Since the November elections in Honduras which resulted in the installation of Porfilio Lobo as President on January 27, 2010, the human rights situation in Honduras has continued to deteriorate. According to human rights organizations, there is a marked increase in selective targeting of people and communities active in the resistance movement. Despite a public discourse of reconciliation on the part of Lobo, partners in Honduras are experiencing increased levels of state terror.
On January 27, 2010 a new president assumed office in Honduras in what the resistance movement considers an institutionalization of the June 2009, military coup d’état. The Generals directly involved in the coup were granted immunity, reinforcing the culture of impunity that humans rights defenders have worked so hard to dismantle in Honduras.
According to preliminary reports from Honduras, the violent removal of 600 families organized in two farming cooperatives in the Aguan Valle has resulted in 40 people detained including children, 15 wounded and three deaths. There are unconfirmed reports of the rape of three women. Many have gone into hiding.
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.
