One person's personal experience with the coup in Honduras

Friday, August 14, 2009

Friends –

 

naturally I’m disappointed, but I trust my friends at Quixote Center and Pax Christi USA. I wanted to join a delegation to Honduras where the people are under attack by an out of control military. It is hoped that the presence of foreigners might mitigate the shocking violence against those on the streets protesting the coup that ousted the Honduran President in late June.

 

There is a delegation to Honduras from Aug 18 to 25 and I contacted friends who are coordinating it, Jean at Pax Christi and Jenny at Quixote. I was rejected. On Thurs. Aug. 13 I got an email from Jenny, in which she said: “Yesterday the group (the current delegation) was tear gassed for the second time and caught in an attack. Some are pretty shaken up. The risk of getting caught in an attack at this time is present…”

 

So she asked me to wait until things are more stabilized. I did not accuse her of age discrimination. On Aug. 14 she told me by phone that the delegation now in Honduras was wiped out and exhausted from the experience on the 13^th. Some could not move because of the shock to the system.

 

Since there is a complete blackout of news from Honduras in the media, unless you are seeing Jenny’s blogs on the Quixote site or listening to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, you may not be aware of the brutality of the military against demonstrators and bystanders. There are killings, beatings, jailings, tear gas used on the peaceful marchers throughout the country. On Wed., planes dropped tear gas on San Pedro Sula (2nd largest city) and 300 people there were arrested. Not a word in the press or on TV.

 

Maueen Fiedler (Quixote Center) who runs a national radio program gives daily reports to NPR – no response. And, of course, the silence of the Obama administration, when all the world has condemned the coup, is deafening. The delegations have informed the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa of the awful assaults by the military, which must be obvious outside the Embassy windows, and the response has been: “we are not aware of anything that is happening.” This is curious inasmuch as a nationwide strike of teachers has kept the schools closed, commerce has ground to a stop, the sirens of ambulances rushing victims to hospitals are easily audible, etc.

 

I do recommend that you find out what is going on at www.quixote.org with press releases that I think come from Jenny’s husband, Tom Loudon, who stays on the ground in Honduras during this critical time. Another source (Canadian) is info@rightsaction.org with its excellent daily report of the dramatic struggle for democracy in the country to the south.

 

Any rumors to the contrary, I was not trying to escape to the tropics to avoid working on Nick Jr’s new house.

Pray for the brave and impoverished people of Honduras.

 

Nick Carroll