Honduras: Miskito villagers demands answers after deadly raids

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras: Miskito villagers demands answers after deadly raids
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sun, 05/27/2012 - 23:02.

Indigenous Miskito residents of Ahuas village on the remote Caribbean coast of Honduras are demanding justice in the wake of a deadly raid by Honduran National Police and DEA agents May 11—with details still emerging on the scope of the violence. Villagers report that machine-gunned fire from two helicopters lasted 15 minutes near the man village pier, adding to initial accounts of four killed in a combined air and ground assault on a canoa or pipante (dugout canoe) on the Río Patuca. As residents cowered in their homes, the two choppers—marked with the US flag, villagers say—next landed and disgorged some 50 heavily armed and uniformed men, who then proceeded to break down the doors of local homes. Residents were menaced at gunpoint and threatened with death to demand information about one "El Renco," as their modest homes were ransacked. Residents say English-speaking "gringos"—presumably, DEA agents—took part in the raids and rough interrogations, which last up to two hours.

One youth was marched down to the riverfront at gunpoint in plastic handcuffs, ostensibly to identify a drug drop-off point—and was then abandoned there, still handcuffed. A neighbor with a machete freed him, and villagers kept the cuffs as evidence of the abuse. Another villager's boat and gasoline was commandeered to explore along the river—along with nephew to serve as a guide. One of the "gringos" apparently had a laptop, and input the names of interrogated residents, who were made to produce their ID cards. Reports now say that one of the buildings burned down in the subsequent protest by outraged villagers was that of the local trafficker, who they blamed for drawing the heat.

The DEA insists that none of its agents were in the village. The US embassy in Tegucigalpa referred reports' questions to Honduran authorities. The State Department said that the helicopters used in the operation were piloted by Guatemalan soldiers and contract pilots of unidentified nationality who are temporarily deployed in Honduras. The Pentagon's Southern Command said there were no US military troops involved. The Honduran Security Ministry said it had no information about the raid reported by residents.

An investigation by the Honduran Joint Military Task Force-Paz Garcia based in nearby Puerto Lempira appeared to only acknowledge the raid on the boat, concluding that the agents fired on the civilians by mistake, killing four and wounding four. “It’s terribly sad,” Col. Servio Arita told the New York Times. “It was an error.”

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/11117

[Lionessa]

1. Bullies, the lot of us since we seem unwillingly or impotent to do a damn thing

about it. Perhaps both. We need to have fewer wars, starting with the war on drugs, but alas we're really nothing anymore but the world's bully. Perhaps we've been always.