Magbana: Honduran National Resistance Update 10/17

http://www.elpais.com.nyud.net:8090/recorte/20090923elpepuint_11/XLCO/Ies/20090923elpepuint_11.jpg

Union President Jairo Sánchez after being awarded the Honduran
coup's official state police fatal shot for attending a coup protest.



Honduras De Facto Regime Opens Fire in Poor Neighborhoods
Written by Dick Emanuelsson and Mirian Huezo Emanuelsson
Wednesday, 14 October 2009

~snip~
The same morning and hour that Mario Valladares and his six friends were shot, Jairo Sanchez was shot by uniformed officers under General Romeo Vazquez. The security agents of the National Department of Criminal Investigation (DICN) did not say a single word, they just opened fire on the crowd that protested against the dictatorship in the neighborhood of San Francisco.

"Unfortunately, they shot our companion in the left cheek, leaving him badly wounded," says Abel Morales, Secretary of Acts in the National Union of Workers of the Professional Training Institute (SITRAINFOP) that has nearly a thousand members in Honduras.

Abel Morales explains the marathon his union has put on to raise funds for
Jairo Sanchez' medical expenses. Photo: Mirian Huezo Emanuelsson.

As we were interviewing him in the beautiful park of the Institute, union members were holding a Marathon Event to raise funds for Sanchez's operations and treatment, which costs half a million lempiras or approximately USD$27,000. The union leader is an inch away from death.

"Thank God, he's conscious. Due to the operation they performed that same Wednesday that the attack took place, he can't speak. He can only make hand gestures, and write notes to communicate with us," says Morales.

But the curfew was lifted at the hour when they were attacked?

"Yes, at that moment the curfew was suspended. The Resistance called out to us and we are responding to that call."

Sanchez was taken immediately to Hospital Escuela. But after three months of the coup there is insufficient equipment at the hospital and due to the severity of his wound, he was transferred to the Medical Center, an elegant, private hospital with the best doctors, where he was immediately attended to.

"They took out projectile fragments as well as the remaining fragments of the bone that had broken. They repaired some of his arteries and veins that the shot had damaged," related Morales.

"Right now, the doctors have decided not to remove the bullet itself because it is lodged really close to the aorta. (Sanchez) could have a severe hemorrhage and die."

What was the reaction of union members to the attempted assassination?

"They called all of the union managers, investigating, because we have a very united base in this union. In cases like this one, the people react in a very orderly way."

While we are talking you can hear the ruckus of the Great Marathon that the union has organized to raise funds to cover Sanchez' medical costs.

"We are holding this Marathon in all of the local sections all over the country to support our fellow union member. We really appreciate all the support we've received from unions all over the world."

Morales explains, "Conditions in Honduras are tough and we the union leaders are very exposed in this situation. At 6 in the afternoon on Wednesday, a contingent of four patrol units with a total of 60 officers and 60 patrolmen entered the neighborhood where I live. They come into many neighborhoods, not just mine, shooting, raiding homes, breaking down doors, taking a few members of the resistance.

"Thank God they haven't come to my house. But we have received news that they are watching us, above all the union leaders who are at the forefront of the resistance that is known throughout the world as a peaceful movement. But the police and the army come and they repress us."

"The situation is becoming difficult and international organizations must get involved in the issue."

A Death List for Popular Leaders?
Speaking of the repression against union leaders, last year three DCIN agents were detained by members of the Autonomous University of Honduras Union (Sintraunah) when the agents were beginning to act strangely. They found a list of 130 names, photographs of the popular leaders, union headquarters, telephone numbers, etc. Was SITRAINFOP on that list?

"The members of Sintraunah, a very beligerant union, were able to detain three agents from the DCIN and from them they were able to attain a list with 130 names of union members and popular leaders. Among them was the SITRAINFOP leadership."

A New Operation for Sanchez
We arrive at the Medical Center where the national president of Honduran polytechnic professors, Jairo Sanchez, is awaiting a second operation due to a high fever that has persisted over the last few days and has not broken. We find him conscious but unable to speak. His look is firm and fixed and seems to speak to us with the words of the song that has become a slogan of the resistance to the coup:

"They are afraid of us because we have no fear!"

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2154/68/

Same article, in Spanish:
http://www.adital.com.br/site/noticia.asp?lang=ES&cod=41903

Click for photo

Otra víctima suma a su lista el régimen dictatorial, en esta ocasión Jairo Sánchez, presidente del sindicato de trabajadores del Instituto Nacional de Formacion Profesional (INFOP), fallecio despues de permancer cuatro semanas en estado de coma, producto de un impacto de bala que se alojó en su cabeza, producto de la represión policial que sufre el pueblo en resistencia.

Dictadura cobra otra víctima: Jairo Sánchez, presidente del sindicato del INFOP
http://ellibertador.hn/Nacional/3389.htm