Honduras: Feminist Leader Detained in Tegucigalpa = possession of spray paint

[L. Coyote]

Honduras: Feminist Leader Detained in Tegucigalpa
Saturday, 28 November 2009, 3:40 pm
By Julie Webb-Pullman, from Honduras


Merlin Aguigure Olvin, 42 year old founder and current co-ordinator of Movimiento de Mujeres Visitacion Padilla (Visitacion Padilla Women’s Movement) was detained by police last night, and remains imprisoned.

Around 11pm she was returning from an activity in observation of International Day Against Violence Against Women when the car she was in was stopped and searched by police. They discovered a can of spray paint which had used to paint a banner and props for a piece of street theatre on violence against women they had performed that day in the Plaza de Merced, in the city centre.

The police accused Merlin and her two male companions of damaging state property and being a part of an illicit organisation, and took them to the police post in barrio Manchin. The police then prepared a report which she refused to sign. She was able to exercise her right to call a lawyer, and contacted local human rights organisation COFADHI (Comite de Familiares de Detenidos y Desaparacidos de Honduras), one of whose lawyers arrived and accompanied her to Jefatura Metropolitano Numero 1, where she was charged with damaging state property, and jailed. The fate of her male companions is unknown.

COFADHI journalist Marvin Palacios facilitated me and Tanya Brannan, a lawyer and co-member of the Rights Action-organised International Delegation of Human Rights and Democracy, to gain entry to the detention centre at 11am this morning to ascertain the state of Merlin’s welfare, and obtain information about the circumstances of her detention.

Merlin told us she had not been beaten, unlike one of the three 15 year olds who were in the cell she now occupied. She said that in fact the police had only put her in this cell five minutes before our arrival – until then she had been held in the adjoining room with only a chair to sit on, and was unable to lie down at all during the night. The police had quickly tidied this room, and cleaned the cell, immediately before our arrival.

The room was dirty and full of junk, and there were no toilet facilities. Merlin said she was eventually taken upstairs to use the men’s toilets, which were so filthy they made her sick to the stomach, and there was no toilet paper, soap etc. The police did not provide her with any water or food, and still had not done so 12 hours later. The lawyer brought a bottle of water with her, and some friends got some yoghurt to her this morning, and that is the only food or drink she has had access to.

.................... http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0911/S00317.htm

[EFerrari]

1. Where are you, Hillary Clinton?

[L. Coyote]

2. Indeed. Hanging with Negroponte, still covering up past crimes .....