One Year Later: Honduras Resistance Strong Despite US-Supported Coup

One Year Later: Honduras Resistance Strong Despite US-Supported Coup
Monday 28 June 2010
by: Laura Raymond and Bill Quigley, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

One year ago, on June 28, 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was awakened by gunfire. A coup was carried out by U.S.-trained military officers, including graduates of the infamous U.S. Army School of the Americas (WHINSEC) in Georgia. President Zelaya was illegally taken to Costa Rica.

Democracy in Honduras ended as a de facto government of the rich and powerful seized control. A sham election backed by the U.S. confirmed the leadership of the coup powers. The U.S. and powerful lobbyists continue to roam the hemisphere trying to convince other Latin American countries to normalize relations with the coup government.

The media has ignored the revival of U.S. hard power in the Americas and the widespread resistance that challenges it.

A pro-democracy movement, the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) formed in the coup's aftermath. Despite horrendous repression, it has organized the anger and passion of a multitude of mass-based popular movements - landless workers, farmers, women, LGBTQ folks, unions, youth and others - and spread a palpable energy of possibility and hope throughout the country.

These forces of democracy have been subjected to police killings, arbitrary detentions, beatings, rape and other sexual abuse of women and girls, torture and harassment of journalists, judges and activists. Prominent LGBTQ activists, labor organizers, campesinos and youth working with the resistance have been assassinated. Leaders have been driven into exile.