http://21stcenturysocialism.com/article/honduras_the_hooded_face_of_dictatorship_01870.html
Honduras: the hooded face of dictatorship
It was a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon in Honduras when I came face to face
with the masked gunmen of the coup regime.
I was travelling in a convoy of sixty cars and buses towards the border with
Nicaragua. The convoy included the first lady of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, and
her family. She was hoping to be reunited with her husband, Manuel Zelaya, the
country’s elected president.
Last month, Zelaya was kidnapped by the army and expelled from the country, and
that Friday morning he had vowed to re-enter Honduras at a border crossing
where thousands of his supporters had already gathered to greet and protect him.
Just before midday, the coup leader, Roberto Micheletti, went live on air to
announce an immediate curfew. His aim was to provide legal cover for what his
illegal regime had being doing all morning: preventing ordinary citizens from
moving freely about their own country.
We listened to Micheletti’s announcement on Radio Globo, one of only two radio
stations still daring to oppose the coup regime. We had two choices: turn
around and drive back to the capital, Tegucigalpa, or continue towards the
border in open defiance of the military. We choose to do the latter.
As we neared what was to be the first of a series of military roadblocks, I
witnessed soldiers stopping public buses and ordering the passengers out onto
the roadside. If these citizens were to make it to the border or to their
homes, they would now have to do so on foot.
The army roadblock consisted of a truck parked sideways across the road and a
couple of dozen soldiers together with their shame-faced commanding officer.
After half an hour of fruitless negotiations, the driver of the car in front of
us took a calculated gamble and began to drive around the roadblock. Four
soldiers moved in front of the car and raised their guns, and then moved aside
to let it pass. We followed, along with the rest of the convoy.
And so this battle of nerves continued, roadblock after roadblock. On each
occasion we dared the army to shoot, and each time they declined to do so,
possibly disobeying orders. In this manner, we inched closer and closer to the
border, buoyed by the support of local peasant families who cheered and
applauded as we passed.
But just when it looked like we were going to reach our intended destination,
the situation took a terrifying turn. Our convoy was joined by two truckloads
of hooded gunmen, each them wearing black balaclavas with only tiny slits cut
out for the eyes. They wore police uniforms.
I recorded on tape describing what happened next (my voice is shaking as I
speak):
“This is an absolutely incredible scene. We have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 police
officers with what appears to be pump action guns and they are all wearing
balaclavas and fully masked up. I am standing directly in front of them.
“There are police vehicles to my left, and there is a huge army truck in front
of me. I am going to walk as far as I can towards the military checkpoint
here... I am now at the very front of the military checkpoint and I can see a
line of army personnel in helmets carrying riot shields. And they are being
confronted by the wife of President Zelaya, who is now standing directly in
front of a line of armed police. They have clubs and batons ready to attack us…
they are holding their clubs up in the air.
“The crowd are now chanting. The president’s wife is on the phone, possibly to
her husband or possibly she’s talking with the international media. The line of
military police have batons drawn and are standing literally three yards away
from where we’re standing… this is an unarmed peaceful demonstration. I am now
going to retreat, as the military have now spread out across the fields and are
taking up positions with guns, surrounding us. This is an extremely scary
situation.”
Later, we spotted three snipers high up on a mountain to our right, moving
around like little ants; one dressed in a white shirt, the others in army green.
Thankfully no-one in our group was shot or killed that day, probably because
the presence of the first lady provided us with some protection. Others have
not been so lucky. As of 24th July, human rights organisations had already
documented that seven opponents of the regime had been killed and two more were
missing since the coup on June 28th, with the real figure probably much higher.
I left on Friday night by car, travelling back to the capital under the curfew.
Shortly after sunrise, the body of Pedro Magdiel Muñoz Salvador, a 23 year old
opponent of the coup regime, was found where it had been dumped, 400 metres
from the checkpoint. His body bore multiple stab wounds and other marks of
torture.
Pedro Magdiel Muñoz Salvador
The rest of the group remain trapped by the military, without food, water or
shelter. Disease is spreading, but the army have refused to allow in the Red
Cross.
Not everyone in Honduras is against the coup. The upper and middle classes, who
describe themselves as ‘civil society’, are mobilising in support of the
regime. When I attended their state-sponsored rally earlier in the week, I was
told that there is no repression in Honduras. I now know this to be a lie.
Hondurans are being intimidated, arrested, and killed. Censorship of the media
is almost complete. Obama says that he is against the military takeover, but he
has yet to formally declare it a military coup. Were he to do so, US law
stipulates that all military and economic aid to the regime must be stopped.
And despite the US administration's refusal to recognise the coup regime, and
the USA's declaration that Manuel Zelaya remains the only legitimate president
of Honduras, Hilary Clinton and the State Department have made clear that they
are opposed to the efforts by Zelaya to return to his country.
On Saturday morning, the pro-coup daily newspapers in Honduras (as befits a
military dictatorship, there are no anti-coup daily newspapers) triumphantly
announced Clinton's declaration that Zelaya's attempt to cross the border from
Nicaragua was 'provocative'.
The coup regime in Honduras survives by virtue of the equivocation of the
United States. In order to end the coup d'etat, the US administration needs
merely to make two public announcements. One is that all military and economic
aid to the regime is immediately suspended; the other is that the United States
gives its full and practical support to the immediate return of Manuel Zelaya
to his country, to take up his rightful office as president.
If Obama will take these steps, the dictatorship in Honduras will fall in a
day. It is surely now time that he does so.
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