Continuing Updates from Honduras

I recently went to a talk by two young American women who have been going back and forth between Nicaragua and Honduras as a solidarity presence to the people struggling after the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya. I really feel the call to share some of the information they shared with us about their firsthand experience, on the ground in Tegucigalpa. The media is doing a poor job at best on reporting from Honduras. At worse, there is deliberate media silence when it has come to many military and police abuses since the coup in June.

I will start where they started their story. They were present in Tegucigalpa when Zelaya returned on September 21st, taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy. That Monday at 4pm nationwide curfew was called and was not lifted until 10am on Wednesday. Many Hondurans live day to day on food bought in their neighborhoods and from markets. Because of the curfew people were calling in to radio stations reporting that for fear of arrest they could not leave their homes for food and their kids were going hungry. Also, as of Sept.21, Micheletti suspended all constitutional rights for 45 days as part of a national state of emergency plan. How can free and fair elections be held when months leading up to the election constitutional rights are being withheld by a questionably legal government?
Police and military repression has grown increasingly violent over the past months. The Brazilian embassy has been surrounded by the military. Psychological tactics have been used to coerce Zelaya out including, blaring loud music over the embassy walls, and setting up scaffolding over the walls to constantly observe. Snipers have been sighted keeping watch on the embassy. It has been assaulted with toxic tear gas. An eight year old girl in the surrounding neighborhood died in her home of asphyxiation from the gas used at the embassy by the police and military. Police have reportedly been using iron batons and wooden batons with nails in them. Both are illegal. Disappearances have become more common as resistance leaders have been identified by police and military. Prisoners have been beaten, tortured, and moved around the country thus making it difficult for family members and lawyers to find prisoners. Police are not only breaking up demonstrations but are pursuing protesters into neighborhoods and brutally beating them even after they've dispersed. One man was beaten as he carried his young daughter in his arms leaving a demonstration.

Who is protesting?
Most people I have talked to in the states think it is Zelaya supporters and leftists in the same camp as Chavez. Yes, there are some. However, as I've been informed the majority of protesters are women, indigenous, teachers, students, and lawyers groups. They are calling for a general overhaul of the constitution. Constitutionality is the priority, not Zelaya, not an international Leftist front. The resistance movement has been overwhelmingly peaceful. To date there has been no call to arms. This nonviolence resistance has made the brutal repression by police and military even more extreme and unjust.

Media Coverage
Micheletti has closed numerous radio and television stations who reported what was happening in the streets. Some have recently been reopened. However, these antidemocratic moves are very troubling especially if they plan on going through with elections in November.
Also, US coverage has been abysmal. For example, on Sept. 21st, while Zelaya was returning and military crackdown was underway, The Washington Post published an op-ed by Micheletti sighting the great progress and the strength of democracy in Honduras. The American public is not seeing truth. Not even in Nicaragua are we seeing what is really going on. I recommend this website for more information from the ground: http://www.narconews.com/