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Journalist Political
Murders In Honduras
By Aaron Ortiz
From the beginning of the constitutional
crisis of 2009, the OAS took a stance
that seemed calculated to guarantee the
reelection of José Miguel Insulza.
Comparing the statements of Human Rights
Watch and the OAS Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights you will see
that the IAHRC would only publish and
complain of human rights abuses against
friends of ALBA nations. ALBA nations
and ALBA-friendly hold considerable
power in the OAS, being the majority.
Thus Insulza could not hope on being
reelected if he crossed them.
Because of this, while the human rights
situation deteriorated notably in
Venezuela and Cuba, the OAS was silent.
The United States, whose influence in
Latin America is leveraged through the
OAS since the Obama administration, was
also a party to this.
The power the Obama administration holds
over the supposedly independent media is
staggering. They have presented Obama in
the most favorable light possible, and
have published world news in was that
make their bias and partiality obvious
to those who have witnessed the events
they report, and can compare them to
reality.
In contrast, but also in concert, the
absolute power that the Chavez
administration holds over the Venezuelan
media, who self-censor everything they
produce to avoid being shut down,
produced a flood of biased and sometimes
outright false information. This
information was presented as truth, and
world governments responded to the
events in Honduras with universal
condemnation.
Thus Manuel Zelaya was presented as a
victim of the "political elite", Roberto
Micheletti was labeled the "de-facto
president" a "dictator", and Zelaya's
ouster a "military coup", when it was
the supreme court and congress who
ordered his capture and sent the
military to his door.
The events in Honduras became a litmus
test between left and right, and insults
were flung in both directions. It became
impossible to have a reasoned discussion
of the events, and suddenly, all
articles needed to be treated with
suspicion, whether the source was CNN,
Reuters, AFP, the local media, The Wall
Street Journal, or even the venerable
BBC. On both sides of the political
aisle, truth was ignored for political
expediency.
News media, who because of the economic
crisis could not investigate on their
own, swallowed the articles provided to
them by the international news wires,
without qualm, as long as they bolstered
their existing partiality, left or
right.
An election that was planned under
Manuel Zelaya's own administration was
reported as being invalid for being
organized by an "illegitimate"
government. Political candidates, who
were chosen months before the crisis,
were branded as "coupsters" when if
anything, they had the most to lose from
a coup.
The result: a country isolated and
punished in ways that other nations, who
have insulted democracy and human rights
much more, did not experience. Also a
greatly heightened murder rate, and a
great degree of anger.
For decades, unofficial executions have
been taking place in Honduras. In the
1980s, the targets were leftists. In the
1990s the victims were sometimes
environmentalists, like Jeannete Kawas.
In the 2000s the victims were gang
members. But even before the 2009
crisis, the victims became the
journalists.
In October 2008, Carlos Salgado, a very
popular radio journalist was murdered as
he left work (3). He was critical of
Manuel Zelaya's government. Colleagues
of his were being sued for re-publishing
an article from a Mexican journal that
implicated the head of the state telecom
in a scandal.
In December, an attempt on Carol
Cabrera, another journalist critical of
Manuel Zelaya, led to the death of her
daughter. Roberto Micheletti was forced
to retract his words when he attributed
her death to the resistance. Also in
December, Edwin Canaca, the son of a
journalist who worked for the military,
was murdered (4). In March, another
attempt was made on Carol Cabrera's
life, which led to the death of her
colleague, Joseph Ochoa (5).
I have presented only the murders of
journalists who have criticized Zelaya
because these have not been publicized
as much by the mainstream media (6).
But, there have been many other
journalists, who have written and spoken
out in favor of Zelaya, who were also
murdered.
The following is a quote from Human
Rights Watch Letter to the Attorney
General of Honduras Urging Investigation
into Attacks on Coup Opponents (7)
"Julio Benitez, a member of the National
Popular Resistance Front and the Union
of Workers of the National Service of
Aqueduct and Sewer Systems (Sindicato de
Trabajadores del Servicio Nacional de
Acueductos y Alcantarillados, SANAA),
was shot by men on a motorcycle as he
left his home on February 15. He died in
the hospital shortly afterwards.
Benitez's wife said he had received
numerous threatening phone calls warning
him to abandon his participation in
opposition groups.
Hermes Reyes, a member of the "Movement
of Artists in Resistance" and the "Broad
Movement for Divinity and Justice," told
Human Rights Watch he was leaving a
meeting of the National Resistance Front
on February 12 when a car drove towards
him. A passenger emerged from the car
and whipped him across the face with a
wire cable. Reyes fell to the ground and
his attacker said, "now we know where
you are, you sons of whores."
The body of Vanesa Yánez, a member of
the Union of Social Security Workers (Sindicato
de Trabajadores del Seguro Social) and
the National Popular Resistance Front,
was reportedly dumped from a car on the
night of February 3. According to
witnesses interviewed by CODEH, her body
had signs of torture.[3] Yánez's mother
told HRW that her daughter had left the
home the day before to buy some
notebooks, and never returned.
Edgar Martinez, Carol Rivera, Johan
Martinez, Meliza Rivera, and one other
woman-all five of whom are active
members of the National Popular
Resistance Front-were abducted on
February 10 and taken to an undisclosed
location, according to testimony
collected by a nongovernmental human
rights organization, Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (Comité
para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos
en Honduras, CODEH). There, they
reportedly were subjected to torture and
two of the women were raped. According
to victims' testimony, when they were
set free, one of their captors said, "Pepe
says hi," using the nickname of
President Porfirio Lobo. The victims
have since moved locations out of fear
for their safety.
Claudia Larissa Brizuela was murdered in
her home on February 24. Her father,
Pedro Brizuela, is a prominent leader of
the National Popular Resistance Front,
of which she was also a member.
In addition to the attacks on members of
the National Popular Resistance Front,
we have also received a report of a
politically-motivated attack on two
journalists:
Manuel de Jesus Murillo from Globo TV
and Ricardo Antonio Rodriguez from
Noticiero Mi Nacion were reportedly
detained on February 2 by plain-clothes
men who identified themselves with
police badges and told them to get into
a car. According to testimony collected
by CODEH, the men were then taken to a
house where they were tortured and
interrogated about arms possessed by the
resistance. The journalists said they
were told their families would be killed
if they denounced their abuse."
The targeted murders of journalists are
certainly not being perpetrated by
Lobo's government. What motive could he
have? What gain would he receive? But
there are others who would gain, and who
would have motive and means to target
journalists. These are foreign entities
who would benefit from further
humiliation of Honduras and sanctions by
the OAS, organized criminals who would
prefer the government assign its limited
resources to chasing the murderers of
journalists instead of working to
dismantle them, and powerful people with
grudges.
All of them can operate freely, under
the protection of a corrupt and
completely ineffective Honduran justice
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