President
The basic facts are brutal: Over 350 inmates were burned to death on Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning, February 14-15, in a huge fire at the Comayagua prison, located north of Tegucigalpa, about 15 minutes from the United States “Palmerola” military base. More are receiving medical treatment for burns and smoke inhalation.
Honduras is hot, mountainous and about the size of the state of Louisiana. According to the United Nations, the Central American nation is also the world's most violent country. A mix of drug trafficking, political instability and history has contributed to a murder rate that is now four times that of Mexico. The Peace Corps has withdrawn its volunteers. Contributing to the volatility are the police themselves.
A letter sent to the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights), along with a Petition concerning the illegal forced evictions, massacres and other human rights violations of 32 Mayan communities (over 3000 people) caused by the Chixoy Hydro-electric Dam, a "development" project of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank in partnership with successive military regimes (1975-1985)
Elliot Abrams, a former high level State Department official during the 1980s, testified last week that the Reagan administration knew that Argentina's military junta was systematically stealing babies from murdered and jailed democracy activists and giving them to right-wing families friendly to the regime. An article by Cyril Mychalejko.
A statement from Honduran organizations rejecting the new mining law proposed by Honduras' illegitimate Congress, and a statement from Development and Peace
A New York Times article, by Dana Frank. Since the June 2009 military coup, Rights Action - and many North American organizations and writers - have denounced State repression and increasing violence in Honduras that is controlled by an illegitimate, military backed government. Oftentimes, we have had to directly critique the North American media that has distorted or completely ignored the extreme levels of repression and violence in Honduras.
The struggle against impunity, and for truth, memory and justice for the genocide in Guatemala continues, both in Guatemala and in the USA. The US government is partially responsible for Guatemala's genocide and State terrorism against its own population in the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.
Even as Honduras is now known as the 'murder capital' of the world, even as Honduras is known as one of the 'journalist-killing capitals' of the world, and even as it has become a 'LGBT repression and killing capital' as well, the Congress in Honduras (the same Congress that rubber-stamped the illegal and violent 2009 military coup) is aiming to pass a new Mining Law. The global (mainly Canadian) mining industry is waiting to rush in.
Establishment of a Truth Commission in Brazil to investigate disappearances, killing and other repression during the "cold war" repression of the 1960s, 70s, 80s ... after a US-backed military coup!
Here, in the shadow of the nickel mining operation of CGN (Guatemala Nickel Company), until recently owned and operated by HudBay Minerals, we spoke of how sales were going at German's new (tiny) store that was inaugurated December 22, 2011, about his long-term health needs, and of the three civil cases brought in Canadian courts against HudBay Minerals.
