17 year-old son of Labor Unionist Leader kidnapped and tortured

By Sandra Cuffe

Irad Galel Cabrera Otero: "Two men took me, one from the the legs and another one from the shirt and threw me to the cauldron of the car

The student Irad Otero Galel Cabrera (17), was the victim of kidnapping, torture and death threats by suspected state security agents, last Friday, February 19th, in the capital.

Otero Cabrera is the son of Julio Nery Otero, a leader of the Union of Workers of Medicine and Allied Hospitals, SITRAMEDHYS.

At noon, Otero Cabrera was waiting for a bus at the bus station in Colonia Las Torres when  a double-cabin vehicle, green with tinted windows, parked in front of him. Four men with guns drawn got out  and ordered him to throw to the floor. When he ignored them, one threw him to the floor and put his foot on his head, kicking him in the head so he  could not get up.

The strangers searched him and took his wallet, saying it was of a guy he  had assaulted. The subjects said "this is it" and said "you're a thief" when they found  the hundred Lempiras in Cabrera Otero's wallet.

"Two men took me, one from the legs and the other from my ashirt and threw me to the cauldron of the car. The car started off quickly. I was bent while a stranger  had his  gun on my head. He said if I rose he was going to kill me. In the cauldron there was another boy who looked unconscious, but they kept beating him" said the young man when he came to share his testimony with the Committee of Relatives of Detained-Disappeared in Honduras, COFADEH.

The speedy drive south of the country lasted 25 minutes until they left the main road and got inside a dirt road.

The two young people were  tied with their shirts around their heads, so they could not to see. They were ordered to remove their shoelaces and  their hands were tied at their back.

"I felt kicked in the back, face, and ribs, also in the abdomen with a stick. I heard when I broke down  they started beating  the other boy. Then they hit my leg with the same stick. One of the guys said they would take us further away in order to kill us, "continued Cabrera Otero.

The youth said that all subjects began to discuss how it would be best to kill them, suggesting in a pool or throw them off a bridge. Eventually, they climbed back into the car and drove through the dirt road away from the road.

"Upon arrival, I went down and they tied me to a barbed wire fence, they uncoverd my face  and took a photo of me with the phone.The guy was young, thin, dark. . He was wearing a police vest  and had  gun slung, "said the young man, visibly traumatized by the nightmare they had lived.

When again covered his face, the student thought they were going to kill him there, but after a few minutes he heard the car started and heard nothing afterwards.

With the solidarity of people, he managed to remove the cords and shirt, and  left for  the main road and on to Tegucigalpa. There was no sign of the other youth, but they had left his shoes and the wallet from Otero Cabrera.

The afternoon where Galel Cabrera Otero suffered a terrifying experience occurs in the current context of the ongoing human rights violations. In recent weeks, human rights organizations have denounced both the increasing persecution of the union movement involved in the resistance to the coup, a series of kidnappings and torture of members of the resistance.

Similarly, they have stressed a return to the era of the criminalization of youth violence, as police forces are again under the command of the Security Minister Oscar Alvarez.