What follows is a partial listing of human rights violations during the months of January and February 2010. Honduran Human rights organizations have expressed concerns about a marked increase in selective targeting of people and communities active in the resistance movement and asked for vigilance on the part of the international community.
Feb. 7 – The Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) received a death threat by telephone.
Feb. 8 – The webpage of the National Resistance Front of Honduras was hacked.
Feb. 3 – Vanessa Zepeda, a 29 year old nurse, active member of the resistance and union organizer, left her home at 2pm. At approximately 6:30 pm, her lifeless body was dumped out of a vehicle in Loarque, a neighborhood with strong links to the resistance movement. Vanessa had received repeated death threats linked to her activism in the resistance movement which had been registered by human rights organizations. Vanessa was the mother of three children; the youngest is 4 months old.
Feb. 2 – Two young cameramen, Manuel de Jesus Murillo Varela and Ricardo Rodriquez were kidnapped by police officers dressed as civilians and taken to a clandestine jail where they were tortured for several hours. The men were hooded and lost consciousness due to asphyxiation. They were threatened with having their toes and then heads cut off if they did not respond to questioning regarding weapons and money.
Also on Feb. 2, members of the resistance, Ariel Lobo and Ricardo Dominquez, were captured by preventative police and interrogated. Ariel Lobo was the victim of a previous kidnapping attempt in August of 2009.
Jan. 8 – Over one thousand military and police forcibly displaced campesino families in Colon. The families are part of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguan which is occupying land under the agrarian reform law.
Jan. 7 – Three men fired on professor Gilberto Vides, as he parked his car at his home.
Jan. 6 – The Garifuna community radio station in Triunfo de la Cruz was attacked; equipment and the building were destroyed.
Jan. 2010 – Blas Lopez, a teacher and leader of the Pech ethnic group, was murdered in the village of Carbonal. He was an active member of the resistance.
Source: COFADEH (Committee of the Families of Detained and Disappeared of Honduras)