Five Year Anniversary of the June 28,
2009 SOA Graduate-led Coup in Honduras
 Five years ago, SOA graduate
Romeo Vasquez Velasquez and others forced their
way into the home of democratically elected
Honduran President Mel Zelaya and put him onto
an airplane out of the country, an airplane that
first stopped to re-fuel at the US Palmerola
military base. As Hondurans massively mobilized
to demand the return of their President, they
were met with repression and violence that
continues today. The ultra-right party that
took power in the military coup consolidated
their stranglehold on the country through
elections marked by fraud and vote buying this
past November. Now, with murders and killings
taking place across the country, the judicial
system seems to be more efficient at prosecuting
those who speak up for justice than those who
murder and plunder the country. The
government has intensely militarized the
country in the name of security while
meticulously turning Honduras' resources and
public goods over to private corporations. It's
no wonder thousands of children are fleeing
Honduras to the United States.
Click
here to call on the US to cut military
aid to Honduras and on the Honduran
authorities to respect the human rights of
those who speak out for justice.
 In
spite of the violence, the resistance continues
across the country. In one example, the Lenca
people of San
Francisco de Opalaca have spent the past
five months in a round the clock,
day-in-and-day-out blockade at their Municipal
office to prevent the government-imposed Mayor,
who used fraud to claim he won November's
elections, from taking office. They elected an
autonomous Mayor and Municipal Council in a
massive Municipal-wide Indigenous Assembly and
are exercising their rights to demand democratic
governance that obeys
the will of the people and that public
funds be used for public good, not for
corruption. As a result, the Indigenous
Assembly-elected Mayor and Municipal Council, as
well as community leaders and radio program
hosts, have been accused of sedition and 36
community leaders are currently facing trial.
At stake in San Francisco de Opalaca is not only
good governance but also acres and acres of
pristine forests and other natural resources the
communities depend on but that corporations and
the World Bank want for projects such as the
oxygen trade, dams, and mines. Two community
leaders have already been murdered, one by
Municipal employees in broad daylight just a
short distance from where hundreds of people
were gathered.
 Click here to
tell the Honduran authorities to stop the
murder and criminalization of those who speak
out for justice across the country and the US
to stop military aid to Honduras.
To do more, join
a delegation to Honduras this August
to accompany communities standing up for their
rights amidst intense militarization and
repression.
Or organize a
spontaneous action this Saturday, June 28th, the
anniversary of the coup, by putting
up SOA Watch's WANTED or MISSED posters
related to Honduras in your community.
SOA graduates play a major role in enforcing the
US corporate agenda in Honduras. Not only are
the head of the Honduran Armed Forces and Army SOA
graduates, but the same goes for many of
the Commanders of Military and Military Police
units currently patrolling the country. On May
21, hundreds of Xatruch III soldiers under the
command of SOA graduate Col. Rene Jovel Martinez
violently evicted small farmer families from
their land in the Bajo Aguan, destroying their
belongings and injuring people. On May 13, the
Honduran Military Police and COBRAS attacked
opposition LIBRE party Congresspeople with
tear gas and batons inside the Congressional
chambers as well as demonstrators protesting
outside the Congress with tear gas. Several
LIBRE Congresspeople were injured in the attack
and taken to the hospital, suffering from tear
gas inhalation and physical attacks by the
Military Police or police, including a fractured
arm. In a separate event, on June 18, three
soldiers and a policeman attacked and murdered
62-year old José Husbaldo Guzmán Argueta,
throwing him to the ground and firing two shots
with an M-16, while he was working on trying to
get a potable water project. Military tactics
are also used by the police. On May 25, two Rio
Blanco residents – where the Lenca people have
been resisting an illegal hydroelectric dam in
their territory for over a year – were tortured
by the police, who brought them to a private
home, where they beat them, forced their heads
under water so they almost drowned, and then put
rubber hoods on them so they couldn't breathe.
 President
Juan Orlando Hernandez
has rapidly increased militarization of the
country, inaugurating programs such as “Guardians
of the Fatherland,” which aims to bring
25,000 children and young people – from
kindergarden and up – to military facilities for
formation in morals in values, but is heavily
criticized as recruiting of children and
military indoctrination. Hernandez and US
Ambassador Lisa Kubiske also just celebrated
last week the release of the new TIGRES –
meaning Tigers – hybrid police-military unit
trained by US Special Forces and the Colombian
Jungle School in mountain operations,
intelligence, and rural operations. The stated
goal is to combat drug trafficking and organized
crime but when asked about the three areas he
had mentioned the TIGRES would work in,
Hernandez refused to specify. If the new
Military Police, a major push of Hernandez, are
any indication, one area of work could be
targeting the opposition political activists and
social movements.
As the people of Honduras continue resisting
five years after the military coup d'etat
unleashed widespread repression on the country
and five months after the inauguration of
President Hernandez following fraudulent
elections, it is more important than ever to
speak out against continued militarization and
repression in Honduras.
Click
here to tell the US to stop funding the
Honduran military and police and call on the
Honduran authorities to respect the lives and
rights of activists.
Click
here for more information about an August
delegation to Honduras to accompany
communities struggling for their rights in the
face of intense militarization.
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