Hot off the presses, there's a new letter just out to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton on human rights violations in Honduras. It comes from 27 US congressmen who, contrary to the Secretary's statements in Lima earlier this month, maintain that "political violence continues to wrack Honduras" one year after the June 28, 2009 coup. According to the legislators, they write to:

Story From Upsidedown World by Rosemary A. Joyce and Russell N. Septak

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at the Organization of American States (OAS) annual meeting in Lima, Peru on Monday urged countries in the hemisphere to readmit Honduras into the regional organization. The OAS suspended Honduras after the military coup which overthrew President Manuel Zelaya last June.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   MAY 6, 2010

CONTACT: MEGAN MORRISSEY – 202-365-6900  INGRID SABJA – 973-738-2301

New York – On Friday, May 7th, President Evo Morales of Bolivia will personally present UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with the conclusions of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth, which was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia from April 20th to 22nd, 2010.

PEOPLES AGREEMENT

21 april 2010

Movements, networks and social organizations gathered at the Assembly of Social Movements held in Cochabamba, in the framework of the World People's Conference on Climate Change, 
welcome the initiative of President Evo Morales Ayma and respond to the global call to confront the commodification and privatization of common goods and the climate change debate itself.

We consider that the issue of climate change is important along with other manifestations of the global systemic crisis.

This is a story that from today's Guardian newspaper:

On February 3, Vanessa Zepeda, a 29 year old nurse and SITRAIHASS union leader (Honduran Social Security Institute) left her home at 2pm. At approximately 6:30 pm, her lifeless body was dumped out of a vehicle in Loarque, a neighborhood well known for resistance movement activities.  Vanessa had received repeated death threats linked to her activism in the resistance movement which had been registered by human rights organizations. She was the mother of three children; the youngest is 4 months old.

February 3, 2010 Fr. Joe Mulligan, a Nicaraguan-based priest is hoping that letters to President Obama and members of Congress can lead to more information being revealed about the fate of a fellow Irish-American Jesuit who disappeared in Honduras in1983.  Read his most recent article.

January 13, 2010 - At 1:30pm, a military and police patrol captured three members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan along the Aguan river. The men are members of the Buenos Amigos Cooperative in the municipality of Trujillo. According to farmers in the zone, there are approximately 1000 armed men, military and paramilitary, under the command of Coronel Dagoberto Melgar occupying the area. He is suspected of selling protection services to large African palm plantation owners in the region.

Movimiento Unificado Campesino del Aguan

We are continung to get updates on the extensive damage in Haiti and specifically Port au Prince.

Hundreds of small farmers from the "Agrarian Platform" blocked the border between Guatemala and Honduras since yesterday in protest of the elections in Honduras which they consider to be illegal. The farmers blocked all transport from crossing the border, creating long lines of vehicles waiting to cross and resulting in economic losses.  The blockade was lifted today.

A Senate vote to remove Haiti's prime minister early Friday threatens to destabilize the political climate. http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/10/26/3427783-haitian-prime-minister-...

<!--[if gte mso

Every day brings more acts of threats and repression. Today a denunciation was reported to the Honduran Human Rights group COFADEH that an Italian-Argentinean artist named Maria Luisa Fiaso, who is in currently in the country with the Artistic group Zapayasos, was threatened twice between last Friday night and Saturday.

The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) today asked that the European Union “act in a consistent way” against the coup in Honduras and asked that the Foreign Ministers of Twenty Six countries to not recognize the electoral process underway. FIDH, in an open letter to the EU “again invited that the EU expel all of the members of the diplomatic corps of Honduras who have aided the coup d’état and that they establish migratory restrictions for any officials or business people who have aided the de facto government” of Roberto Micheletti.

Patricia Rodas said in an interview yesterday that the presence of Zelaya in Honduran territory has untangled the situation in Honduras.  If President Zelaya weren’t in Honduras, the regime would never have received another OAS mission in the country.  If President Zelaya weren’t in Honduras, the regime would not be looking for resolution; they are now acknowledging the profound errors which have taken them one hundred days to admit.  I think this initiative is moving forward because Zelaya is inside the country

The Director General  of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura expressed his preoccupation at the suspension of Civil Liberties in Honduras, especially the freedom of expression.  He said that freedom of expression is “a fundamental human right which must be preserved.” if a solution to the crisis will be “lasting and acceptable for all.”

The Resistance Front against the coup in Honduras agreed yesterday to continue the protests against the coup regime, ignoring the governmental decree which restricts individual guarantees.  About 300 people who were in the assembly reaffirmed their commitment to continuing the manifestations which they have been carrying out since June 28^th, when the coup d’état ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Yesterday at least three people who had been arrested last Tuesday in front of the Brazilian Embassy had hearings today.  Included was Augustina Flores, the sister of Berta Casares, who according to medical reports is in a delicate state of health.  In spite of her serious health issues, she was sent to the women’s prison until her trial. 

At 5:30am this morning 55 campesinos who had been occupying the National Agrarian Institute (INA) were removed from INA and arrested.  Right now Berta Oliva from COFEDH is at CODE 7, the facility where the campesinos are being detained, but has not yet been permitted entry

Cobra Batallions of the Honduran army have violently assaulted homes in the poor commuities of Altos del Viera, Manchén y los Barrios El Bosque, Hato, Suyapa, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Colonia Kennedy, Bendeck, Travesía y Residencial Morazán, Colonia Divanna, Altos de la Divanna, Pedregal, Centroamérica, Altos de los Milagros.  Cobra units have fired bullets, tear gas canisters and pepper spray into homes where children, pregnant women and elderly are at particular risk.

http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=34607

The US accused the deposed President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya of aggravating the institutional crisis in his country by returning.

This statement contrasted sharply with the majority of the members of the Permanent Council of American States, who condemned the recent violence of the coup government against the nationwide protests.

"The return was irresponsible," said Lewis Amselem, the US's acting representative to the OAS, "Zelaya and those that facilitated his return are responsible for the subsequent actions."

On Monday morning, September 28th the Honduran military seized the installations of Radio Globo and Canal 36.  News transmission has been suspended after the defacto regime published a decree eliminating constitutional rights to freedom of expression, movement and assembly. Today is the 3 month anniversary of the coup and massive protests are planned.

The legitimate government of Honduras remains under siege in the Brazilian Embassy.  Photos from inside, courtesy of the New York Times.

Grassroots International has a good article with Myths and Facts about the coup in Honduras.  

There is a "white march" planned for today in Tegucigalpa.  Reports are that military infiltrators who are experts in assault and assasination are in the march with the intent of killing Zelaya.  Our delegation will try to "observe" this march.

Padre Tamayo is celebrating mass in the Brazilian Embassy this morning.  The curfew has been lifted.

Today the Quixote Center Accompaniment Delegation struggled in the midst of a state of siege to reach hospitals where wounded are being treated and to the stadium where detained are being held prisoners. 

Tonight they report that they can hear explosions from protests that are being repressed in neighboring barrios and tear gas and smoke from burning tires is filling the air. 

According to COSIBAH, the Honduran banana worker federation, there are some two thousand people detained in front of the Dippsa gas station in the Villa Nueva community.

COSIBAH was informed that the military stopped these citizens while they were traveling to the capital from the surrounding towns to show their support for the returned president.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ldmjrp

The nonviolent protestors of Tegucigalpa maintain their hold of the streets and highways, despite the repression.

https://nacla.org/node/6131

Our partners report that the Supreme Court of Honduras is preparing the legal framework to order an invasion of the Brazilian Embassy.

The police have violently repressed demonstrators in San Pedro Sula, and many have been detained.

The Honduran army and police are discharging pistols and rifles into the crowd that is gathered in front of the National Stadium.

In a move calculated to remind dissidents of the torture that took place in the Santiago stadium in 1973 where, among other things, Víctor Jara was tortured and killed, the nonviolent protestors from all the jails and prisons in Honduras have been rounded up and taken to the stadium.