Honduran National Resistance Update 10/5

10:00AM

>Just another day for Micheletti’s thugs: Video from San Pedro Sula – “caveman drag,” shoving a pregnant woman and beating the hell out of her husband.

>On Friday, October 2, 68 mayors and congresspeople gathered at the teachers’ union headquarters to declare they will boycott the elections if Zelaya is not restored to power.”
http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/

>Interview with President Zelaya
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/honduras_dispatch_interview_with_zelaya/

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
**Media Advisory** Contact: Teresa Gutierrez 917.328.6470
 
Press Conference to announce
fact-finding U.S. Delegation to Honduras
MONDAY, OCTOBER 5
1PM
AT THE OFFICES OF CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
 
Invited Speakers Include:
·         Hon. Jorge Arturo Reina, Ambassador of Honduras to the United Nations
·         Hon. Jose Rivera, New York State Assembly Member
·         Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General
·         Roger Wareham, National Lawyers Guild
 
Delegates to Honduras Call on their Elected Officials to Intervene on their Behalf
If delegation prohibited from entering the country by the fraud illegal Michelet Regime
President of American Association of Jurists states importance of U.S. observers
 
WHAT: A press conference featuring representatives of the U.S. Delegation to Honduras, who will announce their intention to travel to Honduras from Oct. 7-11 on a fact-finding mission. The delegation calls on elected officials, the Obama administration and the State Department to assure our safety.
 
The delegation planned to attend the “First International Conference Against the Coup D’Etat and for the Constituent National Assembly in Honduras,” scheduled to take place Oct. 8-10. However given the political and social crisis in the country the conference has been postponed.
 
The U.S. Delegation is nevertheless continuing its trip to Honduras and will conduct a fact-finding investigation of the situation. It will meet with students, labor, women, youth, representatives of the resistance to the coup and others to find the truth about the situation in Honduras.
 
WHO: The U.S. Delegation to Honduras, which was initiated by the International Action Center, will include the following participants:
·         Berta Joubert-Ceci—Co-Director, IAC, Philadelphia chapter; Women’s Fightback Network
·         Heather Cottin—Freeport Workplace Project; Professor, LaGuardia Community College
·         LeiLani Dowell—National Co-Coordinator, FIST youth group; Managing Editor, Workers World Newspaper
·       ;   Wellington Echegaray—Cuba Solidarity New York
·         Michael Gimbel—Central Labor Council Delegate; AFSCME local 275
·         Teresa Gutierrez—Director of Latin America and Immigration Projects, International Action Center; International Migrant Alliance Depty. Secty. General
·         Manolo de los Santos- San Romero de Las Américas Church-UCC/Pastors for Peace
·  ;        Michael Kramer—Veterans for Peace
·         Danilo Lachapel—Director of Community Relations, Evangelical Church of the Bronx
·         Lucy Pagoada—Honduran Resistance U.S.A.
·         Jennifer Waller—International Action Center, FIST youth group
·         Dave Welsh—Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council
  
WHERE:         Center for Constitutional Rights
                                    666 Broadway, 7th Floor
                                    Between Bond & Bleeker, Take Trains F, V, or D to Broadway Lafayette, two block walk
 
WHEN: Monday, October 5, 2009 at 1pm
 
WHY: The repression against the Honduran people’s resistance movement has intensified since President Manuel Zelaya=E 2s return to his country, where he has found refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Violating international law, the Micheletti coup government has consistently attacked the Brazilian embassy, dropping chemical gas, shutting off the water and electricity, and using Long-Range Acoustic Devices that can result in permanent hearing loss.
 
Throughout the capital city, the coup regime’s repression against Zelaya’s supporters and all Honduran people has reached a new peak. Individual liberties and Constitutional rights have been suspended; journalists and radio broadcasters are being severely punished for doing their jobs; and people everywhere are being detained, abused, and tortured by soldiers and police. Wounded demonstrators are being picked up from hospitals and then detained without medical treatment; people are undernourished as a result of the coup regime’s curfews.
 
Nevertheless, three months of constant resistance, and determination to restore their democratically elected President has earned the Honduran people the title Los Incansables (the tireless ones). The U.S. delegation to Honduras will not only gather facts from the resistance, but also express its so lidarity with the people and resistance of Honduras.
 
Vanessa Ramos, President of the American Association of Jurists and member of National Lawyers Guild (NLG) helped organize a delegation to Honduras in late August. Ramos told organizers that U.S. presence is critical at this time and supports the efforts of the fact-finding delegation.
 
The report of the NLG trip which was written by members of the AAJ, the NLG and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers as well as the International Association Against Torture confirm that the June 28 events in Honduras constitute a genuine military coup. The report further states that the military overthrow “was a clear violation of Honduras’ 1982 Political constitution.”
 
The delegation is calling on their elected officials, Members of Congress and representatives of the press to assure the success and safety of the U.S. delegation by aggressively declaring the illegitimacy of the Michelleti government, by condemning the repression on the Honduran people and by demanding the immediat e restoration of Honduras’ democratically elected President, Manuel Zelaya.
 
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Teresa Gutierrez
IAC National Co-Director
National IAC Coordinator Immigrant and Latin American Projects
Build May Day 2010
Bail out the People, not the Banks
Si Se Puede!
917.328.6470