Honduras: Violence and Human Rights Violations

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Scoop - New Zealand

Honduras: Violence and Human Rights Violations
Thursday, 17 June 2010, 2:05 pm
Honduras: Violence and Human Rights Violations Escalate

Brussels, 15 June 2010 (ITUC OnLine): Honduras is immersed in a very worrying spiral of violence, and the international trade union movement remains on the alert for human rights violations. Being a trade unionist or part of the Resistance Front implies major risks in the Honduras of today. Various trade union and community leaders have faced death threats and attempts on their lives over recent weeks.

The situation in the country is deeply worrying: the repression continues unabated and the public sector is paralysed by the workers' protest in support of the demand for an increase in their wages and the national minimum wage, against a background of serious hardships and constant human rights violations.

On 10 June, Oscar Molina, the brother-in-law of Porfirio Ponce, vice president of the drinks industry union STIBYS, was killed on the spot when two men came out of their vehicle, in broad daylight, and shot him 42 times in full public view when he stopped at a traffic light at a busy junction.

Shortly prior to this attack, Carolina Pineda, finance secretary of the secondary teachers' association COPEMH, suffered an attempt on her life by hooded men who attacked the vehicle she was driving, shooting at her with high-calibre weapons. She was fortunately able to escape from her attackers, taking refuge in a private house, where she was offered protection. Carolina Pineda is a leader of one of the teachers' organisations most committed to the fight against the coup. She had reported having received repeated death threats by telephone and text message.

Read more: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1006/S00294.htm