Xiomara Castro alongside her husband Manuel Zelaya (Facebook)

A protest organised by the National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP) of Honduras, paralysed large parts of the capital on Thursday.

Teachers and activists from the FNRP led the marches in Tegucigalpa, and one of their focuses was the new controversial labour and development law. The law, which was approved by congress on Wednesday, includes measures to create “special development regions”, equated by the opposition to an attempt to revive the government’s failed ‘model city’ project.

In October 2012, the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled the creation of ‘model cities’ unconstitutional. The project was for the cities to be privately owned and autonomously run, with their own justice and police system.

“We reject the labour and development regime law that once again brings up the model cities, imposed as part of a perverse plan to disarticulate the nation,” stated an FNRP document read out by Xiomara Castro.

Castro is the wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a coup on 28 June 2009. Castro is now the presidential candidate for the Libertad y Refundaciión (Libre) party.

The FNRP also denounced rising living costs, and rejected “the economic and social policies of the de facto regime of Porfirio Lobo [the current president]”.

The statement claimed that thousands of public servants had not received their promised salaries, and that the money “was used for political campaigns at the service of the oligarchy in the last internal elections.”

This is the first protest organised by the FNRP in recent months, after it has focused its recent efforts of formalising its political branch (Libre), and taking their candidate to the presidency.

According to telesurTV, Castro is currently given as favourite for the next presidential elections, which will take place in November of this year. Castro reminded those listening to her speech that the Libre party was “born out of the popular fights in the streets, and the protests against the coup.”

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.

An independent Truth Commission has found that the current Honduran government is violating human rights.

The Truth Commission, an organisation approved and supported by 22 national and international NGOs, released a 306-page document entitled “The Most Relevant Voices Are Those of the Victims”.

The report counts 5,418 human rights violations between the military coup in June 2009 and August 2011. The report states that police, armed forces or government officials carried out 84% of these violations of which 60% occurred in the six first months after the coup.

The report also says “the effects of the coup continue, and before and after the elections carried out in October 2009 the governments have used and continue to use terror as tool for social control”. It also lays responsibility on big private companies and various actors of the financial industry that supported and facilitated the coup.

Elsie Monge, a member of the Truth Commission, said “it is unacceptable, that those responsible of these violations don’t receive any punishment while the victims, who are only fighting for their rights, are massacred, taken to court and sentenced without any evidence”.

The military overthrew democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya from the centre-left Liberal Party on 28^th June 2009 and replaced him with Roberto Michelletti. Michelletti remained in power until December 2009, the period in which the report dates the majority of human rights violations.

He was then succeeded by the current president Porfirio Lobo Sosa from the right-wing conservative National Party under which human rights violations have continued according to the report released this week.

Vice President of AMARC Latin America and the Caribbean, Carlos Aparicio, said there had been reports that warned about the vulnerable status of communitarian communicators in Honduras. Nery Orellana is the third journalist murdered in Honduras 2011.

Aparicio said the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has repeatedly denounced “the conditions of community aggression against journalists after the coup.”

In communication with Radio Earth in Chile, AMARC LAC Vice President said that “the authorities are ignored, deaf and unpunished responsibility for a life like Nery Orellana.”

The representative of the community radio stations complained that “there are no guarantees in Honduras despite the Covenant” concluded between the government of Honduras and Manuel Zelaya.

Geremias Orellana, 26, was director of community radio Joconguera in western Honduras.

He also was a correspondent for Radio Progreso, a member of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) and contributor to the Catholic Church in the town of Candelaria.

The journalist was killed last week in the village of San Lorenzo, western department of Lempira, Honduras.

It is worth remembering that since March 2010 14 Honduras communicators have been killed in Honduras.

The governmental Commission of Truth and Reconciliation (CVR) presented a report that recognizes that the Honduran former president, Manuel Zelaya, was overthrown by a coup d’etat. Human rights violations were also recognized.

“The processes followed against Manuel Zelaya were part of a coup against the Executive,” affirmed the coordinator of the CVR, Guatemalan Eduardo Stein.

He made the statement together with other commissioners during the presentation of the report developed by the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation this Thursday.

The current Honduran leader Porfirio Lobo and the general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, were present at the exhibition.

The presented text consisted of an analysis of the chronology of the acts that occurred during the coupe d’etat in Honduras. It also explains about “findings and recommendations”.

However, the presentation of this report had been criticized by the Frente de la Resistencia Popular (FNRP), or the Front for Popular Resistance, and by former president Zelaya.

In this sense, the former Honduran leader said he did not have a “favorable opinion” of the presented report.

On 4^th May 2010, Porfirio Lobo signed a decree to set up the CVR with the support of the OAS. It was meant to institute the events related to the coup d’etat against Zelaya.

As an alternative to this Commission, the Commission of the Truth (CDV) arose. The CDV is a nongovernmental agency and it counts on the support of the FNRP and different humanitarian organizations.

This Tuesday, Manuel Zelaya testified before the CDV about the occurings during the coup that overthrew him 28th June 2009.

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

The former president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, yesterday testified before the Truth Commision (CDV) about incidents that took place during the coup d’état of the 28th June 2009.

He will testify “only before the CDV”, stated Luis Carlos Nieto, one of its members. His former chancellor Patricia Rodas, forced into exile after violating the constitution and judicial system in 2009, has also testified before the body.

After allegedly attempting to make changes to the 1982 Honduran Constitution, the then-incumbent president was seized by the military and forced into exile.

Evidence of crimes committed against the president himself, as well as his cabinet, lawyers, journalists, Union leaders and LGBT activists during the coup has raised questions about the violation of human rights by it’s leaders.

The Commission is in the process of gathering information in order to ascertain the extent of these violations and condemn the perpetrators. It is thought that a final report will be completed before the end of the year.

Nieto added however that the CDV’s work had been hindered by threats and attacks on its technical team, including death threats levelled against the Honduran priest Fausto Milla and his assistant, Denia Mejía.

The CDV was created as an autonamous alternative to the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation (CVR), a body put in place by the government of Honduras’s current president Porfirio Lobo.

On the 4th May 2010, the Honduran mandate signed a decree to establish the CVR, with the backing of the Organisation of American States OAS, in order to investigate illegal activities under the coup d’état.

Former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and current president Porfirio Lobo, signed the National Reconciliation Agreement. The document enables Zelaya’s return to Honduras and the re-entry of the country in the Organization of American States (OEA).

Honduras had been expelled from the OEA a week after Zelaya was overthrown on 28^th June 2009.

The “Agreement for the National Reconciliation and Consolidation of the Democratic System in the Honduran Republic” was signed yesterday in Colombia. It comprises ten different axes; amongst them, “full recognition of [Zelaya and his supporters’] rights in conditions of freedom and security”.

Also, the document regards the People’s National Resistence Front as a political party and contemplates the creation of a Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

After signing the agreement, Zelaya expressed that “with this document we are reaffirming the fact that democracy is a right of the people”.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC

The Honduran ex-president, Manuel Zelaya, has announced his plans to return to Honduras next week. This comes after a 23 month-long exile in the Dominican Republic. His return has been brought about by the mediation carried out by Venezuela and Colombia.

Manuel Zelaya showed his desire to return to Honduras during his speech this Wednesday in front of the Sao Paolo Forum, taking place in Nicaragua.

The ex-mandatory said “this ordeal will end next week and, God willing, it’s possible that the exiles will return to Honduras”.

Zelaya was thrown out by soldiers during a coup on 28th June 2009. He has spent the last 23 months in exile in the Dominican Republic. He has spoken of trying to return to Honduras on several occasions. He expressed that it is possible that he’ll return “to re-establish freedoms and political processes in the country.”

Manuel Zelaya thanked the Colombian president Manuel Santos and his Venezuelan equivalent, Hugo Chávez, for their mediation. He also asked the United States why they hadn’t given a verdict on this mediation.

The overthrown ex-president and current director of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) said he would only return if the trials opened against him were cancelled.

Last Monday, the Court of Appeals cancelled two trials against Zelaya on account of presumed corruption. The Court alleged that these trials were opened in a “state of defencelessness.” This cancellation cleared the way for Zelaya’s return to his country.
Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC.

The Honduran prosecutor announced that it will apply an “administrative appeal” against the court ruling that favoured the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya. It refers to the decision of the Court of Appeals which annulled the investigation into alleged corruption by Zelaya.

The administrative appeal appears to be a means of contesting, for which the the same court that had issued the resolution to leave it with out any modifications or reversal.

The Prosecutor of the Fight against Corruption, Henry Salgado, said that after filing the administrative appeal, 60 days will be available “to decide whether an act of protection can be agreed.”

On the other hand, he stated that the position of the prosecutor has always been “clear and convincing” and that it considered that Zelaya has to be prosecuted. Salgado described the decision by the Court of Appeals to annul the proceedings against the former president as a “matter of substance, not form”.

Similarly, the attorney said that there still is not a definitive dismissal and that the procedural acts were canceled but not the actions themselves.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC.

Zelaya selected four specific points of negotiation with the current Honduran government. Among these, the former president requested the vindication of the fight for a National Constitutent Assembly for the restauration of the democratic system and the return of the Honduran exiles.

Zelaya also asked for the recognition of the FNRP as a political force, seeking for the front’s participation in politics and for the defence of Human Rights

The former Honduran president argued the military coup that dismissed him from his office, back in June 2009, was supported by the U.S. Moreover, he assured the coup gravely damaged the Honduran people and the democratic system in the Caribbean region.

Zelaya is currently under political asylum in Dominican Republic.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC