Coup's Impact on Honduran Women
Margaret Knapke | October 22, 2009 Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org
Ms. Magazine's inaugural cover featured President Obama in Superman pose, ripping open his suit coat and dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt that proclaims: "This is what a feminist looks like." Photoshop tricks aside, Honduran women need this to be true. They need the Obama administration to fully grasp the plight of Honduran women and their families and act decisively on their behalf.
Since the June 28, 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya from office, the de facto regime has tried to stanch the flow of incriminating information coming from Honduras. But human rights organizations and grassroots delegations keep working to focus the Obama administration's gaze on the dire situation, particularly for Honduran women.
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) began investigating abuses immediately after the coup, searching hospitals and jails. Their July 15 report documents 1155 human rights violations during the first two weeks of the coup. These include 1046 illegal detentions, 59 beatings, 27 assaults on reporters and the independent press, and four executions. Three of those killed are named: Isis Obed Murillo Mencías (19-years-old), Gabriel Fino Noriega (radio-journalist), and Caso Ramon Garcia.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued their first and most comprehensive report on the Honduran crisis on August 21. Consistent with COFADEH's findings, the IACHR charged the coup government with "disproportionate use of public force, arbitrary detentions, and the control of information aimed at limiting political participation by a sector of the citizenry."
A scant six weeks after that IACHR report, at the end of September, the National Front Against the Coup in Honduras (FNR) estimated more than 100 coup fatalities — an appalling escalation.
But if the violence appalls, it is not unprecedented. During the 1980s, the Battalion 3-16 death squad was responsible for forced disappearances, detentions, and torture in Honduras. COFADEH warns that members of the Battalion are returning to positions of power and influence. A particularly notorious Battalion leader, Captain Billy Joya Améndola, is now special security adviser to "Interim President" Roberto Micheletti.
And it should be noted, the notoriety of Battalion 3-16 reaches back to the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), where 19 Battalion members were trained, as were the generals who deposed President Zelaya.
Gender Violence
Women often pay a special price during military conquests, and Honduran women have paid dearly for demanding a return to democracy. The IACHR notes that, "in the context of the demonstrations and the repression and detentions carried out by police officers and members of the military, women were especially subject to acts of violence and humiliation because of their gender."
Salvador Zuniga, of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), believes the June coup was prompted in part by a socially conservative religious reaction to feminist organizing around reproductive rights. "What I can say is that the feminist compañeras (companions or comrades) are in greater danger than any other organization," he says.
A young mother named Irma Villanueva made her own story public in mid-August. She told Radio Progreso how she had been arrested at a recent demonstration and then raped by four policemen. One of the rapists implied they were punishing Villanueva for her political activity: "[N]ow you're going to see what happens to you for being where you shouldn't be."
Villanueva is not alone. Honduran Feminists in Resistance, a group formed immediately after the coup, reported to the Latin American Herald Tribune on September 3 that they had documented 19 cases of rape committed by Honduran police. Honduran feminists believe that this number is probably conservative.
Yet despite and perhaps because of all this, Women's Human Rights Week was vigorously observed in Honduras in August. An international fact-finding mission participated, speaking with representatives of the European Union and United Nations in Honduras, local authorities, lawyers, academics, human-rights workers, and popular organizations. The mission reports that, according to the special prosecutor for women, 51 Honduran women were murdered in the month of July; the mission calculates that "femicide has increased by at least 60 percent."
Women Respond
The Feminists in Resistance wrote Obama a rather "tough love" open letter in July. "Mr. President, Honduras was among the countries in the world that saw with great hope your arrival to the presidency…We applauded your expressed desire to establish [a] new type [of] relations with the region." But six months and many deaths later, their great hope is on hold. There is suspicion of U.S. actors, rogue or otherwise, having been complicit in the coup. At the very least, the Feminists in Resistance see the Obama administration's response to the coup as weak and "leading to a situation of violence in our country that we do not deserve."
And U.S. activists have appealed to Secretary of State Clinton as an advocate for women. Women of Steel, an organization within the United Steelworkers, wrote Clinton on August 31, asking her "to denounce this violence (against Honduran women) just as you have recently denounced such violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
Clearly, the Honduran crisis is a real opportunity for Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prove their human-rights and feminist mettle. Conversely, a failure of resolve toward the illicit and abusive coup regime could do lasting harm to Obama's and Clinton's political credibility — and cost many more Honduran lives.
Margaret Knapke is a longtime Latin America human-rights activist and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus#
Ms. Magazine's inaugural cover featured President Obama in Superman pose, ripping open his suit coat and dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt that proclaims: "This is what a feminist looks like." Photoshop tricks aside, Honduran women need this to be true. They need the Obama administration to fully grasp the plight of Honduran women and their families and act decisively on their behalf.
Since the June 28, 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya from office, the de facto regime has tried to stanch the flow of incriminating information coming from Honduras. But human rights organizations and grassroots delegations keep working to focus the Obama administration's gaze on the dire situation, particularly for Honduran women.
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) began investigating abuses immediately after the coup, searching hospitals and jails. Their July 15 report documents 1155 human rights violations during the first two weeks of the coup. These include 1046 illegal detentions, 59 beatings, 27 assaults on reporters and the independent press, and four executions. Three of those killed are named: Isis Obed Murillo Mencías (19-years-old), Gabriel Fino Noriega (radio-journalist), and Caso Ramon Garcia.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued their first and most comprehensive report on the Honduran crisis on August 21. Consistent with COFADEH's findings, the IACHR charged the coup government with "disproportionate use of public force, arbitrary detentions, and the control of information aimed at limiting political participation by a sector of the citizenry."
A scant six weeks after that IACHR report, at the end of September, the National Front Against the Coup in Honduras (FNR) estimated more than 100 coup fatalities — an appalling escalation.
But if the violence appalls, it is not unprecedented. During the 1980s, the Battalion 3-16 death squad was responsible for forced disappearances, detentions, and torture in Honduras. COFADEH warns that members of the Battalion are returning to positions of power and influence. A particularly notorious Battalion leader, Captain Billy Joya Améndola, is now special security adviser to "Interim President" Roberto Micheletti.
And it should be noted, the notoriety of Battalion 3-16 reaches back to the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), where 19 Battalion members were trained, as were the generals who deposed President Zelaya.
Gender Violence
Women often pay a special price during military conquests, and Honduran women have paid dearly for demanding a return to democracy. The IACHR notes that, "in the context of the demonstrations and the repression and detentions carried out by police officers and members of the military, women were especially subject to acts of violence and humiliation because of their gender."
Salvador Zuniga, of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), believes the June coup was prompted in part by a socially conservative religious reaction to feminist organizing around reproductive rights. "What I can say is that the feminist compañeras (companions or comrades) are in greater danger than any other organization," he says.
A young mother named Irma Villanueva made her own story public in mid-August. She told Radio Progreso how she had been arrested at a recent demonstration and then raped by four policemen. One of the rapists implied they were punishing Villanueva for her political activity: "[N]ow you're going to see what happens to you for being where you shouldn't be."
Villanueva is not alone. Honduran Feminists in Resistance, a group formed immediately after the coup, reported to the Latin American Herald Tribune on September 3 that they had documented 19 cases of rape committed by Honduran police. Honduran feminists believe that this number is probably conservative.
Yet despite and perhaps because of all this, Women's Human Rights Week was vigorously observed in Honduras in August. An international fact-finding mission participated, speaking with representatives of the European Union and United Nations in Honduras, local authorities, lawyers, academics, human-rights workers, and popular organizations. The mission reports that, according to the special prosecutor for women, 51 Honduran women were murdered in the month of July; the mission calculates that "femicide has increased by at least 60 percent."
Women Respond
The Feminists in Resistance wrote Obama a rather "tough love" open letter in July. "Mr. President, Honduras was among the countries in the world that saw with great hope your arrival to the presidency…We applauded your expressed desire to establish [a] new type [of] relations with the region." But six months and many deaths later, their great hope is on hold. There is suspicion of U.S. actors, rogue or otherwise, having been complicit in the coup. At the very least, the Feminists in Resistance see the Obama administration's response to the coup as weak and "leading to a situation of violence in our country that we do not deserve."
And U.S. activists have appealed to Secretary of State Clinton as an advocate for women. Women of Steel, an organization within the United Steelworkers, wrote Clinton on August 31, asking her "to denounce this violence (against Honduran women) just as you have recently denounced such violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
Clearly, the Honduran crisis is a real opportunity for Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prove their human-rights and feminist mettle. Conversely, a failure of resolve toward the illicit and abusive coup regime could do lasting harm to Obama's and Clinton's political credibility — and cost many more Honduran lives.
Margaret Knapke is a longtime Latin America human-rights activist and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus#
De facto Honduran government stalls for time before election
Oct 22, 2009. Mica Rosenberg.Reuters.
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' de facto leaders are hunkering down to stay in power until a November election, tightening controls on protests and grinding down ousted President Manuel Zelaya by blasting his refuge with rock music.
With Central America's worst political crisis in years now in its fourth month, talks between Zelaya's camp and that of de facto ruler Roberto Micheletti are stalled with no sign of compromise on the main sticking point: returning the toppled leftist to power temporarily as part of a solution.
Micheletti is drumming up support for the November 29 election, saying it is the only way to end the deadlock sparked by a June 28 army coup that is testing U.S. President Barack Obama's seriousness about wanting better relations with Latin America.
So far, Washington has taken a backseat role in resolving the crisis and let regional leaders and the Organization of American States take the lead.
The de facto government hopes the November vote will be recognized by foreign governments, bringing Honduras back into the fold of the international community after it was denounced for sending soldiers to roust Zelaya from his bed and fly him into exile.
With or without an agreement to resolve the crisis, Micheletti's camp says the vote will move forward.
"Whatever happens with these negotiations, the elections are the way out of this crisis," said Marcia Facusse, a congresswoman from Micheletti's Liberal Party and a close ally of the caretaker leader picked by Congress.
Zelaya, a ranching and logging magnate, split his Liberal Party by moving closer to Venezuela's hardline socialist President Hugo Chavez during his term, which is set to end in January.
If dialogue between the two sides fails, Zelaya will be left in the lurch. He has been camped out at the Brazilian Embassy for a month with his family and a handful of followers and journalists since he snuck back into Honduras last month.
This week the army set up giant speakers to blast the embassy through a full night with loud, grating noise ranging from military band music to pig grunts and imposed new controls on street protests, which are mainly pro-Zelaya.
DANGEROUS BET
The United States suspended military aid to Honduras and froze visas of key figures in the coup but analysts say the pressure is not enough to force Micheletti to back down.
"I would be really surprised if they reinstate Zelaya because they have been so incredibly recalcitrant and truthfully there is no pressure on them to do otherwise," said Central America expert Christine Wade at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.
Recognizing the elections for political expediency could set a dangerous precedent for the volatile region, she said.
Zelaya also opposes going ahead with the November election without a prior solution. "Holding elections under these conditions is opening the door to coups," he told a local television station by telephone. "It's an aberration."
The Supreme Court, backed by Congress, ordered Zelaya's June ouster, saying he violated the constitution by seeking to reform the constitution to allow presidential re-election.
Zelaya denies the charge but the coup backers argue he was legally stripped of his powers and cannot come back.
Meanwhile, the election campaign is moving along in full swing, with the leading candidates from Zelaya and Micheletti's Liberal Party and the main opposition National Party airing peppy spots, holding rallies and talking to the local press.
"They are waiting for international opinion to fracture, until more and more countries see recognizing the elections as the most acceptable alternative," said Armando Sarmiento, the former tax chief in Zelaya's finance ministry said.
Sarmiento said the de facto leaders might be looking to the example of the African country of Mauritania where the leader of an internationally chided military coup won an election this year and was quickly recognized by France.
But human rights groups accuse the de facto rulers of major abuses, including deaths, and say a free and fair election is impossible after Micheletti temporarily shut down pro-Zelaya media and banned protests with an executive decree last month.
"The elections are not a magic wand that will solve the country's problems. Those who believe that are wrong," Honduran political analyst Efrain Diaz said.
(Additional reporting by Adriana Barrera and Gustavo Palencia; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Eric Beech)
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' de facto leaders are hunkering down to stay in power until a November election, tightening controls on protests and grinding down ousted President Manuel Zelaya by blasting his refuge with rock music.
With Central America's worst political crisis in years now in its fourth month, talks between Zelaya's camp and that of de facto ruler Roberto Micheletti are stalled with no sign of compromise on the main sticking point: returning the toppled leftist to power temporarily as part of a solution.
Micheletti is drumming up support for the November 29 election, saying it is the only way to end the deadlock sparked by a June 28 army coup that is testing U.S. President Barack Obama's seriousness about wanting better relations with Latin America.
So far, Washington has taken a backseat role in resolving the crisis and let regional leaders and the Organization of American States take the lead.
The de facto government hopes the November vote will be recognized by foreign governments, bringing Honduras back into the fold of the international community after it was denounced for sending soldiers to roust Zelaya from his bed and fly him into exile.
With or without an agreement to resolve the crisis, Micheletti's camp says the vote will move forward.
"Whatever happens with these negotiations, the elections are the way out of this crisis," said Marcia Facusse, a congresswoman from Micheletti's Liberal Party and a close ally of the caretaker leader picked by Congress.
Zelaya, a ranching and logging magnate, split his Liberal Party by moving closer to Venezuela's hardline socialist President Hugo Chavez during his term, which is set to end in January.
If dialogue between the two sides fails, Zelaya will be left in the lurch. He has been camped out at the Brazilian Embassy for a month with his family and a handful of followers and journalists since he snuck back into Honduras last month.
This week the army set up giant speakers to blast the embassy through a full night with loud, grating noise ranging from military band music to pig grunts and imposed new controls on street protests, which are mainly pro-Zelaya.
DANGEROUS BET
The United States suspended military aid to Honduras and froze visas of key figures in the coup but analysts say the pressure is not enough to force Micheletti to back down.
"I would be really surprised if they reinstate Zelaya because they have been so incredibly recalcitrant and truthfully there is no pressure on them to do otherwise," said Central America expert Christine Wade at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.
Recognizing the elections for political expediency could set a dangerous precedent for the volatile region, she said.
Zelaya also opposes going ahead with the November election without a prior solution. "Holding elections under these conditions is opening the door to coups," he told a local television station by telephone. "It's an aberration."
The Supreme Court, backed by Congress, ordered Zelaya's June ouster, saying he violated the constitution by seeking to reform the constitution to allow presidential re-election.
Zelaya denies the charge but the coup backers argue he was legally stripped of his powers and cannot come back.
Meanwhile, the election campaign is moving along in full swing, with the leading candidates from Zelaya and Micheletti's Liberal Party and the main opposition National Party airing peppy spots, holding rallies and talking to the local press.
"They are waiting for international opinion to fracture, until more and more countries see recognizing the elections as the most acceptable alternative," said Armando Sarmiento, the former tax chief in Zelaya's finance ministry said.
Sarmiento said the de facto leaders might be looking to the example of the African country of Mauritania where the leader of an internationally chided military coup won an election this year and was quickly recognized by France.
But human rights groups accuse the de facto rulers of major abuses, including deaths, and say a free and fair election is impossible after Micheletti temporarily shut down pro-Zelaya media and banned protests with an executive decree last month.
"The elections are not a magic wand that will solve the country's problems. Those who believe that are wrong," Honduran political analyst Efrain Diaz said.
(Additional reporting by Adriana Barrera and Gustavo Palencia; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Eric Beech)
Brazil Foreign Affairs Adviser Faults Obama's Handling of Honduran Coup
EFE. October 22, 2009.
BRASILIA - The top foreign affairs adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that Barack Obama's administration "should put more pressure" on the de facto regime in Honduras to agree to the reinstatement of ousted President Mel Zelaya.
A month after Zelaya, who was sent into exile after the coup, slipped back into Honduras and took up residence at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Marco Aurelio Garcia said that Lula's government still hopes for "firmer" action from the United States.
"The ideal would be that President Obama takes a more active position in the search for a political accord" in Honduras, Garcia told TV Brasil.
"I believe the United States could put more pressure on the putschists," Lula's aide said, though adding that "Latin America is not a priority for the United States now, because it's a region at peace."
Obama condemns Zelaya's ouster and calls for his reinstatement, but is so far unwilling to exercise the enormous leverage that Washington has over Honduras, a nation whose economy is almost entirely dependent - through trade, aid and remittances - on the United States.
Garcia also insisted Wednesday that the Brazilian government has "acted correctly" and in defense of democracy and the rule of law by giving Zelaya sanctuary at the embassy.
After acknowledging that some members of Brazil's foreign service were initially uncomfortable with the decision, Garcia said: "The diplomats know an embassy is not just for political gatherings and receptions."
The Honduran de facto regime contends Zelaya's ouster was not a coup, insisting that the soldiers who dragged him from the presidential palace and put him on a plane to Costa Rica were simply enforcing a Supreme Court ban on the president's planned non-binding plebiscite on the idea of revising the constitution.
Though the coup leaders accuse Zelaya of seeking to extend his stay in office, any potential constitutional change to allow presidential re-election would not have taken place until well after the his term ends in January.
Time is running out to settle the conflict before Honduras' Nov. 29 presidential elections, as both the European Union and Washington have said they will not recognize the winner of that balloting unless Zelaya is restored to office beforehand.
Though Zelaya has accepted the conditions suggested by mediators, the coup regime is balking at restoring the elected president. EFE
BRASILIA - The top foreign affairs adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that Barack Obama's administration "should put more pressure" on the de facto regime in Honduras to agree to the reinstatement of ousted President Mel Zelaya.
A month after Zelaya, who was sent into exile after the coup, slipped back into Honduras and took up residence at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Marco Aurelio Garcia said that Lula's government still hopes for "firmer" action from the United States.
"The ideal would be that President Obama takes a more active position in the search for a political accord" in Honduras, Garcia told TV Brasil.
"I believe the United States could put more pressure on the putschists," Lula's aide said, though adding that "Latin America is not a priority for the United States now, because it's a region at peace."
Obama condemns Zelaya's ouster and calls for his reinstatement, but is so far unwilling to exercise the enormous leverage that Washington has over Honduras, a nation whose economy is almost entirely dependent - through trade, aid and remittances - on the United States.
Garcia also insisted Wednesday that the Brazilian government has "acted correctly" and in defense of democracy and the rule of law by giving Zelaya sanctuary at the embassy.
After acknowledging that some members of Brazil's foreign service were initially uncomfortable with the decision, Garcia said: "The diplomats know an embassy is not just for political gatherings and receptions."
The Honduran de facto regime contends Zelaya's ouster was not a coup, insisting that the soldiers who dragged him from the presidential palace and put him on a plane to Costa Rica were simply enforcing a Supreme Court ban on the president's planned non-binding plebiscite on the idea of revising the constitution.
Though the coup leaders accuse Zelaya of seeking to extend his stay in office, any potential constitutional change to allow presidential re-election would not have taken place until well after the his term ends in January.
Time is running out to settle the conflict before Honduras' Nov. 29 presidential elections, as both the European Union and Washington have said they will not recognize the winner of that balloting unless Zelaya is restored to office beforehand.
Though Zelaya has accepted the conditions suggested by mediators, the coup regime is balking at restoring the elected president. EFE
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