“Your only crime was walking down the street.”
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.
Honduras Action Alert: This is not the change we wanted
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.
Elections Protest: US Embassy in Nicaragua
On Sunday, 29 November, about 30 Nicaraguans and gringos gathered at the metrocentro traffic circle, holding signs and banners in solidarity with the Honduran people. Two news channels came by… don’t know if they aired anything or not. But here are some photos.
Sarah Junkin Woodard
& Rebecca Mohally Renk
there as individual U.S. citizens
From Tocoa to Tegucigalpa, “I didn’t vote!”
Tegucigalpa, November 30, 2009
Jackie McVicar, Common Frontiers Canada
After a long bus ride back from Tocoa in the northern department of Colon, we arrived in the capital today just in time to join a massive caravan organized by the Popular Resistance Front. Like the other demonstrations held since the coup d’etat on June 28, the mobilization winded through the "barrios", the neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa where supporters left their homes to show their support. This time, instead of walking, organizers decided to drive their cars in a caravan, to avoid confrontation or repression that they feared by the State security forces. Hundreds of cars and people drove through the streets honking their horns, with flags, horns and music. Both those in the caravan and people yelling support from the streets, "I didn’t vote!" showed their ink-less fingers, to show they had not been registered at a polling station where a finger print as part of your id is normally taken. Though the media is reporting record high turnouts for Sunday’s election, no one is buying it. One woman I interviewed who didn’t want to be identified because of fear ("if they see my picture, they [the military] will come after me"), said, "I have over 150 people in my [extended] family and not one went out to vote."
Quixote Center Delegation documents terror and repression during elections
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.
Elections In Honduras: Whitewashing The Path To A Past Of Horrors
by Lisa Sullivan, School of the Americas Watch /Quixote Center Accompaniment Delegation
I came to Honduras with the to participate as a human rights observer of the electoral climate in a delegation organized by the Quixote Center. Several delegations converged, connecting some 30 U.S. citizens with dozens more from Canada, Europe and Latin America. In the days prior to the elections we scattered to different cities, towns and villages, meeting with fishermen, farmers, maquila workers, labor leaders, teachers and lawyers, as well as those who were jailed for carrying spray paint, hospitalized for being shot in the head by the military, and detained for reporting on the repression. It was, most likely, a bit off the 5-star, air-conditioned path of most of the mainstream journalists who are filling your morning papers with the wonders of today´s elections.
Tocoa, Honduras – Delegation Report November 28, 2009
Two of the leaders of the Frente (the resistance coalition) in this region met with us to give more information about the situation and to work out what we will do tomorrow, on election day.
As I write this at ten at night, the streets are deserted and all the shops and restaurants closed. Last night these same streets had a steady stream of cars and people walking along the sidewalks. The hotel, tonight, has a guard armed with a shotgun circulating around the hotel.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Delegation Report, Nov. 28, 2009
We have just returned to our hotel. Today was a busy day. We met with the Canadian Ambassador to start the day. He presented us with an official position taken by the G16 (written paper), as well as the press release yesterday from Minister Peter Kent. The Ambassador indicated that Canada has not stated that they will recognize the elections on Sunday, but he did also not take a position that they would not recognize the elections. We appear to be sitting on the fence.
Press Conference TODAY IN FRONT OF US EMBASSY, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
U.S.HUMAN RIGHTS OBSERVERS IN HONDURAS *