The Honduran Supreme Court ruled today that the decree that allowed the creation of ‘private cities’, with their own laws and police, was unconstitutional.

The controversial decree voted in January 2011 and supported by President Porfirio Lobo was designed to allow these private cities or Special Development Regions (RED) to have their own law enforcement, tax system and even autonomy on monetary and immigration issues.

A lower court had already ruled the decree unconstitutional on 3rd October and the Supreme Court reinforced the decision after appeal. This latest decision is final and cannot be overturned.

The spokesman for the Supreme Court, Danilo Izaguirre, told The Associated Press that with 13 votes for and two against the highest judicial authority in the country had ruled that the decree would “privatise the Honduran state and make it disappear, transforming it into a large commercial corporation.”

The actual building and development of these cities had already been granted to the American investment group MGK. Octavio Sánchez, Lobo’s chief of cabinet, had defended the decree, declaring it was the chance to “create from scratch a region in Honduras where the best practices in terms of education, healthcare, justice and security could be implemented”.

Jari Dicson, a member of the Association of Jurists for the Rule of Law under whose name the legal procedure was initiated, said he was satisfied with the court’s decision.

“This has been a fight by independent lawyers and professionals who believe in the defence of the law, when we analysed the constitutional status of the RED we understood that no government can give any type of concession to anyone for them to put in place their own government, police and judges. “

This was the case of a state within a state and that’s illegal. Those who approved this project were betraying our homeland and accepting that the Honduran people are incapable of ruling their own country” stated Dicson.

Porfirio Lobo arrived in power in 2009 following a constitutional crisis in which democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown. Human rights activists have since then reported that the government violated human rights during and after the coup.

Three died and 30 were arrested after 600 peasant families clashed with police and security forces in Bajo Aguán, Honduras, this weekend. The families had moved onto the land to occupy it on Saturday in protest of a wave of violent evictions of landless peasants in the region.

On Sunday, police moved in to evict the families from a 540-hectare terrain. According to the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA) hundreds of officers closed the exits and threw teargas.

According to MUCA, before the police operation, the farm’s security guards shot at the peasants, and ambulances were not allowed to enter the area.

Civil society groups have blamed the country’s president, Porfirio Lobo, for the latest deaths. In 2011 the president decreed the militarisation of the region after various confrontations, something which is said to have only further aggravated the situation. The total number of deaths due to land evictions in the area now numbers over 80 in the past three years.

Last month, various civil society groups, along with the National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP), accused Lobo of human rights violations in the region. The Front has called for urgent new agrarian legislation to stop the conflicts in the Aguán.

Police in Honduras announced they have caught a second person in connection with the kidnapping and murder of the HRN journalist Alfredo Villatoro Rivera.

Villatoro’s body was found on Tuesday in Residencial Las Uvas, a quiet neighbourhood of Honduran capital city, Tegucigalpa. He was abducted on Wednesday the 9^th May when he was intercepted between travelling from his home to his work.

Juan Ramón Fonseca, 25, who was captured today who is thought to have carried out negotiations for ransom with Villatoro’s family. Miguel Ángel Álvarez, 34, who was arrested on Wednesday, is another suspect in the case. Both men are pleading not guilty to the crime, stating they had no role in the kidnaping.

Police are transferring the two suspects under heavy guard to a maximum-security prison located in Tamara, 15 miles north of the capital. It is hoped that they will provide information about the kidnapping and killing of the journalist.

Two days ago, President Lobo Sosa offered the equivalent of US$157,400 for anyone who had any information on those responsible for the murders. Lobo and Bonilla Pompey, the security secretary, have assured that the perpetrators will be punished.

“The government is absolutely determined to regain security for Hondurans and defend their lives, we are doing everything possible to solve this crime and clarify the details,” said Lobo in a public statement.

The Honduran government and President Lobo have previously been criticised as not giving enough protection for journalists, or prosecuting perpetrators of violence towards journalists.

The overthrown president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, has said that the first year of Porfirio Lobo’s government had been marked by “disappointing and negative results”.

In an open letter the ex-president said that 12 months into Lobo’s government the social, economic and political situation of all Hondurans had worsened. He said: “the people generating the conflict still hold the real power in the country.”

Zelaya said that the impossibility of returning to Organisation of American States (OEA) is damaging for the country’s future. He also questioned the fact that the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) is not recognised as the official opposition party.

Zelaya, who is the leader of the FNRP, was overthrown in a coup d’état on 28^th June 2009 while urging for a public referendum and is currently in exile in the Dominican Republic.

The FNRP held a protest yesterday against the first year of Lobo’s rule. The party said that he is an extension of the coup and have requested that Zelaya should be allowed to return to the country.

The FNRP rejected the constitutional reforms that have been passed, which permit referendums and plebiscites to take place without any restrictions. This allows the path to be open for presidential re-election.

The party has said that with changes to article 5 of the Carta Magna “they are trying to give the current regime the external appearance of democracy” to Lobo’s government.

For this reason they demand a National Constitutional Assembly, which will allow the nation to reform.

The argument given by leaders of the coup for overthrowing Zelaya was that he was attempting to hold an unconstitutional referendum.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.

The reporter for the UN’s investigation into freedom of expression, Frank La Rue has expressed concern about the current climate of violence and criminalization facing community radio stations in Honduras.

La Rue said he is concerned about the tightening of laws concerning community radio stations, instated by President Profirio Lobo.

The report specifically sites the threat to stations that “publically denounce social and environmental issues and human rights violations that directly affect communities.”

La Rue reiterated his positions on the importance of the rights of citizens to be fully informed about the activities of public officials.

This relates in particular to cases where these functions threaten or affect their individual or collective rights.

In addition he called on the state of Honduras to take into account international instruments related to the freedom of speech, particularly, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights.

On the 14^th of January 2011, the community radio Faluma Bimeto (Coco Dulce) of the community of Triunfo de la Cruz had to close its facilities due to threats of fire.

The station had already been the victim of a fire in January 2010.

The persecution and criminalization of the community radios has been demonstrated in other communities, where there have even been clashes between community members and security forces.

A radio station in Zacate Grande has also been victim to land abuses from authorities.

These abuses against radio stations have increased since the coup on 28^th June 2009, which has been kept in place by President Lobo.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.

The commissioner of Human Rights in Honduras, Ramón Custodio, reported that the rate of violent deaths in the country averages that of one every 88 minutes.

A document noted that in 2000 there was an average of nine homicides per day.

In the first half of 2010 that number has almost doubled, surpassing 16 deaths a day.

The report notes that the victims of homicide were assaulted with firearms, knifes, and other forceful weapons.

If this number is maintained or increased, the country could close 2010 with the highest murder rate in the world.

The organization of the People’s National Front of Popular Resistance has repeatedly denounced the killings and violations of human rights by the government of Porfirio Lobo.

Lobo assumed presidency in January 2010, after winning a questionable election held under the de facto government that ousted power from Manuel Zelaya.

From the beginning the Resistance has maintained that Lobo is a continuation of the coup.

Also the Front requires the convening of a National Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution. For this they have collected more than 1,300,000 signatures.

On Wednesday the Front decided to reject the proposal of Lobo to discuss the Constituent Assembly, considering it to be a farce.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.

The integrator of the National Resistance Front (FNRP), Rasel Tomé, considered it “shameful” for the United Nations to receive the current Honduran president, Porfirio Lobo.

Tomé said Lobo “had not established any of the conditions that the international community had proposed.”

Also, the president “did not dismount the structure of the coup.”

And he remembered that there are government officials who participated in the coup that ousted Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009.

In this way, the integrator of the Resistance Front questioned Lobo’s participation in the General Assembly of the United Nations to be held in New York.

Lobo was the first president to participate on Monday at the summit of the Millennium Development Goals.

During his speech, he raised the need for the international community to renew its commitment to the fight against poverty and hunger.

It is worth remembering that the Resistance Front does not consider the Lobo’s regime legitimate considering it’s continuity with the coup.

In this sense, after collecting more than one million, 250 thousand signatures to convene a National Constituent Assembly, the Front announced that it would not hold talks with Lobo.

In a press conference, the Resistance said it will only sit and talk with the president to define when and how to make the Constituent Assembly, but not for anything else.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced on Thursday that the United States would be restoring financial aid to Honduras, which was suspended after the former president Manuel Zalaya was toppled by a military coup on 28th June 2009. Under the program, Honduras is set to receive over $30m.

Speaking during her visit to Costa Rica, one of the final stops in her tour of Latin America, Clinton told the press “We think that Honduras has taken important and necessary steps that deserve the recognition and the normalisation of relations.”

The steps that Clinton referred to were the election of Honduras’s current president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who took power in January this year. After a period of turmoil following last year’s coup, Lobo was elected in polls presided over by an interim government installed by the military. Several countries have refused to recognise the results, as the elections took place without the restitution of the ex President Zelaya, and were boycotted by several members of the opposition.

Clinton has pressed other American countries to recognise Lobo, saying that while it was “their right to wait” to resume relations with Honduras, she didn’t “know what they’re waiting for”.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) followed suit with Clinton, as just one day after her statement it released $160m for Honduras, from accounts that had formerly been frozen.

However, several countries in the region including Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela have refused to resume ties with Honduras, maintaining that Lobo was elected in an environment that was unconstitutional. Appearing in a meeting with Clinton on Wednesday, Brazil’s foreign minister Celso Amorim stated that, while he believed that some of Lobo’s actions since taking office had been positive, a military coup is “not the kind of thing that can be easily absorbed.”

As well as the misgivings of Latin American leaders, Clinton has received a letter from the United States Congress, condemning human rights abuses in Honduras against opponents of the current government. Members of congress wrote that they “denounced the continuation of assassination, persecution and abuse against leaders of the resistance opposed to the coup of the 28th June”.