Massive popular resistance as Micheletti dictatorship revives 1980's death squad


13 Aug 2009
independent media center





The Micheletti dictatorship in Honduras, which prominently includes 1980's death squad "Battalion 3-16" [1] [2] members Billy Joya [1] [2], Nelson Willy MejÃ*a MejÃ*a [1] [2] and Napoleón Nassar Herrera [1] [2], has suspended human rights since the 28 June 2009 coup d'etat, has "disappeared" at least three people, has extrajudicially executed nearly ten people, and has detained hundreds of people [1] [2] and[3].

Despite this, unprecedented grassroots protests have culminated in the arrival on Tuesday 11 August 2009 in Tegucigalpa of over 70,000 demonstrators and of thousands of others in San Pedro Sula, coordinating through the Front against the coup d'etat. The Front's 19th Communique states that unless the Micheletti regime resigns within the next few days and restores Zelaya to the presidency, then the Front will further extend massive civil disobedience actions (es) that have already paralysed the economy and will file for national and international criminal proceedings against those responsible for the extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations.

The mainstream Western media have with very few exceptions failed to report the participation of the Battalion 3-16 death squad in the Micheletti de facto government, they have not reported on "disappearances", they have severely underreported the number of extrajudicial executions, and they have almost entirely hidden the unresolved context of the 1980's death squads. The Zelaya government also contained death squad members (es), which CODEH and other Honduran local human rights organisations objected to. The Obama-Clinton-Lula so-called "Arias" plan has glaringly omitted any mention of whether or not it proposes to exclude death squad members from any "negotiated" coalition government.

http://www.indymedia.org/en/2009/08/928050.shtml