THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2009
Honduras: Attack on Peaceful Protestors Escalates! (August 13, 2009)
Please take action again to stop the Repression!
We have received this important alert from the Quixote Center. We urge you to take action! For more information, visit: www.nicanet.org and www.quixote.org.
Thank you for your calls to the U.S. State Department - please call again! The repression is escalating. Crackdowns are occurring in San Pedro Sula as well as Tegucigalpa.
Police attacked the demonstrations with water cannons and tear gas and arrested more than 300 people in San Pedro Sula alone. Among those arrested were SITRATERCO union officials. The gathering places where people who have walked from across the country are staying are being militarized. Tear gas bombs have been dropped from helicopters.
Our delegation [in Tegucigalpa] is accounted for and unharmed. They are now accompanying Honduran human rights workers and sending alarming reports. To read a more detailed report, go here.
Police and military are rounding up people and taking them to places used for torture in the 1980's. Ambulances full of people with their faces smashed in and bodies beaten are racing to hospitals - among them is Marvin Ponce, a Honduran member of Congress who just met with State Department officials in Washington to denounce to coup.
The Universidad Pedagogica and the STIBYS union hall (a private building which has served as the organizing center for the Anti-Coup resistance front) have been taken by the military and large numbers of people are reported detained. Human rights organizations fear they are being tortured.
Please call the State Department (202-647-4000) and the U.S. Ambassador Llorens in Tegucigalpa - 011- 504-236-9320 ext. # 4268. You can also send the message below to your Senators and US Representative!
Give them this message:
Violence is escalating and members of our International Delegation, including U.S. citizens, are currently accompanying human rights workers to locations where people are being detained.
The US should denounce the extreme and widespread human rights violations beting commited by the coup government in Honduras.
The US should also freeze bank accounts and cancel ALL travel visas of those involved in the coup.
The US should join UNASUR (the organization to which many South American countries belong) in declaring it will not recognize any election in Honduras unless Zelaya is previously reinstated as president.
While some aid to Honduras has been cut off, Honduran human rights advocates say the US should cut off all aid to the coup government, including money for democracy building, elections, poverty reduction, road building, and HIV-AIDS.
Labels: Archives