Red Morazánica de Información
Tegucigalpa, November 5, 2010. Violations of human rights will be studied within the social, economic and political context of the coup de’tat, in order to be presented Honduran society explained Elsie Monge, President of the Honduran Commission of Truth, an initiative of the Human Rights Platform.
“There was important engagement with the people and they demonstrated their trust in the Commissioners” stated Monge after holding several encounters with the media and social organizations in San Pedro Sula and Comayagua.
Although people are “very shaken” by what has happened, expectations for the Commission of Truth are high now that people have been able to share some of the violations of human rights that they have been victim of with the Commissioners.
The President of the Commission of Truth said that they were deeply moved by the testimonies of the peasants in Comayagua whose homes were burned due to the exercise of their land rights.
In terms of violations of freedom of speech presented by journalist, Monge explained that “in the case of communicators, it is not only a violation of their right to expression, but also violence against their physical integrity.”
She observed that the right to protest in the street has also been criminalized and hopes that the efforts of the Commission will contribute to ending the repression. “No to bullets, no to force, everything should be done through dialogue,” emphasized Monge.
She declared that deaths continue to occur and referred to the attempt on the life of the President of SITRNPANI, Pedro Vicente Elvir, who suffered an assassination attempt in front of his house by a man with a pistol on a red motorcycle.
In order to present denunciations to the Commission, people can go to the office in Tegucigalpa, another in San Pedro Sula and a mobil unit, informed the President of the Commission, Elsie Monge. She explained that during their visits, the Commission did not begin to collect testimonies yet but have created a list to follow up with people who have cases.
Monge explained that they have organized different work groups. The investigative team is currently being implemented which included sociologists and historians. The coup did not arise out of nothing. In the act of the coup itself, there are violations that are repetitions of the 1980s and this also has to do with the intervention of the United States in Latin America" she added.