Honduras Names "Truth Commission"
TEGUCIGALPA -
Former Guatemalan vice president Eduardo
Stein was named by new Honduran President
Porfirio Lobo last week to head a "Truth
Commission" to examine the June 2009 coup
d'etat that ousted President Manuel Zelaya
and the circumstances leading up to it.
Formation of the Commission was a condition
of the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord brokered
by Costa Rica last year to end the Honduran
crisis. (DPA, Feb. 4) The Popular Resistance
Front of Honduras, which mobilized to oppose
the coup, issued a statement rejecting the
Truth Commission. Front coordinator Juan
Barahona called it an attempt to "whitewash"
(limpiarse) the coup, and re-establish
diplomatic recognition and aid from the
international community.
Human rights abuses continue in Lobo's
Honduras. On Feb. 4, the same day Lobo
announced the naming of Stein, a member of
the Syndicate of Workers of the Honduran
Social Security Institute (SITRAIHSS) was
found dead in Tegucigalpa's Loarque
neighborhood. Vanessa Zepeda had also been
an an active member of the Popular
Resistance Front, and had repeatedly
received death threats. Witnesses said the
body was thrown form a vehicle, but lawyers
from the Popular Resistance Front were
prevented by authorities at the city morgue
from examining the deceased.
On Feb. 2, two cameramen from the opposition
TV Globo who had worked in the presidential
palace during the administration of
President Zelaya and later participated in
marches against the coup, were kidnapped at
a Tegucigalpa gas station by gun-wielding
men in civilian clothes who said they were
police. Tied up, beaten and threatened with
death, they were interrogated about supposed
weapons caches. When the men protested their
ignorance, the captors wrapped one in a
plastic body bag and threatened to bury him
alive. A phone call at the last minute
ordered the two released after some 24 hours
in captivity.
On Jan. 27, the Honduran Congress approved
an amnesty law that covers both Zelaya and
all those responsible for the coup that
removed him from power. The bill was signed
by Lobo immediately upon being sworn in that
day. The vote came just hours after a
Honduran Supreme Court judge cleared senior
military leaders of criminal charges for
their roles in the coup. Zelaya had been
charged with treason and abuse of power by
the de facto regime after the coup. In
January, prosecutors filed "abuse of power"
charges against the military leaders,
including army commander Romeo Vásquez
Velásquez. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
