August 2019 Honduras Coup Update

1 August 2019

UNAH lecturer in literature and active defender of public education, Sergio Rivera, was at the D-1 parking lot on campus, when a CNK (private security company) guard yelled at him, complaining about his participation in defending students and underage street vendors on campus. It was concerning especially because the same guard had been taking photos of Sergio a few days before this. Sergio was also persecuted by the Julieta Castellanos administration for supporting earlier student struggles.

2 August 2019

In Vallecito, Colón, where Garífuna Afrodescendent communities are in resistance and in constant danger, harassment and threat for recuperating land possession where they have held collective land title since 1997 but had been dispossessed firstly by palm giants, and subsequently by drug traffickers and companies of megaprojects (anything from tourism to mining), on this date of 2 August 2019, two armed attackers arrived and fired gunshots at some compas between the lagoon and the beach, but luckily the compas were not hit and they ran and fled the attack and hid. Back in 2014 and 2015, the state had a shelter with police protection for the community as a place persecuted community members can go to and be safe, but this was then suspended and the state gave no explanations. Recently, community members have reported with concerns that there had been more heavily armed people entering the territory in motorcycles and vehicles, and more aggressions, than before. In response, the police kept telling them not to worry, because ‘we know these people, they are our friends’. As if that were to offer any comfort to the community. The community, which is organising women’s cooperatives to grow coconuts and cassavas, knows very well that the state only cares for megaprojects to go ahead, ‘at any moment there could be a massacre.’

4 August 2019

In Santa Martha in San Pedro Sula, people occupied roads against the dictatorship.

5 August 2019

From inside their tiny prison cell, political prisoners Edwin, Raúl and Rommel began a hunger strike to demand better conditions for all prisoners, and for themselves to be transferred, and for those who were behind the assassination of Berta Caceres to be punished, and for the JOH regime to get out. At the same time, in El Progreso, their relatives had started a fast outside state buildings demanding for their immediate freedom. ‘We have suffered aggressions, physical and verbal confrontations and even death threats. We spoke up about these, but the authorities had omitted the case, ignoring us, or repressing us more and showing us more hostility, to the point of shutting us in an improvised cell that don’t have the minimal conditions...in unison, from here, we tell you that they will never shut up our voices that demand justice. As long as the social inequality dominates, there will be the people (fighting against this).’ There is one other political prisoner, named Gustavo Caceres, who has an intellectual disability that impedes him from speaking for himself, he had been arrested and held in the prison of El Progreso since December 2017. Outside, the education sector is on strike and there are no classes.

6 August 2019

In Tegucigalpa, UNAH students protested fighting against ‘CC-4’ - denouncing how drug trafficking is also behind contributing to the political party campaigning funds of the JOH regime. Police attacked these students together with employees of the Little Caesars Restaurant launching teargas bombs at these. From the teargas bombs of the military police, a total of four small businesses were set on fire.

Meanwhile, in San Pedro Sula, students of UNAH-VS were on campus in occupation and protest, and others were in class, when police gassed, repressed and beat with batons anyone they found inside, including Chevez, a human rights defender, breaking his glasses and mobile phone. The repression went into the night, and a few students and a cameraperson were left wounded.

7 August 2019

UNAH-VS students continued the struggle to end the dictatorship and protesting the repression of the previous day, marching en-masse, joined by local public uni and high school students from UNITEC and UTH, energetically chanting and singing. As students were marching, a plain clothed man pointed a gun at some uni students threatening these.

In the night time, San Pedro Sula also had mobilisations calling for JOH to get out. There was brutal police repression against journalists there.

Tegucigalpa also had mobilisations this night calling JOH to get out. Earlier in the day, there was a demo outside the Prosecutors department where relatives of the political prisoners continued to fast demanding their freedom, and there was also mobilisation at Palmerola, the US military base in Comayagua, demanding freedom for political prisoners.

In Choluteca, people who belonged to Bastión del Sur – the struggle there against the dictatorship and all that embodies this, were attacked. Police arrested an underage youth, mounted an operation near the home of Doña Aleyda Huette, and confiscated a motorcycle, before that they also destroyed a motorcycle of one of the protesters.

In La Esperanza, Intibucá, where people set up barricades of roads with tyres on fires to overthrow the dictatorship, state security forces brutally repressed the people in struggle with teargas bombs.

8 August 2019

In Tegucigalpa, high school students of ICVC protested the JOH dictatorship. A teacher reported that the police and soldiers savagely attacked hundreds of students with teargases over about two hours.

Meanwhile, in the US, in Miami, when a group of Hondurans protested against JOH, the Honduran Consul Gerardo Simón was annoyed by them and called immigration to capture these, assuming that they were all without papers. There were also protests of Hondurans in Los Angeles.

9 August 2019

The big news of this date was that after more than 18 months of political imprisonment in maximum security prison La Tolva, Edwin Espinal and Raúl Alvarez’s release on bail was ordered, as the courts felt the pressure of the campaigners outside – people had campaigned long and hard, and as lawyers argued, the decision to detain them pre-trial was arbitrary, and the judge who made the decision did not have the jurisdiction to. Edwin was immediately released, and Raúl’s was pending because he had one more charge addition to what Edwin has, but his release was to be in the next days. Rommel Herrera and Gustavo Cáceres, however, continue inside, so the campaigns outside continue. People mobilised with lots of banners, chanting, music, drums, and screaming. Police looked to be posted in strategic points, primed for repression.

In Sabá, Colón, where people were in protest, calling the JOH dictatorship to get out, police repressed people using including firearms. Police shot against a youth in protest, wounding him with a gunshot under the collarbone. Also in Colón, in Tocoa, people were in protests against CC-4, and a police truck caught on fire. There were several protesters arrested.

In San Pedro Sula, around 10,000 students continued to protest against the JOH dictatorship inside UNAH-VS where uni authorities had to call off classes. CNK security company ID checked people entering the campus in vehicles but did not ID or impede the entry of police and military agents who invaded shooting at students, staff, human rights defenders and journalists teargases and rubberbullets (perhaps gunshots too, reports were unclear on this occasion). In the parking lot of the uni, a plain clothed person pointed firearms at students threatening these, and he left after without being arrested. Private guards also joined public forces in attacking those in protest. A special forces agent wounded the forehead of Canal 11 cameraperson Jual Carlos Castillo who was there covering the repression. Students who organise and raise their voices know they are being profiled and followed.

Also in San Pedro Sula, underage high school student of JTR, Josué Morales, who was arrested and imprisoned since 18 July 2019, was finally released, with charges against him dismissed. He was arrested with other students and a guard when police invaded their school occupation and he was singled out and not given bail.

This date, there was a massive mobilisation of teachers and university in Tegucigalpa.

10 August 2019

There was repression of protests in San Juan Pueblo, Naranjal and in La Masica. In San Juan Pueblo, Laínez’s agents bashed a youth named Ariel Arita and dragged him to the police station there. In El Naranjal, state security forces that invaded the community had arrested Humberto Ramos, and people were worried because nobody knew where he was, if he had been disappeared by the state forces.

11 August 2019

As a Gringa housing megaproject ‘Bosque de Santa María’ inside La Tigre national park is being developed – damaging the environment and providing housing for wealthy people while the poor do not have minimal housing conditions, research has revealed that it will affect the water supply (eg, for bathing), of 40% of the neighbourhoods in Tegucigalpa.

12 August 2019

In Cortés, at the UNAH-VS, where students protests had continued, police abusively broke in the gates and fired shots and teargas inside wounding one person. There were images of this person on the groud, while other students gathered around trying to deal with the situation and and support and get help for the wounded person.

Also in Cortés, there was mobilisation in Choloma and in Baracoa against the dictatorship. In Baracoa, police and military told protesters they had an hour before teargas bombs would be used to evict their highway barricade, and subsequently heavily repressed people on the barricade.

Jesuit priest Padre Melo – Ismael Moreno spoke up about a vehicle stopping near him, for minutes, and taking photos of him. Melo and his companions jotted down the numberplate and looked up the vehicle and found out that it is of an armed forces official, Marvin Licona. Padre Melo had for most of his life been of the resistance, through Radio Progreso, and his work in liberation theology, and had been persecuted and also lost loved ones who were themselves persecuted – it started with his dad when Melo was 16 – people said Pedro José Moreno was robbed and killed, but Melo knew better, his dad was a campesino leader who was part of the land expropriations. Then back in 1989, he was close to the UCA Jesuits and the employees of El Salvador, on his journey in becoming a Jesuit priest, and was particularly close to the cook Elba Ramos and Elba’s daughter Celina, who had plans to be picked up by Melo to spend Christmas with his family in El Progreso in Honduras, when the massacre of the El Salvador state killing all the priests and employees there happened days before Christmas. In the next stage of his life, he was friends with the founders of Copinh Berta Caceres and her ex partner Salvador Zuniga for over 20 years, supporting and counselling both of them through their separations and reconciliations over the years. Berta had the keys to Melo’s home to stay in one of the spare rooms when passing through El Progreso in her travels. In 2013, in a protest of Rio Blanco, she joked to Melo as they took a photo together, ‘who will go first, you or me?’, Melo didn’t answer, but Berta made that joke because she feared for both their lives. Berta was assassinated in her home on 3 March 2016.

13 August 2019

In San Juan Pueblo, Atlantida, police, head of San Juan Pueblo police station, agent Lainez, allowed his police agents to shoot against a group of protesters on this tuesday night, attempting against the lives of three people.

In the context of the education strikes, in Tegucigalpa, two young students of the José Pineda Gómez high school, named José Manuel Aguilera Cruz and Kevin Alberto Matamoros Colindres, two friends, were kidnapped together at night time by people who drove a van – José and Kevin were assassinated and their bodies were found in the Villeda Morales neighbourhood.

14 August 2019

In Tegucigalpa, police attacked high school students in protest against the JOH regime with teargases.

In Vallecito, Colón, armed men in two vehicles invaded and terrorised the Garífuna community there. The Garífuna are in a process of territory recuperation in reaction to which there are systematic harassment, intimidation and threats against them.

15 August 2019

On this day, six students of the UPNFM teachers training university underwent discharge hearings. Two provincial directors of education of La Paz and Choluteca spoke up about having been suspended and not given reasons why, however, one of them had received threats from National Party activists and neither of them are part of the National Party.

16 August 2019

In Yorito, Yoro, police and military violently evicted the community there – who are mostly indigenous Tolupan and Xicaque peoples – who were there defending the community against the Los Pinares mining company that threatens to exploit there and contaminate the water sources and destroy their forests. The repression was so brutal that several community members were left gunshot wounded. The government authorities that granted the concessions and permissions in complete disregard of the communities’ wishes are complicit.

In Nacaome, Valle, the people protesting against the JOH dictatorship was attacked by the police and military. Lots of people had to run, people ran, stopped, threw stones back, kept running.

The good news on this date was that political prisoner Raúl Alvarez was also finally released on bail after twenty months of imprisonment. Raúl said they had made it feel impossible that they could be released, so they couldn’t believe it when they received that news. ‘I am happy to be able to see my family and friends. The 20 months have been very hard. We have been abused. The visits were very limited. Our lives were always in danger. The hardest thing was losing my daughter when I was imprisoned. My partner was 4.5 months pregnant and we have always wanted a baby. (in addition,) my house was illegally raided and my mum started to have panic attacks and had to leave and live in another city. I went for a long time without seeing her. The dictatorship took all this from me. They said we were of the Resistance and that it is the fault of the protests that they had suspended different benefits like of visits from family and partners.’ ‘It was thanks to national and international pressure that we could leave the cells and save our lives.’

‘In 2009 when the coup happened I was 17. Thanks to my family I had been able to study and have gained social and political conscience and from this I joined the struggle against the coup. Because of lack of opportunity and work, I joined the police. It wasn’t my career but I needed a job. I was there 2 years and they kicked me out illegally. In 2017 I joined the struggle against the electoral fraud. I think that the government wanted to ‘pass me the bill’ and criminalised me together with Edwin, to send a message to the people who have gone out to the streets.’ About the campaign efforts made for them, they learnt about these through their families. ‘Despite of everything I feel stronger. The government had not been able to bend me. I am here and I know exactly why and against whom I keep struggling.’ In regards to Rommel, he said it was very hard leaving him behind, and that they will keep fighting for his freedom.

21 August 2019

Claudia Mejía, a teacher and human rights defender of the ICVC public school in Tegucigalpa that has been heavily attacked in the last months by public security forces, was being held at the IHSS secretary general’s office since that morning. Her daughter Claudia Elvir who has a 7 months old baby she breastfeeds, went to help her mother and was also being detained there as a result. They were being escorted by police and had not been allowed phone calls. These arbitrary detentions were reported by Claudia Mejía’s elder daughter, Miriam Elvir, who is a journalist.

26 August 2019

Eight human and environmental rights defenders of Guapinol and San Pedro environmental committees who are part of a group of 32 with lingering charges (that were dismissed in March 2019 but the decision was subsequently overturned by a ministerial prosecutor) and capture orders against them for defending the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers against the contamination of mining exploitation by Inversiones Los Pinares, and having maintained a protest camp for several months voluntarily appeared in court before federal judge Lizeth Vallecillo hoping to end these charges against them once and for all, only to be denied bail and locked up again, in Tamara prison. The names of those imprisoned on this day are José Abelino Cedillo, Daniel Marquez, Kelvin Romero, Porfirio Sorto, Orbin Hernández, Arnold Alemán, Ever Cedillo. Also named on this list of charged persons was Antonio Martínez Ramos, who would have been imprisoned too, if he hadn’t already died in 2015. They were refused bail because one of their charges are ‘illicit association’, a charge that automatically comes with the refusal of bail – one of the laws of the dictatorship to create political prisoners.

28 August 2019

Roberto Antonio Argueta Tejada, aged 45, a community member of La Ceibita, Tocoa, was assassinated in Tocoa city near the hospital – he had charges and capture order against him, like 31 others, for defending the common resources of the Guapinol community against mining company Inversiones Los Pinares. Roberto was not a member of the organisations but the environmental defence organisations offered him legal representation – he was one of those whom chose not to appear in court.

29 August 2019

This is a date when those Guapinol defenders imprisoned on the 26 August and Jeremías Martínez Díaz, who had already been imprisoned without bail for another charge related to the defence of the San Pedro and Guapinol rivers in Tocoa, have their hearings resume. There had been a lot of uncertainty, including of which judge will oversee their case – knowing some judges are biased in favour of the mining company.

Meanwhile, in Tegucigalpa, one of the political prisoners left in prison, teacher Rommel Baldemar spent this day in hospital to be examined by Forensic Medicine. While waiting outside the hospital with his lawyer Karol Cárdenas, he felt very moved and joyful to be able to briefly see his family and friends who waited outside with him. Rommel said being imprisoned, he had been especially fragile because he doesn’t know how to be tough in this rough social environment of a maximum security prison. He is constantly in fear there. Amongst those who visited him was his recently released fellow political prisoner Raúl Alvarez – cellmates of 2 months, who took the opportunity to hug Rommel and tell him that he loved him very much as a friend. Those who got to see Rommel felt a great deal of pain and anguish, at not having been able to take him home with them.

31 August 2019

At midday, in Santa Rosa de Copan, Channel 6 crime reporter Edgar Joel Aguilar was driving on a motorcycle that had Channel 6 logos on it, when unidentified people fired many gunshots at his face, killing him immediately. The day before, he had sought protection from the authorities because he was being followed by unidentified people. Edgar Joel Aguilar had worked as a journalist for 12 years and had suffered several attempts against his life in 2012 and 2017. He is the third journalist assassinated in Honduras in 2019.

On the Guapinol case, the initial hearing of Guapinol defenders was suspended – as sought by Inversiones Los Pinares, the judge Victor Mendez was disqualified for having had in March 2019 overseen this case and declared 13 defenders innocent.