July 9 Update from Honduras Under the Coup

July 9 Update from Honduras Under the Coup
by Andres Conteris

The International Emergency Delegation co-sponsored by Nonviolence International and Code Pink with the participation of members of the National Lawyer's Guild, Global Exchange, Rights Action, School of the Americas Watch, Quixote Center, the Hemispheric Social Alliance has been present in Tegucigalpa since Tuesday, June 30, two days after the coup. Our work has involved bearing witness to the repression that the defacto regime has perpetrated against many facets of Honduran society. We were close by at the time that a military sharpshooter shot and killed an 18 year-old young man in a crowd of tens of thousands on July 5 at the airport when President Manuel Zelaya attempted to land in the airplane that sought to return him to his country.

We met with Nobel Peace Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu, and she asked us to support an effor to call upon civil society organizations and popular movements from around the hemisphere to come to Honduras and accompany those who have most suffered from the violent takeover of the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya. A report from the Guatemalan Delegation headed by Rigoberta Mechu which gives great details about the effects of the post coup repression in Honduras is available in Spanish and will soon be translated.

U.S. policy has taken some positive steps to pressure the defacto government, but the U.S. continues to have its ambassador present in Tegucigalpa which in some way gives credibility to the regime in power. On July 9, 20009, five members of the School of the Americas Watch, including the founder of SOAW Fr. Roy Bourgeois, held vigil at the U.S. Embassy to make the following demands:

We call upon the U.S. government to:

1. Join the international community and call for the unconditional return of President Manuel Zelaya to his rightful position as president

2. Withdraw all U.S. troops from the Soto Cano/Palmerola base (600 troops).

3. Immediate withdrawal of U.S. ambassador.

4. Close down the School of the Americas (Western Institute for Security Cooperation - WHISC) in Ft. Benning, Georgia and immediately expel Honduran troops from WHISC.

To stay informed about our delegation, please visit here.

Please consider a donation to support work of the International Delegations in Solidarity with Honduras.

Anyone interested in joining this international effort can contact Andrés Thomas Conteris Cell in Honduras +(504) 9777-8514.