Honduras Coup-Regime Watch: Massacres & On-going Repression in the Aguan Valley
December 11, 2010
BELOW:
Initial report from Human Rights Delegation visiting the Aguan Valley, in Northern Honduras, site of the November 15 massacre of 5 campesinos.
Tom Louden: "Here is a photo that was taken in an eviction (desalojo) that was happening in Paso Aguan yesterday (Dec.10, 2010) when the international delegation arrived. The weapon, an M-60, can be used to penetrate heavy metal plates. Soon after the delegation arrived, they dismounted the weapon. More details of this entire trip will be released tomorrow."
BACKGROUND to RECENT MASSACRE & REPRESSION IN AGUAN:
See Rights Action release, with articles by Annie Bird & Karen Spring: http://rightsaction.org/articles/Hond_Colon_Conflict_update_120410.html
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More information: Annie Bird (annie@rightsaction.org), Karen Spring, in Honduras (spring.kj@gmail.com), Grahame Russell (info@rightsaction.org)
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VERIFICATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN AGUAN, HONDURAS
(English version from Victoria Cervantes, La Voz de los de Abajo, vickicervantes@yahoo.com, Chicago)
The repression is growing against the campesinos in Bajo Aguan. In order to impede/avoid another massacre a delegation of national and international journalists and human rights organizations visits the locale where the events are occurring.
Silin, Colon, December 9, 2010.
A delegation of national and international press and human rights organizations arrived in the Aguan Valley to check into the continuing attacks that have been denounced by the campesino communities demanding the right to land.
The first evidence of the situation that the delegation found was that of five campesinos detained without legal proceedings by the heavily armed military and police wearing ski masks over their faces; they were forced to free the campesinos due to the presence of the national and international organizations.
Further along, arriving at the outskirts of the community of Guadalupe Carney, one of the most affected by the repression, the presence of the delegation was able to dissuade the government's repressive forces from a violent eviction/displacement of the highway takeover that the campesinos have had in place for two days protesting the militarization of the zone and demanding that the regime find effective solutions to the agrarian conflict.
Father Fausto Milla, member of the True Commission asserted that the members were arriving at the local to fully investigate what was going on in the area and to let the world know the truth.
Police sources have confirmed the existence of some 300 capture orders against the campesinos. Will Paz, member of the resistance in the province of Colon, indicated that the repressive forces of the State are trying to show a distorted image of the campesino organizations, making them appear to be violent: "they have to show weapons in any possible way".
The constant aggression that the campesinos in Aguan are suffering and the accusations that armed groups exist in the zone has again caught the attention of the international community so that journalists arrived in the country who are gathering first hand information to publish in Europe and North America.
http://resistenciahonduras.net/
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WHAT TO DO
Even as Honduras has been suspended from the Organization of American States, even as most Latin American governments refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the illegitimate and repressive regime in place in Honduras, the governments of the US and Canada are working the hardest to support and legitimize this very regime.
Rights Action asks that Americans and Canadians continue to send this, and other information, to your own senators, congress members and parliamentarians, insisting that they do every thing they can to ensure that the US and Canada suspend military and economic relations with the Honduran regime and demand full legal accountability for the massacre of these 5 campesinos in Aguan and all cases of State sponsored or tolerated repression.
TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
for indigenous and campesino communities working for community controlled development and a return to democracy and the rule of law in Honduras, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
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