Honduras Coup Resistance
(November 29, 2009, Coup Alert#100)
TWELVE YEAR-OLD SHOT IN SEPTEMBER BY POLICE STILL IN SERIOUS CONDITION, IN HOSPITAL
EMERGENCY FUNDS NEEDED: Since the day of the coup, June 28, Rights Action has regularly provided funds to organizations working in the pro-democracy, anti-coup movement, and to victims of repression and family members of victims of repression (like the case below).  To donate: see below
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November 28, 2009
TWELVE YEAR-OLD SHOT IN SEPTEMBER BY POLICE STILL IN SERIOUS CONDITION, IN HOSPITAL
Today, Nely Zulema Rodriguez came to the office of COFADEH (Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras) to give follow-up info on the shooting of her 13 year-old son, Angel David Osorco Rodriguez by the National Police.  This is her testimony.
12_shot_1
(Photo Tanya Brannan)
“On 25 September 2009, my husband left the house with our two sons, Angel and his older brother, 16.  They were going up the street to a friend’s house to borrow money, because there had been a curfew and we had no money for food the next day.
They didn’t find the woman they were looking for and so they headed back home.  They passed a crowd of people in the main street of the Barrio 21st of February.  The people were protesting.
As my husband passed the long line of people, motorcycle police passed by and starting shooting indiscriminately into the crowd.  Most people started running, but my husband couldn’t because he had the boys with him.  He thought they were just shooting at “delinquents” and it was all over.
But because they didn’t run, one of the motorcycle police shot at them, hitting Angel in the back.  Clearly the police realized they had shot someone so young – they saw him fall.  My husband started yelling for help.  A patrol car passed by, but instead of helping, the officers started laughing, and then they too began to shoot into the street.
It was about 9 p.m. when my husband took Angel to the Hospital Escuela.  Angel’s condition was very grave. He had been shot in the upper back and the bullet had traveled downward.  It penetrated one lung, his spleen, ripped through his liver and intestines and lodged in his colon. Doctors worked for a long time just to save his life.  Later that night they operated.  If they hadn’t, my son would have died.
Angel was in a coma for six days.  After a time he seemed to recover from the operation and left the hospital on the 13th of October.  A week later, he started have horrible pain in his abdomen where they had operated.  He went back to the hospital and again they operated.  Then last Saturday, Angel was again suffering from horrible pain and was vomiting.  Yet again, he was hospitalized and had a third surgery on Sunday.
I spoke with the surgeon and he said he was sure it was not appendicitis, but that Angel was suffering from the same bullet wounds from the September attack.  I just came back now from visiting him in the hospital.  He seems better since yesterday, but a specialist came to see him today and said he was taking more tests.  Angel has a high fever, so they took blood and will do various tests to see what is causing the fever.  He won’t be able to come home yet – we will get the results of the tests tomorrow morning and then we will see how it goes.
When we were leaving the hospital the first time on the 13th of October, the nurse told me that I had to go to the legal office in the hospital and make a formal complaint.  I told her I didn’t want to – that I’m afraid to do it; but she told me Angel would not be released unless I made a report.  So I did.
They then sent me to the GDIC (Central Department of General Investigations) and they made another report.  I wouldn’t give them my address because I was afraid to, and that made them really mad.  It scared me how mad they were.
Then I came here to COFADEH and they encouraged me to make a complete report with them as well, because the GDIC won’t always put down what you actually said, but what looks best for them.
While Angel was in a coma, I was visited by both the GDIC and the Fiscalia de la Ninez, (a special prosecutor for crimes against children).  They came to threaten me.  They denied that Angel was shot by police, and said that I was responsible for what had happened to my son.
They said, “We think your son is the one who has been robbing a grocery store in the neighborhood,” but everyone knew my son was very far away from where they said.  It’s not true that he did that.  I imagine that they invented this to protect themselves – to say that they didn’t shoot him.
“This was your fault,” they said, and threatened to put me in jail because I didn’t take good care of my children.  I was so frightened.  But fortunately they talked with the surgeon who said, “Look.  She is pregnant; her son is in a coma.  Leave them alone, at least for now.”  I haven’t heard from them since then.
All of us have a lot of fear now.  My older son in particular, but all of my family.  This is the first time anything like this has happened where we live.  Everyone in the neighborhood is scared – all our neighbors are fearful.
The police told me they didn’t know how Angel got shot.  Then they said it was the resistance that shot him – that they come to demonstrations with guns and it was them that shot him, not the police.  But my husband and many other people saw exactly what happened.  They say my son was shot by police wearing dark blue uniforms.  The people in the resistance -- they tried to help my son; they didn’t shoot him.”
By Tanya Brannan, Rights Action & National Lawyers Guild
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JUST SAY NO.  WRITE, RIGHT NOW …
Rights Action is one of a number of organizations that have human rights delegations in Honduras (Quixote Center, Common Frontiers, Breaking the Silence, School of the Americas Watch, National Lawyers Guild, …).  These are NOT election observing missions.
We do not recognize the validity of these elections.  For reasons set out in this alert (and previous Alerts found at www.rightsaction.org), a majority of Hondurans and most of the so-called “international community” have concluded the November 29th elections (for President, Congress members, and Mayors) are neither free nor fair in any way.
Now – through to next week - is the time to contact your own politicians (members of parliament, congress members and senators) and insist on:

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