimidate movement leaders and the illegal detention of hundreds, are escalating in Honduras daily — but only adding strength and legitimacy to the movement to return Honduras to the rule of law.

“Fear is not really increasing,” said Canadian blogger and activist Sandra Cuffe, who has spent much of the past six years working with popular movements in Honduras and who has been reporting from the ground every day since the coup took place.

“Outrage and indignation and determination and courage are … [But] people are still out on the streets every day.”

Jessica Pupovac is an adult educator and independent journalist living in Chicago.

[http://www.alternet.org/world/141837/honduras:_%22people_are_in_the_streets_every_day%22/?page=entire%5D

[es] Pagina 12: Caras y voces de la represion en Honduras

Testimonios de víctimas de la violencia de la dictadura de Micheletti que los medios locales ocultan

Caras y voces de la represión en Honduras

Angel Berlanga

Página12

A través de medios alternativos fue posible juntar declaraciones que muestran la ferocidad del régimen. Fueron pronunciadas por personalidades conocidas en Honduras y, sin embargo, no tienen lugar en los grandes medios de ese país.

“Me dijeron: ¿te duele, perro? ¡Gritá, perro!” “En una bartolina (calabozo) de nueve metros cuadrados había más de treinta compañeros presos, completamente doloridos por la golpiza recibida.” “Veníamos caminando por la carretera, y allí tomamos un desvío para burlar un retén, porque estaban delante, y comenzaron a disparar.” “Le han quitado la vida y ni siquiera nos dejan velarlo en paz.” “Nunca en la historia de Honduras se ha visto a la policía reprimir públicamente de esta manera.”

La mayoría de esas declaraciones fueron pronunciadas por personalidades conocidas en Honduras y, sin embargo, no tienen lugar en los grandes medios hondureños, asociados a empresarios y partidos tradicionales que impulsaron este golpe encarnizado. Para saber qué dicen los reprimidos hay que buscar por otro lado: sitios de información alternativa, blogs, entidades de derechos humanos. Esas parecen ser las vías para anoticiarse de la ferocidad del régimen que encabeza Roberto Micheletti para con quienes reclaman la restitución del presidente Manuel Zelaya.

El primero de los testimonios es parte de una serie recogida en www.defensoresenlinea.com, manifestantes detenidos y reprimidos el jueves 30, el día que el profesor Roger Vallejos recibió el tiro que lo llevaría a la muerte horas después. La violencia policial recrudeció en las tomas de rutas en Tegucigalpa y Comayagua. “Cuando estábamos tendidos en el suelo, boca abajo, nos empezaron a insultar: al que medio levantaba la cabeza le daban un toletazo –contó el maestro Francis Alvarez–. Si alguien se daba vuelta para ver le daban con las botas en la cara. A las mujeres les decían que eran perras que deberían de estar en la casa atendiendo al marido y con los toletes les hurgaban las partes íntimas. Nos decían que ellos mandaban y que si nos volvían a ver en las calles nos iban a matar a todos.” El dirigente Juan Barahona se comunicó desde la cárcel con Radio Liberada: “Somos 75 y estamos detenidos en la posta del barrio Belén, en Tegucigalpa: la mayoría estamos golpeados, heridos, con hematomas en la cara y los ojos, con marcas de garrotazos en la espalda. La policía nos trata como a animales”. Al dirigente Carlos Reyes, avisó, le fracturaron un brazo y lo llevaron al hospital.

Roger Vallejos agonizó 36 horas: un balazo en la cabeza en medio de una manifestación reprimida en el Mercado del Mayoreo. Los familiares denunciaron que fueron hostigados mientras estuvo internado –los desalojaron del hospital– y también luego, durante el velorio. “Le quitaron la vida y ni siquiera podemos velarlo en paz –dijo Salomón, su hermano, a Radio Globo–. Que dejen de enviarnos la policía para agredir, se han ensañado.” “¿Tiene temor?”, le preguntaron. “Y claro, quién no va a tenerlo, cuando ves pasar a una patrulla con los fusiles apuntándonos. Queremos velar a nuestro pariente en tranquilidad, porque no es justo que vengan a amenazar y provocar. Es un hecho cobarde.” Había razones para temer: el domingo a la madrugada fue asesinado otro docente, Martín Rivera. Había ido al velorio de Vallejo y apareció, como Pedro Magdiel Muñoz en El Paraíso, con decenas de puñaladas. La policía informó que detuvo a un adolescente, pero Bertha Oliva, de Cofadeh, asegura que se trata de un modus operandi que instrumentaron los escuadrones de la muerte ya en los ’80: “Comenzaron con asesinatos de cuadros de base a cuchilladas para hacerlos pasar como obra de la delincuencia común”, declaró en el sepelio. “Sabemos que la saña con que los mataron es un mensaje para que el resto de la población se atemorice”, dijo. El lunes el ejército asesinó a otro campesino en un retén militar.

El sindicalista Eliseo Hernández publicó en el sitio www.honduraslaboral.org un relato de la represión en la ruta interamericana. “A la una de la tarde llegó un contingente de unos 400 militares y 200 policías que nos emboscaron; de inmediato procedieron a lanzarnos granadas lacrimógenas, a golpearnos a punta de toletazos y a dispararnos con la idea de matarnos, por lo cual no nos quedó más alternativa que huir por los montes y montañas. Yo me pregunto: si ya nos habían desalojado de manera brutal y salvaje, ¿por qué perseguirnos durante varios kilómetros hasta alcanzar a muchos compañeros y compañeras, y ya en el suelo, completamente indefensos e impotentes, proceder a golpearlos, patearlos, insultarlos y torturarlos sin importarles sus súplicas y ruegos, para después apresarlos de una manera brutal y humillante?”. Hernández dio cuenta de los presos hacinados en una celda: “La policía les tiraba cápsulas que al hacer contacto con la humedad del suelo de la bartolina emanaban fuerte olor a gas mostaza, lo cual se convertía en una cruel tortura, pues la asfixia era casi total”. El episodio fue narrado también por Bertha Oliva.

El veterano líder indígena Salvador Zúñiga relató al sitio nicaragüense www.tortillaconsal.com los padecimientos del grupo de 300 manifestantes que se trasladaron desde Tegucigalpa hacia la frontera para reunirse con Zelaya. “Hay una guerra contra un pueblo desarmado que lo único que hace es reclamar que se reinstale al presidente al que votamos para que gobierne cuatro años”, graficó. “Llegaron a encarcelar diariamente hasta 300 personas –dijo–. En El Paraíso ya no cabían en la bartolina de la policía y llevaron a la gente al estadio.” A la salida de la capital les quitaron los colectivos y siguieron a pie; luego de eludir varios retenes tuvieron que largarse a la montaña, porque empezaron a dispararles. Al llegar a los pueblos los delataban y tenían que seguir huyendo. El ejército los cercó cerca de la frontera, los detuvo, los golpeó y después, hacinados, los remitió en furgones a Tegucigalpa y San Pedro Sula. Solo 40 consiguieron pasar a Nicaragua. “La gente está con miedo: es una situación difícil –explicó–. Cuando va a las manifestaciones está activa. Pero cuando ya está sola entra en una situación de pánico.”

En el sitio Honduras resiste (resistenciamorazan.blogspot.com), uno de los más activos en la difusión de denuncias, se reproduce una entrevista que Radio Progreso le hizo al padre Fausto Milla, un militante de los derechos humanos que trabaja con los indígenas, que fue detenido por los escuadrones de la muerte en los ‘80 y que hoy está a resguardo. “Viví estas situaciones durante doce años, esperaba la muerte en cualquier momento –evocó–. Hace unos días fueron a buscarme a la radio en la que estoy, disimuladamente. Yo no tengo temor pero trato de cuidarme, también, lo razonable. Aunque no sé cuánto aguantaré encerrado, porque no puedo seguir viendo cómo corre la sangre. Yo creo que en la historia de Honduras nunca se ha visto una represión así, en una forma tan pública, tan a la vista de todos.” Milla considera que, de seguir la situación, “la indignación del pueblo se va a desbordar, probablemente en forma desordenada”. “Porque es imposible seguir aguantando esto –señaló–. A veces ni agua dejan pasar a los heridos en la cárcel. Violar los derechos humanos fundamentales para estos grupos, con Billy Joya al frente, es un oficio. Por eso toman con naturalidad y no les importa nada que el mundo entero los esté llamando criminales y bestias. Pero el pueblo se ha levantado, se ha indignado, y está decidido ahora a seguir luchando por la libertad pacíficamente, hasta donde llegue el límite.”

“El sector golpista no se esperaba que la gente haya perdido el miedo y esté preparada para decir los nombres y los apellidos de los que están detrás de este proyecto oprobioso de hostigamiento, persecución y muerte”, señaló Oliva, y aseveró que la Cofadeh contabilizó 2702 detenciones ilegales, gran cantidad de amenazas de muerte directas y nueve asesinatos, “algunos de ellos cometidos por militares disfrazados de civil”. “Los golpistas son pocos, pero es mucho el dinero que manejan, y los medios de comunicación son de ellos –señaló Milla–. Envenenan a la gente y la llenan de odio.”

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elmundo/4-129477-2009-08-06.html

[en] GRITtv: Laura Flanders interviews Rick Rowley & Sandra Cuffe

August 4, 2009.

[en] The REAL News: Honduras – Where Does Washington Stand?