Yesterday (Thursday), part of our delegation traveled to the department of Olancho, where we met with David Murillo, the father of a young boy, Isis Obed Murillo Mencias, who was shot in the head at the airport the day President Zelaya tried to return to the country in a plane. We visited David in the central penitentiary located outside of the rural town of Juticalpa.
After one week of accompanying Honduran human rights organizations and social movements, the Quixote Center Emergency Delegation of Solidarity, Accompaniment and Witness prepared a letter outlining violations of human rights that urgently need to be addressed. Today, these concerns were presented in a meeting with the Ambassador of the United States and the Attorney General of Honduras. (En Español)
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August 7, 2009
Attorney General of Honduras
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Luis Alberto Rubi
Attorney General
As the fourth consecutive International Human Rights delegation present in the country since the coup d’état, we are writing to express our deep concern regarding the grave and rapidly deteriorating situation of human rights in Honduras, beginning with the events which occurred early in the morning of June 28th. In the name of the human rights observation groups which have visited (The Bi-Regional European Network Linking Alternatives in Latin America and the Caribbean, The Human Rights Delegation Headed by Rigoberta Menchu, The Center for Justice and International Law, and the Quixote Center/Quest for Peace), we ask that you provide us information about the following cases, and indicate what your office has been doing regarding the troubling human rights situation in Honduras.
Tegucigalpa
7 de agosto 2009
Abogado Luis Alberto Rubi
Fiscal General
Su despacho
This morning, after preparing our letter to Ambassador Llorens, we rushed off to the US Embassy for a meeting. After a wait, we were greeted by Mike Gorman, the person responsible for ‘human rights’. He was very courteous, but unfortunately used the same double speak that those in the State Department have refined so eloquently.
The situation here continues to deteriorate. For the last week nearly every day there have been reports of police and military attacking unarmed protesters. Our delegation just returned from San Pedro Sula, where there was an unprovoked attack on a peaceful march on Monday. Over 2000 protestors had organized a caravan in San Pedro Sula calling for an end to the coup and the restoration of democracy. When the military cordon began advancing on the caravan, protest leaders called on the people to withdrawal.
This morning (Wednesday), after preparing our letter to Ambassador Llorens, we rushed off to the US Embassy for a meeting. After a wait, we were greeted by Mike Gorman, the person responsible for ‘human rights’. He was very courteous, but unfortunately used the same double speak that those in the State Department have refined so eloquently.
Ricardo Castro, a radio and TV journalist for twenty-eight years, said he’s never seen repression like this in Honduras. The previous Wednesday in Comayagua, the simple act of taking out his recording equipment at an anti-coup protest got him thrown to the ground and beaten by police. He showed us the still-dark remnants of bruises sustained that day. Wednesday he was detained along with peaceful protestors, and he said that the police sprayed water and pepper powder on the floor of their holding cell to make their eyes and skin burn. On Monday in San Pedro Sul
After the attack on the caravan, police moved on to the central park of San Pedro Sula. They began harassing someone sitting in the park for wearing a “Mel” ribbon on his hat, and took him away. The crowd then began whistling at the police in disapproval, and the police responded by physically assaulting those in the park. People ran for cover to a nearby commercial center, where a married couple owns an internet café. They closed the gate on their business for safety. Police appeared at the gate, demanded that they open it, and then pulled t
Gustavo Mejia, a local teacher, was driving at the head of the caravan with large speakers. He testified that five policemen on motorcycles stopped his vehicle and threatened its occupants with pistols. He testified that all around him, police were beating people, including sexually assaulting women with their clubs. When Mejia was detained and taken to the first precinct of San Pedro Sula, he feared he would be disappeared – he had been detained in a teachers’ struggle in 2004. He showed us that the last eight messages on his phone were anonymous d
Ambassador Llorens,
We have compiled this report of human rights abuses committed by the Honduran police and military against civilians. We will be disseminating this information internationally, and would like to be able to include a response from the U.S. Embassy, particularly a response to the U.S. government’s refusal to call the Honduran coup regime a coup regime.
REPORT 3 AUGUST 2009
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Quixote Center / Quest for Peace
