Being Better Neighbors towards Latin America

On September 21st, President Manuel Zelaya returned clandestinely to Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Honduran police fired tear gas to disperse Zelaya’s supporters gathered around the embassy. They also launched tear gas at the human rights group COFADEH, where men, women and children had taken refuge after the attack at the embassy.   People detained for violating a newly established curfew are being held at the football stadium, where observers saw people who had been severely beaten. The situation in the capital and elsewhere is extremely tense.

The Latin America Working Group mourns the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, a crusader for human rights and social justice in our nation and around the world.  As the Woodrow Wilson Center's Cynthia Arnson describes his remarkable efforts in Latin America, including his outspoken efforts to denounce human rights abuses following the 1973 coup in Chile,  “His name is recognized and revered among a whole generation of Latin Americans who were persecuted or forced into exile during the years of the dictatorships.”

We know that you are anxious for a resolution of the situation in Honduras and are wondering what is going on. Where is President Zelaya? Will he return? What is the U.S. doing to move the negotiations forward?

We need democracy now, not later.  And while all of us tell stories, time is going on, and it is the poor people who are suffering from torture and persecution.  My last message is do not be silent during this time.  To be silent is to be complicit.  We need people speaking out; we need people like you to speak up for the Honduran people.

With the chaos following the June 28th coup and the shuttering of media outlets, it has been hard to learn about the state of human rights in Honduras.  That’s why it’s so important to read the report that the Honduran Association of the Detained and Disappeared, COFADEH, released July 15t on the human rights situation in Honduras since the coup on June 28, 2009. 

The situation in Honduras has only escalated since last week. Civilians in the streets of Tegucigalpa and throughout the country side continue to face brutal repression by military officials. Civil liberties remain gravely affected, including freedom of the press.  We need you to contact your elected officials, and urge them to send the right message to the coup government currently in Honduras:  Coups will not be tolerated. 

The coup deposing democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya that took place in Honduras on June 28, 2009 has been condemned by the Organization of American States and governments from around the world --including the United States.  Now the U.S. government needs to stay on the right side of history and make its message unmistakable.  Will you take action to help ensure that the White House stands firmly for democracy in Honduras and our Congress joins the deafening chorus signaling, in no uncertain terms, that coups are a ghost of the past and will not be tolerated?

*Please call your congressional representative. Tell her/him to support the Delahunt-McGovern House Resolution on Honduras!

The situation in Honduras has only worsened since the coup on June 28th when the Honduran military rousted President Manuel Zelaya from his bed, and flew him to Costa Rica in his pajamas.