As helicopters dropped tear gas canisters beside him, University of Montana senior Joseph Caldwell sprinted into his driver’s van, which sped him safely away from the smoke-filled streets.
Last Sunday, "elections" were held in Honduras by a military coup regime that is internationally recognized as illegitimate, responsible for massive human rights violations and in an environment of terror and persecution.
Over 300 Honduran candidates dropped out in protest. The OAS, UN, European Union and Carter Center did not send observers in a strong international statement of non-recognition. The massive, historic, non-violent resistance movement in Honduras which has courageously resisted the coup for over five months, called for a boycott and stayed home.
Reports coming in from Quixote Center delegates who deployed to four different regions of the country during the last week to observe the electoral climate and the human rights situation point to a systemic pattern of militarization, intimidation, human rights violations and generalized repression. This, coupled with extremely low voter turnout.
