Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Journalists, Activists Targeted as Honduran Repression Grows
Democracy Now
Workers, students and activists have held a month-long general strike in Honduras to protest repression by the government of President Porfirio Lobo. Lobo came to power following elections under the regime of Roberto Micheletti, who seized power in a violent military coup against democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009. Honduras is one of the world’s most violent countries, with a homicide rate of four times higher than in Mexico, according to national statistics. We speak to Gerardo Torres, an independent journalist and a leading member of the National Front of Popular Resistance in Honduras. Gerardo Torres in Democracy Now (video)
Venezuela agrees to Honduras’ return to OAS
Colombia Reports
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was able to convince his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez to stop his country’s resistance to Honduras’ return to the Organization of American States by inviting Honduran President Porfirio Lobo to a lunch in Cartagena.
At the end of the meeting with Chavez and Santos, Lobo told reporters he had promised Chavez to submit to conditions that had impeded the country from rejoining the OAS. Read more
Honduran president threatens striking teachers
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on Sunday threatened to fire teachers if they continue a three-week-old strike that has aggravated divisions caused by a 2009 coup.
Teachers who fail to show up in classrooms Monday will be suspended without pay, according to the president’s decree, which was read on radio and television stations. If teachers don’t appear by April 4, they will be fired. Read more
Congressman Farr, colleagues urge Obama administration to curtail assistance to Honduras until human rights violations are adequately addressed
Letter cites serious concern that the rule of law is directly threatened by members of the Honduran police and armed forces.
WASHINGTON, DC Congressman Sam Farr (D-CA), joined by 29 other Members of Congress, sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today calling on the Obama Administration to suspend aidparticularly military and police assistanceto the government of Honduras, while murders of political activists and media workers and other attacks in that country continue with near impunity. Read more