Honduras after the coup

[the_future_modernes]

WARNING: All the Videos contain disturbing images of hurt and dead people.


Report from Land Occupations in Post-Coup Honduras

Poor farmers are taking more and more land from agribusiness that supported the 2009 military coup, and paying with their lives.

Brutal Repression in Honduras Targets Teachers, Popular Resistance

Weeks of demonstrations continue against de-facto regime and its plans to privatize public education

Honduran Students Defend Occupied National University / Estudiantes Defienden La UNAH en Raw Footage

Wednesday was a national day of action in Honduras as teachers, students, and members of the National People's Resistance Front took part in a third week of actions against the privatization of education. Students of the National Autonomous University in the capital of Tegucigalpa occupied the campus and the surrounding streets. They were then attacked by riot squads launching tear gas and rocks, and by two tanks that fire water mixed with pepper spray. The police entered the campus grounds from a back entrance before being repelled by hundreds students throwing rocks.

It marked the second time in one week that the police entered the university, breaking a Honduran law that prohibits the presence of police or military on Honduran university campuses.

Towards the Reconstruction of the Country:
The Constituent Assembly of Indigenous and Black People of Honduras

From February 21st to 23rd, the Constituent Assembly of Indigenous and Black People of Honduras (also known as the Constituent Assembly of the People that come from the land and sea) held a forum in San Juan Durugubuty. Called by the main civil society organizations of the country, the assembled communities sought to collect and systematize the proposals of the Garifuna people and of the seven indigenous groups of the country for a new Constitution.

Social movements in Honduras have been demanding a new Constitution which recognizes the rights of communities of indigenous and African descent, as well as women, for a long time now. "Listen, think about the fact that the current Constitution mentions women only one time, and that's when it says that a man has to marry a woman", Tomas Gómez Lembreño, of COPINH (Civic Council of Peoples' and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), told me. "To reconstruct the country, we have to change this Constitution that gives power only to the National Congress, the Executive Branch, the Supreme Court, and businessmen. Until today, the people haven't had power: so the new Constitution needs to affirm that natural resources belong to the people, it needs to recognize multilingualism, the pluri-cultural nature of Honduran society, and the rights of women".MORE

March 1 Military Coups are good for Canadian Business: The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement

Last week Canadian negotiators met with their Honduran counterparts in Tegucigalpa to discuss a free trade agreement (FTA). Negotiators from the two countries last met in Ottawa in December. According to the Honduran press, an agreement is close to being completed. This marks an alarming development in the efforts of the Canadian state and multinational corporations to deepen their relations with Honduras following the military coup of June 28, 2009.

The trade agreement with Honduras is part of Canada's broader political and economic engagement with Latin America, driven by the desire to “lock in market access” (to quote Foreign Affairs and International Trade's economic policy strategy) in the region for Canadian corporations. Canadian companies have expanded into the region at a considerable pace over the last 20 years, particularly in mining and banking. Canada is now the third largest foreign investor nation throughout the hemisphere south of the United States. Control for the size of their respective economies, and Canadian companies have a higher investment orientation to the region than those of the United States.

Property Rights vs Human Rights

Trade agreements, with their strong protections for the rights of foreign investors, including the ability to sue governments, offer great security for the private property and profits of Canadian capitalists, human rights be damned. And indeed, signing trade agreements with gross violators of human rights is becoming a bit of an art form for the Canadian state. In 2008, Canada concluded trade agreements with Colombia and Peru. Colombia has the worst human rights record in the hemisphere, and accounts for two-thirds of the trade unionists assassinated in the world annually. The implementation legislation of the Peruvian agreement, meanwhile, was passed in the Canadian parliament two weeks after the Peruvian security forces attacked an indigenous blockade, killing at least 50 protesters. The blockade was set up to protest the Peruvian government's free trade policies and its goal of opening indigenous land to mining and oil and gas investors.MORE

With Increased US Aid, Honduras Militarises Anti-Drug Fight

(IPS) - The United States appears to be strengthening its anti-drug strategy in Central America, whose focus in the case of Honduras will include military operations with troops from both countries, to begin in the jungle region of Mosquitia on the Atlantic coast.

Prior to last week's visit by U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William Brownfield, Lt. Gen. Glenn Spears, 12th Air Force Southern commander, was in the country, to discuss humanitarian and antinarcotics cooperation. MORE


Zelaya says he fears being killed in Honduras even after arrest warrants dropped

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says he won't return to Honduras for fear of being killed.

Zelaya says he is in danger because "there are people who want to liquidate me and are still alive, and they have great power."

Zelaya says some of those who want to kill him are powerful businessmen but gave no other details.

Zelaya made his comment to Honduran radio station Radio Globo on Saturday. On Friday, a supreme court judge dismissed three arrest warrants, so he can return to the Central American country without being detained.

Zelaya was ousted in a June 2009 coup and lives in the Dominican Republic.