https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/2019/12/03/october-2019-honduras-coup-update/



October 2019 Honduras coup update

Summary: A campesino of the Bajo Aguan territory struggle was kidnapped by soldiers and murdered. Political prisoner Rommel’s mental health crisis forced a transfer to the psychiatric hospital. A Garífuna kindy teacher killed. Campesinos growing food in Siguatepeque were oppressed by cops and courts. A Libre party leader was assassinated. A journalist’s family home was attacked. Police intimidated another media. 18 October 2019 was also a date of major protests nationally because the regime president JOH’s brother Tony Hernández – also then parliamentarian – was declared guilty in New York as a drug trafficker and assassin. Police attacked many times with gases and arrests against ongoing protests against the dictatorship. A teacher leader was kidnapped and left for dead. A Miskita indigenous leader and spouse (teacher) were murdered by hitmen. One more Guapinol community member who opposed Mining company Inversiones Los Pinares was arrested.

Territorial defender in Bajo Aguán kidnapped and killed

On 9 October 2019, in Bajo Aguán, when family members of Marcos Tulio Cruz (aged 44) approached state authorities about Marcos having been kidnapped, those authorities responded telling them Marcos was dead. That he was assassinated, and his body was in the Sonaguera crematorium in Colón. Marcos was part of the campesina land recuperation struggle, and was of the campesina cooperative Unidos Lucharemos, of Luzón Palmeras. Marcos’s brother Rigoberto Durán is a human rights defender. The night before, four soldiers with high calibre weapons raided Marco’s home and kidnapped him, in front of Marco’s mother and brother Rigoberto – Rigoberto tried to stop this and the soldiers bashed him to the degree of causing him to lose a lot of blood and to require immediate surgery. Unidos Lucharemos cooperative has also suffered violent eviction.

MarcosTulioCruz

News on political prisoners – Rommel to psychiatric hospital, Gustavo continues inside

Rommel Herrera, a 23 years old teacher who fought for quality and public education and health services, and who is also studying at uni himself, has been a political prisoner since 30 May 2019 at the La Tolva high security prison, charged (not sentenced, not given bail) with burning tyres at the entrance of the US embassy. His human rights lawyers have been applying for the court to change the measures applied against him in light of severe depression, anxiety, and being a suicide risk, and this went to hearing on 10 October 2019. His relatives and ex-cellmates also political prisoners joined him in court in solidarity. They were very worried about him. In prison, Rommel helped in the kitchen, but mostly, his time in prison had been very lonely, and he didn’t feel tough to fit in there, especially ever since fellow political prisoners Raúl and Edwin were released on bail. The court requested from the Forensic Medicine department a certificate on his depression and on the risk of him taking his life. Since the lock up began, Rommel became depressive, hallucinative, and suicidal. Rommel was seen by his visitors to be constantly moving his legs and putting his hands on his face partially covering his eyes for a long period of time. His mental health state had weighed very heavily on his relationships with his family too. His visitors had noticed that with each visit, Rommel deteriorated to be more scared, more annoyed, more angry, and more suicidal. They tried to give him attention and support but knew the thing he needed most was to be out of the prison.

On the follow up court hearing on 18 October 2019, the court ordered his transfer to a psychiatric hospital in acknowledgement of the severity of Rommel’s state of mental health. Hospitalisation under police custody is his bail condition. So, he is not free and it is not known what would happen to him if and when his mental health improves, if that happens before his trial completes – the court stated it will make further rulings when this time comes. Rommel’s father is happy because at least in the psychiatric hospital, he can visit his son more frequently than in the maximum security prison where he was held for four months. That and Rommel would receive treatment – they continue to be fearful Rommel could take his life. So, on this very day, his dad, mum, cousin, and the human rights lawyers of Cofadeh and compas of the committee of liberation of political prisoners in Honduras followed the police vehicle that drove him back to the prison to complete exit paperwork, and then at 4pm, they followed him to the psychiatric hospital, where they arrived at 6pm. They did that to make sure Rommel didn’t stay another night in the prison, and to accompany him as much as it was possible to.

Meanwhile, the other political prisoner who continues in prison from this period, Gustavo Cáceres Ayala, had his hearing begin. On 21 December 2018 during the protests against the electoral fraude Gustavo was arrested by the police at the La Democracia bridge barricade – he was working, in a truck, that delivered water towards San Pedro Sula but was stuck in traffic – the reason he was arrested was that the police asked everyone for ID and he didn’t carry any – but they also proceeded to set him up by photographing him with some props that the police placed with him. He also said they put a black bag over his head while they intimidated him and interrogated him saying, ‘where are the drugs?’. Gustavo has a brain injury and has the mental age of a 6-9 years old – a forensic medicine doctor confirmed this in court – but he decided he wanted to testify. On the prosecution side, two witnesses did not show up (army bomb expert Bayron Fuentes, and social worker María Lucila Hernández), only the police who arrested him – Edwin Wada Herrera and Alexis Urbina – gave their testimonies, although they contradicted each other about why they arrested him, where, and what he was wearing. The hearing was suspended and postponed to November because of the prosecution’s missing witnesses.

Zacate Grande struggle – large landholder against villagers

Attacks and territorial pressure against villagers of the peninsula of Zacate Grande continue.

On 10 October 2019, Wilmer Rivera of community radio La Voz de Zacate Grande went to the police station to ask for his file after he heard from Valle municipal council authorities that there was a capture order against him, apparently for a charge of usurpation. When Wilmer was there asking for his file, police arrested him. It was only with pressure from Cofadeh human rights organisation that he was subsequently released on bail.

On the afternoon of 12 October 2019, large landholder Jorge Cassis Leiva and his employees accompanied by hired armed men proceeded to build a stones and concrete and barbed wire wall over a space under litigation known as El Plantel. This wall was going to lock inside a whole community – 50 families, who won’t be able to have any vehicles enter or leave, blocking their free movement. The families went to break the wall knowing they would be attacked for doing that but also knowing that they had no choice as being locked in was not an option. There was police there but they knew the police would just watch Cassis’s men attack the families, that if police does anything, it would be to join in the attack against the families. The tension was sustained, the day after, on 13 October 2019, police gangs went around the Playa Blanca community in Zacate Grande looking for campesino men and women. Police and Cassis’s guards harassed Adepza (territorial struggle organisation) member Darwin Aguila. Cassis’s guards also give death threats to women compas who defend their territory in Zacate Grande. Gunshot in the air, likely shot by landholders’ employees, were heard on the night of 16 October 2019 in the Playa Blanca community. Gunshots again were fired on 18 October 2019, as Cassis’s guards showed rage at seeing the wall broken. The guards threatened with more capture orders against any new leaders, and took photos of all the people. Confrontation was looming. Despite the threats and tension, the people of this community remain firmly in struggle as they are disposed to die defending their territory.

Garifuna kindy teacher and black fraternal organisation member killed

On 12 October 2019 in the afternoon, María Digna Montero, well loved Garífuna kindergarten teacher and a member of Garífuna Honduran black fraternal organisation Ofraneh and of its working group of intercultural bilingual education, was at her home in her backyard when unidentified attackers broke in and fired several gunshots at her there, assassinating her, and then fleeing.

Maria Digna Montero

Campesinos of Siguatepeque who grow food oppressed by police and courts

On 12 October 2019, in El Porvenir, Siguatepeque, campesino Héctor Orlando Velásquez of the campesina base/cooperative 11 de marzo was at home when cops arrived, searched his car, and showed him a capture order with charges for being part of a land recuperation process in conflict with supposed landholder Marco Antonio Valerio Barahona. The police proceeded to arrest Héctor. Cofadeh human rights organisation went to visit him at the police cells, and it was the next day when he had hearing in court. The hearing was initially programmed for 9am, but got postponed to 1pm, and it was actually 2pm when he finally went to hearing. Bail was granted with the advocacy of Cofadeh, but there was paperwork to do and it was 4pm when he was reunited with his family and land recuperation compas outside. He is one of several charged – his compas Vicente, Juan and Santos were arrested and imprisoned for 6 days back in March 2019 and continue to have charges hanging over them, having also charges of turning forest land. ‘The regime treat us campesinos with hatred, like we aren’t humans’, Héctor said, ‘we simply dream of a world where we can live, harvest, and have no fear.’ The initial hearing for all four are on 23 October 2019.

At the initial court hearing on that date of the four (23 October 2019), they were accompanied by compas of the La Paz human rights network who had travelled to be there. The case against Héctor Velásquez was dismissed – Cofadeh proved that Héctor did not usurp land, but at this point, the charges against Vicente, Juan, and Santos all continue. Héctor said he is hopeful that his case being dismissed is a step towards the dismissal of the cases against all his compas as well. What are the stories of these compas? There is Vicente Castro, aged 60, the president of 11 de marzo, who smiled, with his unbreakable spirit, as he spoke of the oppressive bail conditions against them, of the expense of travelling to the Siguatepeque court to sign the book every week, and of not being able to work the field – effectively forcing his resignation as the cooperative’s president, and from going there to grow food. Vicente is worried about the self-proclaimed owner appearing again with machinery to destroy their crops – he did that in October 2017. There is Santos Vásquez, aged 49, who was arrested while helping a friend to sow and grow food. And there is Juan Mejía Euceda, aged 61, who was actually locked up for 9 days. It has been hard for him travelling to court every Friday, as well as paying the fare, he loses a day of work – he would normally earn on this day. Juan expressed frustration especially at being prohibited from approaching the land where he had been growing food for over 15 years.

Libre politician assassinated

On 16 October 2019, politician of opposition party Libre, and previously of Liberal Party, Rigoberto Turcios Ayala, known affectionately as ‘the countryman’, was assassinated. Police taped off the crime scene quickly. People don’t who who the killer is or where they went. Rigoberto’s family was not around when he was killed, and aren’t allowed to see his body until the authorities are done investigating.

An attack against a journalist’s family, and police intimidation against another media

18 October was a day of attacks against journalists.

Journalist Jairo López and his partner and her small daughter of Choluteca, had to leave their life and abandon their home in Choluteca because of intense persecution including illegal arrests, death threats, physical attacks and confiscation of his vehicle by police, and being fired from a media he worked for because of orders from politicians and the business sector. But, on 18 October 2019, Jairo and his partner had to go to Choluteca because his partner had to apply for a licence for her work, having lost her job and is not earning a salary because of being forcefully displaced. It was lucky that they decided not to sleep in the home they abandoned on this visit, because that night, in the dark of the night, their home was raided and trashed, things inside were turned upside down – drawers pulled out, things threw all over the place, the stove pulled out, and toilet paper thrown around everywhere. One can only imagine what may have happened to them had they been home – the raid would have been timed knowing they were in town.

In Tegucigalpa, at dinnertime, two police trucks with about eleven cops with helmets and shields on stationed in front of Radio Globo in intimidation while journalists were working and transmitting inside.

18 October 2019 was also a date of major protests nationally because the regime president JOH’s brother Tony Hernández – also then parliamentarian – was declared guilty in New York as a drug trafficker and assassin

There are many ways this fact of Tony Hernández (Juan Antonio Hernández aka TH) as the head of a drug trafficking cartel played out. TH, who made deals and orders to kill, as brother of JOH (Juan Orlando Hernández), as a parliamentarian. TH had control over who was in government – some of the drug money went to the election campaign and into imposing the electoral fraude. Also, the state security forces protected him and were under his command. Also, he ordered his hitmen who killed people who knew things, people he didn’t like, people who threatened the drug movement business, and people who annoyed himself as a politician and his brother JOH too. From the New York hearings (2-18 October 2019) and through press investigations and anonymous and exclusive interviews from the last two years, it came to light that TH headed Los Cachiros, a cartel responsible for 78 assassinations including some journalists. One of the journalists sprayed with AK47 bullets was Nahúm Palacios, two days after he sought protection after having received death threats in March 2010. A director of a local news channel, Nahúm was just 34, he was publicly opposed to the military coup, spoke up about campesino land rights in Bajo Aguán, and about organised crime in the region. It’s for his critical work for which he received threats. Another victim whose death was ordered by Los Cachiros – was journalist Aníbal Barrow, who was kidnapped and killed very brutally with gunshot and then cut up and fed to crocodiles by Los Gordos – the remains of Aníbal’s body were found by a lake 16 days after he was kidnapped. The last person he had spoken to before being kidnapped was another journalist who was affiliated with Los Cachiros. Someone who worked as a hitman of Los Cachiros, who lives a fugitive and disappeared person, revealed anonymously that his boss was a powerful parliamentarian who was well known and charismatic, but who would when he disliked or was annoyed by someone, would smile a certain way with his lips as he gave an order to kill. He also explained how TH controlled the courts so those guilty are ruled innocent and vice versa, an innocent person might collaborate to do prison time to receive money for their family, only to be killed when they finishes the prison term because of what they knew. He explained how it worked. His boss held parties to which he invited only people who had some association with the organisation – there were often some very popular journalists who went there, journalists who collaborated and found out information about other journalists and passed the information back onto the cartel; this is what happened with Aníbal. Evangelical pastors also went to the party, some benefited from the drug trafficking knowingly, but there was one case of two pastors who didn’t know. Sometimes people involved want to leave, but because of what they know, there are orders to kill them. Some tried to bribe or blackmail TH, and get killed for trying. Some others get killed have nothing to do with anything, killing them being a strategy to divert the attention from something else happening at the time. Other gangs asked Los Cachiros for help in covering up the murder of Villatoro, and Los Cachiros helped distort the case using bribes and threats to the police – the police chose the bribes over the threats. There are many other stories and testimonies about TH’s drug trafficking, the above is just to touch the surface.

In this context, the police and the media pledged their alliance to the state, to continuing as before – attacking social and political opposition. As people mobilised these days, the police and military threatened to hurt those who critique them, and ‘restore order and peace’. The churches and medias (maybe some of the same ones who go to the Cachiros parties) repeat their lines too about not disturbing social peace, showing they are on the side of upholding status quo. People on the streets, and there are many, on the other hand, say, enough is enough. JOH needs to get out. The cartel needs to get out of the administration. Corruption – finance sector, speculators, money launderers – needs to end. As do the handing over of Honduran territories to transnational companies and extractive industries. All these elements that keep making poor people poorer and precarious to violence as well.

The rage is organised. There were national strikes and barricades all over with countless tyres on fire. In Francisco Morazán, barricades were presente in Santa Lucia and Tegucigalpa at about twenty different strategic points around different neighbourhoods. There were also strategic points at sometimes different sites in the provinces of Comayagua, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Copán, Cortes, Yoro, Atlántida, Colon, Valle, Intibucá, La Paz, Choluteca.

On this day, we know of reports of police and military repression in Tegucigalpa, and the compa Luí Fer was arrested and locked up in the 5th police station.

Get out JOH! Ongoing protests and gases and arrests

The next days there were in different places and different times of the day, a lot of protests in caravans, barricades, street mobilisations against the dictatorship.

There was also repression.

On 20 October 2019, in La Masica, police and soldiers intimidated and arrested young people.

On 21 and 21 October, as well as general mobilisations, nurses and assistant nurses of Ocotepeque gathered in assembly organising about the lack of supplies and staffing to attend to patients – so severe that patients only receive attention in emergency and critical wards, and the transport workers in the meantime decided to barricade the Panamerican Highway in Valle. On these days, people saw the streets heavily militarised. Lots commented that under the Honduran soldier uniform, there were also Colombian, Israeli and US paramilitaries. The soldiers used chemical weapons. A young student learning to be a teacher at UPNFM (teachers’ university) was arrested at the mobilisation there on 21 October, his name is Douglas Esaú Ramírez. He was locked up at El Manchén police station and Cofadeh human rights organisation went to check up on him and saw that he had been beaten up by police, with lots of marks on his body from the beatings.

On 24 October 2019, there was a gigantic and strong mobilisation demanding JOH to get out in Tegucigalpa at the UPNFM. Not far into the march, the police and tigres closed off the road of the protest route, but people were determined and made it through much more slowly using the footpaths on the sides of the road – only when all the people had gotten through did the police cordon dismantle and move on. A short while after, police began to attack the protest with teargas bombs. People refused to be dispersed and some regrouped to the meeting points and others had gotten trapped in the teargas and sought refuge in a nearby shopping centre, as cops continued launching the teargas bombs without caring what or who they would hit, launching including into a full parking lot. The protest went onto a roundabout near the teachers’ pension building INPREMA, where police again proceeded to attack and had the reinforcement of several police patrols, who chased protesters – mostly young protesters – who fled that area and moved onto occupying the La Hacienda bulevar and then the Villa Olimpica Stadium, continuing strong – it was around there that 18 years old Nahúm Flores was seeking refuge in a shop and police violently captured him and forced him onto a police patrol where he was then locked up in the Kennedy police station. The protests went onto the outside of the UNAH campus, and then inside, where the police again attacked these firing gases inside the campus. So despite attacks, the mobilisation went on for many hours. Nahúm was released hours after his arrest.

On 25 October 2019, in Tela, from Bo. El Retiro, this message came out: ‘They are shooting at us, they are soldiers, they are shooting to kill!’ in the context of continuing protests.

31 October 2019 was also another day of national protest, with mobilisation on campuses and highways, telling JOH to get out.

Campesinos in La Paz in court limbo and in grief

In Tutule, La Paz, it was going to be the final day of initial hearings for Carlos López Cálix of ‘9 de julio’ campesino cooperative. The hearing was, however, suspended to continue on 5 November 2019 because the witnesses of the prosecution did not show up. His family is under a lot of anxiety, worrying that they could imprison him, because it had already happened before, he was locked up in 2017 for almost four months, under charges of usurpation. The charges date back to July 2010, when 9 families began a land recuperation process to grow food for their families, and the charges were placed again all the members, who were mostly given bail except for the time Carlos and a compa Samuel Edgardo López Martínez were locked up in 2017 for almost four months. Being in court makes Carlos think of Samuel. Samuel died under misterious circumstances on 18 February 2018. Carlos knew that if Samuel were still alive, he would be in the courtroom with him, as he was before; in the courtroom and in the prison. Samuel’s mother also cried, knowing he would have been there. The land was under dispute with Carlos Arriaga since 2010, and Arriaga had sold the land to the state agrarian department INA in 2017. The cooperative wishes to pay INA the amount it paid to Arriaga, in exchange for the land title, but everything, all their lives, remain in the air.

Teacher leader kidnapped and left for dead

On 28 October 2019, a Monday, 54 years old teacher and lifelong union organiser Jaime Rodríguez left his spouse Martha and home in the morning on a bus to run some errands. That afternoon, Jaime was kidnapped and forced into a vehicle – his kidnappers blindfolded and tied him up and tortured him with ice and bashed him that whole night. The next day, on the Tuesday, at 5pm, a group of unionised lecturers of the university for teachers (Colpedagogosh) held a demo about Jaime’s disappearance, demanding that his kidnappers released him alive. That Tuesday, at 6pm, Jaime´s kidnappers took him from the place where he was tortured, to a river, where they cut him in the neck and threw him into the river, believing he would have died. Jaime used his survival instinct by lowering his head and pressing his beard strongly against his chest as they cut his throat to minimise the injury. Thrown away in the river and throat slit, local people saw him and rescued him from that river, which was near Herrera park. The local people thought he looked like a beggar. At the same time, his spouse Martha had been running around trying to look for him at the police stations and morgues and at the teachers’ organisation COPEMH office, and had with Cofadeh human rights organisation sought for the police to carry out a search for Jaime – the police response was, ‘we will do it tomorrow’. Unwilling to sit and wait when every hour can make the difference between life and death, Cofadeh began just after 7pm to retrace his steps and undertook to search for him at Parque Herrera and talk to people around there, while Martha was on her way to the Cofadeh office. It was in that moment that Jaime could use the phone of one of the people who rescued him to call Martha, at almost 8pm, when Martha happened to be nearby and was able to find him within two minutes and rushed him to hospital where he was immediately attended to and kept under medical observation. At these moments in hospital and for a while after, Jaime was unable to talk – any speaking could damage his vocal chords in those moments – he did say a line on video however when interviewed by the press – ‘nor a step back’, – to keep fighting. When he was discharged, he left in a wheelchair, and got into a vehicle to go home accompanied by a police patrol – the family said, no, we don’t want police escort, but the police agent said there was no choice, that he had orders from higher up and had to comply. It is clear that death squads and the state were involved and were trying to make it look like it wasn’t them. Finally at home, Jaime had to rest, and take time to heal from the physical and emotional trauma. He had been constantly politically persecuted and had spoken up publicly about being in fear for his life, having always fiercely opposed the JOH and prior coup regimes, and led teachers struggle and had shown himself to be unbendable. A friend and compa of his told the story of how he saw ‘Jaimito’ really angry once, ‘get out of my office, now!!’ his friend hear him tell someone who came to see him. So this friend was surprised as it was out of character, and asked, ‘what happened?’. ‘Look compa, this compa wants to bribe me! This guy told me he is establishing a cooperative in the Centro America shopping centre, to offer personal loans to teachers since we are all fucked with the coup mongers, but that I were to facilitate him access to the teachers’ contacts and that the profits would be split in 3 parts, one part for him who came up with the idea and for other leaders who are already on this game, another part for administration and the employees of his cooperative, and a third part were to be more or less 50,000 lempiras for me.’ So the friend joked and said, ‘oh I understand Jaimito, it was too little cash that this idiot was giving and you were angry because of this, right?’ Jaime gave his friend an angry stare for a few seconds and said, ‘look compa, don’t fuck with me, don’t make me unleash that guy in me again. Best we smoke a cigarrette to calm me down’ they left laughing and smoking.’ Jaime has always been tireless and firm in the struggle. The dictatorship also fired him as a teacher to try to get rid of him.

From the protests of high school students against the dictatorship, two students have been kidnapped and one of these confirmed dead two days later, and another 15 years old was bashed and arrested by police

On 29 October 2019, at 2pm, as high school students of Luís Bogran Technical Institute led protests against the dictatorship, 18 years old Oscar Daniel Mencía Cantarero, in his school uniform – green pants, white shirt and black shoes, was kidnapped by hooded people who dragged him and one other student away. His fellow students demanded that he be freed alive. Relatives looked everywhere for him – police stations, hospitals, the morgue, but had no luck. On 31 October 2019, however, it was confirmed that Oscar had been assassinated, a young person of the struggle, a promise, of many, of the country. His face from when he was alive is shared around as they keep their memories of him alive.

Oscar Daniel Mencia Cantarero2

Oscar Daniel Mencia Cantarero

Also on 29 October 2019, from the protest at the Jesús Milla Selva Institute, police arested and bashed up 15 years old high school student Génesis Torres, charged her with ‘attempt’, and locked her up in ‘Core 7’ police cell.

One uni student attacked by state forces and terrorised, another had the charges against him dismissed after two years

In El Progreso, Yoro, people protested on campus on 9 October 2019 demanding for JOH to get out. There, the Tigres squad got agitated and attacked a student who had several times before been beaten by police in protests – Saraí Rodríguez, now aged 23, but this attack was worse. It was worse because Saraí faced a squad of about 80 Tigres agents, and one of them grabbed her by the neck and pushed her face down onto the ground above a teargas bomb. Even the head of the Tigres himself ordered the squad to stop pushing her. Saraí was in a protest again hours later when she noticed a man who she knew was not part of the social struggle, who was there watching and profiling protesters. Saraí went home then for safety, but she found out from others after that an unidentified person was asking for her by name at the protest, and went back to the direction he entered the scene from when he couldn’t find and isolate her. Saraí believes firmly in the importance of fighting in the streets and not being scared of the government, to break down the dictatorship. She does not believe in political parties, which don’t produce governments that serve their peoples. She is thinking about the future generations as she struggles. From the protests there this day, another was wounded by being hit by a teargas bomb and needed medical attention.

On 25 October 2019, UNAH student Kenny Reyes who was charged in September 2017 together with 33 other students and a human rights defender, finally had the charges against him for protesting dismissed.

Obligatory military service’s return looms

Back in May 1994, a broad social movement and a 14 days hunger strike struggled and won the abolition of obligatory military service. In October 2019, nationalist parliamentarian Chávez Madison was pushing to bring it back. Some of the social leaders who worked hard to organise the struggle against obligatory military service from 1994 came back together to speak up against this now. There are already too many soldiers even without conscription, with 20,000 just in the army, not counting military police and other repressive forces.

Miskita indigenous leader and spouse who is teacher murdered by hitmen

On 31 October 2019, in Puerto Lempira, Gracias a Dios, hitmen on a motorcycle ambushed and fired gunshots at a couple in a car, killing both. The couple are indigenous Miskita community media journalist and human rights defender and leader of opposition political party Libre and president of Puerto Lempira community council, Buenaventura Calderón aged 73, and his spouse, a teacher, Maribel Bolian, aged 38. Buenaventura died immediately, and Maribel was taken to hospital and died there. Buenaventura was someone who loved the land, territory and his mother tongue Miskita, and was involved years before in the reconstruction of the history and memory of the disappeared people in collaboration with Cofadeh human rights organisation. He had spoken up about death threats against his life many times.

Buenaventura y Maribel

One more Guapinol community member who opposed Mining company Inversiones Los Pinares arrested

On 1 Ocotber 2019, police and military who guard the buildings of mining company Inversiones Los Pinares arrested Osmin de la O Cedillo of the Guapinol community when he was crossing the road. This is in the context of there being eight environmental defenders held as political prisoners for resisting against the imposition of Inversiones Los Pinares since 26 August 2019.

Other news from October 2019

In the context where if there were consciousness in the leadership in army ranks particularly, they could take action to oppose the JOH regime, with the released news of TH being convicted for drug trafficking. JOH ordered the firing of 11 coronels of the armed forces, perhaps this is him not taking any chances.

One of many Honduran migrants, Exon David Berrios of Guadalupe, Trujillo (Bajo Aguán), was trying to migrate when in the journey, he was beaten up by Mexican police and gravely hurt.

A report showed that Honduras has the highest index of deaths by Dengue in Central America, with at least 144 deaths to 1 October 2019, mostly young children.