HONDURAS: REPRESSION FROM THE STATE; RE-FOUNDING THE NATION, BY THE PEOPLE
February 24, 2010
“Even today, land ownership and wealth are concentrated in the hands of eleven families.  It is estimated that 1% of the population owns 70% of the wealth, while 70% of the people live in poverty, most on less than one dollar per day.” (Jeff Moore)
“Crowds estimated to be 300,000 to 600,000 gathered at the Morazan University to walk four to five miles in the hot sun to the airport to bid farewell to Zelaya.  It was a very emotional event. The huge numbers of marchers and supporters all along the way along the streets, in their shops, on their rooftops; the determination to be peaceful and orderly; the music, the speeches and the diversity - the young and old, people from all walks of life and people with significant physical disabilities - all going the distance.  It was very moving and very hopeful, almost joyful.” (Jeff Moore)
BELOW

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RIGHTS ACTION INFORMATION:  Annie Bird, Washington DC, annie@rightsaction.org, 202-470-6075; Grahame Russell, Connecticut, info@rightsaction.org, 860-352-2448

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HONDURAS: ASSASSINATION OF JULIO FUNEZ BENITEZ
From: COFADEH (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras), defensoresenlineacofadeh@gmail.com
February 16, 2010, RUSH TRANSLATION of: http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=626:sicarios-asesinan-a-sindicalista-del-sanaa&catid=71:def&Itemid=166
Julio Fúnez Benítez, an active member of the resistance and union worker with SANAA, Workers Union of Aqueducts and Sewer Systems, was assassinated with three shots in the Brisas de Olancho neighborhood, by two hit men wearing baseball hats and driving a motorcycle, around 6:00 pm, Monday, February 15.
Fúnez Benítez was always at the head of all the marches and activities with the National Front of Popular Resistence, FNRP, and last weekend participated in the first assembly with the FNRP, that took place in Siguatepeque.
The union worker was assassinated after he left his home, a few steps away from it. His family heard three gun shots and their neighbors informed them that they were directed against their family member: one on the head, one on his temple and the third one on his torax. He was transferred in an ambulance to the Escuela Hospital, where he died.
According to information given by friends and family, he had received several death threats where he was told that if he didn´t leave the Front, they would kill him.
A park now carries his name in the Brisas de Olancho neighborhood, his favorite place after work, where he would sit with his neighbors to talk about the situation in Honduras. There was a public phone on the park that would ring once in a while and when he answered, they would insult and threaten him.
But he never missed a popular march or mobilization and gave himself to struggle against the coup d´état and the current government. "I´m going to fight for those who don´t want to fight," he told one of his family members.
Julio leaves behind his wife who was crying grief-stricken for having lost his partner whom she had shared many years of her life...
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Photo-Essay by James Rodriguez (www.mimundo.org)
HISTORY REPEATS: COFADEH IN HONDURAS
This photo-essay relates the history of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), its role in documenting human rights violations since last year’s coup d’état, as well as an analysis on the importance of this event not only in Honduras, but also at regional level. 
 
Hond_resis_022410
Shortly before Micheletti’s de facto regime carried out a dubious national election on November 2009, Bertha Oliva de Nativí, director of COFADEH (photo), declared: “I believe we are experiencing a dictatorship without precedents, even worse than in the 80’s. Back then, while we lived under the military boot, paramilitary groups and death squads would assassinate and disappear people in a clandestine manner, so that it was difficult to point them out as the criminals. Today, they do it in broad daylight, openly challenging all national and international structures of human rights and governance.”
To read and view the full photo essay, please visit: http://www.mimundo-photoessays.org/
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CHANGES IN HONDURAS, By Jeff Moore
"Truth is stranger than fiction.  Fiction has to make sense." (Mark Twain)
I have just returned from participating in a Human Rights Delegation to Honduras arranged by Canadian-US based Rights Action (www.rightsaction.org).  There have been a lot of very dramatic occurrences in Honduras over the past six months, but very little international attention beyond Latin America.
I have been involved in Honduras through our relationship with some wonderful co-operatives of small scale Fair Trade coffee producers in Marcala (western Honduras).  I was in Honduras in May 2009, acting as an international judge for the prestigious Cup of Excellence coffee competition, just weeks before the military overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.  I certainly had inklings from conversations and the media that the Honduran establishment were not all that happy with the populist Zelaya government, but not to the point of arranging a coup.  He only had six months left in his presidential term.
But Honduras is the original "banana republic", a term coined by short story writer, O. Henry, in his only novel Cabbages and Kings based on his life as a fugitive in Honduras.  The term refers to the neo-colonial history where the export of bananas and coffee dominated the economy and these industries, along with the government and the military, have been largely controlled by US interests.
Even today, land ownership and wealth are concentrated in the hands of eleven families.  It is estimated that 1% of the population owns 70% of the wealth, while 70% of the people live in poverty, most on less than one dollar per day.
Unlike many of its neighbours, Honduras has never been "a problem" for the US.  Indeed, it has served as a strategic base for the US military to organize incursions into the neighbouring countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, among others.
Surprisingly, the election of Manuel Zelaya as President in 2005 changed all that.  I say surprisingly because he, being from a wealthy ranching family, was supposed to be part of the establishment. However, early on he broke ranks by raising the minimum wage by 75%, introducing land reform, housing programs and student aid.  Then he really crossed the line by linking up with the Latin American economic alliance (ALBA) and suggesting that Honduras may not renew the lease for the major US military base, but rather turn it into a much needed modern, civilian airport.  The final straw seemed to come when he scheduled a plebiscite to begin a public process of Constitutional Review.
The plebiscite was scheduled for June 28, but early that morning, before dawn, there was a military coup.  President Zelaya was taken from his home in his pajamas by armed soldiers and flown to Costa Rica and the military took over the government.
The coup was obviously devastating to the people of Honduras who, for the first time in their history, had seen a dynamic leader begin to make changes in their favour.  Coups were a thing of the past.
Publicly, everyone condemned the coup - the US, Canada, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States.  But slowly, led by the US and Canada, some began to acquiesce and talk about peace talks.  Sadly, a few countries, including the US and Canada, slowly came around to support and give a tiny bit of credibility to the new coup regime.
My delegation arrive the last week of January 2010, to coincide with the January 27 installation of the newly "elected" President Pepe Lobo and the departure of former President Zelaya after he had been kept a virtual prisoner in the Brazilian embassy for the previous four months.
Our delegation began our week by talking on Skype to President Zelaya, still in the Brazilian embassy and subsequently meeting with many, many community, labour, student and human rights organizations.  Zelaya basically said he had to take the opportunity to leave Honduras with the President of the Dominican Republic because "you can't defend yourself in a country with no justice."
Other groups talked with sadness about Honduras returning to the dark days of the 1980's where the autocratic government controlled the country by fear.  They spoke of the Resistance movement for non-violent change and the hope of a better future for Honduras.
The climax of the week was on Wednesday, January 27.  While the new President was being installed in the heavily guarded soccer stadium with almost no visiting dignitaries, apart from the US Ambassador, crowds estimated to be 300,000 to 600,000 gathered at the Morazan University to walk four to five miles in the hot sun to the airport to bid farewell to Zelaya.
It was a very emotional event. The huge numbers of marchers and supporters all along the way along the streets, in their shops, on their rooftops; the determination to be peaceful and orderly; the music, the speeches and the diversity - the young and old, people from all walks of life and people with significant physical disabilities - all going the distance.  It was very moving and very hopeful, almost joyful.
Then the final moments came, waiting and watching the runway for Zelaya's plane to leave - the same runway where on July 5, thousands had come to see Zelaya's aborted attempt to return to the country.  Soldiers had opened fire on the unarmed crowd and several were killed.
Again, the army appeared from behind a building on the other side of the runway and emerged snake-like, in full riot gear, coming across the runway and forming several lines between the marchers and the runway.  What a sinking and scary feeling.  What do I do if things erupt?  Really no escape.
But the crowd stayed calm, except for rumbling boos.  Time stood still until the slick executive jet of the Dominican President Leonel Fernadez appeared from the same direction.  It lined up for takeoff, paused briefly, then took off above the mountains surrounding Tegucigalpa, above a sea of loving, waving arms.
There were a lot of tears, but no sense that this was the end of anything except maybe the old Honduran image of as a "banana republic."  Honduras will change now.  Zelaya will hopefully return and a new county will be built non-violently.  As stated by one of the leaders of "La Resistencia", Juan Barahona, "We do not need weapons because we are the majority of Honduras." […]
Being involved in international development for some 30 years, I have travelled to close to 50 countries and have always been proud to be Canadian.  As part of this Human Rights Delegation, with Canada's recognition of this "new" Honduran government, I must admit to a very strange sense of discomfort introducing myself as a Canadian.  I hope it goes away.
(Jeff Moore is CEO of Canada's first Fair Trade coffee roaster, Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op.  He and his co-op have received numerous awards for contributions to business ethics and human rights and last year, he and his wife Debra were given honorary doctorates jointly by Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College for their contributions.)
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HONDURANS DEMAND REPEAL OF A HYDROELECTRIC PLANT SALE UNDER MITCHELETTI REGIME
TeleSUR, February 19, 2010 (Google translation)
The residents of 90 communities in southern Honduras occupied the “Jose Cecilio del Valle” hydroelectric dam to demand that the National Congress repeal the decree that gives this important project to an Italian-Hondran consortium. The President of the Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández, ordered a review of laws passed during the last three months of the de facto regime.
Leaders from 90 communities in southern Honduras announced that starting this week they will hold demonstrations to demand the repeal of the decree adopted under the de facto regime over the concession of the hydroelectric Jose Cecilio del Valle to an Italian consortium.
The community leaders from the departments of Valle and Choluteca (both in the South) agreed, in an assembly in the city of Jicaro Galan, to occupy the dam and block highways if the National Congress did not reverse this decision that affects the distribution of potable water to 120,000 people.
On Jan. 13, in its last session before the transfer of power, when Parliament passed, by Decree No. 293-2009, a series of laws on public works, including the concession of the dam to an Italian company for exploitation. Moreover, the contract was sanctioned by the head of the de facto regime, Roberto Micheletti, on January 21, the day he announced his withdrawal from power.
Voices against the measure, most notably the Liberal party congresswoman from Valle, Eleazar Juarez, say they introduced a motion before the new Legislature to repeal the contract, and reported that work is underway organizing the population in the area to exert the pressure necessary to defend their rights.
They also requested a detailed investigation into the procedure followed to award the dam to the private sector. "Several Members of Congress are completely without knowledge when and how the contract was approved," said Juarez.
To hide the controversial decree, the official newspaper of January 22 was faked and that day in the National Company of Graphic Arte two gazettes were printed with the same number but with different content. Only 20 copies of all papers printed incorporated the decree, which resulted in a major scandal, known as "The Gacetazo.  "This is a pathetic proof of the collapse of the institutions in Honduras," said the newspaper Tiempo, in an editorial.
Congress will meet tomorrow to hear a report by a special commission, which will suggest whether to annul the concession or not.
Meanwhile, Congress President, Juan Orlando Hernández, ordered a review of laws passed during the last three months of the de facto regime.
The Nacaome Dam is considered one hope for residents in 90 towns in the south of the country. This state infrastructure is seen as a monument to bring progress to their communities.
The infrastructure generates about 16 megawatts of electricity during the rainy season and an average of one megawatt summer.
The construction of the dam cost the people of Honduras $160 million and the Italian government approved a grant of $35.4 million to make the project more efficient. The active forces are waiting for a response from the new government of Porfirio Lobo, elected in a disputed election under a de facto regime, installed after the coup that ousted the legitimate president, Manuel Zelaya, of power in June 2009.
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‘MORE TERROR’ IN HONDURAS, AS ANOTHER UNIONIST MURDERED
By Kari Lydersen
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5522/another_honduran_unionist_murdered/
The body of 29-year-old Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda, still dressed in her nurse’s scrubs and killed by a bullet, turned up in the Loarque neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on February 4. Zepeda had young children and was a leader of the SITRAIHSS labor union (Workers Union for the Honduran Social Security Institute). She had been abducted that afternoon while leaving a union meeting.
The administration of the newly inaugurated President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo has called Zepeda’s murder and other recent attacks common crime. But the Honduran resistance movement – mobilized since the June 2009 coup against then-president Manuel Zelaya – see it as a clear message.
Trade unionists, especially public sector workers like Zepeda, are among the strongest and largest factions making up the resistance coalition. Opposition to powerful unions was apparently among the motivations for the coup in the first place, and all the country’s major union federations are part of the resistance front.
Unions are an impediment to neoliberal pushes to increase privatization, and foreign companies fear clashes with unions or unionizing efforts in Honduras’ maquila (factory) sector.
Since Lobo’s inauguration on January 27, there have been 10 to 15 assassinations of resistance members and leaders, according to Victoria Cervantes, a Chicago activist who recently returned from meeting with unionists and other groups in Honduras with the group La Voz de los de Abajo.
Since the coup, a number of people have been killed and thousands arrested and detained. Most of the previous deaths involved police and soldiers opening fire on crowds or attacking people in the midst of protests. Such open state violence has ebbed in recent weeks.
But the targeted kidnapping, torture and assassination of a handful of activists like Zepeda is more chilling and evokes hallmarks of the ruthless right-wing death squads of the 1980s in Central America and more recently in Colombia, according to human rights groups.
(Jeremy Kryt has been reporting from Honduras on such human rights abuses for In These Times.)
“Before you might have had 300 army trucks storming through Tegucigalpa,” said Cervantes. “That could be terrifying, but what’s probably more terrifying is the idea that if you are identified as part of the resistance movement, you or your daughter could be snatched up and tortured. This is more terror at a lower political cost.”
Trade unionists and gay and lesbian groups, who have become increasingly visible and organized as part of the resistance, have been the main focus of recent attacks and intimidation. Campesino communities, especially those involved in contested land takeovers, have also suffered recent increases in violence and repression from police and landowners. “Campesinos have always suffered some level of violence, but this is different,” said Cervantes.
There have reportedly been beheadings and a man’s tongue was cut out. Cervantes said Honduran officials known for paramilitary activity in the 1980s have also resurfaced as part of the coup and/or in Lobo’s conservative party.  “It’s the same actors as the ‘80s, and they’re desperate to terrify the resistance out of existence,” said Cervantes. “Again, it’s multinational companies tied in with the oligarchy. History keeps repeating itself.”
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TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
Since the June 28th military coup, Rights Action has channeled tens of thousands of dollars of donations and grants to Honduran civil society organizations doing pro-democracy, pro-rule of law, and human rights defense work.  Make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* UNITED STATES:  Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* CANADA:  552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
WHAT TO DO
North Americans must send these informations to our politicians and governments.  We must hold our governments partially accountable for Honduras' State repression.  The United States and Canada are the main governments that have accepted and endorsed the November 29th "elections" as legitimate ("elections" that have served to legitimize the June 28th military coup and sweep under the rug 5 months of repression and killings).
Now, the illegitimate government continues with its repression.  But for the legitimization and support that the Honduran regime is receiving from the USA and Canada, it would not be able to repress with such impunity.
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RECOMMENDED BOOKS: Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America";  Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States";  Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine";  Paolo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed";  Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who"
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DELEGATION TO GUATEMALA, APRIL 17-25
Mining companies *versus* community development, environmental justice & human rights (for information: info@rightsaction.org)
SPEAKING TOURS (MARCH, APRIL, MAY) ONTARIO (CANADA) & EASTERN USA
Re-founding the Honduran state and society, & community resistance to gold, nickel & silver mining in Guatemala & Honduras (To host an event: info@rightsaction.org)
DELEGATION TO HONDURAS, JUNE 26-JULY 4
First anniversary of June 28, 2009 oligarchic-military coup against the elected government
INFORMATION
Annie Bird, Washington DC, annie@rightsaction.org, 202-680-3002; Grahame Russell, Connecticut, info@rightsaction.org, 860-352-2448
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