As an official “Truth Commission” was inaugurated May 4th in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, leading Honduran human rights groups expressed
serious concerns and announced an alternative commission.
Saying that a real truth commission “should provide a space which has
been denied to the victims, in which they can be heard and injury to
their rights repaired,” the groups criticized the official commission
for “exclusion of the victims” and the “lack of processes to ensure
effectiveness and impartiality.”
“Each of us represents a force that has a great capacity to create.” These words rang out on the colorful and majestic voice of Honduran activist and musician Karla Lara during an empowering concert at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC on April 23rd, where she taught us about the values that are central to the movement of peaceful, civic resistance that has been ongoing since the June 2009 coup. Lara, who for years has been making music that inspires people to be a part of constructing a better reality in places across Central America, now is a leader of the feminists-in-resistance and artists-in-resistance who are a part of the struggle for human rights, justice, and democracy going on in her own country.
As Hondurans sort through the wreckage of human rights and civil
liberties violations that occurred following the June 28th coup, one
pressing issue the country will have to address is the wave of violence
directed against members of the LGBT community.
Extremely serious human rights violations have taken place since
the inauguration of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on January 27th.
Since that date, there has been a notable increase in attacks against
people opposed to the June 28th coup d’état and their family members, as
well as a surge in attacks against journalists. A teacher was slain in
front of his class. Three campesino leaders from the community of Aguán
were assassinated.
As National Party leader Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo is inaugurated president of Honduras, we can’t just pretend the June 28th coup and its bitter aftermath never occurred.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rightsjust released a devastating 147-page catalogue of the violations of human rights and civil liberties that have occurred since the coup in Honduras.
I just listened to a group of Honduran lawyers, who were exhausted,
frustrated and in fear, as they explained their efforts to defend
citizens’ rights in their country.
The lawyers were here to ask
for help from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.
Their message was:
Elections took place Sunday, November 29th in Honduras with National Party leader Porfirio Lobo declared the winner.
But
elections carried out under a state of emergency, with visible military
and police presence, by a government installed by coup, with a
significant movement opposed to the coup calling for abstention, and
with the deposed President still holed up in the center of the capital
city in the Brazilian Embassy, are no cause for celebration. As we wrote to the State Department
on November 24th, “a cloud of intimidation and restrictions on assembly
and free speech affect the climate in which these elections take place…
basic conditions do not exist for free, fair and transparent elections
in Honduras.”
Action Center
