QC Delegation - Emergency Alert for Community of Guadalupe Carney

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Sat, 11/28/2009 - 10:48pm | Quixote Delegation

We just received a call from members of the Popular Resistance Front
in Tocoa, in the department of Colon who are reporting mass millitary
and police presence in a community called GUADALUPE CARNEY. This is a
community that experienced repression in August, an organized
campesino, peasant community that have been threatened since the
police arrived to have their homes raided. This is just one of several
raids that have occured today, among the homes of youth and students
and a campesino organization that were raided, all earlier tody, on
the eve of the so-called Honduran elections.

http://www.quixote.org/qc-delegation-emergency-alert-community-guadalupe-carney

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1. Police and Military Raid COMAL – alternative marketing network of peasant, women’s organizations.

Police and Military Raid COMAL – alternative marketing network of peasant, women’s organizations.

Sat, 11/28/2009 - 10:32pm | Quixote Delegation

At 1:40pm today heavily armed members of the national police and military raided COMAL (Alternative Community Marketing Network) in Siguatepeque, in Comayagua. COMAL is a newtork of 42 small-scale peasant and women's organizations from throughout Honduras. QC delegation members arrived at COMAL while the raid was still underway.

Photos here: www.flickr.com/photos/45071696@N05/sets/72157622774135215/

Security forces broke down the doors of COMAL with their guns and ransacked the main office in Siguatepeque. The military seized 4 computers, digital cameras, banners, documents, files, human rights reports that COMAL presented to the Inter American Human Rights Commission, accounting records and literature about the current political crisis and the non-violent resistance movement.



Military and police also raided COMAL’s training center, the School for Solidarity Economy, breaking down doors and handcuffing the guard who was threatened with 10 years in jail if he did not confirm that seditious acts were being committed on site. Computers, the internet system and furniture was destroyed in the search for “subversive material.” The raid continued until after 5:30 pm.

According to Miguel Alonzo de Red Comal, a Public Ministry official arrived two hours after the raid to present a warrant, stating that the electoral law prohibited the dissemination of the materials that had been seized from the offices of COMAL.

Quixote Center delegation members arrived at COMAL with human rights defenders from COFADEH while the raid was still in progress. Photos will be posted asap. COMAL is preparing a full report on the raid for human rights organizations

http://www.quixote.org/police-and-military-raid-comal-%E2%80%93-alternative-marketing-network-peasant-women%E2%80%99s-organizations

[Peace Patriot]

6. No political dissent will be allowed in this election. "Alice in Wonderland" has arrived.

"According to Miguel Alonzo de Red Comal, a Public Ministry official arrived two hours after the raid to present a warrant, stating that the electoral law prohibited the dissemination of the materials that had been seized from the offices of COMAL."

"The military seized 4 computers, digital cameras, banners, documents, files, human rights reports that COMAL presented to the Inter American Human Rights Commission, accounting records and literature about the current political crisis and the non-violent resistance movement."

The Honduran military and the so-called "Electoral Tribunal" will not allow Hondurans not to vote, in this mockery of an 'election,' nor advocate against it. A few weeks ago, a junta general said that the military "would not allow a boycott of the election." The junta then sent out a letter to all of the country's mayors requiring that the mayors submit a list of the names and addresses of all local leaders of the boycott and other community figures. I hope Siguatepeque's mayor did not do so. And if he or she did, I hope COMAL'S members have taken security measures. The junta may not go after them today, with media attention on Honduras, but their lives may be at great risk in the coming weeks. They are at risk, too, of kangaroo courts based on forged documents and computer tampering.

This is the kind of government that the US has always preferred in its slave-labor states. And apparently our Democrats are more efficient at bringing it about than ever the Bushwhacks were. This egregious repression--raids on NGO offices, assembling "lists" of dissenters, and use of both official and unofficial violence to silence, harm, terrorize and even kill peaceful political opponents--are the direct result of President Obama's backstabbing of President Zelaya and abandonment of the Honduran people, and his kick in the teeth to the OAS and the other leaders of Latin America. Obama has given his blessing to this brutal fascist government.

And that is a terribly dismaying and awful thing to see happen--not because it is unexpected behavior by the US government, but because Obama promised "peace, respect and cooperation" in his Latin American foreign policy. With this, and the dramatic US military buildup in Colombia--a "South Vietnam" in the making, if I ever saw one--it is becoming very difficult to believe that he was not just outright lying from the start, like LBJ did in 1964. It may be that Obama has been overruled by our corporate predators and war profiteers, and simply doesn't have the power to stop their dirty rotten schemes. This is what Chavez said (--that Obama is "the prisoner of the Pentagon.") But that charitable interpretation is fast receding as events unfold. I guess it's impossible to know, as yet. And it won't matter much to funders of US militarism--the 'little people' who actually pay taxes--to US 'cannon fodder' or to the victims in Latin America, and it won't matter at all to those who have already died for their political or human rights activities in Honduras, Colombia and Peru: the three "showcases" of what "free trade" really means.

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7. No political dissent -- Does that mean you can only vote FOR

a candidate and not against one. Impossible unless you only have one candidate. This is the Empire's ideal of an election?

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2. Peaceful march in San Pedro Sula brutally repressed with water cannons and tear gas

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 3:00pm | Quixote Delegation

San Pedro Sula, Honduras. 1:30pm. A peaceful march of over 500 people was just culminating at the Central Park of San Pedro Sula when a large armored tank with high pressure water cannons mounted on the top pulled up at the rear of the march - along with a large truck full of military troops. The 500 peaceful, unarmed protesters turned around to face the tank and troops - and in unison, they sat down in the middle of the street. The truck retreated 2 blocks. The soliders got off the truck , and began to put on gas masks. Everything went silent - and suddenly the crowd was attacked with water cannons and gas. People are fleeing. There are wounded and detained. The QC Delegation is fleeing the scene at this moment and will send reports.

http://www.quixote.org/blog/peaceful-march-san-pedro-sula-brutally-repressed-water-cannons-and-tear-gas

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3. Zacate Grande, Honduras -Leaders flee community, pursued by military. Nov. 29, 2009

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 12:16pm | Quixote Delegation
Military and police entered the community of Zacate Grande at 2:00 am, detonating two bombs. The population of 800 families was obligated to vote by armed actors dressed as civilians. Twenty four community leaders, who appear on a list in the possession of the military, fled and are being pursued by the army. House by house searches are being conducted. The communities are terrified.

For more information call Juan Almendares, CPTRT 2384027 at any hour – or 504-99854150

http://www.quixote.org/zacate-grande-honduras-leaders-flee-community-pursued-military-nov-29-2009

[Peace Patriot]

9. "obligated to vote by armed actors dressed as civilians." Does that say it all or what? nt

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4. Frente, COFADEH denounce ongoing climate of repression for the "electoral farce" in Honduras

Frente, COFADEH denounce ongoing climate of repression for the "electoral farce" in Honduras

"Even though they try to blame us for the violence, the violence is coming in one direction: from them, towards us." - Tomas Andino

Tanks and machine guns at STIBYS union headquarters
Red Comal raided and materials confiscated
Youth flee for their lives
Police launch bombs into communities
Journalist's whereabouts unknown



Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 11:00am: Members of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup, along with human rights defender Bertha Oliva, denounce the ongoing climate of violence, repression, and political persecution in which the "electoral farce" is taking place. The Frente's communique affirms the lack of presence at the polls, de-authorizing the Supreme Electoral Tribunal from declaring results in a process that is obviously illigitimate. (See translation of their release here)

Bertha Oliva, head of COFADEH, a well-respected non-governmental human rights organization, detailed over 15 cases from yesterday and today in which youth, Resistance leaders, teachers and campesinos were targeted by the police and military, in illegal raids, home invasions, and detentions, as well as military blockades around the STIBYS union headquarters which has served as the meeting space for the Frente, and the fact that the whereabouts of a Spanish journalist are unknown but he was believed to be detained in the Central Park. Twenty youth from a community in the department of Santa Barbara have fled the community, fearing for their lives as they and their families are being followed and intimidated by agents of the state.

When asked about whether the Frente would observe the popular curfew or take to the streets, Via Campesina and Frente leader Rafael Alegria stated that the Frente in different locations is making indepenent decisions. In San Pedro Sula, the Frente has organized a march (according to Quixote delegation members there, at least 500 people are mobilized with significant police presence but no repression thus far), while in Tegucigalpa "the repression has been so consistent and so grave" that the Frente is continuing to call for people to stay in their homes.

Human rights leaders are trying to get habeas writs executed, to prove the whereabouts of different detainees, but the courts are closed today, which is itself a violation of due process and the Constitution.

Alegria reinforced the message that there is no "civic celebration" of elections today, as there has been in the past, while Oliva pointed out that the majority of Frente leadership has gone into hiding in order to protect itself.

"The coup regime's repression is backfiring," said Frente member Tomas Andino. "The coup regime's attitude is one of preparing itself for a war."

http://www.quixote.org/frente-cofadeh-denounce-ongoing-climate-repression-electoral-farce-honduras

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5. "I don't know how they are going to legitimate these elections..." --Bertha Oliva

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:08am | pattya

29 November 2009

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS: The streets are empty, as are the polling places. The majority of activity outside of the polling places is at the kiosks whose existence--replete with illegal election propagando, balloons, and cheerful and helpful citizens--is meant to encourage and motivate people to vote in the face of what is already a clearly successful people's boycott of elections.

"I don't know how they are going to legitimate these elections," Bertha Oliva just told me, as she arrived to the COFADEH office. "The polling places are empty." Oliva is the founder and head of COFADEH, the Honduran Committee of the Families of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, and the premier non-governmental voice for human rights in Honduras. "I'm now worried about what will happen at mid-day, when they see that this is not working for them...I'm worried they'll take people out of their homes to force them to vote. That's where the danger is."

COFADEH is command central for the international grassroots delegations who are here to witness the environment in which the electoral farse is taking place, as well as for Honduran grassroots human rights promoters and journalists. In about an hour the Frente will meet here to share information and clarify their next steps. Their strategy changed a bit after Zelaya's last-minute call, transmitted via Skype from inside the Embassy to the Assembly in STIBYS, that the people should take to the streets today in nonviolent protest. The Frente has been calling for a "popular curfew," that people should stay inside their homes from 6am to 6pm, in order to drive home their boycott of the electoral farse. The boycott remains, but now includes a call for nonviolent shows of resistance to the coup and coup-sponsored elections.

Those following our website or Honduran news know about yesterday's raid of the Red Comal, a campesino (peasant farmer) organization which does training and community building. According to one of the 12 soldiers who was guarding the entrance to the nearby School for Solidarity Economy, a project of the Red Comal, there was in fact a warrant issued to search for and confiscate any firearms or articles which would threaten people. Apparently the protest banners, notes from workshops on the impacts of the coup on the communities with which the Red works, several hundred dollars, and laptop computers fall into one of those two categories, since these articles and more were confiscated by the 50 or so police and additional military and prosecutors who came to conduct the search and seizure.

According to accounts from within and nearby the commmunity of Guadalupe Carney, near Trujillo in the north of Honduras, hundreds of military have been patrolling within a kilometer and a half of the community's borders since last night, but have not yet entered. This intimidation comes in the context of a history of military presence and intervention in this highly organized rural community, as well as amidst reports of police and military raiding the homes of Resistance leaders throughout the country.

The Quixote Center has presence today in many regions of the country, including Tocoa in the Atlantic Coast region, San Pedro Sula in the North, Santa Rosa de Copan in the West, and Tegucigalpa. One of the Tegucigalpa teams is about to head out to Danli, about two hours east of the capital, to follow up on two people who are detained there, as well as to meet with community members there to hear about how the repression and militarization in their community has affected them.

The other Teguc team will remain at COFADEH to do accompaniment within the city including to visit hospitals and detention centers, as well as following the reports that come in from throughout the country, and covering news from the National Front.

http://www.quixote.org/blog/i-dont-know-how-they-are-going-legitimate-these-elections-bertha-oliva

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8. San Pedro Sula downtown militarized - crackdown continues

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 4:11pm | Quixote Delegation

QC Delegation reports that the military crackdown in San Pedro Sula continues. The downtown area is totally militarized with groups of security forces armed with M-16's are positioned on every corner for 10 square blocks. People on the street are grabbed and detained - tear gas canisters are thrown into the streets to disperse people. A helicopter if flying overhead. The full number of wounded and detained is not yet known.

Our delegation is now visiting polling stations where there is reportedly very low turnout. More reports coming. See our original report for more photos.

http://www.quixote.org/blog/san-pedro-sula-downtown-militarized-crackdown-continues