August 2010 – Deadly Month for Human Rights in Honduras

The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, COFADEH, emphasizes that the month of August continues to be a period in which those who violate human rights choose to carry out particularly repressive actions –this August, 2010 is no exception. The calendar of human rights demonstrates that this period is deadly.

Why have they chosen the month of August? What is the logic? In the decade of the 1980s, this month was tragic and today, in the context of the coup d’état, the same occurs. For example, last year, heavy repression was carried out; assassinations of members of the resistance, persecution, imprisonment of dozens of people and the initiation of politically motivated judicial proceedings.

Family members of the detained and disappeared of the continent, organized in the Federation of Families of the Detained and Disappeared, FEDEFAM, conducted an analysis of the decade of the 1980s and observed that in all of our countries the forced disappearance of people was being carried out. As a result, August 30 was established as the International Day of the Detained and Disappeared, thanks to the efforts and pressure brought by family members and the Congresses of several nations.

In the month of August, the repression and infiltration of marches, assemblies, the seizure of the installations of INPREMA, were some of the strategies to demobilize sectors which had decided to protest.

What follows is a partial list of the cases in which diverse forms of repression were used including: political assassinations, torture, persecution, death threats, harassment among others.

1 At the beginning of August, the National Autonomous University of Honduras, UNAH, was converted into a battlefield between students and repressive forces, who beat, gassed, tortured and captured students at the request of university authorities, information which was reconfirmed by Security Minister Oscar Alvarez.

2 Teachers were victims of repression; harassment, threats, aggressions, imprisonment and assassination. Teachers Andrés Martínez; Edgar Soriano; Luís Sosa and Carlos Anariva were captured and tortured, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a legal suit against them for exercising their right to peaceful protest.

Teachers Nelson Milla Díaz, Néstor Alemán, and Juan Ramón Márquez were captured and taken to the Transit Police Station where their bodies, bloodied from the beatings, were cleaned up as were those of other teachers.

Teachers Dagoberto Espinal, José María Andino and German de Jesús Maldonado, were captured and taken to Liberty Plaza, next to the Presidential Palace, where they were illegally detained for hours.

3 Repression against peasants in Puerto Grande, Zacate Grande; the Bajo Aguàn; Uniòn, Copàn; and Cofradìa, Cortès, and all of the actions against them share the common denominator of the use of public forces to protect the interests of powerful landholders and to usurp land from its legitimate owners.

4 The repressive actions of the regime extended to journalists and media outlets that are not supportive of the coup:

A campaign of defamation and persecution has been directed against Swedish correspondent in Honduras, Dick Emanuelsson, who has been threatened with being taken to court due to his coverage of activities of the popular resistance.

For several days, Rene Rojas, in Santa Rosa de Copan in the western part of the country, has been the victim of repeated attacks ranging from death threats to detention by members of the National Preventative Police assigned to the zone, due to his denunciations of abuses committed by the police against citizens in the region.

Detention and threats against journalist Brayan Flores of El Libertador by COBRAS while carrying out journalistic work at the National Teachers Institute (INPREMA).

Journalist Eduardo Coto Barnica, of the Radio Uno collective of San Pedro Sula, was illegally and arbitrarily detained by police while carrying out his work as a social communicator during a violent displacement of people in Choloma, Cortez.

Journalists Richard Casulá of Canal 36 and Carlos Paz, of Radio Globo, were savagely beaten by police while covering the violent repression against teachers.

Journalist José Alemán of Ocotepeque is the object of harassment by a local Municipal Council official.

Radio Uno of San Pedro Sula has been sabotaged and was forced off the air. Transmission cables were cut so that the radio could not transmit. Day before the incident, unknown actors threatened to burn the transmitters.

5 Unknown actors threatened to kill Mr. Heliodoro Cáceres, member of the National Popular Resistance Front in Tela, Atlántida, for his efforts in search of his son Oslin Càceres Obando who was disappeared on June 13 minutes after informing his family that he was surrounded by police.

6 Murders:

Murder of Santos Remigio Ávila, member of the National Popular Resistance Front and General Secretary of the National Peasants Association of Honduras (ANACH) in Guaymaca, Francisco Morazán.

Murder of Víctor Manuel Mata; Sergio Magdiel Amaya; and youth, Rulbin Marel Villeda (14), on August 17, all members of the San Esteban Cooperative, Bajo Aguán.

Murder of journalist Israel Zelaya, who prior to being murdered had suffered threats for his opposition to the coup.

Murder by stabbing of leader in the teachers movement and active member of the FNRP, Luís Antonio Hernández, in Sinuapa, Ocotepeque.

We denounce the murder of Bessy Pamela Cerrato Banegas, in Yucarán, El Paraíso, who bore machete wounds and signs of torture. She is the daughter of Arminda Banegas , member of the Eighth Section of the Bottling Workers Union, STIBYS, and member of the FNRP. Six months have passed since this criminal act and the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not prosecuted those responsible.

COFADEH demands that the national and international community take actions that will stop the persecution and political crimes against different sectors of Honduran society who are committed to the the struggle for a National Constituent Assembly, through the National Popular Resistance Front.

FOR THE ACTS AND THE PERPETRATORS
WE WILL NOT FORGET, NOR FORGIVE

Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras
COFADEH
September 3, 2010 Tegucigalpa