http://www.sydney-says-no2honduras-coup.net/much-shorter-monthly-summari...
Update on Honduras Coup for November 2012
Terrible wave of assassinations
Primary elections were held in Honduras on 18 November, preceding general elections in November 2013. There were reports that the primary elections were fraudulent and expensive, having cost over $300 million - 8% of its general budget, and with numbers having been manipulated during counting, reporting, distribution of ID cards by candidates to voters, and buying of votes. Despite fraud, the resistance´s electoral arm LIBRE reported having received over 600,000 votes, that if repeated in the general elections, would mean 40 MPs and 100 mayors. More about the election: http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/re-founding-honduras-from... andhttp://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/20/honduras-post-coup-elections/
The threat to fire teachers who went on strike on August 22, 30 and 31, 2012, was implemented by the executive approving a decree to dismiss over 1000 teachers nationally for having missed class these days. http://www.sydney-says-no2honduras-coup.net/expanded-part-of-email-summa...
Big business is propelling a campaign for the Congress to extend the decree of ‘employment by hours’ program. The program violates job security. Since its initiation fast food companies, shopping centres, factories and state institutions have dismissed 40-80% of their permanent staff only to reemploy these on casual and temporary contracts.
IFEX-ALC reported that between 2010-2012, 49 journalists have been killed in Honduras (25) and Mexico (24), amongst the 74 journalists killed in Latin America. Other countries in which journalists were also killed are (in order): Brazil, Ecuador, Perú, Colombia, Guatemala and Argentina.
US Department of State issued warnings to its citizens saying it is dangerous to travel to Honduras. It referred to the high crime and homicide rates, and how 24 US citizens have been killed since January 2010 and all cases remain open. It does not refer to the coup in this warning, rather, it says that the Honduran government has insufficient resources, and to drug trafficking.
Political persecution in November 2012
Summary of killings
Three farmers were assassinated at Paso Aguán on 5/11/12.
MARCA farmer José Cecilio Peréz Martínez was found dead and tortured on 10/11/12, having been kidnapped and disappeared by hitmen the day before.
MARCA farmer Adelmo Leiva was killed by hitmen on 25/11/12.
El Libertador reported that 3 farm labourers were assassinated by hitmen at the El Coco turnoff in Tocoa on
25/11/12.
MOCRA farmer of Los Laureles, Wesler Santos Avila, was assassinated by hitmen on 29/11/12.
LIBRE mayor pre-candidate Edgardo Adalid Motiño was assassinated by hitmen on 3/11/12.
The mother of David Díaz, an artist in resistance, Trinidad Girón Valladares, was killed on 21/11/12.
Evangelical journalist Ángel Edgardo López Fiallos was killed by hitmen on 8/11/12.
Killings, attempts and judicial persecution against farmers
· On 9/11/12, at 6am until 11am, at least 300 army soldiers entered and terrorised the Panamá community (350 families) occupying the Paso Aguán settlement. They intimidated the community, invaded at least three homes without judicial orders and detained farmer Elmer Hernández after invading his home. It was reported also that on 5/11/12 three farmers were assassinated while doing personal affairs in this settlement. The community decided to recover the farm after farmer Gregorio Chávez was kidnapped by palm giant Facussé´s security guards and found dead there in July.
· On 10/11/12, farmer of MARCA movement and La Despertar cooperative president José Cecilio Peréz Martínez was found dead with signs of torture and more than 3 gunshots on his body and head after he was kidnapped on 9/11/12 at 4pm in Tocoa, together with the MARCA pick-up by three heavily armed men. José was with two other MARCA comrades including the treasurer, who was beaten, but both companions were freed. He was found by farmers searching for him at El Tigre village 3 kms from Tocoa, inside an abandoned car. José had cautionary measures from IACHR. They also took $16,000 he had just withdrawn from the bank and was carrying to distribute to families of the Despertar cooperative, but it was clearly not only to rob him because of the torture evidence and history of killings against MARCA farmers and defenders.
· On, 10/11/12, a group of hitmen ambushed farmer leaders Yoni Rivas and Vitalino Álvarez – they managed to escape the attempt having heard the loud explosions of the high calibre arms and having reacted quickly. They were at the turn off, having just returned to La Confianza settlement from an agro markets expo at Cortés. They also reported that their telephone lines had been silenced to impede their report of the persecution that occurs.
· On 21/11/12, an anonymous family of the Aguán region spoke up (see video here:http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/family-fleeing-persecutio...) about having been forced to flee into exile after the father was shot by an AK47 numerous times. He narrowly escaped death, but was wounded and has a bullet left in his body.
· On 25/11/12, farmer Adelmo Leiva (41) was waiting for a bus at the Trujillo bus terminal, with his partner and daughter to go to his community, when he was assassinated by hitmen on motorcycles with automatic 9mm firearms. Adelmo is a member of the MARCA cooperative El Despertar in Aguán. This happened at the same time that a grassroots agrarian platform complained to the EU about the wave of violence and assassinations in Bajo Aguan.
· El Libertador reported that on 25/11/12, 3 farm workers were assassinated by heavily armed men in a moving car, part of the land conflict in Aguán, when they were waiting for a ride at El Coco desvío in Tocoa.
· On 29/11/12, MOCRA (Movimiento Campesino Recuperación Aguán) of Los Laureles settlement Wesler Santos Avila (26) was travelling to Tocoa on a motorcycle to the Taojica community when he was intercepted by a car at the La Confianza turnoff. Hitmen in the car riddled him with over 10 bullets in the throat and head, killing him and then fled. Wesler was previously a member of the MCA Brisas de Edén cooperative, and the secretary of ACAN – National Farmers Association.
· On 30/11/12 , investigative and police agents detained 5 MUCA members Orlando Romero (MUCA president), Celio Rodríguez, José García, Alejandro Sorto and Iván Dubón, for over two hours, in San Pedro Sula, only because they were carrying cash to stock a small shop and another community business of homeware and bicycle parts in La Confianza. They were interrogated about the money´s origins and freed at 5pm when they proved that the money and car they were in were legal.
Authorities´ persecution against Indigenous activists and organisations
· On 2/11/12, 15 police illegally detained Lenca indigenous and Copinh (indigenous grassroots organisations council)members and activists Felipe Gómez, Gerardo Sánchez and Domingo Sánchez, of the Tejera Río Blanco community, without showing these an arrest order or explaining where they were being taken to. The three campaign against the hydroelectricity dam project Agua Zarca that would privatise the Gualcarque River, which was approved despite an open meeting where everyone in the community expressed opposition to the project. They were freed with substitutive measures while the court process continues.
· On 13/11/12, National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) staff arrived at the Copinh offices where two community radio stations operate. They threatened to confiscate equipment, and ordered Radio Guarajambala FM to reduce its broadcast strength and switch to another frequency. The radio began in 2002 and was assigned frequencies already used by evangelical and commercial radio stations, causing saturation and interference. When Conatel was unresponsive, it began to broadcast on other frequencies on its own initiative. In 2007, despite rejection by Conatel´s own legal department, Conatel accused Copinh of broadcasting on a frequency that interferes with Radio Metropolis – a radio of a different province – Comayagua. The order now is for Copinh to carry out the changes within 10 days or their broadcast material would be confiscated and they would be fined at least $50,000. Their radios had been under siege many times before by armed groups.
Killings and attempts against political candidates
· On 2/11/12, a van with 3 hooded individuals in black and bullet-proof vests, who identified as police, abruptly stopped. The three came out and loaded the guns they carried and ambushed a woman accompanied by children – she had her driver´s window open and the attacker closest to her saw her face and realised she was not who they were looking for and made signals to his colleagues and they got back into the van and left leaving the victims terrified. The woman is the daughter of María Luisa Borja´s friend, who happened to drive a car that looks the same as María´s and she was taking the same route María normally takes. María Borjas is a lawyer, pre-candidate for Tegucigalpa mayor, ex-police commissioner and ex-head of internal affairs of the security secretary. She has received many threats without being given any kind of protection.
· On 3/11/12 unknown persons assassinated with several shots LIBRE Morazán Yoro mayor pre-candidate and activistEdgardo Adalid Motiño at the building of the Movimiento Resistencia Progresista of the LIBRE party. Edgardo had just arrived at the office after being part of a Libre caravan headed by Xiomara Castro (spouse of deposed president and Libre presidential candidate), when he was killed.
Intimidation and massive dismissals against activist teachers and students
· On 1/11/12, in Comayagua, a hooded and cobras police and investigative agents´ contingent of 40 to 60 broke into the home of Coprumh teachers unionist (and Libre party mayor candidate) Abelardo Suazo without an entry warrant – they violently broke the front gate, went into the yard and frightened youths who were playing football, even grabbing one by the neck and pointed their guns. The police saw a desktop and a laptop computer inside and took the data and serial numbers of these. Abelardo questioned what the police were doing but presumes it is related to the Education Minister Escoto´s statements accusing the teachers unions of stealing over 100 computers and in which Escoto complained that teachers were ´sabotaging and boycotting the activities of the education department´ with reference to the ´computer for every child project´. Abelardo said Escoto has been asking for provincial and district department information to select teachers to check and denigrate.
· An executive decree 155-75-SE-2012, introduced by Escoto, dismissed over 1000 teachers nationally following previous announcements that teachers who were not in class on 22, 30 and 31 August 2012 (days of strike action) would be dismissed. Lists had been issued of dismissals in Tegucigalpa, with the school most affected being Instituto Central Vicente Cáceres with large numbers of teachers being dismissed including its school principal.
· On 20/11/12 UPNFM teachers college in San Pedro Sula summoned a number of students to appear at the advisory centre of the university for disciplinary hearings, as the latest of its acts of persecution of activist students.
Killing of a journalist
On 8/11/12, in the capital city, at about 11.30am, Ángel Edgardo López Fiallos (35) left his home in Colonia San Miguel to go to work at Bible Societies Group (SBH) at Bulevar La Hacienda when at the height of Barrio La Hoya, men on a motorcycle attacked. When Ángel resisted, they fired shots at and assassinated him, and also wounded a youth, Gerardo Enrique Mejía. Ángel works as a journalist at HRCV, La Voz Evangélica de Honduras, studied journalism at UNAH and has worked for 8 years as a radio journalist and presenter at the evangelical radio station Stereo Luz 103-7fm. He worked also as a community development worker at the SBH. He was carrying in his backpack his laptop and some personal things and police claimed it was a robbery.
Threats against environmental defenders
On 30/11/12, the National Coalition of Environmental Networks reported that environmental defender and journalist Juana ´Lolita´ Dolores Valenzuela has received death threats. They also expressed concerns for other environmental defenders under threat: Pedro Landa, Carlos Amador, and other members of the Valle de Siria Environmental Committee, Bajo Aguán MUCA members, MADJ members and other defenders nationally.
Labour rights violations against human rights defenders
Employees of the Justice and Human Rights Department, lawyers José Martínez, Sergio Barh, Tania G, and journalists Leonel Palma, Fredy Tejada, Roberto Reyes and others complained of dismissals and forced resignations by the department – 12 were affected but most appeared collectively on Hondured Channel 21 on 9/11 to demand that the department minister protect their jobs, after they had made a statement complaining of labour rights violations.
Mother of an artist killed
On 21/11/12, in Comayagüela, in the afternoon, Trinidad Girón Valladares died a violent death, the circumstances of her death are unknown. Trinidad is the mother of David Díaz of Venas Abiertas Collective. Venas Abiertas designed many of the posters calling out for people to participate in mobilisations, solidarity concerts, for solidarity with various struggles etc.
Snapshot of actions in and in solidarity with Honduras
As the primary elections took place, grassroots organisations of the resistance organised and participated in a National Summit of Struggle and developed a common agenda to continue their struggle against the neoliberal model of the regime at a time when grassroots struggles are distracted by electoral ones.
Following the summit, and as decided at the summit, a massive grassroots mobilisation took place on 27/11/12 to defend rivers, natural resources, communities´ right to land titling of their territories, in defence of indigenous radios and public education and teachers´ rights, protesting against Congress´ intentions to approve the mining bill, against the constant violation of basic rights and high cost of living and privatisations.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) made a submission of evidence (expert testimony, periodic compilations of crime against humanity committed in the last year, and evidence of lack of accountability so far for crimes committed in Honduras since the 2009 coup, to the International Criminal Court, calling on the ICC to take up the case. http://ccrjustice.org/files/Honduras%20ICC%20Final%20thursday.pdf
A letter writing campaign began by Honduras Resists, to send letters to World Bank (President Jim Yong Kim, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 2043) demanding its cutting off of the funds it sends to Miguel Facussé and Dinanthttp://hondurasresists.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/family-fleeing-persecutio...
