Feminists in Resistance March in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Pepe Lobo was inaugurated as the new president of Honduras today. After the inauguration, ousted president Mel Zelaya left Honduras with a "salvo conducto" pass from the new government. Although the Resistance opposed it, the new congress voted yesterday to grant amnesty to everyone involved with the military coup that took place on June 28th, 2009. Amnesty, however, does not extend to those who committed human rights violations during the oppressive coup regime, including the myriad violations against women that occurred, but as of yet there are no plans in place to persecute these criminals.

Feminists in Resistance joined the greater resistance movement in a march to the airport to bid farewell to the ousted president. The massive group of protesters gathered at the end of the runway of Toncontin airport, the scene of a bloody conflict between protesters and the military on July 5th, 2009. Energy and spirits were high among the Feminists in Resistance, who chanted anti-coup slogans and shouted for women's rights and pro-democracy to be upheld by the new regime, and for justice to prevail. "The coup leaders and perpetrators should be held accountable for their actions, especially for the violence against women and human rights defenders that went on with impunity these past several months. No more coups, no more violence against women!" said a protester. Today marks a closing point for many and the mood was one of exuberance tinged with sadness and disappointment as the democratically elected president of Honduras leaves the country.

Repression in Honduras

We have been receiving message from Daysi, a young woman who is a feminist in Honduras, writing from the frontlines in Honduras.

22 September, 2009 - Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Early this morning, military forces attacked those of us outside the Brazilian Embassy. There are no words to describe the brutality of the attack—they chased us, threw bombs, beat us and now are hunting down everyone who took refuge in the surrounding area. There are 65 of us, mostly women and children here; we are under siege, our telephones are tapped, there is a squad three houses away and they are making rounds searching for signs of life to burst in. We have very little water and no food, the tear gas has permeated the atmosphere and our eyes and noses are irritated. Some of the women have been taken prisoners and according to the last communication they have been taken to a stadium called Chochi Sosa. The electricity went back on recently and so we are able to send this e-mail. We can hear the military movements outside, the cars, helicopters, bombs, shots, clashing of metal, stomping of boots, sirens and in a cruel joke on all Honduran citizens they are playing the national anthem at full volume over and over.

We call for support for all the people who are being protected by Feminists in Resistance and for the compañeras who are doing everything possible to get us humanitarian aid despite the fact that the armed forces won't let anyone through, not with medicines or food or anything. We're completely isolated; we want everyone to contribute by denouncing the violation of basic human rights being perpetrated by the military forces of the de facto regime.


This message was received later the same day.

Friends:

We are living in an environment of war. Upon leaving the CEMH offices we can see that the atmosphere in the streets is tense and the demonstrations elevate the tone: in my mother’s neighborhood there are burning tires and although the streets are closed for the people that are not active in the resistance, they are announcing national electrical energy cuts for today at 7 pm and we don’t know how long it will last but there are rumors that it could go on for 48 hours. I mention this in case you can´t reach me via e-mail. We have cell phones but don’t know if they will be working. Some are saying that there will be a raid on the embassy when they cut off the electricity, but we don't know anything for certain. In any event, international pressure must continue in any way possible. There is already speculation of food prices.

We are preparing to confront these horrible attacks. It is truly sad and enraging to walk through streets where war, injustice, and madness reign through the power of weapons.


A resilient hug,
Daysi, Honduran Feminists in Resistance

For further information visit: http://www.justassociates.org/actions/honduras/honduras_action_090922.html

Media Ignores Escalating Sexual Aggression Against Honduran Women Protesters

Escalating Sexual Aggression Against Feminist And Women Protesters Against Military Coup In Honduras Ignored By Global & National Media

By Margaret Thompson
FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Radio Internacional Feminista

August 17, 2009 - Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- Global & national media are ignoring the growing intensity of sexual aggression and torture of women demonstrators in Honduras after the military coup d’etat & and violent repression, according to Honduran feminists and activists.

“The media (in Honduras) are manipulating our minds, because we see (in the streets) what is really happening” and they are not reporting the reality of the violent repression by the military and police, declared Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the first lady of Honduras and wife of Pres. Zelaya, who spoke to a Forum by Feminists in Resistance of Honduras today. Most of the mainstream media are owned by supporters of the military coup, so their reports reflect efforts by the defacto regime to create an image of “normality,” that all is well, that there was in fact no military coup, they merely ousted an ex-president who violated the constitution, according to Castro de Zelaya.

The first lady spoke to an audience of about 120 mainly women, including an international delegation from Central America, Mexico, Canada, Spain and the United States participating in a Feminist Transgressional Watch . The group is visiting Honduras for Women’s Human Rights Week, and conducting a feminist observatory of violations of women’s human rights, and feminist strategies of resistance to the military coup.

As popular resistance to the military coup continues with massive daily street marches, military and police officials are becoming more aggressive with both female and male demonstrators, beating them with clubs, shooting into crowds with (rubber or real) bullets, conducting large scale arrests or detentions, torture, and assassinations, little of which is covered in many media reports, said Indira Mendoza of Catrachas. Mendoza has videotaped some of these incidents directly or has testimony of witnesses. Hospitals and clinics are filled with young people in particular, with broken arm or leg bones, head injuries, and (rubber) bullet wounds.

Women’s and human rights groups are receiving reports of escalating sexual aggression against women both in the demonstrations and in detentions, ranging from verbal obscenities and threats, to women being grabbed or beaten with batons on their buttocks, to torture and rape in detentions, noted Adela Coria of the Center for Women’s Studies (CEM). In today’s Forum in Tegucigalpa, Yadida Minero reported that she had just taken a young woman to a radio station to denounce her torture and rape with a rifle while in detention at a police station.

Likewise, in the United States, the diminishing number of media reports on Honduras reflect how Pres. Obama led by Secretary State Hillary Clinton is backing away from his originally strong condemnation of the coup which ousted the legally elected President Zelaya, according to Breny Mendoza, a Honduran living in the US, and professor at California State University in Northridge. The intensive US news coverage and outrage in the US mainstream media about the controversial presidential elections in Iran is a stark contrast to the minimal coverage of the military coup in Honduras which ousted a democratically elected president. And the front and center role of women including feminists in the massive demonstrations, and the increasingly aggressive reaction of military and police to the women are also absent in media reports.

Despite the growing sexual aggression against women in Honduras, they are not filing complaints with the police for a number of reasons. Sara Rosales, a human rights lawyer with CEM, noted that women are afraid to report any violence since it is the police and military who are in part responsible for the violent repression, and the women also figure that such efforts are futile, because nothing will come of it.

After years of national and global campaigns about domestic violence, complaints filed by women had been increasing in recent years, says Rosales, also a member of Feminists in Resistance in Honduras.
There were 12,000 complaints filed with police in Honduras denouncing violence against women in 2007, and 20,000 reports last year, noted Rosales. But since the coup there have been very few complaints filed, which clearly demonstrates the connection between domestic violence and violence against women in armed conflict, both of which have increased in recent weeks.

Also, feminists and women’s activists are very disheartened that the de facto coup government kicked out the Minister of Women under Pres. Zelaya, Selma Estrada de Uclés in late June with the coup, and installed María Martha Díaz, a member of the ultra conservative Catholic group Opus Dei. Díaz has refused to process any complaints filed regarding violations of women’s human rights since the coup.

When feminists rallied outside the Institute of Women (INAM) to protest the policies of Díaz as de facto minister, she called in the military, who beat the protesters with batons.

Women are well aware of the irony of this assault. Years of struggle by feminists and other women is now lost, said Rosales. “It all changed in one day,” noted Breny Mendoza, a professor at California State University in Northridge and originally from Honduras.

Honduran feminists and investigators have received a vast number of complaints about violations of women’s human rights by the current coup regime in the past six weeks, and have conducted interviews for testimonies of 18 women. As part of the feminist observatory, human rights lawyers and activists are working with Honduran feminists to prepare a report on these 18 cases, which were presented to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, which is also visiting Honduras during the week of August 17th.

In the meantime, women including Feminists in Resistance are continuing to be front and center in the marches. “No more coups (golpes), and no more golpes (beatings) of women!” shout the women as they take to the streets. “Quien somos? Somos Feministas en Resistencia!”

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US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton has refused to declare the siege a coup d’etat. Some say that this is because it would mean cutting all military and economic aid, beyond the small amount frozen in early July. And Clinton, along with US Sen. John McCain recently met with de facto coup Pres. Michelleti in Washington, who had come to meet with members of Congress as well to convince them that all is well in Honduras. Clinton is also on the board of the Millennium Development Corporation, which has continued to distribute millions of dollars to Honduras since the coup, according to Bill Conroy, as published in The Narcosphere on August 9, 2009.

Margie Thompson is a member of an international delegation that is in Honduras this week (August 17-21) conducting a local and virtual Observatorio de la Transgresión Feminista (Feminist Transformation Watch) to shed light on women's rights violations that are occurring under the de facto regime that overthrew the democratically elected president in a coup d'etat on June 28th. For more information visit http://www.justassociates.org/actions/honduras_action_coup.html.

Feminists in Resistance

It has been an intense couple of days since we arrived in Honduras on Sunday. When I catch the words “I’m tired” coming out of my mouth I stop myself because standing next to my feminist sisters from Honduras, I have nothing to complain about. These women have been marching every day, EVERY day, rain or shine, military or no military, sometimes with bruises from the march the day before. We joined the march today and there was so much energy, you would never know that they had been doing this for 52 days. One of the woman screamed “Estan cansadas!? (translation: are you tired!?) to which everyone responded with a resounding “NO”. Incredible…but not surprising given what has been happening in this country since their democratically elected president was forcibly removed from his post in a coup d’etat on June 28th.

Under the military coup, women’s rights have suffered a huge blow. Yesterday, during a forum organized by Honduran Feminists in Resistance at the nurses college (whose administrators, when they discovered the reason for the meeting, informed us that we can no longer hold events there because of the anti coup content), participants shared stories of physical and verbal intimidation and harassment by the military. Policemen have used their batons to strike women’s private parts (in some cases sticking them into their vaginas) and are using their words to make derogatory and sexual comments to women participating in marches. These accounts are appalling and clearly intended by the military to deter people from continuing to march or speak out against the coup but instead they are having the opposite effect – they are strengthening the solidarity and resilience of those in resistance. As the slogan goes, “Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo” (“They fear us because we are not afraid”). There is so much more to share but it will have to wait for tomorrow because the Feminists in Resistance are about to meet to plan and strategize for tomorrow’s march. Onward!

International Delegation Amplifies Honduran Women's Voices

TEGUCIGALPA – JASS (Just Associates) announced that an international delegation arrived in Honduras Monday for a week-long women’s rights watch. The delegation is conducting a local and virtual Observatorio (Feminist Transformation Watch) from August 17 to 21 to shed light on women's rights violations occurring under the de facto regime that overthrew the democratically elected president in a coup d'etat on June 28th.

The delegation comprises representatives of JASS, Honduran Feminists in Resistance, Las Petateras, Radio Feminista, Nobel Women’s Initiative, and the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality, and includes human rights activists, researchers, legal experts and journalists from Central America, Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The purpose of the mission is to gather information, to denounce the coup, and to increase awareness of the impact of the crisis from the perspective of women.

Honduran women continue at the frontlines of pro-democracy actions and resistance against the de facto regime that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Women’s organizations are under surveillance and members’ lives continue to be threatened as they practise non-violent resistance to the repression and demand a return to the rule of law, an end to violence, and respect for human rights.

A central imperative for democracy is that the perspectives and voices of Honduran women must be included in the resolution to the current crisis in that country. Systematic violations of women’s rights can be traced back to the 1980s dictatorships, with the cycle of violence and oppression continuing today within a culture of impunity. In the current crisis of ruptured democracy, these systematic violations and abuses have increased. Without a commitment to breaking the impunity, there can be no sustainable democratic resolution in Honduras.

To document the human rights violations against Honduran women that have occurred since the coup on June 28th, the delegation is conducting interviews and collecting testimonials from Honduran women and organizations, and engaging in dialogue with feminists and other Honduran women about their strategies of resistance and their actions in response to the coup. This information will be disseminated through national, regional, and international media.

For more information visit http://www.justassociates.org/actions/honduras_action_coup.html.

Video from Feminist Protests in Honduras

We are all the Women of Honduras

JASS and our Mesoamerican allies Las Petateras express our solidarity with all the feminist organizations and social movements of Honduras in condemning and repudiating the coup against democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. The coup, led by the armed forces and the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, with the support of the elite-owned and controlled media, occurred in the early hours of June 28^th, 2009.

Feminist Radio Stations Taken Off Air

Shortly after the coup, feminist radio stations broadcasting live from Honduras were forcibly removed from the air and replaced with religions programming, according to the Centro de Derechos de Mujeres (CDM). The interrupted program, “Time to Talk,” in partnership with Feminist International Radio Endeavor, was broadcasting the voices, solidarity, and support of women attending a regional feminist leadership school in Panama. The joint program was initiated the day after the coup, in order to give voice to feminist activists through interviews and discussions.

Feminist Protesters Repressed

Various feminist organizations and women's groups protested on July 14th in front of the INAM, the Honduran National Institute for Women, opposing the appointment of a new director, fundamentalist Maria Martha Diaz, by coup leader Roberto Micheletti. Their peaceful demonstrations were interrupted by violent opposition from heavily armed riot police. An officer of the squad is said to have threatened the group of mostly women by loading a grenade launcher and keeping his finger on the trigger while pointing it towards the crowd. The women did not back down in the face of this intimidation, and held their ground.

Las Petateras are planning a Feminist Transformation Watch to document and denounce the worsening situation in Honduras.

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