(AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
Political violence returned to Tegucigalpa, the capital of the Central American state, Honduras, late last week, as police started fire at a peaceful demonstration in support of the deported president of the country, Manuel Zelaya.
In the attack on the demonstration one person, Roger Abraham Vallejo Soriano, a 38 years old teacher, was shot in the head from close distance. He undergone immediate surgery but his condition remains critical. Nine more persons were taken to the local hospital for medical treatment, including Carlos H. Reyes, a coordinator of the national front against the coup d’etat and chair person of the trade union STIBYS, and an official, non-party candidate in the presidential elections scheduled for November this year. Reyes was treated for a fracture of one arm and sown with ten stitches in the head near the left ear. In the afternoon members of the mission met Reyes in the hospital. Reyers seemed to have recovered well and was given interviews from a stretcher there.
Members of the mission could also yesterday visit inside the jail of the fourth police district in Tegucigalpa. At least 80 persons from the demonstration had been detained, many of whom had been beaten with sticks with bad bruises. Some where covered with blood on their head and clothes, others were in a shock. Three women we talked with complained about sexual harassment. At least five children and youngsters were among the detained persons. Juan Barahona, another leading figure of the national front against the coup, was also among the detained.
The demonstration in Tegucigalpa yesterday continued an unbroken series of 33 days of peaceful popular manifestations and resistance against the presidency of Roberto Micheletti that was installed after the coup. During the past month parts of the country have been heavily militarized. The border area of El Paraiso next to Nicaragua, visited by the mission on Monday, is partly under marshal law, with heavy presence of the army and also police forces. According to several civil society sources and individuals other areas of the country, such as Copan, have also been militarized with road blocks under army control, detentions and curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Thursday marked the return of violence to Tegucigalpa, where demonstrations have proceeded peacefully since the clash at the airport when Zelaya tried to return to the country by air.
Interviews and observations in public places made by the members of the mission during the past week show severe limitation and abuses of basic human rights including state violence against innocent people and severe restriction on the freedom of movement and expression, imposed by the Micheletti regime.
According to written documentation and reports from interviews that include, among others, interviews with two parliamentarians from the Liberal Party (the party of both ousted president Zelaya and the president of the coup regime, Micheletti) and two MPs from the opposition party Partido Unificacion Democratica there are major irregularities in the parliamentary procedures. Severe allegations are made against the Supreme Court of the country, but under the current circumstances, when there is no confidence in the capacity of the de facto government to provide credible information, these remain extremely difficult or impossible to verify.
The mission also notes the occurrence of obscure, extreme violence that, as many individuals we have talked with independently interpret it, seems to be the expression of the new strategy of terror imposed by the coup government.
Rodrigo Trochez, an MP from the liberal party testifies that while he was with a delegation to Washington to lobby for US support of the reinstallation of Manuel Zelaya his son, Juan Carlos Tochez was the victim of an armed attack on a petrol station. A car drove up beside the car of Juan Carlos Trochex, shooting 40 bullets, four of which hit ands injured him severely. Juan Carlos Trochez is not criticall wounded but receives medical treatment in a hospital in Santa Barbara.
According to reports from the police in the capital of Tegucigalpa, gathered by the Hondurian human rights organization, CODEH, there were 62 people murdered here during the first 28 days after the coup. According to the director of Codeh, Andres Pavon, many of the victims have been shot dead with bullets of the same caliber as is used by the police and the armed forces. The body of one young man dressed in a t-shirt defending the democratically elected president was found in a garbage bin in the streets says Andres Pavon.
The International mission for Solidarity, Accompaniment, and Observation in Honduras must in the light of the observations made here during the last week conclude that Honduras has entered into a brutal dictatorship.
Despite prolonged peaceful resistance the situation has worsened during the past week. Popular mobilization to restore the democratic government of Manuel Zelaya still continues here, with more manifestations announced at least for today by the popular front of movements, trade unions, indigenous groups, farmers, artists, concerned citizens, student’s movements, and others.
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UPDATE OF AUG. 9, 2009: GENERAL REPLY TO SELECT COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS
Crisis in Honduras Deepens (Part Two)
Crisis in Honduras Deepens (Part Three)
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The CIA's Ghosts of Tegucigalpa
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UPI COVERAGE OF PRESIDENT MICHELETTI
CNN COVERAGE OF PRESIDENT MICHLETTI
WORLDFOCUS COVERAGE OF PRESIDENT MICHLETTI
NEWSRUNNER COVERAGE OF PRESIDENT MICHLETTI
Supporters of interim leader Roberto Micheletti take part in a rally in Tegucigalpa. Thousands of supporters and opponents of Manuel Zelaya staged rival demonstrations as the ousted Honduran president held talks in Washington to rally support for his return to power.
Photo:Orlando Sierra/AFP
Comments
no matters how long this repression takes, the CRIMINAL oligrach supported criminal gang by the empire will go down in flames. people of honduras will see to that.
'Honduras has entered into a brutal dictatorship' you say eh Lawrence? Wrong country pal; you're talking about Venezuela, and Cuba, obviously. There is no brutal dictatorship in Honduras, not even a non-brutal dictatorship.
Are you blind, or is it that you just can't see one inch in front of your face? This is not reporting but rather unadulterated blatant spin. No worries; that's permitted in Honduras, and the other non-dictatorship nations of the world.
In Venezuela, on the other hand...
A few decades from now after 50,000 dead, would be the usual scenario for extrication of murderers from a dictatorship in Latin America.
You lost all credibility when you repeatedly characterised the pro-Zelaya demonstrators as "peaceful". Hurling stones at the police and passing motorists, savagely attacking anyone they feel might be a police "informer", and burning cars are hardly peaceful.
It seems Zelaya's trying to boost his hopes to return by creating martyrs. Contrary to your report, the Airport fatality was killed by a 9mm round (the soldiers were carrying 5.56mm M-16 rifles), and the professor shot at the most recent demonstration was "shot at close range in the head, with a small-caliber pistol round".
Zelaya is fighting like hell for his last 120 days in office, and not a subversion of the Constitution? Get real.....
BTW, Lance, I noticed you're a 'Veterans for Peace" member, the virulently anti-US group sponsored by the CPUSA. No wonder you have no problem lying to support Chavez's "Bolivarian" (read: communist) allies.
Gee, I guess a Harvard education doesn't guarantee the mental clarity of he upon whom it was bestowed.
It's a bad situation that needs to come to a peaceful end. You report that there were 62 murders in 28 days. You should know (maybe you don't) that Honduras has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for some time. There were over 3,800 in 2007 (US State Dept), that's more than 10 a day if you do the math.
More than 80% of Hondurans support the new govt and the idea that these professional instigators coupled with violent "mareros" represent the Honduran people is offensive. Did you report the school bus that was terrorized with 20-30 toddlers and teenagers inside because their bus identified a Christian school whose pastors have opposed Zelaya? Did you report the attacks by these protesters on the poor people who sell produce in the market Zonal Belen (Could they be the elite?). TV images captured show the guy was shot as he tried to break into a closed shop and the shot came from inside the store. The teacher in the hospital is in serious condition, but not because he took a few punches, but because he had a heart attack while being driven in the ambulance to the hospital. The whole event was mounted by 400-600 radicals. There were more people in the stadium watching the soccer game in Comayagua than these guys.
i see the moronic JGallardo ,OttoDog oligarch professional propaganda monkeys are infecting this site again. trying to convince you black is reeeeealy white why because their they say so.
jj:
You parrot sloganeering archetypes like "oligarch" and "empire" (Chavez's term for the U.S.A), and the best you can do is call those who disagree with you morons. Wow, with such astounding mental gifts and clear argumentative logic, it's no wonder you're a Marxist.
/sarcasm OFF
You parrot sloganeering archetypes like "oligarch" and "empire" (Chavez's term for the U.S.A), and the best you can do is call those who disagree with you morons.
Wow, with such astounding propaganda gifts and clear LIES and PHONY pretend logic, it's no wonder you're the end product out of oligarghs behind. the CRIMINAL OLIGARCHS ARE FINISHED YOU AMORAL MONKIES WILL COME TO THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION WEATHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. THE DICATORSHIP WILL COME TO AN END.
THE OLIGARCH CRIMINALITY WILL END NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU AHOLES RUN YOUR PROPAGANDA MILL.
THE OLIGARCH CRIMINALITY WILL END NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU MONKIES RUN YOUR PROPAGANDA MILL.
OttoDog YOU ARE truly A BROWNOSING DOG. A DOG THAT JUST CAOME OUT OF THE OLIGARCHS PROPGANDA FaCTORY. lol
This whole article is nothing but lies and leftist propaganda, how can this newspaper print this bullshit? It is a tactic of the leftist, socialist, communists to accuse others of their own faults. Long live Micheletti the brave, the patriotic, and may Zelaya go sneaking off like the dog he is to Pategonia, where he may stay forever.
Shame on the examiner for publishing such garbage... if you care to do due diligence you will find that this piece is full of half-truths and down right falsehoods. No matter what side you are on in this conflict, this is NOT the way to advance an agenda. After reviewing the facts, anyone will see that this author has zero credibility. What a disappointment - and a disservice to the Honduran public.
Until June 2009 Honduras President (Zelaya) was one of Chavez' allies until the institutionality of the country (including Congress and the Supreme Court) instructed the military to exercise a constitutional obligation. Please read the Honduras Constitution. It is extremely clear. Chavez is the comander of an imperialistic movement in Latin America (not the USA, not Rusia, not China, but Chavez). These are facts. The World must learn from History. What happened in the German society during 2nd World War could perfectly happen in Chavez' Latin America. When face-covered mobs are instructed to throw stones to oponents (the "oligarchs") you have the necessary element of a genocide: fanatism. Chavez has been successful, so far, in convincing the World that others are the imperialists while he controls elections, imposes leaders, dominates economies of the poorest countries in Latin America. Finally, if you want to talk about what is going in Honduras right now: go there.
Having just returned from Honduras last week, I personally saw no signs of a 'brutal dictatorship.' What I did see was a country that was pretty much ignoring Zelaya and his antics at the border. The people do not want Zelaya or his Chavez-funded minions to take over their democracy.
And... it would be nice if the author could communicate in intelligible English. What am I to make of "...had been beaten with sticks with bad bruises."? Bruised sticks?
oligarchs are TOAST.
their lying stooges here are TOAST too.
behind the clown show that these f#@cktard golpista regime is putting up the REAL game of musical chairs the tune is drawing to a close and the coup plotters are nervously eyeing the seats in the hopes on not being left the last ones standing alone and abandoned.
Hondurans do not want Zelaya or Chavez to run this country, I am so glad he`s gone; only a few Chavez followers in the world want Zelaya back so he can become a dictator. Micheletti will be there only 4 more months until the elections when again, the hondurans will show their democratic commitment once more. Only irrational people disagree with this and that is why there is violence in the streets, those who have been defeated by real democracy are frustrated. Poor fellows!
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