Power groups decided to close Radio Uno one way or another, no matter what it takes

SATURDAY MARCH 20, 2010 14:01 BYDINA MEZA

The threats are directed against the entire group of Radio Uno

From planning the murder of Arnulfo Aguilar, Director of Radio Uno, threats to the radio analysts, interception of calls from listeners to then threaten them, and the constant power cuts and the permanent records of vehicles and personal papers of radio staff, indicate a constant harassment to disrupt this communication medium and force them to closure.

This complaint was filed to   the Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras on March 17, when a delegation arrived at the site of this radio to check on this case.

Radio Uno has protective measures granted by the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, IACHR. The State should have implemented them  immediately, but to date  this important step to safeguard both the life of all persons who exercise their Right to Freedom of Expression as well as Law to Access Information the audience of this station has, has not taken place.

Defensoresenlinea.com talked to Aguilar, who detailed all sorts of threats to which they have been subjected and said that the repression will worsen once the World Cup begins, because people will be distracted.

In that regard, he denounced he has precise information about the planning of his murder from the repressive forces of the State, "they informed me that my death is very well planned. I fear that in the midst of all these crimes that are happening against a variety of social communicators in the country.

Aguilar said Radio Uno has received a number of threats, ranging from phone calls from a very good response group mounted by power groups.
The threats are directed against the entire group of Radio Uno, constituted by  volunteer men and women committed  to a different Honduras. Their constant harassment has led some of them to leave the station  or to mitigate their messages because of  fear of being killed, "This is serious because the intention is to break the will of the radio. It really does impact the people who have just started their activity in the radio and they fall very easily," Aguilar said.

We have no AK-47 , our position is peaceful                                                            

Oswaldo Martinez

We do not have an AK-47 gun in hand, our position is a peaceful approach, one of  analysis towards  the different situations in our country, "said Oswaldo Martinez, who is part of the collective of Radio Uno.

He participates in  my analysis, sings songs he has composed to the resistance or to President Zelaya. It is a sort of get-together between the analysis of the national situation  and songs, besides the political proposals, complaints from the public, a way for people to exercise their right to freedom of expression.

"I have received constant threats by  phone where they tell me, " look, if you do not shut up, you son of a bitch, we'll  shoot you in the head. Why are you   singing songs to Mel for? We are going to send you and Mel to the sugarcane fields( the sugarcane fields near San Pedro Sula is  a place where murderers have been abandoning  their victims for decades after they kill them), we watch your house, we  know how you mobilize, what car you're driving, we know the neighborhood where you live, we have checked your license plate number". In fact, they told  me the plate number and it  matches the number of my vehicle indeed " , Martinez reported.

Two weeks ago, the threats were more consistent. We worry a lot and the paradox of this is that when I got out of Radio Uno they told me, "and there you go already. You left shitting your pants, am I  right, you motherfucker?," this is a sign that not only I am being watched   but other people as well. We did not receive any salary from the radio, but because  we are in resistance, our mission as journalists is to accompany the people in this struggle.

For Martinez threats come from enemies of the people, enemies of Mel Zelaya, from the enemies of the organized popular movement in this country. From the enemies of human rights institutions such as the COFADEH.

For him the aim is to silence those, whose voices never remain silent, those voices who dare to denounce human rights violations, those voices that are next to the most humble people, through a microphone. The wish to silence with the threat, with the tirade, with the murders.

The differences with the repression in the 1980's are small, but the similarities are the same or worse, because at that time  there was a defined political ideology of the sides constituting the factions in conflict, not now.

There are people who are not politically with any political movement and start a radio program with no journalism experience whatsoever and say they are against the coup and suddenly hit men arrive the house of one of them and tell them they are going to shoot them in the head.

It is the continuing impunity of the 1980's. The human rights violations go to the extreme. For example I work at a cable company in El Progreso in a program, a newsletter called "Progreso de Noche"(Progreso at Night) and then they told us  "if  you don't shut up, we are  going to  cancell your  permit. We are not only going to cancel the operating license of the station but the operating license of the cable company, "complained Martinez.

As journalists we must continue the struggle because there are two alternatives: to continue or to shut up, we will continue. Independent of anything, we will continue to be those voices that are still on the air defending the achievements and aspirations of the people.

 Calls from listeners are intercepted to  then threaten them

Regarding this issue the head of Radio Uno said that, for instance,  a listener of Radio Uno calls and does  a good approach on air,  and  in a thing of seconds they return his call back home and this person never again calls the radio, for he was  threatened.

"And that does not stop there, on the radio's  chat  we have to be banning people every day, since unidentified chat users  inexplicably come inside, and it could be military guarding from the 105th Brigade."

He showed some messages that are sent from the web to the cell phone of the station, "mara (gang), honestly, how you call to violence and then you go crying. The one  to blame for all this is Mel Zelaya."

With the intention of misleading the public they sent him this message "it's amazing that there are journalists like you. There is  no difference between you and Micheletti. You are identical".

But another disturbing data that Arnulfo Aguilar told is that the 3-16 has fully identified itself in the radio by sending materials to the radio.

A state policy against the Radio

Radio Uno received at least seven bombings, "there we have the capsules of the bombs, the tank was stationed here long. The vice mayor of San Pedro Sula, Eduardo Bueso Hernandez, came to deliver  in a car  fast food and hugged the police that kept the station beleaguered, after  Mel Zelaya came inside the country on  September 21, "he said.

But he made a connection between 2009 and the months that have passed in 2010 and said that now forms have been refined to threaten them and attack them, "in the evening, they asked us for documents and registered our cars in front of the radio. We have tried be flexible and have allowed them to register the car, but we are totally unprotected in security despite the precautionary measures that we have. "

"There have been times when we are in full force about information such as in the case of Aguán and suddenly there is a drop in electric power. The day that Claudia Brizuela was murdered there was a whirlwind, the electric power  was cut, but electricity was working everywhere except in the block, where  Radio Uno is located. On the next day power was cut here.

The attacks are due to the position of the station, which has not changed in one single point. It's a very well contacted radio."We know all the insides of the media system. This is a school of Broadcasters, and we know the people, and we  are ahead of what they will perform. The march of journalists has been sponsored by those who staged the coup.
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