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3 January 2011 | | | |

A Bad Beginning Makes a Bad Ending

2010 ends with harassment against grassroots organizations in Honduras

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The closing of 2010 in Honduras was not a reason for celebration for many organizations that oppose Porfirio Lobo’s regime. There were reports of harassment and persecution against social leaders every day, according to the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP).

An example of this is what the Association of High-school Teachers of Honduras (Copemh) reported on Sunday 27 in a press release, that its main office had been militarized during the high-school break.

They faulted Lobo for promoting neoliberal policies to privatize education “in all the Meso American region”, and also for attacking the teachers’ association by identifying it as an actor that could hinder that process, Red Marazanica de Informacion reported.

“If education is in the hands of the oligarchy and the businessmen, that would be the end of freethinking, while for them it would mean millions in profits”, said the teachers. In 2010 they mobilized against the implementation of the new General Education Act.

Also, according to information provided by Marazanica, the Women’s Movement for Peace “Visitacion Padilla” - also known as Las Chonas- reported that their office in Tegucigalpa was assaulted on December 21.

The perpetrators took some documents and looked for information in the computers. The women’s organization believes that this criminal act is “an expression of the constant surveillance, harassment, persecution and repression that they are subject to because of resisting and ignoring Porfirio Lobo’s administration”.

Meanwhile, the Commission of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Honduras (Cofadeh) blamed a group of judges and attorneys for the attempt to seize classified documents on December 15.

One of the members of the organization was arrested for that. Her name is Elba Rubio and she is also a journalist with the community radio station La Voz de Zacate Grande. She will have to appear in Court on January 11, together with another colleague, Elia Hernandez. They were charged with disobedience.

The decision was taken by the jury of Amapala municipality after the detention of Hernandez and Rubio, during the eviction of peasant families in the community of Coyolito, in the island of Zacate Grande.

These arbitrary incidents were reported by the World Association of Community Radios Broadcasters – Latin America and the Caribbean (AMARC ALC), which demanded the Honduran authorities to overrule the criminal process, Pulsar news agency reported.

Photo: Agencia Púlsar

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